Get Back in that Kitchen!

Our story begins when my cousin Jay shared this picture on Facebook.

Crispy Cajun Shrimp Fettuccine

Image courtesy of Foodies TV (recipe here)

Hmm... I wonder how much trouble it would be to make this with chicken? (Sous Chef Wildcat doesn't eat seafood. Picky as a toddler, that one.) So...

Crispy Cajun Chicken Fettuccine
6 oz fettuccine
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 boneless chicken breast
1 tbsp Cajun spice (more on that later)
2 tbsp flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Parmesan

First things first: get the water on to boil and break the chicken breast down to about 1-inch cubes. Then put my trusty deep skillet Big Red on a medium burner. While that's heating up, toss the chicken in kosher salt, then the Cajun seasoning.

Next, roll it in the flour until it's all good and coated.

 Now add the butter and olive oil to the hot skillet. I like to say my skillet is hot enough if the butter "sings," which means the water is boiling out leaving delicious fat behind. It makes a hissing sound and the pretty white froth you see here.

Hear that? Sounds like Beyonce.

You can test whether your oil is hot enough by shaking or grinding some pepper into the pan. If it sizzles, you're ready to rock.

As usual I failed to take any pics of the chicken frying. But I'm so out of the habit of documenting meals it's a wonder I have pics of anything in this post. Anyway, about this time I put half this package of fettuccine and some salt into the boiling water.

Michael Angelo's. Cute.

Now, y'all might know I've become a disciple and evangelist for Alma's brand whole-grain pasta. Sadly it was unavailable for today's meal, but this kind was tasty enough.

Cook the chicken while the pasta boils. And here's where my adaptation started slipping off the rails. For one thing, the chicken cubes took a lot longer than the 4 minutes suggested in the shrimp recipe.

For another, they never got crisp. I think one of two things might be the problem. Either I should have gone with medium-high heat (which I hate to do because my kitchen smokes up like a hookah bar), or I should have used more flour. Oh well, live and learn. My chicken ended up like this:

Yeah, I'm way out of practice shooting food porn.

Now we make the sauce. And I'm not gonna lie; I was worried. A good Alfredo sauce has long eluded me. I can never get the Parm to melt right, so the texture is always off, and I'm happy if I don't end up with something like lumpy gravy or wallpaper paste.

Chicken broth and heavy cream (1 cup each), in, with a little more Cajun spice.

Looks like Alfredo so far

So I let that reduce a while, decided it didn't look like Cajun Alfredo, so I threw in some paprika. Then the moment of truth: in goes the Parmesan...

And it worked! I credit Whole Foods 365 Parmesan in the 5-oz. tub. Melted like a dream, and didn't turn grainy. Praise be. Now the noodles and the chicken go in, and... wait...

That's... way too much sauce

What the hell? Funny because I actually increased the volume of meat and pasta from the original recipe, but didn't add any extra liquid. I was afraid I'd end up short on sauce! And you won't hear me say this often, but it was too much meat too.

Luckily that was easy enough to fix. After we finished eating I boiled the other half of the fettuccine and it all came out perfect. We had leftovers for like, two days, but there are worse fates.

 Good thing I'm delicious

Throw a little garlic bread on the side and overall call this one a win.

But wait! (You're totally not asking, but humor me.) What about the Cajun seasoning? Okay, okay...

Here's what Foodies TV suggests:
2 1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp red chili powder
1 tbsp ground black pepper

But a while back, I got this Cajun spice recipe from *clears throat, averts eyes* the Sookie Stackhouse Companion. Y'all go on and judge me. I'll wait.

Crossroads Cajun Spice:
2 tsp cayenne
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme

I prefer Sookie's spice for a couple of reasons. First, Holy Gods look at all that salt! Second, the cayenne adds more heat than red chili powder, which we love around here. Adding paprika was a good idea though, gave the Alfredo a nice reddish color, befitting a not-so-crispy Cajun chicken fettuccine.

I've got some kinks to work out, but this one's a keeper. Thanks Cousin Jay!

---

Chickstravaganza

A few years back, Doug and I switched from turkey to chicken for Thanksgiving. Even the smallest turkeys we could find ended up being more than we could finish. And considering I don't roast chickens every day either, it's special enough for the occasion.

 Especially with all the fixins.

I've spent a lot of time on this matter under the spotty tutelage of Chef Google. And I still don't have it quite right. So please indulge me as I share what I tried this year. I'm sold on some of these techniques, but I'll be honest about the ones still up for revision.

