Branching Out: White Chili with Chicken

It's raining in Atlanta, and it has been for days and days.  Some streets have flooded, and schools are closed in three counties.  The whole weekend long we saw gray, gray skies and flashy thunderstorms at night.  Everyone seems to be tired of the dismal weather but me.  Perhaps it has something to do with the sun-soaked weeks I spent in the Mediterranean not too long ago, but I'm ready for gray, cold weather.  It's time for steamy bowls of thick soup, butternut squash, coq au vin, and apple pies!  This is my favorite time of year for cooking, and the cool rain is really getting me psyched about autumn!

Charlie and I spent the weekend snuggled up at home.  We didn't do a whole lot of anything, which was really nice for a change.  In fact, the only productive thing I did this weekend was cook, and I didn't even do a whole lot of that.  Last night was particularly dreary so I decided to make some chili before settling in to watch Mad Men (love it!).  Anyone who knows me well will be surprised by that last sentence because I don't usually cook things that involve beans.  I've never really liked beans, with the exception of green beans, so I don't cook them.  Ever.  However, I happen to be married to a man who loves Mexican food, chili, and other stewy things involving legumes so I'm trying to branch out a little.  I think kidney beans and black beans are the absolute worst (I hate the flavor and the texture) so I decided to make a white chili that had only great northern beans in it.  My Mom sent me the recipe a week or so ago, and it also contains chicken, cayenne pepper, and mild chilies -- all things I'm a fan of.  It's not a very heavy soup, and I don't think it will give hardcore chili lovers the fix they're looking for, but it does have a nice flavor.  I even enjoyed the beans in spite of myself.  

This is a really quick and easy weeknight meal.  It doesn't take long to prepare and doesn't require much tending.  Cornbread is a must to sop up some of the broth.  

White Chili with Chicken

ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 medium white onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 (4 oz) cans mild green chilies, roughly chopped

2 tsp ground cumin

1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp cayenne pepper

6 cups chicken stock (preferably homemade)

4 (16 oz) cans Great Northern Beans

3 chicken breasts, roasted and shredded

2 cups grated monterey jack cheese

sour cream

Heat the olive oil in a stock pot and saute 10 minutes or until soft and golden.  Add the garlic, chilies, cumin, oregano, and cayenne pepper.  Saute 2 minutes, until fragrant.  Add undrained beans and chicken stock.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Add the chicken and cheese, stirring to melt the cheese.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve warm with a dollop of sour cream on top.  

Consider yourself forewarned -- this makes a huge batch of chili!  You may want to halve the recipe if you're only serving a few people.  I made the whole recipe, and we had a ton left over so I'm going to freeze what's left.  I love stocking my freezer with soups and stews for the winter months.  When things get really gloomy it's nice to have homemade soup at a moment's notice.

 

Spatchcocking a Chicken or How to Crash and Burn

This week's theme for girls night was Grills Gone Wild!  Yes, that's right. My friend Gabi had everyone over, and we grilled out on her rooftop swimming pool deck that overlooks the city. It was beautiful!

I decided to take a brined spatchcocked chicken to grill and checked this month's cookbook club pick (Martha Stewart's Cooking School) for instruction.  Brining sounded difficult but proved to be very simple.  Preparing the chicken (I refuse to say dispatching the cock, which is technically accurate) was also a snap.  Everything went super well until I got to the actual grilling part.  I'm a lousy griller.  I can use my indoor grill pan like a pro, but real grills freak me out, and I never feel confident using them.  In this case I was reminded of why I should not be confident when grilling. 

But...back to brining.  Brining is done to keep the chicken juicy and tender.   A very simple brine can be made of only salt, sugar, and water, and that will work, but what not spice it up a little?  I used the brine suggested by M.S. and was not disappointed.

For brine:

finely grated zest of one orange

finely grated zest of one lemon

3 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup coarse salt

2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns

2 garlic cloves, crushed and peeled

4 cups water

4 cups ice cubes

Place all ingredients except ice cubes in a large stock pot and heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar and salt have completely dissolved.  Remove from heat, add ice cubes, and stir until completely cooled.  

 

Not a beautiful picture but that's what it looks like!  Also, it smells pretty great.  If you can handle that then you can brine.  Now you need a spatchcocked chicken.

How to spatchcock a chicken:

Place the chicken on a clean work surface, breast side down.  Use kitchen shears (make sure they're sharp!) to cut along both sides of the backbone and remove it.

Flip the chicken over and press firmly to flatten.  

And...that's it.  So far everything was going really well.  I had brine.  I had a spatchcocked chicken.  Great!  Let's keep going.

As directed, I submerged the chicken in the brine, breast side down.  The chicken should stay in the brine for at least one hour but no more than three.  Any less than an hour and it won't have enough time to do its thing.  Any longer than three and the texture of the chicken can become unpleasant.  I put the brine and the chicken in a portable container and set out for Gabi's beautiful apartment.  Once there we heated up the grill and plopped it on, breast side down.  I then drizzled a citrus glaze (1/4 cup honey, 3 Tbsp orange juice, 3 Tbsp lemon juice beat together) on top.  It smelled great!

