After Thanksgiving, for many years, too many to count, I made Turkey Tetrazzini. I switched off between it and Turkey a la King served in puff pastry cups. Nothing all that complicated about either of those. And then Tetrazzini fell out of favor. And so did Turkey a la King too. So for a couple of decades – maybe even 3 decades – I didn’t make either of them. Tetrazzini has made a comeback – I even saw it on a restaurant menu recently. I didn’t order it because I was sure it wouldn’t be as good as home made. I’d have liked to try a bite.

So when I read about it at Pioneer Woman’s website, that it’s one of her favorite ways of using up left over turkey, well, I decided then and there, that I’d make it this year.

I went hunting for my recipe, but could not find it. Oh well, there are plenty of them out there. So I did use Ree Drummond’s version. And now that I’ve made that one, I’ve also made a few little alterations to her recipe too. You can do that with a casserole. Put your own spin on things (I added peas for one thing). I also think it could have handled even more than 1 1/2 pounds of mushrooms. Yes, really. We added more turkey than hers called for anyway, and I think it could have done with yet more of that too. And just a little less pasta – I want more meat and veggies in proportion to pasta, but that’s just me! Her recipe calls for 1 1/2 pounds of pasta. I’ve changed the recipe to 1 1/4 pounds – not a whole lot. So my recipe below is my adaptation of her recipe.

I liked all the mushrooms – they were quartered, not sliced. That gave this casserole some additional texture. I also liked the panko crumbs on top. I do love panko crumbs. I use them all the time, don’t you?

If your family doesn’t like peas, well, take ‘em out. Add carrots. Or green onion. Or chopped green beans. It’s nice to give it some green color from something. Don’t use green pepper – that would ruin it for me. But green beans are fairly neutral tasting so they’d work. This version also has bacon in it – just a bit of added richness and pork flavor.

You can’t quite tell from the photo, but the Tetrazzini was almost too dry. So I’ve altered the recipe a bit to make sure that doesn’t happen to you. The mixture needs to be almost like creamy soup when you roll it into the casserole dish – it needs LOTS of brothy liquid to soak into those noodles.

My daughter Sara and daughter-in-law Karen both helped make this. We all took on different tasks to get the casserole made and while it baked, a salad was composed using up most of the produce we had left from the weekend of eating.

What’s good: it’s as simple as can be – spaghetti (or some kind of pasta), turkey, some veggies, and a rich, tasty soupy sauce, plus cheese. It’s comfort food. Don’t expect it to be highly seasoned – there’s no heat in it. And very few herbs, either. Sometimes plain pasta is “just right.” Do season it well with salt and pepper – it needs it.
What’s not: perhaps I’d have to say this isn’t a “wow” dinner entrée. It’s good for family, and it was delicious after a weekend of plenty of eating at every meal.

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Oh, I’m so tickled to share this recipe – it’s SO easy. And SO tasty. It’s boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded a little to make them thinner, topped with a slather of mayo with chipotle chiles, further topped with a panko mixture and baked for about 15 minutes. How’s that for easy?

Over on my list of “Favs,” there aren’t very many that I’d call easy. A few. But this? It’s going on the list. Oh, so easy to make. It may become part of my regular rotation. It’s full of flavor. The chicken is tender and juicy, and it takes about 10-15 minutes of prep time max, and bakes for 15 minutes. I had dinner on the table in about 40 minutes. While the chicken baked I whipped up a green salad, and I had a left over veggie to go with it. Dinner done! Love that.

Here’s the procedure . . . first I opened up this jar you see at left – it’s called The Art of Chipotle, Chipotle Paste with Adobo – found it at my local grocery store – instead of having to open a can of chipotle chiles in adobo, or dig out some of the frozen mush I have, I now have a new condiment (which will take up refrigerator space unfortunately). The paste is pureed, so you don’t have to handle the chiles (which burn my fingers) – just use a spoon to measure out what you need. You can see the chipotle paste in the bowl with the mayo. The original recipe called for up to twice as much chipotle – I tend to under-heat with chipotle – so I used just a tablespoon instead.

After mixing it up, adding dried cilantro (I learned a lesson recently about dried cilantro – it gives a nice punch of citrusy flavor), I slathered the mixture on the chicken breasts that I’d pounded out to 1/2 inch thick. I’d lightly oiled the baking dish so the meat wouldn’t stick. I also made a lightly moistened panko mixture too – moistened with a little bit of oil and added some more of the dried cilantro. The center picture is the chicken ready to bake. The chicken went into a hot oven for about 15 minutes. There you can see the finished dish, nice and golden brown. From start to finish this dinner took me about 40 minutes.

