Cat Cora's Cinnamon Chicken

So I haven't bought meat to cook for about a year now.  The reasoning could be a whole series of posts, so I'll just say it's for environmental/economic reasons; I still eat meat, but I don't when I can avoid it.  This is a dish I made once before I stopped cooking meat and it's probably the first thing I will do when I buy chicken again.  But even better: my family does eat meat and really prefer not to constantly eat vegetarian food like I do.  My mom said we should make a simple chicken dish last week, and I recommended this, since it is one of my favorites.  As many people know (and I've probably mentioned more than a few times), I really love cinnamon.  So I'm just going to copy the recipe, I didn't make any modifications this time.  But my grad student I don't want to deal with chicken way of making it last time was using boneless skinless chicken breasts, I think I used 3 when I did it that way.  I think it's awesome served with broccoli, but that's usually my go to green vegetable too.  And it's really easy to plate nicely. Then again, my parents' plates make everything look a little nicer than mine.  So I'm just going to copy the recipe, I feel bad not giving you any of my own touches, but like I said, it's probably my favorite chicken dish, so I thought it was worthwhile to share.  It comes from Cat Cora via the Oprah website.  Oh, I guess my one note is that I didn't think 2 1/2 tsp was enough rub, so I made a lot more, mostly by adding extra cinnamon (go figure).

Servings: Serves 4

Ingredients

Greek Cinnamon Stewed Chicken

• 1 chicken (2 1/2 to 3 pounds), cut into 8 pieces (legs, breast and thighs)
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 5 cloves garlic , peeled and minced
• 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion , peeled and coarsely chopped
• 2 cups water
• 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp. dried Italian herb seasoning
• 1 cup orzo , cooked according to package directions
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Preboil water with sea salt.

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. A wet chicken will cause the oil to splatter while the chicken is sautéing. Mix the cinnamon, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Rub the chicken pieces on all sides with the seasoning.

Heat the olive oil in a large, nonreactive, deep skillet over high heat. A 12-inch skillet with sides about 2 1/2 to 3 inches high will allow you to brown all the chicken at once. If you don't have a skillet large enough, brown them in two batches using 1/2 the oil for each batch. What's important is that the chicken isn't overcrowded, which would cause them to steam rather than brown.

Add the chicken to the oil and brown for about 4 to 5 minutes on each side. Turn the pieces using a metal spatula, as they have a tendency to stick to the pan. Remove the pieces when they are well browned on all sides.

Mince three of the garlic cloves. Lower the heat to medium-high, and add the onions and minced garlic. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until the onions have softened and are a rich golden brown. Add about 1/2 cup of the water and scrape the bottom of the pan with a spatula or spoon to deglaze the pan, loosening any particles stuck on the bottom.

When the water has evaporated, add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of water, tomato paste, Italian seasoning and remaining 2 garlic cloves, minced.

Return the chicken to the pan. The liquid should cover about 3/4 of the chicken pieces. Cover the pot and simmer over medium-high heat for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and thoroughly cooked. If the sauce becomes too thick, it can be thinned with a little more water. Season the finished sauce with kosher salt and pepper to taste. Serve over orzo, cooked according to package directions, and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.

Chicken in Green Masala Sauce

So a few weeks ago, I had some people over for (Northern) Indian food.  It was good, but I wouldn't say it was spectacular.  Oh well it was homemade and from a white girl.  But it came from my Curry cookbook, which is probably the single greatest cookbook investment I've made.  I think I've already made a half dozen recipes from it.  I'll periodically include the good ones.  This was good, but I thought a little bland.  Maybe the naan was just bad, I'm not sure.  It says it serves 4, but I doubled it and made another dish plus samosas and it fed 5 with few leftovers.  And I don't think we overindulged.  So it might make a good dinner for 2-3 (or one with leftovers).  Oh, and this is pretty much the easiest dish Indian dish ever, it was great for company because it went together really easily.  I chopped everything but the chicken the night before though.

1 crisp green eating apple, peeled cored and cubed
4 Tbsp cilantro
2 Tbsp fresh mint
2/3 c plain yogurt
3 Tbsp fromage frais or ricotta cheese
2 fresh green chilis (this might not be enough...)
1 bunch spring onions, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp grated fresh root ginger
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
8 oz chicken breasts skinned and cubed
1 oz sultanas (golden raisins)

1. Place apple, 2 tbsp cilantro, mint, yogurt, fromage frais/ricotta, chilis, spring onion, salt, sugar, garlic, and ginger in a food processor and process for one minute.  Scrape outside of bowl and process for a few more seconds.
2. Heat oil in wok or large pan and  pour yogurt mixture and cook gently for 2 minutes.  
3. Add chicken pieces and stir well to blend everything together.  Cook over medium low heat for 12-15 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked.  I cooked longer because I thought the sauce was a little runny, so I cooked it until it was the consistency of curries I've had in restaurants.  Was this too much?  I don't know, but it made it easier to eat with naan.
4. Sprinkle sultanas and remaining coriander over for serving.

