Adobo Chicken and Rice



It is not pretty, but damn is it ever convenient.


So most of what I have posted to date has been recipes I have either loved or found unique. This is neither of those. This is easy, like your mom. BURN! It is filing. It resents the four "classic" food groups. The wifey likes it. It makes for great left overs. I could go on. Point is this is a quick easy type thing not a gourmet kind of thing.

Resources:
1 container (8 oz.) yellow rice
1 tablespoons oil (roughly)
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced
2 teaspoons Adobo All-Purpose Seasoning without pepper
1/4 medium green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Method:
Over medium heat, bring 2 cups water to boil. Add contents of yellow rice mix; return water to boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Cook, covered, until water is absorbed and rice is tender, about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oil in medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell peppers and onions to skillet. Cook for a minute or two. Add chicken and Adobo. Mix well. Cook, stirring, until vegetables are soft and chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.
Stir in cooked chicken and veggies into the rice until combined. Mix in cheese a handful at a time, stirring until melted. Serve warm.

Commentary:
Make sure you pan is big enough for everything, ie if it is nearly full with just the rice it is not big enough. Or you can do it the opposite route and add the rice to the chicken, whatever is easier.

We've tried a couple different brands of yellow rice, but this one is our preferred.



By "our" I mean the wifey's as I cannot tell the difference between this and the other Vigo Yellow Rice.

I usually mix up the cheese. We usually use half shredded cheddar and shredded half reduced fat Mexican blend. Why those two? Those are the two cheeses we always have in the house.

Although pretty easy, this does require a fair bit of slicing an dicing.

I cheated and used pre-shredded cheese.

I frequently make this in double batches. One batch is just about right (or maybe a bit much) for the two of us. A double batch allows for a couple meals of leftovers as well.


So we make this a fair bit and I decided to buy the bulk Adobo seasoning. The lid did not like me. :(


Oh what a nice lid you have. The better for measuring spoons.
Right?

Oh look, it is even conveniently labeled which one is the spoon side. How nice.

DENIED!!!

Conclusion:
Happy wifey! Leftovers galore! Minimal effort and cleanup! What is not to love?

Chili-Dusted Pork Chops

Served with carrots because I am lazy.

I love pork. There is something special about eating Babe for me. And while I do love bacon, the internet gets it wrong. It is not bacon that is magic, but the pig in general. Consider this nugget of wisdom from the Simpsons:

Homer: Lisa, honey, are you saying you're never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad! Those all come from the same animal!
Homer: [chuckling] Yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.

So let us have a pork chop!

Aside: before you dismiss this dish as too spicy: there is very little heat in this recipe. I was a little surprised. It is all citrus. So if crazy, ultra-super, über sensitive to heat like my almost ninety year old grandmother, do not eat this. Otherwise feel free to proceed.

Resources:

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Four 1/2-pound boneless pork loin chops, cut 1 1/4 inches thick

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lime (about a 1/2 teaspoon of zest)

3 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro (or less)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 400°. In a small bowl, mix the chili powder with the cumin, salt and pepper. Sprinkle the spice mixture all over both sides of the pork chops.
 

In a large ovenproof skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the pork chops and cook over high heat until browned, about 1 minute per side. Add the garlic, lime zest, lime juice, and cilantro to the skillet and roast the chops in the center of the oven for 10 minutes, or until rosy throughout. Transfer to plates and serve.

Commentary:

Also I am going to be honest, I never use FRESH ground pepper. I always use the canned stuff.

As for the lime, I get a small one. Then zest most of the skin and then measure out a half teaspoon. I do not go crazy trying to squeeze out all the juice either.

This rub is kind of sticky. Do NOT drag you chops though it: sprinkle. The first time I made this I drug them through and had all kinds of clumpy pockets of seasoning. So sprinkle: do not rub, drag, shake, cha-cha, or otherwise not sprinkle.

Seriously, if you are half paying attention you can do a better job than this.

Above you might notice six pork chops as opposed to four. You will also not they are paper thin. Well long story short: my grocery sucks. That is a grand total of 0.8 lbs of meat. Sigh. They had some better cuts that were bone in, but as previously noted: lazy. I had to adjust the cooking time and as a result the garlic was a little firm.

I always use my Dutch oven for this recipe. Dutch oven: giggle, giggle. It is just easier having a pot I can take straight from the stove top to the oven. Plus it is less cleaning than transferring to a baking dish.

