Roasted "Airline" Chicken Breasts

For the past few months my freezer has been holding a carefully wrapped package of 4 boneless "airline" chicken breasts (boneless breasts with the bottom wing joint attached) that I purchased at a specialty market, figuring I'd find a good recipe for them. When I saw this Tyler Florence recipe for Roasted Airline Chicken Breast I decided to try it. It took a couple of weeks to get to the actual cooking, and during that time, the anticipation built. The recipe sounded so good; I was intrigued by the combination of black eyed peas, bacon, rice and chicken.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I've cooked (mostly) low fat for around 20 years. Using large quantities of things like butter and cream tends to give me the willies, though I'll make an exception for special occasions. But when I'm trying new recipes regularly and they call for significant amounts of bacon fat, butter, or cream - or in this case, all three - I'm just going to have to cut fat. So I trimmed back the ingredients in this recipe where I could, but there was still plenty of the rich stuff.

- I used about half the bacon amount - the Benton's bacon that I use has quite a strong flavor. Tyler's directions call for cooking the bacon in olive oil. He's done this in other recipes, and I'm guessing this step is meant to built flavor layers (it's not like bacon is lacking in fat or anything!) I used about half the olive oil. Note: bacon does not get "crispy" in 3-4 minutes of "slow" cooking.

- My first instincts were to halve the the rice part of the recipe, and I should have listened to that little voice. There was way too much risotto for 4 pieces of chicken - the amount was more like 8 servings of rice. I ended up giving some to my neighbors; and they really liked it.

- I'm never very confident in my risotto technique, and in fact, I'm not so sure I'm even temperamentally suited to making risotto.

- Tyler's recipe uses butter, parmesan and heavy cream to finish the rice. I skipped the butter, reduced the cheese, and used 1/4 cup half-and-half instead of 1 cup of cream. Even so, the rice was plenty creamy.

This chicken smelled amazing while it was browning!

the verdict:

I had been eagerly anticipating this recipe and the bottom line is that I was disappointed. It wasn't a total bust; this was a tasty chicken + rice dish. We enjoyed it the first night and we enjoyed the leftovers all week (lots of rice!). But it wasn't spectacular, especially given the two major strikes against it: (1) it's exceptionally heart and waist unfriendly - tons of butter in the chicken, and bacon/cream/butter/cheese in the rice, and (2) it's unusually labor-intensive for my style of cooking. Without huge payoffs in the taste department I'm not likely to take the trouble of cooking it again.

On the positive side, I loved the taste of the fresh thyme + black pepper compound butter, so I might play around with those flavors in a simplified olive-oil based chicken dish.

I'm sending this off to Tyler Florence Fridays, a weekly roundup of blog posts that feature Tyler's recipes - check it out to see what everyone's cooking up!

Shortcut Turkey and Andouille Jambalaya

One of my current resolutions is to cook from the freezer and pantry. I've managed to accumulate all sorts of great food, so this shouldn't be such a painful task. Another goal of mine is to concentrate on recipes from my ever-growing cookbook collection. It's so easy to dial up a wonderful recipe on the internet that it's become somewhat of a crutch for me.

I had some Aidell's chicken andouille sausage in the freezer, and decided to look for a Cajun-inspired dish. Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything has a Jambalaya recipe, and one of the variations is Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya, also called "brown jambalaya." Sold!

n.o.e.'s notes:

Bittman's basic shrimp jambalaya recipe (red jambalaya) is found here. To make a brown jambalaya with chicken (turkey in my case) and sausage, you omit the ham, tomatoes, and shrimp, and add chicken and sausage and also increase the amount of stock. I made a few further changes to fit my ingredients, which also made the dish quicker to prepare:

- The recipe contemplates using uncooked sausage and chicken. My andouille was fully cooked and I also had cooked turkey pieces in the freezer.

- As written, the recipe serves 8. I decided to cut it in half. I used 6 oz. of the sausage (1/2 pack), which I cut into slices. The heaping cup of turkey scraps were bite-sized.

- I first cooked 1 cup each of onions and red bell peppers in olive oil with salt and pepper. My burner's medium-high was hotter than Mark Bittman's, though, because my veggies nearly burned in under 10 minutes of cooking.

- Next, I stirred in the 1 cup of rice, 1 T. garlic, 1/2 tsp cayenne, 1 tsp thyme, sausage and turkey over medium high heat for just a minute or two. Note that the linked recipe calls for par-boiled rice, but the book does not. I used uncooked white rice - medium grain. According to the book, you could use the same quantity of cooked brown rice, and I will try that some time.

