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Archive for the ‘poultry’ Category

Chicken Teriyaki

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 9, 2010| 2 Comments »

Alright, back in the kitchen. The one thing about traveling in the Grand Circle area is the lack of quality Asian food. We did find one really good Thai place near Zion Canyon, but Yuki was craving Japanese flavors and simple white rice. So, being the absolutely wonderful husband that I am, I made some chicken teriyaki with vegetables and white rice.

First thing I had to do was make the teriyaki sauce. In a small sauce pan I put in 1 tablespoon of sugar with 7 tablespoons each of soy sauce, mirin, and sake. I also added a few fresh rosemary needles just to add one more element. I let that come to a slow boil for just a few minutes until the sugar was dissolved. Then I set it aside and let it cool to room temperature.

Once the sauce was cooled I marinated some bone-in skin-on chicken breasts in it for about an hour at room temperature.

Then I cut up all the vegetables. Half of a sweet onion was sliced, one carrot into matchsticks, 7 good-sized shiitake mushrooms sliced, a handful of green beans cut in half, and half of a small napa cabbage head sliced.

I turned the oven on to 400 degrees. I took my baking pan and lined it with foil and then laid a rack inside it. I laid the chicken thighs on the rack, sprinkled them with some pepper and a few rosemary needles, and threw them in the oven. I strained the reserved marinade back into the small sauce pan and boiled it for about 15 minutes until it reduced into a BBQ sauce consistency. Then I took the chicken out and glazed it with the thickened teriyaki and threw it back into the over for another 15 minutes.

While the sauce reduced I sautéed the vegetables. I started by throwing a couple of diced garlic cloves into some hot olive oil. After a minute I added the onion. A few minutes later the carrot. Then I added the green beans followed by the shiitake. I let it all come together for about 5 minutes and then seasoned with very little salt, some pepper, and about 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. I covered the pot and turned the heat way down to low. The vegetables at this point were mostly cooked, I just wanted them to finish off by steaming a little in the soy sauce.

I steamed the napa cabbage. That only takes about 4-5 minutes, so I waited until the chicken was just about done.

That’s it. A pretty simple meal to make but full of flavor and very healthy.

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Pesto Roasted Drumsticks with Roasted Tomato Soup

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »

So, I had a lot of pesto left from Meatless Monday. Whole Foods had local, organic chicken legs on sale for $1.49 a lb. The idea was to marinade them in the pesto for an hour and then grill them up. The spurts of rain we got last night put the kibosh on that. So, I roasted them instead.

Before marinating the chicken, I slashed the skin a couple of times about halfway into the meat. I wanted the pesto flavor to permeate the leg and not just coat it. I put the legs in one of my large pans and threw it into the oven at 425 degrees for about 35 minutes. While I didn’t get the smoky grill flavor I wanted, this allows the chicken to almost confit. All of the chicken fat helps keep the meat moist and juicy.

While the chicken was roasting I sautéed up some onion, purple potato, and carrot in butter. Once the vegetables were almost completely cooked, about 10-15 minutes for the potatoes, I drizzled in the last bit of pesto I had left. I let that cook for a minute or two.

Then I threw in the rest of the rapini I had in my fridge. The rapini only needs a few a minutes. Once the leaves started to wilt I turned off the heat.

I prepared the soup earlier in the day so that, come dinner time, all I had to do was heat it up. I took 7 roma tomatoes and halved them. I laid them in a baking dish cut side up and topped each with a slice of garlic. Then I drizzled some olive oil on top and roasted them in a 400 degree oven for an hour. When I took them out I let them cool for about 15 minutes and then tossed it all in my blender until nice and smooth. I thought about straining it, but I decided that I wanted the texture of the pulp.

Right before I reheated the soup I threw in a large handful of chopped basil and seasoned with salt and pepper. I garnished the soup with a pinch of parmesan.

Even though potatoes are a starch, I treated them more as a regular vegetable. I served some white rice alongside for the starch.

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Chicken Paillard on Polenta

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I know it’s hard to see, but there is chicken below the tomatoes and on top of the polenta. For this dish you need the chicken to be pretty thin. I picked up some cutlets, basically breasts that have been butterflied. I pounded them out a little in order to make the thickness a little more uniform. To do that I just put a piece at a time in between plastic wrap and pounded it with a skillet until it was the desired thickness.

In a bowl I put in two diced shallots, two diced garlic cloves, half of a large fennel bulb thinly chopped, a tablespoon of drained capers, the leaves of 4 fresh thyme sprigs, three tomatoes that I skinned, seeded, and chopped. I poured in about a quarter cup of olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and mixed everything up.

