HO HO HO& Merry Christmas! This Cheap$kate Santa comes bearing GIFs not gifts, but you don't have to wait until the early morning of December 25th to open your pictorial presents!
'Tis the time of year where I set the table with a cornucopia of eye-popping delights for you to indulge in.
Have you been bad or good this year? Well, I'm not judgmental whether you've been a do-gooder or the naughty type, so read on.
While not a brightly wrapped package sitting under the Christmas tree waiting to be opened, you can watch my GIFs anytime. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just check out the animations below for an eyeful.
The letters, GIF, stands for Graphics Interchange Format and is a short video, graphic, or photo clip, that play in a loop, that is, it keeps repeating. There is usually no audio and the clips last for a few seconds each. You can read all about a GIF by clicking here.
I use GIFS to show a cooking technique; how a recipe looks as it bakes, fries or boils; the slicing or chopping of an ingredient; and sometimes I make them just for fun.
So keep on scrolling and feast your eyes on my 2017 roundup of GIFs past. And click on any recipe name to see the scrumptious recipe/review blog post.HappyHolidays!
Roast chicken and herbs belong together. If you have a herb window box or small herb garden then this recipe is for you. Even dried herbs will work quite well. My latest recipe video of Roast Chicken with Rosemary is the best of both worlds.
Rosemary is quite a pungent herb that is easy to grow. I have a large bush of it just outside my patio, and I offer clippings to my neighbors anytime they want some. Rosemary is a perennial so you an cook with the needles all year around. Just remove the needles from the stem and you are ready to start cooking. My recipe calls for about 2 tablespoons, but use as much, or as little, as you like.
Chicken is a tasty canvas that absorbs flavorful marinades and spices easily. I get whole chicken for less than a buck per pound so the price is right for this pullet fan.
My Roast Chicken with Rosemary can be adapted for any favorite chicken pieces you can get on sale - I like to cook with budget leg quarters and you can add rosemary to chicken breasts, too.
The only prep is loosening the chicken skin around the breast and legs. Wash your hands and slip your finger under the breast meat first, it's the easiest way to start. Slide a finger (or two) left to right. I have used a wood spoon. Metal utensils may tear the skin too easily. But if you tear the skin it's okay; don't worry about it as you will get better the more you do it.
Leg and thigh skin is a little trickier to work with. Just loosen as much as you can - rosemary is so pungent, it only takes a few needles to flavor the legs and thighs. If you have large sprigs of rosemary, and don't want to fool around with all the skin, just slide a branch or two under the breast and add some more to the chicken cavity (of course remove the large sprigs before serving.)
Everyone and their grandmother has a roasting method for chicken, and it mainly revolves around how to keep the breast moist. Some go for brining the bird in a salty solution, ultimately too salty for me - you can't rinse it all off. A roasting bag works pretty well, although the skin stays soggy. You can cover the breast with foil the first hour of baking - a pretty good method. If you have a cast iron skillet then heat it up and add the chicken - this will reduce the cooking time because the dark meat cooks a fast as breast meat (plus this reduces the overall cooking time, too.)
Pssst...here's my secret: roast the bird upside down! And turn it over after an hour, so the breast skin get crispy. But you can use any method you like. Mainly cook chicken at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes per pound. You want juices near the thigh bone to run clear - no red or pink juices. A final check is when an inserted meat thermometer reads 165 degrees.
Any way you cook it, my Roast Chicken with Rosemary will have everyone at the dinner table asking for seconds....and thirds!
Roast Chicken with Rosemary - Video
Play it here. Video runs 2 minutes, 11 seconds.
My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.
Ingredients (2-4 servings)
1 whole chicken - mine was 5 pounds.
2-3 sprigs of rosemary - Remove needle-like leaves from stem. Okay to use a tablespoon of dried rosemary.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Directions
Remove any chicken parts from the bird cavity. (You can salt and pepper the heart, gizzard, liver and neck and bake it with the whole chicken - neck takes 45 minutes to cook, but offal bits only take about half hour or less.)
Rinse off the bird. Use your finger(s) and gently separate the skin from the flesh. You don't have to totally loosen all the skin, just enough to get some rosemary needles on the breast, legs and thighs.
I loosen the skin around the breast tip (above the large chicken cavity) and wishbone/neck area. The skin may tear a little, but that's okay.
The leg and thigh is a little trickier to do. If you flip the bird on it's back you can work a finger into the thigh area. You only need to loosen some skin around the thick part of the leg.
