When I saw this roast chicken being prepared on Martha’s TV show the other day, it just made my mouth water. Usually a sign that I need to cook that dish. Roast chicken is so easy. And it was. The recipe comes from Jean-Georges Vonderichten, the famous chef. Martha was rapturous about the potatoes, but I thought the chicken was pretty good too. Not off the charts unusual, but it was very good. I’m always willing to try some new method of chicken, aren’t you?

What’s different about this chicken is that it’s laid on top of a bed of chunked-up peeled potatoes. The bird is put on her side. And she’s stuffed with half of a HEAD of garlic, some fresh herbs, the chicken liver, and she’s baked high – 450 – for about an hour or more. She gets turned on her other side after 20 minutes, then laid onto her back for the final roasting. She’s golden brown by that time (not surprising at that temp). The meat – including the breast meat – was succulent and moist. That’s always my test of a good roast chicken. And the potatoes. Well, what can I say. They were delicious but not memorable, but then most vegetables rolled around with butter, oil and the fat from a chicken will become nicely browned and delicious too.

Following the recipe was easy – there’s not that much to it – potatoes, some oil and butter, and the stuffed chicken. I put about 2 T. oil and butter in the roasting pan for the potatoes, and I slathered a bit of oil on the bird (no butter). I just couldn’t quite bring myself to use more than that.
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Eons ago when I first started going to cooking classes there used to be a cooking school here in Newport Beach called Ma Cuisine. It closed down after about 7-8 years, but I have several recipes from classes I took there, that are still standards for me. This is one of them. Another one is my osso bucco. And a third is a plain risotto made with champagne. I haven’t blogged either one of those, have I? I don’t seem to make osso buco very often, or risotto either, anymore. Love both, but they’re so labor intensive, eh?

Right off the bat I’ll tell you that I wouldn’t make this salad for just my DH and me for a weeknight dinner. Or even a weekend dinner for two. This is the kind of thing you want to make for guests, when you’d like them to ooh and aah over how you’ve slaved in the kitchen. And, in fact, you do slave a bit to make this, but it’s not overwhelming. It’s just that there are several steps (the marinade, the green beans, the dressing and the garnish). They’re all separate, but combined when you put it together just before serving. This recipe is long. I admit it, but don’t be discouraged. Nothing about the salad is difficult.

The original recipe was made for Cornish game hens. But sometimes, like this time, I simply couldn’t find them, so I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead. The group we entertained was probably happier for it anyway. Some people don’t like fussing with the bones, etc. of game hens. Particularly men, I find.

I’ve changed the recipe just a bit over the years. First, I added the orange juice to the marinade. In the class the instructor talked about wanting to “freshen” the game hens of their raw poultry smell, so she always squeezed the juice of a full orange over any poultry, then let it drain. Then she prepared the marinade. Since oranges are not a cheap commodity anymore, I just add the juice to the marinade. Then, I also grill the chicken breasts if I’m using them (not the game hens – they’re done in the oven only) , especially if it’s a warm summer night and I don’t want to heat up the kitchen. If you are using the chicken I don’t add the capers – just the brine. The capers never make it out of the marinade anyway when you use chicken, so I use only the brine to flavor the marinade. If you like capers, sprinkle some on top of the salad along with the tomatoes and shallots.

As you can see from the photograph, part of the aesthetic of this dish is the presentation. The salad is assembled just before serving – well, it’s layered, I should say – on a very large platter. This won’t fit on a 12-inch large plate. No way, no how. So bring out the big one, whatever you have, for this dinner. We were serving 9 people, so I had to pull out all the stops and bring out the big platter I use for Thanksgiving. Nobody could see the autumn embossing in the center of the platter anyway. The multi-colored greens are tossed with the herby dressing, then mounded on the platter. Then you add the haricot verts (the baby green beans) that were cooked just until barely done. Those are tossed in a bit of the dressing (separately) to make sure they’re covered completely. If you can, arrange them in a nice line-up, or kind of spoked around the platter. Then you arrange the hens or chicken breasts on top of the green beans. If I use chicken breasts normally I will cut each breast in two strips (looks nicer, that’s all). Then, the finale is the mini-diced tomatoes and shallots that have been tossed in their own little dressing (olive oil and sugar, plus some pepper). They add such a great fillip to the whole dish. Try to get them on TOP of the hens or chicken so each person has some of it with each serving.

