Chicken Fajita-Tortilla Soup

Sorry, gang. I'm a week late again. This meal was from last Sunday (October 26). Sometime in the near future I'll be cooking for this week. I've been tied up with recurring migraines and carpet installation, so it's been tough to find time to cook for fun. But when I did, I wanted to make some real pleasure food. Rachael Ray (no matter how you feel about her personally) can cook up a tasty meal. This "soup" ranks high on my indulgence meter. It's seasoned chicken with spicy tomatoes and veggies over tortillas with shredded cheese. OMG, delicious.
To start, prepare a bowl with crushed tortillas and shredded cheese (Rachael Ray's recipe called for Pepper Jack or a sharp white, but I used a four-cheese Mexican mix). Then chop up some chicken into bite-sized chunks (I've found that half a pound per person works well) and begin cooking in a large skillet with olive oil. Season the chicken in the pan with coriander, salt, and pepper and cook for three or four minutes. Then add the sliced onion, bell pepper, and jalapeños. Add more salt and pepper and continue cooking for six or seven minutes. The veggies should be crispy at this point. Add your diced tomatoes (I chose pre-jalapeño flavored) and chicken stock and heat through. Then simply ladle this soup in the bowls over the tortillas and cheese. Feel free to add more cheese or crushed chips if you'd like. You should end up with a gooey, delicious mess.
Ingredients list (not from Rachael Ray's book verbatim, but what I used), halved for two:

• a pound of thinly-sliced chicken cut into cubes (for two people)
• half a tablespoon of ground coriander
• half a large onion, sliced
  
• half a green bell pepper (or red if you'd like), sliced
  
• half a jalapeño, sliced
• a 14 ounce can of diced, fire-roasted tomatoes (seasoned if you'd like)
• two cups of chicken stock (or so, eyeball it)
• corn tortilla chips
• shredded cheese (Pepper Jack or something Mexican)
  

Marcella's Indonesian Satay

Satay, if you're not familiar, is a dish of Indonesian origin: meat grilled on a skewer (in that way similar to Japanese yakitori and the well-known shish kebab) with spicy seasonings. The flavor comes from a marinade of sweet soy sauce and finishing with a peanut sauce dip. This particular meal was put together from a number of sources, most of Marcella's selection, and so reflects a unique take on the classic chicken satay. The overall plan is to make a marinade for the chicken, grill the chicken on the skewers, and then cover the chicken in our peanut sauce.
To make the marinade, mix in a bowl a tablespoon of the following ingredients: coriander, salt, sugar, crushed or powdered garlic, vegetable oil, regular soy sauce, and sweet soy sauce (which you may need to get at an Asian market). Toss the chicken, cut into small cubes (probably smaller than you see in these pictures), with this marinade and cover it for 45 minutes to an hour. When the chicken is ready, put a fair number on each skewer (here I chose eight, but you may want more if yours are cut smaller). Grill for about three or four minutes, rotating, grilling, rotating, and then grilling until the insides are well-cooked (this varies depending on how large the pieces of chicken are). To make the peanut sauce, we'll whip together smooth peanut butter with the sweet soy sauce we used in the marinade. Lime can be added to cut the taste and then add hot water until the sauce can be beaten down into something pourable (to smother the satay in) or dippable.
The ingredients for the marinade are a tablespoon each of:

• ground coriander
• salt
• sugar
• crushed garlic
• vegetable oil
• soy sauce
• sweet soy sauce

The chicken used were fresh, boneless breasts (think about half a pound per person) on wooden skewers. The peanut sauce was made with:

• smooth peanut butter
• sweet soy sauce
• lime to taste
  
• and hot water to soften the mixture
  

Bacon-Feta Stuffed Chicken

For the past few weeks, my good friends Katie and Drew McCrory have been staying with me as they prepare to (hopefully) close on their (hopefully) new home. This meal, from the 24th of August, was made by them and, well, I think the pictures speak for just how delicious it was. The directions sound simple, but are not. Slice into the deepest part of your chicken breasts and fill them with feta cheese and bits of bacon. Cooking in a skillet with oil until browned would be simple if the chicken wasn't bulging and falling apart with delicious innards (doesn't the phrase "delicious innards" sound just appetizing?). Katie did a fantastic job keeping the chicken together while flipping to cook the other side. Finish by adding the diced tomatoes. If you have a husband, he should prepare a luscious, Greek salad in the meantime, as Drew did. Since this is one of the best looking meals I've shown here, I'll just shut up now and let you see the pictures. Recipe below.
The ingredients to Taste of Home's (a site they recommend) Bacon-Feta Stuffed Chicken are:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup of crumbled bacon (more is OK, as always)
• 1/4 cup of crumbled feta (for the chicken alone)
• salt and pepper
  
