A plate of soft scrambled eggs is one of my hands-down favorite easy dinners, and can also be transformed into an easy appetizer by topping crostini (and if you’re feeling decadent, drizzling with truffle oil). Watch my video down below to see how easy it is to make these luscious scrambled eggs.
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This is true end-of-summer fare. A batch of pesto from the basil that’s growing gangly in the garden. (Try our zippy Asian Pesto, Basil-Mint Pesto or Spicy Sage and Parsley Pesto.) A spatchcocked (butterflied) chicken cooked (relatively) quickly on the grill, since the days are shorter now. Which is good. I like saying goodbye to a season with a taste of all I love about it — and this grilled chicken recipe has it.
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These chicken thighs come together without much fuss, but the honey and balsamic vinegar give them a surprisingly complex depth of flavor … not to mention a beautiful golden-bronze hue.
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There are so many things I love about cassoulet … one of them being its versatility. Be creative with your leftovers–beans, roasted meat, stale bread–and see what it becomes.
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 thick slices bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 links italian sausage, cut diagonally into 4 pieces
4 cloves garlic, minced, divided
¼ cup dry white wine
2 cups low-sodium chicken, vegetable or turkey stock
1 (14-ounce) can tomato puree
4 cups leftover cooked turkey, duck or dark-meat chicken, shredded
2 (15-ounce) cans white beans, drained
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs thyme
2 cups course bread crumbs
2 tablespoons parsley, minced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup melted butter
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat, and saute bacon and onion for 12-15 minutes, until bacon is semi-crisp and onion is browned. Add sausages and 1/2 of the garlic, and saute for 4 minutes, until slightly browned.
Add wine and scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add stock, tomato puree, turkey, beans, bay leaf and thyme. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly. Bake in the oven uncovered for 30 minutes, adding additional stock if necessary to keep moist.
Mix bread crumbs with remaining garlic, minced parsley, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Toss with melted butter until moistened evenly and sprinkle on top of cassoulet. Bake for another 20 minutes. Push down breadcrumbs so they are slightly moistened and bake another 20 minutes, until top crisps.
Serves 8
When chicken salad comes to mind, I always think of a mayonnaise-bound concoction (not that I don’t enjoy that). But this chicken salad recipe, from Alison Lewis’s new book 400 Best Sandwich Recipes (Robert Rose) updates an old favorite with a fresh, bright-flavored, colorful spin. There’s no added salt in this recipe, because the feta and Kalamata olives add plenty of salty kick. If you don’t want to buy a whole jar of olives, look for Kalamatas that you can purchase by the pound at the supermarket salad bar, olive bar or deli case. Lewis recommends using leftover grilled chicken or rotisserie chicken. Or, to change it up, sub chopped, cooked shrimp for the poultry. Use whole wheat pita bread, if you can find it.
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This sauce is more silk than velvet, which works beautifully with any type of mushroom, from cremini to morels.
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast (1/2 a breast), cut into 1-inch cubes
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup thinly sliced shallots
1 pound mushrooms (your choice!), sliced
3 thyme sprigs
1/4 cup dry Marsala wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons heavy cream
In a large saute pan, heat 2 teaspoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and chicken to pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and saute 3-4 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer to a bowl (make sure to get all the garlic out or it will burn in the next stage).
Return pan to heat and warm the rest of the olive oil (4 teaspoons). Add shallots, mushrooms, thyme sprigs and another sprinkle of salt and pepper and toss to coat with oil. Cook for 10-12 minutes, turning often, until mushrooms are soft and slightly gilded.
Pour Marsala into pan and scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom. Let cook for 2 minutes or so, until all the liquid has burned off. Add chicken and garlic back to the pan. Pour in chicken stock and bring to a boil for 3 minutes to thicken a bit. Pour in cream and give everything a stir. Bring to a gentle boil for 3-4 minutes, until the sauce has thickened enough to lightly coat the back of a spoon.
Remove thyme sprigs and serve.
Dayna Macy includes this matzo ball soup recipe, which she makes for Seder every Passover, in the “Feast” chapter of her book Ravenous: A Food Lover’s Journey from Obsession to Freedom (Hay House). “The one ‘Berkeley’ thing I added was a piece of kombu to the stock to give it some minerals,” says Macy. “If you’re not serving it during Passover, feel free to add 1/2 pound of your favorite cooked pasta,” she adds.
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Alison and I got to talking about chicken the other day and were reminiscing how, when she was my editor at Cooking Light, readers couldn’t get enough of stuffed chicken breasts. And then we remembered why. They’re moist and tasty, quite elegant-looking, and cook faster than you’d think. Because they’re “beefed up” by the stuffing, you can easily serve four with only two breast halves.
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/2 pound mushrooms, chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped shallot
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 sprigs thyme
1/4 cup white wine
Juice from 1/2 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 slices Swiss or ementaller cheese, each sliced in half
4 thin slices prosciutto
1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat and swirl in 1 tablespoon oil. Add mushrooms, shallot, garlic and thyme, and saute 5 minutes or until mushrooms are golden brown. Pour wine into pan and scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom. Cook 2 minutes or until liquid has evaporated. Stir in lemon juice, season with salt and pepper, remove thyme stems and transfer mushrooms to a bowl. Wipe out the pan.
