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?