Gumbo, the movie

Okay, it isn't a movie. But I did movie around the kitchen a fair amount making this. I am no longer a gumbo virgin. This was a gumbo three-way (me, and two versions of the dish). My one current personal chef client wants seafood once a week. It's a challenge to prepare in advance any fish dish and have it be fresh and tasty when re-assembled at home. I've learned a lot by doing this.




Version 1: the real thing
Make a roux (two tablespoons chicken fat and two tablespoons flour). Separately saute the "trinity", celery, onion and green bell pepper. Add broth (in my case 2 1/2 cups). Add andouille sausage (in my case 4 oz.). Add frozen cut okra. Add 6 oz crushed tomatoes. Cook 10 minutes. Cook rice separately. When you're ready to eat, add 10 oz. shrimp and let it bubble for 3 minutes. Serve over white rice or stir it in (as per the photo). My seasoning was one thing: Cajun seasoning from the market. It has cayenne and salt. This is not a very detailed plan, but do what I did and go to Google where you'll find a thousand variations on the theme.

Version 2: not the real thing
My client didn't want okra, so I pureed zucchini as a substitute. My client didn't want andouille, so I added liquid smoke. Result: a very good, if slightly different, flavor. She did want shrimp. And I gave her some shredded chicken into the mix. Tomatoes and rice as before. Can you spell swell?

Wangs (or, if you're not a redneck: Wings)

Want to see my new bumper sticker? 

Well, here it is.

I can only hope it helps me gain momentum.

Then there was the chicken wing thing.
Food for a king; not from the Ming;
lacking in ping; unable to ring ...
or to sing;
can possibly zing.
Easy to cook. Easy and messy to eat.
Not too expensive if bought up in bulk.

Get a deal on a big package of them.
Roast 'em at 300 degrees for 2 hours
with a coating of salt, pepper, garlic powder,
and some brown sugar.
Turned once.
Tasty and perfect for a rainy day
when you lack motivation.

Don't make my mistake
and forget to spray the foil
before loading the things.
They stuck a bit.
Tasted quite simple and good.
Not food to garner you
dollars from adoring fans,
but guaranteed to keep at bay the
ZOMBIES
(at least until the wings
are a thing of the past).

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chicken pot pie (no, you can't smoke it)

Herewith is yours truly's very first attempt at chicken pot pie. If it isn't worth a gold medal, it's at least a silver. I won't take too much credit for it, I did follow a recipe more or less (those who know me know how rare it is for me to follow anything). One thing that attracted me to this particular plan was that it calls for two crusts. The addition of potatoes was my idea, the cooked chicken thigh meat was leftovers from the weekend (it could be cooked chicken breast if you are blackmailed into only buying that), the crusts were Pillsbury, the patting on the back - totally my own. I did the preparations in my own way to make it as simple as possible. (My favorite song is "I did it my way" by you-know-who.)

Chicken pot pie
2 supermarket pie crusts
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
1 medium potato, cut into 1/2 inch cubes or smaller
1 medium carrot, same size as the potato
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 cup frozen peas
salt and pepper to taste
celery seed to taste
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup AP flour
2/3 cups milk

Place one pie crust in the bottom of a deep 9-inch pie pan. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Place the chicken stock in a large saute pan along with the potato, carrot, celery, onion, salt, pepper and celery seed. Bring to a simmer and cook maybe 10 minutes until the carrots are tender. Remove to a bowl and add in the peas. Pour the broth into a measuring cup and add more to it to come up to 1 3/4 cups.
Melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and continue whisking while it cooks for 2 minutes. Whisk in the broth and milk. Bring to a simmer and keep stirring until it thickens.
Place the vegetables in the pie pan. Pour the gravy over the top. Stir it a bit carefully to get the gravy to merge down into the veggies.
Cover with the other pie crust and pinch the edges together. Cut a few slits in the crust to allow steam to escape.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until the crust is brown and all else is bubbling.
Let it sit for 10 minutes to avoid pizza mouth. Serve with a nice salad.

