Category: Carnivore

Poule au Pot.

Published on by KellyInTheKitchen1 Comment

Sunday didn’t start out rainy. I woke up at 9:30, and despite feeling a bit low-energy, I grabbed my yoga bag (which I somehow had the foresight to pack the night before) and headed out the door to get my butt kicked for an intense hour and a half. By the time I left the studio, it had become overcast, and a cool, late summer rain was falling. As I walked an umbrella-less mile back to my apartment, I realized it was the perfect weather for that rare and elusive treat: light comfort food. In other words, it was time to make poule au pot! I first saw this peasant’s poached chicken and vegetable dish being prepared on one of my favorite cooking shows, Laura Calder’s French Food at Home. It’s incredibly easy and serves up all beautiful and mellow, with buttery flavors that make you think it’s more indulgent than it is. Since the chicken and veggies are poached, you not only have a very healthy dish on your hands, you’ve also got a whole bonus pot-ful of super-flavorful chicken broth leftover, to do with as you wish. And as for the chicken, I serve it in a pool of hot broth with the veggies and a little pile of quinoa on the side, but let me tell you, it is perfect for chicken salad too. Whatever you do with it, poule au pot has all the warming and homey power of comfort food, with none of the greasy richness. This is the magic of chicken in a pot–what’s not to love?

INGREDIENTS

1 whole chicken
2 bay leaves
5 whole cloves garlic, skin on
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried tarragon
salt and pepper to taste
3 turnips, halved
2 parsnips, peeled and cut to about the size of the turnips
3 carrots, peeled and cut to match the parsnips
3 celery stalks, cleaned and cut in two
2 leeks, sliced longways, halved shortways, and washed (I find it’s easier to cut leeks first, then wash them after)
1 onion, quartered (Laura Calder suggests pearl onions, but I didn’t have any)

DIRECTIONS

Place the chicken in a deep pot, breast-side up. Fill the pot with water until it covers the chicken. Add the bay leaves and garlic and bring to a boil. Skim the foam off the surface of the water every few minutes.

After the foam has stopped forming, add the thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley, tarragon, and salt and pepper. Cook on a low boil for 30 minutes.

After 30 minute have passed, flip the chicken over so that the breast side is down. Turn the heat down slightly and cook another 10 minutes.

Next, add the turnips, parsnips, and carrots. Cook for 10 minutes.

Then add the celery and onion. Cook 5 minutes.

Finally, add the leeks to the pot. Cook 5 minutes.

That’s all! After a total of 60 minutes of chicken-poaching, with the veggies staggered so that they’re all just perfectly fork-tender, you’ve got an efficiently glorious dish that will make you pat yourself on the back a few times. My, you’re a good chef. Now eat some chicken.

Cilantro Chipotle Chicken.

Published on by KellyInTheKitchen3 Comments

This is another dish born of necessity. Last night, my fridge contained (among other things) a bunch of cilantro and a few chipotle chiles that were about to go bad. So I made up this recipe and had a fabulous dinner! I served it with a caramelized onion and pea couscous, but it would also make a great fajita filling. Or, even better, shred it and make chicken quesadillas. I’m a total quesadilla fiend, so I think I’ve just inspired myself for a future recipe: cilantro chipotle chicken quesadillas with corn salsa. Mmmmm. But back to the oven-baked original of today’s post—it’s juicy, really flavorful, and has a nice spicy kick to it. Feel free to use less chipotle/adobo sauce if you’re a spice whimp, or to add another chipotle if you’re extra brave!

INGREDIENTS

2 whole chicken legs (you could definitely use breasts too…I just like dark meat)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp honey
juice of 1 lime
2 canned chipotle chiles, chopped, plus 1 tbsp adobo sauce

DIRECTIONS

Add all ingredients to a plastic bag. Seal the bag and rub the marinade all over the chicken. Let it marinate for at least 30 minutes, or overnight if you’re patient (I am not).

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a pan with foil and lay the chicken in it, skin side up.