• a tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 2 cans of diced tomatoes
• a tablespoon of dried basil
  

Sesame Noodles with Shredded Chicken

Oh, I'm so lazy. I have been cooking, at least for the weekends I've been in town. This meal was from the 17th of August, sent to me by my mother in a Cook's Illustrated newsletter. I really enjoy sesame-based Asian meals and this was no exception. Cooked in two parts, the sauce itself is the most complicated. The recipe calls for mixing these ingredients in a blender or food processor, but I've yet to acquire either. So in a bowl I mixed peanut butter, minced garlic, ginger, soy sauce, the rice vinegar, Tabasco, sugar, and some sesame seeds. From the boiling pot (see below), I added tablespoons of water until this sesame oil mixture was soft enough to stir well.
Boil the Asian noodles (yeah right, or spaghetti). In the meantime, spray a cooking sheet with vegetable oil. Place the chicken breasts on the sheet and broil until the chicken is lightly brown (or at least cooked throughout). Once removed from the oven, let the chicken cool and cut it up into smallish pieces. Drain and rinse the noodles with cold water. I know, weird right? But this meal is basically served cold. Toss the noodles with the chicken and cover with the sesame oil sauce you made earlier. Then add scallions and shredded carrot and cover with more sesame seeds. Eat!
The ingredients list for Cook's Illustrated's Sesame Noodles with Shredded Chicken is:

• a 1/4 cup or so of sesame seeds
• a 1/4 cup of chunky (or smooth) peanut butter
• 2 garlic cloves (minced or through a garlic press, if you're fancy)
• a tablespoon of ginger (fresh or not)
  
• 5 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar
• a teaspoon of hot pepper sauce (like Tabasco)
• 2 tablespoons of light brown sugar (or regular sugar, really)
• a pound and a half of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• a pound of fresh Asian noodles (or spaghetti)
• 2 tablespoons of actual sesame oil
• 4 scallions, sliced somehow
• a medium carrot, grated
  

Buffalo Chicken Salad

This meal came from July 27th. The band and I had just finished our five hour marathon set and we were looking for something simple and guy-friendly to eat. This buffalo chicken recipe was both good man-food and "healthy" because of the salad. No, maybe my logic doesn't hold, but it sure was yummy. Here, now, is something any dude can make on a Sunday.
Preheat your oven to broil. What makes this chicken so delicious is that it wasn't contact-grilled. Put the chicken between two sheets of wax paper and flatten it with a hammer or some other chicken-flattening-device. Then mix together two teaspoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of hot sauce (your preference, but probably not something small like Tabasco sauce). Toss and coat the chicken in this and then place the strips on a baking sheet. Broil until the chicken is done throughout (four to six minutes), turning once half-way. This makes the chicken unbelievably tender and the smell of the hot sauce is fantastic. The salad is straight forward: Romaine, celery, carrots, and scallions. Put the chicken on top and cover with your dressing of choice (the recipe recommended a home-made blue cheese, but we just bought some from the store).
The ingredients for Food Network's buffalo chicken salad are:

• 16 ounces of boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into strips
• 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper hot sauce (or your preference)
• 2 teaspoons of olive oil
• about 8 cups of Romaine hearts (just buy a bag from the grocery)
• 4 celery stalks, sliced thin
• 2 carrots, coarsely grated (or buy a bag of grated carrots: easy)
• 2 scallions, sliced (if you want)
• blue cheese dressing of your choice
  

Pasta Stir-Fry

I am so unbelievably behind. This simple meal was from the 20th of July. I'm going to power through it and then through the next so I can catch up. Pasta stir-fry is an easy Italian/Asian blend (and you know my penchant for fused genres). It requires preparing three separate ingredients at once and then mixing them together.
If you can get a friend to help, this will go much easier. We are preparing - at the same time - the pasta, the chicken, and the stir-fried vegetables. Boil the pasta to al dente in salted water and drain when finished. Slice and then cook (or cook and then slice) the chicken. Heat the canola oil in a large skillet or wok adding the onion, red pepper, ginger, and eggplant. Let this cook for a minute and then add the garlic, broccoli, tomatoes, and soy sauce. I love the smell of cooking soy sauce. After a couple more minutes, add the drained pasta and chicken. If you can, aim for the pasta to be finishing the same time as the chicken. That is, right as the vegetables have simmered for a few minutes. Toss this around and cook it for another minute, then serve.The ingredients for this pasta stir-fry ("courtesy" of Food Network's website) are:

