CURRY CHICKEN SALAD WITH CUCUMBER MINT RAITA

Yo my peeps! How long it’s been, how I've missed your faces! You look like you've lost weight.

I've been waiting for something to put up here, but have been uninspired… UNTIL NOW, you lucky hungry bastards. In my humble opinion this little recipe is worthy of the Interwebs. It’s for one of those days where you want something easy, distinctly curry-ish, something filling and yet healthy – you put this in your mouth, and enjoy it. Feeds 4 hungry souls.

 For the curry chicken: 

2 large cooked chicken breasts, from a rotisserie roasted chicken is fine, roughly hand shredded (yields about 4 cups meats)
1 med. onion, chopped
1 garlic clove chopped
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger, or 1 tsp. powder ginger
1 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
2 chopped tomatoes or 1 14oz can chopped tomatoes of any kind
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 ½ tsp salt

For the mint Raita: 

(can be made up to 2 hrs ahead, put’er in the fridge to marinate in‘er juices)

• 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 cucumber, peeled and seeded, chopped in small cubes.
• 2 tbsp chipped mint
• ½ tsp salt.
•   

To make the chicken salad: shred the chicken in a separate bowl while trying to keep away the cats/dogs/boyfriends creeping by and stealing the chicken.  Add 1 cup yogurt & cilantro to the chicken, set aside. Saute onion, garlic and ginger in the oil on medium heat  until someone yells at you to put on the exhaust fan; this takes about 5 mins.  Add cumin & curry powders, crushed red pepper and 1 ½ tsp salt, sauté for 2 more mins. until your hair smells like an Indian curry house.( Yes, you’ll be that house on the block that smells of curry this night, but I digress). Add the tomatoes and sauté covered on medium-low heat for about 5 mins, until mixture begins to thicken.

 Remove this shit from heat and add to the chicken and yogurt, mix thoroughly and let stand until room temperature. Serve with warm Naan bread and mint Raita. TRY to share w/ your guests, ‘cuz this shit be tasty. Holla!

Bonus: when you wake up the next morn, your house will still smell like curry. Here's the money shot:

Semi- Jerk Chicken Drumsticks

Hello! Welcome! Or rather, I welcome myself back after some time away of not eating. I have something easy for ya’ll today, but this one you have to have a food processor. This cray –hot marinade sauce just doesn’t work any other way, people. So go buy one already.

*Eric: the rosemary sprig in the picture I stole from your garden. Sucker!

Yee shall need:

10 chicken drumsticks, skin removed – or not. I remove the skin.

10 scallions

1 Habanero chile (or a Scotch Bonnet, if you like fire), seeds removed & coarsely chopped

2 tbsp white vinegar

1tbsp thyme( fresh or dried)

1 ½ tsp Allspice

1tbsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

Oil or cooking spray for broiler pan.

Ok. This is what: throw everything but the chicken stumps in the food processor, pulse to death to a pasty obedience. Marinate the chicken stumps in this for about 30 minutes. Preheat broiler to HI, put oven rack in the center of the oven. Hopefully you remembered to do this before preheating the oven, and get to keep your eyebrows and facial skin. Spray broiler pan or oil it up so the chicken don’t stick, slick. Arrange drumsticks in the broiler pan, salt thoroughly some more. Broil on HI (turning once or thrice) for a total of about 30 mins, until delicious charred crusties form. Enjoy, but I caution: this is just as spicy on the way out, as on the way in. Cray!

Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

Hellooooo my peeps! I am back! Technically I was here all along, successfully ignoring your cries for more blog. But I have missed you, and soup, and so it goes like this: today we are making Chicken & Wild Rice  Soup. It’s so easy even a monkey can do it (yea, I’m talking to you.. you know who you are…). 15 minutes hands on, then it pretty much cooks itself.  

Yee shall need: 

  

2 large chicken breasts

1 yellow onion

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

3-4 cups chicken stock

½ cup dry wild rice  

1 can of chopped stewed tomatoes  

1 large carrot or 2 small ones, cut into circles

½ cup frozen corn kernels. 

Salt & pepper to taste

Crushed red pepper

3 tbsp lemon juice

Parsley ( flat leaf or curly, whatevs. )

Cut up chicken into mouth-manageable cubes (no larger than 1”).  Season chicken well with S&P. ( Notice my “Rachel Ray” EVOO approach to salt & pepper here).  Chop the onion and garlic, and brown with the chicken in a large soup pot with some vegetable oil for about 10 minutes on medium heat, until chicken has a nice base tan. Add the chicken stock to the same pot; add more water if need more liquid. Throw in dry wild rice, tomatoes, corn, & carrots. Add 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper and about 4 tbsp chopped parsley.  Cover, bring to boil, turn down heat and simmer on LOW about 40 minutes. Remove from heat, add salt / pepper to taste if needed, and about 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. Let stand covered for about 20 mins. to an hr.

Serve with fresh chopped parsley, and more crushed red pepper if you like ulcers. 

Crispy Skin Roasted Chicken

Today I will solve the ancient problem of soggy chicken skin with this simple roasted chicken recipe. The best part is that you will never look at a Bundt cake pan the same way again, and neither will your chicken. Yup, you heard me. I present to you the  Roasted Chicken in a Bundt pan. Why, you ask? Because  the chicken likes it that way. You know you probably have an old Bundt pan that you bought for some crappy recipe that you never made again. Dust her off, it will become one of your favorite accessories to roast a chicken in. Or, rather, On. The chicken and the Bundt pan will become very close and intimate friends. 

 You will need:

Bundt Pan

One willing chicken

Kitchen twine

Salt (1/2 tsp, or more) & ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 450. Pat the chicken very dry inside & out with paper towels. The drier the better. Season the chicken generously inside and out with only salt and ground black pepper. You can get fancy with other seasonings if you wish - I don’t – the chicken is delicious with just those two basics. Mount the chicken on top of the Bundt pan. Giggle to yourself because you’re immature, and tie the chicken up once with kitchen twine around its wings, pinning the wings close to its pale salty body. See picture above.  Bake at 450 for 60-65 minutes. Do not open the oven, do not baste, don’t do anything. This is a completely hands-off experience for you and the chicken. Once the chicken skin is brown and crispy, you may take it out of the oven & let rest for 10 minutes before dismounting it off its anal probe. Enjoy, while silently apologizing to the bird for what you just did to it.