Balsamic Roasted Chicken with Olives, Rosemary and Capers

This is an excellent fall and winter dish. The capers and olives blend with the tomatoes and balsamic to create a intense flavor.

I’m not that a big a fan of balsamic vinegar (unlike hubby) and even I loved this. The original recipe came from a magazine.  Hubby and I both agree that while it was good, the olives (the original used a whole cup of black) were a little too much.  It also used bone-in chicken with the skin still on, which made it very fatty.  This version is adjusted from the original.  The next time I think I will also add some red pepper strips, cooked with the onions and garlic or more likely, soft marinated.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs of boneless chicken thighs
• 1 small yellow or white onion, diced or 3/4 cup pearl onions, quartered
• 4-5 finely chopped garlic cloves
• 8-10 button mushrooms, washed and quartered
• 4 tbsp capers
• 1/3 c. balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 c pitted green olives (can use black if preferred)
• 14 or 16 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 3-4 sprigs rosemary
• salt and pepper to taste – this will depend on the amount of salt in your tomatoes, capers, etc.

Directions

Season chicken with salt and pepper, and brown in butter or olive oil in a dutch oven or large oven-proof saute pan.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

Remove any excess fat, add the mushrooms, onions and garlic and brown until onions are opaque, then add the capers and balsamic.  Let it reduce by half (a couple minutes) and add in crushed tomatoes, sugar, olives, red pepper, the chicken pieces, a few springs of rosemary, and more salt and pepper if desired.

Bake uncovered at 400F for 25-30 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Remove and serve with polenta, cut into rounds and heated in a fry pan until warm and slightly brown. If there’s any sauce left, you can eat it over pasta the next day.

Cumin and Cashew Roast Chicken

This is a very easy recipe with a simple marinade.  I made it with a whole chicken that I got at my local farmer’s market from the good folks at Sugar River Farm.  It’s adapted from a recipe for a similar marinade.  The original recipe for Almond and Cumin Roast Chicken is here. I’m not that fond of almonds and think cashews have a lot more flavor so went with those.  I do love cumin, which you’ll need to!

Some advice  — Don’t space out like I did and forget to baste!

I paired with a Pallou Rice adapted from Curries Without Worries by Sudha Koul.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (unless you’re really adventurous and you can butterfly it.) You could also used a cut up chicken (bone in, with skin)
• 4 tbsp ground cumin (Um yes, that’s correct and yes, that will be at least half the bottle of cumin).
• 2 tablespoons garam masala
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 3 large garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
• 3/4 cup (100g) cashews
• 1 1/3 cups (300mls) plain natural or Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• juice of 1 lime
• salt and pepper

Directions

Rinse and pat the chicken dry. Set aside.  In a chopper or food processor, blend all the other ingredients and process into a paste.  (If you don’t have a food processor, chop the cashews as fine as you can and put the garlic through a press – then mix like crazy)

Pour the marinade over the chicken and spread to cover all exposed parts.  Let sit in the fridge for at least 4 hours, up to overnight.

Place in a heavy oven proof pan or dutch oven and roast at 400F (200C) for 45-50 minutes, basting every 10-15 minutes. Use a meat thermometer to ensure the internal temp is at least 175F. Let it rest for 15-20 minutes before eating.

I paired with a Pallou Rice adapted from Curries Without Worries by Sudha Koul (don’t think it’s still in print, but you can get it used).

Gluten-Free Breaded Pork Chops

This is a very yummy recipe that I served with au gratin potatoes.

I know I know, processed food is bad.  But frankly, I adore Shake & Bake (both the taste and its ease).  And I love pork chops. However, as of yet, General Mills is not making a GF Shake & Bake, and I miss it. I find this be a pretty close substitute, using gluten-free flour and bread crumbs.

Pork Coating Mix

• 2 tbsps yellow cornmeal
• 2 tbsps GF Flour (a mediumly heavy mix, probably a brown rice and bean – I used Fava bean flour)
• 2 tbsps GF Breadcrumbs, Italian style if possible. I use Aleias.
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning (or sage)
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Mix together all the dry ingredients in a bowl or, ideally, shake around in a plastic bag big enough to hold a pork chop.

