Hainanese Chicken with Rice

So as I mentioned previously, Mark Bittman was my saviour, twice last week. He could be yours, too! His Hainanese Chicken with Rice is a fantastically delicious, relatively healthy, easy to make, curative. You can find it in his ever-handy How To Cook Everything

Everyone I know is sick or is just recovering from horrible snotty, phlegmy illnesses. This recipe might just nurse you and your loved ones back from the brink.

You won't see me writing about poultry that often, because A. is a hater. Yes, it's tough to deal with, but he has so many other wonderful and endearing qualities that I am learning to live with this major flaw. I usually confine my chicken cookery to Wednesdays when A. has his radio show and comes home too late for dinner. Fe. and I go to town! Hainanese chicken and rice is a favorite of ours.

This recipe produces a vat of chicken stock fragrant with garlic and ginger. You can easily sip or slurp your way to health for the better part of a week with the stock that remains after the rice is made.

I had no idea you could do this, but the gentle poaching of the chicken that takes place mainly occurs with no flame under your pot. You bring a very large pot of water up to boil, and you add your chicken, smashed garlic and ginger and salt. You simmer for ten minutes and then turn off the flame. The chicken bathes in the hot liquid for an hour and presto, your chicken is done.

I dig that.

The rice is made by sautéing chopped garlic, shallot and the raw rice, itself, in peanut oil and then simmering it in the stock you have just prepared. It is mighty tasty, if a little on the oily side. I kind of like that, though.

The rice is topped with shredded chicken, sliced cucumber and tomatoes, chopped green onions and a generous handful of chopped cilantro. I didn't bother peeling the Persian cucumbers I used, and I chose halved cherry tomatoes in lieu of whole ones.

A super-quick-to-prepare dipping sauce of peanut oil, chopped ginger, chopped green onion and salt is served on the side. It's amazing that what may just seem like a small bowl of oil, is actually a savory and quite addictive little sauce. Watch out, because this is where a relatively healthy dish can quickly take a turn for the dark side. It's a dipping sauce, not a pour-the-whole-bowl-on-your-plate sauce, Jacqueline!

A little drizzle of sesame oil enriches the flavor. I also like to serve a little dish of the broth alongside for warmth and comfort. Bittman serves the dish on a platter mounded high with the chicken and surrounded by the chopped vegetables. I prefer to make individual portions, as below.

Hainanese chicken presents beautifully, and appeals to just about everyone except my darling, A.

Tant pis.

Hainanese Chicken with Rice

1 whole (3- to 4- pound) chicken, trimmed of excess fat

Several cloves smashed garlic, plus 1 teaspoon minced garlic

Several slices fresh ginger, plus 1 tablespoon minced ginger

1/2 cup peanut oil, or neutral oil like canola

3 shallots, roughly chopped, or a small onion roughly chopped

2 cups long-grain rice

1/2 cup minced scallions

2 cucumbers peeled and sliced

2 tomatoes slices

Chopped fresh cilantro leaves

2 tablespoons sesame oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Bring a large pot of water to boil and salt it. Add the chicken to the pot along with the smashed garlic and sliced ginger. The chicken should be completely, but just, submerged. Cover and reduce heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the chicken remain in the hot water for an hour, until it is cooked through.

Remove the chicken from the pot, reserve the stock, and let the chicken cool to room temperature. Put half the peanut oil in a skillet or medium dutch oven. When hot, add the remaining garlic and the shallots. Cook, stirring every so often until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add rice and cook, stirring until shiny. Add 4 cups of the reserved stock and boil. Reduce the heat to low and cover. Cook for 20 minutes, until all the liquid has been absorbed. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Make the dipping sauce with the remaining oil, ginger, half the scallions, and a large pinch of salt.

Shred the chicken, discarding the skin. Put the rice on a large platter and mound the chicken on top. Sprinkle with the cucumbers, tomatoes, remaining scallions, and cilantro. Drizzle with the sesame oil and serve with the dipping sauce.

Aunt Lou's Chicken Wings

I figured it was about time to bring you another family recipe.

This recipe comes from my Great Aunt Lou -- my father's aunt. She was one of the three Jacques girls, the sister of my Grandmaman. Louvalmine was her name. She married my Uncle John, whom I will never meet.

