Skillet Chicken with Green Garlic/ Quinoa with Arugula

I made these dishes so long ago that it's a bit difficult to remember. Most of what I remember is that they are both super easy to put together and really delicious.

For the chicken, you toss together a cut-up chicken with salt, pepper, olive oil, a whole head of fresh garlic (sliced), and a ton of fresh thyme, and you let it sit for a while. Feeling a bit rushed, I tossed it all in the skillet, set the timer, and went back to my desk to grade some papers.

Then you put the pan over heat, cover it, and just let it cook for longer than you think is wise: about 10 minutes. You flip the chicken over, deglaze with a bunch of wine, and let it cook some more. And before you know it, before you believe it's possible, the chicken is all cooked.

You take the chicken out of the pan, add a bit more wine and some lemon juice/zest, deglaze a bit more, and thicken the sauce with some butter. That's it, and it's fabulous. While the chicken is cooking, you can make some Quinoa with Black Pepper and Brown Butter.

 Again, pretty darned easy. Bring some water to a boil in a largish pot, add your (rinsed) quinoa, and cook about 10 minutes. Drain the quinoa and scrape out the pot well. Put the pot back over the heat and brown a couple of tablespoons of butter in it. When that butter starts to smell fabulous, add some chopped garlic, then the quinoa, and then a bunch of arugula.

Stir that around until the arugula wilts, and you're done. Season it to taste with salt and black pepper.

As we were eating this, Sami proclaimed, "You know girls, if you gave Mommy a truck tire to cook, she'd find a way to make it delicious." Julia interpreted this as a back-handed insult to the quinoa/arugula thing (which she was devouring a large plate of), but I'm pretty sure he was just in love with the garlicky, savory sauce on the chicken. In fact, when I said there was more in the kitchen, he practically ran to serve himself. I love it when something simple like this has a big payoff in terms of pleasure. I highly recommend it.

Roasted Chicken Legs with Smoked Paprika

Once again I took Melissa Clark with me on vacation, and this time it turned out really well. Sadly, there is no photographic evidence of the meal, so let me show you where I cooked it.

This is the gîte, or vacation house, that our friend Nadine rented to celebrate her birthday with friends and family. It's in south-central France in a small town called Servas. The house was huge and gorgeous, and the location was also not too shabby.

We could look out our windows and see the hills and the small medieval towns and the olive orchards in the area. It was too cold to enjoy the pool, so instead we played a lot of card games and did some sightseeing and ate. And drank. And enjoyed being together in such a lovely place.

 Somehow I found myself spending a good deal of time in the kitchen, which was no hardship (especially since that got me out of most of the dishwashing). I had remembered my knives this time, and the equipment was otherwise really great. I cranked out a lot of "exotic" meals: pancakes (for Claire's birthday), couscous (because it feeds a crowd), scalloped potatoes with hot dogs on the side (again, Claire's special request), and the roasted chicken recipe.

 Many of the others at the house had never had pancakes or couscous before, but everyone was willing to give this strange food a try, and they all seemed to really like it. Therefore, I figured I could go ahead and fix the spicy chicken. There were two chickens, so I did one "classic" roast chicken with mustard and butter, and then I had Sami butterfly the other chicken (with many exclamations of awe and surprise from the others) so that I could marinate it in the strange ingredients I had brought. Ginger, chili, smoked paprika, cilantro: these are all still not an everyday part of the French pantry, and when I combined them with orange, salt, and olive oil, everyone seemed a bit skeptical. Especially when I sliced in about three chiles, realizing that they had no heat at all.
So the chickens went in the oven, the wine for the evening was opened, the snacks came out, and we played some cards while the chicken roasted. Once Sami had carved the chickens and we had brought them out with the leftover couscous, the taste testing began. Everyone wanted to try the "strange" chicken, and they all seemed to like it a lot--there was none left. What amused me, though, was that our American friend Jean preferred the classic French-style chicken while Nadine's French mother, who had been the most skeptical of all about my cooking decided that the "spicy" chicken was more to her liking.
In any case, this recipe was quite a success. It's sweet and a little spicy (your results will vary depending on the chiles you use) and very flavorful, without one flavor dominating. And while it would (and will) make a great weeknight dinner, for me it's now all about sitting around a giant table with a lot of good people, relaxing and enjoying life.

Indian Grilled Chicken

I made this as roast chicken, and it was really good. The recipe is adapted from Charmaine Solomon's The Complete Asian Cookbook. Spicy food is allegedly good for the hangover I may have had on New Year's Day...but this isn't all that spicy, just flavorful.

