Sunday Dinner: BBQ-Fried Chicken

This photo is one of the little one's plates - I always cut the tenders from the chicken breasts as they are easier for tiny hands to grasp.

This week's Sunday Dinner is a combination of things my family loves. Declan (our 9 year-old son) could probably live on barbecue sauce; he puts it on almost everything. The rest of the family is crazy about fried chicken so I put the two together and it was a hit.

I was able to find boneless, skinless chicken breasts at Valley Farm this week for $1.99 a pound - hard to beat these days - and along with homemade breadcrumbs (I never, ever buy them) from a leftover French batard I had, this was quite the frugal dinner.

BBQ-Fried Chicken
Smashed Potatoes
Steamed Broccoli
Carrot Cupcakes


BBQ-Fried Chicken
Serves 4

The larger crumb on these makes them crunchier but can be harder to work with. Be sure to press the breadcrumbs onto the chicken well before frying.

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves - pounded or cut to even thickness
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
2 cups large-crumb breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying

Coat each chicken breast in barbecue sauce and then in breadcrumbs - pressing onto spots that are not covered. Fry in hot oil until golden brown on both sides - about 5 minutes each side. Drain well on paper toweling.



Smashed Potatoes
Serves 4

8 white or gold new potatoes - washed well
salt and pepper
olive oil

Cook potatoes in boiling water until just tender - about 15 - 20 minutes. Grease a baking sheet with olive oil and place potatoes on sheet - several inches apart. Gently press down on each potato until they flatten slightly but do not fall apart. Salt and pepper well. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 10 minutes - turn over with tongs being careful to hold each potato together. Bake for another 10 minutes until browned well.

Sunday Dinner: Chuck Roast

Chuck Roast
Potatoes
Carrots
Gravy
Green Salad with Tri-Colored Peppers
Dinner Rolls

I do believe chuck roast is one of the finest foods known to man. It fits my new 'slow' outlook on life and is well worth the wait. It absolutely takes me home - simple, delicious and hearty. I was able to pick up a boneless chuck pot roast for $1.99 a pound yesterday. That's a huge savings over what they normally cost, and right now I was very grateful for that find.

Chuck comes from the shoulder area of a steer and gets more exercise than the nether regions of the animal, so it can be tough if not cooked properly. Chuck benefits from a long slow roast in liquid, also known as braising. Add vegetables toward the end of cooking time for a one-pot meal you can't go wrong making.

Chuck Roast and Vegetables
Serves 8 (or in our case, 9!)

1 4-pound boneless chuck pot roast
2 tablespoons oil
6 cloves garlic - chopped
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon large grind pepper
herbs such as thyme or rosemary - as desired
8 large potatoes
1 pound bag peeled baby carrots
flour

In a large roasting pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the roast and brown on all sides. This really only ensures flavor - it's been found that it does nothing to seal in juices. Top with salt, pepper, garlic and herbs. Add enough liquid to come about 1/3 of the way up the side of the roast. This can be beef stock or just plain water. I also sometimes add a tablespoon or so of tomato paste for extra flavor.

Roast, covered, in a 300 degree F oven for 2 1/2 hours. After that time, add the potatoes and carrots, recover and put back into the oven for another 1 1/2 hours - 4 hours total time. Remove from the oven and let stand, covered, for 20 minutes. Remove roast and vegetables and heat remaining liquid over high heat. Thicken with flour and water as necessary, adjust seasonings and serve with roast.

Your roast should be fork-tender and very easy to serve. There's no cutting involved, simply dole out large forkfuls of this along with the roasted veggies and plenty of gravy.

Sunday Dinner - Al fresco!

Under a honey locust tree, no less. If you have one of these horrid trees in or near your yard, you'll be wondering what on earth I was thinking yesterday. Well, it was a day-after-the-storm day, which means sunny skies and light winds, perfect weather. I couldn't let it pass by without a picnic, but I didn't want to drag the entire family somewhere only to spend the whole day chasing the two youngest kids away from every imaginable danger.

So, we took the dining room table outdoors (not doing THAT again for a decade) and set it up on the lawn. As soon as we set it down it began raining tiny little green things - the little green things that are covering the top of the shed and car and obscuring my garden. Yes, those little things. They make you itch. They come with little green bugs attached sometimes. They are not good.

We traipsed back indoors to find something to cover the eating area with. We finally found a large sheet and thin ropes and went about setting it all up. That done, I finished off our loverly dinner and we ran from door to table before anything could land in the food. We were successful. We were proud. And then the wind blew.

Ah well, we picked and swept and blew our way through dinner and everyone went away full and content (and itchy).

This is what we supped on:

Fried Chicken (mom's recipe)
Roasted Red Potatoes
Vidalia Onion Pie
Cucumber Salad
Homemade Coleslaw (Well, isn't everything I make homemade? I write a food blog! Redundant, no? Onward...)
White Sweet Corn
Rhubarb Crumble with Vanilla Custard


Vidalia Onion Pie

Chicken and Red Potatoes

Kids lovin' the outdoor dining!

