This was a speedy, non-complicated mid-week meal. Serve with any green salad of your choice. I made one with romaine, white onion, and tomato with some herbs and oil and vinegar.
For the rice I picked up a box of mixed long grain wild rice at the grocery store. For the chicken, I used thighs, seasoned with salt, pepper, and dried thyme, and cooked until brown on both sides.
Yes, occasionally I make a recipe more than once. More than occasionally, actually. In this case, my favourite chicken tacos were the culprit. You can't blame me though; these are so yummy.
And of course the Thrifty Sifter makes one of my favourite faces for the camera.
Today I turn again to Epicurious for this recipe. So yummy was this that I have had it for three days in a row as leftovers. Make sure to drain the chicken before adding the peppers!
This recipe will give you a juicy meat with tangy and spicy overtones that don't overpower.
I have no special tricks for either recipe. Just follow as directed. Not entirely a quick dish, but neither is it difficult. The tastiness is quite a reward.
It's clear that I didn't write for almost all of February. A lot of recipes were banked in February, though. Of course sometimes you risk forgetting a few things and in this case I don't even remember what the recipe was.
Obviously the main dish is a chicken breast. There are kalamata olives, probably some onions, tomatoes, and peppers. It could be chicken breasts provençal. But I don't really know. And clearly I was in a rush if the side dish was so obviously frozen mixed veggies (don't knock 'em).
When I set out to make The Glorious Chicken my original intention was to finish it off by broiling the breasts with havarti on top. Well...as so often happens I forgot. Thankfully the chicken didn't suffer and doubly-thankfully there were two more breasts upon which to practice my skills.
One was used today in a tasty sandwich, but since I Cook Dinner and only recently blogged about lunch, we'll leave that one off the table this time. Instead I will focus on last night's leftovers, which included the sauteed mushrooms, poblano, and pearl onions from the other night.
The breast was reheated in a 300 degree oven for about 20 minutes, then the broiler was turned on, the chicken was topped with havarti, and put under the broiler for about three minutes. Doing this in the future I'd shred the havarti and broil for only two minutes. Obviously the chicken didn't need the havarti, but it was fantastic with it as well.
Next to this I served some classic mixed frozen vegetables. To these I added a teaspoon of coriander, a half a teaspoon of salt, and about a teaspoon of El Yucateco Green Chile Habanero Sauce. Excellent for kick and flavour.
I've been crowing up and down about this dish since I made it last night. So, yes, that's not a long time, but I did incredibly well with it. It was made off-the-cuff with mostly ingredients for which I had a hankering.
The Glorious Chicken
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tbsps ground coriander
1 tbsp fresh sage, chopped
1 tsp salt
4 dried, red chilies, crushed
cider vinegar to coat breasts for marinating (about a cup)
Place chicken breasts in a deep dish or tupperware container. Coat the chicken in all of the ingredients and mix. Place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Flip once.
Heat a large pan or iron skillet on medium-high (if using a pan add 2 tbsps olive oil). Spoon some of the marinade mixture, especially the fresh sage, over the breasts. Cook for fifteen minutes. Then flip and cook for another 7 minutes.
Mmm...pre-sautee. You'll want to pre-heat a pan, the add the olive oil. Start with the onions until slightly translucent. Then add the poblano for a minute. Finish off with the mushrooms. Should take no more than four minutes total.
The final product was fantastic, with a wonderful interplay of coriander and red chili. Tender chicken with plenty of juiciness served with a complementary spicy side of a different flavour. Damn I did good.
Tonight I'll start off by saying do not make my wasabi sauce. In fact, I'll just not include the recipe to ensure you don't. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good and my chicken is fantastic without it. In that light, let's make a roast chicken.
NOTE: This recipe requires six to seven hours of preparation.
Ingredients:
1 4 1/2 pound chicken
11 cups of water
1/2 cup of coarse kosher salt
2 tbsp. lemon juice
peel from 1 lemon
1 bay leaf
3 sprigs of thyme
2 cups chicken broth
Bring the water, salt, lemon juice, lemon peel, bay leaf, and thyme to a boil in a large pot. Boil a few minutes and remove from heat. Cool the brine in a refrigerator (or on your winter windowsill as I did).
While the brine is cooling, wash your whole chicken. If it has giblets, set them aside for some other recipe. Once washed, place in the brine and soak for six hours.
Drain the chicken form the brine...
...and pat dry.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat the sides of a dutch oven in olive oil (yes, that's my new Le Creuset dutch oven), and then place the chicken inside.
