A GPS Moment

Since my husband gets home a few hours after I do, I try to have dinner ready, or at least close to ready, around the time he arrives, so we can eat together. 

The other night, he was a little earlier than usual, or maybe I was running late. Whichever it was, I had just popped the marinated chicken breasts into the oven as he came through the door. It would be half an hour or so before we could eat the main course (Lemon-garlic chicken and purple mashed potatoes), but I threw together a big salad appetizer to tide us over.

We settled into our designated spots on the couch with our big salads, and watched half an hour of something or other, until the oven timer interrupted us with a loud buzz. Down went the salad bowl, and up went I to the kitchen, fumbling to find the oven mitts. I poked the metal spike of the digital meat thermometer into the thickest part of the biggest piece of chicken, and pressed the button. Numbers appeared on the screen and began to climb, slowing to a crawl around 80. Concerned, I checked the setting on the oven - 375 as usual - and then tried the temperature in a different piece of chicken. No difference: the temperature still wouldn't get past 80.

Damn.

"It's going to be a while, honey. I should have pounded these stupid things; they're too fat and they're going to take a while." I offered him some mashed potatoes, but he was content to wait, so I covered the baking dish with some foil and put it back into the heat, setting the timer for 25 more minutes and returning to my mindless TV.

More buzzing, more fumbling for oven mitts, more temperature-taking. This time the numbers stopped near 100. I may have cursed at this point. I may have flapped a dish towel around in frustration.

"Fine", I may have muttered to myself, "if they don't want to cook in the oven, I will nuke these sons of bitches. They won't taste right but we'll be able to eat something before midnight, and maybe this way I won't kill us with salmonella!"

"They won't get up to temp," I informed my hungry husband, "so I'm just going to nuke them so we can eat. They're supposed to get to 165 to not kill us, and they're still way below that."

One and a half minutes of full-power microwaving later, the thermometer still didn't want to get past 105. I flung it onto the counter and tried to think what the hell else I had in the fridge so I could throw together a quick replacement dinner. And that's when I saw it. 

The readout of the digital meat thermometer, still on, a few feet away on the counter.

It said: 21.

Oven-mittened facepalm ensued.

"Um, honey? I think I just had a GPS moment."

There were two seconds of silence, and then a giggle from downstairs.

"Celsius?"

It amazes me that no other explanation was required.

We ate the chicken. On the bright side, even the hyperthermophilic* bacteria that live beside superheated ocean vents can't survive past 105C, so we were definitely safe from Salmonella.

*Hyperthermophilic: loves extreme heat.

Use-it-up Challenge 2 - Modding the Shake & Bake

I make faux-shake-and-bake-type chicken often, varying the seasoning and/or sauce I coat the chicken with before breading it with plain breadcrumbs. It's just so easy, and we both like the result, so it's in the regular meal rotation. I use plain breadcrumbs because real, packaged Shake & Bake or its store-brand equivalents are much too salty for me, which is unfortunate because I have a packet of that left in my pantry from way back when I was unaware of this fact. The box I bought came with two seasoning packets and after using the first one I stuffed the second one far into the pantry, because I wasn't ever going to do that to my tastebuds and blood pressure again.

But, in the spirit of using it up, and not throwing it out, I took a huge risk and used it to coat some chicken tonight. Why, you cry, would I do that after I just said how much it sucked? Well, I cut it with regular breadcrumbs to try and mitigate the salt factor. Because the packaged stuff was seasoned ("Parmesan crusted"), I skipped my usual dip of the chicken in salad dressing and used a beaten egg to moisten the chicken pieces instead.

To go with it, I added some Stovetop stuffing. I bought a can of the stuff a while ago, instead of a box, because a whole box is always too much and we always throw some out. The idea of making only what I needed appealed to me. I keep forgetting it's there, though. It's always very salty too, so despite my desire to bump up the stuffing flavor with the chicken broth in the fridge, I used plain water to make it.

Toss in some roasted sweet potatoes seasoned with the powder at the bottom of a jar of Mrs Dash, and you've got dinner.

Use-it-up Challenge

Why not use the start of the new year as an excuse to clear out older stock from my freezer and pantry? There are so many things in there I've forgotten I even had, and I don't want to discover them too late and have to throw them out because they're expired. I've decided to challenge myself to use up food I already have before going grocery shopping again, even if it means we'll have some interesting meals. I'm particularly curious what's in the unlabeled plastic containers in my freezer - many are spaghetti sauce, but some of them are a complete mystery, because I'm not good about labeling my leftovers. I'll still buy fresh fruit and veggies if I need to, and definitely milk, but I'm going to see if I can get through the rest of January without buying any meat or anything in a can or box.