First, the math. We wanted to eat at about 12:30. I worked out a cooking time of roughly 2 and a half hours (which I think may have been a little long). That meant I wanted to put the bird in the oven at 10:00 a.m.

So around 9:30 I got her out of the fridge and rinsed her off good with cool water. I pulled off the loose fat and patted her dry with paper towels.

Yeah, it's kinda gross at this point.

The next task was to scrub my celery and cut off the leafy ends. (I planned to use the celery stalks for my stuffing, natch.) Then I washed up a pound of carrots and cut the stems off a couple of those. No peeling? Damn right! I also peeled and quartered a white onion, and set the oven for 450°

Now, here's one of those moves I'm not fully sold on. I whisked together a stick of softened butter, half a small lemon, and some marjoram to make lemon-herb butter. 

 Not pictured: marjoram. Obviously.

With help from my faithful sous chef, I salted and peppered the chicken inside and out. Then I rubbed it down with the lemon-herb butter. Outside, inside, and under the skin. In hindsight, I don't think the lemon did any good. Next year I'll probably go back to plain butter -- the way my mama does it!

Next, I stuffed the chicken with half the onion, two carrots (cut in half), a few celery leaves, the rinds of my squeezed lemon, and some rosemary sprigs. I am totally sold on the rosemary. Some folks like thyme, sage, and/or bay, so if you ever want to try this, there are some ideas.

Looking yummier...

At last came time to put the chicken in the oven. I think it's worth mentioning here, if you don't use a roaster with a rack, you can just pile up all those vegetables and set the bird on top of them. I use the rack-and-stuffing approach because I find the rack helps with even cooking.

After about 15 minutes, I cut the heat down to 350°. I also put green beans and carrots on to slow simmer. Because, you know, they ain't proper vegetables unless they've been cooked within an inch of their lives.

Dude. I'm startin to get huunnggrryy!

It all hit the fan starting about 11:30. That's why I only managed to take two pictures of the entire sweet potato and stuffing preparation. But you'll have to wait, because I'm not spilling my sweet tater secrets til tomorrow.

Just before I started trying to gnaw off one of my arms, it was time to take the chicken out of the oven.

Get in my belly!

And since that moment, my life has almost exclusively involved the following: eat, sleep, repeat. Hooray for Thanksgiving.

---

Winging it for lunch

I'm making chili for supper tonight. Snore. Been there, done that.  So I decided I'd share what I've been lunching on. Per our custom 'round here, Doug has been taking dinner leftovers to work for his lunch the next day. As for me, I've been winging it.

This isn't so much as a recipe as a stream of consciousness. It's one of those deals where I taste and tinker, until I have something I want to taste in quantity. Here goes...

Chicken Pasta Salad

I thawed out a couple extra chicken breasts while I was prepping for last night's pasta. I heated up my skillet, then some sesame oil, on a medium burner. Then I popped in the chicken.

This color on both sides

That touch of brown adds a depth of flavor and texture I adore, although it's totally optional. Meanwhile I was bringing some lightly salted water up to a boil.

Once the chicken was done I put it in my biggest mixing bowl with a bit of salt and black pepper. I took a couple of forks and got to shredding.

Simple simple

I kept ripping and tearing until I had this:

I seriously almost slobbered into the bowl... Again.

At some point during all this my water started boiling. I tossed in a couple of handfuls of mostaccioli.

Precision measurements

While the pasta finished cooking, I stuck the chicken into the freezer to get cool. Then I started rounding up dressing ingredients.

My first string

I pulled the chicken back out of the freezer and added mayo, onion powder, garlic powder, marjoram, cilantro, and celery seed. Taste? Bland. More salt and pepper. Could use some sweetness. I know! Pickle relish! And some of that Italian dressing I've been loading on everything this week. A little Parmesan cheese. Some parsley. Okay, that's pretty tasty.

Next I drained the pasta and gave it a quick cool water rinse. Can I just gripe for a second about over-rinsed pasta? First of all, you should never rinse unless you need to cool the noodles for a salad like this. Ever had gummy, tasteless pasta? A well meaning but uninformed cook probably washed all the yummy off. End gripe.

Toss toss tossed the pasta into the dressed chicken. Added some salad greens, torn up into tiny pieces. Tasted again. Just a liiitle more mayo, salt and pepper. Chucked one of those forks in the sink and prepared to chow down.

Doesn't look like survival food...

