Not Your Average Clucker

One of my dad's favorite things to say to me when I told him I was making chicken for dinner was, "You're going to turn into a chicken." He had a lot of opportunities to tell me that because I feel like we're eating chicken all the time. What he probably didn't realize, though, was that I rarely make the same chicken dish twice and these dinners were so much more than just chicken.

I'm sure a lot of people get into the habit of breaking out the same tried-and-true recipe week after week. I prefer to switch it up, so I'm always scouring cookbooks and blogs for new dinner ideas, and sometimes I'm pushing Bill's limits with dishes he wouldn't ordinarily eat. It seems that's working out well because he opened up a Food & Wine cookbook the other day and pointed out this recipe. Apricots aren't Bill's thing (but they're totally mine!), so I was a bit surprised. I happily prepared this chicken dish for him because it was a nice break from the norm.

Turns out Bill is still not really a fan of apricots, but he doesn't mind a hint of apricot flavoring. The sauce is sweet but citrus-y, and I imagine if I had let it thicken a little bit longer it would have made an even more delicious glaze (mmm ... that glaze would be good on chicken wings!).

I hope my dad's watching me cook now and he sees that dinner is more than just chicken. He'd probably still tell me I'm going to turn into one, but at least I'd be more than your average clucker.

Chicken with Apricot-Onion Pan Sauce
Ingredients:
1 1/2 oz. dried apricots
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
2 thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon apricot preserves
1/2 tablespoon butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, cover apricots with hot water and let stand until soft, about 15 minutes; drain.

Dry chicken with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until golden brown, 5 minutes. Flip and cook 3 minutes more. Transfer chicken to a baking sheet lined with a metal rack and roast 14 minutes.

Add onion, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf to skillet. Season with salt and cook over medium-high heat until onion is tender. Add wine and reduce by half, scraping up browned bits in skillet. Add chicken stock, apricots, and apricot preserves and bring to a boil. Cook over high heat until sauce thickens. Off heat, swirl in butter until melted. Discard thyme sprigs and bay leaf. Season sauce with salt and pepper. Transfer chicken to plates, spoon sauce on top, and serve.

Not-a-Picnic Potato Salad

We just made a very exciting appliance purchase ... a new range (with 5 gas burners AND a double oven ... it's going to be fantastic!). Unfortunately, it won't be delivered until Wednesday, which means I won't be able to use it until I come back from my trip to San Francisco. Problem is, I'm now so disenchanted with what's currently in my kitchen that I'm having trouble mustering up the motivation to cook anything at all.

That's when America's Test Kitchen comes to the rescue with insanely quick and easy, yet intensely delicious recipes! I discovered this gem on The Feed a couple weeks ago and was excited to try it. It's a perfect weeknight meal, and it takes the concept of potato salad to a whole new (and very sophisticated!) level. Rather than smothering the potatoes with a super thick dressing, here we're lightly tossing them with a yummy vinaigrette. And yes, this is the dish that tricked Bill, my condiment-hating husband, into liking mayonnaise :)

Grilled Chicken with Warm Potato Salad and Lemon-Thyme Vinaigrette
Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tablespoon fresh thyme, minced
1/4 cup lemon juice (from 2 lemons)
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 lb. fingerling potatoes, halved lengthwise
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/4-inch thickness
2 cups baby spinach

Directions:
Combine oil and garlic in bowl. Whisk in thyme and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Transfer 2 tablespoons dressing to large bowl and whisk in mayonnaise.

Place potatoes in large saucepan with cold water to cover by 1 inch. Bring to boil, add 1 teaspoon salt, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 8 minutes. Drain potatoes and toss in large bowl with reserved mayonnaise mixture. Season with salt and pepper.

Season chicken with salt and pepper and toss in bowl with remaining dressing. Grill chicken until lightly charred and chicken registers 160 degrees, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Toss potatoes with arugula and serve with chicken.

My Thai

I just recently discovered Thai food. Don't ask what took me so long. The important thing is that I love it now. While I've only had a couple dishes and I haven't branched out into anything too wild, I have discovered that I love Thai basil ... even in all of its spicy glory!

When I saw that America's Test Kitchen posted a Thai Chicken with Basil recipe on The Feed, I was stoked to try it. But there was one problem: it's impossible to find Thai basil in Milwaukee. Heck, some days I can't even find regular basil in Milwaukee. (No joke. For weeks I was convinced there was some sort of strange basil shortage because it was never on the shelves at Pick 'n Save OR Sendik's.)

