There comes a time in every cook’s life when they realize that they don’t have an ingredient they need for a recipe. Sometimes those moments happen in the midst of preparing a meal. Sometimes cooks just have to improvise. Sometimes cooks just have to “fake it” and force their way through life’s unexpected problems.
I’ve had some long, long days at work recently, which is why my blog posts have become less frequent. A few nights ago, I came home from work and I was craving something spicy. I wanted to make a variation of my Yin and Yang Chicken Wraps because it was quick and easy to prepare. I prepped the vegetables and chicken and just as I was getting ready to fry the chicken, I realized that I didn’t have any eggs.
Eggs are something that I always keep on hand…except this
time.
I usually fry chicken by dipping the chicken in egg and dredging it in flour. That’s Chicken 101. Of course, buttermilk could be used instead of egg… that’s the classic recipe for southern fried chicken. Buttermilk is not something I usually have on hand.
In a moment of inspiration, or desperation, I decided to use milk and Italian dressing instead of eggs.
Why Italian dressing?
Why not? I figured that if I was
going to improvise I might as well try something completely new.
The result was some very crispy and very delicious chicken. The rest of the preparation was smooth sailing and I made some extremely spicy wraps. So, satisfying!
Italian dressing contains oil, among other things, and that, combined with the milk, gave the flour something to stick to and it produced great flavor.
I ate two of the large wraps and went to bed an hour later. Big mistake! The joy I experienced while eating the spicy chicken wraps was perfectly balanced by the upset stomach I experienced 5 hours later as I drove to work the next morning. Yin and Yang, indeed!
So, don’t panic when you find yourself missing an ingredient. Trust your instincts and face adversity bravely. Improvise. Be daring!
Oh, and don’t go to sleep an hour after you eat…especially if you eat something very spicy!
This is a great time-saving meal for a weeknight dinner…very
convenient for working parents who want to make something nutritious, tasty and
quickly. The whole process takes about
an hour, from start to finish. Clean up
is easy, especially if you line the sheet pan with parchment paper or foil. I used frozen Italian sausage for this and it
cooked completely and browned nicely.
The ham was cured and ready to eat, so I added it near the end of the
cooking process, just to make it warm.
Ingredients:
3 large russet potatoes
2 very large carrots
8 to 10 oz broccoli
½ large onion
8 oz mushrooms
2 tsp salt
2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
3 Tbs olive oil
2 garlic cloves, smashed
2 Tbs Italian seasoning
2 mild Italian sausage links (about ½ lb)
½ lb cured ham, sliced ¼” thick.
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Set oven to 350°.
Peel and rough chop vegetables. Cut vegetables into 1” to 1 ½” pieces.
Add oil, garlic, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to a
large mixing bowl.
Toss vegetables in the oil mixture and turn everything out
to a lined sheet pan.
Add the sausage on top of the vegetables.
Bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Stir vegetables and turn the sausage over to brown evenly. Bake for another 15 minutes. Add the ham and stir. Top with Parmesan cheese Bake for another 5 minutes. Serve from the baking sheet, or a serving platter.
My cousin recently introduced me to peri-peri. She understands my passion for chilis and all
things spicy and, when she shipped three bottles of peri-peri sauce to me, I
was elated. As I opened the box, a
heavenly aroma of chilis filled the air and as I began to unwrap the contents,
I realized that two of the bottles had broken during shipping. Oh, the horror!
I salvaged the one unbroken bottle and said a solemn prayer
for the two noble souls that didn’t make it.
Peri-peri is a cultivated chili from Portugal. It’s originally an African chili, from Mozambique,
to be exact. “Pillpill” is Swahili for
“pepper”. It is a very spicy red chili. Portuguese
explorers came across peri-peri way back when Portugal was in their exploratory
heyday. The peri-peri chilis were
brought back to Portugal where they were cultivated through selective
breeding.
Since I had never heard of peri-peri, I did what anyone else
living in the 21st century would do…I ran to my computer and searched
the internet for peri-peri. Most of the
results showed recipes for peri-peri Chicken, which was naturally a Portuguese
concoction. Most recipes called for
about 4 ounces of peri-peri sauce which was just about what my lone- surviving,
stalwart bottle contained.
I discovered that the key to this dish relies more on how the
chicken is prepared, rather than the type of chilis that are used. In fact, you can omit the chilis entirely and
still have a great meal! I have to say
that I recommend using some amount of chilis because they add a wonderful
flavor and the act of roasting takes away much of their heat.
