Tag Archives: chicken

Cheese Dishes, Main Courses, Pasta Dishes, Poultry Dishes, Recipes

Rosemary Chicken Florentine Pasta

Back when I was rocking plaid skirts and a blazer in high school (and even before that as a tagalong with my mom’s running club), we used to frequent a quirky eatery called Generous George’s Positive Pizza and Pasta Place.  Fake flamingos and pink and teal paint dripping with kitsch and childhood memorabilia everywhere, it looked a little like Miami Vice and Parker Brothers got together as an interior design firm.  And do I recall a shark hanging from the ceiling?  Or maybe a surf board?  It was probably both.

Aesthetics aside, the place was too fun.  The pizzas featured airy, pliant dough with mounds of toppings and cheese.  And the pastas, all served on a single-sized pizza crust, were epic sized portions that even my dad’s appetite could not slay.  People left the place with takeout boxes and close to a pound of pasta in leftovers.  My mom usually got the red or white clam, Dad loved Old Naples with crumbled sausage and melted cheese, and Lexi usually ordered a personal pizza and pretended to be full after a bite or two so that she could get away with ordering dessert.  I used to be a sucker for the Chicken Romano Fettucine, basically alfredo with chicken, ham, peas and mushrooms, until I ordered the Rosemary Chicken Florentine on a whim.  The first time made me a convert – farfalle tossed with tender chicken, spinach, bacon, roasted red peppers in a rosemary cream sauce.  It was ridiculous.  Preposterous.  I was hooked.

Years have gone by since I’ve rolled down Duke Street in Alexandria to see our old haunt, and it turns out that there’s only my memories of the place to serve me now.  My sister posted on Facebook that the location was demoed and is now a PNC Bank.  I wondered if they auctioned off the merry-go-round pony that was in the main dining room?  Anyways, rather than put on my old school uniform, I decided to relive a classic and make a heaping mess of the beloved pasta.  I cut back the fat on the sauce, using milk instead of cream, and I didn’t have a pizza crust to use as a plate.  But it was still ridiculous.  Still preposterous.  And apparently, I’m still hooked.

Recipe for

Rosemary Chicken Florentine Pasta

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
1 sprig of fresh rosemary
2 c. of chicken stock
1 c. of white wine
1/2 tsp. of white pepper
1/2 tsp. of black pepper
1 tsp. of salt
1/4 tsp. of garlic powder
2 bay leaves

4 strips of bacon
4 cloves of garlic
6 oz. of roasted red peppers, sliced
6 oz. of baby spinach
1 tbs. of olive oil
1 tbs. of chopped rosemary leaves
1 lb. of dried pasta cuts (farfalle, conchiglie, ziti, penne)

6 tbs. of butter
3 tbs. of flour
2 1/2 c. of whole milk
1 c. of locatelli
1/2 tsp. of black pepper
pinch of white pepper
pinch of nutmeg
1/4 tsp. of garlic powder

Begin by cooking the chicken.  Add two boneless, skinless chicken breasts to a saucepan with the stock, wine, rosemary sprigs, bay leaves, 1/2 tsp. of white pepper, 1/2 tsp. of black pepper, 2 tsp. of salt and 1/4 tsp. of garlic powder.  Bring to a boil and then turn off the heat.  Cover and let sit for 15 minutes.  Remove chicken from poaching liquid and let cool slightly.  Shred with two forks.  Set aside.

Now make the sauce.  Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.  Whisk in the flour, white pepper, black pepper, garlic powder and nutmeg.  Add the milk, whisking the entire time to prevent lumps.  Turn the heat to medium and whisk until thickened.  Stir in the locatelli and remove from the heat.  Stir in the roasted red peppers.  Set aside.

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil.  Cook pasta according to box directions.  While the water comes to a boil, add bacon to a skillet and brown.  Toss in garlic, rosemary, spinach and the olive oil and cook until spinach is wilted.  Season with a little extra salt and black pepper and set aside.

When the pasta finishes, drain and toss with the red pepper cream sauce, spinach/chicken/garlic/rosemary mixture.  Top with extra grated locatelli and serve hot.

Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Poultry Dishes, Recipes

Ange’s Lazy Chicken Cordon Bleu

I have lovely memories of my mom’s baked chicken parmesan – we’d come home from elementary school and she’s take seemingly no time in breading chicken cutlets, seasoning them with paprika and spices, and then letting them crisp up in a hot oven.  They were always so juicy and deliciously perfect, I never ever questioned why we didn’t have Shake ‘n Bake in our pantry.  Mom knew what she was doing (and still does!)

After I got married, my aunt gave me a convection oven as a wedding present and I had to see if the crisping action was all it cracked up to be.  I made a riff off of my mom’s baked chicken with dijon and cream replacing the usual parmesan cheese.  Then, to make things more complicated, I tricked it out deconstructed cordon bleu style with a slice each of prosciutto and provolone. 

When the timer went off and the chicken emerged from the oven, the clouds parted in the heavens and the angels began to sing.  It was ever so perfect, with prosciutto like bacon and “everything’s-better-with” melted cheese.  J’adore!

I kind of like that Chicken Cordon Bleu has nothing to do with the culinary institute and is rather a cousin of retro throwbacks such as Chicken Kiev and other roulade-style meat dishes.  It makes me feel like I need to tease my hair, put on an A-line skirt and play a little Jack Jones “Wives and Lovers” to get in an old skool mood.  Ok, not really.  But it does make me miss my momma, thinking about all the foods that are meant for family dining.  This one is certainly high up on the list.

Recipe for

Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 c. of cream
1/4 c. of water
1 tbs. of dijon mustard
1 c. of flour
3 tsp. of salt
1 1/2 tsp. of black pepper
1/2 tsp. of white pepper
1/2 tsp. of garlic powder
1/4 tsp. of paprika
4 slices of prosciutto
4 slices of provolone (or fontina)

Set up a breading station with two shallow dishes – one with the eggs, cream, water and dijon and the other with the flour, salt, black pepper, white pepper, garlic powder and paprika.  Dredge chicken breasts in flour, into the egg and then again in the flour.  Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet and top with a slice of cheese and a few slices of prosciutto.  Bake for 35-40 minutes on 350° or until the chicken is cooked through and the prosciutto is crispy and deep rose.  Serve.

Friends Recipes and Hacks, Impressive Dishes, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Poultry Dishes, Recipes

Chef Tim’s Roast Chicken with Chardonnay Sauce, Trumpet Mushroom Duxelle and Fingerling Potatoes

*in Jay-Z voice* “Tim, you did it again.  You’re a genius.”  Not too often when I’m cooking am I reminded of the fine balance between strict adherence to technique and freestyle improvisation in the kitchen.  This recipe is like a dance – you certainly want to follow the rules to coax it into perfection, but there is room for you to do your thang as well.  In essence, it’s everything I love about the kitchen.  And as I watched my husband take the first bite of the final product and nod his head knowingly that this was something of pure majesty, I loved it all the more.

In Chef Tim Ma’s interview for this site, he talks about the importance of organization in the kitchen.  As home cooks, although we don’t go all out with a true mise en place and prep kitchen work, there is something to be said for taking time to lay out all of your ingredients before you launch into the assembly of the dish.  This recipe is a great example of this fact – chopping all of your ingredients first and setting up your kitchen before turning on the stove will allow you the luxury of breezing through this one.  When you are all finished, you take a bite and marvel at the genius your tucking into without feeling as if you slaved at all.

Tim purports that this dish is an excellent use of many important kitchen techniques – I see it as a reminder of how much there is to learn in the kitchen, far beyond what we’ve learned from our families or from puttering around on our own with a bit of trial and error.  Spending the time to figure out how to properly treat ingredients is so very necessary, and though we won’t all have the honor or luxury of attending cooking school, it doesn’t mean we can’t go out of our way with a little self-directed study on proper methods and techniques.  Consider this recipe a solid lesson with Chef Tim as the instructor du jour.

