Garlic Buttermilk Soaked Grilled Chicken

I modified this one from a recipe on the back of the Morton Kosher Salt box. The first thing I did was move the cooking outside as it has been awfully hot and humid lately and I didn’t want to heat up the kitchen.

I’m over at my folks (I evacuated ahead of Marco and Laura) and so I ended up using dried rosemary and lemon juice. I had left a head of garlic here that was about to sprout, so I went ahead and used all of it in the brine.

The buttermilk soak makes for a tender and juicy chicken, even when portions of the drumsticks got over 185 degrees F on the grill. All the flavorings in the brine just raised the deliciousness!

The grilled sweet potato recipe is HERE.

Garlic

1 quart buttermilk
½ cup olive oil
1-2 tablespoons hot sauce, I used Louisiana hot sauce
1 head garlic (about 10 cloves), crushed
3 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoon black peppercorns, crushed
3-4 large sprigs rosemary (about ¼ cup dried leaves)
2 lemons, thinly sliced (or 3 tablespoons lemon juice)
¼ cup honey

10 lbs chicken leg quarters

olive oil
salt and pepper

Whisk together all brine ingredients until well mixed. Add chicken to the brine, cover and refrigerate overnight or for up to two days.

Remove chicken from brine and brush off any garlic, peppercorns or rosemary leaves which may have stuck to it. Place chicken on a rack above a rimmed baking sheet. Pat dry.

Prepare the grill for indirect cooking. I use a chimney starter full of charcoal briquets spread on either side so I will be able to put the chicken down the center of my Weber grill.

Soak some hickory chips or a chunk in water.

When coals are well lit, spread out and toss in the hickory to smoke. Cover the grill and let the grate heat up. When you see smoke, it is ready to start grilling the chicken.

Rub olive oil into the chicken and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place skin side down on the grill. After 15 minutes, flip chicken over and cook for 45 minutes to 60 minutes more or until a thermometer registers 175 degrees F. You may need to move chicken around to make sure it all grills evenly.

Rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Lemon Sauce for Chicken

Lunch was leftover schnitzel. I’m treating it more like chicken piccata so I needed a lemon sauce to go over it. I didn’t want something harshly lemon but a more rounded sauce with the addition of garlic and milk that wouldn’t take a lot of time to make.

Had I been cooking the chicken, the flour that would have fallen off during browning would have been enough to thicken the sauce. As I’m just warming the chicken up, I needed to make a slurry of cornstarch and chicken broth as my thickener.

You can make the sauce richer by adding cream instead of milk.

This is light but rich sauce with good lemon flavor.

Lemon Sauce

2 teaspoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
Juice and zest of one lemon (about 3 tablespoons juice)
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup milk or cream
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a medium skillet. Add garlic and sauté just until fragrant and slightly golden.

Pour in 1 1/4 cups chicken broth and bring to a boil, while scraping up browned bits from bottom of pan. Allow broth to simmer until reduced by half, about 5 minutes.

Whisk together remaining chicken broth with cornstarch to form a slurry, then pour mixture into broth in skillet along with lemon juice and zest. Allow to simmer about 5 minutes until it has thickened slightly then remove from heat.

Stir in butter and pour in milk or cream. Season with salt and pepper, if needed.

Spoon sauce over chicken. Serve warm.

 

Pasteli – Greek Power Bars

These little bars are packed with lots of sweet, healthy goodness and make a terrific snack, day or night. I first had them at a wedding in Greece (the seeds are for fertility and the honey for a sweet marriage) but they are ancient in origin and were a common goodie for Olympians to nosh on between competitions.

Look for Greek Thyme honey in Greek/Mediterranean/International grocery stores. If you can’t find it (and trust me, it is worth it), use another aromatic honey like wildflower or even orange blossom.

I do roughly equal parts honey and sesame seeds by weight, so once I buy the honey and see what it is, I then buy the seeds. The last batch I bought was in small cans from Crete.

You can also usually buy sesame seeds in larger quantities at those groceries or Penzey’s Spices has pretty good prices on a 3 cup bag, which I supplemented with a jar of sesame seeds I had in the pantry.

The addition of the sugar makes the candy harder, so drop it down to a tablespoon if you want very chewy bars/balls.

So good and very good for you, too.

Pasteli

450 grams Greek Thyme honey
450 grams sesame seeds
¼ cup granulated sugar
pinch salt

Place a piece of parchment in a large, rimmed baking tray and coat lightly with a neutral oil. Lightly oil another piece of parchment and set it aside.

Toast the sesame seeds in a 325 degree F oven until fragrant. Don’t let them brown as they will become bitter.

Place the honey in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add in the sugar and salt and cook, stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Reduce heat and add in the toasted sesame seeds. Stir to combine over low heat and cook for a minimum of 5 minutes – the longer they’re cooked after that, the crunchier the bars will be.

Pour the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. Place over the other piece of parchment and use a rolling pin to press and form it into an even layer.

Let cool one hour and then flip over and cut into rectangles, squares or the traditional diamond. I roll the extra pieces into balls to just pop in my mouth when I need a hit.

Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container between sheets of parchment or waxed paper.

 

Sourdough Olive Breadsticks

These aren’t the soft, yeasty breadsticks you find at some steakhouses. Instead, they are more like the Italian grissini and are crispy and flavorful. They are wonderful to snack on while you wait for dinner to cook or while watching the sport of politics as the Democratic National Convention has been on this week (the Republican National Convention is on next week).