Dutch oven on the left: no plastic.
Typical pot on the right: lots of plastic.
One goes in the oven just fine, the other not so much: poison gas.

I hear that little voice out there in internet landing saying "Excuse me you say 'or less' on the cilantro, why?" (Little voice. Get it? I amuse myself greatly!) Well that is because as much as I love cilantro it can overwhelm this dish when in combination with the lime. I generally shoot for enough on each chop that I think each bite will have a little.

Let us talk chicken for a moment. In a desire to share this wonderful recipe with the wifey, who does not eat pork, I made it with chicken one day. It did not go well. The citrus completely overwhelmed EVERYTHING. It was like sucking on a lime that had been sprinkled with cilantro. If I ever go chicken again I will cut back heavily on the lime juice, zest, and cilantro.

Conclusion:

If you eat pork, you should make this now. If you do not eat pork that means more left overs for breakfast the next day for the pork eaters in your house,,so you should also selflessly make this now. Everyone wins!

White Macaroni and Cheese

Your goal is to eat it all!

So comfort foods are a fantastic thing and mac 'n cheese is king among them. Seriously pasta is comfort food, cheese is comfort food, and mac 'n cheese is pretty much just large quantities of both. How can you go wrong? Plus the wifey loves it and she was not feeling well the other day. Hence you get a blog entry.

While I like the Kraft boxed stuff, you can do much better. So a while back I went on a mission to find the perfect mac 'n cheese recipe. I think I got pretty close. I started with a Rachel Ray recipe and tweaked it to my taste. The crunchy topping was a bit I am quite proud of. I also added the word white to the title to make it sound racist.

Resources:
2 chicken breasts (~1.5 lbs)
1 pound elbow macaroni
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
3 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups 2% milk (or whole)
0.8 lbs (or 3 cups shredded) white cheddar cheese, divided
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
Salt
2 tablespoons fine bread crumbs
1/4 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon parsley

Method:
Cook chicken and finely dice.

Cook pasta al dente (ie still a little firm). Drain.

Heat a medium, deep skillet (or a pot) over medium heat. Add oil and butter. When butter melts into the oil, add flour and combine. Gently cook, whisking flour and butter together, until smooth and flour has had a chance to cook, about 1-2 minutes. Slowly add milk while continuing to whisk. Gently bring milk to a bubble while stirring frequently. Allow the milk to thicken a bit, then stir in 2 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese a handful at a time continuing to stir. Season sauce with nutmeg and cayenne. Add salt to taste. Add cooked pasta and chicken to sauce and coat completely by turning over and over in the cheese sauce. Continue mixing until warmed throughout.

Transfer to a baking dish and top with remaining cheese. Press down mixture. Mix the basil, oregano, parsley, and bread crumbs. Sprinkle on top.  Place baking dish under a hot broiler and brown the cheddar cheese on top. Serve right away.


Commentary:

Do NOT use cheap cheese. You do not have to use the most expensive thing you find, but do use the discount brand pre-shredded either. At my grocery there is usually two Vermont white cheddars. One is aged and the price is ridiculous. The other is not aged (or aged less I forget) and is just fine. Seriously we are talking less than a pound, spring for the decent stuff.

I add the milk to the flour / butter usually in four or five parts. Be sure to mix thoroughly each time before adding more. Here is an exciting frame by frame!

Flour & Butter

A little milk

Roughly half the milk

All the milk. Was not that exciting?

You have to love imperial measurements. Three teaspoons is a tablespoon, sixteen tablespoons is a cup. So random. So meaningless. Anyway one thing the wifey brought to the marriage was a half tablespoon measuring spoon. If you do not have one, get one. I love it. It comes helpful especially when halving recipes.

A rare and precious treasure!



Evidence my stove is not level.

I mention pushing down on the mixture. You are going for density here. I usually do it before and after the cheese.

Push it real good.

In my head there was no way cayenne and nutmeg were going to make a good flavor combination. Yet it works. Both flavors come through a little. So if you strongly dislike one or the other reduce a little, but do not skip.

Mac 'n cheese's odd couple.

In the first picture you saw the coloration of the crunchy topping I use. Be careful. This goes from no color to burnt under a broiler very quickly. That is the reason I do not suggest preheating the oven. I seriously check it roughly once a minute. Trust me you do not want to serve the wifey burnt crunchy topping when she is already feeling poorly!