COSTCO CHICKEN POUCHES: Certainly I’ve mentioned before that I buy those pouches of chicken breasts (fresh) at Costco. The  6 pouches (2 per pouch) are separated and then get thrown into the freezer and I pull them out when I want them. DEFROSTING: The pouch goes into a deep bowl of cold water. I put a big wide pasta bowl on top of the chicken (the bowl just fits into the bigger bowl with enough room for my fingers to grab it), then a heavy object goes in the inner bowl (I use a ceramic canister that sits near the kitchen sink – it’s just decorative, doesn’t contain anything – use something that won’t spill, obviously) to weight down the meat. Sometimes as the pouches defrost they’ll move around in the water (air displacement, I suppose), so that’s why the wide bowl on top needs to keep that chicken under water! You don’t want the chicken pouch(es) to float – the poultry needs to stay submerged. It takes about 2 hours or so (maybe 3) to defrost the chicken, depending on how thick the package is. After 2 hours I massage the pouch – if there is still firm/frozen meat in the middle, it stays in the water for another hour. The cold from the frozen pouch keeps the water cold-cold, enough so there’s no chance of salmonella forming, and yet it’s warm enough that it defrosts easily enough.

We are back singing in our church choir, so  on rehearsal nights I’ve got to be prompt with dinner on the table by 6 pm. With this dish it will be easy to do! The recipe was adapted quite a bit from a Phillis Carey one I found in one of her cookbooks. I added the cilantro (fresh and dried) and the oiled panko crust. So the idea was hers, but I flew off on a tangent when I made it.

What’s good: certainly the ease of making it. It would even be worthy of a company meal. Now that’s saying something for me to have an “easy” dish I’d make for guests. Does that give you any idea how good this is? And FYI, there is just a little HINT of heat – some people might not even notice it.
What’s not: really nothing. It’s a winner of a recipe.

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Chicken curry is probably my favorite Indian dish. That’s probably why I have 3 other recipes on my blog for similar dishes. When I had some left over chicken the other night, my first thought was to make it into a curry. I adapted a new recipe for this version, and would definitely make it again. It is more work than some, however. In the mixture above you’ll see some poppy seeds – something I’ve never included in chicken curry before.

The October issue of Saveur magazine contains 150 best recipes from around the world. Recipes that define some regions, countries, cuisines. The article (really it’s almost the entire issue) has loads of lovely photos and brief stories about the recipes. They cover things like Major Grey’s Chutney, Boston Cream Pie, Shepherd’s Pie, Chicken Liver Pate, Mulligatawny Soup, Nasi Goreng, Oxtail Stew, Quiche Lorraine, Felafel, Beef Stroganoff even. And that’s just a smattering of the list. You can peruse all 150 recipes (only 100 made it to the print issue) by clicking on the link above.

This particular recipe is from a restaurant chef (Hemant Mathur from Tulsi in NYC). I did run into a glitch or two just reading the recipe – it wasn’t written with the home cook in mind, I’m guessing, so I’ve re-written it to make it easier (I hope). As I was cooking, I had to look to the recipe dozens of times as the instructions were less than helpful! But I managed. I also adapted the recipe in several ways – I used less heat (fewer serranos); I used already cooked chicken; and I did my best to remove all the whole spices before one of the paste mixtures went into the food processor. Nobody likes to bite into a big chunk of cinnamon bark, a whole allspice or peppercorn. I also used about 1/3 less vegetable oil called for. The recipe also listed rose petals. I didn’t have any without pesticides on them, so I took that out of the recipe completely. I also added a bit more yogurt and cream because I wanted more sauce. I’ve made chicken curries before – here on my blog you’ll find Saffron Chicken Curry, an old Dinah Shore quick curry called Chicken Curry Without Worry, and a 100 Almond Chicken Curry, a delicious one too, using coconut milk. All of these are good. Now I’ve got more competition with this new recipe added to the mix.

As I mentioned above, this took quite a bit more prep time than I’d anticipated just by glancing at the ingredient list (without the little title separators I added in my version below). The first order of business is to get the onions cooking,  since that takes about 45+ minutes. The nut paste can be made while they’re caramelizing. You might get all the spices out and at the ready too. And, mince, chop or slice all the ginger and garlic ahead of time. You need it in several junctures of the recipe preparation. I didn’t caramelize the onions as much as I should have, so my sauce wasn’t as golden brown as the magazine picture. Next time I’ll make more time for the caramelization process.

