Tastes Like Chicken

We are home safe and sound...how does a week of vacation fly by so fast?

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A few more Charleston notes before we turn back to regular business of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you are looking for the best fried shrimp in the Low Country (and let's be clear, I know fried shrimp), you MUST eat at Joseph's, on Meeting Street. And the best people watching + fabulous food has got to be Sermet's, on King Street. Oh, such a happy tummy I had all last week.

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Now, back to business. I have made a wonderful discovery in the Dinner-In-Less-Than-20-Minutes-Department. Our grocery store (Publix) sells pre-made and seasoned chicken burger patties (in the organic meat section). These are fabulous. All you have to do is grill them up and make a veggie to go with them. All of us love them. Keep an eye out for them, and pick them up if your grocery store has them.

Easy Peasy

I'm typing this through the fog of a summer cold. Ugh! Even our 5 year old, who normally has the immune system of steel, is sniffling. We've been living on ham sandwiches and watermelon, since making anything else seems like WAY too much effort. I have chicken broth in the freezer, but there's something terribly unappealing about soup when it's 105 degrees outside.

Here's an incredibly easy and fast dinner idea, courtesy of my mom. And oh so good! Pick up from the grocery store: Alfredo sauce (we like Buitoni or Classico), rotisserie chicken, bow tie pasta, sundried tomatoes (in oil), and pitted kalamata olives. Cook the pasta according to directions. Heat Alfredo sauce and shred the chicken (or use leftover beer butt chicken!). Toss with the pasta, olives, and sundried tomatoes. If you want to add a veggie, broccoli would be great in this.

Happy eating!

No Butts About It

Want to get a 5 year old boy in the kitchen with you? Here's a surefire way: make a recipe that has the word "butt" in it. Works every time.

"Beer butt chicken" is actually a recipe I've been wanting to make for years, but for whatever reason never tried it until a few weeks ago. I am absolutely a convert now. There are lots of recipes out there on the internet for this, but ultimately I just decided to do it like I would roast it in the oven. Here are the steps:

1) Rinse and pat dry a whole chicken, approx 5 pounds.

2) Open beer can, drink a few big gulps (or, if beer is not your drink of choice, just pour a little out so the can is not completely full). Set beer can into fancy grill beer-holder and place in the middle of a disposable tin pan (see picture).

3) Wiggle chicken onto beer can.

4) Brush all over with melted butter, and sprinkle liberally with seasoning of your choice (I used herbs de provence)

5) Heat grill to medium high heat. Place pan on grill, close lid, and grill for one hour and 15 minutes.

6) Enjoy! Ours was fabulous - crispy skin but moist and rich meat. There was no actual beer flavor we could discern, but the meat was wonderfully smokey. And we had perfect leftovers to use the next day for a pesto, mozzerella, and chicken pizza. So good!!

Home Again, Home Again

Ahhh, there's just nothing quite like sleeping in your own bed, is there? We are home again after a wonderful trip to New York City (quite possibly my favorite city in the world to visit) and feeling so grateful to have beaten the snowstorm out. No doubt it helped that our pilot was from Atlanta and his wife was on our flight, so there was some extra incentive to get us out, even if we did have to wait 5 hours for our plane to be de-iced.
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Food lesson learned in New York: if you don't know what it is, don't order it without asking. Especially if it's sushi. And especially if there's any chance what you thought would be sashimi tuna might arrive in the form of eel. Ugh. (Yes, I did eat it, but regretted it).
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As much as I've loved my travels of the past month, I'm happy to be back home for a while and back in the normal routine and rhythm of life. Including regular cooking and meal planning...

Which leads me to a question: what is your most versatile recipe? Mine, without a doubt, is roasted chicken. I know I've blogged it before, but it's such a workhorse in my food rotation that I thought I'd offer it again as the solution to one of your crazy nights this week. It's one of the few recipes that I've really memorized, and I vary it based on what I have around the house, which makes it incredibly easy. I also have no qualms about getting the chicken prepped and then putting it in the oven for up to 45 minutes ahead of time, setting the "delay start" on my oven so that it can cook while I'm at soccer practice/swim lesson/choir/whatever, and be ready for us when we walk through the door.

