Chicken Breasts with Cherry Pepper Pan Sauce

Recipe for Chicken Breasts with Cherry Pepper Pan Sauce

Ingredients

CHICKEN

• 2 medium bone-in split chicken breasts
• Kosher salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

PAN SAUCE

• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 cup chopped pickled hot cherry peppers, plus 1/4 cup brine
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, chilled
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
• Salt and pepper

Directions

FOR THE CHICKEN: 

1. Place 1 chicken breast, skin side down, on cutting board, with ribs facing away from knife hand. Run tip of knife between breastbone and meat, working from thick end of breast toward thin end. Angling blade slightly and following rib cage, repeat cutting motion several times to remove ribs and breastbone from breast. Find short remnant of wishbone along top edge of breast and run tip of knife along both sides of bone to separate it from meat. Remove tenderloin (reserve for another use) and trim excess fat, taking care not to cut into skin. Repeat with second breast.
2. Using tip of paring knife, poke skin on each breast evenly 30 to 40 times. Turn breasts over and poke thickest half of each breast 5 to 6 times. Cover breasts with plastic wrap and pound thick ends gently with meat pounder until 1/2 inch thick. Evenly sprinkle each breast with 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. Place breasts, skin side up, on wire rack set in rimmed baking sheet, cover loosely with plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour or up to 8 hours.
3. Pat breasts dry with paper towels and sprinkle each breast with 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Pour oil in 12-inch skillet and swirl to coat. Place breasts, skin side down, in oil and place skillet over medium heat. Place heavy skillet or Dutch oven on top of breasts. Cook breasts until skin is beginning to brown and meat is beginning to turn opaque along edges, 7 to 9 minutes.
4. Remove weight and continue to cook until skin is well browned and very crispy, 6 to 8 minutes. Flip breasts, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until second side is lightly browned and meat registers 160 to 165 degrees, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer breasts to individual plates and let rest while preparing pan sauce.

FOR THE PAN SAUCE:

1. Pour off all but 2 teaspoons oil from skillet. Return skillet to medium heat and add shallot; cook, stirring occasionally, until shallot is softened, about 2 minutes. 
2. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds. Increase heat to medium-high, add broth and brine, and bring to simmer, scraping up any browned bits. Simmer until thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. 
3. Stir in any accumulated chicken juices; return to simmer and cook for 30 seconds. Remove skillet from heat and whisk in peppers, butter, and thyme; season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon sauce around breasts and serve.

Original recipe from Cooks Illustrated

The Martinez Cocktail

Assemble your ingredients and equipment, then put on Cal Tjader's Soul Sauce. Be careful not to spill anything while shaking your tail feather.

The Martinez Cocktail

• 2 oz gin
• 1 oz sweet vermouth
• 1/4 oz maraschino liquer
• 2-3 dashes aromatic bitters
• lemon peel garnish

Combine the ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir, stir, stir. (Nod to Mr. Eric Felton; stir some more)
Strain into a cocktail glass. Peel the lemon over the glass with a channel knife or vegetable peeler.
Express oil from the peel into the glass and drop it in.

Amaze your friends: If you want a spiral, wind the peel around the mixing spoon or your finger. 

Green Chile Stew

Notes on preparation

• The amount of sodium in your chili powder varies. Taste a bit before adding any salt. I like Penzey's Medium Hot Chili Powder which has no added salt. 
• Use Mexican oregano if you have it on hand, regular is fine. 
• I've tried including the liquid from the green chiles and did not like the outcome personally. 
• Pork:You can purchase pork chops (already sliced) or you can purchase a huge pork loin package from Costco and slice them yourself. There is some savings in the latter. Cut it 1/2 inch slices and store in 2 lb (or close enough) portions and freeze. The original recipe called for pork shoulder or butt. It is definitely more flavorful. It also takes longer to cut and trim and contains more animal fat. 
• When I can get them I use Goya White Hominy and Westbrae Great Northern Beans (not pictured above). The beans break down well to become the "gravy" for the stew.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 pounds pork chops, 2 to 2 1/2 pounds boneless, trimmed and cut in to 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 large onion, diced
• 30 ounces hominy, canned, drained (Goya)
• 32 ounces great northern beans, canned, drained (Westbrae)
• 10 ounces tomatoes with green chilies, canned with juices (Rotel)
• 12 ounces green chiles, canned, drained or frozen thawed and drained (Bueno are great if you live in the southwest)
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 10 oz lager or pilsner beer
• Salt, to taste
• chopped cilantro and radish slices, to garnish

Directions

1. In a large Dutch oven or deep skillet with lid, brown pork cubes in a little oil. Remove liquid at end of browning to get a little crust on pork if you like.. Add onion and a little more oil to the pot. Cook until soft. Add garlic and cook for about a minute. Add remaining ingredients except salt and garnishes. Cover and simmer low for one hour. Add 8 oz beer or more as needed. . 
2. Taste and adjust seasonings for salt. Serve hot garnished with cilantro and sliced or julienned radishes. This stew reheats well; cover and refrigerate for up to three days; freeze for longer storage.