Yesterday I made a package of cheddar and broccoli Knorr Pasta Sides, and steamed some frozen broccoli to add in. There was a lot more frozen broccoli left in that package than I remembered, so there's still some in the freezer for another night. With the pasta, I had more maple cinnamon glazed carrots, using up the last of the old bag of sprouting carrots. That all went with a honey ham steak, and it wasn't half bad. I can't believe I'm just now discovering how easy and tasty a ham steak is for a quick dinner!

Tonight I got rid of an almost-empty bottle of honey teriyaki marinade by putting it over a couple of chicken breasts (long-time freezer inhabitants) in the oven. I also had a collection of veggies nearing the end of their usable lifespan, so I stir-fried a green pepper, some mushrooms, and a quarter of an onion, so they could go with the chicken over some rice. And the rice was the last 2/3 of a cup left from a big bag. It's been sitting there forever because I bought new rice since then, and since I always make a cup at a time, the 2/3 cup wasn't enough, and of course the new rice didn't have the same cooking instructions as the old one!

So far, so good. I'm clearing out some room in the pantry for new supplies. It's been crowded in there for a while, and I keep buying more and wedging it in, but it'll be nice to have a little breathing room. I don't want to empty us out completely, of course, but we have some soup that's been in there for at least a year, 6 cans of corn, some old cans of pumpkin, a couple of one-quarter-full boxes of pasta... this overhaul is long overdue!

What's for Dinner - Individual Chicken Pot Pies

I winged it on this one. I've been seeing chicken pot pie recipes on my Food Network shows, and I had a fabulous chicken pot pie for lunch at Bob Evans a while ago, and I really, really wanted to make some myself. I browsed around a little bit for a recipe and didn't find one that fit the ingredients I actually had on hand, so I improvised a whole lot and crossed my fingers.


Chicken pot pies

1 chicken breast
1 small onion
1 cup frozen veggies (I used a peas & carrots mix)
2 small potatoes
1 cup chicken broth (have more on hand, in case)
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter
poultry seasoning
1 clove garlic
thyme
bay leaf
salt and pepper
refrigerated pie crust


I rubbed a chicken breast with "poultry seasoning", which is a blend of marjoram, sage, thyme, rosemary, black pepper, and nutmeg (nutmeg? really?), added a little salt, and then baked it in the oven at 350 until the thermometer told me it was done. When it was done, it got chopped and shredded.

I diced a small onion and a garlic clove and sauteed them in butter in a pot until they were soft, then I added the 2 tbsp of butter and flour and cooked that for a minute or two until it started to brown a little, and then I added my chicken broth. I peeled and diced a small potato, and added the cubes to the broth along with about a cup of the frozen veggies, then I added salt and pepper, some thyme (somewhere between a pinch and a dash, I guess) and a bay leaf, and the shredded chicken breast, and let it all simmer for a while to thicken up. After about 15 minutes, it wasn't thickening to my liking, so I decided to add mashed potatoes to the mixture.

To speed things up, instead of boiling potatoes on the stovetop, I peeled and chopped a second small potato and put the pieces into a glass measuring cup with enough water to cover it all, and nuked the cup on high in the microwave for about 3 minutes. They were fork-tender after their spin in the microwave, and I drained the water, mashed them quickly with a fork, and added them to the pot.

Once I was happy with the thickness, I spooned the stuff into my two smallest Corningware dishes (16-oz) and topped them with pie crusts. I cheated and bought the ready-made refrigerated pie crust, because I have still not honed my pastry skills enough to present a pie I'm proud of. One rolled-out crust, cut into two circles to fit over the tops the dishes, was plenty to work with, and even gave me some extra crust to cut into pretty shapes to decorate my pies just like the fancy TV chefs and the glamorous food photos in Good Housekeeping magazine.

I put the pies into the oven on a baking sheet in case they bubbled over, and baked them at 425 because the box told me to. It took 20 minutes for the crust to be cooked and golden and crispy.


Honestly, they were a little big for individual servings, but we ate them all anyway. They were super freaking delicious and I'm so proud of myself for making it up as I went along. This, of course, means that it will probably not taste the same if you follow my recipe, or if I make it again next week, but that's just how it is.

