Chicken Breasts with Potatoes and Mashed Peas

The French do it right. Two words. Pan Sauce. This is kind of a winter recipe, but Andrea and I have been eating all of this light, healthy California cuisine (sea weed, sea weed, sea weed!) that I was craving something heavy. Plus, Andrea went to the downtown farmer's market Wednesday and brought back some fancy potatoes. She couldn't remember the name of them, but apparently they are the richer, more successful cousins of the Yukon Gold. Again, this is one of those recipes where you actually feel like you are cooking instead of passively throwing together a bunch of ingredients.

Chicken Breasts with Potatoes and Mashed Peas (F&W, 2009)

Ingredients

2 pounds fingerling potatoes, scrubbed and halved lengthwise
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 2 tablespoons chilled
Four 3/4-pound chicken breast halves on the bone
2 large thyme sprigs, plus 2 teaspoons chopped thyme
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock or low-sodium broth
Two 10-ounce packages of frozen baby peas
1 tablespoon finely chopped mint

(For the wine, we used a 2007 Austrian Grüner Veltliner.)

Preheat the oven to 425°. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the halved potatoes with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast the potatoes for about 35 minutes or until tender and browned. Set the potatoes aside. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°.

Meanwhile, in a large ovenproof skillet, melt the 3 tablespoons of butter. Season the chicken breast halves with salt and pepper and add to the skillet, skin side down, along with the thyme sprigs. Cook over moderately low heat until the skin is well browned, about 15 minutes. Turn and cook for 5 minutes longer, basting occasionally with the pan juices.

Transfer the chicken to the oven and roast for about 15 minutes, until cooked through. Add the chicken to the potatoes and keep warm. Reserve 3 tablespoons of the melted fat from the skillet.

Pour off the remaining fat from the skillet and discard the thyme sprigs. Add 1/2 cup of the wine to the skillet and boil over moderately high heat, scraping up the browned bits, until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add the chicken stock and boil until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped thyme and 2 tablespoons of chilled butter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add the green peas, cover and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3 minutes. Drain the peas, transfer half to a food processor and coarsely puree. Stir the puree back into the remaining peas. Add the reserved fat from the skillet along with the remaining 2 tablespoons of wine and the mint. Season with salt and pepper.

Transfer the chicken breasts and potatoes to plates. Spoon the mashed peas alongside and serve with the pan sauce.

Tandoori Chicken

I acted like an adult on Monday and went to the store and got our groceries for the week. As my wife can attest, I despise going to the grocery store. She usually gets our weekly food staples. I think it is due to my general aversion to crowded places. However, in a grocery store, the crowd is pushing around large metal death baskets on wheels. Plus, I'm a very fast shopper. I usually have a list and have mentally mapped out my approach to efficiently acquire each item. You get in my way at the grocery store and you become collateral damage. This time, I went in the evening. I figured the majority of responsible people bitterly did their shopping on Sunday night. I also brought my iPod and did not make a list. I just put on my headphones and let MF Doom accompany me through the store. Then, a strange thing happened. As I looked at the food items passing before me, recipes started to pop in my head. All of the jumbled up, passive knowledge from the cookbooks and food blogs I read manifested itself as a nicely organized mental recipe box. I leisurely wandered up and down the aisles. Except the aisles weren't aisles any more. They were streaming lines of green code. I also knew kung fu. (Show me.)

Here is one of the recipes:

Tandoori Chicken (Lebovitz, 2009, with modifications)

1/8 teaspoon saffron powder, or 1/4 teaspoon saffron threads (see Note)
1 tablespoon boiling water
4 skinless chicken thighs
4 skinless chicken legs
3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder, depending on how hot you want it
10 turns fresh ground black pepper
1 cup whole milk plain yogurt
juice of one fresh lime
1 tablespoon finely-minced fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced

Soak the saffron in the boiling water for five minutes. Score the chicken flesh deeply. Put the chicken in a large zip-top freezer bag. Add all of the remaining ingredients to the bag, including the saffron (and the water) and let out most of the air, then seal the top. Massage the bag to mix the ingredients and coat the chicken pieces. Refrigerate the chicken overnight (or all day, the longer the better). Prepare your grill or grill pan, make sure it is piping hot. Oil it. Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and grill the pieces with the thick marinade clinging to them, until dark on one side. Flip and grill until darkened on the other side. (I urge you to use a meat thermometer. It takes out the guess work.) So, at this point, the outside of your chicken is cooked, but the inside is still a little raw. Your goal is to get the internal temperature of the chicken to 180 F without burning it. The ANSWER: Indirect heat. If you are inside using a grill pan, turn on the oven to 350-400F and bake them for 10 minutes. If you are outside, turn off half (or one side) of the grill burners, place the chicken pieces on the unlit half and cook them until you reach 180 F.


Next time I make these, I'm going to do it using a grill pan inside. I felt I didn't have that much control of the heat on my grill tonight. It is still relatively chilly and it took a long time for the indirect cooking portion to finish. The flavor is outstanding and the marinade made the meat extremely tender. The chicken was accompanied by a side of kachumber and jasmine rice. Also, as you can see in the picture, my chicken wasn't red like you would typically expect to see if you ordered Tandoori chicken at a restaurant. That is because I did not have the red food coloring that is sold at Indian markets.

Chicken Hot Pot with Tofu

Andrea went from zero to wicked sick in less than 24 hours. She looks and sounds like a zombified Issac Hayes. (Hmmm. Zombified. I think I just made up a word. Sounds correct though. I'm sticking with it.) To heal my sick spouse, I channeled the spirit of the old Asian lady that lives in our pantry. She told me to make Andrea a hot pot. So, I did.

Chicken Hot Pot with Tofu (F&W 2008 w/modifications)

Ingredients

1. 12 cups chicken stock or low-sodium broth
2. 1 container shitake mushrooms, stems removed, caps thinly sliced
   
3. One 2-inch piece of ginger, thinly sliced
4. 2 large garlic cloves, crushed
5. Kosher salt
6. 6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (about 1 3/4 pounds), trimmed and sliced into 1/4-inch strips
7. One 14-ounce package firm tofu, drained and cut into 1/2-inch dice
8. 4 scallions, thinly sliced
9. Rice noodles, cooked.
   
10. Napa cabbage, thinly sliced
    
11. Asian sesame oil, for drizzling

Directions
In a large soup pot, bring the stock, mushroom stems, ginger and garlic to a simmer. Cook over low heat for 30 minutes. Strain the stock into a large bowl and return it to the pot. Season the broth with salt. Bring the broth to a boil; add the chicken. Cook until the chicken is white throughout, about 4 minutes. Divide the mushroom caps, tofu and scallions among eight soup bowls and serve, passing the broth and sesame oil at the table. Or serve everything family style as shown in the crappy photo. I recommend hot sesame oil (flavor not temperature).

Cooking the mushroom stems, ginger, and garlic in the chicken stock made a really easy and really good base that I think we are going to revisit frequently this winter.

Bacon Salt

I cannot for the life of me remember what I was reading when I saw the Google ad that brought me to find this stupendous concoction. I do, however, remember the feeling of excitement that welled up in the pit of my stomach after seeing those two words side by side. There are three other individuals on this earth that love bacon more than me and they are my wife, her brother, and our friend Neveen (see Flag Cake post). Upon spying the website, I sent them an e-mail with the link. My brother-in-law (Nathan, for those of you playing along at home) responded with the following, "This is going to change my LIFE! I told Cat (his wife, short for Catherine) about this huge personal development, but she thought that I was leading up to telling her that Andrea was prego. I said no, this is better." He then called me the following day to inform me that he secured the bacon salt at the grocery store. I instantly became jealous as I could not find it at Hy-Vee. Just imagine the possibilities! I asked him to try it out. So, over the phone, he opened his fridge and spied the remnants of a five-day-old rotisserie chicken that was on the verge of a hostile mold takeover. Sprinkle, sprinkle....chewing sounds...."it's fantastic!" He then proceeded to try it on a banana. I think he was going to make scrambled eggs this morning and report back.