Well it seems the Test Kitchen anticipated the elusiveness of Thai basil in most places on this planet. In their recipe, they kicked up the heat in other ways and substituted regular basil. But that doesn't mean the recipe is perfect ... because they call for a few other ingredients that -- while not as hard to find as Thai basil -- I don't necessarily have on hand. Really, Test Kitchen? You want me to buy fish sauce and oyster sauce for this dish? Not likely.

Now when I find a must-make recipe, it's typically no holds barred. I'll buy whatever it is I need, and on occasion the ingredients might be a little obscure. In a few cases, when I don't have an ingredient on hand or when I can't find it in the store, I'll just find a suitable substitute. But I rarely dive into a dish blatantly ignoring a handful of ingredients and choosing to go it alone. On this one, I had to. And luckily, it was a huge success!

Now I usually won't recommend that you take this risk, and instead tell you to get the ingredients you need. But if they're not likely to be re-used in your kitchen, as the fish sauce and oyster sauce weren't in mine, feel free to take a chance. I did and this is my ...

Thai Chicken with Basil (for cooks who don't like to buy ingredients they'll use only once)
Ingredients:
1 cup fresh basil leaves, tightly packed
3 medium garlic cloves, peeled
1 jalapeno, stemmed and seeded
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
4 oz. white mushrooms, finely chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Red pepper flakes
1 cup cooked white rice

Directions:
Process basil leaves, garlic, and jalapeno in food processor until finely chopped, about 10 pulses, scraping down sides of bowl with rubber spatula once during processing. Transfer 1 tablespoon basil mixture to a small bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar. Set aside. Transfer remaining basil mixture to 12-inch skillet. Do not clean food processor bowl.

Pulse chicken and remaining tablespoon soy sauce in food processor until meat is chopped into approximately 1/4-inch pieces, about 6 pulses.

Stir shallots, mushrooms, and oil into basil mixture in skillet. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until shallots are golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes.

Add chicken to skillet, increase heat to medium, and cook, stirring and breaking up chicken with a rubber spatula, until no pink remains, about 5 minutes. Add reserved basil-soy sauce mixture and continue to cook, about 1 minute. Season to taste with red pepper flakes. Serve over rice.



This ended up being almost as delicious as the Thai Basil Chicken I had at the last Thai restaurant we went to. In fact, since it wasn't as overwhelmingly hot, I may even like my version better! I managed to achieve just the right balance of sweet and spicy. And while Bill was concerned when he saw me pulsing chicken breasts in the food processor, I can assure you that the texture was not weird at all :)

If you're interested in the Test Kitchen's original recipe (which I'm sure is delicious), you can check it out here.

Chicken Twice

It seems every time my dad asks me what I'm making for dinner tonight the answer is chicken. And his standard reply to that is, "You're going to turn into a chicken."

I suppose it's no secret that cluckers turn up on my menu at least once a week. But the fact is that chicken is so versatile, I never get tired of it. That versatility also makes chicken a prime candidate for weeknight dinners, when I'm often short on time but still craving (and Bill is expecting) a good, home-cooked meal.

As you'd suspect, I put chicken on the table twice this week. But it took on two very different forms! Both of these recipes are outrageously easy, making them perfect to prepare at the end of a long work day.

Honey Teriyaki Chicken
Ingredients:
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 cup chicken broth
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and chopped (or grated)
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce

Directions:
(The recipe didn't call for this, but I marinated by chicken thighs in 1 cup of the teriyaki sauce for about 30 or 40 minutes prior to cooking. I just feel like that gives them better depth of flavor.)

Heat grill (I used my indoor grill, same as the one I use for my awesome Hawaiian chicken). Coat grill rack with cooking spray or oil. Remove chicken from marinade and place on grill.

While chicken is cooking, bring broth and ginger to a boil. Stir in honey. When honey has dissolved into broth, add teriyaki sauce, then cook 2 minutes longer. Using a basting brush, coat chicken liberally with sauce while cooking. Grill chicken 20 minutes or until done (done being somewhere between 170-180 degrees when tested with an instant-read thermometer).

Spicy Chinese Five-Spice-Rubbed Chicken Drumsticks
Ingredients:
6 chicken drumsticks
1 tablespoon Chinese five-spice powder
1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 500 degrees. (Yeah really, 500 degrees. I didn't even know my oven went that high.) Place the drumsticks in a large bowl. Sprinkle five-spice powder and cayenne over chicken; add generous pinches of salt and lots of pepper. Rub the mixture into wings until no more loose rub remains.

Line the chicken on a rack placed on top of a rimmed baking sheet. Roast until cooked through, browned, and crispy, turning once, about 25 minutes.

Note: These drummies were HOT! I have an issue with chicken skin, which is really where all the spice was, so I was going to peel it off anyway. But Bill's mouth may have been on fire :)