A dish like this will feed me for 2 or 3 days, depending on how much restraint I can exercise. At this point I still have enough for tomorrow, and hallelujah, Friday's payday.

I haven't been this inspired in the kitchen for a while. The heat had kind of sapped my motivation and creativity. Not that it's any cooler this week. I've just had a growling stomach to drive me. Teehee.

Here's to hoping I'll stay on the ball!

---

Happy anniversary my love

I wanted to do something special for our anniversary, despite our financial difficulties. If you know anything about my husband, you know why I decided the most special-est thing I could do for him was make some homemade bread.

Ready for the oven

I used the Basic White Bread recipe from the KitchenAid cookbook. This is my third attempt at this project and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it! I will prevail over my fear of baking. Oh yes... I will prevail...

Using the baker's rack as intended, for once.

To go with that, I whipped up a kind of bastardized chicken cacciatore-type dish for supper. Here's the lowdown.

Skillet Chicken Pasta

What I used:

• About 4 tbsp olive oil
• 3-4 medium garlic cloves, minced
• Half a Spanish onion, minced
• 3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
• 1 can whole peeled tomatoes
• About a third pound of pasta shells
• Oregano, basil, marjoram, parsley and cilantro
• Salt and pepper

Here's where I'll throw in the at-home Chopped challenge disclaimer. If I was making this "for real," I'd much prefer to use tri-color rotini. It's no different taste-wise but it just looks prettier. I'd also probably add more vegetables, like bell peppers, carrots, and such.

On to the instructions. Set a skillet on a medium burner and let it get hot. Meanwhile put a pot of water on medium, with a little salt.

Put the olive oil in your hot skillet. Keep an eye on it until you just start to see smoke. (Careful with this step, olive oil scorches very easily.) Toss in the onion and garlic and sautee them until they're transparent and just starting to brown.

Dump in the chicken cubes and keep stirring until they're no longer pink on the outside. Then, using a paring knife and your fingers, you basically want to shred the whole tomatoes into the skillet. Stir that around a bit, then pour in the juice from the tomato can.

At this point, reduce the heat to medium-low, and season with any or all those herbs and spices. It should be strongly seasoned, almost overpowering. The flavor will even out once you've added the pasta.

(NOTE: There's a secret ingredient I used here, which I learned from Gina back in college. If you want to know, you'll have to ask her. She's a Chicago Italian, and I like my kneecaps.)

Once your water starts to boil, dump in the pasta. Cook it about 3/4 of the recommended time. I know it's ready by fishing out a piece and biting into it. It should be not-quite-tender in the middle. At that point it goes into the skillet. Let it all simmer, uncovered, until the pasta is tender and has absorbed most of the liquid.

This took less than 30 minutes, chopping time included.

So we had pasta for dinner, with salad greens and the Italian dressing I made yesterday. (Which, can I just say? Got a lot more delicious overnight.) We topped it off with a little Parmesan and mozzarella. It's not the anniversary dinner I might have imagined, but Doug's grunts of satisfaction told me it was good enough.

"Mmf, ungh," Damn baby!

We cut into the bread while it was totally still warm. Doug just had his with butter, but I made mine into dessert with a bit of peach preserves I bought from the farmer's market.

Doug: "Takes me back to childhood." Awww...

Happy anniversary my love. One of these years we'll do it up right. In the meantime, I'm sure glad you like my cooking.

Oh, and one last thing. My bread is turning out a little denser than I really like. Anybody out there a baking genius with tips for a better rise?

---

Pasta + Chicken + Cheese = Happy hubby

Today's recipe is an example of how my "small bag of tricks" can translate into a pretty good variety of meals. It combines the same fried chicken technique as honey barbecue wings, with an application for my trusty tomato soup-and-sauce base.

Chunky Chicken Parmesan

What I used for this dish:

• Multi-use tomato base (recipe here)
• Oregano, basil, cilantro & parsley
• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• Buttermilk, flour and spices for breading
• Half a box of mostaccioli
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• Mozzarella and fresh-grated Parmesan cheeses
• Salt & pepper

I started by soaking the chicken breasts in buttermilk overnight. The next day, I put together the tomato base and seasoned it for pasta sauce. Basically that means adding oregano, basil, and extra cilantro and parsley before the long simmer.

