How I'm roasting chicken right now

The bird comes from Little Red Hen now. They are just too good, in every way. I split it and roast 1/2 at a time. The other half I freeze for another night. There's only 2 of us and somehow still always leftovers, even with cooking just half at a time. Turn the oven up to 450 and let my cast iron pan heat up with it. Dry the chicken, rub on olive oil, salt and pepper, maybe paprika. When the oven and pan are hot, in it goes, cut side down. After 15-20 minutes (depending on size of the chicken) I turn off the oven and let it stay there for another 15 minutes. It is done perfectly every time.

 If I want veggies--wedge half a red onion, some carrots, always garlic cloves (still in their peel), dress them in just a little olive oil. Nudge them in under the chicken after about 10 minutes of cooking. This time I added fresh shittake mushrooms too, but a bit later on--maybe at the 20 minute mark. They came out crispy yet tender. 

 I barely know what to do with myself now, but how can you not love a dinner that basically makes itself?

Pan-fried chicken on the 4th of July

The Fourth of July is probably my family's favorite holiday. Growing up we really threw ourselves into the fireworks, the parades, and the food--and to this day I have to make sure we celebrate the holiday properly. This year we spent the day at the pool and then had friends over to eat fried chicken and biscuits, watermelon and corn on the cob...totally classic. It absolutely poured rain though, so the fireworks were kind of a bust. But we had this delicious pan-fried chicken to make up for it--the recipe comes from The Gift of Southern Cooking, by Scott Peacock and Edna Lewis. Scott Peacock used to be the chef at Watershed Restaurant here in town which is justifiably legendary for their fabulous fried chicken served every Tuesday evening. Making it at home takes a little effort and planning ahead but it's totally worth it, especially for the best holiday of the year.Start with a 3 pound chicken (these days I only buy from Springer Mountain Farms) cut up into 8 serving pieces. Make enough brine to cover the pieces--for this amount, 2 quarts of water mixed with 1/2 cup kosher salt will be enough.That's why this recipe takes so long--it's all the time needed for brining. Let it sit 8-12 hours in the fridge (basically put it together before you go to bed the night before and you'll be fine). The salty brine really needs the time to get in there to make the chicken unbelievably juicy and tender. Bright and early the next morning (or 8-12 hours before dinnertime, whichever comes first), drain the chicken from the brine...Fail to plan ahead adequately and make a run to Kroger for buttermilk (but it's OK because that means you can get some doughnuts for breakfast!).Pour one quart of buttermilk over the drained chicken pieces.And let it all soak in the fridge for another 8-12 hours. Again, as with the salty brine you made earlier, the buttermilk just needs some time to get in there to tenderize and add its unmistakable flavor. You should go to the pool in the meanwhile. After enough time has elapsed, you can go ahead and drain the buttermilk off 'cause you are ready to fry!Well, almost ready. There's a lot of preparation involved in making proper fried chicken, in case you hadn't noticed. You need to get your fat right. At Watershed they use a combo of 1 stick butter and 1 pound lard but I don't really have any lard, generally speaking. So I used 1 stick of butter together with all of my saved up bacon fat.Melt the fat and the butter together and cook over low heat for 30 minutes, skimming off any milk fat solids from the butter that rise to the surface. When you are ready to start frying, heat it up over medium-high until it is sizzling. The original recipe calls for the frying fat to be at 350 degrees, in case you have a thermometer handy.Mix together 1 cup flour, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 1 teaspoon salt and freshly ground black pepper. Dredge your chicken pieces one by one in this mixture, tapping off any excess. And set aside on a plate. OK, you have your chicken all ready to go and your fat is all prepared--now it is time to fry. For real this time!Fry the chicken on each side until it is a gorgeous golden-brown, 8-10 minutes per side. You do not want to crowd the pieces in--give them lots of room and be sure to cook in batches if needed! I needed to do mine in 2 batches and I do have a very large pan, so adjust as needed for your size of kitchen equipment. I also ended up turning on two burners to keep an even heat--this will only work if you have a large pan and a stovetop that permits a pan to fit over at least 2 burners at once.When both sides are lovely and browned, remove and drain the pieces on a wire rack over some newspaper to catch all the drips.I thought I'd need to, but in the end didn't end up keeping it warm in the oven or anything like that between batches. It stayed crispier that way and was perfectly flavorful simply warm or at room temperature. Serve with honey and fresh biscuits. Phil makes great biscuits--he cuts in the butter by hand and uses yogurt to mix them together. I should get him to do a guest post sometime :)Enjoy your chicken--every last piece! It makes a perfect new Fourth of July tradition.

