My favorite color is green. I’m part Irish (I even had reddish hair as a kid. Imagine that – a red-headed, Asian-looking alien child 
). My husband’s name is Patrick:
What I’m saying here is I heart St. Patrick’s Day. In fact, my friends treat it like my second birthday — I get cards, gifts, candy, you name it for St. Patty’s Day every year.
So I love warm, sunny weather. And I love BBQ. But oddly enough, I have yet to BBQ anything on an outdoor grill by myself. And the reason for this…I’m deathly afraid of outdoor grills! Not because these things are evil or scary, but because I’m one hot tranny mess of a klutz and I just don’t trust myself to operate an outdoor grill alone. Hence this recipe is a baked BBQ chicken recipe.
If anyone wants to come over and make this recipe on my outdoor grill, I’d be more than happy to have you! And if you’re wondering why the heck I even own an outdoor grill — my friend Matt convinced me to get one a few years ago when we had an impromptu BBQ on my deck…I haven’t used it since. 
OK, before we jump into the recipe, let’s chat briefly about the pre-cooking magic that went into this. To get uber tender and flavorful chicken legs, I soaked them in this basic brine solution for about 2 hours (note: when brining, you want enough liquid to completely cover all your meat):
You can be creative with this brine by adding in any other herbs or aromatics. I kept it simple since I was going to coat these leggies in some finger-lickin’ good BBQ sauce. That said, here is the rest of the recipe. On deck for tomorrow: slow-cooked pulled pork sandwiches w/ coleslaw and sweet potato fries.
serves 4-6, depending on how hungry you are
BBQ chicken
Potato salad
Preheat oven to 375-degrees. Bring a large pot of water to a boil; add salt. Line a large cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Remove chicken legs from brine solution and pat dry; arrange in one layer on cookie sheet. Using a pastry brush, brush first layer of BBQ sauce onto chicken. Bake for 15-30 mins while basting with additional BBQ sauce. Turn chicken legs over, baste with more BBQ sauce and cook for additional 15-30 mins or until internal temperature reaches 180-degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Meanwhile, boil potatoes until fork tender, about 10-12 mins. Drain and add scallion, celery and honey-dill vinaigrette. Toss together until well incorporated; season with salt and pepper. When chicken legs are done, garnish with minced scallions.
When my coworker asked me to house-sit for her this weekend, the first thing that came to mind was, “I’m gonna cook my heart out in her big kitchen.” And I did just that – it was a welcomed change from my tiny excuse for a kitchen in my 1-bedroom apartment.
Since the weather was absolutely gorgeous this weekend, my friend Missy and I decided to fire up the grill and recreate this Taste of Home chicken recipe we first tried during our mini-vacay in Eastern Washington last summer.
We modified the recipe a bit by using mangoes in the relish since we didn’t have any peaches on hand. I have to say, I actually prefer the mangoes – I’ve been on a mango kick ever since I discovered the champagne mangoes at Sosio’s in Pike Place Market a few weeks ago.
We rounded out the meal with some grilled corn on the cob, potato salad and ice-cold Hawaiian beer. YUM! This simple and super flavorful meal is a definite crowd-pleaser and perfect for those warm summer nights. If you end up with any left over relish, it tastes amazing the next day as a standalone salad.
Glaze
Relish
Combine the salt, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg; rub over chicken.
In a small bowl, combine the glaze ingredients; set aside.
In another small bowl, combine the mango, peppers, onion, mint and 2 Tbsp glaze; set aside.
Coat grill rack with cooking spray before starting the grill. Grill chicken, covered, over medium heat for 6-8 minutes on each side or until a meat thermometer reads 170°, basting frequently with reserved glaze. Serve with reserved relish.
Last weekend I had one of those “use-up-existing-ingredients-to-make-a-meal” moments, which turned out very successful, if I say so myself. I decided to put a little twist to the traditional chicken salad sandwich by adding a few “special” ingredients and serving it in lettuce cups. The almonds add a little crunch and the sweetness of the grapes brings extra flavor to the dish. And as you may remember from my post about deviled eggs, mayo and I are not friends so I always use plain Greek-style yogurt instead. This recipe really couldn’t be any easier and it’s a healthier (but still delicious!) alternative to a classic comfort food.
Makes about 2.5 cups of chicken salad
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Serve scoops of the mixture in lettuce cups (or endive spears would work well, too). Garnish with additional slivered almonds on top. Leftovers of the mixture can be used in a sandwich or served with crackers as a quick snack the next day.
A few weeks ago, when my post-holiday “lemonade” cleanse took an unexpected bad turn, I was left with more lemons than I knew what to do with.
So the challenge for the remainder of the week: make as many recipes that called for lemons. Those damn lemons were no match for my competitive drive and frugal mind – it was on like Donkey Kong! After tapping into a few of my favorite go-to recipes, trying new recipes from cookbooks and even asking for recommendations on Facebook (btw, thanks for all the wonderful ideas, folks!), I successfully used up every last one of those pesky lemons. A double bonus: I managed to incorporate many of my leftover CSA produce as well. Below are highlights of some of my favorite dishes from the “challenge.”