Next, I fried the chicken breasts in my usual way, and set them aside to drain off excess oil. Then I put on some lightly salted water and brought it to boiling. Now, around here we like our pasta on the firm side, so if it's destined for the oven, I only parboil. That's a fancy way of saying half-cook. I looked at the package directions, which said to cook for 10-12 minutes, and cut that number by about 1/3. Ergo, I let the mostaccioli cook for about 7 minutes before draining.

Now it's time to start the layering. I always start with a little bit of olive oil, to help keep the pasta from sticking to the bottom. I sprinkled the olive oil into a shallow baking dish, and tilted the dish around to distribute. After that I spooned in a thin layer of tomato sauce.

Run your sauce through the blender if you don't like it chunky.

I dumped in the mostaccioli with another sprinkle of olive oil...

Spaghetti and rotini also make good chicken parm.

...and added the remaining sauce. I put the chicken breasts on top of that, and finished with a combination of mozzarella and Parmesan. If I have asiago or Romano cheeses around, I usually throw those on top too. I added a final shake of parsley, and baked it in a 350° oven.

In another 30-45 minutes I had a delicious chicken Parmesan!

Let it cool at least 5 minutes before digging in.

I feel I should apologize for how imprecise my cook times always end up. I'm overly reliant on my nose and eyes, I guess, to tell me when food is done. With baked pasta, I'm looking for two signs. The sauce should have gotten good and thick, and the cheese should be turning a nice brown around the edges. It's that cooked-cheese smell that alerts me when I should go in and have a look.

With an iceberg salad on the side, this makes more than enough for Doug to take a generous portion to work the next day. He has jealous office mates.

I realize, at least in my part of the country, it's already getting too warm to heat up the kitchen for this kind of dinner. But, as always, if anybody tries it, I'd love to hear how you made it your own, and how it turned out, in the comments.

Spicy honey BBQ wings

I wonder, when Doug reads this blog, how much he really enjoys the play-by-play of his dinners. Also, what if he's planning my murder? Waiting patiently until I write up all his favorites? What's he got under that tarp in the basement?  

I kid! We don't have a basement.

In other words, he never says much about having his culinary life splashed across the Internet. But a couple of weeks ago...

Doug: I read where you made a barbecue sauce for your lunch the other day. Maybe you ought get serious with some barbecue. Like, a big old rack of ribs.

True love.

One thing I've learned though: it pays to start small, with what you know. So before I go tackling any big old racks of anything, let's play barbecue wings for a while.

Spicy Honey BBQ Wings

  

First, gotta marinate the chicken in some buttermilk. Don't have buttermilk? Add 1 tbsp lemon juice per cup of milk, let it sit 15 minutes, then add the chicken. Salt and pepper your wings, and soak them overnight in the fridge.

Don't mess with them frozen wings.

Y'all about ready for some deep-fry action?  Preheat some plain vegetable oil in a deep, heavy bottomed skillet on medium-high. Or use a fancy fryer and provoke my jealousy. Any neutrally flavored, high smoke-point oil will work, like canola oil or vegetable shortening. Mainly? Just stay out of the extra virgin olive oil or your smoke detector will hate you. We'll come back to this...

Next comes the breading. For 10 wings, I probably used 2 cups of flour, seasoned with salt and pepper, maybe marjoram. I add cayenne pepper too, but you can get color without heat using paprika. Two rules for breading: simpler's better, and trust your taste.

 Mix your breading right in a gallon Ziploc.

So that hissing pot of oil, huh? I poked around the Internet and found temperature recommendations between 350° and 375°. That ain't how I learned to cook though. Here's my secret.

Dig my action-photography skillz!

Drop in a pinch of the breading. It'll sizzle up vigorously when the oil is ready. Now we pull those wings out of the buttermilk.

 

Did I mention, don't mess with frozen wings?

Take just a few at a time. I did two batches of five, which fit nicely in the Ziploc and pan. Pick up a wing, let the excess milk drip off, and lay it in the bag. Seal the bag once you've made a layer.

Trap some air in there for easy shaking.

Toss the wings to coat them thoroughly. Now gently add them one by one to the fryer. This part is a little high-intensity for photographs. Not to mention goop-covered. I will say this: I try to place the wings away from each other in the oil. If you think of a clock face, I start at 12, then work my way clockwise. It helps at about wing four, by which time the oil is spitting like a volcano.

In, I'd say 12-15 minutes my wings were done. I like the skins extra crispy and golden brown. They could probably have come up at 10-12. It's a personal preference. Once they start floating, the meat is cooked through.

Eeaat meeee...

