DINNER TIME! Lemon Garlic Chicken and Potatoes

We have a lot of chicken thighs frozen in our freezer. Letty had some leftover lemon garlic marinade. Taylor made for a quick, easy, and delicious dinner.

First, I better give you the marinade. I used leftover but use the juice of a lemon, 6 garlic cloves minced, a tablespoon of olive oil, a sprinkle of Kosher salt and pepper.  Use this as a rub on your chicken and, when you cook it, save the drippings...that's how we ended up with leftover marinade.

Take three thighs, put in a ziploc bag with the marinade (fresh or leftover...only difference is that the leftover also has chicken stock), and let sit in the fridge for 6 hours.

Dice up some yellow potatoes.

Put in a ziploc bag, sprinkle in about a quarter teaspoon of Kosher salt, a few sprinkles of black pepper, and a teaspoon of olive oil. Shake well in sealed bag.

Smear olive oil on a baking pan, put the potatoes in the bottom of the pan.

Put the thighs on top of the potatoes, skin side up. Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

I'm also cooking a little broccoli for the side. Prepare the same way as the potatoes and wrap in foil with a little opening at the top.

Put the baking dish with the potatoes and chicken in the oven. Cook for 30 minutes. Turn chicken, put back in oven for another 30 minutes. Put the broccoli in the oven at this time, also.

At the end of the second 30 minutes, turn the chicken skin side up again. Increase heat to 475 and cook for another 15 minutes to crisp the skin.

It should look like the picture above when done.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

DINNER TIME! Herb Crusted Pan Fried Chicken

I've got some time on my hands today, let me cook some dinner for the family. This week, we've had burgers, pasta, and sushi. Haven't had any chicken in a bit, let me see what I can throw together.

We buy big packs of chicken thighs from Costco and keep them in the freezer. They come in perforated pouches, you can just tear one off, thaw it out, and leave the rest frozen for next time.

I've thawed out my pouch, and now I'm ready to go...

INGREDIENTS

3 - Chicken thighs (we like to leave the skin on )
1 tsp - salt
1 tsp - pepper
1 tsp - herb pepper
1/2 tsp - marjoram
1/2 tsp - mustard powder
flour

Heat up some oil in a skillet. I'm using some lard plus some leftover bacon fat from breakfast. Heat it on high for about 4 minutes until very hot. 

Sprinkle salt, pepper, herb pepper, marjoran, and mustard powder on each side of chicken.  Sprinkle just a light dusting of flour on each side, too.

Turn heat down just a tiny bit.  If you have a spatter guard, have it handy.

Cook chicken on almost high heat, 3 minute per side. 

Turn heat down to medium-low and cook for another 8 minutes per side.

We're serving ours with some hand-mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus.

It's very delicious but my wife is saying "next time, roast it, moron," because even with the spatter guard, there is a bit of cleanup to do.

Stop by the Musick Channel Garage Sale to pick up some treasures from our stash of over thirty years of collecting, like these great Liberty Falls collectibles which would look great under your Christmas tree.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

It's Still Summer, It's Still Hot, It's Still Not Time to Sit By the Stove All Afternoon - A Super Quick and Easy Chicken Salad

While the kids are filtering back into school and summer vacations are coming to a close, the calendar shows we still have over a month of summer to go. Beyond the calendar, I can feel it. It's still hitting a hundred or above daily and the monsoons from Mexico are keeping the air sticky.

I hate summer and I hate cooking in this weather but, still, want to eat good without going out too much.

Enter the chicken salad. It's just a basic dish but, except for warming the chicken for six or seven minutes, it just takes a minute or two to put together.

Let's see what's in the fridge, hmm...

A bag of pre-cooked chicken pieces from Trader Joe's. 

I'll pop that into a skillet with some olive oil for a few minutes to heat up.

Salad mix from the supermarket.

Cherry tomatoes, also from Trader Joe's. Plus a few dried cranberries from the same place.

Throw the salad mix in a bowl, add tomatoes, chicken, and top off with the craisins. Pour on a little leftover ranch dressing that we brought home from a restaurant a few night ago, and dinner is done.

Perfect for a quick, midweek dinner when you're tired and have no time left on a hot day.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

DINNER: Grilled Chicken in a Shitake Cream Sauce

You've got your basic four barnyard meats...beef, pork, and chicken. Oh sure, you might mix it up with a duck or some lamb.  Maybe some sausages or even fish but for the most part, you're going with the big three.

It's imperative to mix it up as much as you can, try something different, to build your recipe database and to not get bored.

This is what I did with this week's meal..we'd had steak last week and only had a pack of chicken thighs along with the beef in the freezer so I needed a new way to prepare the chicken.

