cooking @ home

Archive for the ‘Chicken’ Category

©2008 Harry Kenney

Well, I’m back after my “hiatus”. My initial thought was to put up one of the maybe dozen new dishes I’ve made over the past several months. Instead, I’m starting back up with my most very recent meal. I got a bit more adventurous the other night, making something competely new for me and it turned out so well I’m going to share that one first.

But before doing that I want to talk about taste or maybe it would be more accurate to call this the “conveyance of taste”. Now I consider myself as having a pretty good palate. Mind you, I haven’t yet taken any blind food tests — although to sate my own curiosity I have a friend who promises when she gets a chance that we’ll do one. I always watch Hell’s Kitchen and each season it’s amazing to see how trained chefs can’t tell the difference between an apple and a piece of potato when blindfolded. Ok, I’m on a bit of a tangent; let me get back to the heart of the matter here, which is, in this case arugula.

Now, believe it or not, until recently I’d never tasted it. How can that be? I don’t know. There’s too many things in the world. What’s normal for one isn’t for another. For me there’s still what seems like hundreds of cheeses and dozens of greens and other delicious food items still awaiting my taste buds. I see that as a great adventure awaiting me. Anyhow, arugula is one of those favs of television cooks it seems. (By the way, if you have ever heard a British cook talk about a green known as “rocket” … yes, apparently that is their name for arugula.) And I’ve always heard those cooks say it tastes peppery. Just as I keep hearing Mexican orgeano has a minty flavor, Thai basil has a licorice or anise taste, and olive oil is often described as “fruity” and brown butter as “nutty”.

Not sure about you but, while I do know what they’re getting at, I don’t taste olive oil and go “ah, fruit!” Do you? I don’t taste browned butter and yell out “Wow, it’s nuts!” So I was surprised when finally I tasted arugula and thought “ok, where’s the pepper at?” All these years and I start to wonder if the cooks we rely on are a little bit whacky, and a shared whackiness at that. Again, I think — and I’m starting to question slightly — if my palette is as good as I’ve always thought. It must be as I can usually go to a restaurant and divine various ingredients in a new sauce. But I’m not tasting the fruitness, nuttiness or pepperiness in any of these items. Or am I?

So what makes me wonder is, when cookbook authors and television chefs describe something a certain way, maybe they’re just trying to talk about a slight delicate thing? Or maybe someone came up with the idea and they all copy each other. I think if I had never heard those adjectives described about these foods, that I would not necessarily come up with the same descriptions. To put it another way, I would be very hard pressed having never heard of the peppery arugula description or the fruity olive oil description to convey to someone exactly what they actually tasted like. That is an exceptionally difficult task. How do you describe a color to a blind person? Or a musical note to a deaf person? So how does one describe food with it’s delicate nuances to someone who has never had that particular food?

I will tell you this, whatever description one gives to arugula, I definitely like the taste. It’s similiar and yet different from lettuce. It’s definitely not like fresh spinich, although it similiarly can be used in a salad instead of lettuce, which gave me the idea for this meal in the first place. I thought to myself, if arugula has a slight peppery taste what’s a nice offset from that? Lemon vinaigrette came to mind. So did using either capers or olives; I ended up choosing olives, and my favorites, the dark Kamala ones not the green ones. After that everything was just keeping things simple but doing that little balance, red onion for kick, olive for bite, lemon for acidity and freshness plus while it might counterpoint the arugula it would also compliment the chicken.

The grilled portobello caps is something I’ve been dying to do for a long time. To be candid, I have no idea if the balsamic vinegar and grated Parmesan was all my idea or if I had seen it on a television show before. It would not surprise me if I’d seen it on TV as the simpler you make a meal, the more easily it can either be copied or a that a ton of people can have the same idea. In a lot of ways, this is a very simple meal, but I think still rather elegant. Yes, I love bold, complex flavors as you’ve seen from my barbecue dishes; at the same time I like the “other side” too, when something simple and basic and few ingredients can be so tasty. The salad is five ingredients plus the dressing. As said the portobello mushroom is pretty much the star and the very slight cheese and very slight balsamic are barely supporting players. To be candid, while I find the balsamic defintiely adds an interesting dimension and it’s good that way, I found I actually liked the porotbellos caps better without — just the seasoned mushroom and the light dusting of cheese on top.

In my case I used the indoor cast iron two-burner grill. This would have been an excellent one, both the chicken and the bello caps, to put on the outside grill, but since it was a 99 degree day I passed on that. I’m sure the charcoal would have served as an incredible “seasoning” of it’s own and brought something else special to the meal. Btw, I used vegetable oil not olive oil on the caps as, firstly, I wanted to better taste the mushroom and secondly, when it comes to grilling you might recall vegetable oil has a higher smoke point that olive oil does.

