Asian lettuce wraps

                   

Happy Dragon year everyone!

I thought I'd take a little break from posting travel pictures and post a recipe, just to remind myself 8and all of you) that this still is a cooking blog after all. Travels are cool, but unfortunately I don't travel every day. On the other hand, I do tend to cook on a daily basis, especially in the winter, especially when I'm trying to get back in shape after over two months of food and drink orgies.

Since the world is celbrating the Chinese new year, I thought I'd cook one of my favorite Asian recipes, one that I used to eat at PF Cheng's when I lived in Florida. I know, Cheng's isn't exactly a real Chinese joint, but their lettuce wraps rocked and they are light enough and veggie packed enough to satisfy both my weight loss challenge and my healthy habits- eat more veggies! challenge.

So here it is. Maybe not the most adventurous Chinese recipe, but a good, solid one.

ASIAN LETTUCE WRAPS

1 pound ground chicken

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon dark sesame oil

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon siracha

1 tablespoon sweet and sour sauce

To serve:

Lettuce leaves

Bean sprouts

Shredded carrot

Shredded cabbage

Cooked brown rice

Heat a non stick skillet or a wok. Mix soy sauce and next 4 ingredients in a bowl. Add chicken to skillet and stir to crumble. Pour sauce over it and cook for about ten minutes, until chicken is done. If the meat should get dry, add a little more sauce. I added siracha because I love the heat it gives to the dish!

When chicken is done, cover and remove from stove.

Serve with lettuce leaves.



Herbed roasted chicken with root vegetables

There's something in the air. Mornings are brisk, and so are nights. Alas, the end of summer is near. The days are still bright, sunny and warm, yet you can tell that in a month or so, it will be over. It will be time for coats and socks and autumn ingredients.

When I was little, I used to be kind of glad when summer was over. It meant going back to school, but it also meant that my birthday was coming up, that I would be able to play with my best friend again, that ski season was approaching fast.

Last year I was even more excited. It was my first "real" fall after nine years of Florida. I was thrilled to see the leaves going yellow and reddish and brown. I couldn't wait to put on my winter clothes and spend evenings reading in front of the fire.

This year, things are a little different. I've found myself more than once wishing summer could last a little longer. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that while last year I traveled a lot between June and Spetember, this year I only went to Greece for a week. Which was fabulous, of course, but didn't last long enough.

Enough with the whining, though.

To get ready for the change of season I'm slowly incorporating "fall" recipes in my diet, so that when tomatoes and basil are no longer tasty and delicious it won't be too much of a shock.
Which brings me to today's recipe: an easy, simple roasted chicken with root vegetables, with a kick: the bird is smothered in fresh herbs. Just to make summer last a little longer ;)

HERBED ROASTED CHICKEN WITH ROOT VEGETABLES

1 whole chicken
1 lemon, quartered
Salt and pepper
1/2 stick of butter
Fresh herbs, such as basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme
2 onions, coarsely chopped
3 carrots, coarsely chopped
3 potatoes, coarsely chopped
1 glass dry white wine
2 cups chicken broth

Preheat oven to 400F.

Season chicken cavity with salt and pepper, then place quartered lemon into it. Truss chicken.

In a food processor pulse butter and herbs until you obtain a smooth paste. Being careful not to rip the skin, place a little herbed butter between the skin and the breast, then use rest to rub chicken all over. Season with salt and pepper.

Place chicken in a oven safe baking dish. Scatter chopped vegetables around it. Pour wine and broth into baking dish.

Cook for 45 minutes in preheated oven. Should the top of the chicken brown too fast, cover with foil.

Chicken cutlets with balsamic bell pepper sauce

First things first, I apologize for the poor quality of this photo. See, the thing is, I took it with my phone because I couldn't find my camera for the life of me and the food was getting cold, so I had to use the phone. Then, of course, as soon as I was done eating my camera reappeared, but it was too late. The food was all gone.

Saturday morning my friends and I went grocery shopping in Italy. With 100 Euros I bought groceries (and wie, of course) to last me at least 10 days, so I was really excited to get back in the kitchen. After being so lazy for the whole month I kinda missed cooking and enjoying my meals at home. Now I don't have an excuse anymore: my fridge and my pantry are busting with all kinds of food. So beware, readers, I'm going to start posting like crazy again!

Also, the weather is not as hot as it was last week, when it was pretty much unbearable. It's still sunny and beautiful out, but it cools off enough at night that I actually feel like standing in front of the stove. Which brings me to this chicken dish I made for the first time the other night. I had the most beautiful and plump red bell pepper I'd seen in a while, but I didn't want to use it in the usual way, i.e. grilled or baked in the oven with potatoes. So I made a sort of sauce out of it, that I served with sauteed chicken cutlets. While it cooked it smelled divine and once it was ready it was a big hit with everyone. It's definitely one of those dishes that tastes better than it looks!

CHICKEN CUTLETS WITH BALSAMIC BELL PEPPER SAUCE

Serves 4

8 chicken cutlets
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 red bell peppers
1 small onion
EVOO
2 tablespoons capers

Season cutlets with salt and pepper.

In a large skillet sautee chopped onion and bell pepper in olive oil for about 10 minutes. Place vegetables in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Set aside and keep warm..