Most curries are served with rice, and I made some basmati this time. If you read my essay about arsenic in rice, then you already know we should be limiting our intake of rice to 2 half cup servings a week. I did 2 things to improve the odds – I bought Trader Joe’s imported basmati rice from India (which has less arsenic than most) – and I rinsed the rice thoroughly (most of the arsenic is on the outside of each rice grain).  I also measured our servings of rice (I do that anyway for my DH since he must calculate carbs).

What I liked: the all-over-the-map flavors from the variety of spices in this. You’ll be hard pressed to pick out any one spice flavor, however (a good thing). My DH loved it – really loved it. He spoke several superlative words as he was licking his spoon, retrieving every single rice kernel. He even said something like this was one of the best chicken dishes I’ve ever made. I don’t give it that much credit – but yes, he really, really liked it. I did too. I’ll be better organized when I make it next time.
What I didn’t like: well, it’s more labor intensive than I would have wished, but when we tasted the results, it made it all worthwhile.

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Lest you think that I have run out of ideas for this blog (since this is a re-run), let me just say that at the moment I’m writing this, I have about 12 posts ready in the queue, poised in waiting for me to press the button called “publish.”  It’s just that this old recipe, which I posted in March of 2008, but have been making since the late 70’s sounded so “right” for dinner the other night. And it was. And it just reinforced how much I love this salad! But I updated it some.

My hubby went grocery shopping for me to buy the things I didn’t have on hand (cabbage, Top Ramen, iceberg lettuce). But since I’m always thinking about ways to update my old recipes, I decided to add two other ingredients to this salad – sugar snap peas, and some fresh corn that I would cut off the cob. Otherwise, the recipe is true to its original. I’m sure no self-respecting Chinese would sully the original salad with something like sugar snaps or corn, but they sounded good to me, so I just DID it.

If you want to go to my original post about it, you can read how I first tasted Chinese Chicken Salad at Ming’s in Palo Alto (in about 1978), and was blown away by fresh cilantro (not available then in regular grocery stores).

If you have some left over chicken pieces, have a hankering for a cool, refreshing salad, well, try this. The dressing is sweet and tart, enhanced with toasted sesame oil.

What I liked: everything about it – the textures, the sweet and sour dressing, even the little crunchy Top Ramen noodles that get crushed in the salad.

What I didn’t like: nothing! This is a favorite salad.

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Chicken drumsticks baked long and slow with a collection of spices (no herbs) in an Ethiopian style. They’re baked and baked and baked until the meat almost falls off the bone.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you hopefully glanced through the review I did recently of the memoir by Marcus Samuelsson a couple of weeks ago. His book Yes, Chef: A Memoir was really interesting to me. He has quite a story to tell of his life and he’s still a young man! One particular thing he mentioned was about discovering the spice mixture, berbere. He was born in Ethiopia, but was adopted as a very young child to Sweden (he and his sister were orphaned in Addis Ababa when their mother died of TB). It wasn’t until he was an adult that he heard about berbere, but one of his passions (still) is “chasing flavors,” as he calls it. He wants to prepare foods that shine with flavor. Over his career when he discovers something new and wonderful, he gets obsessed with it and tries to find ways to use it, maybe in unexpected ways, combining cross-cultural dishes (like Swedish and Ethiopian). When he finally tasted berbere, he had an epiphany, feeling in his soul that he “knew” that mixture.

Having never even heard of berbere before, I wanted to try it. I had all the ingredients to make it; it was just a matter of combining them. So here’s what’s in it:

There is one rather unusual ingredient there – fenugreek. It’s a frequent visitor to Indian cuisine. I had some of the dried seeds in my spice pantry. Here’s what they look like, see photo at right. I didn’t know a thing about fenugreek. So, Wikipedia to the rescue. Charred fenugreek seeds have been recovered from Iraq, (radiocarbon dating to 4000 BC) as well as desiccated seeds from the tomb of Tutankhamen. Cato the Elder lists fenugreek with clover and vetch as crops grown to feed cattle. Both leaves and seeds are used. Some cultures make a tea from the leaves. And it’s frequently used as part of the flavoring in imitation maple syrup. Imagine that? India is the largest producer of the seeds. Fenugreek was (is?) given to new mothers to help increase lactation. It’s also known as an aide to prevent diabetes. Amazing! Who knew? I ground up the fenugreek in my spice grinder. Since I’ve had the fenugreek for about 2-3 years, I increased the amount I used since I know spices lose their potency the longer they sit on a shelf. By itself it doesn’t taste like much. I think it’s used in curries, although it doesn’t taste like curry at all.