If you go to my recipe page (index), and click on one of the categories, you’ll see that I don’t have all THAT many recipes that I call “favorites.” This is one of them. So, take note. If you trust me by this time that when I tell you a recipe is a keeper, then this is one.
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After a weekend of consuming more fried things than I normally eat, I wanted to cook something a bit more simple. Last week I’d purchased a big bunch of Poblano chiles and red bells, just for this recipe. Yesterday morning, while the weather was still very cool, I broiled the peppers and removed the skins. My DH grilled the chicken thighs (that’s what I had in the freezer) which I’d marinated in lime juice, olive oil and garlic, along with some planks of eggplant, and it took just a few minutes to make the sauce. The longest step was browning the onions.

I didn’t really want to use heavy cream, but decided to thin it out 50/50 with fat-free half and half. The only problem with that is that the sauce would be too thin, so I just whisked in two tablespoons of flour to the broth when it was added, and it thickened the sauce just fine. I didn’t have any Jack cheese, so found some soft herby cheese in the refrigerator that worked fine. I used less cheese than the recipe indicated. This was delicious. I liked the sauce, liked the strips of poblanos (they’re very mild; in fact they really have no heat whatsoever), and the cream sauce was quite light. The onions added a nice sweetness to the dish. I happened to have had chicken thighs instead of breasts, but that probably didn’t matter a whit. This is pretty enough to be a company meal – would be especially good with some rice on the side to sop up some of the sauce.
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A small calamity happened at my house yesterday. I was replacing one of my cookbooks on the shelf, and all of a sudden there was this shelf shift, a tilt, and nearly every cookbook on that 3-foot wide shelf tumbled to the floor. The good news: not one cookbook landed on my sandal-clad toes. The bad news: the shelf is compromised. My DH said (later) that I simply have too many books on the shelves. Sigh. We’re going to try to fix it, but I don’t know exactly what we’ll do. It’s a custom-made bookcase. I’ll need to contact our friend, Darci the Decorator, and see what she can do. But what I ended up doing was stacking the contents of that shelf in myriad places in my kitchen until we figure out what to do about this dilemma. Post-script here: Darci the Decorator called the builder of the shelf, he’s stopping by today to permanently affix the shelves so we’ll not have the problem. Whew.

I knew I wanted to make chicken for dinner. And I had some fresh picked zucchini from our corner farm stand. I have numerous cookbooks on my shelves that I’ve looked at, but never cooked from. I wanted to remedy that! From the fallen cookbook stacks, I chose Diana Kennedy’s The Essential Cuisines of Mexico. This was a Christmas gift to me a couple of years ago (it was on my Amazon wish list), and although I’d glanced through the book more than once, I’d not ever cooked anything. Diana Kennedy is well regarded as one of the authorities of Mexican cookery. She’s written numerous books, and this one is a compilation of some of the favorites from her earlier books, all updated for ingredients and techniques plus lots of new recipes. She’s been called the Julia Child of Mexican cooking, and her book is amazing, really. Ingredients are well defined, history explained, and cultural differences explored. This recipe rendition came from Aquascalientes, from a chef/caterer, Señora Anamaría de Andrea.

The elements of this dish are remarkably ordinary – chicken, celery, onions, garlic, tomatoes, white wine and grapes. Who would think that combination could be so tasty?  There’s nothing in this that would normally be associated with Mexican (like fresh, hot chiles, chile powder, tomatillos, beans, cilantro). My DH deemed it fabulous. I sautéed some zucchini too (sprinkled with some mild chile powder), and rounded out the plate with one hot flour tortilla apiece. The recipe starts with a whole chicken – I bought pieces instead – and decided after preparing this that once the chicken was cooked and cooled, I’d remove the chicken meat from the bones and just reheat in the sauce. That way you could make it ahead, and you could serve it over a mound of rice if you wanted to, or pile a few pieces, sauce and a few grapes into a flour tortilla. Don’t skimp on the sauce in any way – it’s the sauce that makes the dish – once the chicken is cooked through, you whiz up the vegetables in the blender, then you continue to cook it with the wine and lastly, the grapes.
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There’s a photo of the slider version of Oprah’s Turkey Burgers. Oh my. Oh so good.

And here’s a photo of the delish pear chutney that goes with the turkey burgers. These are a must – don’t make one without the other.

When I started planning, we didn’t know if we were going to have 9 or 15 family members here to celebrate our Independence Day. The group included adults and children, so I needed to find a menu that would appeal to everybody. My DH wasn’t all that thrilled when I said he was going to grill hamburgers. They’re not one of his favorite things – mostly because he doesn’t enjoy eating out of hand – he likes food on a plate with a knife and fork. Weird thing. But he’s not very picky about most things, so I just tried to humor him most times. Told him about the potato salad I was making, about the relishes, the peach dessert we’d have. The big green salad. I knew he wouldn’t go hungry. Indeed he didn’t. He absolutely loved the turkey burgers.

