Break up Mediterranean Yogurt Chicken With Greek Salad

Why is this a break up dish? Its a breath bomb, that will let a fellow down easy, while letting him know at the same time there will be no room, for a post break up snog, nookie, or any variation of that. It lets him know politely that you still want to be friends, but the kind that don’t touch. Now don’t you worry your pretty little heads, Kris and I are just fine, but after I chopped up an onion and a bulb of garlic for this meal, I laughed to myself, realizing I would be permeating garlic for the next week.

I used goat yogurt, because I wanted to show all of you, that there are many kinds of yogurt. Not just that Greek paste, that leaves a weird layer of white yogurt smegma around your mouth, and destroys the planet, one overly thick spoonful at a time.

4 large chicken breasts tenderized (you can use your break up fists for this…. or a mallet… either way..)

16 oz goat yogurt

6 cloves of garlic minced

1/2 a purple onion minced

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 cup finely chopped parsley

1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro

The juice and zest of 1 lemon

salt and pepper

1 grated Persian cucumber

Salt the chicken and set it aside. Combine the yogurt with the garlic, onion, cilantro, parsley, lemon, garam masala, and lemon. Split it in half, saving one section for dipping later (add the Persian cucumber to that one). Put the chicken into a zip lock bag, pour in the other half of the yogurt, and set it aside for at least an hour to soak up all of those tasty tasty flavors. Once you are ready, remove the chicken breasts And either grill them or fry them for approximately 5 minutes each side (depending on thickness) The more you use your break up fists, the thinner it will be….

For the salad

I hate salad. This is all guess work by the way…who measures things for a salad…. hang your head. Salad is supposed to be fun and creative.

2 finely chopped hearts of romaine

half an onion finely sliced

two large fistfuls of cherry tomatoes

2 pealed Persian cucumbers sliced

1/2 a cup kalamata olives

10 chopped up slices of salami

6 to 10 marinated artichoke hearts

feta cheese

For the vinaigrette

half a cup olive oil

half a cup white balsamic

1/2 tsp salt and pepper

3 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes

1/2 cup finely chopped basil

Combine all of these ingredients in a blender and push puree. Spread liberally over your salad, and enjoy your new found freedom.

Asian chicken nuggets. They taste like the inside of a pot sticker. YUM

I love guilty pleasure foods. If you hand me a plate dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets and some ranch I will be your best friend for several hours.I really wanted these to be far more glamorous than they are. They aren’t quite meatballs, and they are a little more healthy than a chicken nugget, but they still look like something I enjoy eating while watching cartoons and drinking scotch (That is not a drink pairing FYI).  I tried breading and frying these bad boys and it was good, but not as good as making them into non breaded nuggets. Just beware this recipe makes about 40 of these. They were perfect to go into my lunch all week!

2 lb ground chicken or chicken tenderloins chopped into small pieces

1 white onion finely chopped

6 cloves of garlic finely chopped

a thumb sized nub of finely chopped ginger

1 egg

1/4 cup soy sauce

a splash of mirin

1/4 cup flour

salt and pepper

Sesame oil and vegetable oil for frying

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix them together. Once everything is well combined, use a small ice cream scoop, or a couple of teaspoons to scoop them into walnut sized  balls. Place them in a frying pan, and cook them on both sides for about 5 minutes each, or until they are cooked through.

For the sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup water

2 tbs mirin

the juice of half a lemon or lime

2  tbs brown sugar

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp cornstarch

2 tbs green onion

Mix the soy sauce, water, brown sugar, garlic and onion powder together. Pour the mixture into a small sauce pan, bring it to a simmer, and add in the green onion. Mix the cornstarch with  a bit of water until there are no lumps, and add it to the simmering water. Whisk it for a few minutes until it it thickens, and serve it with your nuggets.

Pimenton roasted game hen with Mediterranean couscous

Pimenton sauce is freaking tasty. I recently ate it at a delightful restaurant downtown. I’m pretty sure this is going to go on everything for the next few weeks (or until I run out of smokey paprika). I had initially seen a recipe from my friend Jason, on the NY times website for Moroccan game hens and couscous. It looks nice. But the addition of paprika really made me want to over do it. Basting these little birds with a slightly diluted version of the pimenton sauce makes them wonderfully flavorful. After its finished cooking you can spread it all over everything, like a 5 year old to ketchup.

3 game hens cut in half

4 cups of Israeli couscous

4 cups strong chicken broth

1 large chopped onion

6 cloves of chopped garlic

1 cup golden raisins

2 tbs of tumeric

1 tbs cinnamon

1 tbs Baharat spice

1 tsp salt

water

Pimenton sauce

1/4 smokey paprika

1 large onion

4 cloves of garlic

1 tsp salt

the juice of 1 lemon

1 bay leafs

1 tbs flour

1 1/2 cup water

1 tbs butter

For the baste

1/4 cup pimenton sauce

1/4 cup butter

Juice of half a lemon

For the pimenton sauce, saute the onion and garlic in a medium sauce pan, with butter,  until blanched. Add in the paprika, water, bay leaf, lemon juice, and salt. let that simmer for about 10 minutes. Turn the heat to medium high and whisk in the flour. Once the mixture has thickened, blend it with a hand blender or regular blender until smooth. Let it cool and serve.

