Crispy Chicken Thighs with Olives and Artichoke

One pot meals are just the greatest, aren’t they? So much flavor and so little clean up. This one is full of Mediterranean flavors of artichokes and olives, and results in a super tender chicken. 
Pretty simple preparation: Sear your bone in-skin on chicken thighs skin side down to get them nice and crispy. Flip them over and fill the pan with veggies, and toss the whole thing in the oven. Dinner is served!Plate this up with some crusty bread and some fresh parsley. Enjoy!

• Servings: 6
• Time: 50 min
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Adapted from Crispy Chicken Skillet with Artichokes, Beets, Lemon, Olives

INGREDIENTS

1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
7 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
6 bone in, skin on chicken thighs
Salt, pepper, granulated garlic to taste
Zest from 1 lemon
I cup chicken stock
2 cups chopped mushrooms
8 oz artichoke hearts, chopped
1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives
Juice of 1 lemon

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Heat up olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium to high heat. Add the onions and garlic to the pan, and sautee for about 10 minutes while you prep the remaining ingredients.
Season the chicken liberally with salt, pepper and granulated garlic on all sides. Place the thighs skin down into the hot skillet, and leave them for 5-7 minutes to develop a nice crispy skin. Flip the chicken thighs and add the remaining ingredients to the skillet.
Allow to simmer for a couple of minutes, and then transfer the whole skillet into the oven to bake for 30 minutes, or until the juices of the thighs run clear and the chicken is cooked through. Finish by squeezing a lemon over the whole dish to brighten up the flavors.

Game of Thrones Dinner Party

Who here is a Game of Thrones fan?? I certainly am. For the season premier this past weekend, I invited a few friends over for a Game of Thrones inspired dinner. A snack of hard salami and cheese, you know something you can pack on your horse.Roasted Chicken, to eat with your hands, the juices running down your chin.“Dornish” peppers – the prep anyways (it was a little chaotic once everyone showed up). A mix of onions, bell peppers, jalapenos, and spicy anaheim chilis from my garden. Round it out with some green salad, crusty bread, and some delicious bulgarian pastries. Finish with Sansa’s Lemon Cakes

and some Game of Thrones beer to wash it all down.  Happy viewing fans. 

Bavarian Roast Chicken

A few years ago I decided that the best way to commemorate my travels was to get a cookbook of the culture we were experiencing – ideally from the place we were traveling, but if that didn’t work to get one once we were back home. On our recent trip to Germany, we were lucky enough to find a Bavarian cookbook written in English: “Biergarten Cookbook: Traditional Bavarian Recipes.” We were excited to see it had recipes for so many of the great things we ate at Oktoberfest and in the biergarten in Munich. We can’t wait to recreate them all!

Pretty soon after we returned from our trip, we invited our family over to see pictures, and cooked a German inspired dinner for everyone – starting with these pretzels, a roast chicken and spaetzle from our new cookbook. The roast chicken recipe has become my new go to when roasting a chicken. It has a slightly sweet and spicy rub, and is roasted over a bed of salt – which creates an extra crispy skin and deliciously moist meat.

• Servings: 4
• Time: 1 hour
• Difficulty: Medium
• Print

Ingredients:

1 tbsp paprika
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp sugar
salt, plus more for the roasting pan
1 chicken (about 2.5 lbs)
3 sprigs of parsley
1 tbsp butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, combine the paprika, cayenne pepper, sugar, salt, and pepper.

Sprinkle the seasoning mix over the outside of the chicken and inside the cavity. Place the sprigs of parsley in the cavity along with the butter.

Cover the bottom of a roasting pan with a layer of salt about 1/3 in thick. Place a roasting rack on the tray. Place the chicken on the rack. Roast it in the middle of the oven for about fifty minutes to an hour until it is done. The skin should be golden-brown and crispy.

Carve the chicken into four portions and serve with Bavarian potato salad, or spaetzle and a fresh radish salad. And of course, a nice German beer.

