THE SECRET RECIPE CLUB: CASHEW CHICKEN LETTUCE WRAPS

Posted in Appetizers, Poultry, Secret Recipe Club by sallybr

Drum roll please….. This is my first anniversary as a member of The Secret Recipe Club! One year! Obviously, I was counting the days for this Reveal Day, and jumped on my assigned blog the very minute I got the email notification. This month I am cooking from Loving Life, a fun blog hosted by Kirstin, the super busy Mom of two teenage daughters, who also home schools them. I get tired just thinking about it. The mystery is how does she find the time to cook and blog? Superpowers? Probably. I chose a recipe from her blog quite quickly, because it is one of the favorite dishes we used to order at a place called BJ’s in Oklahoma. Light, refreshing, flavorful, Phil and I would share that as an appetizer almost every single time, but I had never made it at home. Great opportunity, which I grabbed right away! 😉

CASHEW CHICKEN LETTUCE WRAPS
(adapted from Loving Life)

for teriyaki sauce:
2 Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. rice vinegar
1 Tbs. brown sugar
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. Sesame oil

for chicken:
3/4 lb. chicken breast or tenders, diced in small pieces
6 green onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup diced baby-bella mushrooms
3/4 cup chopped cashews
1 tsp. soy sauce
canola oil
6-8 butter lettuce leaves

for topping:
2 carrots, peeled & julienned
1/2 Tbs. Sesame Seeds

Mix all sauce ingredients, making sure the brown sugar dissolves.

Place some canola oil in a non-stick pan and cook chicken till cooked through and lightly browned. Add green onions, mushrooms, cashews and 1 tsp. soy sauce. Cook until mushrooms soften. Add teriyaki sauce. Cook stirring often on medim-high heat until sauce began to caramelize a bit on the chicken. Lower heat to “low” and continue to cook a bit longer or until your desired consistency is reached.

Serve on lettuce cups, adding julienned carrots and sesame seeds on top.
.
ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

We absolutely loved this recipe! Next time I might just up the amount of sauce a little bit, but other than that, no changes… This post gives me the opportunity to share with you a very special gift we received from our friend Cindy. She probably got tired of me complaining about the electric stove in our new home, and one day I got this box delivered with an induction-type single burner cooktop! Not only it works great, but it is a life-saver for me, due to another small problem in our kitchen: no ventilation. I had pretty much given up on frying or sauteing fish or meat. With this cooktop, I was able to install a cooking area on our patio, and voila’: no more offensive odors! Plus, it’s is such a nice setting, don’t you agree?

Cindy, thanks so much for such a thoughtful gift!

For the full round-up on the Secret Recipe Club, click on the cute blue frog. To see which recipe was chosen from my blog this month click here to visit Lindsay’s blog…

Kirstin, nice to “meet” your blog! Have fun with today’s reveal day!

ONE YEAR AGO: Clay-pot Pork Roast

TWO YEARS AGO: Panmarino

THREE YEARS AGO: A Classic Roast Chicken

1Oct2012

THE SECRET RECIPE CLUB: A TRIBUTE TO DANIEL

Posted in Poultry, Secret Recipe Club by sallybr

Food bloggers love to organize group events. You have Yeastspotting, World Bread Day, Sourdough Surprises, In My Kitchen, Daring Bakers, Meatless Mondays, Black and White Wednesdays, and of course, The Secret Recipe Club, of which I am a participant. Unfortunately, sometimes tragic events take place, and a cloud of deep sadness contaminates what until then was all about fun. Recently we learned that one dear member of The Secret Recipe Club passed away. Daniel, a young father of two kids, married for only 6 years, died shortly after cooking a nice barbecue dinner for his whole family. You can read the heart-breaking tribute written by his wife Meredith (who is expecting their third child) by clicking here. A couple of beautiful articles written by his brother can also be found here and here.

To celebrate Daniel’s life, SRC members picked one recipe from his blog (The Haggis and the Herring) to cook and blog about. As we always do on this group event, everyone publishes the article at the same time. Here is my contribution, a cider-glazed chicken with the colors and the taste of Autumn.

