Chicken of the Week – Balsamic Shallot Sauce

Four years ago I made an offer to my children. The first one who can facilitate welcoming Chef Jacques Pepin into our home will receive a brand new Ford Mustang.

Why Jacques? Because he’s my go-to chef.

There’s only one recipe of his that I have made that has not been amazing…and that one I blame on lackluster ingredients.

So far, I haven’t had to buy a Mustang. But I haven’t given up hope yet!

This past Thursday, as I was heading home, I was stymied. (Isn’t that the greatest word?) I had no idea what to make for dinner. I had defrosted a potroast the night before, but had been in a rush that morning heading out the door, so I hadn’t put it in the crockpot. The only other option I could think of that I had ingredients for and was quick was tuna casserole.

But I wasn’t in the mood for tuna. Or casserole.

Suddenly, I had an inspiration. Not long ago, as I was looking through Jacques Pepin’s cookbook for the Quick Tenderloin Stew recipe, I saw a picture in his “Fast Food My Way” cookbook (if you don’t have this book, you really should get it…there’s some real treasures in it.) The picture caught my eye. It looked amazing. I remembered the name of the dish was Balsamic something something chicken. Well, I knew I had balsamic vinegar, and of course I had chicken. So I hoped I was good to go.

When I got home and looked at the recipe, I was shocked. It was simple! After browning chicken breasts on the stove, the sauce is simply sauteed shallots (I used some onion too because I didn’t have enough shallots for the recipe) and then add in a surprising amount of balsamic vinegar, a little ketchup and some water. His recipe called for mushrooms also, but I didn’t have any, so mine was mushroom-free. The sauce is fantastic without mushrooms, so I’m almost afraid of how good it would be with mushrooms!

Once the sauce is boiled down and thickened, just pour it over the chicken breast that have been resting in a warm oven, and serve. Everyone…children and grownups at the table loved it.

I suggest you make this and make it very soon.

And if you know Jacques, please invite him to my place for dinner so I can thank him in person for his amazingly inspiring recipes. He makes it all so simple.

My Secret to Great Pizza

I have access to the world’s greatest pizza sauce.  You wouldn’t believe how much it cost me to obtain it and the danger I am now in just by revealing the fact that I have it.

This is a sauce that you can’t just buy. No, you have to know someone. You have to be in “the family.” You have to…

Actually, you have to wait and hope that my lovely sister Anna becomes a successful entrepreneur and starts selling her product on the shelves at your local grocery store.

Me? I just call my sister up and say I need more. Because in a blind taste test, by family chose her sauce overwhelmingly by a margin I’m too embarrassed to admit to.

My sauce was described as acidic and over-seasoned.

Hers was praised as rich and spicy. (Please don’t point out the irony of the fact that it says “Spicy and Rich” in Italian on the front of her jar.)

So Anna, if you’re reading this, I guess I need more pizza sauce.

For everyone else who can’t purchase this amazing sauce just yet, let me give you the perfect pizza crust recipe for you to store away for the day when Anna’s sauce is available to the masses.

Pizza Dough

• 2 1/2 c All Purpose Flour
• 2 1/4 t Yeast
• 1 t Sugar
• 1 t Salt
• 2 t Olive Oil
• 1 c Water (approximately)

Add all ingredients except the water to the bowl of your food processor with the regular chopping blade in. Turn on your food processor and add all but about 1/4 cup of water through the feed tube.

The mixture will start to look crumbly. Add a little bit of water at a time through the feed tube, just until the mixture forms into a ball of dough. Once the dough forms, leave it running for another minute.

Put dough in oiled bowl covered with a damp towel and let it rest. Each recipe makes about 1 large crust for us. I usually make 4-5 batches to feed our group.

Top with The World’s Best Pizza Sauce, Mozzarella cheese and your favorite toppings.

Bake at 425 degrees for 13 minutes on the lowest rack in your oven.

Garlicy Scampi Chicken

If I was ever going to write an ode, I think it would be an ode to garlic.

Garlic, dear garlic, how do I love thee?
Let me count the ways…

But don’t worry…I wrote one good poem back in sixth grade. It was a Haiku. It was really good and I don’t think I can top it. So I’m not going to try.

