Stir Fried Chicken with Ketchup p. 677

Continuing on with my planned week of meals, I made this dish one night during the week. It was a fast, easy dish to prepare after a long day of work.



First chop your chicken pieces (either breasts or thighs will do) and lightly coat in flour. Cook for a few minutes until cooked through. Cool garlic and cayenne for a minute , add a bunch of ketchup and let it cook for a few minutes. Toss chicken with ketchup sauce.



I served over rice and added some chopped peanuts and fresh cilantro. One of the better meals we'd had in a while.

Chicken with Yogurt and Indian Spices p. 650

Ingredients: chicken, onion, garlic, ginger, cayenne, cumin, coriander, cardamon, tumeric, cinnamon, yogurt, cilantro.

Start off by heating your oil. When hot, throw in your chicken pieces (I used boneless breasts) and brown them on all sides. Remove from the pan. Next you will cook your onions if you are using them, I did not. Next you will throw in your chopped garlic and ginger as well as spices. Stir in the yogurt. (I have tried several similar recipes and those all called for the yogurt towards the end with minimal cooking time. I was worried about this step and I think my fears were not for nothing.)

Add in your chicken pieces and lower the heat. You will cook until the chicken pieces are thoroughly cooked through. I had to rearranged my chicken pieces every 5 minutes so that they were all evenly cooked.

In the end, my dish had a very weird consistency that I fear was from over cooking the yogurt. Everything tasted fine and it was delicious, but I just don't think it was supposed to end up this way.



Served over Rice Pilaf

Roast Chicken with Herb Butter

I love a roast chicken. Its so easy to cook and produces a pretty and delicious meal. Not to mention, the left over bones are great to make chicken stock from. I've made the simplest whole roast chicken several times, but I was curious to try different versions.

For this variation, I mixed chopped fresh parsley with softened butter. You will use most of the butter to stuff between the chicken meat and the skin. Which reminded me of what I did with our Thanksgiving turkey. I find it difficult to get it to spread evenly underneath the skin, but I guess it doesn't have to be perfect. Once it gets hot, the butter will melt into all the crevices. Also smear some butter on the outside of the bird.

Roast until the chicken is done.



While, its not the prettiest, it was one tasty bird.



This dish was served with quick glaze carrots and simply cooked spinach.

Herb- Roasted Chicken Cutlets p. 672

This was one dish I wasn't too crazy about. Perhaps it was the herbs I used and the flavor.

Start off by heating the oven and then mix herbs. The recipe calls for tarragon, dill or chervil (what is this? I've never heard of or used before) and parsley. I used everything dry because that was all I had. Cover chicken breasts with herbs and cook with a cup of stock to roast in the oven.



It is a super easy dish to make, however, I don't think I care for the flavor of tarragon. I will tweak the flavors to my liking next time.

Skordalia p. 94

Ingredients: bread, stock, EVOO, pine nuts, garlic, cayenne, lemon juice.

First soak your day old bread in a little stock. While it was soaking I put the other stuff in the food processor. The recipe calls for walnuts, but Mark Bittman suggests you can use other nuts and pine was one of them.

Whizz your olive oil, bread, nuts, and garlic until the nuts are finely chopped. Then add in your stock or water, if you don't have stock, slowly until it is a fine milky mixture. It should make two cups.



I had make chicken stock the day before and saved the chicken to tear up and make a chicken salad. One of the suggestions Mark Bittman makes for using Skordalia is as a mayo substitute for things like chicken salad.



I used about one cup of the Skordalia for the chicken salad. Bryan was really impressed, saying something about the best chicken salad he's had. He put his chicken salad on top of the slice of bread and ate it as an open faced sandwich. Bryan suggests serving it as a light lunch option for a party. Maybe even on toasted baguettes.

I have one cup of Skordalia left. Any suggestions?

Chicken Salad p. 222-223

We had some left over chicken and decided to make some chicken salad. We were torn between the traditional chicken salad with mayo or the header chicken salad in the book, Chicken salad with olive oil and fresh herbs. Bryan suggested a taste test, so I made small batches of each one.



For the Olive Oil and Herb Chicken Salad I added lemon juice, olive oil, fresh parsley, and salt and pepper to my shredded chicken.

For the Traditional chicken salad, I mixed in some mayo, Dijon mustard, parsley and a few chopped pecans.



We liked both versions. Bryan favored the traditional and I favored the olive oil and herbs. I would recommend and remake either recipe.

Arroz con Pollo p. 653

Ingredients: chicken, EVOO, onion, rice, stock, parsley, lemon.

I had never attempted a dish like this, but knew Bryan would love it.

Start by cooking your onions in oil until they are softened and clear. Then toss in your rice to coat with the oil. After that you add your chicken pieces and stock. Let it bubble and then cover and cook for about 20 minutes until the chicken and rice are both cooked.