I didn’t have peri-peri sauce on hand this time but I did have lots of red-ripe habanero chilis from my garden that were just waiting for an opportunity to shine.
Chop one-handed!
Don’t touch the habaneros!
I also included things like Italian dressing and Tajin seasoning, for the marinade. The substitutions and additions that I used didn’t take anything away from the quality of the finished product because I stayed true to the spirit of the dish. I grilled the chicken over hot coals. That is the key.
Ingredients:
1 whole fryer chicken
Dry rub:
2 Tbs Tajin seasoning
2 Tbs garlic powder
Marinade:
1 ½ cups Italian dressing
5 habanero chilis, chopped
2 Tbs Tajin seasoning
2 Tbs sriracha sauce
2 Tbs dried onion flakes
1 tsp coarse salt
1 Tbs hot sauce
Glaze:
1 ½ cups marinade
2 tablespoons butter
Juice of 1 lemon
Preparation:
For the rub:
Combine the Tajin seasoning and garlic powder.
For the marinade:
Combine marinade ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Prepare the chicken:
Inspect the cavity of the chicken and remove the neck and
packet of organs, if they are included. Wash
and rinse the chicken. Using kitchen
shears, remove the backbone. This is
actually fairly easy to do but it requires a strong grip on the scissors. Feel along the backbone to determine where to
cut. Cut along both sides of the
backbone. Remove the backbone and use it
for chicken stock or, if nobody is looking, discretely discard it and suffer
some guilt later. Same goes with the neck and organs…great for other uses but I promise I
won’t tell on you if you discard them.
Turn the chicken over on a cutting board so that the breast faces upward.
Double your fists as if you were going to perform the Heimlich maneuver on someone. Press down forcefully between the breasts until the cartilage gives way. Don’t hold back! Lock your elbows and push down with extreme force! (Just think of it as chicken therapy). If you lack the strength to perform this act, that’s ok. Just score the breast meat along the sides of the breast bone and try again. Work your way up and down the middle of the breast with your fist until the cartilage yields and you are left with a flattened chicken.
Apply the rub:
Carefully create an opening between the skin of the chicken breasts and the breast meat. Use your fingers to create the opening and then slide your hand under the skin and continue sliding back to the thighs and leg. Do this gently, to avoid breaking the skin. Once you have separated the skin from the meat, apply liberal amounts of the rub on the meat with your fingers
Take the chicken and dredge both sides in the bowl containing the marinade. Coat the chicken thoroughly and then cover
the bowl and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
Prepare the grill:
Heat some charcoal. I
filled one charcoal chimney with coals and the chicken was done in about 1 ½ hours. By the time the chicken was fully cooked, the
coals were nearly spent. If you want
more char on the chicken or if you want the chicken to cook faster, add more
coals and cook hotter. A word of advice: If you add too many hot coals you run the
risk of burning the chicken and the chicken might not cook evenly. I actually liked the way this cooked on the
grill. I never worried about burning the
chicken and the chicken came out nice and moist.
Use indirect heat when grilling the chicken. Add the hot coals to one side of the grill
and place a shallow pan on the other side, filled half-way with water…this
becomes a drip pan and it provides some moist air to keep the chicken from
drying out.
Remove the chicken from the marinade and let it warm to room
temperature. Reserve the marinade…it
will be used for the glaze.
Using two tongs, place the chicken on the grill, breast side up. Point the legs toward the side containing the coals. This will keep the breast from cooking too quickly and drying out. Additionally, this puts the bones of the chicken closest to the heat source, which will cause the bones to heat and cook the meat surrounding them. That’s a good thing.
Let the chicken cook for at least 30 minutes before considering turning the chicken over or repositioning it.
Check the chicken every 15 minutes or so. If the legs look like they are charring too
much, scoot the chicken away from the coals, otherwise, let it ride.
After the chicken has cooked for 45 minutes, press the chicken with a thumb or forefinger to check for doneness. If you are unsure about doneness, use a meat thermometer to check. If the thermometer reads 165° the chicken is safely cooked. If you want to turn the chicken over to crisp the other side, have at it. As I mentioned earlier, my coals were cooling at this point and I wasn’t worried about over cooking, so I turned the chicken and let the top side crisp a bit.
Remove the chicken and keep in a warm place.