Speaking of the topping, that a total shot in the dark that worked. Feel free to mix it up a bit.

Conclusion:
Good for what ails you.

Balsamic Cream Sauce

Strictly speaking the sauce is pictured here.

That said, this is what we are actually cooking today.

So I was on the fence if this would actually be blog worthy. I mean I cook something most everyday. But I am not going to post every time I boil a bit of pasta or get my Shake 'n Bake on. I am sure Shakespeare wrote thank you notes or letters about Hamnet's first word. Does not mean anyone wants to read it.

This recipe started as most of my biggest failures start: left over ingredients. I had a large amount of cream left over from the honey butter sauce. I had half a left over red onion from the wifey making guacamole. I had some left over butter noodles from something or another. A few Google searches later, I had this recipe too. But it was just to get rid of left overs, so I had no expectations.

Then I made it: cream of cromulent*, reduction of radiance, essence of ecstasy. This was good.

Resources:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter
1/4 red onion, finely minced
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Method:

Heat the olive oil and butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat (or low if you have a hot stove like me). Stir in the onion, and cook about 15 minutes until very tender.

Stir in the balsamic vinegar, and cook for 1 minute before stirring in the chicken bouillon and cream. Crush the cubes to mix better.

Pause** as necessary.

Increase heat to medium. Bring to a simmer, then remove from the heat, and stir in the parmesan cheese a little at a time until melted.

Commentary:
So this is not exactly what I would call a healthy meal. Butter, oil, and cream: three ways to die happy... and early.

I seem to remember my doctor suggesting I eat more fatty foods.
Or was that less... whatever.

Well now we have a vegetable, so that makes it healthy right?

I got the impression the original recipe was shooting for yellow or white onions. I went red and will never look back.

I wanted those onions to be very soft hence the finely minced and cook time. I did not want to really be aware of them as I ate them.

The recipe originally called for two teaspoons of bouillon granules. I only have cubes.

It might be nice to have something to serve the sauce with. I went with some chicken and egg noodles. That sounded almost healthy, so I made a point to cook the chicken in large amount of butter.

Butter. Round 2. Fight!

  
Balsamic is a big flavor here, but do not let that put you off. This is not vinegary, it actually came out quite sweet and creamy.

One thing I struggle with is using left overs ingredients without buying new stuff. So while I would prefer to use real parmesan instead of the Kraft I had in the fridge, I used the Kraft. This made the sauce a little grainy. If you can I would use the real stuff.

That said, right before cooking I went though my vinegars: white, apple cider, sherry x2, rice, Masala, red wine... no balsamic. Since I was sold at this point, I went to the grocery for one ingredient (because I was not thinking cheese at the moment).

I should probably discuss quantity. For two people, this was ample sauce. I think it would be a stretch for four.

* - I really struggled to find a "C" work that meant great. Then I settled for a Simpsons reference. Please note the obvious answers I missed in the comments.

** - So this was not in the recipe originally. I just got distracted by stuff. So I had a unplanned five minute delay here. I doubt this had any real impact on the recipe other than maybe thickening it a little.

Conclusion:
This is absolutely a keeper. It is an easy, quick "white" sauce. I can imagine putting this on all kinds of pasta and meats.

Spicy Peanut Noodles and Soy Almonds

Who is ready for a quickie? My nuts are worth it trust me!

Seriously though, I am feeling lazy today. You are getting a half hearted post. Deal with it.

The pasta is a go to quick meal. The nuts are just an excuse to get rid of the extra almonds I bought for yesterday's post.



This is one of my favorite.



Mmm. Salty nuts.

Spicy Peanut Noodles

Resources:

1 pound spaghetti or any pasta

3/4 cup smooth peanut butter

1/2 cup unseasoned rice vinegar, DIVIDED

3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon sugar

6 tablespoons soy sauce

1/4 cup water

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

2 teaspoons crushed red pepper

One 2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped (I used 1 tablespoon fresh ginger)

1 large garlic clove

3 celery ribs, thinly sliced

1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro leaves and tender stems

Method:

In a pot of boiling salted water, cook the spaghetti until al dente. Drain well.

In a blender, puree the peanut butter with 6 tablespoons of the vinegar, 3 tablespoons of the sugar, the soy sauce, water, sesame oil, crushed red pepper, ginger and garlic. Transfer 1/2 cup of the peanut dressing to a bowl and toss with the noodles.

