Chicken Canzanese

In case you’ve never noticed, Ginny and I (though residing many miles apart) often share recipes we find. Sometimes one of us makes the dish and passes the recipe on to the other. Other times we hoard several recipes we both want to try and make them all during one of our semi-regular visits.

On this occasion, I had a package of chicken thighs in the refrigerator and absolutely zero ideas for dinner. The hubs isn’t the biggest fan of chicken to begin with, but I insist on rotating it between his regular meals of beef and pork. So, the dish had to be Matt-approved. The oven baked BBQ chicken quarters I made a few weeks ago did NOT pass muster, so I was really pushing my luck bringing these treacherous little thighs back into the rotation as it is.

Ginny and I talk pretty much every day after work, so I posed the dilemma to her and she reminded me, without pause, of the dish she had recently made for her parents and got the seal of approval from everyone. She has been a long time fan of America’s Test Kitchen, and, recipe by recipe, she is bringing me over to the dark side with her.

If you’re not familiar, at America’s Test Kitchen, they take a recipe and test it to within an inch of its life, through trial and error and finding the absolutely best version of it. And this is not just a matter of opinion. Its not solely based on the ingredients. Many times, its about the method. We have found, on multiple occasions, that if you follow an America’s Test Kitchen recipe to the letter, you will end up with an absolutely fool-proof meal.

As was the case with this Chicken Canzanese.

The name hails from Canzano, which is in Italy’s Abruzzo region (yes, I googled it). While there are many versions of this age-old dish, none that I found seem to stray very far off the path. I’d never made it before, but I can tell you with certainty that I will never even attempt another version.

There is no need.

The America’s Test Kitchen task, in this case, was to find a way to cook/braise skin-on chicken without having the skin turn into a chewy, slimy, unappetizing mess.

I call them overachievers. But, in a good way.

This chicken was moist and succulent, but the skin remained crispy and golden, even after braising for over an hour. And the sauce? Oh, the sauce..... it was a revelation. The thighs are braised in a mixture of white wine and herbs, flavored with prosciutto and garlic. Even the hubs loved the sauce...you know, once I pointed out to him that it would be better on his roasted red-skinned potatoes that the piles of butter and cheese he topped them with.

Just to be clear.... this dish is “lick the plate” good. Hell, its “lick your whole family’s plates” good! I am officially an America’s Test Kitchen convert.

Chicken Canzanese

From the episode: Italian Comfort Classics

Serves 4 to 6

When seasoning the dish at the end, be mindful that the prosciutto adds a fair amount of salt. It is

important to use a piece of thickly sliced prosciutto in this recipe; thin strips will become tough

and stringy. An equal amount of thickly sliced pancetta or bacon can be used in place of the

prosciutto. Serve the chicken with boiled potatoes, noodles, or polenta to absorb extra sauce.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 ounces prosciutto (1/4 inch thick), cut into 1/4-inch cubes (see note) (I used bacon)

4 medium garlic cloves , sliced thin lengthwise

8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 3 pounds), trimmed of excess fat and skin

ground black pepper

2 teaspoons unbleached all-purpose flour

2 cups dry white wine

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

4 whole cloves

1 (4-inch) sprig fresh rosemary , leaves removed and minced fine (about 1/2 teaspoon),

stem reserved

12 whole fresh sage leaves

2 bay leaves

1/4-1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon juice from 1 lemon

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Table salt

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Heat

1 teaspoon oil in 12-inch heavy-bottomed ovensafe skillet over medium heat until

shimmering. Add prosciutto and cook, stirring frequently, until just starting to brown,

about 3 minutes. Add garlic slices and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is golden

brown, about 1½ minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer garlic and prosciutto to small

bowl and set aside. Do not rinse pan.

2. Increase heat to medium-high; add remaining 2 teaspoons oil and heat until just

smoking. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with ground black pepper. Add

chicken, skin side down, and cook without moving until well browned, 5 to 8 minutes.

Using tongs, turn chicken and brown on second side, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer

chicken to large plate.

3. Remove all but 2 tablespoons fat from pan. Sprinkle flour over fat and cook, stirring

constantly, for 1 minute. Slowly add wine and broth; bring to simmer, scraping bottom

of pan with wooden spoon to loosen browned bits. Cook until liquid is slightly reduced,

3 minutes. Stir in cloves, rosemary stem, sage leaves, bay leaves, red pepper flakes,

and reserved prosciutto and garlic. Nestle chicken into liquid, skin side up (skin should

be above surface of liquid), and bake, uncovered, until meat offers no resistance when

poked with fork but is not falling off bones, about 1 hour 15 minutes. (Check chicken

after 15 minutes; broth should be barely bubbling. If bubbling vigorously, reduce oven

temperature to 300 degrees.)

4. Using tongs, transfer chicken to serving platter and tent with foil. Remove and discard

sage leaves, rosemary stem, cloves, and bay leaves. Place skillet over high heat and bring

sauce to boil. Cook until sauce is reduced to 1¼ cups, 2 to 5 minutes. Off heat, stir in

minced rosemary, lemon juice, and butter. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour

sauce around chicken and serve.

The Deluge

Have you ever seen that movie, “Hard Rain”? I distinctly remember thinking that it sounded like a ridiculous title for a movie. I mean, what’s next? Fall of Snow? Dense Humidity? The Fog? Oh...wait....

All of which is beside the point.

I know this is going to come as an enormous shock to you (yes, that's sarcasm), but I found a recipe I wanted to try last week for grilled chicken breast with a different flavor kick. I had the chicken all thawed out and ready to go so that we could have a quick meal on Sunday night before going to the fireworks (which we never made it to since Little Man decided he’s had a busy enough weekend and fell asleep early).

Sunday morning, the heat was oppressive when I left the house at 8:30 for breakfast at the MIL’s. While we were relaxing on her back deck over pancakes, the wind shifted and the temperature plummeted. It was wonderful. It remained that way most of the rest of the day, staying heavily overcast as though threatening to rain, but never quite following through.

Until it was time to grill.

I had been watching the skies all morning, and seeing no change over the course of the day, I had come to think of it as just an overcast day and wasn’t a bit concerned about any impending downpour. We arrived home and immediately started shucking corn (another story to be continued later in this post) and prepping the chicken for the grill. Literally, the moment the hubs put the chicken on the grill, the skies OPENED. It was so bad, I could barely reach my hand out the door to hand him the tray. I would have sworn someone had just opened a flood gate and it was pouring down the roof onto the deck.