Chicken Pot Pie

So I've made a few changes in my eating patterns in the past couple weeks.  But the relevent one is keeping vanilla soymilk onhand.  I bought it to make cornbread and tried to come up with ways to use it and found I prefer soymilk on cereal and in pancakes, and by the recommendation of ctheflute, in chicken pot pie as well.  And I figured, soymilk has so many advantages: it has the same calcium as regular milk, but lower sugar (granted it is added sugar while regular milk's sugar is natural), slightly few calories and higher protein, it tastes great in lots of baked goods, it doesn't bother my stomach before runs, and it lasts longer.  The longer refridgerator life is probably the most appealing quality given my weird schedule this semester (I don't always eat any meals at home, which means I don't drink any milk all day).  Of course it has it's disadvantages, most notably, I can't just drink a glass of it.  Also, the soybean industry is pretty corrupt, on the level of meat manufacturers (only with less problems with foodborne illness).  However, the problem with soybeans is the wind mixes seeds of the big company (yes, there is only one, which is one of the big issues) and the smaller farmers, so you can't buy pure, fairly raised products.  This should almost be enough to not eat soyproducts, but if I'm honest with myself, I'm not going to give up edamame or putting tofu on my thai food at restaurants (although these wouldn't be huge sacrifices), so it would be kind of pointless to not drink soymilk in the name of supporting local farmers.  But my point is, I'm not going to drink it exclusively.  I'm thinking of switching to buying a half gallon of milk at a time and drinking that, while using soymilk for cereal and baking.  It might limit the issues I have with milk going bad before I can finish it off.

Anyway, the point of this entry is I made chicken pot pie.  Only it was more like veggie pot pie with chicken.  By the recommendation of Runner's World, an easy way to get more veggies in is to switch up the classic casserole by amping up the veggies and cutting back on the meat.  So I used ctheflute's recipe as a starting point, but the final product was really nothing like that.  Also, her recipe calls for a double crust, but after making the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, I was out of shortening (and don't really like buying more since I rarely use it) and had milk that was about to go bad, so I made a biscuit top instead.  I threw together a bunch of veggies, some fresh, some frozen, and honestly, I didn't measure, so these are approximations.  Also, I had chicken stock (as well as chicken) in the freezer from the free rotessarie chicken I got from Whole Foods on Labor day, so I'm not exactly sure how much of that I used, maybe a cup of stock?  Well, I guess the best advice I have is make this to the appropriate texture, rather than following my advice carefully.  Oh, this made a 9x13 pan

4 stalks celery, diced
3 carrots, sliced
1 onion, diced
1 1/2 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup flour
1 cup vanilla soymilk
1 cup chicken stock
1 tsp sage
1 tsp tarragon
1 tsp basil
ground pepper, to taste
1/2 cooked, shredded chicken
1 1/2 cup frozen vegetables (I mixed peas and leftover frozen veggie blend)
1 1/2 cup instant biscuit mix
3/4 cup milk

Melt butter in large saucepan, add onions, celery, carrots, and 1/4 cup of soymilk, cook until tender (or tenderish).  Add flour, sage, tarragon, basil and pepper.  Stir until blended.  Add rest of soymilk and chicken stock and cook until thick and bubbly.  Add chicken and frozen veggies and season to taste.  Mix and remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 400.  Make biscuit topping as directed (mine said 2 to 1 ratio of mix to milk, no egg needed).  Pour veggie/chicken mix into 9x13 pan.  Top with biscuit mix.  Bake for about half an hour or until golden.

My four favorite C's

Are cilantro, cumin, cayenne, and cinnamon. Almost everything I make has one or more of these things. And this recipe has all of them! Plus, I don't think it's too expensive, the only "splurge" is dried apricots. I didn't buy the ingredients at once because I wait for sales (or farmer's market trips) so I can't really judge. But it makes a TON. Seriously, I'm pretty sure it could feed me for two weeks, at least for dinner. Oh and it's so tasty, mostly because it has the fantastic four c's :) (plus chicken and chickpeas). And it's "Moroccan?" Somehow I don't think this counts towards my quota. Sorry it's not my own recipe, I think the humidity is killing my creativity. Well, I guess I only have creativity when it comes to sweets and it's too hot to bake and I'm kind of holding off for my pi pie pan to come back with me next weekend and for real Georgia peaches (I still haven't had one and it's been almost a year).

Moroccan Chicken, Chickpea and Apricot Tagine