White Wine-Braised Chicken Thighs

I've been kind of a jerk lately. Josh has put up with a lot while I've been kind of a jerk. After spending a Sunday afternoon alone, in attendance at the maudlin movie "The Vow," once I regained control of my emotions I decided to stop being a jerk. And since I don't know how to apologize/celebrate/function socially without food, I also decided to make Josh a comforting, hearty meal to apologize with.

Front and center was this braised chicken, cooked in white wine and a mirepoix with a few other winter vegetables thrown in. The resulting sauce was a rich and lovely apology for this girlfriend's bad behavior.

I'm not suggesting you screw up as an excuse to make this chicken, but if you already have, this may be a good way to wipe the slate clean.

You will need:

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for sauteeing chicken
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 leek, sliced into rings
4 cloves garlic, whole
Small handful Italian (flat leaf) parsley, roughly chopped
1/8 teaspoon Herbes de Provence
1/8 teaspoon thyme
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/2 cup white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)
Enough chicken broth to cover chicken (about 1/2 cup)
Splash heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Have a 3-quart Dutch oven waiting on a burner over low heat. Heat butter and oil over medium-low heat in a large skillet. Once butter has melted, increase heat to medium-high and cook garlic cloves until browned. Add carrots, celery, onions and leeks and stir, seasoning with salt and pepper. Once the vegetables have softened slightly and have started to brown, add Herbes de Provence, thyme and cayenne, stir well. Transfer vegetables from skillet into Dutch oven. Add parsley to Dutch oven.

Add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the skillet. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper, then sear quickly (2-3 minutes on each side). Once chicken is well-browned, transfer to Dutch oven. Wipe out the skillet of any excess oil with a paper towel, and reduce heat to low. Deglaze skillet with white wine, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan, and pour into Dutch oven. Pour enough chicken broth to cover the chicken about 2/3 of the way up. Add in a splash of heavy cream and stir to combine.

Cook over medium-low heat for 60-90 minutes. Add more cream and/or seasonings if necessary at the end of the cooking time.

Queso Fundido

It doesn't happen often, but tonight I really didn't want to cook. It was the first really cold night (read: cold for Nashville) of the season, this is my busiest time of year at work, and I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible at home.

But when I can't scrape away a little bit of my day to daydream about food, I come home from work and stand in my kitchen uninspired. Nothing sounds good. Then I get cranky and Josh starts calling out the items in our fridge and freezer. Nothing sounds good. I get crankier. Bless that man.

This was actually his suggestion, though it had just happened that it was already on my 30 by 30 list from September (which I still haven't started on, save for this accidental tick off the list, but I have 2 years, right?).

Unfortunately I got a little carried away with the jalapenos, and my lips are still burning as I type this. Next time I'll use a can of green chiles and a different cheese (probably Chihuahua). We are fortunate to live in a melting pot area of Nashville, so I sent Josh to the Latin store up the street for Asadero cheese. He came home with Oaxaca, which was delicious but didn't work well for melting.

If you don't mind doing some chopping on a weeknight, this comes together relatively quickly and is delicious wrapped up in soft flour tortillas; equally so with a fork.

You will need:
3 cups of shredded asadero cheese
1 cup of shredded Monterey Jack
1 can roasted green chiles
1 small onion, cut into rings
1/2 cup of Mexican chorizo

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Break up the chorizo and cook it in a skillet until it’s done, about five minutes. Cook onions in sausage grease until translucent and add chiles until just heated through. Lightly grease a medium-sized cast-iron skillet or a casserole dish and add the cheese. Top with the crumbled, cooked chorizo, cooked onions and diced chiles, and cook for 15 minutes or until bubbling.

Spoon onto tortillas. Serve immediately.

Adapted from Homesick Texan.

Tortilla Española

I make a lot of lists. Recipes to blog, things to buy at CVS, songs to download, movies to add to Netflix, decorating ideas. Problem is, I lose them and nothing gets accomplished. They get stuffed into my purse, I change my purse frequently, and I don’t find a list from December until March. This morning I was reminded that I was supposed to buy Q-Tips on December 18th.

Fortunately, my never-ending list of recipes to conquer remains an internal one, and when external events align so that one of them actually has a chance to materialize, I scratch it off my mental list and move its physical recipe into my stuffed-to-the-gills recipe book. This past week my mom was kind enough to send me a supply of chorizo, a spicy and smoky Spanish sausage she can sniff out a quality link of no matter where in the country she may be. I do not possess this skill and need to hone it pronto – because the one recipe I dared to try with perfect chorizo in my possession needs to be made over and over again.

Tortilla Española, often referred to as a Spanish omelet in tapas restaurants, brings to mind fond memories of helping my mom in the kitchen as a kid. As it requires thinly sliced peeled potatoes and paper-thin onions, Spanish pimentos and the elusive chorizo sausage, it is a bit of a labor of love. It also requires a midway flip, which I won’t deny intimidated me. My dad was always my mom's flipper. Josh is my flipper.