Again don't to go overboard with the skin loosening. If you don't want to trouble yourself with all that, then just make 2 or 3 loose areas and slide in a whole sprig at a time. I would have 2 sprigs, one for each side of the breast and a half sprig for each thigh.
Bake the whole chicken at 350 degrees, for about 1 hour and 30 minutes, to 2 hours total. Baking time will vary depending on how big the chicken is. For my 5 pound bird I roasted it for an hour and a half. You can average 20 minutes baking at 350 degrees, per pound of chicken.
A whole chicken is ready when a meat thermometer inserted into the inner thigh (close to but not touching the thigh bone) reads at least 165 degrees F (74 degrees C.)
I usually just slice into the leg/thigh at the joint and look for clear juices. If the breast is done and the leg/thigh is not, first cover the breast in foil, then just slice the thigh to the joint (exposing the red part,) and let it bake a little longer, as you set the table. The leg/thigh may only need another 10 minutes more.
Hindsight
One way to get a moist chicken, without drying out the breast, is to bake it backside up, or breast-side down, to start. After an hour I turn the chicken over and finish baking breast-side up. Looks funny to start, but the breast meat ends up very juicy.
And the only trick is turning over a hot bird. You want to remove it from the oven first. I use two large spoons, one inserted into the neck and the other spoon inserted into the large cavity near the legs. Then pick up the bird and turn it over, breast-side up. Return it to the oven to finish browning the breast skin.
Another great way to roast the bird is the normal way (breast side is up), but on a hot cast iron skillet. Cast iron will hold heat and cook the dark meat quicker, about the same time it will take the breast to cook through. That's the beauty of this method - both dark meat and white meat are done at the same time. Plus you shave off 15 minutes of cooking time (it took an hour and fifteen minutes for mine.)
But you can cook your bird anyway you like.
This recipe works for chicken pieces like leg quarters or a whole breast. The cooking time is shorter, closer to an hour.
If you don't have rosemary, try out any fresh herb you can get. If I'm not familiar with an herb, add a little to a quick egg scramble to taste the cooked herb flavor.
Chicken, onions, herbs and red wine - what's not to love about Chicken Cacciatore. This one pot dish couldn't be easier to do, and you can make plenty of it, because it tastes even better the next day!
My recipe below will make 2-3 servings, but it's easy enough to just double the ingredients to feed more. And you can pair this dish with your favorite pasta.
I like to cook with wine, mainly white wine, but for a deeper wine flavor, red is the way to go. With slow simmering, the alcohol cooks away. And red wine goes especially well in a traditional Italian tomato and herb sauce.
I used a small airline bottle of red wine and it's just enough for my recipe. And I bet you know where I get my small bottles of wine....yep, the 99c only Store. Any red wine you can find cheaply will do.
I also get dried herbs there too. But if you have a herb garden then use fresh herbs. You can even use an Italian dried herb mix.
Chicken is cheap and I get mine at bargain basement prices from my local Latin market. Of course, you can use organic chicken if you can afford it.
So check back for more cheap$kate chicken recipes, and get going with this flavorful and easy to make Chicken Cacciatore.
Ingredients (2-3 servings) 1/2 chicken - or equivalent in chicken pieces. I used 2 leg quarters, that is, 2 thighs and 2 legs. You can leave on the bones and skin, or remove. I used boneless and skinless leg quarters on sale. 1 whole onion - medium size white or yellow, chopped. 14.5 ounce can of tomatoes - whole, chopped or crushed. The main thing is to have some tomato pieces in the sauce. You could use tomato sauce, just add a chopped whole tomato for some texture. 3/4 cup of red wine - I used a small airline bottle amount.Any type of red wine will do. 2-4 sage leaves - or 1/4 teaspoon dried 2-4 sprigs of parsley - or 1/4 teaspoon dried.
1 small sprig of rosemary - or 1/4 teaspoon dried. 1 bay leaf - fresh or dried. 1 tablespoon of cooking oil Salt and pepper to taste
Serve with pasta, rice or any favorite dry starch that can soak up the delicious Cacciatore sauce.
*It's okay to use an Italian dried herb mix instead of fresh herbs or individual jars of dried herbs - use about a teaspoon total.
Directions
Heat oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the chicken pieces and cook on the skin side until browned, about 5-10 minutes. Don't move chicken for a few minutes so the pieces brown. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper to taste.
The first few minutes all the liquid will come out, then it evaporates and starts to brown. You don't need to cook the chicken pieces all the way through. You will finish cooking the chicken when you add all the liquid ingredients.
Once one side of the chicken is browned, remove and set aside. It's okay to brown one side, this cuts down on cooking time and you will serve the chicken with the browned side showing anyway.