Poor Matt, I almost felt sorry for him. Almost. If I didn’t think he would have broken my camera, I’d have taken a picture to show you. But then, as he always tells me, “A chicken has a brain the size of a pea and even it has the sense to get in out of the rain”.

Apparently the same can’t be said for husbands.

As I’ve mentioned before, he is a flipper. He can’t stand to let something sit on the grill (or in a pan, or anywhere else) and not flip it, or stir it. Repeatedly. Especially if it doesn’t need to be flipped. Or stirred. So, I say he has no one to blame but himself. It was kind of pathetic though. Looking out the screen door at him, completely drenched, while he’s standing there, holding his flipper, and looking in like a puppy that’s been kicked.

In the end, we had a very nice supper. I’ve decided this recipe needs something, but can’t quite decide what the magic ingredient will be. It was definitely a good one, though, and the hubs thought it was definitely a keeper. You can never have too many different ways to grill chicken, in my opinion.

Spicy Honey-Glazed Chicken Breasts
Ingredients:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon lemon juice
8 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 4 pounds)
Salt

Directions:
In a small saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until translucent and beginning to brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the honey, hot pepper sauce and chili powder and simmer for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and set aside.
Preheat a grill or large grill pan to medium-high. Rub the chicken with the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil and season with salt. Grill until well marked, about 7 minutes. Flip and cook until the bottoms are well marked and the chicken is cooked through, another 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate and brush with the reserved honey glaze. Cover with foil and let rest for 5 minutes.NOTES: The recipe says to simply grill the chicken breast and then top with the glaze at the end. You cover it with foil to help the flavors absorb, and it was good. But I’m thinking that it still needs some kind of pre-grill marinade to help carry the flavor carry through the meat.As a side dish.....we had corn. The farmer who cash rents our ground is very good to us and plants two rows of sweet corn every year, just for us. So, every year about this time, we gorge ourselves on corn until we can stand no more, and then there is still a ton leftover that we have to give away.
We didn’t know that this was the last of our corn for the season. Because it shouldn’t have been.

Monday morning, we discovered that at some point between Friday night and Sunday night, someone pulled up to the field and stole all of it. Every. Single. Ear. GONE.

I’ve heard of this happening, but it really galls me that people have the nerve to do this. They wait until no one is around (like over a holiday weekend) and pull up to the field in a truck with 2-3 people. Then they clean you out. Next thing you know, your entire sweet corn crop is gone and someone is sitting on the road side somewhere selling your corn out of the bed of their truck.

I’ll tell you what, I’d sure like to know who these people are. It takes a hell of a lot of nerve. Next time you buy corn out of someone’s truck, and you don’t know who they are, think about it. It may not come from where you think.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Poppers - Revisited!

I do my very best to keep each and every post here original. But, some things are worth repeating. Ironically, the last time I made (and posted) this recipe was almost exactly a year ago. This one is an appetizer (although most of the time, the hubs has it as his main course) that is very easy, but always seems time consuming to me, only because I tend to do it in stages.

Stage 1: cube and marinate the chicken for 24 hours
Stage 2: clean and seed the jalapeños
Stage 3: partially cook the chicken, then stuff the peppers and wrap with bacon
Stage 4: Saute or grill

I spread these stages out over the course of a day or more, depending on what else I have going on, as it makes my prep work at dinner time much easier. Also, sometimes this is one I prep ahead and then send with Matt to an event to cook “on location”. Usually we make this indoors on the stove top, but since we all know I can’t keep myself away from the grill these days (and really, they are so much better on the grill!) the hubs and I grilled them last night. (**note: If you are grilling, make sure to pre-soak your toothpicks so that they don’t burn up on the grill.)One thing that was different this time is that I assembled them the day before, intending to cook them Sunday evening, but we had an injury/incident at home that night and they went right back into the fridge for the next day (everyone is fine now, but it made for a crazy night). I was concerned that having them sit out of the marinate for that long would dry them out, but they ended up being just fine. Obviously. You know. Since we scarfed them down like a bunch of Mary Jane lovin’ college students with the munchies. He’s lucky he had any to take to work today.I highly recommend this one for any outdoor gatherings you may have this summer, they go over like gangbusters, and it never fails that people end up begging me for the recipe. I tend to make this one any time I see big, beautiful fresh jalapeños at the grocery.

Check out last year's post for the details!

I Never Claimed to be Queen of the 'Que

Of the many recurring themes I touch on in this little blog, is the fact that I live in a house of picky eaters. My husband simply refuses to eat anything that even remotely resembles a healthy meal (or, for that matter, anything ethnic or with flavors he is unaccustomed to), and unfortunately, our son is trying like hell to walk in his shoes.

How do I handle this, you may ask? Simple. I bitch a lot.

Yep, I learned long ago that there is just no converting him, no matter how hard I try, so I have mainly given up on trying to pull the “Deceptively Delicious” routine with his meals and I take my victories anywhere I can.

Whenever the hubs has a job in the St. Louis area, he picks up the local papers on his way to work and reads them on his breaks. Fortunately for me, on Wednesdays, two of these newspapers publish a “Food” section and another includes a magazine insert called “Relish”. It is in this magazine that my picky eater found a new love. The hubs came home from work that day with the page folded back so I could get a good view of the full color picture that was making his mouth water.

This little jewel is dubbed “Indian Style Grilled Chicken”, so there is no claim being made that they are purveying anything traditional or specific, like Tandoori chicken, which I appreciate. The method for this chicken is similar, in that it utilizes a marinade of yogurt and various spices. Having attempted a similar recipe before, and being disappointed in the stove-top results, I decided this recipe was going to have to wait until I got my much-anticipated new grill for Mothers Day (Yes, its true, I knew that he would cave in and get it for me). In this manner, the chicken may have marinated a bit longer than intended, as the night I planned to cook it (the night after the grill came home) something came up unexpectedly and I didn’t manage to get the grill completely assembled. Hence, no chicken for dinner. (A quick peek at my new baby. Didn't I do a nice job putting her together? I am woman - hear me roar!)