In the same skillet cook chicken, two minutes per side, then add balsamic vinegar and let it reduce for 30 seconds. Add bell pepper sauce, capers and cook for a minute or two.

Thai green curry

I'm back. I didn't actually go anywhere, but I have barely posted anything in January and I haven't really read any of your blogs... so I guess that I'll spend the rest of the day doing that, catching up with what has been going on with you in the past three weeks. See, the thing is that I haven't felt very well since the beginning of the month and both cooking and writing about it seemed like a chore instead of the fun activities I've always considered them to be. But I feel better now, and cooking and writing about it once again sound like a great idea. So here's a recipe I've made last week for the first time, although I have eaten it hundred of times at Thai restaurants: green curry with chicken.

THAI GREEN CURRY

1 teaspoon of sesame seed oil
2 onions, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced
3 tablespoons green curry paste
2 pounds chicken breast, cubed
4 tablespoons of shredded fresh basil
2 1/2 cups coconut milk
2 tablespoons fish sauce (nam pla)

Heat up the oil in a wok and saute the onion for a couple of minutes. Add curry paste, stir well and let cook for two more minutes.

Add zucchini, chicken, basil, coconut milk and fish sauce and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked and the sauce has thickened. Garnish with fresh basil and serve.

Thai chicken with basil

 

The first time I had chicken basil I was at a small Thai restaurant in Naples, Florida, a place called Siam Thai. Although it was a stone's throw away from glitzy, snobby 5th Avenue South —Naples' downtown area— the place was  family-ran a hole in the wall that featured the right dose of depressing Asian decor, including a couple of posters of Thailand that had seen better days and a mismatched cutlery. Needless to say, it was one of my favorite restaurants in the area. 

It also happened to be literally a minute away from my office, which is how, on a fall afternoon in 2006, my friend and coworker Dan and I ended up sitting at one of the tables in the dark dining room. Since basil is one of my favorite ingredients and Thai basil sauce happens to be one of their spiciest, I feel in love with the dish immediately. In the following four years I ordered chicken basil at every Thai restaurant I went to, although the one from Siam Thai —much like first love— was hard to forget and remains to this day my favorite.

Enter Tommy. Whenever we eat something at a restaurant, even when it's delicious and flirting with perfection, he always says the same thing. "I bet you can make this better at home." Which is sweet, really, although not always true. Or at least I don't think it's true. He seriously does, he tells me. Anyway, because he said that, I found myself buying a Thai cookbook to try and make chicken basil at home. It's an easy recipe and I have to admit that I make a killer basil sauce. But better than Siam Thai's? I don't think so.

THAI CHICKEN WITH BASIL

Serves 2

2 chicken breast halves, cut into strips

1 small onion, sliced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Bird eye chilies, to taste, sliced

6 tablespoons (or less if you don;t want it fiery) chili garlic sauce, such as Huy Fong

3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons fish sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

A big bunch of basil, washed and torn

In a wok heat up some oil ( I usually use canola), then add garlic and chiles. Stir fry over medium high heat for a couple of minutes, stirring and making sure that the garlic doesn't burn. Add onions, chicken and chili garlic sauce. Stir and cook until chicken changes color.

Add soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar and stir some more, cooking for a few minutes longer. Remove from fire, add basil and serve immediately.

Chicken cakes with spicy horseradish sauce

 

Remember the good ol' days when I lived in Florida and every other recipe I posted involved chicken? Well, those days are long gone. Not only because I haven't breathed Florida air since April 22nd, but most of all —and this is the tidbit of news that may shock some of you— I haven't eaten any chicken since that very same day.

Crazy, right?

Well, yes and no.

To most Americans, and to my pre-April 22nd self, it certainly sounds crazy.I mean, chicken is easy. Cheap. Even nutritious. In one word, it's a staple.

Well, not so much in Italy. Nobody eats chicken regularly here, other than the odd roasted chicken on Sundays. Other than that, Italians do not enjoy and do not serve chicken as often as Americans do. Mention a chicken dish to a random Italian guy, my dad for instance, and he'll scoff. The reasons are many, but most of them have something to do with the fact that chicken itself is not the most flavorful of meats and, to make it good, you have to season the shit out of it or marinate it or cover it in sauce. Which makes most Italians shrug and say: Why don;t you eat something that is good without all these things then? 

What can I say? Every population has its obsessions, most of which are food related, especially when it comes to Italians. But that explains why I never ate the stuff growing up and, I'm guessing, that's why ever since I moved back here I haven't eaten it anymore.

Except that, a few nights ago, I was going through the only cookbook I took with me from Florida —a four pounder, hard cover version of "The Essential Dinner Tonight" by Cooking Light that caused me a lot of backache while I was transporting it in my backpack across airports and oceans— and I started recognizing all these chicken recipes that Tommy and I have loved back when I lived in Florida. And I don't know if it's the sentimental factor playing a big part in this (it most certainly is, since I've been very sentimental lately), but I've found myself longing for chicken.

I know. If my dad and/or the Italian government read this, they will disown me and probably burn my passport. 

