Sweet & Savory Chicken Fingers

Well, it's been a while, but I'm back! My work schedule has been hectic for a while now, and I'm finally starting to get a handle on my schedule again. So, I thought I'd share this recipe for the super-delicious chicken fingers I made for dinner tonight. (Sorry, no pictures. The food didn't last long enough to get any.)

So, I wanted to use buttermilk, but I didn't have any. No worries. I just put three tablespoons of white vinegar into the 4-cup measuring cup, then added milk (1%) up to the 3-cup line. By the time the chicken is cut, presto-chango! Pseudo-buttermilk!

Anyway, I started with four pieces of boneless skinless chicken breast. I trimmed the fat and tendons, then cut it into strips. Threw it all into a bowl, then seasoned liberally with chicken bouillon powder, granulated garlic, Hungarian paprika, celery salt, freshly ground black pepper, onion powder, hot sauce, and about a tablespoon of honey. I tossed the chicken around to coat it with the seasonings and honey, then poured in the pseudo-buttermilk.

I let that sit while I heated up the deep fryer (with peanut oil) and got my flour ready. I used just regular old all-purpose flour, which I seasoned with granulated garlic, onion powder, black pepper, white pepper, cayenne pepper, ground marjoram, ground thyme, chicken bouillon powder, and Jane's Krazy Mixed-Up Salt.

Once I had the flour sufficiently seasoned, I started the breading process. I fished pieces of chicken out of the bowl with a fork, and added them to the flour, which was in a large plastic storage bowl with a lid. After I'd added five or six pieces, I put the lid on, then shook the whole thing like mad. Repeated the process until all the chicken was in the bowl and well coated, then let it sit while the fryer finished heating up.

I dropped the pieces into the 350 degree peanut oil in batches of about six pieces, cooked them for three minutes (or until GBD - golden brown and delicious), let them drain for a few seconds in the fry basket, then transferred them to a cookie sheet with a cooling rack and some paper towels. Once they were all cooked, the whole lot went into the warm oven while everything else was finishing up. My wife made microwave potatoes (thin sliced potatoes, cooked in the microwave then topped with melted butter, salt, pepper, and chives from the garden) and we cooked some frozen corn.

Good Lord, were those chicken fingers delicious! Savory, rich chicken flavor, with a slight pepper bite and just a hint of sweetness from the honey. No dip needed. YUM!

Surf & Turf

So, after a loooong hiatus, I'm back to posting! Why the absence? Well, I'm a supervisor at a local Toys R Us, so I've been very busy since my last post, and on my one day off per week during the Christmas rush, I was too tired to do any fun, creative cooking. But now I've recovered, and I think I'm back in the swing of things. Plus, Santa brought us some new kitchen toys to play with - a mandolin, an electric griddle, a mini food processor and a set of glass casseroles.

(I also remembered to take pictures this time.)


Don't look for exact measurements this time. I just threw stuff together and hoped for the best. It turned out pretty good, if I say so myself.

Main dish: top sirloin steak. Before I did anything else, I took the steaks out of the fridge and cut them down to the serving sizes for everyone. I then sprinkled them on each side with some fresh ground black pepper and kosher salt and let them come to room temperature. Meanwhile, I got the charcoal started and came back inside to peel some potatoes. (Yes, I cooked on the grill in Iowa in January.)

I peeled several white potatoes then used the thin julienne blade on the mandolin to shred them. I also shredded a medium yellow onion. After squeezing most of the liquid out of the potatoes, I handed it off to my wife to mix while I added a little granulated garlic to the steaks and put them on the grill. Back inside, I added some fresh ground pepper, kosher salt, granulated garlic, and smoked paprika to the potato and onion mixture, then mixed in a beaten egg and some self-rising flour. I had turned on the griddle before I took the steaks out, so it was ready. I buttered it, and my wife shaped out some pancakes and put them on the griddle. (Her hands were still messy from mixing.) I browned them on each side then transferred them to a paper towel lined rack over a cookie sheet in a 250 degree oven to finish cooking all the way through and stay warm.

