Yet another way to fix chicken . . . I can never have too many recipes . . . and this one is well worthy of serving to company, but it’s easy enough you could serve it to the family too. It’s the mushroom sauce in the chianti wine sauce that makes the dish. Oh, and probably the butter that gets added into it too.

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, then you know that I’m a fan of Phillis Carey. She’s a San Diego-based chef who teaches cooking classes all over Southern California. (She doesn’t own a restaurant or cook in one.) My friend Cherrie and I have attended so many of her classes I couldn’t even begin to count. We’re part of her “fan club,” if you can call any number of people who show up regularly to her classes. We’re Phillis groupies, so to speak. And if you subscribe to her blog, once a week you get a little update about where she’s teaching, what restaurants she’s been to lately, and she provides one recipe from her teaching the previous week. That’s where this recipe came from. The recipes don’t stay on her website – they exist for a few weeks, then they’re gone. But if you subscribe to her newsletter, you’ll get a recipe a week. If you’re interested, just send an email to Phillis – phillis@phillicarey.com and ask to be added to her mailing list. (Tell her I sent you, won’t you, so she knows why she’s getting so many requests all of a sudden.)

I can’t say that I’m really “back in the kitchen” yet. Not like I used to be prior to March 9th when Dave had his stroke. I hardly ate during that subsequent 9 days – I did eat, but not much, and then after Dave passed away, I could hardly look at food, let alone cook anything.

I’ve mentioned it here before that I’m a member of PEO, a women’s organization. The night before Dave’s memorial service (about 10 days after Dave passed away), when my house was filled with people (and guests from our son’s home too) my PEO sisters brought over a meal to serve 20 people (a huge honey baked ham and every possible side dish and 2 desserts). We had 18 guests, and we nearly ate everything they brought. It was such a blessing to me – not only the love and friendship demonstrated by my PEO sisters, but the practical part of needing to feed a whole lot of people when I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. I’ll be forever grateful for what they did for me.

Yes, I cook occasionally. But only when I have some reason to – as in I’ve invited friends over or I have houseguests. I don’t think I’ve cooked a complete dinner for myself – alone – yet. I will, I’m sure, once my friends have slowed down their invitations to go out or go to their homes for dinner. As I write this I have 2 Styrofoam containers in the refrigerator with left overs from 2 different lunches or dinners out at restaurants. But I’ve invited a few friends over a couple of times and then I make myself cook. This weekend daughter Sara and granddaughter Sabrina will be here, so I’ll cook something for them for tonight’s dinner (I’m writing this on Friday). What I’ll make, I don’t know. Haven’t even thought about it. There are nights when I’m just not very hungry, so I may eat a hard boiled egg and call that “dinner.” My appetite is pretty-much back to normal, but I don’t eat very much, so I’m still slowly losing a bit of weight (a good thing). My doctor has told me just to make sure I eat some protein 3x a day. I do. That old adage about portion control? Well, I can take very small portions for dinner and be perfectly content, so I’m encouraging myself to do that.

Two days ago I packed a bag and drove to San Diego for an overnight. My home has been my sanctuary in every possible way – even though every few minutes I’m reminded that Dave’s not here – but my hubby had started a tradition a year or two ago of driving south to have lunch with daughter Sara and her husband on his way to our sailboat, which lives in San Diego. (It’s up for sale, of course, because I don’t sail; the boat was Dave’s pride and joy; I get seasick.) He’d spend a night there, puttering on something or other, spend time with his sailing buddies, and return home the next day and we were always so glad to see one another. After 31 years we were joyful at seeing each other every day, but particularly if we’d spent a night apart.

Anyway, I had dinner with my friend Linda who lives in Carlsbad. It was good to see her and spend an evening just talking. Then I drove to San Diego and spent the night with Joe and Yvette, good friends. Joe spoke at Dave’s service, and is the friend who visits frequently on business and spends the night here at my house (and I cook for him). I spent the next morning with Yvette, then drove to Escondido and had a long lunch with Sara and John. We had lots to talk about. Then I drove home and got dinner ready for a very dear friend, Meredith (daughter of a dear, old friend of mine – our daughters grew up together). Meredith and I are both in book clubs, and we always have lots to share about books to read. She’s my daughters’ age of course, but we have a lovely friendship, and her visit just made my heart sing. She gave me several recommendations of books to read and to recommend to my 2 book groups.

