One Particular Kitchen » lunch

Chicken Française (lemon chicken)

Erin @ One Particular Kitchen — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:43:07 +0000

This recipe originally came from here, but has lived in a binder in my kitchen for years now. This is good chicken. Man catching chicken even. It’s crispy and juicy and lemony and fabulous. I gave this recipe to my sister a few years back and she’s married now. SEE?? Try this:

You will need:

1-2 pounds boneless chicken breast halves or thin chicken cutlets
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp plus 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp plus 1/4 tsp black pepper
3 large eggs
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice plus 1 whole lemon, thinly sliced

To prepare the goodness:

If using chicken breasts, pound to 1/4 inch thickness between two sheets of plastic wrap (I hate pounding chicken so I use the thin cutlets)
Combine flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in a shallow dish, and dredge chicken, patting to evenly coat with flour mix; set aside
Beat eggs in another dish and set aside
Heat oil in heavy skillet (preferably cast iron, of course) over medium heat until hot but not yet smoking
Working in batches, dip floured chicken into eggs, making sure chicken is well coated, then let excess drip back into bowl; carefully ease chicken into hot oil and cook, turning once, till both sides are golden brown and chicken is cooked through — this will take about three minutes a side or so
When cooked, transfer chicken to paper towel lined plate and tent with foil or put in the oven set at its lowest setting (i.e. a very slow oven — does anyone still say that?)
After all chicken is fried and set to keep warm, pour oil out of skillet (I use an old coffee can for the oil), then set the pan over low heat and melt the butter in the skillet
When butter is melted and stops foaming add wine, chicken broth and lemon juice. Crank the heat up a bit and boil, uncovered, stirring to release all the yummy brown bits that are stuck to the bottom of your pan. Season with remaining salt and pepper (1/4 tsp. of each)
Remove paper towels from chicken plate, then spoon sauce over chicken; top with sliced lemon and serve

Chile-lime-tequila compound butter

Erin @ One Particular Kitchen — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 22:38:51 +0000

I have to admit, I was a little intimidated by the thought of making compound butter. It just sounded so…. complicated? Fancy? Something?

WELL. It turns out it’s just adding yummy flavors to something already yummy: butter. I can do that! The Yankee was making our traditional Sunday night steaks and wanted something to give them a little kick. He found this recipe at Chow, and it was crazy easy to pull together.

You need:

6 Tbsp. butter, room temp (Chow said unsalted but I never have that)
1 minced jalapeño or serrano pepper, seeds and membranes removed (wear gloves, people. Or don’t rub your eyes after — duh)
1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice (about 1/2 a lime’s worth)
2 Tbsp. tequila
2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. kosher salt (which technically you could eliminate if using salted butter, but I like it salty)

Easy (who knew!) assembly:

Use a rubber spatula or mixer to soften butter till it’s very spreadable, then add remaining ingredients and mix till thoroughly combined (I never did get the very last bit of lime juice and tequila to incorporate, but it didn’t seem to affect the flavor)
Either smooth into cute ramekin or roll into a log in plastic wrap, and place butter in refrigerator to re-harden

That’s it! We put little pats of these on our steaks and it was awesome.

And I still have some left! Any suggestions for what else to do with it? I’m thinking kickin’ garlic bread is next.

Creamy crockpot chicken

Mama — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:41:52 +0000

You know what I hate? When a recipe tastes SO GOOD but photographs SO POORLY. Le sigh.

Shall I just spare you the picture? Because really, it doesn’t do it justice. Just try this (it’s so crazy easy — you just have to try) and then come back and tell me what you thought.

What you need:

A slow cooker
1 can of corn
1 can of black beans
1 jar of salsa
1 block of cream cheese
frozen chicken breasts — I used 2 but you could do up to 4 or 5 without adjusting ingredients and be fine

Instructions:

Put chicken breasts, corn (drained), beans (drained and rinsed) and salsa into the slow cooker and stir it up a bit
Cook on high for 4-5 hours or until chicken is cooked through
Add in block of cream cheese and cook another 30 minutes
Stir up mix to make the whole thing creamy, then serve chicken and sauce together

Do you see how easy that is? And that you must try it? Please do. Make it, eat it, love it, and agree with me that a picture of it is no indication of its actual greatness.

Chicken & dumplings

Erin @ One Particular Kitchen — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:03:57 +0000

Another classic Southern comfort food dish. Ahh…. so fabulous.

I learned to make this dish when I was just out of college and had a job that was more handling customers than washing diapers. For the record, I’ll take Cheerios over conference calls any day. This was one of those “oh I use some of this and a little of that and sometimes those — should I write this down?” sort of things, so I’m doing my best to turn it into an actual recipe.

Here’s what you’ll need for this:

4 chicken breasts or one roasted rotisserie chicken
2 cups flour
1/4 cup butter, cold
Chicken broth — about 2 quarts
2 Tbsp. or so cornstarch
Salt, pepper, onion powder

Let’s deal with the chicken first. Either boil or slow cook the chicken breasts, saving the water it was cooked in, or (timesaver alert!) buy a lovely already-roasted rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. Viola, my Grandma would wittily say, you’re halfway there. With either method, wait till the chicken is cooled and chop it into chunks; set aside for now.

Dumplings time! While the pot of broth is heating up, cut the butter into the flour like you’re making biscuits using either a pastry blender, a fork, or a few pulses of the food processor. Now sprinkle in some salt and pour in chicken broth, a little at a time, till the dough holds together enough to be able to roll it out — this will take somewhere around a cup or cup and a half, but it’s not a science. When the dough holds together, roll it out very thin and cut into strips about an inch wide, and two inches long. A pizza cutter is great for this! These, obviously, do not have to be anywhere near perfect.

Returning to your chicken broth: get a big pot of chicken it simmering — either the water you reserved from cooking the chicken breasts, or some homemade you might have in the freezer. If you’re using quarts of chicken broth, pour in one full quart plus whatever is left after making your dumplings. Bottom line: you want plenty in there so the dumplings have room to cook.

After the broth has come to a nice simmer, start carefully dropping in the dumplings; they’ll all sink to the bottom at first and that’s fine. Let them simmer gently for about half an hour, swirling the pot around every so often. You don’t want to do too much stirring because the dumplings are delicate as they’re cooking and you don’t want to make them all into a giant ball of mush; some gentle moving around with a wooden spoon is fine.

Thickening time! Whisk about 2 Tbsp. of cornstarch into 1/4 cup of cold water till it’s all dissolved and there are no lumps. Pour this mixture into the pot of dumplings and stir gently, then add in your chopped chicken.

Sprinkle in some salt, some pepper and some onion powder, bring the whole mess back up to a simmer, then reduce heat so it’s just below simmer. Let it cook another half hour or so to give the cornstarch time to work its magic and thicken things up and for all the flavors to get to know each other properly.

Now serve! This is crazy good with green beans (cooked with bacon fat, duh) or just on its own. It also freezes like a dream so I make a giant pot once a month or so and freeze quart size bags of it.

Tamales

Erin @ One Particular Kitchen — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:56:10 +0000

It’s another recipe from The Cousin! You remember her, right? The Cousin of Salsa Roja fame? Yeah, that girl. So you know it’ll be good. Let’s get to it!

Before you do anything, get a bunch of corn husks soaking in water.

