Oldie But Goodie : Chicken, Rice and Gravy

Sounds like the same old, same old right?

Not so much.

You see, there's a trick to this one : a non, non-stick pan.  Otherwise it's not going to taste the same when you re-create it.  So, invest in, or borrow someone's stainless steel pan.  You're gonna need it!  What makes it even better, assuming you skip the broccoli, this is a 2 pot dinner!


The picture above shows it with my Garlic Lime Broccoli, which I will provide directions for also!  Even the biggest veggie-snob will approve of this one! (I've tested that theory, too!)



For the chicken you will also need:

2-3 large boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, cubed
3 (or more, depending on how much your crowd likes gravy) packs of chicken gravy
Garlic powder, to taste
Onion powder, to taste
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
As much rice as you think you need.   (I use about 2 cups of rice, assuming 1 cup per person.) 



Slice and dice your chicken into cubes, or bite size chunks.  Make an even layer of them on your cutting board and start seasoning.  Use as much or as little as you prefer.  I season liberally when it comes to chicken.  Unless it's "backyard fresh" chicken really has no flavor other than what you give to it.

In your pan, on medium high heat, add 2 tblsp of olive or vegetable oil and when it's hot enough, add in a batch of your chicken.  You don't want to completely crowd the pan, but you don't want it to outright fry either.  If it puts off some juice and just kind of stews for a few minutes, don't panic, you're doing it right.  Medium high heat sounds like too much but you want the bottom of your pan to caramelize, just don't burn it.  Black means burned.  Brown means yummy.  That juice is gonna cook off in a little bit and leave you with a layer of golden brown deliciousness on the bottom of your pan.

Once that batch has turned a lovely golden brown, remove it from your pan, and add in your next batch.  You may need to re-oil between batches and that's okay.  Just use enough to re-lubricate your pan.  You want it to stick but not so bad you're prying it off the bottom and flinging it across the kitchen.

While this last batch is going, start your rice.  Cook it as you would normally.  Once your rice is going, grab your gravy mix and mix it on the side in a large measuring cup or bowl.  Most mixes call for 1 cup of water per 1 pack of gravy, so choose your vessel wisely.

When the last batch of chicken is done, remove it from the pan also.  You need all the surface area you can get in there to scrape the amazingness off the bottom.  Add in about 1/4 of your gravy mix.  Turn the heat up to high and start gently scraping the bottom of your pan with your wooden spoon.  (Just because it's a stainless steel pan, doesn't mean you get to use metal utensils here folks, what ails you? Do you know how annoying that sound is?! Wash ya mama's whoopin spoon if you have to, but for God sakes use a wooden spoon!!).  When you can no longer feel or see and more nuggets of deliciousness stuck to the bottom of the pan, add the rest of your gravy to the pan and stir together.  Then add your chicken back to the pan and turn the heat down to low or simmer.  Your rice should be about 5 to 10 minutes away from being done.  That's plenty of time to allow the gravy to cook into the chicken.


Once the rice is done, ring the dinner bell and start fixin' plates, 'cuz dinner's done!

This serves myself 4 times.  You have to consider that usually this is the only star of the dinner show, so it's okay to have a bowl of it to yourself and not feel like a fatty.  As long as this isn't the 3rd time this week, yanno? 





Bonus recipe: Garlic Lime Broccoli

2 large heads of broccoli
1-2 small cloves of garlic, minced ridiculously fine
1 tablsp Salt
Water


1 small dollop of butter
1 tsp olive or veggie oil
Lime (or lemon) juice to taste

Rinse your broccoli well, and cut the florets from the stem.  Discard stem, or if you like the stem, peel that woody outer layer off of it, slice it up and add it in with your florets.  

In a large sauce pot, fill it halfway with water and add your salt.  Place on high heat and let it come to a boil.  You're about to embark on the not-so-fancy technique of "Blanching" your broccoli.   When the water comes to a rolling boil, add in your broccoli and let it go for 1-2 minutes.  If it's starting to go yellow-green, TAKE IT OUT IT'S BEEN TOO LONG! You want it to still be bright green with a little crunch to it.  Drain it and let it stand to finish draining.  In the same pot, toss in your butter and oil.  Once the butter has melted, add in your broccoli and toss to coat.  The little pieces of the florets are going to break down.  It's an inevitability that you cannot avoid.  Make a small well in the center and add in your garlic and lime or lemon juice.  Toss to coat once again.  After about a minute or two the garlic has had a chance to permeate the oil, butter and broccoli, so your flavor is there, plus since you minced it so fine it really doesn't take long to soften.  IF it's turning brown, TAKE IT OFF THE HEAT AND OUT OF THE POT! You don't want brown with garlic.  With garlic, brown OR black means not yummy. 