Broiled chicken thighs

When a person spends several years perfecting a technique and he then wants to share it, the least he can hope for is to show it off well enough that folks want to take a good look at it. That's the case with these chicken thighs. Details below, but notice that I have cut the meat away from the bone slightly on the non-skin side. According to Jacques Pepin this is a good technique for even cooking. Maybe, but it cost me all of 30 seconds to do it.

Broiled chicken thighs
5 chicken thighs, skin on and bone in
ground Chinese 5-spice powder
garlic powder
black pepper

Brine the thighs for 2 hours, rinse thoroughly and dry with paper towels. Sprinkle them generously with the powders and pepper. Remember you don't need salt after the brining process. If you're not willing to brine, make a different recipe.

Place them skin side down on a greased rack on a baking pan and slide under the broiler (at least 4 inches from heat source). Remember not to close the oven door all the way to avoid the heating element or gas flame from cycling off.

After 10 minutes turn the thighs skin side up and place back under the broiler. Keep an eye on them so that the skin does not burn. If they start to darken too much, turn the broiler off and the oven to 400 degrees. Close the door and cook the cute little devils to 170 degrees internal temp. Let them rest 5 minutes. Eat them, but not too quickly.

Dry rub for anything

The picture has absolutely nothing to do with this posting. I just happen to like it.

I got a decent price on a rack of St. Louis-style ribs the other day and I have them in the fridge right now coated in a dry rub. I got this list of ingredients from someone at FoodNetwork and I don't remember who. In comparing it to a few other options I have determined that it is suitable for any meat or poultry. The quantity was enough for the rack of ribs and a T-bone steak coming up on Monday.

Here it is just in case you'd like to have it filed away somewhere for a rainy (or not) day. BTW, I am cooking the ribs in the oven and low-ish temp for probably 4 hours. But you don't need to learn how to cook ribs from me. I make it up as I go along.

Dry rub for meat and poultry
2 Tbs espresso powder (or ground coffee)
2 Tbs kosher
2 Tbs paprika (smoked is great if you have it)
1 Tbs chile powder
1 Tbs brown sugar
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp ground coriander

Rub all over your meat and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. Yield is enough for a full rack of St. Louis-style ribs plus 4 chicken thighs.

So ... weirdness in the hen house

This is the way a chicken looks before I bury it. I could have called this succotash chicken, given that the principle ingredients other than the bird are ... wait for it ... lima beans and corn. I got a peculiar itch about a week ago. It was to cook a chicken in a fashion I had never done, never heard of, and never will I be able to sort out where this idea came from. One name for it could be smothered chicken. After all, it gets buried in a whole bunch of stuff. Let's get down to it.

Spatchcock the chicken (which is to say remove the backbone which you WILL save for stock.) Cut 1/2 a large onion into half moons. Get a 1 lb. package of lima beans out of the freezer. Get a 1 lb. package of corn out of the freezer. Get some bacon out of the fridge. Oh, get a chicken. For the first time in modern history I did not brine the bird. Get out your onion powder, garlic powder, dried tarragon, salt and pepper. That's everything you need. Preheat your oven to 275 degrees. Use a Dutch oven or other heavy oven-proof pot. Drop half of the onions in the bottom. Add some of each of your seasonings. Drop about half of the limas on that - season again. Same with the corn - season again. Lay 4 slices of bacon over the top of this stuff. Put the chicken on top, skin side up. Repeat the layers as before except start with 4 more slices of bacon. Then everything else. Put the pot, covered, in the oven for 3 hours. There you have it.

Given that limas and corn are somewhat starchy, you can consider this a one-pot meal. On the other hand, I have nothing against serving a salad alongside.

