Chicken & Biscuits…

Last week was rainy and chilly in San Francisco, so it gave me the hankering for some good southern cooking.  This is SO not on the diet plan!  Perfect reason to have a dinner party and not be faced with the remaining leftovers.  I think with all of the Aids Lifecycle training that I’ve started I can afford a little bit of naughty.

I posted on my Facebook a bit a go that I was on a mission to make the perfect pot pie and during this process came up with something I really like – Chicken & Biscuits.  The taste is very similar, but this is designed for a larger crowd.  I don’t know about you, but when I get a pot pie I like them only big enough for one.  I think that size of pot pie has perfect crust to filling ratio.

Basically my Chicken & Biscuits is the filling of a chicken pot pie, but instead of baking it inside of a pie crust I serve it with biscuits.   I don’t usually have the time to make the biscuits and think the store bought are pretty yummy.

My recipe is below and I love to serve this with some risotto!

Here’s what ya need:

• 6 chicken breasts – with the skin on and bone still in
• 4 ½ cups of chicken stock
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes
• Olive oil
• ¾ cup of flour
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 2 yellow onions chopped
• 5 carrots diced
• 1 10 ounce package frozen peas
• 1 ½ cups of frozen pearl onions
• ½ cup parsley minced
• Big pinch of cayenne pepper
• Salt and pepper
• 1 package of 8 biscuits

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Rinse and dry the chicken.  Rub with olive oil and season with salt & pepper.  Roast these skin side up for 40 minutes.  While the chicken is cooking chop your veggies.  Once the chicken is done, let it cool for about 15 minutes and then remove the skin and the chicken from the bone.  Cut into large bite size pieces.

In a saucepan add the chicken stock and bouillon cubes, heat over medium heat until the cubes dissolve.  Once dissolved reduce heat to low and just keep the stock warm.

In a casserole add 1 ½ sticks of butter and then onions and carrots.  Cook over medium heat until the onions are translucent, takes about 15 minutes.  Now add the flour and cook for 3 minutes.  Slowly add the chicken stock while whisking.  Adding it slowly will reduce the potential for lumps.  Add the chicken, cream, remaining butter, onions, peas, parsley and  cook for 5 minutes.  Add the cayenne pepper and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Now remove from heat and place the biscuits on top of the chicken mixture.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the biscuits are done.

Chicken Curry Salad…

This past week was a killer!  I’ve started to train for the Aids Lifecycle once again and also preparing for the upcoming bathing suit season.  The day job has kicked back into full swing and folks are hiring again.  The combination of training and work is exhausting!

When I got home one night this week nothing sounded good to eat and I was being too lazy to invest any real length of time into cooking.  What to do what to do.  I was thinking it would be good to have something to take for lunch the next day because lord knows the restaurants around the office get old.  The dilemma grows.

Inspiration struck and it struck in the form of curry and pita bread.  I just needed to figure out what to make with the two.  Chicken had been on sale the week before and I had several breasts in the freezer, so the solution is Curry Chicken Salad.

Most chicken curry salad recipes call for chutney, but the bf is deathly allergic to mango’s, so this reflects my desire to not kill him.  This is simple, requires little labor and is tasty.  It truly does taste better the longer it sits, so it’s great to make for lunch.

Ingredients

• 6  chicken breasts, bone-in, skin-on
• Olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups light mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons orange marmalade
• 3 tablespoons curry powder
• 2 stocks of celery, diced
• 2 chopped scallions
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1 cup whole roasted, salted cashews

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub the skin with olive oil and season with salt & pepper.  Roast the chicken for 40 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool for about 15 to 20 minutes.  Once it is cool remove skin, remove chicken from the bones and then cut into bite-size pieces.

While the chicken is cooking you can combine in a large mixing bowl the mayonnaise, marmalade, chicken stock, curry powder, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon black pepper.  Whisk until fully combined. Then add the chicken, celery, raisins, scallions and cashews. Mix until everything is equally coated.

You can serve now, but it’s better to let it rest in the fridge for a few hours.  To serve I cut a pita in half and filled it up with the curry chicken salad.  It’s good stuff!!

Who knew the balls were so big…

One of the holiday parties that I went to this past season was the boyfriends work party.  The party was a pot luck and those doctors and nurses did it right.   There was a very wide range of dishes – sashimi, lumpias, ham, cakes, pies and on and on.  The show stealer of the night was this amazing couscous salad.

This was no ordinary couscous salad.  The couscous was about 10 times the size of normal couscous, who knew the couscous balls could be so big.  Now I’m not a total size queen, but this changed the texture and the taste of the dish.  Apparently this is a special type of couscous called Israeli Couscous.  The balls are almost the size of peas!  Those Israeli’s are clever and packing.

The boyfriend persuaded his colleague to email us the recipe and I thought of a few modifications.  I really wanted to be able to eat this as a meal and not just a side salad.  The addition of the chicken helped with that.

