Sunday, April 1, 2012

Chicken Adobo and Almond crackers

It's been a while since my last post to my love bacon.  As I have said on many occasions bacon has become one of my favorite foods.  I can use it for almost any meal and I can also use the remnants left in the pan.  This post is about that other meat that I eat so much of: Chicken.  The story is the same old same old, man get chicken, man cuts up chicken, man cooks chicken with veggies, man and man eat chicken.  This time though I had a breakthrough in the chicken department: a shiny new favor and recipe: Chicken Adobo.  It came in the knick of time because I was ready to not eat Bacon wrapped Chicken again so low and behold the higher power heard me and in the mail came the next issue of Cook's Illustrated, complete with Chicken Adobo recipe and also the background of how the perfect braise made the perfect meat and all the stuff they tried. So I haven't read the article just yet.  Jeremy did and told me to make it, so I did.  It is very Primal friendly.  The sauce is made of coconut milk and I subbed soy sauce for Tamari.  I don't have all the pictures from the process mostly because lately all the sauces I have been making seem to be the color of something that would come out of a 2 month old baby, not so appetizing to look at but VERY good to eat. so here is the recipe courtesy of Cook's Illustrated:
Chicken Adobo:
8 chicken thighs (bone in-skin on) trimmed
1/2 cup of Tamari
1 can coconut milk
3/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
8 garlic cloves peeled
4 bay leaves
2 teaspoons of pepper
1 scallion sliced thin

1. toss the chicken with the Tamari in a bowl and let it soak for 30 min to 1 hour in the fridge
2.Remove the chicken from the Tamari allowing excess to drip into the bowl, transfer chicken skin side down to a HOT 12 inch skillet.
3. Cook chicken for 7-10 min, while chicken is cooking whisk together the Tamari, coconut milk, vinegar, garlic, and spices.


4. Transfer chicken to a plate and discard fat from the pan.  Return the chicken to the pan skin side down.  Add the Tamari mixture to the pan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium low and simmer, uncovered for 20 min.  Flip chicken over and cook skin side up until the temp reaches 175.    Transfer chicken to a platter and top with a foil tent.
5. Remove the bay leaves from the sauce and skim any fat off the surface of the sauce.  return skillet to medium high heat and cook the sauce until thickened.  Pour sauce over chicken sprinkle with Scallions.





This is the finished product.  As you can see I added something else to the plate.  It's white but it isn't rice or mashed potatoes.  It's Cauliflower!  Steamed Riced Cauliflower!

1/2 head of cauliflower
1/2 cup of water
2 TBSP of butter
spices

Steam the cauliflower in whatever kind of steamer you may have. I use this one from the pampered chef, i've used one forever and when I finally got my own place I decided I needed to have my own so I bought one, then I decided I needed a bigger one so I got the bigger one.  It's great for fresh steamed and for frozen veggies.  Anyways, steam the crap outta that cauliflower (I did something like 7 min) so it kind of falls apart with a fork.

I then blend it in the food processor until it resembles rice and add the butter and whatever spices you want. It does the trick!



ALMOND CRACKERS!!!



Alright I admit I loves crackers, chips, pretzels, popcorn, and everything crunchy!!!  They are so hard to resist and yet over the past few months I have fought back the urges to eat all crackers in site.  I have occasionally have had a plain lays potato chip, and maybe one or two tortilla chips at a Mexican restaurant, but I think I would have gone crazy without the one little nibble.  Nothing happened but still.  I wanted a yummy little occasional snack that I could also make into an appetizer for a party or bring to a friends house or have at one of my parties. So I was reading Mark's Daily Apple and happened upon the recipe and idea for the occasional Almond Cracker.  I followed some of the recipe, made an oops but will try them again.

Here is what I did:
Preheat oven to 350

8 oz of raw almonds
2 TBSP sunflower seeds
1 TBSP of herbs (I used some fresh Rosemary and Oregano from the Garden)
2 TBSP of olive oil
1 egg
a little parm cheese

1. Mix the almonds and sunflower seeds and herbs in the food processor until it resembles flour.
2. Add the egg and parm cheese
3. Drizzle in the Olive Oil

I ended up just patting this mixture into a cookie sheet scored the dough into squares and baking them for about 15 min.

The other suggestion is to use to sheet of parchment paper, or make the dough into a roll and freeze for 10 min and cut and bake.  My way worked fine.  I may try the other ways when I get some of that Parchment paper.

I ended up breaking them up and putting them on a wire rack to cool.

I am thinking these would be good with a little Ikea Salmon paste!

Enjoy!