I was on the ball the next night, however, rising early the next morning to work on the grill again and getting it upright in time to put some flame to the chicken thighs that had been lounging in the fridge nearly 48 hours at that point.

Now, I never claimed to be queen of the ‘que.

My inaugural dinner had its ups and downs and I did manage to get almost every piece of skin to stick like glue to the hot grates, but that didn’t deter me. I was a woman on a mission. And, in the end, beauty IS only skin deep.What was under the skin is another story. Luscious and moist, tender and flavorful, the Man of the House couldn’t stop raving about how good it was, and frankly, I have to agree. This one will definitely be on the menu again this summer. And next time....he better not make off with all the leftovers again!
Indian Style Grilled Chicken
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon coriander
2 teaspoons garam masala
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup hot sauce, such as Frank’s Original Hot Sauce
¾ cup plain yogurt
¼ cup heavy cream
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons soy sauce
Cooking spray
8 bone-in chicken thighs

1. Combine all ingredients (except cooking spray and chicken) in a large bowl; stir until well blended. Add chicken, turning to coat well. Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours.
2. Prepare grill and spray grate with cooking spray.
3. Remove chicken from marinade and place on a platter. Discard marinade. Grill chicken skin side down 6 to 8 minutes, turn and grill second side 6 to 8 minutes. Serves 8.

Relish Magazine (http://www.relishmag.com/)

Of Words and Wine - Food and a Book Review

Did you all know I have a book club? Yep, sure do. It’s a lovely little group. Just three of us, actually. We originally intended it to be a bigger group, but we decided that we like it the way it is, so we’re not changing a thing! We have a list of books we are interested in reading and then we draw them from a hat to decide what we will read next. We meet monthly, and take turns meeting at each others’ houses, then on the fourth month, we meet somewhere else, like at a local eatery. We just had our fifth meeting last Friday, and it was my turn to host the club. One of the best parts for me is the fact that I get to cook for people who enjoy food, and we get to drink wine, and gossip, and rant if we need to (all after we get done talking about the book, of course!)

So, for this month’s meeting, I made a selection of little appetizers that were all recipes I got from my blog reader and had never tried, They all had great potential, but for one reason or another, they all ended up being just okay, in my opinion.

For starters, I made the Tandoori Chicken that I spied on The Food of Love. It looked tantalizing and easy to make. I added some additional seasonings of my own as well (a little turmeric, some garam masala) and, while the chicken did have fabulous flavor, it fell short. You want to know why? Two reasons; One, I should have grilled it instead of using my grill pan. It stuck something fierce (I need a new grill pan) and never really got the caramelization that I was hoping for. I will be trying that one again when I have time to fire up the grill.Second, I have had this Caramelized Chili Shrimp saved for eons (but I can't remember where I got it from!), and decided this was the night I would finally try it. Both the girls really liked it, and I agree that the flavors were spot-on, but there were two things I should have done differently. One, I wasn’t about to use precooked shrimp, and the only raw shrimp I could get my hands on were pretty small, so they didn’t get to cook long enough to get that nice crust going that I wanted. Two, I committed one of the all time worst culinary sins....I crowded the pan. Yep, I was too lazy to get a bigger pan out when I realized I was out of room on the pan I was using, so I crammed them all on there and they poached, rather than caramelizing. Again, a recipe worth trying another time, with more patience.Finally, I had been drooling over these Thai Meatballs with Peanut Dipping sauce from Krista's Kitchen. You know, the meatballs were really easy and quite tasty. When I read the ingredients for the sauce, however, I paused. It called for a half a cup of peanut butter (to a mere cup of coconut milk). Having had experience with peanut sauces in the past, I decided to edit this one ingredient. I whittled it down to about a quarter cup or less, but I should have stuck with a bare tablespoon, as we all thought the peanut flavor was just too overwhelming.One last thing. Normally I drink wine when we meet, but I also found a lovely looking cocktail over at The Italian Dish and was dying to try it. The drink calls for Aperol, which is an orange liqueur, not readily found in my area. However, it reminded me that I have an unopened bottle of Orangecello in my cabinet, so I broke that out along with a bottle of Zonin Prosecco, and in place of the club soda, I tossed in a dash of lemon lime soda. It was quite a refreshing choice for a night when we actually had weather lovely enough to open the house up and feel the spring air! Definitely one I'll make again...after all....I still have half a bottle of Orangecello to use!So, all in all, I liked each recipe, but I need to try them again, with a little more effort. Lesson learned? Always have at least one “old standby” on the list when serving friends instead of using all new recipes.

For the last part of this post, I decided to try something different. I’ve been meaning to start reviewing the books I’m reading, but I just never get around to it. That, and I’m not the greatest at putting my thoughts into words when I talk about books I have read. So, I have enlisted the help of my friend Whitney, who is also in the club, and she has written up a little review for you on the book we just read, The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant.

Introducing Whitney!

Hello, I’m Beth’s friend Whitney. Before I go into my review of my Red Tent, I’d like to tell you a little bit about my background. I’m a southern gal through and through, born and raised in Memphis, TN. Most people raise their eyebrows when they hear I’m from Memphis and that’s probably because it’s featured on A &E’s First 48 weekly. However, I didn’t grow up in that part of Memphis; I grew up in Germantown, the city’s utopia. As you know Tennessee is part of our great nation’s Bible belt and I’m a God fearing girl who knows her Bible backwards and forwards, my Bible Bowl trophy from ’96 proves it. So every time I hear about a book that tells a Biblical story from another perspective, I’m really wary. The God fearing part of me feels that I’ll get sent to hell for reading this blasphemy. (Just kidding) The Red Tent really did disprove my feelings on Biblical stories told from a different point of view though. The story of Dinah is found of Genesis 34:1-31, which is roughly 2 paragraphs. The story of Dinah is tragic and I remember thinking that she deserved more than two paragraphs. For those of you who do not know the story of Dinah, I will give you the Cliff Notes version. She is Jacob’s daughter; You know Jacob? He stole Esau’s blessing. Well Jacob’s family was traveling and Shechem, who happened to be a wealthy prince decided to have sex with Dinah. In the process he fell in love with Dinah and decides he wants to marry her. Shechem’s father comes to Jacob and offers him many gifts for Dinah’s hand, including daughters for Jacob’s sons to marry. But Jacob says, “No, you and all the men in your house must get circumcised.” (That’s not a direct quote by the way) Shechem “loved” Dinah so much he granted Jacob’s wish. Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi go to the palace later that night and kill Shechem and all the men in the palace because they claimed that no man could treat their sister that way! As an adolescent I thought, “Wow, that is so cool, they’re defending their sister’s honor.” After reading the Red Tent my perspective of this Biblical story changed. I began to see the Biblical heroes such as Joseph and Jacob, dare I say it, as evil men who were only looking out for themselves. This book celebrates women unlike the stories of the Bible you’re used to and at the end you’ll find yourself wondering what really happened to Dinah.