Recipes are linked where necessary, and this is the onion pie:

Four Corners Vidalia Onion Casserole

3 cups finely chopped Vidalia onion
3/4 stick unsalted butter
1/2 can cream of chicken soup
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese - grated
hot sauce, pepper, dill, parsley and creole seasoning - all to taste
shredded sharp cheddar cheese - enough to cover each layer
single shallow pie crust

Lightly brown onions in butter in a large frying pan. Stir in soup, eggs, Parmesan and seasonings. Layer the pie crust alternately with several layers of onions and cheddar - ending with cheddar. Bake at 325 degrees F until cheese is light brown - about 1 hour.

**I did this with an unbaked crust and sliced the onions rather than chopping. It was DELICIOUS!

Sunday Dinner

"Thank you for the world so sweet,
Thank you for the food we eat.
Thank you for the birds that sing,
Thank you God for everything."
Child's Mealtime Prayer



Breaded Pork Filets
Risotto
Broccoli with Orange Gremolata
Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Icing

Is that Risotto you see up there? Why, yes - it is! It's not really as difficult to make as anyone thinks, and so delicious I couldn't think of a better way to spend half and hour at the stove. This is one of those classic dishes I've wanted to share the preparation of for some time anyway. No time like the present.
The Gremolata is most often made with lemon zest, but I was missing lemons today so I subbed orange zest. It was perfect.

First, here are the pork filets.

One 1/2" thick boneless prok chop, trimmed of fat.

The "stick" I beat the pork with (a.k.a. Grandma's rolling pin).

The beaten pork. Strike from the center outward in a steady motion until the pork is 1/4" thin.

One clove of garlic cut in half.

After rubbing the pork with the cut garlic, sprinkle with Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Rub this in to the surface of the pork.

I don't like a heavy standard breading - flour, egg, crumbs - so I just pat fresh bread crumbs into both sides of the pork. It's light and crispy at the edges without being heavy in the center.

Frying in hot oil - about 3 minutes per side.

Flipped to the other side. Once all the filets are fried, place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet and finish in the oven at 300 degrees F for about 15-20 minutes.

A finished filet.

This is the Risotto:

Arborio rice. See how pretty it is? Arborio is rounder than usual long-grain rice. Do NOT rinse the rice before cooking. All that starch is what makes it creamy.

Half a small onion diced fine and cooked in olive oil - 4T - until translucent.

The rice (1 lb. about 1 1/2 cups) added to the oil and onion and lightly toasted.

Add HOT stock - you will need 6 to 8 cups - a cup at a time to the rice. Stir until the stock is absorbed. Add, a cup at a time, until you have added 6 cups. This takes about 15 minutes over a medium flame with almost constant stirring. Once you hit this point, try the rice to see if it's done. It should be al dente and not crunchy in the center.

This is the stock absorbed about halfway - 4 cups in. The finished Risotto disappeared before I had the chance to photograph it! Finish the Risotto with 2 tablespoons of butter and about 1/4 cup of freshly grated Parmesan if you like.

The cake. A simple Wacky Cake with peanut butter icing. 1/2 stick of butter, 1 cup of creamy peanut butter, 1 t vanilla extract and 1 cup of powdered sugar. I have several here who don't like lots of icing so I go light. The center of these two mammoth cakes (gorgeous 10" pans I got for Christmas) was nothing but peanut butter spread in between.

Sunday Dinner

This was actually a few weeks ago. Today I'm cheating and making easy chili and cornbread. I may take photos, but it's not really different than anyone else's recipe, I bet!

Herbed Roast Pork and Gravy
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Wilted Baby Spinach with Honey and Bacon
Apple Cobbler

Pork roast, thyme and rosemary.

Salt and pepper the roast first--rub it all over well.

Chop the herbs and cover the roast with those as well.

The roast seared on all sides and ready for the oven.

Roasting garlic--3 cloves in a small square of tin foil.

Wrap up and toss in a 400 degree F oven for about 20 minutes until soft. Mash well before adding to potatoes.

The mashed potatoes with roasted garlic added--these are Yukon Gold.

Spinach with bacon and honey. This was really yummy--even if the photo is blurry.

Another blurry-but-yummy - the pork roast gravy.

I didn't get a photo of the finished roast or the cobbler, but they were sure good!

Simon and Garfunkel Roast Chicken

Yes, you read that right, and if you are old enough to remember, you'll know exactly what that means; Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. I added a couple cloves of garlic to it and this is that herb roasted chicken I mentioned making for Sunday Dinner this week, and it was good.

The beautiful bird.

The freshly chopped herbs (1 tablespoon each), garlic (2 cloves minced) and 1/2 a cup of butter.

Herbed butter under the skin...

...and on top of it.

The gorgeous, and delicious, finished roast.

Sunday Dinner - eventually

I will be making Sunday Dinner today, but I'm not sure if I'll get to post about it with photos or not. Hubby and I have been married for 19 years tomorrow, and we're going out today for our favorite shared acivity - perusing the aisles of a bookstore. After that we may grab lunch, who knows.

Sunday Dinner will be:

Herb Roast Chicken
Jasmine Rice
Gravy
Broccoli or Green Beans -I haven't decided which.

