Super Simple Supper

I have long been on a quest to find easy, tasty meals that I can make on weeknights. Bonus points if they are healthy and delicious enough to make on the weekend because, as work outside the home parents, we cram a lot of activity into the weekends so I am not always up for spending a lot of time in the kitchen even when I technically have more time to devote to cooking.

One meal we’ve been enjoying recently that fits these criteria perfectly is five-spice chicken and roasted ratatouille. With the ample hands-off cooking time, it is incredibly easy to make and is flavorful and healthy to boot. Jason is a big fan of the chicken, in particular, and I find the roasted ratatouille to be pretty versatile—as a side dish, as a filling for frittata or quiche, mixed with couscous, etc. It’s delicious in any form.

Five Spiced Chicken and Roasted Ratatouille
(The chicken recipe is from Hellobee and is the original recipe that I used to make the BBQ chicken recipe from the Memorial Day post—only adaptations are to quantity)

Ingredients:
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1.5 teaspoons paprika (I used smoked paprika)
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
¾ teaspoon garlic powder
¾ teaspoon white pepper
3 teaspoons coarse salt
¼ cup chicken stock or water
2 medium zucchini
2 small or 1 large eggplant
1 red pepper
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes
1 TBL olive oil

To make the chicken: mix together the ginger, garlic powder, white pepper, paprika and salt until well combined. Divide in half (save one half in an airtight container for the next time you want to make this dish!). Preheat the oven to 375. Place the chicken thighs in a baking dish. Loosen skin from meat with your fingers. Sprinkle some the spice mixture under the skin of each thigh; sprinkle remaining on top of the skin. Add water or chicken stock to the bottom of the baking dish. Cover the dish with aluminum foil (try and cover loosely otherwise the skin will stick to the foil). Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour.

To make the ratatouille: Chop the zucchini, eggplant and red pepper into 1 inch pieces and place onto a sheet pan. Add the pint of tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake at 375 for 45-60 minutes, stirring a few times to prevent the veggies from sticking to the pan (you can skip this step if you line your pan with parchment!)

{Tap tap}...Is this thing on?

It’s been so long since I’ve showed my face here that I’ve almost forgotten how this works. I guess that’s ok since I doubt anyone even checks for new posts anymore (except my friend Susannah, who reminds me she is still a loyal reader whenever I see her).  I’d try to explain away my year long (gulp) absence but there is not much to say—young child + full time job+ trying to maintain some semblance of personal /free time (ha!)= little time for cooking period, let alone anything worth writing about. That said, I did enjoy this old blog of mine back in its heyday so thought I’d dip a toe back in the water and see what happens. Posts may be scattered and may not always involve cooking really amazing things (hey, remember when I did this??) but, you know, baby steps.

So without further ado…..Susannah, this one’s for you!

Three day weekends are the best. And I actually spent this one doing some cooking. First up—Smitten Kitchen’s Strawberry and Rhubarb Crisp Bars. I’m not posting the recipe since I followed it pretty much to the letter.  Definitely worth the (minimal) effort—delicious and does not make me feel too guilty for indulging, which is great since I had to buy A TON of rhubarb from the one grocery store I could find that sold it—so we may be eating a lot of these bars over the next week or so.

Next, a Memorial Day bbq “feast.” We were lucky enough to enjoy delicious cookout fare (e.g., burgers, sausages, grilled veggies,etc.) at a friend’s house on Saturday but I still felt the need to cook up something barbeque-y to celebrate the start of summer. I did a little BBQ chicken in the oven using a combo of a Smitten Kitchen’s dryrub oven barbeque chicken and another blogger’s baked chicken recipe (which we are also big fans of here). It turned out well. Although it definitely did not have any kind of crispiness to the skin (if that is something that is important to you). I don’t really go for chicken skin in general (one reason I am not a big fan of fried chicken) so this was fine with me. Moist, flavorful and pretty smoky for not coming within spitting distance of a grill. I served it with corn on the cob and this potato salad.

  

Hope you too spent some quality time with good friends, family and food this weekend. See you back here again...(dare I say) soon??!?

 Gratuitous photo of child-- nothing to do with the rest of the post!