Many recipes would have you push the olives into the twists once you’ve placed them on a baking tray. I find mixing them in with the dough means you get a little olive in every bite and no burnt bits.

I sprinkle the tops with flake salt but you can also use a seasoning blend like an everything bagel seasoning, Italian seasoning, pizza seasoning, etc.

Very good and even better dipped in a little olive oil and freshly cracked black pepper. Bring on the speeches!

1 cup warm water
1 cup sourdough starter
1 ½ cups bread flour
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
½ cup Kalamata olives, chopped

egg wash for brushing
flake salt or other seasoning for topping

Mix all ingredients and knead until all flour is hydrated, at least 8-10 minutes. Place dough in a buttered bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and put in a warm place. At 30 minutes and an hour into the proof, go into the bowl and pick up a bit of the outside of the dough and lift and press into the center. Continue while moving the bowl until you’ve gone all the way around. After the second press, let the dough rest for a further 2 hours.

Generously flour the counter with semolina flour if you have it or use all-purpose  and gently turn out the dough. The dough will be wet so sprinkle the top with flour to minimize sticking. Use your hands to flatten and shape the dough into a rectangle. With a knife or pizza cutter, divide the dough into 12-16 strips and shape into long, thin ropes by gently pulling the ends and twisting a few times.

Arrange the twists on greased baking sheets about an 1 inch apart. Do as many trays as necessary but only bake one at a time. Scramble the egg with a tablespoon of water and brush over the top of the twists. Sprinkle with salt or seasoning blend. Let sit on the counter while you preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Bake 16-20 minutes until crispy and turn out on a cooling rack. These crisp up further on the cooling rack, so don’t over bake them.

If you plan to freeze or serve later, bake without egg wash or topping. Once done, cool on wire rack and store in a zip top bag and store. Just before serving, brush tops with olive oil and sprinkle on preferred topping and pop into a 350 degree F oven for about ten minutes until they are heated through.

 

Vanilla Half Pound Cake

I’ve been craving vanilla. Maybe it is because of the quarantining that I haven’t been anywhere to wear perfume – my favorite scent is Vanille from Bourbon French Parfums in the French Quarter. So delicious and perfect for a cooking butch like me.

As it is in the time of Coronavirus, I’m not making the full pound cake (with a pound of butter, etc) because it will mainly be me eating it.

This cake doesn’t have leavenings so you need to make sure you beat lots of air into the sugar and butter and when adding the eggs to give it all the lift it gets.

If you don’t have vanilla bean paste, use 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract. The paste gives you intense vanilla flavor plus the flecks of vanilla beans. I use it for cocktails, ice cream and cakes like this where vanilla flavor is the star of the show.

Beautiful cake and it tastes amazing.

2 cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, softened
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter and flour a loaf pan.

Sift together the flour and salt. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until pale yellow and fluffy – at least 5 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time and beat well. Mix in the milk and vanillas. Slowly add the flour and salt mixture and beat until just combined. Don’t over mix at the end or the cake will end up dense.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about an hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve with fresh berries or toast slices lightly for a wonderful accompaniment to your morning’s tea/coffee.

Chocolate Pistachio Slice and Bake Cookies

I found a bag of pistachio nuts in my parents’ pantry and, with my current chocolate craving, decided I just had to make cookies.

Whenever I make these, I divide the dough into two rolls and freeze one for later slicing, baking and eating.

Big pistachio and deep chocolate flavor. So very yummy.

1 ½ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup shelled, chopped roasted pistachio nuts
coarse salt for sprinkling

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixing, beat together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla and then scrape down the bowl. Add in the flour mixture and mix until combined. Stir in the pistachios.

Divide the dough in half and place on plastic wrap and then wrap into logs. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes or place in the freezer until ready to use.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Remove dough from refrigerator. If you are taking it from the freezer, let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Unwrap the dough and cut into ½ inch rounds. Set on baking sheet. Sprinkle each cookie with coarse salt.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the centers appear set. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Store in an airtight container.

 

Cheetos Coated Chicken Breasts or Pork Chops

I’m a fan of Cheetos. I mean, who doesn’t like their cheese to go crunch?

I was watching TicTok and saw a chef coat a turkey in Flaming Hot Cheeto Crunch before roasting and thought that would make some tasty chicken breasts.

I confess it is a pain to measure out the uncrushed Cheetos, so I recommend pounding a couple of handfuls at a time until you get 2 cups.

How right I was – and there was the added bonus that it blew my parents’ minds.

Oh, and they go great on pork chops, too!

Delish!

3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts or 3 pork chops
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs, beaten in a little olive oil
2 cups crushed Cheetos Crunchy Cheese Flavored Snacks
½ cup vegetable shortening

If using chicken breasts, pound them to a uniform thickness.

Place flour in a pie plate. Place eggs in another shallow dish. Place the crushed Cheetos in another pie plate.

For both chicken and pork chops, dredge both sides in flour, coat in egg and then press into the Cheetos. Once all the meat has been coated, put it in the fridge for at least an hour.

Heat a large cast iron skillet with the vegetable shortening. Once the oil comes to about 350 degrees F, gently set the meat into the pan. Cook about ten minutes each side or until beautifully browned. Fully cooked chicken will register 165 degrees F and pork chops will register 145 degrees F when done.

Remove to a paper towel lined rack and let cool for 5 minutes before serving. We ate ours with baked sweet potatoes.