- Then I poured in 3 c of chicken stock. At this point, the pot is supposed to simmer uncovered on medium for around 30 minutes. Although I turned my burner a bit lower than medium, it still cooked pretty fast. The stock was mostly absorbed in around 15 mintues. I covered it and let it rest for about 15 minutes. I took that opportunity to make up a big salad.

the verdict:

We loved this quick, easy and tasty dish. It made a perfect weeknight dinner. Sticking to the recipe and using uncooked andouille and chicken would be even better, as the sausage would flavor the vegetables and the chicken would absorb the flavors as it cooked. I think chicken thighs would be perfect in this recipe.

I used the recommended amount of cayenne pepper, and for us the jambalaya had a nice kick, but it wasn't too spicy as to be distracting. If you are sensitive to spicy food, however, I'd say to reduce the cayenne.

I would serve this to company in a heartbeat; the best part is that it could be made ahead.

My bayou-born husband gave this recipe his stamp of approval!

{Guest Post} A.L.E. makes rustic risotto

We're back to introduce a guest post by A.L.E - the one lying on the floor in the banner picture up at the top of the page. She's a great cook, and we love to help her because she never forgets to save some for us. Too bad she lives 1000 miles away, or we'd be spoiled all the time.
-The Dogs

I'm excited to be featured on my mom's blog - that is, other than in the pictures on the side! We've always had a great time cooking together, and I'm a regular reader.
I make this risotto at least once a week. It's basically the staple of my diet as a cash-strapped grad - easy, filling, (fairly) healthy, and amazing as leftovers. With all the alterations I've made to the classic formula, I almost feel guilty calling it risotto! In school, I lived with mainly vegetarians and vegans for a year and a half and, although I remain omnivorous, I picked up some habits.

I use oil instead of butter and am currently trying vegan stock instead of chicken - since the most questionable parts of the most miserable birds go into chicken bouillon and my guilt-free chicken source - the local farmer's market - just closed up shop till spring, this is a reasonable and tasty compromise. Also having vegan friends to feed, etc.

Using brown rice is definitely unthinkable in a classic risotto, but it's much healthier, it's ridiculously cheap in bulk, and I like the feel and flavor. And usually I'm the only one eating at my house, so I do what I want.

Rustic Risotto

Ingredients:

4 cups stock + 1 cup water

2 cups short grain brown rice

1 cup white wine

Oil

Salt - if bouillon is salt free - and pepper

Saffron, or other seasonings of your choice (mine was left in our house by summer tenants, I probably wouldn't have sprung for it otherwise)

Procedure:

Have your stock in a pan on low heat - throw in any salt or seasonings. Heat a generous pour of oil in a pot or pan (I use a cast iron skillet) on medium-med hi heat. You'll know it's hot when you flick some water into the pan and it sizzles. Saute the rice until it gets vaguely transparent. Don't let it burn! When the rice becomes translucent, throw in the wine, stirring to incorporate. As it's absorbed, turn the heat down to a simmer.

Crumble in a few threads of saffron if you're using it, and start adding the stock about a cup at a time. Either stir constantly, occasionally, or go watch TV in the other room - I usually opt for the last option, but I'll stir if there's company, because it is a little better that way.

When it looks thirsty (liquid only covering lower half of rice or thereabouts), add another cup. You'll probably need to throw in the cup of water when you run out of broth, because brown rice is pretty thirsty. Remove from heat when the rice is fully cooked and most of the water is gone but it's still quite moist.

Serve hot. I like parmesan or cheddar grated over mine, but you can also swirl in pesto or add squash, tomato, sausage, chicken, whatever you feel would add that certain something. Go wild, and remember that you can't mess this recipe up: it's "rustic."

Happy cooking and eating!

- A.L.E.

The best of summer

Tonight's dinner featured some of my very favorite summer ingredients: fresh tomatoes and fresh basil. Both homegrown in containers next to our front steps. I had an herb garden in our last house, but it took me 5 or 6 years to get around to planting herbs in this house. I'm so glad I got back to it - there's nothing more fun than to step outside the door with some scissors and snip ingredients for a recipe. Or a garnish.

We have one tomato plant. This, our first tomato, was huge. Isn't it beautiful? I'll have to say, it was the best tomato I've ever eaten.


The brown rice/basil/pine nut salad is a simple recipe from SuperFoods HealthStyle. If you follow that link, you'll see that the recipe calls for stuffing the rice mixture into hollowed out tomatoes. We've done that for dinner parties (and it's fabulous), but for "just us" dinners, I usually spoon the filling next to sliced tomatoes. And I'm a Northerner, so I don't peel my tomatoes. When I first moved here 27 years ago, I was shocked to find out how many people here in the South insist on peeling tomatoes that are going to be sliced or eaten raw.


I served this recipe along with spicy chicken wings leftovers from the freezer. My husband had lemon sorbet for dessert.

The Verdict:
The tomato was "to die for" and the whole meal was just a perfect light summer supper. The tomato recipe is a a great accompaniment to grilled chicken or meat. It can be made ahead, for easy entertaining.