BBQ Chicken (Minus the Grill)

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Hellobee

Ingredients:

3 TBL brown sugar

2 TBL smoked paprika

1 teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon cumin

¾ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon white pepper

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (any bone-in/skin-on chicken will do)

BBQ sauce of your choosing

1. Make the dry rub by mixing together the first 6 ingredients. This is enough for two recipes if you are using 4 chicken thighs so I poured half into a small bowl and put the rest in an airtight container for another use.

2. Preheat the oven to 350. Place chicken in a baking dish. Rub the chicken—under the skin and on-top of the skin—with the spice mixture. Be generous!

3. Pour a little water in the bottom of the baking dish—up to ½ inch or so. This time, I just put enough in to make sure the bottom was wet. Cover with aluminum foil.

4. Bake for about 50 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Remove foil and pour a TBL or so of BBQ sauce onto each chicken thigh. Up the oven temperature to 400 degrees—put the chicken back in for 10 minutes or so until the BBQ sauce gets a little caramelized. Serve with additional BBQ on the side (if desired).

I'm Back

Now that Christmas is long since past, I thought it was about time I got back to blogging. I'll be honest-- this Fall really kicked my butt; between long work hours, the holidays, and a general sense of fatigue I did not have much time for writing or cooking. But I'm going to try and be better in the new year and at least keep the five or so of you still reading this thing up to date on what's going on in our lives....with a few recipes here and there to boot.

So what have we been up to lately? Mostly catching up on rest and trying to get a few new things done around the house. Over the last couple of weeks we've tried to make our entryway more appealing (it's my least favorite space in the entire house) and have begun plans for completing our living room area on the main level. More details on both of those to come.

And with the three-day weekend, I actually spent some time in the kitchen-- something that is becoming more and more of a rarity these days. With the cold weather we've been having I decided to give my BFF's chicken pot pie recipe a try. While a bit time consuming, it was not terribly difficult-- especially given I decided to forego the homemade pie dough and opted instead for the pre-made refrigerated variety. My one quibble is the proportions-- the original recipe said it made 4 individual pot pies. I decided to halve it so that it would be just enough for Jason and me to eat for dinner last night. Uh....yeah. I don't know what size of individual pot pie Ina likes to serve, but the halved recipe seemed like plenty for four. It was so much that I had to skip the individual sizes and put it in an 8 inch square baking dish instead. And while still tasty, The crust to pie ratio wasn't quite the same. Oh well-- live and learn. Next time I will quarter the recipe :)

Chicken Pot Pie
Adapted from Ina Garten

Note: This recipe is half of the original; I would say it serves 4

Ingredients:
2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
1 yellow onion, diced
6 TBL butter
1/4 cup plus 2 TBL flour
5 cups chicken stock
2 TBL heavy cream
1 cup baby carrots, sliced thinly
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen pearl onions
2 TBL minced parsley
1 piece of refrigerated pie dough (or you can make your own)
1 egg

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Place chicken breasts on foil lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for 40 minutes or until cooked through. Set aside to cool. When they are cool enough to handle, shred or cube meat and set aside.

2. Heat chicken stock. Meanwhile, chop the yellow onion and carrots.

3. Turn oven up to 375. Heat butter in a large pot or dutch oven. Add chopped onion and cook until translucent, about 7-10 minutes. Add flour and stir constantly for about 2 minutes. Slowly add the warm chicken stock and simmer on low for about 1-2 minutes until thick. Add cream, salt and pepper.

4. Add chicken, carrots, peas, pearl onions and parsley. Turn off the heat. Spoon pot pie filling into either 4 individual ovenproof bowls or an 8 inch square casserole/baking dish.

5. Beat egg with 2 TBL water to make an egg wash. Brush sides of baking dish(es) with egg wash and top with pie dough (if using individual bowls, you'll want to cut the dough so there is about an inch hanging over the bowls). Press the dough around the edges of the baking dish(es) to seal. Brush the top of the pie with egg wash and cut 2-3 slits in the top to allow steam to escape.

6. Place dish(es) on a baking sheet and place into oven. Bake for about 45-60 minutes until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Let rest for 5-10 minutes and serve.