In a large baking dish I drizzled a little olive oil on the bottom, just enough to lightly coat it. I seasoned the chicken (I had four cutlets) with salt and pepper on both sides and laid them down in the dish next to each careful not to overlap any of them. Then I spooned the mixture on top of each piece to cover the chicken completely. I drizzled a little more olive oil on top and threw it into a 450 degree oven for about 2o minutes. Once out of the oven I garnished with thinly sliced basil and chopped fennel fronds.

While that was going on I made the polenta and some bacon-wrapped asparagus. After I skinned the tomatoes for the chicken I used the same boiling water to blanch the asparagus. After a few minutes in the boiling water I took the asparagus out and put it into a bowl of ice water to shock it. Then I wrapped them in bacon and set aside until cooking time. To cook them I heated up a pan and poured in just a little olive oil and then fried all of the asparagus turning to cook all sides. When the bacon was fully cooked I poured in a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and shook the pan around to coat all of the bacon.

There are different ways to cook polenta. The rule of thumb that I live by is 4 cups of liquid for each cup of polenta. So, I took 2 cups of the asparagus boiling water, 1 cup of chicken stock, and one cup of soy milk. I brought it all to a boil with salt and pepper. Once it was boiling, in a slow steady stream, I poured the polenta in constantly whisking. Once all of the polenta was in I continued to whisk for a few minutes. Then I turned the heat down to med-low, covered the pot, and came back to whisk every few minutes. When I got to the consistency I desired, I turned off the heat and whisked in 4 tablespoons of butter in small chunks, one chunk at a time. Then I threw in a handful of parmesan cheese and stirred that all in. That’s it.

The only thing I will do differently if I make this dish again is that I’ll saute the shallots and garlic in olive oil for a few minutes before mixing them into the fennel and tomato mixture. They were a bit sharp, so by cooking them a little first the sweetness will come out a little more. Otherwise this is a very simple and delicious way to have chicken.

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Chicken-stuffed Cabbage Soup

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 10, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Last night was Yuki’s turn to make dinner. She made one of her specialties, vegetable soup with chicken-stuffed cabbage rolls.

First thing she did was to take a head of cabbage and plunge it into boiling water for a few minutes. She didn’t want to cook the cabbage, just make the leaves pliable for rolling, so they don’t break. Then she pulled apart the leaves and separated them.

For the chicken filling she put some ground thigh meat in a bowl. To that I grated some ginger and garlic and she chopped up some cilantro and put that in as well. She also soaked some hijiki seaweed in warm water for about 20 minutes. Once it was soft, she drained it (reserving the liquid) and tossed that into the meat as well. Some salt and pepper and I mixed it all up.

She laid the cabbage leaves down, one at a time, and I dropped a spoonful-sized ball of the meat mixture in the middle. Then she rolled them up and set aside.

For the broth she added the reserved hijiki water to some chicken stock and brought it to a boil. Then she added some green onions, carrots, broccoli, and the cabbage rolls. The leftover cabbage leaves that weren’t rolled were cut up and thrown into the soup as well. She let it simmer over medium heat for about a half hour or so.

That’s it. Simple, healthy, and delicious. White rice on the side, but bread would work too.

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Grilled Chicken and Ratatouille

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Last night’s dinner is probably the easiest thing in the world to make, chicken thighs and vegetables grilled. That’s basically it. What better way to enjoy fresh ingredients?

I took some skin-on bone-in chicken thighs and rubbed some olive oil into the skin then salted and peppered them. I cut one Chinese eggplant in half lengthwise, same with a zucchini. I cut up one and half yellow bell peppers into 1/3 inch strips. I cut a red onion in half and then each half into eighths (this sounds like I’m doing something entirely different) keeping the root end intact to keep the wedges together. I also took two tomatoes and cut them in half. I drizzled all of the vegetables with olive oil.

Then I threw everything on the grill. I started the chicken skin-side down to get it nice and crispy. I let all of the vegetables cook until just before they started to char. Then I took everything off the grill.

While the chicken was resting I cut the vegetables down into chunks and threw them into a large bowl. In the bowl I poured in about 1.5 tablespoons of balsamic vinager (so it’s technically not a grilled ratatouille), a little more olive oil, a handful of thinly sliced fresh basil, salt, and pepper. I tossed it all around for an even coat. I plated it all with some white rice. Simple as that.