Cassoulet – a French bean stew

This white bean Cassoulet has become a favorite in our household. For the past 6 years, I have made it once every winter, choosing a blustery day when we’re home working on various house projects. Beware, it does take about 6 hours from start to finish, but with plenty of time in the oven while you can do other things. And it will make your house smell AMAZING!Chop up 4 slices of thick cut bacon and render them in your dutch oven. Brown the lamb and set aside. (If you do not like lamb, or cannot find it, beef stew meat is a pretty good substitute). Brown the chicken thighs and set aside. Dump out all of the rendered fat, reserving about 1-2 tablespoons. Sauté chopped onions in the remaining fat. Add tomato paste and garlic. Whisk in chicken broth and water, and nestle in the browned meats. Braise this in your oven for 2 and a half hours. Add 4 cans of white beans, and return to your oven for another hour and ten minutes.
Top with bread crumbs and brown in the oven. 

Serve with a hunk of crusty bread and a fresh green salad.  This is a delicious meal to enjoy on a cool winter evening.

White Bean Cassoulet

• Servings: 10-12
• Time: 6 hours
• Difficulty: Medium
• Print

(adapted from Cooking Light)

Ingredients

• 1/4 c salt
• 6 chicken leg quarters (I used boneless and skinless and the meat was still very moist)
• 4 bacon strips, sliced
• 3/4 lb lamb, cut into cubes
• 1.5 c onion chopped
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• 1/4 c tomato puree
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 c chicken broth
• 2 c water
• 3-4 15 oz cans of great northern beans, drained (I could only fit 3 in my pot)
• 8 oz cooked spicy Italian sausage, sliced
• 1/4 c breadcrumbs

Rub salt evenly over the chicken, cover and refrigerate 30 min. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add bacon to pan; cook 7 minutes or until crisp, stirring occasionally. Remove bacon and set aside. Increase heat to medium-high. Add lamb to the bacon grease and cook 8 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove lamb and set aside. Rinse chicken with cold water and pat dry. Add 2-3 legs to pan at a time, cook over medium heat 15 minutes or until golden brown. Flip and brown 10 minutes on other side, remove and set aside. Repeat until all chicken is browned.  Discard all but 1-2 tablespoons of rendered fat.

Add onion and pepper to pan, stirring to scrape the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Sauté onion until lightly browned. Stir in tomato puree and garlic, cook briefly.  Return lamb and chicken to pan. Add broth and water until covered. Cover and bake at 300  degrees for 2 and a half hours or until lamb and chicken are very tender. Taste and adjust seasoning if desired.

Increase oven temperature to 375 degrees. Stir 2 cans of beans into lamb mixture. Add bacon and sausage. Top mixture with remaining beans (whatever you can fit). Sprinkle breadcrumbs evenly over top. Cover and cook 1 hour and 10 minutes. Uncover and cook an additional 20 minutes or until browned and bubbly.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Entree: Chicken Tikka Masala (serves 4)

We picked this one as our first entree to try, since we knew what it should taste like.  I did cook the sauce a little too long, so it wasn’t quite thick enough.  It did taste delicious, lighter and fresher than Tikka Masala you might eat out.

• 1.5 lbs of skinless chicken breasts
• 6 Tbsp tikka paste (recipe follows)
• 1/2 c plain non-fat yogurt
• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 fresh green chile, seeded and chopped
• 1 inch pieces of fresh ginger, grated
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1 c water
• melted butter
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• fresh cilantro , yogurt, and toasted cumin seeds to garnish

Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. Mix 3 Tbsp of the tikka paste and 4 Tbsp of yogurt into a bowl. Add chicken and marinate for 20 minutes. Heat oil in a heavy pan and fry onion, garlic, chile and ginger for 5 minutes. Add the remaining tikka paste and fry for 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and water, bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Thread chicken onto wooden kebab skewers and preheat the broiler. Brush the chicken pieces lightly with melted butter and cook under a medium heat for 15 minutes turning occasionally. Put the tikka sauce into a food processor and pulse until smooth. Return to pan. Add remaining yogurt and lemon juice to pan, then add broiled chicken. Toss to coat chicken, and let simmer for 5 minutes. Garnish with the fresh cilantro, yogurt and toasted cumin seeds, and serve on nan bread.