Of course, the easiest way to change it up is with a new sauce...

INGREDIENTS


3 or 4 chicken thighs (we leave the skin on)
1 small, white onion
8 whole shitake mushrooms
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon tarragon
1 tablespoon strained bacon grease or lard
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup half and half
salt and pepper to taste


The chicken is grilled on the barbecue according to our barbecued chicken recipe. When done, we just pour the sauce on top.


Finely dice the onion and two of the mushrooms. I use a small food processor for this.


Heat up the bacon grease (or lard) in a small sauce pan.  When hot, add the diced onion and mushroom mixture.  Cook on high until the onions are translucent.

Slice the remaining mushrooms. Add them and the chicken broth to the sauce pan and bring to a boil.

Add garlic and tarragon. Reduce heat to low and simmer 15- 20 minutes to reduce.

Turn heat off. Two minutes after turning off heat, add half and half, stir in, and ladle over chicken to serve. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Darryl Musick

Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

This Week's Menu: Buffalo Style Chicken Thighs and Chorizo and Eggs

Chicken wings are so good but it's a lot of work for just a few bites of meat. We fix that by using thighs instead and a homemade Buffalo sauce that's easy and out-of-this-world good.

Some farmer's market dollar-a-pound squash makes a medley for the side dish and breakfast is one of our easy staples, chorizo and eggs.

Recipes are at the links below.

DINNER: Buffalo Chicken Thighs

SIDE: A summer squash medley using our basic super side barbecue vegetable recipe

BREAKFAST: Chorizo and Egg Burritos

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

DINNER: Buffalo Style Chicken Thighs

Like wings but find the work is hardly worth it for the amount of meat you get? Then this recipe is for you.

Instead of skimpy little wings, we're substituting thighs which, in my opinion, is the tastiest part of the bird.  Other than that, it's all the same.

Here's how we do it...

INGREDIENTS
6 chicken thighs (you can do boneless but I recommend you leave the skin on)
1/2 cup Louisiana hot sauce (I'm using Frank's Red Hot)
6 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon gremolata
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan. 

Add all the ingredients except the chicken. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

On a charcoal grill, put charcoal on one half of the grill. Sear the chicken directly over the charcoal for 1-2 minutes on each side. Move to indirect heat on the other side of the grill. Cover and cook for 10 minutes on each side.

Remove the lid and place the chicken, skin-side down, directly over the coals. Monitor very closely...when the flames kick up under the chicken, move it immediately to the indirect side or a spot over the coals where there are no flames. If you leave it over the flame, the skin will burn. 

Once the flame dies down, move the chicken back over, skin-side down.  Keep doing this for 7-10 minutes. This will make the skin extra crispy but not burned.

Toss the chicken in the sauce, covering every piece completely and serve.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

This week's menu: Barbecued Chicken with an Asparagus/Mushroom/Caulliflower Medley

Back out on the grill for this week's menu with a strong barbecued chicken entree served with a nice medley side dish. All prepared on the grill, no pots or pans to wash!


Recipes at the links below.

DINNER: Barbecued Chicken

SUPER SIDE: Garlic Asparagus/Mushroom/Cauliflower Medley


Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

DINNER: Garlic Herb Barbecued Chicken

Every now and again, I try to hit the sweet spot with chicken on the barbecue. Sometimes I'm successful (like my chicken 'wings' style thighs that I need to post someday) and others not so much.

This week, I'm at the upper end of the successful range. Not quite perfect but, still, a solid entree.

When cooking chicken, I like to use thighs. They're juicier and have more flavor than breasts and have more meat than drumsticks.

I have a butcher at the Original Hollywood Farmer's Market who will even debone them for me without removing the skin...these are best of all (it's easy to find boneless/skinless thighs but most meat counters don't leave the skin on). Ask your local butcher if they'll do this for you.

INGREDIENTS

6 chicken thigs, skin on
1 Cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon garlic infused olive oil
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 hot red chiles (like Thai chiles)
2 tablespoons poultry rub

Put the buttermilk and chiles into a blender. In a sealable bowl, marinated the chicken in the buttermilk/chile mixture overnight.

Before cooking, drain off the marinade. Sprinkle the thighs on both sides with the salt and pepper. Apply the rub.

On a charcoal gril, cook on each side for 3 minutes each, covered.  Move to indirect heat, cook for 6-8 minutes on each side, making sure all the juices running out are clear.

Move back, skin side down, to the direct heat.  Cook for 5 minutes, watching carefully for flareups and moving to another part of the grill when they happen.  This last step will make the skin extra crispy.

Cover with foil and rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved