Late Night Meal Prep

Hello.

I should be studying. Actually, I should be sleeping. But the night owl in me never lets that happen.

So I figure I should make food for lunch. Something a bit more substantial than vegetables, which don't get me wrong... are good. Just boring. And no protein.

So I'm poaching chicken. Nothing fancy. Garlic, peppercorns, star anise. Okay, maybe the star anise is a bit fancy. But hey... spice it up.

I'm thinking adding the chicken to salad for lunch, and perhaps a noodle soup for dinner.

Wait... don't I have some CBC in the fridge?

Wonder if that is still good.

P.S. - I wrote this on phone.

P.P.S. - I used the swipe function to write it. How about all that fancy tech savvy...ness. I don't like my phone throwing words in there it thinks I want there. Just had to correct a bit.

Eat Filipino Food: Adobong Manok (Chicken Adobo)

Now that we've got a Filipino place here in the Capital Region, you should learn a thing or two about some of these dishes you may come across. First up, the staple in any Filipino household - adobo. It's one of those dishes you can make a big batch of and eat it for the entire week (and of course, it gets better with time). Don't confuse this with Spanish versions of adobo... it shares the same name and the use of vinegar, but that's about it.

You can adobo just about anything. Chicken and pork are more commonly seen, and sometimes places will offer a combination of the two. But today we'll just focus on chicken. Ingredients are simple and you probably have them in your kitchen right now:

• Chicken (any cut will do, but since it's just me I stick to drumsticks)
• Onion
• Garlic
• Peppercorns
• Bay Leaf
• Soy Sauce
• Vinegar
• Sugar
• Water



Amounts are really up to you. I like lots of onion and garlic, and go heavy with the peppercorns. Bay leaves, I used two, which is probably plenty. As for the liquid, I used half a cup each of soy sauce and vinegar and added two cups of water. A ratio of that sort should be fine. Add ~1 tablespoon of sugar to the liquid and let it dissolve. Brown the chicken in the pan and remove so you can cook the onion and garlic. When it starts to brown I add the chicken back in, add the liquid, peppercorns, and bay leaves.

Normally you can cook this in a regular pot and it takes less than an hour, but I "fixed" my pressure cooker so cooking time ended up being 10 minutes. While this was going on, big pot of rice was cooking. Because. You just have to.



Pretty sure this will be a weekly addition to my cooking schedule. 

Buttermilk Baked Chicken

I always see chicken recipes that call for the meat to be marinated in buttermilk before a dredging and then fried. As much as I love all things fried, I do not like frying in my kitchen. Too much mess. Ovens are easier. And it just happened I had boneless skinless chicken thighs and buttermilk that needed to be used.


Here's the rough recipe of my meal:


1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
Buttermilk
Old Bay Seasoning
Tony Cachere Creole Seasoning


Probably used about half of the buttermilk to cover the chicken. Let it sit on the counter for an hour while I worked on other things.


Pre-heated the over to 375degrees. Lightly greased a baking pan with some coconut oil spray. Seasoned half the meat with Old Bay, the other half Creole on both sides. Baked for 20ish minutes.


As much as I love Old Bay, it seemed pretty weak. Think I'll just stick to the Creole seasoning. And I'm surprised at the slight sweetness the chicken had... which I guess came from the buttermilk. I may just bake my chicken this way from now on.

Last Minute Game Day Food: Shredded Buffalo Chicken

I have to be honest here, I’m not planning on watching the game.

Oh, it will probably be on in the living room, but I will most likely be doing other things. Like cleaning out my closets. Organizing my clothes. Cooking food for the coming week. Drinking beer. Stuff.

If you have a viewing party to go to later, here is something you can throw in your crockpot and take over. Or you can just make it for yourself to eat during week. I found the recipe on Sweet Little Blue Bird, but tweaked it just a bit. What I cooked is listed below. The cream cheese addition was me.