Now that I’ve spent all that time talking about how busy I am, let me just say that I think I’m beginning to come out of my grief cloud. Today (Friday) it’s been  6 weeks since Dave died. I still cry. I still tear up easily, and choke up even more often but it doesn’t last. I’m able to stop the true crying. In private I still do sometimes, but not as often. I cry particularly when friends hug me. In the grief class we’re supposed to tell people how we think we rank (today) on a scale of 0-10. Over the weeks I’ve been anywhere from a 0 to a 1.5. But this week I think I’m a 2. That’s progress. Last week I spent 2 hours with the estate/trust attorney and I have a huge, long list of things I must put together (paperwork). The list is overwhelming. I was the record keeper, the payer of the bills, the one who gathered the info for tax time, but still, some of the paperwork (to value our collective estate before it’s divided up into an AB trust) is just hard to find. I need the registration for the boat (which is in San Diego) and the dinghy (also in San Diego). I haven’t been to the boat yet. I have friends keeping a close eye on it for me and it’s locked up tight. One day soon I’m going to have to go there and take care of several things – removing all of Dave’s personal effects (foul weather gear, jackets, shirts, pillows, blankets, etc.). Next week, I think. I’ll clean out the refrigerator. There may not be anything in it. Don’t know. The desk (chart table) is full of stuff, I know. That will need going through, and just spiffing everything up so it looks good to a potential buyer. It’s a beautiful boat and Dave took wonderfully good care of it.

Sleep still eludes me some, even though I’m taking a prescription drug at night. But I still wake up sometimes at about 3 or 4 am and can’t go back to sleep. That next day is tough when I’m so tired I can hardly function. Once I get some of this prodigious paperwork done, perhaps I can calm my mind better. And sleep until 6. I’m looking forward to that.

Now that I’ve unloaded all that on you, my readers, let’s get back to the recipe. When I made this, I used a combo of chicken breasts and boneless thighs. I cut the chicken breasts in half (bone-in). I cooked the thighs longer and added the breasts back into the sauce just a short time until the breast meat was tender and juicy. I made it with orzo, and I used ample mushrooms. The sauce is what makes this – so don’t skimp. It’s delicious (the gravy) on the orzo you could serve on the side.

The chicken is browned and set aside. Then you make the sauce. The original recipe called for shallots. Well, I only had one, so I added half an onion, which worked fine. I opened a bottle of Chianti and used most of it (about 3 cups) to make the sauce. The chicken is added back in once you’ve made the sauce – it does stain the chicken – that might be a turn-off for some people. Perhaps children? I don’t know. But, it tastes wonderful. A little flour is added in at the last to thicken the gravy. Meanwhile, cook the pasta, and add the mushrooms to the sauce and it’s done.

What’s GOOD: the flavor. Gosh, it’s good. It almost tastes like coq au vin but you don’t have to work so hard to make it. It’s the wine, I’m sure. It’s relatively easy to make – and most of it could be made ahead. Just don’t overcook the chicken, that’s all. Substitute other chicken parts if you’d prefer. Phillis is the master of chicken breasts, but thighs worked just fine.
What’s NOT: can’t think of anything. If I had to work at it I’d say the dark wine staining the chicken isn’t all that pretty, but it’s tastes great, so what the heck.

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Like lemon? Like chicken? A match made in heaven. Along with a bit of orzo, a side vegetable (I did asparagus) and it’s a full meal. You might even want to drink the sauce it’s so good.

Janice, a part of my extended family, made this chicken a couple of weeks ago. On one of the evenings when I was so very struggling with my recent grief, and rather than stay at home and mourn, I went to Janice and Julian’s house and she made this fairly simple chicken dish. It was served in a casserole, but it’s not really a casserole, like you’d think, where everything is baked together. No, but it made for easy serving and you certainly could stick this in the oven for 10 minutes or so to meld together before serving it.

Janice found the recipe on www.pepperplate.com. And I did find it on a couple of other websites around. I adjusted the recipe slightly. Chicken thighs are slathered with a mixture of whole grain mustard, lemon zest, dried oregano, salt and olive oil. While you get the remainder of the dinner together, just let that sit to soak up the flavors. The chicken is browned on the stovetop in garlic-enhanced olive oil. If you’re using bone-in thighs, the chicken, in the pan, will go into the oven in the lemon juice/chicken broth mixture to cook through (about half an hour). I used boneless skinless thighs because that’s what was in the freezer, so instead of baking, I just slowly simmered the mixture on top of the stove (about 15 minutes or so). Then the chicken is removed and set aside to keep warm while you quickly mix up the lemony sauce. It’s quick and easy, and at the end you throw in a couple of tablespoons of butter to richen the sauce. If you’re averse to that, I think it might taste just fine without it.