For the glaze:
Pour the reserved marinade in a skillet. Heat to a boil and simmer for about 5 more minutes. Contrary to popular belief, a chicken marinade can be used for a sauce but it must be boiled first. Do not use the marinade to baste the chicken…that’s where you run into the risk of bacteria infecting your food. Add the butter and lemon juice to the sauce and simmer for a few more minutes, or until the butter has melted.
Drizzle the glaze over the chicken and serve warm with rice
and vegetables.
When I make spaghetti and meat balls I almost always make extra
sauce and meatballs. I sometimes use the
extra sauce to make meatball sub sandwiches.
Ingredients:
2 cups of cooked meatballs in marinara sauce
½ cup dry Parmesan cheese
1 large New Orleans style Po’ Boy bread loaf (or any good
French loaf)
1 cup Mozzarella cheese, grated
½ cup fresh Parmesan cheese, grated
1 Tbs olive oil
1 clove of garlic, smashed
¼ bell pepper, sliced into ¼” strips
2 Tbs chopped fresh basil
Directions:
Warm the meatballs and marina is a skillet. Add the dry Parmesan and mix. Simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes.
While the meatballs warm, grate the cheese and prepare the
garlic and bell pepper. Chop the
basil. Set aside.
In a small pan, add olive oil and garlic. Heat the pan on low/medium heat and then add
the bell pepper. Sauté for a few
minutes, until the peppers have softened.
Heat the oven broiler.
I used a 24” bread loaf, which made 4 subs.
Slice the bread loaf but do not cut through all of the
way. Cut a “V” shaped trough in one of the lengths.
Add the meatballs and marinara to the trough in the bread
loaf.
Add the mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Put the subs under the oven broiler to melt
the cheese.
Remove the subs and layer with the bell pepper and a little more fresh Parmesan cheese and basil.
This dish is a bit like Shrimp Scampi but, not so bold and intense in flavor. The creaminess, provided by the half-and-half, along with the pasta turns a wild Shrimp Scampi into something gentle and soothing.
Ingredients:
4 Tbs unsalted butter
1 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp coarse salt
1 tsp red chili flakes
4 garlic cloves
1 lb large, raw shrimp, deveined and peeled
2 green onions
¼ cup fresh basil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
½ cup half-and-half
12 oz dry pasta (I used Farfalle – butterfly pasta)
Ingredients for the
sauce thickener:
1 Tbs softened butter
1 Tbs flour
Ingredients for the garnish:
½ cup diced tomatoes
2 root ends of green onions
1 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp vinegar
½ tsp oregano
¼ tsp garlic powder
Directions:
You should prepare all
of the ingredients in advance. Shrimp
cooks very quickly and you want to have all of the other ingredients ready when
you need them.
Boil the pasta to al dente.
Normally I would use lots of water but this time, I wanted the noodles
to keep some of their starchiness so that the sauce would cling to it better.
While the pasta cooks…
Pulverize coarse salt and red chili flakes in a mortar and pestle. Set aside.
Chop the garlic and slice the green onions. Reserve the root portions of the green
onions. Set aside.
Prepare the sauce thickener by blending the flour with the
softened butter. I like to use a fork
for blending. Set aside until needed.
Prepare the garnish by dicing the tomato and roots of the
green onion.
Drain the pasta but do not rinse. Set aside.
Strain the garnish to remove the olive oil and vinegar. Set the garnish aside.
Rinse the shrimp under cold water and remove the
shells.
In a large skillet, add 4 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Simmer at low heat.
Add the garlic and crushed salt and red chili flakes. Simmer at low
heat for about two minutes. This will allow the garlic to mellow a
little.
Add the shrimp to the pan.
Turn the heat to low/medium.
Stir the shrimp until they turn from translucent to slightly
pink.
Add the green onion, basil and lemon juice to the pan and stir for about a half minute.
Add the sauce thickener and mix with the buttery sauce. It should thicken within a minute or so. Add the half-and-half and stir.
Add the Parmesan cheese.
Turn the heat off and add the pasta. Stir a few times and remove to a serving
bowl.
There are some meals that I can cook in my sleep, with one
hand tied behind my back. Spaghetti is
one of those meals. Long ago, when I
when I was just establishing myself as a home cook, I had a very limited
repertoire. It wasn’t because I lacked a
willingness to experiment and it wasn’t due to a lack of creativity, training
or knowledge that curtailed my culinary endeavors to a mere handful of
recipes.
