Back to Reality

Tuesday’s relaxing return to life-as-I-know-it was short-lived. By yesterday, things had returned to their normal levels of activity. After a long day of out-of-the-office meetings, I came home and wanted nothing more than to relax. So I was understandably a bit annoyed with myself for having planned to try out a new recipe for dinner.

Lucky for me, the recipe ended up being ridiculously easy to make (I had to have subconsciously planned it that way, right?!). I decided to give Emeril’s Chicken -Patty Pockets (say that five times fast) from last month’s Everyday Food a whirl.  The Emeril I am referring to is, of course, famous New Orleans chef Emeril Lagasse. (Do you think there are many other people out there named Emeril? Just curious.) A year or so ago he established a partnership with Martha Stewart’s empire and now has a monthly feature in Everyday Food. This was my first time trying out any of his recipes—Everyday Food or otherwise—and it turned out pretty well.

Basically you make mini-chicken burgers (which are seasoned with onion, parsley, garlic, and a variety of spices) and stuff them in pita along with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and a Minted Yogurt Sauce. Everything was super easy to make and pretty good too. I was honestly surprised by how much I liked the chicken burger/patty/things.  I don’t know if it was the ground chicken (which I don’t think I’ve ever had before) or the combination of spices but it was surprisingly flavorful.  I might experiment with ground chicken again.

A couple of things to note if you decide to give this recipe a try—the original recipe called for ground dark-meat chicken. My grocery store only had one variety of packaged ground chicken and it did not specify if it was white, dark, or some combination (and to be honest, I didn’t really spend much time investigating). Whatever I had it worked just fine. My guess is that if you bought all white meat, it might be a little drier (because there is very little fat in white meat) which means you might need to tone down the breadcrumbs or add an additional egg to moisten it up. Also, the recipe said to make 8 patties from the meat…I ended up with 10 and they were still pretty big to stick in a pita pocket (I cut them in half in order to squeeze one whole chicken patty in each pita half). Next time I will look for some larger pitas or perhaps try flatbread instead as our poor pockets were bursting at the seams.

Emeril’s Chicken-Patty Pockets
Adapted from Everyday Food

Ingredients:
1 pound ground chicken
1 large egg, lightly beaten
½ cup dried breadcrumbs
¼ cup finely chopped onion
4 TBL of dried parsley or ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped (I did not have fresh parsley so I went with dried)
1 TBL of minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Cooking spray
Pita pockets or flatbread
Lettuce, sliced tomatoes, and cucumbers for serving
1 cup plain yogurt
2 TBL chopped mint
1 lime, juiced

1.Heat broiler, with rack in highest position. Line rimmed baking sheet with foil and coat with cooking spray.
2.In a large bowl combine chicken, egg, breadcrumbs, onion, parsley, garlic salt, and spices and mix until well blended (I find the hands work best for mixing this type of thing). Shape chicken mixture into 8-10 patties and place onto sheet pan.
3.Make Minted Yogurt Sauce. In a small bowl, stir together yogurt, chopped mint, juice from 1 lime, salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
4.Broil until browned, about 4-5 minutes. Flip and cook until cooked through, about 4-5 minutes more.
5.Cut a pita round in half. In each half place lettuce, 1-2 tomato slices, 1-2 cucumber slices and 1 chicken patty cut in half. Top with Minted Yogurt Sauce and serve.