chicken

Chicken Lady Chicken and Raw Vegetable Slaw – David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen

July 18, 2016 by Renee

I love a good roast chicken. My favorite recipes for chicken always start a couple of days in advance. Whether it’s brining or marinating them, if you buy your chicken on Friday and cook it Sunday, then you can use the leftovers during the week. That is, if you have any leftovers! I can usually scrape enough off the carcass for a few servings of chicken to toss into a salad or just a midnight snack.

David’s Poulet Crapaudine Facon Catherine has an exceptionally crispy skin and the marinade is incredibly flavorful. We used the last little bit of Sriracha we had in the pantry (need another bottle STAT!) along with the honey, wine and soy sauce to create a deliciously sweet and spicy bath for the bird to hang out in for the weekend. The marinade would also be great to use for boneless/skinless breasts or thighs that you grill too. I can certainly see this being added to our roast chicken repertoire.

The technique of spatchcocking a chicken cuts the cooking time down. It exposes more “flesh to the fire” as they say and the skin crisps up in no time while keeping the bird moist inside. We use our cast iron pan for roasting chicken, but we always add a little oil to the bottom so that the chicken skin does not stick. No matter how hot the pan is, the skin will stick if a little oil isn’t used. And the skin is one of the best parts, so you don’t want to leave it behind in the pan!

David suggests a side of Raw Vegetable Slaw to go with the chicken, which is really just a mixture of any of your favorites that you may have around, topped with a tangy, garlicky dressing. We had some broccoli and carrots so I tossed them together, but I can see devising several different combinations and adding nuts, and fruits to the mix as well. But for this time, I kept it super simple.

This week’s recipes can be found on pages 173 and 96. For details on recreating this and other recipes, check out the CookTheBookFridays site and see others who are also cooking the book-

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Hurry Up and Wait Roast Chicken for Food Revolution Day! French Fridays with Dorie

May 15, 2014 by Renee

It’s Food Revolution Day!

This year, for Food Revolution Day, Jamie Oliver wants everyone to “get kids excited about food”.

“It’s time to take action!

We need every child to understand where food comes from, how to cook it, and how it affects their body. This is about setting kids up with the knowledge they need to make better food choices for life.” – Jamie Oliver

You can read more about what Food Revolution Day is all about here.

For French Fridays with Dorie this week, we were tasked to choose a recipe from Dorie’s book, Around my French Table that we think every child should know how to make.

We discuss this topic often at home. The kids all want to make sure they know how to make my meatloaf, Salisbury steak and challah. But there are so many other things they need to know how to make before they leave home and are out on their own. Aside from the obvious basics- vinaigrettes, pate brisee, steamed vegetables (with butter and salt), chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cream pies to name a few, one of the most important dishes they need to know how to make is a good roast chicken.

So we chose Dorie’s Hurry Up and Wait Roast Chicken to make. Before I tell you about our dinner adventure, I’ll tell you this- the chicken never touched the floor!

Firstly, the girls insisted on wearing gloves so as not to actually touch the raw chicken. (Confession: I usually do too.) Hannah was the butcher and chopped off the large piece of excess neck skin. Then, Abby rubbed the entire chicken with a large chunk of butter. I added the salt and pepper as I was the only one with clean hands. I placed the chicken in the roasting pan and Hannah tied the legs and turned it on its side for the first round of roasting.

(Also, I must teach them how to hold a knife properly!)

There was a small incident while Hannah was trying to maneuver the pan and her cell phone and the pan ended up on the floor with the chicken in her bare hands. She caught it as it flipped off the counter. Great catch! Many minutes of hot water and soap followed as we all laughed hysterically.

Thinking they were relived of their dinner tasks, they dispersed to play Minecraft before being brought back to peel the carrots and chop the potatoes. We added some fresh herbs and smashed garlic to the pan and continued roasting.

We had to give up on our oven midway through because the chicken had been in for an hour already (it was nearly 9:30pm at this point) and the bird was still was not cooked. We moved it to the Puck Pressure Oven and within another half hour the chicken emerged- crisp and golden and the vegetables beneath cooked through. (“I need a new oven already”, I said to no one in particular.)

Anyway, they were very pleased with their result and I was very proud of them. We let the chicken rest on it’s head end, so the juices would run into the breast while we made the sauce. A mixture of white wine and water, pan drippings and a swirl of butter.

It’s these last touches, resting the chicken in a headstand and making the sauce, that turns a simple dish into a special dish.