You will need for the tamale sauce:

3 tablespoons oregano
4 tablespoons cumin
2 onions, quartered
2 cloves garlic
3 oz. package dried Ancho chiles
3 oz. package dried California chiles

Bloom the oregano and cumin in olive oil: warm a bit of olive oil in a small skillet, and toss in the spices; stir till you just start to smell them, then remove from heat
Put onions, garlic and chiles in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then let it rest
When cooled off, run through a food processor, then warm back up
When hot again, add 2 tablespoons sugar, and salt to taste

For the tamale masa:

1 cup grease, Crisco, or pork fat (I had bacon grease in the fridge, of course)
3 cups dried corn masa (such as Maseca)
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup tamale sauce (above)

Beat grease in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment
Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl
Add tamale sauce to dry ingredients
Add a bit of water if it looks too dry — you want it to feel kind of like Playdoh
Slowly add mixture to grease in stand mixer and mix until smooth; add more water or dry masa as necessary

To make your tamales:

Remove husks from water and pat dry (don’t have to completely dry, just make them a little easier to handle)
Spread masa on smooth side of husks
Put filling in the middle of the masa; roll the husk tightly, then fold up the end (see video here — not mine — for a very quick demonstration)
Stand them upright, open side up, in a tamale or vegetable steamer for 90 minutes. Fantastic hint from The Cousin: put pennies in the bottom of your pot under the steamer; if they start clanging around you’ll know you need to add more water

After they’re finished cooking, discard husks and serve with your tamale sauce. SO YUMMY, and great comfort food for the cold weather upon us. Enjoy!

Mojo fajitas

Erin @ One Particular Kitchen — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:57:05 +0000

Hungry yet?

This was one of the prettiest dishes! We had a couple straggler peppers in the garden and some yummy skirt steak in the fridge. Add in some shrimp, some onions, some mojo sauce and a squeeze of lime, and life is good.

It was the weekend so the Yankee and I made this together. Into a large bowl we put:

Thinly-sliced skirt steak (cut against the grain, not with it)
Sliced red peppers
Sliced green peppers
Chopped jalapeños
Enough mojo marinade to cover
Shrimp in mojo marinade in a separate bowl

And let that sit a couple hours. Then you’re ready to cook!

Put a large skillet over medium heat and add about a tablespoon of oil
Pour off most of the marinade (you don’t want things swimming in the skillet), then pour the meat/peppers mix into the skillet
Cook and stir until meat is almost cooked and vegetables are starting to get tender
Add in shrimp (you’re doing this last so it won’t overcook) and continue to cook the whole mix until everything is done
Squeeze a lime over the whole thing and eat up! Serve with homemade tortillas, mashed black beans and fire roasted salsa or salsa roja.

Chili

Mama — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:14:33 +0000

This, like a lot of my recipes, is cobbled together from so many different recipes and word of mouth that I’m not even sure where it started. It involves my Mama’s concoction of spices, though, so it’s awesome. And spicy. Feel free to tone down the spices and add more later if it looks like too much!

1 lb. breakfast sausage
1 lb. ground chuck
1 medium chopped onion
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 can dark kidney beans
1 can light kidney beans
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can Rotel
1 small can green chiles
1/3 cup chili powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
Water or beer

To assemble:

Brown the meats and onion together till the meat is cooked through
Add all the cans and all the spices and stir well
Adjust consistency as you like it — add a little beer or water till it looks just right
Simmer at will. I love this cooked all day in the slow cooker, or on the stove top in a heavy pan (such as a cast iron dutch oven)
Serve with cheese, Fritos, and cornbread!

Pizza Rolls

Mama — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:40:24 +0000

I was trying to get the kiddo to bed one day this week, and I was thinking about cinnamon rolls. Look, I’m not proud, but that’s what it was. Then I was thinking that it would behoove me to actually think about what to make for supper the next day instead. And then I was thinking that I had dough in the fridge that I should use.

And then I was thinking about pizza rolls.

So the next day, here’s what I took out:

My icebox dough (you can also buy dough in the deli at Publix, which I love)
Pizza sauce (pick your favorite)
Pepperoni, chopped (or whatever toppings float your boat – but chopped so it’s easier to slice through)
Mozzarella cheese
Dental floss (but not for what you think)

From there it was easy!

