Chicken Francais

Firstly, let me appologize for such an ugly photo of the dish. I only took one last night, and the cauliflower sitting next to it, doesn't look half as tasty as it actually was.

Secondly, I am a little troubled by the name of this dish. This comes from my Grandma Melusine, and she was a stickler for spelling things correctly. I cannot figure out what a Chicken Francais is. At first I thought maybe she just forgot the E in Fracaise, but the ingredients aren't what you would find in Fricasise. There is no lemon, no bread crumbs...

Irregardless, this is a damn good recipe. It's also one of a kind I suppose. This one is written in my grandmother's hand. It's printed, and it's very neat, which tells me that it's very old. My grandma Mel, had horrible arthritis by the time I came long (mid 70's) and her hand writting was not this neat then. She also opted for cursive later in life, because it was easier for her to continue the flow of the pen. anywho, just alittle aside to the history of the recipe.

Chicken Francais

1/4 cup butter

1 frying chicken cut up

1 medium onion, minced

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp basil

3/4 cup apple cider or juice

2 cups half and half

2 tbsp cornstarch

heat butter, add chicken and onions and brown slowly for 20 minutes. Add seasonings and apple juice. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Remove chicken to headed platter. add cornstarch mixed with 4 tbsp of half and half. Stir in remaining half and half and cook until thick.

Add chicken back in and cover in sauce, then serve.

First let me just say the Chief Commentator's eyes lit up when he walked into the house and smelled dinner. He rushed right over to the pan and stuck his nose in it. Perhaps that's because Chief Commentator thinks that pan cooked chicken is a gift from the gods. Until we started this project neither of us had really cooked chicken in a pan, but rather relinquished it to the oven or a fryer. the Chief Commentator loves the color on the skin, and how it seals in all the juices.

This recipe was no exception. Great flavors, tender chicken. He ate a good 3/4 of the entire pan last night - picking every morsal he could find from the bones, and enjoying the sauce. I loved the texture of everything. I think the chicken really is showcased nicely in the sauce. I think next time I make it, I may double the seasonings and add a hint of black pepper, but that is just how I like my sauces.

Chicken Lime Soup

This one came into my cookbook by way of my co-worker Matt. He brought it for a pot luck, and I love love loved it!!!! He brought me the recipe, and it has sat in my cookbook for at least 3-4 years, never once being made. Until now, when today we had some cool fall weather, and I was looking for something warming, and easy. Well, the soup part is easy, I am giving this recipe a mixed difficulty of easy and medium, because although the soup is easy, the frying of the tortilla strips for topping may be challenging for others who are leery of pans of splattering oil.

Chicken Lime Soup

8 corn tortillas
½ cup vegetable oil
course sea salt
4 chicken breasts
10 cups chicken broth
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
6 pepper corns
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon dried oregano
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped
2 large tomatoes , peeled and chopped
5 limes, juiced
½ cup fresh cilantro leaves

Directions

Cut the tortillas into ¼ inch strips. Heat the oil in a medium skillet and when very hot, fry the tortilla strips, in small batches, until lightly golden and crisp. 30 seconds to 1 minute. Transfer to paper towel lined plate to drain. Season with sea salt to taste. Repeat until all tortilla strips have been fried. Set fried strips aside.

Add the chicken, broth, onion, garlic, pepper corns, salt, oregano, jalapenos and tomatoes into a large sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a slow simmer and cook until the chicken is just cooked through, 20-25 minutes. Remove chicken from the soup and set aside until cool enough to handle. Allow coup to continue simmering.

When the chicken has cooled a bit, shred into bite size pieces and return to the pot along with the lime juice and cilantro leaves. cook for 10 minutes, or until the chicken is heated through and the soup is piping hot. Ladle the soup into wide soup bowls, with a handful of tortilla strips added to each bowl. If desired garnish with additional fresh cilantro and serve immediately.

Before I get to the comments, let me tell you what I did change and what I’d do differently next time, cause there definitely will be a next time.

I skipped the 2 teaspoons of salt, because I figured my broth had enough sodium in it already (and it was the reduced sodium at that) and I think that was a good call. Plus I prefer to sprinkle a little salt on the top when I eat it anyway.

Also – going forward, because the chief commentator loves dark meat rather than breasts, I think I’ll make the recipe with thigh meat, and or a whole chicken.

and finally, I like a little more heat, so I would prolly double or triple the number of jalapeno’s in the recipe.

Comments: Chief commentator said he is going to request this once a week in the winter. He loved the tang of the lime with the chicken and the broth. He specifically loved how un-salty the broth is! (good call on my part to leave out the extra salt)

I love this recipe too. I like how healthy (if you keep the tortillas out of it) that it can be. I love the zip of the lime juice, and the hearty comfort quality of the broth.

Definitely a new favorite.

Broiled Chicken wBreasts with Basil - Tarragon Pesto

First off, this is once again a Marie Claire Recipe. And of course the Chief Commentator loved it.. (go figure) This set is by Erica De Mane, again it's food in 15 minutes, and I have no idea the issue or the year, etc etc. the other recipes are all summery and featuring summer herbs, so lets just assume it's once again a "summer" issue.