What's for Dinner - Creamy Mushroom Chicken

Sometimes I feel guilty for making something easy using a can of soup or some other Kraft or Campbells product. I feel like I'm cheating, like it's not really cooking, and I think the Food Network is to blame. I need to stop watching those Next Iron Chef shows where they work from such complete scratch that I wouldn't be surprised to see them kill their own chickens for authenticity and freshness.

You know what? Some damn tasty things have been made in casserole form with cream-of-whatever soups, and I'm ok with that. Yes, I'll make my own chicken stock or pasta dough when I have time, but sometimes I want to make it easy.

Creamy Mushroom Chicken

1 package button mushrooms, sliced
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons butter
Olive oil
1 can cream of mushroom soup
3/4 cup chicken broth
Flour
Salt
Pepper

Fry up the mushrooms, onions, and garlic in the butter until they're soft, then set aside.

Mix some salt and pepper into a little bit of flour in a bowl, then dip the chicken into the mixture to coat it. Brown the chicken breasts on both sides in some olive oil, them remove them to a baking dish. Put the mushroom and onion mix back into the pan, add the cream of mushroom soup and the chicken broth (pour the broth into the soup can and stir it to get all the mushroomy goo out), and stir until the soup stops looking like goo and starts to look like soup. Pour the soupy mixture over the chicken in the baking dish, and then put the whole mess into the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. After 30 minutes, check the chicken with a thermometer - once it's done, add some shredded mozzarella cheese to the top of the chicken breasts and put it back in for another 10 minutes.


This was delicious over rice, but next time I will cut up the chicken into small pieces before cooking it, both to reduce cooking time and to make it easier to eat. More mushrooms would also be a great idea - one package didn't seem to be enough, but maybe it's just because we love mushrooms.

Also, I keep forgetting that I have these wonderful Le Creuset dutch ovens of various sizes that I could be using instead of transferring food back and forth between skillet and baking dish. Maybe I need to just leave those suckers on the counter so they're in my face.

What's for Dinner - Ham and Cheese Chicken Rolls

I decided to get fancy and take things a step or two beyond shaking and baking my chicken.

Ham and Cheese Chicken Rolls

3 big chicken breasts
6 slices deli ham
1/2 cup shredded swiss cheese
1/2 cup milk
2/3 cup breadcrumbs
1 tbsp oregano
Garlic salt
Pepper
Salt
Toothpicks

Prep your dipping station by filling a bowl with milk and another bowl with a mix of breadcrumbs and spices. Use as much seasoning as you want.

Butterfly the chicken breasts (here's an excellent how-to from Good Housekeeping) except keep cutting so you end up with two thin halves, instead of stopping most of the way and then spreading it out. This way you will get two wide, thin pieces of chicken out of each breast. Pound them flat if their thickness is uneven. Now you have six flat pieces of chicken.

Salt and pepper them a little, and then lay a slice of ham on each, sprinkling some cheese on top of the ham. You can use sliced cheese too, but I only had a block of swiss, so I shredded it. Works ok either way, but I suspect the rolling is easier when the cheese is shredded. You need to start at one end and roll the chicken as tightly as you can, keeping the stuff inside. It's not easy, because the ham keeps trying to slide out the other side while you're rolling. My end result wasn't as gorgeous as I'd have liked, but with repeated pokings I finally got a roll of chicken with the ham and cheese mostly inside. Use toothpicks to hold the rolls closed - it won't hold completely but it'll do. Dunk the rolls into the milk and then into the breadcrumbs. Roll them around really well, and use your hands to pat breadcrumbs onto every possible surface.

Put the coated rolls onto a greased or nonstick baking sheet (you want one with a lip, because the cheese will ooze), seam-side down, and bake them at 425 for 30 minutes.


Remember to pull out the toothpicks before you eat the chicken!

Honestly, I think this would have been just as good if I'd butterflied the breasts most of the way and just put the ham and cheese inside like a sandwich. The rolling was a pain and I ended up needing two toothpicks to keep most of them closed. I guess if you get good at it, the end result looks all fancy and awesome, but mine was meh. Next time I try this I'll make them ham and cheese chicken "sandwiches" and see how it goes.

