Chicken Stew with Chive Dumplings

There are times when you stumble across something and it makes you so happy and you feel like it is just meant to be. And then for reasons of the universe (in this case entirely weather related) you’re separate for what seems like an eternity. And then when you finally do reunite it is that much sweeter. I just described my relationship with chicken and dumplings. A late winter discovery. My complete inability to pull out  my dutch oven when it’s 25 degrees out. The result = our separation. But, now we’re…..reunited and it feels so good, reunited cause we understood, there’s one perfect fit…..Peaches & Herb…..anybody? anybody? Bueller? ……Awkward.

So ya, comfort food. I had some dental work done recently and chewing really isn’t my strong suit right now (neither is not complaining about said dental work, but what can ya do?). It was also 6 degrees on Sunday morning. yes, I said 6 degrees. Ridiculous! Not only is this warm, comforting and requires very little chewing, but it also makes your house smell heavenly.

Chicken and Chive Dumplings (from Smitten Kitchen)

Serves 6 to 8 people

Ingredients:

Stew:

5 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (for me, this meant 16 thighs), seasoned generously with salt and pepper

4 tbsp olive oil

4 tbsp butter (yup, butter, real butter, i don’t cook with it often so savour this moment folks)

2 leeks, sliced** (see the notes at the bottom about slicing and rinsing leeks for this recipe)

1 large onion, diced

6 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup dry sherry (you can substitute brandy if you don’t have sherry)

4 1/2 cups chicken broth

1/4 cup whole milk (it’s important you don’t use skim or low-fat milk here )

1 tsp fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

1 cup frozen green peas

3 tbsp fresh tarragon leaves, chopped

Dumplings:

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup fresh chives, finely chopped

1 cup whole milk

3 tbsp reserved chicken fat (bear with me, you will get this during the cooking process for the stew – so don’t go asking your local food store for reserved chicken fat like a crazy person)

For the stew: Heat a dutch oven on the stove to medium-high heat. Pour in 2 tbsp of olive oil and place half of the chicken thighs in the pot, skin side down. Cook until skin has browned (about 5 to 7 minutes), then flip and brown the other side. Remove to a platter and repeat with the rest fo the chicken. Once you have removed the chicken from the pot remove all the skin and discard.

Drain the chicken fat into a heat-proof bowl (I say heat proof b/c there may have been a plastic tupperware and scalding chicken fat situation at one point – melted plastic does not a tasty dinner make). Return the dutch oven to the stove, still at medium-high heat and put the butter in the pot. Once the butter is melted add the onions and leeks. Saute until soft (about 5 minutes). Stir in the flour. Then whisk in the sherry, being sure to scrape up any brown bits at the bottom of the pot. Add the milk and chicken broth and whisk so there are no lumps. Add the bay leaf and thyme and all the chicken (including any juices that have accumulated on the platter). Make sure all the chicken is nicely nestled in the pot, cover and let simmer for 1 hour.

During this time take a nap or something. Just don’t make the dumpling batter until right before you are about to use it. It doesn’t do it any good to sit around for an hour.

After the hour, remove the chicken to a platter (if you’re using the same one clean it – salmonella does not make you friends). Remove all the meat from the bone and return the meat to the pot, discard the bone. Add the peas and tarragon to the pot.

For the dumplings: Now you can make the dumpling batter. In a bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt and chives. Add the milk to your reserved chicken fat and microwave until it is warm (30 to 45 seconds). Add the milk and chicken fat to the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until entirely incorporated.

Return the stew to a simmer. Using a spoon, place golf ball size portions of the dumpling batter onto the top of the stew. Leave about a 1/4 of an inch between each dumpling. Place the lid on the dutch over and allow to simmer until the dumplings have doubled in size, about 15 minutes.

This isn’t exactly a weeknight wonder. It’s a tad time-consuming and it’s worth every single second!

Thanks to some good antibiotics and the miracle I like to call Advil, I think I am headed for more solid food, and thankfully, a wedding day that doesn’t involve a chipmunk cheek! Oh happy day!!!!!