Before I forget to mention this, for myself, for the salad, I had it the first night with the olives, arugula and red onions just a tad chilled from the refrigerator and the mushrooms and chicken warm. It made for a wonderful combination having that little chill and that little warmth together as counterparts. It also meant the warm ingredients gave ever the slighest delectable wilting to the arugula too. Since I was cooking for two and it’s one of those meals that serves four or five I naturally had leftovers. If you also end up having leftovers my servng suggestion for the second day is, well, two ways you can have it. chilled from the fridge or you can let it sit out for 30-60 minutes beforehand and serve it at room temperature. I preferred the latter, but either way it’s still going to be delicious.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Warm Grilled Chicken & Arugula Salad

2 medium to large skinless, boneless chicken breasts
5 oz fresh baby arugula, washed and dried
1 medium red onion, sliced very thin
2 oz Kamala olives, halved
10-14 medium button mushrooms, sliced

salt, pepper, garlic powder (optional) to taste
vegetable oil

Lemon Vinaigrette

4-5 tbsps lemon juice
tsp fresh lemon zest
tsp dried oregano
tsp dried basil
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Prepare the salad, in a large bowl place the argula, onion and olives and place in refrigerator to chill slightly. Take sliced mushrooms and into a small pan, brown well, adding vegetable oil as needed, salt and pepper half way through, then set aside.

On a plate oil salt and pepper the chicken then place on oiled grill top (indoor or outdoor.) Flip only once (or as little as possible) Roughly 5-7 minutes per side. Cook until you get a reading of 170-180°F inside. Let site for at least five minutes then cut into bite-sized pieces. Make the dressing by, either in a blender or a small bowl placing lemon zest, lemon juice, orgeano and basil and then slowly whisk in (or in blender, pour in) olive oil until you get an emulsion.

Take salad bowl out of refrigerator. Add warm chicken pieces and warm mushrooms. Add to salad salt, pepper, and (optional) garlic powder and toss. Pour half vinagrette, toss, then remainder toss again and serve. Makes 4-5 servings.

Grilled Portobello Caps (optional side)

5 large portobellos caps, cleaned
balsamic vinegar (optional)
grated Parmesan
vegetable oil
salt, pepper to taste

Clean five large portobello caps. Taking out gills is optional. (You would need to take them out if you were filling the caps, but we’re not.) On place oil on top, salt and pepper, then place on grill cap side down. Season and oil the inside of the mushrooms if you haven’t already. Add oil as needed. Roughly 5-6 minutes for the cap side to grill. Then another 4-5 minutes for the underside. Just before serving, (optional) lightly drizzle balsamic vinegar and sprinkle of grated Parmesan. Serve warm.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Funny how there are some dishes I’ve created and made for a long time, yet, seven months into this cooking site, realize there are still one’s I haven’t included here. This is one of them (til now). I stumbled into this one of those times when I had salsa left over from a party. You see, I do enjoy tortilla chips and salsa as a nice alternate to the usual potato chip and dip. Thing is, in the days after the party I just don’t feel like eating salsa and chips solo. So I need to come up with something to do with that jar. Several years ago after one party I also found I had forgotten to serve the second half of the shrimp I’d bought. (There was still plenty of food and no one at the party knew or missed it though.) … In short. Boom. Came this recipe.

I know the name seems a tad corny coming from me. No, I swear I’m not turning “Rachel” on you. I promise never to call things in between soup and stew “stoop”. And no, I don’t think any male, no matter how brimming with nor how deficient of testosterone should ever have the word “Yum-o!” come from his lips either. So that’s not happening. So the choice was, call this was I call it around the house as my shorthand “Sorta Jambalaya” or name it something more long-winded like “Chicken and Shrimp in Spicy Tomato Spanich Rice”. The latter is accurate but doesn’t roll off the tounge as well. The first is reluctantly a tad cutsy, but it does convey the concept quickly.

Ok, now you’re asking, where am I going. I’m gourmet one minute, regular the next and now straight out of home ec class. Nope, they’re all me. Have you forgotten my Steak Quesadilla or my Pizza Burger Mac recipes? Shame on you! Remember this is “cooking at home”. And I’ve said it before, you can cook gourmet or home ec and/or anything in between at home. You can use all expensive and fresh ingredients and some exotic ones, or you can take a few boxes of off the shelf stuff and make a meal too. Obviously you (and I) don’t always want to make a many ingredient meal. And there’s always something about doing it fast. Provided (big if here) the taste goes with it. And here it does.

What? You want to try me on one more item? You say I’m big on trying to do things authentic and this isn’t very authentic a recipe, that is in the traditional sense of being true to a region and it’s history. That’s correct it is not. And it is also correct that I am big into history and traditional things. But again, I’m not limited to them nor bound by them. Look at my tropical fruit salsa I made just the other day; it’s somewhat fusion even though there is a true Mexican dish that’s equivalent. But, here’s the thing — I always point that out to you. How about my Pancetta-Wrapped Margarita Shrimp? The bacon is from Italy, the liquor from Mexico. Definie fusion. Notice I never once called it an Italian nor a Mexican dish because it isn’t either one.

Matter of fact, the aforementioned steak quesadilla recipe I have here. It’s 100% American. And it’s 50% Mexican. Ok, what do I mean by that? In the US that is a quesadilla. And in many parts of Mexico that is also a quesadilla. But in the southern parts of Mexico they actually make quesadillas the same way Italians make calzones, they fold over the tortilla with the filling inside, crimp it and overlap the dough on the one side to close it, and then deep fry it. So my way is not wrong, but there is another way too.

