Monthly Archives: March 2011

Roasted Chicken with Olive Tapenade

Welcome to another cooking class recipe! My friend Cassia is the person responsible for this awesomeness. It’s a very simple recipe that just involves whizzing a couple ingredients in a food processor and slathering it over a chicken before roasting it for 35 minutes. Easy, delicious–you can’t go wrong. Unless you hate olives. Then, beware!

After testing this recipe the weekend before our cooking class, we decided that the tapenade was so delicious that we would double it for the class, serving a bowl of it alongside the chicken for olive-lovers. Hence, this recipe has enough tapenade for you to put every olive craving to rest for at least 12 hours guaranteed. Maybe 24 hours if you want to stretch it–but that’s the absolute limit, since exactly 24 hours from now I’ll be sharing yet another olive-alicious recipe. That uses another tapenade.

Why so many olives these days? Well, the answer is quite simple: to counteract the onslaught of cookies that has been turning this blog into a place of great danger recently. So let loose your olive war-cry and let’s begin:

Ingredients

(Serves 5)

 1 whole chicken (3-4 lbs), giblets removed

2-3 TBS olive oil

1 cup pitted kalamata olives

1 cup pitted green olives

1 cup pitted oil-cured olives

2 TBS dry parsley

2 TBS capers

2 TBS fresh thyme leaves

4 tsp anchovy paste

3 sprigs fresh thyme

Salt

Pepper

Let’s start at the beginning (a veeery good plaaaace to staaaaart): preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Grab the ingredients for the tapenade:

Don’t fear the anchovy paste. It’s quite benevolent, even if it does look like . . . never mind.

Rip the leaves off a couple sprigs of thyme to get the 2 TBS of thyme leaves:

Put the olives, capers, parsley, anchovy paste, and 2 TBS thyme leaves in a food processor . . .

. . . and mince it finely.

Do you see now why I thought it looked like . . . and why I said to the ladies in the class . . . never mind.

I’m a big fan of not making the same mistake twice.

If the paste seems dry, add in a little olive oil.

FYI, you can do the work with a knife and a cutting board, but it takes a while (and since I don’t own a food processor, I may find myself in that position again).

Reserve about half of the tapenade–you’ll serve this on the table for those who want extra olive goodness piled high.

I seriously just snacked on this stuff–it’s so good. You could easily serve this to me with crackers and I’d be one happy lady. Take note, those who desire my happiness.

Now it’s time to grab your piece of meat.

Pick a chicken, any chicken.

Rinse it, then pat it nice and dry; place it on a cutting board. Try not to call it ‘Gladys.’

Butterfly it like Cassia is doing in this picture above: cut out the backbone and break the breastbone. For more specific instructions on how to butterfly, read here.

Dry the chicken again with more paper towels—this will help the skin get crispier.

Place the butterflied chicken skin-side up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Since we’re about to stuff that tapenade under the skin, at this point it’s helpful to snip the membrane in between the chicken breasts that holds the skin down. That’s what I’m doing here during the cooking class:

(Thanks for the picture, Carrie!)

Using your hands, rub the olive tapenade under the skin of the chicken, and all over the surface of the skin as well. We want tapenade everywhere. Gladys wants tapenade everywhere, too.

Get it all up in the crizza, so to speak.

It helps to loosen the skin first, and then stuff it.

Don’t forget about the thighs and legs! They need some tapenade love too.

Here are some brave ladies getting down and dirty with the chickens during the cooking class.

Place the whole thyme sprigs underneath the chicken.

Final step before roasting: rub olive oil over the skin, and season the chicken generously with salt and pepper.

Roast the chicken in the oven for 35-45 minutes, until the skin is nice and browned and the juices of the chicken run clear when cut, or until the thickest part of the breasts reaches about 160 F.

Test the temperature at 35 minutes, because you really want a moist just-barely-done chicken, not an overcooked piece of leather. Trust your aunty Jenna! Overdone chicken ain’t where it’s at.

This chicken is where it’s at.

Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes, then carve and serve it with extra reserved tapenade.

