Week 3: Roasted Garlic Chicken

This was Emily's choice after last week's meatloaf (BEFORE she tasted the meatloaf, that is). I have to say, though, this was my least favorite recipe so far. Nice and easy to prepare, but I think I messed up along the way. Feel free to set me straight and tell me what I was supposed to do here!

I was smart enough, at least, to read through the whole recipe and figure out how to do this. So I'm deviating from how it was published. I'll reprint here in a chronological order of what you need to do first.

Roasting Garlic: Preheat the over to 400 degrees F. Place 1/2 cup peeled garlic cloves in the center of a piece of aluminum foil. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil over the cloves and fold the foil over to form a loose packet. Place the packet on a baking sheet and roast for 30 to 40 minutes, until the garlic is very soft and light brown. Allow to cool before using.

Roasted Garlic-Lemon Brine Ingredients
1/2 cup roasted garlic cloves
2 cups water
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon, cut into 4 wedges
2 bay leaves, crushed
1 3-4-pound whole roasting chicken

To prepare the brine, combine the garlic, water, salt, pepper, and olive oil in blender and puree until smooth. Squeeze in the juice from the lemon wedges, reserving the rinds, and blend to combine. Stir in the bay leaves.

Place the chicken in a large resealable plastic bag or bowl. Pour the brine over the chicken and toss to coat. Add the lemon rinds and press the air out of the bag and seal tightly or cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Remove the chicken from the brine. Season liberally on all sides with salt and pepper. Place the chicken, breast side up, on a rack set in a roasting pan. Roast for about 1 hour, until the juices run clear from the thigh when pierced with a fork.

Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes, then cut into portions and serve hot.

My notes:

• I was fortunate enough to have home-grown garlic from a coworker. Roasting the garlic made the house smell just wonderful! But I think I had too many little cloves and too many of varying sizes. I needed more than 1/2 teaspoon of the olive oil to lightly coat as many as I had. And some got a bit more brown than others.
• I only have olive oil, not the extra virgin kind (is that me at this point in life...older, wiser, and extra virgin again?!). So that's what I used. I have no idea if there is a significant difference.
• My day of preparation got away from me. I roasted the garlic, then put it in the fridge until I got home later that night. Maybe I should have just let it stay out on the counter?
• The brine and the chicken fit into a 1-gallon Ziploc bag. I put it all in that and put that in the bottom drawer in the refrigerator. I think I ended up with the chicken in the brine for about 17 hours.
• Here's where I'm challenged: I have a roasting pan, but I do not have a rack for it. I tried shopping for one, but I must have the smallest roasting pan God ever invented. I can't find rack that is small enough to fit this roasting pan anywhere! So I just plopped the chicken into the pan. Then I worried that it would stick like crazy to the bottom, so I poured a little bit of the brine into the bottom. The chicken didn't stick!
• But I also didn't know if I was supposed to leave the cover of the roasting pan on or off. So I cooked it for about 45 minutes with the cover on, then removed the cover for the remainder of the time. The chicken was very tender, but it seemed like I might have missed something.

Overall, a very easy recipe. Not bad, but not great either. Not sure what next week will bring...

Week 2: Oven-baked Meatloaf

I know...meatloaf...you're wondering just how bad must I be at this kitchen stuff if I'm turning to meatloaf as something new and exciting to try. But trust me, this one really is awesome. It was easy to make and even the girls cleared their plates of this one - even before they finished their mashed potatoes!

Ingredients
4 ounces store-bought or homemade garlic croutons, crushed
1 cup beef broth
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
2 large eggs
2 1/2 tablespoons prepared pesto
2 1/2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
1 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds ground round steak
1 1/2 cups julienned fresh spinach

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the croutons and broth in a small bowl and set aside to sak for 10 minutes. Place a saute pan over medium-high heat and add the oil. Add teh onion and saute for 7 to 8 minutes, until translucent.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add the pesto, pine nuts, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper and mix well. Add teh crouton misture, onion, ground steak, and spinach. Mix with your hands until just combined. Pat the misture into a standard loaf pan (about 4 1/2 by 9 inches). Place on a bakeing sheet and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until cooked through. Let stand for 20 minutes before clicing and serving with a generous drizzle of gravy atop each slice.

Toasting Pine Nuts Preheat the oven to 325 F. Spread the pine nuts on a baking sheet and bake, shaking the pan occasionally, for 4 to 7 minutes, until golden brown. Set a kitchen timer and keep a constant eye on the pine nuts as they toast because they burn easily.

Red Pepper Gravy In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine 1 cup brown sauce or gravy and 2 tablespoons finely diced roasted red peppers. Simmer for a few minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

My notes:

1. I didn't realize until I was typing this now that I was supposed to crush the croutons. I used them whole and it was good!
2. I had a hard time finding pine nuts here, and when I did, they were $15 for a bag. I'm a cheap mom and this was one of those times. But I had asiago cheese leftover from last week, so I shred some of that up and added it instead. I probably used 1/4 cup shredded cheese...it was tasty!
3. Ground steak...I'm not sure how different that is from ground beef, but I had a 2-lb container of ground beef so I used that instead.