Meanwhile, you cook the orzo and put that into the bottom of a casserole dish, add the chicken and sauce, garnish with parsley and it’s done. You could put the entire dish into a low oven for 10-15 minutes if needed, but you can serve it as is. Serve with a green salad or a green vegetable and you have a full meal.

What’s GOOD: My family gobbled it up and had seconds. I loved it too. Loved the lemony flavor – that’s probably my favorite part of the dish. The lemon permeates the orzo (from the sauce) so every bite you eat has that lovely lemon flavor. The chicken was tender and wonderful. I’ll make it again for sure.

What’s NOT: really nothing. There are a few steps to making this, but truly, if you got everything ready ahead of time, it comes together very quickly.

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Last week I was just craving Indian food. We have a couple of Indian restaurants in our vicinity, but since I was craving chicken tikka masala, I knew I’d prefer my own version rather than a less flavorful restaurant variety. However, I had left over chicken, not fresh, raw. What to do? Easy  solution – make my favorite recipe but adapt it using the already cooked chicken.

Spotting a nice little Kosher chicken at Trader Joe’s a week ago, I bought the 3.5 pound baby and we had a really lovely roast chicken dinner from my favorite-est recipe. It was loverly, as they say. The meat was so very moist and tender. When we finished, I still had half a chicken left over, so I picked all the meat off the bone and stuck it in a Zip-loc bag and put it in the refrigerator, having no idea what I’d do with it. So when the Indian food craving hit, I just decided I’d adapt my recipe I already have for chicken tikka masala, but here I’d use the already cooked chicken.

It wasn’t hard to do, and I put the dinner together in a jiffy. First I got out all the ingredients – I chopped up the chicken meat, got out all the spices, prepped the vegetables, opened the can of tomatoes, minced the garlic and ginger. Then I got out my Breville BRC600XL The Risotto Plus Sauteing Slow Rice Cooker and Steamer to make rice (it has a standard rice setting which made just perfect Basmati rice). Once that was going I started the sauce. I tossed the chicken pieces with the spices first, then I added in the  yogurt. That was set that aside while I fired up the pan on the range. It was quick work with the onion and garlic, added in some other spices, and the canned tomatoes including their juices.  When everything was ready I added in the chicken which had been “marinating” in the yogurt and garam masala and stirred it into the pan. This recipe does contain a little bit of cream – I used less than usual and I mixed it with some whole milk I had. I allowed it to come up to a very slow simmer – I didn’t allow it to actually simmer, though, as the dish was “done” at that point. If I’d allowed it to boil, even gently, it might have separated from using some milk in it. Maybe not, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

What I wanted was for the chicken to be done at the precise time the rice was done. The basmati rice prepared in the risotto cooker is perfection when the heat switches off, so I was all ready and scooped rice out on the plate, then added some of the chicken in masala sauce on top, sprinkled with cilantro and we were ready to eat.

What’s GOOD: I think this was every bit as good as the original recipe made with raw, bone-in chicken. Of course, the kosher chicken was ever-so moist anyway. This recipe was super-easy. And super good too. I’d definitely make this again when I have left over chicken.

What’s NOT: nothing at all. Altogether good dish.

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The last time I made Chicken Tikka Masala, I said it was the be-all, end-all recipe (from America’s Test Kitchen) and that I’d probably never try another one. And then I read this recipe using the Sous Vide Supreme PSV-00144 Promo Pack Cooking System. I know that most of you don’t have a sous vide machine, so I’m also including the same recipe done in the slow cooker. And this is surely the time of year when it would be so nice to throw something in the slow cooker, a fix and forget kind of meal.

Do I get cravings? Sure. Like most people, I presume. In #1 position is chocolate. Oh how I wish I didn’t crave it. Not every day, but almost. I do my best to grab about 6 chocolate chips and be satisfied with that. Usually it works. In #2 position is Mexican food. As I’ve explained ages ago here on my blog, growing up in San Diego I went to a favorite restaurant in Old Town (called Aztec Dining Room – long ago closed after the mamasita passed away and the daughter just didn’t want to run the restaurant without her). We, as a family, went there at least once a week. My mother never cooked Mexican food that I can remember – maybe she made cheese enchiladas once in awhile – and she made Tamale Pie. But, I grew up with a craving for Mexican food. In my 20-35 age range I didn’t always live in places where I could go to a Mexican restaurant or buy the ingredients. But once I returned to Southern California, I could happily and easily ease the craving for a good taco or chile relleno (my usual Mexican meal of choice) at our local Mexican places.