The picture below is actually the Weeknight Chicken with lemon, garlic, etc., but I’m sticking it in to say that we served this chicken with the brussel sprouts and polenta as well. A perfect combination!

Make it on a weekend–or a weeknight! It’s simple enough to toss together after work, but fancy enough to make you feel like you’ve brought fine dining into your own home.

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Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

I first found this recipe on Joanne’s blog, who in turn adapted the recipe from the magical Barefoot Contessa. (On a sidenote, Joanne is always cooking up something fabulous. And healthy–you should check her stuff out.)

As I mentioned just the other week, the very evening I made these bars, a Bon Appetit magazine turned up in our mailbox and–lo and behold–there was another recipe for PB&J Bars!

The fates were telling me to spread the love. So let me tell you a few things about these bars: if you love a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you will love these. If you’re not such a PB&J fan, you won’t like ’em. It’s that simple. They really do taste like the sandwich, but chewy and sweeter.

My husband liked them okay, but wasn’t absolutely thrilled either. “They just taste like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” he explained. So there’s the evidence to consider before jumping in and making these.

They’re very sweet, so (unlike Joanne, heh heh) I’m not tempted to eat many–a small bar satisfies me, and I need some milk to wash it down. My favorite way to eat them is alongside a nice, tart apple. The apple/peanut butter combination is timeless, and it’s the best way to enjoy these little guys. In my humble but correct opinion.

Oh no! “My humble but correct opinion” is another motherism! According to the speed at which I’m becoming my mother, my name should be ‘Twinky’ in about 5 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days!

And yes, my mother’s name is ‘Twinky.’ The name fits her personality 100%–cheerful, bright, energetic–and sparkly. Very sparkly. Love ya, Mom.

Anyway, this is a great dessert to bring to a party or potluck, and I would imagine it’s also a very kid-friendly dessert. Oh, and pantry-friendly! So let’s go.

Ingredients

(Makes about 24 small bars)

1 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs, room temperature

18 oz creamy peanut butter

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

18 oz raspberry jam

2/3 c chopped lightly salted peanuts

First, preheat the oven to 350. 

Grabe a 9×13” cake pan and grease it. I like to unwrap the butter we’re about to use:

And use the wrappers to get the greasing done.

Line it with parchment paper, then grease it again.

The butter on the wrappers was running thin, so I gave it a healthy dose of baking spray to finish the job.

Your next mission is to make sure your eggs are room temperature. I will never, ever remember to set them on the counter hours in advance, so I use the old trick of running warm water over them for a few minutes.

Like a charm!

Now it’s time to get mixin’. Combine the butter and sugar in a mixer bowl.

Cream the butter and sugar together for about 2 minutes, until fluffy and light yellow.

Now add the vanilla

and the eggs

and the peanut butter.

Mix until all ingredients are combined.

After about 2 minutes, you should have creamy swirls of delight:

Grab a separate bowl, and sift together the flour . . .

. . . the baking powder . . .

. . . and the salt.

Turn your mixer on low speed, and slowly add these dry ingredients to the peanut butter batter.

Mix until it’s all combined–by the end it will be quite thick.

Spread 2/3 of the dough into the parchment-paper lined pan, using your fingers to press it into the corners and create as even a layer as possible.

Now spread on the jam with a spatula or spoon.

Get it on there nice and even.

I really enjoyed the jam, so I’m thinking about upping the quantity from 18 oz to 23 oz next time (the size of a large jar at my grocery store).

Drop globs of the remaining dough over the jam. Try to get them distributed evenly. I used a spatula to kind of press them down at the end:

Now sprinkle on those peanuts. I didn’t chop mine, but I definitely recommend that you chop yours!  More crunchy peanut coverage = very desirable.

Looks like we’re ready to toss this in the oven.

Bake for 45 minutes–by the end it will look very similar to the uncooked product (a toasty, golden brown).

Let it cool on the counter, and then cut it into squares.

As discussed, I like tinier squares, though you wouldn’t be able to tell from these pictures.

They’re a little sticky, so make sure to have a napkin on hand when you eat them.

Who knows where my newfound baking impulse will lead me next!

Click here for printer-friendly version: Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars