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.

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.

Braised Chicken with Baby Vegetables and Peas

Someone must have ticked off Mother Nature something fierce. The weather in NJ has been so crazy I don't think I'll be putting my winter clothes away until June. They say it's spring, but I don't consider the 50's very springy.


Today's recipe is perfect for one of those chilly "spring" days. It's hearty, filling and the best part ever it's fairly healthy. I found this recipe in Cooking Light Cooking Through the Seasons: An Everyday Guide to Enjoying the Freshest Food. I changed a few things from the original recipe - I subsitiuted baby potatoes for baby turnips, added mushrooms, used frozen peas instead of fresh and used leg quarters instead of a whole chicken cut-up.

We also had some friends over for dinner. (Shout out to Ian and Shannan!) They both enjoyed today's dish, which is a big complement to me because Shannan is a great cook also. One of the pluses of having Ian and Shannan over is that Ian is a professional photographer - check out his site here.- and he was nice enough to take a picture of today's dinner.

Enjoy!

Braised Chicken with Baby Vegetables and Peas
Adapted from Cooking Light Cooking Through the Seasons: An Everyday Guide to Enjoying the Freshest Food


2 Tbs butter, divided
4 Chicken leg quarters, separated and skinned
Salt
Pepper
2 (14.5 oz) cans Chicken broth, Low Sodium
1 cup Dry White wine
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
15 baby potatoes
15 baby carrots
15 pearl onions, peeled
8 oz large mushrooms, quartered
1 Tbs chopped fresh parsley
2 bay leaves
2 Tbs all purpose flour
3/4 Cup frozen green peas, defrosted

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sprinkle chicken evenly with salt and pepper. Add chicken to pan; sauté 5 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove from pan.


 Add broth to pan; cook 1 minute, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add wine and next 7 ingredients (through bay leaves); stir. Add chicken to pan, nestling into vegetable mixture; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until chicken is done. Discard bay leaves. Remove chicken and vegetables from the pan.


Place a zip-top plastic bag inside a 2-cup glass measure. Pour cooking liquid into bag; let stand 10 minutes (fat will rise to the top). Seal bag; carefully snip off 1 bottom corner of bag. Drain drippings back into pan, stopping before fat layer reaches opening; discard fat. Return liquid to pan. Bring liquid to a boil; cook until reduced to 1 1/2 cups (about 5 minutes).


Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in a small skillet. Add flour, stirring until smooth. Add flour mixture to cooking liquid; cook 2 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring constantly. Return chicken and vegetable mixture to pan; stir in peas. Cook 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Garnish with chopped parsley.

Arroz Con Pollo

Don't you just love new supermarkets? I don't know about you, but I LOVE new supermarkets. I'm not sure what it is about them that I love so much, it could be the newness, the bright and clean stocked shelves or the fact that it's somewhere different I can buy stuff. They opened a new Shoprite by my office a few weeks ago and while I'd been there several times, my mom had yet to go. She'd been nagging asking me to take her since it opened, so finally I had the time go with her. Luck was on our side this trip because there were giving out several samples of new things they were selling. LOVE free samples of food :) 

As we were leaving, here I am carrying about 6 bags (god forbid I actually grab a cart)while I'm looking for my car keys, a nice man offers to help carry our bags. I turn and see it's the Imperial Chorizo sample guy, I tell him no thank you because our car is right in front, but I do tell him how delicious his chorizo was. He was very excited and told me that it's been so popular he had to run out to the truck to get more. I smile and tell him "well it's that good!" He laughs and says to me "hold on, let me give you a piece of our reserved blend". Now I'm expecting a little piece that he has already cut up, but no he hands me a whole link of Chorizo! I thank him profusely and this is why we are here now. I guess you can say the nice Chorizo man inspired tonight dinner. I got today's recipe from Gourmet Today: More than 1000 All-New Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen. Only change I made was adding Chorizo and using fire roasted tomatoes. David liked it so much he gave it an A+ and had 2 servings!


Enjoy!

Arroz Con Pollo
Adapted from Gourmet Today: More than 1000 All-New Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen


For chicken

3 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

4 chicken leg quarters, separated

1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil

1 Tbsp Unsalted Butter

For rice

1 lb onions, chopped (2 1/2 cups)

2 green bell peppers, chopped

3 large garlic cloves, minced

4 oz Chorizo, chopped

1/4 teaspoon crumbled saffron threads

1/4 cup dry white wine

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons salt

1 Turkish or 1/2 California bay leaf

1 (14- to 15-oz) can diced fire roasted tomatoes, including juice

1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 1/2 cups water

2 cups long-grain white rice

1 cup frozen baby peas (not thawed)

1/2 cup small or medium pimiento-stuffed green olives 

Preparation

Purée garlic, orange juice, lime juice, salt, and pepper in a blender until smooth. Put chicken pieces in a large bowl and pour purée over them, turning to coat. Marinate chicken, covered and chilled, turning occasionally, 1 hour.
           
Transfer chicken, letting excess marinade drip back into bowl, to paper towels, then pat dry. Reserve marinade.
           
Heat oil and butter in 6- to 7-quart pot over moderately high heat until foam subsides, then brown chicken in 2 or 3 batches, without crowding, turning occasionally, about 6 minutes per batch. Transfer chicken as browned to a plate, reserving fat in pot.


Put oven rack in middle position and preheat to 350°F.
           
Sauté onions, bell peppers, chorizo, and garlic in fat in pot over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally and scraping up brown bits from chicken, until vegetables are softened, 6 to 8 minutes.
           
While vegetables cook, heat saffron in a dry small skillet over low heat, shaking skillet, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add wine and bring to a simmer, then remove from heat.
           
Add cumin and salt to vegetables and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, 2 minutes. Stir in saffron mixture, bay leaf, tomatoes (including juice), broth, water, and reserved marinade and bring to a boil.
           
Add all chicken except breast pieces, skin sides up, and gently simmer, covered, over low heat 10 minutes. Stir in rice, then add breast pieces, skin sides up, and arrange chicken in 1 layer. Return to a simmer.
           
Cover pot tightly, then transfer to oven and bake until rice is tender and most of liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes.
           
Scatter peas, olives, and pimientos over rice and chicken (do not stir) and return to oven, covered until peas are heated through and any remaining liquid is absorbed by rice, about 5 minutes.  Discard bay leaf.