Tag Archives: Chicken

Coconut-Lime Chicken and Cabbage-Mango Slaw

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Currently cooking out of Simple Weeknight Favorites from America’s Test Kitchen

Salad season has arrived.

(I’m going to ignore the fact that I had to turn on the heat in my house this morning. Also, today was the first day in a week that I actually saw the sun.)

As Bryan will tell you, I don’t believe in delicate salads. If I’m going to eat salad for a meal, I want a salad with substance and lots of stuff in it. I want to see a garden of colors and bite down on many different textures. And if the salad is tossed with homemade ranch dressing (preferably buttermilk ranch), so much the better. And I don’t like fruit in my salad. Nuts yes. Fruit no.

So this slaw had a couple of strikes against it right off the bat, but I was intrigued enough by the coconut-lime dressing to give it a try. Also, I had tried something fairly similar at a well-known chinese bistro-type restaurant not too long ago.

You start off by poaching a couple of chicken breasts in water, fish sauce and Asian chili-garlic sauce. Once the chicken is cooked, you shred it and toss it in a dressing made of more fish sauce, more chili-garlic sauce, lime juice and cream of coconut. The dressing is also used on a slaw of cabbage, diced mango and cilantro. Everything gets tossed together and topped with chopped, roasted cashews.

I really, really liked this slaw. The chicken gives the salad enough oomph to make it suitable for a meal. The dressing is a little sweet, a little tangy, a little funky (from the fish sauce) and quite spicy. Then you have the coolness and sweetness of the mango and the buttery crunch of the cashews. I have to admit to doctoring the salad up a bit after I took this pictures. To add a little more color and crunch, I mixed in a chopped orange bell pepper and a handful of cherry tomatoes.

I also fudged a bit on the dressing. The recipe calls for 5 tablespoons of cream of coconut. I tasted the dressing after 4 tablespoons, and it was quite sweet and coconutty. So I added another tablespoon of lime juice and left out the last tablespoon of cream of coconut. Just one teaspoon of chili-garlic sauce was enough to keep my mouth tingling, so if you don’t like spicy, you might want to cut it down to a half of a teaspoon of chili-garlic sauce. This slaw is best eaten the same day it is made; the lime juice really softens up the cabbage and you lose that crunchy texture.

Pasta with Lemony Chicken and Asparagus

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Currently cooking out of Simple Weeknight Favorites from America’s Test Kitchen

This dish combined many of the things I love to eat: pasta, chicken and asparagus all wrapped up in a light sauce of lemon, Parmesan and garlic. I figured that I’d really like this dish, and I wasn’t disappointed. It was super easy to make and tasted delicious.

You start off by browning pieces of chicken breast in a bit of butter. Using the same skillet, asparagus is sauteed just until tender, at which point chopped garlic is stirred in and cooked until fragrant. While the asparagus cooks, pasta is boiled until al dente, then drained, reserving about a cup of the pasta water. Everything (chicken, asparagus, pasta) is mixed into the skillet that the chicken and asparagus was cooked in, followed by grated Parmesan cheese and lemon juice. If the dish seems a little dry, you add some of the reserved pasta water to loosen it up.

This had just the right amount of lemon and garlic, without being harsh or sour. We had leftovers the next night, and they were pretty good as well. I did add a splash of cream to the leftovers as they were pretty dry. All in all, this is a great springtime dish. It is quick enough for a weeknight meal, but I wouldn’t be ashamed to serve it to company, either.

Quick White Wine-Braised Chicken and Potatoes

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Currently cooking out of Simple Weeknight Favorites from America’s Test Kitchen

I really liked this dish. It was fast and easy, just as advertised. My only beef is that I would have preferred chicken breast meat to chicken thighs. I find I’m not much of a thigh person these days.

The dish starts out by microwaving small red potatoes until they are tender. This is one of those I-can’t-believe-I-didn’t-think-of-this tips that I will use forever more. It’s much easier and faster than waiting for water to boil.

Anyway, while the potatoes are microwaving, you brown the chicken thighs that you’ve cut in half and seasoned with salt and pepper. The chicken gets set aside, and using the same pan, you cook carrots and leeks until they are tender. Wine is used to deglaze the pan, after which the chicken and any accumulated juices are added back to the pan. The pan is covered and the chicken simmers until it is done. The chicken, carrots and leeks are transferred to another plate, along with the potatoes, so you can reduce the remaining liquid to build the sauce. Once the liquid has thickened slightly, you stir in creme fraiche (or sour cream if you are me), lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. The sauce is poured over the chicken, carrots, leeks and potatoes and everything is stirred together and seasoned to taste.

As I said above, both Bryan and I really enjoyed this dish. It was filling and reheated very well. The only change I would make next time, besides using chicken breasts instead of thighs, would be to cut down on the amount of meat. It felt like there was too much meat compared to the amount of veggies.