Still, I since I was longing for a piece of freaking chicken breast cooked any freaking way, I went to the local Swiss grocery store, called Coop. Yes, like a chicken coop. Only it actually means co-op. But I digress. I went into the Coop and looked for chicken breast, knowing that all of the sudden I could no longer live without a piece of pollo. Well, boys and girls, let me tell you one thing. The Swiss must be very proud of their chickens, because to buy a mere 9 ounces of chicken breast I had to shell out 9 Swiss francs, which is about $8.50. But I was on a mission, so I whipped out my (un)trusty AmEx and came home with my loot, which I turned into one of my all-time favorite recipes: chicken cakes with spicy horseradish sauce. 

And although I call it "all time", by now you all must know that this is not a recipe from my childhood, since —to this day— whenever I tell my parents I'm having chicken for dinner, they laugh and say "we're sorry".

Oh, well. To those of you who don't have a problem with chicken, I highly recommend this recipe: it's tasty and it's moist. And Dad, in case you're reading this, it makes the chicken so good you don't even know you are having chicken.

CHICKEN CAKES WITH SPICY HORSERADISH SAUCE

Adapted from Cooking Light

Serves 4

1 cup bread crumbs

1  pound  skinless, boneless chicken breast

1/4  cup  chopped fresh chives

3  tablespoons  low-fat plain yogurt

1  teaspoon  Cajun seasoning

1/4  teaspoon  salt

2  large egg whites

2  teaspoons oil 

For the sauce:

  

2  tablespoons  low-fat yogurt

2  teaspoons  prepared horseradish

1  teaspoon  minced garlic

1/8  teaspoon  salt 

To prepare cakes, place chicken in food processor and pulse until ground. Combine chicken, chives, 3 tablespoons yogurt and seasoning, 1/4 teaspoon salt, egg whites, and breadcrumbs in a medium bowl; mix well.

Divide mixture into 8 equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2-inch-thick patty.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add patties; cook 7 minutes on each side or until done.

To prepare sauce, combine 2 tablespoons yogurt and remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Serve with cakes.

Oven "fried" chicken with honey mustard sauce

I have a question for you all: how do you pack for a trip that is longer than a year? I have already figured out how to take my winter clothes and shoes with me (in the trunk of my car, which is going to be shipped from Miami to Genoa at the end of the month). The problem is, there is still a lot in my closet that doesn't fall in the categories above —winter clothes and shoes. Stuff like summer clothes, bathing suits, summer shoes... handbags, belts... and more. Normally I'm a firm believer in packing light —I've learned a long time ago that you usually end up using a third of the clothes you take with you on  any given trip— but when you are moving to another continent this philosophy kinda goes out the window. Seriously: how do they expect your whole life to weigh 50 pounds or less? The least airlines could do is offer a moving special. Or a hoarder special. Or both. Instead they want to charge you $75 for each additional bag, which I'm so not going to pay. So that's it. Everything —actually: everything I own that combined weighs 50 pounds or less— has to fit in one bag. In my carry on backpack I'll have to stuff my laptop and some reading material that isn't too heavy (good luck with that, right?), while my "other" carry on will be the cat who, I'm sure, will make this whole travel experience even more pleasant. And then they wonder why I wake up in a panic in the middle of the night...

Anyways, all this to say —once again— that I have a great reason for not having posted much on this blog lately. Because I'm not cooking much and when I do, I'm too distracted to cook something worth blogging about. But I promise, once I'm there the posts will flow, both about wonderful recipes and about my travels. In the mean time, here's a favorite of mine which, I suspect, I won't be able to make anymore once I'm in Europe, the reason being that I think they don't sell honey mustard dressing over there. So, unless I make my own, no more oven "fried" chicken with honey mustard sauce for me!

OVEN "FRIED" CHICKEN WITH HONEY MUSTARD SAUCE

Adapted from the Weight Watchers Complete Cookbook
Serves 2 or 3

3 chicken breast halves, boneless and skinless
3/4 cup honey mustard dressing
1 tablespoon minced fresh dill
3 scallions, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
1 cup crumbled corn flakes
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425F.

In a shallow bowl mix the honey mustard dressing, scallions and dill. Season with salt and pepper to taste and place the corn flake crumbs in a small dish.

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Dip each breast in the dressing, turning to coat well. Shake off excess. Reserve extra dressing. Dredge into crumbs and place in a baking pan coated with cooking spray.  Cook in preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until crust looks crunchy and done. Drizzle with reserved dressing and serve immediately.

Chicken piccata

Great news. Both in the sense that the news is big and that is also good. I have booked my flight to Italy. From April 22nd I'll be cooking, and blogging, from Milan, and hopefully I will also be traveling around Europe at any given chance. Ok. Who am I kidding? I will be traveling as much as humanly possible. And I will be eating and cooking new (old) things and having the time of my life. Of course I will be blogging about it and hopefully I'll be doing a better job at it than now. The thing is, I feel like I have a million things to do before I take off on the 21st and time, all the sudden, has started going by really fast.

Take Easter, for example. I seriously couldn't believe it yesterday when I woke up and I realized it was time to celebrate it already. I had this crazy notion that Easter was far, far away and that I had all the time in the world to prepare for it. Not that I had something specific in mind, but still.