CIDER-GLAZED CHICKEN THIGHS
(adapted from Daniel’s recipe)

6 chicken thighs
salt and pepper
3 Tablespoons grapeseed oil
1 shallot, finely diced
1 Tablespoon mustard
3 Tablespoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
1 cup apple cider

Trim excess fat and skin from the chicken thighs. Dry them well and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil on a cast iron pan or other large skillet with a lid, and brown the chicken pieces, skin side down first. Make sure they are golden brown before flipping them over. Remove the pieces as they brown, discard excess fat from the skillet, leaving one tablespoon behind. Saute the shallots until translucent. While they are cooking, mix the mustard with the cider vinegar and the herbes de Provence in a small bowl. Add the mustard mixture to the skillet, cook with the shallots for a minute or two. Add the cup of apple cider, return the chicken to the skillet and cook for 45 to 55 minutes, until very tender. Flip the pieces occasionally, but keep the pan closed and with very gently heat.

To serve, remove the chicken pieces to a platter, and reduce the cider cooking liquid until it forms a glaze. Spoon over the chicken.

to print the recipe, click here

It is a strange experience to go on someone’s blog and look for a recipe, when you know that person is no longer with us. Daniel was so full of projects and so excited about his family, about raising his kids, it’s very difficult to accept that a life could end so abruptly, with so much yet to experience and enjoy. The truth is, we never know how much time we have, so we must try to make the best of each day.

My profound condolences to Meredith and Daniel’s whole family.

(comments are shutdown for this post)

To see other recipes from Secret Recipe Club members made in Daniel’s memory, visit the links below.

6Jan2012

ORANGE POMEGRANATE CHICKEN: A WORK IN PROGRESS

Posted in Poultry by sallybr

This recipe, from a recent compilation in Fine Cooking called “One Pot Meals”, went from the page to a pot in the blink of an eye. It called for all kinds of goodies that I love: chicken, root veggies, pomegranate and the perfect spices to tie them together. The glaze roasted into a sexy ruby color, and the skin of the chicken will make anyone smile. So, why is it a work in progress, you might ask? Read on….

ORANGE POMEGRANATE CHICKEN
(adapted from Fine Cooking magazine)

1 large orange, zested and juiced
1 cup pomegranate juice
1-1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
Freshly ground black pepper
6 tsp. olive oil
Kosher salt
3/4 cup chicken broth
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 medium parsnips, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 leeks, white part only, cut in 1/4 inch slices
4-lb. chicken, cut into 8 serving pieces
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Heat the oven to 400°F.

In a medium saucepan, Combine the orange juice and pomegranate juice in a saucepan, bring to a boil and reduce it to 1/4 cup (about 20 minutes). Add half of the thyme (eye balling is fine), all the cinnamon, and black pepper (about 1/4 tsp or according to your taste). Divide the mixture between two small bowls. To one bowl add 2 tsp. of the oil and 1/2 tsp. salt. To the other add the chicken broth, all but 1 tsp. of the orange zest, and 1/4 tsp. salt.

Scatter the sweet potatoes, parsnips, and leeks over the bottom of a dish that measures about 10 x 15 x 2 inches. Toss with the remaining 4 tsp. of oil and the rest of the thyme. Arrange the chicken pieces, skin side up, on top of the vegetables and brush with all of the juice-oil mixture. Roast for 30 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and reduce the temperature to 375°F. Pour the reduced pomegranate-chicken broth mixture around the chicken pieces and scatter the walnuts around them. Return the pan to the oven and roast until the vegetables are tender and an instant-read thermometer registers 165°F in several pieces of chicken, 20 to 30 minutes.

Transfer the chicken to a serving dish. Remove the veggies and walnuts with a slotted spoon, season them lightly with salt, sprinkle the remaining orange zest all over the meat and veggies. Pour the liquid from the roasting pan in a pyrex type container, remove as much fat as possible. Season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper and pour into a pitcher to serve with the food.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Make sure you use pure pomegranate juice (yes, it is expensive compared to blends, but worth it in this case, because you will concentrate it quite a bit). I’d love to give this recipe two thumbs all the way up, but it had some problems. Many of the pieces of sweet potatoes and parsnips were not completely cooked: their centers were still hard. I tested some with a fork before removing from the oven, but as Murphy’s Law would have it, those were perfect… (sigh). Next time I’ll cover the dish with foil during the first 30 minutes, then pour the liquid all over it and roast it uncovered, perhaps adding a little more water if the veggies dry up during the final roasting. I suspect that with this minor change it will be a winner.

One pot meals are such life-savers for a busy cook, and this recipe, apart from reducing the pomegranate/orange juice, doesn’t require much work. Even better, the reduction could be made a couple of days in advance. With a nice loaf of bread or a green salad, dinner is ready!