Add a chopped onion and saute and stir to scrape up the tasty brown bits. Cook onion until it softens, about 5 minutes.
Next pour in the red wine and 1 small can of tomatoes. Stir and break apart the tomatoes if they are whole.
Sprinkle on the herbs. Finally add the chicken pieces. It's okay to use a teaspoon of an Italian dried herb mix instead of fresh herbs or from single jars of dried herbs.
Cook uncovered for about half an hour at a low simmer. The sauce will reduce by half and the chicken should finish cooking all the way through. (Depending on your stove top burner, you can add a quarter cup of water at a time, if the liquid cooks away too fast.)
After the chicken has been cooking for 15 minutes, you can make pasta. Follow the package directions.
The pasta should be ready when the Chicken Cacciatore is ready. Remove the bay leaf. Add pasta to a plate and top with some of the chicken and flavorful tomato sauce. Dig in and enjoy.
(You can break up the chicken pieces when they are done, but it's okay to just serve it up, big pieces and all.)
I like cooking with herbs and use them any way I can. In the cheapest culinarians latest recipe, fresh rosemary provides a pungent kick of flavor to often bland Chicken Tenders.
It's a simple addition that makes all the difference. Just chop any fresh herb you have on hand and add it to dried bread crumbs -- you could even use dried herbs. If you are looking for a subtler taste then go for tamer chopped parsley -- the kids are less likely to push them to the edge of the plate. I've also tried these Herb Crusted Chicken Tenders with chopped sage and oregano.
I used chicken breast meat for this recipe, but you could use cheaper leg or thigh meat. (Even chicken wings or chicken livers would carry the coating nicely.) I often find bone-in whole chicken breast on sale for around a dollar per pound, and dark meat is even cheaper -- if you can breakdown a whole chicken, that's the cheapest way to go. White meat is easier to remove from the bone than dark meat -- but then, dark doesn't dry out as easily.
My local 99c only Store usually stocks cardboard cans of bread crumbs, sometimes even Japanese Panco crumbs. It's also easy to make your own, my recipe is here.
I fried half the herb coated Chicken Tenders in oil and baked the
other half in the oven. The flavor was almost identical, only the
appearance was different. Frying gave a more appetizing brown colored
crust, but baking is the less greasy way to go. I liked both versions.
Serve my Herb Crusted Chicken Tenders as party appetizers or the main entree.
Ingredients (1-2 servings)
1 whole chicken breast - remove skin, slice off the bone and cut into strips. Okay to use dark meat.
Handful of fresh herbs, or a tablespoon of dried herbs - I roughly chopped a dozen fresh rosemary sprigs from my patio garden. Okay to use any you have growing including: oregano, parsley, sage, etc.
1/2 cup flour - optional. Go from an egg wash to covering in breadcrumbs, if you want a lighter coating.
1/2 to 1 cup of bread crumbs - Add as needed. I used Panko bread crumbs, but you can use any cheap brand. Or make you own (click here for my recipe.)
1 egg - lightly beaten
2 tablespoons of oil for frying - may need to add more. You won't need as much oil if you bake the Chicken Tenders.
Salt and pepper to taste - which I mixed into the Panko crumbs.
Directions
Add 1/2 cup of flour to a shallow plate or bowl. Chop herbs and mix into another plate of bread crumbs. Season bread crumbs with salt and pepper. In a bowl lightly beat one whole egg.
Remove skin, from one chicken breast and slice the meat off the bone. Cut meat into strips. I got about 8 -10 strips from a whole chicken breast.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil over a medium heat. If you are baking the Chicken Tenders then heat up the oven to 375 degrees, and get out a baking sheet or tray with a rack.
Now time to coat and cook the Chicken Tenders. Coat the chicken strips in flour then dip them into the egg wash. Coat well with egg, then roll into the herb/bread crumb mixture. (Skip the flour coating if you want lighter tenders.)
You can start frying the coated chicken strips in batches. You just need to saute them until done - about 3-5 minutes on each side. Slice into one chicken strip to check before serving, to make sure juices run clear -- no red or pink liquid. Set aside tenders as they are done, you may need to add another tablespoon of oil for each batch you start. Saute until all the strips are done. Eat them while they are hot!
If you are baking them, then just line up the tenders on a lightly oiled pan, or tray with a rack. Cook at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes. You can turn them over after 20 minutes to lightly brown the other sides. The color will be lighter than when frying, but should taste the same. Again, slice into a tender to check for doneness, before serving.