Roasted Chicken (the loosey-goosey version)

Rinse 4 to 5 pound whole chicken inside and out, pat dry. Sprinkle inside of chicken liberally with salt and pepper. Stuff chicken with any combination of lemon, garlic, and onion, depending on what you have around (I've even popped a couple shallots in there when I didn't have an onion). If you have fresh herbs like sage, thyme, or rosemary, throw those in as well (but in the winter, when I don't have any backyard herbs, I certainly don't buy the crazy expensive ones just for this). Place the chicken on rack in your roasting pan and tuck his little wings behind him, so he looks like he's taking a nap. Secure the legs together tightly with kitchen twine. Brush chicken with either 2 tablespoons melted butter or 2 tablespoons olive oil (butter would be my first choice). Sprinkle well with salt and pepper. Optional: add cut up winter vegetables to the roasting pan, like sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, onions, yukon gold pototoes, etc. (whatever you have on hand is fine). Roast at 425 for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Remove from oven, cover loosely with tin foil and let it sit for about 10 minutes before carving. If you're really organized, do 2 at once so you'll have delicious leftover roasted chicken to use later in the week.

Enjoy!

Dining with Sol

I'll be the first to admit it: Savannah is a Small Town. There are things I consider a basic necessity that are only accessible here on-line or via 2 hours on I-95 here (like Costco, decent swimsuits options for a mother of two children, and all things Pottery Barn). But one thing we do have on par with any city I've ever been to is restaurants. Especially if you like seafood - I really don't think Savannah can be beat.

We ate at Sol for the first time Saturday night (1611 Habersham Street), and I can't figure out why we haven't been there before. It's Mexican food meets Coastal Georgia, and the marriage of the two is perfect. Everything we had was outstanding, and the service couldn't have been better. We shared the crab and wild Georgia shrimp ceviche, eggplant tostadas, fish tacos, and pan seared striped sea bass. Fabulous. My only regret - we were trying to make a movie and didn't have time to stay for dessert. I feel certain the movie wasn't worth it...
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In keeping with the Mexican theme, here's a recipe I absolutely love for chicken enchiladas. This is my mom's recipe and one of my most requested meals from her. I've been known to drop off empty pans at her house in the hopes they'll reappear in my freezer with this in it. This is my favorite kind of dish for crazy weeknights, because it can be made the day before and baked the next day.

Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas

1 10oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed (A note about spinach brands: I love frozen spinach, and use it in a lot of recipes. I usually buy Green Giant or Bird's Eye brand, but when I made this recipe last week I bought Publix brand spinach. Mistake. For whatever reason, the Publix spinach wasn't sufficiently chopped, and ended up being far too clumpy in the enchiladas. Lesson: go with a good brand for something like this.)
1 16oz jar medium salsa with cilantro (Mom and I have actually decided medium salsa with cilantro makes this a bit too spicy for us, though DH and my dad don't seem to notice. I go with mild salsa now - love Newman's own brand)
1 10oz cans mild enchilada sauce
1 8oz package cream cheese
10 7-8 inch flour tortillas
1 8oz package shredded Mexican cheese

Drain spinach, set aside. Stir together 1/4 cup salsa and enchilada sauce, set aside. Microwave cream cheese for about a minute, until very soft. Add spinach, chicken, and remaining salsa, and stir until blended. Spoon a heaping 1/3 cupful of chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up tortillas and place seam side down in a lightly greased baking dish (did you see that part about "lightly greased"? The Voice of Experience is here to tell you not to skip that step) . Pour enchilada sauce mixture evenly over top of rolled tortillas, sprinkle with shredded cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, let stand 5 minutes. Delish!

I'm Dreaming of a White Pizza

Brilliance alert!

(Okay, perhaps 'brilliance' is too strong a word. But I'm a little jazzed up on cold medicine and given to hyperbole today).

Easy and fast dinner idea, and oh so yummy. Here are the steps:

1) Review pizza tips post, and remember to check that you have cornmeal.