Poached chicken

Those poached chickens above look so lifelike. Oh, come on, it's just a joke. I performed an experiment over the weekend. I brined a whole chicken (backbone removed) for 5 days. Then I got nervous about how to cook it. What if it was too salty? I resolved the question by poaching it. Into a pot it went with just enough water to cover, garlic powder, onion powder, dried tarragon, mustard powder, black pepper and I don't know what else. Brought everything to a boil and reduced it to a slow simmer for 20 minutes. Then I turned off the heat and let the bird sit for another 15 minutes. I'm inclined to think that the meat was as delicate and soft as it was due to the brining. In any case we ate only one drumstick apiece, so there's a whole bunch left for other purposes.

The leg/thigh man strikes again

I rarely buy chicken parts, unless it's a special bulk deal for legs or wings. I prefer to get a whole bird and break it down. Then I also can make some fresh stock. Those of you who read my blog from time to time know what a brining fanatic I am. Only when you have brined a chicken breast for several hours, pounded it flat, breaded and shallow fried it, will you know why I do it. My legs and thighs were brined overnight, a long time even for me. But a thorough rinse and no added salt during cooking are the only rules you need to obey.

Pan-fried chicken legs and thighs

2 chicken legs

2 chicken thighs

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika (all to taste)

Heat the oil and butter in a cast iron or other heavy skillet until the butter has melted and is almost ready to brown. Season the chicken with all the dry ingredients and place it skin side down in the pan. Leave it alone for 5 minutes. Turn it. Leave it alone for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low. Tent loosely with a piece of foil. Continue cooking about 10 more minutes until juices run clear.

Turducken a la Sinatra ("I did it my way.")

Don’t try this at home. As good as my turducken tasted, I will never make it again. Too labor intensive. As is often the case, I didn’t photo the final product until after dinner – hence the somewhat dismantled chicken above.

Just browse the pix and realize that this is something you want someone else to make for you. What made this possible (without a whole turkey) was smoked turkey wings and 2 duck leg/thigh combos. Everything got boned, wrapped together with some cornbread for stuffing and then took 2 hours to bake (at 325 degrees). I’m exhausted. I’m going to have another drink, eat my dinner, walk the dog, watch some tv and then go to bed.

Smoked turkey wing

Duck legs

Who do you truss?

Chicken - I did it my way

I posted my method of preparing a spatchcocked chicken two times before. However, there were only 2 comments. One never knows if that is because nobody read it or it just wasn’t interesting enough. But I gotta tell you, chicken prepared this way is superb. It was this recipe that got me a mention in the Denver Post (at the top of this page).

As you know I cook some esoteric things. This is down home as it gets. Just chicken with some browning and some roasting. I know you don’t want to go to the trouble of brining. But if you do it once you’ll see the benefits.

Today is a double whammy. For a side I made another potato gratin, this time with mostly sweet potato combined with some russet. A very uncomplicated concoction: 1.25 lbs. potato (2/3 sweet, 1/3 russet, slice very, very thin with a mandolin3); cheese, paprika, salt and pepper, and some parmesan to brown under the broiler at the end. Into the oven at 350 along with the chicken. The taters took about 40 minutes.

This chicken looks pretty naked.

Chicken – I did it my way
1 whole fryer chicken
10 fresh sage leaves
paprika
black pepper
dried tarragon (optional)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp unsalted butter

Cut down the side of the backbone and remove it. Save it for stock.

Brine the bird for 3 hours in a freezer bag in a bath of 2 cups of water, 2 tbsp kosher salt (1 tbsp if using table salt.

Remove from the brine, rinse well, and dry thoroughly with paper towels.

Gently loosen the skin and insert sage leaves under it in as many areas as you can reach. Sprinkle with black pepper and paprika on both sides.

In an oven-proof skillet, melt the butter in the olive oil. When the foam subsides, lay the chicken in skin side down. Brown it for 6-8 minutes. While it’s browning, scatter some tarragon (if using) over the top. Also pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees at this time.

Turn the chicken skin side up and baste it with some of the pan juices. Put the pan in the oven and roast until the thickest part of the breast (where the wings are attached) reaches 160 degrees. Last night it took about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest 10-15 minutes before carving and serving.