A few minutes later I opened the grill to check on it and...

it was sort of on fire.  Bummer.  This picture was taken after we put out the fire and flipped it over.

So, after flipping it we closed the grill top again and waited another 20 minutes.  The grill hissed a little as the glaze dripped off the chicken, but after a few minutes it was silent.  Of course I didn't notice that it wasn't making any sound because I was gabbing with my friends.  The twenty minutes passed, and I checked on the chicken only to discover that the grill was no longer on because somewhere along the line it ran out of fuel.  

I have no idea how to change the gas tank on a grill, and, frankly, I don't care to learn.  Fortunately, there were other people around who do know how to do those sorts of things and ten minutes later we were back in business.  I had no idea how long the grill worked before running out of fuel so I decided to cook the chicken for another ten minutes and call it a day.

After ten minutes I took it off and cut into the brined, glazed, spatchcocked, blackened chicken to make sure it was cooked through.  Of course by now the sun had set and I had only the light of a tea light candle and the warm glow of my iPhone.   It looked like it was probably cooked.  Maybe.  Really, I have no idea.  

The girls discussed and decided it was probably cooked.  We cut it up, passed it around, and everyone marveled at how tender and juicy it was.  Everyone agreed that it had been on the grill for awhile and it was probably fully cooked.  Surely it was so tender because of that wonderful brine!   

It did have a nice flavor, and no one got sick so I must assume I did alright.  Still, not exactly a success story.

There's nothing quite like thinking you might be serving your friends raw chicken.  I really need to work on this grilling-out thing.

A weeknight Indian dish -- at last!

Indian food, if properly prepared, has such a rich, complex flavor that I can't get enough of. I've taken several classes at The Cooks Warehouse on North Indian cooking, and all that I've tried at home has been delicious, BUT it takes a lot of prep work and a lot of cook time -- not ideal for a weeknight after a long day at work. So, I was very pleased when I found the following recipe for Sindhi Chicken Curry. It has all the complexity of a slow-cooked, time-consuming Indian chicken dish without the hour of prep work, three hours of marinating, two hours of slow cooking, etc. In fact, the whole thing took a little under an hour to prepare. Check it out:

Sindhi Chicken Curry

Ingredients:
1 cup plain yogurt -- room temp, stirred to a creamy consistency
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 Tablespoons oil (I used olive oil)
2 cups finely chopped onions
1 Tablespoon ginger root, peeled and minced
1 Tablespoon garlic, minced
4 teaspoons minced serrano chilies
12 large chicken thighs
1 Tablespoon coriander powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin powder
3/4 teaspoon turmeric
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
28 oz diced tomatoes in liquid
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
1/4 cup cilantro chopped

*NOTE: I know this is a long ingredient list, however, once you have all of the spices in your spice cabinet it isn't too bad. I buy mine in bulk at the Dekalb Farmer's Market.

1. Stir yogurt and cornstarch together until smooth. Set aside.

2. In a large saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and saute until beginning to color, 6 to 8 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and saute onions until dark golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes longer.

The onions should look like this when you start:


They should look like this after caramelizing:


3. Stir in ginger, garlic, and chilies. Saute for two minutes. Increase heat to medium-high. Add chicken and brown well, 6 to 8 minutes.



My pan was a little crowded, but I managed to get all the chicken thighs in!



Here they're starting to brown.



4. Reduce heat to medium. Sprinkle coriander, cumin, turmeric, and cayenne pepper over top of chicken. Mix well, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

The spices before they are added:


And the chicken after they've been stirred in:



5. Add tomatoes, yogurt mixture, 1/2 cup cilantro, and salt. Mix well. Cover and bring to a boil.



6. Reduce heat to low and simmer until chicken is no longer pink inside, about 25 minutes.

7. Turn off heat. Stir in garam masala and 3 Tablespoons cilantro (or more to taste).



8. Garnish with remaining cilantro before serving. Serve with rice or any Indian bread.



As you can see, I served it atop basmati rice. I was very pleased with the result. It had a little heat, but that was cut by the yogurt. A few cashews or slivered almonds on top might liven up the texture, but it was very good as it was. AND totally do-able on a weeknight! (That's my favorite part -- can you tell?)

And now, a couple of notes:

It is important that the yogurt be at room temperature. If it is cold it has a better chance of curdling when it hits the hot pan. Just pull it out of the fridge when you start making the dish, and it should be ready by the time you need to add it. Removing it from the yogurt container and placing it near the warm stove should help speed up the process.

If you double the recipe, do not double the turmeric. It will make the dish too bitter if any more is added. (As a general rule, the amount of turmeric used should never be increased when doubling recipes.)

I enjoy eating the chicken thighs with the bone in, but some people find this to be too messy. There's no reason why you can't use boneless chicken thighs (or even chicken breasts, though they won't have the same depth of flavor) if you want a more fork-ready dinner.