The same, unfortunately, goes with packing. I feel like the endeavor is so huge, I don't know where to start from. I've moved across an ocean once before, but for some reason this time it feels more difficult. Maybe it's because I still have to do it. Maybe it's just the thought of it. Regardless, in the mean time I leave you with this great recipe for chicken piccata, which is chicken in a lemon butter sauce with capers.

CHICKEN PICCATA

Adapted from Tyler Florence

• 4 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts (about 11/2 pounds)
• All-purpose flour, for dredging
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 lemon, with rind, cut in thin rounds
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 tablespoons capers
• 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Put the chicken breasts side by side on a cutting board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them. Pound the chicken breasts with a flat meat mallet, until they are about 1/4-inch thick. Put some flour in a shallow platter and season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. In a wide bowl, beat the eggs with 3 tablespoons of water to make an egg wash. Heat the oil over medium-high flame in a large skillet.

Dredge both sides of the chicken cutlets in the seasoned flour, and then dip them in the egg wash to coat completely, letting the excess drip off. When the oil is nice and hot, add the cutlets and fry for 2 minutes on each side until golden, turning once. Remove the chicken cutlets to a large platter in a single layer to keep warm.

Toss the lemon slices into the pan and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until fragrant. Add the wine, broth, and lemon juice, simmer for 5 minutes to reduce the sauce slightly. Roll the butter in some flour and add it to the skillet, this will thicken the sauce. Stir to incorporate and dissolve the flour. Reduce the heat to medium-low and return the chicken to the pan; place the lemon slices on top of the cutlets. Simmer gently for 2 minutes to heat the chicken through. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chopped parsley before serving.

Chicken enchiladas with green chile sauce

Every once in a while Tommy stops by our friend Jayne's house to have a beer with her and her husband Bruce before dinner. And because they tend to eat dinner way earlier than us —which is no surprise since we usually dine around 10 p.m.— he sometime comes home very excited about some recipe he has just tasted while at Jayne's house. Of course there is no way he can actually remember all the ingredients or even what the recipe was called, so our conversations go more or less like this:

Tommy: "I've just had a bite of the best Mexican dish at Jayne's."
Me: "Really? What was it?"
Tommy: "Some type of casserole... I think it had chicken in it."
Me: "You think?"
Tommy: "I'm pretty sure it had chicken in it. And it was spicy. It was really good."
Me: "What else did it have in it?"
Tommy: "I don't know, you'll have to ask Jayne."

So after a week or so we usually happen to be at her house and I remember that I'm supposed to ask her about the mysterious casserole. After five minutes of vague descriptions on Tommy's part and puzzled looks on Jayne's face we finally arrived at the conclusion that the mystery dish is these chicken enchiladas with green chile sauce. Tommy was right —it's possibly the best Mexican dish I've had along with my beloved pork tacos from yesterday's post. It's spicy and creamy, without being too heavy. So thank you Jayne for remembering which recipe Tommy was talking about and for giving it to me!

CHICKEN ENCHILADAS WITH GREEN CHILE SAUCE
Makes 4 enchiladas

For the sauce:
2 cups prepared green chile salsa (salsa jalapena)
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup half and half
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon of flour

For the enchiladas:
1 small onion, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 chicken breasts, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon cumin
2 cups pepperjack cheese, grated
4 soft taco size flour tortillas
Chopped cilantro

Preheat oven to 350F.

Heat a little oil in a large skillet, add onions and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes, until fragrant. Add chicken, season with salt, pepper and cumin. Cook over medium high heat until chicken is browned. Remove from pan and set aside.

To make sauce add ingredients for sauce in the same pan you used for the chicken and stir until lightly thickened. Pout half of the sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.

Place 1/4 of the chicken mixture in each tortilla, top with a tablespoon grated pepperjack, roll up and place each tortilla seam side down in the prepared baking dish. Pour remaining sauce over the tortillas and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes. Garnish with cilantro.

Chicken cordon bleu

This week was one of those weeks —one of those weeks when you barely have time to take a shower, let alone update your blog. I spent more than eight hours a day, every day, in the office, which isn't something that helps my sanity. And since I'm a reporter, I always feel that I should be out —you know— reporting. If you add the fact that the newsroom where I work is one of the noisiest places on earth, well you can imagine how "easy" it is to concetrate over there. I usually wear my noise canceling headphones and try to immerse myself in my indie rock nirvana but sometimes even that isn't enough to cut out the background noise so I just lose my mind a little (on the inside) and dream of the moment I'll be home with a beer in one hand and a martini in the other.

Also, I didn't cook much this past week because I was too broke to buy the ingredients —a very sad situation to be in at 29, but one that occurs every once in a while. So we lived out of the pantry, which thank god is well stocked, and had some "interesting" dinners. But since I got paid yesterday, here I am again, cooking away. This chicken dish is delicious and it's worth the pounding and the rolling. A suggestion: don't pound the chicken at 11 p.m. like we did. We got all our neighbors very concearned.