You will need:

4 small to medium potatoes, peeled and sliced with a mandolin (1/8 inch thickness)
1 medium Spanish (white) onion, sliced with a mandolin (1/8 inch thickness)
5 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons diced pimentos
4 ounces hard Spanish chorizo, diced
Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
Olive oil

Soak potato slices in cool water to prevent discoloration. When ready to cook, remove potatoes from water and press dry with a cloth, removing as much water as you can. Heat a 10 inch cast iron skillet filled with 1/2 inch olive oil over medium-high heat. Rub some of the olive oil into the sides of the skillet as well. Once oil begins to shimmer, add dry potatoes and cook until potatoes soften, but do not allow them to brown. Remove cooked potatoes to a plate and season with salt and pepper. Add onions to oil and cook until translucent but not brown. Remove and cook chorizo until hot but again, do not allow to brown. Remove chorizo to the plate with potatoes and onions.

Add diced pimentos to beaten eggs and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Once potatoes, onion and chorizo have cooled a bit, add to egg mixture. If needed, add a bit more olive oil to the skillet and pour in egg mixture. Do not disturb until eggs begin to set, then run a knife along the outer edge, and with the edge lifted, tilt and swirl the pan to distribute some of the uncooked egg on top toward the bottom and sides. Do this a few times until the top of the mixture is no longer runny. Loosen the bottom of the mixture with a spatula, being careful not to break or tear the omelet. Place a well fitting plate on top of the skillet and quickly flip the tortilla onto the plate, then quickly slide the tortilla back into the hot pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes, then remove from heat and slide back onto your serving plate.

Serves 4.

Dr. Pepper Ribs

I have a confession to make: I am afraid of our grill. I never used to be, but then again, I'd never attempted to light it myself before - my dad or Josh always lit it and I'd tend to the food on it thereafter. But about a month ago, Josh found himself late coming home and I was left to start the burgers.

I made my way outside, turned on the gas and fiddled with the knobs before lighting my long match to toss into the pit. After striking the match and before I could even blink, a fierce, billowing ball of flame erupted from the grill - quite literally blowing up in my face. Terrified, but miraculously with enough sense to shut everything off, I flew into the house and into the bathroom, convinced that I would find a reflection of someone without eyebrows and eyelashes. The person staring back at me had a halo of charred hair around her forehead, crispy eyebrows and raw red burns on the tip of her nose and across her chest. I was not going to be bald and eyebrow-less, but I was in pain and traumatized, so amid the acrid smell of burnt hair I stood in the bathroom and sobbed.

I'm fine, but I will never light the grill again. To wrap up a long story, these ribs were slow cooked and later broiled in the oven, in my kitchen, where it's safe and I understand how everything works. Marinated for 6 hours in Dr. Pepper, they turn out moist, sweet yet savory, and it's entirely possible that you won't even miss the grill.

You will need:

1 rack of baby back ribs, back membrane removed
1 liter Dr. Pepper
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper
Your favorite barbecue sauce

Rinse off your ribs, pat dry and season both sides with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Place ribs in a deep roasting dish and pour in enough Dr. Pepper to cover the whole rack (I used the entire liter). Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. When you're ready to cook the ribs, drain off the liquids and pat the ribs completely dry. Dry the roasting pan as well, and add a wire roasting rack to the pan. Place the ribs on the roasting rack, cover the pan tightly with foil, and place in the middle of the oven. Cook for 2 hours.

Remove the foil after two hours and brush generously with barbecue sauce. Set oven broiler to low and broil ribs for approximately 8-10 minutes, or until the barbecue sauce begins to caramelize and brown. Remove and allow ribs to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Chicken Fried Chicken

Before I post a new recipe, I always consult Food Blog Search beforehand out of curiosity. I want to know how many other times it's been blogged, and frankly I want to know if someone's pictures of a similar dish are better than mine (they usually are).

At this point, I've lived outside of Texas long enough to know that the majority of the country isn't familiar with migas, Chuy's (praise the lord that Chuy's made it to Nashville!), or breakfast tacos, but I was honestly surprised not to find more than one or two small mentions of chicken fried chicken. Chicken fried steak, yes...there were plenty of posts about that.

Maybe because it's redundant, you'd say. Perhaps it is, in a linguistic sense. But chicken fried chicken is not fried chicken.

Well...I mean, it is. But not the sort you can get from a bucket basking in the glow of a deli counter's heat lamps. It is always a boneless, skinless chicken breast dredged in seasoned flour and pan-fried, and it is always served with cream gravy. And it is always a fork and knife meal. Texans are sophisticated like that.

The rest of the country just has to know!

You will need:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups flour
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
Cayenne pepper (optional)
Vegetable oil

Pound chicken with a meat tenderizer until flattened and almost doubled in size. Place flour in a large bowl and season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper to taste.

Mix eggs in another bowl with milk. Coat pieces of chicken in flour. Dip coated chicken into egg mixture and then dip back into flour again.

