Sunday Supper: Buttermilk-Brined Chicken

Inspired by the recipe for buttermilk-brined chicken in this month's Bon Appetit magazine I made a version of this chicken dish for Sunday supper with the family. It came out crispy and flavorful while insanely juicy—it was delish.

So begins my adaptation: I threw about 1.5 cups buttermilk, 1 tablespoon chopped garlic, and 1 sliced lemon in a plastic bag with a nicely salted organic chicken, and popped it in the fridge in the morning when I woke up. Around midday I repositioned the chickadee and then let it sit a while longer.

When I removed the chicken from the marinade, I rinsed off the excess buttermilk and patted it dry. I repurposed the lemon from the marinade and placed it under the skin of the chicken and then placed a half a lemon inside the cavity with a handful of spring garlic stalks. I rubbed a little butter under the skin of the chicken and then trussed it.

Roast the chicken at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Tent with foil if you are worried about burning the skin. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 and roast for another 25 minutes or so, until the chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.

For the panzanella: I let a loaf of walnut wheat country loaf get stale. For the vinaigrette, I mixed the chicken pan juices with a couple tablespoons olive oil, 1/3 cup orange champagne vinegar, salt, pepper and some finely chopped spring garlic. Pour half the vinaigrette over the bread crumbs and toss on a sheet pan. Roast in the 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes, until nice and toasty. Toss the bread with a bunch of watercress, the remaining vinaigrette, and some roasted beets & little gem lettuces. Enjoy it with the chicken! (If you're anything like me, you will.)

More Comfort Food - Chicken Tagine

 I feel like, for the most part, I cook off the top of my head. I am inspired by recipes and photos and dishes I eat in restaurants, but I tend to riff on them, tweak here and there, make them my own. Having said that, I find that the majority of the recipes I actually post are recipes that I am following or at least loosely referencing - so, here is one of my favorite in-my-head recipes: Chicken Tagine with Chickpeas and Apricots. 

   Also, I was in the mood for a soupier version so I added ample chicken broth, if you want yours thicker either let it reduce more or cut down on your chicken broth.

UCLA's Powell Library

Venice Beach

Adventures in Frying - A Poultry Tale

"The Shed" - Boonville, CA

Time to celebrate - many different things, the wedding of good friends, the start of "real" fall, and my first attempt at frying (I take every opportunity I can to celebrate). I have almost finished reading my Lucky Peach from cover to cover and along the way I began to drool heavily over Jonathan Waxman's fried chicken. Having never fried before I did not have the proper equipment so I bought myself a splatter screen and a tub of crisco (I tried to fry in peanut oil, but the store was out so I decided to take matters into my own hands and gleefully picked up the crisco). For an article expounding on the health benefits of lard please click here. 

Jonathan Waxman's wonderful butchering diagram

I do see the virtues of doing a double-dredge and getting a little more crust - I love the crust - but the chicken did come out crispy and golden and was even moist on the inside - all in all a success! I served it with cornbread, buttermilk mashed potatoes (because you can never have too much starch), and jalapeno-cilantro slaw. Oh, and beer - cheap beer.

A Party! Complemented By Some Bourbon-y BBQ

I will begin with a confession - I did not make this sauce, I observed its making and enjoyed being a taster but I was most definitely not the chef. My lovely mother took on the job of BBQ sauce-maker and it turned out to be absolutely perfect (and, as proof, it was completely inhaled by the party-goers). We decided not to marinate the chicken and instead our master griller brushed the chicken with sauce as it cooked giving it a delicious, caramelized glaze. It was cooked to perfection and was such a success that we even glazed our sausages with it and gobbled those up as well. 

The aftermath

For the original recipe from Bon Appétit please click here. 

Chicken with Herb Pistou

Ferry Building Farmer's Market

Recently, I made BA's cover recipe, "roast chicken with herb pistou and farro with roasted squash" - I just dumbed it down a little so that I could actually make it. I will preface this recipe by saying that it was a success, in my opinion (not all of my cooking endeavors are, but I try to spare you the ones that turn out terribly and aren't worth repeating). I will share my version below and give you a link to the BA-version here.

Dahlias at the market

I combined a few tablespoons olive oil, a couple cloves of finely chopped garlic, chopped parsley, thyme, cilantro, the zest of a lemon and salt and cracked pepper. I popped the chicken in a large glass container (I used two legs and a breast of chicken) and doused it with the marinade. Away that went into the fridge while I got started on the rest of the meal.

For the farro: I skipped the "sauteeing" step and tossed my diced acorn squash with a little olive oil, salt and pepper before throwing it into a 375 degree oven for about a half hour. *Note: I would be using onion in this recipe but I was happily sharing this meal with someone who doesn't get along well with onions :).

From here on out I more or less followed the recipe:

- Toast farro in oil coated iron skillet

- Remove farro and set aside

- Warm two - three cups chicken stock with two cups of water in a pot

-Sautee garlic, add a bit of white wine

- Return farro to the pan 

- Add in the stock in 1/2-cup increments, waiting until the liquid is absorbed before adding the next ladle-ful

For the pistou: I am not always a big pesto fan, so I went light on the oil in my version of the pistou

I blanched 1 cup parsley, 3/4 cup cilantro and 3/4 cup basil. Plunge the herbs into a bath of ice-water so that they retain their lovely green color. While my herbs were cooling off I chopped up a very small amount of garlic which I threw into a blender with my herbs (squeezed dry) and 3/4 ice water. Once the herbs were blended, I slowly drizzled in one tablespoon olive oil with blender running. Pistou finished!

To finish the chicken, I heated up a little oil in my cast iron skillet, poured off the marinade and threw the chicken in. I browned the chicken on the stove top and once golden I threw it into a 350 degree oven for 20 or 25 mins.