As a side note, all three of us loved this book. We were all raised in the church, and have a background in the history of the bible. After reading this book, we now all have a different view of the women of the bible and the lived they lead. I think I can safely speak for all of us when I say we give this book a strong thumbs up!

I hope you enjoyed the recipes and the review....stay tuned for April's club meeting. We'll be reading The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver!

Korean Fried Chicken

Traditionally, any time that Ginny and I get together, there is a fair amount of cooking involved. So, it goes without saying that even though we tried to make our recent visit a little less food-oriented than usual, it didn’t work. We had the cheese to make, of course, and the fried pickles....and then, right before Ty and I drove out, I made the mistake of catching up on my blog reading and found this recipe for Korean Fried Chicken.

Since I have a friend who is half Korean and long ago fell in love with her mother’s cooking, any time I see a recipe that hints at being remotely Korean, I have to try it. And man oh man, did this look scrumptious. Those boys over at The Bitten Word sure know how to make you drool. They have quite a penchant for cooking magazines, as do I, so I am frequently checking back to see what they have picked out of the latest editions.

Admittedly, Ginny and I had a tiny bit of difficulty locating the Korean sauce the recipe calls for, but fear not! The Aoeshe store in Iowa City took care of us and we trucked on back to her place to get the oil going.

The key to this recipe, without a doubt, is the double frying. With a simple batter coating, they were a snap to get together. The longest part of the process was just frying them in batches small enough that the oil temperature didn’t drop too dramatically.

The icing on the cake, so to speak, is the sauce. Spicy and tangy, with just an undertone of vinegar, these little gems were gone in the blink of an eye, with only the BBQ smears around our mouths as evidence.

This is a recipe you will be sorely tempted to make for your friends, but I will caution you against it....if you do that, you’ll have to share. Keep it to yourself, that way there will be more for you! Oh, and don’t even think about asking me how they handle being reheated. I wouldn’t know. They are lucky they made it to my plate, let alone the fridge.

Korean Fried Chicken

Ingredients
Canola oil, for frying

5 cloves garlic

1 1 1⁄2" piece peeled ginger

3 tbsp. soy sauce

3 tbsp. gojujang (Korean chile paste)

1 1⁄2 tbsp. rice vinegar

1 tbsp. Asian sesame oil

1 tbsp. honey

2⁄3 cup flour

1 tbsp. cornstarch

16 chicken wings (about 1 3⁄4 lbs.)

Preparation

1. Pour oil into a 6-qt. pot to a depth of 2". Heat over medium-high heat until a thermometer reads 350˚. Chop garlic and ginger in a food processor. Add soy, gojujang, vinegar, sesame oil, and honey; purée. Put sauce into a bowl.


2. Whisk flour, cornstarch, and 2⁄3 cup water in another bowl. Add chicken; toss. Working in 3 batches, fry chicken until golden, 6–8 minutes.Drain on paper towels. Return oil to 350˚. Fry chicken until crisp, 6–8 minutes more. Drain again. Toss chicken in sauce. And then? Devour....

Poor Man's Paella

Believe it or not folks, this recipe is from my ex-husband. (yep, that's right, I am once divorced) I'm actually not sure you can call it a recipe, since it uses mainly prepared food items and only has three ingredients, but even now, it is a standby in my house when I need something fast and easy.

Start by chopping about three boneless, skinless chicken breasts into bite sized pieces. Season them with salt and pepper if you want and saute them in a little oil until golden and cooked through.While you are cooking the chicken, prepare two packages of Knorr Chicken Rice, according to the directions. While the rice is still pretty liquid, but starting to soften, add in about 3 ounces or so of Velveeta, chopped up, until it melts into the mix.
When the chicken and rice are both done, mix the rice into the pan with the chicken and scrape up any brown bits into the rice. And serve!Ok, so this is absolutely nothing like paella, other than the rice and chicken, but hey, "Poor Man's Paella" is a lot more fun to say than "Cheesy Chicken Rice". Got your attention, didn't it?

In any case, its a cheap, fast, easy, and very satisfying dish for a cold night when you don't much feel like cooking.

Cook the Books - Poulet a la Creme for French Lessons

With the impending demise of Tyler Florence Fridays, and the fact that my ever-expanding waistline will no longer allow me to participate in My Girl Paula!, I was very excited to discover two cooking clubs that I can have more bloggy fun with. The first is I Heart Cooking Clubs, which right now is featuring Nigella Lawson. The second, is Cook the Books. This club chooses food-related novels to read every other month, and then each member aims to make a dish inspired by the book. I was anxious to get started, but had a bit of trouble getting a copy of the most recent selection and was worried that I might not make the November deadline. Not to worry, my bloggerriffic friends! I enjoyed the book so much, that I tore through it in just a few days and have two recipes selected to highlight. The first, I will post today, while the second will depend on the availability of the ingredients I need.French Lessons, by Peter Mayle, at first struck me as an arrogant account of one man’s travels through France on a no-holds-barred mission to eat and get drunk, with a seemingly limitless line of credit. However, the more I read, the more I enjoyed his tongue-in-cheek style and laughed out loud at some moments I could totally relate to. Mayle dedicates each chapter to a specific foodie subject matter, generally centered around a celebration, fair, or eating competition. In his chapter on the famous chicken of Bresse, he describes a meal he and his cohort enjoy at a local restaurant. Poulet a la Crème. I have no doubt that it was amazing in its own right and that I can in no way compete with the Bresse Chicken, however, I had to give it a shot. Any recipe that calls for an entire quart of cream is okay by me. I was intrigued. I managed to find one site (Colloquial Cooking) online that had a reasonable semblance of a recipe to follow, which, in turn, turned out to be almost identical to the brief description of the dish in French Lessons, which I imagined to be far too simplified.

