Chicken – Page 11 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Braised Chicken with Olives

I watched Jamie Oliver cook this chicken dish on The Naked Chef. It’s originally a Ligurian recipe but because my neighborhood supermarket only had Spanish olives with pits, I ended up making my own version.

Ingredients:
9 pieces of chicken
2 tbsps of flour
6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 cup of Spanish olives with pits
1/2 cup of white wine
3 plum tomatoes, chopped
5 sprigs of fresh rosemary
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. In a large bowl, combine flour with some salt and pepper. Coat chicken.
2. Over medium high heat using a Dutch oven, fry chicken pieces in hot olive oil until golden brown.
3. Add garlic, rosemary and the wine and let it come to a boil. Add olives and tomatoes.
4. Reduce heat to medium low and partly cover the pot. Simmer until chicken is tender and the broth is reduced to a rich sauce, about 40 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Zucchini Chicken Salad

My parents buy their groceries in bulk. I found a box of Perdue smoked chicken breasts in the fridge and they turned out to be the perfect salad ingredient. This recipe is also good with leftover roasted chicken. I had a zucchini in the fridge which I thinly sliced and then I tossed a small bunch of spinach in the bowl at the last-minute. The result? A salad you can eat without any proding from your nutritionist.

Ingredients:
Perdue smoked chicken breasts, cut in smaller pieces
1 zucchini, thinly sliced
a bunch of spinach, thoroughly washed and roughly chopped
1 red onion, thinly sliced
lemon juice
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Whisk lemon juice with olive oil in a bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss in the rest of the ingredients and let sit for a few minutes to let them marinate in the dressing.

Good ol’ Chicken Stock

What’s the difference between chicken stock and chicken broth? Even though the terms are used interchangeably, chicken broth has more gelÃ©e properties when reduced to make sauce, so you want to use fleshier chicken parts to make broth. That gelatinous quality will bind up pan drippings better for a beefier reduction. Chicken carcass will suffice to make chicken stock for almost any kind of soup. Breast and neck bones are great but you can also buy whole chicken carcasses in Chinatown for a dollar. I always add celery stalks, leeks and carrots when I make either. Browning them first with garlic and onions will give your stock or broth a more roasted taste in the end. I use quart containers I’ve saved from my parents’ Chinese takeouts to store the stock in the fridge for up to three weeks.

Ingredients:
2 chicken carcasses
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 large onion, quartered
2 celery stalks, cut into thirds
1 carrot, cut into thirds
1 large leek, cut into thirds
salt, pepper and oil

1. In a large stock pot, sautÃ© garlic and onions in hot oil. Lightly brown all the vegetables before adding the chicken bones. Let the chicken bones heat up in the pot while stirring ocassionally to avoid sticking.
2. Add enough water to cover the chicken bones. Bring to a boil over high heat and let the impurities rise to the top. Scoop and discard the impurities using a strainer. Reduce heat and let the stock simmer for 2 to 3 hours until water is reduced.
3. Remove from heat and let stock cool for a few minutes. Store in quart containers and put in the fridge. Excess fat should rise and coagulate on top and you can remove them before using.