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Red Rice Gumbo

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, swine, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

So, I had planned on making sort of an easy-to-make paella for dinner last night, but the chorizo I bought tasted more like andouille than chorizo. No worries, it’s just as easy to make a gumbo. So that’s what I did.

I started off by thinly slicing about 4oz’s of chorizo and cooking them in a hot pan without any oil. I wanted two things, first was a nice brown crusty surface, second was some melted tasty pig fat in my pan.

Once the chorizo was browned I added 4 meaty chicken thighs skin side down. Before doing this I generously seasoned the chicken with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. I only cooked the skin side of the chicken for the same reasons I cooked the chorizo. Crispy skin and animal fat. Now I have no need to add any oil.

I threw in a small onion that I had diced along with 4 minced garlic cloves. I let those cook in the animal fat for about 7 minutes, or just when they started to turn translucent.

Then I added a yellow bell pepper that I chopped along with 1.5 cups of Thai Red Rice. I stirred that all together and let it saute for about 3 minutes.

Then I added a half cup of dry white wine that had some saffron strands soaking in it for about an hour. I scraped up all of the burnt bits on the bottom of the pan and stirred them into the dish (the burnt parts have tons of flavor!). Then added a 14 oz can of crushed tomato to form a base for the sauce, as well as 1.5 cups of chicken stock and a bunch of green beans that I cut up. After that I mixed in the cooked chorizo and laid the chicken pieces on top. I covered the pan and threw it in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes.

After the 25 minutes I took it out, put the chicken on a plate, added salt and pepper, stirred everything around, put the chicken back on top, covered it, and threw it back into the oven for another 10 minutes.

When I took it out again I took the chicken back off and mixed in a bunch of chopped parsley. To serve, I laid a bed of fresh baby spinach on the plate, put a pile of the gumbo on top, then a piece of chicken on top of that, and garnished with parsley. I drank it all down with the rest of the wine that I used in the sauce.

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Passover Seder, the Second Night

Posted in beef, Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Alright, so Tuesday night’s Passover Seder was spent at my dad’s. His Seder is different from the one with my mom’s side of the family. They do everything family style while my dad likes to serve each plate himself. I think it’s a control thing, but this site isn’t about psychoanalysis.

This is what his Seder Plate looks like. It has all the elements, however, he uses a roasted turkey neck instead of shankbone and a horseradish root instead of green onion.

Also, instead of putting Elijah’s wine glass on the Seder Plate, he puts a full place setting off to the side for him.

My old man did all of the cooking himself, which of course includes his Matzah Ball Soup. The main difference is that, like me, he puts the chicken meat back into the soup. I do have to say, this was one of his best batches.

For dinner he served some roast turkey, matzah meal stuffing, carrot ring, tsimis (a slow braised beef short rib with carrots), green beans, and potato kugel (basically a casserole of grated potato).

He freshly grated some horseradish.

And, of course, plenty of Matzah on hand.

I was in charge of dessert. I made a citrus sponge cake and served it with whipped cream and strawberries. The cake was made with matzah meal flour and potato flour. I mixed in the grated rind and juice from a lemon and an orange. As thick as the batter was with all of the heavy flour it actually turned out light and moist.

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Passover Seder, the First Night

Posted in beef, Home Cooking, poultry, seafood, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Last night was the first night of Passover. In America, typically the first two nights of Passover are a huge deal in the Jewish household (in Israel they only have Seder on the first night). Families get together for big feasts of traditional foods and celebrate the liberation from Egypt led by Moshe himself, called a Seder. I do want to state that I am not religious, I’m atheist. However, I am culturally Jewish and thoroughly enjoy a meal that consists of Matzah Ball Soup and slow braised Brisket. This year my brothers and I had the first night at our cousins with my mom’s side of the family.

Here is the traditional Seder Plate that sits in the middle of the table. It contains the symbols of the Passover story. Starting at 2 o’clock is the Beitzah, a roasted egg that symbolizes the festival sacrifice. Then is the Zeroa, a roasted shankbone symbolizing the lamb’s blood that was marked on doors to keep the Jews safe from the 1oth plague. After that is the Maror, we use green onion to remind us of the bitterness and harshness of slavery. Charoset is next, apples, honey, walnuts, and wine that are blended into a thick paste representing the mortar used by Jews in constructing Egyptian storehouses. Next is Karpas, parsley is used for the coming of Spring. There’s a bowl of saltwater that is used to show the tears shed by Jews in slavery. You dip the Karpas into the saltwater. Finally, in the middle is a glass of wine that’s set aside for Elijah the prophet.