I love, love, love the Pioneer Woman’s cookbook and was thrilled to find this simple and delicious pasta recipe featuring the lemon as the star ingredient. You can easily adjust this recipe to feed a larger group if you’re entertaining. It also reheats wonderfully – I should know, I ate it for lunch for 2 days in a row .
For this recipe, I opted to deglaze the pan with the herb sauce before serving it over the chicken. Flavor-wise, this was a good decision. The downside: the sauce went from a beautiful bright green to a poopy brown color – ick. I served the chicken with some brown rice and this recipe for grilled mushrooms basted with a “lemony” sauce.
By midweek I was having a bit of a sweet tooth so I decided to step my challenge up a notch and face my ultimate fear in the kitchen: BAKING! I had actually seen a recent episode of Barefoot Contessa where Ina made this lemon yogurt cake and it took everything in me not to start licking the TV screen, haha!
I had some blueberries that I needed to use up so I added them to the glaze to give the cake a little extra pizazz. The cake was every bit as delicious as Ina promised it would be, but I actually prefer it sans glaze. Then again, I’ve never been a huge fan of glazes or frostings on my baked goods.
I have my lovely coworker Nathalie to thank for this meal — she responded to my S.O.S message on Facebook and shared her DE-LICIOUS Lebanese tabbouleh recipe. To round out the meal, I decided to keep with the Mediterranean theme and serve it alongside Cooking Light’s chicken souvlaki with homemade tzatziki sauce.
For those wanting to try the Lebanese tabbouleh, here is the recipe from Nathalie:
Serves a kajillion (but it stays fresh in the fridge for several days).
Soak the bulgur in cold water; set aside. While the bulgur soaks, prep the remaining ingredients and mix together in a large bowl – adjust the seasonings to taste. (Jenn’s Note: I started off by adding about 1/3 of the lemon juice and gradually added more until the flavor was to my liking). Drain the bulgur and add to the rest of the ingredients; mix together well. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours before serving.
Happy Friday, everyone! All week long, I was looking forward to a low-key, relaxing weekend since this would be the first one in a while where I didn’t have a bunch of things going on. THEN mid-day today, a huge wrench was thrown into the mix…in the form of a very exciting opportunity, which I wish to keep hush-hush for the time being so I don’t jinx myself . So anyhoo, now I’ll be spending my weekend trying to get all the bits and pieces together for this “project” (I promise to fill you all in on the details at a later time) since I’ve got a very short turn around time.
Needless to say, I didn’t have the energy or mindset to make an elaborate dinner tonight. So I took inventory of the items in my fridge and pantry and decided to make a favorite quick go-to recipe: Chicken with Lemon-Caper Sauce from Allrecipes.com. This recipe is beyond simple, yet full of so much great flavor. Note: if the sauce is too sour or tangy for your liking, try swapping the white wine out for chicken broth to mellow out the flavor. This dish goes really well with some whole wheat pasta or — my personal preference — some couscous (I like to chop up some mint and mix it in as well).
Serves 4
Mix together salt and flour in a small dish or plastic bag, then coat chicken and shake off excess. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Shake excess flour from chicken, then brown in hot oil until both sides are golden-brown, and the inside has turned white and firm, 3 to 4 minutes per side.
Remove the chicken, and set aside in a warm place. Pour white wine into the skillet, and allow to boil as you dissolve the cooked bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the lemon juice, and allow to come to a boil, cook for a few minutes until reduced by half.
Sprinkle the cubed butter into the boiling sauce. Swirl and shake the pan vigorously to dissolve the butter, thus thickening the sauce. The butter must never come to rest, or the sauce will separate and become oily. Once the butter has completely incorporated, remove from heat and stir in capers.
To serve, pour lemon-caper sauce over the chicken, and serve with a wedge of lemon.
With the cooler weather and a nasty virus-turned-pneumonia for the past few weeks, I’ve been eating quite a bit of soup There’s nothing like a warm, hearty soup or stew to bring your spirits back up. So for this week’s Fave Recipe Friday, I’m sharing my friend Missy’s Moroccan-Style Chicken Stew recipe.
I was first introduced to this dish last winter when we had a horrible snowstorm here in Seattle. A couple girlfriends and I had planned to meet at Missy’s for a little dinner and vino, and while everyone else canceled due to horrible road conditions, I decided to take the risk. But as I pulled out of my garage, I quickly realized my uphill driveway was completely iced over and I wasn’t able to get out. So I ran upstairs like a total maniac, grabbed some kitty litter and dusted the hell out of the driveway in complete desperation. Less than 5 minutes later, I was out of the garage and slowly trucking the few miles to Missy’s place. Of course what would normally be a <10 min drive turned into an eternity, but the delicious spread awaiting me made up for it all. So there you have it, the stew that I risked my life for…and I have no regrets Hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!
Moroccan-style Chicken Stew
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
Directions:
The soup goes great over some couscous with a drizzle of EVOO on top ~ Mmm Mmmm.