CHICKEN CORDON BLEU
From Cooking Light
1/4  cup  fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
5  teaspoons  butter, melted
1  large garlic clove, minced
1/2  cup  dry breadcrumbs
1  tablespoon  grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1  teaspoon  paprika
4  (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4  teaspoon  salt
1/4  teaspoon  dried oregano
1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
4  thin slices prosciutto (about 2 ounces)
1/4  cup  (1 ounce) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.
Place broth in a small microwave-safe bowl; microwave at high 15 seconds or until warm. Stir in butter and garlic. Combine breadcrumbs, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and paprika in a medium shallow bowl; set aside.
Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap, and pound each to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with salt, oregano, and pepper. Top each breast half with 1 slice of prosciutto and 1 tablespoon mozzarella. Roll up each breast half jelly-roll fashion. Dip each roll in chicken broth mixture; dredge in breadcrumb mixture. Place rolls, seam side down, in an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Pour remaining broth mixture over chicken. Bake at 350° for 28 minutes or until juices run clear and tops are golden.

Indian pepper chicken

If you had to pick one kind of ethnic food to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be? As much as I love Thai and Vietnamese, I think mine would be Indian. And it goes without saying that I live in a metropolitan area where there are only three Indian restaurants -two of which are ridiculously far from where I live, and the third one is so expensive you'd think you are at a top rated French bistro. This, of course, sucks, because I grew up a stone's throw away from Bombay Club, the best Indian restaurant in Milan and, as far as I'm concearned, in the whole world. When Tommy and I were visiting my hometown two years ago we went there all the time and, on our last night in Europe, I managed to forget my purse under our table. It wouldn't have been such a big deal, but my passport happened to be in there and we had to catch a flight to Miami the very next morning. I don't think you have to be Sigmund Freud to figure out that inconsciously I didn't want to come back to Florida.

Anyhow, the purse was retrieved and we did come back to Florida and we also came back to the lack of good Indian food, so shortly afterwards I bought a book called "Fresh Indian" and started trying some recipes. Most Indian fare takes a while to make, as meats are braised in liquid for a long time, but this dish, the pepper chicken with jasmine rice, takes less than 20 minutes to cook and it's a very, very satisfying dish on a damp and chilly night (yes, the weather is still sucking here in Florida, so for those of you who are palnning vacations: wait until April!!!)

INDIAN PEPPER CHICKEN 

Serves 4

1 1/2 lbs. skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-size cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns, coarsly ground
4 whole cloves
5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 tablespoon yellow curry powder
Salt
Sour cream or yogurt, to serve

In a large frying pan heat up the oil, then add the peppercorns, bay leaves and cloves. Stir fry for a minute, until fragrant. Season chicken with salt and add it to the pan along with the minced garlic and ginger. Stir and cook for a few minutes, until chicken pieces start to color.

Add broth, curry powder and turmeric and stir well. Cover and cook for 10-12 minutes. Drizzle with yogurt and serve over jasmine rice.

Chicken with peppers in balsamic sauce

Yesterday for some reason -lots of work, teeth cleaning, crazy traffic- I was sooo tired the last thing I wanted to do was to fuss in the kitchen once I got home. I'm glad I had picked this recipe from the Jan./Feb. issue of Cooking Light because it was ridiculosuly fast to make and turned out delicious. In the magazine it was served with mascarpone mashed potatoes, but I opted for regualr ones since my local grocery store must think that mascarpone is made of gold and wants $8 for a small tub. Also, I figured, since January is a month when everyone is supposed to lose weight and we aren't losing any around here, we could live without the extra fat and calories in the mascarpone.

Today is going to be a repeat of yesterday, only instead of teeth cleaning I have to go see the CPA and I have a ridicolously late hair appointment at 6:30, which means I won't be home before 8:30... so I wish I had another super-fast super-good recipe to make. Oh, wait. I do! You'll read about it tomorrow...

CHICKEN WITH PEPPERS IN BALSAMIC SAUCE
From Cooking Light

3/4  teaspoon  salt, divided
3/4  teaspoon  fennel seeds, crushed
1/2  teaspoon  black pepper, divided
1/4  teaspoon  garlic powder
1/4  teaspoon  dried oregano
4  (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2  tablespoons  olive oil, divided
Cooking spray
1 thinly sliced red bell pepper
1 thinly sliced yellow bell pepper
1/2  cup  thinly sliced shallots (about 1 large)
1 1/2  teaspoons  chopped fresh rosemary
1  cup  fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon  balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 450°.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Combine 1/2 teaspoon salt, fennel seeds, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, garlic powder, and oregano. Brush chicken with 1 1/2 teaspoons oil; sprinkle spice rub over chicken. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons oil to pan. Add chicken; cook 3 minutes or until browned. Turn chicken over; cook 1 minute. Arrange chicken in an 11 x 7–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450° for 10 minutes or until done.

Heat remaining olive oil over medium-high heat. Add bell peppers, shallots, and rosemary; sauté 3 minutes. Stir in broth, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high. Stir in vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; cook 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Serve bell pepper mixture over chicken.

Chicken in milk

Look! It's Friday and I actually
a) posted something
b) remembered to post a recipe I learned from a fellow food blogger

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's a link to last Friday's post where I'm bitching about FollowFridays on Twitter. The point is, I'm going to try, every Friday, to post a recipe I have discovered on someone else's blog. That way not only you get a good recipe, you also learn about an amazing food blog.

Anyhow... this week I have discovered that in November everyone (well, everyone except me apparently) was talking about Jamie Oliver's crazy new recipe -chicken cooked in milk with lemon and cinnamon. Now, before you hit the "back" button on your browser and never come back again, let me tell you this: it sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, but I swear it's good. And if you don't believe me, see what Shiv from Pithy and Cleaver has to say about it. That's where I learned about this recipe in the first place -and her pictures are so great, I couldn't resist. Plus, I reasoned, if veal and pork are good cooked in milk, why not chicken?

Well, let me tell you this: I am glad I tried it. It wasn't just good, it was delicious. The meat was tender and juicy and the sauce, once strained, was lemony, garlicky and finger-licking good. The chicken smelled so good we actually had to put the cat in the laundry room because he looked like someone who's on a mission to jump on the cupboard and steal the bird. We promised him we would give him a little piece of chicken later on, but then it turned out to be so good that we ate all of it -yes, just the two of us.

CHICKEN IN MILK
(adapted from Pithy and Cleaver)

A 4 lbs. chicken
1 pint milk
3 sticks cinnamon
4 small sprigs of sage
10 cloves garlic, smashed and unpeeled
zest of 2 lemons
Salt and pepper
1/4c olive oil
2 tsp buter

Preheat the oven to 375F

Pick a a dutch oven that has a well-fitting lid and that would fit your chicken snugly. Melt the butter with the oil over medium-high heat, season the chicken generously with salt and pepper and then fry it in the butter/oil mix until the skin is uniformly brown. As Anthony Bourdain would say, be careful not to tear the freakin' skin.

Remove from heat and drain off the butter and oil from the pot.

Add the milk, cinnamon, lemon zest, sage, and garlic to the pot with the chicken. Place in the oven and cook covered for 1/2 hour; remove the lid, and then cook for another hour.

Baked chicken with fennel

More poultry recipes? Well yes. I'm broke and chicken was on sale for a while, so now I'm living off what's in the freezer. I grew up in a family were poultry never ranked very high. To this day, every November, my dad asks full hope:
"Can we have ham for Thanksgiving?"
To which I reply:
"Absolutely not. Americans have turkey for Thanksgiving and we are going to follow the tradition!"
"But we are Italian..." Nice try. That's the only occasion when he conveniently forgets that we have both passports.
Anyways. Needless to say my mom never made chicken when I was a kid, with two exceptions: her famous and delicious chicken curry and her Sunday toasted chicken.

So I find it amusing that nowadays I cook chicken several times a week and that I actually enjoy eating it. When it comes to chicken I was a late bloomer (I was late bloomer for many other things, culinary and not, but that's another story). I started exploring chicken recipes when I was 22, living on my own for the first time -no parents, no roommates, no boyfriends. At the time I owned one cookbook, a hard cover binding copy of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, the red and white checkered one. I flipped through it from cover to cover and found out that chicken can be made in a million different ways, many of which only include my favorite part of the bird: the breast. It was all downhill from there. Once I started I couldn't stop and seven years and 130 cookbooks later I still cook chicken like it's my job. This one, inspired by a Weight Watchers recipe, is really simple to make and it has a wonderful fennel flavor -granted that you like fennel of course.

BAKED CHICKEN WITH FENNEL

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
Salt to taste
Crushed red pepper to taste
1 red onion, sliced
1 fennel bulb, sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock

Preheat oven to 425F.

Season both sides of chicken breasts with salt and crushed red pepper to taste. Place sliced onion and fennel on the bottom of a pyrex or roasting pan, place chicken on top, add wine and broth and cook for 30 minutes.

Remove chicken from pan and shred or cut into slices. Set aside. Keep cooking the vegetables for about 30 minutes more. Put chicken back in the pan and cook for 5 more minutes. Drizzle with a little olive oil if you like.

Chicken stuffed with sundried tomatoes and cheese

So where's the chicken, you might ask? It obviously didn't make it into the picture, the main reason being that I was hungry and impatient and I butchered it in such a horrible way it wasn't much of a sight. Also you might notice that the recipe -even the title actually- calls for sun-dried tomatoes, something that isn't in the picture either. Well, here's the thing: I had a bag of sundried tomatoes in my pantry and I knew it, so I obviously didn't stop by the store to get more. Little did I know that the little buggers can go bad. Oh, yeah. Who knew? I certainly didn't. I thought they were indestructible, both because they were dried and because they were in an airtight bag in a dark pantry.

Well, I was wrong.

As soon as I opened the bag I figured that there was something weird going on. The tomatoes were... black. Still dried, but black. And didn't smell like tomatoes anymore. Further investigation led me to discover that they also didn't taste like tomatoes, but more like tar. So I had to improvise and make my own sun-dried tomatoes, or maybe I should say "oven-dried tomatoes". They turned out good. I cut them in halves, sprinkled them with salt and drizzled them with EVOO and a little balsamic vinegar and in they went, with a couple springs of rosemary to dry up. Try them, they are pretty damn good.

CHICKEN STUFFED WITH SUN-DRIED TOMATOES AND CHEESE

2 tablespoons chopped sun-dried tomatoes, reconstituted
3 tablespoons soft cheese, such as Rondele or Aluette
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 pound chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup flour
1 cup dry vermouth or dry white wine
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon tomato paste
A few leaves of basil

In a small bowl mix together the tomatoes, cheese and thyme and set aside.