I was mistaken. This dish is entirely too easy to make, and amazingly delicious. I’ll give you a brief rundown of how I made mine.

Salt and pepper four skin-on chicken breasts and four thighs.Melt an entire stick of butter in a large skillet.
Brown the chicken, skin side down first, being careful not to burn the butter.Turn the chicken, and add one large onion, roughly chopped, four cloves of garlic, smashed, some mushrooms (if you’re not allergic, like I am) and a bouquet garni (mine had chives, sage, and oregano, because that’s what is still alive in my garden).Brown the chicken on the second side, then remove to a pan while you make the sauce. If there is too much butter left in the pan, spoon it out. Deglaze the pan with a glass of white wine, scraping up all the brown bits.Let the wine cook down for a moment, then return the chicken to the pan and pour in the entire quart of heavy cream.Cover and let simmer at least 30 minutes, or until your chicken is cooked through (mine took closer to an hour).
Remove the chicken and add the juice of a small lemon to the pan. Let the sauce simmer and reduce until it thickens slightly (and I mean, slightly. I couldn’t get much reduction at all. And, really, at this point, you don’t care, it smells so good you’ll be tempted to just stick your face in the pan and lap it up).
Serve the chicken up with rice (if you have it, if not, just tear the bone out of it, as my husband would say). Drizzle the chicken with the sauce, or do like I did and serve a dish of the sauce on the side and dunk your chicken bits as you pull them off the bone.All I can say is “wow”. This was crazy good, although I don’t think I can make it often or I may start to look like Peter Mayle. If you’re not on a diet, give this a try, and feel just a little bit French while you’re wandering around the kitchen finishing the rest of the bottle of wine...oh wait, maybe that’s just me....

Jo will be hosting the roundup for French Lessons. Check back after November 8th to see the roundup!

Anyway, just a small note, I would recommend eating this straight out of the pan. It is pretty decent reheated, but you know how cream sauces can get kind of nasty and separated. It was definitely better the first night. Bon Appetit!

Because I am such a bad influence on Ginny, she felt compelled to make this dish, too, and sent me a picture of her results!She also made a lovely cauliflower gratin she found on the same site where I got the chicken recipe.

Basil Chicken in Coconut Curry Sauce

I ran across this dish on one of the blogs that I follow, and knew instantly that I had to give it a try. I mean, with a name like that, how could I go wrong? I am a fool for basil, and since I was considering making a batch of my Thai Basil Chicken anyway, I thought I'd give this version a whirl.

I must preface the remainder of this post by describing my husband's entrance to the house when he came home the night I made it.

**door opens...I am standing at the stove, dishing up a second helping as he walks in the door**
*sniff sniff*
Me: hi honey
Him: Ok, honey, I don't know WHAT that is... (at this point I am expecting his usual asinine comment of "but it smells like ASS")
Him (cont'd): but D.A.M.N. (yes, he spelled it out) it smells GOOD!
Me: *smile* you should try it, I think you'd like it (notice I never tell him what it is or what's in it)
Him: Oh, I WILL. That dish and I have a DATE later tonight....

Yeah, okay, so he got in from hunting so late that night that he didn't get around to it, but MY thoughts? It was so D.A.M.N. good that I made a second batch the very next day so I could eat it for lunch all week. Holy cow, is this good, and RICH! I will be sharing it with my friend Whitney for lunch today.

Basil Chicken in Coconut Curry Sauce
3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 teaspoons curry powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon chili powder
1 medium red onion, chopped (I used white onion)
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped (by seeding the jalapeno you lose most of the spice/heat but retain great flavor)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 14-ounce can light coconut milk (light? I used regular because its what I could find)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
3 cups hot cooked rice
Cut chicken into 1-inch pieces. Place in medium bowl. Stir together curry, salt, pepper and chili powder. Sprinkle over chicken, tossing to coat evenly. Cover and chill for 1 to 2 hours.
In a large nonstick frying pan, stir onion, basil, garlic and peppers in hot oil over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes, until onion is translucent. Add chicken and cook for 5-6 minutes until no longer pink. Combine coconut milk and cornstarch and whisk well to combine. Carefully add to skillet, whisking vigorously. Cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly. Stir in ginger. Cook and stir for another minute. Serve over hot rice.

**notes** Instead of dried basil, I chopped up a pile of fresh basil from my garden and tossed it in at the very end.

The funny thing about this dish is it started as the first step in cleaning out my pantry. I have a bad habit of buying "fun" or "interesting" canned items thinking I will use them, and then they take up a permanent residence at the back of my pantry. A few weeks back, I decided to start pulling these items out and finding ways to use them. The first one on the list? You guessed it, COCONUT MILK! Unfortunately, my effort to clean a singular item out of my pantry once and for all turned into making coconut milk a new staple in my pantry because I will be making this dish over and over again!

Have Beer, Will Travel.....or Grill.....