Spicy, sweet and sour chicken thighs

Kudos for the genesis of this recipe go to Life’s Ambrosia and Jenn’s Food Journey. I’ve combined elements from the former’s habanero chicken and the latter’s raspberry chipotle chicken. For the peppers I chose to use a few Thai bird chiles we saved from garden in anticipation of the first frost a few days ago. Instead of raspberry jam I used some apricot (which I had on hand).

My choice of chicken was skin-on thighs (I love the skin), again because I had a package (acquired at a low price from the Safeway manager’s specials bin). The Thai chiles aren’t terribly hot, so I used 2 and left the seeds in one of them. Having a marinade meant no brining this time.

Spicy, sweet and sour chicken thighs
2 Thai bird chiles, 1 seeded, 1 not, chopped
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup white vinegar
3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tbsp apricot jam
½ medium onion, sliced thinly into half moons
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

Place the first 5 ingredients in a bowl and whisk thoroughly together. Coat the chicken with this and marinate in a glass bowl covered with plastic in the fridge for a few to several hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a baking dish make 4 “nests” with the onion slices and place the chicken, skin side up, on top of them. Pour excess marinade over the top Bake to 165 degrees, 40-45 minutes (if chicken is at room temp).

Chicken - 2 ways

Today’s photos: not so great. I was in a hurry. Today’s flavors: as good as it gets. My electronic thermometer was acting up and I had to guess when the smoked chicken was done. I came close. There was a little blood near the bones of the thigh and leg. Solution: 1 minute in the microwave.

What I did learn is that my supposition about “hot” smoking time was correct. It takes the same time as if you are oven-roasting. A valuable lesson learned.

What have you been smokin’? Most recently, chicken. Got a great deal on a 4.66 lb. free range bird at Sunflower. It was too big for my wok smoker bamboo basket. So I decided to smoke half and poach the other half. After a bit more thought I decided just to leave the backbone on the part I was going to poach.

You know, it’s really hard to get half a chicken in those little cigarette papers.

In a break from tradition, I spare you my imprecations about brining. No brine today. I’m just cookin’ with luv. (Don’t you freakin’ hate it when tv cooks tout the benefits of “cookin’ with luv”? A little salt and pepper does a better job.)

Having learned my lesson about wok-smoking (it’s a “hot smoke” technique and the cooking time mimics that of roasting in the oven), I am now much more confident about taking on new hunks o’ protein.

So, here goes: Chicken 2 ways

Wok-smoked chicken and poached chicken
1 4-5 lb. chicken, split lengthwise along one side of the backbone
olive oil
salt and pepper and chile powder to taste
butter
12 black peppercorns
2 dried red Mexican chiles, left whole
2 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla)
¼ cup Chinese cooking wine (Xaotsing)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp Chinese black vinegar

Soak 1 ½ cups wood chips in water for 30 minutes. Line your wok with 2 pieces of foil. Spray your bamboo basket with cooking spray.

For the half you will be smoking (the part without the backbone): sprinkle all over with salt, pepper and chili powder.

Place drained wood chips in the wok, cover and heat at 7 (of 10 on the stove dial) until smoking ensues. Place this chicken half into the steamer basket, cover and place the basket over the smoking wood chips. Replace the wok cover. Smoke the chicken for 45 minutes or so. Of course you should check it with a thermometer – 160 degrees in the thickest part of the breast and in the thigh area is your target.

For the poached chicken: put the ½ bird into a pot and cover with water. Drop in pepper corns and chiles. Add fish sauce, Chinese cooking wine, soy and vinegar. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook over very low heat for 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to stand for 10 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the poaching liquid, tent with foil, and allow to cool completely. Strip off all the meat (discarding the skin) and figure out what you want to use it for. (That part’s up to you.)

Honey and spice grilled chicken

Once again my camera was not near at hand. I’ve recycled the photo above from a previous version of broiled chicken. What I made last night looked just like this.

A couple of days ago two of the bloggers I follow published recipes for honey glazed chicken. I needed to adapt it for my stovetop grill. Also, I wanted bone in and skin on chicken pieces. So as not to have the chicken stick to the grill, I browned it before applying the glaze and then finished it under the broiler.

