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chicken

Gearing up for the 4th: BBQ chicken with corn and avocado salad

by Patricia on July 1, 2009 · 5 comments

When I was a kid, my parents owned a fried chicken restaurant for a couple of years (”TJ’s Fried Chicken”… I don’t know who TJ was, they bought the business with the name). I ate a little too much chicken during those years. I would go to the restaurant after school to help out cleaning up and sometimes taking orders. My after school snack was anything we served in the restaurant, most of it was fried (chicken, egg rolls, biscuits, rice…) and as an eleven year old, that was A-Okay with me. But after a couple of years of after school snacks, I was “over” chicken… or as my friend PJ might say “Chicken and I broke up.” I do still love fried chicken on occasion, but generally I have a love-hate relationship with chicken. So imagine my surprise when I started craving BBQ chicken. Usually when my stomach wants BBQ, I think of ribs or pulled pork or maybe brisket. But chicken? I don’t crave chicken. (Well, except for an occasional perfect roast chicken).

Most of the BBQ chicken that I can remember was just grilled chicken with a too-thick layer of Kraft BBQ sauce slapped on top as the chicken was removed from the grill. But my craving was undeterred… I wanted good barbecue chicken. Could I make it? Was it possible? Then I picked up the July/August issue of Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food and in its pages found barbecue chicken complete with a recipe for a classic barbecue sauce. Kismet?

I’ve already made barbecue chicken twice in the last week. At the risk of sounding immodest, I have to say that my barbecue chicken is fantastique.

I started with a whole chicken and cut it into 10 pieces (here is a helpful video from Chow on how to cut a chicken into 8 pieces. I cut the breasts in half so I got 10). Yes, it would be easier to buy a chicken already cut up, but it is usually cheaper to buy a whole chicken, plus you get to keep the back and other bits to make stock later, so I like buying whole chickens. (If you choose to buy a chicken already cut up, I would completely understand. I kind of enjoy it… but then I always liked dissecting things in anatomy class. If that makes me weird, I can accept it).

I seasoned all of the pieces (skin side and underneath) with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

I don’t know a ton about grills. I’m not going to enter into an argument over gas vs charcoal. I bought a Weber Baby Q about five years ago. I bought it because everyone I spoke to about grills raved about Weber and it has a cast iron grill surface… which I love. Anyway, before I gush too much about my grill let’s move on. I turned the grill on high to get it scorching hot. Brushed it off to remove any bits from the last round of grilling. Then carefully with a couple of paper towels wadded up, brushed on some canola oil (Dan suggested paper towels instead of a brush because it also cleans it a little while applying the oil).

I left the grill to heat another 2-3 minutes then arranged the chicken on the grill surface skin side down. I turned the grill down to medium-high, closed the lid, and set my timer for 10-12 minutes. There was a lot of sizzling and smoke… a lot of smoke… which was a little worrisome at first but then I realized that it was just a part of the process for creating perfect grilled chicken (I got the general instructions for grilling chicken from Everyday Food July/August 2009 issue under “Direct Grilling”). When the timer went off, I flipped the chicken and set the timer again for about five minutes. At the end of this timer, I brushed the chicken with about half a cup of barbecue sauce (recipe below) and closed the grill for another minute or so. At this point the chicken should be cooked through, but cut through the thickest piece to be sure. The barbecue sauce should look almost like a glaze… not just a glob of sauce on top (in my opinion). Forks are optional, napkins mandatory.

As an accompaniment to the BBQ chicken, I made a corn and avocado salad. It is super simple and tastes like summer.

Recipes

Classic Barbecue Sauce

(adapted from Everyday Food, Jul/Aug 2009)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small white onion, diced small
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
2 teaspoons ground mustard
2 cups water
1 can (28 ounces) tomato sauce
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground pepper

1. In a medium saucepan over medium, heat oil. Cook onion until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
2. Add tomato paste and mustard. Cook until brick red in color, about 5 minutes.
3. Add 2 cups water, tomato sauce, molasses, worcestershire sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper. Stir until smooth.
4. Bring to a simmer. Partially cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer about 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
5. Season to taste with vinegar, salt and pepper.
* cool completely before using.
* Refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 4 months.
* Makes 5 1/2 cups.

