Chicken Fried Rice

Okay. If you need to feed the troops. And it's Thursday night and you just don't care anymore, you do this. Chicken Fried Rice. Since we have one or two self-proclaimed vegetarians banging their forks on the table, we keep the chicken separate. But if you like to get all the good gristle in there, keep it together and use one frying pan.

Here is last Thursday's version.

First we got 1 cup of rice cooking, fried up a few boneless chicken thighs in a little bit of olive oil and with a good bit of salt and pepper, and

sliced and chopped up 2 carrots and half a big onion.

Next we sautéed the carrots for a good six minutes or so.

When the chicken was done and nice and crispy on the outside we pulled it apart with two forks.

We added the onions to the carrots for a few minutes and

then 1 drained can of corn and 2 handfuls of frozen peas.

Lastly came the fun part. We added the rice and placed 3 eggs in the center.

We stirred the eggs into all the goodness until it was all over, clinging to every last spec of rice and veggie. We added a little salt, pepper, oregano, and soy sauce to round it all up.

Voila! The chicken people added chicken to their delight. And we all dug in. Let's just say there were no leftovers.

Roasted Veggies and Chicken

For a quick prep on a lazy weekend we shoved some veggies and chicken into the oven.

We cleaned and chopped up as much broccoli, carrots, and sweet potatoes as seemed plenty for our hungry hearts.

We arranged them in neat piles around a few chicken breasts on a roasting pan, spread 2 chopped cloves of garlic, and sprinkled olive oil all over.

A little salt and pepper and off into the preheated oven at 400F for 40 minutes.

There was not a crumb left. The kids were fighting over the veggies. Girl Scout's honor.

Roasted Chicken

After three and a half hours of treacherously climbing through NC mountain ranges the girls demanded a hearty dinner. We obliged. We stuffed an entire chicken in the oven. 

A happy free range chicken that is. We filled it with 2 lemons, fresh bay leaves, rosemary, sage, and 3 cloves of garlic, unpeeled. We rubbed it all over with olive oil, salt, and pepper. We roasted it at 375F for 1 and 1/2 hours. Half way through we basted the bird with its juices and added more herbs and lemons to the pan.

My goodness! It was pure bliss. Lucy and Papa went for the legs, while the rest sliced off meat from the breast. When slicing became futile the forks came out and the bones were picked clean. Good eating. (To round it off we had made some mashed potatoes and carrots. But who cares. With a bird like that happiness ensues.)

Peanut Chicken Stew à la Idris Elba

So we went all Hollywood today and made the favorite dish of actor Idris Elba. At least that is what Jamie Oliver claims in his Comfort Food cookbook. Well. We also changed it up a little. Since the girls had declared an indefinite moratorium on eggplants we used zucchini and squash instead. On top of it we took it easy on the hot chiles. So we are not sure if Idris Elba would recognize this, but we had some good fun in the kitchen nonetheless. Surely he won't mind. As a warning up front, this took several easy hours, perfect for an ice day in the Carolinas, where everything comes to a screeching halt, when a single snow flake falls.

It all started with a whole chicken. A free roaming happy chicken, of course :).

We were asked to cut it up pre-cooking, so we sharpened our knife and got to it. 

Wings, drumsticks, thighs, breast meat, and all other chunks we could find. We tried to keep the bones and skin on as good as we could.

Then we sprinkled the meat with about 2 teaspoons of ground coriander, 1 teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika, half a teaspoon of red pepper, salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. We slathered the spices all over, covered the chicken, and placed it in the fridge for more than 2 hours.

2 hours before dinner time we heated the oven to 400F and roasted the chicken for 45 minutes.

Next we cut up 3 zucchinis, 3 yellow squash (the recipe asks for 2 eggplants), 1 big onion, and 1/4 of a habanero pepper (the recipe suggests 1 Scotch bonnet pepper, which we understand basically peels your skin off just touching it; we'll try that when our pallets have adjusted to such torture).

We cooked all that with some olive oil for about 30 minutes.

Then we took 4 vine tomatoes and chopped them up quite roughly.

Now we stirred into the veggies 1 tablespoon of tomato paste, added the chicken, loosened and added with a dash of water the remaining bits from the roasting pan, tossed in the tomatoes, and covered it all with 3 cups of chicken broth. We brought it to a boil and let it simmer for an hour. About half way through we added 1 tablespoon of smooth peanut butter.

In the meantime we prepared a pot of brown rice. (1.5 cups of brown rice in 3 cups of boiling water with 2 minced cloves of garlic, a bit of olive oil and a dash of salt, turned to the lowest setting for about 45 minutes.)

While we were waiting we prepped a spicy pickle. We chopped up half a big red onion and 1 and 3/4 of habanero peppers.

We mixed them up with 4 fresh bay leaves, 1 teaspoon of fine sugar, a dash of salt and 8 tablespoons of red wine vinegar.

We also trimmed a few handfuls of okra and fried them up in our cool cast iron skillet till they looked roasted and a tad crunchy.

And then, we let all of that glorious Yummy descend gently into our bowls. Rice, Chicken Stew, Okra, and hot pickle for  the adventurous types. Oh my. It was drop down delicious. The meat was super tasty and tender and the pickle with its vinegar added the perfect note. If this was anything close to what Idris Elba's mother used to make him than he sure was one spoiled lucky boy. :)

Chicken Stew

This must be the lazy cook's chicken stew. An easy 45 minutes of simmering. See for yourself:

We chopped up 1 large onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 celery stalks, 3 carrots, and  2 bell peppers.

All that we cooked in a bit of olive oil for about 5 minutes.

In the meantime we peeled and cut up 1.5 pounds of yellow potatoes and then added them to the veggies.

Then we added 2 quarts of chicken broth and a little salt, brought it to a boil and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

We cut up 1.5lb of assorted chicken parts and 1 zucchini and added them along with

1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard, a little dried basil, dried sage, and dried thyme leaves. We brought it back to boil again and let it simmer for another 15 minutes.

At the end we removed a handful of potatoes, smashed them up with a fork, and added them back to thicken the soup. A little salt and pepper to taste.

Voila.

Chicken Not Pie

This came from the pages of The Runner's World Cookbook. Loaded with vegetables and an absolute winner with the girls, it took but 30 minutes to prepare.

For starters we halved and sliced up 2 sticks of leek.

For five minutes we sauteed them in a little olive oil with salt and pepper.

Then we added 1 glass of white wine, 1 cup of vegetable broth, and

some chopped thyme. While we brought all that to a boil and a few minutes of simmer, we sliced up 2 chicken breasts.

We cooked the chicken for about 6 minutes. That gave us some time to peel and chop up into bite-size chunks 3 yellow potatoes.

Then Lily retrieved the chicken and placed it on the side.

We added the taters and boiled them for about five minutes.

In the meantime we prepared 1 carrot and 1 parsnip, added them for another couple minutes while the sauce was thickening.

Then we prepared 1 handful of sugar snap peas, and 1 bushel of green asparagus and added them, too, for just about three minutes.

To wrap it up we added the chicken, the juice of 1 lemon and some fresh parsley.

Not bad for  fast and furious weekday evening. It sure got our yummy going. Enough to make us polish our forks.

A Slow Cooker Chicken with Carrots and Potatoes

We are going to try out a few slow cooker dishes since we have a day in the week during which cooking will be tough. We haven't had the best success with the slow cooker yet. Stews are the only ideas that seem to work. Everything else so far has just turned into a tasteless mush. But we shall try. In fact this dish wasn't half bad.


The night before our busy day we chopped 1 1/2 lb chicken thighs into chunks.

We also cut up 1 lb carrots and 1 lb yellow potatoes.

All that we placed into the slow cooker, the meat in the center, and stored it in the fridge.

Next 4 cloves of garlic were minced.

We added  the garlic to 1 cup of vegetable broth, a glass worth of white wine, salt, and pepper and brought it all to a boil.

In the meantime we busied ourselves with mixing 1 egg, 2 egg yolks, and the juice of 1 lemon;

mixing it all nice and foamy. Then we set aside most of the wine-broth, placing it in the fridge.

The rest, about half a cup worth, we mixed with the egg mixture and

gently cooked it for about ten minutes, periodically whisking it up. When it had thickened some, we placed it also into the fridge.

We cut up 1 jar worth of artichoke hearts and placed them into the fridge.

As well as some fresh dill.

The next morning we poured the wine-broth over the veggies and chicken and turned the slow cooker on low. When we got home, we added the egg sauce, the artichokes, and the dill and turned the slow cooker to high while we set the table.

It turned out tasty and we all were thankful for a warm dish waiting at home for us.