Michael Symon Inspired Last Night's Dinner

Picture source: Cooking Channel

Sometimes you follow a recipe and sometimes, you don't. I watch a lot of cooking shows because I love food and I love to learn. I often do go to the show's website to grab the recipe, but sometimes just a vague idea sticks around and inspires me. A few weeks ago I watched the chicken episode of How to Cook Like an Iron Chef. When it came time to make dinner last night I plucked this idea from the air: Chicken legs, fingerling potatoes, leeks, braise and I think it was inspired by this.

This is how I brought everything together. First I put salted water to boil, actually Joey did that for me. Then I cut the two leeks and four small potatoes. The leeks were cut lengthwise and then in half to create a nice surface area for searing and I left them about the length of the potatoes. The potatoes I only cut lenthwise and then par-boiled them. I warmed some garlic slices in olive oil before starting the searing, I removed them when they were starting to get golden and put them in a bowl.

Joey cleaned the chicken and I dried and seasoned it with salt and pepper and a very fine coating of flour. The chicken was seared first, then the leeks, then the potatoes. Lastly, I placed everything in a large deep pan, including the golden slices of garlic and added chicken stock, covering it only half way. I seasoned everything with a pinch of oregano and salt and pepper. I let it simmer away until everything was super flavorful and tender. It was a rich and hearty meal and even though it tasted like a million bucks, it only cost about ten. Now that's what I call a bright idea!

Chicken Quesadillas on a Tuesday Night

I tend not to buy meat because I don't feel totally comfortable cooking it. It seems alien to me and I also feel guilty if I do not buy organic or farm raised meat. The last time I went to the supermarket, however, I compared the price of prepared fake meat products with the price of organic farm raised chicken breast. The chicken breast was cheaper and the whole chicken was a lot cheaper!

When I got home I put all my food away, including the raw breasts. I eyed them in their fleshy brightness and wondered if I should just cook them right away before I forogt about them. It is one thing to let carrots wane in your fridge and rotting meat another. I took the chicken out and then needed to tackle the next issue: how to cook this in a generally neutral way so I can use it for many different meals and how can I cook it so that it doesn't taste like bland rubber?

Luckily, because I am brilliant, I had the answer to those questions. Below is the recipe for cooking the breasts (and how to make quesadillas with the meat).

Chicken Quesadillas

4 chicken breasts

1/2 an onion

1 tomato or 2-3 smaller tomatoes

1/2 a green pepper

Generous dash of dry oregano

Salt, to taste

Fresh cracked pepper, to taste

For quesadillas

2 tortillas

A few slivers of sharp chedder cheese

Salsa

Prep your vegetables by slicing the tomatoes and onions in 1/8-1/4 inch slices. Then julienne the green pepper by the same diameter. Lay your breasts on a pan and in the areas around the breasts put your vegetables. Dash the breasts with salt and the oregano. Turn heat on medium and cover. When you hear and can smell the meat cooking, about five minutes, you will need to turn the meat. Uncover the pan. After you flip a breast over, you will ease the vegetables under the raw side of the breast. The result is that you will have the cooked side facing you and the raw side will be buffered from the pan by the vegetables. Now dash with salt again and crack pepper over the whole thing. Cover and reduce heat to low. Let the meat cook for about twenty to twenty-five minutes. When this time has elapsed you will have a lovely broth on the bottom of the pan with tomatoes and peppers whose flavors have intensified and sweetened, and best of all you will have four juicy delicious breasts.

When you are making the quesadillas you will take each tortilla and bend it in half so that you have four pieces. In a pan or a griddle you will place the first 1/4 inside of the pan. Next take two or three slivers, not slices, of cheese. The cheese is an element, not the highlight here, so please show a little self control. Use just enough so that when it melts it will more or less cover the area of the tortilla without melting over the tortilla's border. Next you will take some of those tomatotes peppers and onions from the chicken pan and drape a layer of them over the cheese. Then slice off a few pieces of chicken of a breast and place on tortilla as the third layer. Next, add more cheese, with the same restraint used before. Top with one of the tortilla quarters and then do the whole process with the last two quarters of tortillas. Put a low heat below the pan and cover. Check the quesadillas in a few minutes. Turn and heat the other side. Plate and enjoy with salsa. Voila, you've got a lovely healthy meal on your hands. Congratulations!!!

Petu's chicken soup with dumplings (variations included)

I don't know about you, but I have a long list of sick friends. I feel like the last one standing! Below is my chicken soup recipe, so you can nurse your clan back to health.

Ingredients

1 Whole roaster (variation: chicken breast, pint of mushrooms or even better, dried mushrooms like porcini, butter or quality olive oil)

A few celery stalks

A few carrots

An onion

A few garlic cloves

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

A few sprigs of fresh parsely**

Sprig of fresh rosemary**

**Totally unnecessary, but lovely additions

2 cups of flour*

2/3 cup milk (at least 1%, whole being ideal)*

2 tbs of butter, melted*

1 egg, well beaten*

4 tsp of baking power** (If you are omitting dumplings, then you don't need these ingredients. Alternatives are wild rice (cooked), noodles, or potatoes)

Broth

The first step to make a good soup is making a good broth. Wash your vegetables. Crush garlic to remove outer skin. Remove outer layer of onion and slice in half. As long as you have clean carrots well you don't need to peel. These vegetetables will be discared, no need to make them pretty.Next, if you bought the whole roaster, take the giblets out and whatever packaging was inside chicken must be discarded. In a large pot put whole chicken and giblets then fill with cold water. add the vegetables, bay leaf (also rosemary sprig if you have it) and cover. Apply medium low flame and leave it for about 40-45 minutes partially covered; do check though to make sure your broth doesn't boil down too much. If you aren't using the roaster, you would only put in the mushrooms and the fat (butter or olive oive oil about 1 1/2 to 2 tbs should be okay). If you do have chicken bones you could put those in too, but who just has chicken bones lying around? Oh, also if your chicken breasts aren't already cooked, you might as well put them into the broth to cook.

Soup Prep

While your making your broth you will prep the vegetables for the soup. Clean your celery ribs, carrots and potatoes (If that is your starch). Peel appropriate vegetables. Cut vegetables pretty small, what is most important, though, is uniformity. You want to cut them so that they will cook evenly, so celery a little thicker and carrots thinner smaller, etc. When your broth is done you will remove the roaster and put in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. Then you will take off all the fat, bones and skin and discard. Then cut the chicken into bite size peices, of course if you're using the chicken breasts you can skip the earlier part. Cover your chicken and set aside with preped vegetables. Next you will strain broth. Keep liquid, discard the rest. At this point, you can actually put everyting away until you're ready to eat (Great if you have errands to run!).

Soup

If you are making dumplings you will want your dumpling ingredients ready to go. Sift flour salt and baking powder. Combine the egg, melted butter and milk and add to the flour mixture, stirring quickly until just smooth. Do not overstir as it will make your dumplings rocks. At this point you are ready to heat the broth under medium heat. Drop in your vegetables and the chicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste. While you wait for liquid to heat, finely chop parsely, if you have it, and add. Drop dumplings by spoonful evenly into boiling soup. Cover tightly and simmer 18 minutes. Do not peak. If you aren't making the dumplings, then you can add noodles, rice or potatoes when you first add the vegetables. Whatever starch you add, it wil be good, but I am partial to the dumplings. Anyway, that's it. Time consuming, but really great.