10 posts tagged “chicken”
To make the rub, combine Fryin' Magic powder (or Shake'n'Bake), sugar, black pepper, garlic powder, Italian spices, and a pinch of cayenne in a bowl.
Light charcoal in grill and when covered in white ash, move coals to front half of grill.
Dredge chicken breasts in the mix on both sides, rubbing additional powder gently on.
Place chicken breasts on back half of charcoal grill for indirect heat (and warming rack if you have two levels), close lid, and partially close all dampers to moderate temp and trap smoke.
After 10 minutes-ish, rotate grill positions and flip the chicken breast, applying sauce of choice with a brush.
I used 1/2 Asian Garlic Chili sauce with 1/2 Texas Pete Buffalo Wing sauce.
After 5 minutes, flip chicken breasts and place them directly over the hot coals with the lid off/open, brushing again with sauce.
After one minute, flip chicken breast and rotate grill positions still over the coals with lid off/open.
After one minute, remove from grill and let rest for three minutes before eating.
So, I've been in Nashville right at one year now and I finally started making contacts with the local music scene.
There was a backyard BBQ this past weekend with one of my meetup buddies, who apparently has quite a history.
Should you get the chance, check out the music of any of the following three acts with my blessing:
(and tell Blane to "eat his fruit". There was a jungle juice incident.)
You can find some of their upcoming schedules on their sites.
Shane & Blane (click cancel through the lamespace pimp-my login to hear some samples)
I wound up behind the charcoal grill working on teriyaki chicken for the crowd and talking (read drinking) with the musicians and helped them break down their equipment back to their cars when they were done.
You know, the fun part of the party.
Taco Salad with Lemongrass Chicken Spring Rolls.
I had the eldest daughter assist with this one.
Just shy of 4, she was able to shred the romaine lettuce leaves by hand.
She also sprinkled the chopped onions into the skillet with the hamburger while it was browning.
Then she poured a little of both ranch dressing and cheesy pasta sauce onto the salad and mixed it in with a spoon.
Finally, she crushed the (generic) chili cheese Fritos by hand and stirred them in.
By then, the frozen Lemongrass Chicken Spring Rolls were coming out of the oven and ready to be placed for presentation just as my wife arrived home from work.
Birthday consumption.
Papa Murphy's take-n-bake stuffed pizza (creamy garlic chicken and bacon.)
Booker's small-batch bourbon.
126.4 proof, 6.7 years
Straight from the barrel, uncut, unfiltered.
Recipe from Booker Noe, grandson of Jim Beam.
Nose of raisins and cinnamon (and fire).
Ahhhhhhh.
Thanksgiving this year was a country smoked ham.
Soaked that bad pig in water for two days, changing it out every 6 hours or so, before oven roasting.
Fantastic flavor but we could have done better with presentation had we obtained a mandolin slicer to shave it extra thin.
The sides were yummy and the biggest hit was the day after, sour-cream-chicken-enchiladas.
Friends flew in from out of town and stayed for a week.
Plans were made for next years event. We're consolidating around a consensus for somewhere on the "redneck-Riviera", possibly a beach-house rental in Alabama. Tentatively referred to as the Alabama-Slamma' Thanksgiving bash. The concept of Thanksgiving for friends and Christmas for family is beginning to catch on in the circle and our numbers grow each year.
The radio alarm went off this morning.
It was in the middle of an advertisement for a local eatery.
"...Specializing in beer-butt chicken..."
What an image to wake up to.
A can of Budweiser, shoved up the plucked puckerer of roasting rooster.
Hobo's Last Meal
Ain't nothin new 'bout gettin old.
ain't nothin new 'bout gettin by
Gettin by with nothin
Nothin new 'bout that way
Church had it wrong and the minister was confused
Devil don't take nothing, but he gives you the blues.
Had us a chicken and fire down south a way
Well, I had a good eatin' roaster,
Perhaps I forgot to pay.
I took me a walk
Yeah, I whistled all the way.
Thank you mister chicken farmer
For your generosity.