What's for Dinner - Fancy Schmancy Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Rotisserie chickens are awesome. I've been picking them up at Giant on the occasional Friday because they have a 2/$10 sale and it seems like a pretty good deal since I can get two or more nights worth of dinner from one chicken. While they're really tasty (as long as you don't accidentally pick up the "Chesapeake" version, covered in nasty Old Bay seasoning), they're often a little on the small side, so you have to pick over their selection to find one with a decent breast. And now, they raised their prices. Now it's 2/$11 all of a sudden and I'm irritated. I know food prices have been going up all over the world (grocery shopping back in Canada last month was a shock) but I hate paying more for stuff "on sale".

So now I go to Costco for my rotisserie chicken fix. Not only are they cheaper, at $4.99, but they're considerably bigger. And delicious.

Oh wait, you probably want to read about the chicken salad I made. I'll get to that.

Fancy Schmancy Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Breast meat from one rotisserie chicken
One rib of celery
Sliced almonds
Dried cranberries
Pinch of thyme
Salt and pepper
Mayonnaise

This makes enough filling for 4 sandwiches, assuming your chicken is well-endowed in the breast area.


I pulled the two breasts off my rotisserie chicken and cut the meat into small pieces. That was the hardest part, because I had to keep elbowing three cats off the counter. Then I chopped the celery into thin slices, and tossed it into a bowl with the chicken and a handful of almonds and craisins. I didn't measure them, I just put some in until it looked good, but I think 1/4 cup is a reasonable approximation. I added some salt and pepper and a pinch of thyme, and then put in a dollop or two of mayonnaise. Different people have different opinions on how squishy and mayonnaisey chicken salad should be, so the amount is up to you. I like it to be wet enough to hold together, so pieces aren't falling out of a sandwich. Also, I love mayo, so I usually add just a little more than necessary.

I let it sit all day, covered, in the fridge, so the flavors could get friendly. It ended up really good and I'll be trying it again. The craisins made it a little bit too sweet, so I'm either going to add less next time or try adding something acidic to counter the sweetness. A few recipes I've seen call for lemon juice or white wine vinegar, maybe I'll try that.

What's for Dinner - Chicken a la Provencal

This is a slightly modified recipe from a cookbook lent to me by a good work friend. The cookbook is Super Suppers Cookbook by Judie Byrd and it's supposed to be full of recipes to be made ahead and prepared later when time is short. While the recipes were tasty-looking, most of them didn't have any instructions for freezing or reheating, and they didn't give you an easy guide to scaling up the recipe to make a bigger batch for freezing. I did copy out a few recipes from it that I want to try, but if you're looking for a big-batch cook-and-freeze cookbook, skip this one. I'll be posting a giant cookbook review soon to go over the 5 cookbooks I've recently read.

So. On to the recipe. I figured it was a good one for dinner and I'd try freezing the leftovers for fun and see how it turned out. Stay tuned for that in a week or two. They call it "Chicken a la Provencal" but I'd call it balsamic chicken and peppers with oregano. Or something else equally descriptive and unpretentious. Don't you like knowing exactly what you're getting in a recipe? I had more chicken to use up than the recipe called for, so I scaled everything up a little bit and ended up with:

5 chicken breasts pounded flat
1 red and one green pepper, cut into thin strips
1 onion, sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
olive oil
salt and pepper

I salted and peppered the chicken, then dropped the flattened pieces into a pan (in two batches, because I didn't have room) with some olive oil and cooked them until they stopped running pink juices. About 5 minutes per side, but it will depend on how flat you smashed them. When the chicken is done, remove to a plate and then cook the cut veggies and spices with some more olive oil until the onions soften and brown a little. At that point, stir in the balsamic vinegar, then put the chicken and any juices back into the pan and mix everything up a little to cover the chicken. Put a lid or cover on the pan, and let it simmer on a lower heat for a couple of minutes.


This was fabulous. I didn't have high expectations when I started, but the oregano and garlic and balsamic vinegar made the veggies incredible, and the chicken picked up just enough flavor from the balsamic dunk at the end. I served it with roasted potatoes, but I think I'll do mashed next time.

What's for Dinner - Chicken Parm, Again

The first time I tried this, I didn't have the right cheese, and I forgot to take pictures, no doubt disappointing all three of my fans. This time I have a gorgeous picture of the end result, and an improved recipe to share. Also, I paired it with my homemade fettuccine, so I get extra awesome points.

