BBQ Chicken

Barbecued Chicken. It sounds so simple. Google it. You will be amazed at the number of recipes for sauces and methods you will find.

Chicken is one of my favorite things to roast and grill. And BBQ chicken is all that much better.

So I began to look around for a sweet, spicy sauce to slather all over some beautiful organic chicken quarters I bought at the store.

I found the perfect sauce recipe in the Foodtv magazine. And it was a Bobby Flay recipe. That suits me just fine, because I love his recipes for grilling, and I love the spice in his recipes.

Here’s the recipe- scanned right out of the magazine…

I’m pretty sure I followed it to the letter, although I think I substituted vegetable oil for canola.

The results were terrific! It is sweet and thick and spicy! Next time I will add a little more chipotle, though. After refrigerating it a few days, it lost some of the depth of the heat.

I roasted the chicken at 400 until it was about 10 degrees from done (it had reached 160 on an instant read thermometer), then I slathered on the sauce and put it back in the oven to reach 170.

The chicken shared the plate with some garlic smashed potatoes and roasted squash. A very yummie meal indeed. It will be repeated several more times before the summer season is over. I can’t wait to put this sauce on some grilled chicken, or even pork….the possibilities are endless!

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Chicken Wing Frenzy

Chicken wing frenzy

Originally uploaded by lyricalmezzo

My sister had a craving for chicken wings so we went to store and picked up a bag. I made three sauces – one was a chipotle based sweet sauce, one was taco flavored, one was garlic and onion (smelly but good). I didn’t have any celery and it is a pain anyway so I used locally grown cucumbers and fresh blue cheese dressing.

Cooking the wings – there are lots of ways to do this; here’s my way

I sprinkled the wings with salt and pepper and then drizzled a bit of olive oil over them then cooked them in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes. I then removed the wings and tossed them in their respective sauces then put them back in the oven for about 5 minutes. I served them with the sliced cucumber and blue cheese and that was dinner. It was not healthy but you always have to respect the craving.

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Lemon Chicken with capers, red quinoa and zucchini

Lemon Chicken with capers, red quinoa and zuchinni

Originally uploaded by lyricalmezzo

This was an alternation of something I saw on the food network. I sauteed some chicken breasts in olive oil seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic. When the chicken was almost done I de-glazed the pan with sherry and lemon juice. When the chicken was done, I removed it from the pan and added about a teaspoon of olive oil to the pan and then threw in about 1/4 cup of capers. I let the capers simmer until the popped open. I topped the chicken with the capers and all the stuff in in the pan. I served this along side steamed red quinoa and sauteed zucchini. It was nice and colorful, but by far, my favorite was the chicken with capers. I will definitely be cooking with them more often.

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Fried Chicken

So – this is hard to believe since I am a born and raised southern girl..but this was my first attempt at fried chicken. I don’t know why, but I had a craving for it. I soaked the chicken for a few hours in milk and when I was ready to cook it – I put about 1/2 inch of oil in a cast iron skillet. I tossed the chicken with flour, salt, pepper and paparika then fried the chicken for about 10 minutes per side or until done (poultry needs to reach 180 degrees).

I served this along side another first of a sort, though I had no reason to believe it wouldn’t work. I made a mixture of russet and sweet potato mash with a bit of chipolte and cheddar cheese – it was pretty yummy. Unfortunately the picture is fuzzy, but it tasted pretty darn good.

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Chicken and Dumplings

I decided the other day I wanted to make a big pot of chicken and dumplings for dinner. The problem being, I haven’t had them in years (probably since the last time my Daddy made them while I was still living at home).

I scoured my sizable cook book collection for a recipe. I only found 3- and they all called for rolled dumplings. That wasn’t what I wanted. When Daddy made them, he made pillowy, soft dumplings that floated on the top. Finally, I did what I should have done in the first place…I called my Daddy.

Much to my shock and dismay, the dumpling recipe was simple. Bisquick, milk and a little sugar. That can’t be right! Bisquick! Absurd! But, I figured if I wanted to recreate the dish exactly, I would have to use it.

Chicken and dumplings, as it turns out, is very simple to make.

I seasoned a cut up chicken with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning, put it in the crock put with enough water to cover, popped it on low and left for school (7:30ish).

About 4:15, I took the chicken out, shredded it off the bone (which was really easy since it was falling apart), and put it in my big soup pot. Then I poured the liquid out of the crock pot on top, put a bag of frozen veggies in (I won’t use frozen carrots again- I don’t like the texture) and brought it up to a boil. A cornstarch slurry was used to thicken the mixture a bit, then I mixed some bisquick, milk and a pinch of sugar til it looked like biscuit dough, but a little wetter. I spooned the dumpling batter on top of the chicken stew mixture, put the top on the pot, and 25 minutes later, I had a whole big pot of pure love.

There isn’t much better on a cold night than a big bowl of steaming hot chicken and dumplings. I will be making this again…SOON.

