greek orzo, lemon and chicken soup

After my last post about caramelized shallot mac-and-cheese, one AHB reader reminded me that more new year's resolutions are about eating healthier, not necessarily eating more mac-and-cheese. So, I found a great option in my "New England Soup Factory" cookbook. This broth-based soup is full of protein, and the spinach packs in fiber, iron and vitamins, while the lemon adds flavor without a lot of calories. You can go back for a second (or third) bowl and not feel guilty.

Grocery list: 10 cups chicken stock (will include instructions for making this at home below), 3/4 cup orzo, 4 eggs, 3 lemons, 1 cups chopped cooked chicken, 1 pound fresh spinach. For chicken stock, you'll need a 2-3 each yellow onions, carrots and celery stalks, bay leaves, a few sprigs of thyme, half a bunch of parsley, 5 garlic cloves, a

handful of whole peppercorns, and 2-3 pounds chicken thighs (bone-in and skin-on).



To make chicken stock, put all the ingredients in a large stock pot and cover with water. (Peel the carrots and slice into 2-3 inch pieces; chop the celery into thirds; peel the garlic cloves and add whole to the pot.) In addition to the 2-3 pounds chicken thighs, you can add a whole chicken breast (skin-on and bone-in too), but instead of leaving it in for the full 3 hours, you can remove it when it's cooked for 30-40 minutes. This is the chicken you can pull off the bone and then cube to use in the soup. If you were to leave it in for the full 3 hours, it would probably be too tough to use in the soup.



Bring the stock to a slow boil over medium high heat, then turn down the heat to a simmer. If you opt to cook the chicken for cubing this way, remove it with tongs from the stock pot and allow to cool a bit, then peel the meat away from the bones. Return the bones and the skin back to the pot, so it can continue adding its flavor to the stock. Add more water over time if the stock cooks down. Simmer for at least 3 hours. Allow to cool, then strain in a mesh strainer. You can freeze extra stock in ziploc bags too.



Now, for the soup. Measure 10 cups of your homemade stock into a large soup pot, and heat over high heat to boiling. While the stock is heating, zest 2 of the 3 lemons. Juice all 3 lemons. When the stock is boiling, add the orzo and stir. Cook for 5 minutes.



Beat 4 eggs together, then slowly pour into the stock pot while stirring constantly.



The egg will cook immediately into little fluffy string shapes.



Add the cooked chicken, lemon zest, lemon juice and fresh spinach to the pot, and bring the soup back to a gentle boil.



When the spinach has wilted, turn the heat off, and season the soup with salt and pepper.

chicken and mushroom ragu

My bolognese sauce is my favorite accompaniment for pasta, but I don't always have 2 hours to let it simmer. For another protein-rich option, I tried this 20 minute option for chicken "ragu" from October's issue of Gourmet. Next time I won't pulse the mushrooms in a food processor - maybe chop them fine by hand to leave more texture - and possibly will add some olives and a pinch of red pepper for kick. This is a good base made with an inexpensive cut of chicken, so I'll make room in the rotation for this recipe.

grocery list: 6 oz cremini or baby bella mushrooms, 3 cloves garlic, olive oil, 1 1/4 lb sinless boneless chicken thighs, 1 small onion, 3/4 tsp fresh rosemary (chopped), 3 T balsamic vinegar, 1 28-oz can whole italian tomatoes, 1/2 dried pasta (pappardelle recommended in the original), 5 oz fresh arugula (I used spinach instead), plus grated parmesan.



Pulse mushrooms and garlic in a food processor till finely chopped.



Cut the chicken into 1/2-inch pieces, and season with salt and pepper. Heat a few T olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat, then saute the chicken (stirring frequently) for 3-4 minutes, until it starts to brown. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon to a small bowl.



Turn heat down to medium, then add the small chopped onion and cook till it starts to turn translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the mushroom mixture, chopped rosemary, and more salt and pepper. Keep stirring until the mushrooms start to release their juice and turn brown - about 4-5 minutes. Add vinegar and cook until it reduces down, another couple minutes.



Return the chicken to the pan, and add the tomatoes (as well as the juice). Break the tomatoes down and bring to a simmer. Cook until thickened, about 15 minutes.

Cook pasta and drain. When the sauce is the right consistency, add the arugula or spinach and cook for another 1-2 minutes, until it wilts. Stir in the pasta and season with salt and pepper if needed. Serve with grated parmesan.

chicken pot pie

It would be really unfair to judge this chicken pot pie by the photos. Here's what happened: I saw some great pictures of a chicken pot pie in Bon Appetit, then did some research in my New Best Recipe book. I made a sort of hybrid of both recipes, a full batch - but split it into 2 smaller baking dishes, and froze one of them. All the photos were from prepping them in the original batch, but then the first one was so delicious and I was so starving that I just forgot completely to take a final picture. So a couple weeks later, I bake the second one (great to have a backup for the photo-op, so I thought), and while it was just as delicious, something weird happened with the inside bubbling up over the crust, so it was ugly as sin. Anyway, that's why you shouldn't judge. Try this, okay? It's amazing.

Grocery list: (topping) 1.5 cups AP flour, 4 T shortening, 8 T butter, 3-4 T ice water; (filling) 1.5 pounds chicken, 1.5 c chicken broth, 1 onion, 3 carrots, 1 celery ribs, 4 T butter, 1/2 flour, 1.5 c milk, thyme, 1 cup chopped mushrooms, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/2 cup white wine, 3/4 frozen peas (thawed), fresh parsley.



Start by making the crust in a food processor. Note - the butter and shortening should be really cold, cut into 1/4 inch pieces, before putting into the processor. Mix the flour and a pinch of salt in the processor, then cut the shortening in with short pulses. Then add the butter and keep pulsing until it has a cornmeal consistency, and dump everything into a bowl.



Mash 3 T of ice water into the crust with a spatula (add another T if it doesn't stick together).



For a ball and flatten into a disk; wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll it out on a floured surface until it's a little bigger than the size of your baking dish.



You can make your own chicken broth by poaching the chicken in water over a slow boil (throw in salt, peppercorns, garlic cloves, some thyme, some extra chunks of celery or carrot if you have them) for about 20 minutes. Set aside 1.5 cups of the broth and shred the chicken. Prep all the vegetables by chopping into small 1/4 inch pieces.



In a large dutch oven, saute the carrots, onions and celery (I added mushrooms too) in olive oil over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes.



Add a few sprigs of chopped thyme. Then, stir in the white wine, and season well with salt and pepper.



Stir in the chicken broth, and bring to a boil. It should reduce down by about half within 5 minutes.



Melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave, then stir in 1/2 cup flour to make a paste. This will help thicken the filling.



Stir in the heavy cream and bring back to a simmer, then stir in the chicken pieces. Mix in the flour/butter mixture one spoonful at a time, stirring well, so the filling thickens.



Pour the filling into 1 or 2 baking dishes, then cut your crust to cover it. Poke a few holes through the top to allow the steam to escape. Bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees, until the top is golden and the filling is bubbling (or in my case, till the filling bubbles all the way over and looks terrible but still tastes delicious).

best fried chicken in the universe

The September 2008 Bon Appetit is shaping up to be the best cookbook I've ever purchased - what is this, my 6th recipe from that issue, and counting? They featured Thomas Keller's recipe for fried chicken, and the pictures of all these kids eating drumsticks had me thinking, I've got to try this. So I cross-referenced with my trusted resource, New Best Recipes, but for the most part followed Keller's recipe (scaled down to about 1/3 of the original - which called for 3 chickens!). Just like the rosemary garlic roast chicken I've blogged before, brining is the key. This is by far the BEST FRIED CHICKEN I have ever tasted.

Grocery list: (for the brine) 1/3 cup kosher salt, 3 T honey, 6 bay leaves, 10 unpeeled garlic cloves, 1 T whole peppercorns, 2 rosemary sprigs, 3 thyme sprigs, 3 parsley sprigs, zest & juice of 2 lemons, 1 3-pound chicken (or 3 pounds of chicken parts like thighs and drumsticks); (for frying) 2 cups AP flour, 2 T garlic powder, 2 T onion powder, 1.5 tsp paprika, 1.5 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp ground pepper, 1.5 T kosher salt, 2 c buttermilk, 4 cups peanut oil.



You have to start this recipe either the night before or early the morning of - in the 12-24 hours before dinner window. Put all the brining ingredients in a large bowl with 8 cups very hot tap water, and stir to dissolve the salt. Chill until the brine is cool or room temperature.



Rinse the chicken parts and submerge them in the brine. Cover with saran wrap and chill for at least 12 hours, and no more than 24 hours. About 2-3 hours before you start cooking dinner, drain the chicken and pat the pieces dry, removing any bits of herbs that stick to the skin.



Next, set up your assembly line. You'll need 1-2 large baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Mix all the dry ingredients for the coating in a bowl (flour + spices), and put the buttermilk in a bowl next to it.



Dip a piece of chicken in the flour mixture first, then in the buttermilk, then back in the flour mixture again. You want a pretty thick coat - don't shake off the excess - because some will fall off anyway during the drying process. Place the coated chicken pieces on the lined baking sheets and let stand to dry. The Keller recipe says they can dry at room temperature for 1-2 hours, but the New Best Recipe says to refrigerate them for a couple hours (your own comfort level with room temperature poultry is the determining factor I guess).



In a heavy skillet or dutch oven, heat the oil over medium high heat until it registers 320-330 degrees. The oil should be at least 1.5 inches deep. Add 4-6 pieces of chicken at a time, carefully lowering each piece into the hot oil with a slotted or wooden spoon. It's also safe to keep a splatter screen in the other hand, shielding you from the pan just in case. Fry for 7 minutes, then carefully turn each piece over and cook for another 6-7 minutes.



Transfer the chicken pieces to paper towels to drain, and sprinkle with more kosher salt. The New Best Recipe gives a helpful tip for placing the first batches of chicken in a warm oven on a cookie drying rack over a baking pan, so they stay warm and crispy (instead of on paper towels, where the crust can get soggy and stick to the paper towels).

mario's chicken parmesan

I never eat chicken parmesan, never order it, never crave it. I think when I was younger, the only times I would run into it would be at some Olive Garden type of place, where "chicken parm" is just a vehicle for grease and low-quality cheese. But when I saw this picture in Bon Appetit of Mario Batali's family meal, I started to rethink chicken parmesan. I'm so glad I did. It's still super indulgent, as it's cheese + fried chicken no matter how you spin it, but absolutely worth the splurge.

Grocery list: (marinara) olive oil, 2 small chopped onions, 4 minced garlic cloves, 1 grated carrot, 3T chopped fresh thyme, 2 28-oz cans whole italian (roma) tomatoes; (chicken), boneless chicken breasts, breadcrumbs, 2 eggs, AP flour, olive oil, fresh mozzarella, grated parmesan, parsley.



Making your own marinara at home is incredibly easy - it just takes an hour to simmer. If you don't have time to do that (I make a double batch on a weekend afternoon and store it in the freezer), you could substitute a jar of your favorite basic sauce. Mario's recipe calls for sauteing the onions and garlic in olive oil over med-high heat for 10 minutes, then adding the carrot and thyme. After cooking for another 5 minutes, add the tomatoes and bring to a boil.



I've never tried this before, but using a potato masher to mash the tomatoes was a lot easier and faster than crushing them one at a time by hand (normally I grab them out of the can, crush over the pot, repeat). A word of warning - use your pot lid like a shield to prevent any tomatoes from bursting all over your shirt (ahem). Once the pot is bubbling, reduce the heat to low and simmer until the sauce thickens - about an hour.



Stir a couple of times during the hour; remove from heat and season with salt and pepper to taste.



The chicken is actually very easy. You start by pounding out the chicken breasts in between plastic wrap. In hindsight, I will take the WF butcher up on his offer to pound these for me - what a pain. Did you know WF offers to do this for free, you don't have to pay extra for the pre-cut cutlets? Anyway, when you have your think cutlets, dip them in flour, then dip them in a beaten egg, then coat in egg whites. I don't list amounts here, because you can simply keep adding flour to a plate, and breadcrumbs to another one, as needed, so you don't waste any. I used 2 eggs (beaten) for the full 1.5 pounds of chicken, just for reference.



Heat 2 T oil in a big nonstick pan over med-high heat, and fry the chicken pieces in batches. Only cook them for about 2 minutes per side - you want them to brown, but not cook all the way through, since they will continue cooking in the oven. Transfer the chicken pieces to a platter. Add more oil to the pan and keep frying your chicken pieces in batches till done.



Next, preheat the oven to 350. Coat the bottom of your baking dish (a large pyrex or 9x13 glass pan works well) with 2 cups of the tomato sauce. Layer half the chicken pieces. Top with shredded mozzarella - I used slices because I was feeling lazy - then sprinkle grated parmesan. Layer more sauce and chicken, then finish with the cheeses.



Bake until cheese melts and bubbles, about 20 minutes. I also broiled mine for 2-3 minutes at the end, so the cheese on top was golden, but the original doesn't mention that. To serve, chop some fresh parsley (and oregano - AKA marjoram - if you have it) to sprinkle on top. I also made a batch of fresh pasta to mix with the remaining marinara to go along with it, the americanized side dish for chicken parm (that's one thing to thank olive garden for). This really wasn't that difficult, and would be even faster if you use the shortcuts on the sauce and chicken cutlets.

pesto pasta and roasted garlic thyme chicken

I've covered these both before (pesto here and here, and chicken here) but just in case you needed to be reminded that these recipes are there for the taking...

classic jambalaya

None of these photos do justice to this classic jambalaya dish, but I'm going to blog it anyway in the hopes that AHB readers trust my recipes more than my photography skills by now... I've made crab and andouille sausage jambalaya before, but A made a special request a while ago for a "real" jambalaya (i.e. with shrimp, not crab).  There are a surprising number of versions of this dish, but if I was going to trust anyone specifically, it would have to be Emeril, since creole cooking is his bread-and-butter. He didn't let me down - although his recipe made such huge portions (even by A's standards), we were eating leftovers for so long that I probably won't get this request again for months.

Grocery list: 1 pound medium shrimp (peeled, deveined), 2 pounds chicken, 1.5 pounds andouille sausage, 3-4 garlic cloves, 2 onions, 2-3 stalks celery, 1 bell pepper, 3-4 dried bay leaves, cayenne pepper, 2 sprigs fresh thyme, 1-2 tomatoes, 2 cups rice, 1 bunch green onions, handful of fresh parsley, plus Emeril's Creole seasoning (his proprietary blend of paprika, salt, garlic powder, black pepper, onion powder, cayenne, dried oregano, dried thyme).



Start by chopping the onions, celery, tomatoes and green onions. Cut the chicken and sausage into bit-size pieces. In separate bowls, season the shrimp and chicken pieces generously with the creole seasoning (enough to coat - the more you season it, the spicier the jambalaya will be).



Heat a couple T of olive oil in a large dutch oven - medium high heat - and saute the shrimp. After 3-4 minutes, the shrimp will be almost cooked through (whitish pink instead of opaque), so remove from the pot and set aside. They'll cook the rest of the way through when you add them back to the cooking jambalaya later.



Add a couple more tablespoons of olive oil to the pot, and cook the seasoned chicken pieces about 6-8 minutes. Remove and set aside as well.



Add the sausage pieces to the pot and brown evenly, then add all the vegetables *except for the green onions* (you'll add those later). Throw in a couple of minced garlic cloves, a few bay leaves, a sprinkle of extra cayenne, and a couple sprigs of fresh thyme.



The vegetables will wilt after 5-6 minutes, at which point you can add your chopped tomatoes. Stir in 6 cups of water plus the cooked chicken pieces.



You may want to check your rice label before using this ratio - I used brown rice, which requires a little less water but much longer cooking time. Emeril's recipe calls for 2 cups of rice to 6 cups of water - I used 2 cups brown rice and reduced that water (and the cooking times - I made sure to NOT add the shrimp until the rice was about 10 minutes from being done). Bring the pot to a boil, reduce heat to low, and cover. Cook for 15 minutes, or as long as your rice needs to cook minus 10 minutes.



Stir in the shrimp, the chopped green onions, and a handful of chopped parsley, and cook for another 10 minutes. The rice should be done, and the liquid almost entirely cooked out - the consistency is creamy, not watery. Turn off the heat and allow to stand for at least 10 minutes.

pesto chicken salad with bacon, tomatoes and garlic croutons

Yet another winner from my favorite new cookbook of the summer, "Raising the Salad Bar." With all the fresh basil at the farmers market, I made up a double batch of pesto for a couple different meals (the other pasta dish to follow soon). If you have a food processor, some basil, garlic, parmesan, pine nuts and olive oil, you can make pesto in about 3 minutes (see previous post here). This recipe combines some chopped cooked chicken with a pesto + mayo dressing, then tossed with fresh tomatoes, bacon, and croutons. The book's version doesn't do it this way, but I also mixed all the ingredients with some mixed greens (the dressing coats all the lettuce surprising well, without having to add extra) for a "true" salad.

Grocery list: 2 cups cooked chicken, 1.5 cups quartered cherry tomatoes, 1/4 cup mayo, 1/4 cup pesto, 4-5 slices bacon (cooked and chopped), garlic salt, a few slices bread for croutons.



You could certainly use store-bought croutons to make this recipe even faster, but homemade croutons are SO much better. They really don't take any time at all - you can cook them while you're prepping the rest of the salad. Remove the crusts from your bread, cut into bite-size pieces, and toss with a few T of olive oil and garlic salt. Either toast on a cookie sheet in the oven at 350 degrees (turning occasionally), or in a large skillet over medium heat.



Mix the pesto and mayo together, then toss with the chicken.



Add to a large salad bowl with the mixed greens, and toss to coat everything with the dressing. Stir in the crumbled bacon and cherry tomatoes, season with salt and pepper.



Divide into bowls (this could make enough for 3 meal-size salads), then top with the croutons.