You will also need 2 large pork chops and 1/4 cup milk

Cooking Directions

Rinse the pork chops in water and pat dry with a paper towel.  Then dip them in milk. You want all the sides to be coated. Don’t let them drip off too much – you want them to be wet. Drop them in the bag with the coating mixture and shake.  (You can just roll them around on a plate with the coating mixture, but shaking’s way easier and less messy).

Place on a shallow baking or roasting pan, and cook in a 425 degree F oven for 30 minutes or until the juices run clear and the center is opaque (165 degrees F (75C)). I find pork chops to be a little tricky – they seem to go from not cooked to overdone in about 1 minute and a half, so keep an eye on them and use a meat thermometer.

I served with au gratin potatoes, applesauce and carrots.

White Wine & Sherry Pasta Sauce

I often make a quick pasta sauce by throwing together shallots, garlic, a few spices and some white wine. I use fresh herbs when I can, but often use dried as well.  It usually cooks for only as long as it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta. Other ingredients go in as I have time, inclination or can find in the fridge.  This typically includes things such as sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms and chopped spinach. (I’m a stealth vegetable eater.  I don’t like many vegetables so I try to sneak them into sauces and such to up my intake.)  This version include fresh herbs from the garden, mushrooms and tomatoes, as well as the addition of sherry.  I sometimes add diced chicken and sub chicken stock for the white wine. This makes enough for one or two.

Ingredients

• 1/2-1 shallot or (or 2 tsps dried)
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• 3-5 sun-dried tomatoes
• 3-4 small button or baby bella mushrooms
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 1/2 cup white wine
• Herbs (I used fresh oregano, basil and rosemary, about 1 tablespoon each of chopped oregano and basil and a spring of rosemary).  If you are using dried, frankly I usually eyeball it.  4-5 good shakes of Italian herbs, plus an extra shake or two of basil, oregano and rosemary).
• 2-3 tbsps butter
• 1-2 tbsps Parmesan cheese (to mix in; you’ll want extra to top the sauce when it’s done).
• 1/2-1 c  pasta per serving (Hubby eats gluten-free – his favorite is Tinkyada – the shells are pictured above. I go with regular since it’s so much cheaper than GF pasta and we eat a lot of pasta).

Instructions

Cook the pasta according to directions.

While the pasta is cooking (start when you put the water on), peel and finely chop the garlic and onion. Saute them in olive oil on low heat.  Dice and add the sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms).  If you are using dried herbs, add them now. Cook, stirring occasionally until the shallot is translucent, and the mushrooms have browned.

Adding butter to the reduced sauce

Add the wine and sherry and simmer to reduce and burn off the alcohol.

If you are adding spinach or fresh herbs, add them once the sauce is reduced a bit. (Otherwise they lose a lot of their color). It will generally cook down to the right level in the time it takes to boil water and cook pasta. If you get distracted and it gets a bit dry, just add some more wine or sherry.

Just before serving, add 2-3 pats of butter and stir to melt in. This thickens the sauce (without gluten!).  Once the butter is melted, add the Parmesan cheese and do the same thing. You can add a bit more butter if it seems too thin.

Serve over pasta, with additional Parmesan as a garnish.

Enjoy!  (The joy of using the sherry is that it gives the sauce a deeper flavor and you can go with either red or white wine depending on your mood.)

What will you try adding?

Dry-Rubbed Pulled Pork and Barbecue Sauce

I love love love pulled pork, but don’t have a real BBQ pit in the yard.  Instead, I take a shortcut of popping my pork in a crockpot, which still gets you a slow-cooked, braised pork without a lot of mess.

Dry Rub ingredients

• 1/4 c. brown sugar, loosely packed
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 2 tsp ground pepper
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp salt

Mix the ingredients together.  Trim off most of the excess fat from a pork shoulder roast (I used a Boston butt that was just over 4 lbs).  Place the rub on the top of the roast and sides, then flip over and place the rest on bottom of the roast. Ideally it is best to place the rub on the roast the night before you cook it.

The next morning place the roast in a large crockpot.  Pour 1/4 cup white or apple cider vinegar and 1/2 of dry ginger ale into the crock pot.  Cook on high for one hour and then turn down to low and cook for at least 4-5 more hours, depending on the size of the meat.  Because it is in a crock pot, and tends to be fairly fatty cut of meat, you can let it go a fair amount before it will become dry.

