It's getting to be soup weather. Get bones of chickens, toss into a pot with celery and carrots and onions and simmer the fuckers down into a stock for 12 hours. Fish out all the mush and store the liquid in the fridge overnight.
Next day, heat it up, add a bunch of white wine, fresh veggies, meat of whatever beast you like, rice, potatoes, spices to taste. At that point it's next to impossible to make something bad. Just keep the heat low, and in a couple hours it's the best damn soup in known creation.
I store my chicken bones in the freezer until I have enough to stockify. And then I make enough soup to last four or five days. I always make an announcement to my email list when the soup is ready. Because, you know, I'm such a giving soul.
(Via Derek Burrows: The one instruction that Ben forgot is to skim the crap off your stock before you turn it into real soup. All the fat rises to the top in the fridge in a thick, white disc. Said fat isn't great in the soup (though your stock WILL be a bit clearer for it), but IIRC it can be used for other things. Skimming it off is the best thing to do with it.)
Showing posts with label chicken. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chicken. Show all posts
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Chris Metcalf's Piece of Piss Fajitas
Piece of Piss Fajitas 2 large size chicken breasts, sliced into 1cm strips
3 medium peppers (green, yellow and red)
2 large red onions (cut in into big chunks)
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
Juice from 2 small lime
2-3 teaspoons of dried crushed chillies (it's to your liking really)
2 teaspoons of dried mixed herbs
Take all of the above, throw in a bowl and mix it up. Leave for about half an hour. Throw in a Griddle pan. Cook it til the chicken won't kill you and the peppers/onions are coloured to your liking.
Throw it in on tortillas with lettuce, salsa and, if you want to wuss out, sour cream.
Ta-bleeding-daa.
3 medium peppers (green, yellow and red)
2 large red onions (cut in into big chunks)
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
Juice from 2 small lime
2-3 teaspoons of dried crushed chillies (it's to your liking really)
2 teaspoons of dried mixed herbs
Take all of the above, throw in a bowl and mix it up. Leave for about half an hour. Throw in a Griddle pan. Cook it til the chicken won't kill you and the peppers/onions are coloured to your liking.
Throw it in on tortillas with lettuce, salsa and, if you want to wuss out, sour cream.
Ta-bleeding-daa.
Derek Burrow's Festive Chicken
Festive Chicken Ok. This is not a very original dish. Just about every restraunt I've ever worked in has had some variation of this. The cheeses change, the fillings get shifted around, but its a safe bet that any restaraunt that offers chicken on the menu offers some sort of chicken supreme stuffed with cheese. This can range from the often overdone chicken cordon bleu to Sharkey's Wolfgang Chicken (with goat cheese and spinach as I recall) to the recipe we used to serve at Il Posto (with gorgonzola). Suffice to say, its a classic. But it WORKS. There's something magical about chicken stuffed with a nice, soft cheese. The real trick is finding a stuffing combination that complements both the chicken, and a sauce that brings it all together but doesn't overpower things.
This dish uses goat cheese. Just simple goat cheese, preferably the softest you can find. The flavor of the goat cheese nicely holds all the other flavors together, and heated it has a fantastic texture that's nearly a sauce in and of itself. The stuffing is also great for a fancy spread, or for stuffed mushroom caps.
For the balsamic vinegar, just about anything will do. But it MUST be balsamic. I suggest, however, using the highest quality stuff you can find, because you really DO get what you pay for.
This is a FANTASTIC dish to serve for parties. The prep work is virtually nonexistant, taking up maybe 20 minutes of your time, and aside from a short spin in the pan (maybe 2-3 minutes a side), you can just toss these suckers in the oven and ignore them.
4 chicken supremes (plain, deboned breasts are fine as well, but the supremes have the first joint of the wing bone still on and look nice...also, try to get them with skin on)
1 large palmful of goat cheese (just buy a nice big tube of the stuff and cut off as much as you end up needing...goat cheese is nice to have around anyway)
1 medium sized palmful of dried cranberries, and the same of walnuts
4 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tabelspoons of roughly chopped parsley, and the same of finely chopped chives
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1. Roughly dice the cranberries and the walnuts. Don't turn them into mush, but give them a nice, good chop.
2. Throw the cranberries, walnuts, herbs, olive oil, and some salt and pepper into a bowl and mix well until everything's incorporated. It helps if you've warmed the goat cheese slightly before doing this.
3. On the inside edge of the chicken breasts make a small incision. Make it near the top, and wider on the inside. Use a paring knife if you have to, though a boning knife is preferable due to the overall size and shape of the blade. A chef's knife is just overkill, unless you're a deft hand with it.
4. Stuff the cavity of the breast full of the cheese mixture. Don't worry if the hole you made comes out the other side a little bit, or onto the bottom of the breast. Its not that big a deal as long as the holes aren't too big.