Finally about tradition. What gets my goat, annoys me to no end is when a recipe passes something off as traditional and it isn’t. When you read my artilces and these “forwards” to each recipe, I say to you, this is how it’s done, or this is one way how it’s done in such-and-such land. Or I will say, they would put this in to be authentic, but I’m leaving it out. I tell you, this recipe or that recipe is or is not traditional. As I’ve said before I’m neither traditionalist nor fusionist, I am what I am at the moment. Most importantly I tell you what that dish is. And here I tell you this is not real jambalaya, it’s “sorta”. And now you know another reason why I called this dish by that name.

Wait? Aren’t I going to give you a history lesson on jambalaya? Naw. I’ll wait until I do the traditional recipe for that. It will be more germane then. Meanwhile, enjoy this simple, and compartively quick dish which will remind you a lot of jambalaya. Oh, there is one Rachel Ray thing about this dish besides the nomenclature — You can make this in 30 minutes or less!

Sorta Jambalaya
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 box Spanish Rice (I like Goya’s) that makes 2.5 cups rice at final
15.5 oz jar spicy tomato salsa with jalapenos (pick your heat level, I used to do “mild”, now I do “medium”)
1 pound of chicken (I use boneless chicken breast)
1/2 pound 31-40 count shrimp, uncooked, devaned, shell totally off, ends included

You can start with precooked chicken, which I already had on hand. Alternately you can also use a rotisserie chicken from the market. Or you can easily cook the chicken right now.

Begin rice preparation as on box, boiling water in a large stock pot or dutch oven.

If cooking chicken with the meal, cut into chunks, toss into largest frying pan you have (12-13″ preferred) with cooking oil on medium-high heat. Brown slightly on all sides, don’t overcook. Take out of pan.

Into same pan, add more oil and cook shrimp, roughly two minutes or less per side. Reserve and let cool. Cut each shrimp into thirds. Add back to pan with chicken, warm up and stir. Add in jar of salsa to frying pan on medium heat, let cook together about 5-10 minutes with lid on. At this point rice should be done.

Add rice to frying pan (if frying pan is too small, then, instead add contents of pan to stock pot or dutch oven, whichever works best). Mix together on low heat for about three or four minutes with lid on. Serve. Makes roughly 8 servings.

I’m noticing as time goes on and, especially with pasta dishes, when you interchange different ingredients, it becomes tougher and tougher to come up with the actual names of the recipes. To me, my short-hand for this dish is “Chicken Z-and-Z” for Zuccini and Ziti. Of course if I actually named it that, you would be going “huh?” and either turn away. Or maybe it would conversely grab your attention. But you surely wouldn’t know what it was until — and if — you started looking closely. And if you were specifically looking for a chicken and squash pasta dish, you might not find it here either.

No wonder Rachel Ray and others come up with crazy names after a while for things. I mean I love pasta simply because you can put sooooo many different ingredients, meats, seafood, proteins and veggies in it. And then the number of sauces as well are staggering. But then with all those mixes and matches, naming does become difficult.

You know, this might make you laugh. Or maybe you think the same way as I do, but, in many ways, pasta seems to me as a very American dish. It’s sometimes difficult to think of them as Italian. And this coming from an Irish-American no less.

Sure, America is the home of hamburgers, hot dogs and apple pie. But growing up, pizza, spaghetti and meatballs, and alternately cheese and meat raviolis, strombolis and calzones and lasagna were as much of it. I have this one friend from England who’s lived here forever and she still doesn’t get it, as they never ate that way in the UK. First time I heard this I thought it was weird saying, “Wait, you’re 4,000 miles closer to Italy than we are!” Right there, that shows you it’s more an American thing.

I say, fair is fair. The tomato was grown only in the Americas; Europe never had the tomato before Columbus. And yet for two hundred years the tomato has been the staple of Italian cuisine. If they can do all that with our tomato, then yeah, I don’t see why we can’t therefore say a lot of Italian food is just plain American. It’s just the boomerang effect.

  

Chicken & Squash with Ziti in Roasted Garlic Sauce
©2007 Harry Kenney

two large zucchinis, diced large
1 large yellow squash, diced large
yellow onion, diced
ziti (or penne or rigatoni, etc)
fresh baby carrots (halved)
1 1/2 pounds skinless chicken breasts, diced large
salt
pepper
garlic

While garlic is roasting in oven (see sauce below), sweat the vegetables, that is, one a medium heat and olive oil you want to cook them, break them down, but you don’t want them brown nor do you want them mushy, you want the vegetables still to have a good deal of body. Season as required. So sweat the zuccini and the squash, take out of pan. Put in the chicken, and later (so it doesn’t brown) the onion and cook them well also. Meanwhile boil lightly or steam the carrots (you can do this in the microwave if you want.) Cook the pasta per directions. Drain. Into the large vessel containing the pasta now add the chicken and veggies, mix well, add any additional seasonings. Add the sauce below. Mix well, serve. Makes enough for 8-10 servings

Roasted Garlic Sauce

head of garlic
dried oregano
dried basil
salt
pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
some lemon zest
2 tblsps lemon juice
red pepper flakes
1/4 cup grated parmagen

First, preheat oven for 350°F. Take an entire head of garlic, cut off the top, place in aluminum foil, and make an open pocket. Pour olive oil on top along with dried basil and oregano. Seal, place in oven for 25-30 minutes until roasted brown.