Anyway, that’s what’s in it. So I combined all those ingredients, mixed them up and there you have berbere. I think it can be very spicy hot! The predominant flavoring is paprika. The recipe called for a T. of hot paprika. I don’t have hot, but I do have half-sharp that I bought the last time we visited Budapest, which is a mixture of hot and mild. That’s what I used. Some people use cayenne instead. Whoa! That really would be hot!

In this chicken dish you have the option of using half of the mixture, or all of it. The more you use, the hotter it will be, obviously! The chicken pieces are lightly coated with peanut oil (or butter), then you sprinkle the berbere all over them. They’re roasted in a 325° oven for 90 minutes, all wrapped up in foil. Then you remove the foil from the top and put it back in the oven for about 30 minutes or so. The originator of this recipe indicated that he prefers the chicken to be meltingly tender, falling-off-the-bone tender, so he says you can continue to bake it for a long time. The chicken isn’t browned – it’s just rubbed with oil, tossed with the berbere, and baked. Easy, easy. In the photo at right they’re reversed – first you bake in foil, then you remove the top foil and bake longer. The chicken creates a lot of juice – it can be used to baste the chicken if you have time, and also to drizzle over rice as a side dish.

So, what’s the verdict? Loved it. The combo of spices is just amazing. Well, maybe not amazing. Excellent for sure. Our 18-year old grandson said “wow, Grandma, first I got the heat, then the flavors just kind of exploded in my mouth.” There were 3 of us at the table, and everybody LOVED IT. As a side note, if you make this and have extra berbere left over, you can use it to make a paste/sauce to dip your food into. Scroll down almost to the bottom of the post for the recipe for Awaze Paste. I think Marcus Samuelsson did an interview with Saveur magazine – I found a recipe for the barbere there too. It’s different. Every recipe is just a little different – but they ALL contain paprika, fenugreek and some kind of heat (most Ethiopian recipes use dried chiles – milder versions use just paprika – well, paprika’s from a pepper too, but most Hungarian peppers are mild). You can also make a wet rub for meats – use berbere and some olive oil and/or some red wine until it’s a spreading consistency.

What I liked: the spice combo is really, really tasty. Next time I’ll use nearly all of the spices on the 3 lbs. of chicken – it wasn’t that hot, really. I’d totally cover the chicken in the spices. The other great thing is this dish is super-easy. Oil, rub, wrap in foil and forget it for nearly 2 hours. How much easier could it be?

What I didn’t like: nothing at all. I’ll use more spice next time, though.

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You’ll find very few crockpot recipes here on my blog. Not because I don’t like them – but just because I’m home all the time and usually prefer to make soups on the cooktop. I suppose this one wouldn’t have to be made in a crockpot – but gosh, it’s SO easy this way! If you’re employed full time or have a really busy schedule, this soup/stew will rock your world not only with ease but with flavor! If you love Mexican food, well, this is a shoe-in, then.

As I was cropping and adding text to my photos for this blog post, my fingers were almost itchy to get to writing about it because this soup is so fantastic! Oh my yes. Before I start writing I always work with the photos first, then I prepare the MasterCook recipe that gets exported to a pdf and as a text file (that goes into the box below). Once that’s all done (usually takes me 10-15 minutes or less) then I start writing. My mouth is watering looking at the photo above.

Back when crockpots first came out (wow, that was 1971), the recipes generally under-whelmed me. They lacked sufficient layers of flavor, I suppose. Yes they were easy. Yes, they helped with meal-making when I was a full-time working mom, and yes, the cleanup was easy too. But my first crockpot was ceramic, and back then you either had to brown meat in another pan (taking more time, and giving you another dirty pot) or you had to use raw meat, which is generally what I did. Now I know better – so much of the flavor in meat comes from that caramelization when it’s browned in a pan. So when I bought the Cuisinart Multi-Cooker, 7-Quart, all that changed because it has a heavy insert (coated in a nonstick surface) that can go right on the stove (to brown the meat first) and then you lift up the whole thing and put it into the crockpot. I don’t use it all that often, but I love it when I do. And I now have several crockpot cookbooks that are truly new-age – at least current age, with more steps to preparing it, but things come out tasting a whole lot better.

