A few weeks ago I ran across a huge sale on meyer lemons (and chicken thighs) and was left with very little idea as far as what to do with them. So it was experiment time. In this case I decided to look around the Mediterranean area and see what I could pull together.
First, the lemons. I took two, sliced them thin, and brushed them with olive oil. They went on a baking sheet with half a head of garlic and then in to the oven at about 325 for half an hour. The lemons ended up slightly browned and the garlic was wonderfully mellow and mushy.
In the meantime, I dredged the chicken in flour, cayenne, paprika, and allspice and then browned it in an olive oil butter combination.
Once the lemons and garlic were ready, I chopped them along with kalamta olives and capers.
I added all the leftover flour to make a roux around the chicken then added everything in with a bit of chicken broth and simmered it down until the sauce was fully integrated and the chicken cooked through.
This worked wonderfully over pasta and would have done just fine on couscous as well.
Nice to have a slightly different flavor profile once in awhile.
Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts
Jan 1, 2011
Jul 25, 2010
Lemon-tomato chicken
Sometimes the best food comes out of a totally spontaneous list of ingredients and a deadline.
In this case, dinner for 4. I have:
Chicken prep
Thaw, obviously, then place in a bowl (whole). Cover in lemon juice and add oregano. Toss thoroughly and let that sit for, oh, an hour.
Chopping/prep
In the meantime, start with the tomatoes. To keep things summery, I didn't really want to cook them but I still wanted tomato flavor in with the chicken. And given the choice of linguine, just chunking the tomatoes wouldn't work anyway.
Solution: quarter them, set up a colander over a bowl, and crush them by hand until they're just small bits. Then salt them to sweat the juice, toss well, and set them aside to slowly drip. Go ahead and press them by hand occasionally.
Then rough-chop most of the bunch of parsley and set that aside for now.
Then obviously the garlic. I used lots. In the same spirit as the tomatoes, I want some cooked and some raw, but you can just prep it all the same way.
Chicken
In a large saute pan, heat olive oil and add half the garlic.
Remove the breasts from the marinade and cube into about 1/2 inch pieces, retaining the marinade for later use.
Once the garlic is just turning golden, add the cubed chicken and cook most of the way through, stirring often. Then add the reserved marinade and your tomato drippings and take the mixture down to a simmer.
In the meantime, make pasta. Use slightly less water than usual and make sure you salt it liberally.
When the pasta is done, drain and add about a cup and a half of the pasta water to your chicken mixture along with a decent splash of wine.
Let the chicken mixture come to a boil and then slowly reduce it until you get a thick enough sauce to slightly cover the chicken bits (the starch from the pasta water will help this along nicely and the sugar from the tomato will nearly carmelize).
Fresh toppings
Combine your tomatoes with the parsley and the rest of the garlic. Add a spritz of lemon juice and toss together.
Serve, letting everyone choose how much of each component they'd like and finish with grated hard cheese.
Another very nice summer dish.
In this case, dinner for 4. I have:
- 3 chicken breasts, frozen
- Pasta (settled on linguine)
- Garlic
- Dried oregano
- Olive oil
- Salt
- 1 bunch flat leaf parsley
- 4 roma tomatoes
- 1 grenade of lemon juice (you know, the lemon juice that you find in the produce section bottled like a lemon/grenade)
- Cheap dry red wine
Chicken prep
Thaw, obviously, then place in a bowl (whole). Cover in lemon juice and add oregano. Toss thoroughly and let that sit for, oh, an hour.
Chopping/prep
In the meantime, start with the tomatoes. To keep things summery, I didn't really want to cook them but I still wanted tomato flavor in with the chicken. And given the choice of linguine, just chunking the tomatoes wouldn't work anyway.
Solution: quarter them, set up a colander over a bowl, and crush them by hand until they're just small bits. Then salt them to sweat the juice, toss well, and set them aside to slowly drip. Go ahead and press them by hand occasionally.
Then rough-chop most of the bunch of parsley and set that aside for now.
Then obviously the garlic. I used lots. In the same spirit as the tomatoes, I want some cooked and some raw, but you can just prep it all the same way.
Chicken
In a large saute pan, heat olive oil and add half the garlic.
Remove the breasts from the marinade and cube into about 1/2 inch pieces, retaining the marinade for later use.