Here goes:

• 4 chicken breasts with bone in and skin on
• 1 garlic clove
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 1/2 cups low sodium vegetable stock
• 6 ounces Israeli Couscous
• 2 cups snow peas
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes – cut in half
• 2 cups English cucumber- seeded and diced
• 1/2 cup Kalamata olives – pitted and cut in half
• 2 large green onions – diced
• 1/4 cup fresh mint leaves  – minced
• 6 ounces crumbled Feta cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts, skin side up, on a sheet pan and rub them with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Set aside until cool.

While the chicken is cooking bring the vegetable broth to a boil in a medium sauce pan.  Mix in couscous.  Cover it, reduce the heat to low and leave it alone for 10 minutes.  Once it’s finished transfer it into a large mixing bowl, season to taste with salt & pepper then set aside until the chicken is ready.

Now while the couscous is doing it’s thing you can get the veggies ready.  Dice, mince and chop them all and combine them in a bowl (NOT the garlic and lemon).

Once the chicken is cooked  let it cool for about 10 minutes.  Once cooled remove the skin and the chicken from the bone.  Cut the chicken into bite size pieces.  Combine the chicken with the couscous and then add the veggies.

In a small bowl add the garlic, lemon juice and mustard.  Wisk in the olive oil.  Season with salt & pepper to taste.  Pour the dressing over the couscous and mix.  Gently fold in the crumbled Feta.  Taste to make sure it’s seasoned appropriately.

This can be served right away, but tastes much better the longer it sets.  I suggest making it the day before you are going to serve it.

This is also fairly healthy!

Pomegranate, pasta and poussins…

Inspiration comes from a multitude of things in life and my most recent inspiration came from some very large pomegranates that my boyfriend had.  I’ve never been a huge pomegranate fan and have never cooked with them before, but since he loves them so much I figured I’d tackle the challenge.  Now it was a matter of figuring out what the heck I was going to make.

I saw a lot of recipes for lamb and pomegranate, which all sounded good, but just didn’t really strike my fancy.  Then I found it, a recipe for roasted poussins with pomegranate sauce.  I know, what in the world is a poussin?  In the United Kingdom, poussin is what a butcher calls a small chicken that is less than a month old.  Here in the States we usually call our small chicken Cornish game hens.

With the protein portion of the dish decided, I needed to figure out what was going to accompany it.  In a few blogs back I mentioned that I wanted to make homemade pasta, so I thought butternut squash and goat cheese ravioli would be a great flavor combination.

So it sounds great, but there was a change that I wanted to make.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve never really enjoyed being served something that I then need to dissect in front of my dinner companions.   It’s always awkward and usually ends up in being a bit messy.  I decided that I would use a full sized chicken cut into pieces instead of the poussins.  Not only would this result in a much greater ease of eating, but would also result in more meat.

There is also a trick that chefs use in making ravioli and tortellini – won ton wrappers!  These can be found in most markets and save you a ton of time.  They are basically little sheets of fresh plain pasta that are pre-cut and very inexpensive.  They are very easy to work with and the pasta tastes great.  I changed the recipes up quiet a bit, so here we go…

Pomegranate Glazed Chicken with Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Ravioli

Glaze
1 cup pomegranate juice
1 cup sugar
½ cup water

Chicken
1 4 to 5 lb Young Chicken, cut into pieces (skin on and bone in)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons or more vegetable oil, for frying

Ravioli
2-pound butternut squash
1 teaspoons ground sage
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 garlic clove, minced
3 ounces aged goat cheese, grated
1 medium onion, diced
Won ton wrappers, 1 package (about 40 wrappers)

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Cut butternut squash in half-length wise and then remove all seeds.  Place squash flesh side down on a greased cookie sheet and roast for 40 minutes or until it is very tender.  Remove squash to cool.

While the squash is roasting, heat a medium frying pan over medium-high heat.  Add 2 tablespoons butter.  Once butter is melted add the 1 medium diced onion, ground sage, salt and pepper.  Cook until onion becomes translucent, about 8 minutes.  Add minced garlic and cook for an additional 2 minutes.  Remove from heat.

When the squash is finished, scoop the flesh of the out of its skins; add to it the onions and add the goat cheese.  Mix together until completely mixed.  Set aside.

Reduce oven to 375°F.  Place medium sized roasting pan in oven.

Place a small saucepan over medium-high heat and add the ½ cup water, sugar and pomegranate juice. Wisk together.  Leave uncovered and bring to a boil.  Boil for about 20 minutes until sauce reduces and becomes syrupy.

In a small bowl mix the cumin, turmeric, salt and pepper.

Rinse the chicken very well and then dry it.  Make sure it’s completely dry.  Rub the spices onto the skin of the chicken.