Since we don’t have access to a live demonstration of this one (yet), a trickier part of the recipe is in the deboning of the chicken leg and thigh as one piece.  While you can absolutely have your butcher do this for you, it’s a lot more interesting to grab a sharp knife and try it out for yourself.  I found this old video of Paul Prudhomme doing it, and teacher that I am, I love his level of encouragement offered to newbies trying this for the first time.  Yes, you can do this, and no, it doesn’t matter if you’ve never done it before.  Now, fancy names be damned, go get yourself some roast chicken and mushroom action.

Recipe for

Roast Chicken Leg and Thigh with Chardonnay Sauce, Trumpet Mushroom Duxelle and Fingerling Potatoes

Ingredients
2 trumpet mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2 tbs. of butter
half of a lemon, juiced
1 shallot, minced
1 oz. of slab bacon or salt pork
1/4 c. of caramelized onions

2 chicken legs and thighs, deboned
2 tbsp dry chardonnay
4 tbsp vegetable or chicken stock
2 tbsp butter
parsley, chopped

1 lb. of fingerling potatoes
duck fat (or vegetable oil if you don’t have any)
salt and pepper

Melt 2 tbs. of butter in a large pan over low heat. Add bacon or salt pork and sweat for a few minutes without giving it color.  Add shallots and sweat without giving color for a few minutes.  Add mushrooms and continue to cook over low heat, adding a pinch of salt, pepper and the lemon juice.  The mushrooms will begin to release water – once the water is completely absorbed, stop cooking.  Add caramelized onions and toss to heat.  Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400°.  Heat a new pan that can go into the oven over high heat with a little blended oil.  Season chicken with salt and pepper.  Once pan is hot, add chicken legs skin side down and cook over high heat for a minute.  Place entire pan in oven and cook until chicken registers 165°, about 10 minutes.  Take pan out, remove chicken, drain oil.  Deglaze pan with chardonnay, scraping up the brown bits.  Reduce wine by half, add stock and reduce by half again.  Turn fire off, add 2 tbs. of butter and whisk until incorporated.  Place mushroom mix in center of plate, top with chicken, add sauce around, garnish with parsley.

Fingerling Potatoes

To cook the fingerlings, bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add potatoes and blanch for 3-4 minutes.  Drain and dry well.  Add about 2 inches of oil (or equivalent amount of duck fat) to a heavy bottomed sauce pan and heat until a piece of bread, when dropped into the oil, browns in 3 seconds.  Add the potatoes to the pan, being careful to stand back if the skins sputter a bit.  Allow to cook for a minute, remove and drain on paper towels and salt and pepper immediately while still hot.  If you’d like to time this all so that the potatoes are finished at the same time as the chicken, cook the potatoes as soon as the chicken goes into the oven.

Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Poultry Dishes

Butterflied Chicken with Lemon and Herbs

Much like my obsession with collecting bolognese recipes, I love love love a good roast chicken recipe.  I adore the way in which a little love, butter or olive oil, salt, pepper and aromatics transform the lowly chicken into something worth honoring.  Crisp, golden skin and tender meat come into their own with very little effort, and a homestyle supper is on the table for loved ones without a second thought.  Or if you love them EVEN more, you’ll just tuck in with them without even leaving the kitchen.  Best of all the leftovers make at least one more meal, if not a gorgeous chicken stock.

Butterflied Chicken with Lemon and Herbs © Photo by Angela Gunder

My husband saw me oogling over Jonathan Waxman’s pan roasted chicken cooked in a cast iron skillet and purchased me a Lodge Logic 15″ beauty from Amazon.  It’s heavy as hell (a two-hand job) but an amazing holder of temperature and big enough for a chicken and a mess of roasted veg to boot.  It needs a name.  Like Thor.  Or maybe the Kraken.  So whenever I take it out, I’m releasing the…haha…you get it.

