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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Last week I purchased a new cookbook (ah yes, yet another one). It happened to have been on sale, marked down to less than half price. Because the author was David Rosengarten, I wanted to check it out. I didn’t have any of his cookbooks, but certainly admire his knowledge. This particular book, about entertaining, is called David Rosengarten Entertains, Fabulous Parties for Food Lovers. The book is divided into types of dinner entertainment (like a Spanish paella dinner, a Texas BBQ, a Zorba style Greek dinner, pizza in the backyard, etc.). Each chapter contains everything from a general discussion of the entertainment, the recipes, how to set the table, music to play. That kind of thing. I like the book – the menus are relatively simple, and the ideas for making the table settings different and mostly easy. He also includes a list of resources at the end of each entertaining chapter (mostly online resources) for not only foodstuffs, but table settings items, to bring some flair to your dining table.

But in the first chapter he talks about how entertaining (in general) has changed over the decades. How we – now – feel the need to impress, to make a “wow” dinner. I am certainly guilty of all of that. I wish I could prepare a simple dinner and just make the companionship of friends the focus, rather than the food. Rosengarten tries to simplify an entertaining event and have it still be a “wow” but not a back breaker for the cook.

I read this introduction with in depth paragraphs about the epochs of the “dinner party.” I got a kick out of seeing myself – my style of cooking – as it has evolved since the 1960’s when I first began entertaining. He nailed it in discussing these epochs. So, for your edification, here’s, in brief, what he had to say:

• Epoch One: 1950-1975: “What Sounds Good.” Serving beef Wellington with pate to your guests meant you “loved” them.
• Epoch Two: 1975-2000: “What Looks Good.” Plating was number one – not the plates themselves, although they too could be important, but the food appearance. Many a home kitchen became a workshop for stacking, towering, drizzling and rim-dusting. Quality wasn’t of primary importance. The hosts were striving to captivate the eye.
• Epoch Three: 2001 to today: “What is Good.” Respect your guests by serving high quality ingredients, in simpler preparations, great bread, good olive oil.

Definitely, I need to take his advice to heart. Seems like nearly every dinner party I throw I overdo it. Make one too many dishes. And even though I start the food prep a day or two ahead, usually I end up being tired and weary before the guests arrive.

So, all of the above is to bring you to this recipe today. Serving chicken as an entrée is usually toward the bottom of my lists when I think about entertaining. I always think chicken isn’t fancy enough. Maybe okay for a very casual dinner, with family or close friends, but not for an all-out elegant dinner, even if the dress may be casual. Here in California guests almost always come in casual (maybe dressy casual) attire – unless you tell them otherwise. But I still may do a more elegant dinner with sterling silver and crystal glasses lined up above the plates, salad and bread and butter plates.

This recipe definitely fills the bill, though, as an elegant entrée. It’s stuffed – so it’s pretty to begin with (Epoch two). Certainly, from the title, it sounds good too (Epoch one) It has a delicious sauce that drizzles over the chicken and the side carb can help soak up the extra because it’s so darned good. This would make a very lovely entertaining entrée. It’s also delicious, which is the most important (Epoch of today). So, thank you, David Rosengarten, for refocusing my entertaining style.
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Last week when my friend Cherrie and I attended a cooking class in San Diego, the instructor, Phillis Carey, mentioned another recipe in the course of conversation, saying that it was one of her very favorites. That she can eat it once, twice, three times in a row, it’s so good. It was similar in style to a recipe she made at the class. My ears always perk up when I hear statements like that – a cooking instructor mentioning one of HER favorites.

Since I have Phillis’ cookbook, Fast & Fabulous Chicken Breasts (only available in and from the stores where Phillis teaches), when I got home I looked up the recipe. Since I had all the necessary ingredients, I made it for dinner. Oh my. Oh my. It was absolutely scrumptious.

It’s like the ubiquitous cream of mushroom soup, except it’s the real thing – a cream sauce with mushrooms. And bacon. And onions. And the delicious paprika in the sauce itself. Of course, the use of cream can make almost shoe leather taste good, but this is a really, really lovely preparation. I used half and half, not cream, and it seemed perfectly rich enough. And I used half-sharp paprika, which gave the sauce a bit of bite.