I tossed in some frozen peas the last couple of minutes to add some color. Garnish with parsley and lemon juice.



We both liked the dish, but I thought it could use more flavor. Next time I'll probably stick a bay leaf or other seasonings in as it cooks to infuse it with more flavor. But in the end it was a delicious, weeknight dish.

Broiled Boneless Chicken Escabeche p. 669

Ingredients: chicken, vinaigrette.

I was amazed at how easy and fast this recipe was. Faster than the 20 minutes Mark Bittman estimated. I like to buy the big packages of frozen chicken breasts from Sam’s. They are so handy to have around. I pulled out some breasts to defrost and started looking for an easy recipe. This has to be the easiest.

I rinsed off my chicken breasts from their defrosting juices and dried them. Then rub them with a little olive oil and broil 3-4 minutes per side until cooked. Then take your prepared vinaigrette, whether is store bought, the Roasted Garlic Vinaigarette as suggested, or another dressing of your choosing, and cover the chicken.



You can serve immediately, or let it sit in the vinaigrette for a few hours or days in the fridge. I served almost immediately (well, they sat for about 10 minutes while I roasted my asparagus) and then served. Total preparation time, under 15 minutes.

Chicken Braised in Soy Sauce and Lemon p. 646

Ingredients: oil, chicken, garlic, lemon, cayenne, soy sauce, sugar.

This was a very easy dish to prepare and dirtied very little dishes, which made Bryan really happy.

First brown your chicken, but you don’t have to. I did this time and will probably skip it next time. Then soften your garlic, and add in the other ingredients including the chicken. Cook over medium to low for about 20 minutes.

Take out the chicken, add in lemon juice and serve over rice. Simple and delicious.

Simplest Whole Roast Chicken p. 644-645

Ingredients: whole chicken, EVOO, salt, pepper, garlic, fresh herbs

Really the simplest way to cook a whole chicken. So easy a caveman can do it. Oh wait, he probably did.

Rub your chicken with olive oil and salt and pepper. Throw on some herbs and garlic if you like. Then roast in the oven for about 40-50 minutes. Simple as that.

The tough part is finding the meat on the chicken. Its like a treasure hunt. Ours was a small chicken and at first it seemed like there wasn’t any meat on this little chicken, but then we found it. The bird was tender and juicy and delicious.

Seriously one of the easiest and best recipes you can make, especially on a busy weeknight.


(Apparently I didn't take any pictures of the chicken whole.)

Grilled Boneless Chicken p. 641

Grilled chicken is a staple in our house, especially during the summer. Last summer, the first summer of marriage and of my cooking, I discovered a recipe that changed my life. Chicken breasts + Italian dressing + several hours or overnight + grill = heaven.

Preparing for the holiday weekend menu, I naturally thought of the grilled chicken breasts, but decided to turn to How To Cook Everything first. Its pretty simple, rub some olive oil, salt, pepper, maybe some garlic and grill. Couldn’t be any easier. Garnish with some fresh lemon juice or wedge.



I’ll admit, I was skeptical. But the chicken turned out more tender and juicy than the marinated chicken of last summer. Pages 642-643 given a detailed chart of 11 more different flavors to add to your grilled boneless chicken. We will be trying some more in the future. I guess How to Cook Everything’s Grilled Boneless Chicken will become the staple chicken recipe of Summer 2009.

Spicy Batter-Fried Chicken p. 666

Brief description: Batter: curry powder, allspice, garlic, cayenne, flour, and egg. Fry in peanut oil.

Growing up my mother never fried anything. Ever. If we were to have fried chicken, it came in a bucket with a bearded man on the side of it. (The bucket, not the chicken.) So frying something is not something I’m inclined to do. But Bryan choose page number 666 during a recent came of Cookbook Roulette and I found myself learning to fry.

On the first two pieces the batter did not seem to stick with the chicken very well.



The second two, I dried with a paper towel before battering and that seemed to work better.



In the end it didn’t seem to matter because very little batter stuck with the chicken till the end. After reading the Basics of Fried Chicken on page 663 later, I would suggest frying in two batches next time. I didn’t think the skillet was too crowded, but perhaps giving the pieces even more space would have helped in the end.



The chicken was still delicious and is something I’d like to try again in the future. Just remember to read up on frying if you are a novice before trying it.

Grilled Chicken Kebabs p. 669

For my mom’s birthday last week she requested kebabs. I jumped at the chance to get to use the recipes from the book. Beef kebabs will be posted tomorrow.

I marinated the chicken for several hours in the fridge while I got everything else ready. They turned out tender and delicious.

I purchased a little extra chicken and we wound up with chicken kebabs for days… there might even be a kebab or two somewhere in the back of the fridge still.

Bryan and I thought they were even better the next day. We used our left over chicken in salads and with other foods.

The chart on page 670-671 to vary chicken kebabs will definitely be something we’ll tackle in the future.