You'll need:
Chicken breasts
1 egg
Breadcrumbs
Garlic salt
Oregano
Olive oil
Garlic cloves
Tomato sauce
Mozzarella cheese

Get out some chicken breasts, and pound them so they're evenly flat. I used frozen chicken breasts from Costco which were already flat, so I skipped that step, but if you're starting from fresh and they're those huge D-cup chicken breasts, cut them into 2 or 3 pieces, cover them with a sheet of plastic wrap, and then smash them flat with a meat pounder or a small pot.

Beat one egg in a bowl big enough to let you dip the chicken pieces in. Then fill a shallow dish with breadcrumbs - that will be step two. Add some garlic salt and oregano to the breadcrumbs and stir it all with a fork until it's evenly distributed.

Chop 2 garlic cloves into big pieces and smash them flat with the side of your knife so their insides are smooshing out, then put some olive oil (about 2 tbsp) in a frying pan and toss those cloves in. Stir them around a little and pull them out when you're ready to add the chicken.

Salt and pepper the chicken on both sides, then run them through the egg and breadcrumbs before laying them in the pan to cook. Leave them there without touching them for at least 5 minutes to get brown on the bottom, then flip them over and give them another 5 minutes. While that's happening, get some cheese ready, either by grating or slicing very thin. Slice extra if you have a husband who sneaks by and "tests" the cheese quality by eating it all.

Once both sides of the chicken are brown, check the internal temp with a thermometer. Cook them a little longer if you need to. It depends on how hot your pan is and how flat you smashed your chicken. If they're done, move them to an oven safe dish and put a glob of tomato sauce onto each piece before covering them with cheese and sticking them into the oven to get melty. Just put them under the broiler for a minute or two and they'll be perfect.

I actually sliced more cheese than I needed, overcompensating for the presence of the rogue cheese tester, so I covered the chicken with a layer of cheese, then sauce, then more cheese. Which turned out to be a great idea, because cheese is so delicious. If you want to get fancy, you can sprinkle some oregano and some black pepper onto the melted cheese at the very end to make it look special.

What's for Dinner - Homemade Chicken and Cheese Ravioli

I used the dough recipe from the back of my ravioli maker, because I didn't have enough eggs handy for the recipe I really wanted to try from the Food Network website.

Pasta Dough

2 cups semolina flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp olive oil
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp warm water

Mound the flour in a big bowl, make a well in it, and add everything else. Use a fork to mix it all together until it makes a ball. I found I needed to add 3-4 more tablespoons of water to hold it all together, so just add a bit at a time and work it with your hands until it's a nice ball. Flour the counter or a cutting board and knead the dough for 10 minutes or so, until it's smooth and stretchy.

The kneading was the hardest part. I really didn't know what I was doing, except for a vague recollection of watching Anne Burrell knead pasta dough on her Food Network show a few months ago. I looked online for "how to knead pasta dough" videos and I found this one to be helpful, although my counter is a little bit too high, forcing me onto my toes to knead the dough properly, so it was an exhausting process.

I used my KitchenAid pasta roller attachment to roll out the dough into thin sheets for my ravioli maker, and it was much easier than I expected. I worked with very small pieces so I wouldn't have to stretch my arms out like crazy to support the rolled-out sheets, and it went well. I started on level 1 to smooth it all out, then went up one level at a time until I got to level 5, which is what the instruction book said was a good thickness for ravioli.


My ravioli maker looks like an ice cube tray - you lay a sheet of pasta over it, push down with the press to make pockets, fill up the pockets with your ravioli guts of choice, then lay another sheet over the top before squishing the layers together with a rolling pin. The ravioli maker has jagged ridges between the ravioli sections, and they cut through the sheets as the rolling pin goes over them, separating the squares. I found my rolling pin to be too big to get at the middle parts, so I helped things along by running the back of a spoon along the ridges. The instructions say they're supposed to pop right out, but I had to peel them out of the mold.


I had more pasta than filling, because this recipe makes a ton, so I attached the fettuccine cutter and made a bunch of fettuccine, which I will freeze for later this week.

My ravioli filling

1 rotisserie chicken breast, diced small
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup mozzarella
4 fresh basil leaves, chopped
3 generous twists of the pepper mill
Dash of salt

I smooshed all that together with a spoon until it was a chunky paste, and then spooned that into the ravioli mold. I tried not to overfill the mold, because that could make the ravioli pop open when I cook them. When we were ready to eat, I boiled the ravioli for about 6 minutes and added some jarred marinara sauce. I'm sure I could have come up with a better sauce option, but after three hours of work I was getting tired!