I had a debate with myself about whether to use breast or thigh meat. Then I remembered how much I like the whole free-range birds from Sunflower Market. Decided to get one and dismantle it. Oops, didn’t have mustard – went with prepared horseradish.

Honey and spice grilled chicken

with kudos to Jenn and Pam
1 chicken, about 4 lbs., backbone removed, cut into 8 pieces (legs, thighs, wings, breasts)

2 tbsp olive oil
Black pepper
¼ cup honey

1 clove garlic, finely minced

juice of ½ lemon

1 tbsp prepared horseradish

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ tsp of salt

Start by brining the chicken for 2 hours in 2 cups of water in which 2 tbsp kosher salt have been dissolved. Remove from brine, rinse, dry with paper towels, and sprinkle with some black pepper.
Preheat large skillet over medium-high. Add 1 tbsp olive oil.

Brown chicken on both sides, about 3-4 min. each side.

Preheat broiler with rack in the 2nd position from the top.

While the chicken browns, mix together honey, garlic, lemon juice, horseradish, paprika, cayenne, the other tbsp of olive oil, and salt. Brush the chicken liberally with this mixture on both sides. Place on a baking rack over a shallow baking pan. Broil 5-6 minutes per side until juices run clear.

Spatch-cocked chicken

This is a recipe I’ve posted before (last Feb.). However, I am blessed with considerably more followers now, and this is such a good way (and easy) to cook a chicken. And I seasoned the chicken differently this time. Surprise, surprise, I didn’t brine the chicken. You know what? It was fine. I think the use of a free-range organic bird contributed to the excellent outcome.

Spatch-cocked chicken
3 ½ - 4 lb. free-range chicken, backbone and wing tips removed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
paprika (optional)
salt
black pepper
1 or 2 tsp dried tarragon (optional)

To remove the backbone, simply cut along it with a heavy knife or a pair of poultry shears. You have to do a little finagling when you get to the neck area, but there’s a path through there. Just be patient and be careful. Throw the back into the freezer and save for stock later.

If using tarragon (or another herb), loosen the skin from the breast and leg area and sprinkle a small amount directly on the meat. It doesn’t take much.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with a rack in the middle position.

Heat the butter and oil over medium heat (4 on my 1-10 dial) in a heavy-bottomed skillet that is large enough for the bird to fit. Sprinkle the chicken all over with a salt and ground pepper to taste, and paprika if you wish.

Put the bird into the pan skin side down. Cover with a piece of foil and weight it. I use my teakettle with some water in it. Brown the chicken for about 8 minutes. Check after 5 to be sure it’s not over-browning.

Turn the chicken skin side up. Sprinkle with some more tarragon and place the skillet in the oven uncovered. Roast until the internal temp reaches 165 degrees in the thickest part of the breast (at the neck end). Check the thigh for the same temp. The roasting should take about 20-25 minutes, although I didn’t watch the clock real closely, just my temp probe.

Let the chicken rest on the countertop (not in the pan) for 10 minutes before serving.

Grilled chicken with yogurt, hot pepper and garlic

My gratitude to Jenn for sharing her first preparation from her new book, “Planet Barbecue”. (You can see her post dated yesterday, July 21.) Inevitably I made a few modifications. I cheated by using powdered garlic instead of fresh. Also, I was using chicken legs and thighs instead of skinless breasts. Mine was skin-on. The original called for some lemon slices. Turned out I didn’t have a lemon.

This is a superb recipe. The flavor is indescribable – bold, assertive, BAM!

Grilled chicken with yogurt, hot pepper and garlic

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes plus 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 cup Greek plain yogurt

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

salt and pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

2 chicken legs, 2 chicken thighs

Directions:Make 2 slits in each chicken piece in the meatiest parts.

Place red pepper flakes and paprika in a small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of warm water, stir, and let stand until a thick paste forms, about 5 minutes.

