Tag Archives: onions

Pulled Chicken

Good morning, lovely friends! Somehow, it’s Monday again. But that’s okay. We just came off a fabulous weekend with my sister Erica and her husband, I’m starting a yoga class tonight with my favorite teacher at Broadway Armory Park, I’m about to imbibe a steaming mug of mint tea, and I have exciting things to share with you this week–starting with this chicken.

What to say about this chicken?

It’s great. I made it on a whim. I was committed to bringing a dish to a women’s gathering at our church, and as I was browsing the incredible food blog that is Kayotic Kitchen, this chicken sandwich caught my eye. I’m so glad that Kay highlighted it in her Superbowl-friendly recipes post, because I might not have found it otherwise. It’s simple (not at all labor intensive, seriously), delicious, and I was asked for the recipe.

There’s no greater compliment than being asked for the recipe, in my book.

The sauce is richly complex, satisfying, the right amount of vinegary and sweet, and of course adjustable to each person’s individual taste. So make this for a party! It’s amazing.

I made a few changes–green pepper instead of red, ginger sauce for added sweetness, sriracha, more chicken (the ratio of sauce was a little high), and the results were delectable. I will now show you how it all went down!

 

Ingredients

(Serves 10-12)

7-8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 large onion
2 TBS butter
1 bell pepper (red or green)
6-8 garlic cloves
1 serrano or jalapeño chili, seeds and membrane removed
1 cup ketchup
3 TBS sriracha
1 1/2 cups water
3 TBS brown sugar
2 TBS ginger syrup
1/2 cup apple cider or white wine vinegar
2 TBS Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 squeeze fresh lemon juice
2 tsp salt, to taste
Tabasco, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Mince the onion, bell pepper, garlic, and chili.

Heat the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the onion and cook for 15 minutes, until it’s starting to caramelize.

Add the bell pepper, garlic and chili and continue to cook for another 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the veggies are softened.

Season those veggies with salt and pepper as they cook.

Whisk together the remaining ingredients (except for the chicken).

Give the sauce a taste if you want, though the flavors will change and deepen when it cooks.

If you don’t have a certain ingredient (like ginger sauce), don’t sweat it–this is a flexible sauce. A forgiving sauce. A sauce that’s begging to be personalized.

Add the ketchup mixture to the pot with the veggies and bring ‘er to a boil.

Add the chicken breasts, lower the heat, cover the pot and simmer for 20 minutes.

Don’t overcook the chicken, or it will dry out! Overcooked chicken is the worst, man, especially once you understand the full potential of tender, perfectly cooked fowl flesh.

When the chicken is done, remove it from the pot and set it aside to cool a little on a plate.

Turn the heat up to medium and simmer the sauce for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally so that it doesn’t burn to the bottom, until it’s very thick. Like dees!

And if you burn it a little (I certainly did–you can see the blackened chunks if you look closely), it only adds to the smokiness of the barbecue flavor.

Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning to your liking.

Shred the chicken with two forks . . .

. . . and mix the chicken and sauce together.

My chicken went straight into this lovely plastic container, for transportation to our women’s ministry gathering.

Oh man, my mouth is watering.

Serve! On a plate, over rice, in a sandwich—you’ll love it.

The chicken is so amazingly tender and flavorful.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Pulled Chicken

Bacon and Kale Skillet

Happy Monday (that’s an order!) to you all! I hope the week is starting off on the right foot for everyone. For me, that means a big glass of veggie juice at 7:40am, a cup of coffee with vanilla sugar and a devotional starting at 7:45am, and a feeling of “I can do this” as the upcoming events of the week rush through my brain and I step out the door to go to work trying to cram each thought and each project into the correct mental cranny. A good outfit to help me feel pretty also makes a big difference–isn’t it amazing how bad a day can become when you just don’t feel like your face ever came together in the morning? And you’re convinced your pants are clinging in an unflattering way?

Juice, coffee, feeling presentable–that helps my Monday roll out the gate without a grimace.

Anyway, today I have a recipe for you all that has made many Monday night appearances at our table, partly because it requires near-zero thought and near-zero effort. Which also sweetens the pill-that-can-be-Monday. This dinner is so quick to throw together, and it never fails to please. It was inspired by the preliminary steps in this quiche, and I just love its simplicity: only 4 ingredients. Only 1 skillet. Heck yeah.

Ingredients

(Serves 3-4)

1 lb bacon
1 red onion
12 oz kale
2/3 cup dry sherry or white wine
Salt and pepper, to taste
Rice, to serve

Chop up the bacon and fry it in a large skillet over medium high heat until browned and crispy.

Yes, in case you’re wondering, this is the most labor-intensive part of the recipe. It’s all water running downhill from here.

Drain all but 1 TBS of the fat.

Now look at the cup full of grease that you just saved yourself from, and feel good!

Look at the grease you spattered on the counter and also feel good. Because you can just wipe it up with a soapy sponge, and the problem disappears.

And when your “problems” can be fixed with a sponge . . . well, then you can really count your blessings.

Dice the onion and add it to the bacon. Fry over medium heat until the onion is softened, 6-8 minutes.

Chop up the kale and add it to the skillet little by little, stirring until wilted. I added almost all of it at once, just for dramatic effect.

But it will cook down a ton! I promise.

Add the sherry or white wine and bring to a simmer. I have to warn you that the flavor of sherry is quite distinctive. It has an acidic edge to it that I happen to love, but if you don’t, feel free to do the white wine, or even a white wine or sherry + chicken broth split.

Cook the kale for about 10 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed/evaporated almost completely. Season to taste with salt and pepper–and I love liberal amounts of black pepper, as you can see.

Serve over rice!

I think I’ve made this every Monday for the past 3 weeks.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Bacon and Kale Skillet