Squeeze the garlic out of it’s “head” of paper and place in blender. (Note, this works with the normal old bar blender as well as the super new ones.) Put in the ingredients listed above, except the oil, mix. Take off the top, pour the olive oil in as the rest is mixing, this is to emulsify and create the sauce properly. Taste, adjust as needed. Pour onto pasta, mix and serve.

I had a BBQ party this weekend with relatives and friends attending. The star was (no surprise) my BBQ pork spare ribs. But that wasn’t going to be enough to feed this hungry crowd — not even with appetizers and sides, so I needed a second “main” course or second meat here, and while still maintaining that grill theme wanted to vary it as much as I could. Fist way to go different was a different meat, natch, in this case good-ol’ chicken, still there was no way it was going to be sauced identically to the first one.

Afterall, just because it’s barbeque doesn’t mean it has to be the “same BBQ”, if you know what I mean. If you don’t, then what I mean is this: there’s the traditional wood-chip “real” smoked BBQ. As you might recall from the primer, real BBQ means smoked and cooked by indirect-heating. Now to vary things up there’s the other way — which here in America is not technically called BBQ but grilling and this is — with direct heat, over the coals, and using dry rub and BBQ sauce

What ways can you vary it? Many. Go a different direction: Spicy, or sweet, tangy, fruity, mustardy, tomatoy, southwestern, Asian, Morrocan, Turkish, etc .. plus combinations of each. So for me, for this party, time to change up with sweet, so an apricot glazed chicken drumstick. Now mind you “sweet” is another relative word. I’m not trying to make this dessert. As you’ll see later in the ingredient list there’s some tang and always a touch of fire. But the predominent characteristic is, in this case, sweet.

Now drumsticks are difficult to cook. Hmm, difficult might not be the correct word. Let’s say, for their size, they take a surprisingly long time. A good medium drumstick will take around 45 minutes. I had bought a mix from the store, and opening the package, even though they were overall large, the 14 pieces did have a variety of sizes. About eight medium (ok, I said large overall, so medium here means “of those in the pack”, if you were looking at it normally, this medium you would consider “large”). For large (red jumbo) and four smaller ones (what you might normally consider to be “mediium”). Ah, everything is relative.

Point is that was three different cooking weights and cooking times. When this happens when I’m on the grill, I just start taking the smaller ones that look done, and move them over to a cooler side of the grill. If there is no such thing as a cooler side, or if the grill is just very hot overall, then I remove them right to a plate and cover immediately with foil.

Ok, one thing here to remind folks. You have to be careful, even over-careful with chicken. When you have something like this, drumsticks, you’re talking some meat around a big bone. That bone is what really causes “difficulty” in cooking. Especially in taking the internal temperature. You get false readings. Both pro and con, that is, high and low. They do take long. But I was having a tough time getting these to the proper temperature near the end. Every time I’d poke the largest pieces with the thermometer I was getting back 130.And after 40 minutes and having added red-hot charcoals from my chimney smoker, I knew what I was seeing on the thermometer just didn’t jive with what I was seeing with my own eyes and with experience. (Guess this is part of where cooking becomes part art and part gut feeling.)

When I finally said, these have to be done, took them inside and sliced one open, it was definitely done, even though the temperature gauge had been telling me it wasn’t.

What though had it been true that it wasn’t cooked all the way through? Hey, it happens to the best of us. Here’s a tip to be safety conscious. Use a microwave. You won’t lose any flavor, you won’t mess it up. Microwaves cook from the inside out, so you’re sure to get it right without and lose nothing that way. Who cares if a chef in a five-star restaurant or even a grizzled veteran of BBQ comptetions would never do that. This is us, not them. You want pride to stand in your way and take a chance on your guests getting sick? Hell no. A little nuking (my sometimes funny term for microwaving) might not be found in Culinary Institute’s handbook, but this is you and me in our front patios and backyards and in our kitchens. Never serve chicken undercooked, either put back on the grill, place in the oven, or give it a minute or two in the microwave if you definitely need to or just feel unsure about things.

Apricot-Glazed Grilled Chicken Drumsticks
©2007 Harry Kenney

14 large chicken drumsticks

rub:

salt
pepper
cinnamon
ginger
cumin
garlic powder
chilli powder

glaze:

4oz apricot preserves
3 tblsp apricot snapps (you can use regular brandy)
2 tblsp whole-grain mustard
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsps worsteshire
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp chilli powder
salt
pepper

Put on rub and in ziplocked bag into the refrigerator. Put in fridge for about 30 minutes minimum, up to four hours is great. Take out and leave out on table still in the bag another 30 minutes so chicken gets more towards room temperature and they’re ready for the grill.

This is should take in total about 20 minutes per side. This is one item that you baste early and you turn often on the grill. Many times my advice is leave it alone. Not this one. Place on grill, baster with glaze. Five minutes later, turn, baste. Do that about every 10 minutes, getting all the sides a few times. Do put the lid or cover down in between. At about 35-40 minutes, start checking with an internal meat thermometer the largest ones.