Being a parent of very young children changes a person in
many ways and one of those inevitable changes is a parents’ diet. I don’t regret anything about having
children. One of the greatest things
about having children is watching them grow up to become living, breathing,
free-thinking adults. I wouldn’t trade
the experience of raising children for anything.
Young children don’t have refined, educated palettes. Surprise! For a long time, my wife and I didn’t even think
about making something like Steak with Roquefort
Cheese Sauce, Bratwurst with Sauerkraut
or Tandoori Chicken. Heck, we were lucky if we could sneak a
vegetable past our kids every now and then without them noticing.
We realized pretty quickly that our meals repeated week
after week. Four or five basic recipes
stayed in constant rotation. It got to a
point where I assigned a number to the meals.
Monday nights were spaghetti
and Friday nights were homemade pizza
so, Spaghetti became Dinner #1 and Pizza became Dinner #5. Dinners 2,3 and 4 varied over the years and
they entered and exited the rotation as young taste buds changed. They included simple meals like, chicken
nuggets and tater tots, tacos with salad and fish sticks, with macaroni and
cheese. Our weekends were “anything goes”
days. It might be barbacoa tacos, pan
fried chicken or a pasta casserole. We
made sure to include fresh fruit as often as possible, especially because the
only vegetable our kids would willingly eat was raw carrot sticks.
Eh, they survived.
And, so did we. I look back on
those days fondly.
Fast forward nearly twenty years and Dinner #1 is still one
of my favorite go-to meals. I have made
spaghetti over 1,000 times in my lifetime.
That’s not a guess…that’s real math at work!
Now that my children are grown, I have more free time which means I can add flair to simple recipes, like spaghetti and meatballs. For this version, I used homemade tomato sauce. I also employed some extra tricks to make this meal a little more special. Plain tomato sauce tends to be acidic. I could have added a few tablespoons of sugar or honey to balance the sauce but I used Marsala wine, roasted garlic and fire roasted bell pepper, which provided all of the necessary sweetness and it gave the sauce an additional depth of flavor.
This recipe will feed about 6 people.
Ingredients:
24 oz tomato sauce (store-bought sauce is perfectly fine)
1 whole garlic bulb
¼ cup fresh basil
½ red bell pepper
½ onion
¼ cup Marsala wine
1 lb. ground beef (80/20)
½ cup bread crumbs
1 Tbs dried oregano
2 tsp dried rosemary (ground)
2 eggs
¼ cup grated, dry Parmesan cheese
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
½ cup grated, fresh Parmesan cheese
For the spaghetti
noodles:
4 quarts water
12 oz dry spaghetti noodles
1 Tbs kosher salt
1 bay leaf
1 Tbs olive oil
Directions:
If you are using store-bought tomato sauce, feel free to skip
to the section on Preparing the
Meatballs.
Otherwise…
Heat an oven to 300°.
Prepare the herbs, onion,
garlic and bell pepper.
Roughly chop the basil and set aside.
Chop the onion into ¼” pieces and set aside.
Separate the garlic bulb in half. One half of the garlic will be roasted in the
oven and the other half will be minced, fresh.
Wrap one half of the garlic bulb in aluminum foil and place
on the rack, in the oven.
Rest the half bell pepper on a stove burner and char the pepper over low heat. Rotate the pepper for several minutes to all the pepper to char on all sides.
Wrap the pepper in foil and put it on the oven rack, with the garlic.
Allow the garlic and red pepper to bake in the foil for about 20 minutes. Remove the garlic and pepper.
Unwrap the red pepper and allow it to cool for a few minutes. Rinse under water to remove the charred
parts.
Slice the top and stem of the pepper and discard. Lay the remaining red pepper on a clean
surface and dice into ¼” pieces. Set
aside.
Remove the roasted garlic from the foil and squeeze the soft
garlic from the papery husks. Mash the
garlic into a paste with the broad side of a kitchen knife and set aside.
Roasted Garlic
Roasted Garlic with Basil and Roasted Bell Pepper
Mince the cloves of the other half of the garlic bulb and
set aside.
Preparing the
Meatballs:
In a large mixing bowl add the ground beef, bread crumbs, eggs, dry Parmesan cheese, oregano, rosemary, salt and pepper.
Mix until all of the ingredients have combined.
