Pancetta Roasted Chicken

This is a great dish I learned to make at the cooking class I attended (Whisked Away- Phoenix). Recipe by Alex Palermo. This dish is great for a dinner party... the fennel and sage smell amazing in this dish. I made this with my Scalloped Potato Gratin and Arugula Salad with Manchego and Caramelized Walnuts. Everyone loved the whole meal. It requires a bit of chopping, but over all it isn't too difficult a dish. I chopped the carrots and onions the night before to help with my prep time. This recipe yields 8 generous servings... You could probably cut recipe in half or just make if you are having a dinner party.

* 3-4 T butter (enough to completely coat skillet)
* 1 cup chopped onion (I used sweet onion)
* 3/4 cup small cubes peeled carrot (see below for the demo I learned in cooking class on how to cube a carrot. 3/4 cup came from one very large carrot)
* 2 large fresh sage leaves, minced (I used 4 because I really wanted that extra flavor from the sage)
* 1 large garlic clove- halved (I used 2 because I love garlic)
* 1/4 cup dry white wine (I used chardonnay)
* 1 cup small cubes crustless country bread (I used a loaf of fresh french baguette bread)
* 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
* 1 large egg, beaten to blend
* 1 T grated fresh parmesan cheese
* 1/2 tsp salt (Kosher)
* 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper (I used much more of this)
* 8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
* 8 thin pancetta slices
* 3 large fresh fennel bulbs, trimmed, each cut into 6 wedges

Preheat oven to 400 F. Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, carrot, sage and garlic. Saute until carrot is tender, about 10 minutes. Add wine; simmer until evaporated, scraping up browned bits. Remove from heat. Mix in bread, walnuts, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Taste to see if seasoned enough. If so, then add egg and mix together well. Remove garlic halves.

Make a slit in chicken breasts opening them up (not sure what correct term is... butterflying them?)  Spoon stuffing into cavitites of chickens; skewer cavities closed. You can add more butter and rub over each chicken breast if you wish... I didn't. Season each chicken generously with salt and pepper. Arrange in roasting pan. Lay 1 pancetta slice over the top of each chicken breast. Surround the chicken with the fennel wedges.

Roast chickens and fennel for aprox 30 mins, turn fennel over and keep roasting aprox another 15-20 mins, until chicken is golden and thermometer reads 165. Basting with pan juices. Once done, let rest about 10 minutes before serving.  Serve chicken with pan juices.

Enjoy!!

Cubing a carrot...

cut one side  

lay on flat side and cut each side

now both sides and bottom should be flat. 

Flip to cut last side

cut each square into 3rds...                  

Here it's cut into 3rds

lay each piece flat and you'll cut each into 3rds again

cut each into 3rds

once in 3rds again, cut into cubes.

3/4 cup

Ok, now that we have the carrot done... :) haha

saute carrot, onion, sage and garlic halves. 

cube bread

add parm cheese, walnuts and bread. Season and taste. Then add egg

Add wine and simmer till evaporated

Butterfly chicken breasts

Season outside generously

Stuff with the stuffing mixture

Top with pancetta and put wedged fennel all around

Roast in oven

Half is enough for most people, especially if serving with other sides. Don't mind my fancy purple plastic plates:) I cooked for 12 of us... after all that cooking, who wants to do dishes??!! NOT ME!!

Arugula Salad with Manchego and Caramelized Walnuts

I'm not kidding when I say this... this is by far the best salad I've EVER had... better than any restaurant I've ever been to as well!! The ingredients are a little more pricey than regular salads, but it is very worth every penny. I first learned to make this in a cooking class (Whisked Away- Phoenix), and I served it for a dinner party over the holidays. Everyone RAVED about it and wanted more salad... they didn't even care about what I was making for dinner!! The recipe came from Catal Restaurant and Uva Bar and yields 6-8 servings.

This salad is great on it's own as a lunch or part of a meal... or you can add chicken, steak or even salmon to make it a complete meal. I like it just the way it is though!!

I made the caramelized walnuts the night before and just stored them at room temp in tupperware.

* 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
* 1/2 cup walnut oil (this smells amazing!)
* 3 T Champagne vinegar (This can be hard to find)
* 8-10 cups arugula
* 2 Fuji apples, unpeeled, cored, thinly sliced (can use any tart, hard apple... Red delicious...)
* 6 oz Spanish Manchego cheese or sharp white cheddar cheese, shaved (I LOVE manchego)
* 1 1/2 cups pitted dates, sliced
* 1 cup caramelized walnuts (recipe below)
* 2 medium shallots, minced

1. Whisk oil and champagne vinegar in bowl. Season with salt and pepper. (can be made 4 hours ahead. Keep at room temperature and rewhisk before using).