In the ongoing saga that is my husband's love affair with his grill, we are constantly trying new things so that he can learn lots of different ways to use his new toy. We have made beer-butt chicken once before, with mixed results. Recently, I was placing a book order on half.com when I ran across a copy of Steven Raichlen's Beer Can Chicken for $.75. I could hardly resist that. While I have been acquiring some new cookbooks recently, I've also been picking several up for Matt. This book has a section on variations for beer-can chicken (which, if you are not familiar, is a whole chicken, impaled on an open can of beer, and then grilled upright) as well as one for Beer-less Birds, and Other Birds on a Can. What really caught my eye, and made the decision to get the book for him, was the reference to "Welder's Chicken". Well, you know the hubs is a welder by trade, so I couldn't resist.
Saturday, I picked up a couple of roasters and invited Matt's sister and another friend over for dinner. I went to work prepping the birds. We decided to try two different recipes, and since we only had one beer can chicken roaster, we settled on a Cajun Chicken and the Welder's Chicken (which is wrapped in layers of foil instead of roasted on the can. Hence, the name....you are supposed to pick it up off the grill with welder's gloves because using tongs would break through the foil and release all the lovely juices prematurely.)
I will include both recipes at the bottom, but since he instructs you on specific grill set up for each recipe, if you want to try it, you may want to pick up a cheap copy for yourself! If you're really serious, let me know and I'll scan the pages and email them to you! The recipes are long, but its worth reading them because I included some personal notes here and there about our experience with them.
After about an hour and a half (right on schedule, based on Raichlen's instructions) we had two beautiful birds sitting on our table. He suggests checking the birds' temperatures with an instant--read thermometer to determine doneness, but it was completely unnecessary. The Cajun Chicken won our hearts immediately, as it was the most gorgeous bird any of us had ever seen. Golden and gorgeous with a nice crispy skin and the meat was lovely and smoked (this one is grilled over indirect heat). The welder's chicken lacked the aesthetic appeal, since roasting it wrapped in foil prevented any browning, but the bird literally fell apart, was moist and delicious, and had hints of both the bacon and lemon without being overbearing.
There was very little conversation that extended beyond "Mmmmm" and "ooooh my god..." and there was even the occasional "forking" of another diner's hand when one tried to keep a piece of crispy skin away from another (seriously, my niece jabbed our friend Mike in the hand for trying to take it from her). A couple of people even got a little wild (yes, there was alcohol involved, and yes, we live in the country) and chicken bones were flung over the side of the deck as they were licked clean. I know, it sounds very redneck, and it was, but sometimes you just gotta live in the moment...
So, here they are, it was a bit dark, and we were famished, so the pictures aren't fabulous, but take a look at these girls....The gorgeous birds and some baby zucchinis...The Welder's Chicken...And, finally, the Cajun Chicken. A terrible picture, it doesn't do her beauty justice....Ragin' Cajun Beer Can Chicken

Method: Indirect grilling
Serves 2 to 4
For the beer can chicken:
1 can (12 ounces) beer
1 chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds)
1 teaspoon Liquid Smoke

For the rub:
1 1/2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning
1 1/2 tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

You'll need: 2 cups wood chips or chunks (preferably hickory or cherry), soaked for 1 hour in water or beer to cover, then drained; vertical chicken roaster (optional)
1. Pop the tab off the beer can. Using a church key-style can opener, make 2 or 3 additional holes in the top of the can. Pour the Liquid Smoke into one of these holes. Insert a chopstick or skewer and gently stir to mix the Liquid Smoke and beer.
2. Remove the packet of giblets from the body cavity of the chicken and set aside for another use. Remove and discard the fat just inside the body and neck cavities. Rinse the chicken, inside and out, under cold running water and then drain and blot dry, inside and out, with paper towels. Place the chicken in a large bowl on its side and pour half the smoke-flavored beer over it. Let marinate in the refrigerator, covered, for 45 minutes, turning twice. Make sure each breast side and the back have marinated for 15 minutes. Set the can with the remaining smoke-flavored beer aside
3. Make the rub: Put the Cajun and Old Bay seasonings in a small bowl and stir to mix.
4. Set up the grill for indirect grilling (see page 000 for charcoal or page 000 for gas) and preheat to medium. If using a charcoal grill, place a large drip pan in center. If using a gas grill, place all the wood chips or chunks in the smoker box or in a smoker pouch and preheat on high until you see smoke, then reduce the heat to medium.
5. Remove the chicken from the marinade and pat dry. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of the rub inside the body and cavity and 1 teaspoon inside the neck cavity of the chicken. Drizzle the oil over the outside of the bird and rub or brush it all over the skin. Sprinkle the outside of the bird with 1 tablespoon rub and rub it all over the skin.
6. Spoon the remaining rub through a hole in the top of the can into the beer. Don't worry if it foams up; this is normal. If grilling the chicken on the beer can, hold the chicken upright, with the opening of the body cavity at the bottom and lower the bird onto the beer can so the can fits into the cavity. If using a vertical chicken roaster, fill it with the beer as described on page 000 and position the chicken on top.
7. If using the beer can, pull the chicken legs forward to form a sort of tripod, so the bird stands upright. The rear leg of the tripod is the beer can. You don't need to do this if using a vertical chicken roaster. Tuck the wing tips behind the chicken's back.
8. When ready to cook, if using a charcoal grill, toss all the wood chips on the coals. Stand the chicken up in the center of the hot grate, over the drip pan, away from the heat. Cover the grill and cook the chicken until the skin is a dark golden brown and very crisp and the meat is cooked through (about 180¡ F on an instant-read meat thermometer inserted in a thigh), 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. (See page 000 for other tests for doneness.) If using a charcoal grill, you'll need to add 12 fresh coals per side after 1 hour. If the chicken skin starts to brown too much, loosely tent the bird with aluminum foil.
9. Using tongs, grab the bird with tongs by the beer can just below the bottom, carefully transfer it in its upright position to a platter, and present it to your guests. If using a vertical chicken roaster, grab it with oven mitts or pot holders. Let rest for 5 minutes, then carefully lift the chicken off the support. Take care not to spill the hot beer or otherwise burn yourself. Normally I discard the beer, but some people like to save it for making barbecue sauce. Halve, quarter, or carve the chicken and serve.

Welder's Chicken
1 stewing hen or roasting chicken (6-7 pounds)
1 lemon
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and cut in half
2 tablespoons poultry seasoning
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
5 slices bacon (the smokier, the better) (yeah, I used, like TEN. Come on, its BACON)

