What I Really Eat: Cowboy Chicken

"What I really eat" are my Iron Chef meals. My pantry meals. Shit, my fridge is empty meals. The things that come out of necessity and lack of time. The ingredient list will usually be small and the execution usually simple. Something that is less of a recipe and more of a guideline. If something exceptionally awesome comes out of my Sunday night scramble, it will get posted as a “What I Really Eat” and probably be accompanied with a not-my-best photo.

This is really just roast chicken on top of potatoes and onions. Is this a tale as old as time? Probably. Am I teaching you new things? Probably not.

But this is what this series is all about. It’s not all brown butter and fancy frosting tips in the sizzle & sass kitchen. Sometimes you just gotta eat. And that sometimes is usually a Sunday night at 9pm after a day of burning frittatas, dropping coffee cakes on the floor, and then probably burning something else.

I call this cowboy chicken, because the general idea of it came from a roommate whose many wild woodsman ways reminded me vaguely of a cowboy. A cowboy, not of the southern variety, but of the midwestern -- the Montana type. His version used skin on, bone in chicken thighs with a pat of butter and a garlic clove tucked neatly underneath the skin of each. He placed the thighs on top of roughly chunked potatoes and onions and sent them into the oven to seduce each other into fatty mouthwatering bliss.

The result: crispy garlic laced chicken skin on top of juicy thigh meat, with softly cooked potatoes and caramelized onions coated lovingly in chicken fat beneath.

oh.my.god.

I fussed my version up a bit, unneedingly. I made a compound butter of parsley and garlic paste and smothered an entire bird with the stuff. I sliced my onions instead of chunking them as I do the potatoes.

The same carnal reaction happens in the oven though.The fat and juice from the bird drips onto the potatoes and onions as it roasts and just...oh….

This can be done with any part of the bird, though I highly suggest that it’s with skin on, bone in pieces of meat. Whole legs would be great. I’ve done it with rib in breasts.

The lovely part about this meal is that it is also a “set it and forget it” kinda dinner. You gotta let the chicken just do it’s thang, and that’s usually for the better part of an hour. But then here’s where you get inspired by the ever-genius Michael Ruhlman. See article: here.

I’ll just leave you with that to ponder.

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Cowboy Chicken

Inspired by my good friend, Erik

Ingredients:

1 large onion, sliced

1 pound yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1 inch chunks

1 whole roasting chicken (or any other skin on, bone in chicken parts), rinsed and patted dry

3 tablespoons butter

2 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped

salt and pepper

Directions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large baking dish or roasting pan layer the onions and potatoes evenly, season with salt and pepper. Place rinsed, dried chicken on top of the potatoes and onions.

Take two cloves of garlic and mince them as finely as possible. Sprinkle with a touch of kosher salt, and then drag the edge of the knife across the minced garlic and sort of flatten it out. Do this several times until the minced garlic has become a paste. (Here is a video displaying what I’m describing. Start at about 1:45)

Take your garlic paste, parsley and butter and mix together in a small bowl until evenly combined.

Spread this compound butter all over the chicken’s skin. Really massage it in there.

Season the bird liberally with salt and pepper, including the inside!

Throw into oven for about an hour or so. It should be uniformly golden and the juices should run clear when you make a small cut between the leg and the thigh.

Let chicken rest about 15 minutes before serving.

*** Two Quick Notes ***

1. The potatoes and onions will probably last a bit longer after the chicken has been picked over. I used mine as a base for eggs for days after. And almost had some left to swirl into some leftover spaghetti squash, but then I might've just eaten it with my fingers cold from the fridge.

2. Use that chicken carcass!!! Make bone broth/chicken stock. Place whatever is left over into a pot with some scraggly vegetables and some other aromatics and simmer away for a few hours. I got about 4 cups of bone broth out of the deal. Straight to the freezer it went to be used in any and everything that calls for stock! 

Monday Market Haul - 1/19/2015

honey crisp apples, yukon gold potatoes, yellow onions, granny smith apples, spinach, lacinato kale, curly green kale, curly purple kale, and red cabbage

It’s a mid-winter miracle!!

I somehow was able to pick up pretty much every color of the rainbow this past market visit! So much more inspiring than my last visit where I got maybe the ugliest carrots and some squash.