Heat on medium enough oil to fill halfway up the sides of a cast-iron skillet. When a drop of water makes the oil sizzle, it's ready for frying. Place the chicken in the skillet. When the chicken is golden brown on the bottom, gently - without splashing! - turn over with a long fork

Cook another five minutes and then take the chicken-fried chicken out of the pan and drain on a paper-towel-lined plate or cooling rack.

Repeat process for remaining cutlets. Makes four pieces of chicken-fried chicken. Serve with black pepper cream gravy made from the pan drippings.

Chicken Pot Pie

I really thought I was lacking the chicken pot pie gene. Gloppy sauce, chunks of rubbery chicken and COOKED CARROTS? Blech. Right?

Nope.

Unfortunately, that description is fitting for about 90% of frozen (storebought) chicken pot pies. While revolting as far as I'm concerned, my man just happens to love them. It pains me. So I figured if chicken pot pies were going to find their way into my freezer, they may as well have arrived there by my own hand.

By this point, we know that I'm a taste-as-you-go kind of girl. I can't keep my (clean, thank you) hands out of the stuff that I'm cooking - batter, dough, sauce, whatever. I'm making sure the end result will be perfect as I go along. One slurp of this homemade sauce paired with a shred of rotisserie chicken, and I all but forgot about the mushy carrots that would soon join the party.

Oh, and the crust. Cream cheese seems surprising here, but I think it really makes a difference in flakiness. If you are a fan of any of the countless frozen chicken pot pies on the market today, or if you're like me and equate it to institutional slop, please try this.

One more thing: my man declared this the best pot pie he's ever eaten. Now that's the surest sign of a keeper.

Note: this recipe can also be converted into an 8 x 12 baking dish, which was how I prepared it since I only have two crocks.

For the filling, you will need:

3 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 large russett potato, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
8 oz. button mushrooms, sliced (I found a stink bug in my carton of mushrooms. I think my heart stopped for a second).
½ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 purchased rotisserie chicken
2 cups frozen peas and carrots
1/4 cup dry sherry (optional)

For the sauce, you will need:

8 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
2½ cups chicken broth
½ cup heavy cream (optional)
Dash of hot sauce
Salt and freshly ground pepper

For the crust, you will need:

16 tbsp. cold unsalted butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
10 oz. cream cheese, chilled
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
1 large egg

To make the filling: melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and potato to the pan, and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add sherry. Mix in the garlic, bell pepper and mushrooms, and cook for about 15 minutes more, until the potatoes are tender. While the vegetables are cooking, remove the skin from the chicken, pull the meat off the bones and shred or chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Once the vegetables are finished cooking, turn off the heat and mix in the chicken and the frozen peas and carrots. Stir in the red pepper flakes, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

To make the sauce:  melt the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the flour and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the chicken broth and cook over medium heat until it thickens to the consistency of a cream soup. Mix in the cream (if using), the hot sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour the cream sauce over the chicken and veggie mixture and stir to combine well. Spoon the mixture into 6-8 individual oven-safe dishes (such as ramekins/crocks), or scrape the entire mixture into an 8x12 glass baking dish. Preheat the oven to 375° F.

To make the crust: cut the butter into 16 pieces. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, pulse the butter and flour until crumbly. Add the cream cheese, salt and pepper. Continue pulsing just until the dough forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough out to about ¼-inch thickness. Cut out dough rounds to be about 1½ inches larger than the diameter of your pot pie dish/es. Lay the dough  on top of the dishe/s. Beat the egg with a whisk, and brush the tops of the dough  lightly with the beaten egg. If your crust splits like mine did, just pinch it together as best you can.

Place in the preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Adapted from Annie's Eats.

Shrimp and Pineapple Curry with Coconut Rice

Josh and I have been thinking about Thai food for a while. Neither of us have ever eaten at a Thai restaurant - even though we are more or less surrounded by them. Even though I've gotten numerous recommendations for numerous restaurants. Even though one of the best in town is literally around the corner from our office. The truth is, I've been a little scared.

I assumed that Thai = too spicy. Don't get me wrong - I'm a Texas girl and I can get down with some spicy. Nevertheless, I've been more than hesitant to go out and spend money on a meal I may not enjoy.

Anyway, last night I initiated our typical dinner debate, which tends to go something like this:

Me: What's for dinner?
Josh: I don't know.
Me: Well, what are you in the mood for?
Josh: I don't know.
Me: What about (insert any number of dishes in my repertoire, ranging from ribs to salad, grilled salmon to chili, ham to buffalo wings)
Josh: Any of that would be fine.

Then I get frustrated and start flipping through cookbooks for inspiration. From a roommate somewhere along the way I inherited a great book called The Cook's Companion (Lorraine Turner), which I don't utilize as much as should, considering that last night's dinner was outstanding.
It was also the perfect starter/introductory Thai dish, which means I'm now very excited to try that little place around the corner from our office.