At each individual seat there’s a small plate with the edible symbols. After we get through the Haggadah and eat the Seder plate dinner gets started.

The first thing that get’s passed around is Gefilte Fish. It’s basically a classic Eastern European fish dumpling made out of whitefish and pike. It’s eaten with horseradish.

Next is the Matzah Ball Soup. I had two matzah balls, but had already cut them up into bite sized pieces when I remembered that I needed to take a photo. I also forgot to take a pic of the matzah, but that isn’t the end of the world. I do have to say that my Matzah Ball Soup is far superior, but that’s always the case.

Then some fresh vegetables. Cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onions.

Here’s Grandma’s chopped chicken liver. Unfortunately it’s the only thing she makes anymore. She cooks up the livers, seasons them, and mashes it all down. My cousin Lorrie has to salt it though. Grandma’s taste buds aren’t quite what they used to be. But hey, she’s 86! She gets a pass.

Some bagels made out of matzah meal. They resemble bagels in shape only, but they aren’t bad.

Here’s the famous slow-braised Passover Brisket. Brisket is to Passover what turkey is to Thanksgiving. Again though, my brisket is better. I made the brisket last year, but not this year. I need to take charge of it again for the betterment of all our digestion.

Dessert consists of various cakes made with matzah meal flour and fresh fruit. Chocolate cake with raspberries, strawberry shortcake, brownies, carrot cake, grapes and strawberries.

For some reason I always tend to eat too much at Seders.

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Broiled Chicken with Mustard Sauce

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Last night I joined a couple of buddies for a happy hour drink. With that in mind I put together a dinner that I could cook and assemble quickly once I got home. Broiled chicken and vegetables seemed perfect.

Before I headed out to the bar I got all my veggies cut. Asparagus, red pepper, yellow pepper, and a half onion. I set them aside and covered so that they wouldn’t dry out. I also trimmed up some skin-on bone-in chicken thighs and kept them covered in the fridge.

After getting the ingredients prepared I ground a tablespoon of fennel seeds with my pestle and mortar. I mixed them into a quarter cup of olive oil and let that sit. Then I made the mustard sauce. 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves, 1 tablespoon of rinsed capers, 2 tablespoons of mustard (I use Boetje’s, use whatever is on hand), the juice from a half lemon, 4 tablespoons of olive oil, and some black pepper. That all got stirred up and left in the fridge. Then I rinsed some rice, put it in the rice cooker, and set the timer so it’d be ready once I got home.

Off to go drink.

When I got home I put the rack in the upper third of the oven and turned on the broiler. I laid the chicken thighs and all of the veggies on a baking sheet and brushed the fennel seed olive oil over everything. I salted and peppered and then put everything under the broiler for about 15 minutes. At that point the veggies were carmelized and the chicken a little crispy and fully cooked and juicy.

I served the chicken on top of a bed of arugula and laid everything else out on the plate. Then I drizzled some mustard sauce over the chicken. That’s it, time to eat.

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Soy-Mustard-Rosemary Roast Chicken and Vegetables

Posted in Home Cooking, poultry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Roasting chicken on top of vegetables is one of the easiest ways to prepare a healthy, well balanced meal. You can add whatever veggies you want, season or marinade the chicken with just about anything, and there’s few dishes to clean since everything is roasted in the same pan.

Last night I marinated some whole leg parts in a sauce that consisted of a couple spoonfuls of mustard (any kind of mustard works, my favorite is Boetje’s, a Dutch stone-ground style), a few tablespoons of soy sauce, some chopped garlic, some finely chopped fresh rosemary, black pepper, and a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Mix that all together and then coat the chicken skin with it.

For the veggies I chopped up three stalks of celery, one carrot, three yukon gold potatoes, one onion, and the leftover chard stems from the Ethiopian stewed chard that I made a few nights ago. I threw them all into my roasting pan and tossed them with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

On top of the veggies I layed down some rosemary sprigs and then the chicken. I let it all roast in a 375 degree oven for about an hour and 15 minutes, or until the skin was nice and crisp with the meat cooked and juicy.

My favorite thing about roasting chicken on top of veggies is that the chicken fat that cooks off helps cook the veggies. So you’re basically cooking with chicken fat. It’s not at all unhealthy either as I leave most of the juice in the pan when I serve. Only a little of the chicken fat makes its way into my belly. As we know, a little chicken fat never hurt anyone.

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