My excitement translated into my cooking and I was able to pump out some super fun things that I can’t wait to share.

The rest of my long weekend included --- Michael C. Hall in fishnets, naughty pizza eating in a cathedral, and visits from a best friend. Not too shabby for a January weekend.

Friday Faves & some additions to my new year's list

Additions to my life goals list:

Figure out that whole tweeting thing

Be more consistent in this space starting with:

This series: “What I Really Eat” - which should make an appearance every other Wednesday - next one coming up is on the 21st and spoiler alert: it’s one of my favorite things on the planet.

and

Friday Faves - every other Friday- Starting TODAY - fun links to recipes, articles, anything that I come across that’s interesting.

This is a big one --- stop relying on my snooze button - I’m a lifelong snoozer. That ends now.

Oops, and I added a bunch of books to my pile, because I am *crazy*.

But these are books that have been sitting on my shelves for years, pretending to have been read by me. LIES. Divide and conquer, my friends. It’s the only way.

Here are the Friday Faves, enjoy!

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summer, are you back yet?  -- warning! so not seasonal. don't get your hopes up.

this woman just slapped us all with a paleo truth stick.

one of my favorites that i've seen , what did you think?

i always thought these were interchangeable...

on my immediate "to make" list

oh man! the writing! and the irreverant use of heavy cream!

my latest obsession

great article on snoozing! see above!

HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYBODY! xoxo

Stuffed Chicken with Grapes & Olives

An ever obsessing fangirl of Deb Perelman at Smitten Kitchen, this recipe was inspired by her recent posting of roasted grape and olive toasts.

While I am in a lifetime love relationship with toast, I do try to limit my gluten/carb/flour intake on a daily basis. So I wanted to see how I could translate this dish into one without toast. I needed a vehicle for the ricotta, but it had to be something that wouldn’t outshine the grapes and olives.

Then I was reminded about my other stuffed chicken recipe, which this is very reminiscent of. I could totally stuff the chicken with the ricotta and those roasty grapes and olives would make that bland ‘ole chicken breast pop! I added some paprika on top for color and done.

Salty and sweet, and just a touch of heat from the ricotta mix. Sound familiar? Do you know my favorite flavor profile by now?

It also looks super pretty, so there’s that.

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Stuffed Chicken with Grapes & Olives

Inspired by this recipe from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 cup of ricotta

pinch of red pepper flake to taste

1 teaspoon dried oregano

salt and pepper

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts

1 cup red or black seedless grapes

1 cup assorted olives, pitted

drizzle of olive oil

sprinkle of paprika

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl mix ricotta with red pepper flake, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Using a small sharp knife, create a pocket in the middle of each chicken breast.

Divide the ricotta mixture equally among the 4 chicken breasts stuffing each pocket and pulling them closed. Place the breasts on an oven proof dish or roasting pan. Distribute grapes and olives among the chicken. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and then lightly sprinkle each breast with a little paprika. Drizzle the entire dish with olive oil and throw into the oven.

Roast chicken for about 45 minutes to an hour or until chicken is cooked through and grapes and olives have caramelized and gotten soft and juicy. Toss the grapes and olives a few times throughout the roasting time to ensure even cooking.

When finished roasting, transfer chicken, grapes and olives to a plate and immediately add a little water to the hot baking dish. Using a fork or whisk, scrape up all the brown bits and caramelized goodness to create a simple, quick, pan juice. Season this if needed, and then pour over chicken and fruits and serve.

Serves 4

Shredded Brussels Sprouts Salad

Now that we are firmly in resolution territory….brussels sprouts and kale for everybody!

Amirite? Or amirite? Great!

As already discussed, I am one of those suckers that looks forward to January 1st for that giant, metaphorical reset button. In life, in health, in food.

I mentally press it with all my might the second I pop out of bed New Year’s Day and get excited to start eating super cleanly again, as though I needed permission to do so.

This salad is decidedly virtuous. I get a straight up health high knowing how good it probably is for me. Between the sprouts, the ever true health beacon that is kale, and the endless pops of anti-oxidants as I chew down on those pomegranate seeds. Oh MAN! I am so good at being healthy!