Tikka Paste (makes 2 cups. Use for Tikka Masala, and tandoori dishes)

• 2 tbsp coriander seeds
• 2 Tbsp cumin seeds
• 1.5 Tbsp garlic powder
• 2 Tbsp paprika
• 1 Tbsp garam masala
• 1 Tbsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 Tbsp dried mint
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2/3 c wine vinegar
• 2/3 vegetable oil

Grind seeds to a fine powder and mix with other spices. Mix spice mixture with lemon juice, wine vinegar, and 2 Tbsp water to form a thin paste. Heat oil in a large pan and stir fry for 10 minutes, until water has been absorbed. When the oil rises to the surface, the paste is cooked. Be sure to stop cooking as soon as oil rises to surface, I cooked mine for too long and it was too dry of a paste. Store in fridge until use. This will make your kitchen smell amazing!

Beer Braised Chicken

On this cold rainy day, I was happy to have a multi-hour meal planned. I have been wanting to make something braised for quite some time now, and this beer braised chicken made my mouth water.

I’ve been turning to my new “Cooking Light” cookbook recently to try to keep the holiday weight in check, and immediately flagged this meal for a day when I had time to devote to making it.  Today was perfect.  I had the day off from work, and the weather made me want to do nothing except cook something wonderful. I cannot believe that this tasty dish was only 370 calories!

Chicken with Dark Beer

• 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
• 3 bone in chicken thighs, skinned
• 3 bone in drumsticks, skinned
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 3 Tbsp gin
• 1 c chopped celery
• 1 c chopped carrots
• 1/2 c chopped onions (orig. called for shallots which I think would be better, but I didn’t have them)
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 sprigs fresh flat leaf parsley
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 c dark beer
• 1/4 c greek yogurt
• 2 tsp white wine vinegar

Sprinkle chicken with flour, salt and pepper.  Heat butter and oil in a cast iron skillet over med-high heat. Add chicken to pan; saute 5 min on each side until browned.  Remove pan from heat. Pour gin into one side of pan; return to head and ignite gin with a long match (the fun part!), let flames die down.  Remove chicken from pan.

Add vegetables and saute until tender, about 5 min. Add thyme, parsley, and bay leaf.  Return chicken to pan, nesting in vegetable mixture. Pour in beer until chicken is about half covered. Bring to a simmer.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer about 45 minutes.

Remove herbs.  Remove chicken from pan. Stir in yogurt and stir over low heat until heated through. Remove from heat. Stir in vinegar. Place 1 chicken thigh and 1 drumstick on each plate and top with about 3/4 cup of sauce and vegetables. Garnish with fresh parsley.

I served this with crusty bread and an Endive Gratin, but I think it would also be delicious over mashed potatoes. Bon appetite!

Left-over Chicken to Soup and Salad

I was sent home from Christmas Eve dinner with a bag of delicious lemon chicken, home-made by my Aunt.  I already had ideas for a delicious sandwich I could make with some additional left over brie and cranberries.

Sunday we made some delicious sandwiches with the left over chicken.  I toasted some ciabatta bread, sliced up my remaining brie cheese, and some chicken, and spooned cranberry relish over the whole thing.  I grilled this sandwich to melt the cheese, then opened it up to add a layer of crisp mixed greens.  With a side of sweet potato chips, this was a delightful weekend lunch.

Tonight I wanted to make some chicken noodle soup with what I had left over.  Usually, I just cook the chicken in the soup to make the broth, this chicken is already cooked.  I could have used boxed chicken broth, or the turkey broth that is currently in my freezer, but I wanted to try something new.  I sliced the chicken off of the bones, and browned the bones before tossing in the onions, carrots, and celery.

Chicken Soup Recipe ( a variation on Mom’s old stand-by)

• 3-4 drumsticks, or other chicken pieces
• half onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, smashed
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper
• 2 cups whole wheat egg noodles
• water

Remove meat from bones. Brown bones in a 3 qt pot.  Once bones have browned on all sides, drizzle some olive oil to loosen up the brown bits on the bottom.  Add chopped onions, celery, carrots, garlic and bay leaf.  Dust with salt and pepper, and saute until fragrant. Add egg noodles and chicken meat, and cover with water.  Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, until noodles are al dente, and chicken is warmed through.  Good to pair with a slice of garlic toast, or top with seasoned croutons.

P.S. Aunt Shari, I would LOVE the original chicken recipe 🙂