I served the coconut curried shrimp and pineapple over a bed of coconut-vanilla rice, remembering mid-preparation a post I read on How Sweet It Is. I did not follow Jessica's recipe exactly; I used salt, omitted the red pepper and used less coconut flakes, but I must say: wow. I thought I had lost Josh on the rice when he wandered into the kitchen and after he expressed surprise at finding me cooking rice (I never do), I told him we were having coconut-vanilla rice. As always, he kindly acknowledged my strange creation, but I could smell his uncertainty from a mile away. Of course he was a good sport, loading it up on his plate before taking a taste, but found that he did enjoy it quite a bit.

A note about Thai fish sauce - I had to search the Asian Market (I love living in a melting pot) to find it. It smells funny and when I opened the bottle it hissed, steamed and fizzed like a bottle of soda before it exploded all over my hands and kitchen counter. Not pleasant. What gives? Anybody have experience with the stuff?

For the shimp and pineapple curry, you will need (from The Cook's Companion):

2 cups coconut milk
Half of one fresh pineapple, skinned, cored and chopped (I found that this was too much for my taste - next time I'll reduce it to a quarter)
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tbs red curry paste
2 tbs Thai fish sauce
2 tsp sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
Handful cilantro, chopped finely
Salt and pepper to taste

Add coconut milk, pineapple, curry paste, fish sauce and sugar to a pan. Heat over medium heat until almost boiling. Add cilantro and shrimp and cook over low heat until shrimp is cooked, about 4 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over coconut rice (recipe follows).

For the coconut rice, you will need (adapted slightly from How Sweet It Is:

1 cup white rice (jasmine would work well also)
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 - 1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Contents of 1/2 a vanilla bean + pod for simmering
1/4 cup finely shredded coconut
Salt to taste

Combine water, milk, vanilla extract, coconut, vanilla "caviar" and vanilla bean pod in a saucepan and add rice. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until rice has absorbed liquid, about 15-20 minutes. Remove vanilla bean pods and salt to taste.

Pork Francese for One

Today's guest post comes from my dad. As is the case with the rest of my family, he has an appreciation for good food, and while I haven't tried it myself, I'm sure this variation of the classic Chicken Francese is as delicious as he claims.

***

Just because you have no choice but to eat solo is no reason not to eat like Un Re (A King). Like many of you, your significant other may not be able to join you for every meal. My sweetheart Marjorie works 3 nights a week, but you'll never catch this paesano eating out of a can.


This is simple, fast and delizioso!
7 - 8 ounces thin boneless pork chop or pork cutlet
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 egg
1/4 cup flour (or just enough to coat both sides)
1/4 cup of chicken broth (if you don't have canned broth, you can substitute a chicken bouillon cube or powder, just reduce the amount of salt on the meat and egg)
4 - 5 ounces dry white wine
2 tablespoons lemon juice (preferably fresh, though bottled could substitute)
1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1-1/2 tablespoons butter
1/2 tablespoon parsley (dried will substitute just fine)
Lemon slices

If meat is not 1/4-inch thick, use a pounder. Sprinkle with salt and pepper (see note of caution regarding salt above).

Break egg into a shallow bowl, season with salt and pepper (again see note of caution regarding salt above) and beat until well blended. Spread flour on waxed paper. Mix together the broth, wine, and lemon juice in a measuring cup.

Heat the oil and butter in a skillet over medium heat until sizzling. Dip the pork in the flour, then the egg, and add to the pan in a single layer. If you have excess egg, add that to the hot oil and butter, creating a mini fried egg. Cook 3 minutes per side, until golden brown. Adjust the heat so the butter doesn't burn. Transfer the pork (and cooked egg) to a plate and put aside. Add the broth mixture (broth, wine, lemon juice) to the pan, raise the heat, and heat until slightly thickened (a minute or two). Stir in the parsley. Return the pork to the pan and turn once or twice in the sauce. Serve with lemon slices on top.

Lowcountry Seafood Boil

My brother/guest blogger Craig hosted a crawfish boil not too long ago. This is something I've never considered, let alone executed, so I've taken a few tips for myself. Thanks Craig!

~***~

This is time-consuming, expensive, and totally friggin' worth it. One day someone at work suggested we do a traditional crawfish boil but we took it a step further by adding shrimp and crab, turning it into a seafood boil. This is a bayou-southern-gulf kinda meal, a meal that takes an entire day to prepare, a few minutes to cook, and a long time to eat. It's really fun and not too high on costs if people throw in money or donate some things. There is a lot involved but again, totally worth it.

You will need:


A 32-60 quart cooking pot – usually from a turkey fryer. Make sure it has a strainer with it.
The turkey fryer cooking stand
A propane tank, full
At least two big picnic tables or similar
Butcher or freezer paper
Tape
A radio
A 4-5 quart cooking pot
A large large spoon or small shovel (no joke, a clean one)
Wire-mesh strainer
Cheesecloth
Towels, lots and lots of small hand towels
Workers gloves
A large group of people
Large cooler with drain
Platters for different foods, at least 4 or 5
A knife, sharp

About 7 lemons, cut three in half and the rest in small slices
One head of garlic
One onion
6 pounds of sausage, andouille if spelled right or available, chopped into 3-inch pieces
Ten ears of corn, cut into thirds
Three to four pounds new potatoes
7 pounds live feisty crawfish
9 pounds crab legs
12 pounds raw shrimp, can be headless but preferably not alive
Two or three medium sized packages of shrimp boil seasoning
Beer
Salt for purging the crawfish (more on that later)
Cocktail sauce (recipe below)
2 pounds stick butter
White vinegar
Baguette bread, 4 loaves more or less

Okay, what a list. I'll break it down for easy ingestion.