Please don’t hate me when I post so many salads over the next coming weeks. I’ll come to my senses eventually and balance all this clean eating shit out with some sort of sinful something.

I promise. <3

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Shredded Brussels Sprout Salad

Ingredients:

Dressing:

3 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon of sherry vinegar

2 teaspoons of maple syrup

squirt of mustard

salt and pepper to taste

Salad:

1 pound brussels sprouts

½ bunch of kale

½ cup of toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped

seeds of 1 pomegranate

¼ cup of shredded parmesan

Directions:

Whisk olive oil, vinegar, syrup, mustard, salt and pepper together until combined. Set aside.

Thinly shred brussels sprouts (the easiest way is to use a mandoline) and chiffonade the kale leaves by destemming them, layering them on top of one another and then rolling them up into a long tube. Cut across tube to create thin strips of kale.

To assemble salad --- toss brussels sprouts and kale with hazelnuts, pomegranate seeds and parmesan. Drizzle dressing on top and then gently toss again to coat evenly in dressing.

Serves 6 as a side.

What I Really Eat: Roasted Sprouts & Squash

Here’s my dilemma: It’s 8:05 on a Sunday night. I’ve just spent all day testing recipes and the majority, failed. Or it was all desserts. This means...I still need to make dinner without much time to make things or maybe even the will to make anything else more complicated.

On days like this I usually fall back on my lazy girl dinner, which is meatloaf. And my other secret weapon is the fact that, on Sunday mornings -- we eat bacon.

After I finally got my act together and learned that making bacon in the oven is actually, the best, I now always end up with sheet pan of bacon drippings on Sundays. This means that without fail, whatever languishing vegetable is in the crisper drawer gets tossed in a coating of bacon fat, salt, pepper, and whatever else seems like a good idea and thrown into the oven for 40 minutes.

This dish is salty, spicy, and a bit sweet --- the sprouts get crispy, the squash rings chewy --- it is all the things. I’d love to tell you I made a beautiful roasted chicken or perfectly seared steak to go with these.

But what I really did was #putaneggonit. (and it was glorious.) 

Welcome to “What I Really Eat”, the series.

Now this is not to say that I wouldn't routinely eat the things I post up on here. If I've spent Sunday testing something that we can eat for dinner, then of course, that’s what’s on the table.

"What I really eat" are my "Iron Chef" meals. My pantry meals. Shit, my fridge is empty meals. The things that come out of necessity and lack of time. The ingredient list will usually be small and the execution usually simple. Something that is less of a recipe and more of a guideline. If something exceptionally awesome comes out of my Sunday night scramble, it will get posted as a “What I Really Eat” and probably be accompanied with a not-my-best photo.

We can’t have it all.

---

Roasted Sprouts & Squash

Ingredients:

1 pound brussels sprouts, halved

1 to 2 delicata squash, sliced into ¼ inch rings -- seeds scooped out

drizzle of olive oil or if available bacon grease

1 tablespoon of maple syrup

chili powder to taste

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

On a large sheet pan that has hopefully been recently used to cook bacon, spread out the squash rings and sprout halves evenly. (If bacon grease is not available, just drizzle well with olive oil)

Drizzle 1 tablespoon of maple syrup over vegetables, then season with salt, pepper, and chili powder to taste. Give the vegetables a quick toss to coat in the syrup, fat, and spices.

Roast in the oven for approximately 30 to 40 minutes, tossing occasionally so the veggies caramelize evenly.

Serves 4 as a side

Monday Market Haul - 1/5/2015

Shhh...I totally know it’s Tuesday.

Bah! New, New Year’s Resolution! Be more consistent here.

Sometimes it’s hard for me to get going, especially when it’s not a recipe post, but rather showing you all the amazing things I dragged home from the market. I might’ve hit that winter slump I had been worried about since I started this seasonal eating mission.

It was bitter cold at the market on Saturday. And everything was just sorta gray and sad and many vegetables looked downright frostbitten. I came home with a few apples, some very scraggly carrots, and not much else inspiring.

I miss summer.

The weekend itself was super cold and dreary and also not so inspiring. My new year’s kick in the ass slowly seemed to wither away.