Butterflied Chicken with Lemon and Herbs © Photo by Angela Gunder

For the butterflying portion, you can certainly have the butcher do it, but it’s easy work with a nice pair of kitchen scissors.  Simply cut out the back (and save for stock) and flatten the entire mess with a little pressure on the breast bone.  Prepping the chicken in this manner cuts the cooking time way down and allows more of the surface area to come into contact with the lemon and herbs.  The whole mess forms a delicious sauce for the incredibly moist chicken, all with no fuss at all.  So basically, yes, your prayers were answered and that homecooked meal you’ve been dreaming about is here.  Now.  Go make it.

Butterflied Chicken with Lemon and Herbs © Photo by Angela Gunder

Recipe for

Butterflied Chicken with Lemon and Herbs

Ingredients
1 whole chicken
2 lemons
1 bunch of rosemary
1 bunch of thyme
1 onion, thinly sliced
coarse sea salt and black pepper
good olive oil
1 bunch of tarragon
1/2 c. of chicken broth
2 tbs. of butter

Preheat the oven to 450°.  Rinse the chicken well and pat dry.  Using the poultry shears, cut along each side of the backbone to remove it.  Flip the chicken over and press down on the breastbone to flatten it.  Liberally season with coarse salt and black pepper and then rub with a bit of olive oil.  Place chicken skin side down in a cast iron skillet.  Surround the chicken with the onions and top with the rosemary and thyme.  Halve the lemons and squeeze the juice over the chicken.  Tuck lemons into the pan with the herbs and onions.  Drizzle with a little more oil and pop into the oven.  Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the juices of the thigh meat run clear when pierced with a fork.

When the chicken is finished,  remove from the skillet to a platter and let rest.  Put the skillet on the stove and heat.  Add the chicken broth and scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan.  When the sauce thickens a bit, add the butter.  Strain the sauce and set aside.  If you feel diligent, you can also pick out some of the roasted onions.

Carve the chicken into pieces and serve with the sauce.

Cheese Dishes, Easy to Prepare, Egg Dishes, Main Courses, Recipes, Salads, Sauces and Condiments

California Cobb Salad with Green Goddess Dressing

Green Goddess Dressing © Photo by Angela GunderI love a good story, and with a name like “Green Goddess” you know there’s a bit of a tale lingering around.  An almost kitschy throwback to the 1920s and 30s, the dressing is a zesty combination of fresh herbs, anchovies and sour cream, enlivened by a little bit of lemon juice.  The name supposedly originates from the Palace Hotel in San Francisco where the dressing was made as a tribute to the hit play, “The Green Goddess,” and alas, a star was born.

My guess is that the popularity of this gem died down with the waning of favor over anchovies – a pity, really, in that the flavor profile of anchovies themselves are addictive.  If people can down caesar dressing by the gallon, what’s the deal with hating on anchovies?  It’s plain malarkey.

The recipe for this dressing is a riff off a version from Food and Wine Magazine used to dress a chicken salad.  My husband took a look at the picture and said, “This would be great without all of that other mess around it.” “So you mean just the dressing?” “Yeah, pretty much.”  After a few tweaks to the recipe and a bed of greens, we were cooking with gas.

California Cobb Salad © Photo by Angela GunderSo where does a nostalgic dressing trip down memory lane take us.  To a salad with just as much historical presence. 1930 at the Hollywood Brown Derby heralded the chefery of Robert Cobb and Chuck Wilson – apparently the owner Cobb wandered around the kitchen looking for something awesome to eat and threw together a crazy amalgamation of greens, bacon, eggs, avocado and blue cheese.  I can appreciate a late-night scrounge for munchies, if I do say so myself.

In plating this salad, I love a careful presentation of each ingredient segmented into its own section.  Something about the vibrant colors in their own spots just waiting to be mixed together with the lovely dressing is an impressor and a half.  As you know, it’s all about the presentation…says the designer.