2) Before you leave for work/school/crazy errand running in the morning, take your pizza dough out of the freezer and set it on the counter. Leave it there all day, and it will have plenty of time to defrost and rise (minimum 6 hours, and leaving it alone as long as 9 hours will be just fine). If the package is tied with a twist tie, don't forget to loosen it so the dough will have room to rise.

3) On your way home from work/school/crazy errand running, pop into the grocery store and pick up a jar of pesto, a rotisserie chicken, and a package of mozzarella cheese. (I've actually been using pesto I made last summer and froze, when my basil was growing out of control) (If you're really organized, you could make roasted chicken one night and then use the leftovers for this pizza - just have the cheese and pesto ahead of time, and you've saved a trip to the market).

4) When you walk in the door, your dough is ready for you. Preheat your oven, to 425, roll out the dough, and spread on the pesto. Top with cheese and roasted chicken. Bake for 20 minutes until the crust is brown and the cheese is bubbly. That gives you just enough time to pour some wine, flip through the mail and marvel at all the Christmas card pictures, and get every one's hands washed.

5) Supper is ready!

Enjoy.

Recipe Redone

If you have been following me from the start (or maybe if you found me later but went back and read all my posts), you may remember that my tried and true go-to meal is my mother-in-law's pork chops and rice recipe. I wrote about it for my very first blog post, here. We love this recipe, and I always, always have the ingredients on hand (pork chops in the freezer; tomatoes, rice, and onion in the pantry; spices in the cupboard). Except, apparently, when I don't.

Last week was just insane. We had been traveling and work was unusually busy for me. Either one of those things are enough to throw off our daily juggle, but the two combined was just about enough to send me over the edge. And this is why I have a go-to meal in the first place - so that when I hardly have a minute to think, at least I don't have to think about dinner.

But of course, somehow I had no pork chops in the freezer. Grrr! That never happens to me. I am usually downright religious about restocking them when I use them, so I was literally throwing things around the freezer drawers and muttering to myself when I came across a bunch of frozen chicken thighs. Ding ding ding! Idea! Could I substitute the pork chops for chicken thighs?

Yes, I can!

It came out perfectly. I didn't change a thing other than that one substitution, and it was so good that I'm not sure which way I like it more. Here's the recipe, copied from my first blog post and updated to include the chicken instead of the pork.

10 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (note: if you have these in your freezer and they are wrapped in the butcher paper from your market, do not assume that all things in your freezer wrapped in butcher paper are chicken thighs. I suggest you actually label them. Otherwise, you might accidentally defrost shrimp shells that you were saving to make seafood stock. Oops)
1 large sweet onion (suggest vidalia if you can get them), diced
1 cup long grain rice (don't go all healthy on us and try to substitute brown rice; won't work)
28 0z can Muir Glen organic diced tomatoes
28 0z can Muir Glen organic crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2/3 cup water
Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Brown both sides quickly over high heat, set in the bottom of large casserole dish. Sprinkle onion over chicken. (Is your family weird about texture like mine sometimes is? If so, leave out the onion and it will still be yummy.) Measure rice into measuring cup, add salt, chili powder, and garlic powder. Stir to mix the spices together with the rice, and pour over chicken. Pour both cans of tomatoes over chicken and rice. Pour in water. Cook uncovered at 350 for 1 hour, 45 minutes. Dinner is ready when all the liquid is absorbed, rice is cooked and tomatoes have reduced down.

Happy eating!

For Kids or Adults?

A guest blog from Atlanta Mom today. I'll confess I haven't tried this recipe yet because SHE JUST SENT IT DESPITE ME ASKING FOR IT FOR WEEKS AND WEEKS (ahem), but it's definitely going on next week's menu plans. Mmmm
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Today is my high school BFF’s birthday. We have known each other since we were four, and though we don’t get to see each other very often, we don’t skip a beat when we are together, and it’s so fun to watch our children becoming friends. It seems appropriate to post a recipe that she passed on to me today, one that is very often requested by her 3rd grade daughter. I was hoping to have similar results in my family, but it was my husband who loved it the most! Regardless of who likes this dish, it is very kid-friendly and quick to prepare.