Tortilla soup

New cooking ideas sort of fell by the wayside while I finished up the semester, but now I'm back! With tortilla soup and/or vengance. This is really good and spicy but the heat is tempered by mellow toppings like crumbled queso fresco and cubes of buttery avocado. I had a really lousy cold last week and this was the perfect soup to revive me--like a super amped up chicken soup. When I lived in Milwaukee I would always order the sopa Azteca from Cempazuchi on Brady Street. What I ended up making here was kind of a cross between that and the version in the fantastic Alice Waters book, The Art of Simple Food . Hey, since we're in the holiday season, that's another amazing one that would make a fantastic gift. And this soup is the perfect festive meal! All red and green.Start by simmering half a chicken breast (including skin and bone) in 1 quart of chicken stock until cooked through--should take about 25 minutes. While that is going on, prepare some crispy tortilla strips for the topping: slice 4 corn tortillas into more-or-less even strips... Fry them on both sides until cripsy in vegetable oil over medium high heat. You'll probably need to do this in batches. Set them aside to drain on paper towels until it's time to eat.Now chop up one small onion, plus any mild green chile of your choosing (I think I used an Anaheim chile), and 2 cloves of garlic.Sauté together in a soup pot in 2 tablespoons olive oil until soft but not too browned (about 5 minutes).By now your chicken is probably done cooking. Remove it from the hot stock and let it cool off. You'll thank me for that later.Now chop up a dried red chile--I used an ancho chile but a chipotle chile would add more smokey goodness. You can de-seed it to de-spice it a bit (probably a good idea).Pour the hot stock that you used to cook the chicken breast into your pot with the sautéed onion and pepper.Then add in your chopped dried chile...And some tomato. I used 5 canned, whole peeled tomatoes from a big can, plus about half the juice. I mashed them up a little bit in the pot.Brought it all to a boil, then turned down to a simmer. After 20 minutes, I puréed it with my immersion blender. You can leave it chunky if you prefer, but I like it smooth. Besides, there will be lots of toppings and chicken and stuff going in it to provide textural contrast, so I think it's best to go ahead and purée. Let it cook over low heat for another 10 minutes while you get the chicken ready. Take that now-cooled chicken breast (see? no fun if it's too hot to touch!) and pull it apart into shreds. Add the shredded chicken into the soup.Now it's toppings time!You can put all kinds of good stuff on top. Some other ideas would be crispy julienned radishes or jicama, or pickled jalapenos. This time I used crumbled queso fresco (cotija would be good here too)...Cilantro...Perfect, fresh avocado slices...And of course the tortilla strips. It's called tortilla soup after all. Juice half a lime into the soup, then ladle it into bowls and spread your toppings over all. Serve with extra lime wedges.

Simplified life roasted chicken

It seemed simple enough up until now just to roast a whole chicken, but I have found lately that roasting parts on a bed of vegetables and white wine is even better. I started doing it after reading the gorgeous book A Tale of 12 Kitchens -- by the way, I really can't do this book justice. It's part travel memoir, part graphic design wonderland, and is my current favorite cookbook. A great gift for someone you know who loves art, food, and travel in equal measures. Anyway, after reading this, now I just place pieces (of any combination you like! unless you are cutting up a whole bird yourself) over any delicious, cut up root veggies and a bit of white wine. I don't need to carve anything after it's done and I have great leftovers for the week. So it's not really rocket science or anything, but seeing as it really has replaced roasting a whole bird as my new chicken approach, I figured I should write it up. This recent time, for veggies I used 1 large carrot and 2 small yukon gold potatoes cut into cubes of even size along with about 8-10 whole garlic cloves.I added salt, pepper and a bit of rosemary to the veggies...Then about 3/4 cup white wine. The chicken parts (1 split breast, cut in half, 2 thighs, and 4 legs) were layered on top of the vegetables, skin side down.I drizzled a little olive oil over the chicken and added salt and pepper.This goes in the oven to roast at 400 degrees for 1 hour, at which point you should flip the pieces over to skin side up. You can maybe add a little butter on top to facilitate browning, if you like. Let it go for another 30 minutes or so to get browned.Beautiful. And delicious, especially if you use whole garlic which becomes perfectly mellow as it slow roasts in all that chicken fat and wine.