Will Work for Food

I’m certain there are times that the boys don’t think raising chickens is worth it. Like at 5:30 a.m. when the have to feed and water them before school.

Or when they want to go out with friends, but they have to make sure that someone will check in on them every 4-5 hours, or more often if it’s hot.

And then there’s the weekends when they have to get up at 5 a.m. and process 50-100 chickens for customers who are on their way.

But the one time they really don’t complain is when dinner’s on the table. And they get Barbeque Chicken that looks like this:

Or Parmesan Chicken that tastes as good as it looks:

Strange how they don’t complain about the work so much at dinner time.

Scribbling

Can you read that? Does it make sense? It’s for a one-pot chicken and rice dish.

I hate printing out internet recipes. It seems like such a waste of paper and ink. So I usually just grab a scrap of paper and start scribbling.

I jot the most important things down (spelling doesn’t matter), but sometimes my shorthand confuses me and I have to run back to the computer and doublecheck myself.

The method works fine when I’m cooking right away. However, I do occasionally find stray papers around the kitchen with ingredient lists and cryptic notes that make no sense.

The recipe above is based on the one found here:

It turned out really good, and was very simple. I ended up browning the chicken quickly under the broiler right before serving to make it look more appetizing. But the taste was right on.

Oh, and please, don’t analyze my handwriting…I don’t want to know.

Serving Sizes

On a regular basis, I cook for seven people. Four adults, two teenagers and an 11-year-old who almost doesn’t count because he doesn’t like to eat things that aren’t cereal. So when I cook dinner, its important that I make enough for dinner. And if I’m lucky, there’ll be enough leftover for my lunch the next day.

So when I make a recipe I usually aim for 6-8 servings. That’s a fairly safe number for us. Usually.

The other day, after watching the Throwdown with Bobby Flay Arroz con Pollo episode, I decided to make Bobby’s Adobo Seasoned Chicken and Rice. I was almost scared away by the 27 ingredients. Seriously Bobby? 27 ingredients? Do you know how much concentration it takes to not lose your place in a list of 27 ingredients? We don’t all have two sous chefs!

Anyways…the recipe says it serves 4. I should have known it was lying. I should have thought it through. But I had just gotten home from work. I was tired and my brain had already gone through it’s shut down procedure. And I was much more worried about how much turmeric I had because that’s not a spice I keep close track of.

When I saw that it called for 4 chicken thighs AND 4 chicken breasts, I should have known. Then the 3 cups of rice should have clued me in. But I blindly followed along. Used 2 whole cut-up chickens (they were small birds) and 6 cups of rice. And it made enough for 2 whole meals AND a leftover lunch.

It was good…next time I may have to find a way to kick up the flavor of the chicken some, but the flavors were all really good. I must admit that I only used 26 ingredients. I didn’t know how green olives would go over as an ingredient, so I skipped them. But otherwise, it was really good. Which is a good thing when it makes as much as it did! For you, I’ll give you the “4 serving” sized recipe.

But consider yourself warned.

Adobo Seasoned Chicken and Rice
Recipe courtesy Bobby Flay, 2008 (www.foodnetwork.com)

Mix together:
2 T kosher salt
2 t granulated garlic
1 t granulated onion
1 t paprika
2 t freshly ground black pepper
2 t ground turmeric
1 T finely chopped fresh oregano leaves (I used 1 t dried oregano)

Season both sides of chicken with above spice mixture.
Heat:
3 T olive oil
in a large Dutch oven over high heat. Place chicken in oil skin-side down, in batches, in necessary, and saute until golden brown. Turn the chicken over and cook until the second side is golden brown.
Transfer the chicken into a separate pot with all cooking juices, cover and alow to cook through over medium heat. Keep warm.

Place the browning pan back over high heat, add:
2 T olive oil
1 large Spanish onion, finely diced
1 medium green bell pepper, finely diced
1 medium red bell pepper, finely diced
Cook until soft.

Add:
About 1/3 c tomato powder or 1-2 plum tomatoes, seeded and finely diced (I used 2 T tomato paste)
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Cook for 1 minute.

Add:
3 cups long-grain rice
Stir to coat the rice in the onion mixture, and cook for 1 minute. Then add:
4 3/4 c chicken stock
1 bay leaf
Salt & pepper
Bring to a boil. Stir well, cover, reduce heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes.

Add:
1 c frozen peas (not thawed)
Cover and continue cooking until rice is tender. (About 8 minutes)

Remove pot from heat and let sit 5 minutes covered. Remove the lid, fluff the rice and gently fold in:
3/4 c pimento stuffed green olives
3/4 c pitted picholine olives
Freshly chopped cilantro leaves
Freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
Finely chopped fresh oregano
Squeeze lime juice.
Add the chicken to combine and serve.

Comfort Foods

Comfort foods are a very personal thing. Within the same family, everyone has their own unique preferences.