Get ready for leftovers! This recipe makes a ton of food!

The Secret Ingredient

Chicken salad has never really been my thing, but Charlie loves it.  So, I've been making a point to make it for him.   I usually make a very traditional version with pickles, eggs, onion, mayo, and mustard, but last week I thought I'd try a curried chicken salad.  (It seems that I'm on a real curry kick right now.  Maybe it's the weather?)  I pulled out a recipe from an old magazine and checked the fridge.  I had most of the ingredients so I decided to go ahead and cook it, making some omissions and substitutions.  Here is the recipe with my modifications.

Curried Chicken Salad

ingredients:

1 whole chicken

6 Tablespoons vanilla yogurt

1 Tablespoon mayonnaise

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 teaspoons curry powder

2 teaspoons thinly sliced scallions

1 Tablespoon coarsely chopped cilantro leaves

1 small Granny Smith apple, cored and cut into 1/2-inch chunks

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

freshly ground pepper

Put the chicken in a medium stock pot and add enough water to cover the chicken.  Bring the water to a boil then turn down the heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes.  Remove the chicken from the pot and let cool.  (Save your stock for something else!)  When the chicken is cool enough to handle shred it into bite-sized pieces.

Stir together the yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon juice, curry powder, scallions, cilantro, apple and salt.  Season with pepper.  Add the chicken and stir to fully coat.  

Did you spot the secret ingredient?  It's the vanilla yogurt.  The original recipe called for plain Greek yogurt, which would be very good I'm sure, but I didn't have that in my refrigerator.  I did have vanilla yogurt on hand so I substituted that and ended up with a lovely and unexpected flavor.  I think it's great, and I'm going to make it that way from now on!

It's not the most beautiful thing I've ever made, but here's a photo anyway.

Coming Home to Chicken Thighs

Last night I returned from my trip to Florida, happy but tired. My wonderful husband, Charlie, was on top of things and picked up groceries before I arrived so he could make me dinner. He's the absolute best.
And make dinner he did. Not just any dinner either but my favorite thing that he cooks. While we were dating he decided to come up with a recipe to call his own. The result of those efforts is a fabulous dish called Chicken Thighs with Orange Juice and Cilantro.  I just love it.  Here's the recipe:

Chicken Thighs with Orange Juice and Cilantro

ingredients:

2 cups orange juice

2 cups white wine

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup loosely packed cilantro, roughly chopped

1 pound bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

salt and pepper

2 Tablespoons olive oil

In a large bowl combine the orange juice, white wine, garlic, and cilantro.  Add the chicken thighs and marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Remove the chicken thighs from the marinade and season with salt and pepper.  Heat the oil in a sauce pan on medium-high heat.  Add the chicken and sear, approximately 4 minutes on each side or until the skin is nicely browned.

Add the orange juice mixture and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 6 - 8 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.  

Serve the chicken over basmati rice with a large spoonful of the sauce.

You may notice the absence of fresh cilantro in the photos.  Charlie forgot to pick it up at the grocery store (he blames the chaos of rush hour) so he substituted a Tablespoon or so of ground coriander.   Coriander is the dried, ground seed of the cilantro plant.  It doesn't have the minty flavor of fresh cilantro leaves and is much milder.  Coriander is not generally interchangeable with cilantro, but in the case of this marinade it worked beautifully.  I prefer fresh cilantro, but the dish was still delicious with the substitution.

Warm fuzzies and curry

Right now Charlie and I are snuggled up on the couch eating cold chicken curry out of Gladware, watching 30 Rock, and pretending it isn't an hour later than it ought to be (oh, daylight saving time, you're such a bother sometimes). I've gotta tell ya, it doesn't get much better than this.

So, I'm suddenly inspired to post one of my favorite chicken curry recipes. It also happens to be a quick and easy meal. The first time I made this I misread the recipe and accidentally doubled the amount of butter called for. Unfortunately, it's better with the extra butter! Just the same, I'll print it with the amount called for and leave that indulgence up to you.

Thai Chicken Curry

ingredients

3 lbs boneless chicken breasts, skinned and cubed

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup butter

1 medium onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 Tablespoon minced ginger

1 Tablespoon curry powder

1 12 oz can coconut milk

1 Tablespoon thai fish sauce

2 small zucchini, diced

1/2 cup mint leaves

4 green onions

1 Tablespoon crushed red pepper

Coat chicken with cornstarch. In a large skillet or wok, melt butter and saute onions and garlic until soft. Add chicken, curry powder, and ginger and stir-fry for 4 minutes. Add coconut milk, fish sauce, an zucchini and simmer for 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for one minute. Serve over basmati rice.

*I love the amount of heat in this curry, but some people may find it a bit too spicy. If spice isn't your thing feel free to put a bit less crushed red pepper.

This dish is best served warm, but also it's pretty good straight out of the fridge.