I know I’ve mentioned paprika here before, but if any of you are new to my blog, I’ll just mention that the paprika you buy at the grocery store (always store in the refrigerator, by the way, because it gets bugs otherwise) bears so little taste resemblance to the real thing, you’d be amazed. Buy a better paprika. Having visited Hungary and having enjoyed some of their paprika-influenced cuisine, I learned that paprika is just a wonderful flavoring agent. And coloring agent too. The pinkish tinge you see in the photo is from the paprika. What we Americans think of paprika is a very bland red powder that has virtually no flavor. But there are lots of different kinds of paprika out there, including the sharp (hotter) and half-sharp (in between), which I use regularly in my cooking. Certainly, if all you have is regular, go ahead and use it. But next time you have to buy some, get a good brand, or order it from Penzey’s, my favorite herb and spice supplier.

On to the recipe. Sorry for the detour, but I needed to get on my paprika bandwagon there. This recipe is VERY simple. Once you cut up the onion and mushrooms and gather the ingredients around you, it comes together in nothing flat. Only about 20 minutes of cooking. Hardly time to make a salad or boil some noodles or rice to serve with this.

First you flatten (pound) the chicken breasts to an even thickness, season, then brown in a bit of butter. Brown the mushrooms, then the bacon and onions, and make the cream sauce. Add everything back into the pan and cook JUST until the chicken is cooked through (so it’s still tender and moist) and serve. Cinchy. This is going onto my fix-this-often list. My DH loved it (well, he adores chicken with mushroom and cream sauce anyway). I served it with a bit of fresh zucchini on the side. I didn’t make a carb, but am sure it would wonderful with noodles, or mashed potatoes or rice.
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After having beef, corned beef, a casserole and crab, we were ready for some chicken. I flipped through more of my to-try recipes and this was the ticket. I had all the ingredients, which made it an instant winner! And it had citrus (it calls for lime juice; I had lemons instead), garlic and cilantro. If I’d started it several hours ahead, or even overnight, it likely would have been even better. But I did it at the last minute. It was delicious. I really enjoyed the garlic (6 cloves for 4 servings . . . wow), and the tang of lemon juice.

The recipe came from Sunset, in March of 2006, submitted by Cheryl Brown of Englewood, Colorado. The recipe blurb said Cheryl and her husband Rick once owned a restaurant in Littleton, Colorado, and this dish was a popular favorite.
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I remember it so vividly, the first time I had Chinese Chicken Salad. It was about 1977 or 1978. Regularly, I was flying from Orange County to San Jose, to supervise and train people in an office I managed (from a distance). I usually flew one morning, spent one night and returned home the next night. The office staff would take me out to lunch one of the days I was there, and a favorite place, close by, was Ming’s in Palo Alto. It’s still there, likely serving much the same menu as in the 70’s and 80’s. I tried the Chinese Chicken Salad, and was mesmerized. Most likely it was the fresh cilantro and the dressing that hooked me. Whatever it was, I’ve been a convert ever since. I believe that was the first time I’d ever been served a salad with nuts in it. What a revelation.

I must have missed the Sunset issue when Ming’s recipe was published. Nevertheless, I’ve collected Chinese chicken salad recipes by the dozens ever since. One year, attending a women’s luncheon, I particularly enjoyed the salad served, and was able to procure the recipe. I hadn’t made this for years and years and years, until the other night. Friends had been invited to dinner, and they requested I make salad, something light, and easy. First, we had cheese (fontina and manchego with some pear jam on the side) for appetizers, with some wine, then the salad, served with ciabatta. Followed by the pumpkin custard I posted yesterday.

The salad is quite simple in its construct. Cabbage, head lettuce, green onions, cucumber, almonds, cilantro and the noodles (dry) from Top Ramen (without the seasoning packet). The dressing is nothing by oil, seasoned rice wine vinegar, dark sesame oil, a little sugar, salt and pepper. It does take some time to chop and mince, but this salad is not as complicated as some I’ve had or made. The guests, and the family, raved about it. One guest said he thought the salad had the perfect proportion of cabbage and head lettuce, and that they were sliced just right. DH and our son-in-law Todd asked me to make it again, soon. No problem. I’ll be happy to.

A note about steeping the chicken: It was many years ago I read an article in Sunset about the Chinese (Asian) method of poaching chicken, used for any cold chicken dish you wish to make. It’s so very easy, and produces a much more tender and juicy piece of chicken than you can do by baking or even using a rotisserie chicken from the market. If time permits, bring a pot of water to a boil and add some carrot, celery and onion (otherwise just use water), allow it to simmer for 15-20 minutes, then add the boneless chicken breasts. Allow it to simmer very slowly for about 5 minutes or less. Put a lid on the pan, turn off the heat and allow the chicken to just sit (steep) in the liquid for about 30 minutes. Save the broth for another use, if you want, then allow chicken to cool a bit so it’s easier to handle, and chop or slice.
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Some years ago a group of us spent a week in Tuscany, staying in a charming (read: old) villa in a tiny town of Bucine. Actually we stayed at this villa twice over the course of two years. In case you’re interested, click here to see the villa’s website. But this is the first trip I’m talking about today. The owners of the villa provided a delicious multi-course meal for us one night (they still do it now, but for a fee). It got us all talking about our favorite Italian food.  Carole talked about her fabulous chicken cacciatore, and agreed that when we returned home, we’d have a reunion with all of us and our photographs, and she’d prepare dinner for us.

