Sweet Braised Chicken

February 22, 20161 Comment

The challenge: Make a main course meal to include chicken, pineapple and chouriço. Accepted. I belong to a super fun foodie group on Facebook and there was recently a “Chopped” type challenge issued by the admin. I love getting creative in the kitchen so decided to enter and take the Asian/Portuguese a.k.a. Hawaiian route. And although I didn’t win as there were some pretty amazing entries, we were pretty happy around the dinner table eating this sweet and savory and slightly spicy dish!

Being the Portuguese American Mom I decided to add to the challenge by also making sure it was inexpensive and easy to prepare come dinner. The way I chose to do that was by first using chicken thighs which I am pretty sure is the least expensive cut of chicken out there. If you like chicken legs or breast, go ahead and do that, just be sure the skin is still in tact. I then made this easy by infusing as much flavor as possible with a make ahead marinade, that way at dinner time it would just be a few minutes of grilling and pop it in the oven. I even made my rice in the microwave! (fresh rice, from scratch)

All in all the contest was fun and something different to do on a hum drum February week. I would like to thank Kerry, the admin for “Coastal Foodies”. And congratulate all the contestants for the willingness to put themselves out there and have fun in the kitchen. I got new ideas from each and every entry as I am sure many did. The voting is all over and we are anxiously awaiting the winner!

I’ll take you through each step here. We can start with the marinade:

Start your marinade with a good deep bowl.

Add in brown sugar.

Grab a can of pineapple slices.

Drain the pineapple juice right into your marinade.

Add in soy sauce.

Use rice vinegar. If you don’t have this, use some Apple Cider Vinegar.

Add vinegar in.

Add in basil sauce.

Add in Sriracha sauce.

Whisk to combine.

This is the chicken. Wash this and trim each piece.

Nestle each piece in the marinade.

This is my Pampered Chef Grill Pan. I have lightly sprayed it with non-stick cooking spray.

The pineapples have had some time to dry out a bit as the chicken has been marinading in the fridge.

Lay out 5-6 pineapple slices on the grill pan. This will leave some pretty grill marks, but it also brings out the sweetness of the pineapple.

Flip to the other side.

Once you have nice grill marks on both sides, remove from pan, but keep pan hot.

Slice chouriço on a bias to create more surface area for grilling.

Place on hot grill and cook all the way through.

Once thoroughly grilled remove and set aside.

Reserve these for plating later.

Start grilling in a grill pan with a rim, skin side down over high heat.

Flip over to cook bottom for a bit before adding in liquid.

Add marinade into the pan.

Bring to a boil and add in ingredients.

Peel and cut garlic in half.

Add in to your pan.

Add white wine to your pan.

You should have 3-4 pineapple rings left in the can, wedge those in with the chicken and vegetables.

Take a few pieces of chourico and do the same.

This is what it looks like after the first 45 minutes.

Flip the chicken for the next 30 minute stint in the oven.

After 30 minutes, remove from oven again to flip chicken one last time to crisp up the top again. Place back in the oven for an additional 45 minutes.

Sweet Braised Chicken

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

5-6 chicken thighs, washed and trimmed

1 16 oz. can sliced pineapple rings, juice reserved

1/2 lb. hot chouriço link, sliced

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup soy sauce

1 tsp. squeezable basil

1 Tbs. rice vinegar

1 Tbs. Sriracha sauce (optional)

2 garlic cloves, peeled and halved

1 onion, sliced

10-12 sweet peppers, halved

1/2 cup white wine

salt and pepper

Instructions:

For the marinade:

Combine brown sugar, soy sauce, reserved pineapple juice from can, basil, vinegar and Sriracha sauce. Whisk and place chicken in marinade. Cover and place in refrigerator for 6-8 hours.

Grill 5-6 pineapple slices on both sides. Grill chouriço. Next, grill chicken on both sides until grill marks are formed and skin starts to tighten. Add marinade into grill pan. Add wine and garlic. Bring to a boil, shut off stove. Add peppers and onions throughout. Add in a few slices of grilled chouriço and un-grilled pineapple. Place chicken, skin side up, in a pre-heated 300°F oven for 45 minutes. Flip chicken, cook an additional 30 minutes. Flip chicken again and cook an additional 45 minutes. Serve over white Jasmine rice and top with onions, peppers and pan sauce.