Then, probably in 3rd place is Indian food. I don’t cook Indian all that often. Maybe once a month. In between times we go out to a couple of our local restaurants for it.

As a cook who likes to make all kinds of ethnic food, if I have a craving it’s usually not a big deal to just make it myself. And we have several Indian restaurants nearby that do an admirable job; this time, though, I did make it myself. And  yes, I was craving Indian food. I wanted chicken in that wonderful creamy sauce – tikka masala. Really, tikka masala is so easy to do, and as I read the recipe at the Sous Vide Supreme website, it just sounded so good – and easy!

The joy of using the sous vide is that whatever you cook, it cooks long and slow at a temperature way below what you’d get on the stovetop or even in the oven. Chicken breasts cook at precisely 146° F. I’ve made lots of different meats in the sous vide, but I’d never done chicken breasts until now. And oh, was it easy and was it ever tender and juicy. They cooked for precisely 2 hours. I vacuum sealed them with just a bit of butter in the packet, and in they went. The sauce what whizzed up in the blender and consisted of crushed canned tomatoes, half and half, ginger, garlic, honey, paprika, cumin, turmeric, coriander and salt. That’s it. That was placed into a Ziploc (freezer) bag and was also placed in the rack in the machine. It sat there for 2 hours also. When I was ready to serve dinner, I removed the packages, poured the sauce, as is, into a pitcher, removed the chicken breasts to a cutting board and cut nice-sized thick slices and placed them on top of some basmati rice and drizzled the sauce over the top and garnished with cilantro. Was that ever easy! With a green salad, there was dinner.

The only thing in the sauce to give it heat (it did have a little) was the ginger. If you or your family are sensitive to heat, use a bit less, perhaps.

What’s GOOD: how very easy this was to make. Also, love-loved the tender, juicy chicken. Even our 2 teenage grandchildren who were here for dinner commented about how juicy the chicken was. For kids, that was interesting to hear them say – that they’d even notice! You can see from the photo – look at the chicken – it’s almost pink. But it isn’t. It’s just that perfect kind of done. Also loved the flavoring in the sauce. It was so easy to make in the blender and pour right into the bag. I had not a single dirty pan to be washed! Just the salad bowl, plates and silverware. How easy is that?

What’s NOT: well, you do have to plan just a bit ahead, but only 2+ hours (or 4-8 for slow cooker). And, you do have to have a sous vide machine. Or, use the slow cooker – see recipe below. I’ll definitely be making this again.

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Most evenings I don’t serve any carb with our meal. We just don’t need it. Not that we wouldn’t LIKE to have some, but we know it’s better for us if we don’t indulge in potatoes or rice or some other kind of starch. Even bread. So, this revision was borne of that wish – could we have my old favorite, cabbage patch stew that is usually served with a lovely fluffy mound of whipped potatoes on top?

If you click on the link above, you’ll go to my 2007 blog post about this – one of my all-time favorite family meals. It’s a soupy, stewy kind of dish that I originally got out of a little Betty Crocker cookbook that was given to me when I got married the 1st time in 1962. Looong time ago. It’s SO very easy to make – all in one pan except for the potatoes.

Back some years ago I made a Kalyn’s Kitchen recipe for a kind of cheesy cauliflower dish called Twice Baked Cauliflower that gives you the illusion you’re eating baked (mashed) potatoes with all the trimming like sour cream, bacon, chives, etc. Every time I make those, I think about our friend Lynn (and his wife Sue) who now live in Colorado. Lynn, you see, abhors cauliflower. I served those to him one night – didn’t even mention what it was – he ate it, loved it, and somewhere in the conversation I mentioned cauliflower. Lynn turned a bit blue. CAULIFLOWER? No. That couldn’t have been cauliflower. He simply doesn’t EAT cauliflower. But he did. Now whether he’s ever eaten it since, I don’t know. (Sue, you’ll have to tell me . . . she reads my blog.)

SO, all that said, I decided to lighten up my old favorite by making it with half ground turkey and half ground beef, and then to make the “mashed potatoes” with cauliflower. The only carbs in this dish come from the one can of kidney beans that are also part of the recipe (and whatever little amount of carbs exist in the other vegetables). The beans – I left those in – they’re more complex carbs. As for the cauliflower – just TRUST ME about this – you’ll hardly know you’re eating cauliflower. I’ve re-written the recipe completely below, including the cauliflower mixture. If you eat the cauliflower “mashed potatoes” straight, yes, you’ll probably notice they don’t quite taste like potatoes, but when it’s mixed with the herby, spicy stew mixture, you simply don’t know. It has almost the same texture as mashed potatoes.