The meat is done when it flakes off when touched with a fork.

Remove the meat from the crock pot and let rest for 20 minutes.  Then pull the meat into shreds with two forks.

You can serve on a GF bun or with mac and cheese, cole slaw or other traditional BBQ accompaniments, including, of course, BBQ sauce.

Pulled Pork BBQ with Gluten-Free Macaroni and Cheese

As an experiment.  I made a Memphis style, whereas last time I made a mustard sauce.  It was good, but not quite what I wanted. If you’re buying, Pork Barrel makes a nice smoky BBQ that’s GF, or I also like Sweet Baby Ray’s.

Rosemary Roasted Chicken on a bed of Rice and Sausage with Gluten-Free Cornbread

Gluten-Free Roasted Chicken on its bed of rice and sausage dressing.

Our town has recently opened a Farmer’s Market, which we were both delighted about and anxious to support.

On its inaugural day, I got off the bus in the town center, anxious to see the goods, and got a little giddy over the fresh hand-picked strawberries and other veggies.

(Side note: if you have not had fresh local strawberries rather than those overgrown, rather hard imitators that bounced across the country from California, you don’t know what a strawberry is supposed to taste like. These were as they should be, smallish, deep crimson red, tender without being soft, and very juicy.  A friend of ours that lives about three blocks from the town common where the market is bought a quart. Her three boys had eaten the entire quart before they reached the house. They taste gold-plated and unfortunately have a price to match, but it was worth it anyway.)

The second week of the Farmer’s Market bought even more bounty from a new booth where you can get pork and chicken products.  I succumbed to both a free-range whole chicken and some homemade hot sausage (still uncased).

I rarely buy whole chickens, so wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to do with the lot, but came up with this as a  solution.

The chicken I simply roasted, and essentially made a stuffing/dressing to put the chicken on out of veggies, sausage and rice.  We served it with some buttered carrots (also from the farmer’s market), and fresh cornbread. Directions and recipes follow.

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Roasted Free-Range Rosemary Chicken

Before placing it in the oven, rinse the chicken in water and pat it dry with a paper towel.

Rosemary Roasted Chicken

Rub with olive oil (lighter and less prone to burn than butter) and spices.  We do have Rosemary fresh in our garden this time of year, and I used some fresh for the dressing, but for the roasted chicken simply sprinkled on dry. Just shake until it looks right. I just used Rosemary to keep the flavor simple. Another nice addition might be to rub the chicken skin with garlic before putting on the olive oil.

Place in a dutch oven or shallow roasting pan, and pin or tie the wings to the body.  Roast uncovered at 375 (or 400 if the bird is under 2 1/2 pounds (190 or 205 degrees C).  A small bird (2.5 pounds) will take about 1 – 1 1/4 hours unstuffed. A 3-4 pound bird can take 2 hours. Stuffed birds will take 15-30 minutes longer.

Once the chicken is cooked to a safe temperature (175 degrees F, 80 C), let it set 15-20 minutes before carving.  Since mine was free-range, the usual ability to tell whether a bird is done by wiggling its leg doesn’t work here.  Make sure you use a meat thermometer.

I had another problem with the leg as you can see from the photo. When I got the bird at the Farmer’s Market,  I popped it in my bag quickly, and didn’t notice until I took it out to cook it that it was missing a leg!

I’ve got my bandages to keep me warm.

Apparently it came off in processing, but when I saw it I couldn’t get rid of a vision of a poor chicken hobbling around the barnyard with a crutch under one wing. Shades of Foghorn Leghorn.

Serve on a bed of dressing.

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Sausage and Rice Dressing

For the dressing, I just made it up as I went along but the ingredients were roughly as follows.

• 1 pound sausage (hot or sweet, depending on your preference)
• 1 1/2 cups rice (dry)
• 1 small onion
• 1 celery stick
• 4 oz mushrooms
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup water
• Fresh Rosemary to taste, removed from the stem
• Fresh Parsley to taste, chopped or snipped

Combine the rice, the chicken broth and water in a saucepan and cook until done.

While that is simmering, cook the sausage in a heavy fry pan until no longer pink.