Sunday Dinner: Chicken Pot Pie Edition

It seems like everywhere I've turned lately, I've come across recipes for chicken pot pie. Magazines, blogs, they all seem to be focused on this particular dish of late. I guess it makes sense-- chicken pot pie seems like a good candidate for cold weather fare. After pursuing a number of recipes, I decided to give Faith Durand's (of The Kitchn) version a try. With fennel and lemon as main ingredients/flavors and a biscuit (rather than pastry) crust, I thought hers might be a more interesting take on things.

 The verdict? The flavors were great-- loved the fennel, loved the lemon, and loved the white wine sauce. But something was not right about the biscuit crust. I followed the recipe to a "t" but it didn't get all light and puffy as I had thought. I wonder if I made it too soon in the process and the dough got dried out. I don't know. Next time I think I will swap out half of the potatoes for carrots for a little variation (and color) but all in all it was a good meal, perfect for a casual winter evening. One thing to note--this is definitely a weekend meal. From start to finish it took about 2 hours to make. But it makes a ton so we'll be eating it at least one other time this week.

Lemony Chicken Pot Pie with Parsley Biscuit Crust
Adapted slightly from Faith Durand

Ingredients:

For the biscuit topping:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped fine
1/4 cup butter, cold, cut into pieces
1/2 cup milk

For the chicken:
1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup flour
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 fennel bulb, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/2-inch chunks (Or 1/2 potatoes and 1/2 diced carrots)
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3/4 cup frozen peas

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish.
2. Prepare the biscuit dough. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and parsley in a medium bowl. Add the cold butter and work it in with your fingers or pastry blender until the flour mixture resembles soft bread crumbs. Add the milk, stirring until the dough just comes together. Set aside.
3. Cut the chicken breasts into large bite-size pieces. Toss the pieces in a bowl with the flour and salt and pepper. Set aside.
4. Heat a generous drizzle of olive oil in a large Dutch oven or saute pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and brown for 6 minutes, turning halfway through. Remove chicken with slotted spoon and set aside (it won't be cooked through yet).
5. Reduce the heat to medium. Add onion, fennel, and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the potatoes and cook for a few minutes. Add white wine, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer, scrapping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
6. Add broth and chicken and season with salt and pepper. Let the mixture simmer for 5-7 minutes until the liquid starts to thicken. Add frozen peas.
7. Laddle the stew into the prepared baking dish. Drop the biscuit dough across the top. Bake, uncovered, for 35-40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked and the biscuit topping is golden brown. Serve.

Back to Normal

Today marks week three of my new job (first week=orientation, second week= first week of actual work) as well as my first day back in the saddle dinner-wise. Yes, after two weeks of make-ahead and/or lack luster meals, I am back with a new recipe. I guess my adjustment period is officially over (at least until I start having to work more than my required 8.5 hours)!

For my first real night back in the kitchen I decided to try a stir-fry. Protein, veggies, and a tasty sauce—all seemed like a good (and healthy) way to get back into the swing of things. The Asian-inspired Chicken and Eggplant in Black Bean Sauce definitely lived up to expectations.  The one thing I would differently next time? Add a little more heat. Otherwise, it was a pretty close to perfect weeknight meal.

Chicken and Eggplant in Black Bean Sauce
Adapted from Serious Eats

Ingredients:
4 boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1 ½ inch pieces (the recipe called for thighs but you could probably use chicken breasts if you’d prefer)
1 large Asian eggplant (I used a round variety), cut into 1 inch cubes
½ medium yellow onion, large diced
½ green bell pepper, large diced
2 TBL black bean sauce
2 TBL lime juice
2 TBL honey
2 TBL fresh grated ginger
¼ teaspoon garlic-chile paste (would use more next time if you like a little heat)
1 TBL chicken stock or water
4 TBL vegetable oil

1.Whisk black bean sauce, lime juice, honey, ginger, chile-garlic paste, and water or chicken stock.
2.Pour oil into a wok (or cast iron pan if you don’t have a wok) and heat over medium-high. When hot, add chicken. Stir often for 3-4 minutes or until the chicken is done. Using a slotted spoon, remove chicken (leaving as much of the oil as you can) and set aside.
3.Add eggplant, bell pepper, and onion and cook for about 5 minutes until the eggplant is golden and tender.
4.Add chicken back to pan and pour black bean sauce over top. Stir and cook for one minute until everything is cooked through.
5.Serve with white rice.