Bake the chicken until it’s done, around 25-35 minutes.

That’s it! Don’t you just love an easy yet tasty recipe for a weeknight dinner?

Stuffed Eight Ball Zucchini.

Published on by KellyInTheKitchen2 Comments

Recently I feel like I’ve been seeing eight ball zucchini everywhere! I guess that could be explained by the fact that they’re in season right now…but still. I noticed that a bunch of bloggers had interesting stuffed zucchini recipes to offer; then these pudgy little guys appeared on my roommate’s dad’s wedding menu 2 weeks ago, and (as if it weren’t a sign from the universe that I should give them a try myself), they were at my farmers market on Saturday. So I picked up a few. First of all, they’re adorable. Second, they’re so versatile! I love how they leave so much room for food-creativity. I just kind of made this dish up as I went along, and you can can do the same–just prepare them using whatever you’ve got hanging around your kitchen and these will come out beautifully!

INGREDIENTS

1 chorizo sausage, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
2 eight ball zucchini
salt and pepper to taste
5 leaves fresh basil, julienned
1/4 cup tomato sauce

DIRECTIONS

Heat a pan over medium high and add a splash of oil. When the oil is hot, add the chorizo. Cook until browned on the outside. It’s okay if it’s a bit pink in the middle, because it’s going in the oven in a bit. Set the chorizo aside.

Add the celery, carrot, and onion to the pan with the chorizo juices and cook until soft.

While the veggies cook, cut the tops off your zucchini and set them aside for later, and hollow them out. I used a mellon baller. Roughly chop the insides and set them aside.

Stir in the garlic and cook 1 minute. Then add about 2/3 of the zucchini insides, salt and pepper to taste, and stir.

Cook down the mixture until it shrinks a bit, letting the zucchini liquid cook off.

When the mixture has tightened up a bit and some of the liquid has cooked off, stir in the basil, tomato sauce, and the chorizo, and give it another 3 minutes or so. Then remove from heat and let cool 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 F.

When the mixture has cooled a bit, stuff the zucchinis. Place them in a casserole dish or other oven-safe pan and put their little tophats on.

Cover the pan with a sheet of foil and bake for 15 minutes. Then remove the foil and finish them off for another 15-20 minutes, until soft and tender.

That’s it! Take them out and enjoy. I buttered a piece of easy French bread and toasted it in a pan, and it was the perfect simple accompaniment.

Warm Lentil Salad with Goat Cheese and Roasted Beets.

Published on by KellyInTheKitchen3 Comments

The end of a bag of lentils sitting in my pantry, a great little beet stand at the farmers market, and a passionate and undying love of goat cheese contributed to my creation of this lentil salad. Goat cheese and lentils are fine and dandy, but I’m definitely not a beet lover. I do enjoy them from time to time, but I’m picky about how they’re prepared. Luckily, goat cheese is a beet’s best friend. Throw these two buddies over a well-dressed lentil salad and you’ve got yourself a dish that will make non-members of the beet chorus change their tune! Oh, and I forgot to mention, there’s bacon, too. Just in case you needed more convincing.

INGREDIENTS

3 small beets, scrubbed clean
1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for the beets
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme, plus 3 sprigs
squeeze of honey
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/4 cup French lentils
bay leaf
3 sprigs parsley
4 cups chicken stock
4 strips bacon
2 shallots, minced
goat cheese

DIRECTIONS

First, get the beets a-roastin’.  Preheat oven to 375 F. Rub the beets with a bit of olive oil and wrap them in foil. Set them on a pan and roast for about 45 minutes, until fork tender.

When the beets have cooled enough to touch, slice them.

Next, the dressing. Whisk together 1/2 cup olive oil, vinegar, mustard, 1 tsp chopped thyme, honey, and salt and pepper. Let it sit a while so the flavors can marry.

To prepare the lentils, bring stock, bay leaf, and sprigs of thyme and parsley to a boil.

Stir in lentils, season with salt and pepper, and cook until tender, about 20 minutes.

In a large frying pan, cook bacon until browned to your liking and remove from pan. Don’t drain off the grease.

Turn off the heat and add shallots to pan with hot bacon grease. Cook for 1 minute, until they just start to brown.

Drain lentils and remove bay leaf, parsley, and thyme, and add lentils to warm pan with the shallot. Stir in most of the dressing and then taste, and add more dressing if you need it. Garnish with bacon bits, crumbled goat cheese, and sliced beets. Dig in!

Bacon and Egg Salad.

Published on by KellyInTheKitchenLeave a comment

The French really know how to dress up a salad. I ate a dish just like this in Paris a few years ago, and I’m thrilled with how my recreation turned out! Thanks to Laura Calder for the recipe, which is really just an extravagant excuse to eat bacon and eggs for lunch. All the fatty, breakfast-y glory of the bacon and eggs, served atop a salad that helps you rationalize away all your nutritional doubts. One suggestion: to avoid wilting leaves and a hardening egg, this salad should be eaten immediately after it’s prepared. I’m betting you won’t have a problem with that.

INGREDIENTS

3 strips bacon
1 egg
2 tbsp white wine vinegar, plush a splash
olive oil
2 cups arugula, washed and dried
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Cook bacon to your liking and remove from pan.

Crumble into pieces and set aside.

On low heat, add 2 tbsp vinegar to bacon fat and boil to reduce to about a tbsp or two.

Then add enough olive oil to the pan to make a dressing for the arugula and stir. Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, poach the egg: heat a pot of water with a splash of vinegar until it’s about to boil. Crack an egg into a ramekin. Stir the water gently so that it flows in a circle and gently pour in the egg. Poach until the white is cooked but the yolk is still runny. Remove from water with a slotted spoon.

Toss arugula in the pan of warm dressing.

Then, assemble! Arugula first, then bacon, then egg. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with parsley. Make sure to break the yolk over the arugula so that it becomes a sort of dressing of its own. Mmmm.

Coq au Vin.

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Coq au vin, unlike revenge, is a dish best served hot. It’s a classic in French cuisine, with tender, fall-off-the-bone chicken in a rich, savory wine sauce with a hint of tomato, speckled with mushrooms and shallots and bacon. These flavors are just amazing! It’s a perfect dish for dinner parties, but this time, I’ve made it to have for lunch at work during the week. Lucky me. Totally impressive but actually very simple to execute, this recipe is definitely one worth mastering.

INGREDIENTS

3 lb chicken (I used 4 legs and 2 breasts)
salt and pepper to taste
1 pad butter
olive oil
4 strips bacon, cut into small strips or lardons
3 shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
8 oz. mushrooms, rough chop
1 cup stock, plush a splash (I used homemade chicken stock)
1 cup white wine (I used Chardonnay)
1/2 cup canned crushed tomato
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp flour (thicken with potato flour for a gluten-free sauce)
chopped parsley for garnish

DIRECTIONS

Rinse and pat dry chicken, then season with salt and pepper.

Heat butter and olive oil in Dutch oven or other large soup pot. Working in batches, brown chicken on all sides and then transfer to a plate.

In the same pot, cook the bacon. When the bacon is crisp, add shallots and garlic and cook until soft.

In a separate pan, saute mushrooms in olive oil until soft. Set aside.

Deglaze the chicken pot with a splash or two of stock and stir.

Then place chicken back in the pot. Pour wine and the rest of the stock over the chicken and add mushrooms, crushed tomato, and bay leaves. Cover pot with lid and simmer for half an hour.

When chicken is fork-tender, remove from pot. Remove the bay leaves at this point, too. Place half a cup of the sauce into a small bowl and stir flour into it with a fork. Bring the pot of sauce/gravy to a low boil and whisk the flour-thickened portion into it. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Spoon sauce over chicken and serve with rice or potatoes, and garnish with parsley. Makes for luscious leftovers too!