Holding a sharp knife parallel to the cutting board and starting from the thick side of a chicken breast half, slice the chicken horizontally right down the middle so that it opens like a book (I like to “open” the flap about halfway in and then carefully continue slicing towards the center until the breast lays flat). Give the thick edges a few hits with your palm to flatten them out to an equal height (don’t worry, the chicken won’t bite–just wash your hands afterwards). When you’re done, you should have a fat, heart-shaped chicken breast half at a uniform thickness of about an inch. Repeat with the other chicken breast half.
Layer the cheese and then the prosciutto evenly on top of the chicken breasts. Mound half of the mushrooms on one side of a chicken breast and press the mound down gently with your hand. Fold the other side over the mushrooms and push two wooden toothpicks through the far edges to help keep them together. Repeat with the other breast. Lightly salt and pepper both sides.
Heat the skillet once again over medium-high heat and swirl in the remaining olive oil. Carefully place chicken breasts in pan. Cook for 3 minutes on one side, then turn (keep the seam side down in the pan so the stuffing doesn’t fall out–tongs work great) and cook 3 minutes on the other. Pour chicken broth into pan, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook for another 6 minutes, or until chicken is cooked all the way through.
To serve, transfer chicken to a cutting board with tongs and cut each breast in half. Turn up the heat on the pan and scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom. Place one portion of chicken on each plate and drizzle with pan sauce.
Serves 4
When I worked in the travel industry, I used to randomly jet off for the weekend on my own. One time, during an especially long New York winter, I went to Miami. What I remember most vividly aren’t the beaches, but a dish of arroz con pollo I had sitting at the counter at a Cuban diner my friend Luisa had told me about. I set out to replicate the flavors in this classic chicken casserole here, substituting millet–a bouncy little whole grain–for the rice. Ah … now if only I could replicate those travel benefits!
1 tablespoon cumin, divided
1 tablespoon oregano, divided
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 whole chicken (4-5 pounds), backbone removed and cut into 8 pieces
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil, divided
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, smashed and coarsely chopped
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
1 (12-ounce) bottle of beer (I used Shiner Bock)
2-1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon ground annatto*
1-1/2 cups millet
2 cups frozen peas
1/2 cup large pimento-stuffed green olives, sliced crosswise
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a small bowl, mix together 1 teaspoon cumin and 1 teaspoon oregano with a generous pinch of salt and black pepper. Sprinkle chicken pieces with spice mixture.
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat in a Dutch oven and brown the chicken on all sides in two batches, about 5-8 minutes per batch. Transfer chicken to a plate as done. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of fat and add onion, garlic and bell pepper to the pot. Saute 5-8 minutes, until softened and translucent.
Pour tomatoes, beer and chicken broth into the pot, and add the remaining 2 teaspoons of cumin and 2 teaspoons oregano along with the bay leaf, annatto and another pinch of salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and nestle the chicken legs and thighs into the liquid. Cover and transfer to the oven. Cook 10 minutes.
While chicken is cooking, heat the remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil in a separate small skillet over medium heat and toast the millet for 3-4 minutes, until fragrant and a shade darker.
After the dark meat has cooked 10 minutes, take the pot out of the oven, uncover and scrape in the millet. Stir well and nestle the rest of the chicken into the liquid in as close to a single layer as you can get it. Cover and cook another 30 minutes.
Remove the pot from the oven and uncover. Scatter the frozen peas and olives on top, cover and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.
Serves 10
PS — I like to squeeze a lime onto both this dish and the beer I’m drinking with it.
* Annatto powder comes from the achiote seed and is slightly sweet, slightly bitter. It’s also what gives this dish its golden hue. You can find annatto powder (you could also use the same amount of achiote paste) in the spice section of your grocery store, or in Mexican markets. If you can’t find it or don’t want to buy it, no worries. Your millet just won’t be as gold.
This spin on classic chicken noodle soup is somewhat of an imagined amalgamation of my favorite Asian soups: the star anise-laced Hanoi beef noodle soup and Chinese wonton soup. The flavors bring both comfort and cold-fighting compounds to bring serious “ahhhh” to flu season. To serve, you’ll put paper-thin slices in bowls and top with the flavorful broth. The piping-hot broth will cook the chicken by the time it reaches the table.
2 unpeeled onions, halved and studded with 3 cloves apiece
5 large cloves garlic, unpeeled
7 pounds beef bones
3 pounds chicken carcasses
6 quarts cold water
2 carrots, chopped into 3 pieces each
8 whole star anise
1 cinnamon stick
2 (1-inch) pieces of ginger, bruised with the heel of your knife
5 dried Asian red chiles
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup fish sauce
6 ounces rice vermicelli, cooked 3 minutes in boiling water and drained
2 chicken breast halves, cut into paper thin slices across the grain (freeze for 20 minutes to make slicing easier)
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 cup green onion, thinly sliced
1 lime, cut into 8 wedges
Char the onions and garlic in a large stockpot over medium high heat for 2-3 minutes, until well-colored but not burnt. Add the beef bones, chicken carcasses and water, and bring to a boil. Skim off the foam, gray crud and fat as they rise to the surface. Boil for 45 minutes to an hour, or until there isn’t much foam being produced any longer.
Add carrots, star anise, cinnamon, ginger, chiles and salt. Lower heat so the broth gurgles a few times each second. Let the broth cook at this low heat overnight or for an least 8 hours.
Skim broth one more time and strain through a fine mesh strainer (a Chinois or “China cap”) or a colander lined with cheesecloth. Stir in fish sauce. Rinse out the pot, return the broth to the pot, and bring back to a boil before serving.
To serve, divide vermicelli, chicken breast, cilantro and green onion between 8 large bowls. Ladle broth into each and finish with a squeeze of lime.
Serves 8