Poppy-Seed Chicken

1 package of fried rice flavor Rice-a-Roni
3 to 4 cups shredded cooked chicken (she uses a rotisserie but you can also use Ina Garten’s roasted chicken breasts*)
1 cup low-fat sour cream
1 can Healthy Requests cream of chicken soup
36 buttery crackers (Club crackers work best, and I used the reduced fat kind)
½ stick butter, melted
1 T. poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 375. Cook rice according to directions. Spoon rice into bottom of 11 x 7 baking dish (2 qt). Combine chicken, sour cream, and soup in a medium bowl, then spoon evenly over rice. In the same bowl, combine crushed crackers, butter, and poppy seeds. Bake 25-30 minutes, until bubbling and browned.


*Bonus recipe for Ina’s roasted chicken breasts: Using bone-in chicken breasts with skin on, brush with EVOO and sprinkle with generous amounts of kosher salt and pepper. Roast on a cookie sheet/half-sheet pan in 350 deg. oven for 35-40 minutes. When cool enough to handle, pull chicken from bone, and either shred it by hand or chop it. Super moist and delicious—perfect for casseroles! I usually roast 3 at a time.

So Nice, We Ate it Twice

As my family knows, I have a general prohibition on leftovers for dinner. I don't mind eating leftovers for lunch, but there's just something about the same dinner two nights in a row that I find hard to swallow. (HA! Pun totally intended!). That said, I have discovered the most perfect meal ever to make on a Sunday afternoon. It takes hardly any prep-time, it cooks itself while you're out doing whatever it is you do in the late Sunday afternoons, it's made all in one roasting pan so very little to clean up, and it gives you such delicious and plentiful leftovers that even I am willing to serve it again on Monday. Not to mention the huge added benefit of no cooking on Monday, which is such a relief on that crazy busy day.

The wonder-child of Sunday meals? Drum roll please...

Roasted chicken and vegetables.

Oh dear, were you expecting something sexier? Yes, perhaps I built it up too much. But really, isn't it true that the very best recipes are classics for a reason? And here's what makes it so fabulous - you roast the veggies right there in the pan with the chicken.

Now, this may be old news to you, because I've seen recipes for this floating around for ages. But I never tried it because I was concerned the veggies would end up too greasy. Let me tell you - they do not. They come out just right - flavored with the chicken drippings, but still crisp and earthy. Oh so good. And the key is to roast 2 chickens at once, which gives you plenty of leftovers.

(By the way, have you noticed I haven't been posting as much? You have? Oh, that's sweet. Sorry. Work has been insanely busy and I've been having to work every night after kiddos go to bed instead of playing on my blog.)

Roasted Chicken with Vegetables

2 whole chickens, between 3 and 4 pounds each, rinsed and patted dry

1 sweet yellow onion

1 head of garlic

1 lemon

Salt

Pepper

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Fresh herbs if you still have them, or your favorite spice rub if you do not (my herbs, after a summer of love, finally gave up on me this past week and wilted beyond my ability to resuscitate them. I'm going to blame it on the cold weather and not the complete and total neglect they've been subjected to since work got so crazy)

3 sweet potatoes, cut into large chunks

6 medium red potatoes, cut into thirds

6-8 carrots, peeled and cut into thirds

Olive oil

Preheat oven to 425. In the roasting pan: toss sweet potatoes, red potatoes, and carrots with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of salt, and a teaspoon of pepper. Arrange on bottom of roasting pan. If you have not filled up your roasting pan, add more veggies - remember the point is to have lots of leftovers. Place roasting rack over veggies.

Prep the chicken: stuff each one with half an onion, half a lemon, and half of the head of garlic (if you have fresh herbs like rosemary or thyme throw some in as well). Tie the legs together, tuck the wings behind, and place on roasting rack. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle liberally with salt, pepper, and your spice rub (if not using fresh herbs). Roast at 425 for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Remove from oven, cover with foil, and let rest for 10 minutes. Carve one chicken and serve with half the veggies. Save the other chicken and the remaining veggies for the next night.

Happy eating!