I've heard great stories about Lou and John. They were fancy, wealthy, grand people who stayed at the Georges V in Paris. There are fairy tales in my mind about these people -- stories of drunken binges, lovers, and traveling on big beautiful ships.

The most tangible thing that I retain from Aunt Lou is her very humble chicken wing recipe.

No one will be scared away by the number of ingredients in this dish. Impossible! There are only three. Soy sauce, vodka, and chicken wings.

It is almost unbelievable that three such unassuming ingredients could join together to create something so stickily delectable and pleasing.

I was busy in the kitchen, preparing to flip the wings, when A. waltzed in following the salty sweet aroma.

What is it about roasting chicken that makes it smell so much like baked sweets? The house smelled like I had a cake in the oven -- which never happens!

I let him know that these weren't for his dinner. He was rather disappointed when he learned that I was cooking chicken (he generally won't touch the fowl). He insisted that he would try one -- just one.

And he did! He quipped, that there was no denying that these wings sure are tasty.

And he's right. There is no denying it. After two and a half hours of cooking, the liquid reduces down to a sticky salty glaze, and the wings are irresistible. The sauce is so syrupy that any paper napkin use will result in little white paper adhesions on your fingers.

I used party wings this time, which apparently means that the drumette and mid-joint wing or wingette have been separated. You can use whole chicken wings or just drumettes or party wings, whatever looks good at the market. And there really is no need to get fancy with the vodka -- a Smirnoff-type will do just fine.

This recipe requires next to no work at all. You'll need about two or two and a half hours cooking time though, so plan ahead. A bowl of rice and perhaps a vinegary cucumber salad would be the perfect accompaniments to this simple, yet satisfying dish.

And good news! These are a hit with Fe. All the alcohol cooks out of the vodka, so don't worry!

Aunt Lou's Chicken Wings

2 packages chicken wings -- or enough to fill up a good-sized baking dish

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup vodka

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Place the chicken wings in a large baking dish that just holds them; pyrex works well. Mix the vodka and soy sauce together. Pour over the chicken. Place in the oven.

Turn the wings every 30 minutes. Bake until the liquid is reduced to a sticky glaze, about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. If there is a little bit of liquid left to spoon over rice, that's nice too.

Chicken and Endives

Apparently there is a bit of debate at my parents house regarding this dish. My mother has been cooking the chicken untrussed and at a starting temperature of 350 degrees, forever. My father has just informed her -- after almost fifty years together -- that the chicken is superior when it is trussed and cooked at a starting temperature of 325 degrees.

So glad I missed that conversation.

This is my grandmaman's (my father's mother) recipe. I have been enjoying her chicken and endives just about all my life, as my mother has prepared it.

Not knowing differently, I have always followed my mother's version of this recipe.

I had hoped to try my grandmaman's original method, so that I could present the absolute best formula, but I ran out of time and energy. I just couldn't reacquaint myself with trussing or add an additional forty or so minutes to the cooking time.

I'll get back to you on that.

Plus, it would be unfair of me to keep this terrific family recipe to myself any longer. Trussed or un-trussed this chicken is a home-run.

The whole chicken cooks on a rack in a dutch oven surrounded by endives and daubed in butter. Salt, and pepper are the only other ingredients needed.

Happily, the outcome is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Preparation takes about ten minutes and then you'll need about an hour and a half to cook the bird.

In the last twenty minutes, I highly recommend cooking up a little pot of rice. You'll want something to soak up the delicious pan juices.

This is one of the simplest recipes that I know, but you would never guess it, if you walked into my house midway through the cooking process. The house smells like you are in the midst of baking the most heavenly dessert.

Even A. with his intense aversion to poultry has been fooled by the aroma of this dish.

It must be the endives braising in the butter and chicken drippings. Their lusciousness imparts just a hint of bitterness along with their sweetness, keeping the dish nicely balanced.

My mother usually only adds four endives. Not enough at all! I cram in as many as I can fit in the dutch oven. The chicken is terrific, but the endives are the stars here.

Even with the last fifteen minutes of cooking at a high heat of 450 degrees, the chicken will not get as crispy and brown as a perfect roast chicken.