It's really important only to deep fry a few items at a time. You don't want the food to be crowded, nor should you lower the oil temp too much. So I moved this first batch into a casserole dish, and stuck them in a 350° oven. This has a double-bonus of removing some excess oil.

Eeaat ussss...

That's pretty much the universal chicken-frying procedure. I'm not gonna lie; it took me some trial and error before getting confident. The buttermilk marinate has almost made it foolproof. I ought to shout out chef Emeril Lagasse for that revelation.

So while that second batch is frying, let's mix up some sauce, huh? You could actually do this any time, but I'm a multitasker. I poured near-equal parts honey and ketchup in a large mixing bowl.

I could use more photogenic bowls, I think.

I was trying for a honey barbecue sauce like you get at the wing places, which? Not so much. I have a feeling those are mustard-based, so at least I have a project for next time. Anyway, to this base I added liquid smoke, cayenne, green Tabasco... probably cilantro... lemon juice, maybe? I've lost it. No, it wasn't a Buffalo Wild Wings honey barbecue. But it turned out sweet-spicy and wholly enjoyable.

 Now you know why a large mixing bowl!

Just before serving, gently toss your wings in the barbecue sauce. Blot extra sauce on the sides of the bowl and then...

 

Can't have wings without celery!

Add a beer and a ballgame, and who needs a sports bar?

Oh Metropolis (Also, are you kidding me?)

On Tuesday I dragged out all my winter clothes (read: the clothes I usually only get out when I visit Peoria in the winter), loaded up my car, and headed home to Metropolis (Illinois) to see the family. The schedule was jam-packed. Which, when combined with my relatives' general Internet-impairedness, explains my absence from this blog for six days. I don't wish to make a habit of this... Stay tuned...

My sister got this brilliant idea that, since I would be in town, we should take advantage of my brother's employee discount and get some pictures made at Sears. Just us kids, like when we were little. Except they didn't have to squeak the ducky to get us to smile. In fact, I'm really excited to see the final product. All we did was crack each other up the whole time. So that -- when you include all the beauty-fying I had to do -- took up most of Wednesday.

The past three days I hung out with various familial factions. But most of all I burned up the Wii at my mom's house. Fat ladies and Wii fit? I'll be working that into a standup set. Not that I do standup, but I write sets all the time. Weirdo...

Best night? Thursday. Cooked chicken fajitas at mom's house, which, even my picky 4-year-old nephew didn't spit out. Success! Here's the breakdown...

Cut the following ingredients into strips:

• One big green pepper
• One big sweet yellow onion
• Two or three Roma tomatoes
• Three butterfly-cut chicken breasts
  

NOTE: This is the extra-meaty recipe. Perfect for Southern folk. :)

Also, I used about a half a bulb of garlic. You can use a garlic press, but I prefer just to mash each clove on the cutting board using the flat side of a chef's knife. I cut these into fairly large pieces and remove any green shoots. Not everybody likes this much garlic, so let your palate be your guide. Also, if you don't want to get spicy bites of garlic, you can chop it really small.

(Here's where I would have put in the picture my mom took while I was cooking. Would have, if I had remembered to get it out of her camera before I skipped town. Dumbass...)

Add 1-2 tablespoons of olive (or your favorite cooking) oil to a hot skillet. I actually used two skillets, totally necessary when cooking for a big family!

Toss in the garlic and onion, and stir. Cook until the onion starts to turn transparent. Try not to scorch them. I say try, because I almost always scorch some of them.

Add the chicken and green pepper. Also add salt and pepper according to your taste. You need to add at least some salt, as this helps the juices come out of the meat and veggies to make the sauce.

Keep stirring occasionally. Once the outside of the chicken strips aren't pink anymore, I add the tomatoes. Put them in too early and they'll totally melt. Which is fine, you just end up with fajitas in tomato sauce. Still yummy.

About now is when you'll want to put your tortillas in the microwave. Wrap them in a damp paper towel to get a steamed effect.

I usually search out the biggest chunks of chicken, and cut them in half with my stirring spoon. Once they're good and done all the way through, serve the fajitas! I like them with just a little sour cream and cheddar cheese. However, if you skip these last two ingredients, this is an extremely low-fat, high-veggie, all around healthy meal!

RE: Are you kidding me?

I got home this afternoon to find a summons for jury duty. For February 2. There's no box you can check that says, "Hey, I'll be living in another state that day!" So I guess I better go down there. Like I didn't have enough to do this week.

Eye roll...