I cook a lot with the girls, but mostly it’s been baking cakes and cookies, making homemade pasta, pancakes and eggs. It’s time to move on to meats and poultry – tonight was a great start. They only have a few years left at home then they will be out in the world. I hope they will take my love of cooking with them wherever they go. I honestly think they will.

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For details on creating these recipes, check out the FFWD site and see what other Dorista’s who are also cooking the book have done-

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Chicken and Dumplings Recipe

November 24, 2013 by Renee

It’s near 20 degrees in NYC today and the girls and I spent the day in the city at a blogging holiday party. We had tons of fun and afterwards, we wandered up Fifth Avenue to check out the holiday windows of the large department stores. They are always so lovely! But sadly, the cold was just too much for us and we had to call it quits before we turned into ice pops.

We made our way back to Penn Station and headed home shivering the entire time!

The best cure for cold weather is serious comfort food. Knowing that we are having roast turkey and mashed potatoes later in the week, we opted for a stew instead. But I didn’t want beef. Chicken and Dumplings seemed to be the perfect next choice and it was!

My aunt, in North Carolina, made the best Chicken and Dumplings growing up. She is a real down home, Southern kind of a lady and makes everyone feel welcome the moment they arrive, sweet tea in hand. Not only was her fried chicken the best, but the homemade bacon that they cured in their smokehouse was out of this world and I have never had better. But the real treat was her Chicken & Dumplings. I remember how she rolled out her dumplings thin and cut them like pasta rather than dropping balls of dough by spoonfuls into a boiling cauldron of chicken stock. The result was a hearty stew with bite fulls of dense, dough, creamy sauce and chunks of herbed chicken. A very filling and a very comforting bowl.

I don’t have her recipe but I’ve been making them this way for years and they are reminiscent of the ones she made. I may not remember or know if they are as good as hers, but my family loves them and a 6.3 quart French Oven yielded just enough tonight that there was only one small bowl left over. But next time, I’ll have to make more dumplings- because that’s the first thing to go as everyone spoons them out of the pot and it’s good to have some leftover because the dish is always better the next day!

Chicken and Dumplings Recipe

Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

1 hour 45 mins

Total time

2 hours 15 mins

Chicken and Dumplings

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

For the Stock:

1 3-4lb Whole Chicken ((You can use ¼'s or ⅛'s as well))
2 stalks Celery (Chopped in large chunks)
2 large Carrots (Chopped in large chunks)
1 medium Onion (Diced)
2 Bay Leaves
2 sprigs Thyme (Leave whole)
2 sprigs Rosemary (Leave whole)
2 sprigs Sage (Leave whole)
3 cloves Garlic (Finely chopped)
Salt and Pepper (To Taste)
Water (To Cover)

For the Dumplings:

3 cups Self Rising Flour
1½ cup Chicken Stock (Use the just made stock)

Method

For the Stock. In a large pot (I used a 6.3 French Oven) over high heat, add the chicken, herbs and chopped vegetables. Add enough water to cover and submerge the chicken. Bring to a boil and lower the flame to medium-low heat and simmer for an hour and a half or until the chicken is fork tender. At this point, remove the whole chicken from the broth and set it aside to cool. Leave the broth on the low flame to continue simmering.
Once you are able to touch the chicken, go ahead and remove the meat from the bones. Set aside the meat and discard the carcass.
From the broth, remove the stems and stalks of the herbs. If you want, you can now also skim the top of the broth to remove any impurities. Add salt and pepper to taste.
For the dumplings. Remove 1½ cups of stock from the pot and set aside to cool. In a large bowl, add the self-rising flour* and the stock. With a fork or your hands, knead the liquid into the flour to form a dough. Continue kneading until all the flour is incorporated. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll the dough out with a rolling pin until it's about ¼" thick. Cut the dough into 2" squares with a knife.
Turn up the heat on the stock and once it is boiling, drop the squares of dumplings into the pot, stirring so they do not stick together.
Return the chicken pieces to the pot and stir to combine. Continue cooking for another 5-8 minutes until the dumplings are cooked through and the stock has thickened some.**
Serve in large bowls.

Notes

* Self Rising Flour- If you don't have, you can make your own. For every 1 cup of ap flour add 1½ teaspoons Baking Powder and ¼ teaspoon Salt and mix well.

** If your sauce is not as thick as you would like, in a separate bowl, make a slurry consisting of 2 teaspoons Corn Starch and a 2 tablespoons of Stock. Mix well to remove any lumps and add this mixture back to your stock which should continue boiling for another minute or so. Keep stirring to combine. Lower the flame back to a simmer and the sauce will become thicker as it continues to cook.

Enjoy and Stay Warm!