Preheat the oven to 350
Roll out the dough into a rectangle
Top with a thin layer of sauce — you don’t want things getting soggy
Sprinkle with chopped pepperoni (etc.) and cheese
Roll it up! I rolled from the short end because I didn’t need to end up with that many rolls — just the Yankee and I were eating
Break out the dental floss and use it to cut the rolls: slide the floss under the roll, cross the ends over the top like you’re going to tie a knot, then pull them all the way through the dough so the floss is straight again; this slices it clean and keeps your rolls from getting flattened as you slice
Place the rolls in an oiled casserole dish with the pretty sides showing (if you’re making these for a party and want them easier to handle individually bake them in a muffin tray instead)
Sprinkle the top with more cheese
Bake at 350F till the cheese on top is melty and bubbly

Enjoy!

Homemade corn tortillas

Mama — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:05:24 +0000

I have a new toy! After doing a few batches of flour tortillas rolled out by hand, I realized that, um, I’m not very good at rolling out an actual circle. I bought this cast iron tortilla press from Amazon and I love it! I went with cast iron rather than lighter weight aluminum because the weight of the press does a lot of the work for me, and because I just have a thing for cast iron. It makes me happy.

I started by watching this clip — Alton Brown making tortillas. The step of lining the tortilla press with a ziploc bag is not one to be skipped! The negative reviews of the tortilla press on Amazon were folks complaining that the masa sticks to the press, but the dough should actually never come in direct contact with the press. Issue solved!

I used the recipe on the back of the Maseca bag The Cousin bought when she was here for salsapalooza — for four tortillas:

1/2 cup Maseca
1/3 cup water
pinch of salt

Really, could that be any easier? Mix the ingredients for about 2 minutes to form a soft dough, then divide into four equal portions.

After lightly pressing the tortillas (the first time I pressed too hard and ended up with paper-thin tortillas — not good!), I slapped them on a hot griddle for about 45 seconds on each side. Since these tortillas were destined for quesadillas I didn’t want to cook them all the way through, since they’d be meeting the heat again:

See how they’re just barely cooked? And already yummy?

Then I added last night’s leftover steak, sliced thin against the grain, with some tomatoes from the garden and some cheese. Sandwiched between two tortillas, this all went in the quesadilla maker (which gets a ridiculous amount of use in our house).

End result:

Love it! Crispy outsides, warm gooey/cheesy insides. Served with sliced tomatoes, this was fantastic. And quick. And easy! Definitely give this one a try.

Crispy oven roasted potatoes

Mama — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:34:58 +0000

Can you tell how crispy these are? This is one of our very favorite side dishes. And all you need is a potato, some butter, some olive oil and some spices. Yay for simple! We’ll start with a soak in hot water to remove some of the starch from the potatoes, which will allow them to to really crisp up in the oven Here’s how to whip these up:

Cut a baking potato or a few red potatoes into bite size pieces and put the pieces in a bowl of hot tap water to soak. Let them soak at least 20 minutes, but mine sat in the water for a good 40 minutes last night and were fantastic
Preheat the oven to 400F, and put your potatoes in a single layer on a couple paper towels to dry
In a large cast iron pan melt a pat or two of butter over medium heat and add a Tbsp. or two of olive oil; adjust amounts for how much potato you’re using — you want enough butter/olive oil mixture to thoroughly coat all the potatoes
Pat your potatoes dry one more time and toss them into the skillet. Stir to coat with butter and olive oil, then liberally sprinkle on the spice(s) of your choice — I used Miracle Blend last night, but it’s also great with Lawry’s or dry ranch seasoning or…? Make it your own!
Roast at 400F for about 30 minutes, stirring or shaking around halfway through to ensure even browning. They’re done when a fork goes in easily and the edges are starting to brown

If you don’t have a cast iron pan (go get one! They’re cheap!) you can mix the potatoes, butter, olive oil and spices in a bowl, then roast on a cookie sheet. Couldn’t be easier!