Chicken with a Twist

Everyday we eat the same foods over and over again. Food becomes a comfort, whether it in a bowl of cereal in the morning or a chicken pot pie at night watching a good movie. The foods we love are naturally eaten more often. What foods are out there that we haven't tried yet? What delectable taste is around the corner, close but hidden in another culture. A food that your specific palate would love is not going to come looking for you. You must look for it! Seek out new tastes from other cultures! I cannot express in words how my tongue felt when I first tasted mango, or maracujá, or pinha (peen-ya) from Brazil! Simply amazing indescribable tastes! I hope that I inspire you to create a dish that you have never tried.

I was just talking to Anastasia,  a friend of mine who also cooks, about variations to ingredients that recipes call for. Like substituting half the butter in brownies for black beans. You get less fat, more protein, and the taste will keep them coming back for more.
 I forgot to buy chicken broth, and my friend Anastasia suggested that I use beer instead. It's good to have good friends with good ideas around!  The alcohol boils off, and you are left with a delicious flavor, especially when adding foods that absorb flavor well, like mushrooms or onions. I tried this (when visiting her) and it turned out great. No, beer, chicken, basil, provolone, and prosciutto are very simple foods. Put them together and it is amazing how the flavors and textures reward your tongue in ways unforeseen!

The stuffed chicken recipe below is a great example of substituting for either taste, calories, or you are in the middle of cooking and don't feel like dropping everything just to run to the store again.

PHOTOGRAPH BY Romulo Yanes (Photo reprinted with permission)

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/prosciutto-stuffed-chicken-with-mushroom-sauce

I substituted lager beer for the chicken stock! It came out just fine. Once the alcohol evaporates, you are left with a hoppy broth, that does well on the stove! (IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO USE THE ALCOHOL OPTION, THE CHICKEN STOCK IS PERFECTLY FINE!) I added some wild rice and steamed some broccoli, and it was a very nice combo!

photo:Erich Coleman

Wings Wings Wings!

Hello! I am back!
Food is my passion, and food is my life! It is normal for my friends to ask my if I have cooked anything interested lately. Usually I have some descriptive, delicious food idea to throw back at them, but sometimes,  I just  don't feel like cooking (doesn't last very long), and I find myself inspired to go back into my small kitchen to create.

I love chicken wings! The endless  sauces you can slather on them, the texture, the heat, the satisfaction, all make it worth biting into...you know what I mean! There are many ways to prep and cook chicken wings; you can boil, grill, fry, deep fry, and bake them. My favorite thing about biting into wings is feeling the meat just melt off the bone into your mouth! Slow cooking does this, and I will share with you a way I came up with and even was hired by one of my co-workers to cook my wings at her house party! My first money as a personal chef...wow! ok..ok I digress....

I like to buy wings that have to be cut and prepared. I do not mind the few minutes of prep time. I like to get all my wings ready in a big bowl, get my favorite BBQ sauce ready in a bowl. (KC style is my fav, but there are a few honey-based ones from S.Carolina that are worth glazing on your wings too!

 Start off by preheating the oven to @185-200 degrees depending on your stove) then boil the wings for about 15 minutes. This renders some of the fat off of them and breaks down the ligaments a bit. When your oven is up to temp, take the tongs and one by one dip each wings into the bowl of BBQ sauce on place on a non-stick cookie sheet. Repeat this until the cookie sheet is full of wings. Each should be about an inch apart and not be touching.

      (Notice the the darker color sauce, that's not shadows, but concentrated sauce that cooked the longest...deelish!)

Cook these wings for about two hours and take the cookie sheet out and re-dip each wing. Place back in oven for another two hours. Repeat this a third time and wait about another two hours.
Each wing will have a pool of sauce under it, and each stage of adding sauce will leave more BBQ sauce in three different concentrations.  You will be able to see and taste clumps of concentrated flavor. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the BBQ excess sauce off the cookie sheet. Since you used a low temperature, the sauce will not stick or burn, and should slide very nicely off the cookie sheet into your big bowl of delicious wings. This adds so much flavor! Don't forget your celery and carrots! I like bleu cheese over ranch, but don't be afraid to try a creamy Caesar or asiago peppercorn (pictured above in white ramekin), or something exotic like that. Garnish with a vertically sliced strawberry, if trying to impress a date or loved one....
Enjoy!