Rosemary-Honey Chicken with Penne and Roasted Broccoli Sauce

While browsing the Web, I found this random site for mail-order meatballs, pasta, and sauce. I thought to myself… “Self, what about making a GREEN sauce for pasta? This seems like a good idea. Red is nice, white is nice, but what about a change?” After speaking thusly to myself, I got some broccoli and made this. I like the toasty flavor of the roasted veggies, but I have to admit that the sauce is more brown than green. If you want a vivid green color, steam the broccoli instead of roasting it.

Ingredients for sauce puree

2 heads of broccoli (this is forgiving—but I used medium to large size heads)

6 cloves of garlic

3 onions

14.5 oz can chicken broth

S+P to taste

Ingredients for chicken

Chicken thighs (I had 4, weighed about 2 pounds total)

1/2 orange

1-1/2T honey per chicken piece

1T rosemary per chicken piece

1 head of broccoli (small), separated into edible pieces.

1 onion, sliced

4 oz baby bella mushrooms, washed and sliced in half if large

Penne

1A. Prep the roasted veggies. Put foil on a baking sheet and lightly oil with a high-heat oil (I used a canola blend). The veggie prep is easier because everything (mostly) is getting pureed later. Smash and peel the garlic; leave whole. Peel and cut the onions into eighths. Separate the 2 heads of broccoli into larger florets than you would normally find comfortable to eat. Arrange on baking sheet, top with S+P, and roast in a 350-degree F oven for 40-50 minutes (or until it looks good and roasty to you).

1B. Prep the chicken. Rinse off the chicken pieces and arrange in a casserole dish over the sliced onion. Top each chicken piece with the honey and rosemary. Add mushrooms and broccoli to the dish. Cut the half-orange into pieces and squeeze over everything, then throw them on top. Pop into the same 350-degree F oven for about an hour.

2. After the stuff has been in the oven about 35 minutes, get a pot of water boiling for the penne. When it boils, add the penne and set a timer for about 10 minutes. When the pasta is done to your liking, drain it and mix a bit of oil in to keep the pasta from sticking together.

3. When the veggies hit 40-50 minutes, remove from the oven and pop them in your favorite blender or food processor. Tongs are very helpful for this process. Add in the chicken broth (about half the can worked for me) and process those veggies until they’re nice and smooth. Taste the sauce. What do you think? How is the texture? If you want the sauce to be thicker, pour it into a saucepan, mix a bit of flour into a small cup of hot water, and add to the sauce. Personally, I found the sauce to be fine without adding any thickeners.

4. When all is done, serve penne with the “green” sauce on top, next to a chicken thigh with the roasted veggies nearby. I suggest topping with parmesan…always nice. Looks good! Tastes awesome, too. Enjoy!

Festive Red, Green, and Bacon Spirals and Homemade Ranch Dressing Powder

I was looking for an easy and festive appetizer to bring to a Christmas party and came across The Pioneer Woman’s Holiday Roll-ups (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/holiday-roll-ups.html). Basically you mix ranch dressing powder with cream cheese, spread it on tortillas, scatter some red and green bell pepper and green onion on it, roll it up, and cut into cute little slices. I thought it was a great recipe, but jazzed it up a bit with the addition of bacon and also making my own ranch dressing powder instead of buying the packet (thanks to Simply Scratch (http://www.simplyscratch.com/2014/05/homemade-ranch-dressing-mix.html ) for the inspiration!!). So ultimately, I made the recipe way more complicated…but oh well. It’s worth it!

Ingredients

2 8oz packages of Neufchatel, softened

1 packet ranch dressing mix or 1 recipe of Homemade Ranch Dressing Powder (see below)

A few grinds of black pepper

9-10 tortillas

1.5 green bell peppers, finely diced

1.5 red bell peppers, finely diced

4 green onions, finely sliced

12 pieces of bacon, fried and chopped

To make ranch powder, combine:

1 packet (3T) of dry buttermilk

1/2 T dried parsley

1/2 t dried dill

1/2 t granulated garlic

1/2 t granulated onion

1/2 t Kosher salt

1/4 t sugar

Dash ground black pepper

Dash paprika

1.       Mix the ranch powder and black pepper with the Neufchatel. You can microwave the cream cheese if needed, or just leave it out on the counter for a few hours to soften.