Place cover on the oven and roast chicken for 20 minutes, then add 1 cup of chicken broth. Roast another 20 minutes, then add the second cup of chicken broth. Roast another 20 minutes, then remove cover. Roast an additional 20 minutes or until golden brown.
I made a nice romaine, leek, radish, jalapeno, and parsley salad with balsamic, olive oil, and salt and pepper.
The chicken came out very juicy and tasty with enough juice for gravy.
This was my final product, but as I said the wasabi sauce wasn't so good. Enjoy your roast chicken all week as sandwich, stew, or tostada (as I will)!
Never once have I gone farther in the field of Mexican cooking than tacos. Even though Mexican is my favourite ethnic food. Never made burritos. Never concocted my own flauta. Not once have I ventured a pollo a la mexicana. When our great blizzard of 2010 (I'm calling it Citystopalypse) hit, I was ready with some spicy greatness of my own.
One package of Guerrero tostadas later, I made what the Thrifty Sifter termed one of the "best meals" I've ever made. I have to agree and the leftovers were fantastic.
Unfortunately I forgot to document their creation, though these coriander chicken tostadas are not complex in their creation. Still, you get a photo of them on my new plates with my new Cuisinart 14 cup food processor in the background.
Tonight I decided to try my hand at making a couple of dishes introduced to me by my friend Lauren. It's been a lazy weekend and, apart from hitting the gymnasium, the Thrifty Sifter and I only had one plan: dinner with Lauren and her husband Bill.
That I once said she could throw down in the kitchen is completely true. Practically everything of hers I've tasted has been fantastic and last night was no exception. Sipping beer (after being told my help wasn't needed, of course!) I watched dinner preparations. The resultant dinner was so good I wanted to try it myself today.
My version's a bit different in that I only used tarragon (sometimes called dragon's wort) and dried sage while eschewing the use of garlic. Okay, I didn't choose not to use the garlic so much as forget to put it in.
Dragon's-wort Chicken
- 4 chicken breasts (with skin)
- half a stick of unsalted butter cut into 6 - 8 slices
- three sprigs of fresh tarragon
- dried ground sage
- salt
- fresh ground pepper
Place the chicken breasts in a glass casserole dish or iron skillet. Place a pat or two of butter on each one (two for the larger ones). Next coat lightly with sage, salt, and ground pepper. Last strip the leaves from the fresh tarragon and place on each breast.
Pop that puppy into an oven pre-heated to 450 degrees. Cook for 40 - 50 minutes or until skin is a golden brown.
Damn, I need to clean my oven.
Lauren's chicken was good, but her baby spinach salad was fantastic. Made with sliced almonds, gorgonzola, and a poppy seed vinaigrette, I woke up thinking about it today (along with a horrid hangover).
My version includes:
- 2 ounces of almonds toasted and chopped (about 12 almonds)
- 3 cups of baby spinach
- 2 ounces of gorgonzola cheese
- 1/2 cup of dried cranberries
For the dressing I used the following ingredients and kinda eyeballed the portions.
- 1/2 cup of white wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- dried ground sage
- fresh ground pepper
- salt to taste
- 1 tsp hot paprika
While I was making the dressing it was time to pull the chicken out of the oven. Don't they look delicious? I wasn't going to forget them like I forgot about going to bed last night.
Shake, shake, shake!
Chopping the toasted almonds.
I think the Bel Gioso Lauren used last night was actually a better gorgonzola, but this was tasty.
Dinner is served.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I intended to use garlic with the chicken and will remember to do so next time I make this. Still, the chicken was quite good. My dressing was a little too heavy on the vinegar, so I'll avoid that much in the future. I actually intended to use balsamic, but for some reason I couldn't get the bottle open.
Your soundtrack for this entry is Men at Work's "Who Can it Be Now." I'd like to dedicate this to Harlan and Jen, who I didn't get to say goodnight to last night due to drunken passing out. Seriously, someone take the beer away from me next time!
Let's get one thing straight: I love chili. For the last 16 years I've also kept kosher. For those who know, that essentially means I can't eat many variations on chili since I can't mix meat and dairy. Personally, though, I never included poultry under the meat category for this. Birds don't have mammary glands and are descended from dinosaurs, so I'm not worried about "cooking the calf in the mother's milk" when it comes to chicken breasts and cheese.
For this recipe I got together:
- a pair of chicken breasts (boneless)
- two cups of chicken stock
- two cans of sliced, pickled jalapenos
- one 28 ounce can of stewed tomatoes
- one 12 ounce can of red kidney beans
- two medium yellow onions
- two poblano peppers
- 10 cloves of garlic
- 1/4 cup of molasses
I also added one of the dried peppers from The Dried Peppers. Not the Ghost ones, but their cousins. Good choice on my part. Added some tartness and, of course, a plethora of heat.
