Chicken thighs it is this time around. Following a recipe from Pinterest of course, I was only missing one ingredient, which is amazing for what this is. Why it's 'Peruvian' I don't know, unless it's the combination of green sauce and the marinade. I am not giving instructions on cooking rice. The picture shown on the recipe has a golden colored rice and only calls for Jasmine rice. I know for a fact that rice is not golden colored. They recommended cooking it in water or chicken broth so that's the difference. Will try that next time. My green sauce also turned out more white than theirs so... yeah.
My spin on it to make up for the lack of jalapeño was using onion and a combination of spices. It really did need the pepper but will do that next time as this sauce is out of the park delicious!
Chicken and Marinade
4-6 chicken thighs, bone and skin intact
3 tbl lime juice (fresh called for, bottled is okay)
3 garlic cloves minced/crushed
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika (I used a scant tsp and added 1/8 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbl olive oil (I am out of olive so used canola)
In a bowl, combine ingredients for marinade whisking together thoroughly, toss chicken (rinsed and patted dry) into large zip lock bag, pour over chicken, press out air, seal and mush together so well coated, put on a plate so pieces are all flat and put in fridge until needed. Minimum ½ hour but longer is better, overnight recommended. I added in a few pieces of frozen orange peel, thawed and chopped fine.
Green Sauce
1 c fresh cilantro
1(2) garlic cloves crushed
1 jalapeño (remove seeds and membrane for less heat)
2 tbl lime juice
1/4 c mayo or greek yogurt
2 tbl olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Water if needed for consistency
Drop all ingredients into a blender, jalapeño (onion) and garlic first. As I noticed I did not have a pepper so I substituted this way:
3 1/4 inch slices yellow onion chopped (roughly 1/8 cup)
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cayenne
A few small pieces orange peel chopped fine
Blend thoroughly on pulse until well blended, I added another tsp of lime juice and a little more salt.
The instructions for cooking the chicken did not make sense.
"Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Sear the marinated chicken thighs for about 6-7 minutes per side until cooked through and golden brown with a caramelized crust."
Here's the problem: what do they consider medium high heat on a scale of 1-9? Also, if you sear the chicken quickly at first and then continue cooking the chicken, it is not 6-7 minutes on a side and you will end up with burned chicken. It also does not call for any kind of oil in the pan. I added about 2 tbl of canola oil and turned the burner up to 7 1/2 or 8 until it shimmered. It took about 30 minutes for them to get seared, turning ever few minutes or so. They were were not searing so I had to take them out, pour off the liquid/oil in the pana and put it back on the burner. That resulted in searing but also sticking. After they were seared well I tested the largest one and it was not cooked through.
Right. Put them all on a large plate and completed the cooking in the microwave for 3 minutes. Tested the temperature on the biggest one that still looked a little pink and decided to put them back in for another minute. 165 is the recommended temperature and I always cook to 170-172 to be sure.
But let me tell you, it was delicious! The sauce was the kicker and is very similar to the seat of the pants green sauce I made before but this will be my go to sauce to put on chicken or shrimp tacos, any shrimp really, sandwiches... you name it. It's the combination of lime, cilantro and garlic that is so universal really. Change an ingredient or two and it would make a great salad dressing. Roasted chicken on a nice green salad, yessiree! It's very similar to the cilantro dressing from Pollo Loco actually.
I made bow tie hamburger skillet yesterday so nothing fancy there. Used a packet of mushroom gravy and beef gravy mix, and accidentally tossed in what I thought was way too much Italian Seasoning. Here's what happened:
So I put about a tablespoon of seasoning into my little molcajate (mortar and pestle) then realized my small container was getting low so brought down the larger reserve container. Problem one, I only have a regular funnel with a small neck. Right.... hmmm paper funnel using 8 1/2 x 11 just rolled into a cone. The problem again is, I couldn't see how much was going in and ended up spilling about another tablespoon worth on the counter. Not going to waste precious spices so swept that into my hand, looked around then whatever, dropped it into the pan. I thought, no such thing as too much Italian Seasoning and it turned out just fine.
Now I recall there is an origami method of making a paper funnel, so will have to look that up and make one to have on hand for just such a situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment