Chicken Sriracha Surprise

So, I have attempted recently to be a bit more on the healthy side, but there's only so many days I can eat chicken breast in a row before wanting to run right back to the happy land of pasta. Chicken parm, chicken with asparagus, chicken marsala....over, and over, and over again. Not to mention, the chicken breast is the hardest to cook. Those of you who are thinking that chicken is by far the easiest thing to cook-hear me out: there's a special in between that you have to reach to get it just perfect...typically, I end up screwing this up and having very dry chicken. Yeah, I'm bad at the chicken breast thing.

After all this boredom and carb cravings, I came across this great recipe for pan roasted chicken that blew my mind with it's simplicity and tastiness. I am here to share this with you, as well as a pretty awesome cucumber, tomato, and feta salad:

What you'll need (chicken thighs):

-6 skin-on, bone-in Chicken Thighs (about 2 and 1/4 pounds)

-Salt and Pepper

-1 tbsp Vegetable Oil

What you'll need (thigh glaze):

-2 tbsp Drippings from the skillet of chicken (once completely cooked)

-1 tbsp Sriracha
-2 tbsp Brown Sugar
-1 tbsp Minced Cilantro

-Half a Lime

What you'll need (salad):

-6 cups coarsely chopped Cucumbers
-2 large Tomatoes, coarsely chopped

-1 bunch Scallions, chopped

-1 7 oz. package Feta, crumbled

-1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh Mint

-6 tbsp extra virgin Olive Oil

-1/4 cup fresh Lemon juice

-Salt and Pepper

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees. Begin by cleaning your chicken and then seasoning it with salt and pepper, making sure to cover the whole surface. 

Heat the vegetable oil in a cast-iron or nonstick skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking. Place the chicken into the skillet, skin side down, and cook for 2 minutes.

Lower the heat to medium heat and continue cooking skin side down. Rotate the chicken clockwise in pan to evenly distribute heat, until fat renders and skin is golden brown, about 12 minutes.

Transfer the skillet to the oven and cook for 13 more minutes. Flip the chicken and continue cooking until the skin is crispy and the meat is cooked through, about 5 minutes longer. 

While you are cooking your chicken, you can prepare your salad. Combine the cucumbers, tomatoes, scallions, half of the feta, and mint into a large salad bowl. The oil and lemon juice will make up your dressing-grab a small bowl or tupperware and whisk the oil and lemon juice together; season the dressing with salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to coat; add a little more salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle the remaining feta over the salad.

Terrible lighting, but delicious salad! :o)

You should now be ready to extract the chicken from the oven and transfer to a plate.

Now you're ready to create your glaze. Grab a small bowl and combine the skillet drippings, Sriracha, brown sugar, cilantro, and juice to half a lime. Mix these all together and let it sit for a minute. 

Add as little or as much of the glaze as you would like and you are ready to serve!

Comfort Food

Who doesn't love a good bowl of hot macaroni and cheese? Ahh, comfort food.

I wasn't allowed to eat that "Kraft crap" as my dad called it, but he sure did make a damn good version of his macaroni and cheese. It put Kraft and Velveeta to shame....then again, so do most homemade mac and cheese recipes.

I went through a large Velveeta phase in college with my roommate, Amy. We would stock up on boxes of "Velveets" as we called it, and house it every time we had a few too many drinks in us. We were also poor college students and could only afford 99 cent Velveeta. If you ever had Velveeta, then you know that the grossest thing is the cheese mixture they give you. That prepackaged, gooey cheese mixture:


EW. Like, what is in that?! It was nauseating as you squeezed it out, but we added a little bit of pepper to it to make it seem a bit more legit. There were actually times that I made the Velveeta and then couldn't eat it because I became too overwhelmed by the thought of the production process of the cheese package.

So, it's time to skip out on 99 cent boxes, and spend a few more bucks to make a dish that is not only more delightful, but easy to make.

What you'll need:
-8 oz. Elbow Macaroni
-2 tablespoons Butter
-8 oz. of graded Sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded
-2 cups Milk
-2 tablespoons Flour
-1/2 teaspoon Salt
-1/2 teaspoon Ground Pepper
-1/2 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the Macaroni as you normally would or as the package instructions say.

While you're cooking your macaroni, in medium to low heat, melt the butter in a somewhat large sauce pan. Once the butter is melted, begin to pour in the flour, whisking constantly. Whisk for about 2 minutes, until the liquid is smooth. Again, whisking constantly, add the milk and continue to cook for five minutes until your mixture has thickened. Remove the saucepan from heat and add in the salt, black and red pepper, and 1 cup of your shredded cheese. I was out of red pepper so I added the TINIEST pinch of cayenne pepper to give it a kick. Then add the cooked macaroni and mix together.