I definitely want to try this again. Now that I know what I'm doing, I'm sure it'll be a lot quicker next time. The verdict is that this is superior to most store-bought ravioli we buy, so I'll need to learn to do this faster and freeze the ravioli for later.

What's for Dinner - Cheesy Orzo with Chicken and Broccoli

At one of the restaurants in San Francisco, I had a creamy orzo risotto for lunch, and it was divine. This was my attempt to recreate it.

Cheesy Orzo with Chicken and Broccoli

2 tbsp olive oil or butter
1/2 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped (or smooshed through a press)
4 cups of chicken stock
1 lb orzo pasta
1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, grated (any cheese will do, but this is what the restaurant used)
2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup diced cooked chicken



Use a big pot - a small one will make it hard for you to stir the orzo well and you'll get a stuck-on mess at the bottom. I did!

Saute the garlic and onion in the olive oil or butter until the onions soften, about 3-4 minutes. Add the orzo and stir to coat with the oil, then add about half of the stock and stir well. Bring up to a boil and then lower the heat. Keep an eye on it, stirring a lot so nothing sticks, and add more stock, about a half cup at a time, as the liquid gets absorbed. Note: you may not need all the stock! Add as needed and check orzo (taste it) each time just before adding more! After about 15 minutes, the orzo shouldn't have any bite left to it, and the liquid should be absorbed leaving a creamy pile of tiny noodles. If it still seems too liquidy but the noodles are done, take it off the heat and let it rest, because a couple of extra minutes will help it absorb any leftover stock.

Meanwhile, steam the broccoli florets:
Put broccoli in a microwave-safe bowl, and add a splash of water. Cover the bowl and cook on high for 3 minutes. The broccoli will still have some crispness to them, so if you like mushy broccoli, leave it in for 4 minutes.

In a giant bowl, mix the orzo, cheese, chicken, and broccoli, and stir well. Eat and then put away your leftovers, because this recipe makes a lot.

What's for Dinner - Dijonnaise Chicken and Peppers

Warning: delicious comfort food ahead!

My awesome Mom invented this and for some reason we took to calling it "chicken mush", which makes absolutely no sense because it isn't mushy at all. It's got chicken in it, though, so it's half right. I call it Dijonnaise Chicken because that's what's in it. No fancy names here.


2 large boneless & skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 large peppers, any color, cut into strips or chunks
1/4 cup Hellmann's Dijonnaise mustard/mayo stuff
1/4 cup light cream
2 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp thyme
salt & pepper
Cooked rice, to serve it on

Season the chicken breast pieces with salt and pepper and thyme, and put them into a deep skillet with a little olive oil. Let them cook, turning occasionally, until they're lightly browned. Stir in the chopped peppers, and cook until the peppers are as soft as you'd like them. I like them to have some bite left, so it usually takes under 10 minutes. Stir in the honey, Dijonnaise, and the cream, and simmer for a few minutes more. Once everything is heated through, serve over rice. If you want a lot of sauce to soak the rice, increase the amounts of cream and Dijonnaise. You can also increase the amount of Dijonnaise if you like the mustardy flavor.

Chicken Soup 2 - the Resoupening

It was time to try making chicken soup again. I like to buy the $5 rotisserie chickens on Fridays at Giant, because they make a fast and healthy meal that I don't need to put much effort into. Of course, every time I buy one, after we eat the tasty meaty bits, I'm left with a chicken carcass wasting away in its plastic box in the fridge. I feel guilty throwing it out knowing I can make something out of it, so I tried soup again this weekend. And this time I took pictures!

First I cut off the leafy end of three celery stalks and chopped them up. I also coarsely chopped half an onion and one big carrot. I tossed in two bay leaves and a huge teaspoon of thyme, and my pot looked like this:

Then I picked over the chicken, getting as much of the meat off as I could. I threw out some of the skin because it adds so much fat to the soup, but I kept a little bit for flavor. Let me tell you, ripping apart a chicken with your bare hands is slimy and sort of gross, and very difficult to do when you're being circled by three cats who think it's their dinner. Anyway, next I added 8-ish cups of water (to almost fill the pot) and my chicken bones. I added a tablespoon of powdered chicken bouillon and a tablespoon of liquid chicken bouillon (Bovril, the good stuff), and some black pepper. Things got a little ugly.