The night before, make the cocktail sauce, or buy it. Whatever. If you make it, get some chili sauce (it's right next to the ketchup), a couple cloves of garlic, horseradish, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and some salt, pepper and garlic powder. Don't buy horseradish sauce, it's nowhere near the same. Mix it up until it tastes right, with the horseradish going in as your danger ingredient. Too much will put all but the most dedicated off, too little and folk will think you're a pansy.

Set up the pot and the burner, do not ignite just yet.

Go to the store and buy or ask people for the things you don't have. At the store, go to the seafood area and find out when your store gets fresh shipments in, that's the best time to do one of these. Ours comes in every Friday so we lucked out on that. The crawfish are the highest-maintenance of all the foods, so make sure you bring a cooler with an ice pack and a wet towel in it to the store. Try to pick that stuff up last, even if you have to reserve the critters first and wander/shop. Once home, pour the crawfish out of the bag into the cooler and fill up the cooler and cooking pot with cool water. You'll notice it gets really nasty really fast.

You need to change out the water every 15-20 minutes until its clear. Heating up the water to a boil will take about 40 minutes, so start purging the crawfish an hour or so before you turn on the heat. Purging the crawfish is what gets rid of all the mud and poo in their system, and on the last purge when the water is ready, add a bunch of salt to make them puke out the leftovers. The cool thing is when they meet their demise they'll suck in some of the flavored boiling water, making the insides even tastier. But don't add them yet.

Prepare the lemons, sausage, corn and hose down the potatoes. Cut the onion in half and peel all the paper off the garlic and lightly crush. You can put all but the potatoes and corn on one platter.

Start to clarify the butter. If you don't know how, it's easy. Put all the butter in a big pot and let it sit on medium low for about thirty minutes. Strain with the strainer and the cheesecloth into another bowl. You may need to do that a couple times, so be ready to sacrifice a few sheets of cheesecloths. If you know someone who works at a hospital ask them to get some laprascopic sponges for you, they're great for cleaning or cooking with. Do not throw away the fat free butter like someone at our party did.

Once the waters' a boilin' you can add a few tablespoons of the vinegar and one package of the seasoning mix along with the potatoes, garlic, onion and corn. After a couple minutes of boiling, add the crawfish. This can also be considered batch number one if your pot isn't big enough. Allow the water to return to a boil before adding anything else. After a few more minutes, add the ¾ of the second package of the seasoning mix, sausage, crab and shrimp. The crab is most likely precooked as that's how its usually done so they're just getting reheated. That can also be batch two for those lacking in pot stature.

Set up your eating table. There are no individual plates needed, people should be content with standing around the table with bowls of cocktail sauce, vinegar and salt, and butter at both ends of the table.

After a few minutes of cooking at a boil, you have a couple options; you can kill the heat and let it sit to allow the seasoning continue to make the food spicier or you can pull it off and strain. Shake it around to get rid of as much water as you can. Cover the table in the butcher/freezer paper and tape it to the underside of the table. Pour out the cooked sea animals onto the table and sprinkle on the leftover seasoning mix and don't be shy about it. Consume. Drink beer. Enjoy. Hire someone to clean up.

Ranch Chicken

I start out a lot of posts with "I never liked (insert food here) in the past, but..."

Aside from the fact that it's the God-honest truth, it's also an easy way for me to convey the promise of the dish itself - not to tout that my palate is more refined now than it ever has been in the past. That a dish could turn me from a hater to a convert speaks pretty highly of it, in my opinion.

That said, without ever trying it, I had a severe prejudice against honey mustard up until Sunday. A few years back, when I lived in Virginia, I had a friend that requested a side of honey mustard to accompany every one of his orders of chicken tenders or french fries, and the sight of the gloppy flourescent yellow liquid always turned my stomach. It just sounded and looked awful, but clearly I had no idea why I thought that...it really is a perfect compliment for grilled or broiled chicken!

This chicken, courtesy Ree at The Pioneer Woman, could be the simplest of country foods: pan-fried chicken covered in bacon and yellow cheese. However, the marinade in grainy mustard, honey and paprika changes the whole scope of the chicken from simple to sassy.
You will need (adapted slightly from The Pioneer Woman Cooks):

½ cup grainy mustard or dijon mustard
½ cup honey
1 whole lemon, juice only
½ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon salt
Crushed red pepper (optional; to taste)
4 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 slices thick cut (preferably peppered) bacon, cooked
Shredded colby or cheddar cheese, to taste

To begin, make the marinade. In a large bowl mix together ½ cup dijon or country/grainy mustard with ½ cup honey, juice of 1 lemon, ½ teaspoon paprika, and ½ teaspoon salt and whisk until smooth. Sprinkle in some crushed red pepper flakes or cayenne if desired. Set aside.

