Lazyass Tortilla Soup

Lazyass slow-cooker “recipe” for chicken tortilla soup:

• 4 cups organic chicken stock
• 8 oz green enchilada sauce (Frontera green is particularly good)
• 1 lb frozen chicken (boneless thighs, breasts, etc.)
• 1 can black beans, drained
• 4 oz. frozen fire-roasted onions & peppers
• Tortilla chip crumbs… because we all have them, but if not, use crushed chips or fresh corn tortilla strips or corn flour (masa) mixed with water to thicken the soup (plus extra salt)
• Cheese, cilantro, scallions, sour cream, whatever for garnish

In the morning, put the stock, sauce, and frozen chicken in the slow cooker and set it to low (6-9 hours, but longer is probably ok). One hour before serving, shred the chicken with tongs or two forks and then add the rest of the ingredients. Top with whatever you like for garnish.

Leftover Chicken... Tikka Masala

Chicken Tikka Masala
1 lb leftover chicken, cubed (I used b/s breasts that had been roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper)
1/2 C plain yogurt
1/2 t each of garlic powder, ground ginger, garam masala

1 T butter or ghee
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
2 T fresh grated ginger
1 t ground cumin
1 t ground coriander
1/2 t smoked paprika
2 t garam masala
salt & pepper to taste
8 oz tomato puree
1/2 C heavy cream

Toss the chicken with the yogurt and spices and set aside.

Melt butter/ghee over medium heat. Suatee jalapeno and garlic for about 1 minute, then add the ginger (protip: frozen ginger grates super easily) and dried spices. Cook for 1-2 minutes then add the tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the cream and simmer another 5 minutes, then add the chicken mixture and simmer for 5 more minutes. Serve with rice if you do that kind of thing, or make my adaptation of "Paleo naan," below (no, I'm not a Paleo weirdo... yet... and it's not really naan). Makes 2 very protein-filled servings or 3-4 regular servings.

Lower-Carb "Naan"
1/2 C almond flour
1/2 C Bob's Redmill GF AP Baking Flour (or similar)
2/3 C coconut milk
1/3 C water
1/2 t salt

Stir all ingredients together and pour by fourths onto a medium-heat nonstick griddle or cast iron skillet. Makes 4 small breads. It's good, but more like a dosa than naan.

Sorry for no pictures... it wasn't that pretty.

BBQ Chicken and Yogurt Potato Salad

I'm finally posting my super-amazing BBQ chicken "recipe." It starts with a marinade that I then boil down to make a sauce. A stroke of pure genius had me serving it with my yogurt potato salad and some broccoli that I roasted on the grill (just drizzle some olive oil over some broccoli and add some smashed garlic cloves, enclose in a foil pouch and ignore on the grill while the chicken cooks... and don't forget to squeeze half a lemon on it before serving like I did!).

Sorry the picture isn't so great... I forgot to snap one while the food was still in the kitchen where the good lighting is.

BBQ Chicken
Marinade/Sauce
Apple cider vinegar
Molasses
Brown sugar
Ketchup
Soy Sauce
Crushed red pepper flakes
Black peppercorns
Garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
Onion powder

Put these things into a very large ziploc bag and mix well. The proportions are up to you. I use about 4 cups of vinegar as the base. This is a tangy NC-inspired marinade/sauce. I also use quite a lot of the red pepper flakes so it's pretty spicy.

Once you've got the chicken on the grill, pour the leftover marinade into a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer it for a while, then strain it into a serving apparatus (I like using a squeeze bottle).

Chicken
A bunch of chicken, with bones and skin (I did a "Family Pack" of 4 drumsticks and 2 breasts)
Marinade from above
About 1 C applewood chips, soaked for 15 minutes

Marinate the chicken for at least 4 hours, letting it come to room temperature for no more than 2 hours before grilling. Get your grill going at a nice low steady heat. Put the applewood chips in a little foil bowl and stick that on the coals. If you have a gas grill, I don't know what you are supposed to do with wood chips, sorry. Wait a few minutes until the wood chips start to smoke. Pull the chicken out of the marinade and place it on the grill, skin-side down. Grill breasts first, since they take the longest (they will need about a 10-minute head start depending on size). Grill the chicken for a few minutes and flip. Move the chicken around the grill to get desired amount of char. Pull the chicken off once the thickest parts reach 160°F and let it rest for about 5 minutes to get up to 165°F, which is the temperature recommended for chicken.