So back to this recipe. My friend Linda T was telling me about a crockpot enchilada soup she makes, that she got from her daughter Kristin. On the printed page Linda mailed me it said the recipe came Krissy, over at Dainty Chef, a blog. I followed Dainty Chef’s recipe nearly all the way through, only veering off with my combo of garnishes (I love cilantro). It’s one heck of a great recipe. In a nutshell, you first make a thin milk sauce mixture (I used 2%)  that gets mixed with some canned enchilada sauce. Now, I have to tell you, here’s where I veered off – it just happens that when we had family visiting recently, they went to one of their old family favorite restaurants, called Los Jarritos (on N. Garey in Pomona, no website, but you can read about it on Yelp). Our son-in-law, Todd, just loves this place too. This particular trip he had his mother Ann in tow (who just happens to be a great Mexican cook) and she usually buys a quart of their enchilada sauce whenever she’s there and takes it home. She did buy it and came to stay with us her last night, and put it in my freezer. You can guess what happened? She forgot it. So, my plan was to leave it there and the next time one of the family visits they could take it home (500 miles away). But then I got to this recipe . . . and I don’t have any canned enchilada sauce . . . and the lightbulb went off in my head . . . oh, I can use Los Jarritos’ sauce that’s in the freezer!

So there’s this saucy stuff (the thin milky sauce mixed with the enchilada sauce). First, though, you put into the crockpot a can of drained and rinsed black beans, some corn, Rotel tomatoes, some onion and bell pepper. Here I need to tell you something else – Rotel tomatoes are spicy hot. If you find them too hot, I’d suggest you use regular canned (diced) tomatoes and the juice, and add in canned green chiles and a bit of jalapeno for heat. For most adult tastes I think one can of Rotel would be fine. The restaurant enchilada sauce I used happened to have a lot of heat in it, so we had some really smokin’ hot soup.

Then you put the raw chicken breasts on top, cover with the enchilada sauce mixture and crockpot it on low for 6-8 hours (or on high for 3-4). About half an hour before it’s done, remove the chicken breasts and let them cool just a bit so you can handle it. Then shred it up into small bite-sized pieces and put it back into the crockpot and stir it all up to allow the chicken to re-heat. Meanwhile, prepare the garnishes. Scoop a heaping cup (or 2 for hearty eaters) of the soup mixture into a bowl and top with the garnishes of your choice.

What I liked: well, the flavor is paramount. It was fantastic. I loved all the layers of flavors – from the complex enchilada sauce to the textures in the beans, corn, tortilla chips and then the cool, refreshing cilantro and green onions. Altogether fantastic. It was easy enough – you do have to make the sauce, which does take 10 minutes or so. Open a few cans, but really that’s it until you’re ready to serve and need to fix the garnishes. Overall, very easy. I’ll make this for a big family dinner for sure. Maybe soon. A green salad on the side would be all that’s needed.

What I didn’t like: absolutely nothing at all! Will make this again. And again. It’s probably going onto my Carolyn’s Favs list.

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What is that? A chicken breast on the bottom, with a piece of melting Mozzarella cheese on top, sprinkled with some pepper and Italian herbs, and topped with a mushroom Madeira sauce. VERY easy to make. You’d absolutely never – ever – know it’s low calorie.

Just because I tell you this recipe is a healthy one, please don’t go on by – you’ll be very surprised at the succulence of this chicken dish. My friend Linda T told me about a new cookbook she purchased. She’s been going to Weight Watchers for awhile, and I would guess someone told her about this cookbook there – mostly she mentioned it because the food is so good – but she also said the author includes Weight Watchers points with the nutritional info about each recipe.

The author, Marlene Koch, is a dietitian. She’s a wife and mother, and decided there had to be a way to incorporate her (and our) favorite things (like cheese, butter, and ooey gooey goodies, in her words) into everyday healthy cooking. So first she published Eat What You Love. That was a couple of years ago. (I don’t own that cookbook.) This year she published a second book, because she now has a huge following (she’s been on QVC apparently, and has written several other cookbooks about using Splenda in cooking). She has her own website, and she’s on Facebook, in case you’re interested. Her secret, of course, is everything in moderation. She uses foods (like Madeira wine in this recipe) that are full of flavor and then adds in just a little bit of oil and/or butter. The cookbook I have is her 2nd one in this genre of Eat What You Love, and it’s called Eat More of What You Love.