Next, rinse the chicken breasts, place between two sheets of waxed paper and pound to around ½ to ¾ inch thick with a mallet. Next, add the chicken to the bowl with the marinade, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1 to 3 hours (1 hour was sufficient).

Grill the chicken on an outdoor grill over medium flame until cooked through.

Remove chicken to a large baking sheet. Lay a few pieces of bacon over each chicken breast. Sprinkle shredded sharp cheddar cheese over the top of the chicken as generously as you like. Set pan under your oven's broiler set to low for an additional five minutes until cheese is melted and bacon is sizzling. Serve immediately.

Butterflied, Roasted Chicken and Chicken Jus

I know what you're thinking - a roasted chicken is a roasted chicken is a roasted chicken. For a long time (until Friday), I thought the same. I also resigned myself to the fact that I was never going to get a chicken done in one shot, as every single time I've ever pulled a roasted chicken out of the oven, it's had to go back in with pink thighs and bloody legs. What was I doing wrong?

While not wrong, necessarily, I had not done the proper research. Thanks again to happenstance and Serious Eats, I learned the science behind a perfectly roasted chicken and put it to work the same evening. It would require using my kitchen shears for something other than Alyssa's craft projects for the first time, as well as a whole heckuva lot more preparation, but I'm never straying from the method. I even plan on cooking our Thanksgiving turkey the same way.

If you care to read about the science behind it, by all means, but basically it boils down to your roasting pan's hot and cold zones. The edges of the pan will always, always be hotter than the middle. Removing the backbone and flattening the chicken ensures that the thighs - the slowest-cooking part, as they must reach an internal temperature of 170 - rest on the hottest part of the pan, and don't cook way behind the breast. The same theory suggests that the breasts sit in the coldest (relatively speaking - internal temperature must be at least 150) part of the pan, therefore cooking more slowly, and won't be cardboardy chicken lumps by the time the thighs are safe to eat.

Besides, you can cook down the backbone for a velvety, vermouth-laced jus that jus to die for (couldn't resist).

Here's what you do and what you'll need (adapted from Serious Eats/J. Kenji Lopez-Alt):

For the chicken:

1 chicken, about 3 1/2 to 4 pounds
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
2 teaspoons chopped herbs (I used sage and parsley)
Various ground spices if desired (ground mustard, paprika, garlic powder, etc)

For the jus:

1 onion, roughly chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and roughly chopped (I used 8 baby carrots cause that was all we had in the fridge)
1 stalk celery, roughly chopped
1 bay leaf
1 cup dry vermouth or sherry
1 teaspoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons juice from 1 lemon

Set oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using sharp kitchen shears, remove spine from chicken and cut into 5-6 1-inch long pieces.

This is kind of gross and difficult, but nothing my construction-paper-dulled kitchen shears couldn't handle. Set spine aside.

Flatten chicken by placing flat skin side up on cutting board and applying firm pressure to breast bone. Rub chicken on all surfaces with 1 tablespoon oil. Season generously with salt, ground black pepper, chopped herbs and various spices (I also used paprika, granulated garlic and ground mustard).

(Note: I apologize if you envisioned a gorgeously presentable, Norman Rockwell roasted chicken, perfectly trussed and plump for the table. This bird comes out of the oven ugly).

Set wire rack in rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Position chicken so that breasts are aligned with center of baking sheet and legs are close to edge. Roast until thickest part of breast close to bone registers 150 degrees on an instant-read thermometer and joint between thighs and body registers at least 170 degrees, about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat remaining tablespoon oil in small saucepan over high heat until shimmering. Add chicken spine and cook, stirring frequently, until well browned, about 3 minutes. Add onion, carrot, and celery and cook, stirring frequently, until beginning to brown, about 3 minutes. The aroma is unreal right now.

Add bay leaf and deglaze with vermouth or sherry and 1 cup water, using wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits from bottom of pan. Reduce heat to maintain simmer and cook for 20 minutes.

Strain out solids and return liquid to pan. Boil over medium-high heat until approximately 1/3 cup remains, about 7 minutes. Whisk in soy sauce, butter, and lemon juice off heat. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Remove chicken from oven, transfer to cutting board, tent loosely with foil, and allow to rest five minutes before carving. Serve with hot jus.

Drunken Citrus Chicken

Sticking to the rules of marinating (acid/oil/herbs), these skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs bathe in silver tequila (100% agave is always preferred), Meyer lemon juice, orange juice, lime juice, cilantro, jalapenos and green onions for 2-4 hours before cooking entirely under the broiler. Don't fear the broiler!


You will need:

4 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Cayenne pepper
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Lime juice - the equivalent of two fresh-squeezed limes (about 3 tablespoons)
Juice of two Meyer lemons (if available - optional)
1/4 cup orange juice
Three green onions, white and light green parts only, chopped
2 jalapenos, roughly chopped, seeds and ribs intact
Handful cilantro
1 cup tequila (any kind)

Rinse chicken and pat dry. Season liberally with salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder and onion powder. Set aside in a medium-sized bowl.

