December 1, 2022
All recipes here feeds 6, or a family of 4 with some leftovers
Chipotle Chicken - Roasted Whole
Ingredients:
1 organic whole chicken, innards removed
4 chipotles. in adobo sauce
2 hot red chilis, finely diced
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
a squeezeof freshorange juice
2 tsp whole cumin
2 tspmexican oregano
Take your bird out of the fridge an hour before it will go in the oven. Take it out ofany packaging (preferably let it sit overnight in fridge without any packaging, on just a rack over a roasting pan...so the skin can dry out a bit and crisp up better in the oven.) Put the cumin and oregano in a cast iron pan over medium heat. Toast until fragrant. Transfer spice-herb mix to a brick and mortar anad grind to a powder. Add the chipotles in adobo, red chiles, butter, salt, ppepper and citrus juice. Continue to grind for a few minutes while everything comes together and turns into a paste. Use half of the paste to rub on the outside of the chicken, then the other half to rub the flesh underneath the skin. You can pull up the skin over the breasts and gently separate the skin from the flesh with your hand, including the legs. Bake at 350F until the chicken reaches 165F. Baste and flip the chicken over, about 1/2 way through cooking. (I start with breasts down so they don't dry out, and finish with breasts up.) Cooking time will vary, depending on the size of your bird, but I usually plan about 90mn for cooking time. I don't put the chicken in the oven until the temp is definitely at 350F. For my oven, this is usually about 20-30mn after it dings/signals me that it is preheated and ready to go. I actually isn't, or hasn't preheated fully.
Scroll down below pictures for other recipes.
Chipotle & Feta Pinto Beans
Night before: Place 1 1/2 cups of dry pinto beans in a sauce pan and cover with water, 2" above beans.
A few hours before eating, rinse the beans, cover again with water, and place them on the stove. Add one small diced red chilis. Heat to almost a boil (don't let them boil) then reduce to simmer. Simmer for about 2 hours, continuing to add water so beans stay covered in liquid. Toward the very end, salt the water. Don'tsaltearlier,as it will cause the skins to break loose. Taste the water-sauce and add more salt as needed. When beans are almost soft, but not mushy, drain most of the liquid off, but reserve it. Add one diced chipotle chili and 1-2 tsp of the adobo sauce. I add a little more toasted-crushed cumin here as well...just a pinch, reserved from above. About 5mn before serving, turn off the heat and add 1/2 cup of crumbled feta. Stir to combine. It won't melt all the way, but the little chnks are super tasty. I will mash the beans about half-way at this point...there should be mixture of whole and smashed beans. Add enough of the bean juice back in...so your beans are moist and delicious, but not soupy.
Corn-Whole Wheat Tortillas
Ingredients:
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup masa harina (I order an organic version off Amazon)
3/4 cup water
4 tbsp cold butter
Kosher salt
Preparation:
1. Mix the flour, masa harina and a couple pinches of salt in a bowl
2. In a one-cup glass measuring cup, fill to 3/4 c with filtered water
3. Drop pieces of cold butter into the water until the water level rises to one cup. Heat the water until the butter melts. Stir and pour into flour mixture.
4. Mix and knead. If there’s crumbly edges, add a little more water and tiny bit of butter. Smear the dough on a clean counter as you knead for a few minutes.
5. Dough should be soft but not sticky.
6. Form 18 medium balls (or 24 small balls) and put into a Ziplock to rest for 30mn
7. Shape each ball into a tortilla. I use a wooden tortilla press, but you can also use a rolling pin.
8. Heat a cast iron pan over medium-high and cook the tortilla briefly on first side, then flip and cook for about a minute on the second side. Flip back to the first side and cook for about 30 seconds. During the last 30 seconds, press tortilla with a wooden spoon or your fingers and it should puff up in the middle.
9. Keep cooked tortillas wrapped in a towel. You can do this a few hours ahead if you want, then wrap the tortillas in a stackin foil and re-warm in oven.