Spoon your mixture into a 2 quart baking dish; sprinkle on the additional cheese and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. I baked it for 18 minutes and then broiled it for the remaining two minutes as I like to have it be a little crispy on top! Let it sit for a few minutes and then it's ready to serve! Yum!

http://s4.hubimg.com/u/72967_f520.jpg

National Harbor 2011 Wine & Food Festival

So I know my traditional blog posts are about recipes and past stories paralleling them, but I figured this blog could also be a way to share events, shows, articles, anything really obtaining to the food industry and those of you who are interested in culinary art.

If you live in the DC/NOVA area, you might want to check out the National Harbor's 2011 Wine & Food Festival. This is my first year attending so I don't know what to expect, but I've been to an event before in the same location put on by the same agency and it was run very well and lots of fun!

So what can you expect to do/see at this event? Here's a little run down of what I got off the site:

-It's an all you can taste event. You pay $35 if you buy your tickets in advance online...so with that you get a complimentary glass that you can take to every tent and taste.
-Live Music. Enough said. You really can't go wrong with this. It also says "entertainers"...I'm not sure what exactly this means...
-Chefs from all over-these means local or famous....it sounds like they're doing meet and greets, but I'm really hoping they'll do some demos as well

All in all, it sounds like a pretty sweet event and I will definitely be in attendance! There's also a lot of places to eat and hotels to stay in surrounding the harbor, so if you're planning on using your complimentary glass to it's fullest, I recommend checking those out ;o).

Here's the site for more information:
http://www.wineandfoodnh.com/

I'm Really Glad there's One of You on Our Team

The perfect Superbowl meal: a hot bowl of chili. Now how this recipe came to me is an interesting story in itself, but I'll leave most of it to your imagination, mainly because attempting to duplicate and recap the events that occurred would be impossible. 

The night I first tasted this chili was at a "party" (5 people) in the midst of snowpocolypse 2010. This night was filled with four things: awkward advances, a silent (yet not so subtle) text fight, uncomfortable stories about road trips, and a cat named Toes.

At one point, mind you, I'm about five beers deep, I went downstairs to use the restroom. I closed the door, turn around, and Toes is IN THE BATHTUB, STARING ME DOWN. Please, take a moment and try and picture yourself in this situation. You're in a relaxed kind of buzz, in a strange apartment with Valentine's Day paraphernalia everywhere (hint much?), just taking a break to go to the bathroom before getting back to extreme board gaming. You turn around, expecting to see some candles or normal bathroom decoration and you get this:

I IZ WATCHING YOU! I HAZ THE CHILIZ!

 At least obtaining the chili recipe was a success.

What you'll need:

-2 lbs. lean Ground Meat (turkey/chicken/hamburger)

-4 cloves of Garlic, sliced

-1 medium White or Yellow Onion

-1 Green Bell Pepper

-1 Red Bell Pepper

-2 Jalapenos, diced

-2 cans Tomato Paste + 2 cans of Water (I think the size is 14 oz., but it's the regular sized can)

-2 cans Whole Tomatoes; you'll want to slice these in half, but save the juice

-3-4 cans Red Kidney Beans rinsed

-1 tbsp Olive Oil

-1-2 tbsp Cayenne Pepper

-1-2 tbsp Ancho Chili Powder

-1-2 tbsp Cumin

-1 tbsp Cinnamon

-Salt and pepper to taste

Begin by prepping  your ingredients. Dice the pepper, jalapeno, garlic, and onion. Once these are set aside, combine all the spices into one bowl.

Mix it on up.

All prepped!

Brown the meat in skillet and season with about half of the spice mixture.

In a large pot, heat olive oil. Begin adding all your diced vegetables and saute for about 2 mins. 

Once sauteed, add the kidney beans and saute another 1-2 mins. Feel free to add a little more Olive Oil at this point if need be. Add tomato paste and tomatoes and continue to mix.

At this point, the meat should be browned and you can go ahead and add it to the mixture, along with water and the remaining spices. Keep this simmering at a low heat and stir occasionally. You're all set! Feel free to add more spices to taste, as well as a Mexican cheese mixture, and eat this on a cold day in the next snopocolypse!

Significantly better than the Black Eyed Peas Half Time show.

And a special thanks to the awkward night, and amusing group of individuals, without whom, this post would be impossible; here's lookin' at you, Hallmark desperados. One love, from your snorting friend.