***How to slice a leek. Cut off the green end and discard. Slice the leek lengthwise up the middle. Then slice the leek into crescent-shaped circles across the bottom. Now that you’re got the layers separated into small slices you need to rinse the leek. Leeks tend to have sand between their layers. It’s important before you use them to rinse them. Separate the layers and soak them in a bowl of water. This allows all the sand to fall to the bottom. Then drain the water and dry them in a tea towel.

Chicken and Sausage Bake

This may be one of my most requested recipes (behind lasagna of course, nothing can compete with carbs, cheese and wine – don’t even bother!). Promise you’ll still come back, even when I’ve given away all my good recipe secrets?

So lets all give a big hooray for one pot wonders!!!!!! If you’re someone who I have served this to when you came for dinner – I worked so much harder than the instructions I am about to give when I made this for you……I promise…..

Chicken and Sausage Bake

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts or chicken legs with the thigh attached if you prefer dark meat

4 hot or mild Italian sausages

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp dijon mustard

2 tbsp olive oil

5 grinds of black pepper

1 small bulb of fennel, sliced (to slice fennel, cut off the frawns (the finger looking things), slice the bulb into quarters and cut out the core, then slice into strips)

2 pints of cherry tomatoes (I find it extra fun to get the multicoloured ones – ya, those are the kind of things I find extra fun, great.)

2 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped

2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped

2 tsp fresh oregano, chopped

2 large cloves of garlic, chopped

4 full sprigs of rosemary, still on the stalk.

Whisk together the balsamic vinegar, dijon, olive oil and black pepper and coat the chicken. Allow to marinate for at least 2 hours.

Turn the oven on to 375 degrees. In a baking dish (that will snuggly fit the chicken and sausage) toss the fennel, cherry tomatoes, chopped herbs and garlic. Add a glug of olive oil and toss until they are all well coated.

Place the marinated chicken on top of the bed of vegetables. Squeeze the sausages into the gaps between the chicken. Use your left over rosemary sprigs to tuck in between some of the chicken and sausage.

Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes to one hour, until the chicken and sausage are cooked through.

To serve, toss the full rosemary sprigs in the garbage and remove the chicken and sausage to a large serving dish using tongs. Then, using a slotted spoon, remove the cherry tomatoes and fennel and spoon over the chicken and sausage.

The cherry tomatoes will have slightly burst making the most amazing sauce for the chicken and sausage!

I typically serve this over garlic mashed potatoes with a very simple arugula, lemon and parmesan salad on the side.

Winner winner chicken dinner!

Roasted Salmon with Mango Salsa

My flip-flops broke over a month ago and I haven’t replaced them. I haven’t had our air conditioning on since 1992 (or July). I bought a bouquet of fall flowers for the front hall table. I clearly am embracing fall. However, apparently not in the kitchen.

This dinner is brought to you by the theme words “fresh” and “summery”. Spell check says summery is not a word? seriously?

Roasted Salmon with Mango Salsa

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 pieces of Salmon (freshness really makes all the difference, so don’t skimp!)

1 ripe mango, finely diced

1/2 a green pepper, finely diced

1/2 a red onion, finely diced

2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped (I lied about trying to do more cilantro-free recipes apparently)

1 pinch of cumin

the juice of 1/2 a lime

Set your oven to 450 degrees. Place the salmon skin side down and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on how thick your fish is. My go-to rule is 10 minutes for every inch of thickness.

In a bowl combine the mango, green pepper, red onion, cilantro, cumin and lime juice. Mix.

Top each piece of salmon with a liberal amount of salsa and serve (at this point I am assuming you have managed to not eat the entire bowl of salsa before the salmon has finished cooking – good luck!).

Want to know the best part about this? It actually works really well at room temperature. This translates into no need to worry about your timing – you can prepare everything ahead of time if need be! It is also equally as delicious with chicken!!!!!

Quick, someone send me a new pair of flip-flops!

Smashed Sweet Potato with Feta and Cilantro

I’m starting to think if you’re not a cilantro fan this blog isn’t very kind to you. Oops!  I’ll try to post some recipes that aren’t as heavy on it. This on could easily do without it. You could add parsley instead or just leave it out all together.

A lot of the time speed and simpleness outweighs creativity when it comes to side dishes when I’m at the helm. We eat a ton of sweet potato, but usually in the form of oven fries or just plain mashed. I know, yawn.

