White Chicken Chili

I mentioned in my first post about chili that my it was one of the first real dishes I ever learned how to make, from start to finish. This white version, though, is a far cry from the traditional Texas bowl of red. It’s lighter and healthier, but still full of flavor. Unlike red chili (or white chili’s close cousin, chicken tortilla soup) the dish contains no tomatoes in any form. And instead of ground beef or cubed chuck, chicken pieces are browned and then simmered, on the bone, in a light broth laced with garlic, cumin and chili powder, along with onion, bell pepper and two kinds of fresh chiles. Once cooked, the chicken pieces (I used a mix of white and dark meat) are shredded and returned to the pot, along with a generous splash of lime juice. Feel free to go wild with the garnishes…I used chopped cilantro, sliced green onions, crushed tortilla chips and a sprinkling of Monterey Jack. I could also see a dollop of sour cream working well, and some hot sauce or extra jalapenos if you like it really spicy (though the heat definitely builds as you eat).

White Chicken Chili

Active Time: 30 min.

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 min.

Ingredients

• 3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, thighs, or a mixture of both (I used a 50-50 mix)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 medium jalapeños, stemmed and finely chopped
• 2 medium poblano chiles, stemmed and diced
• 1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and diced
• 1 medium red onion, diced
• 4 medium garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini/white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (1 or 2 limes)
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• Tortilla chips

Method

• Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season generously all over with salt and pepper; set aside
• Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Working in 2 or 3 batches, add the chicken and cook, turning once, until it’s browned all over, about 8 minutes per batch. Transfer to a large plate and set aside

• Reduce the heat to medium. Add the jalapeños, poblanos, bell pepper, and onion to the pot and season with salt and pepper. Cook, scraping up any browned bits that have accumulated on the bottom of the pot and stirring occasionally, until softened and just starting to brown, about 5 minutes

• Add the garlic, cumin, measured salt, and chili powder, stir to coat the vegetables, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute
• Add the stock and beans and stir to combine. Return the chicken pieces and any accumulated juices to the pot and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer, uncovered, until the chicken is cooked through, about 40 minutes, turning the chicken halfway through

• Turn off heat and remove the chicken to a cutting board. Using two forks, remove the meat from the bone and coarsely shred it, discarding the skin and bones
• Using a potato masher, lightly mash about half of the beans and vegetables, leaving the remaining half intact. Stir in the shredded chicken and lime juice. Serve with the cheese, cilantro, tortilla chips and scallions on the side for garnishing

Parmesan Bread Pudding with Broccoli Rabe and Pancetta

Happy Easter, fans and visitors of N.T.! Instead of traditional spring holiday meals, featuring a baked ham or leg of lamb, I kept it a bit lighter this year. This bread pudding features cubes of country bread, tossed with garlicky sauteed broccoli rabe and a Parmesan-flavored custard. And just so we didn’t leave the Easter ham out altogether, the whole thing is topped with a few paper-thin slices of pancetta, Italy’s version of bacon. The bread cubes were soft and chewy and moist on the inside, and crusty and brown on the outside, and the whole thing was salty, cheesy and just slightly porky. To go with, I steamed some asparagus, a classic spring vegetable with a grassy green flavor, and drizzled some shallot vinaigrette on top.

Parmesan Bread Pudding with Broccoli Rabe and Pancetta

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 medium bunch broccoli rabe (rapini), trimmed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt plus more
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper plus more
• 6 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 pound country-style white bread, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 8 cups)
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan
• 6 thin slices pancetta (Italian bacon)

The assembled pudding, before going into the oven

Method

• Preheat oven to 350°. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and red pepper flakes. Stir until garlic is softened, about 30 seconds. Add broccoli rabe; sea-son with salt and pepper. Cook, tossing, until wilted, about 2 minutes; let cool slightly
• Meanwhile, whisk eggs, milk, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoons pepper in a large bowl to blend. Add broccoli rabe mixture, bread, and 1/2 cup Parmesan; toss to combine. Transfer to a 1-1/2-qt. baking dish. Top with pancetta and remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan
• Bake pudding until puffed, browned in spots, and set in the center, 45-55 minutes

Buffalo-Style Chicken Roulades

For a significant period of my life, had you asked me what my favorite food was, I would have said buffalo wings. (Nowadays I cop out and refuse to answer the question altogether, lest I think about it too hard and stare blankly at my interrogator until I’m drooling from an over-saturation of food memories. Besides, I hate playing favorites).

For me, two things are elemental in successful chicken wings. One is the texture, usually achieved by deep-frying the wings to crisp up the skin (though I’ve had success just lightly coating the wings in oil and oven-roasting them). The second is the sauce, for which I think simple and traditional is best – a 2:1 ratio of Frank’s Red Hot sauce and melted butter.

In upgrading one of my favorite foods from apps to tre-tres, I had to address these two elements. To keep the crispy texture of wings in a preparation of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, I turned to panko bread crumbs, which always seem to hold up and give that sought-after crunch to a finished dish. To infuse the dish with buffalo wing sauce flavor, I dipped the chicken in a Frank’s Red Hot-spiked mayo before dredging in the panko, and topped the finished dish with the aforementioned sauce recipe.

The filling of the roulades, a creamy mix of cheeses, minced carrot and scallion, was a good way to keep the dish moist from the inside out, and the dairy and fat played nicely with the vinegary, spicy sauce. Though I didn’t use any this time, I think a little blue cheese might do well in there, to recreate the wings and blue cheese dressing effect.