Nothing fancy, just good food.

I've been very busy lately with something that I'm hoping you all will like - my own website. I finally bought a domain name and found a great host site and am losing my eyesight building the thing. I can't afford to have someone do it for me, so I'm doing all the "behind the scenes" stuff by hand and getting a very stiff neck for it.

I'm about 1/3 done and have lots of work to do, but if you'd like to see it thus far, this is the link:

Cooking with Anne

Sunday Dinner

On our table today:

Eye Round Roast with Herbs
Roasted Baby Potatoes and Carrots
Gravy
Green Leaf Lettuce Salad
Kentucky Butter Cake

**Whew! I barely got dinner done this week. We had a visit to Philadelphia for Marty on Thursday and after being sick all last week, Declan, our 8 year-old, woke up sick to his stomach today. I've been racing all day cleaning up and taking care of the non-sick kids in addition to Declan's illness. You can read up on Marty's progress at The Rest of Me.

The roast is real simple - I seared it on all sides in olive oil in a large oven-proof pan and added fresh rosemary, thyme and parsley to it. Then I roasted it in the oven at 350 degrees F for 1 1/2 hours. Let it sit at room temperature for 5 minutes or so before slicing. You can cook it a bit longer, but more than 2 hours for a 3-5 lb. roast would be too much. Add a little red wine if you'd like - not much, about 1 cup would do.

Resting roast.

For gravy, remove the roast and herbs from the roasting pan, add 2 cups of beef stock to the roasting pan and scrape up all the little roasted bits.

Set over high heat and when it starts boiling, pour a mixture of flour and water (1/2 cup water to 1/4 cup flour) in a thin stream into the stock, whisking all the while.

The flour and water mixture.


The only way to keep lumps from forming is to be FAST.


Do this in small amounts to check for consistency; if you put too much in, you'll get brown glue. Once it's the right thickness, let it simmer for a few minutes to cook out all the flour. Season with salt and pepper and strain if you'd like before using.
"Cooking out" the flour.
The right consistency.
You'll see my gravy color isn't too dark, that's because I didn't sear the roast enough before cooking. You could add something like Kitchen Bouquet, but I like to just go with the real dea. Besides, it sure tasted good.

The roasted baby vegetables were all simply washed, tossed into a large baking pan and drizzled with olive oil. I sprinkled these with coarse salt and coarse pepper and covered with foil before putting in the oven - that same 350 degrees F - for an hour or until tender and nicely colored.
Baby veggies ready to go into the oven.

Roast and Veggies.
Salad is pretty straightforward - wash your lettuce, dry very well, tear in bite sized pieces and add whatever you like. The Kentucky Butter Cake is linked for you, and you don't want to miss that one!

Sunday Dinner

Dinner today is certainly not the traditional "Sunday Dinner" - I didn't roast anything! Actually, I think Sunday Dinner is whatever brings family - by any definition - together.

Chicken Fried Rice
Wonton Soup
Almond Cookies

Chicken fried rice is so easy that I don't really have a recipe for it. Technically, it's cold cooked rice, a little oil and soy sauce. I like to add garlic and ginger to mine along with diced onion and other veggies if I have them on-hand. For my family, though, the less there is, the more likely they are to eat it.

I start out with a hot wok or non-stick pan and add about a tablespoon of oil. Usually a neutral oil like canola is best, but I also use sesame oil from time to time. Toss in about 2 cups of already cooked and cooled rice - make SURE it's cool, or it will all turn to mush! Day old cold rice is best. Stir it around and toss in soy sauce to taste - a tablespoon or so - and stir until heated through. That's it! If I'm making it with chicken-like tonight-I add diced uncooked chicken to the oil first and cook until no longer pink. Then I finish up as above.

Wonton Soup is available in two different ways where I live; order it from a Chinese restaurant, or make it yourself. I like to make my own.

Here's another "no-recipe": I chop up chicken breasts, season with sherry, soy sauce - a tablespoon of each to a pound of ground chicken, garlic and ginger - about a teaspoon of each, freshly minced (and green onion if dear husband is not eating) and wrap up in wonton wrappers.


Minced chicken with sherry, soy, garlic and ginger and wonton wrappers.


Centered on the wrapper.


Folded over.


Long corners brought together and sealed with a little water.

I set those aside - covered - and make the chicken stock.


Wontons in waiting.

To already prepared stock I add several slices of fresh ginger and garlic. Let that simmer for half an hour and strain.


Rapidly boiling.

Bring it to a rapid boil and drop in several wontons at a time and cook until they surface and stay there.


Surfaced and ready!

Add three wontons to a bowl, top with stock and sliced green onion.


Perfectly yummy.

As for almond cookies, that I have a recipe for.

Almond Cookies
Makes about 36

1/2 cup margarine, shortening or butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
whole almonds for the tops

Cream butter, shortening or margarine with sugar. Add egg and almond and mix well. Add dry ingredients - except almonds - and blend. Roll into 36 balls and place on ungreased cookie sheets lined with foil or parchment. Press an almond into each cookie and bake 20 minutes in a 350 degree F oven.