Ever.

So, instead of writing a poem proclaiming my love to this sharply frangranced, near perfect food from the gods, I’ll just give you a terrific recipe instead.

It’s for chicken scampi, and its a great thing to do with leftover roasted chicken. If you like shrimp scampi, you’re gonna love this.

Chicken Scampi

4 chicken breasts, cooked & shredded

4 T butter (c’mon, keep breathing. Use 1/2 olive oil if it’ll make you feel better.)

2 cloves garlic

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1 T fresh basil, chopped (or 1 tsp dried basil)

1 T fresh oregano, chopped (or 1 tsp dried oregano)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 c lemon juice

1/2 c dry white wine

1/4 c heavy whipping cream

1/4 c fresh parsley, chopped

1 pound penne pasta, cooked

In a large pan, melt butter. Saute garlic and onions 2-3 minutes. Add shredded chicken and saute 2-3 minutes. Season with salt & pepper. (Add the basil & oregano here if you’re using dried. For fresh herbs, add after you’ve reduced the liquid in the next step.)

Deglaze the pan with lemon juice and white wine. Continue cooking until liquid is reduced by half. Add basil, oregano and cream.

Cook until heated through.

Garnish with parsley and serve with pasta.

Serves 4 -6.

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.

Clam Chowder in a Bread Bowl for Dad

When I was a teenager, and wanted something from Dad … money, the car, permission, etc. … I always opened the conversation with the question,”Daddy, Do you know how much I love you?”

And he would always answer with a question of his own, “What do you want this time?”

Well, this weekend I had the opportunity to show Dad how much I still love him. It was his birthday weekend, which, as in most families, means he chooses the meal.

And thus it was that on this gorgeous 80+ degree weekend in a valley in the Greater Puget Sound region, I baked bread bowls and made a kicker pot of clam chowder.

Dad, I love you enough to not only cook clam chowder for you on a hot day, but I also grilled some of the proscuttio-wrapped asparagus that you wanted to try.

Happy Birthday!

Bread Bowls

Recipe from Jacques Pepin’s Complete Techniques cookbook

9 c all-purpose, unbleached flour
3 envelopes yeast (6 3/4 tsp)
3 1/2 c water (at approx. 80 degrees)
1 T salt

- Mix the yeast and water together, and place two-thirds (6 cups) of the flour in the bowl of an electric mixer.

- After 2-3 minutes, stir the water/yeast mixture again. Wait another 5 mins. until the water starts to bubble on top. Add the yeast mixture to the flour and using the dough hook, beat on medium for about 5 mins. Add the salt and keep mixing for a few seconds.

- Add 2 more cups of the flour and keep beating on low for 1 minutes.

- Place dough on counter and knead by hand with the rest of the four. More or less flour will be needed, depending on weather, humidity, etc. Reserve at least 1/2 cup flour for the end. Work the dough by folding it with the palms of your hands. Continue kneading 7-8 mins. Sprinkle with more flour if it is sticky and absorbent. The dough should be satiny and resilient.

- Sprinkle the dough with flour and place it in a large bowl to allow for expansion. Cover with plastic to prevent a skin from forming on the top and to retain moisture. Allow to rise for 2 hours in an 80-85 degree area.

- After 2 hours, check the dough by plunging 2 fingers into it. If the depression made by your fingers remains, the dough has risen enough.

- Knead the dough for a few seconds to knock down the air bubbles. Let the dough raise a second time, or divide it into whatever shapes you wish.

At this point, I divided mine into 9 very large “buns”, let them rise a second time. About 1/2 hour before I thought they would be ready for the oven, I turned the oven on to 450 degrees and set a pan of water on the bottom rack to create steam.

Since we would be using the bread for soup bowls, I wanted a really good crust on the bread. Right before I put the bread in the oven, I tossed a couple “handfuls” of water on the hot oven floor to create steam and turned the oven down to 400 degrees. Then 5, 10 and 15 minutes after I put in the bread, I repeated the water-throwing process. It baked about 20 minutes more, to an internal temp of 210 degrees.

Next up…the chowder recipe…