It took us awhile to get a date for everybody, but we did, finally, meet at her home in West Los Angeles, and this is the dish she made. We slicked up our plates in short order, I’ll tell you. Inbetween drinking tall quaffs of chianti and telling stories. Laughing over some of our fun and funny adventures. Like the day we took the train to Florence, and made it on time to the last train back to our little village, with most of us having to help Carole with her bags and bags of purchases. Carole is a very successful real estate agent in Beverly Hills, and she dresses very well, so she thrives on buying all kinds of lovely things whenever she’s in Italy. Then there was the story about the huge antique chest Carole bought the day we spent in Siena. She spent nearly as much on the shipping as she did the antique itself (Well, not quite, but it makes for a good story, doesn’t it? It is lovely).

We had a grand time at our trip reunion. Carole happened to mention that the cacciatore recipe was Mario Batali’s, so it took just a bit of sleuthing on the internet to find it. About the only thing truly different about the preparation is the pancetta in this. (Remember, pancetta is unsmoked bacon.) This freezes well, and makes a nice presentation with some linguine or thin spaghetti to serve it on. The sauce is part of the greatness of this. And in this case, more is better. Don’t skimp on the ingredients for that part.
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Since I Tivo all the America’s Test Kitchen programs, I store them up and watch several at one time. They did one a week or so ago called French Classics. It included this Coq au Vin (coke-aw-vahn, chicken in wine) and a chocolate Pots de Creme (poh-deh-crehm). I printed out both recipes, and today you get to hear the results of the chicken.When I was in my 20’s, and living in Denver, I think it was, I attended one of my first cooking classes, and the teacher prepared the traditional coq au vin. It required many steps, including rendering some salt pork. Salt pork’s not something I see every day, although I suppose it is available at the grocery stores if I sought it out. I have made coq au vin a few times, but never found the chicken all that tender (rather, it was dry and overcooked) and the gravy was very thin.

The chefs at America’s Test Kitchen came to the rescue. They explained that originally French kitchens used a very elderly boiling chicken, the kind you have to cook and cook to tenderize. These days we have young, tender fryers which don’t require much cooking. They demonstrated a rather rapid coq au vin, and I was intrigued. It used bacon instead of salt pork. I love the richness and suppleness of red wine, cooked down to a thick gravy with the onions and mushrooms. This recipe took about 50 minutes of total cooking time (browning and simmering), with about another 25 of prep. So, I had dinner on the table in a little over an hour. Their recipe said it took 90 minutes.The secrets of this recipe include reducing the entire bottle of wine and chicken broth to about 3 cups, browning the chicken first, then making the vegie part (mushrooms and onions) and then simmering the dark meat pieces first (for 20 minutes), THEN adding in the chicken breasts later, so they cook only 20 minutes. What a difference that made. The breast meat was tender and juicy. Once the chicken is done you remove it to keep warm and turn the heat up to high and continue reducing the gravy until it’s thick. A tablespoon of butter is added at the very last, along with a tablespoon of the red wine you saved at the beginning, that didn’t get reduced.Definitely I’d make this again. It was certainly a lot easier than my previous recipe. I might not make it for guests just because it’s, to me anyway, a kind of home comfort food dinner. But, it looked very pretty in my wide soup bowls with the gnocchi pasta in the bottom and the fresh Italian parsley sprinkled on top. We both slurped it up in quick order.

Cook’s Notes: use a light, fruity red wine (they recommend Pinot Noir or a Rhone grenache). Use good, thick bacon (more flavor). If possible use kosher chicken, since it will retain the juice better. Next time I’d use more mushrooms, just because I like them. And if I had my druthers, I’d have more sauce, so that would mean using about a bottle and a half of wine to start with, and would mean measuring a bit more carefully so you reduce each part correctly.
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You know what I mean when it’s 6:00 and you need to get something on the table for dinner? Like right NOW. I have a go-to chicken recipe – it’s not a 4-star winner, but it’s certainly better than okay. My DH always says it’s good, and I think it is too, as long as you know your purpose is to eat quickly.