What’s GOOD: This is a very healthy meal – especially if you use all turkey or use less. Or no turkey, of course. The combination of veggies just works. What can I say. And the mashed potatoes cauliflower put it into the comfort food category. Make a double batch and freeze the left overs (freeze the cauliflower separately – come to think of it – I’ve never frozen pureed cauliflower so don’t know absolutely how that would be once defrosted – let me know) – that’s what I do.
What’s NOT: absolutely nothing. I love this stuff.

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An altogether different (for me anyway) way to use left over turkey. And it will likely become a favorite. Made especially easy because I was able to use our Thanksgiving turkey meat, and left over mashed potatoes too, which were taking up space in my refrigerator.

Not knowing anything about the history of the French word Parmentier, I looked it up online, only to find that, in culinary terms it means a potato on top, almost like a shepherd’s pie, or a cottage pie. The dish is named after Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a French pharmacist, nutritionist, and inventor who, in the late 18th century, was instrumental in the promotion of the potato as an edible crop. So, that’s why (per wikipedia). The hachis part means chopped meat.

I read the recipe over at Susan Herrmann Loomis’ blog, On Rue Tatin. If you don’t know about her, you should. She’s an American, but went to live in France a long time ago now, wrote a book about her culinary experiences (very cute) including meeting her husband (I see that she doesn’t mention her husband on her About page, so perhaps she’s divorced now . . . don’t know . . . but she does have a couple of children). She lives in Normandy in the little town of Louviers, gives English-speaking cooking classes regularly if you’re interested and has written about 12 cookbooks.

My version of this – from the picture above – is a much more wet casserole – not exactly soupy, but certainly it oozed all over the plate. My mashed potatoes were very soft to begin with. But that made no difference to the flavor.

One of the things that stood out in my mind as I was reading Susan’s blog, was her little quip that “ . . . . sprinkling Gruyere cheese on almost everything that goes in the oven is a French custom. . .”  Having visited the Gruyere cheese factory (a very small place considering the volume of cheese sold ‘round the world with its name on it – hence I always buy the imported, the “real” Gruyere), and since I had a chunk of the cheese in my refrigerator already, it was a no-brainer I’d make this.

It took about 10 minutes to create the casserole: first I sautéed the onion (Susan used a red onion, I used a yellow) in a bit of oil and butter. While that cooked briefly I shredded the turkey meat and shredded the Gruyere. Into the casserole dish went the mostly cooked onion with a tiny sprinkling of cheese (I was remembering Susan’s comment about the cheese). I sprinkled the top with a little bit of salt, pepper and a light dusting of powdered bay leaf. Then I added all the turkey meat, with another light sprinkling of cheese. I drizzled the cream on top of that and added the little bit of turkey gravy (her recipe has you add stock – I used the gravy because I had a bunch in the refrigerator and never seem to know what to do with it except in reheated left over Thanksgiving dinner). Then using my hands to mush and squish the cold mashed potatoes, I gently placed the potatoes on top and tried to cover it barely and completely. I wanted a solid potato covering, but I didn’t want it to be thick, so I gently pushed and shoved the potatoes so it would be a solid slate of them. If you have youngsters to feed, you’ll likely want a much deeper potato layer, which is fine! The bulk of the grated cheese goes on top of the potatoes. Make sure the casserole is deep enough that the potatoes aren’t heaped above the edge or you’ll have a bit of bubbling overflow. Fortunately I put the casserole on another pan so the drips didn’t burn up in the oven!

We had pan-roasted Brussels sprouts with this, but any green veg would be fine, or even a salad. You could – I’m sure – use some left over veg inside this dish (like peas or broccoli) but I wanted to make it as true to Susan’s recipe as I could. I did make a few changes, but I hope they did nothing but enhance the flavors rather than detract from them!

One little caveat: I used the best-est turkey chunks (both breast and dark meat) from our kosher bird, which was super-moist and tender; I used the left over mashed potatoes which contained cream cheese, so they were rich-rich already. I used ample cheese (maybe more than Susan did – I didn’t weigh it – she used 2 ounces for a larger casserole, I think). I did use heavy cream, although I just added it into the meat section (not used in the potatoes as she did). Just know that it’s rich in fat grams.  Oh, I’d make it again in a second! But then, shepherd’s pie, which is so very similar to this, is also a particular favorite flavor-taste for me.