In another bowl, toss the celery with the cilantro and the remaining 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of sugar.

Transfer the noodles to bowls and drizzle with the remaining peanut dressing. Top with the celery.

Make Ahead:

The peanut dressing can be refrigerated for 2 days.

Soy Almonds

Resources:

6 ounce can of unflavored almonds

1 1/2 tablespoons of peanut oil

1 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce

cayenne pepper

salt

Method:

In a small slow cooker mix all the ingredients except salt.

Cook on high for 15 minutes, remove cover, cook for another 2 1/2 hours on low. Stir occasionally.

Salt the nuts to taste. Spread the nuts out and allow to cool.

Commentary:

Make sure to divide the vinegar. I always forget. As mentioned yesterday, do not be me.

This will make the sauce thin (as shown). I always dump all the vinegar in like an idiot. Hence the bold underlined "divided" above.

If you peanut sauce is a little thin: more peanut butter.

  

Not a power shake.

I usually skip the celery. This is a recipe I make frequently as a quick lunch. It is fairly scalable to a quarter for a single serving. That and I skip the celery / cilantro to cut down on effort

Pictured: effort.

A little diced chicken is a nice addition to the pasta. Also it is against the rules for me to have a completely vegetarian post.

Both recipes are easily adjusted heat wise. Depending on my mood there is more or less (or no) red pepper for the pasta. I have only made the nuts once but I just used the tiniest sprinkle twice and there was no heat to speak of.

As far as the nuts go, the original recipe calls for Tamari soy sauce. Did not have it. Used La Choy reduced sodium.

Also I like my nuts salty, so the reduced sodium soy did not cut it. I added salt to taste. If you are not using reduced sodium or do not like salt, be careful!

Conclusions:

I make the pasta all the time.

Also the wifey love my nuts. Enough said about that.

Spicy Almond-Crusted Chicken with Honey Butter Sauce

Warning: nuts contains nuts.

Beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer. So now that I have that out of my system, I think Stone Brewery is one of the most influential breweries out there. At least they are to me personally. Like most my age, college was cheap yellow fizzy. After a Coors Brewery tour, I drank Blue Moon when I could get my hands on it, but that was about it. The first year after college my buddy Trevor introduced me to Stone's Imperial Russian Stout. The flood gates were opened. My mind was blown. It looked like motor oil. It tasted nothing like Guinness, a beer I never loved and my only point of reference for stouts. Fast forward quite a few years and I am a loyal Stone customer. So when I had a chance to see Greg Koch (CEO & Co-Founder) speak, I was in like Flint. He was selling the book that today's recipe comes from The Craft of Stone Brewing Co. I am a little ashamed to admit even though this was a couple years ago, I have never made anything from it... until now!

Disclaimer: I never drink Stone's Imperial Russian Stout if it is less than six months old. Yes aging beer is a thing and yes it matters. This may sound weird to you non-beer nerds, but trust me. If you are going to drink it, age it first or buy last year's release.

Knowing people is not always a good thing.

Interestingly enough this recipe does use alcohol but not Stone beer. The recipe recommends pairing it with their Cali-Belgique IPA, which I did, but the alcohol used is a dry white wine. I love dry white wine shallot sauces, so I was all about this guy.

Picture is a bit blurry but by the end of the night so was I.

Beer, wine, shallots? Ok I am drooling, let's get to it.

Spicy Almond-Crusted Chicken
Resources:
1 1/4 cups blanched slivered almonds, separated
1 cup panko
1 Serrano pepper, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large chicken breasts slice thicknesswise
lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
honey butter sauce (recipe to follow)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Spread 1/4 cup of the almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast for 4 minutes, stir, and turn them over. Continue roasting until golden about 4-5 additional minutes. Reduce the oven to 350°F and set aside the almonds to cool.

Put the remaining 1 cup of almonds in a food processor, along with the panko, Serrano, crushed red pepper, flour, and salt. Pulse until the mixture is finely ground.

Coat the chicken breasts with the mixture and lightly sprinkle with lime juice.

Heat the oil in an ovenproof pan or skillet over high heat. Sear the chicken until browned and crispy: 1-2 minutes per side. Set the pan in the oven and bake until cooked through (15-20 minutes for me, but this is all about the girth of your meat). Serve immediately with honey butter sauce and topped with the roasted almonds.