Drumsticks are difficult at times because of that big center bone. You don’t want to serve raw and get anyone sick. You also don’t want to so overcook as to make things dry. Chicken needs to be 165°F minimum, and starts drying out at higher than 175°F. After 50 minutes over a good hot grill if you find you are still having problems, put the larger drumsticks and any others you feel may not have cooked thoroughly into the microwave for a minute or two to be sure. Serves about seven, depending upon if you are serving lots of sides or if your guests are football player size, serves: 5-9.

Big Green Egg 1 1/2 lb. Jack Daniels Barrel Wood Chips Bag – 00020 (By:-Big Green Egg, BigGreen Egg) 1 1/2 lb Jack Daniels Barrel Wood Chips Bag

This is somewhat like a ratatouille, sorta like a cacciatore, in a sense like a stew, and apparently is a ragout (though it seems a million things could be a ragout). It appears from spending a great deal of time researching on the Web trying to find what was the most appropriate way to label this recipe, that in the end, it’s very much my own concoction. That should make me happy. And yes, it does — but, it’s one of those rare times when thinking of the name of dish was a ton more difficult then actually coming up with or even cooking the dish!

Ok, let’s explore what it’s similar to and yet not: Cacciatore which is usually definied as a hunter-style preparation with tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, herbs, and bell peppers. Now while all of those elements are indeed main ingredients, the real deal almost always contains red wine and capers, whereas mine doesn’t. Moreover, yes, cacciatore is most often found with chicken seems like it’s a shoe-in, but no, for it is not made with bonesless chicken breast but legs and theighs and the bones intact, the idea being to made a flavorful “stew” of darker meats “hunter” (as in just caught) style. This is close though.

Ratatouille is known for it’s main ingredient of eggplant, yet in the early days this “poor farmer’s dish” from Provence, France didn’t contain it. It did have all the other ingredients though including: zucchini, tomatoes, green and red peppers (bell peppers), onion, and garlic. This comes closest to mine. Though substituting chicken for eggplant turns an otherwise pure veggie dish into something altogether different.

This dish could also be called a kind of stew (in the broad sense that gumbo and bouillabaisse are both stews, albeit not the kind that comes readily to mind), yet my dish here contains no potatoes, no normally-associated starches and doesn’t take a long time to cook and that fails the main criteria of the action of actually “stewing”. In many ways the closest “thing” this might come to be is a ragout, but this is solely because the definition is so wildly broad in scope: “well-seasoned meat and vegetables cooked in a thick sauce”.

In the end — as you have already seen by the title — I’m naming this my Chicken Ratatouille, for if you know the ingreidents of the regular one, then I think the name here pretty much gives you the best idea of what you’ll be making and eating.

Either way, this is a long-time favorite dish of mine I’ve made for well-over a decade now. In fact, this could probably be another one that I’d say well deserves being a “signature dish” of mine. The flavors just seemed to go so well together. You could serve this over something starchy, very easily. I’ve found that fettucine makes a nice base because the thickness of the pasta seems to go well with this full-bodied, rich dish. But this is so savory and hearty and deep with flavor, most of the time I just serve this in a big bowl, by itself, atop of absolutely nothing. Maybe a nice buttered roll on the side to catch up the delicious, highly-seasoned juices.

With that said, one last bit of advice: This is a robust meal. Season to taste, as always. However, consider going “overboard” or very liberal with your seasonings. Why? Because this dish can take it. More than that, it makes it shine.

Harry’s Chicken Ratatouille
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

three chicken breasts, total 2-2.5 pounds, diced into chunks
mushrooms, button, 1.5 cups, sliced
two regular-sized yellow squash), sliced on the diagonal, long ovals
two regular-sided zucchinis (green squash), same as above
one large yellow onion, or two medium, diced
one green pepper, medium, cut into strips
one red pepper, medium, cut into strips
four cloves, garlic, sliced
28 oz can, diced tomatoes (or stewed tomatoes pureed in blender)
1/2 cup white wine (optional)
1/3 cup grated parmagena cheese

liberally season with:

olive oil
salt
pepper
basil
oregano

Olive oil in the hot pan. Add two cloves sliced garlic. Toss in the chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Cook thoroughly and brown. Continue to add oil as it gets low, sprinking atop chicken. Near end, add more seasoning and, if you want, white wine to deglaze pan (while chicken still in it).

In another large pan, medium-high heat, add olive oil, rest of garlic, then bell peppers. Season with salt, pepper, basil and oregano. Agan, add olive oil as needed and more seasonings every time another ingredient is added. After a couple minutes, add squashes and get them a bit brown and start to soften (but not too soft). A few more minutes and in with with onions and mushromms. Stir, more oil as needed, more seasoning as needed, let everything blend well.

While the whole veggie mix still has crispness, yet cooked well, toss in the chicken from the other pan. Two minutes later, add the tomato. More seasonings as needed. Mix everything together well, stirring often. After Bout four minutes, add the parmagena, stir a minute, then ladel out into large bowls. Makes about 8 servings.

If I say I’m making some homemade Chinese food tonight and I’m using yellow onion and button mushrooms, is your first thought “that’s not authentic Chinese food”?

Good chance you might think that. Sometimes I stop and think that myself. Which gets me to even more thinking. Namely: what is Chinese food as compared to what is Chinese-American food?