Rachael Ray has a terrific Posole recipe I've made a couple of times. I like it. I drain the cans of hominy when making it. 

On Bacon

For storing uncooked bacon, I like to roll up the slices individually and then freeze them in a Ziploc bag. Whenever I need a few slices of bacon for a dish, I just pull the number I need, chop them if necessary, and cook them.

Ingredients

• 1 pound bacon, thick sliced

Instructions

1. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil. Arrange the bacon strips so they are all flat. They can be touching. You could add some black pepper or brown sugar on the strips for flavored bacon.
2. Set the baking sheet with bacon on the lower-miiddle rack in a cold oven. Set the oven to bake at 400 F. Set the timer to 9 minutes.
3. After nine minutes, rotate the sheet in the oven and set the timer for another 9 minutes. When the timer goes off, check the bacon. You will want it pretty dark brown. Remove when it is done to your liking. Remove the bacon to a paper towel lined baking sheet or plate.
4. Once the bacon has drained and cooled, place it in a ziplock bag and refrigerate or freeze. You can cut the strips in 1/2 and they will fit into a 1 quart bag. Microwave if you are having it "straight". 
5. After the bacon grease has cooled, drain it into a glass or metal container. You can filter but the small solid bits usually settle on the bottom. Refrigerate this for when you need it for recipes like corn bread or beef stew.

Bacon Confidential: I was working in a restaurant kitchen ages ago. I had drained off the hot bacon fat from the pan into a metal ramekin and set it aside. My next task was to pull the grease traps above the grill for cleaning. I was standing on a counter and hit the ramekin of bacon grease with my foot. The very hot (that's key here) bacon grease tumbled onto my friend Pat Brown's leg. It must have been excruciating. I just kept apologizing as we worked to minimize the damage to his calf. If you are out there Pat, I'm truly sorry.

The Perfect Manhattan

Friday cocktail hour is one of my favorite hours of the week. Always something new to try or modify for a bit of experimentation. There is a wonderful book by Bernard DeVoto titled The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto that covers the topic in highly opinionated detail.

I love a good Manhattan cocktail. I recently expanded my horizons by making some Perfect Manhattans. The only difference is the substitution of 1/2 the sweet vermouth with dry vermouth. The choice of whiskey, vermouth and bitters have tremendous impact on the taste of the final product.

Perfect Manhattan
2 oz whiskey (bourbon or rye)
1/2 oz sweet vermouth
1/2 oz dry vermouth
3 or 4 dashes (soon to be converted to drops) bitters
lemon peel or maraschino cherry

• Add whiskey, vermouth and bitters to a mixing glass with ice. 
• Stir and stir and stir. You want some dilution from the melting ice.
• Strain into a cocktail glass. Add maraschino cherry or homemade brandy/maraschino liquor cherry.OR use lemon peel expressed over the glass.

Split Pea Soup With Ham

I found the start of this recipe on AllRecipes.com submitted by Chef John who has a great site called FoodWishes.com. I made it a few times following the recipe exactly. I then saw a recipe on CooksIllustrated.com and saw they had a variation with the addition of caraway seed (which I'm crazy for). The result is the recipe linked below. I'm toying with the idea of substituting ham hock for the ham steak, but the ease of dicing the ham gives me pause. 

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, chopped medium
• 2 ribs celery, chopped medium
• 2 medium carrots, chopped medium
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 pound ham steak, diced into 1/4 inch cubes
• 2 whole bay leaves, broken in 1/2
• 1 1/2 teaspoon caraway seed
• 1 pound dried split peas, picked over
• 1 quart chicken stock, low sodium
• 2 1/2 cups water
• salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Place the butter in a large soup pot over medium-low heat. Stir in onion, celery, and carrot with some salt. SLOWLY cook the vegetables so as not to brown. Add sliced garlic after 2 minutes. Cook slowly until the onions are translucent but not brown, About 5 to 8 minutes.
2. While vegetables are cooking, toast caraway seeds in small skillet over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until fragrant and browned, about 4 minutes.
3. Mix in ham, bay leaf, caraway, and split peas. Pour in chicken stock and water. Stir to combine, and simmer slowly until the peas are tender and the soup is thick, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add more liquid if soup becomes too thick. Season with salt and pepper to taste (probably will not need any salt). Remove the 4 bay leaf pieces. 
4. Add a few grinds of black pepper about 5 min before you serve.
5. Serve with oyster crackers or caraway rye bread toasted.