It’s nothing but this:

This is a can – a spice mix. It’s imported from Hungary, although everything on the can is in English. The brand is “Pride of Szeged,” “The World’s Best Chicken Rub.” It contains garlic, basil, paprika, oregano, salt and “spices.” It can be purchased at some specialty grocery stores. The recipe on the back of the can suggests the following:

• Mix 1/4 cup of seasoning mix with 4 T. oil. Add 2 T. lemon juice or vinegar. Brush entire mixture on chicken [it doesn’t say how much chicken]. Grill, bake or broil. For best result, refrigerate chicken in seasoning for 2-6 hours.

When I’m in a hurry I do nothing but sprinkle the spice mixture on chicken pieces and pan fry them in a bit of olive oil. That’s it. Sometimes after the chicken has browned on both sides, I’ll pour in a splash of vermouth, or red wine, sometimes a squeeze of lemon juice, as suggested in the above recipe. Then I may put a lid on the pan to just steam the chicken completely. Serve.

This time I had boneless, skinless chicken thighs, and some Siciliana Sauce (a sweet and sour, cold, chunky tomato based sauce I blogged about last year) that is absolutely great with chicken. Our friends, Sue & Lynn, brought some over when they came for dinner a week ago. But I’ve often served the chicken with nothing but this rub.

I bought the chicken rub at a German deli (in 2005), but I’ve seen it other places. And I did find it online also at a mailorder site. There is a website for the product, but it’s not displaying. Don’t know what that means. The company also makes other rubs, but this is the only one I’ve found. I’m not posting a printer friendly recipe for this since it’s so simple. As long as you have the spice mix.
 
For your information, I served this with brussels sprouts that I cut in half and simmered in a bit of chicken broth and thyme. They were ready at the same time the chicken was ready. From start to finish I had dinner on the table in about 25 minutes.

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Here’s the mustard and herb chicken as it was served on the plate, on a bed of red onions, with cauliflower on the side.

Here’s the chicken after baking. Note bread crumb crust.

Those of you who regularly read my blog will remember that a few days ago I felt so proud of myself after spending many hours clipping and filing recipes. It needed doing. Then yesterday I went into our laundry room, which has two tall shelves that are completely full of kitchen equipment that won’t fit in my kitchen. And I went to a 8-inch stack of handouts from cooking classes I’ve been to, and was hunting for a specific recipe that was lacking a topping. Out came the stack and I set it on the washing machine and began looking for the Joanne Weir class where she served that particular dish. And what did I find in this stack? Oh my. More recipes that had been torn out of magazines and newspapers. From about 2004 and 2005.

And yet again, one recipe floated its way to the top and said “fix me.” I’ve only begun sorting and piecing together recipes in this new stack.

Sometimes the simplest of recipes are just over-the-top good. That’s the story about this recipe. It came together in less than 30 minutes, and while the chicken was baking I was able to throw together some pan-sauteed cauliflower to serve with it. And to saute the onions that served as the bed under the chicken. The recipe came from Food & Wine, February 2006. According to F&W’s website, this was a “staff favorite.” I understand why.

You make a crumb crust from fresh bread. The recipe calls for 2 slices of country bread. Well, we don’t have country bread on hand in our house – I buy good multi-grain bread at the Corner Bakery every week or so and slices are individually wrapped and frozen. So I used one slice of that bread plus some panko crumbs to make the topping, which also contains Parmesan cheese, garlic, fresh rosemary (I dashed outside, in the dark, mind you) and a bit of olive oil to hold it together. The chicken thighs (I only had skinless, boneless, not what’s called for in the recipe) are seasoned, then browned briefly in a large saute pan that can go in the oven. Once you flip them over you slather them with some Dijon mustard, then carefully mound the crumb mixture on top before popping the pan in the oven at a high temp to bake for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile I started the cauliflower, and about 7-8 minutes before the chicken was done I sauteed the onion, sugar and lemon juice mixture that goes underneath the chicken. DH and I both just l-o-v-e-d it. Really l-o-v-e-d it. I’ll make this again and again. The thighs were perfectly cooked. And the onions were still just slightly crunchy, which we both liked. The best part is that it came together in 30 minutes.

Cook’s Notes: The recipe says it served two (two thighs each) but for us, one thigh, with the onion bed, and another veg on the side was plenty. So for me, I’d say it served 4 if the thighs are moderate sized. I used a red onion. Any kind would likely work.
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