Place a large safe frying pan over medium-high heat and add vegetable oil.  Let the oil get hot, but not smoking. Add the chicken pieces skin side down in batches and sear until golden brown.  Once seared remove these pieces and continue to add remaining pieces in batches.  Add more oil if needed.  Don’t over crowd the pan.

Once all pieces are done, transfer them to the medium sized roasting pan that has been warming in the oven.  Pour all but a ¼ of a cup of the pomegranate sauce over the chicken pieces.  Roast in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes, basting every 10 minutes.  When the chicken is finished make sure to baste it so that the pomegranate sauce forms a glaze on the chicken.

While the chicken is roasting we can make the ravioli.  On a lightly floured surface, place a row of 6 to 10 (depending on how much counter space) of the won ton wrappers.  Add a tablespoon of the filling to the center.  Brush the edges of the wrapper with water.  Grab a new wrapper and brush the entire surface with water.  Place this wrapper water brushed surface down on top of the wrapper with the filling. Press down to force all of the air out and seal the edges.  Place on a rack and finish remaining ravioli.  Place a large pot of water over high heat and add a few large pinches of salt. Bring the water to a boil.  Use a knife or kitchen scissors to trim edges of ravioli and make them look cute.  Add ravioli to boiling water in batches.  Cook for 5 minutes or al dente.  Ravioli will float when they are ready.

In a small pan add 3 tablespoons of butter and melt.  Cook butter (stirring often) until slightly brown, remove from heat.  Careful or butter will burn.

Add chicken to the plate and spoon the pomegranate glaze over it that it was cooking in.  Add 6 ravioli’s next to the chicken.  Drizzle ravioli with the browned butter.  Then drizzle the ravioli with pomegranate sauce that was reserved in the beginning of the recipe.

The chicken was moist and delicious.  The flavor combination of the spice rub along with the sweetness of the pomegranate glaze was delicious.  The ravioli was also very light and delicate.  The layers of flavor with the squash, goat cheese and sage along with the drizzle of the browned butter and pomegranate sauce are delightful.  You will finish this dish and be full, but not feel heavy.  It’s very good.

I had quite a bit of filling remaining from the ravioli.  I was considering all the different options that I had with this today.  Monday’s are typically very long, draining and frustrating days at the office – this Monday was true to form.  I knew I would be getting home later than normal, so whatever I did would need to be simple and quick.  I decided I would stop by the market and pick up a rotisserie chicken and that I would take some of the remaining filling to make fried squash cakes.   Needless to say I was a very happy boy.  Dinner took all of about 15 minutes to make and was delicious.  Frying the filling mixture added a new depth of flavor and went very well with the chicken.

To make the fried squash cakes simply heat up 3 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat.  Heat until hot, but not smoking.  Form the squash/goat cheese mixture into patties no larger than the size of your palm.  Place the patties into the hot oil and cook until golden brown, flip and do the same for the other side.  Sprinkle salt & pepper to taste.  Easy as that.  I also do this with left over stuffing or mashed potatoes.

Stay tuned for my next blog – it should be interesting.  I will be sharing the dinner that I am making for my boyfriend, my ex-boyfriend and my ex’s new boyfriend.  What does one make for a situation like this??

Soup save me…

I feel terrible today – scratchy throat, itchy eyes, congestion, my body just feels worn out – no fun.  The silver lining here is that I just created a chicken noodle soup recipe and it is absolutely delicious!  I’m hoping with a little luck the mythological healing powers will make me feel better.  Regardless it’s a chilly, foggy day here in San Francisco and I can think of nothing better than to be curled up on the sofa, with my soup, blanket and watching the entire first season of Mad Men – incredible show if you have not seen it.  Well there is one other thing that could make it better, but he is visiting his parents in Arizona.

The soup is a simple recipe and absolutely feels great in my belly.  Here’s the scoop…

What ya need…

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 carrots, sliced
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 6 cups water or chicken stock
• 1 chicken, quartered
• 1 cup thin egg noodles
• ½ teaspoon of fresh thyme
• ½ bay leaf
• ¼ cup of cream
• Salt
• Pepper

How to make it happen…

Heat the oil and butter in large casserole or heavy pot.  Add the onion and celery and cook until translucent.  Season chicken pieces liberally with salt and pepper (make sure your chicken has been washed and dried, this will help it brown better).  Place chicken skin side down in pot and brown, about 5 minutes. Add carrots, thyme, bay leaf and cover with water/stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 1 hour. Remove chicken from soup and remove meat from bones and shred, discard skin (it is easier to shred the meat when it is hot).  Return meat to pot and stir in cream and noodles. Cook for another 20 minutes.  Correct seasoning.

The soup is creamy, buttery and very soothing.  It will taste even better the longer it sits and as the noodles continue to absorb the flavors of the broth.  It is exactly what was needed for today and now hopefully those magically powers will help this sick boy.