Form into 1” balls and leave the meatballs in the mixing
bowl.
In a large skillet, set the heat on the stove to low and add
a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the
onions and sauté until slightly softened.
Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute.
Add the meatballs and cover the pan.
Simmer the meatballs for about 5 minutes at low heat and
then turn them over. Cover the pan and cook
for another few minutes. Keep turning
the meatballs every few minutes until they become firm.
Strain the meatballs to remove the grease. Return the meatballs to the pan.
Add the tomato sauce to the meatballs. Stir the meatballs in the sauce and add the Marsala,
roasted garlic, roasted bell pepper, fresh garlic, chopped basil, oregano,
rosemary, salt and black pepper. Stir
briefly to incorporate.
Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
While the sauce is finishing, prepare spaghetti noodles in a
large stock pot. Add the water to the
pot and bring to a boil. Add a tablespoon
of salt, a bay leaf and 1 tablespoon of oil. Add spaghetti noodles and cook until the
noodles are al dente.
Serve with fresh Parmesan cheese, garlic bread and salad.
This week’s confession is truly astounding, even for someone
like me, who has committed so many kitchen atrocities over time that I am sure
I will end up in Kitchen Hell, when it’s all said and done.
All kidding aside, this was truly a remarkable faux
pas. I’m the sort of person that likes
to be the smartest kid in the class and, if it’s obvious that I am not the
smartest, I like to the one that says the most clever things. Earlier this week I confused Masala with
Marsala.
For those of you who might be scratching your heads,
wondering what the difference is between the two, I’ll tell you. The difference is “R”. (See
what I mean about trying to make up for a lack of intellect by attempting to be
clever?)
Masala is a mixture
of many spices. It’s a term used by
people from India and Pakistan, among other places. It is not just one particular spice mix. The mix can contain any number of
spices. Masala is the flavor foundation
for many dishes.
Marsala is a
sweet, fortified Italian dessert wine, often used for cooking.
An innocent mistake, for sure. And, if that was where my story ended, I
could have laughed it off and gone on with my life with nobody being the wiser.
Several months ago, while visiting my favorite Indian spice
market, I struck up a conversation with the proprietor, as I usually do. He is always willing to stop and talk with me
and he has been a tremendous guide, while I attempt to unravel Indian
cuisine. On this occasion, I told him
that I was considering making a masala pizza, at least that is what he probably
heard. I actually said Marsala, because I was thinking about making
a chicken Marsala pizza. That was the
moment I ran off the rails.
You see, I have made chicken Marsala before and I have made
many dishes with masala, although I’ve never really thought about calling the
spice mixture, masala. I must have had a
bizarre synaptic short-circuit which caused me to switch masala with
Marsala. The proprietor, being the
gentleman that he is, just stared at me when I suggested the masala pizza. He gave me a sort of quizzical, pitiful look.
Well, months later, here I am ready to make the pizza. I wanted to try a test run with the chicken
Marsala, before moving on to the pizza.
I went back to the Indian market to pick up some items for other dishes
and when I saw the proprietor, I told him that I was really going to make the
masala pizza, but I what I actually said was, “Marsala”. I told him that I was deliberating on how to
approach the pizza. I didn’t want to use
traditional Italian marinara and mozzarella because I didn’t think they would
pair well with the Marsala sauce. I
asked him if he had a suggestion for a creamy sauce that I could make, instead
of using Mozzarella. After a moment, he
suggested coconut milk and followed that with suggesting tapioca starch to
thicken the coconut milk.
Coconut milk? I’ve
taken some interesting turns while creating new food but coconut milk didn’t
seem like a very good idea for pizza but, I told him that I would give it a
try.
As I left the store and headed to the wine store, to pick up
some Marsala wine, it suddenly dawned on me that I had been utterly
confused. You see, the proprietor of the
spice market speaks perfectly. Despite
the tell-tale Indian accent, his diction and vocabulary is precise and
clear. He speaks better English than
most people I encounter, on any given day.
“Masala”, was what he was saying, and he made sure to say
masala each time after I said “Marsala” to him.
The nerve cells in my brain finally made the jump. I had been enlightened! I also suffered from incredible embarrassment.
As I drove to the wine store I convinced myself that the
only way to redeem myself was to perform an act of penance. I would make two pizzas. One would be inspired by masala and the other would be inspired by Marsala.
One final interesting event rounded out the day and
convinced me that fate is a very real thing.