Something to Noodle Over

First, I suppose I should be grateful that it's took so long: we had a full 4 weeks of school before my kids (aka the walking petri dishes) brought home a cold. But here I am, with one kid recovering, one in the midst of it, and a scratchy throat of my own that I keep telling myself could just be from being up half the night listening to little coughs on the monitor (Whatever. I am so getting sick.).

It's times like these that I really, really appreciate a stocked freezer, because it's like having someone bring you dinner just when you need it the most.

So here's my advice to you - consider yourself forewarned that if you don't have this cold yet, but you have kids, it's coming your way. Take the time this weekend to stock up that freezer, and here's what should be at the top of your list: Chicken Noodle Soup. This recipe freezes beautifully, and nothing hits the spot more when you're under the weather.

1 rotisserie chicken, meat removed and shredded
4 quarts homemade chicken stock (or you can use Kitchen Basics stock if homemade is impractical this weekend)
2-3 cups chopped celery (I like lots of veggies in my soup, so this is heavy on the celery and carrots - do a small dice for both of them so you don't end up with big chunks of veggies)
2-3 cups diced carrots
1 large sweet yellow onion, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups uncooked egg noodles (I use whole wheat egg noodles in this)
Salt and pepper

In a large stockpot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery, along with a generous pinch of salt and pepper and cook until tender, stirring often. Add the chicken stock, bring to a simmer, and cook the veggies another 10-15 minutes. Add the shredded chicken and noodles, cook 10 minutes more until noodles are cooked through. Taste for seasoning. Maybe more salt and pepper? A little fresh parsley? You decide, but don't spend too much time on it. With that stuffy nose you're not going to be able to tell anyway.

Bake it, Baby

2 for 1 today! A recipe AND a restaurant review. We are on a roll.

First - is there anything more boring sounding for dinner than "baked chicken"? Why is it that we say "roasted chicken" and it instantly sounds more appealing? But here is one of the world's easiest, inexpensive, and yummiest dinners: roasted chicken leg quarters. In fact, it's so good and easy that I'm suddenly wondering if I've blogged it before...but since I'm in a hurry (aren't I always in a hurry?) I can't be bothered to go back and check. If I've forgotten, then maybe you, dear reader, have as well. (And, as my grandmother would say, together we could hide our own Easter eggs...)

6-8 chicken leg quarters
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Optional: your other favorite seasonings or spice rub (I have a "Mediterranean" dry spice rub that was a hostess gift one time, and I love it with this recipe. Side note - nicely packaged spice rubs make great hostess gifts!)

Preheat oven to 400. Line roasting pan with aluminum foil (only to make it easier to clean up. If you have it out for whoever cleans up dinner, you can skip this step). Place chicken leg quarters in pan, skin side up. Rub with olive oil, and then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and optional spices. Roast for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes.

This is a great recipe to do with the "delay start" function on your oven. We always have this with lima beans and mac & cheese. Mmmmm...

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And Attorney Mom had a fantastic lunch the other day at Cafe 37:

Cafe 37- Or, as we'll call it, Cafe 5 (Stars)

This week a dear friend and I enjoyed ourselves immensely at Cafe 37, a small, rustic-inspired cafe tucked into Savannah's Victorian district, on 37th street. The cafe has been open approximately a year, and serves brunch, lunch, and dinner. The space is small but filled with light, with a bar tucked on one side and the kitchen upstairs. I've only sampled the brunch and lunch menus, and as this is becoming my new favorite spot, I'll be presenting myself for dinner soon!

Lunch was just divine. Simple, flavorful, and executed to perfection. The soup of the day was french onion, and as I usually avoid this soup due to the (normal) overabundance of cheese and grease, I ordered it with a slight hesitation and a salad on the side. The soup arrived, in an appropriately sized bowl, with a perfect toast and adequate (but not overkill) amount of broiled cheese, and it was excellent. The flavor was the obvious result of a slow-cooked soup, with an fantastic depth that could have been provided by beef stock. (My friend and I were too absorbed in our conversation to chase down the chef, but dear reader, go after him!) The house salad was also Quite Perfect. Excellent greens, with fat dried cherries and lightly-candied pistachios, with a generous dollop of goat cheese that had been quickly heated, served on a toast.