Recipe for

California Cobb Salad with Green Goddess Dressing

Ingredients
1/2 c. of parsley leaves, loosely packed
1/2 c. of basil leaves
1/4 c. of chopped dill
4 sprigs of tarragon, leaves removed and chopped
1 sprig of oregano, leaves removed and chopped
1 c. of mayonnaise
zest of 1 lemon
juice of half a lemon
1/4 c. of chopped chives
salt and pepper to taste

mixed greens (baby romaine is fun)
3 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
2 perfectly hard-boiled eggs, diced
4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 avocado, diced
1/2 c. of crumbled blue cheese
1 boneless skinless chicken breast, halved lengthwise into two cutlets
1 tbs. of olive oil
1 tbs. of herbes des provence

Begin by making the dressing – add all of the herbs except for the chives to the food processor, along with the garlic, lemon zest and juice.  Blitz until finely chopped and then add the mayo.  Blitz again to blend and then remove to a bowl.  Stir in the chives and then season with salt and pepper.  Chill.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet.  While that warms, season the chicken with the herbes des provence and salt and pepper.  Sear the chicken until it is cooked through and browned on both sides.  Remove from pan and let cool slightly.  Cube chicken and set aside.

Grab a large platter and make a bed of greens.  Arrange the tomatoes, chopped eggs, chopped bacon, avocado, blue cheese and chicken in a pretty splay.  Right before serving, toss the salad and top with the Green Goddess dressing.  Tuck in and get down.

Lighten Up, Poultry Dishes, Recipes, Soups and Stews

Chickarina Soup

2 Comments

I don’t remember cans of Chickarina soup in my house as a child, but they were certainly a big hit during my college years.  When we went the route of a splurge, my best friend and I would throw a few cans of Chickarina into the cart for random lunches and dinners.  But because we went through them so quickly and couldn’t afford to get them all the time, Chickarina became a bit of a delicacy.  With my proclivity for making soups and stocks even back then, I’m surprised I didn’t attempt a homemade version back then.  No matter – I came around to it eventually 🙂

chickarina

Upon researching this recipe, I tried to find out more of the history of Chickarina.  Like some deep, dark government secret, there is no true history available online.  What the hell?  There were a few mentions of a “chickarina” jingle from way back in the day, including this one from a site dating it back to the 60s.  And a whole lot of people labeling it as Italian Wedding Soup, which it’s not.  Though both dishes have mini meatballs and acini di pepe (mini pasta pearls – the name means “peppercorns” in Italian), the spinach or escarole is replaced with carrots and celery for a chicken soup + meatball experience.  It’s excellent through and through, and a lovely riff on home cooked goodness. Continue reading Chickarina Soup →

Cheese Dishes, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Poultry Dishes, Recipes

Enchiladas Suizas (Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas)

Enchiladas Suizas is one of Dennis’ all time favorites – combining tender, white meat chicken with a green chile sauce cooled by cream cheese and sour cream, these babies rarely stay on the plate for too long when Dennis is around.  His favorite version were from Cafe Frida in New York City and it was ne’er a visit that he didn’t order both the Enchiladas Suizas and the Tres Leches.  Incredibly, the dish originates from Swiss settlers in Mexico contributing swiss cheese to the traditional enchiladas verdes, or corn tortillas rolled and sauced with tomatillos.  The dish now refers less to the use of swiss as the inclusion of a creamy sauce with white cheese.

This version, which is loosely based on Dennis’ favorites, is incredibly versatile for all palettes and spice levels.  Make the version below for a relatively mild experience or kick it up with a chopped jalapeno in the chicken mixture and a hotter green chile sauce (which are available at the market in both mild and spicy varieties).  Poaching the chicken before mixing with the cream cheese helps to keep it super tender and moist, and the scallions add flavor.  It’s a nice diversion from straight up red sauced enchiladas, but if you feel like a fiesta, make these along with the red variety and call it a party.  I don’t know about you, but I loooooove an impromptu party. Continue reading Enchiladas Suizas (Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas) →

Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Poultry Dishes, Recipes, Rice Dishes, Seafood Dishes

Chicken, Sausage and Shrimp Jambalaya

For as long as I’ve known, my family has been whipping up several varieties of comforting rice dishes – I can recall many a time coming into the kitchen to a pan of Arroz con Pollo finishing up in the oven, or a pot of Jambalaya simmering away on the stove.  This version of the simple dish, a combination of rice, chicken, sausage, seafood and veggies, reminds me of home each and every time I whip up a batch.