ONE YEAR AGO: A Message from WordPress

TWO YEARS AGO: Turkish Chicken Kebabs

3Jun2011

HONEY-GLAZED CHICKEN LEGS

Posted in Poultry by sallybr

A low-and-slow, followed by a high-and-fast blast in the oven is my favorite way to cook chicken pieces, similar to another recipe I blogged about in the past. In this version the proportion of honey is quite a bit higher, forming a glaze that acquires a fantastic mahogany hue in the final roasting time. The meat underneath will be the way we love it: juicy and tender. The inspiration for this recipe came from the latest issue of Food and Wine magazine.

HONEY-GLAZED CHICKEN LEGS
(adapted from Food and Wine, May 2011)

1/4 cup + 1 tsp honey
2 Tbs + 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 Tbs soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
4 chicken legs (or 8 chicken thighs)

Make the glaze by mixing all the honey, lemon juice, and soy sauce. Sprinkle the chicken legs with salt and pepper, then use a brush to cover them with the glaze. Place the chicken legs on a baking sheet, skin-side down, cover with aluminum foil, and slow roast at 325F for about 40 minutes. Flip the pieces to have the skin side up, brush some more of the glaze over, cover with aluminum foil again, and continue cooking for another 40-45 minutes. (If you want to finish the recipe later, place it in the fridge).

Increase the oven temperature to 425F, remove the aluminum foil and roast until the skin is dark brown, 10 to 15 minutes (a little longer if roasting from the fridge).

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Lots of recipes will have you roast poultry at a high temperature, but in my opinion, nothing compares to the “low and slow” approach. Not only the meat retains moisture, but it makes no mess in the oven, a huge bonus for neat-freaks such as myself. 😉

I like to prepare this type of recipe in two stages: the slow roasting on a lazy weekend afternoon, or a quiet evening. After that, the meat can go to the fridge for a day or two. When it’s time to enjoy it, just do the final, higher temperature roasting for 20 minutes. White rice, pasta, couscous, or just a salad and a piece of bread, and you are set for a wonderful dinner!

ONE YEAR AGO: French-Style Rolls

20Aug2010

UNDER THE SPELL OF LEMONGRASS

Posted in Poultry by sallybr

I tasted lemongrass for the first time in 1986, in a tiny Vietnamese restaurant in Redwood City, a few miles away from my home while I lived in California. I’m afraid the restaurant, Than’s, no longer exists. My former husband and I used to have lunch at Than’s on Saturdays. In those days we knew next to nothing about Vietnamese food, but on our first visit I ordered “Chicken in Lemongrass Sauce,” and thought I had died and gone to heaven. Whenever we returned over the following three years we’d share two dishes, and lemongrass chicken was always one of them. I just couldn’t get over it. Some people say that you can substitute lemon zest, or Meyer lemon’s zest, …they lie. Lemongrass has NO comparable substitute: it’s just that special and just that good.

So, when I had the luck of finding fresh lemongrass in our farmer’s market, I made sure to bring some home, and put it to good use….

THAI CHICKEN BREASTS WITH HERB-LEMONGRASS CRUST
(adapted from Fine Cooking #86, July 2007)

1 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup chopped fresh lemongrass
12 fresh basil leaves
1 serrano pepper, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
salt to taste
2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed
1 lime, cut into wedges

Combine 3/4 of the cilantro with the coconut milk, lemongrass, basil, serrano, garlic, salt, brown sugar, pepper and coriander in a blender and puree until smooth. Place the chicken breasts in a dish in a single layer, and pour this marinade over them, turning to coat them completely. Refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours (mine stayed 7 hours in the fridge).

Heat a grill to medium high, grill the chicken until it has good grill marks on the first side, 4 to 5 minutes. Flip the chicken and continue to cook until completely cooked through (check by making a slice into one of the thicker breasts), 5 to 6 more minutes. Transfer to a serving dish and let rest for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup cilantro and serve with the lime wedges.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: The secret for this recipe is blending the marinade to turn it into a thick paste. The lemongrass flavor is more pronounced this way, a blast of freshness in perfect balance with the coconut milk and herbs.

Food memories can be so strong! While slicing the lemongrass, I went straight back to Redwood City, and could almost visualize the table cloths in that simple, but amazing restaurant. It was run by a husband and wife, their two young kids very shy peeking at the customers from behind the counter. I often wonder where they are now, probably all grown up and graduated from college. 😉

ONE YEAR AGO: Greens, Grapefruit and Shrimp Salad