Use a sharp paring knife to cut a horizontal slit through the thickest part of the chicken breast halves to create a "pocket". Stuff each pocket with the tomato and cheese mixture. Season chicken with salt and pepper to taste and dredge in flour.

Heat some olive oil in a large skillet, add chicken and brown it on both sides. Remove it from pan and keep warm.

Add vermouth and bring to a boil. In a small bown stir together cornstarch and a couple tablespoons of stock, then add to the pan together with remaining chicken stock and tomato paste.

Return chicken to pan, bring to the simmer and cook covered over low heat for about 10 minutes, basting occasionally with the sauce.

Roasted chicken with onions and potatoes

In my never ending effort to be thrifty (so that I have enough money to buy shoes and travel) I have discovered how much cheaper it is to buy whole chickens instead of precut parts. I know, I know, probably I should have known that, but I didn't -plus, I always thought that roasting a chicken would be some kind of a pain in the ass, so I never bothered. Well, I discovered that although it is a little labor intensive in the beginning, once you are done you can relax and drink wine while the bird is in the oven, a prospective I always like on Friday nights when I'm tired and don't feel like dancing around the kitchen paying attention to what is going on on the stove. So I've started to make roasted chicken and after a few times I made it using different recipes and approaches I have to say that the poulet roti recipe in Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook is by far the best. I added some potatoes and onions to the recipe to have a super easy, no fuss side dish ready at the exact same time as the chicken -it was an extremly satisfying dinner and I can now say that I have a bomb-proof recipe to roast a chicken. I'm pretty proud of myself.

ROASTED CHICKEN WITH ONIONS AND POTATOES

1 young roasting chicken, about 4 pounds
Salt and pepper
2 rosemary sprigs
1 lemon, quartered
1 celery stalk, cut into 2-inch pieces
6 tablespoons softened butter
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
1 tablespoon minced fresh basil
1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano
1/2 teaspoon honey
2 pounds yellow onions, peeled and cut into wedges
2 pounds small red potatoes, cut into wedges
1 cup white wine

Preheat oven to 375F.

Remove giblets from chicken cavity. Wash the cavity and let dry. Season the cavity with abundant salt and pepper, place the lemon, rosemary sprigs and chopped celery in it.

Now, the trussing of the chicken... I use Anthony Bourdain's trick to truss the chicken, a trick he explains in his hilarious cookbook from Les Halles. Here's what he says: "Okay... now, I'm not going to try and explain how to truss a chicken with twine - as much fun as that is. Here's a shortcut instead. First: lie on your back on the floor, put your knees together, and draw them both up to your chest with your arms. Press them against your chest. You should look pretty funny down there - but that's exactly the position I want you to put your chicken in. Knees up, ass out. Undignified, but effective. Now, take a paring knife and just below the end of the chicken's legs (approximately below where your heels would be), poke a small hole on each side, and tuck the leg carefully inside,pinioning the legs in a position approximately what you just did on the floor. Try not to tear the skin, okay?"

On to the next step. Mix the softened butter with the chopped herbs and season it with salt and pepper. Gently insert your fingers in between the skin and the breast and rub the butter mixture on both sides of the bird so that the butter is trapped underneath the skin. Reserve a couple of tablespoons of butter for later use.

Season the bird with salt and pepper, being careful not to miss any spots. Place it in an oven proof casserole and place onions and potatoes around it. Pour wine in the casserole and distribute the reserved butter on the vegetables.

Cook at 375F for 30 minutes, turning the casserole occasionally so that the bird cooks evenly.

Cranck up the oven to 450F and cook for another 20-25 minutes. Let the chicken rest for ten minutes before serving.

Chipotle BBQ sandwiches

I don't know about you, but every once in a while I crave the smoky taste of a good barbecue sandwich. Yesterday was one of those days. I was pretty busy -work, teeth cleaning at the dentist, a much needed hair cut- so I didn't get home until almost 9 o'clock. I needed something simple and quick to make. Plus, my local supermarket was offering boneless, skinless chicken breasts at $1.99 a pound... how could I resist the urge to stock up on it? I couldn't, so I stocked up. I also had some potato buns leftover from Sunday's cookout and some red cabbage that -yes, you guessed it- was given to me by the co-op guys. So I made an Iron Chef night out of it and put together these sweet and spicy chicken sandwiches and some spicy slaw (recipe to follow, hopefully today, if not tomorrow.) The chicken, thanks to a kick ass technique learned from Cooking Light magazine, tastes like it has been slow cooked for hours but only needs to be cook for about 15 minutes. Now THAT is what I need when I'm tired and hungry and it's 9 o'clock at night. Don't let the lenght of the recipe fool you -it's easy.

CHIPOTLE BBQ SANDWICHES
Adapted from Cooking Light
Makes 4 sandwiches:

1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast
3 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
Canola oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup tomato puree
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper
4 sandwich rolls ( I love Martin's Potato Rolls)

Pour a quarter inch of water in a large skillet. Add 1 teaspoon cumin, 4 sliced garlic cloves, and chicken (seasoned with salt and pepper to taste), cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook 10 minutes. Drain, discard water and cut chicken across grain into thin slices. Set aside.