Not-My-Grandma’s Chicken with Lemon, Garlic and Oregano

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Currently cooking from In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite by Melissa Clark

At some point in my life, I decided that I was a chicken breast kind of person, not a drumstick one. Maybe it was that little piece of fatty, chewy gristle that I could never seem to avoid eating, or the fact that there always seemed to be more bone than meat on a drumstick. Whatever it was, I haven’t eaten chicken drumsticks for years, until this recipe came along. Now I’ve made it twice in one week.

The first time I made it, we ate most of the drumsticks before I could get a picture (curse you winter and your early darkness). Since I wanted to try the dish with more lemon and less garlic and it really needed a picture, I made it again, with a few changes.

The recipe begins by having you rub drumsticks with olive oil, salt and pepper, and broiling them until they are lightly browned. While the meat is broiling, you create a paste by mashing up some garlic cloves and stirring in lemon juice. Once the drumsticks are browned, you brush the garlic/lemon juice paste over the chicken, sprinkle it with oregano and bake the dish for 25 to 30 minutes.

Here’s what I learned the two times I’ve made this. I like my drumsticks with less garlic (two or three cloves as opposed to Clark’s five) and more lemon (the juice of two lemons instead of Clark’s one). Make sure you smash the heck out of the garlic (if you have a mortar and pestle, this is the time to use it. I don’t, so I just used a knife to  smear and mash the garlic). I also broiled my chicken until it was very dark brown and baked it for about 20 minutes. Finally, use the smallest dish you can, even if it means you have to wedge the chicken in. If you use too big of a dish, the stuff on the bottom (bits of garlic and chicken and lemon juice) can burn.

The lemon, garlic and oregano make this dish fragrant and tasty. It comes together very, very quickly and is perfect for a weeknight meal. I’d imagine you could use thighs instead of the drumsticks, adjusting for a longer baking period. You could even use chicken breasts, but I wouldn’t use skinless breasts. With the broiling and the baking, I think a skinless chicken breast would dry out before it got cooked all the way through.

Spicy, Garlicky Cashew Chicken

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Currently cooking from In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite by Melissa Clark

When I started reading through this book, looking for recipes to make, I skipped this dish three or four times. It looked like too much work. I couldn’t imagine the flavors. It just didn’t sound that good. Then Bryan happened to see the recipe; he thought it sounded good.

Maybe I should listen to him more often, because this dish rocked. Seriously, this is one of the best chicken dishes I’ve ever made. And it wasn’t that much work.

You begin by using a food processor to make a paste of salted, roasted cashews, cilantro, olive oil, garlic, soy sauce, brown sugar, lime juice and a jalapeno. Half of the paste gets rubbed over chicken thighs/drumsticks which are then broiled or grilled, and the rest of the paste is served at the table as extra sauce.

I used chicken breasts that I cut into pieces and threaded on metal skewers. I opted for the broiler over the grill, and I let the chicken marinate in the paste for about two hours before I broiled them. At first, I was worried that the paste was too sweet and too spicy (even though I only used half of a seeded jalapeno). But under the broiler, some sort of alchemy took place. Married with the chicken, the sweetness turned into a faint caramel bitterness, the toastiness of the cashews took center stage, and the spiciness of the jalapeno almost disappeared. Unfortunately, the paste that I saved to serve as a sauce (I thinned it down with a little water) was still too sweet. Next time I’ll add extra lime juice or cut the sugar a bit.

I can’t wait until summer when I can try this out on the grill. I suspect the smokiness of the grill will take this dish over the top.

Spiced Chipotle Honey Chicken Breasts with Sweet Potatoes

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Currently cooking from In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite by Melissa Clark

I’ve had a devil of a time trying to pick my next cookbook. You’d think, with more than 200 cookbooks, that that would be easy. Nope. I’ve been trying to cut down on my processed sugar intake, so I wanted to steer clear of baking cookbooks (at least for a little while). And none of my savory cookbooks looked very appealing. Lately, all I’ve wanted to eat are salads full of cabbage, lettuce and other assorted veggies. Also, I wanted to cook out of one of my newer cookbooks. I kept coming back to this book, but I just couldn’t find more than a handful of recipes that sounded good. I decided to go for it anyway. I’ll probably tagteam this book with another of Melissa Clark’s new cookbooks, Cook This Now.

One of the first things that struck me about In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite was how readable it was. Every recipe comes with a story. Not just headnotes, but a story that tells you how the recipe came about. That’s not surprising, considering Clark writes a regular column for the New York Times dining section, in addition to appearing in just about every food magazine ever published. She’s got an easy way of writing that makes you feel like she’s your best friend. She makes writing look effortless.

Anyway, onto the first dish. This book has exactly one recipe for chicken breasts, and Clark even admits that she originally envisioned using a whole chicken, preferring the dark meat to the white meat, but her editor requested chicken breasts. I don’t know how this would work with a whole chicken, but I can tell you that it works just fine with chicken breasts. Better than fine, actually. This was so good that Bryan even admitted to kind of liking the sweet potatoes.