This one was quick and easy to put together. I served it with mashed potatoes and a vegetable. We did not make the gravy simply because I know the girls aren't red pepper fans. I was stretching it putting meatloaf in front of them! But they loved it. I hope you do, too!

Week 1: Asiago-Crusted Chicken

These first few recipes are from The Marshall Field's Cookbook. Copyright is 2006 by Federated Retail Holdings, Inc.

I chose this recipe this week simply because I already had most of the ingredients in my kitchen. That alone was amazing! While I'm all for trying new things here, I'm not in favor of going broke. I'm looking for repeatable recipes (almost like a Lean project for the kitchen!) :)

In this case, the page has recipes for cooked carrots, the chicken, and a tasty mustard sauce you can serve on both. I liked the sauce when all was said and done; the girls did not. Serve in your own home accordingly. I'll add notes where I deviated from the recipe...thus the bad cook name to this :)

Mustard-Glazed Carrots
1 pound baby carrots
1 cup water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Pommery Mustard Sauce
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup whole grain mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspooon freshly ground black pepper

Chicken
3/4 cup shredded Asiago cheese
1/4 cup Japanese breadcrumbs (panko)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
2 tablespoons water
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

TO PREPARE THE CARROTS: In a large saute pan (I used a frying pan), combine the carrots, water, butter, olive oil, sugar and mustard over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then decrease the heat and simmer, stirring often, for 8 to 12 minutes, until the water has evaporated and the carrots are coated with glaze. Check the carrots for doneness; if they are not tender, add a little more water and cook for a few minutes more. Season with teh salt and pepper and sprinkle with the chives.
I should have started the carrots sooner than I did. I prepped the parts for the rest of this, then got the carrots going. I should have started the carrots, then prepped the sauce and the chicken. The carrots would have been more done and had more of a glaze. They still had the flavor, but the water had not evaporated like the recipe says it should. I also skipped the chives - no good reason there!

TO PREPARE THE SAUCE: pour the cream into a small saucepan over medium heat adn bring to a boil. Stir in the mustard, salt, and pepper and decrease the heat to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes, until reduced by half. The sauce should coat the back of a spoon. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary.
I made no adjustments to this part and followed it exactly. I'll never know if it turned out how it is supposed to, but I really liked it. I don't know where to look for whole grain mustard, so I used whole mustard seed instead. It seemed to work out just fine.

TO PREPARE THE CHICKEN: place the cheese and breadcrumbs in a food processor and pulse to combine. Transfer to a shallow bowl and stir in the parsley. Pour the flour on to a plate. Whisk the egg and water together in a separate shallow bowl.

Liberally season the chicken breasts on both sides with salt and pepper. Dredge in the flour and shake off any excess. Dip in the egg wash, then coat on all sides with the Asiago breadcrumbs.

Place a large, nonstick saute pan over medium-high heat and add the oil. When the oil shimmers, add the chicken and cook, turning once, for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown on the outside and no longer pink on the inside.

Serve immediately with carrots and mustard sauce.

I used 2 very large chicken breasts and just cut those in half. I also couldn't find Japanese breadcrumbs. I am in Central Minnesota...German breadcrumbs I'm certain I could have found in the store! So instead, I took the heal of my whole wheat bread, folded that over a couple times, and shred that to get bread crumbs. I also don't own a food processor, so I simply stirred the breadcrumbs and the cheese together. I suppose I could have put them in the blender, but that would have made more dishes to clean and I was more worried about having everything done at the same time to serve warm. I bought a chunk of the Asiago cheese at the deli counter. More than I needed, but you'll see...it came in handy for the next recipe.

Enjoy!

Getting Started...

Okay, I'm giving in and blogging my trials throughout the year. Kate may be the only one to read this, and there may be others. Cool either way!

So here's the background...I'm not a real good cook. I have two teen-aged daughters and they'd rather have cereal or spaghetti for dinner 9 times out of 10. After seeing the movie "Julie & Julia" I was inspired. Well, not enough to cook 550+ recipes or whatever she did in a year. But being a single mom, I figured I could tackle one new recipe a week. I ran this by the girls, and they are on board with it. We all figured it can't hurt my limited culinary skillset I have...it could only enhance.

I'm also out to find recipes that have common ingredients and won't break my bank account. I'm an average person with an average income...can't do lobster every night! Not that I'm keeping track of the cost of each recipe and each meal, but I will share my comments where I make changes or substitutions along the way and you can decide for yourself if you do the same or alter yet another way.

Here's to a year of trials, good, bad and otherwise. And here's to a few beer tours along the way, Kate!