Chicken & Poultry

Many of you may recall that when I posted David Chang's "Momofuku's Fried Chicken" a while back I said I'd be back soon with an honest to goodness buttermilk fried chicken recipe.  Well here it is, thought it comes to us not from America's deep south, but rather by way of one of my favorite chefs, Thomas Keller, and the gang at his Ad Hoc Restaurant in the Napa Valley.

While I have been a fan of traditional, batter coated fried chicken for years, I never endeavored to make it myself until now.  

Why?  

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Remember a few days ago when I said that I didn't believe in food rules and that if I feel like cooking a braise in warm weather then I'm going to, rules be damned.

Well, here I am walking the walk, because while this dish would seem a natural today (it is about 55 degrees and raining as I write this post), when we made it a week ago it was in the upper 70s and the sun was shining brightly, not exactly the kind of weather that makes you think of a braise.  I'm here to tell you though that this dish felt spot-on as we dined al fresco, watching the sun set over the beach, enjoying the chicken's Asian flavors along with a crisp green salad, some freshly baked bread and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.  Ain't no rules that can corral a dish as good as this, eat it when you want, with what you want, and with whomever you want.

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Every now and again, even the best laid menu plans go awry, and we’re left with an abundance of certain ingredients in our pantry of fridge that are crying out for some creative use.  Such was the case a few days ago when my wife noticed a few unopened packages of corn tortillas languishing in the back of the fridge, castaways from a planned fish taco feast that never materialized.  Further inspection turned up a few half-eaten jars of tomato salsa, some shredded cheese, and a huge bag of baby spinach.

Whatever shall we do?

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HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

I hope your holidays were filled with delicious food, and lots of love and laughter.  After weeks of elaborate, and some might say rather decadent holiday feasts, we’re back today with a perfect, easy weeknight meal that is not just healthy, but is loaded with great flavors.

If you use a quick cooking rice, this entire dish can be on the table in under 1/2 hour, if you cook brown rice as we do, it’ll take you about 40 minutes.  BTW – If you are someone who has always struggled with brown rice, finding it a rather unappealing gelatinous mass in the bottom of your pan when finished cooking, try this method the next time you make it.  It is foolproof and yields delicious results.

Cook the rice as though you would pasta.  Pour however much rice you want into a large pot of boiling water, give it a quick stir and let it gently boil for 30 minutes.  At the 30 minute mark, pour the rice into a strainer and count to ten.  When you’re done counting, pour the rice back into the now empty pan, cover with a tight fitting lid and set it aside for 10 minutes (untouched) to finish cooking in its residual steam-heat.  After 10 minutes, fluff it with a fork, season with salt and pepper and add any ingredients you wish to toss in, in the picture above you’ll see we’ve added some sauteed pistachios and fresh thyme.

Arthas, our resident saucier joined me in the kitchen a few nights back to work his magic with the orange-soy sauce, and could be found over the ensuing days pouring the left-over sauce on just about anything that wasn’t moving….it’s that good.  The sauce is made quickly as the chicken cooks on the stove-top, simply steam some veggies at the last minute, and you’ve got a well balance meal that the whole family will love.

Cheers – Steve

Long before I ever had the pleasure of meeting Patricia Wells (I had the very good fortune to cook with her for a week while I lived in Paris), I was a HUGE fan.  There is just something about her approach to food that really resonates with me. Perhaps it’s her focus on delicious “approachable” regional French cooking, stripped of its Michelin starred pretense, that really feels right and authentic.  That’s not to say that she can’t saddle up with the best of them and cook haute cuisine meals, because she can.  Her work with the famed Chef Joel Robuchon should put any question of that to rest.  It’s just that she seems most comfortable sharing everyday (yet extraordinary) French cooking with those of us looking to inject a little joie de vivre into our kitchens.

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This is a quick, down and dirty dish that Grid and I threw together the other night to rave reviews.  It is light, fresh, packed with flavor, and best of all, can be on the table in under 30 minutes.  The (slightly modified) recipe comes from Bon Appétit magazine’s December 2009 issue.

Grid, a senior in high school, is our oldest and busiest child.  Between after school Cross-Country training, college application work, and normal home-work, it’s hard to negotiate more than 1/2 hour of his time for helping in the kitchen these days.  That said, I try to save quick dishes like this for when I have a chance to work with him.  He set off chopping and mixing the vibrant salsa, while I got all “Ramsey” smashing the chicken breasts with a mallet to a nice even thickness.

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This is a dish that I could eat a few times a week for the rest of my life and be quite happy indeed, thank you very much.  It is richly flavored and exciting, studded with garlic, olives, and capers, yet light and easy to toss together on the fly.  It is also one of those dishes that gets better with time, so definitely plan on making a large batch so that you can enjoy it again as left-overs a few days later.  In fact, the dish is so good the next day, that a few of the kids packed it cold for school lunch, and brought home nothing but a tupperware full of bones!

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