Chicken with Fennel & Lemon Recipe

If you live in California, you're probably sick of the rain. Of course, we need the rain after many years of drought but it's still somewhat tiresome. The wet weather has put me in the mood for comfort food and in particular braises, soups and stews. Truth be told, this particular dish is barely a braise. Chicken thighs are seared then finished on top of a melange of onions and fennel and some slices of lemon. It's soothing and familiar but lighter than traditional comfort food which was once synonymous with "heavy." Comfort food can be fresher and healthier than it used to be, but just as soul soothing.  Have you ever noticed how recipes often call for dry white wine? That always frustrates me and I vow not to do it moving forward. It's better to know which wine in particular works well in a given recipe. In this case, I think a crisp Sauvignon Blanc is great. I used  Joel Gott 2015 Sauvignon Blanc which has hints of lemongrass and tropical fruit and ......

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Slow Cooker Smoked Chicken Recipe

Recently I was working on some recipes for a client and was tasked with making “faux barbecue.” By faux, I mean no smoker, no grill. In fact, all the recipes were to be made in a slow cooker. I don’t use a slow cooker very often so I wasn’t sure the recipes would even work. Boy was I wrong! If you are looking for an easy way to cook chicken, this is it. It stays tremendously moist and flavorful and the meat is particularly good for using in sandwiches, salads or even tacos or enchiladas. One of the secrets to this recipe is dry brining the bird. That just means sprinkling it with salt before cooking. Salting it 24 hours ahead is fine, but 48 hours is even better.  Don’t freak out over the use of 1/4 cup of liquid smoke. It does not actually touch the bird so you’re not ingesting it at all. In any case, liquid smoke is a natural and safe ingredient . Experts agree you'd have to ingest 3 whole bottles to cause any harm.  This recipe in particular didn't go to pr......

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Roast Chicken with Asparagus & Leeks Recipe + Giveaway!

Foster Farms  is one of the larger suppliers of chicken in California. It’s a brand you’ll find in most supermarkets. So I was pleased to learn they are now offering organic chicken . At my local supermarket they only had boneless and skinless breasts and thighs, and while I much prefer purchasing whole chickens I did want to give the product a try.  Because I don’t usually, if ever, cook with boneless skinless chicken thighs, I turned to the ever dependable Faith Durand at The Kitchn for a foolproof technique . I added an herb paste, asparagus and leeks and reduced the pan sauce to make a glaze. It’s easy peasy and great for a quick meal that will be done in just over 30 minutes. The leeks, asparagus and herbs give the dish a fresh and light feel.  Although I purchased the chicken with my own money, I did accept four $20 Safeway gift cards for you, my readers, from Foster Farms. If you would like one, please leave a comment about your favorite chicken thigh or bre......

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Roasted Lemon Herb Chicken Recipe

The two most popular dinner requests in my household are for chili and roast chicken. They are both classic comfort foods and my husband never gets tired of eating either of them. It’s funny, because I rarely if ever make either one of them the same way twice. Chili is just a naturally adaptable recipe. Over the years I've posted recipes for  vegetarian white bean chili,  a budget friendly chili with a  mix of beans ,  chipotle pork chili and most recently for bison black bean chili . The ingredients change all the time depending on my mood and what I have on hand. But roasting a chicken is another story altogether. Like so many people I am always looking to improve how I make the perfect roast chicken. Mostly I spatchcock or butterfly it or roast pieces rather than a whole bird for more even and consistent results. But in this case, because Napa Grass Farmer had provided me with such a beautiful bird I thought I’d roast the whole thing.  I u......

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Chinese Noodles Recipe

I'm sure Asian cooking guru Jaden of Steamy Kitchen would cringe if she saw this noodle recipe, but I can't help it. It was my go-to dish my last year in college and it's a keeper. My senior year I shared a big beach house with four other girls in Santa Cruz, California. I seemed to be the only one really interested in cooking. One was a Japanese American basketball player who ate bowls and bowls of rice, one was a perpetual dieter, another favored baked or fried foods that always seemed to incorporate Crisco, and one was a pint-sized Chinese American sophomore from Sacramento who came from a very large family. She didn't cook very frequently, but this easy noodle recipe was something I learned from her. I recently received a number of Annie Chun's noodles. The dried chow mein noodles reminded me of this long forgotten recipe. Perfect for a college student or anyone else for that matter, it's fast, cheap and easy. It can be eaten very simply or dressed up a......

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Pantry Paella Recipe

My kitchen is overflowing. My freezer is so full I can barely close it. I sometimes hear the crash of bottles, jars and tins falling off my pantry shelves and onto the floor. I seriously think I could cook and eat without going out of the house for a month. Ok, I might get bored of tuna and beans and pasta, but then again, maybe not. I have no idea what causes me to hoard food, but I sometimes imagine I must have been a starving Italian casalinga in another lifetime. The other day I was thinking about using the short grain Valencia rice I had languishing in the cupboard to make paella. I was going to buy some shrimp but as I perused various recipes it became clear to me that you can make paella with just about any combination of vegetables, seafood or meat. There is no one paella. I figured I might as well use what I have on hand. In my pantry I had a jar of artichokes and a can of green olives, and in the freezer I had pearl onions, peas and a single sausage. Those ingredients we......

