How to Spatchcock A Chicken: Pesto Chicken
Whenever I go to the grocery store I usually just buy chicken breasts or whichever part of the bird I want to cook that night, but there is something to be said for taking the time to cook a whole bird every now and then. This week whole organic chickens were on sale at my work for only six bucks, so I had to get one. The reason I usually don’t cook a whole chicken, and probably why you may not either, is dealing with cutting it off the bones afterwards. This is where spatchcocking comes in handy.
Spatchcocking a chicken is basically cutting out the spine, breast bone and ribs, so that you are left with only the meat and the bones for the limbs. It makes it extremely easy to cut and serve the meat once the chicken is cooked. For my spatchcocked chicken, I added pesto and onions to make a tasty dish. One benefit of keeping the skin on the bird it that you can stuff any sort of spices or seasonings in between the skin and meat to cook it with extra flavor.
Pizza Party!
After cooking many meals for friends, I realized that nothing excites people more than a delicious pizza. This week I threw a pizza party with friends. We only had one oven and two pizza trays, so we could only cook two pizzas at a time. In the end, I made six 14″ pizzas. We cut each pizza into ten slices, one for each person, and sampled one slice of each pizza. We would decide which pizzas were coming next while the previous two were baking. By the sixth pizza, we could barely take another bite!
We made all sorts of pizzas- from BBQ Chicken to Chicken Alfredo to Meat Lovers all the way to Hawaiian. Each time a new pizza was taken out, everybody was riled up- “This one is my favorite!” “Wait, no, THIS one is my favorite!” “Ah, no, THIS one is definitely the best!” I have never seen my friends so excited about something I cooked. This made me being to think about the wondrous pizza pie. A fresh pizza crust is like a blank canvas for a chef. You can combine any flavors you want to create your own unique masterpiece. I suggest to all of you that you make homemade pizzas at some point. My advice? Be adventurous, take risks, mix unlikely combinations- you’ll be impressed with the outcome!
Moroccan Stuffed Acorn Squash
I love exploring the flavors of foreign cuisines. Each country has their own unique way of doing things, that gives an exciting new twist to many foods. If you haven’t already, I highly suggest looking into the different flavors from around the world. I think that knowing different flavor combinations helps expand your cooking and keeps you from making the same dish over and over again.
This week I had some squash from my mom’s farm that needed to be used. I was in the mood for something a bit sweeter, so I decided on this Moroccan-style recipe. This dish has the perfect balance of sweet and savory. The raisins are a definite must, I even decided to add a few more to the recipe. It can also easily be made vegan/vegetarian by using vegetable broth and taking out the chicken. This recipe is simple to put together but looks sophisticated, a great idea for dinner guests.
Buffalo Chicken Chili w/ Blue Cheese Garlic Bread
Super Bowl Sunday means finger food and a messy kitchen right? Wrong. This Sunday you can make a delicious- and filling- full meal. Plus, it won’t keep you in the kitchen all day away from the company. Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t always make some messy finger food to go with it! This chili, adapted from my mom at Cooking With Michele, has the buffalo wing flavor, combined with healthy ingredients like carrots and celery. Adding blue cheese to the chili and the garlic bread completes the dish and gives you an authentic buffalo wing feel without the mess- or the fat!
Orange Chicken- Happy Chinese New Year!
February 3rd marks the first day of the Year of the Golden Rabbit, according to the Chinese zodiac. According to Chinese tradition, the year of the rabbit brings a year in which you can calm your nerves and catch your breath. For Chinese New Year, here is an easy recipe for a classic Chinese-American food.
Honey Barbecue Glazed Chicken
It is interesting to me how quickly my brain can shift my food preferences throughout the day. Each day, sometimes even each hour, I feel like I am changing my mind about what would be good to eat. For those days when you want something sweet for dinner, a honey barbecue glaze is perfect. I think I have come up with a tasty honey barbecue glaze recipe that can easily be tweaked to suit any personal preference; I am looking forward to experimenting with it too! This recipe is great for weeknights, when you do not have much time for dinner. It goes great with Oven Roasted Potatoes as well!
Chicken, White Bean, & Chorizo Enchiladas w/ Green Chile
I have an addiction to Mexican food, or any food similar to it, so I am always looking for new recipes so I am not eating the same thing again and again. I have made enchiladas before, but only with chicken. I also have attempted to make green chile before, but put an entire bag of extremely spicy chile peppers in the food and ruined the dish (I had to add an entire jar of tomato sauce, and entire bag of cheese, and milk to make it even semi-bearable!).
I can now say that I have found one of the best enchilada recipes and green chile recipes. Thanks to Drick’s Rambling Cafe for the enchilada recipe, which I tweaked a bit. I will definitely be keeping this recipe for future meals. I chose to slow cook the chicken so that I could easily shred it, plus it gives it much more flavor. You can cook the green chile with pork if you would like, but I felt that it wasn’t necessary with all of the meat in the enchiladas.
Indian Meatballs w/ Curried Vegetables
I came across a recipe for Indian Meatballs while I was in New Zealand last summer, but never got around to making them. This week I decided to add to the recipe I found to make this dish. This dish is not very spicy because the coconut milk tones down the curry, but can be made spicier with Siracha if you desire. This took me a bit longer than I expected… I never realized that making meatballs was such a hassle!
Chicken Breasts w/ Roasted Red Peppers
It is that time of the year again… no not the holidays, the time when everybody you know is broke, waiting for their paycheck or other form of money to come in. A few friends and I wanted to make dinner together, but could not afford an extravagant meal this time. There are so many ways to dress up an ordinary chicken breast. This recipe (originally found on MyRecipes) is perfect for those days right before your paycheck comes in, costing less than $2 per serving!
Chicken Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken)
I found out about Chicken Makhani a couple of weeks ago and have been dying to make it. I am in love with sauces, so this dish definitely caught my eye. The combination of a flavorful sauce and a little bit of spice made it a favorite in my book. I used a clove of garlic and some ground ginger instead of ginger garlic paste. I also used skim milk instead of half-and-half, like the original recipe (found on Big Oven) called for. My version of the recipe is the healthier option for those of you trying to eat healthy! =)