I was checking out some other blogs and I came across this blog, https://ishitasood.com/
. It’s tagline reads, “The Biggest and Only Indian Blog on Italy”. Ishita is the author and she has produced
some very interesting posts. One post in
particular struck a chord with me… https://ishitasood.com/confessions-of-a-passionate-blogger/
In the blog she offers some words of encouragement,
including the following: “It is okay to be vulnerable.”
And that was exactly what I needed to hear. It is what I needed to remember. I am an imperfect human and so is everybody
else.
I will work on these recipes with an open heart and an open
mind.
I started this blog in late July of this year and now we are about halfway into September. You might be thinking that this is a prelude that will lead into a rambling account of all of the fun that I have had so far and how much I have enjoyed bonding with other fellow bloggers.
Well, all of that is true but, I only mention the time frame because of how it relates to photographing the food that I have made. Most of the food that I have documented on the blog has been made during late afternoons and evenings.
Our kitchen sits on the western side of our home and we have a window, over the sink, that faces west. My wife photographs most of what is posted and she has produced some beautiful shots. But, I know what lies ahead. Autumn and Winter. The sun is setting earlier with each passing day and pretty soon, I will be making dinner long after the sun has set.
That means I won’t have the dramatic lighting that the setting sun is providing now. We will be faced with the challenge of making food look good under the bland overhead lighting of our kitchen. I don’t relish the thought of setting up elaborate lighting schemes and I don’t want my kitchen to turn into a photo studio. Fortunately, my wife and I are creative and resourceful people. We will try to find ways to put up some interesting photos, despite the lack of natural sunlight.
So, if you find yourself yawning at my posts during the winter, I will understand. Come back next spring and catch a glimpse of the sun again.
I made turkey burgers a few days ago and I had some burgers left over and I decided to make them again. I didn’t want to recreate the same burger because that would be boring. So, I decided to make Swiss mushroom burgers.
Take a look here if you want to see how to make the burger…
All I had to do was slice some cheese and sauté some mushrooms and onions. How easy!
I used different buns than the last time I made turkey burgers…again, I wanted the burgers to have a different look as well as a different taste.
I’m not going to list the measurements for the
ingredients. Add as much cheese,
mushroom and onion to the burger as you like.
Go ahead, pile on the cheese…nobody’s
looking!
Ingredients:
Precooked turkey burgers
Sliced Swiss cheese
Sliced fresh mushrooms
Sliced onions
Sourdough ciabatta buns
Greek seasoning – just a pinch
Spicy mayo/sour cream sauce (Two parts mayo, one part sour cream and a splash of sriracha sauce) *left over from the Yin and Yang Chicken Wraps*
Directions:
Warm the burgers in a 275° oven for about 10 minutes.
While the burgers heat, slice the mushrooms and cheese.
Sauté the onions and mushrooms in a pan with a little
butter. Don’t overcook the mushrooms. Sprinkle a little Greek seasoning on the
mushrooms. Set aside.
Pull the burgers from the oven and put them in the pan and add a splash of water to the pan. Lay the mushrooms on top of the burgers and pile the cheese on top of that. Cover and heat at low/medium for a couple of minutes, just long enough to melt the cheese.
Sometimes I crave very spicy food. And by sometimes, I mean about once a week. I don’t always act on the impulse but when I
do, I go all out.
I’m not the kind of person that goes around bragging about
eating super-hot-spicy peppers and I’m not the kind of guy that likes to trick
people with wickedly spicy food. I just like
the stuff. Spicy food makes me happy. It brings me peace when I need it. I tend to crave very spicy food after a stressful
day at work. I feel as though I can burn
away a bad day with blistering hot food. Sometimes I just want something very spicy for
no reason at all. Like I said, I just
like the stuff.
I call this Yin and Yang Chicken Wraps because it exists in perfect balance. Admittedly, it contains things that are not so healthy yet, it contains things that are very healthy for you. Think of it as the dichotomy of Good and Evil.
Evil: fried chicken, flour tortillas and mayonnaise.
Without evil, could we appreciate good? Without good, could we perceive evil? Oh yes, this is going to be some very
philosophical food!
Another aspect of yin and yang provided by this recipe relates
to taste sensations. Spicy and
Soothing.
Spicy: all of the peppers and hot sauces
Soothing: mango, lettuce, sour cream and cilantro.