2.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
12 oz Franks Red Hot sauce
1 packet Ranch dressing mix
1 package cream cheese, softened

1. Mix the hot sauce and ranch dressing mix in a small pan. Heat until it starts to bubble. Allow to cool slightly.

2. Pour over chicken in crock pot. Cook on high for ~4 hours.

3. Shred chicken. Add in cream cheese, mix to combine.

I’ve been this with tortilla chips and in wraps. You can add shredded cheddar, crumbled blue, scallions, chives… whatever floats your boat.

Enjoy!

Popeyes: An Impulse Purchase

I get all sorts of crazy thoughts in this noggin of mine. Today it was fried chicken. I don't know why... maybe I was out somewhere and I could smell it... and I didn't really eat so it made the want for chicken through the roof. 

Could I have made some myself? Of course... I got hands, I've got a fryer. It's doable. But that means cooking it, which means time and getting my hands dirty. Flying Chicken was also an option, but out of the way a bit and I'd have to wait. And I really don't like waiting. Drive-thru is horrible, and slightly expensive, but quick. So I went to Popeyes. Three piece dinner with cajun fries and a side of rice and beans for another 99 cents.

I was able to finish 2/3ds of this meal before I was full. Pretty greasy, but that's to be expected from fried chicken. I will say the chicken wasn't dry, which is a plus. I ordered it spicy and there was no spiciness at all. Fries were on the limp side and slightly cold by the time I started eating them. Biscuit was decent for fast food biscuits. KFC's tend to be pretty tough.

I'm pretty sure I won't be going back there again. Or if I do, it'll be a long time from now. I don't know... I just felt really guilty buying from there. It's as if I'm being a traitor to my hood's Kennedy Fried Chicken.

Post Game Food Recap: Buffalo Chicken Wing Cupcake (1000th Post!)

So there was all that hype about a local bakery that decided to sell buffalo chicken wing cupcakes for the Superbowl. It got enough hype to get talked about on national media sources (I think just their websites, but still). I hope this bakery isn’t taking the credit for this invention, because I’m pretty darn sure it was making its way through the blogosphere before they threw their version out.

Anyways, this isn’t to bash them. Can’t bash what you haven’t tried, right? But it got me thinking about savory cupcakes, and the following is how I made and ate my wings for the big game.

Foodbuzz Tastemaker Series: KC Masterpiece Buffalo Marinade

As part of Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker Program, I received a bottle of KC Masterpiece marinade to try out and review.

Kennedy Fried Chicken

Oh yeah down staters… you know it. It’s not actually called Kennedy Fried Chicken, but Kennedy Chicken & Pizza, but still…it’s Kennedy Chicken.

Friday I had my usual drinks with co-workers after work and had a serious craving for something greasy (see? drinking and greasy food go hand in hand).

Six pieces of chicken, with two rolls and two sides (FYI- they’re tiny) came out to about seven bucks.

Four Ingredient Meal–Chicken Penne Pasta with Broccoli and Mushrooms

1 package of boneless chicken breasts, sliced
Broccoli florets (how much you want to use up to you)
King oyster mushrooms, sliced (sub if you want)
1 box penne pasta
Olive oil
Salt/Pepper
Parmesan cheese

1. Boil pasta according to directions on box.
2. While the pasta is cooking, heat a pan on medium heat and add enough olive oil to  to coat the bottom. Add chicken and cook until it no longer looks raw. Cook a little longer so that the chicken starts to lightly brown. Remove from pan.
3. Add a little more olive oil and throw in the broccoli. Cook. When the broccoli starts to become a brighter green, add the mushrooms and toss. Cook for a few minutes. Add the chicken, and cook long enough to warm up the meat.
4. Drain the pasta and add to the pot and toss. Season with salt and pepper, and a generous portion of cheese. Combine all the ingredients. Re-season as necessary.