• a package of linguine (whole-wheat, if you choose)
• 2 tablespoons of canola oil
• a medium onion, sliced
• a red bell pepper, also sliced
• a 1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and diced (I just used a liberal amount of ginger spice)
• half a small eggplant, sliced into small chunks
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
• a cup of broccoli florets (if frozen, thawed)
  
• a 15-ounce can of diced tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• a chicken breast, cooked and sliced
• 2 scallions, sliced (for garnish, if you choose)
  

Tandoori Chicken Salad

I had a hard time picking what to cook for this week's meal (last week I was down in NYC at MoCCA and visiting friends). I wanted something simple, but not boring. After much deliberating (debilitating?), I found this recipe for Tandoori chicken salad from Food Network's website. Tandoori chicken is an Indian dish where the chicken is marinaded in a curry-esque yogurt. The meal is simple: make the yogurt marinade, grill the chicken, then add it atop a salad.
The marinade was simple enough: yogurt with Garam masala, ginger, garlic, turmeric, and a minced jalapeño chili. Garam masala is an Indian blend of cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg, and other spices. Turmeric is a Southeast Asian spice from the ginger family often used in curries. Thoroughly coating the chicken and grill it along with some of the marinade until there's no remaining pink.

Once finished, add it to a salad of iceberg lettuce, cucumber, scallions, jicama, or your preferred greens. The recipe actually calls for cabbage, radishes, and cilantro, but these aren't really of my preference, so I did without. I had never heard of jicama before; it's, well, a potato/yam-like starchy thing that looks rough from the outside but is very juicy and crunchy on the inside. Without much flavor itself, it absorbs those its paired with. It was actually very delicious!
And now, by popular request, the ingredients and preparation. First, the link to Food Network's recipe: Tandoori Chicken Salad. It looks to be for a limited-time only, so print it now if you want to keep it. The marinade's ingredients are:

• 1 cup of plain yogurt
• 2 teaspoons of Garam masala (powder)
• 1 teaspoon of ginger
• 1 teaspoon of garlic (minced or powder)
• 1 teaspoon of ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• a jalapeño chili, minced, if you so choose

Just stir these all together and cover the chicken thoroughly. Keep the chicken marinading while preparing the salad thusly:

• shredded iceberg lettuce, as much as you need
• shredded red cabbage (I just used a bag of mixed salad greens)
• 1 cup of sliced radishes, if that's what you're into
• 2 cups of sliced cucumber
• a small bunch of sliced scallions
• 1 cup of finely chopped cilantro leaves (unless you're Ian)
• 1.5 cups of diced jicama

Just combine the grilled chicken with the salad vegetables and enjoy! How easy was that?

Ward's Thai Chicken Kabobs

When I first revealed my idea of combining chicken kabobs with rice and curry to make a Thai dish, I was told, "Kabobs aren't Thai." No, the method of cooking meat skewered with vegetables is not particularly Asian, but that's exactly why I think it's interesting. Coating the chicken in an Asian marinade and then serving atop rice smothered in curry struck me as a great hybrid. What better way to celebrate this Memorial Day weekend than importing some Southeast Asian food and globalizing some American chicken? So I present to you now: Ward's Thai Chicken Kabobs (complete with terrible Photoshop art).

The marinade is created thusly: stir together two tablespoons of sesame oil, 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 1/4 cup of rice vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, 2 teaspoons of ginger, and 1/2 teaspoon of ground red pepper. Thoroughly coat the chicken cut in 1-inch squares and leave them covered until ready to skewer and cook (which we'll do last). For vegetables, I cut up half a red and half a yellow bell pepper and added some sliced pineapple. Another idea to try instead of this marinade is the one from the Thai chicken pizza of a few months back. Be creative!

Prepare the rice with your favorite method. I used two cups of rice (a lot of rice!) with four cups of water. Cook covered and over low heat for fifteen minutes. Feel free to buy another bag of rice and just throw it away. That's how America rolls: screw food shortages in other countries! I wanted to make a yellow curry, but it's damn hard finding curry paste where I live. If you happen to have access to a Southeast Asian friend to help you, please make something authentic! Otherwise, combine 7 ounces of coconut milk with a tablespoon of curry paste and half a teaspoon of curry powder. Feel free to double this quantity if serving more than two. Simmer the curry over low heat for five minutes.

