The Fumbling Foodie

Chicken Stock

If you are roasting chicken then there is no reason not to make your own chicken stock and end up with something far healthier and more flavorful than chicken broth bought from the supermarket.

When I roast a chicken, I do my best to pick most of the meat off it, then put it into a ziplock bag and freeze it.  When I have two carcasses, it's time to make my own stock.

I put the carcasses into an 8qt stockpot and fill it with enough water to cover the chickens.  When I roasted those chickens, I saved the giblets, excess skin, etc and froze them with the carcasses and throw them in as well.  I add a little parsley flakes, minced garlic, and minced onion.  Then then boil lightly for about two hours.

Remove the solids and discard them.  Strain the liquid to remove the small solids. Put the stock into the refrigerator.  Let it cool and the fat will rise to the top.  Skim off the fat.  Tonight I ended up with almost a gallon of stock.

What do you do with a gallon of fresh chicken stock?  Freeze it.  I have a stack of ice cube trays set aside just for this purpose.  FOur cubes equals approximately 1/4 cup of stock.

Soldier's Feast

My soldier-son is home on weekends. He spends the week in the field (which means either MREs or military chow - my son says he prefers the MREs) so I try to make sure he's well-fed when he's here.

I also try to send some food with him when he leaves. As a result, I'm preparing a lot of food.  

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know you that I have a thing for figuring how to eat like a king while spending like a pauper.

On the left we have Chicken Drumsticks in Raspberry Demi-Glace.  Right now my Safeway has drumsticks on sale for $1.29/lb. Today I paid $4.55 for a dozen. Here's the recipe.

Including the cost of the raspberry vinegar and demi-glace, I figure it's about $2.25 per serving. For one of the most orgasmically good dishes you've ever had.

On the right we have Boeuf Bourguignon.  Stew meat, some wine, and beef stock.  Safeway sells a brand of boxed wine named Vella for about $11 for a five-liter box.  Don't laugh.  It's actually reasonably drinkable.  But used for cooking it's a real bargain.

A bottle of red wine and three hours in the oven will transform almost any tough old piece of meat into fork-tender, so there's no need to use the best cuts of beef.  I used 'stew meat' from Safeway - pricey at $5/lb - but that's what I could find on short notice. A pound and a half will feed two people nicely.  That's about $4 per serving - and if you've never had boeuf Bourguignon take it from me: it is heavenly.

I repare it using the recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child.

Lemon-Herb-Roasted Chicken

As I gather material for The Two Chickens Project, I'm working on two things:

• Great roast chicken recipes
• Great recipes for the leftovers.

This one was a great addition to the first category.

One thing I do need to get better at is photography if this project is going to be successful.  My food photography is terrible.  Part of it is lack of equipment (this photo was shot using my iPhone) and part of it is technique.

Lemon-Herb-Roasted Chicken

1 Lemon, cut into wedges
1 Thyme sprig
1 Rosemary sprig
2-3 Garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
3-4 Tablespoons Herbes de Provence

I brined the chicken first using 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup sugar, plus enough water to fill the container.  Leave the chicken in the brine solution for 4-12 hours.  Just before preparing the chicken, remove it from the brine solution and pat it dry.

Preheat the oven to 450F.

Liberally sprinkle salt and pepper on the outside and cavity of the chicken.  Place the lemon wedges, thyme, rosemary, and garlic inside the cavity. Melt the butter and brush the chicken all over with it. Liberally sprinkle the chicken all over with Herbs de Provence.

Then it's just breast-side down in the oven for 30 minutes and then breast side up until it's done.

Chicken Rigatoni in a Parmesan Cream Sauce

 This post is part of the Two Chickens Project that I am working on. The objective is to provide the main course for two people for one week using just two chickens.

This is a nice upscale alternative to the Mac 'N Cheese in the blue and white box and is just as fast to make.

4 oz shredded chicken
1 cup rigatoni pasta
2 Tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons flour
1 cup cream
1 cup grated parmigiano reggiano

Add the pasta and a little salt to 4 cups boiling water. When the pasta is just al dente remove it from the water and drain. Save 1/4 cup of the pasta water.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan.  Add the flour and whisk vigorously, cooking for about 2 minutes. Add the cream.  Whisk until the cream starts to thicken.  Take the pan off the heat and add the cheese.  Whisk until well-blended.

Put the pasta into a bowl with the leftover pasta water and stir for a few seconds until the water is absorbed.  Add the cheese/cream sauce and chicken. Stir until well blended.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Believe it or not, I recently paid fifteen bucks for a dish of this in a local Italian restaurant (way overpriced, I know.).  There is so much more you can do with this.  You could all some broccoli florets or asparagus tips and a few sun-dried tomatoes.  Or you could cut up a couple slices of bacon, saute them and add them.

The Two Chickens Project

 I've had this idea running around in my head for a while and it's time to do something with it.

Preparing the main course for two adults for one week using two whole chickens.

And not saying "OMG not chicken again please" by the end of the week.

The idea is to:

Roast two chickens on Day 1

Serve the two breasts from one chicken on Day 1.

FIgure out interesting ways to use the remainder.  For one thing, two chicken carcasses will make excellent stock, and from that stock can come a lot of interesting things.. (I wonder if I can get Chef Waldemar to share his recipe for Tomato-Bssil soup)

And of course, each dish needs to be interesting and flavorful. 

Tonight I started by roasting two chickens using my favorite recipe. I brined the chickens for about 4 hours using a brine consisting of (per chicken):

• 2 Qt water
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/2 cup sugar

Then just before putting the chickens in the oven I basted them with a baste comprised of:

• 6 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
• 4 Teaspoons brown sugar.