This version is far from super traditional, but I love it because it is way easy to prepare and incredibly piquant and flavorful.  Some of the harder ingredients to find are substituted with pantry and supermarket staples.  Though cajun purists would call this Creole Rice for its inclusion of tomatoes, culinary great Paul Prudhomme puts tomatoes in his, so I feel that I’m not in the wrong.  Plus, this dish’s roots are born of the freshness and availability of ingredients, so use whatever suits your fancy – tasso ham (or smoked ham), seafood of any kind, smoked andouille sausage, duck, and homemade stock all have a place in this dish.  Case in point, this recipe originates from the Spanish classic, paella, and if it weren’t for a few noble chefs swapping out a few ingredients, we wouldn’t have the jambalaya that we know today.

Recipe for

Chicken, Sausage and Shrimp Jambalaya

Ingredients
1/2 lb. of raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 kielbasa, thinly sliced into rounds
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into large chunks

2 tbs. of olive oil
2 bay leaves
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 scallions, finely chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 plum tomatoes

1 can of tomatoes with chilies
seafood stock (can substitute beef or chicken)
1/4 tsp. of white pepper
1/4 tsp. of black pepper
1/2 tsp. of garlic powder
1/8 to 1/2 tsp. of cayenne pepper (to taste)
pinch of oregano
1 tbs. of Worcestershire sauce

2 c. of converted rice (such as Uncle Ben’s)

splash of white wine vinegar
scallions or parsley for garnish

Season chicken lightly with salt and pepper.  Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven and add the chicken.  Brown very well on both sides and then add the onion, scallions, celery, bell pepper and garlic.  Once vegetables begin to soften, add the kielbasa, thyme and bay leaves.  Allow to cook for a minute and then add the chopped tomatoes, white pepper, black pepper, garlic powder, cayenne and oregano.  Stir in the rice.

In a 4 cup pyrex or a measuring cup, drain the juices of the can of tomatoes into the cup.  Dump the tomatoes into the dutch oven.  Add the tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce into the measuring cup, and then add enough stock to make 3 3/4 cups of liquid.  Add the mixture to the pot and stir.  Bring the pot to a boil, cover and turn it down to a simmer.  A trick, if you are careful, is to stick your ear to the bottom of the pot – you should hear a gentle bubbling.  If it sounds like hell boiling over, turn the heat down.  If you hear nothing, turn the heat up.  Cook for 20 minutes, undisturbed.  After 20 minutes, take the top off and add the shrimp.  Recover and cook for an additional 5 minutes.  Turn off the heat and remove lid.  Stir a splash of white wine vinegar into the jambalaya and taste rice for doneness – it should be tender at this point.  If not, turn heat back to low and cook another few minutes.  If the rice is done but there is too much liquid, let rice sit, covered, for 5-10 minutes so that the liquid will be absorbed into the rice.

Serve with scallions or parsley and tabasco sauce.

Pasta Dishes, Poultry Dishes, Recipes, Soups and Stews

Chicken Soup with Noodles

From an early age, I’ve been a sucker for blubbery noodles in chicken soup.  Doughy and dumpling-esque, these treats could be a meal of their own, languishing in a bath of shredded chicken, carrots, celery and light broth.  We used to go to this restaurant in the mall near our house that was an all-you-can-eat soup and salad buffet.  The main draw for me was always the chicken soup, and I cursed the little crocks there to use for the soup because they just couldn’t contain all the noodle majesty that I was looking for.

Years later, a trip to the substandard Sweet Tomatoes (I know, I should have known) brought back memories of my earlier favorite.  They make a Chicken Noodle that brags about just being chicken and noodles, which would be fine if the soup weren’t flavorless.  And yet, it comes so close to awesomeness with their perfectly doughy, homemade noodles.  I actually had my husband get me two takeout containers of the stuff and scoop out mostly noodles, bring it home and add it to homemade broth of carrots, onions, celery and parsley.  Divine!