5. In a large, metal (no teflon here) frying pan heat some oil and add the breasts once the oil is heated. The breasts should go top down ("prestentation side" down) first. Give them 2 or 3 minutes, until they turn a nice gold color on that side, and flip them over to the other side and repeat. After this, transfer them to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or foil. Put in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until cooked throughout and showing little or no pink inside. Remember that poultry (along with hamburger) cannot be served rare, and must be 100% cooked to safely kill all the bacteria.
6. While your chicken's in the oven, add the cup of balsamic vinegar to a sauce pan and heat to boiling. Let it boil down and reduce by about one half to two thirds. This doesn't need any seasonings at all. It should be nice and syrupy at this point. If you want to be fancy, throw some peppercorns in while its cooking.
7. Plate the chicken with some steamed veggies (spinach is also nice) and drizzle the balsamic over it. If you want to be real fancy and have a really sharp chef or carving knife, cut the chicken into medallions, making sure that the last medallion still has the bone on it.
This dish is dead easy. To be honest, cutting the pocket into the chicken is the hardest part, and its a lot easier than it looks. You may want to buy an extra chicken breast or two to practice on (and then perhaps grill with some BBQ sauce, or maybe slice up and turn into fajitas...or whatever) beforehand. After that, its all easy as pie.
This dish uses goat cheese. Just simple goat cheese, preferably the softest you can find. The flavor of the goat cheese nicely holds all the other flavors together, and heated it has a fantastic texture that's nearly a sauce in and of itself. The stuffing is also great for a fancy spread, or for stuffed mushroom caps.
For the balsamic vinegar, just about anything will do. But it MUST be balsamic. I suggest, however, using the highest quality stuff you can find, because you really DO get what you pay for.
This is a FANTASTIC dish to serve for parties. The prep work is virtually nonexistant, taking up maybe 20 minutes of your time, and aside from a short spin in the pan (maybe 2-3 minutes a side), you can just toss these suckers in the oven and ignore them.
4 chicken supremes (plain, deboned breasts are fine as well, but the supremes have the first joint of the wing bone still on and look nice...also, try to get them with skin on)
1 large palmful of goat cheese (just buy a nice big tube of the stuff and cut off as much as you end up needing...goat cheese is nice to have around anyway)
1 medium sized palmful of dried cranberries, and the same of walnuts
4 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tabelspoons of roughly chopped parsley, and the same of finely chopped chives
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1. Roughly dice the cranberries and the walnuts. Don't turn them into mush, but give them a nice, good chop.
2. Throw the cranberries, walnuts, herbs, olive oil, and some salt and pepper into a bowl and mix well until everything's incorporated. It helps if you've warmed the goat cheese slightly before doing this.
3. On the inside edge of the chicken breasts make a small incision. Make it near the top, and wider on the inside. Use a paring knife if you have to, though a boning knife is preferable due to the overall size and shape of the blade. A chef's knife is just overkill, unless you're a deft hand with it.
4. Stuff the cavity of the breast full of the cheese mixture. Don't worry if the hole you made comes out the other side a little bit, or onto the bottom of the breast. Its not that big a deal as long as the holes aren't too big.
5. In a large, metal (no teflon here) frying pan heat some oil and add the breasts once the oil is heated. The breasts should go top down ("prestentation side" down) first. Give them 2 or 3 minutes, until they turn a nice gold color on that side, and flip them over to the other side and repeat. After this, transfer them to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or foil. Put in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until cooked throughout and showing little or no pink inside. Remember that poultry (along with hamburger) cannot be served rare, and must be 100% cooked to safely kill all the bacteria.
6. While your chicken's in the oven, add the cup of balsamic vinegar to a sauce pan and heat to boiling. Let it boil down and reduce by about one half to two thirds. This doesn't need any seasonings at all. It should be nice and syrupy at this point. If you want to be fancy, throw some peppercorns in while its cooking.
7. Plate the chicken with some steamed veggies (spinach is also nice) and drizzle the balsamic over it. If you want to be real fancy and have a really sharp chef or carving knife, cut the chicken into medallions, making sure that the last medallion still has the bone on it.
This dish is dead easy. To be honest, cutting the pocket into the chicken is the hardest part, and its a lot easier than it looks. You may want to buy an extra chicken breast or two to practice on (and then perhaps grill with some BBQ sauce, or maybe slice up and turn into fajitas...or whatever) beforehand. After that, its all easy as pie.
Madolan's Chicken Fricassee
Chicken's a classic-- in a pot or lidded saucepan, brown chicken pieces with olive oil, garlic, butter, and fresh herbs. Add some white wine and let it reduce. Pour in chicken broth and more herbs, cover the pot, and let it gently simmer until the chicken is fall-off-the-bone tender. When it's done, I add some more butter and lemon juice and let the sauce further reduce over high heat.
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