See, I took your chicken back there
But I gave you your philanthropy.
Ain't nothin new 'bout gettin old.
ain't nothin new 'bout gettin by
Gettin by with nothin
Nothin new 'bout that way
Church had it wrong and the minister was confused
Devil don't take nothing, but he gives you the blues.
The man say the gift of giving is a high
I done give that gift to you so I can get by.
You just made a donation, offering or tithe.
I just made another way to get by.
You'll feel better knowing you helped.
I'll sleep better, fed in this here shed.
Now you can feel good.
And I will lay back down to my bed.
Ain't nothin new 'bout gettin old.
ain't nothin new 'bout gettin by
Gettin by with nothin
Nothin new 'bout that way
Church had it wrong and the minister was confused
Devil don't take nothing, but he gives you the blues.
Now just put away that buckshot barrel
I'll walk away and we don't have to quarrel
Don't turn my gift back on me
See, I given you your generosity.
Don't slip that noose around my neck
I ain't gonna swing for just one roaster.
Ain't nothin new 'bout gettin old.
ain't nothin new 'bout gettin by
Gettin by with nothin
Nothin new 'bout that way
Church had it wrong and the minister was confused
Devil don't take nothing, but he gives you the blues.
Just let me be, and you can feel good
And I can lay back down to my bed
See, I had a good eatin' roaster,
Perhaps I forgot to pay.
Don't turn my gift back on me
See, I given you your generosity.
Now just put away that buckshot barrel
I'll walk away and we don't have to quarrel.
The revolving-stair machine was exquisitely painful in that good kind of not-permanently-injured kind of way.
305 calories in 25 minutes.
And I wanted to quit, and almost did six different times.
The mind-games kept me going to the end.
The wife was on the machine next to me.
If she hadn't been there, I definitely would have stopped when the legs kindled and burned.
I confessed in the jacuzzi of my weak willpower.
She returned the confession.
This, says she, is why we need to workout together, so we don't wimp out.
And we didn't even get called into the child-center to change either one of the kids.
Ahh, relaxation.
Lunch was chicken tenderloin wrapped in a soft flour tortilla with a mix of Frank's hot sauce and peppercorn ranch.
Now, I wait and endure a chick-flick until it is my time to be shorn at the local hair chopping shop.
Kicks ass to be a kept trophy-husband.
I finally talked my wife into permitting me a culinary experiment outside the world of white rice that we were both raised in and that our early days together in college, read poor, necessitated.
We were in Costco to buy the usual bulk staples that having two dogs and two kids under 3 require when presented before me in the aisle was a burlap sack from India.
I have an itch for things I haven't tried before.
Yes, Basmati rice is a bit more expensive than the plain ol' white rice, but it being in Costco held down the unit cost considerably.
Anyway, it really is worth it.
I found Basmati rice to be more robust and aromatic than its generic flavor-and-color-challenged cousin.
Longer and delicately thin compared to white rice, Basmati's body-texture actually holds up better after cooking and resists that transformation to mush.
Basmati's longer aging process may account for this characteristic.
So if you're making rice-pudding, sure, go ahead, use white rice.
If you want a good dinner, use Basmati.
Below is one application for Basmati rice I used recently. Feel free to imitate or improvise the recipe.
(Recipe feeds two, probably with remnants for left-overs)
What you will need:
Quart size pot with tight lid
Large stove-top skillet, or wok
Small bowl to mix sauce in
One cup dry Basmati rice
One and One-Half cups water
Chicken, one breast or five tenderloin sections
1/4 onion
1 Bell pepper
5 baby carrots (very small)
Handful of green beans
Small amount Sesame oil
Couple TBSP Soy sauce
Couple more TBSP BBQ sauce
1 TBSP minced garlic
1 TBSP brown sugar
Pinch of cayeane pepper
1 drop liquid smoke
5 TBSP of water for sauce
Pour water into the Quart pot and apply high heat to boil. A pinch of salt to encourage boiling is optional.
When water boils, add Basmati rice, place tight lid on pot and reduce heat to simmer (very low)
Set a timer for 30 minutes.
Place chicken in the skillet on high heat.
Pour just enough Sesame oil over chicken to coat the bottom of the skillet.
In the small bowl off to the side combine the Soy sauce, garlic, BBQ sauce, brown sugar, cayeane pepper, water for sauce, and liquid smoke. Stir the liquid mix together well and set aside for later.
Slice the onion and bell pepper into long slivers.
Chop the baby carrots into small medalions.
It's probably time to flip the chicken in the skillet at this point.
This is the part of the cooking process that I like to take a 1-2 beer break and or 1-2 glass of wine break.
But I'm detoxing from that wedding in Southern California last week, so nothing for me until Turkey Day.
Okay, check the chicken and see that it's browned and golden nicely on both sides.
Use a chef knife to slice it into small skinny strips, chunks, cubes, or any geometric shape you fancy.
Just be quick, or it'll turn out too tough to chew. Go, go, go, chop, chop.
Add in the sliced, diced, and chopped vegetables to the chicken.
Add in the sauce you mixed together.
Stir-fry baby, stir-fry your apron off!
Everything should be happy in a minute or two, and if you planned your beer break accordingly and reduced heat throughout the process keenly as needed, you should be done stir-frying with plenty of sauce left, though now reduced, at nearly the exact second that the Basmati rice 30 minutes has expired.
Dish up and enjoy.
I will endeavor to begin sharing my yum-yum discoveries with you.
Today we will review an appetizer, or cocktail finger-food.
This is going to be easy.
What you will need to do this:
Toothpicks.
Round, flat, or square won't matter. I used flat, because that's what I found in a drawer.
Turkey bacon or any precooked deli sliced meat of your choice.
I mention turkey bacon by name, because it's what I used. I wouldn't recommend traditional pork bacon. First off, it's raw out of the package, whereas turkey bacon or deli ham is not. Hey now, you say, wait a second, what If'n I cook it up m'self there buddy, what do you think of that, huh? I would then say back to you, that attempting to roll crisply cooked fried bacon is infinitely more fun than pushing a length of cooked spaghetti up a cat's nose, and your welcome to try it anytime, but neither one of those things is going to be as productive as just following my directions.
Sour cream.
You won't need much for this, but I'll include how to use up what's left before it has a chance to turn.
Green onions.
Okay, so, they're always optional, but I used them when I created this, so I'm calling them out.
Cooked white meat chicken portion, seperated.
I didn't include this ingredient, but kind of wished later that I had, so I'm openly repenting here.
Breast or tenderloin won't matter, and you won't need much or maybe you will, depending on how many of these you want to prepare. This is not a comment on how much you consume. Unlike my experience at the McDonald's drive through. All I said was that I wanted 5 double cheeseburgers. Hey, the wife and kids were with me. 2 for me, 2 for her, and one for the eldest daughter. The youngest is still on rice cereal and formula. Not that I'm self-consciously explaining myself to you. What if I did want all 5 to myself? What business is it of yours?
So anyway, they say, "FIVE?" like it's the most unbelievable request they've ever heard.
Yes, five double cheeseburgers!
Damn.
I mean, how do they know I wasn't on a food run for people at the office?
Or that there might be OTHER people in the car with me.
Seriously, 5 double cheeseburgers simply cannot be the largest order they've ever seen.
Reasons supporting my assumption: I'm in the midwest. People here are LARGE.
Anyway.
Cheese.
Any kind you desire. I used mozzarella, for no particular reason than I had a package that was already open.
Directions.
Lay out a piece of meat. Spread a layer of sour cream on top. Sprinkle on green onions, chicken, and cheese.
Roll the meat up and pierce diagonally with a toothpick to hold shape. If using a thin strip, like turkey bacon, roll on a diagonal to produce a thin cigar shape, instead of a thick sticky bun shape. Repeat as many times as desired.
Microwave for one minute or bake in an oven pan at 350 for 10 minutes. Let cool, remove toothpicks, and enjoy.