But not worth setting foot in a Sweet Tomatoes.  Why couldn’t I make these wondrous babies at home?  Well, after a little research on the web and a little inspiration from For the Love of Cooking, I was able to recreate happiness in a pot.  I’ve officially had my cake and eaten it too.  If by cake, we’re talking about a big ol’ bowl of chicken noodle soup.

Recipe for

Chicken Soup with Noodles

Ingredients
1 egg
1/3 c. of milk
2 c. of flour
1 tsp. of salt
1/2 tsp. of white pepper

ingredients for chicken soup (chicken, celery, carrots, bay leaves)

In a standing mixer, add egg, milk, salt and pepper.  Mix until blended and then add flour.  Mix on low to medium setting until a dough is formed and a ball gathers around the bowl.  Remove dough from the mixer and knead a bit on a flat surface to gather up dough – very briefly, only about 30 seconds.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Cut the dough into three portions.  Using a pasta roller (or for me, the pasta attachment for my Kitchenaid) roll out the dough on the widest setting until silken and 1/8 of an inch thick.  Move dough to a sheet of wax paper and cut into strips with a cookie cutter.  Know that your noodles will double in size once cooked, so for blubbery ones like I like, I cut them into 1/4 in. by 2 in. lengths, for 1/2 in. by 4 in. noodles once cooked.  Let noodles rest on the wax paper for an hour or so (you can let them hang out while you tend to your soup) to dry a bit.

Make a pot of chicken soup by either following this recipe for homemade chicken soup or by warming 4 quarts of chicken stock with 2 finely sliced carrots, 2 finely sliced celery stalks and a few fresh bay leaves.  Shred the meat from a store-bought rotisserie chicken and add to the soup.

Drop the noodles into a pot of hot broth and cook until tender all the way through, about 45 minutes.  If you’ve cut your noodles thinner, they will cook faster.  I sometimes cook the noodles up to an hour to get them super tender like dumplings.  The longer you cook, the more broth that is absorbed and the more tender your noodles.

Lighten Up, Main Courses, Poultry Dishes, Recipes

Grilled Ginger Lemon Chicken

If you haven’t heard me say this enough, I love my Vo.  She’s such a light and inspires me on a daily basis to laugh at the world and revel in every second.  And on top of her being one of the kindest, most generous souls that I’ve ever met, she cooks like an absolute dream.  Tell me if it gets any better than that, because I couldn’t see how it could.

This recipe is of her invention, and I have to say that when I first heard the ingredients, I couldn’t imagine the taste profile that was ginger and lemon.  Ginger and lime, sure, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the lemon.  Well, upon tasting this chicken for the first time, I was schooled in the greatest of ways.  It was a revelation – bright, spicy, sweet and savory all at once, it immediately became my new favorite way to treat chicken.

Since then, I’ve served this chicken grilled, baked and pan seared.  Works perfectly with each preparation.  When I serve this to friends, I have to make inordinate amounts because it is consumed with such vigor, I run out like it’s nothing.  I’m not surprised, though.  Vo has always been an expert, and has yet to steer me wrong.  All I can say is that when you enjoy this chicken, make it for those in your family (immediate and extended) that inspire you on a daily basis and need a bit of a thank you in culinary form.

Recipe for

Grilled Ginger Lemon Chicken

Ingredients
1 whole chicken, cut up
juice of 2-3 lemons
2 cl. of garlic
4 in. of ginger root, peeled and minced
4 tbs. of olive oil
1/4 tsp. of black pepper
1/4 tsp. of white pepper
3/4 tsp. of salt

In a food processor, blend all ingredients except for chicken until a smooth paste.  If you don’t have a food processor, chop ginger and garlic finely and whisk with with other ingredients (except for chicken) until a smooth sauce.  Add chicken to a large bowl and pour marinade over chicken.  Let rest for at least an hour and up to overnight.

Heat a grill or grill pan to smoking hot.  Turn down heat to medium low and place chicken on grill, skin-side down.  Cook for 15 minutes until skin is browned and crisped up.  Flip chicken and cook for another 17 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and juices run clear when pierced with a fork.  Let rest for 5 minutes to redistribute juices and then serve.