You'll also need 4 pieces heavy duty aluminum foil (30 by 18 inches each)
1. Remove the packet of giblets from the body cavity of the chicken and set aside for another use. Remove and discard the fat just inside the body and neck cavities. Rinse the chicken, inside and out, under cold running water and then drain and blot dry, inside and out, with paper towels. 2. Using a vegetable peeler, remove 3 strips of zest (the oil-rich outer rind) from the lemon, taking care not to remove any of the bitter white pith underneath. Place 1 strip in the neck cavity and 2 strips in the body cavity of the hen. Cut the rind and white pith off the lemon and discard. Cut the lemon crosswise into thin slices and remove the seeds with a fork.
3. Rub the outside of the hen with cut garlic. Place 2 garlic cloves (4 halves) in the body cavity and 1 clove in the neck cavity. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning inside the body cavity and 1 teaspoon inside the neck cavity. Sprinkle the remaining poultry seasoning on the outside of the bird. Generously season the bird inside and out with salt and pepper.
4. Place a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil shiny side down on a work surface. Place 2 bacon slices in the center and place a few lemon slices on top of them. Place the hen breast side up so the backbone is parallel to the long side of the foil, on the bacon. Drape the remaining slices of bacon over the breast and top with the remaining lemon slices. Bring the ends of the aluminum foil up over the hen, folding over the edges several times and crimping them to make a tight seal. Tightly wrap the bird in 3 additional layers of foil, shiny side out ( so it will reflect the heat) to make a sturdy packet. Be sure all of the bird is covered with foil.
5. Set up the grill for direct grilling and preheat to medium. When ready to cook, place the foil wrapped hen on the hot grill and grill until hen is cooked through (about 180 degrees on an instant read thermometer inserted into the hen flesh, but not touching a bone) (yeah, so I'm thinking to myself, this bird is wrapped in FOUR, count 'em, FOUR layers of individually wrapped foil. How in the holy hell am I going to insert a thermometer through the packet without letting all the liquid and steam out, not to mention, finding the right part of the bird to stick it into? Trust me on this one, just cook it an hour and a half or so, and it will be fine. We opened the packet and legs and wings just FELL off), 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 hours, turning and rotating the bird every 15 minutes. If using a charcoal grill, you'll need to add 12 fresh coals per side after 1 hour.
6. Transfer the hen to a platter and, if you like, show it off in its flame-darkened packet to your guests. (yeah, right, our guests were so hungry for chicken by this time that they were tearing it out of the foil before it even made it to the table!) Let the hen rest 5 minutes (again, I don't think so), then, wearing welder's gloves or heavy duty grill mitts, unwrap the bird. (my husband is a welder, and yet we all have little burns on out finger tips because we were all too lazy and/or ravenously hungry to go looking for his welder's gloves) Take care to avoid the escaping steam (seriously, unless you want a poultry facial). Scrape off and discard the bacon (not us country folks, as much as it grossed me out, people gladly ATE that bacon). Serve the hen at once (no shit, Sherlock).

Grilled Honey Teriyaki Chicken for TFF

After having been conspicuously absent for the last couple of weeks, I am hoping to start kicking things back into high gear this week! or, at least, mid-gear. I haven't been doing nearly as much cooking as I usually do since the hubs began his love affair with his new grill. That's fine with me, since I know that once the weather gets too cold or we run out of charcoal (whichever comes first) I'll be back in the kitchen full time.
Meanwhile, don't think for a minute that I am not influencing what we are putting on the table. Matt is taking the grilling thing seriously, and he wants to learn all the ins and outs, and try lots of things he has never cooked before. That being said, he's still a picky eater, so we haven't been getting too wild and crazy!
I've been looking for a good recipe to try from Tyler Florence, and while there are lots, we're in that in-between kind of season and I'm having trouble finding anything that really appeals to me. That is, until I found THIS recipe, and it is my submission to Tyler Florence Fridays this week.
I love barbecued chicken, I love grilled chicken, I love teriyaki chicken....and they had ten pound bags of chicken quarters on sale at the store for 69 cents a pound. How could I lose? SO, I planned it for a night that Matt would be home to grill (I specifically asked him, to be sure, since he hunts pretty regularly during the evenings), brined the bad boys, and got the ingredients for the glaze.
While I was still at the store after work, Matt calls (as he does every day on his way home) and asks the question....here's how the conversation went:

Matt: "so, what's for dinner?" Me: "Well, I brined that chicken this morning....you know....like I TOLD you I was going to...."
Matt: **silence**
Me: "What?"
Matt: "So, what are you going to do with it if I go hunting tonight?"
Me: **heated silence**
Me: I ASKED you this MORNING what nights you were going to hunt this week, SPECIFICALLY so I would have a good night to grill this chicken!"
Matt: " I know, but I didn't KNOW this morning, Mark just called and..."
Me: "Well, then either "I" have to grill it on YOUR precious grill, or I have to throw it out. Brined meet does NOT keep."
Matt: **silence**
Me: "SO, when you get home, come upstairs and light the grill, then I'll cook it."
Matt: **silence** (you can tell at this point that he is debating whether it is worth it to go hunting if it means he has to relinquish control of the 'man zone')

In the end, he lit the grill, put the chicken on it for me, then paused in the doorway to our bedroom, me on the deck outside, him in the bedroom, the screen door separating us. I looked him in the eye, grinned an evil little grin and said "You're on the wrong side of that door, aren't you?" and tipped my beer back. "Don't remind me." he says as he glances ruefully at his smoking grill. As he is pulling away, he paused on the road to yell up to the deck and ask how it was going. My response? I raised my beer in the air in "cheers" fashion and left him in the dust.

By the way, the chicken was LUSCIOUS. The flavors were intense and rich, and the chicken was moist and flavorful. I admit that I usually have to amp up the seasonings in Tyler's recipes to make them more to my taste, but this glaze was wonderful just as it is. I am attributing the juiciness of the chicken to the brine. The recipe says to brine for 2 hours, but I pushed the envelope and brined it before I left for work that morning, so it sat all day.
Very, very yummy.... I mean, can't you just TELL? Its making my mouth water just thinking about the leftovers waiting for me in the fridge for lunch today.

Here's the actual recipe:

Grilled Honey-Teriyaki Chicken

Ingredients
1 whole organic chicken, cut into 10 pieces
Brine:
2 cups water
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 head garlic, unpeeled
4 slices fresh ginger root, gently bashed to open up
2 tablespoons kosher salt
8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 cups teriyaki sauce
1/4 cup honey
1 large (1-inch) piece fresh ginger root, sliced and bashed to open up
1 head garlic, halved crosswise
1 teaspoon sesame oil, plus 1/2 cup toasted
Freshly ground black pepper
Scallion threads, for garnish
Toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
Directions
Begin by making the brine. Combine all the brine ingredients in a large resealable bag and swirl to dissolve the sugar.Add chicken pieces and allow to brine for 1 to 2 hours in the refrigerator.
Preheat grill to low-medium heat.
Make teriyaki glaze: In a small saucepan, over medium heat, combine teriyaki sauce, honey, ginger, garlic, and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, and simmer until rich and slightly reduced. Remove chicken from brine and pat dry. Add to a large mixing bowl, drizzle with toasted sesame oil and season with freshly ground black pepper. Toss to coat and cook on a low-medium grill for 17 to 20 minutes per side until cooked through.Baste with teriyaki glaze for the last 5 to 7 minutes of cooking.Serve garnish with scallion threads (finely sliced scallions cut on the bias soaked in ice cold water), and toasted sesame seeds.