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Chicken Roasted in a Pot Recipe

Last month it seemed everyone was roasting a chicken. Perhaps the chill in the air inspired a desire for something comforting and familiar. I couldn't watch a cooking show on television, read a newspaper online or food magazine without staring at yet another roast chicken. And blogs! It seems just about every food blogger was roasting chicken. I think it was the steady stream of breathtaking photos that finally got to me. This is a "poulet en cocotte" recipe that I modified. I saw it on a certain television program and decided I would make it a little differently. It was moist but didn't yield crispy skin. Fresh out of the oven, I particularly enjoy roast chicken with roasted root vegetables or a big green salad and boiled potatoes all slathered with vinaigrette. The next day I shred the leftover chicken and use it in something else like enchiladas, another excellent comfort food. The liquid from the chicken was very rich and flavorful and I had so much of it l......

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Crispy Panko Mustard Chicken Recipe

Do you know panko? It's a Japanese style of bread crumbs used to coat fried food. The crumbs are large and very flaky. It's made from yeast-raised bread dough that is baked in a special oven so it does not form a crust. The crumbs start out very pale colored but cook up golden brown. You can find it in the Asian section of just about any supermarket. Traditional Japanese recipes using panko include Tonkatsu, a breaded fried pork cutlet. It is delicious, like most fried food, but not very healthy. I knew there had to be a way to use panko to make an oven-fried crispy chicken breast or cutlet. But I will admit, it took several attempts to get this one right. It really satisfies that craving for crispy fried food but is practically guilt-free. I used the Creole Mustard from Dulcet Cuisine which has a stone-ground texture and is flavored with onion, garlic, paprika, pepper and thyme. So I guess this is kind of a Southern/Japanese fusion entree. The trick to this technique is ......

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Cool Quesadilla Combos:Recipe

Somewhere along the line I seem to have forgotten about quesadillas. But recently a couple of factors lead to me rediscovering them and their potential. One is the Organic Whole Wheat & Corn Flour Tortillas available at Trader Joe's . Each tortilla has only one gram of fat, five grams of fiber and is high in iron. They fit into my "try to eat more whole grain foods" resolution. A little experimenting lead me to discover that the nutty flavor of whole wheat tortillas is really good with non-traditional, not-necessarily Mexican fillings. The other bit of inspiration came from a recipe I read in Sara Foster's Casual Cooking for Grilled Shrimp and Goat Cheese Toastadas. That jumping off point lead me to create a shrimp, avocado, radicchio and goat cheese quesadilla with a drizzle of chimichurri sauce. It was truly outstanding. I know quesadillas were all the rage about five years ago, but if you haven't played around with them in a while, they are defini......

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Spring Onion Kebabs: Recipe

Here is a recipe I created for Dannon: Spring Onion Kebabs Ingredients 1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken (breasts, thighs or combination) 1 bunch of green onions, 6 – 10 total 1/2 tsp. kosher salt 1/8 tsp. fresh ground pepper 1/2 cup Dannon® All Natural Plain Yogurt 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil 4 bamboo skewers Instructions 1. Cut chicken roughly into 1 ½-inch chunks. 2. Chop the bottom 1/3 of the green onions that is white and pale green, to get 1/4 cup. Place the chopped green onions, salt, pepper, yogurt and oil into the blender and blend on high until smooth. 3. Place chicken in a zip lock plastic bag. Pour the marinade over the chicken and marinate for at least 2 hours. Cut the rest of the green onion tops into 1-inch pieces. 4. Meanwhile, soak 4 bamboo skewers in water while chicken is marinating. 5. Preheat broiler. Onto the skewers, thread the chicken, alternating with green onion. Broil chicken 3 inches from heat. Flip the skewers after they have cooked fo......

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Gremolata Chicken Recipe

Gremolata sounds like a character out a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. Perhaps Gremolata could be a princess? Or a witch? Or even an enchanted kingdom? But no, gremolata is a garnish made of lemon peel, garlic and parsley. Some versions include anchovy or rosemary as well. Gremolata is traditionally served as a garnish with Osso Buco. In Italian osso means bone and buco means hole. Osso Buco is a dish made with a veal shank bone which has a large marrow filled "hole". What gremolata means I have no idea. What I do know is that the pungent raw flavors of gremolata "brighten" up a long-simmered dish such as Osso Buco. Versions of it are used with different kinds of soups and stews as well. Gremolata is always used as a garnish after a dish is done, but I recently started musing about all sorts of other things you could do with gremolata in recipes. By adding another ingredient or two it becomes a great addition to meatballs, or a topping for pasta or fish, e......

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Tea Smoked Chicken Recipe

I am a tea drinker. I love just about everything to do with tea, I am especially captivated by the ritual of tea. You might think I mean the Japanese tea ceremony, but actually I find the western rituals of tea making and drinking, while nowhere near as aesthetic or intellectual a pursuit, equally appealing. It seems like such a simple thing to make tea, and in a way it is--you boil water and steep the tea leaves then pour it--but each of those steps if done improperly can make a dreadful libation. The water needs to be fresh, the temperature should be boiling or just under the boil for some types of tea, like green tea. The amount of tea is also crucial. I find that I need to use much less tea than is usually called for to make a good pot of tea. Too much tea in the pot (I steep it in a fine mesh strainer) can make the tea bitter and so too can steeping for too long. Each tea is slightly different and you need to find out just how much time works for each. The longest I steep tea is......

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