Chicken and Potatoes

Wow. I can't remember the last time I just threw something together and it was this fucking delicious. I mean, sure, when you just wing it, it usually tastes good, but this takes it to a whole new level. I didn't measure anything, so all of the measurements listed here are estimates.

Chicken and Potatoes

1 chicken breast (boneless, skinless)

1/2 Tbsp salt

1/2 Tbsp Old Bay Seasoning

- With a meat tenderizer, pound the chicken breast to about 1/2 inch thick (lacking a meat tenderizer, a juggling club works surprisingly well).

- Rub both sides of the breast with salt and Old Bay. Put chicken in the fridge for half an hour.

2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

1/4 cup white onion, diced

2 Tbsp butter

1 potato, thinly sliced

1/3 cup chicken stock (or broth)

1 Tbsp chicken fat (schmaltz)

2 Tbsp flour

- In a large skillet, melt 1 1/2 Tbsp butter on medium heat.

- Toss in garlic and onion. Cook until onion is translucent and just starting to brown.

- Increase heat to high. Add potatoes, tossing to brown them evenly.

- Pull chicken out of fridge, rinse salt off, pat dry with paper towels.

- Clear a space in the skillet. Add lat bit of butter and chicken. Brown chicken on both sides.

- Add broth, reduce heat to low, let everything simmer for 5-10 min, until chicken and potatoes are cooked.

- In a separate pan, melt schmaltz and slowly add flour to create a roux. Add this to the other pan to thicken the stock into a thick sauce.

- Empty the entire pan onto a plate, accompany with a light salad.

I dare you not to lick your plate clean.

Pickled Eggs

This summer I developed a taste for pickled eggs after discovering them at Tandem Ciders. The recipe that they use calls for five dozen eggs, so I had to cut it down to a reasonable size. Here is the slimmed down version of the recipe.

Pickled Eggs

10 hard-boiled eggs

2/3 cup cider vinegar

2/3 cup white vinegar

4 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pickling spices

- Hard-boil the eggs, let them cool, peel them and place them in a quart jar.

- In a sauce pan, add the vinegar, sugar, salt, and spices. Stir on a low heat until sugar and salt are dissolved.

- Pour vinegar into jar on top of the eggs. Put the lid on the jar.

And that's it! Let the eggs sit for at least two weeks, and you're ready to go.

Hummus sans tahini

Last night, I whipped up a batch of pitas while watching Dead Snow (amazing Norwegian zombie movie). While pitas and zombies are good, what a pita really needs is humus. The Joy of Cooking (my culinary bible) has only one recipe, and that calls for tahini, which I am sadly out of. So I turned to the 'net to find a tahini-free recipe. What follows is a hybrid of the Joy version and some recipes that I found on the 'net.

Hummus

1 can (15 oz) chick peas, rinsed and drained

2 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp cumin

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

- Put chick peas, garlic, lemon juice and cumin in a food processor. Mix on low speed.

- Slowly add olive oil until proper consistency is achieved (may be slightly less or more than 1/3 cup).

- Add salt and pepper to taste.

Now, with three cloves of garlic, the garlic is very strong. If you're not a fan I recommend using only one or two cloves. Enjoy!