But then, yesterday, my lovely boyfriend and I started our morning by watching the first montage sequence from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (his idea.) The one where he runs off to his first adventure after a life of not really doing anything else. That is inspiring. That got my day started off on the right foot. That sequence is how I want to start all my days. Anything is possible.

That ricotta went into something pretty inspiring. Are you ready?

I am.

New Year's Day Chicken Soup

I love everything about New Year’s Day (not to be mistaken with New Year’s Eve.) I am the quintessential cliche when it comes to making resolutions and seeing a bright shiny future.

I do happen to let loose many of my standards of health when it comes to the holidays. Things get overwhelmingly busy at work and in life so I truthfully eschew heading to the yoga mat as often, usually some sort of annual-right-on-schedule viral infection will throw me off course for a week (hello Christmas morning cold -- still fighting you off!) and of course, don’t get me started on the general holiday glutton. I do get a little carb happy. I mean I got four separate birthday cakes this year, FOUR! And then I made half baked blondies on top of that. And then there’s --- “Sleep? What’s that?”

I love the idea of clean slates, and starting fresh. Whether it’s metaphorical or not, the new year always gets me in the mindset of newness, a reset, improvement, evolution.

And as much research is out there that New Year’s resolutions tend to fall by the wayside and send everyone who made them into a downward spiral of defeat and failure about three weeks into January, it always sets me into the fast lane for realigning my goals for the coming year.

Having this blog has turned into a bit of a journal of sorts and I’m excited to check in again next year and see what I’ve accomplished. As far as 2014 goes, it was not my favorite year, but I did start this blog and I really like it. I’m looking forward to what 2015 has in store for me, I have a good feeling about it all...it’s bubbling at the surface. I can feel it in my fingertips.

For 2015:

start composting

take some classes at the Institute of Culinary Education

use up that gift certificate from LAST YEAR at Broadway Dance Center. I wanna be like dis girl. I’m sure three classes is enough to get me up to speed.

conquer both handstand and forearm stand in yoga

i have dreams of more visits to Austin

visit NOLA

visit San Fran

drink more water

cook more on weeknights (I’m more often than not a #putaneggonit type of girl)

read more books:

I’ve started a by accident tradition of making chicken soup on New Year’s. I just happen to run out of my freezer inventory around this time. I make a big batch and then dip into the freezer as needed throughout the year when the boy or I’m not feeling so hot.

It’s bit of a process, but it’s well worth the time for from scratch soup.

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New Year’s Day Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

1 whole roasting chicken, rinsed and giblets removed.

2 medium yellow onions

6 carrots

1 parsnip

5 celery stalks

half a bunch of parsley

1 tablespoon whole peppercorns

1 bay leaf (I had to use 2 small ones)

water (enough to submerge bird and vegetables)

salt and pepper to taste

Take 1 of the onions and quarter it. Take 3 of the carrots and roughly chunk them or quarter them into sticks. Cut the parsnip in half separating the fat top half and the skinnier end. Set skinny half aside. Quarter the fat half. Halve the celery stalks and set the halves with the leaves aside. Throw prepped vegetables into a large stock pot. Put chicken on top of the vegetables. Add half of the parsley on top of the chicken. Add the tablespoon of peppercorns and bay leaf. Add enough water to submerge the bird and vegetables.

Bring this all to a boil and then lower to a simmer for 2 to 3 hours. Skim gray scum off the top as needed. Stock is ready when golden brown and chickeny. You'll know what I mean.

Use the time the chicken stock is cooking to prep the remaining vegetables. Dice the onion, carrots, parsnip half, and celery. Finely dice the remaining parsley. Set aside.

When stock is ready, get a second large pot and a large strainer. Put the strainer into the second pot. If it makes things easier, carefully remove the chicken from the broth and set aside. Then take the stock pot and carefully pour the broth and vegetables into the second pot with the strainer in it. This strains out the mushy overcooked vegetables and leaves you with only broth in the second pot.

Now shred your chicken from the bones. If the chicken has been cooked long enough it should practically shred itself. Remove all the meat from the chicken carcass. 

Add the shredded chicken to the broth, along with newly prepped vegetables. Add salt and pepper to taste. (I also added an extra cup of water, do so if you think it's needed) Bring all to a boil and then simmer until vegetables are tender. About 20 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in the finely chopped parsley.

Makes about 8 cups