An Essay in Chicken

One week into 2020 and so far a raving success!  Celebrate the tiny wins, right?  The fact that I am writing these words RIGHT NOW is in fact a huge win over last year, when I managed only to start the same paragraph three times and never finish my thoughts.  My  self-imposed deadline of April 7th has inspired (read: scared!) me into actions perhaps a little more gung-ho than I normally would undertake.  Unfortunately for me, I crunched the numbers and now I know just how much work lies ahead of me in the next three months!  No matter, after seeing that I have 109 recipes and 92 days to accomplish them, I calculated a plan that produces a minimum of six new recipes a week without killing me or causing potential massive weight gain.  Luckily several of them are things like salad dressings, jams, or sauces, and can be knocked out as accompaniments for main dishes.  Without further ado, let me jump into what was cooking at my house this week!  In a word: CHICK

I like chicken.  Love it, in fact; such a versatile and inexpensive bird.  And it’s a darn good thing, because I had to eat a ton of it this week.  I didn’t plan on a chicken-heavy menu, but the meals that sounded best as I thumbed through the Dinner chapter were hearty comfort foods.  And nothing says comfort food like yard-bird!  First up was Dedication Casserole, which sounded along the lines of “Funeral Potatoes”.  (If you have never had that cheesy, crunchy, Midwestern hot-dish, don’t wait for a sad occasion; look it up and make the recipe immediately!)  Jo’s introduction said it was actually created for a church service reception dedicating a friend’s newborn triplets.  Naturally that woman was sleep-deprived as all get out, so her dish was a brilliant make-ahead that can be thrown in the oven a day or so after combining the ingredients.  That’s my kind of work-week meal!  In my case it was a way for my family to have “home cooking” on my Bunco night, and I didn’t have to worry about them eating cereal and cookies for dinner.  It happens…  So how did I make it?  Mostly I watched TV while stuff that I had stirred together cooked.  Brilliant!  The main component is simply boxed Uncle Ben’s Long Grain & Wild Rice Fast Cook.  As you can see from the picture, if you’re busy looking over your shoulder at the television a bit too much, you can even mess this up!  After I plucked out the paper wrappers from the seasoning packets, all I had to do was let the rice boil for a couple minutes, then stir in cream cheese, artichoke hearts, shredded white cheddar, and spices.  (I skipped the water chestnuts because they are dumb).  I weaseled out of cooking my own chicken, instead spending $6 on a King Soopers roast chicken, and that was the extent of my effort.  The mixture went into a baking dish and lived in the fridge for a day or two until it was time to go in the oven.  A tasty dinner for all, and mom didn’t break a sweat.  Win/win!

**We interrupt this post brought to you by “BIG CHICKEN” with a message from “BACON”!**

I needed to break up the monotony a bit, so our weekend lunch was BLT sandwiches with Herb Mayo (bonus, the mayo was a whole separate recipe to check off!)  What kind of kitchen novice needs a recipe to make BLTs?  Well, as it turns out, me!  Of course anyone who knows what the letters stand for can make a BLT.  It doesn’t mean “bologna, leeks and tahini”, so it should be fairly straightforward, right?  Wrong.  I’ve been doing it incorrectly my whole life!  Or at least I’ve made it not as well as Jo does.  Her simple tweaks made my bacon, lettuce and tomato sing.  The first task was to make the Herb Mayo and let it sit for an hour or two.  Conveniently I was cleaning out the refrigerator and found plenty of fresh herbs (parsley, chives) to use up and mix into plain old mayonnaise, along with garlic and some common spices like paprika and white pepper.  The result was so fresh and tasty, I’ll be using this mixture in place of plain mayo from now on!  Speaking of plain mayo, that was Jo’s second secret: spreading mayo on the bread instead of butter, and toasting it on the griddle like a grilled cheese!  Like most people, I always just put bread in the toaster, and then spread mayo on the toast.  This was a revelation.  When I saw how crispy and perfectly browned the bread turned out, I vowed never to use dry toast again for BLT sandwiches.  They deserve better than that.

Now back to our sponsor…  Remember that pre-cooked chicken so kindly provided by the grocery store?  It produced EIGHT cups of meat and allowed me to skip steps for my next recipe, King Ranch Chicken.  I must say this one threw me for a loop.  I thought ranch dressing would surely make an appearance somewhere, or perhaps dry ranch seasoning used as a rub; yummy!  Alas, Hidden Valley was nowhere to be found on the ingredients list.  Apparently one needs to be from Texas to know this secret, because Jo informed me that EVERY Texas cook has his or her own version.  Who knew?  Turns out this is a Tex-Mex casserole, utilizing lots of cans of stuff (cream of chicken soup, enchilada sauce, salsa verde, and black beans).  I’m a big fan of opening cans and calling it cooking on weeknights!  This whole project is centered around learning about and trying new flavors.  Well, I learned I don’t particularly love jicama…  It falls into the same category as water chestnuts (see above).

Nonetheless, I gamely made the jicama slaw with lime, avocado and cilantro that was supposed to be the perfect accompaniment to the casserole.  To be fair it was a nice texture contrast to the chicken dish, but mostly it was just “meh”.  My other half couldn’t get down with it either, even though it had cayenne seasoning and he LOVES spicy foods.  I think he tried to feed his portion to the cats under the table…

I rounded out the week with the meat I had foolishly thawed prior to choosing the recipes I would prepare, not realizing a whole roast chicken was the way to go.  You guessed it: chicken thighs!  Well you know what?  There is no better way to prepare a skin-on masterpiece like a juicy thigh than to sprinkle on my mother’s not-so-secret spice mix (Lawry’s Season Salt, granulated garlic, onion powder, black pepper) and sauté it in butter and olive oil, finishing the cooking in the oven.  Crispy-skinned perfection.  So the real recipe was the Mashed Potatoes.  Nothing creative to report on that front-just butter, milk, salt and pepper-but the dinner was well-received by the whole family.  And on that note, I’m going to go pluck these feathers that have sprouted lately…