Honey Butter Sauce - Be sure to read the commentary before attempting
Resources:
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cracked black peppercorns
1 teaspoon minced shallot
1 small bay leaf
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons honey
1/2 cup very cold unsalted butter, cubed

Method:
Combine the wine, vinegar, peppercorns, shallots, and bay leaf in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Once the mixture is simmering, adjust the heat to maintain a brisk simmer and cook until the liquid is mostly evaporated, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the cream and honey and continue simmering until the volume is reduced by half, 3 to 5 minutes. (This portion of the sauce can be made up to 1 hour before serving. Simply return to simmer when you are ready to proceed with the recipe.)

Turn the heat down to low. Remove the pan from the heat and add a few cubes of butter, whisking constantly until the butter has been completely incorporated. Return the pan to the heat, and add several more cubes of butter, again whisking constantly until the butter completely incorporated. Continue to add the butter, a few cubes at a time, alternating with the pan on and off the heat and whisking with each addition, until all of the butter is incorporated (see comments).

Stain the sauce though a fine-mesh and serve hot.

Commentary: 
Growing up in the Midwest, seafood was never my thing. In all fairness, my exposure as a kid was Red Lobster and McDonald's Filet-O-Fish. As an aside, the wifey has no excuse since she grew up kosher in Boston, but oddly she dislikes seafood even more than me. So while as an adult I have come to realize seafood can be quite enjoyable, I never make it at home. I mean literally never. So when I read a recipe that says tilapia, my mind reads it as chicken. Today's recipe is supposed to be tilapia. You make it how you want and I will do the same. :P

This is a pretty involved recipe, so read it through once or twice and leave plenty of time.

This was just the prep work folks. Get ready for a long, sweaty day in this kitchen with this one.

I used a pinot grigio I had lying around for my dry white wine.

As far as the beer pairing: thumbs down. Like a good little beer hipster I love IPAs. No wait, IPAs are so last year! Gawd... Anyway, I just do not think they pair with food well. The bitterness is too much. I like my IPAs as a stand along thing. Cali-Bel is a good one too.

I am an engineer by training. I think of things logically. I want nuts, I got to the nut section. I looked at the wasabi almonds, the caramel almonds, the salt & vinegar almonds, etc and got mad. There were not any blanched almond slivers. So I bought plain almonds thinking I would make due. Two hours later I go back to the store because I remembered they are in the baking section NOT the nut section. Do not be me.

Toasted nuts shown with untoasted for reference.
Also I hate my local grocery store!

I cracked my peppercorns lightly with a spoon. 

With the Pyrex and the spoon I feel like this belongs in a anti-drugs commercial.
Drugs are bad, m'kay? Don't do drugs, m'kay?

The wifey hates spicy. I love spicy. I also love the wifey, so I try to make her happy. Yet I still want spicy food. What is a guy to do? One thing I loved about this recipe was how easy it was to make in spicy and non-spicy batches. I ran the breading through the food processor without the red pepper and Serrano. Before breading the chicken, I split the breading into two batches and ran half though the food processor again, this time with spicy ingredients. I was being overly paranoid thinking this was going to be pretty spicy (spoiler: it is not) so I pan fried and baked separately.

Love is separated chicken.

So I obviously did not put my skillet in the oven. I just transferred the chicken to some Pyrex before baking.

BTW my browser is capitalizing Serrano, not me. I am just too lazy to change it. I am pretty sure it should not be. Also I am too lazy to look that up though.

This sauce has a tendency to separate. So keeping the heat on low and adding the butter slowly is key. The cookbook has a two paragraph disclaimer that basically boils down to: use very cold butter and occasionally remove the pan from the heat as the butter melts.

This is the "This portion of the sauce can be made..." break.

Butter! More butter!
I do not want to be able to see my toes by the time I am done with dinner!

ALL the butter! Muhahaha!

Conclusion:
This is a tough one. I do not think I would make it again. The good: the breading was light and fluffy as panko tends to be. It had a wonderfully mild almond flavor (although the toasted bits were a bit much). The butter sauce had just the right amount of honey flavor and was the highlight of the dish. The bad: all combined it was just ok. It was a lot of effort and little reward. The spice level was very low on the spicy batch as previously noted, which made me a sad panda. Also this obviously lost something on the conversion to chicken. I think it needed more salt because chicken.

tldr version: it was good, but not worth the effort.