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Coral Red Jasmine Rice

Coral Red Jasmine Rice

Originally uploaded by lyricalmezzo

For Christmas, I got lots of good food stuff which will take me a while to get through to blog about, but this is the first of those things. My parents gave me a box of red coral jasmine rise from Thailand. It was really delicious and for those of you that don’t like rice, if you can find this, try it. It is super flavorful and made a great colorful accompaniment to my dish. I think I made this last Sunday (the days are beginning to blur together now that school is started). I roasted a chicken stuffed with 6 cloves of garlic, 1/2 a lemon and salt and peppper, I rubbed the outside of the chicken with salt, pepper and olive oil and cooked it for 20 minutes per pound – YUM – can’t go wrong at all. I served this alongside this tasty red coral rice that I steamed in my rice steamer and some wilted fresh spinach and a whole grain bread. DELICIOUS! If you are interested in the rice there is a website on the box – http://www.fairtradecertified.org – my parents trying to respect my “hippy dippy” cooking style. Cheers to you – hope try the rice and like it.

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Turkey Remix Part One

turkey poblano corn chowder

Originally uploaded by All Things Mimi

What do you do with leftover turkey???

I’m figuring that out as I try to use up the gallon zip lock bag of turkey Dev’s Mom sent us home with after Christmas.

I don’t really like turkey. But so far I’ve found ways to use it that have turned out really well. Take this soup, for example.

It’s actually based on a Paula Deen recipe for Chicken Poblano Chowder. I just subbed turkey for the chicken and added a few other ingredients. The soup is easy to make and it tastes even better the next day.

Here’s what I did…

I chopped up a small onion, 2 stalks of celery, 2 onions, 2 carrots and one medium sized poblano pepper. I sauteed them in olive oil in my dutch oven for about 10 minutes. I added a tablespoon or so of chicken gravy mix (the recipe called for chicken boullion, but I hate that stuff), then deglazed the pan with a little bit of white wine. Then came half a bunch of chopped fresh cilantro. I added 4 cups of chicken stock, 1 cup of white wine and 1 cup of water and let it cook for another ten minutes or so, for the veggies to get nice and tender. After that, I added about 2 cups of chopped leftover turkey and half a bag of frozen corn. I let the turkey and corn warm through, then in a skillet I melted a quarter stick of butter, then added 1/2 a cup of flour and made a roux. I cooked it for about 3 minutes, then added a ladle full of the cooking liquid. After it was incorporated, I dumped the contents of the skillet into the pot of soup. I let it come up to a bubble to thicken, then took it off the heat and added 1/2 cup of heavy cream.

When I served it, I garnished with chopped avocado, chopped cilantro and shredded pepper jack cheese.

This was really good. A lot of chopping, but the taste was outstanding.

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Chicken, Green Apple, Caramelized Onion Tacos

Chicken, Green Apple, Caramelized Onion Tacos

Originally uploaded by lyricalmezzo

These are great tacos. Trust me, even though green apples and chicken might not sound like your cup of tea…give it a try…if you don’t like it I’ll be surprised. I saw this recipe some years back in a since forgotten food magazine and I make it on occassion. I should make it more, but I, like we all do, get in a rut and forget about it. I’ll tell you my version which is pretty much what I can recall from the recipe:

Season both sides of boneless chicken breast with salt, pepper, nutmeg. Saute for about 7 minutes. Remove chicken from pan, cube and keep warm.
Cube a large green apple and about 1/2 a large onion (I prefer the yellow onion, but you can pick your favorite).
Add onion to pan (same one you cooked chicken in) along with 2 tablespoons of butter – saute for about 4 minutes.
Add green apple and saute for about 6 minutes.
Add chicken to mixture (I also added another dash of nutmeg at this step for good measure).
Warm all ingredients together. Serve in warmed tortillas with whatever you like on tacos. I would try them without salsa first as the flavors of the all the ingredients is pretty special…if you decide you want salsa after that go for it.

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Roasted Chicken

roasted chicken

Originally uploaded by lyricalmezzo

Oh man – I was sad I forgot to take a picture of this before I dismantled the chicken. It was AWESOME. I had about a 4lb chicken. I salted and peppered the inside and outside of the chicken – in the cavity I put 2 cloves of garlic, about 4 rosemary springs and 1 lemon (quartered) – cook at 350 degrees for 20 minutes per pound. It was so juicy and delicious, there was not so much as a sliver of skin left after we were done. A lovely way to celebrate Day of the Dead..okay, again, not what the dinner was about, but whatever – it was delicious – I served it with champagne, asparagus risotto and Heidi brought over butternut squash – awesome good dinner. I served this alongside Dracula Zinfindel - even if the dinner wasn’t specifically for Day of the Dead - doesn’t mean we can’t have a litte fun with it!

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Southwestern Lasagne

Southwestern Lasagne

Originally uploaded by lyricalmezzo

I made this for dinner on Sunday, but am just getting around to blogging about it now. I am adjusting to a new schedule so I haven’t had time to cook much, in fact, my next blog is going to be about a good frozen dinner I have found. SAD!! But we all gotta eat.

So..the southwestern lasagne;

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease an 8×10 baking dish (or there abouts)
Put one layer of flour tortillas in the bottom of the dish (it doesn’t have to be exact – I used one whole tortilla and one half one per layer)
add a little of whatever you’d like. I used Shredded Chicken, black beans, quinoa, chopped onion and cheese. (all items except the onion are pre-cooked). Add another layer of tortilla – repeat process of sprinkling of items to cover the tortillas and add about 1/2 can of your favorite enchillda sauce or salsa. Top with third layer of tortillas, cover with sauce, sprinkle with cheese and then bake for about 25 minutes until it is bubbly.
Remove from oven and serve with sour cream or plain yogurt, guacamole, and salsa.

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