Remove 2 tablespoons adobo sauce from can of chiles and set aside. Remove 3 chipotle chiles from can and finely chop and set aside. Whatever chiles and sauce you don't use, store in a tapperware in the fridge, they last forever.

Heat a little bit of oil in the same skillet skillet. Add 1 tablespoon minced garlic and sauté 3 minutes or until just beginning to brown -be careful not to burn it! Add cumin, stir in tomato puree, 2 tablespoons adobo sauce, 3 chopped chipotle chiles, vinegar, honey, Worcestershire, and salt. Add sliced chicken to sauce; simmer for 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

In the meantime, preheat broiler.

Split rolls in half and broil 1 minute or until lightly toasted. Divide chicken mixture evenly among bottom halves of rolls and serve immediately.

Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic

I know, the name of this recipe sounds kind of scary... and 40 cloves of garlic seem like a lot! But trust me, once the garlic is cooked it looses most of its pungent flavor and it ends up tasting... almost sweet, I would say. Anyway, I tried this recipe after seeing it in Cooking Light magazine -after changing it a bit to fit my taste. I guess that the original French recipe calls for a whole chicken, cut up in pieces, but I have finally ran out of the insane amount of whole chickens I had bought and frozen, so I used chicken breast instead. I was a little worried that the breasts would dry up, but they didn't. Actually they turned out perfect: juicy, tender and very tasty. The sauce is lovely mopped up with slices of French bread.

CHICKEN WITH 40 CLOVES OF GARLIC
Makes 4 servings

2 1/2 cups chopped onion
2 teaspoons dried tarragon
1 sprig rosemary
4 celery stalks, cut into 3 pieces
4 chicken breast halves
3/4 cup dry vermouth
Salt
Pepper
Dash of ground nutmeg
40 unpeeled garlic cloves

Combine first 4 ingredients in a 4-quart casserole. Arrange chicken over vegetables. Drizzle with vermouth; sprinkle with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Nestle garlic around chicken. Cover casserole with aluminum foil and casserole lid. Bake at 375° for 1 1/2 hours. Garnish with fresh tarragon, if desired; serve with French bread.

Beer can chicken

I was born and raised in Italy, so of course I knew nothing about beer can chickens until a few years ago. I don't remember where I had my first one, but the notion of cooking a whole chicken with a beer can up his butt was quite hilarious (I'm easily entertained, I guess) and the result was a juicy, delicious chicken. Ever since then I've been trying to find the perfect recipe to make my own and -after a few tries- I think I've come up with one that is good and spicy. The secret is to keep the breast from drying up, which is pretty easy if you baste it with lots of liquids before you put the bird on the grill. The marinade also infuses the meat with a delicious BBQ-like flavor, while the beer and the liquid smoke do the same from the inside.

BEER CAN CHICKEN

1 whole chicken
2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
6 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1 can beer
3 tablespoons barbecue smoked seasoning

Preheat grill on medium high.

Remove and discard giblets and neck from the chicken. Loosen skin from breasts and drumsticks by inserting fingers, gently pushing between skin and meat.Be careful not to pierce the skin -it's what keeps the bird from drying.

Combine ketchup, sugar, paprika, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder and vinegar in a bowl. Rub it under loosened skin and over breasts and drumsticks.

Drink 1/2 cup beer (or discard it, but seriously, why throwing it away when you can drink it?) Add liquid smoke to can. Holding chicken upright with the body cavity facing down, insert beer can into chicken butt. Place the chicken in a roasting pan, and spread legs out to form a tripod to support the chicken.

Place on preheated grill, lower heat and cook slowly, with the lid closed, for about 1 1/2 hours or until desired internal temperature is reached.

Chicken and veggie stir fry in black bean sauce

Wow, that is one long title... I thought about calling it "Chinese stir fry", but then again, other than the chili black bean sauce it doesn't have much Chinese in it. It was an attempt to reproduce the heavenly flavors of a dish I ate at Charlie Chiang's a couple of weeks ago, an attempt that failed, but while failing it produced a pretty delicious dinner. The chili black bean sauce is not hard to find -Asian grocery stores carry it, and if Naples, Fla. has an Asian grocery store I expect pretty much every city and town to have one as well.

CHICKEN AND VEGGIE STIR-FRY WITH BLACK BEAN SAUCE

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into thin strips
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons chili black bean sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 zucchini, cut into slices
2 cups snow peas
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
2 scallions, chopped
Sesame oil for cooking

Place chicken in a bowl and sprinkle with one tablespoon of cornstarch. Stir and set aside.

In a small bowl mix the broth, soy sauce, chili black bean sauce and one tablespoon of cornstarch. Stir to mix well.

Heat a wok on medium high heat, swirl in sesame oil and add the chicken, stir frying for a couple of minutes or until it changes color. Lower heat and add zucchini, snow peas, bell pepper. Season with a dash of soy sauce and cook until vegetables are crisp tender.

Add broth concoction to wok and cook for another couple of minutes, stirring constantly, until sauce is thickened and bubbly. Sprinkle with scallions and serve immediately.