21 Nov Chicken Curry in a Hurry Salad…

I cannot say that ever in my life have I found chicken salad appealing. It’s the dripping with mayo bit that grosses me out.  You know the salads that look more like a few pieces of chicken were thrown into a vat of mayonnaise, versus the other way around? Yep, scarred for life. Until…. A couple of months ago, I had a delightful lunch at Starbelly which included their curried chicken on some truly great crunchy, airy bread. I was starving after a hot and nasty (in the best send of the word) yoga class and my body for the first time in over a decade said: “get the curry chicken sandwich, NOW.” When my body shouts, I listen. It was divine and not at all a drench of mayonnaise. Of course, I’ve been obsessed with curry chicken salad since and finally had a chance to make it with chicken soup left overs.

(Totally necessary aside: In my humble opinion, one trick to truly tasty chicken salad is to use dark meat. I know everyone is breast crazy – all the 12-year-olds can stop laughing – but, let’s be honest, the white meat? Blah blah blandland. After so many years of not eating chicken, my first taste of white meat was not inspiring in the least; I could happily never eat it again. Dark meat, on the other hand, now that’s some good yum.  So, do yourself a flavor favor and at least use half and half.)

This recipe literally takes five minutes to make. You can absolutely go nutso with more spices, but I was in a hurry, so I stuck with the basics. In fact, one batch (see picture above) was even sans the turmeric and it was still completely satisfying, just not as brightly colored. As I think about it now, a little crushed ginger would be a nice addition also. Final note: personally, I think you can add whatever raw vegetables you like – cucumbers, finely chopped radicchio, onion, shallots, chopped parsley, etc.

So, basically what’s printed below is a good starting place.

Chicken Curry Salad

• 1 heaping C chopped or shredded cooked chicken
• 1 celery rib, diced
• 1 small carrot, diced
• 1 radish, diced
• 1-2 t curry powder, to taste
• pinch or three turmeric
• 2 T greet yogurt, Vegenaise, or mayonnaise (more if you want it more drippy)
• generous pinch sea salt

How to do it:

1. Mix spices and yogurt (or Vegenaise) in a medium bowl, until well-combined. Add everything else (I like to do one or two ingredients at a time) and stir until chicken and veggies are lightly coated with curry dressing.

2. Done.

16 Nov Get Over Your Cold Chicken Soup

My whole life, the answer to illness has always been chicken soup. It started with my grandma Gogo (no, that really was her name, not a grandma nickname) and has been kept alive by my mom. Even at the height of my vegetarian years when I was felled by the flu to end all flues, my mama tucked me into the family room couch, lit a fire and made me chicken soup, which I slurped up gladly.

What’s so great about homemade chicken soup when you’re recovering from or fighting off a cold? Try this on for size: hydration (liquid broth), protein for recovery (in the broth and the meat), minerals (from the simmered bones), vitamins (from the veggies), steam (good for your sinuses) and comfort (good for your soul).

Sounds pretty good, right? But you think picking up a couple cans of soup is easier? Maybe … except for all the sodium, and not knowing the quality of the ingredients, and not having the convenience of a big vat in your refrigerator to eat for days … oh, and all of the left over meat to use in other meals.  I almost forgot: have I mentioned how easy it is to make? You can spend some serious time resting on the couch between the steps.

Of course, you don’t have to be sick to enjoy this. Homemade chicken soup is the perfect light but cozy meal to satisfy your belly and fortify your immune system.  Either way, here’s to a healthy fall.

Super Basic Get Over Your Cold Chicken Soup

•  1 chicken (a small fryer will do)
• 1 large carrot, chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 1 large celery stalk, ditto
• ½ large onion, diced
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• Optional: handful chopped kale, chard or collards stems, and/or large handful of a tender green (e.g. baby spinach or tatsoi) roughly chopped
• Optional: ½ C brown rice
• Water, as much as you need

What to do:

1. Rinse your chicken and pull out the innards (these should be neatly packaged in paper inside the core of the bird – just pull out and set aside – don’t throw away!).
2. Place rinsed chicken in a large (you can add the neck too – also should be tucked inside the core), deep pot and fill with water until the chicken is juuuuust about covered (a little less than completely covered is fine if your pot isn’t that deep).
3. Bring water to a simmer, but do not boil. If you can’t cover chicken with water, use tongs or whatever is handy to gently roll chicken over to other side (so the more exposed side is now on the bottom of the pot and fully submerged). Simmer until meat easily falls off bone – test by picking up a leg and giving it a gentle tug. If it separates fairly easily from the rest of the body, you’re good to go; if it’s as strongly attached as when you plopped chicky in the water, give it more time.
4. As chicken simmers, you may notice a foam build up around the edges of the pot. Use a slotted spoon to scoop up this foam and throw away. You may want to do this a couple of times.
5. Carefully remove chicken from the water and place on a large plate or platter to cool off until you can touch it without burning your fingers.
6. At this point, the chicken broth will be pretty bland tasting. To concentrate the flavor, while chicken is cooling, add onions, carrots, celery and other veggies, except leafy vegetables (add when done reducing broth) to the broth, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste and simmer until broth has reached desired concentration of flavor. Probably at least 20 mins.
7. When chicken is cool enough to handle grab a largish bowl and two smallish bowls, and begin stripping meat, skin and fat off the carcass – meat pieces go in large bowl, skin and fat go into one of the small bowls (or a plastic bag, if you don’t compost). Once chicken is completely stripped of flesh (this can take a while if you want to be meticulous), tear ~ 1/3 of the meat into large one or two-bite sized pieces and put into other small bowl – this will go back into the soup in a bit. Toss your compost and store the other meat for later (chicken pot pie? curry chicken salad? lots of options for the leftovers).
8. You have two options regarding the rice. Either cook in a rice cooker while the chicken is simmering, then add once the broth has been reduced, or cook directly in the chicken soup – just remember that this will take ~30 minutes, use up a cup of the soup and make the rice super soft and potentially a little mushy, which isn’t a bad thing if you’re sick. If you’re choosing the latter, add to broth with the veggies in step 5.
9. When broth is happily reduced, add chicken meat, cooked rice (if you cooked separately) and any tender green leafy veggies you’re using. Taste and adjust salt and pepper for seasoning.