Smashed Sweet Potato with Feta and Cilantro (courtesy of Jamie Oliver)

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes, quartered

1 yellow potato, quartered

1/2 a lemon

1/4 cup water

2 ounces feta cheese

1 fresh red chili, seeded and finely diced (or you could always use chili flakes if you don’t have a fresh chili)

1/3 cup of fresh cilantro

In a pot place the sweet and yellow potato and 1/2 a lemon. Make sure they all fit nice and snug. Put 1/4 cup of water in the bottom.

Place a lid on the pot, bring the water to a boil – this will take 2 secs, it’s only 1/4 cup of water. Then turn to medium high heat and steam the potatoes for about 15 minutes until completely cooked through. (You can also do this in the microwave. Just use a microwave safe dish with a tightly fitting lid and microwave on high for 15 minutes).

Get out a large cutting board (I use this cutting board to chop the chili and then just leave the chopped chili right on the board). put your cilantro on top of the diced chili and run your knife through it a few times so it’s roughly chopped. Place the feta on top and do the same to the feta.

Toss the lemon and drain any excess liquid from the pot. mash the potato very roughly with a fork. Turn the potatoes onto the cutting board on top of the other ingredients and chop and mix. This is very rough, no need to have smoothly mash potato. Just chop to mix in the cilantro, feta and chili.

Serve right off the cutting board.

How’s that for a spicy Monday?

Piri Piri Chicken

I don’t have cable tv. I know. I’m crazy.

The result of not having cable tv is that whenever I am somewhere that has tv I am glued to it. I mainly watch the food channel. Not those reality or competition cooking shows. My thing are the good old-fashioned shows (not sure a tv show can be called old fashion, but you get the point) that feature regular recipes, chefs that write cook books that real people use, and no drama. It’s going to sound cheesy, but I find inspiration in these shows. Sometimes ingredient combination ideas lay foundation for delicious creations. Sometimes a certain kind of food is something I never knew how to cook or even considered. Other times it is just a down right amazing sounding recipe and I NEED to make it as is. This last scenario happened this past weekend.

Jamie Oliver – love him. He has some new show I didn’t know about (it may not even be new – I am so lame without cable). 30 minute meals. Amazing! Who doesn’t need a new tasty meal that only takes 30 minutes?

Last weekend was piri piri chicken. I immediately craved it. This recipe is superb! and very quick and easy.

Piri Piri Chicken (courtesy of Jamie Oliver)

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 large bone-in skin-on chicken thighs (if you can’t get large ones just double up on small ones, I did this and just made a bit more sauce)

1 red pepper cut into large chunks

1 yellow pepper cut into large chunks

cilantro for garnish

Piri Piri Sauce:

1/2 a red onion

2 cloves of garlic

hot peppers (what I used was 1 habanero pepper, seeded, an inch of a mirasol pepper with the seeds – the result? it was spicy, but not too spicy, totally tolerable. Really use any kind of hot peppers you want)

1 tbsp sweet smoked paprika

juice of a lemon

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce (can anyone actually pronounce this?)

1/2 cup basil leaves

Turn the oven on to 400 degrees.

Take the chicken thighs and place them on a cutting board skin side down. Cut a slit on either side of the bone and two slit running across the bone (don’t cut all the way through). This is sort of butterflying your chicken, it will spread out evenly and flat in the pan and the bottom will soak up more of the sauce.

Heat a fry pan or griddle pan to medium high heat. Pour in a splash of olive oil. Place the chicken thighs skin side down and cook until browned and crispy (about 10 minutes). Flip over and cook for another 5 minutes.

While your chicken is cooking place all the ingredients for the sauce into a food processor and puree. Then add 2 tbsp of water and puree again. (the water will account for any steam lost in the oven).

Pour the sauce into a baking dish that will snugly fit the chicken. Place the chicken in the dish skin side up and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

Discard any grease in the sauce pan. Turn the burner to high and toss in the peppers. Saute them until they are seared.

Scatter the peppers over the chicken and garnish with cilantro.

This dish was amazing! I brought it for lunch the next day and started eating it at 9:30 a.m.

Expect another recipe from this episode next. Sweet potato mash with feta and cilantro! I can’t be stopped!!!! Thank you Jamie!

oh ya, happy back to school. Make this on a school night. It’s fast and tasty!