2.       Prepare the vegetables and bacon.

3.       Prepare the tortillas by cutting a small slice off two opposite sides of the tortilla. Those will be the ends of the roll, and save you the trouble of having a weird unsightly end piece.

4.       Spread the cheese mixture on the tortillas, taking care to cover the entire surface. You don’t need a half inch thickness of it—keep in mind that you are rolling it up, so you’re going to get more in one bite than just the thickness you’re spreading on it any given spot.

5.       Sprinkle the vegetables and bacon on top of the spread. Leave one curved side relatively free of toppings to facilitate good sealing when you roll it up.

6.       Roll up the tortilla toward the topping-free side, taking care to go slowly and pack the roll tightly so it doesn’t fall apart. About halfway through rolling, daub some cream cheese along the roll to help create a tighter seal.

7.       Using a very sharp knife, cut the roll into 2-inch thick slices. Arrange cut side up on a tray and enjoy!

Epic Chicken Pot Pie

What's better on a cold winter's day than a chicken pot pie with delicious filling and crisp, yummy crusts on the top and bottom? A chicken pot pie with delicious filling and crisp, yummy crusts on the top and bottom, with one in the MIDDLE.

Pie Filling:
1 lb carrots
1 celery heart
2 onions
Worchestershire sauce
Granulated garlic
1 1/2 lbs green beans
10-14 chicken thighs and legs
4-5 medium/large potatoes
Bay leaves
Red pepper flakes
Whole allspice
Salt
Pepper

Cordless Screwdrivers:
4 oz vodka
1 orange
Sugar

Pie Crust x 3:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup shortening
Ice water

1. Slice up the onions and marinate them overnight in Worchestershire, salt, and granulated garlic. Honestly, a sandwich Ziploc bag works fine, but if that offends your sensibilities--feel free to use a bowl or something.

2. Cook chicken in water. This will take 4 hours or so. Put the chicken pieces in a large pot along with 3 bay leaves, 1 pinch of red pepper, 5 whole allspice, 2T of salt, and 1 t of cracked black pepper. Bring pot to a simmer and maintain. Add water as needed to keep the liquid level high in the pot. When the chicken is nearly done (starting to fall off the bone and very tender) drink 4 cordless screwdrivers with your cooking partner (see note below) and add the orange peels into the broth. When done, you should have about 12 cups of broth.

*Note: Cordless Screwdrivers. Slice an orange into wedges by first cutting in half from stem to navel. With a large orange, you can get 4 nice wedges out of each half. Cut any white fibers off the inner point of the wedges for ease of eating later. Dredge the orange wedges in sugar. Pour a shot of vodka. Do the shot and eat the sugar-coated orange wedge as a chaser--thanks to Every Day Drinkers.com for the inspiration!

3. At some point while the chicken is cooking (or even the day before), prepare the vegetables. You'll need to peel and cut the carrots into coins; clean and chop the celery (or mince if you'd rather); wash and dice the potatoes; trim the ends off the green beans and slice em in half.

4. Saute the onion in a large pot with fat skimmed off the chicken broth.

5. Put the tubers and celery to the pot and add broth until the veggies are covered. Boil until the tubers are done--aka you can poke em with a fork and it goes in nicely without too much resistance. Add the green beans and cook until they're toothy.

6. Put a strainer over another large pot and drain the chicken into it. Put the chicken back into the original pot and put the lid on it. If it's cold and wintery outside (as it should be if you're making the recipe PROPERLY), put the pot with the chicken outside to cool off. If not--well I guess you'll just have to wait then!

7. Drain the veggies into the pot with the broth and put them aside.

8. Make the three crusts. Combine the flour and shortening in a large bowl. Rub the mixture between your hands until it is fully incorporated. Add ice water by the spoonful, mixing in between, until the dough comes together into a ball. It shouldn't be too moist, but it also shouldn't be crumbling apart. Roll out the dough ball on a floured surface until it is big and round enough to fit into the bottom of a cast iron pot (mine is about 12" in diameter, with 4" high walls). Make another batch of dough and put the rolled out circle into the cast iron pot's lid. Dock these two crusts and bake them in a 450-degree oven until they're browned--about 12 minutes. Make the third crust and roll it out into a circle about the diameter of your pot. Set it aside and put plastic wrap over it to keep it moist.

9. Make the gravy. Take the chicken and veg broth that you've made and bring it to a simmer. Add a mixture of corn starch and water until the broth has thickened into a nice gravy. My advice is to start with just a bit of the corn starch mixture at a time--you don't want to end up with Jello! Set aside.

10. Hopefully the chicken will have cooled off a good amount by now. Pick the meat off the bones. Dispose of the bay leaves and whole allspice. Combine the chicken with the veg.

11. Assemble the pie. Put a layer of the chicken and veg mixture in the bottom of the pot. Spoon some gravy over the layer. Add the baked crust you prepared in the lid of the cast iron pot. Add more chicken filling and gravy on top of the middle crust. When the pot is filled up, place the unbaked crust over the top of the pot. Cut slits in a radiating pattern (looks like a sand dollar, kinda). Bake the pie until browned and warmed through--about 20 minutes in a 450-degree oven.

Serve!

One-Pot Rice Dinner

This is a great lazy dinner. Seriously easy. Cut up the stuff, put it in the pot, cook it until it’s done. No draining. No constant stirring. No multiple-pot-washing. And it’s my favorite way to use up cheap ingredients…aka hotdogs on sale for $1.11/pack of 8. Are the hotdogs amazing? No. Will they taste amazing in this dish? Yup. This is markedly FRUGAL. And customizable. And delicious. And easy. And…I’m gonna stop now. Inspired by the white rice recipe from Let’s Cook Japanese Food! by Amy Kaneko—an EXCELLENT cookbook if you are even remotely interested in Japanese cuisine. She taught me—somehow awful though I was at this easy technique—to properly cook sushi rice. Arigato, Amy!

Ingredients

2 cups sushi rice

4 cups broth (I used chicken stock)

1 can vegetables or 1 bag frozen vegetables (I used green beans)

4 servings of meat (I used 4 cheap hotdogs)

½ onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

Soy sauce, sriracha, salt, granulated garlic/onion, pepper, etc. to taste as seasoning

1. Dice the onion; mince the garlic; slice the hotdogs on the diagonal so they look faaancy.

2. Measure out the sushi rice into a pot that is preferably clear-lidded, and at least 4.5 quarts in size. Don’t worry about having too much space in the pot—that is actually desirable. If you’ve ever cooked sushi rice, in comparison, this will take up a lot more pot space.

3. Rinse the sushi rice by putting water in the pot and shushing it around with your fingers until it gets cloudy. Carefully drain the rice. Repeat at least 5 times, if not 6. I usually get tired of it around 6. Side note: This is the same process for starting sushi rice. Good practice, because even if you screw it up, the one-pot dinner will taste great. Texture isn’t super important here.

4. Throw the onion, garlic, hotdog, vegetable, and broth on top of the rice in the pot. Put the lid on. Put it over high heat until the lid starts jumping—you know, right before it starts to boil over.

5. Turn the heat on low to create a simmer and set a timer for 15 minutes.

6. When the timer goes off, check the pot. Very helpful to have a glass lid so you can see whether the liquid has mostly incorporated, or not…if doubtful, add 3–5 minutes to the timer and then turn off the heat. If you think it’s good now…turn that heat off.

7. When the heat is off, set the timer for another 15 minutes and LEAVE the lid on. If it looks like most of the liquid is absorbed when the timer goes off…aka, you can’t see much (through a glass lid–or you don’t have a see-through lid at all), then take the lid off and stir it up. If you lift the lid and see actual quantities of liquid, turn the heat back on simmer for 5 minutes.

8. Serve into bowls and add spices and condiments as desired. I like soy sauce, a bit of sriracha, and garlic and onion granulates. Enjoy!