Dice the chicken into half-inche pieces.
Season with some chili powder, coriander, salt, and fresh-ground pepper.
Slice the poblanos into thin strips. Ensure that you seed these as the added dried pepper will certainly add to the heat enough.
Pop into the stewing ingredients.
Add the pickled jalapeno slices.
Stew for an hour.
I'll admit to being a little lazy on this one. I didn't really record my recipe and as this is several days after making it I'm winging the recipe. Clearly you add the tomatoes and beans after stewing the other ingredients for a while and, honestly, I expect you to figure out the right mix of this recipe for you.
Chili is like choosing a sex partner; it's very individual for the discriminating palate.
This one goes out to my newly-married work sidekick Lauren Soule. Maybe some day I'll get to be her sidekick instead. For now though, she's back from her honeymoon and to continue honouring her request for more things she can eat, here's a chicken pasta. That combines TWO requested things.
You might notice that I don't post absolutely everything I make. It's not all good, sometimes I forget to photograph stuff, or as is often the case I have leftovers. I'm not that keen to cover leftovers recipes here (and I don't count tacos!), but this one was too good.
Here I used a leftover piece of The Black Prince Chicken. Diced into quarter inch pieces, this fit perfectly in my small saucepan.
Heat over medium and add a cup of chicken broth. Simmer for ten minutes.
Chop up half an onion and add to the simmering mixture. After a few minutes, add the frozen pearl onions. Trust me, this did not make it too oniony.
The damn pasta's always trying to escape.
When the pasta's al dente (a real al dente, not that American al dente that's all flaccid), drain and put back in the pot with the chicken and onion mixture. Add about a teaspoon of fresh ground pepper, a half cup of grated parmesan, and top with dried parsley.
Yummo. This turns out to be a little on the dry side, which is absolutely fine with me. All the flavours of the chicken that weren't fine on their own in yesterday's recipe came together in this to make a perfect pasta. Somehow it reminded me of a white clam sauce.
This week I have two somewhat ad hoc recipes for you. Last night I was tired after a long weekend doing nothing. Seriously. It was the first weekend in a long time upon which I had no plans. First was an ice cream social party with the fine folks of Reddit Astoria. Saturday I had the Thrifty Sifter, my friend GM, and a friend of his over for lamb burgers. Sorry folks, but I didn't photograph this meal. The reviews were great, though.
Sunday was spent lazily with Ms. Thrifty Sifter in the park. The bad Sifter hasn't updated in a while, but I'm probably distracting her with fun swinging in hammocks in the park. She left for her abode and it was time for me to make dinner. I still had pearl onions (frozen) from The Chicken Pot Pie and I still had waffle fries left over from the lamb burgers.
Of course I wanted to use my trusty iron skillet, so I settled on some inexpensive, bone-in chicken breasts at the grocery. That's the fine folks at Key Food. When you get a chance, take a look at their Recipe of the Day page.
You know what else I have laying around? The Black Prince peppers from my dried chilies entry. Enter my cheapo mortar and pestle from Key Food rival C-Town. They also have a recipe page, but I digress.
To prepare, add two dried chilies to the mortar.
You'll also want (from left to right on my recipe shelf) standard adobo (about a tablespoon), Coleman's dry mustard (about a teaspoon), and cumin (about a tablespoon).
Meanwhile, pre-heat your oven to 450. I didn't use a baking sheet, just placed the waffle fries and a dozen and a half pearl onions (still frozen) in a stainless steel pan. I'll admit it: this was totally lazy and didn't work out all that well. The onions are great roasted and the waffle fries are, of course, just fine out of the over, but...they really didn't work all that well together.
Next time stuff a baked potato with roasted pearl onions. I bet that will do the trick.
Back to our pestling already in progress. I think you can guess what to do with this...
I did not separate the skin from the chicken here like I normally do for roasting chicken. The mixture was simply rubbed over every available surface.
Even after a weekend of carousing I was famished. So before the main course I made a simple salad with leftover toppings from the lamb burger enterprise. Part of a beefsteak tomato, half a small onion, and some iceberg lettuce. Topped with olive oil, salt, fresh ground pepper, and cider vinegar, I was pleased.
And here's the finished product. I'm going to have to try a Black Prince pepper fresh at some point as what I made here made it difficult to distinguish its flavour. The heat wasn't overpowering and I feel the spices mixed well. However, this isn't one of my best impromptu recipes (though it did lead to tomorrow's entry which was).
Your soundtrack for this entry: Rotting Christ - Aealo (This whole album is quality, but the opener is a classic.)