What I decided was this:

Chips & fresh tomato salsa
Hot chile cheese dip with Fritos
Deviled eggs

Beef burger sliders with red onion red bell pepper relish
Oprah’s (Donald Trump’s) Mar-a-Lago turkey burgers (also sliders) with pear chutney
Traditional potato salad (recipe soon)
Green salad with VIP Garlic Dressing

Desserts:
Apple pie and Peach pie
Both served with ice cream or whipped cream

As with most big gatherings, I needed to start cooking the day before. I made the relish, pear chutney and the potato salad. The morning of the 4th I had some help in the kitchen, so between my daughter Dana and me we made the green salad, the dressing and shaped all the burgers. Our daughter in law, Karen, brought the two desserts.

The sliders were all served on King’s Hawaiian bread rolls (both regular white and whole wheat). They’re soft, a bit sweet, and taste better than the soft Styrofoam that comprises most commercially-made hamburger buns. Since we were serving both beef and turkey burgers, I decided we’d have sliders (small burgers) instead of full-size burgers. Easier to eat. And more variety for everyone.

There’s quite a story behind the turkey burgers. In case you missed watching Oprah’s show that day (last month), she told the story about when she and her friend Gail went to the Mar-a-Lago (a Donald Trump resort) in Palm Beach, Florida for a couple of days. It’s a private club, apparently. Don’t know anything about how you get to stay there. Am sure it’s pricey. But anyway, Oprah decided to order the turkey burger on the menu there. She fell in love. Craved it the next meal too. And the next. And the next. Gail tried to get the recipe. Nope, they wouldn’t reveal it. So, when Oprah got back to Chicago she phoned her friend Donald Trump and asked if he’d ever had the turkey burgers at Mar-a-Lago? He scoffed. Of course not, he said. He doesn’t eat anything even related to turkey burgers. She wanted the recipe. Some negotiations later, he agreed and appeared on the show where the burgers were prepared and passed out to the audience. Oprah was in heaven since she now has the recipe. And so do we!

What’s unique about these burgers is chutney. Not just any old chutney. Major Grey’s chutney. Now we need to have a little history lesson here (thanks to Wikipedia).

• The original chutney of India was usually a relish made from fresh fruits and spices. During the colonial era the British took it home and the recipe evolved, until the commercially made mango chutney (“Major Grey’s chutney”) became the British standard chutney. Commercially made cooked chutneys are still popular in Great Britain, and are usually made of fruit (usually mangos, apples or pears), onions and raisins simmered with vinegar, brown sugar and spices for about two hours.
• Chutneys are served with almost every meal in India, especially as relishes with curries, but also as sauces for hot dishes (especially meats). They can be fresh or cooked, and are made from a wide variety of ingredients, ranging in flavor from sweet or sour, spicy or mild, or any combination; they can be thin or chunky and can be made with fruits or vegetables or both.

According to Wikipedia, Sun Brand chutney is the best (contains more fruit than others; can be found online). I bought Crosse & Blackwell’s version (quite pricey at $5.49 for 9 ounces). If you have mangoes, there are recipes all over the internet for Major Grey’s version. I got a kick out of reading somewhere that this Major Grey is also the same “Earl” Grey of tea fame. Who knew! The turkey burgers were a big hit. I loved them. Absolutely loved them. Will make them again, no question. The beef burgers were also wonderful on the small buns, and the onion pepper marmalade I’ll post in the next day or so.
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It was just a couple of days ago I was watching America’s Test Kitchen. I use my Tivo to record all the ATK programs. The show is broadcast on a different timetable around the country – i.e., not all shows you’d see are current – they may be year old re-runs. And sometimes the recipes have already dropped off the map when you go to the ATK website. Now I’m only recording new programs, so generally the recipes are available online.

Indian food is something I enjoy very much, although we don’t eat it as much anymore since we try to limit our rice consumption. But this version, shown recently on ATK, of Chicken Tikka Masala sounded so delicious, I had to try it. I’ve made it before, but never this well. The recipe is a real winner. I kid you not. If you enjoy Indian cuisine, you’ll likely enjoy this dish very much.

Chicken breasts are seasoned with ground cumin, coriander and cayenne, then dredged in a mixture of whole-milk yogurt, fresh ground ginger and minced garlic. The chicken is broiled while you make the Masala Sauce, which is composed of onion, more Indian spices, garlic, ginger, one moderately warm chile pepper, crushed tomatoes, and some heavy cream. Oh my. When my DH took his first bite of this his eyes rolled and he went into a bit of food rapture. I made a small amount of basmati rice, lapped some thick slices of the broiled chicken breast on top, and then scooped some of the Masala Sauce on top of that. Then sprinkled with mint (I didn’t have any cilantro on hand). I served it with some eggplant (recipe tomorrow) and a wedge of watermelon.
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There are still these few recipes to post from the luncheon tea my friend Cherrie and I did a couple of weeks ago. All of these fillings are delicious – I can personally attest. I’m including three recipes, although we only prepared two of them (actually Cherrie made these). But I’m not likely to be posting recipes from another tea anytime soon, so I’ll give you the additional recipe now. Two are for chicken salad, and the other is a buttery ham mousse. Both chicken ones can be made the day before – the ham must be made within an hour or so of your tea, but it’s not difficult in the least.

HAM MOUSSE: this recipe came from Sarah at Our House South County Cooking School (now closed). The class was all about serving a tea, and this recipe was a standout. I must admit, though, that when I first saw the list of ingredients I thought – oh no, we’re not going to like this – it has butter and whipped cream in it. But, I’m here to tell you, it’s fabulous. You won’t eat many of these, of course, as they’re quite rich, but the flavor is delicious, and the texture goes down smooth! PDFs are down at the bottom of the post.

CHICKEN SALAD WITH SMOKED ALMONDS: Cherrie found this recipe on the net, but it’s from a Gourmet article in 1994. What’s different about these are the chopped smoked almonds on the outside of each sandwich. The actual recipe calls for you to cut each sandwich into two 2-inch rounds (discarding what’s left of each square sandwich) but we thought that was such a huge waste, so just made them in traditional triangles. After filling the sandwiches, you carefully smear a bit of mayo on the outside of the crustless sandwiches, then press them into a small mound of minced smoked almonds. The nuts add a really nice touch and a delicious crunch as we ate them.

CURRIED CHICKEN SALAD: About 10 years ago I threw myself a luncheon tea on a milestone birthday. Since my birthday is in August, it was a very hot day, and not one where we really wanted to be all gussied up with gauzy dresses and floppy hats, but we did it anyway and I merely cranked down the A/C to about 70 degrees. It was fun, as these kinds of events always are. I tested several recipes for a curried chicken salad filling, and this one was, by far, the best of the bunch. I don’t think I’ve made it since, but there’s no reason it couldn’t be served as a dinner salad atop a bed of lettuce on a hot summer’s evening. The recipe started out from an old Palo Alto (California) Junior League cookbook.

Separate PDF printer friendly recipes: ham mousse,   chicken salad w/almonds, curry chicken salad

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I remember, back in the mid-1990s, when chicken chili arrived on the food scene. We were in the thick of trying to revamp our old favorites (mostly with beef, veal, even lamb) into more healthy versions featuring chicken (ground or cubes) or turkey. The first time I made turkey meatloaf let’s just say that I was under-whelmed. But many creative cooks have figured out ways to give ground chicken and ground turkey a lot more flavor, yet look like those old beef favorites. For awhile I tried mixing half chicken/turkey and half beef in things like meatloaf. Then I got fed up with the lack of texture and flavor and went back to all beef versions. We just didn’t eat them very often.

But chicken chili is an altogether different animal, so to speak. It’s really not exactly chili. At least this one is almost more like a thick soup or stew, but with all the trappings of chili. This has all the stuff we like – beans, meat protein (chicken instead of beef), chiles, chili powder, cumin, then you serve it with all the usual garnishes (in this case: sour cream, grated cheese, cilantro and salsa). I even added a bowl of crumbled-up Fritos to the chili garnishes to add some crunch. There is more than an average amount of butter in this dish. I used what was called for, but wonder if it would taste just as good with less. As our friend Bud says, fat is the sled on which flavor rides. Maybe because there are so many sort-of bland things in this, the butter becomes a necessity. Next time I will try it with less. I also think this will serve more people than the recipe indicated. Although, the crew eating this were all very hungry from a hard day’s work (see below).

The recipe was in the February, 1996 issue of Gourmet magazine. It’s from “The Kitchen for Exploring Foods,” (a catering company) in Pasadena, right in our neck of the woods. You can find the recipe on epicurious.com easily enough, and read the 186 reviews (the 10-12 I read all raved about it). If you have made any of my recipes, just trust me on this. The chili is gosh-darned good. I made a double batch (I was feeding a crowd) so purchased 3 very large, whole chicken breasts, bone and skin attached, roasted them in the oven (400 for 35 minutes), then cut off the meat and into small chunks. The chicken does NOT get simmered in the chili for any length of time – you don’t want the chicken to give up its flavor and moisture to the soup, so add at the last minute and just heat through.