What’s GOOD: oh gosh, was this ever fantastic. For me – it’s all about the CHEESE. It absolutely “makes” this dish, in my opinion. Gruyere has such a unique flavor – it’s not a straight eating kind of cheese (at least not to me) but has a kind of sharp, yet deep nutty quality to it. I use some Gruyere or Emmental in my cheese fondue  recipe because it’s just the best combo for flavor. Anyway, the flavor in this dish is over-the-top delicious! This is going to go onto my list of Carolyn’s favs, and will be added to my usual Thanksgiving roundup under the section of left overs.
What’s NOT: not a single, solitary thing. It IS rich. Decadent, I suppose. A splurge in the calorie department.

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We had a guest for dinner and I’d defrosted a Costco package of chicken breasts (boneless, skinless). Searching my to-try recipes I ran across a Phillis Carey recipe that I’ve never posted here. Amazing how that can happen!

Actually, here on my blog I have another almond-crusted chicken recipe. A Martha Stewart one, and the method is similar, but not quite the same. In a nutshell, for this version you pound the chicken breast halves until they’re about 1/2 inch thick (between 2 pieces of plastic wrap). Dip them in egg, then in bread crumbs (I used fresh crumbs), back in egg again, then into shaved almonds. In a frying pan they go to get that gorgeous golden brown color for about 2 minutes per side. Then the pan and all go into the oven for 8 minutes. In the interim, make a veggie or salad, and serve it with the easy-easy lemon aioli. This one is made with mayo, lemon zest and lemon juice and some freshly minced garlic.

Ideally, make the aioli a few hours ahead. I didn’t plan ahead, so I whipped it together just before I prepared the chicken. I served it with broccoli – the one you read about here a couple of days ago – the Sautéed Broccoli with Pancetta and Thyme. And with an ample green salad.

This preparation is quite quick to do – and it’s very definitely nice enough for guests. You will have to be in the kitchen, though, to do the last-minute dipping and breading, to brown the chicken. But once the pan goes into the oven you have 8 minutes before you’re needed again to do anything. You could have everything else ready – except for whisking the raw egg and water – and it takes no time at all to do that.

What’s GOOD: Easy enough to do for a weeknight dinner, it’s also elegant enough to prepare for guests. Looks very pretty. The chicken is just cooked through (therefore, not dry) doing the oven baking part, and the lemon aioli adds a nice touch and good flavor. I’ve made this numerous times over the years.

What’s NOT: really nothing – it’s relatively easy to do – and is a crowd pleaser.

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A simple, tasty way to roast a turkey breast, then serve with a green peppercorn sauce mixed with whole berry cranberry sauce that’s just bursting with flavor. You do have to plan ahead at least 2 1/2 days, though.

I don’t know about you, but I just never think to roast a turkey breast. In fact, I don’t even look at them at the grocery store. I know the breast meat is considered a healthy meat, but I’ve always thought that roasting a breast would/could only end up being dry and tasteless. I’m wrong. Absolutely wrong. You’ll be amazed. I think my difficulty is in remembering the rolled turkey breasts they used to sell (oh, maybe they still do). The kind that almost looks like hot lunch meat? Those are (were) downright awful. Didn’t we make them in the crockpot? Well, this recipe is NOT about that kind of turkey breast!

The biggest problem – if you can call it that – will be FINDING a bone-in turkey breast. Boneless ones, yes. Bone in, not so easy! They just don’t seem to be readily available. Some Sprouts stores have them sometimes (I found mine there), particularly this time of year. Here in California we have a chicken and turkey producer called Zacky Farms, and they do sell them, but you’ve got to seek them out as they don’t seem to be at every store that carries the product.

The dry brine (pictured at left – it sat in the refrigerator in a plastic bag for 2 days): it means it’s a salt mixture that serves the same purpose as a wet salt water brine, but it doesn’t take up so much room in your refrigerator and is ever-so much easier to handle. At the cooking class Phillis Carey taught about this, she said she has stopped making the wet salt brine because she simply has no place in her refrigerator to keep a brined turkey, and she’s quite happy with this dry brine method.

The turkey breast needs to sit in the refrigerator for 48 hours – that’s why you have to plan ahead on this one. The dry brine is a mixture of salt, orange zest, pepper and dried thyme. See? Easy. Just pop it into a Ziploc bag and set it in the refrigerator. Every 12 hours, though, you need to open it up, massage the salt mixture all over the meat again and turn it over. Then, the day you’re serving this, 8 hours ahead you will do one more step. The salt should be invisible by this point (it’s soaked into the meat). The turkey skin will be moist, but not wet. At this point you place the turkey breast on a plate and set it (uncovered) in the refrigerator. Let it sit there for at least 6 hours. Now you roast it after browning the skin side in a bit of oil. The breast goes onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (skin side up) for about 40-45 minutes.