Place the pepper paste in a bowl and add the yogurt, olive oil, vinegar, tomato paste, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper, and garlic; whisk together to mix. Place chicken in a shallow dish and pour marinade over, making sure to turn the chicken to coat both sides. Refrigerate for 1-4 hours. Remove from fridge and allow to come to room temperature (about 60 minutes).

Preheat broiler and place a rack in the second position from the heat element. Place a wire rack on a baking pan and lubricate with cooking spray. Shake off excess marinade and place chicken on wire rack. Place baking pan with chicken under the broiler. Turn the chicken pieces every 5 minutes for a total cooking time of 20 – 25 minutes. For me it took 20, but then the chicken wasn’t icebox cold when I started.

Chicken roasted with lime and maple syrup

Yesterday I was planning to cook some chicken parts in the oven with garam masala and yogurt. Then, while having a look at some blogs referenced at http://jennsfoodjourney.blogspot.com/, I visited http://lifesambrosia.com/ and was metaphorically struck between the eyes by a recipe for chicken with lime and honey. I recalled how often Jenn would use lime and how I don’t so much.

So, with gratitude to these two, I incorporated their ideas into what turned out to be some of the tastiest chicken I have ever made. The amount of glaze (or sauce) was indicated for a whole cutup chicken. I used the whole batch for what I guess was about ½ a chicken: 2 big legs and 2 big thighs.

Instead of honey I used some top-quality maple syrup we had. The cooking time for me was 45 minutes, probably because I took the (previously) brined chicken pieces out of the fridge 45 minutes before cooking.

Our appetites are not as gargantuan as they once were, and we each ate one thigh. This morning Peter turned the leg meat into a chicken salad.

Chicken roasted with lime and maple syrup
2 chicken legs and 2 chicken thighs
kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper
1 jalapeno, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tablespoons olive oil
juice from 1 lime

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Rinse and pat dry the chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet skin side down.

Combine jalapeno, garlic, maple syrup, olive oil and lime juice in a food processor. Process for about 30 seconds or until jalapenos are chopped fine.

Brush jalapeno lime mixture over the top of the chicken about 5 minutes before putting it in the oven. This gets some of the flavor on what will be the bottom side. Turn the chicken skin side up and brush with more sauce, reserving just enough to add later.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 – 60 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. If the skin starts to brown too much tent some foil over the top. Heat the reserved sauce in the microwave and brush it onto the chicken while it does a 5 minutes rest before serving.

Broasted chicken

The title of this is not a typo. I used to see the term "broasted" though I can't remember where or by whom. It's appropriate since the bird is partly braised and partly roasted. This chicken was so large it just barely fit into my largest skillet. But, it did. It was over 5 lbs. Good thing I got it started when I did (10 of 5 pm) because with resting time it took over an hour.

Sunday’s NY Times magazine has a nearly always fascinating food section. This week the essay was boring (about a guy’s cookbooks all being boxed up and inaccessible). But the recipe was for a spatch-cocked whole chicken. I’ve posted this before but with a completely different spice profile.

The cooking technique was different than my own and I’m sticking to my very own guns.

Broasted chicken

1 4-5 lb. frying chicken

3 teaspoons fennel seed

2 tsp coriander seed

¾ tsp whole black pepper corns

½ tsp cumin seed

¾ tsp hot paprika or pimenton

lemon wedges (optional)

Spatchcock the chicken (remember how?). Just cut down both sides of the backbone and break the breast bone so that it lies flat.

Brine the chicken for a couple of hours. Rinse well and dry with paper towels.

Toast the spices in a dry skillet for 2 minutes or until fragrant. Let them cool and then rough grind them in a spice grinder. Don’t have one? Mash them in a mortar and pestle.

Rub a little olive oil all over the bird and then rub in the dry spice mix (no salt, remember: you brined it).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat (5 on my electric stove dial).

Add 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp butter. When the butter has melted and the foam has subsided put the chicken into the pan skin side down. Cover with a piece of foil and weight it (I use a teakettle with some water in it). When the chicken is well browned, 5-6 minutes, turn it skin side up and put the pan into the oven (uncovered).

