Oven Fried Chicken

The James Beard Foundation awards were announced the other day. For those of you who don't know who his is, I guess the best way to put it is he's the male Julia Child. What she did for French cooking, he did for American. The JBF awards are considered the Oscars of the Food world and are given to cookbooks, TV/Radio, restaurants and chef and even bloggers. You can see a list of this year's winners here. I'm excited to say I have 2 books that won this year (recipes to come!)


Today's recipe comes from one of James Beard's many cookbooks. The Essential James Beard Cookbook, is a compilation of his cookbook and a must for any chef. I made a few changes, to adjust for what I had on hand, but all in all it was delicious!

Enjoy!

Oven-Fried Chicken
Adapted from The Essential James Beard Cookbook by James Beard

1 cup plain yogurt
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 Tbs mustard
2 Tbs hot sauce
Salt
Pepper
2 Chicken Leg Quarters, separated
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 Tbs paprika
1 Tbs Garlic powder


Combine yogurt, garlic, mustard and hot sauce in large bowl or dish. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper and add to yogurt mixture. Toss to completely coat chicken and marinate at least 1 hour, turning occasionally.

Preheat oven to 350 combine flour, cornmeal, paprika, and garlic on large plate. Remove chicken from yogurt mixture and dredge in flour/cornmeal mixture. Arrange pieces on lightly oiled baking pan and bake in oven for 1 hour, turning once, until chicken juices run clear.

Steak Quesadillas

Since yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, I gave David the choice of two things I'd make to celebrate. Of course he picked the Steak Quesadillas. This recipe was slightly inspired by Mexican Made Easy by Marcella Valladolid. I made a few changes to the recipes, you can basically call these clean out your fridge quesadillas. You can basically put anything between two tortillas and call it a quesadilla. I had a few things leftover from previous dinners and added them. Cook these up with a nice glass of sangria and it's a happy day!

Enjoy

Steak Quesadillas
Inspired by Mexican Made Easy by Marcella Valldolid

1 lb sirloin tip or skirt steak
Salt
Pepper
Adobo
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs Vegetable Oil, divided
4 oz mushrooms, sliced
1/4 onion, sliced
1 cup yellow rice with red beans, prepackaged or homemade
1/2 tomato, chopped
1 avocado, sliced
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
8 Flour tortillas

1. Season steak on both sides with salt, pepper and adobo. Let stand 15 minutes.
2. Melt butter and oil in heavy skillet over medium high heat. Add mushrooms and onions and saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Set aside in bowl
3. In same skillet, add remaining oil over high heat. Add steak and cook, turning once, to desired doneness, about 3 minutes on each side for rare. Transfer to cutting board and let rest for 5 minutes before thinly slicing.
4. Wipe down skillet and heat over medium high heat. Add 1 tortilla and warm slightly, about 30 seconds. Top with cheese, mushroom onion mixture, rice, avocado and steak. Cover with 2nd tortilla and carefully flip once and heat until cheese melts.
5. Slice into quarters and serve with sour cream, if desired.

Baked Chicken with Mushrooms, Olives and Artichokes

Today's recipe has a few of my favorite things - chicken, olives and mushrooms; with those three things, how bad could it be right? I found this recipe in The Best Casserole Book Ever by Beatrice Ojakangas. There were so many delicious recipes in this book it was hard to choose. One thing that stood out to me was this was sized down for 2. I always have a hard time cooking for just the two of us, which is ok since we'll have it for lunch the next day or depending on the recipe I'll freeze it for a "lazy day".

There was a note  in the description of the recipe saying that sometimes, she added artichokes to the dish, so that's exactly what I did. It had a lot more sauce than I expected, but David loved it so much he ate the sauce with the olives, mushrooms and artichokes by itself.

Enjoy!

Creamy Baked Chicken with Mushrooms, Green Olives and Artichoke Hearts
Adapted from The Best Casserole Cookbook by Beatrice Ojakangas

Ingredients

2 chicken legs and thighs, split
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
1/2 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Garlic powder
1 Tbs butter
1 tsp flour
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup heavy cream
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup green olives, sliced
1/4 cup artichoke hearts, chopped
1 tsp herbes de Provence

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375. Wash the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Combine the next 4 ingredients and sprinkle over chicken on both sides.

2. In a large skillet, melt butter. Add the chicken and brown thoroughly on both sides. Transfer to a 1 quart casserole.

3. Stir flour and mustard into the drippings in skillet. Whisk in the wine, broth and cream, bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Continue cooking at a gentle boil for about 3 minutes, or until sauce is thickened. Stir in mushrooms, olives, artichokes and herbes de Provence. Pour sauce over chicken in the casserole.

4. Cover and bake for 30 minutes or until the chicken in tender. Uncover and bake for another 5 minutes.