Category Archives: chicken

May 1, 2013

Southwestern grilled chicken

Southwest Grilled Chicken

Yippee! Grilling season is here. Actually, any season is grilling season but it’s so much more fun when you don’t have to carve a path to the grill through the snow.

This is going to be a slight commercial, but it’s my blog and I never do this. I also blog for Char-Broil and I have two of their TRU-Infrared grills on the deck at the moment. I just love these things. I also have a Big Green Egg, which will be buried with me because I love it so, but on a typical weeknight when time is at a premium, I always head towards the Char-Broil TRU-Infrared. It heats up more quickly than a conventional gas grill, locks in the juices of whatever you’re grilling, uses less propane and it practically cleans itself.

The nice people of Char-Broil have offered a 25 percent off discount to any of my blog readers who are in need of a nifty new affordable TRU-Infrared Grill. To go get you one, click here and browse around to find the grill you like that’s available directly from the Char-Broil site.  Then use this discount code when you’re checking out: C13CM25.

I have two 2-burners right now because King Daddy and I are essentially empty nesters. But there’s a 4-burner available, too.

The Southwestern grilled chicken is a slightly spicy recipe that’s great straight off the grill or almost even better the next day, sliced cold and set atop a beautiful salad. Whether you’re using a brandy new TRU-Infrared or your granddaddy’s old clunker, this is a great recipe for easy grilling all summer long.

Southwestern grilled chicken

For the spice mix:

¼ cup chipotle chili powder

1/8 cup ground cumin

1 tablespoon ground coriander

Toast the spices in a hot pan for one minute. Reserve.

For the chicken:

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup lemon juice

¼ cup spice mix

Combine the garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and spice mix in a large container. Add the chicken and marinate it at least one hour, preferably overnight.

Preheat your grill to medium high. Add the chicken pieces and cook about seven minutes on one side. Flip and insert a digital thermometer in the thickest part of the breast. Continue to grill until the internal temperature reaches 160. Let the chicken rest for 10 -15 minutes before serving.

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February 17, 2013

Pan-roasted chicken paillard

I know what you’re thinking. What in the hell is a paillard? In this case, it’s just another name for fried chicken, but easier.

So I was leafing through Bon Appetit a few weeks ago and came across Geoffrey Zakarian’s recipe for pan-roasted chicken paillard (Zakarian is the Iron Chef who never smiles). And it looked like one of those basic things that once you learn how to do it you will repeat it over and over. And, yes, you will. It’s like easy fried chicken without the mess of the oil to clean up and without having to guess when the pieces are cooked through. And when you click over to the Bon Appetit site to see the recipe, I think you’ll agree my photo of the chicken is better than theirs. Not that I’m bragging, which one does not do during Lent.

What you get is a juicy piece of chicken with a super, super crisp skin. Of course you want that, don’t you? The only trick to this recipe, which requires skin-on chicken breasts, is pulling the bones away from the meat. It’s simpler than it looks. The recipe also calls for clarified butter and that might throw you off. In layman’s terms, clarified butter is melted butter with the white stuff that floats to the top scooped off. You all have college degrees. I think you can handle that.

Pan-roasted chicken paillard (by Geoffrey Zakarian)

2 8-ounce skin-on bone-in chicken breasts

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Wondra flour or all-purpose flour (for dusting)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 lemon, halved

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using a thin, flexible knife, cut chicken breasts away from bones, leaving skin intact. Place chicken between 2 sheets of plastic wrap; using a mallet or heavy skillet, pound chicken until 1/2-inch thick (which will help it cook evenly and stay juicy). Season chicken with salt and pepper. Dust with flour; shake off excess.

Melt butter in a small saucepan. Spoon off milk solids (the white foam that separates from the butter) to make clarified butter. (It has a high smoke point and won’t burn over high heat.)

Pour clarified butter into a large ovenproof skillet set over medium-high heat. When butter begins to shimmer, place chicken in skillet skin side down. Cook, occasionally pressing on chicken with a spatula so skin maintains even contact with skillet, until skin is brown, 5-6 minutes.

Transfer skillet to oven; roast until chicken is just cooked through, 3-4 minutes. Remove skillet from oven; turn chicken breast over. Let stand in skillet for 1 minute. Transfer chicken to a plate and let rest for 5 minutes.

Serve with lemon halves alongside.

 

 

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February 11, 2013

Grilled gumbo

T-minus two days and counting to the beginning of Lent. For those of us who observe Lent, it means giving up something you really, really love. For me, it’s usually hamburgers but I’m going to really stretch it this year and become a vegetarian three days a week. Mark almost had a heart attack when I told him. He’ll be down at the Sonic a lot.

I have not yet figured out what sorts of vegetarian things I’m going to make since I am a committed meat eater and especially a devotee of pork in all it’s various forms of glory. So if any of you want to throw me some vegetarian recipes, I’m all ears and eyes.

