honey & chili chicken breasts

A few weeks ago I had a bunch of cilantro and didn't know what to do with it. When I bought the cilantro from the farm stand up the road, I had visions of Mexican dishes in my mind, but, as usual, the motivation to actually find and make the recipes fizzled by the end of the day. So, I was left with a whole lot of cilantro to use or lose.

I found this recipe online at one of my favorite cooking sites, The Kitchn. I grilled the thighs rather than baking. The recipe calls for baking the chicken, but a lot of the comments mention how messy the pan got and how hard it was to clean, which is because of the beer and honey. That's not for me, so grilling it was!

The marinade came together easily. Picking the cilantro was a little tedious, but not overly so. Once it was mixed, I tossed the marinade in a large zipper top plastic bag along with the chicken and left them in the fridge overnight. I made the sauce, too. The next day I grilled the chicken, stirred up the sauce (it seemed to separate a little) and then poured it over the cooked chicken.

I also roasted some red potatoes with olive oil, fresh rosemary from my garden, salt and pepper; and some green beans with olive oil and Borsari seasoned salt (love this stuff!); both were also from the farm stand. It was a very easy meal, actually.

I thought this tasted really good. I will say, however, that if you don't like cilantro, you won't like the sauce. It's quite strong. It was good, though.  I'd make this recipe again, but I would probably make half the amount of sauce or find multiple uses for it.

If you want the recipe, here it is:  Honey & Chili Chicken Thighs with cilantro Cream Sauce.

Here's the finished meal!

weekly cookbook project: grilled asparagus with southwest spice mix

I decided to buy some asparagus this week. Since I've been back to eating the way I should, I've been wanting more fruits and vegetables. I actually made a special trip to a local store that I don't usually shop at just so I could look at the produce section. I came home with asparagus, Fuji apples, potatoes, and...something else I can't remember now.

Since I hadn't yet made a recipe from one of my cookbooks this week, I decided I would make it simple and find one for asparagus. Hmm, not so simple. Most of the recipes were in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook, and they all required performing the steps for blanching the asparagus first. So basically that meant making two recipes just to get a finished product. My last resort was Martha Stewart's Cooking School cookbook. (Even though I don't care for her and hate how all her home goods tend to take over the whole store, this is a really useful book and is well-written.) Lo and behold, I found an easy one there:  grilled asparagus with southwest spice mix.  All I had to do was wash the asparagus and snap the woody ends off, throw together the spices (salt, cumin, ground coriander, chili powder, and paprika), toss the asparagus with the spice mix and a bit of olive oil, and grill the spears. It was so easy and tasted great. Just a little kick of spice, but nothing overwhelming. I find I like to grab a few spears from the fridge and eat them as a snack.

apple wood smoked boneless chicken breast

I used the smoker for the second time this past weekend.  I had a big pack of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the freezer and decided to smoke it.

I scoured the Internet for a rub or marinade to use.  I didn't want a repeat of the skirt steak I made a few weeks ago; it was good, but too smoky without a rub or marinade to diffuse it. I found one on the Food Network website.  it called for a whole chicken, but I really only wanted the recipe for the rub anyway. This particular recipe calls for 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper AND 1 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes.  That's just too much heat for me these days, and I knew Bob likely wouldn't like it either.  So, I reduced the red pepper flakes to just a sprinkle.

The chicken came out really good.  There was some spicy heat, but it wasn't scorching hot.  About halfway during smoking I realized I should have put some water in the pan in the smoker.  The outside of the chicken seemed dry, so I added some water to the pan.   It still looked dry when the smoking was done, but it actually wasn't dry when eating it. As implied in the recipe name, I used apple wood for the smoker.

It looks pretty good, but I can't really see the smoke ring much.

Here's the recipe for the rub.  If you want the full recipe, chicken and all, here it is:  Apple Wood Smoked Chicken.

Spicy Chicken Rub

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (I used just a sprinkle)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Mix the ingredients in a bowl and use as a rub for chicken, or any other meat you like.  Let the rubbed meat sit in the fridge for at least an hour and then cook it.

adventures in smoking

No, I haven't started smoking cigarettes!  Gross.  We got a smoker a couple weeks ago and I used it for the first time this past weekend.

We got the Brinkmann vertical smoker, which was on clearance at Home Depot for less than half the price.  (I later found out Brinkmann is in bankruptcy, which would explain the rock-bottom price.) I wasn't even thinking about buying one, but I know several people who smoke meat and they really enjoy it.  I figure maybe it will be a new hobby. Plus, I have dreams of delicious fall-off-the-bone ribs and juicy mesquite chicken.

Saturday I decided to cure it.  Smokers have to be cured before they can be used.  It's to protect the smoker from rust and to burn off the smells from manufacturing.  First of all, their instruction booklet (Yes, it's paper!  I didn't have to download it.) leaves a lot to be desired.  I think whoever wrote the steps needs to learn how to put them in order correctly.  Obviously, that made the process confusing, since I've never cooked with charcoal before. I eventually got it going, but it never reached the correct temp for curing (250 for two hours and 400 for one hour).  I think it was because it was cold outside. Also, I had to coat the whole inside with vegetable oil first, which as a bit messy.

I used it Sunday and this is what I made.  It's skirt steak (one of my half-price meat purchases).  I didn't use any marinade.  Just salt and pepper.  I smoked it for about two hours, maybe a little more, and the doneness was perfect (I like mine medium rare). I used charcoal and about five chunks of mesquite wood.

Fresh out of the smoker. It was so hard to wait 15 minutes to cut into it.  Gotta let the meat rest! That's always the hardest part, since I'm a steak lover.

You can't see it very well, but it has a nice smoke ring.

How did it taste?  It was...smoky.  I definitely will use a marinade next time, as all I really tasted was the smoke.  It wasn't bad, but just too smoky for me. It was very tender and juicy.  I used it on top of a salad the next day, and Bob took some to work for lunch.

Overall, I like the idea of smoking meat.  Pretty much hands off except for making sure it stays at the correct temperature. I'm all for things that are "set it and forget it."

I think next time I will try chicken.  Any suggestions for wood type and/or marinades?