2. Boil Balsamic vinegar in small saucepan over medium-high heat until syrupy and reduced to 1/4 cup- about 4 minutes (until syrupy and thickened... not blackened) Remove from heat

3. Toss arugula, apples, half of cheese, dates, walnuts and shallots in large bowl with enough vinaigrette to coat (you may not need it all). Season salad with salt and pepper.

4. Mound salad in center of a platter (or on each plate). Drizzle balsamic syrup around salad(s). Sprinkle remaining cheese atop the salad.


Caramelized Walnuts Recipe:

* Nonstick vegetable oil spray (pam)
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 2 T balsamic vinegar
* 1 1/2 cups walnuts

Preheat oven to 325. line heavy rimmed baking sheet with foil and spray foil with nonstick spray. Combine sugar and vinegar in small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves into vinegar, about 3 minutes. Add nuts and coat. Transfer mixture to baking sheet.

Bake until nuts are deep brown and syrup thickens and coats nuts. Stir occasionally. Takes about 10 minutes. Cool completely on baking sheet. Break nuts apart. (can be made up to 2 days ahead of time. Store airtight at room temp)

Enjoy!!

I got the dates and walnuts from Costco and the champagne vinegar and walnut oil from Safeway.

After roasting nuts 

Boiling down balsamic to reduce into a glaze 

chopped shallots, dates and apples

Toss in bowl

I placed salad on large platter

drizzle balsamic over top and top with rest of cheese (picture I took at cooking class)

A picture from when I made it the second time.

Dutch Oven Braised Short Ribs- A Mario Batali recipe

We loved these Beef short ribs! I made this for 7 adults last night and they turned out awesome! They were very tender and tasty. They weren't hard to make either, just a bit time consuming with all the chopping. But you can always do that ahead of time. I definitely recommend using good quality ribs when making this. They will be a bit fatty, but I think that adds to the flavor:) I wouldn't recommend trimming them (or if you do, not too much). This wasn't the healthiest of meals, but I will for sure make it again!!! This is more of a special occasion, or dinner party, meal since it is a bit pricey. I think the meat was about $20 and then the wine and fresh herbs and veggies can run up the bill as well... and not to mention some delicious sides to go with... and maybe more wine to drink on the side:)

Ingredients:

* 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (or enough to coat bottom of pan)
* 4 16 oz spare ribs. (I used two packages- each package was around 2lbs and had 6 spare ribs in each)
* Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
* 2 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
* 1 small-medium sweet onion, roughly chopped
* 2 celery stalks, roughly chopped (I used 3)
* 5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced (I used 3 big ones)
* 2 cups Barolo, or other full-bodied red wine. (I used 2 1/2 cups of a Zinfandel)
* 1 16 oz can of peeled, whole tomatoes, crushed by hand with their juices
* 1 cup brown chicken stock (I just used Swanson low sodium chicken broth I had on hand)
* 1/2 bunch Thyme
* 1/2 bunch Rosemary
* 1/2 bunch Oregano

1. Preheat oven to 375. Put dutch oven (or heavy-bottomed oven proof skillet) on stove top and heat up. (medium-high heat)

2. Once pan is heated, add your olive oil. While oil is heating, season your ribs with salt and pepper.

3. Cook ribs on each side until deep brown on all sides (around 15 minutes total.) Remove short ribs to a plate and set aside.

4. Add carrots, onion, celery and garlic to the pan and cook over high heat until browned and softened (5-6 minutes). Season with salt and pepper (and I added Nature Seasonings) and stir in red wine.

5. I let the wine cook on high for about 4-5 minutes and then I added the tomatoes and juices, chicken stock and herbs, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to dislodge the brown bits. Bring mixture to a boil and return the short ribs to the pan.

6. Cover with aluminum foil (I just put the Dutch Oven lid on) and place in oven. Cook for 2 hours, or until meat is very tender and literally falling off the bones. Remove herb stems and discard.

Serve ribs and spoon over some of the sauce. We served ours with Scalloped Potato Gratin that I added zucchini and onion slices to, Baked beans, Buttermilk Biscuits, Red Onion Marmalade, and Caprese Salad.

Chop onions 

Chop carrots and celery

Thinly slice garlic

I used almost half of each- just throw whole stems in! Seems like a lot of herbs, but you remove the stems at the end... it's all for flavoring. 