Corn and avocado salad

5 ears sweet white corn (5 because the sale was 5/$2), cleaned of silks and husks removed
1/2 medium sweet onion, diced

1-2 medium jalapeños, chopped into small dice (use less if you don’t like spicy or replace with a small sweet pepper)

small handful of cilantro, chopped (about 2 tablespoons-ish)
juice of 2 limes
2 medium avocados
salt and pepper

1. Using a knife, cut the kernels from the ears of corn.
2. In a medium bowl, mix corn kernels, onion, jalapeño and cilantro. Squeeze over the juice of upt to 2 limes (I start with 1 then taste it. Usually end up using between 1 1/2 and 2, but it probably depends on the size and juiciness of your limes).
3. Salt and pepper to taste.
4. You can either lay the avocado on top and give it an additional squirt of lime juice, or mix the chopped avocado into the corn.
5. Enjoy.

Tagged as: barbecue chicken, barbecue sauce, chicken, corn and avocado salad, fourth of july, salad, sauce, weber baby q

5 comments

The journey, part 2: Top gun and chicken salad

by Patricia on May 16, 2009 · 2 comments

in recipes

I woke up in Las Cruces… When I made my way downstairs for breakfast, I thought for a moment I had walked into heaven. The buffet-breakfast at the hotel was filled to the brim with Air Force pilots in their flight suits. Hello, Top Gun. From a quick glance around, I estimated about half were tall and good looking. Or was it just the uniform?

That’s from the journal I kept when I drove cross-country over six years ago. It’s too bad there isn’t more to the story than that, but I’m a wallflower… more Walter Mitty than Mae West. But it’s moments like that that made the trip more than getting from point A to point B. I stopped to notice things. I looked around. I finally had the blinders off. The ingredients of my trip were simple: me, my car, and music with a sprinkling of thoughts and sunsets. I drove off into the sunset everyday for over a week. And it felt right.

Chicken salad is kind of like that. It’s ingredients are simple, but if you pay attention it can be more than a sandwich. It has subtle textures and flavors that come together in a quiet song. And it feels right. Roast chicken is pretty and dressed for company. But chicken salad is that quiet, perfect moment alone.

The chicken salad I make is pretty basic: chicken, celery, onion, salt, pepper, mayonnaise. If I have an apple around, I may dice up half of it and add it as well. Walnuts or pecans certainly don’t hurt either. I’ve even been known to add grapes. But most of the time the basic chicken salad is all I need.

I had this chicken salad for lunch the other day, and I was surprised by how much more pronounced the rosemary was in it than the roast the night before. If you are more patient than I am, you might have this on toasted wheat bread perhaps, or maybe with crackers, or some other way that requires more than a fork. If you are not more patient than I am, you will probably eat it straight from the bowl.

I never measure when I make this, but this time, just so I could be more specific than “take some chicken and add a little onion and some celery… and a glop or two of mayonnaise”, I measured. You’re welcome. I know how frustrating it can be to be given a “recipe” like tht (my mom is the queen of not measuring). But even though I’m giving you measurements, keep in mind it really is just a formula. Tinker with the ratios until you find your happy place… and throw in half an apple once in a while.

Chicken Salad

1 1/2 cups chicken, chopped into bite-size chunks
1/4 cup onion, diced
1/3 cup celery, diced
about 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a medium-sized bowl, mix chicken, onion, celery and mayonnaise.

2. Taste it. Adjust the salt and pepper to your liking.

3. Taste it some more. Make a sandwich. Or just eat it from the bowl… but most of all, enjoy.

Tagged as: chicken, chicken salad, las cruces, mae west, salad, top gun, walter mitty

2 comments

The journey: perfect roast chicken

by Patricia on May 15, 2009 · 4 comments

in recipes

When I am traveling, I usually want to get to my destination as quickly as possible. If it isn’t too expensive, I opt for the nonstop flight. If I’m driving, I limit my stops to the necessities. I just want to get there. But every now and then, I chill out enough to enjoy the journey. Like when I moved to California. I drove. All by my lonesome all the way from Savannah to San Francisco. And it was one of the best trips I’ve taken. I stopped off for beignets at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. Took a detour through Roswell and Carlsbad, New Mexico. And took my time driving up the coast of California.

Roswell was not as interesting as I had hoped and it smelled like horse manure. I’m not an UFO freak or anything, but I was still hoping to find something more interesting than the random creepy guy who asked me for a ride home… and the smell. I like horses. And if I’m around a horse, I don’t mind the smell so much. But when you get out of your car in a new place and don’t see horses, and your in the middle of town, you might find it kind of odd to smell horse manure. Or at least I did. (If you happen to be from Roswell or a really big fan, I don’t mean any disrespect. I’m sure it’s a lovely place). By the way, I think everyone should go to Carlsbad Caverns at least once. It was beautiful and amazing… and a great place to think. I did a lot of thinking on that trip. But that’s a story for another day.