Of all the recipes for roast chicken I've tried, this one is the best.  It's tough to do something that gives the breast meat flavor but this one does.

Where this will take me from here, I don't know.  One thing I do know: my photography skills need to get a lot better.

Grilled Cornish Game Hen

Have you seen the LaBrea Tar Pits? I have - right there in the reduction sauce pan.  I wanted to make a basting sauce by reducing some teriyaki sauce but it got away from me.  I turned my back on it for a few moments and when I returned I had this evil-looking black bubbling substance.  I expected a dinosaur carcass to come roiling to the surface at any moment.

Fortunately, I had some teriyaki sauce left, so I just basted the birds with it as is.

I used a pair of shears to cut the backbone out of the bird and then flattened it and grilled it until the meat started falling off the bone.

Next time, I'l be more attentive of the teriyaki reduction ;-)

Chicken Kabobs

Spare time is not something I seem to have much of these days, so this is something I kinda just threw together. 3 Boneless sknless chicken breasts, cut into chunks 1 bottle Stonewall Kitchen Garlic Rosemary Citrus Sauce 1 package Knorr Fiesta Sides Spanish Rice 1 Zucchini, cubed 1 pint cherry tomatoes Soak four bamboo kabobs in water for 30 minutes. Slide the chicken hunks onto the kabobs, put them on a plate, and dump the entire bottle of Garlic Rosemary Citrus Sauce over them. Let them sit for about 30 minutes. Cut each tomato in half. When the kababs have marinated, light the grill on medium heat. Put two cups of water, the contents of the Spanish rice pachange, and the zucchini in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Follow the directions on the package. Put the kabobs on the grill, turning them once. When the rice is done, remove from the heat and add the tomatoes. Spoon some of the rice mixture onto each plate and place a kabob on top.

Chicken Veneziana

One of the biggest challenges for a home cook is to turn a chicken breast into something tasty. By itself, a chicken breast is pretty bland. I am continually on a quest to find recipes that make a lowly chicken breast into something I look forward to eating.

Irina, the young lady who gave me Patsy's Cookbook says that this is one of her favorite recipes from it.

Of course, as you look at the photo you may wonder, "Where's the chicken?". My wife loves sauteed onions, so I doubled up on the onions and the pan sauce. The whole family gave this a two-thumps-up.

Chicken Veneziana

8 oz button mushrooms, sliced
4 chicken breast halves
1/2 cup flour
1 yellow onion
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons chopped itialian parsley
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
3/4 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 cup olive oil

Pound the chicken breasts flat (about 1/2 inch thick). Blanch the mushrooms for 2 minutes and set them aside. Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat and saute the chicken until lightly browned on both sides. Don't try to cook the chicken all the way through, just brown it. Then remove it from the pan and set it aside.

Add the onions to the pan and saute until just browned. Return the chicken to the pan. Add the mushrooms. vinegar, chicken broth, and butter. Bring the liquid to a boil and then reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until the chicken has cooked through. Stir in the parsley and basil and let cook for another minute or so. Remove the chicken from the pan.

Combine the cornstarch with 1/4 cup water, mix well, and whisk into the pan sauce. Let the sauce thinken just a bit then pour it over the chicken.

Salt and pepper the chicken then dredge them in the flour. Heat

Elise's Chicken and Molly's Corn

If you haven't been here for a while, let me fill you in: My Sweet Lady Wife and I are 'between houses'. The old house has been sold. We close on the new house December 5 (16 and a wake up). Meanwhle, we are living in this little two bedrom apartment. The aparment is nice, as apartments go - it is clean, quiet, and safe. For a Foodie, however, the kitchen leaves a lot to be desired: there is about two square feet of counter space. Two of the stove's four burners actually work well enough to almost boil water.

As a result, dinners must be simple. (And add to this the fact that I have a cold this week). A couple of weeks ago, Elise posted a scrumptious chicken recipe and Molly wrote about her Brown Buttered Corn. I had a menu.

I don't believe I have ever had a simple corn dish that tasted as good as Molly's Brown Buttered Corn. The thyme really gave the butter some flaver and it transfers to the corn wonderfully. My Sweet Lady Wife - who is a Wisconsin farm girl and a corn connoisseur - loved it. Definitely a keeper.

I modified Elise's chicken recipe to be more 'saucy' (A little more vermouth and cream in the pan sauce). I also used applewood-smoked bacon instead of the pancetta. It was excellent. I think it's really difficult to turn a naked chicken breast into something really tasty but this certainly was.

Chicken Legs with Raspberry Demi-Glace

Chicken Drumsticks: What could be more pedestrian? Not now. Not after French Chef Bernard Chirent demonstrated this recipe the other night during a cooking class at my favorite Gourmet Kitchen Toos Store in Glendale. This recipe turns the ordinary drumstick into food for the gods.

Chicken Legs with Raspberry Vinaigrette

Chicken Legs
Raspberry vinegar
Veal stock (demi glace)
White pearl onions
butter
olive oil

Blanch the onions for 2 minutes, remove from the water and let cool. You can then peel them easily and remove the root.

Cut the 'foot' end off each drumstick. Sear the drumsticks in butter and oil until nicely browned. Remove from the pan and set aside, covering with foil.

Pour off most of the fat and deglaze with raspberry vinegar. Reduce by 1/4 and add veal stock to taste. You should be able to taste the raspberry.

Put the drumsticks back in the pan, add the onions, cover, reduce the heat to medium, and let cook slowly for 30 minutes.