Sometime in there, I flipped the steaks and took this picture:

After the potato pancakes were done, I unplugged the griddle and plugged in the deep fryer. We bought some frozen stuffed crabs yesterday and made use of them tonight. I also cooked some fries for the youngest and some clam strips for me and the wife.

Steaks were coming off as the reached the proper doneness level, and we popped a steamer bag of corn into the microwave. After I brought my steak in, I topped it with a little compound butter I keep on hand (it has pepper, garlic, Worchestershire and parsley).

Here's my platter:

Don't worry, I ate light the rest of the day.

Good ol' steak 'n taters

This was a pretty run of the mill steak and potato dinner, but I did have a couple of special twists.

First step was this afternoon, setting the frozen roll dough out the rise. Picked up the kids at school, went to the library, stopped by the grocery store to turn in some bottles for deposit, then came home and baked the rolls. After they came out and went on the cooling rack -

- I turned the oven up to 425 and scrubbed three Russet potatoes and let them air dry while I mixed up a rub for the three New York strips (our local grocery store had a sale on whole stips, so we've got steak for a little while) - fairly simple rub, just granulated garlic, onion powder, fresh ground black pepper, and kosher salt. I rubbed both sides of the steak and let them sit for while I carried on the potato prep. I rubbed the potatoes down with a clean towel to make sure they were dry, then brushed a really thin layer of vegetable oil over them. I then filled a 9-inch square baking dish about a 1/2 inch deep with kosher salt, added the potatoes, rolled them around to cover them with salt, then stuck the whole works in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes.

Rubbed steaks:

I had put a bag of frozen Brussels sprouts in the fridge the thaw earlier in the day, so I took them out and realized they weren't fully thawed yet - into a bowl of running cold water to quick thaw. Then I got out the cast iron skillets, large and small, and set them on the stove. I cut four pieces of thick sliced hickory smoked bacon into the small skillet, set the burner under it to medium, then waited for the sprouts to thaw. Once they were thawed, I drained them and cut the larger ones in half, then tossed them with what was left of the rub mixture.

Once the bacon was crisp, I removed the pieces to a small platter with some paper towels to drain and added half a yellow onion, diced, and a heaping tsp. of minced garlic to the bacon grease in the pan and sauted until the onion started to get soft, then in went the sprouts.

Stirred the sprouts around into the onion and garlic, then covered the pan. About that time the timer went off for the potatoes, so they came out to be flipped over and punctured, then back into the oven for another 30 minutes.

Stirred the sprouts again and recovered, then turned my attention to the meat. Big cast iron skillet goes back on the front burner, then gets preheated over high heat for about five minutes. Added the steaks (no oil, I didn't trim the fat off the steaks, so that rendered out), turned the heat down to medium high, and let them sear on that side for four minutes then flipped them.

Seared the other side for another four minutes, then removed two (one for me, one for the daughter) and put on a resting rack and tented them with foil. (Meanwhile, the sprouts were finished, so I turned off the heat, mixed the cooked bacon in, and left them covered. Between the residual heat from the cast iron and the insulation from the lid, they were still piping hot when everything was done about 15 minutes later.)  The other steak (for the wife) stayed in the pan for another two minutes, then got transferred to a sheet pan and put in the oven with the potatoes for another four or five minutes (my daughter and I like rare to medium rare, my wife likes medium well to well done). I then deglazed the pan with about 1/3 of a can of beef broth, being sure to scrape up all the yummy brown bits of charred steak from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Added a few drops of Worchestershire sauce, and let the liquid reduce by half, stirring the whole time. I then added in 3 Tbsp. of butter, let that melt, combined it all, then transferred it to a small bowl. Out come the potatoes, and it's time to plate up and dig in!

I had my baked potato with a little butter and some shredded co-jack cheese, and drizzled the pan sauce over the steak. And yes, I ate that whole plate. All I'd had the rest of the day was that little bowl of oatmeal from my previous post and a fried balogna sandwich. I was hungry, and boy, did it taste good!