In another bowl, combine tequila, citrus juices, green onions, jalapenos, cilantro and citrus rinds. Add a pinch of salt and pour over the chicken. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-4 hours, or overnight if possible. Remove the citrus rinds, cilantro and jalapenos before cooking!

Cover the bottom of a roasting pan with aluminum foil and place a roasting rack in the pan. Spray the rack and the bottom of the pan with cooking spray. Adjust the top rack of your oven to approximately 8 inches from the broiler; set broiler to low if possible. Keeping the door of the oven partially ajar, broil chicken thighs until they start to crisp, about 3 minutes. Flip and broil the other side until crispy, about another 3 minutes. Continue flipping chicken every 3-4 minutes, basting on occasion with leftover marinade, until an instant-read thermometer reads 165-170 degrees.

I set my smoke detector off approximately 87 times throughout the broiling and flipping process, but again, please don't fear the broiler! It's a misconception that food won't cook properly if cooked under the broiler, as it basically emulates an outdoor grill. As long as your chicken is far enough away from the broiler, and you pay close enough attention to the chicken as it's broiling, you can obtain a crispy (but not burnt) skin and fully-cooked meat. Crispy skin, juicy meat...what's so frightening?

Sweet and Spicy Award-Wining Chili

With swimsuit season looming, and butterscotch blondies in my not so distant past, I have delved hardcore back into Atkins. I feel good, but I'm not on a mission to make this into a low-carb blog, so I've decided against posting the majority of what I've cooked this week. The only exception would be the unBELIEVABLE German Chocolate cake we baked for Josh's mom's birthday, of which I totally forgot to take pictures. Guess that means I'll just have to make it again someday soon...5 pounds from now.

Anyway, tonight's meal was an honest-to-goodness award winning Sweet and Spicy Chili. Really. It won my family's annual chili cookoff award last Christmas. Say what you want, but that was some pretty steep competition. I'd never felt simultaneously bummed and satisfied in one moment until I saw my brother's face after it was annouced I beat him by precisely one vote.

That was my trophy, by the way. Rather appropriate for a chili cookoff, wouldn't you say?

I wish I could remember where the original recipe came from, but whoever dreamed it up is a genius. The flavors in this chili are out of this world, but of course the trick here is to let the chili cook long and slow to allow all the different flavors to meld. What's even more amazing is that even as they combine, you can just barely pick out everything individually: coffee, brown sugar and dark porter beer (Guinness is preferred) are unexpected but oh so welcome.

It's a good thing this stuff freezes so well, because it makes more than we could ever hope to eat in a week. I've already eaten it three times since Monday night.

You will need:

2 tbsp. vegetable oil
16 oz. coarse ground beef
12 oz. sirloin (prime grade is best), cubed into 1/4 in. chunks
1 large yellow onion, chopped into 1/4 in. dice
1 shallot, diced finely
4 cloves finely chopped garlic
1 red bell pepper, diced 1/4 in.
1 green bell pepper, diced 1/4 in.
3 jalapeno peppers, chopped with seeds and ribs intact
1 1/2 cups tomato paste (2 6-ounce cans)
1 1/2 tsp. fine-ground instant espresso
Scant 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
3 tbsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground cayenne
1/4 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. salt (may find you need more - I kept it to about 3 1/2 teaspoons)
3 15 oz. cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups beef stock
1 28 oz. can peeled plum tomatoes, chopped (drained)
12 oz. dark beer (Guinness recommended)

Heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed stock pot over medium heat. Add onion, shallot, garlic, red and green bell peppers and jalapeno peppers and saute for 5 minutes until vegetables are translucent.

In the meantime, heat a separate skillet and cook ground beef and sirloin until no longer pink. Drain excess fat and add beef to vegetables. Stir to combine. Sautee for a couple of minutes, then add tomato paste, espresso, sugar and all seasonings, including salt.

After 10 minutes, add beans, stock, tomatoes and beer. Stir well and reduce heat to medium-low; simmer for about an hour.

This is not traditional chili, nor is it Texas chili (my apologies to my homeland). It is, however, very unique and a must-try for the foodies out there. You can still serve it up traditionally with sour cream, cheese and green onions, and cornbread crackers if you can get your hands on them. If you try this one, please report back!

Shrimp with Black Pepper and Sesame Chili Oil

Simple. Spicy. Inexpensive.

These are some of my favorite adjectives when discussing food. This recipe is the epitome of all three, plus delcious and very satisfying. I use frozen, pre-cooked, tail-on fish, which work quite well, but I'm sure the deliciousness could be cranked up by replacing with raw jumbo or tiger shrimp. Using cooked shrimp saves money (mine were less than $4 a bag at Aldi), and though shrimp are quick cookers anyway, saves time. Cooked shrimp will produce nice grill marks in less than 30 seconds on a hot grill.