Notable: when chicken fat in the soup gets cold, it will solidify. You may notice a thin layer – almost like a crust – form on the top of the refrigerated leftovers. It’s fine to scoop it off, or you can just let it melt back into the broth as you reheat the soup. But really, don’t fear the fat. If you have a good quality chicken, it won’t be that fatty and natural fat is important for several reasons, not the least of which is that it helps trigger the hormones that tell your brain you’ve had enough to eat.

*Umm, yes, this bowl of soup looks extra shiny, but it’s not because of the soup, it’s because of the camera and an unfortunate mistake I made taking the picture, which I didn’t realize until after I ate the bowl of soup. Some weird lighting effects to fix the photo later… and here it looks weirdly glossy. BUT, you can still see all the yummy goodness inside, so… photos were kept.

22 Oct White Chocolate Chocolate Molasses Crunch Cookies….

And, yes, I could have added more to the cookie and the title, thank you very much.

This was unexpected, a total surprise. A kernel of an idea bloomed, transformed, morphed, evolved, was deconstructed, and reconstructed all on my 15-minute commute home. It didn’t turn out anything like I imagined. Nothing. Good news: it was still a total win! Very nice way to end the day.

Two things: (1) Don’t be scared of the whole wheat flour. The molasses makes everything soft and chewy, so there isn’t that added earthiness that whole wheat flour can give that some people don’t like. (2) The molasses also gives these cookies a little nutritional lift (if you want to know more about molasses, try here), so you can feel better about the little bit o’ refined sugar (which you can feel even better about if you take advantage of the molasses to use less and if you use organic sugar or coconut sugar).

I think this recipe is pretty versatile. In fact, I’m pretty excited by its versatility. But I’m not going to tell you all the great variations that occurred to me while I was baking, otherwise what will I post about once the rain starts and I want an excuse to turn on the oven? (Neighbors beware, there may be a lot of cookies in your future.)

White Chocolate Chocolate Molasses Crunch Cookies

• 1/2 C organic butter (1 stick)
• 1/2 C organic sugar (scant 1/2 C, maybe even less depending on your sweet tooth)
• 1 pastured egg
• 2 t vanilla
• 1/4 C molasses
• 1 1/2 C organic whole wheat flour
• 1/4 t sea salt
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 C good quality semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped (heaping 1/2 C is good)
• 1/2 C excellent quality white chocolate chips
• 1/2 C organic walnuts, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prep a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Melt butter in a small sauce pan, keeping heat on medium so it doesn’t burn (browning a little is fine, but no burning).

3. While butter is melting, add sugar, molasses and vanilla to a large bowl.

4. When butter is all melted, pour on top of sugar mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon. It’ll take a few minutes for the molasses and butter to mix. Set aside to cool, so you won’t cook the egg when you add it. (You can put it in the refrigerator to speed this up, but it doesn’t take that long, really.)

5. While butter/sugar mixture is cooling, chop your semi-sweet chocolate and walnuts. (Either emi-sweet chocolate bar or chips will do, just chop fine.)

6. When butter/sugar mix is room temperature, add egg and stir until thoroughly incorporated.

7. Add flour, salt and baking soda. (Honestly, I rarely – well, to be really honest, probably never – do this in a separate bowl. Shame on me, I know. I just sprinkle the small stuff in first, then add in the larger measurements and mix well. Let your conscience be your guide on this one.)

8. Add chopped chocolate, stir well. Add walnuts and white chocolate chips, and stir well. The batter (you know you’re gonna taste it) will taste more molasses-y than the final cookie will.

9. Using a cookie scoop (best idea ever, thank you friend for converting me), place scoops of dough on prepared baking sheet. They’ll spread to 1 1/2-2 inches wide, so place accordingly.

10. Bake for 10 mins. Let rest on cookie sheet for a minute or two before removing to a cooling rack.

Ummm… now go eat one. Warning: when they’re still slightly warm, all that chopped chocolate mixed in will smear on your finger tips. The only solution is to lick them clean. It’s a tough life, I know.

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