What I will not be eating is my glorious grilled gumbo, which has sausage, chicken and pulled pork. But you can hop on over to the Char-Broil site and get the recipe for yourself. Go on. Get on over there.

 

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Tagged as char-broil, fat tuesday, grilled food, gumbo, lent

February 7, 2013

Casseroles and good Christian women

Like every church, I am sure, St. Paul’s Episcopal has a list of people in need of casseroles. It’s not called that. It’s the list of people who’ve just had babies, major surgery or are facing some other challenge requiring outside intervention at suppertime. For the Women of St. Paul’s, it’s like hitting a gong next to our heads when these calls for assistance go out.  We will practically break down your door to bring you a casserole. All we need to hear is that you’ve suffered a sprained thumb and we are on it.

St. Paul’s uses an internet meal planner called Meal Baby to coordinate our offerings to those in need. In the olden days, it was entirely possible for someone who’d just had knee replacement surgery to receive five or six identical casseroles. I mean, really, you can only be so grateful for five pans of Chicken Divan. But with Meal Baby, you log on to find the list of parishioners needing meals and sign up for a date, listing what you will bring. And the genius of this  is the calendar also lists everyone else and what they’re bringing.

This, of course, has its downside. You are thinking chili and cornbread, and then you click on the date just before you and find out the offering is Steak Diane and Scalloped Potatoes.  Ouch.

For my money, casseroles are always the way to go. Why? You know this one. They reheat beautifully! So, today, I dropped off a pan of Poppy Seed Chicken to a parishioner in need. It’s a Southern thing. Someone way back when decided to think up an actual use for poppy seeds. Now, you can barely find your table at the tea room without getting Poppy Seed Chicken plopped at your place. It usually comes with frozen congealed salad with a dollop of mayonnaise on top but I’m not good at congealed salads.

I’ve posted this before, but you may have forgotten. So here you go.

Poppy Seed Chicken

1 supermarket rotisserie chicken

2 tablespoons butter

8 ounces sliced fresh mushrooms

2 cans cream of chicken soup

16 ounces sour cream

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

1 sleeve Ritz crackers

1/3 cup butter melted

Remove the chicken from the bones and shred it. Melt the butter in a sauté pan and cook the mushrooms until they have released all their juice and they are well browned. Reserve. In a large bowl, mix the chicken soup, sour cream, and poppy seeds. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the mushrooms and the chicken.

Pour chicken mixture into a 9-by-13 dish. Crush the crackers and mix with the melted butter. Sprinkle over the top of the chicken. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

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February 3, 2013

Chicken and waffles

This is definitely one of those Southern things that people don’t “get” until they try it. Chicken and waffles. One of my guiltiest pleasures (besides Velveeta and bacon-wrapped cocktail weenies).

The history of chicken and waffles is a bit murky, but it is definitely a soul food thing.  Since there’s no real established history of the chicken and waffle, I can just run wild here and tell you what I think happened. Obviously, fried chicken started in the South. That’s why they call it Southern fried chicken, isn’t it. And, historically, who makes the best fried chicken? You know this one. African Americans. I can tell you without a doubt that if you ask about the top three fried chicken restaurants in Nashville, they will all be owned and/or staffed by black people. Okay, I’ll just tell you: Swett’s, Prince’s Hot Chicken and Monell’s.

However, I do not believe that post Civil War many black people were making waffles in the South. First off, nobody could afford flour. BUT! What freed slaves were doing in droves was getting the hell out of Dodge and moving North. In the case of chicken and waffles, they were specifically moving to Harlem, which is the epicenter of the Chicken and Waffles Movement (no, there is no such thing but it sounds important, doesn’t it?). There was flour up North, thereby making the likelihood of waffles more possible. If you Google chicken and waffles, the joints in Harlem will always be at the top of the list.

That is how I believe chicken and waffles started. Southern fried chicken + people move to Harlem + flour. There you have it.

But maybe you don’t care about the history of chicken and waffles. Maybe you just want to eat some.

Here’s how I do mine. First of all, I use waffle mix. As you can see, my waffle mix is right next to my beloved Bisquick in the freezer because in the South you do not store dry goods in the pantry. Bugs. No need to elaborate. Bisquick is good for pancakes, but it doesn’t have enough heft to make a waffle. I don’t need to tell you how to use a waffle iron, do I? I didn’t think so.

For the chicken, I used boneless chicken breasts. The traditional chicken and waffles comes with bone-in pieces, but I find it irritating to navigate around the bones and then combine the perfect bite of chicken with waffle. Why make your food aggravating to eat? Isn’t there enough trouble in the world?

So the secret to my fried chicken – boned or not – is this: one 1-ounce package of ranch dressing mix to 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour. You can thank me later.

