Posts from the ‘Chicken & Other Poultry’ Category

Nov 21

Turkey Stuffing with Grand Marnier & dried apricots

‘Tis the season when time speeds up. Some of our best intentions, left behind in a rush of wind. I’d planned on preparing this turkey stuffing for you to view before Thanksgiving was upon us and everyone was already noisily gathered around the table. It didn’t happen. It’s still possible that I’ll get that done, but it’s looking less likely with every falling leaf.

And yet, even though there’s no accompanying photo, that didn’t seem reason enough not to share the recipe. So I’ll post it today, and after Thanksgiving I’ll attach photos so that next year you’ll have them. In the meantime, just a few photos from my walk the other day.

If you look at the list of ingredients you may have a feel for what this stuffing is like. I hope so. I can tell you this: Just about everyone who’s tried it has asked for the recipe. People who don’t like stuffing love this stuffing. And that’s all I’ll say.

Turkey Stuffing with Grand Marnier & Apricots

12 cups cubed sturdy bread – cubed in approximately ½- to ¾-inch pieces
2 Tablespoons dried thyme
4 Tablespoons olive oil
1½ cups dried apricots, cut into quarters
1½ cups Grand Marnier (Orange Liqueur) (see NOTE)
2 pounds Turkey Sausage (I like to use a combination – a milder one with apple and sage, and a spicier Italian turkey sausage)
2 Tablespoons butter
4 cups celery, diced (with some leaves)
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1 Tablespoon dried sage, crushed between your hands
2 Granny Smith apples, medium diced
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup chopped Italian parsley
Salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste
1 cup chopped walnuts or filberts or pecans (optional)
2 cups chicken broth (you may not use all this)

NOTE: on the Grand Marnier – To cut down on the expense, you might mix one part Triple Sec with two parts Grand Marnier. I don’t think I’d mess with the proportions further than that though. Grand Marnier is just so incomparably good. (I should be clear here on this point though, I use all Grand Marnier in ours.)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Combine the bread, thyme, some salt and pepper and one-half of the oil, and toss together. Place on a baking sheet for 15 minutes in the oven. Transfer to a large bowl or other container large enough to accommodate it.

In a small sauce pan, add the apricots to the Grand Marnier and bring to a boil. Gentle simmer for a couple minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside. (As they sit and bathe in the Grand Marnier, the flavor intensifies and they become indescribably delicious.)

In a large skillet, brown the sausage. Add it to the bread bowl with a slotted spoon.

Oct 30

4 Comments

Greek baked chicken with orzo

In several previous posts, I’ve written of our Dad. (If you haven’t yet seen it, you may want to read: Orange Flowers. ) His influence on me (on us all) was enormous, though he didn’t even come to be my dad until I was already a gawky ten-year-old girl. His tender love forever changed me. We lost him a few years back, but his birthday’s coming very soon. I’m posting this recipe now – it’s one I think our Greek Pop would have loved. I’m thinking primarily of my family when I say this, but if anyone out there would like to prepare this on November 2nd, I’d like to think there will be at least one more smile than the ones you see around your own table.

Efharisto!

This chicken dish is a common Sunday one-pot meal on the Greek islands, where chickens are raised primarily for their eggs. Therefore, it’s considered special – besides that, it’s absolutely wonderful!

~ ~ ~

Baked Chicken with Orzo – Kotopoulo Youvetsi

1/3 cup olive oil
1 4-pound free-range chicken, cut into 6 pieces (or the equivalent weight in pieces you choose)
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
1/3 cup chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
2 cinnamon sticks
1½ teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or a pinch crushed red pepper flakes
2 cups grated ripe tomatoes or canned diced tomatoes with their juice
Salt
2 cups chicken stock, plus more if needed
1 pound orzo (you substitute elbow macaroni) – cooked in plenty of boiling salted water for only 2 minutes, then drained
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1½ cup coarsely grated hard myzithra, pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

In a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and sauté the chicken parts in batches until brown on all sides. Set aside.

Add the onion to the pot and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, cinnamon sticks, oregano, pepper or pepper flakes and tomatoes. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and return to the Dutch oven. Add about 1/2 cup of stock, or enough to come about two-thirds of the way up the chicken. (You want to be sure that the breast meat is sunk quite deeply into the sauce, so just the very top of it sticks above. That will help prevent it from drying out.) Bring to a boil, cover and transfer to the now-hot oven.

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Jun 23

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Roasted Whole Chicken on the Grill

This dinner all started with kumquats – even though, in the end, it had absolutely nothing to do with kumquats. Now that I think longer about it, this dinner actually started with going out to lunch and trying to avoid a parking ticket.

Maybe it’s just me…but sometimes I like to figure out exactly how I came to be where I am from where I’d just been. It’s often an odd, circuitous path to trace – kind of like that “six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon” thing, if you know what I mean. Have you ever taken a long road trip with someone and after some lively conversation, there’s a period of prolonged but comfortable silence? You think what you’re doing is watching the road or taking in all this amazing scenery, when actually, for some mysterious span of time, you’ve not been where you are at all, and suddenly out of your mouth comes something completely random and seemingly related to nothing. Do you ever then try to figure out (or even explain) how you came to be thinking that particular disjointed nonsensical thought? Well, this night’s dinner happened something like that.