This is a picture of rosemary. It smells a lot better than horse manure.

Today I thought I’d talk a little about a journey. Not my journey to California, but my journey to chicken salad. I had a craving the other day for chicken salad. And chicken soup. So instead of going the easy route and buying a rotisserie chicken or cooking up some chicken breasts for instant gratification, I decided to enjoy the journey. I decided to roast a chicken.

Truth be told, I’m not a huge fan of roast chicken. Or turkey. I mean, I “like” them. And I’ll eat them. But I usually prefer the things that go with the roast chicken more than the chicken itself. Things like a beautiful salad or roasted potatoes or hunks of crusty bread or glazed carrots… But I do like the idea of roast chicken. And I love the possibilities that it brings: chicken salad, soup or stock, chicken burritos, chicken fried rice, etc. And because of the idea and the possibilities, I love to roast chicken.

I first learned to roast a chicken from this recipe. But now I just work from memory. It’s an easy formula and it’s always good. In a nutshell, this is it: take a chicken, stuff it with 1 lemon cut into halves or quarters, and 1 head of garlic cut horizontally. Salt and pepper. Bake at 425 degrees for about 1 hour 15 minutes. And víola, perfect roast chicken. I’ve been making this chicken or variations of it for at least ten years now and each time it gets raves. I’m not trying to be uppity or brag. I mean,it isn’t really that special. If you do a search for roast chicken, there are many recipes and most boil down to a very similar formula. So I am not the keeper of some great secret. But it’s a formula and it works. That’s what I know.

I watched a Barefoot Contessa episode recently where she added thyme to her roast chicken, so this time I decided to use a little rosemary in mine. I went out on the deck to pick some… that plastic bin next to the rosemary is full of dirt and rocks that Dan’s boys collected. Apparently, boys like dirt… and sometimes it seems, they are made of dirt. But even a boy made of dirt will love this chicken.

Ta-da. This brings us to the first stop of our journey. It is lovely but not the final destination. We’ll continue the journey (to chicken salad!) next time…

Perfect Roast Chicken (adapted from M.S. Milliken & S. Feniger)

4-5 lb chicken, preferably all-natural or free range
1 lemon
1 head garlic
rosemary (about 4 sprigs about 4 inches each)
salt (I use Kosher)
fresh ground pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. Remove all the parts from the inside of the chicken.

3. Rinse the chicken and pat it dry.

4. Liberally salt and pepper inside and outside of the chicken. Place chicken breast side up in a roasting pan.

5. Cut the lemon into quarters. Cut the garlic in half horizontally. Stuff both of these and the rosemary into the chicken.

6. Tuck the wings under the body of the chicken. And if you have it, tie up the legs with kitchen string. (I don’t have kitchen string usually so I don’t usually tie up the legs, but in theory it helps the chicken cook more evenly. I haven’t had a problem though, so it’s up to you).

7. Bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the thickest part of the thigh reaches about 165. OR the juices run clear (not pink) when you pierce between the thigh and leg.

8. Let the chicken rest for 10-15 minutes before carving. Then dig in!

*Optional*

- Pour about 1/4 cup melted butter over the breasts before putting it into the oven. This keeps the skin moist. If you like it a little crisper, skip the butter (I usually do).

- Also, you could add to the roasting pan a couple of lemons cut into wedges and another head of garlic cut in half horizontally . I did this this last time and I made a sauce from the pan drippings which was very tart and lemony.

- To make a sauce or gravy: remove the chicken from the pan. I put the roasting pan directly on the stove and turn the burner on medium. Add about 1/4 cup of white wine and “deglaze” the pan (aka scrape the brown stuff off the bottom and let it become part of the liquid. hey, it’s all flavor). Add about 1-2 tablespoons of flour to the pan and whisk around until smooth. And then about 1/4 – 1/2 cup of chicken broth. Let simmer until it gets a little glossy. This is an imprecise formula and sometimes I get it thicker like gravy and other times it’s a thinner sauce. Play with the flour and liquid amounts to get it to the consistency you like. Taste it before you add any salt or other seasonings…

Tagged as: carlsbad caverns, chicken, chicken salad, road trip, roasted chicken, rosemary, roswell

4 comments