Chicken Curry

Can't lie on this one, I came up with this recipe completely on the fly (I put the recipe together as I walked around the grocery store and grabbed the ingredients!).  Why would I do such a crazy thing? A friend and I had gone to dinner and we both had used this restaurant's online menu to decide what we wanted to eat.  Unfortunately, they had recently changed their menu but did not update the website version, so my friend was looking forward to eating a curry that was no longer being offered (super annoying, super disappointing).  When she and a I got together at my house a couple of weeks later, I decided I would throw a curry together to make up for what became a rather sad restaurant excursion.

Normally, when I am about to make a dish for the very first time I will find a recipe that sounds good and follow it explicitly.  Once I am comfortable with the original and know how it should taste, then I get experimental.  However, after searching around on the internet for a bit I realized that curries are fairly easy to make and only require the most basic of ingredients.  Honestly, put together coconut milk, chicken stock, and curry powder and you have yourselves a curry sauce.  This may not satisfy the foodiest of foodies but will make you and your dinner guests happy and satisfied.  So, as I just wrote, I decided to throw caution to the wind and developed the recipe as I shopped.

Ingredients:

1 onion - sliced
olive oil
3 garlic cloves - minced
2 broccoli crowns
4 chicken thighs
1 can coconut milk
1/4 c. chicken stock
3 tsp curry powder
1 tsp partially dried basil
Zest of half a lime
Quinoa - follow cooking instructions on box

Directions:

In large saute pan heat olive and then add onions.  Cook over medium heat for about 7 minutes.  Add garlic and stir.  Add chicken stock, curry powder, lime zest, and basil.

 Add the broccoli and coconut milk (it may be semi-solid at first but will liquefy quickly).  Mix well.

Place chicken thighs, skin down, in pan and then add broccoli.

Cover and cook until chicken is cooked through, approximately 20 - 25 minutes.  Once ready, spoon over quinoa and enjoy!

Chicken Pot Pie

I love roasting a chicken because of all the things you get to do with it afterwards... stock, soup, pot pie, sandwiches, etc.  Today, let's talk pot pie.

Crust:

2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
2 sticks cold butter
~ 1/2 c. ice water

Filling:

1 white potato - peeled and diced
3 cipolline onions - chopped
1 c. mixed vegetables
1/3 c. butter
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. milk
2 c. chicken - cooked and shredded
2 c. stock
Salt and pepper to taste

You can begin this a couple days in advance since you can leave the pastry dough in the refrigerator for up to two days.  But you need to at least give yourself an hour for the dough to rest in the refrigerator.

Combine flour and salt, then add butter cut into chunks.  Using a pastry cutter, but the butter into the dry ingredients.

Once the butter is about the size of large peas, begin to add the ice water.  Only do a tablespoon or two at a time.  Continue cutting the ingredients together and adding the water until, once you press it between your fingers, it stays together.

Dump the dough onto a clean surface.  Divide into two equal portions.

 

 

Knead dough just enough to create a firm disc, then wrap in cling wrap and place in fridge for at least 1 hour, up to two days.

 

 

When you are ready to create the crusts, take one disc at a time out of the fridge and roll out to a 10 inch round.  Place the first round into a greased and floured 9 inch pie dish.

 

Now, on to the filling!

 

Boil diced potato until you can pierce them with a fork.  Melt butter in a sauté pan and then add chopped onions.  I use cipolline onions because of their smell after they have been cooked in butter.  It increases the anticipation of the finished product.

 

Cook onion until tender then add flour.  Mix thoroughly then add stock and milk.  Simmer until thickened.  Thickening took me about 7 minutes.  Add vegetables, potatoes, and chicken.  Taste test then add salt and pepper until satisfied.

 

 

Add the filling to the pie dish.  I promise, it will all fit!

 

 

Place the top crust over the filling and crimp edges.  Make four slits to allow steam to vent during cooking.

 

Place pie in oven, preheated to 425F.  Bake for 35 minutes.  Remove when crust is golden brown.  Let cool for about 10 minutes then enjoy!





Chicken soup with homemade stock

So, you've made a wonderful Greek Turkey Chicken and now you have a beautiful carcass leftover.  What do you do with it?  You make stock of course!  Stock is one of those kitchen adventures that is really simple to make but requires you have the time to make it.  But if you do, then you have quarts of broth ready for soup and pot pie or additional flavoring for stuffing and gravy.  In my humble opinion, it's worth the effort.

For stock:

1 chicken carcass
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
1 medium yellow onion
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. peppercorns
20 springs of parsley
5 springs of thyme
3 garlic cloves
Enough water to cover the carcass

Put everything into a stock pot large enough that the water will not boil over.  Bring it to a rapid boil then reduce heat to a simmer.  Simmer for at least 4 hours, occasionally skimming off fat.  After 4 hours begin to test the broth, it's finished when you decide it tastes they way you like it.  Strain stock.  Use immediately or freeze for later.

I set aside some of my stock for use in a pot pie I made later that day.  Some went into my freezer.  The rest I used for chicken soup.  I am not much for wasting food and the vegetables still had enough of their flavor and consistency so I chopped up the carrots, celery, and onion and put it all back in the stock.  I then added about 1 pound of shredded chicken and 1 cup of orzo.  I brought the soup to a boil and cooked the soup just long enough to cook the Orzo - 10 minutes.  I'm a little in love with orzo, but be careful.  When it is left in liquid it will continue to expand.  If you use too much you'll end up with a weird pasta concoction versus soup for several days.  Not that the weird pasta concoction isn't tasty, it's just not soup, and we want soup.