Black-eyed Peas with Collard Greans

Ingredients

• 6 slices bacon, Farmland thick cut if you've got it
• 1 medium onion, halved and sliced thin
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 4 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cracked red pepper 
• 14 1/2 ounces diced tomatoes, canned, with juice
• 1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1 pound collard greens, stemmed, rolled, cut once lenthwise the into 3/4 inch ribbons
• 31 ounces blackeyed peas, canned, drained and rinsed
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Instructions
NOTE: If you cook a whole package of bacon in the oven, you can reserve the bacon grease and use 2 tbsp in this recipe with 6 of the cooked slices. Put remaining slices in ziplock bag in freezer and refrigerate the leftover bacon fat for cornbread.

1. Cook the bacon in a dutch oven over medium heat until crisp, 5-7 minutes. Transfer bacon to paper towel-lined palte and set aside.
2. Remove all but 2 tbsp bacon fat from pot. Add onion and salt and cook stiring frequently until golden brown, about 10 minutes.
3. Add garlic, cumin, pepper and red pepper flakes and cook for about 30 seconds.
4. Add tomatoes and their juice. Stir in broth and bring to a boil. Add greens, cover and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer until green are just tender, about 15 minutes
5. Add black-eyed peas to pot and cook covered stirring gently occasionally until greens are silky and tender, about 15 more minutes. Remove lid, increase heat to medium high, and cook until liquid is reduced by one-fourth, about 5 minutes. Stir in vinegar and sugar. Serve topping with reserved bacon.

Bloody Mary

Why are Bloody Mary's so popular at airports and on planes? I've made my share and am always on the lookout for a good recipe. My fabulous wife recently gave me a cookbook by John Currence for Christmas. Tt had a great looking Bloody Mary recipe which is now my go to recipe when making a batch.

I have made two half-batches so far. I recommend serving same day you make it. You can pre-load it with vodka, but I like letting everyone add their own. Here's my take on his recipe.

Ingredients

• 4 cups V-8® vegetable juice, low sodium if you prefer
• 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 5 teaspoons horseradish, prepared
• 2 1/2 teaspoons shallot, grated or minced (i'm tempted to try onion powder or dehydrated onion)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic, pressed
• 2 tablespoons dill pickle juice
• 1-2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce (up to you)
• 3/4 teaspoon celery seeds
• 2 teaspoons black pepper, ground
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, Omit if watching your sodium intake
• 2 medium lemons, zested and juiced

Directions

1. Combine the V8, and all the other ingredients in a one of those Rubbermaid pitchers. Refrigerate until well chilled; around 2 hrs. Pre-chill your V8 the night before if you are in a hurry.
2. Add some to a glass filled with ice. Add  your choice of vodka or gin. 
3. Garnish: pickled okra, picked onions, olives, lime wedges. Up north some folks add beef sticks, bacon, and/or pickles. Pretty much anything pickled is fair game. 

His book may be purchased on Amazon. It is absolutely beautiful. Great pictures, quality print and paper. It is titled Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey: Recipes from my Three Favorite Food Groups and Then Some.

Chorizo and Chickpea Soup

Had this with a good IPA. A Chianti could also work.

Ingredients

• 4 ounces chorizo, spanish, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2-3 large leeks, white and light green parts only, halved lengthwise, 1/2 slices, and rinsed
• 2-3 medium cloves garlic, pressed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 cup crushed tomatoes, canned, 1 small can
• 4 cups low sodium chicken broth (or 2 cups broth and 2 cups water)
• 30 ounces chickpeas, canned (2x15 ounce cans) rinsed
• 1 teaspoon paprika (hot, smoked, or sweet...your choice)
• 4 cups spinach (cut off the stems while still bunched; drop in sink of water and trim any stems you missed)
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Directions

1. Cook chorizo in a large pot over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until most of the fat melts out, about 5 minutes. Set aside to drain on paper towels; discard fat.
2. Add oil to the pot and place over medium heat. Add leeks and cook, stirring frequently, until just soft, 4 minutes. Add garlic and cumin and cook for 1 minute. Add crushed tomatoes (or puree) and cook, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes. Add broth, chickpeas and sweet and smoked paprika; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, partially cover and cook for 20 minutes.
3. Add spinach, pepper and the reserved chorizo; cook, stirring, until the spinach is wilted, about 2 minutes.

Welcome to Vivacious Viands

First post of the year and ever in this new blog. I am hoping to catalog all things food and drink of note created and/or consumed. I am keeping a parallel recipe site on MasterCook.com. I will try to link to recipes when possible. I currently have no financial affiliation with any food or drink entities. My opinions are my own.