If this recipe is any representation of what else is in this book, I’ll be a happy camper. My husband had nary a clue the entrée was low in calorie and fat. He almost licked the plate. I’d made some plain rice and that was almost the same as licking the plate since it soaked up all the scrumptious sauce.

Truth be told, my DH and I never eat at the Cheesecake Factory. (A Chicken Madeira is on their menu, but one that loaded with fat and calories.) We don’t not go there because the food isn’t good, but because it’s about a 25-minute drive, and it’s always very crowded. It’s in a shopping center and it takes at least 10+ minutes to walk from the parking garage to the restaurant. Way too much trouble. Once in awhile my friend Cherrie and I will meet there for lunch (we usually share an order of their Shepherd’s Pie, which is SO good) and then go to a movie together. Otherwise, I never even go to that shopping center, period. Oh, yes, my DH and I did go there to buy a Sleep Number Bed (the best bed we’ve ever had, by the way) a couple of years ago.

Anyway, this chicken . . . it’s in the 2nd cookbook listed up above. My friend Linda told me this was one of her favorite recipes from the book – this was after I’d already chosen it as my first test. Starting with 4 chicken breasts pounded to about 1/2 inch thickness, you brown them in a tiny bit of oil, just until they’re browned on both sides and nearly cooked through. Remove them, then you make the sauce. I added mushrooms and let them sauté a bit, then added some red onion. It only took a few minutes and they were cooked completely. Then the wine and beef broth were added and allowed to simmer, to reduce down a bit. Lastly you add some Italian herbs and a tiny bit of cornstarch stirred into the last bit of beef broth. It’s just enough to thicken the sauce some. The chicken is put back into the pan. The cheese is put on top (I used fresh Mozzarella because I had some and didn’t have any regular Mozzie). I sprinkled the top with some pepper and some of the dried herbs. A lid was put on top and the chicken was simmered for about 3-4 minutes while the cheese began to melt and the chicken finished cooking. The rest of our dinner was plated, then I added a scoop of hot rice and the chicken with the sauce drizzled all over both the chicken and the rice. Oh, heavenly taste!

What I liked: Would you believe me if I said that I would have no idea this dish was low calorie and low fat? It was absolutely wonderful – full of flavor and texture. Delicious in every bite. I’d even make this for guests – it was that good!

What I didn’t like: wow, nothing whatsoever. A definite make again dish.

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Probably this should be a special treat meal – what with 31 grams of fat per serving. But it’s SO delicious. Beurre Blanc (in French it means “white butter” ) sauce is a mystery to me – it doesn’t taste like it’s almost pure butter. But it is! This would also be good with almost any kind of fish fillets too. The sauce isn’t hard to make. Have everything all ready beforehand.

Do you remember the first time you had beurre blanc? I do – it was probably in the late 1980’s – at a famous restaurant in Malibu, and it was served on salmon, and I was in love. Little did I know what sinfulness was in it. No internet could tell me back then – well, there were computers, but finding recipes on a computer then was a daunting task. It wasn’t in my then-old copy of the Joy of Cooking. It wasn’t in my Woman’s Day Encyclopedia of Cooking. I didn’t own any French cookbooks then. But eventually a cookbook I purchased had a recipe for it, and I gasped when I read the ingredients – almost pure butter. Sigh. No wonder I liked it so much! If you’re interested in reading more about its origin, check out wikipedia’s description. It was (they think) an accident sometime in the early 1900’s, as woman-chef Clémence Lefeuvre from the Loire Valley was preparing a hollandaise, and she forgot to add the egg yolks and tarragon.

So, enough about the history of the sauce. What you want to know is that the sauce is a blank canvas for herbs or veggie additions (in this case tomatoes and cucumber), so you could easily – very easily – substitute other things. In this version from a cooking class with Phillis Carey, it’s served over marinated, then grilled chicken breasts, and the sauce contains basil as well as the tomatoes and cucumbers. Just remember not to let the sauce even begin to boil once you’ve incorporated the cold butter – the sauce will “break” if you do. That’s the secret to it – something about the lecithin in butter than allows the mixture to be a viscous sauce without the addition of any thickeners like flour or cornstarch. Do serve it with some kind of relatively plain carb (like rice as you can see in the photo – don’t add a lot of flavorings as it would compete with the subtle beurre blanc sauce) to soak up every drop of the sauce. Phillis also said it’s particularly good with asparagus.