Wash and chop the vegetables in the meantime.  I cut the onions and celery very small, and sliced and chopped the mushrooms fine as well. Once the sausage is done, remove the sausage to a bowl, temporarily, and remove some of the fat, and cook the vegetables in the remaining fat until the onion is tender and translucent and the celery softens. Once the veggies, rice and sausage are all cooked, mix them together and snip fresh rosemary and parsley over the top to taste and mix in.  I used 2-3 springs of rosemary and  what would be equal to 2-3 tablespoons of parsley.  You can add a bit of salt, if desired.

Spread on a platter and place the chicken on top.  It should look and taste delicious.  We served it with hot buttered carrots and cornbread.

Gluten-Free Braised Short Ribs

Ribs so tender they almost cry

 This is the second time Hubby and I have tried this recipe.  It makes a fantastically tender and flavorful dish.  The ribs just melt under your fork and in your mouth.  We paired them this time with carrots and mashed potatoes, both of which are also delish with the vegetable sauce. 

• 2 pounds of short ribs (boneless)
• Two celery sticks
• Two carrots
• Half an onion
• 1 teaspoon of thyme
• 1 cup of bold Red wine 
• 1 cup Beef low sodium broth
• 1 small can of low/no sodium tomato sauce
• Tablespoon of fresh parsley
• Quarter cup of gluten-free flour (you can use a GF baking mix, or rice or potato starch flour) 
• Pepper to taste (probably a tablespoon)
• 4-6 garlic cloves
• 2-3 tbsps of olive oil

Trim the fat from the meat and dust the ribs in flour and pepper.(I just grate in pepper to the flour until it looks like enough, but I suspect it is probably a teaspoon at least). Set aside.  Grate the veggies and simmer with wine, broth & herbs in a fry or sauce pan. Press or crush the garlic and brown the meat with the garlic and oil in a Dutch oven.   When brown, add  the sauce on top of the browned meat.  Cover and cook in oven at 325 for 3 hours, stirring  and turning the meat occasionally.  After the first couple of hours you may want to remove the cover to let the sauce reduce more. If the sauce boils too much, reduce heat. 

 Notes and options:

 The sauce simmers down significantly and can get salty which is why low sodium ingredients are used.   Adjust the liquids for the amount of sauce you would like.  With the veggies, it does thicken up.

We’ve made this twice now, once with boned short ribs and once without.  The boned ribs create a much fattier sauce, so use boneless ribs, if at all possible.  If you can’t get short ribs, you could also use a roast cut and slice it into rib-size strips (about 2 1/2 to 3 inches wide).

15 Minute Thai Peanut Stirfry

It is finally warming up here (a whole 51 degrees today), and I’m losing my compulsion to cook comfort food.  Tonight I wanted a quick and easy meal that wasn’t too heavy.  The result from a forage in the freezer and cupboards turned up the following:

• 1/3 pound rice noodle sticks  (I got mine from Trader Joe’s but the Asian section of most grocery stores should have them). 
• Grilled chicken breast (1 large breast or about 1  to 1.5 cups cut up) grilled or if frozen, thawed.
• 1/2 a pound of  blanched or thawed stirfry vegetables (again, you can cut your own, or cheat — I had a nice frozen mix with broccoli, carrots, red pepper, water chestnuts, mushrooms and celery. 
• 1 tbsp olive or sesame oil
• 1/2 -3/4 cup peanut sauce (watch the ingredients as they sometimes have trace amounts of gluten)  Mine — from the foo foo store brand section of my local grocery was gluten free and had both fairly low fat and sodium content.)

I was rather hungry and impatient and threw this whole thing together in less than 10 minutes, the longest part is boiling the water.  Cook the noodles al dente (6-8 minutes probably depending the size of the noodles).  While they are cooking, thaw the chicken and vegetables, and start the oil heating in a wok or the largest fry pan you have.  When the oil is very hot, fry up the vegetables and chicken to heat them through and finish the cooking process, 2-4 minutes (longer if they’re raw). Add 2/3 of the peanut sauce and stir fry another minute. Drain the noodles and toss them in the wok, mixing up everything, add the rest of the sauce, and stir. 

Turn off the heat and enjoy. 

Serves two