Do use an instant read thermometer for this – haven’t we all eaten turkey at Thanksgiving when the breast meat is so dry you can hardly choke it down? When you roast a whole bird you have to cook it until the thigh meat is done and usually the breast meat is far past it’s peak temperature. I noticed in one of the cooking magazines they were touting cutting the turkey into pieces and roasting the sections separately (so you could remove the breast meat when it’s done). Makes such good sense, but then you never see the pretty bird on the plate. In the article they had placed the parts (in their proper position) on a big platter, but they were all flat, on a bed of greens.

Here, you’ll be able to get the turkey breast exactly the way you want it. Remove the turkey when the internal temp has reached 160° F. Ideally you want the breast meat to be 165° F (that’s the safe eating temperature), and it should be fine if it goes up to 170°. Hopefully no higher than that. You’ll set the turkey on a carving board and tent it with foil and in that time the temperature will rise to at least 165° or 170° in just a few minutes.

Now let’s talk about the sauce. You might need to make a trip to the grocery store, and perhaps a higher end one to get the green peppercorns. They’re definitely not at any old market. And my advice is to buy the more expensive by weight. At the cooking class Phillis recommended a brand carried at the cookware store where the class was held. Within seconds 3 women had popped up out of their seats and grabbed the entire stock of them. So I had to buy a different brand at an upscale market. Having not tasted these side by side, I don’t know exactly how they differ. The store owner is going to order more, so eventually I’ll get that brand (I don’t even know the name, other than it said poivre vert in large green letters on the side of the 3-inch high can. I’ve looked online and didn’t see an image of the can.

You’ll want some whole berry cranberry sauce (something I never buy unless I have to!), or you can make your own if you have the time and inclination. I think this would be lovely made with homemade cranberry sauce with port wine. See this recipe if you’re interested. The turkey is cut off the bone for easier carving. It was still super-hot and had reached exactly 165° on the instant read. I had heated plates to serve it on.

What’s GOOD: the low calories and maximum flavor; how easy it was to make, although you do have to let it marinate for 48 hours; planning ahead IS necessary; overall delicious flavor. The turkey meat was SO tender and juicy. I was amazed. Loved the sauce too. The turkey breast (half) I had served 4 people for dinner, and there’s enough left over for one more meal for 2. Unless you’re feeding young men or boys!

What’s NOT: only the 48-hour+ plan-ahead part. Otherwise, it’s a great recipe.

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Remember, I told you we’d be fixing that chicken dish – the one that my hubby made for me on about our 3rd or 4th date, way back 32 years ago? Here it is . . . you make it all in one pan (except for a carb if you choose to make one). It’s incredibly easy.

If you didn’t read my post a few days ago about my hubby Dave’s favorites, you won’t have the back story on this dish. Go read that if you care to. Here’s a bit more of the background. In 1981, Dave and his son lived about a block or two from our local fairgrounds, and often on Saturdays they’d go over to the weekly swap meet there (that still goes on at that location). Dave remembers vividly one Saturday as they walked up and down the rows, that he could smell something wonderful. Finally they came to a stand where a couple of Aussie guys were making chicken. It was only about 9:30 in the morning, and both Dave and his son gobbled down a sample of this dish, and Dave promptly bought a set of seasonings from this company, Benson’s Gourmet Seasonings.

The company is still in business, and this recipe – the same one they were fixing at the swap meet in 1981, is still the one they demonstrate, and is their #1 selling mixture. It uses their Supreme Garlic and Herb Salt Free Seasoning 2 oz Bottle – the link here is to Amazon, and they carry the whole line, if you’re interested.

Dave made this dish for me, back in 1981 right after I met him, and he made it at least one other time, and the bottles of seasoning mixes have sat dormant on my pantry shelf ever since. Not in the regular place, but Dave didn’t want to throw them away – when we moved to this house 10 years ago I was going to toss them out. You know, herb and spice mixtures lose all their potency after a few weeks or at most a month. But Dave said, no, don’t throw them out. So they sat in an obscure and out of the way space. I generally don’t use those pre-packed seasoning mixes just because I know they don’t retain flavor well. I like to make my own combos at the moment when I need them. The only one I’ve been known to make in quantity is the North African Grilled Corn on the Cob spice mix. I make up a batch at the beginning of corn season and try to use it up by the time corn season has passed.

