The moment of truth has finally arrived. If you don’t know already, my sworn rival and I are having a food blog battle today. After you check out my creation below, be sure to go look at whatever thing he has concocted. Also, be sure to vote on one our sites for your favorite. It doesn’t matter what site you vote on. The forms are linked to the same poll.
And the secret ingredients that we picked for this battle are:
I think we picked two great ingredients out of the possible ingredients. They actually go together pretty nicely and could be used in a ton of different dishes. I thought about doing something curryish, then considered using a nice piece of pork to bring the two ingredients together. I also considered making my own chili powder which isn’t too hard, but I couldn’t easily find good dried chilies.
Every weekend, I review a cookbook in an attempt to lend some guidance in a field that has become overrun. These days everyone is writing cookbooks and it is incredibly upsetting to buy a dud and have it sit on your shelf for years – staring at you, mocking your poor judgment.
A good friend who works in the restaurant industry said I should pick up “The Zuni Cafe Cookbook” by Judy Rodgers to review and I’m very glad I listened. I’m not sure that it does this book justice to call it a cookbook. With hundreds of recipes, it does meet the traditional role of a cookbook, but it is also the story of a San Francisco institution, a biography of a James Beard Foundation Outstanding Chef Award winner, and a practical text book on food preparation.
If you follow me on Twitter or read Macheesmo regularly, you probably know that I have a sworn food blog rival – The Food in My Beard. I like having a rival. It keeps me on my toes. Anyway, my rival and I have decided to do a food blog throw down.
Here are the basic details: Last Monday, we worked out a rules system which resulted in each of us picking one ingredient and then both of us having to use both ingredients in a dish of our choosing. We will both be publishing our creations Monday morning and there will be a method to vote for your favorite. Obviously, you won’t be able to taste the dishes unless you happen to be in both DC and Bermuda this weekend, but I’m sure you can find other criteria to vote on.
As you can see I’ve used the legs, thighs, and breasts of the chicken. I really had nothing left except the carcass. Risotto with homemade stock came to mind right away.
If you love your risotto, it will return the favor.
The first part of this dish involves making stock out of the leftover parts of the chicken. I use this as an exercise in cleaning out my pantry as well. I must admit that I’m not sure I’ve ever made the same chicken stock twice. This is what I did this time around.
This is the third post in a series of four meals that I make with one chicken. Here are the first two meals:
- BBQ Chicken
- Braised Chicken Thighs
I really don’t like chicken breasts. I find them generally to be pretty bland and tasteless and most of the time they are dry due to overcooking. Plus, they are expensive so I generally avoid them.
A chicken has two breasts though so I had to do something with them. I chose this:
Beautiful glazed chicken
This recipe had sort of a Chinese food feel to it (Orange chicken) but it is a bit different in that the chicken isn’t fried and the glaze is much better than anything I’ve ever had in a Chinese dish.
This is the second post in a four post series where I am using one chicken to make four different meals. The first meal was barbeque chicken legs.
Let it be known, this is one of my favorite ways to eat chicken ever. I learned the technique while working at a restaurant a few years ago. I got to be pretty good friends with the chef so he let me in on a few secrets. I’ve never been able to make the dish quite as good as his was, but that’s why he is a chef.
Anyway, it is still delicious, and it looks like this:
2 pounds chicken thighs 1 medium onion, diced 2 medium carrots, diced 2 stalks celery, diced 2-4 tablespoons seasoned salt 1 tablespoon dried oregano Butter, for crispy skin Rice for serving Veggies on the side
1) Coat chicken liberally with seasoned salt and preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2) Add chicken to a large oven-safe pot like a dutch oven along with diced onions, celery, and carrots. Cover chicken with water and stir in an extra tablespoon or two of seasoned salt and a tablespoon of oregano.
3) Cover this dish and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 30 minutes.
If you are using a whole chicken instead of just pieces, you'll want to increase the cooking time by 15-20 minutes. The chicken should be cooked through at this point.
4) Remove chicken pieces from pot and place pot over medium-high heat on the stove for 10 minutes so the sauce reduces a bit.
5) In a large skillet, add some butter over medium high heat and once melted, add the chicken pieces, skin-side down. Cook over medium-high heat until skin becomes crispy, about 4-5 minutes.
Serve chicken with rice and veggies and pour reduced sauce over everything.
I decided to use the thighs here because they are my favorite. No particular reason other than that. You could prepare the whole chicken like this if you wanted to. I also threw in the wings because I didn’t know what else to do with them (although I thought about BBQing them also).
In honor of our current recession, or depression if you are a realist, I decided to write a few posts showing, in my opinion, the pinnacle of food frugality: the whole chicken.
I think Americans are for some reason scared to death of the full chicken. Most people buy boneless, skinless breasts and call it good. In reality though, you get much more bang for your buck (not to mention flavor) by buying one of these:
On a budget? Meet your new friend.
Even if you buy really quality, hormone free chicken, you will get huge discounts if you buy the entire bird because you have to do the butchering yourself. The bird that I bought for this series of posts weighted about 4.5 pounds and cost only $12. Per pound, that is way less than factory raised boneless, skinless, flavorless breasts. And I fed two people for four meals with it. From a budget standpoint, that is hard to beat.
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