That boiled for an hour or so, and I used that time to dice two stalks of celery, two carrots, and a quarter onion so I could add them to the soup after it was done. I strained the whole mess into a huge mixing bowl, threw out the bones and stuff, and put the soup back into the pot, nearly swooning from the delicious chickeny aroma. I put it back on to boil, adding the veggies and some alphabet noodles. Here's the final result:

It ended up cloudier than last time, but I don't care. It was delicious, and I think I've got it down now and won't need to call Mom next time to remind me what I'm supposed to be doing. My man even loved it, despite the presence of "mushy vegetables", and I've gotten the green light to make it anytime.

And let's call this Thing 19, shall we? I still feel funny using dinner for Thing-a-Day but I did make it. I'll try to be a little more forgiving of myself and accept cooking as creativity.

Chicken Soup

Chicken soup is a necessity. I can't tell you how distraught I've been, unable to make my husband chicken soup when he's sick. I mean, I heat up Progresso chicken noodle in a bowl for him and can even give him crackers with it, but it's not homemade and therefore will not miraculously bring him back to health after the first bowl.

Mom gave me her recipe - or at least the list of ingredients and vague instructions that passes for a recipe in our world - but I tried a couple of times and it wasn't very good. I used chicken legs as instructed and was grossed out by the marrow sticking out of the bones and the fat floating around in the pot, and after all that work it didn't even taste chickeny enough.

This time I had a picked-over chicken carcass left over from a previous roasted chicken dinner, and I decided to dump it into a pot and make soup out of it. Not much wasted if I failed, right? Also, I called Mom and had her walk me through some of it. Chicken carcass, a cut up onion, and 8 cups of water into a pot, and boil it for an hour or two on a medium setting. With a couple of bay leaves and some thyme.

Now - and here's the part I don't understand - I had to add a whole bunch of chicken flavored stuff (in this case, Bovril) to make it taste enough like chicken soup. And I don't understand that. Surely, these chicken concentrates, liquid or powdered, were made from chickens. I have, and am boiling, a chicken. So why is my chicken not enough to make the soup chickeny? I'm hoping someone smarter than me can figure this out and explain in the comments. People make stock and broth from chickens, don't they?

After deciding the broth was chickeny enough, I pulled out the bones and strained the soup into a big bowl to get all the floaty bits out. then it went back in the pot with some chopped carrots and celery and I let those cook while I cut up the little bits of meat left over from what I'd pulled off the chicken before boiling it. Cooked some rice separately to it wouldn't get mushy, and then mixed it all together to produce a very yummy soup.

I'll be trying this again, probably every time I have leftover chicken bones to play with. But if anyone can solve my "why am I adding chicken flavor to chicken" problem, I'd be grateful!

What's for Dinner: Onion Chicken and Balsamic Sauce

I set out to make an apricot chicken recipe I often make, and decided at the last minute to change it up. See, the original recipe calls for caramelized onions, to which you add some apple cider vinegar and let it reduce. I didn't feel apple-cider-vinegar-y, so I got out my bottle of good balsamic vinegar and added a dash to the onions. And it smelled so good I decided to wing it and make a whole balsamic-based sauce for the chicken, apricots be damned!

Onion Chicken and Balsamic Sauce

2 chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 medium onions, sliced thin
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 Tbsp honey
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, plus about 1 Tbsp to add to the onions
1/2 tsp ground ginger (I suspect fresh would be even nicer)
2 medium garlic cloves, chopped fine

Extras: olive oil, flour, salt & pepper

I cooked the onions in olive oil until they were brown and soft, then I added a tablespoon or so of balsamic vinegar and let it cook for a couple of minutes until the strong vinegar smell cooked away. I set the onions aside.

I seasoned the chicken bits with salt and pepper and then dredged them in flour and dumped them into the pan with a little more olive oil. I browned them nice and good on one side, then flipped them and kept browning, and then just stirred them around till they were cooked through. My chicken always takes longer to cook than the recipe books imply, leading me to think I'm doing something wrong or buying mutant chickens. Anyway, the cooked chicken got dumped in with the set-aside onions.

In a glass measuring cup, I stirred together the honey, chicken broth, balsamic, garlic and ginger, and then whisked that into the pan with the browned stuck-on chicken bits. I let it cook for about 2 minutes and it thickened up just a little. Then I poured it over the chicken and onions and served it all over rice.

YUM.