***Gluten-free This dish is completely gluten-free as long as you opt to use a gluten-free soy sauce.

Easy Pineapple Cobbler

September 21, 2015

A cobbler is a classic American dessert that is made of a very simple quick batter and dotted with fruit. Perhaps pineapple is not what you most associate with cobbler, it may be overshadowed by the peach or even the apple, but really just about any sliceable fruit or berry can be turned into a cobbler… This version is my husband’s absolute favorite as I have been making it for him for years.

This specific little dish of sweetness was made for him to top a special little dinner we had about a month ago to celebrate our engage-aversary. The dinner was made up of Shrimp Mozambique over white rice, a glass of wine and finished off with the cobbler.

This time of year we have robust peaches, pears and apples in this part of the country. Earlier in the year we have berries of all kinds. But, what we have year round is canned and frozen fruit and either will work nicely here. You may say, why on earth use canned fruit when there is so much fresh fruit available right now? Well, for one, like I said it is my husband’s favorite. For two it’s what I had on hand, I didn’t happen to have a fresh pineapple hanging around. And for three, if unless using a berry, that whatever fruit you use is prepared at least to an “al dente” or slightly softened stage before adding in. That is an additional step I didn’t have time for on this particular fine evening. Pineapple chunks it is! But, the batter is the same no matter the fruit! So get creative with it!

Before you start with your dry ingredients, melt one stick of butter. Set aside.

To a medium bowl, add in flour.

Add in kosher salt.

Add in sugar… Now you can use the traditional 1 cup of sugar here which matches up with the flour measurement, but if you like things a little less sweet, take it down to 3/4 cup. You should gauge that by how sweet your fruit is as well.

Add in Baking Powder.

Combine all your dry ingredients. No need to sift, just use your wisk.

Once your dry ingredients are properly combined, add in milk. I like to use whole milk when baking, but it really doesn’t matter too much here as long as its not skim.

Add in vanilla. Be sure to use a good quality pure vanilla extract. There are so few ingredients that it really makes a difference. A vanilla bean would be extra special here too!

Once the vanilla is added in, mix all the wet with the dry until combined.

Slowly wisk in the melted butter.

Be sure it all gets fully incorporated.

And there you have it. This is your basic cobbler batter. To this you can go crazy with possibilities!

Spray a 9″x13″ dish with cooking spray.

It will look like you don’t have enough batter to fill the whole pan. But, for a cobbler, you want a thin layer, this will puff up.

Spread all the way to the edges.

Now you can add in your fruit.

Bake for 25-30 mins. See how it puffs right up over the fruit… that is yummy deliciousness right there!

Top with either some homemade whipped cream or take a little short cut like I did and use your favorite canned stuff.

Recipe for Pineapple Cobbler:

(serves 4-6)

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup sugar (up to one cup for not sweet fruit)

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 stick butter or margarine, melted

1 20 oz. can pineapple chunks, drained (or desired fruit)

cooking spray

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375°F. (Oven must be properly heated, do not skip this step)

In a medium size mixing bowl combine flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Wisk together. Add in milk and vanilla. Wisk together. Add in melted butter. Wisk together slowly to combine. Once the batter is smooth pour into a 9″x13″ baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Spread batter into a thin layer all the way to the edges. Bake for 25-30 mins until golden.

Cool and serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Enjoy!

Sangria Steak Sliders

June 15, 2015June 18, 2015

A great recipe for inside grilling! If you have a grill pan, a pitcher of Sangria, some steak and bread and about 10 minutes on y our hands you have everything you need to make these delicious little lunch treats! I kind of tripped upon this recipe the day I made my “A Taste of St. Michael Sparkling Sangria”. I happened to have the pitcher there and being mid-week, we don’t do a whole lot of drinking. I also happened to have picked up some thin cut steak sandwich steaks at the market and some bread…. So I got to thinking, what could I do with these ingredients???

Well, the answer was make that Sangria into a marinade! And I must say it worked out really well! These are great for a quick lunch, a party or as a snack. If you don’t happen to have these ingredients handy, you could either make some sangria or look below for some additional instructions.

To the Sangria all I added was about 3 Tbs. of kosher salt and 2 large garlic cloves, sliced. I let it marinade for about an hour… You could do this up to about 6 hours ahead (I don’t suggest any longer because of the acid from the oranges and pineapples)

Add some butter and oil onto a grill pan.

Place the steaks in the heated pan over medium high heat… These sandwich steaks are so thin that they really only need a sear on both sides and they are done… I also place some pineapple slices on the grill along with some of the garlic cloves (these garlic slices are huge!)

Then just take a slice or two of steak and place on the slider sized bread. I prefer a Portuguese Pop Seco.