Let’s go back to the original question. If I substitute slices of yellow onion instead of scallions, is that less authentic? Then why have I gotten many a Chicken and Brocolli from delivered that’s come that wa? Let’s take another, how about when I substitute button mushrooms because my local market didn’t have shitake this week? Again, I’ve had many a Moo Goo Guy Pan come this way. I’m not even sure the more I think about it, how often delivered Chinese food has had shitake mushrooms? It’s either nether or exteremely rarely. I vagulely think once or twice it may have happened I had sliced shitake in my delivered dish.

So our first thought is: this isn’t authentic, but upon further reflection, it apparently must be. What’s the answer then? Maybe that difference is a Chinese-American difference of using cheaper and plentiful items on hand to replace more expensive or harded to get ingredients. That wouldn’t be the first time in recorded “food’ history that has happened. As a matter of fact that is exactly the way regional foods begin. And, pun intended, that’s just some food for thought.

Here’s some more thoughts. First, I love making Chinese food at home because baby I can control the portions and the quality … quality means I know I am using chicken breast … portions means both the small picture and the large picture as in, not only am I not giving myself shavings of chicken, I am making big meaty chunks, and I’m giving my dish plenty of those, at least a good four times more than the same if I picked up the phone.

Yet another thing I have to mention. Wow do I love the products that can be purchased in supermarkets of today. When it comes to this dish. Heck yeah I got lazy. When I can have a choice between several different versions of frozen stir-fry vegetables? Love it. In this case, the one pound bag I got contained baby peas, baby carrots, baby corn and snap peas. The rest I augmented with some fresh. Why purchase four or six more fresh ingredients or even six different cans or whatever when one bag will do? As my grandfather used to say “You youngsters out there have no idea how easy you got it today.”

Finally, one thing I feel really needs to be driven home to you here: what makes this dish really taste the way it should comes down to the spices and seasonings. If you don’t have these, it will taste very much like an Amercian-version-of. With these spieces, it will taste (and smell) amazingly authentic, and it will be what it’s meant to be: a home-made Chinese dinner that has a ton more chicken and just as much flavor and punch as the take-out variety.

Chinese Chicken with Veggies Stir-Fry
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

2 large chicken breasts (1.5 lbs), diced into chunks
yellow one, medium, long slices
sliced mushrooms, your choice
one bag frozen stir-fry vegetables of your choice
 (mine contained baby corn, baby peas, baby carrots snow pea pods)
white rice, make enough for to produce a final of 3 cups
peanut oil, for frying (vegetable oil if that’s what you have)

seasonings to taste:

soy sauce
garlic, two or three cloves, sliced thinnly
ginger, about a half inch shredded if fresh (powdered otherwise)
Chinese five spice
dry sherry
salt
pepper

Make three cups of white rice before or concurrent with this recipe. Get our your wok or your stir-fry pan (preferrably), turn the burner on to high and keep it there the entire time.

Liberally put in some peanut oil, wait until hot, dump in the chicken. Liberally add spices to taste, but hold back on the liquids (soy sauce and dry sherry) a while, as that will stop hot cooking. Brown thoroughly. Now add the liquid seasonings. Brown some more. Remember this is “stir-fry”, a dish that you are constantly mixing throughout the entire cooking process.

Scoop out chicken and place in bowl. Leave the small amount of juice in pan and put in onion, about a minute later add in mushrooms. Reseason these with the dry seasonings. After a few minutes of browning, put in the entire bag of frozen vegetables. Mix. Again, season everything. This time liquid as well as dry. (Every time you add something new you season it.) This will take anywhere from five to eight minutes. You may even cover it at this point to promote thorough cooking.

Taste occasionally, taking the hardest vegetable out (in my case it was baby carrots) and when that is done enough for you, then put the chicken back into the wok and mix everything thoroughly. You may add more seasoning (one last time) at this point, or opt not to if it tastes well-seasoned enough to you. Cook together another two or three minutes.

Plate atop a foundation of white rice. Makes roughly four servings.

Note: Just because I purposely made this recipe as a heartier, more chicken than one normally gets from take-out dish doesn’t mean it has to be that way. Obviously these types of dishes were originally concieved to be food stretchers: to use a little meat, a lot of veggies and rice to fill the stomach. So you could easily cut back on the chicken and increase the rice, this could be a super-budget meal that could serve eight.

I guess if I had to choose what was my so-called signature dish this would be the one.

This recipe wasn’t inspired by anything I saw elsewhere, just the ingredients at hand. I had a lot of left over ricotta and didn’t want to make another desert with it; in other words, I’d already done sweet, now I wanted to do something savory. There was chicken on hand, and frozen spinach too. Aha, florentine. The incredible sauce came about as an after thought initially when I had made way too much stuffing. And then the sauce was so wonderful it just had to be put on something, and thus came the idea for egg noodles as I was tired of putting things atop the usual pasta or rice, and the noodles seemed to lend itself better to it. (That said, you could substitute fettucini I’m betting, but still, how often do you have an egg noodle dish? So I’d still go with the noodles as my number one choice.) It’s my very own version of a classic and so rich and tasty, I tend to even over-eat this meal at times.