Kumquats - having nothing to do with dinner

My husband and I have kind of a “custom” of going out to lunch on Saturdays. We’ll run a few errands and then pass the ball back and forth until one of us finally makes up our mind about where we’d like to eat, and then we sit across from one another talking about the week, news, politics…or sometimes something even more scintillating (if you can imagine!) We love our Saturdays together. Last week, we were following our usual practice and decided on a great little spot for lunch. We started to park in the lot across from the restaurant but realized it was designated for patrons of a grocery store. We parked there anyway – but felt quite legal about it because we’d just drop into the market first, and then walk across the street for lunch. We had no real reason to be grocery shopping, other than ticket avoidance, but there we were.

The produce aisles always seduce me first, but for my husband, it’s the wine section. So we went our separate ways to meet up later. Weren’t kumquats all done for the season? I thought so, and had said my sad goodbyes – but no! There they were, and they were huge! – well, the biggest I’d ever seen. I was downright delighted to see them and filled a small bag. My heart soon returned to its normal rhythm, but a little further down the aisle, the cutest little potatoes fanned out, in reds and yellows and purples! And they were smaller than the kumquats! Who ever heard of such a thing? I hadn’t, so I got handfuls of potatoes, simply because they were smaller than kumquats. And then, there was asparagus – now that’s gorgeous! That’ll be so good with those potatoes! I’ll do them together, with lemon and salt on the grill! Ah yes, the grill. Hmmm, I’ve never tried roasting a whole chicken on the grill before. I wonder if I can do that successfully? I think I’m just going to need to find that out! And that is how I came to be here:

(You are so incredibly patient with me! Are you like this with everyone?)

Roasted Whole Chicken on the Grill

What I love about roasting a whole chicken: It’s far less expensive than buying the individual parts. It’s so straightforward and simple and after the first little bit, largely hands-off. It can be done in so many different and delicious ways…influences of French, Moroccan, Mediterranean, Spanish. Stuffed or not. Surrounded by vegetables of all different types. Sauce or not. You can cook two at once with almost no additional labor. There’s (almost) always leftovers to turn into another meal. Then there’s the remnants that become a great stock for soups. And my husband loves it. So what’s not to like?

Cooking something on the grill for more than an hour at 400°F+ can only be done successfully using an indirect method. (In other words no coals or gas flames directly beneath the chicken.) So if you know how to cook on your grill using an indirect method, this will be easy! (If you don’t know how, just check the instructions from your grill’s manufacturer, or on line.)

Ingredients

1 whole chicken (preferably free-range, organic, humanely raised)
2 lemons, 1 cut in half, the other juiced for basting
fresh herbs of your choice (rosemary, oregano, marjoram, parsley, sage, etc.)
whole garlic cloves, 2 or 3 or more, crushed but not minced
olive oil
salt & pepper

May 9

3 Comments

Chicken Soup with Egg-Lemon Sauce

It’s pitiful to beg, I know, but I’m coming dangerously close to it. Just look over the recipe below, imagining the pairing of these ingredients, and you’ll want to try this soup. (OK, I want you to, but let’s not quibble.) This is one of those comfort foods, and – I’m fully convinced – a cure for what ails. It’s somehow “creamy” with no cream (thanks to the arborio rice.) It’s full of flavor, while still being gentle and so easy to eat. It’s aromatic (thanks to the generous amount of dill and the perfume of the lemon.) It’s a soup equally good in summer as in winter, so Spring would be the perfect time to prove it to yourself! Take the challenge – try this soup – you will not be disappointed! It’s positively kissable.

At the start of “Citrus Month,” I promised you a soup from Yaya and Papou’s homeland. This is the one. In Greece, until fairly recently, chickens were considered a great delicacy. Except on important feast days, chicken dishes would have been reserved for children and the sick. This chicken and rice soup, with an egg and lemon “sauce” stirred in at the last moment, was served as a much-loved, one-pot meal at Christmas. Nowadays, I’d venture to say you can find this on any Greek restaurant menu – but please let me know if you’ve ever tried one better.

The secret to any good soup is in the stock, and this one is no different. If you’re pressed for time, you could use a pre-roasted chicken and a high-quality, store-bought (or previously prepared homemade) chicken stock – but the gentle, two-hour-long cooking of a whole chicken imparts the most delicate, silken of flavors to this broth. If you need to take the short-cut, about 2-1/2 quarts or so of good stock should prove about right, and the meat from about one-half of the chicken. (In either case, please use a free-range, organically fed bird.)

Chicken Soup with Egg-Lemon Sauce (Kotopoulo Soupa, Avgolemono)

(makes 4 to 6 main-course servings – or 6 to 8 for first-course)

one 3-to-4-pound free-range chicken, quartered, plus 2 pounds chicken backs, necks and/or wings
1 large onion, halved
2 medium carrots, peeled and quartered
2 bay leaves (if your bay leaves are more than a year old, toss them and start new)
10 – 12 peppercorns
2 Tbl. olive oil
5 scallions (white and most of the green parts), thinly sliced
1 cup chopped fresh dill
2/3 cup of medium-grain rice, such as Arborio
2 large eggs
4-6 Tbl. freshly-sueezed lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

To greatly reduce the fat content of the resulting broth, and how much skimming is required, I like to start by first removing the skin and all visible fat from the quartered chicken. Remove the fat from the backs of the chicken as well. Place the chicken parts in a large pot and add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and skim off any foam. Reduce the heat to low and add the onion, carrots, bay leaves, salt and peppercorns. Cover and simmer for two hours, adding a little more water if needed, until the chicken begins to fall from the bones.