Broiled Chicken Breasts with basil tarragon pesto

2 large chicken breasts, split and boned, skin on (buy this way in your meat market from the butcher)

1/2 cup blanched almonds

2 peeled garlic cloves

1/2 cup grated asiago or parmesan cheese

2 dozen basil leaves

10 springs tarragon, thich stems removed

1/4 cup olive oil plus 2 tablespoons

salt and black pepper

2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar

1 preheat broiler

2 grind garlic and nuts together in a food processor. Add asiago, herbs and 1/4 cup olive oil, grind to a rough paste, add salt and pepper

3 loosen skin on one side of each half breast and push a generous layer of pesto between skin and meat. Place breasts on broiler tray; sprinkle with vinegar, remaining oil, salt and pepper.

Broil 3 inches from flame, until skin is brown and crisp and meat just cooked trhough (about 10 minutes) These are good served hot or cold, whole or sliced at an agle and fanned out on a plate.

If you note in my photo my chicken is a little more than "brown" on the top, you can thank my broiler for that. Not me or the instructions. I would suggest baking it, and then just popping it in the broiler for the last minute or so, to brown.

The Chief Commentator knew all the stuffing ingredients without me telling him. He loved every component of the stuffing. Great consistency of stuffing, the breasts were really moist and delicious.

The stuffing recipe made HUGE portions, there was easily enough stuffing for 4 breasts.

Curry Chicken with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce

Curry Chicken with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce
Curry powder
Coriander
Cumin

Chicken thighs / breasts / what ever your favorite body parts are.

Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce
Half cucumber, peeled
½ cup plain yogurt
10 large leaves of fresh mint chopped fine.
Put curry, coriander, cumin into a shallow dish. Dip each chicken piece in the powder, turning to coat both sides. Heat a medium size skillet over med-high heat, spray with cooking spray. Add chicken and cook 5 mins. Turn and cook 4 mins more. Continue to turn, and cook until done.

Slice cucumber in half, use a spoon (I like a grapefruit spoon with the little ridges) to scoop out the seeds and liquid. Then I chunk it up, and add the yogurt and mint. And stuffed it all in the food processor.

To serve, scoop a little sauce over each piece of chicken.

Chief commentator says: Refreshing and lively, crisp minty flavor. Good happy summer dish. Great! I’m not usually a curry fan, but this doesn’t have the typical dirty curry taste.

We served it with a 2007 Simi Viognier.

It was really friggin easy to make.. and Chief Commentator says it’s a new favorite.

Chicken with Tarragon

Wow, I have such a feeling of accomplishment to say that the very first recipe I made I knocked out of the park!

I made the Chicken Tarragon recipe from my Grandma Mary’s cookbook. It was a recipe card that was shoved in the back of the book in a plastic sandwich baggie. (So I have no idea if she actually ever made this or not..)

The card originally came from a deck of recipe cards called the 60– Minute Gourmet. Pierre Franey, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Franey famed French Chef who had the TV show 60-Minute Gourmet and also wrote the rather famous 60-Minute Gourmet column in the New York Times.

Below I give you the exact recipe as it’s written, I will note that I used a Rocky Chicken, and those damn things are so big (just a tad over 5 pounds) that I doubled everything, although the cooking time didn’t change much.

Chicken with Tarragon

1 2 - 2 ½ lb Chicken, split in half as for broiling.
Salt and Pepper
2 Tbsp Butter
2 Tbsp finely chopped shallots
2 Tsp finely chopped fresh tarragon or 1 tsp dried tarragon
½ cup dry white wine
¼ cup water

1. If the backbone is still attached to one of the chicken halves, hack it away.
This will hasten the cooking. Reserve the backbone. Also, it’s best to sever the joint that connects the thighbones with the legs. Do not cut through but leave the thighs and legs otherwise attached.

*If you don’t know anything about cutting up a chicken, I suggest checking this site out.
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/how-to-cut-up-chicken1.htm

2. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper.

3. Heat the butter in a heavy skillet large enough to hold the whole chicken. Add the chicken, skin side down. Surround it with the gizzard, liver, heart, neck and backbone (and if you are lucky like we were, Rocky tossed 3 extra hearts into our chicken! and yes really I used them!)

4. Cook about 10 minutes until golden brown on the skin side. Turn and cook about 5 minutes longer. Remove the chicken and set aside.

5. To the skillet add the shallots and cook briefly. Add the tarragon and wine. Stir to dissolve the brown particles that cling to the bottom of the skillet. Stir in the water.

6. Return the chicken to the skillet, skin side up and cover. Cook about 15 minutes. Uncover and continue cooking, basting often, about 5 minutes longer or until the chicken is thoroughly tender and nicely glazed.

Technical stuff:

Makes 4 servings (original portions) as a main dish.

Difficulty: Easy

Time : Less than 60 minutes

Served with: 2008 Simi Pinot Gris, which was a great choice. Also used in recipe.

Overall ranking: New Favorite!

Reheat Well?: Didn't try it. But appears it will.

Served with: White rice cooked in chicken stock, and a side salad.

Comments: Tender, juicy, moist, loved how the outside carmelized in the sauce. The skin was cooked perfectly. Nothing was wasted (see use of gizzard, hearts, neck etc) It is essentially the perfect "bonepicker" meal and my Chief Commentator thought the inners a tasty treat.

Things I'd do differently next time: I would definately use a smaller chicken, although it came out amazing, trying to get that thing stuffed into the pan was a bit of work.

Looking forward in Thyme: Fish!

The Technical stuff part deux

Because Blogger doesn't let me put that many tags in one post!

General Tag words: (these I'm starting out with, we may add more later)

Type of dish: Entree; Appetizer; Salad; Side dish; Dessert; Beverage

Main Ingredients: Chicken; Beef; Lamb; Fish; Pasta; Veggies; Cheese;

Special Equiptment: Crockpot; Deep fryer;