Yogurt Potato Salad
2 lb red potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces (I ended up with 30 oz after trimming off some weird parts)
1-1/2 T olive oil
1 medium shallot, diced
1 red bell pepper, large-diced
2 large or 4 small carrots, thinly sliced (cut large ones in half lengthwise)
1 C plain yogurt (Greek or regular, but Greek will make a thicker dressing)
Red wine vinegar to taste
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t garlic powder
Salt and pepper

Put the potatoes in a pot and cover them with water. Drain them, then cover them with water again. Bring to a boil and cook the potatoes just until tender. It only takes a few minutes when the pieces are so small. Be careful not to overcook them! Drain the potatoes and then place back in the pot with the lid on so they absorb the last bit of moisture. If after a few minutes, they're still pretty damp, turn on a little heat. Very dry potatoes make the best salad. Pour the potatoes into a very large bowl and toss them with the olive oil. Stir in the veggies, then mix together the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl before mixing into the salad. Refrigerate for a couple of hours, or better yet, overnight. If you want, add some chopped fresh herbs, like chives or flat-leaf parsley.

Potato salad Serves 6.

Chao Ga

Chao ga is Vietnamese rice porridge, like congee, with chicken. It is some of the most comforting food I've ever put into my mouth. My brother recently ordered it at the best Vietnamese restaurant in town (Banh Mi So #1), and after I tasted it, I knew I had to try making it. Lucky for us all, today was chilly and rainy, and thus the perfect day for chao ga!

Chao Ga

Broth

1 whole chicken, quartered (use half a chicken if you don't want tons of leftovers)

4-5 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled

3-4 inches fresh ginger root, peeled and chunked

about 20 black peppercorns

1 T salt (or 1-2 T Vietnamese fish sauce, if you like that sort of thing... it's more authentic)

about 6 C cold water

Place the broth ingredients into a stockpot, using just enough water to cover everything (6 cups will be plenty for the porridge, add more as needed to make sure everything is submerged). Cover the pot and bring the liquid to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for about 25 minutes, until the chicken meat is cooked (you can just pull it out and check it by piercing it - it's done when the juices run out clear). Pull the cooked chicken out of the pot, let it cool a bit, and remove the meat from the bones. Set the meat aside and place the bones back into the pot of broth. Simmer the broth with the bones, covered, for at least one hour.

Porridge

1/2 T sesame oil

1 small shallot, minced

2 t minced fresh ginger

1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, minced

1 C jasmine rice, rinsed and drained
broth from above

Vietnamese chili-garlic sauce

fried onion or shallot pieces (I am lazy, so I used fried onions from a can, but they're delicious, so sue me)

fresh cilantro

In a large saucepan, heat the sesame oil over medium heat. Add the shallot, ginger, and garlic and stir for about a minute. Add the rice and cook for another 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Strain the broth into the pot and bring to a boil (you may need to add water, depending on the consistency you would like... I think 6 cups of liquid to 1 cup of rice is good). Turn the heat down, cover, and simmer for 30-40 minutes, until the rice is very tender and the liquid starts to thicken. While the rice is cooking, shred the cooled chicken (yeah, I had a lot left over... on purpose).  Ladle the porridge into bowls and top with the chili-garlic sauce, desired amount of chicken, fried onion/shallot, and fresh cilantro.

Mix it all up and devour.

Serves 3 (very filling, could serve 4 with spring rolls!).

Grilled Marinated Chicken and Stuff

This chicken was SOO good. I apologize for not having pictures of the meal once completed (though you do get bonus leftovers pics), but it actually wasn't terribly pretty. I was craving fajitas, but didn't want to cut up a bunch of chicken or cook indoors, so I decided to leave the chicken breasts intact, marinate them, and make my husband grill them!

Marinade:
orange juice
soy sauce
white vinegar
sunflower oil (just a touch)
garlic powder
ground cumin
ground coriander seed
cayenne pepper
black pepper

Place all ingredients in whatever proportion you want into a large zipper bag and mix it around a bit. Add in some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and refrigerate for at least 6 hours. You could use lime juice instead of orange, but I needed to use up some orange juice that I bought for my dad since we don't drink it.

Accompaniments:
bell pepper, cut into strips
jalapeño pepper, seeded and cut into strips
yellow onion, sliced
olive oil spray
salt & pepper
can of black beans
shredded Mexican cheese blend (I bought a light blend and can't tell any difference)
sliced avocado
tortillas

Place the veggies on a large sheet of aluminum foil that has been sprayed with olive oil, then spray the veggies. Sprinkle salt and pepper over them and toss. Seal up the foil to make a pouch for grillin'.

Grill the chicken and veggie pouch over high flame. We like our meat kind of charred and our veggies caramelized. Make sure you flip everything at some point. Cook the chicken until an instant-read thermometer registers at least 160° F, then let it rest for 5 minutes while you heat up the beans and tortillas. Note: I heat tortillas directly over the flame on my gas stove. Slice up the chicken and plate it with the grilled veggies, beans topped with shredded cheese, avocado, and tortilla.