Add on some grilled pineapples and if you like grilled garlic.

Recipe for Sangria Steak Sliders:

(makes 4 sliders, serves 2)

8 thinly sliced steak sandwich steaks (about 1/2 lb)

4 slider size rolls (I like Portuguese rolls)

2 cups Sangria with fruit (If you don’t have this, combine 2 cups sweet red wine with one small can of pineapple slices with juice and slice up one orange as a substitute)

2 large garlic cloves sliced

3 Tbs. kosher salt

2 Tbs. butter

2 Tbs. veggie oil

Directions:

Add salt and garlic to Sangria. Marinate meat 1-6 hours.

Heat a grill pan over medium high heat. Add butter and oil. Sear steak on both sides (about 2-3 mins each side). Sear pineapple and garlic as well.

Add steak, pineapple and garlic to roll.

Enjoy!

Pineapple Honey Glazed Ham

April 4, 2015March 13, 2016

Baked ham… an Easter tradition in my house growing up. I’m part of a big Portuguese family, so of course that wasn’t the only thing on the table, there would usually be some sort of roast or stew as well… but, my favorite was always the ham. My mother always put sliced pineapples on her ham. So, what I’ve done is incorporate that into my pineapple honey glazed ham. It’s simple and delicious.

A lot of people like spiral hams, and they are yummy, but they can also be quite pricy. I’ll be using a 10 lb. ham here and with Easter sales at my grocery store, I paid under $10 for this one, score! Spiral hams usually come with a nice little packet, usually brown sugar based that can be used to glaze the ham with, but regular run of the mill hams don’t. So, I’ve included a simple pineapple honey glaze with this recipe that is almost as simple as opening up that packet.

You’ll want to start with figuring out what size pan you’ll use. It’s a good idea for it to have room enough for the drippings, but not be so overwhelmingly big that the glaze doesn’t hang out near the meat. For this 10lb ham, I am using a 9×12″ baking dish.

You will want to prepare your ham to accept the glaze. This can be done by placing the ham cut side down in your baking dish and scoring in a lattice style, criss crossing over the entire skin.

Here are all the ingredient’s you will need for the glaze: honey, 1 20 oz . can of sliced pineapples, with the juice reserved, 1 T. butter, salt and whole pepper corns.

Take your ingredients and add them in all together to a small sauce pan over medium heat and stir. 1 T butter, 1 t. pepper corns, 2 T. honey, 1/2 t. salt and reserved juice (don’t add the actual pineapples to this mix) The goal here is not to cook it down, but just to get them all mixed in the warmth helps the butter and honey to incorporate. 2-3 minutes should do it.

Next, just pour the glaze over the ham.

Place the pineapples on the ham.

If you have a tough time getting the pineapples to stay put, you can secure them with toothpicks… I didn’t have any trouble due to the shape of my ham.

I like to add a bit more honey to the top for fun… this is about a tablespoon’s worth.

You should cover the ham for cooking, but first what I like to do is spray some cooking spray on the foil so it doesn’t stick to the pineapples.

Next, loosely cover with foil, sprayed side down.

Bake at 325°F for 15 minutes per lb.

It’s a good idea to baste the ham a few times… after your calculated cooking time is through, i like to uncover the ham and put into a 375°F oven for another 20 minutes or so to get some color on your pineapples and crisp up the skin of the ham a bit.

And that’s it… Check to see that the internal temperature is up to 140°F (because ham is fully cooked before you put it in the oven), put it on a platter as seen here with my Rockstar Potatoes. (Be sure to remove toothpicks at this point if you used them)

Baked ham, Rockstar Potatoes and peas! A perfect Easter dinner!

Pineapple Honey Glazed Ham

plan on 1/2 lb. per person for a bone in ham

Ingredients:

1 cured ham, bone in

1 20 oz. can sliced pineapple, juice reserved

2-3 T. honey

1 T. butter

1 t. black pepper corns

1/2 t. kosher salt

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 325°F.

For the glaze: In a small sauce pan over medium heat combine juice, honey, butter, pepper corns and salt. Warm through mixing.

Score the ham in a cross hatch fashion.

Pour warmed glaze over ham. Place pineapples on ham. Add extra honey if desired over top. Cover with foil. Bake 15 minutes per lb. Baste 2-3 time throughout cooking time. Remove foil after cooking time and baste again. Bake for an additional 20 minutes uncovered at 375°F. Check to see that ham is hot throughout and the skin has started to crisp up, internal temp should be 140°F.

***Gluten-free