I’m pretty proud of all of my dishes (or I wouldn’t share them with you.) But I’m also tough on myself and usually think even my finished dishes could sometimes use improvement. (Maybe some can, most I probably should leave well enough alone.) But this is definitely one of personal favorites that I think is at the top of it’s game, so I’m very proud of this one.

Now, since we’re using four large half-breasts it seems like the natural thing to say is “this serves four”. And it does, but — they have to be really hungry. Remember, large chicken breasts. The one I had the other night, I was stuffed as much as the chicken when I was done. So afterwards I figured out, four in a package, package was three pounds. If they were of equal size that would have been 12 ounces each, and my piece was the largest in the bunch so it was probably on the order of 14 or 15 ounces. Plus it’s stuffed plus a plate full of starch underneath it. Therefore, you could probably serve six easily, and maybe stretch it out to eight (and still give folks around 6 to 8 ounces of chicken, so not bad a stretch that.) Serve it family-style instead of individually. Since it’s stuffed, a row of nice one-inch slices over that bed of noodles will look very attractive too!

By the way, I have to mention, there is something about this dish (and others) that drives me crazy. It’s not the making of it, it’s the relaying of it. You see, I have always so been one of those folks who puts together in ingredients on the fly, as needed, not one who measures. Alas to share my recipes, things need to be measured. Here in lies the rub: Too many variables!

For instance in this very recipe, the chicken breasts I bought turned out to be roughly 30% larger than the one’s I cooked when I first came up with this recipe several months ago. That meant two slight problems: I initially hadn’t made enough sauce (and had to up the ingredient amountts) and also an additional 10-15 minutes was required in cooking time. Now how does anyone give out exactling measurements when the very fact of two “large” breasts can mean very different things to very different people? How can I be exact when the breasts I myself purchase from the same supermarket might vary as much as 20-40% in size from one time to another?

Not sure what the answer is. I’m a long time cook, but a very short time recipe writer. All I can say is, I hope this works for you. If not, you’ll need to adjust. And I suppose that is the answer right here. That it ends up being up to you. A good cook, a long time cook, knows this is not all written in stone and to change up as circumstances dictate. For you new cooks, you’ve been warned: Adjust as necessary. And when it comes to recipes, remember what Captain Jack Sparrow says “There’s not so much rules as they are guidelines.”

Harry’s Stuffed Chicken Florentine
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients

2 large boneless, skinless breasts cut in half (4 half-breasts)
8-10 oz frozen chopped spinach, cooked
1/2 medium (or 1 small) yellow onion, diced
2/3 cup ricotta
1/2 cup (total) grated parmigiano (two 1/4 cups actually)
2 cloves garlic
garlic powder
salt
pepper
1/4 pint heavy cream (can substitue light cream)
1/2 cup dry white wine
8oz egg noodles (often this is half a bag)

Frying pan to medium heat, add cooking oil, two garlic cloves sliced, onion, lightly brown, add cooked frozen spinach (cooked in microwave covered for 3 minutes prior to this), add 1/2 cup of ricotta, 1/4 cup grated parm, salt and pepper, lower heat a bit and mix together for about two minutes. Let this cool down enough so you can work with this with your hands.

With a sharp knife make pouches in sides of the chicken breast pieces (see photo above) and place in as much of the warm (not hot) spinach mixture as possible. You may or may not want to toothpick these for better closure. Season both sides of chicken with salt, pepper and garlic powder and place in frying pan, medium-high heat, cooking oil, brown both sides of the chicken, 3-5 minutes per side.

While browning the chicken. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and take the remaining stuffing from the frying pan and put into a medium sauce pot. Add in the cream and the white wine. (A drier, more medium-bodied wine such as Pinot Grigio is preferred. Don’t use a sweet wine in this.) Stir and mix together well over low heat . As we are transforming our stuffing into a thinner sauce of more volume, you need more seasoning, so add salt, pepper and another 1/4 grated parm. Stir off and on, this should take 3-4 minutes. You do not want to reduce this mixture, btw.

Pour a little bit of the sauce into the empty casserole dish (or dishes if chicken pieces are very large) just to coat. Place chicken on top, pour rest of sauce completely around the chicken and some on top. Cover with aluminum foil. Place in heated 400 degree oven until done (when it reaches an internal temperature of 165-175 degrees F). Depending on oven, chicken pieces etc, this will take about 35-50 minutes.

About 15 or 20 minutes before chicken is done, cook egg noodles in boiling water, drain fully. Remove chicken from casserole dishes, put on side for moment. On each person’s plate, make a bed of noodles, spoon over liberally with florentine sauce, place chicken on top, add a little more sauce to top of chicken and serve.

Personally, I don’t think any side veggies are needed with this meal. Myself, I like serving it with some chilled cranberry sauce and a glass of white wine on the side — preferably the same wine used in the dish — although a slightly sweeter, fruitier wine would work nicely too.

If I had my druthers, the best way to do this recipe would be on my charcoal grill with the lid down — the perfect combination of flame and air moving all around the poultry. But that’s not the goal of this recipe. The challenge I set up for myself here was how to get a BBQ-like chicken with savory, crisp skin in the oven. (Cause not all of us are crazy enough to shovel through three feet of snow at 10 degrees F and use the outdoor grill in the winter. Or, for me the day I came up with this, it was was a 98 F day with 85% humidtiy. I’ll take the indoors with AC blasting and an oven on, then cooking by a roaring fire outside, thank you.)