Now our friend Neveen, she is a Muslim and it is against her religion to eat bacon. (Yes, she is a torn soul.) So, I thought this would be a friendly alternative given that the bacon salt is kosher and vegetarian. However, she is fearful that her religiously-strict mother (who lives with her and her husband) will die in their kitchen upon finding it in their cupboards. (She will just have to keep it at our house.)

So, I just went to their website and discovered the Hy-Vee that I work next to carries Bacon Salt! The Hy-Vee next to my house does not. Go figure. I have to go.

The Bitten Word

I have to give kudos to these guys at The Bitten Word. As Andrea can attest, I have been a long-time subscriber to several food magazines. They are piling up in our living room as we speak. Do I make any of the recipes found in them? Err...sometimes. With all of the food blogs I read (which I need to make a list and share as it is quite large), my magazines tend to get ignored. Anyway, Clay and Zach at the The Bitten Word are resolving to put their food magazines to use. And, I applaud them. Check out their BBQ Chicken post. Food porn.

Flag Cake!

In the spirit of the holiday, I thought I would post this little number. Andrea and I made it for a Flag Day booze fest we attended in celebration of our homie Neveen officially attaining her US citizenship. It rocked!

Flag Cake (Barefoot Contessa, 2002)

18 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 extra-large eggs at room temperature
1 cup sour cream at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
For the icing:
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese at room temperature
1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
To assemble:
2 half-pints blueberries
3 half-pints raspberries

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour an 18 by 13 by 1 1/2-inch sheet pan.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed, until light and fluffy. On medium speed, add the eggs, 2 at a time, then add the sour cream and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and stir until smooth.

Sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until just combined. Pour into the prepared pan. Smooth the top with a spatula. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool to room temperature.

For the icing, combine the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mixing just until smooth.

Spread three-fourths of the icing on the top of the cooled sheet cake. Outline the flag on the top of the cake with a toothpick. Fill the upper left corner with blueberries. Place 2 rows of raspberries across the top of the cake like a red stripe. Put the remaining icing in a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and pipe two rows of white stripes below the raspberries. Alternate rows of raspberries and icing until the flag is completed. Pipe stars on top of the blueberries.

I served this cake right in the pan.

Crispy Roasted Garlic Potatoes

Sorry, folks. No photo today. Forgot to take one. Besides, all of you have had roasted potatoes before and can imagine what they look like. This is the second time I have made this recipe, and after this second time, I have decided that this dish will be my new recipe for roasted potatoes replacing my other one by Ina Garten. (To be truthful, Andrea actually made this decision stating that these were far superior and I must concur.) I urge you to make these. Roasted potatoes are the perfect accompaniment to any dinner. I make roasted potatoes a lot when grilling because they allow you to be in two places at once. They can be roasting in the oven while you are tending to the grill. You can also roast them on the grill, too. Who is stopping you?

Crispy Roasted Garlic Potatoes (Cook's Country, 2008)

Serves 4

2 pounds red potatoes (baby or large) scrubbed, dried, and cut into wedges
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley
1/8 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position, place rimmed baking sheet on rack, and heat oven to 450 degrees. Meanwhile, toss potatoes, cornstarch, garlic powder, salt, and pepper together in large bowl. Carefully remove preheated baking sheet from oven, add oil, and tilt baking sheet to evenly coat with oil. Place potatoes, cut side down in single layer, on baking sheet. Roast until browned around edges, about 30 minutes. While potatoes roast, mix butter, garlic, parsley, and zest together in medium bowl. Remove baking sheet from oven and, using metal spatula, turn potatoes skin side down. Roast until potatoes are crisp and deep golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer potatoes to bowl with butter and toss until evenly coated. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.