Our son and his wife were moving back into their house a few days ago (it’s been about 13 months for the major remodel to be completed). My DH was there to check off the boxes and furniture as the movers brought them in the door. I offered to bring a meal for the family helping – Karen chose dinner. But, the caveat was they have no cooktop or oven yet (the wrong one was delivered, and now they must wait another week or two for the right one to arrive) so I had to bring dinner in a crock pot or something else that could be plugged in. Chili seemed like the easy choice. Basically a one dish meal with a salad and dessert. See cook’s notes at the bottom of the recipe for more details. My changes are marked in RED.
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Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click links to open in MC; 14 contains photo)

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It was a week or so ago and my daughter, Dana, mentioned to me in a phone conversation that she’d had a really, really tasty chicken dish at her sister-in-law’s home. She thought I’d like it too. A few days later Dana made it herself, and again, raved about it profusely, and the next morning she faxed me the recipe.

Now, the recipe came via Dana, via Ahnalinn, via her friend Laurie. But, after doing a tad bit of sleuthing on the internet, I found out the recipe was actually from Sunset Magazine, in 2004. Sunset does some great stuff. Maybe, in 2004, I hardly knew what panko was, so didn’t know what a great addition it is (now) to my pantry. And I likely didn’t clip out the recipe because of that.

Why do we use panko, you ask? Because when you bake with it, the crumbs stay crispy. I read just recently what it is that the Japanese producers do to make it that way (i.e., how’s it different from American or European style bread crumbs), and maybe it was the way it was torn or pulled, or something. Anyway, the panko crumbs don’t soak up fluid the way ordinary bread crumbs do. So it stays crisp. At least more crispy than the traditional.

The chicken does have three steps (coating, baking + sauce), but they’re easy steps, so don’t be dissuaded from trying this. I did slightly pound the breasts, a Phillis Carey tried and true technique that’s always worked for me – you want to make each breast about the same thickness, so the thinner parts don’t dry out. Then you dip them in a mixture of butter, Dijon and garlic. Then you dip those in a panko, parsley (actually I didn’t have any parsley so that was eliminated in mine) and grated cheese mixture, then you bake them in a terrifically hot oven. While the chicken is baking, you mix up the easy sauce – mayo, mustard, sesame oil and a tiny squirt of soy sauce. That’s it.

I served it with Brussels sprouts, a few tomato slices, and some wild and brown rice. Absolutely delicious. Moist, tender, and the crust was nice and crispy. And the sauce, well, what can I say, but it was so easy and really good. Thank you to Dana, Ahnalinn and Laurie.
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Several years ago I was confused about a lot of the (east) Indian cooking spices and methods, so when Suneeta Vaswani taught a class at Sur la Table, I signed up. She was a delightful teacher. Very informative and easy to understand. Among the things she made at that class, this was the standout in my book. It happens to be a favorite in her family. My recollection is that she mentioned whenever she’s off teaching classes her husband always wants this – if he can have this available for his dinner, he’s a happy man. So, it’s a staple in her freezer. I also bought her Easy Indian Cookbook, which I’ve used several times. I don’t cook Indian food very often, although my DH and I both like it very much. She’s recently published a new book, which is already going for a 2nd printing apparently.

Truly, this dish is simple. Really simple. First you get out the sauté pan you’ll use (make sure you have a lid to fit this one) and the ingredients are mixed right in the pan itself and allowed to sit for half an hour before cooking. It’s merely a mixture of nonfat yogurt, a bit of cornstarch, minced ginger, garlic, a Serrano chile pepper and salt. You roll the chicken thighs around in this thick mixture and let it sit. Just like that. Then you put the pan over the heat on the range, and begin slowly cooking the chicken. It does not get browned, just heated and slowly cooked. Then, at the end, you actually sauté some cracked peppercorns for about a minute, then those get poured into the sauce. Garnish with some cilantro and you’re done, except for spooning some of the scrumptious sauce over basmati rice. Oh, is that ever good, I’ll tell you.

The yogurt separates during the cooking process – it is a little off-putting when you see it, but the sauce comes together in the end. You can cook this without a lid, but how much sauce you get depends on how much the fluid evaporates. You’ll need to be your own judge about that. I like the sauce, but the nonfat yogurt is the thinnest, and doesn’t firm up much. That’s why I’ve been using Greek (strained, thicker) yogurt for this the last several times. I prefer it because it sticks better to the chicken (see photo), but it’s likely not traditional.
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