Then once the chicken is done, make the waffles so that they’re nice and hot. Add the butter (real) and maple syrup. Please, for the love of God, do not buy those cheap name brands (rhymes with Hog Baggin’). Look at the label. If the first ingredient is corn syrup, that is not at all what you want. Don’t make me come after you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tagged as butter, chicken and waffles, fried chicken, Harlem, maple syrup, southern cooking, waffles

January 8, 2013

Thai Chicken Curry

King Daddy and I are under the weather. We get a cold about every four years, but when we get one it’s a doozy and we always share because isn’t it nice to share? Here’s how our regimen goes for treating the common cold.

Catherine: Buy up the world supply of Cold-EEZE, and suck on the zinc tablets nonstop for days at a time. Lay in the Mucinex and an ample supply of Naproxen Sodium.

King Daddy: Do nothing and wait for Catherine to bug him about taking his medicine.

Both of us: Finally give up after two weeks and go to the walk-in clinic.

However, we’ve both found that adding a little spiciness to the menu helps to clear our heads. This is a delicious, one-pot recipe from Bon Appetit. The only changes I made to it is to use a store-bought rotisserie chicken instead of chicken thighs (I know I’m supposed to love chicken thighs because they have more flavor, but I don’t) and bought pre-cut carrot rounds because – hey – I’m sick and I don’t want to do any more work than I have to do. If you use the rotisserie chicken, shred the breast meat and add it to the curry at the end. And use the chicken carcass to make stock. It will make the whole house smell wonderful.

The za’atar-crusted nan pictured with the curry is my recipe. Just buy a package of nan (I get mine at my beloved Publix), brush it with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle it generously with za’atar. Run it under the broiler until the nan starts to brown. If you can’t find nan, you can use pita bread but there is no substitute for za’atar, which is a Middle Eastern herb and sesame seed blend you can find at international markets.

 

 

 

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January 5, 2013

Don’t do this: Mistakes in the kitchen

Chicken and dumplings freshly made - not the prettiest thing in the world but tasty

So I’m posting this on a Saturday night because I know ya’ll are out to supper or seeing a movie and not bothering checking in here with me. Hopefully, nobody will read this. But I feel obligated, when they occur, to tell you about my mistakes in the kitchen.

I made chicken and dumplings awhile back. Good, they were. Nice tender chicken and tight, toothsome dumplings. But I made too much. And I scoured the Internet to see if I could find any advice on freezing the leftovers. Oh, yes, some people said. You can most definitely freeze the chicken and dumplings. NO YOU CAN NOT.

"Chicken and dumplings" from the freezer - BAD. Don't do this.

Poor Mark. Yesterday, I was recovering from a bad cold I had just given to him and I thawed out the chicken and dumplings. Oh, my. What a mess. He attempted to put the best face on a bad situation. “Well, they don’t look very good, but they still taste fine.” He was lying through his gritted teeth. The chicken was fine, but the dumplings were mushy and sad and not very good to eat. They were like cat food that the cat had eaten, regurgitated, eaten again and then thrown up one more time.

Tonight, I made him some Thai Chicken Curry to cut through the gunk in his head and I pulled out the leftover, leftover chicken and dumplings I’d stashed in the fridge just in case the night before was a bad dream.  “I think I’m just going to put these down the disposal,” I said. He did not object.

Here’s the recipe for the chicken and dumplings. They’re very good the first time out. Just don’t freeze them. Ever. You’ve been warned.

 

 

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December 6, 2012

Mustard chicken

Mustard chicken with roasted cauliflower

As a young almost-newlywed (okay, almost middle-aged newlywed) I am living in sin with my soon-to-be husband, Mark, in Reno, Nevada. And not having any actual job at that point, I spend time at the Washoe County Library reading cookbooks. And skiing. I did a lot of skiing back then. One of those cookbooks contained the recipe for what has been known in our family as “Mustard Chicken” for the last quarter of a century. I cannot remember the cookbook so I can not give credit where credit is due. But if you have 20 minutes on a busy night you can slap this together. It is particularly tasty over buttered egg noodles.

I have made this so many times now that  don’t even need the recipe anymore. And sometimes I double the sauce. It’s what makes the dish and I could (and have) eaten it out of the pan with a spoon. Don’t tell. That’s just embarrassing.

Mustard Chicken

Vegetable oil

4 thin chicken breasts

Salt and pepper

8 ounce sour cream

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons honey

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Salt and pepper the chicken breasts and sauté them in the oil until both sides are beginning to brown and the chicken is cooked through. Set aside on a plate.

Drain any excess oil from the pan and add the sour cream, mustard and honey. Blend and add the chicken back in the pan along with any juices that may have accumulated.