Plate it up and enjoy!

*****This also works VERY well with asparagus and brussel sprouts, so yanno, branch out. *****

Quickie, All day, BBQ Sauce

Confused? Thought so.  Quickie, because it's super quick to put together.  All day, because once you've added it to your meat, and allowed it to simmer into it for at least 30 minutes, it tastes like something you spent all day doing.

I found a recipe for BBQ Sauce, somewhere, IDR where, and jotted it down quickly.  I was planning to make spare ribs in a few days and I'm never satisfied with store-bought sauces.  I'm a BBQ sauce connoisseur of sorts.  It can't be too thick or too thin, and DEFINITELY CANNOT have those uber disgusting little pieces of what used to be tomato skins floating around in it.  You know what I'm talkin about! Those tiny little stick like pieces you find in some (craptastic) ketchup's, most salsa and ALL BBQ sauces? Yea, they're gross.  I know, I'm weird, but it's cool, I accept it.  Anyhow, it also has to have a good balance of sweet and tangy. This one calls for ketchup, vinegar, and brown sugar, so it already reeks of WIN. 

Naturally, I added extra stuff to it that the original didn't call for.  I wouldn't be me if I didn't, but I'm convinced that had I not have been me, I would not have fallen in love with this sauce the way that I did.


For this, you will need the following:

1 cup of ketchup
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
2 tblsp of light brown sugar
1 tblsp of worchestershire sauce
2 dashes of soy sauce
1 small squirt of yellow mustard
1/2 tsp of All Purpose Greek Seasoning (I won't mention names, but it's in a yellow, white and red shaker)
1/4 tsp of cajun seasoning
2 tblsp bold and spicy steak sauce (yanno, the one that you HAVE to get the last drop of)

Whisk all of this together in a bowl, and pour over whatever meat you want to make AWESOME!  Let it simmer for about 30 minutes to get that all day flavor.  Since there's some bold flavors in here, a little goes a long way.

If you would like to grill with this, I would suggest using it as a "moppin sauce."  I haven't been able to use it in that type of application, but that's my educated guess based on consistency.  I would also recommend doubling or tripling these amounts, dependent on how much you're grilling and wait till the last 10 to 15 minutes of your cook time to add it to avoid massive flare ups, sticking and just general "no buenoness". 

Thrown Together Chili

Literally.  When I created this about 2 months ago, it was completely on the fly and I didn't really have all the traditional chili makins.  Sooooo I did what I always do, make do with what I DID have.  It was a small batch (compared to the normal amount that I would cook) so it didn't take me more than 30 minutes to prep my veg, brown the meat, open the cans and get everything simmering. I later adapted that recipe to accommodate for a larger yield.

Nothing about it is exact, it all depends on how much or how little you want to make, I always plan for leftovers so the specs I'm about to give you will definitely give you chili for a week (depending on your portion sizes). You can add to or take away what you don't want/like:

1-2 pounds of ground beef (I usually use the lean, less grease to drain)
3 cans of tomato sauce
3 cans of navy (northern) beans, drained and rinsed (they hold up better than you think and they don't have all those skins)
3 cans of sweet corn (partially drained)
2 cans of rotel (I first used the one that has green chile, lime and cilantro in it, you can also get the one that has chili seasoning in it or mix and match) don't drain
2 decent sized bell peppers, diced small
2 medium white onions, diced small
2 mid sized garlic cloves, minced
1 quarter to 1 half of fresh jalapeno, seeded, diced as fine as you can get it
Salt, to taste
Cumin, to taste
Chili powder, to taste (if you used chili seasoning, taste it first)
Pinch of sugar (mainly for the corn but it lends to the finished product too)
1 good squirt of ketchup (cuts the strong tomato acidic taste, gives a little sweetness)

Brown your meat first, drain it and remove it from your pot. That elusive little bit of grease left behind, plus 1 tblsp olive/veggie oil and 1 small chunk of butter (so your oil doesn't get too hot and your veggies don't caramelize) goes in behind it, throw in your onion and bell pepper. Let them sweat for about 3 minutes or until they're turning clear and add the garlic and the jalapeno. Sweat for about 5 more minutes. Add beef back to pot, then start dumping in your cans, beans, salt, cumin, chili powder, sugar and ketchup.

If you don't have enough volume or it's REALLY thick, add water till you've got the consistency you want. Taste and re-season as needed. I tend to have to add a lot of chili powder and cumin. Cumin gives it the smokey background flavor I crave in chili.

Let it come to a low boil, let it go at that temp for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently so it doesn't settle and stick.
Taste test it again, make sure it doesn't need anything else. If it's still too tangy for you, go for another squirt of ketchup or another couple of pinches of sugar. Turn the heat down and let it simmer for about 15 minutes (or until your side dishes are done).

If it thins out too much by the time it's done, which mine usually does, I add a cornstarch slurry of 1 tablspoon cornstarch to enough water to dissolve, and bring it back to a boil till it's back up to the thickness I want.  

Serve and enjoy
Yield : quite a lot, bring your A game people


                                             

Super Secret Spud Seasoning

Well, not so much a secret anymore...

It's also referred to as S4 (S to the 4th power) or, affectionately, "Crack."  Once you've tried it, you want to put it on everything, or so say the ones who came up with that one.  It's ridiculously simple to make and everything you need is pretty much already in your spice cabinet.  The only oddball is cumin.  Unless you NEVER make chili, you SHOULD have this, but if not, it's easy to find and relatively inexpensive.  I honestly find no difference between the flavor of pricey cumin versus the $1 bargain brand.  Unless it's been sitting on the shelf for EVER, I always opt for the $1 stuff when it comes to the things I use the most.  If I burn through a jar of garlic powder in 2 weeks, I don't feel so bad knowing that it was only $1.


All of the measurements are equal parts.  How much to use depends on how much or how little you want to make.  I usually make enough to fill a salt shaker, or 1/4 of a chinese take out tupperware-like-bowl thingy that they always give you the sweet and sour sauce in.

Equal parts:
Salt (regular table salt, you can use kosher if you'd rather, but they don't get along with shaker holes)
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Paprika
Cumin


Dump all these into your trusty chinese take out tupperware bowl (or zippy bag, those work great too), put the lid on and SHAKE IT! Over the sink though!  Just in case.


This goes AMAZINGLY well on roasted new potatoes (the red ones) as that's what my friend and I originally created this seasoning for, as well as mashed potatoes, baked potatoes and french fries.  Heck, it's even good in scrambled eggs! (I told you, you'd want to put it on everything!)  Due to the cumin it gives a little smokey background flavor to anything you put it on, while the rest of the stuff in there just enhances whatever food it touches.

I assimilated...

Yep.  I assimilated to the new era of owning a blog.  My original idea was to write a cookbook and then figure out how to publish it on a small, local kind of scale.  Yeah, whatev, that's too time consuming and I can't update it easily.  Every time I create a new dish all I have to do is log on and blog it!  So much simpler.

I've been cooking and creating my own recipes for about 10 years now.  I'm 23 now, so I started when I was 13, much to Mama's displeasure, since I was not a fan (still ain't!) of washing the dishes after an adventure in gastronomy.  I will wash up now, if she doesn't get to them before me.  That woman is a dish ninja.  DO NOT leave a glass or a fork unattended for less than 2 minutes around her.  It WILL end up in the dishpan and then the dish drain in 1:30 flat.  The last 30 seconds is the time it takes for you to reach for the item, only to find it's been ninja'd into the drainer.

She's yet to figure out how I do it though.  Walk into the kitchen with NO plan of action whatsoever, and walk out with something amazing in about an hours time.  When it comes out good enough for me to wish I'd made more, I grab my trusty Tinkerbell notebook (that's right, TINKERBELL!) and jot it all down.  However at that point, I'm also wishing I'd written down the measurements as well.  I never measure things.  Unless I have to.  I do everything "to taste" and put however much or however little I want into whatever it is.  I'm not trying to overpower anything.  I want to be able to taste the different flavors separately in certain things and in others I want them to blend together.  'Course that all depends on what you're making and how you use them.  I can't teach you how to do these things like some white-coat at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) or JAW (Johnson and Wales) could.  Some folks palates just aren't built to detect certain flavors over others, or in some cases, be able to detect it at all.  I'm the kind of person that can taste something at a restaurant and tell you what's in it in about a minute.  Just lucky I guess.

That's one of the problems with some folks these days though.  They don't take the time to really TASTE their food.  They're in such a tremendous hurry to scarf it down and move on to the next task that they do just that.  Scarf it down and wonder why they have heartburn later.  I am ALWAYS the LAST person to finish eating.  It doesn't matter when I sat down or how quickly I made my plate, I will finish last.  Sometimes 30 minutes after everyone else.

My cooking is based on convenience, but it's so you can sit down when it's done and enjoy it.  I don't want to stand in the kitchen for 2 hours anymore than the next person, but I do want something that's easy, filling and awesome.  I believe in left-overs so usually I've made a lot because if it was that good then imagine how much better it'll be tomorrow!

The recipes I post here are meant to be re-created and tweaked so feel free!  If you tweaked it and it came out awesome, then let me know!  There's nothing I enjoy more than seeing people sit back from the table after they're done, rubbing their bellies or unbuttoning their pants because they're fat and happy now that they're done.  I cook because I enjoy seeing my creativity put a smile on someone's face.

Well, that and because I was hungry.