I cannot wait to sample dinner, and to eat my way through the rest of the lunch menu throughout the next year!

Playing Chicken

First, a plea. On the very off chance the CEO or other key decision maker in Costco is a loyal reader of this blog, would you please, please put a Costco in Savannah? It's just a weird form of cruelty to not have one.

Since we don't have a Costco here, I have to beg visiting friends and family members to pack coolers in their cars and bring me long lists of items from their own local Costco. (My sweet grandmother is my usual victim, and she could probably recite my list from heart.) One thing I always request - the Goldkist Farms whole chickens, which come 2 per pack.

I'm continuing to clean out my freezer before we depart on vacation, so yesterday's challenge was making 4 (or more!) meals for 4 people out of 2 chickens and only things I had in the fridge/pantry (no more grocery trips this week!). Want to play along?

1) Make chicken stock out of one of them. Place in large pot, toss in onion, carrots, and celery (bonus points awarded for finding a way to use up the last of the celery in the fridge). Lots of salt and pepper. Throw in a handful of herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary). Bring to a boil and then simmer for 3 hours. Remove chicken, strain broth and cool in fridge overnight. Remove fat and freeze broth. Voila, homemade chicken stock is ready to go for fall soups.

2) Make chicken casserole out of chicken that was used for the stock. Allow chicken to cool after removing it from the stock, and then pick as much chicken as possible off the bones (you'll end up with roughly 3-4 cups of chicken). Cook 160z whole wheat angel hair pasta according to directions. Strain, and then put back in pot. Add chicken, 10 oz package of frozen peas (bonus points for using up frozen peas from the freezer), 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 can cream of chicken soup, and 1 can cream of celery. Add 1/2 cup of your chicken stock and mix well. Put in 2 freezer-safe 9x9 pans, sprinkle liberally with shredded cheddar cheese, cover with plastic wrap and aluminum foil, and freeze. Voila, 2 casseroles ready and waiting for a couple of crazy busy fall days when nice hot comfort food would really hit the spot. (Note: each one of these casseroles will feed 4-6 people).

3) Roast the other chicken. Wash and dry it, sprinkle the inside with salt and pepper. Stuff chicken with lemon, onion (this used the last onion in the house, double bonus points), thyme, rosemary, parsley. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 425 for 1 hour (for my 4.5 pound bird). Eat for dinner that night.

4) Get all the leftover chicken off the roasted chicken, and make chicken and black bean quesadillas for dinner the next night.

Whew. That was a lot of chicken cooking. But there you go - just a couple hours and a couple of chickens yielded me 2 meals for this week, 2 casseroles for a later dinner, and homemade stock.

Happy eating!

I Feel Like Chicken Tonight

I've written before about my menu planning approach: each week I plan 4 meals, and make one of them chicken, one red meat, one pasta/vegetarian, and one seafood. (The rest of the nights we either eat leftovers, breakfast for dinner, or something comes up and we aren't at home for dinner). Tonight is chicken night, and here's what I have marinating in my fridge right now:

Lemon-Herb Chicken (this will feed all 4 of us, but only because our little guys only eat a small amount. So double this recipe if you need more than 2.4 servings)

3/4 lb chicken cutlets (Note: use organic chicken if your grocery store has it. It really does taste better. Also, you can easily substitute chicken breasts, but I like cutlets for this because they grill more quickly and there's less angst about whether the center is done all the way)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (approximately 1 large lemon)
1/4 cup good olive oil
1 big pinch of kosher salt
1 big pinch of pepper
1/2 cup of finely chopped fresh herbs (I used a combination today of rosemary, basil, thyme, and parsley)

Whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and herbs. Pour over chicken and marinate overnight. Grill chicken for approximately 5 minutes each side (depending on thickness of the chicken, make it up to 10 minutes each side if you're using a nice thick chicken breast), or until just cooked through. Serve over mixed greens with crusty french bread and tomato slices. So easy and fast.