What I liked: the succulence of the sauce – well, why not since it’s got lots of succulent butter in it! This preparation with tomatoes and cucumbers is very different – I didn’t think I’d like diced up cucumber in this, but it adds a delicious crunch to it. Altogether good.

What I didn’t like: taste-wise, nothing. Calorie-wise, well, as I said, make this a special treat!

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Nestled under all that parsley, cilantro and mint is a chicken thigh, and it’s on top of the apricot and almond couscous. And bedded down in the middle is a big, honkin’ Greek olive (this one happened to be stuffed with lemon – how appropriate since there’s a lot of lemon in this dish already). What you can’t see is all the flavorful sauce getting sopped up by the couscous. Oodles of flavor.

You may think I own every appliance and kitchen contraption out there. Really, I don’t. And a tagine is one of those things I don’t have. I did give one to our daughter-in-law for one of her birthdays, or Christmas – she loves cooking Moroccan food. She wanted an All-Clad tagine (that’s tah-gzheen) – she chose it because it will go on the stove, and easily goes into the oven as well. It’s metal and ceramic But one of the down sides to tagines is their bulky shape. And most of them don’t hold all that much food in them either. When Karen has made tagine for us, I’d say hers will barely hold enough to serve 3-4 people. Under many circumstances that’s sufficient, I suppose. I’ve looked at them, but haven’t ever been bitten by the bug to buy one. Mainly because you can make tagines without one. I do love the concept of them (the steam – hence flavor – wafts around inside that conical shape and supposedly drips back down into the dish). And I love their shape – so pretty, really! If I were to buy one I think I might try the Emile Henry Flame Top 3.7 Quart Tagine, Red. Just cuz it’s a red, but mostly because it’s larger than most, and because I’m nuts about Emile Henry ceramic ware. You’ll notice, they’re expensive. If you do a search on amazon you’ll find all manner of tagines, from about $40 to nearly $200, depending on brand and whether they’re glazed or not.

Without a tagine, I used my Emile Henry pottery, a Dutch Oven –  Emile Henry Flame Top Round Oven. This little number has become my go-to pot – it sits regally on my gas stovetop all the time. The “thing” about Emile Henry ceramic cookware is that it’s a breeze to clean. It’s like Teflon, but it’s not, it’s ceramic. It goes ON the stovetop and in the oven. It can sit over high heat (and it did when I sautéed the chicken for this dish) and it is just as happy in the oven too. And best of all, it goes from stove to table.

Well, I really should talk about the chicken tagine I made, huh? The recipe came from a cooking class with Phillis Carey, although I found almost the identical recipe online – tagines are similar wherever they come from, I think. Phillis made hers with chicken breasts, but I wanted to use chicken thighs instead. Both work just fine; merely use different cooking times. First the chicken was marinated in garlic, onion, cumin, ginger, paprika, salt and pepper. If time permits you can actually refrigerate that for 24 hours. Otherwise, leave it at room temp for max 45 minutes. The chicken pieces are browned in oil, removed, sliced onion is sautéed, then you add in the flavorful stuff like chicken broth, a bay leaf, cinnamon stick and saffron. The chicken is simmered in that until done (6-8 minutes for breasts, about 20-25 for thighs).

THE QUICK PRESERVED LEMONS: on to the lemon part. If you have preserved lemon on hand (you can buy it at some markets and store it in the refrigerator), use it. I’m not overly crazy about the taste of it that way – not only is it incredibly salty, but it has a strange consistency to me. So when Phillis showed us how to make quick preserved lemon, I was all over that! I’ll be doing it that way in the future. Here’s how it’s done. First you slice up a lemon (see photo) and sprinkle with salt – more salt than you’d use for a serving of peas for instance, but not loaded. Turn them over and sprinkle again. Let them sit – stacked a couple of slices deep – for 30 minutes. Next, pick up the individual pieces and let them drip onto the plate (which removes juice and some of the excess salt) and set on a cutting board. Then you cut them up into small pieces. Those pictured aren’t quite cut small enough – smaller would be better. Those pieces get added to the tagine, and they kind of meld into it. They aren’t cooked at all – just heated through.