Masala Murgh

3 cloves garlic, peeled

About an inch of fresh garlic, peeled

Half a bunch of cilantro, washed and dried

Half a bunch of mint, washed and dried (remove the leaves from the stems)

1/4 c. cider vinegar

1 T. curry powder (tandoori seasoning if you have it)

2 t. salt

1 t. garam masala, if you have it--if not, use more curry powder

1 t. turmeric

1/4 t. cloves

1/2 t. ground cardamom

1/4 c. salad oil

2 T. sesame oil

Grind everything up in a food processor until you have a smooth paste. Now take

1 whole chicken, cut up or a package of chicken thighs or legs or breasts

Use a knife to poke holes all over the chicken. Put it in a big Zip-loc and rub the spice paste over it. Let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour. Grill the chicken (start over high heat and then move off the coals so that the chicken cooks without burning) or roast it at 400 for 30-45 minutes. Serve with rice and chutney.

Coq au Vin

Mmmm...chicken and a bottle of wine. A winter classic.

This is from my beat-up French cookbook. You can certainly find more complicated recipes for coq au vin, but this one does the job fairly simply.

Coq au Vin

2 T. olive oil

4 oz. bacon, cut into matchstick strips

12 pearl onions (do yourself a favor and buy them frozen), peeled

1 rooster (ha!) or chicken, cut up and sprinkled with salt and pepper

3 T. brandy/Cognac

2 T. flour

3 sprigs thyme

2 bay leaves

1 bottle cheap red wine (Shiraz would be good)

2 T. butter

1/2 lb. mushrooms, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

Toasted bread (brush sliced bread with melted butter or olive oil and toast at 350 for about 7 minutes)

Get out your big Dutch oven or covered skillet--it needs to hold a whole chicken and a whole bottle of wine.

Heat the oil in the pan and then cook the bacon in the oil. It sounds crazy to cook bacon in extra fat, but it keeps you from getting burned bacon bits on the bottom of the pan. When the bacon is cooked, remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and brown the onions in the fat. When they're browned, remove them and brown the chicken. When the chicken is nice and brown, pour the brandy in the pot. If you like fire, flame the brandy. If you fear the flame like I do, just let the brandy cook down, scraping to get all the good stuff off the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the chicken with the flour, then put in the thyme, bay leaves, bacon, onion, and wine. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat so that it's gently bubbling. Don't put the top back on--you want that wine to reduce. Let it cook that way, perfuming your kitchen, for about an hour.

About 15 minutes before you want to serve this, get out a medium skillet and melt the butter in it (you could melt a bit extra and use it for your toast) over medium-high heat. Sauté the mushrooms and garlic until the mushrooms are tender and most of their liquid has cooked off. Add the mushrooms to the chicken, which should be tender and purple. Serve with something green and the toasted bread. Wear a beret. Play accordion music. Go on strike.

Stir-Fried Garlic Chicken

I think the girls' three favorite answers to "What's for dinner?" are "pasta", "gratin", and "stir-fry". Maybe "pizza" is up there, too. So everyone was happy last night.

Of course, making everyone happy usually means messing with the recipe. In this case, I changed the snow peas (hard to find, expensive, no-one really loves them) to broccoli (no problem on any of those accounts) and did the veggies in a separate pan with half the ginger/garlic and half the pan sauce. It's an extra pot to wash, but hey, now that I have a dishwasher...

This recipe comes from the much-maligned "90s" version of the Joy of Cooking. So sue me--I love mine. I don't think I've had a bad result from it. If you can get through all the mixing and chopping, you will really love this stir-fry as well!

Stir-Fried Garlic Chicken

In a medium bowl, mix together:

1 T. cornstarch

1 T. mirin or dry sherry or white wine or dry vermouth

2 t. soy sauce

2 t. oyster sauce

1 t. salt

1 t. sugar

Cut into small pieces or thin slices:

1-1/2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs (white meat should probably work here, too)

Marinate the chicken in the sauce above for about half an hour while you get the other stuff ready:

Get a large head of broccoli. Cut off the florets and cut them into bite-sized pieces. Peel the stem and chop that into thin slices as well. Waste not, want not.

Also, cut a large onion into about 8 wedges.

This would be a good time to start cooking your rice.

Mince together, with a knife or in a mini-chopper:

3 cloves garlic

an inch-long piece of ginger, peeled

Set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together:

1 T. hoisin sauce (you can probably mix and match the hoisin and oyster sauce here, depending on what you have lying around)

1 T. ketchup

1 T. sesame oil

1-1/2 T. soy sauce

1/2 t. red pepper flakes

Have ready:

1/3 c. chicken broth (I used green tea)

3 scallions (green onions), cut decoratively into diagonal slices or long, thin strips

OK, you can start cooking now. Get out your largest, deepest skillet, preferably one with a lid. Heat about 2 T. peanut or other oil in it (this is probably not the time for olive oil) over high heat. Get it good and hot, then add the chicken and stir and cook until it's no longer pink. Take out the chicken, add more oil if it seems prudent, and throw in the broccoli and onions. Stir-fry for a bit, then pour in the broth or green tea, pop on the lid, and let steam for just a couple of minutes. Take the lid off and let the liquid evaporate, then make room in the center of the pan and put the ginger and garlic in there. Stir that around. When things are starting to smell really good, throw the chicken back in there along with the hoisin mixture and the scallions. Stir until the sauce starts bubbling, then pull off the heat. Serve as soon as possible with the rice.