Max’s Chicken Take Out

Max’s Chicken is finally open! I still haven’t checked out the restaurant, but one of my aunts stopped by this weekend and was nice enough to bring some over. Like Red Ribbon and Jolibee’s that came before it, Max’s is the newest restaurant transplant from the Philippines. I’ve had it over there, and well… chicken was scrawnier and saltier than what I’m used to back here. But that was the Philippines and chain food in general tasted off to me (except for Chow King).

Street Vendor Food: Halal Chicken

You can’t tell by this mess of a meal, but it’s chicken with rice, vegetables, and a salad. Doused with whatever sauces they usually add.

Messy. It was okay, nothing amazing. As you can see the salad was starting to brown; and unless it is a spinach salad, it shouldn’t be eaten warm. A whole lot of weirdness going on there.

TMC Lunch

The spring semester wrapped up this week for many schools, including RPI. Because I don't know if they'll be serving at the Union during the summer, I headed over Friday afternoon for a quick lunch. I arrived about twenty minutes before closing, and was relived they didn't run out of anything.

I ordered the daily sampler, which included pakoras, thai red chicken curry, chick pea and potato curry, vegetable stirfry and basmati rice. You can't tell in the picture, but the top was covered in pakora. M had quite a few of them before I started in. We used the green sauce, I think it's some creamy spicy parlsey... thing. Either way it was delicious and what didn't get eaten with the pakoras was mixed in with the chicken. It was creamy, spicy, and totally hit the spot. Unfortunately, it was a tad spicy.

And how did I deal with the heat? By eating some of TMC's homemade banana peanut butter chip ice cream. It wasn't bad- not too sweet, and there were little bits of banana along with the peanut butter chips. Sadly, it was not creamy as I had expected. It was full of crystals, which M says is due to their using water and not cream. M ended up eating the chocolate wafer cookie that came with the ice cream.

California Pizza Kitchen (Garden State Plaza - Paramus, NJ)

California Club Pizza. I didn't get a chance to try it (my classmates got to it before I could), but I heard it wasn't bad at all.

I did get some of the barbeque chicken pizza. Because I missed out on the California Club, I had quite a bit of this one. The downside to CPK is that their pizzas are tiny. I can eat one all by myself, and that wouldn't at all be piggish.

Chicken Marsala

I picked up some pots from Ikea and decided to grab some lunch. I went with their special instead of the usual meatballs. It seemed a little overcooked, but it was still tasty.

I want to say it's better for you than meatballs, but considering it's food from the food court of a home store... I have little hope.

Fried Chicken

Chicken thighs, skinned. Flour, salt, pepper. Twice fried. So darn good.

Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night

This is actually about last night, but the title still works.

Down here, Tuesday is wing night. The places of note are OD's in Nyack and Sutters Mill in Suffern. Yes, I know there is a Sutters up in Albany as well, and if memory serves me right... their wing night is on Wednesdays.

Sutters is always busy on Tuesday nights, and more often than not jam packed with high school kids (back in the day I used to do the exact same thing), so I try to avoid it as much as possible. OD's on the other hand, is fan-freakin-tastic. You get the old man bar vibe (which I am totally down with) and decent food to wash down your alcohol with. And they've got a cute cartoon beer mascot.

It's 15 cent wings all day Tuesday, and after 11PM on Fridays and Saturdays. They tend to get busy between 7-9, so be prepared to wait. Mags and I stopped by last night after 10, and the dining area had emptied out quite a bit. Our server took our drink orders while we took a look at the menu. I think after 10 they only serve from the front part of the menu, which is still quite a bit to choose from. Appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches... and of course their desserts.

Since it was already pretty late I just went with ten wings. Sauce on side, no blue cheese, carrots or celery. And a couple of beers to wash it down. Mags had five wings (sauce on), and a cheese quesadilla. Great way to end the night.

Beer Can Chicken: A Study In Mmmm

 

  

  

 

Calling Dr. Organa…

A friend of mine told me that he was feeling under the weather. What better to “cure what ails ya” than some homemade chicken noodle soup.