So good, in fact, that Dave has already requested we have this again. He asked hopefully whether I remembered what I put in it, and so I ran here to get it all down before it's lost forever. Unfortunately, it smelled so good and we were both so hungry that we did not stop to find my camera. It tasted better than it looked, anyway, so you're not missing much here...

What's for Dinner: Chicken "Parm"

Well. You learn something new every day.

I haven't been grocery shopping so we're down to frozen pizza and other boring emergency foods, none of which appealed to me. I had chicken and marinara sauce and thought "hey, why not try making Chicken Parm tonight? I have chicken and parmesan!"

Except that upon closer inspection of, oh, every recipe I could find, Chicken Parmigiana is sneakily not made with parmesan cheese, despite the fact that its name totally sounds like parmesan. It needs mozzarella, which I sadly did not have on hand. So, I pretended like I'd never seen the recipes and forged blindly ahead with total disregard for the rules.

I took two thin chicken cutlets and salted and peppered them, then flopped them around in a bowl of breadcrumbs to which I'd added some oregano and garlic salt. I heated up some olive oil in a pan, waited for it to get ridiculously hot (that's the trick to good breaded chicken cutlets - extreme and ridiculous heat), and fried the chicken till the outsides were nice and crispy brown. Then I moved them to the oven in a glass baking dish in a little pool of marinara and left them at 350 for about 10 minutes. Then I sprinkled grated parmesan on top, ground some fresh pepper onto the cheese, and gave them another 5 minutes. I served them with a side of whole wheat spaghetti and Bertolli sauce (Marinara with burgundy wine).

Verdict: yummy! I'll definitely try this again. I know it wasn't really chicken parmigiana, but who cares.

We were starving and so I didn't take time for photos. Sorry, gentle readers, you'll have to use your imagination until I make it again!

Roast chicken (and purple rice)

I decided to make a roast chicken this weekend in preparation for the Thanksgiving dinner I'm hosting next weekend for the in-laws. I had a recipe from my good friend Tasha, but I ended up going with a variation on my Mom's usual way instead. I'll get to yours soon, Tasha! I promise!

First of all it was a much bigger chicken than the recipe called for. Almost twice the weight. So it took much longer to cook, leaving us with an extremely late dinner. Luckily I tried this on the weekend, so it wasn't too bad. Had I tried this after work, we'd have been eating around 1am!


Roasty Chicken

I took the guts out of the chicken and rinsed it off and patted it dry. I snipped off some sprigs from my thyme, sage and oregano plants in the sunroom, minced them, and then stirred them into a small bowl (a little over 1/4 cup) of olive oil with some salt and fresh pepper. I'd say it approximated a tablespoon of each spice, so it looked like oiled herbs instead of herbed oil. I cut 3 ribs of celery into inch-long pieces, and a large onion into rough wedges. Those went into the cavity along with the juice from one squeezed lemon. I used a trick I got from Rachael Ray and microwaved the lemon for a few seconds before squeezing it, and it helped get a lot more juice out of it. Then I rubbed the oily mixture all over the outside of the chicken and stuck it in the oven at 350 for what seemed like forever. It was a nearly 8 pound chicken, and it took about two and a half hours. I kept checking it with the meat thermometer and it just never got to the right temperature, so I just left it there until it did. After a while I needed to put foil over the breast because it was getting too brown.


It did end up delicious, though. We ate a ton of it that first night, and there was plenty for leftovers afterwards.


Purple Rice

For this I followed a recipe from "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman, which Tasha gave to us as a wedding present. The real name for this is "Pilaf with Wine and Tomatoes" but, well, you'll see.

The recipe is:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup diced onion
1 1/2 cups rice
1 cup dry white wine (red will also do fine*) *you may be seeing where this is leading
2 cups chicken stock
Small can diced tomatoes

I cooked the onion in the oil until it got soft, then stirred in the rice to coat it completely. Then I added the wine. I used red because I had some left over from a few nights before. I let it cook down for a couple of minutes , then added the stock and tomatoes (I drained the tomatoes, even though the recipe says you don't have to). I let it simmer on medium for about 15-20 minutes - check often, because when the liquid is gone the rice should be done, and if you leave it longer you'll get a crust of burned rice at the bottom of the pot.

The flavor was amazing! It tasted quite a bit like wine, which I enjoyed. The only weird thing is that it was completely purple because I used red wine! If you think purple rice will weird you out, use white wine and I'm sure it'll be just as good. We were completely entertained by eating purple rice, though, so I think I'll always use red for this recipe.