The dish is pretty simple and perfect for a weeknight. You take a couple of sweet potatoes (okay, yams), cut them into chunks and start roasting them in the oven. Meanwhile, you make a paste of honey, chipotle chilies in adobe sauce, cumin, cinnamon, salt, garlic and vinegar. The paste gets rubbed all over chicken breasts, then the meat gets place on top of the sweet potato chunks and roasted until the chicken is done, about 20 more minutes.

My only gripe is that the paste was very spicy. The recipe calls for 4 chipotle chilies, minced. I hate the seeds (they never soften, and I find their hard texture annoying), so I took all the seeds out, and it was still too spicy. I would cut the chilies in half if you don’t like spice. Other than that, I really liked this dish. The sweet potatoes get soft but not mushy and soak up a lot of the chicken juice. The chicken stays moist, and the paste gives it a lot of flavor. I was a little unsure about the combination of cinnamon and cumin, but here it really works. I love the idea of roasting the chicken breasts over veggies, and I’d like to try it with cauliflower.

As for a picture? Well, I came down with a cold the day I made this, and I was too tired and sneezy to get out the camera. Sorry.

Chicken Divan

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Currently cooking out of Slow Cooker Revolution by America’s Test Kitchen

I’m having a hard time trying to think of something to say about this dish. It was good, and it was easy. I didn’t have to heat up the house to make it, and we now have plenty of leftovers. There’s nothing spectacular going on here, just filling comfort food.

You start off by browning some onions, garlic and thyme. Once the onions are browned, you make a roux by stirring in flour and cooking it for a minute, then whisking in chicken broth. This mixture goes into the slow cooker, and you add dried mustard, cream and chicken thighs. This gets cooked, on low, for four to six hours, until the chicken thighs are tender and easily shredded. To finish off the dish, you stir in shredded cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese and instant rice and let the casserole cook until the rice is tender, about 30 minutes on high. The last step is to microwave broccoli until it is tender and then stir it into the casserole. The recipe called for a topping of browned bread crumbs to be sprinkled on top of each serving, but I got lazy and left it off. I didn’t miss it a bit.

I liked the idea of cooking the broccoli separately and then stirring it in at the end. Although it is an extra step, this ensured  broccoli that was tender but not mushy. In addition, the broccoli stayed a bright green; usually, cooking broccoli in the slow cookers leaves you with gray, sad-looking spears.

Shredded Barbecued Chicken

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Currently cooking out of Slow Cooker Revolution by America’s Test Kitchen

At dinner, there are few things more satisfying than sitting down to a plate of barbecued-covered chicken. Especially knowing that you’ve spent less than 5 minutes of active time getting it done.

Spices and barbecue sauce get rubbed all over boneless, skinless chicken thighs and breasts. Everything gets tossed in the slow cooker and left alone for about 6 hours. When the chicken is tender, it gets shredded and tossed with the braising liquid.

This is a simple, satisfying dish.

Drumsticks, Cabbage and Rice, Stuck-Pot Style

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Currently cooking out of The Food Matters Cookbook by Mark Bittman

While not a total flop, this dish didn’t turn out anything like it was supposed to. It was kind of boring, greasy and mushy. The dish was so monotonously grayish green, I didn’t even bother to get a picture of it.

Stuck-pot style refers to a method of cooking rice so that the rice on the bottom forms a brown, crunchy crust. When you invert the rice onto a plate, the crust becomes the top of the dish. I was excited to give this dish a try, and I thought the textural differences in the rice would be interesting.

The dish starts off by parboiling brown rice and browning chicken drumsticks in olive oil (I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs). Thinly sliced cabbage and minced garlic is added to the oil in the pot and sauteed until the cabbage is softened. The next step involves layering the rice, meat and vegetables in the pot, starting and ending with the rice. The dish cooks for 45 minutes or until the rice is tender.

So what went wrong? I think my biggest mistake was using too large of a pot, which meant I had to use more oil to make sure the rice didn’t burn which meant I ended up with greasy rice. I also should have added more liquid to the pot in the beginning to get the rice more tender. I’m not sure what went wrong with the cabbage; it came out of the pot very mushy. If I try this dish again, I’ll try cooking the cabbage less in the beginning.

Braised Chard and Chicken with Bulgur

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Currently cooking out of The Food Matters Cookbook by Mark Bittman

Another recipe with no picture. And I don’t even have the excuse that we ate it too fast. We didn’t. It was just . . . ugly. It looked like gray-green sludge. Can’t say it didn’t taste like it too, just a little bit.

The recipe starts by browning chicken thighs (skinless and boneless, again), then adding onion and garlic to the pot until they are softened. Chard stems (leaves are added at the end) and the grains are stirred in, followed by white wine and the chicken stock. The stew is simmered until the grains are tender. At that point, the sliced chard leaves and balsamic vinegar are stirred in.

I really wanted to like this dish, but it tasted . . . muddy. I actually liked it better before adding the vinegar.