Once the garlic is just turning golden, add the cubed chicken and cook most of the way through, stirring often. Then add the reserved marinade and your tomato drippings and take the mixture down to a simmer.
In the meantime, make pasta. Use slightly less water than usual and make sure you salt it liberally.
When the pasta is done, drain and add about a cup and a half of the pasta water to your chicken mixture along with a decent splash of wine.
Let the chicken mixture come to a boil and then slowly reduce it until you get a thick enough sauce to slightly cover the chicken bits (the starch from the pasta water will help this along nicely and the sugar from the tomato will nearly carmelize).
Fresh toppings
Combine your tomatoes with the parsley and the rest of the garlic. Add a spritz of lemon juice and toss together.
Serve, letting everyone choose how much of each component they'd like and finish with grated hard cheese.
Another very nice summer dish.
Jun 15, 2010
Simple med pasta
I'm not going to claim this is Italian or French or Greek or what have you; it isn't. But it tastes good?
Chicken
Take a few frozen chicken breasts, chunk them up (it's just easier when they're frozen) and thaw in a a marinade of olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary, and perhaps some oregano (but don't overdo that; not only will there be more later but it's easy to overdo).
Pasta
Farfalle and especially campanaelle seem especially suited to this mix, but any short, robust pasta will do. Get your water going, salt it, etc. Toss in your pasta.
Sauce
Maillard the chicken in a saute pan. Add chopped garlic (obviously?), finely chopped jalapenos (technically optional), sliced red onions, chunked bell peppers (preferably red), and let that all heat through while the chicken reaches full temp.
Season with more oregano, black pepper, and some basil. Powdered works here just fine.
Add a can of diced tomatoes, juice and all. Let that reduce a bit; shouldn't take long.
Add chopped Greek olives (kalamata being the obvious choice), cut the heat, add the pasta, and crumble generous amounts of feta while the mixture is still warm.
Serve. This can easily stand alone but does wonderfully with some sort of cucumber salad.
Chicken
Take a few frozen chicken breasts, chunk them up (it's just easier when they're frozen) and thaw in a a marinade of olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary, and perhaps some oregano (but don't overdo that; not only will there be more later but it's easy to overdo).
Pasta
Farfalle and especially campanaelle seem especially suited to this mix, but any short, robust pasta will do. Get your water going, salt it, etc. Toss in your pasta.
Sauce
Maillard the chicken in a saute pan. Add chopped garlic (obviously?), finely chopped jalapenos (technically optional), sliced red onions, chunked bell peppers (preferably red), and let that all heat through while the chicken reaches full temp.
Season with more oregano, black pepper, and some basil. Powdered works here just fine.
Add a can of diced tomatoes, juice and all. Let that reduce a bit; shouldn't take long.
Add chopped Greek olives (kalamata being the obvious choice), cut the heat, add the pasta, and crumble generous amounts of feta while the mixture is still warm.
Serve. This can easily stand alone but does wonderfully with some sort of cucumber salad.
Jun 12, 2010
Very basic pasta
So many pasta dishes get so complicated so quickly. This isn't one of them.
Boil water; don't forget to salt it. It really is better that way. Eventually add, say, angel hair or some other thin version of spaghetti. Cook that through.
In the meantime, get to chopping. Mostly garlic. Lots of it. And parsley. Lots of it.
Add olive oil to a saute pan and lightly toast the garlic. Once the pasta is ready, add that as well. Once the pasta is well-coated in oil, kill the heat and add the parsley. A little red pepper flake at this point wouldn't kill anyone. Toss further.
And you're done.
Grate a hard cheese over the top upon serving.
And yes, this compliments the salmon perfectly.
Boil water; don't forget to salt it. It really is better that way. Eventually add, say, angel hair or some other thin version of spaghetti. Cook that through.
In the meantime, get to chopping. Mostly garlic. Lots of it. And parsley. Lots of it.
Add olive oil to a saute pan and lightly toast the garlic. Once the pasta is ready, add that as well. Once the pasta is well-coated in oil, kill the heat and add the parsley. A little red pepper flake at this point wouldn't kill anyone. Toss further.
And you're done.
Grate a hard cheese over the top upon serving.
And yes, this compliments the salmon perfectly.
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