Here is one package of the meat I used. One package was a little under 2 lbs and one package was a little over 2 lbs. (4 lbs total)

Notice there are 12 of them in all

I used 2/3 of the bottle (This is an $8 bottle- don't use your good stuff. I used the other 1/3 bottle to make my Red Onion Marmalade... or you can just drink it:) )

Brown ribs on all 6 sides until they are dark brown... then remove and place on a plate and set aside

saute your onion, carrot, celery and garlic with some seasonings until soft.

Add wine and cook on high for a few minutes before adding tomatoes with juices and your broth. Stir well with wooden spoon, scraping sides.

Add all your herbs.

Bring to a boil and put ribs back in pot. Make sure they are covered (or almost all covered) with the liquid. If not, add a little water or more broth or wine.

After cooking 2 hours and then letting sit 15 minutes outside of oven with cover still on.

Serve!

I like to top with some of the juices and veggies! YUM

ENJOY!!

Chicken Mango Curry

Ok, this is one of MY favorite meals. My husband doesn't care for it... he'll eat it once, but won't take seconds or eat it as left overs. It makes a TON so i end up eating it for days... and I never get sick of it. I try to make it when I know friends will be over. Everyone really seems to like it except my picky husband and kids.

I got the recipe from a friend who had this dish at a Thai restaurant and loved it and ended up duplicating it. The key for this recipe is in the curry you buy. You need to get the Mae Ploy yellow curry paste! I had to drive 40 minutes to a local store to get it. I know you can get it on amazon or you can buy it on line at this site: http://grocerythai.com/ploy-yellow-curry-paste-ploy-p-492.html . I show pictures below... others just aren't the same. This seems like a fussy recipe, but it's really not at all. I use my dutch oven for this recipe. So does my friend. If you don't have one, i'm sure you could just do it over a large sauce pan... I've just never tried and cooking times may vary...

Thank you Marty and Lindsay for this amazing recipe!!

Ingredients:
*2-3T EVOO
*2 medium zucchini- cut in half moons
*1 yellow squash- cut in half moons
*1 onion- lg chop
*1/2 bag of carrot chips (optional... i add these but my friend doesn't)
*1 red bell pepper- chopped into 1 inch pieces
*2 bunches green onion- cut into 2 inch slices
*1-2 lg jalapeno's - finely chopped (two if you like spice like me. I also get a third to chop up and put on
          top raw for the extra heat and crunch)
*3-4 T (or to taste) Mae Ploy yellow curry paste
*1 can coconut milk
*1 can chicken broth (14 oz)
*1 large handful fresh basil- roll stacked leaves into cigar shape and slice thin (chiffonade)
*1 can bamboo shoots- drained
*1 can water chesnuts- drained
*3 T Thai fish sauce
*2 T Brown Sugar
*2 Cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
*3/4 rotisserie chicken- shredded into bite size chunks
*2 fresh mangos- peeled and sliced (or a large bag of frozed mango- defrosted)
*Sticky rice

1. In your large pot, put in the EVOO, zucchini, squash, onion, red bell pepper, green onion, carrots, jalapeno, and some salt and pepper. Saute until almost done- not mushy.  I show this above.
2. Add the curry and the coconut milk. Mix well. 

In the container is the bag of curry... this is what it looks like.

Putting the curry in

   3. Add chicken broth. Stir some more. Then add the basil, bamboo shoots, water chesnuts, thai fish sauce, brown sugar and tomotoes

This is after adding curry, coconut milk and broth

This is the fish sauce i use. Stays good in pantry for awhile.

Chiffonading the Basil

After adding all the above.

    4. When all is heated through, add the chicken and the mango.

    5. Serve in large Bowls over rice

** I like to add fresh jalapeno and lime to the top as I'm eating it. It's pretty healthy and it's restaurant quality! Enjoy!!

***To save time, I always cut all the veggies either the night before after kids are in bed, or during the day when I can find time. Put them in zip lock baggy or tupperware in fridge until ready to start cooking. I also always shred the chicken before hand and put in fridge. The only prep work i do while cooking is cutting the mango if I buy it fresh and cutting the basil.

This is the Dutch Oven I have... I LOVE it. Not only does it cook evenly and you can use it both on the stove top and in the oven, but the clean up is my favorite part. No need to soak these for days and scrub as hard as you can... this comes clean by just running water over it... no joke! I want his whole line! (The lasagna pan in on my wish list :) )


Here is another good one that is a little easier on the budget.