Roast until the breast registers 165 degrees in the thickest part (next to where the wings are attached). Also test the thigh meat. It it’s at least 165 you’re golden. I was using a very large chicken and it took about an hour plus.Remove the chicken to a cutting board, tent with foil (don’t use the piece you used earlier, it’s contaminated) and let rest 5 minutes. Cut into serving pieces, squeeze on some lemon juice (if using), and dig in.

Chicken vindaloo

I thought I had a total plan for chicken vindaloo until I started making it. Changed course completely – and to marvelous effect.

Vindaloo spice is a combination of numerous ingredients. I would probably never make it from scratch, but with Savory Spice Shop just 10 minutes away, we just get it there.

Some additions of mine: white vinegar and tomato paste. Also chose to make it on the stovetop instead of under the broiler. We liked the result.

Chicken vindaloo (4 servings)
4 bone in and skin on chicken thighs
3 tbsp vindaloo seasoning
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp water
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp white vinegar
¼ medium onion, chopped
chicken stock, maybe 1/3 cup

Brine the chicken for several hours. Rinse well with cold water and dry with paper towels.

Heat a little olive oil in a big skillet. Brown the chicken on both sides for 3 minutes per side. Set aside.

Mix together vindaloo seasoning, olive oil, water, tomato paste and white vinegar.

Heat some olive oil in the skillet. Saute the onion for 3 – 4 minutes. Add vindaloo paste, heat and stir until bubbling. Add the chicken, turning to coat with the sauce. Bring to a simmer (add some chicken stock to thin it so it will bubble happily), cover and cook 25 – 30 minutes, turning once, until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve over basmati rice.

Butter poached chicken thighs

This is not the healthiest recipe I’ve ever made, but I was in the mood for it and lazy enough to do it (it took very little attention).

We had this container of Montreal grill seasoning for chicken. It’s been in the pantry for years but still had a nice aroma. Any other seasoning a person wants is perfect to substitute. Frankly just brining and peppering would be adequate.

Butter poached chicken thighs
4 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
black pepper
other seasoning you enjoy

Trim the thighs of excess fat and skin and brine them for 2-3 hours. Rinse thoroughly under cold water, dry with paper towels and set aside for 30 minutes to come to room temperature. Then season them with some pepper and other seasoning – your choice.

In a saute pan large enough to hold all 4 thighs without crowding, melt the butter in the oil over medium-high heat. When the foam subsides, add the thighs skin side down. When they have browned nicely (5-6 minutes), turn them skin side up, cover the pan, reduce heat to low (you want the butter to just barely bubble), pour yourself a cocktail and go watch “Millionaire.”

Come back in 30 minutes. Make a little cut next to the bone to see if they are cooked. They probably are.

Braised chicken drumsticks

We hadn’t eaten chicken for a couple of weeks. Don’t know why, just were into other things. I got a package of 6 legs yesterday for about $3. Seemed like a good deal. I decided to try a new cooking method – well, not new, just new to me: braising on the stovetop.

Braised chicken drumsticks
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
6 chicken legs, brined for several hours*
Chicken broth, enough to come halfway up the legs in a sauté pan
Montreal grill seasoning for chicken (or other seasoning you may have)
Pepper to taste

Heat the oil and butter in a sauté pan large enough to hold the legs without crowding too much. When the butter has melted add the drumsticks and brown all over, a total of about 6 minutes..

Add broth, seasoning and pepper to taste. (If you’ve brined the legs, don’t add more salt.) Bring to a simmer, cover and cook about 20 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a knife in the thickest part of the meat. If the juices run clear, they are done.

*To brine: dissolve 2 tbsp kosher salt in 2 cups of water; stir in 1 tbsp cracked black peppercorns. Place in a ziplock bag and then into a bowl to prevent leakage from doing any damage. 1 hour can be sufficient, but I like to go 3 hours or so and then not add salt. Before cooking, rinse them well and dry with paper towels.