Broccoli-Chicken Casserole Served Three Ways

I was indulging in one of my favorite pastimes the other day, channel surfing food programs, when Chopped came on.  Just so you know, I wasn't always a Chopped fan.  It's not that it took a while for me to appreciate the difficulty in cooking under pressure with weird ingredients, it's just that Diner's Drive-in's and Dive's always took precedent.  Let's face it, greasy diners serving brisket and juicy burgers versus watching the contestant's expression of horror when they open up their baskets and find Mashed Potato Candy?  For what it's worth, burgers ALWAYS takes precedent, no matter what.  But I did come to appreciate the absurdity and hilarity (dare I say skill) in preparing a dessert with peanut brittle, marsala wine, wonton wrappers, and durian.  Durian?  Ever get a whiff of that?  Or what about an appetizer with canned haggis, smoked gouda, celery, and prunes.  Canned haggis?  How rude!!  No one cooks with canned haggis when the real stuff is available.

Recently, on one particular episode, the entree basket contained chicken breast, blue corn tortillas, Tuscan kale, and sea urchin.  Not too crazy and I was curious about the blue corn tortillas.  You all know about my fascination with Mexican food.  And so I watched as two of the chefs prepared blue corn tortilla crusted chicken breast.  I thought if two of the three chefs were using the ingredients for the same thing, there must be something to it.

First they baked the tortillas to harden them.  Then they crushed them into Panko sized crumbs. The chicken breasts were then coated with a seasoned flour mix followed by an egg wash and then coated with the blue corn tortilla crumbs.  Looked terrific.  So I thought I'd try it.

And it was a disaster.  Even my wife, who eats EVERYTHING I cook told me, "No thanks" when I suggested we heat up the blue chicken leftovers the next day.  I realized right then and there that I wasn't going to blog THAT dish.  Regardless of what some think, I am a bit discerning when it comes to blogging for you!!

Anyway, now what to do with the four leftover blue chicken breasts.  To be honest, I didn't even want to eat them. So they just sat in the refrigerator.

Until tonight...

By now you all should know about my wife's insistence on me using organic, free range, and humanely treated animals when I cook.  What I haven't mentioned is my kids' insistence on eating healthy.  When we are all together, ice cream is rarely on the dessert menu. It's usually non-fat frozen yogurt which to be fair, can be very tasty.  And to their credit, they don't just talk the talk - they walk the walk as well by doing bikram yoga, daily gym work outs, marathon running, rock climbing, etc.   I can sometimes get my son to eat hot dogs with me at baseball games.  And they'll all spare me no expense when ordering the most expensive steak at a fancy restaurant.  But for the most part, everyone in my family (except me) enjoys a healthy active lifestyle.  Check out step-daughter #2's blog for more info:  http://livingforit.blogspot.com.

So what to cook tonight...

I scour the refrigerator and see the aforementioned chicken. But aha! I also see broccoli, onions, mushrooms, yogurt, cheese...I got it!!  I'll cook a broccoli-chicken casserole and make it "almost healthy".   The "almost" comes into play with the, yes, you guessed it, cheese.  I love cheese.   My sister-in-law once told my wife that you can smother ANYTHING (including dog poop) with cheese and it will taste good.  I have two large golden retrievers and considering the size of their poops, I doubt any amount of cheese would help that stench.  But there is a lot of truth in cheese making food taste great.

So, broccoli-chicken casserole it is!!  I'll use yogurt as a filling.  That'll be the "healthy" part. I will also use cheese which will downgrade the casserole to "almost-healthy" but it should kick up the taste a notch or two. On the way, I'll also discuss an intermediate version, "mostly-healthy". There will be something for everyone today.

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs butter
• 1 lb sliced mushrooms
• 3 tbs all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups fat-free milk
• 2 cups cooked, boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into cubes
• 16-oz broccoli florets (pre-packaed is ok, frozen is not)
• 1 6-oz container Greek non-fat plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup light mayonnaise
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 - 1/4 tsp pepper
• Up to 1 cup shredded cheese (optional)
• 1/4 cup Panko crumbs (optional)

This is a really simple dish to make. You can, if you choose, make it even easier to prepare by using pre-packaged sliced mushrooms and broccoli florets. That would be the "lazy" person's version. Or you can buy all fresh veggies and prep them yourself. I mentioned there are three versions of this casserole; healthy, mostly-healthy, and almost healthy. You can make the casserole   "healthy" by simply omitting the cheese. It can be made "mostly-healthy" by using 1/4 cup of cheese inside the casserole. Lastly, you can make it "almost-healthy" by using the cheese inside AND on top as a delicious layer of bubbly goodness.  Sorry kids, but you know which direction I'm taking. When dining at chez Mark, you will always get the "almost healthy" version of everything including broccoli-chicken casserole. 

And away we go....

• Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease a 2-qt. casserole dish - you can use cooking spray ("healthy") or butter ("almost healthy").
• Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
• Add chopped onions and sliced mushrooms to the skillet and cook until tender - about 10 minutes.  I used red onions but feel free to substitute white or sweet.

• Add 3 tbs of flour and stir constantly for 2 minutes to incorporate the flour into the veggies.

• Stir in milk, salt, and pepper, bring to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes or until the mixture has thickened and is bubbly.

• Add the chicken to the mixture and stir for 2 minutes.

• Add the broccoli to the mixture and fold in.