You probably won't be able to impress guests with the outward beauty of this dish. Rather, save it for dear friends that deserve to be treated to a comforting meal.

Chicken with Endives

1 whole chicken, about 4 pounds

8 or more endives

Butter

Salt

Pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Trim just the very ends and any bruised leaves from the endives. Rinse under cold water and dry.

Generously season the chicken all over with salt and pepper. Place the chicken breast-side up on a rack in a dutch oven. Place the endives all around the chicken. Add butter shavings over the top of the chicken and the endives. Don't be shy with the butter! Cover and place in the oven.

Baste the chicken with the pan juices every 20 minutes or so. Cook the chicken until it is nearly done, about an hour, and the drumsticks are beginning to pull away from the body.

Raise the temperature to 450 degrees.

Continue to cook, uncovered, for approximately 15 minutes until the chicken is golden brown.

Carve the chicken and serve with endives, on rice, with pan juices dribbled over.

Moroccan Chicken with Carrot Purée

What fun to receive the Los Angeles Issue of Saveur Magazine!

I love reading about my city. I love movies that take place in my city. It is always a treat to uncover more about the city I live in than I already know. The latest Saveur was no exception. Jonathan Gold's piece does a nice job of summarizing the importance of Los Angeles to the food world.

So far I've only prepared one recipe from that issue: Suzanne Goin's Moroccan Chicken with Carrot Purée.

Goin is just so amazing. Her Sunday Suppers at Lucques: Seasonal Recipes from Market to Table is an outstanding –– albeit very labor intensive –– cook book. She has an uncanny ability to make a complete and perfect meal using beautiful ingredients from local farmers.

I stumbled upon this recipe and knew that I could pull it off, and hopefully entice my poultry-phobic husband to partake. My C.S.A. share has provided me with a lot of Chiccoria, otherwise know as dandelion greens, and plenty of carrots, so my shopping would be limited (thank god!).

The sweet, mild carrot purée is a lovely foil for the sharper bite of the dandelion greens and sliced shallots, which join the salty kick of oil-cured olives in the little salad. The harissa that cloaks the chicken is also echoed in the dressing for the dandelion green salad.

I'm glad she asks for sherry vinegar in the vinaigrette. I love it, and always forget that I should be using the bottle hiding in my pantry.

I don't have a grill pan, so I used my trusty iron skillet to sear the chicken. No lovely black lines, but certainly just as tasty.

The real surprise for me here was the orange sauce, consisting of orange juice, butter, and orange segments. The buttery-sweetness of this sauce brings all of the forceful flavors of harissa, shallots, olives, and dandelion greens together.

Not only is this sauce delicious on this dish, but it clearly belongs in a dessert crèpe as well.

I was thrilled by how visually beautiful this dish is, and by how well all the parts came together. My husband ate the whole thing, but somehow he still cannot mentally get past the fact that he is eating poultry. I will keep at it!

Moroccan Chicken with Carrot Purée

6 boneless skin-on chicken breasts, pounded 3/4" thick (Place them in a ziplock bag for the pounding to reduce the mess!)

16 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

4 cups chicken broth

2 pounds carrots, cut into 1/2" rounds

1 large onion, minced

1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 peeled oranges, segmented

3/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons harissa

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar

3 ounces dandelion greens

3/4 cup pitted oil-cured black olives, roughly chopped

2 shallots, thinly sliced

Put chicken into a dish; drizzle with 3 tablepspoons oil; season with salt and pepper. Set aside. Bring broth to a boil in a 6-quart pan. Add carrots; cook for 6-8 minutes. Purée in a food processor with 2 tablespoons oil. Season with salt and pepper; keep warm.

Heat orange juice in a 2 quart pan. Cook until reduced by half, 12-15 minutes. Whisk in butter; season with salt and pepper. Add orange segments; set sauce aside.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Working in 3 batches, add chicken, skin side down; cook until crisp, 8-10 minutes. Transfer chicken, skin side up, to a baking sheet. Brush with 3/4 cup harissa. Bake until cooked, 6-8 minutes.

In a bowl, whisk together remaining oil and harissa with sherry vinegar. Add greens, olives, and shallots; toss. Divide carrot purée between 6 plates; top each with salad and a chicken breast. Spoon sauce over each.

Serves 6