Homemade Salsa
Ingredients:
4 large heirloom tomatoes, in season
4 tomatillos, in season, husks removed
1/2 - 1 small white onion, diced
1/2 - 1 small red onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
1 cup chopped cilantro
juice from 1-2 limes (start with one, and add more to taste)
kosher salt
1 tsp whole cumin, toasted and ground
1 tsp mexicano oregano, toasted just a bit and ground
Optional: 1 chipotle chili + 1 tspof the sauce (from small can of chipotles in adobo sauce)
Preparation:
Roast one of the tomatoes and all the tomatillos in a 400F oven until they start to blister (on a sheet of foil). While they are heating, finely dice the remaining tomatoes and add to a medium bowl, along with remainder of ingredients above. When roasted tomatoes and tomatillos have cooled a bit, finely dice them and add to the salsa. Stir, taste and add additional salt and lime juice to taste.
Guacamole
for 6 people
(optional - for the meal above I just sliced avocados and did not make my guacamole...but including the recipe here in case you want a yummy guacamole recipe. This is my go-to guacamole recipe)
Ingredients:
3 avocados
2 small tomatillos, husks removed, roasted and chopped (or 1 large)
1 heirloom tomato, roasted and chopped
1/4 white onion, diced
1/4 red onion, diced
1 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, seeds removed and minced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (finely chopped)
juice from 1-2 limes
kosher salt
pepper
Optional: olive oil, espelette pepper, pumpkin seeds browned in butter, pomegranate seeds
Preparation:
I plan for 1/2 avocado per person, when making guacamole, so 3 avocados is about right for 6 people, if they love guacamole. Mix ingredients above. Cover with plastic wrap completely, directly on top of the guacamole. Press the plastic so it's touching theentire surfaceof the gucamole,and all around to edges so there's no air in between the dip and the plastic. Place in fridge for at least one hour. This will keep your guacamole bright green but allow the flavors to develop more. (You can skip this step if you prefer.) Stir and transfer guacamole to one or more small bowls when it's time to serve. Sometimes I will also garnish with one of these: a drizzle of olive oil with a sprinkling of espelette pepper, butter-roasted pumpkin seeds, or pomegranate seeds.
From chicken, make STOCK
From chicken ,make STOCKeat still on the chicken carcass. Save in fridge or freezer for another use. Place the carcass, other small chicken bones, and any leftover chicken skin or unfavorable pieces of meat/cartilidge into a stock pot, and cover with water. Set to med-high heat. As it starts to heat, chop up a few stalks of celery along with their tops, a carrot, two onions, a few cloves of garlic and a thyme bundle (about 6 sprigs tied together.) If you have a leek or fennel bulb on hand, clean/chop/add those as well. Add a few pinches of salt. Push the veggies down very gently with a wooden spoon, but don't stir. Let the water come to a very gentle, but not rolling, boil. Immediately turn down the heat to low. You don't want the bubbles to break on the surface, as that will mix the impurities back in and under the surface. Skim the foam off the surface for about the first 30mn. Then leave your stock to simmer for 18-24 hours at the lowest possible temperature, adding more water occasionally to keep the carcass covered. (Yes, I leave my gas stove on overnight...but if you don't want to do this, put your chicken carcass in a ziploc after removing the meat, and start your stock the next morning. It will still taste yummy after 10-12 hours of cooking. I just prefer the richer taste of the broth after a prolonged simmer.) When the bits of chicken meat looks fully cooked, after the first couple hours, taste your broth and season withmore saltif needed. When your stock is done, strain it well. I leave it in the strainer for about an hour to let it cool and to make sure I get all the juice. I then pour the strained liquid into deli containers, in 1 1/2 cup portions, let cool to room temperature, label and put in the fridge for about 8-12 hours, or until fat rises and coagulates on the surface. I then remove the fat layer, and place the containers in the freezer.
Note: Before the stock is poured into the deli containers, I usually leave a little aside for an immediate cup of broth (better than a cup of coffee!) and maybe enough for soup for our next meal. But the rest of the stock gets cooled, fat removed, and then frozen. I try to keep at least 3-4 of these 1.5 cup chicken stock portions in my freezer at all times, so I have homemade stock whenever I need it! When I begin to run low, I make a roast chicken. My regular resipe for roast chicken takes 3 days and can be found here.
Comments