This recipe is relatively quick and easy to make. In fact, if you pare it down to the core, it’s
really just fried chicken strips with hot sauce and some vegetables, wrapped
into a large burrito. The ingredients may
change, based upon what I have at hand.
Since I am growing chili peppers in my garden, I have lots of ways to bring
spicy heat and bold flavors.
red habaneros
Habaneros are the key in this particular recipe. If you have never tried fresh habanero, you should try them. Be careful, though. Habaneros are VERY spicy. Slice a tiny sliver from a fresh habanero and pop it into your mouth. Bite once and spit it out. You will get a big dose of heat from the spice but not so much to knock you down. You will also get to experience a most unique chili flavor. There’s no other chili pepper like the habanero. The taste is vibrant and unlike any other chili I have tasted.
If you want to try cooking with habanero but are concerned
about being blown away by the excessive heat, try adding a slice or two to a
stir fry. Stir it with other items in
the wok and pull it out after 10 or 15 seconds.
You will get the flavor and some of the heat. If you like it, add a little more but beware,
you can always add more habanero to a dish but you can never take it away. Once it imparts its heat, you can’t undo it.
Notice that I also use ghost pepper powder. Ghost pepper (Bhut jolokia) makes the habanero seem sweet and innocent, by comparison. Ghost peppers provide extremeheat and very little flavor. Any flavor a ghost pepper might provide is hidden behind screaming fire. I grow ghost peppers and dehydrate them and grind them into a powder.
A word of warning: set your dehydrator outdoors or in a ventilated, open garage. The fumes are practically lethal. And, once in powder form, the ghost pepper is as strong as mace. I’m serious. You should use latex gloves and a mask and goggles when working with dried ghost pepper. I don’t, but I should.
The way I use ghost pepper in this recipe gives some spice
to the chicken but, after frying, the spiciness dissipates remarkably. You will get a bigger kick from the habanero
and jalapeño…believe me.
If you want to make a tame version of this, skip all of the peppers
and hot sauce and use everything else.
Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts
2 Tbs garlic powder
2 Tbs paprika
2 cups flour
3 Tbs cornstarch
2 eggs
1/3 cup cooking oil
1 mango, peeled and chopped
3 habanero chilis, thinly sliced
3 jalapeños, sliced
1 tsp ghost pepper powder (optional)
¼ onion, thinly sliced
½ cup cilantro
½ cup carrots, sliced
1 cup lettuce, julienne sliced
1 Tbs Salt
4 burrito sized flour tortillas
Ingredients for the
sauce:
½ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup sour cream
3 Tbs sriracha hot sauce
Mix the sauce (mayonnaise, sour cream and sriracha). Set aside
Lay the chicken breasts on a cutting board and slice them scallopini-style. Hold the chicken breast in place with the
palm of your hand. Slice the breast in
half horizontally, starting at the thickest end and work your way to the
thinner end. Dust the chicken with paprika
and ghost pepper powder.
Prepare the flour dredge by whisking the flour and cornstarch in a large mixing bowl.
Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture and let the chicken
rest in the bowl for 10 or 15 minutes.
The flour will mix with the moisture on the surface of the chicken and
the chicken will become tacky, to the touch.
While the chicken rests, add the cooking oil to a skillet
and set the heat to medium.
Mix the eggs in a shallow dish.
Dip the chicken in the egg and then dredge the chicken in
the flour mixture again. Shake off
excess flour and lay the chicken in the hot oil. Do not crowd in the pan. You will probably need to fry in two batches.
Since the chicken has been sliced in half, it will cook
quickly. Turn the chicken after a few
minutes and turn again. Keep turning the
chicken every few minutes until the chicken is crisps and becomes golden brown. Remove to a paper towel lined plate. Sprinkle a little salt on the chicken. Slice the chicken into ½“ strips.
Warm the burrito sized tortillas in a microwave oven until
they are soft and pliable.
Lay a tortilla on a clean work surface. As you prepare the wrap you will want to lay
everything down horizontally. Smear some
of the sauce in the center of tortilla.
Lay the vegetables, herbs and mango down on top of the sauce. Lay some chicken on top of the vegetables.
Add hot sauce, if desired.
Wrap the tortilla by folding the sides inward, toward the
middle and roll the tortilla.
Serve with your favorite drink. Milk, if you want some relief from the heat. Beer, if you’ve had a particularly rough day.
Toothpick Tales 