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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:

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!).
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.

15 Oct Ole!

A couple of weekends ago, after a lovely hike high above Truckee with a dear friend and her absolutely adorable baby, we stopped into a grocery store for dinner supplies. We didn’t have a plan for the meal, so while we wandered the aisles, I quizzed my lovely host about some key details that helped me shape a vision. (It sort of reminded me of the old Choose Your Own Adventure books:”Do you want Indian flavors, Italian flavors, or Mexican flavors?” “Okay then, do you want tortilla chips, tortillas or a cornmeal crust?” etc.) The result was a super simple and hearty dinner, perfect after a hike, perfect for that late summer, early fall transition with fresh cooked vegetable wrapped cozily in warming spices and light layers of beans and tortillas.

Some of the things I especially like about this recipe:

It’s a nice balance between fresh vegetables and canned food, making it a good go to if you have a well-stocked pantry.
It’s sort of a no brainer. In other words, there are no fancy sauces to make, no special techniques. Chop, grate, saute, stir, spoon.
The spicing is really versatile. You can easily make it hot spicy by using spicier salsa, or adding chili powder to the beans and/or veggies, or you can make it deeper spicy by adding more cumin, oregano and basil, maybe some garlic powder, etc. Too much salt is probably the only unforgiving experiment.
You can use any combination of vegetables you like (e.g. try adding mushrooms, sweet potatoes, or butternut squash).
This is also a great way to use up stems of greens. I made good use of the broccoli stems, but could easily have added kale or chard stems saved from other recipes that just used the leaves.

Mexican Vegetable Casserole

6 corn tortillas
8 oz jack cheese, grated (pepper jack, if you want this spicier)
1 medium stalk of broccoli, florets and stem diced (peel stem and cut off tough, fibrous end, if necessary)
1 largish carrot, peeled and diced
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 red bell pepper
1 small or 1/2 larger onion (I used red for the sweetness), diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 1/2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes, regular, Mexican or Italian style
1/4 C (plus a little extra) favorite chunky salsa
4oz can of green chilis or equivalent amount of salsa verde (optional)
1/2-1 t cumin, to taste
1-2 t oregano, to taste
1-2 t basil, to taste
sea salt, to taste
olive oil
1 avocado, sliced or diced
yogurt or sour cream (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Find a small casserole dish, ~8in (preferably round).

2. In a large pan, saute onion and garlic in a little olive oil over medium high heat until onion begins to soften. Add pinch of salt.

3. Add all other fresh veggies and saute until tender. Season with cumin, oregano, basil and salt, to taste. (You can use a taco seasoning instead, but it’s hard to find one that doesn’t have a lot of nonsense added to it, e.g. maltodextrin.) Add green chilis (the first time I made this, I used salsa verde instead, which was perfectly fine – I also think this bit is entirely optional, but you’ll likely want to increase the other spices if you skip).

4. While the vegetables are cooking, mash half of the black beans with the back of a fork or spoon. Combine the beans with the diced tomatoes (including the juice) in a medium pot. Add 1/4 C salsa and pinch of salt, to taste, and heat over medium until warmed through. (Be sure to check your veggies, and adjust seasoning to taste.) And, if you haven’t already grated your cheese, now is a good time (trick: toss the cheese in the freezer before you start doing any of other prep – that’ll be just enough time to make it extra firm for faster grating, without making it a icy brick).

5. When vegetables are tender and beans are heated through, you’re ready to build the beast. Pour a little salsa or juice from the bean/tomato mixture into bottom of your casserole dish (maybe ~2 T – just enough to lightly coat). Put down a layer of tortillas (my dish used 1 whole tortilla, plus one split in half, the halves arranged to provide a full layer of coverage). Then add a layer of vegetables, a layer of beans, and a layer of cheese. Repeat. Top the final layer with tortillas and then a last sprinkle of cheese. (It’s important not to make the veggie layer too thick, or the wedges you cut and serve layer will fall apart.)

6. Immediately place in oven and bake for 15 mins. (If you assemble while the veggies and beans are still warm but don’t bake right away, your tortillas will get soggy and the top layer will curl up in weird ways. So, if you want to prep this ahead of time, wait until everything has cooled at least to room temperature and either assemble right before you’re ready to eat or store built casserole, covered, in the refrigerator. Realize, you’ll probably need to keep bake it a little longer to heat the inner layers all the way through again.)

Use a large serving spoon to cut/scoop pie-like wedges. Serve with sliced avocado, extra salsa and yogurt or sour cream, as you like. Takes around 45 mins to an hour – from first chop to serving, depending on how fast you chop and how well you multi-task. Serves 4-6.