A note about sesame chili oil

Josh and I stopped in at the Asian market on the way home from work last night. What a find! Between frozen fish and fresh herbs, not to mention, of course, the rows and rows of spices and sauces, I'll be changing the way I shop for groceries from here on in. Very surprisingly though, I couldn't find sesame chili oil (surprising as I have easily found it in the past at Target), so I bought both chili oil and sesame oil, figuring I could just mix them in an empty bottle one to one. I poured the chili oil over the shrimp without tasting it first, and as an afterthought poured a little on my finger for a taste.

It was the taste of pure evil.

My eyes watered as my tongue burst into flames, and I flailed frantically around the kitchen for something to squelch the heat. Luckily my side dish for the evening called for fresh bread crumbs, so I had a slice of bread within easy reach. I digress. The point is, I had to add sesame oil to the shrimp I'd already splashed with chili oil, hoping the whole time that it wouldn't turn out too oily. There was just no way I could serve it undiluted.

Bottling my own chili sesame oil, I wound up using a two to one mixture in favor of sesame oil. Pure Asian chili oil is simply too hot for a one to one ratio with sesame oil. Trust me.

On with the recipe! You will need:

Bamboo or metal skewers for grilling
One bag frozen cooked/raw shrimp, thawed, or one pound raw shrimp from the seafood counter (about 25 count), peeled and deveined
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons black pepper
3 tablespoons chili sesame oil (bottled, or mixed at home as previously mentioned)
1 tsp lime zest or lime juice, optional

Soak skewers in water while preparing if using wooden skewers, to prevent scorching on the grill.

Place shrimp in a mixing bowl. Toss with garlic, salt and pepper. If using cooked shrimp, taste one to check seasonings and adjust as per your preference. Toss with oil, add lime zest or juice if using, and set in the refrigerator to marinate for 30 minutes to an hour. No worries if you don't have time to marinate; it will still be plenty flavorful.

Thread 4-5 shrimp on a skewer and cook on a preheated grill for 30-45 seconds per side for cooked shrimp, or for 1-2 minutes for raw shrimp.

Creamy Parmesan Chicken

 

This is a standby. I’ve made it for my parents, my grandparents, college roommates, my brother, Italian-food-hating friends, and picky children. I have yet to feed it to a person whose eyes haven’t rolled back in their head while asking for more sauce, and one ex-boyfriend went so far as to pour some leftover sauce over his popcorn. I don't recommend that, by the way, but it is a testimony to its decadence. It’s unexpected, and it’s so easy I could do it blindfolded.

My parents moved to Wisconsin in 2004. They stumbled upon a darling Italian restaurant in a nearby town called the Mississippi Belle, owned by Chef Frank Amendola, and brought us there one year for Christmas Eve dinner. My life as a home cook changed forever when I ordered the Chicken Bianco...I had to have that chicken in my life, but I would soon be far away from Wisconsin come the end of Christmas break. So I went back to school, and in my tiny dorm room kitchen practiced and perfected my own version of Chef Amendola’s recipe. And it’s a good thing, too – the restaurant is since under new ownership, and Chicken Bianco was removed from the menu. In fact, it's not even an Italian restaurant anymore.

I usually serve this with some broccoli sautéed in olive oil and garlic, and with a big loaf of toasted Italian bread. The sauce goes far, but it doesn’t reheat very well. If you must reheat it, do it in a saucepan over low heat, and add a little extra cream to keep the liquids from separating.

You will need:

4 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 slices deli ham
4 slices Mozzarella cheese (sandwich sliced)
2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 pint heavy whipping cream, or a combination of heavy cream and half-and-half, equal parts of each
½ cups grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (or any bagged/jarred/container of Parmesan will do)
1 teaspoon chopped flat leaf parsley
Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a skillet.

Pound the chicken breasts to flatten just slightly. Salt and pepper liberally on both sides.

Add the chicken to the hot oil and brown on both sides, until cooked most of the way through (you will later finish the chicken in the oven). It should bounce back a bit when pressed with a finger. Remove chicken from the pan and drain off oil on paper towels.

To make the sauce:

While the chicken is cooking, melt butter in a separate skillet over low heat. Once butter is melted, add minced garlic and raise heat slightly. Cook until soft (do not allow garlic to brown).

Pour in heavy cream and reduce heat. Once the cream starts to bubble/froth, add in Parmesan cheese and stir quickly to prevent it from sticking to the pan. Add chopped parsley and stir. Allow mixture to thicken, coating the back of a spoon; it should be slightly thinner than an Alfredo sauce. Add salt depending on the saltiness of your Parmesan cheese. Add cheese until sauce is sufficiently thick, and drop heat as low as possible to keep warm.

To assemble the chicken:

Cut 2 slices of ham in half, or into whatever size will cover your chicken breasts. Place one slice of ham and one slice of mozzarella on top of each breast and place into a glass baking dish. Top chicken breasts with the entire pan of sauce and place in a 400-degree oven. Cook for about 15 minutes, until the cheese browns slightly and the sauce bubbles.