Also needing mention is the olives. Pictured at right are Moroccan green olives, available from Amazon. Phillis told us you can’t use Spanish olives – they’re the wrong taste, and generally they’re too salty. I did a quick review in my pantry and found a jar of Greek green olives stuffed with lemon. These happened to have come from Home Goods, and I bought them because my friend Yvette told me how good they were. Mine had been sitting on the pantry shelf for about a year. Maybe they got more pickled – don’t know – but OH, were they sour! My DH wouldn’t eat them – he tried one and it was the last. And he loves green olives in almost any guise. But not these! Perhaps it was the lemon filling in them. In any case, the pitted olives might need to be cut into smaller pieces. This dish has a tangy sour flavor (from the lemon), but once it’s mixed with the couscous, it mellows most of it well. You can stir in the parsley, mint and cilantro, or sprinkle on top. Serve with couscous or rice.

What I liked: well, I really liked everything about it. The olives. The quick preserved lemon pieces, the chicken, and oh, the sauce. Delish. Yes, I’d make it again. Make a big batch so you can have left overs.

What I didn’t like: it does take a bit of time to prepare, what with the lemon preserving to do, and maybe chopping olives. Chicken has to marinate too. But none of it’s hard and really not that much time.

printer-friendly PDF for chicken tagine (and includes brief instructions for the preserved lemon)

MasterCook 5+ import file – right click to save file, run MC, then File|Import

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printer-friendly PDF for quick preserved lemons

MasterCook 5+ import file – right click to save file, run MC, then File|Import

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Just when I think I’ve run out of ideas for lean chicken, I go to another cooking class and get a great one – like this recipe. Chicken breasts pounded thin and stuffed with Boursin cheese, ham and chives, then dipped in egg and a bread crumb/cheese mixture. Then the little bundles are baked at a high temp in a thin layer of hot oil in the oven to get a crispy crust on it. Like deep fried, but not really. Healthier. The crunch is wonderful!

The night I made this I wasn’t in any particular hurry (fortunately), so when we didn’t sit down until well after 7:00 I realized I should have started a little earlier. Not that it took all that long to make this – I just didn’t start working on it until after 6:00. I did have green beans left over and I sliced some tomatoes as sides. If I’d wanted carbs, I’d have made some buttered orzo, which is what Phillis Carey suggested, but I didn’t want carbs. The chicken breasts had been defrosted earlier, so I pounded them thin between two layers of plastic wrap. You need to make them fairly big (thin) in order to have enough to wrap around the filling. The Boursin cheese is part of the secret to this dish – it adds a nice, moist succulence to the stuffing (thin-sliced deli ham, chives, and a little tiny sprinkling of red pepper flakes). You can either fold over the chicken, or roll them up (I did a roll). Hopefully the sticky raw chicken will kind of self-adhese (is that a word?) on the outside edges. Carefully they’re dipped into the beaten egg and rolled very gently in the toasted bread crumbs, Parmesan and chopped parsley.

The “trick” if there is one, is pouring a thin layer of grapeseed oil into a rimmed baking sheet (with enough room on it for as many chicken bundles as you’ve made, with some breathing room in between them) and pre-heating that oil in a very hot oven for about 4 minutes. Until it’s almost (but not quite) smoking. That part worked like a charm for me – when I placed the chicken bundles in the pan, the oil was already spitting at me. The chicken is baked for about 7 minutes on convection bake (8 minutes regular heat), turned over (and they spit at me again) and baked an additional 5-7 minutes. Done. In that last 5 minutes I plated everything else and slide the chicken onto the plates right out of the oven. Because they were really HOT, they stayed warm on the plate well for at least 10 minutes while we consumed them.

My DH (who will tell me if something doesn’t taste up to snuff) couldn’t say enough good things about this chicken. He loved it. So did I. What’s there not to like? – Boursin cheese inside, crispy coating on the outside. Yum in every bite.

What I liked: already said – crispy coating on the outside that you’d only get if you did this oven-fry method – it works because the oven is very hot and the chicken is thin – it all cooks in a few minutes. Also the Boursin cheese. Oh yes. Delish. You could also make this a few hours ahead (the pounding, stuffing, then refrigerating). Just dip in egg, crumbs and do the oven frying at the last minute. This would make a GREAT company meal. As I mentioned, Phillis said to serve with buttered orzo.
What I didn’t like: well, I suppose if I had to say something, it was getting zapped by the spitting fat in the pan, but couldn’t be helped. No burns. Otherwise, nothing at all.

printer-friendly PDF
MasterCook 5+ import file – right click to save file, run MC, then File|Import

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