Buffalo-Style Chicken Roulades

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: 3 servings

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend
• 3 wedges Laughing Cow garlic and herb cheese
• 1/4 cup scallion, minced
• 1/4 cup carrot, minced
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 6 tablespoons Frank’s Red Hot sauce
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons butter
• pinch of garlic powder

Method

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Mix shredded cheese, laughing cow cheese, green onion, carrot, and couple pinches each of salt and pepper in a dish. In one bowl make a breading station out of corn flake crumbs. In another bowl combine mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons of hot sauce, and lemon juice
• Lay out the chicken breasts and pound with a meat mallet to a 1-inch thickness. Divide the cheese mixture among the chicken breasts and spread evenly, going almost to the edges. Roll each breast into a roulade, so the filling is on the inside. Roll chicken breasts in the mayonnaise mixture, then into the panko, and place seam side down in a baking dish
• Bake 30 minutes. While the chicken cooks, melt butter and mix with the remaining hot sauce and garlic powder. Drizzle buffalo sauce over finished chicken breast and serve

Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta

Being an avid home cook, I don’t mind recipes that are complicated. I get wary about recipes in cookbooks, magazines and on fellow bloggers’ sites that have the words “easy” or “20-minute” or “5-ingredient” in the name of the dish. Is what makes these dishes special their convenience and speed of preparation alone? So much of the time, these recipes call for shortcuts that detract from the quality of the final product, cutting out steps that I, at least, am happy to do, especially if it means a better result. So, all of this is to say that I like recipes for the food they produce, not how easy they are to make.

With that said, this recipe for garides saganaki, a light but intensely flavorful Greek dish of sauteed shrimp in spicy tomato sauce with feta cheese, was incredibly quick and easy. It came together in about half an hour but was just as tasty as some dishes I’ve made where I had to slave in the kitchen for half a day. True, there are more complicated versions of this dish, calling for additions like oregano, mint,  lemon, white wine, or ouzo, which I don’t doubt would play well with the other Mediterranean flavors here. But, if you’re looking for a quick meal with under 10 ingredients, definitely give this one a try.

Garides Saganaki (Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta)

Total Time: 25 min.

Yield: 3 servings

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• ½ medium jalapeno chile, stemmed and finely chopped
• 1  14.5-ounce can whole, peeled tomatoes in juice, crushed by hand
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 1/2 pounds large  shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 4 oz. feta, coarsely crumbled
• 1 tbsp. finely chopped parsley

Method

• Heat broiler to high. Heat oil in a heavy ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and chile, and cook, stirring often, until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, and season to taste with salt and pepper; cook until slightly thickened, about 4 minutes
• Arrange shrimp in single layer in skillet and simmer until shrimp are pink and just cooked through, about 2 minutes per side. Scatter feta over shrimp, then transfer skillet to broiler, and broil until feta begins to melt, about 2 minutes. Remove skillet, garnish with parsley, and serve

El Cuatro de Julio

It’s become something of a tradition over the last five or so years for me to make (or just eat) hot dogs on every Fourth of July. I didn’t set out one year with this goal in mind; it just sort of happened naturally. But now, every year on our Independence Day, whether I’m grilling for a crowd or rolling a single sausage around in a frying pan on the stove for myself, it just isn’t a holiday until I’ve had my hot dog.

And I do love a good hot dog: the satisfying snap of a blistered natural casing, the salty, seasoned beef flavor, the smoky, pillowy  comfort of a nicely charred bun…all these things are essential to a proper dog in my book. Lately, though, I’ve been experimenting with more and more diverse toppings with which to accessorize my franks. Green onions and hoisin sauce. Sriracha mayo, cilantro and Asian slaw. Barbecue sauce, onions and cheddar cheese. Mayonnaise and french fries. Kimchi.

But I had never attempted the famed Sonoran Dog – popularized on travel shows like Food Wars and Bizarre Foods – and this Fourth of July seemed like the perfect opportunity. Found in Tuscon/Phoenix (but supposedly originating in Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, Mexico) this hot dog is wrapped in bacon, griddled until golden-brown, and stuffed in a bun or bolillo roll with pinto beans, onion, tomato, cheese, mayo, and green chile sauce. If this doesn’t sound mind-blowingly delicious to you, then you’re reading the wrong blog.

The results were predictably amazing. I used canned refried beans to save time, but I made roasted tomatillo salsa from scratch (I have issues with jarred salsas.) I also mixed up a quick pico de gallo, with white onion, tomato, cilantro and lime juice. The mayo got thinned out and spiced up with a liberal dose of chipotle hot sauce. After that, it was just a matter of cooking the dogs slowly over a medium grill, then putting it all together.

I won’t say the Sonoran Dog will become a new tradition in and of itself, but this definitely won’t be the last one I eat.

Sonoran Dogs

Total Time: 45 minutes

Yields: 6 hot dogs

Ingredients

• 6 hot dogs
• 6 thin slices of bacon (thick-cut won’t stay wrapped around the dogs)
• 6 hot dog buns
• 1 can refried beans or whole pinto beans
• 1 large tomato, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 white onion, chopped
• 1/4 c. cilantro, chopped
• 1 c. green chile sauce or salsa verde (store-bought or homemade)
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• 1/4 c. mayonnaise, mixed with 1 tsp. chipotle hot sauce
• 1/2 c. shredded cheese (cheddar-jack, cotija, or other)

Method

• Wrap one piece of bacon around each hot dog

• Open can of beans and heat to a simmer. Keep warm on stove until ready to use
• Toss diced tomatoes, onions, cilantro and lime juice together. Season with a little kosher salt and set aside

• Grill bacon-wrapped hot dogs over medium heat until bacon is crispy on all sides, but not burned. Make sure to turn the dogs often so that the hot dogs are heated through by the time the bacon crisps, about 12 minutes
• Assemble the hot dogs: put each hot dog in a bun (toasted is nice), spread chipotle mayo on buns, spoon beans, pico de gallo, salsa verde and cheese on top