This is one of those ideas that took two trys to nail down, call them version one and two. As I am known to say, you learn as much (if not more) by your mistakes. So I’m sharing it with you because like me, you’ll pick up some ideas when you run across these problems again. I certainly know I’ll be keeping these solutions in mind myself next time and at least avoid these same errors. (As always, you can feel free to skip down to the bottom and get the “unvarnished” recipe. Or take the ride with me and continue reading. Your chice.)

I knew there were going to be “technical details” when I came up with the idea for this dish. First, I wanted BBQ but with Orange and I hadn’t done anything like that before (not a biggie, just mentioning it was one element). Second was I was trying to BBQ inside, and because the pieces were large and thick, I knew I had to abandon the idea of the two-burner kitchen grill. That means grilling in the oven. (strictly speaking that’s not possible if you go by the exact meaning of the words, but I think you get the concept).

I wanted to add OJ to my sauce which make my base not so much ketchup but the orange itself, plus doing so would thin the sauce out. Second problem, getting a good crisp skin, an “eatable skin”, without charring the sauce atop it into black, burn. (When I say eatable skin, meaning I rarely eat chciken skin. But if I did it correctly even I would love it.)

And so came try numero uno with it’s mistakes and problems:

Mistake one … putting in large baking dish … for one, wasn’t exposing underside to air heat … two as it would fry, juices and fats would mix into bbq sauce … In short, I was cooking this like a chicken in a sauce dish. Why, I dunno. I had to make this it’s original intention: BBQd tasting chicken, crisp skin, in the oven. Silly me. So in version two (my second try at this the next day) I ended up removing and placing on wired grill atop baking sheet as should have

Problem one … As mentioned, the OJ made sauce too thin. (I think that’s one of the reasons I made the other error of putting it in a deep baking dish, because it would “hold” to some degree to the chicken, but not as much as I wanted, and I didn’t want a big mess.) So version one solution tried, helped a bit, some cornstarch. Cornstartch is a nice thickner which unlike flour does not require heat as an element. (Sure heat would help the thickening and did during the actual baking.) The answer I found was to reduce the sauce. More concentrated flavor and it thicken more to my liking.

Problem two: Skin did get crispy … but … could be cripsier … problem, at it’s best, would have left in any longer and bbq sauce would have burnt … how to more scripy without burning? Doing it in the casserole deep dish was the mistake. The simple answer was doing it atop the grill on sheet increased both the crispieness and let dry heat get under the poultry. One thing I did get right the first time, scoring the skin; second time I went from a few scores to around on dozen on each quarter.

Yes, I’ve done my best to ignore the option of placing it in the broiler for a quick bit at the end. Why? Too easy in one way. Too “dangerous” in another. How so? Remember, you can go from slightly crispy to burnt in as little as 20 seconds. Remember those of you who are masters of the outdoor grill this isn’t going to be 100% perfectly identical … but we’re trying for 95% or so and it gets there.

Now two challenges for you. First, see if folks don’t think you did it on the outside grill. See their eyes perk up when you tell them you did it in the oven. Second, those who love to eat chicken skin are going to think this is incredible; and while not all, some people who never eat skin, ask them to try this. I’m betting there will be one or two converts.

One last (and probably obvious observation to share) This is definitely a cost-cutter meal: cheap to buy and then you take it home and make it extra flavorful.

Roasted Orange-BBQ Chicken Leg Quarters
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

Four or five large chicken leg quarters (theighs and legs together)

mini rub:

1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp paprika
1-2 tsps salt (this helps dry the skin as well as add flavor, that’s why a bit more than normal)
2 tsps pepper

sauce:

1 cup ketchup
3 tbsps worchestershire
4 tbsps honey
1 tbsps dijon (or brown)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp horseradish sauce
dash of salt
dash of pepper
1-2 tbsps lemon or lime juice (totally optional)
zest of one large orange (as much as you can get out of it)

Make many small scores through skin of top side of chicken. Mix dried ingredients and apply the rub to top of chicken; don’t neglect putting some on the under side. Put in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the BBQ sauce as listed, placing all the ingredients in a small pot. As the OJ will have thinned the sauce, reduce it down until you get to a somewhat thicker consistency (such as that of say, steak sauce).

Preheat oven to 425. Baste chicken with sauce. Place on shallow wired rack atop baking sheet and place in oven. Expect this phase to take roughly 45 minutes (depending on your oven, size of chicken, size of bones, etc.)

15 minutes into it, turn chicken over. After 15 more minutes, again turn chicken over. Lightly cover the top of chicken with more of the BBQ sauce (not too thick, we want crispy skin.)

After chicken has been in for about 40 minutes, check with internal thermometer every 5-7 minutes until temperature is 150F. At this point turn oven to highest setting (often 500, some ovens go to 525 or 550). Skip checking with thermometer for now and instead check every 5-7 minutes for color and doneness visually. You will start to have a smoky kitchen at this point, that is normal.

When you feel it looks right and is done, again check internal temp. You must achieve a minimum of 165F to safely eat chicken. So when you are between 165-175F it’s perfect. Remove from oven and let rest at least ten minutes then serve.