Once the rice and curry are good to go, put the kabobs over a grill of some sort and cook for four or five minutes per side. It can be tough to get the heat into the center of the chicken if the pieces are resting up above the grill, so you may need a few more minutes of rotation. On a plate, pile up a big ol' mess of rice, top with your grilled chicken and vegetables, and cover in the curry. Eat it! If you try this recipe, please let me know how it was and what I can do to improve it. Most of the ingredients listed are pulled from previous/other meals as well as my own (limited) intuition. It can be hard, but try and get all the parts finished at the same time; cold rice and curry do not a great addition make.

Montalcino Chicken and Buttered Gnocchi

This weekend has been such an absolute disaster, I'm rather surprised my house didn't catch fire. I tried my best to pretend like I didn't exist, but how could I neglect you, solitary reader? And so I present a dish near the end of my Rachael Ray cookbook: Montalcino Chicken with Figs and Buttered Gnocchi with Nutmeg. Alas, a more fitting title would be Jacob's Creek Chicken without Figs and Buttered Gnocchi with Nutmeg. Rachael Ray married in Montalcino, Italy and she requests a Rosso di Montalcino red wine for this meal. As you could surmise, I used a Jacob's Creek Shiraz instead. First, the preparatory ingredients:

The well-trained eye will notice the pancetta! Only one grocery in my area carries pancetta and only diced. This recipe actually calls for thick, sliced pancetta, but I'll just have to do without, since I live in hell's northern retreat. Gnocchi (which, as it turns out, no one in the world knows how to pronounce) is an Italian dumpling. When boiled, it's soft and chewy. The two herbs on the cutting board are chives (top) and parsley (bottom). The chicken has been dredged (yep, that's a cooking term) through flour. The meal is cooked in two parts - and simultaneously if you're talented: the chicken and vegetables, and the gnocchi [See why the Oxford comma is necessary? -Ward].

The pancetta is cooked first (and, diced, it cooks fast) then set aside. Grill the chicken on both sides for a few minutes and push to the edge of the skillet to add the sliced onion and crushed garlic. Figs are not in season as I write this, but if they were, or if you were mentally capable enough to remember things, you could add your substitute now. I, however, forgot. Sauté for a few minutes and then add some quantity of wine. Rachael's recipes, when they call for wine, always turn out normal looking. Mine turn out as if I bled all over them (and if you're aware of what I did with scissors Friday, this would not be a bad bet). Once the wine has cooked down, add a bit of chicken stock, the parsley, and "zest of 1 lemon". When you feel that this has been done sufficiently, remove it from heat.

While you're cooking the chicken and vegetables, boil water and add your preferred quantity of gnocchi. Gnocchi will boil quite fast depending on how much you're preparing. Once softened, add it and/or them to a small sauce pan that has been melting butter. Season with the chives and nutmeg and sauté until slightly brown. Once finished, combine the chicken with the pancetta and gnocchi and serve. Delicious! OK, a word of warning before you click on the larger version of this final image: sliced onions cooked in red wine look exactly like earthworms.

Thai Chicken Pizza

Look at you, lucky reader, getting an update on Sunday. My friend Jackson was up from Memphis this past week and joined me Saturday night for some food, drink, and Blade Runner. Because I can't think of a more entertaining Saturday night than cooking (not a sarcastic statement actually), I selected a fun-looking recipe of Rachael Ray's: Thai chicken pizza.

Here's how it works: bake a pizza normally, except replace the pizza sauce with duck sauce and the cheese with provolone and add a red pepper (or green or yellow). The chicken was grilled in a marinade of soy sauce (Price Chopper didn't carry tamari), olive oil, and peanut butter. As you can see by the pictures below, my stove-top method failed to cook the middle of the chicken. So Jackson and I chopped it up and kept grilling it in smaller segments. This worked out just fine. Once the pizza has baked and the chicken is cooked and thinly sliced, add the toppings: cucumbers (in honey and cider vinegar), scallions, bean sprouts, and crushed roasted peanuts.

So yeah, the chicken did turn out better than the pictures above, and looked quite delectable on top of the pizza itself (which turned out awesome). All together, each slice carried a number of fantastic flavors. The duck sauce worked really well as a replacement for pizza sauce and the cucumbers were also delicious. With a simple 12" pie, less (or thinner) chicken would have worked better, perhaps with more marinade. Anyway, it was fun. The kitchen was an absolute mess afterwards, which, when you get right down to it, is only a sign that you've done things right.