Putting it all together

Preheat the oven to 375. Rinse the couscous and place it in a lightly oiled roasting pan. Mix in the turmeric, cinnamon, salt, and baharat spice. Spread the onion, garlic and raisins over the, and gently mix. Pour the chicken broth over the top, and and place the hens over the couscous. Melt the butter, mix in the lemon and pimenton sauce, and baste the hens with it. Pop that in the oven, baste it every half hour with the pimenton sauce mixture, and add water to the couscous as needed. Bake it for 1 1/2 hours or until the legs easily break away from the body. Once its out of the oven, fluff the couscous and place the hens on top.

Poultry, Pork and Dairy! What Else Could Be More Merry!?

Sometimes you have to torture a chicken in order to get some really good grub. Have you ever considered what the chicken would say if it knew that after it died, you were going to take one of what could have been its babies, stir it around in a bowl, and then dip the chickens dead carcass in it? Wars have been started for less. Its so disrespectful…. and delicious. I made chicken cordon bleu tonight. Its comfort food. And on the darkest day of the year, you really just need to curl up with some tasty food and a nice strong drink. Chicken breasts are notoriously dry. We’ve taken care of that this evening by giving it the beating of a lifetime, and adding in flavor with vinegar, lemon juice and salt.

4 chicken breasts

1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar

Juice of 1 lemon

4 slices of ham

4 slices of swiss cheese

1 cup finely grated gruyere cheese

1 tsp lemon zest

1/4 cup flour

1 cup panko bread crumbs

2 eggs

Salt

Pepper

1 cup oil

Place the chicken breasts between two pieces of plastic wrap, and give them a good bashing until they are about 1/2 inch thick. Place the breasts in a bowl or ziploc bag, and add in the balsamic, lemon juice, and salt. Coat each piece, cover it, and let it sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes. While that is sitting, whisk your eggs in a bowl. Then mix together flour, panko, lemon zest, and half the Gruyere cheese on a plate and set it aside. Heat up your oven to 400 degrees, and place oil in a pan and heat it to medium high. (I didn’t use an exact temperature, because at this point you’re just making the panko a bit more crispy). Remove the chicken from the fridge, and pat it dry.  In the center of each breast  place a tablespoon+ of grated Gruyere, a slice of aged Swiss, and then a slice of ham. When the ham is on the top it will stop the cheese from oozing out from the edges of the chicken….SCIENCE! Fold the edges of the chicken inward, and secure them with a toothpick or string. Dredge each piece of chicken in the egg, and coat it liberally in the panko mixture. Place the breasts in the pan and fry on each side for 3 minutes. Remove from the pan and place on a wire rack over a baking sheet and add a sprinkling of sea salt immediately. Pop them in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the internal temperature is 165. Remove from the oven, let it sit for 10 minutes, and dig in.

Chicken Fajuka. Its a happy little chicken dish.

Every once in a while you pull out of combination of ingredients that come together perfectly to make Chicken Fajuka . Stop googling. Its an inside joke, and a made up word for my favorite new chicken creation. Its a trashcan dish. Meaning you have no idea what to eat, so you pull out a few items residing within your fridge and pantry, that you would otherwise chuck in a few days/weeks/months without having used. I managed to eat in the same region for a few weeks, and much to my amazing luck, I hit the culinary jack pot. I made this lovely dish in 20 minutes, with little to know effort. If you know another name for it please, for the love of god let me know.

20-30 cherry tomatoes (or tomato melody)

1 finely chopped onion

15 to 20 pitted kalamata or green olives

5 cloves of garlic

5 slices of bacon

6 chicken breast tenderloins

a few sprigs of fresh thyme

a few leaves of fresh oregano

1 cup chicken broth

a splash of wine

salt, pepper, and feta cheese to taste

olive oil

Pasta (or maybe kale if you’re low carbing it)

So, this lovely dish makes no lofty claims on ethnicity. Its american. It has no idea what it is, where it came from, and only knows that most of its ingredients are imported. Probably Italian, some Greek, and maybe a little Spanish (we won’t hold that against it.) Place the olive oil, onions, tomatoes, garlic, olives, and herbs into a pan on high until the onions have blanched .

In a separate pan, cook your bacon. Remove it and chop it up into half inch pieces. In that same pan, cook your chicken, and then chop it into bite size pieces.

Once your onions have blanched, toss in your cup of chicken broth and your splash of wine. Allow that to rigorously simmer for a few minutes until the broth has ever so slightly thickened, and throw in your bacon and chicken.

Allow that to continue to simmer, for a few minutes and serve it over a bed of delicious noodles… or kale.