 

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October 18, 2012

Chicken and dumplings

It seems I am a security risk. Or my website is under some kind of attack. From me. For the past week, I am only person on the Planet Earth who cannot get into my own damn website.

I have traveled cyperspace from my IT professional in Seattle to my web host in Deer Park, Texas, to the Starbucks in Brentwood, from which I am presently speaking to you. My web host tells me that my computer believes I am a menace to myself at home. I am about to be a menace to my irritating neighbors at Starbucks.

I have come to the Starbucks in an attempt to write. I will get to the chicken and dumplings in a moment.

The Starbucks is unbelievably noisy. Why do people conduct business in a Starbucks where everyone can hear what they’re saying? The man next to me has a retirement account with $250,000 and he is seeking advice from a bald financial advisor. Why would financial advisors meet their clients in a coffee shop? I would back away quickly, but the man is now signing some sort of agreement. The threesome at the next table is talking about tax deductions. I would like to deduct them from my view.

I am here to write. I need quiet. I need a drink.

Chicken and dumplings. Every Southern cook needs a recipe for chicken and dumplings in his or her arsenal. The quintessential comfort food isn’t so pretty on a plate, but it’s a snap to make. Don’t let the homemade dumpling dough get your panties in a wad. It’s just flour, salt and water. If you could make mud pies as a child, you can make dumplings as an adult.

Chicken and dumplings

Chicken:

1 (2 1/2-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces

1 cup baby carrots

1 large onion, chopped

2 bay leaves

2 chicken bouillon cubes

Milk and cornstarch to thicken the broth

Dumplings:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

Ice water

To start the chicken: Place the chicken, carrots, onion, bay leaves and bouillon in a large pot. Cover the chicken with water and and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer the chicken until it is tender, about two hours. Remove the chicken from the pot and, when it is cool enough to handle, remove the skin and separate the meat from the bones. Return the chicken meat to the pot.

To prepare the dumplings: Mix the flour with the salt and make a hole in the center of the mixing bowl. Drizzle a small amount of ice water into the hole and begin incorporating the flour with your fingers. Gradually, mix in about ¾ cup of ice water until a stiff dough forms and all the flour is used up. Knead the dough and form it into a ball.

Sprinkle a generous amount of flour onto a clean work surface. Roll out the dough, working from the center to 1/8-inch thick. Let the dough rest for several minutes.

Cut the dough into 1-inch pieces. Drop the pieces into the simmering soup. Do not stir the chicken once the dumplings have been added. Gently move the pot in a circular motion so the dumplings become submerged and cook evenly. Cook until the dumplings float and are no longer doughy, 3 to 4 minutes.

Thicken the stock with a mixture of 2 tablespoons of cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons of whole milk to form a creamy mixture. Keep adding more of the cornstarch mixture until the stock turns to a gravy.

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September 19, 2012

Chicken Satay Salad

Mark and I have good days and bad days.

No, our marriage is not in trouble. I’m talking about food. The good days are full of salads, Asian food and grilled chicken. The bad days are, oh, let’s see. Krystal? Why, yes! Fried chicken and mashed potatoes laced with sour cream? Seconds! So we try hard to space out the bad days between the good ones lest we return to the early days of our married life in Reno when blissful happiness and a lack of attention to dietary detail led us each to gain about 30 pounds. I am not kidding.

Last night was one of the good nights. We had a stunningly delicious salad created by Food Network Magazine. It involves lots of fresh veggies and chicken sauteed in Thai peanut sauce, which you can find in the Asian section of most supermarkets. This incredibly healthy salad allowed us room for…you’ll be disappointed in me…the Bacon Crumble Apple Pie that I made for Bacon Wednesday at the Community Resource Center. Oh, yes. You’ll get the recipe for that soon enough. Now eat your salad.

Here’s the recipe for the salad or just hop on over to the Food Network site and read it there.

Chicken Satay Salad (From Food Network Magazine) 

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)

7 tablespoons (about 1/2 cup) Thai peanut sauce

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 head romaine lettuce, sliced

1/2 English cucumber or 2 Persian cucumbers, cut into matchsticks

1 medium carrot, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced

1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for topping

3 tablespoons chopped roasted salted peanuts

Preheat a grill or grill pan to medium high. Slice the chicken breasts 1/2 inch thick and toss with 2 tablespoons peanut sauce, 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste in a bowl. Grill the chicken until just cooked through, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.

Whisk the remaining 5 tablespoons peanut sauce and 2 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil, the lime juice and 2 tablespoons water in a large bowl. Add the lettuce, cucumber, carrot, bell pepper and cilantro and toss. Season with salt and pepper and divide among bowls. Top with the chicken, peanuts and more cilantro.

(Note: I added a few splashes of fish sauce and one diced serrano chile to the dressing and it jazzed it up quite a bit.)

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