Having laughed over the chicken dinner story the other day, I dug out the bottle (that is 32 years old), went online, not expecting to find anything, and found the company’s website and their recipe easily enough. And decided that Dave needed to renew his acquaintance with this dish.

Here he is at our kitchen island. I cut up a whole chicken for him (next time we will make it with just chicken thighs, I think – much easier). I set him there at the cutting board with all of the vegetables he needed to chop. A lot. First you must have half a chopped onion and half a bell pepper. This dish takes 60 minutes to make, hence you want to start with medium-low heat. The herb mixture is added in at 3 junctures in the process.

The pictures here show the progression of the dish. First you put the raw chicken pieces in there (no seasonings, no oil, nothing) in a big honkin’ pan (we used a 12-inch nonstick pan with 4” high sides) skin side down with the heat at medium-low. The first set of veggies are added on top and down in any crevices you can find.

In the 2nd picture, after 20 minutes, you turn the chicken over. See, nicely browned chicken pieces.

Then after another 20 minutes of browning you add all the vegetables (more onion, peppers, zucchini, carrots, celery and mushrooms). The veggies kind of sit there on top and you wonder if they’ll ever cook through.

Ten minutes later  you stir it all up (you do that several times so the veggies will get done). You never add a lid. But you do add 1/2 cup of white wine (we used vermouth) during the last 10 minutes and continue cooking until the chicken is done and the veggies are cooked.

Actually, we removed the chicken pieces to a hot plate and very briefly cooked the veggies for about 2 minutes – there were a few pieces of carrot and zucchini that weren’t quite done.

Meanwhile, make some rice. We made pasta (Dave’s choice), but I really think it would be easier to eat and more tasty with rice. Your choice, of course. I made linguine and thought it was too difficult to handle.

There is NO SALT in this dish. There is NO FAT added to this dish. And it’s delicious. Because the spice mixture was SO old, I measured out double the amount of it (so 2 T. rather than just 1). I think I need to order a new bottle, although the seasoning did have some smell and taste.

What’s GOOD: it’s a make-in-one-pot kind of dinner (except for a carb if you choose to make one). There’s lots of good flavor in it. It’s easy, really, but you do need to do a bunch of veggie chopping and prepping. Makes a big batch – I think it might feed more than 4 if you have a larger chicken. We had a 4-pound one and will likely get 3 meals out of it. It’s a pretty dish – lots of color. We don’t like green bell pepper, but it would have added even more color to the pan. The wine makes a kind of juicy sauce (unthickened, of course) – scoop some of it out with each serving onto the carb. Love that this has not one speck of added salt or added oil. You won’t miss it – really.
What’s NOT: just the time you need to spend tending to this – not hard – but you don’t want to go off and leave this as it requires a lot of chopping at first, then mixing around during the last 20 minutes. The chicken breasts were a little overdone, we thought, so I’d probably add them later or remove them early.

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Is it an oxymoron to eat a (healthy) boneless, skinless chicken breast and then drizzle a decadent sauce (with some heavy whipping cream) all over it? It’s a dilemma I do think about now and then, and yet boneless skinless chicken breasts can be so boring and dry if they’re not cooked just right and/or served with something on the side that gives it flavor and moisture. And no, this probably isn’t a true oxymoron (it means combining 2 words that are contradictory) but in culinary terms, yes I think it is.

You’ll go through the usual steps here, buying boneless skinless chicken breasts, carefully trimming off any exterior fat, pounding them to an even thickness so they’ll cook evenly. After cooking them and adding some brandy, that gets flamed, then you make a decadent sauce. It contains some fresh tomatoes as you can see above. It has shallots in there too, some fresh tarragon, white wine, chicken broth and THEN, 1/2 cup heavy cream. Thicken it up some by simmering it until it reduces just a bit. You’ll want to have some kind of carb on the side to soak up the fantastic juicy sauce that will ooze all over the plate. I’d recommend rice.

If you have everything all ready before you start, it takes just a very few minutes to make this from beginning to end. It will make a lovely company meal. Yet it’s not so difficult you couldn’t make it easily enough for a family dinner.

What’s GOOD: it relatively easy to make. You’ll like the fresh tomato with it – gives it some nice texture and taste.You’ll definitely notice the tarragon and the hint of brandy too. A lovely presentation also.
What’s NOT: nothing really, except that all the work has to be done just before serving.

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