Now Farmer Paul, he’s a gravy guy. Biscuits and sausage gravy, fried chicken liver with potatoes and cream gravy, pork chops with potatoes and cream gravy, turkey with giblet gravy…you get the idea.

Nick…well, Nick likes everything. But he really loves Tuna Pasta Salad. Austin goes for homemade burgers and baked beans and Ryan is all about Spaghetti and Pizza.

For me, it’s a good brothy soup. Zuppa Toscana-style potato soup, meatball soup and, best of all, chicken/turkey Noodle soup. Not just noodle soup, but Noodle with a capital “N” soup.

This is the soup I grew up with. A delicious, cooked-for-hours broth with chicken or turkey, carrots, onions, sometimes green beans and mounds of homemade noodles. It’s simple, but it’s just so…so…so warm. Austin and Ryan don’t care for the noodles much. Paul and Nick can take them or leave them as long as there’s plenty of broth. And that works great for me, cause I would just as soon eat all the noodles myself and leave the rest of the soup for them.

I wish I could give you an exact recipe for the noodles, but I can’t…sometimes it takes extra flour, sometimes extra milk. But this’ll get you started:

Before you begin the noodles, your broth (with your veggies of choice) must be completely cooked, ready to eat.

On the clean counter, make a pile of about 4 cups of flour. Then make a little ditch in the middle. Crack in 4 eggs, add 2 teaspoons salt and 4 Tablespoons of milk. Start mixing the wet ingredients with a fork, slowly incorporating the flour into the mixture.

At some point, it’ll get too hard to keep mixing with the fork. So get in there with your hands and mix until it comes together. Knead it a few times until it forms a smooth ball of dough, and then you’re done.

Make sure the counter is generously floured (you don’t want the noodles to stick), roll the dough out to about 1/8″ – 1/4″ thick. Use either a pizza cutter or a big knife to cut it into strips about 1/2″ x 1 1/2″. Drop the noodles into the pot of rapidly boiling stock. Stir the noodles down occasionally. After the noodles are all in, continue cooking for 10 minutes.

Eat as soon as it’s cool enough that you don’t burn your mouth.

And plan for leftovers…it’s even better the next day!

Can-Free Enchiladas

Several years ago there was a very popular little store not too far from me in Texas that had a thriving business selling “home-made” food that was packaged for freezer or oven. It was supposed to be a step up from a regular deli and a couple steps up from frozen dinners. I thought it was a great idea, so I went in a few times and bought meals.

I must have gotten pretty unlucky with my first casserole…some pasta thing with chicken. One of my first bites had a huge piece of fat rather than chicken. Kinda ruined the dish for me. I tried a couple different dishes that were pretty good, they definitely did taste better than frozen, but then I got a huge shock. While looking at their little pan of Sour Cream Enchiladas, I read the label and discovered that they used canned cream of chicken soup!

Now I know there are a lot of really good cooks out there that use cream of chicken soup, but I always have considered the canned cooking approach to be cheating. Besides, this store was charging me $12 for an 8″x6″ pan of canned cooking! I know that a big part of their business was busy people saving time, but let’s get real! I don’t need some chi-chi store to make a canned-soup casserole for me!

So I started to play and I discovered how easy it is to make the enchiladas without the canned soup. It takes just a little bit more time, but not much, and it is So. Much. Better.

Since I figured it out, I never use canned soup anymore. Anytime a recipe calls for it, I use the basic method below, and adapt accordingly, adding mushrooms or cheese or just onions.

If you have the chicken pre-cooked, this is actually a pretty easy work-night dinner. It also keeps well for a couple of days in the fridge before cooking. And it freezes nicely, too.

Sour Cream Enchiladas
Filling
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic
3 T butter
4 T flour
2 c chicken stock
1/2 c half-and-half
1/2 t cumin
1/2 c sour cream
1 can chopped green chilis
1 – 1 1/2 c Monterrey Jack cheese, grated
chopped jalapenos, if desired

Filling
3 chicken breasts, poached and shredded
6 flour tortillas

Topping
1/2 c Monterrey Jack cheese, grated
1/4 c sour cream
milk to thin as necessary

Saute onions and garlic in butter until soft. Stir in flour until thoroughly combined with butter. Slowly add chicken stock, whisk until smooth.

Cook until thickened, add half-and-half and cumin. Return mixture to simmer. Slowly stir in sour cream, green chilis, optional jalapenos and cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (The cheese is pretty salty, you probably won’t need much.)

Spread a couple spoonfulls over the bottom of a 9″x13″ pan – this will help keep the enchiladas from sticking. Spoon filling mixture into flour tortillas, roll to close tortillas and lay them, seam side down in pan.

For the topping, using the pan you cooked the filling in, mix together sour cream and cheese. Season with salt & pepper. Mix with milk to a easily spreadable consistency. Spread over the top of the enchiladas.

Bake at 375 until hot, melted and bubbly.