Nutrition info:

Bonus: Leftovers!

Poor little (big, actually) blurry chicken breast

In a very large bowl, I have:
2 C butter lettuce
2 C baby spinach
1/4 C light shredded Mexican cheese blend
1/2 C shredded carrot
1/2 a red bell pepper, sliced
6 oz leftover chicken breast, cubed

Avocado ranch dressing:
1/2 an avocado, mashed
1 T Greek yogurt
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 t red wine vinegar
1/2 t Buttermilk Ranch Seasoning from Penzey's Spices.

Pretzel-Fried Chicken

Have you ever craved something you've never had? Somehow, I got it in my head that I was craving chicken strips rolled in crushed pretzels and then fried. Suddenly, I just had to make it.

Yes, the worst of the worst - boneless skinless chicken breasts

Cut into strips, put into zip-lock, and add buttermilk, olive oil, S&P

Seal the bag, slosh it all around, and refrigerate overnight

Peel some sweet 'taters, then cut into sticks

Toss fries in peanut oil, S&P

Coating dish

Pound the pretzels

Leave some larger pieces and pour into dish

Add an egg to the soaked chicken

Heat up frying oil

Fry in 325-350°F oil until golden

Remove to paper-towel-lined plate

Drizzle sauce over chicken

Chicken

Boneless skinless chicken breasts are not the ideal choice for much of anything, but for fried chicken strips, I need no bones or skin, and the work is already done. Had I come across a package of just tenderloins, I would have gotten that. I paid the premium for some butcher somewhere to do what I'm too lazy to do, and sometimes, that's fine.

Start by cutting the breasts into strips. Put the strips into a zipper bag and pour over buttermilk, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, and some salt & pepper. Close the bag tightly and massage the chicken and liquid such that it's well mixed and all the strips are covered. Let the chicken soak in the refrigerator at least overnight.

When you're ready to cook, crush up several handfuls of hard pretzels (I used a strong freezer bag and small pot, though in hindsight I think a rolling pin would have been better). Let the pretzel crumbs be inconsistent - you want some floury stuff and some chunks for texture. Pour the crumbs into a shallow dish for dredging.

Heat up about an inch of oil (I prefer peanut) to 325-350°F. In order to get the pretzels to stick better to the chicken strips, crack an egg into the bag of chicken, and mix well. Pull a chicken strip or three out of the buttermilk mixture and let it drip for a second before dredging it in the pretzel crumbs. Then, carefully lay the strips in the hot oil and let them brown for a minute or so before flipping with a pair of tongs. Only fry 3 or 4 strips at a time to keep the oil hot, and let it heat back up to temperature before frying the next batch. Don't dredge the strips until you're just about to fry them, or the pretzels will soak up the liquid and fall off the chicken. When the strips are deep brown all over and firm when pushed on with the tongs, remove them to some paper towels.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries
Peel sweet potatoes and cut into batons. Toss the batons in vegetable oil (I like peanut) and salt & pepper, then arrange in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet. The easiest way to do that is to toss the batons in oil and seasoning on the baking sheet itself. Bake at 450°F for 20-30 minutes to desired crispness. I happen to like them with burnt ends.

Honey Mustard Sauce

Since I'm a big dork and forgot to make the sauce before starting to fry the chicken, I directed my husband to do it and don't have any photos. Here's what I told him to do: get a small bowl, squeeze a couple of tablespoons of raw honey into it, add about a teaspoon of whole-grain mustard and as much yellow mustard as he wanted, then mix in about 1/3 cup of mayo. It was delicious!


Bonus: Leftovers!

Keep the leftover fried chicken strips in a dry container in the refrigerator (line the container with a paper towel if the strips are still warm or moist to the touch). 

I have a guilty (and rather pedestrian) pleasure: fried chicken salad. Use whatever you've got in the fridge and whatever you happen to like in salads. As for dressing, that's up to you as well. I like ranch-type dressing on my fried chicken salad, so I made a buttermilk dressing from scratch, as I find most bottled ranch dressings repulsive.

Cut up into bite-sized pieces

Make buttermilk dressing

Add a little sauce for fun

Salad
Cut the cold fried chicken strips into bite-sized pieces and lay them over a bed of greens. I shredded some carrot and Tillamook medium cheddar (my go-to all-purpose cheese in "baby loaf" form from Costco), and added some chopped chive and cilantro.

Dressing
Mix a few tablespoons of buttermilk with some chopped fresh herbs (I used chives and cilantro again) and salt & pepper. Pour over salad and drizzle some leftover honey mustard. YUM!