Chicken with Blackberries and Goat Cheese

Every morning, on his way to work, my husband picks up a newspaper (or two) to read on his breaks. On Wednesdays, that particular paper has a Food section that has recipes, reviews, and other information about local food and dining.

Nowhere comes the sweet part. My husband may have his issues, but every so often, he does something considerate, just because he knows I'll enjoy it. Every Wednesday night, I am presented with the food sections from those papers, and he spends a few minutes tell me, in great detail, which recipes look good to him, which ones he thinks I would like, and sometimes even pointing out class announcements that he thinks I may be interested in. Sweet, right?

Here's the part that you're going to need to sit down for. A few weeks ago, my meat-and-potatoes husband came home and presented me with my weekly dose of food porn, pointed to one specific recipe, and said, "I think I might like to try this."

I looked at the page, expecting to see something like Beer Braised Pork Fat, with Beef Fat Brine, and Velveeta Mud Masque". Then, what, to my wondering eyes should appear?

Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Blackberries, Sage and Goat Cheese

Wait, what? My reaction and the ensuing dialogue went something like this:

Me: Honey, you don't like fruit with your meat.

Hubs: But I like blackberries. I don't know hat goat cheese is like though, what does it taste like?

Me: Well, its a soft cheese, more.....tart.....than the cheeses you usually like.....kinda

Hubs: *blank look*

Me: creamier?

Hubs: I'd try it....if you'd make it for me.

Me: *blank look*

Hubs: It sounds good, doesn't it?

Me: *blank look*

Hubs: Well, if you don't want to....

Well, far be it from me to put a damper on any kind of interest he might take in trying something new, so yeah, you know I made it. Damn right! He was also thoroughly entranced, watching me put the dish together, and ate with a curious gusto. His only complaint was the seeds in the berries, but that is kind of hard to avoid. He even ate leftovers. So, yay! A new meal, and it wasn't even my idea! Try this one out on your picky meat eater...who knows, he might like it, too!

(**by the way, on a cooking note, make sure you seal the pockets well so the cheese doesn't come oozing out, and tuck in the corners of the parchment paper well. The chicken turned out incredibly moist and juicy - enjoy!)

Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Blackberries, Sage and Goat Cheese 4 TB butter, divided, plus more to prepare pan
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
salt
ground black pepper
1/2 cup goat cheese, divided
3 TB minced, fresh sage, divided
1 cup blackberries, washed
1 lemon, sliced into very thin rounds

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish with butter. Cut a length of parchment paper slightly longer than the baking dish and rub one side with butter.
2. Cut a long, deep pocket into side of each chicken breast. Season the inside with a bit of salt and pepper. Spoon 2 TB of goat cheese into each pocket and pat into a even layer. Add a sprinkling of sage, then stuff the cavity with as many blackberries as will fit comfortably. Use toothpicks to secure the opening so the berries don't fall out.
3. Rub the outside of each chicken breast with 1 tablespoon of butter and then season heavily with salt and pepper. Arrange the chicken breasts side by side in the baking dish with at least 1/2 inch between then. Lay a few slices of lemon over the top of each breast.
4. Cover the chicken breasts with the parchment paper, butter side down, and tuck the ends into the pan to create a loose seal. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is completely cooked and the interior registers at least 165 degrees on a meat thermometer.
5. Let the chicken rest 5 minutes, still covered. Remove and discard lemon slices. Serve chicken over green salad, rice pilaf or couscous. St. Louis Post Dispatch, 'Let's Eat' Section, Wednesday, 06/24/2009

Chicken and the Corn!

Some of you know, and some of you don't, that my husband owns a chunk of farm ground, and we have a farmer that cash rents it every year. He's nice enough that when he plants his own corn, he does us a favor and plants two rows of sweet corn, just for us. Well, its CORN time! The property happens to butt up to my sister in law's house and she's been checking it for us every couple of days, and it is officially ready. I know it sounds corny (pun completely intended), but we look forward to this every year.

I know, some of you are saying, "come on, its just CORN". And you're right, I used to say the same thing. But there is just nothing better than fresh from the stalk sweet corn, pulled from the field, shucked, and dropped straight into a pot of boiling water. A little butter, and we could make an entire meal out of nothing but corn. The season is so short, we may have this for a week, and then it will be over. We used to put the corn up, but that tradition died several years ago.

So, the husband stopped by and picked a couple dozen ears last night and I defrosted some chicken breast to make chicken strips to go with it. In case you haven't noticed, I'm the kind of person who likes to cook with what she has on hand, and to make use of items that might otherwise go to waste. Well, a few weeks ago, I had a full bag of pretzel twists that had been around long enough, they went stale. Instead of wasting them, I poured them into my food processor and turned them into "pretzel crumbs" to use for breading, just like I do when I have partial sleeves of crackers left over from a "chili" night.

This dish turned out well enough that the husband may not want to have chicken strips any other way from now on. He couldn't stop raving about them. The pretzel coating made them just a little crunchy, and the addition of some seasonings made it extra special. Add a few ears of corn and you have one amazing summertime supper!

Pretzel Crusted Chicken Strips

3 chicken breasts, sliced into strips

2-3 cups pretzel crumbs

1 cup flour

1 TB ground mustard

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

3 eggs

1/4 cup milk

On a plastic cutting board, clean and slice your chicken. Blot away any extra moisture on the chicken with paper towels.

Using 2 pie plates (not three, I also like to save on dishes to wash, so follow along!), set up your breading station. In one, put the 1 cup of flour, in the other, crack 3 eggs, and whisk in the milk to make your egg wash.

A few at a time, roll the chicken strips in flour, then return them to the cutting board. Once they all have a light coating of flour, dump the pretzel crumbs in with the remaining flour and mix together. Add in the mustard, paprika, and pepper.One at a time, dunk each strip in the egg wash, then in the pretzels, pressing down on them to hold the crumbs to the chicken.Once all the strips are breaded, begin frying them in batches in 400 degree oil. Fry the strips until golden and serve with your favorite dippers (we used barbecue sauce).

Enjoy! We thought these turned out great. Unfortunately, the hubs liked them so much that he took all the leftovers to work for breakfast AND lunch today. none for me....