• Lower the heat to medium.
• Add yogurt and mayonnaise to the mixture and stir gently in order to maintain consistency and wholeness of broccoli florets and chicken chunks.

• Adjust seasoning at this point by tasting and adding more salt and/or pepper.  Obviously you can add other seasonings as well such as onion powder or garlic powder.
• If you are preparing "healthy" broccoli-chicken casserole, then transfer the mixture to a greased 2-qt casserole.  If you are preparing "mostly-healthy" broccoli-chicken casserole, then sprinkle 1/4 cup of cheese into the mixture and stir until the cheese is incorporated before transferring to the casserole dish.  If you are preparing "almost-healthy" broccoli-chicken casserole, sprinkle 1/2 cup of cheese into the mixture and stir to incorporate before transferring to the casserole dish.   Once in the casserole dish, sprinkle an additional 1/2 cup of cheese on top ("almost-healthy") followed by the Panko crumbs.  Here's my "almost-healthy" casserole.

• Now place in oven and cook until bubbly - 25 - 40 minutes depending on whether you are "healthy" or "mostly-healthy" or "almost-healthy".

I like to garnish my servings with salsa and/or Sriracha sauce.  Just seems to add that right amount of tanginess and heat that I like.  Your mileage may vary!

ENJOY!

Tomatillo Chicken Soup

I went to school in San Diego at SDSU and for part of my first semester,  I lived in the dorm called "Zura Hall".  Most of us at "Zura" ate on meal plans that our parents purchased.  These plans provided unlimited access to "the commons" during the week which was an all-you-can-eat cafeteria with decent food like burgers, dogs, cold and hot cereal, eggs, salads, and assorted hot meals.  But it didn't quite matter where or what we ate, only that we ATE!  I mean really, I was living in San Diego with kindred spirits, unsupervised, and with limited responsibilities.  What more could I have asked for?  When I wanted something different, I crossed the street and ate at Blimpies or Jack-In-The-Box.

Now you may be asking why I was only at the dorm for part of the first semester.   The reasons are complicated but let's just say it was due to an involuntarily separation that involved me, my roommate, a towel shoved under the door preventing certain smells from drifting into the hallway,  and a particularly obnoxious resident assistant.  Moving off campus was just another rite of passage for us.  We settled a few miles away in a two-bedroom apartment in La Mesa for the remainder of the first semester and all of the second semester.  The good thing about "being asked to leave the dorm" was that all our friends from the dorm now had a place to come visit without any resident assistant hinderance.  The bad thing was that we were forced to start cooking for ourselves.  Neither the commons nor the grocery store were nearby.  Fortunately, my roommate had a car and we were able to do our own shopping when he wasn't out galavanting with his girlfriend.  Yet even with this down side, there I was, living in San Diego with kindred spirits, unsupervised with limited responsibilities.  Feed me anything, I'm good.

Don't let me misrepresent.  We weren't morally starved for good food.  We just didn't care.  We did dine five time that first year at nice restaurants.  Both sets of our parents came to visit and always took us out for nice dinners.   Also, I won a free dinner at a restaurant once for winning a talent show on an open mic night.  But truth be told, I stacked the deck by bringing most of my kindred spirits with me to clap.

The decision to move to the beach in our second year at SDSU was an easy one.  I mean seriously.  Beach of Inland?  No brainer, eh?  So we moved to Mission Beach.  That's when food started playing a bigger role for me.  We grilled burgers and butter fish on hibachi BBQs, cooked spaghetti and chili in crock pots, roasted chickens, and dress up tuna fish sandwiches.  And man, could we dress them up.   My roommate taught me how to add hard boiled eggs, scallions, and whatever else was in our refrigerator to a can of tuna.  More importantly, I learned about street Mexican food back then.

I learned that there were two types of Mexican food for college students in San Diego.  The first was in Mexico - the Tijuana (TJ) street vendor tacos.  We spent many weekends drinking cheap beer in Tijuana at the Long Bar.  By the end of the night, we found ourselves walking back to the US border.  This was always an important walk since it allowed us to sober up a bit and gave us a change to scarf on tacos sold on carts in the streets of TJ.   For $1.25, you could get three tacos.  They weren't big but they were OUTRAGEOUSLY good.  Ok, we were drunk but they were still great.  Three small tacos were never enough but we usually spent our dinero's on beer at the Long Bar keeping just $1.25 tucked away for street tacos.  That was the extent of weekend budgeting!

The other type of Mexican food in San Diego for us money challenged college students was fast food.  But not the Taco Bell or Super Taqueria you find on today's streets.  We had Roberto's and Umberto's and a host of other places with first names.  They were one-offs, not chains that sold amazing tacos and burritos.  I was into the rolled tacos (taquitos).   Yummy shredded beef rolled inside a corn tortilla about the diameter of a corona cigar.  They were deep fried, smothered in guacamole and topped with shredded Mexican cheese.  Three to an order.  They were a bit more than $1.25 but well worth it.  Oh man, I can taste 'em now.

In my years going to school and living in San Diego, I moved from Mission Beach to Pacific Beach to Point Loma to Ocean Beach and back to South Mission Beach tasting Mexican food every where I went.  One day I realized I had to grow up (another involuntary experience) and get a real job so I moved up to the Bay Area and lost that relationship with first-name Mexican joints.   And so I started cooking tacos and burritos myself.

Over the years, I've learned to cook many Mexican dishes.  I am particularly proud of my Tomatillo soup.  My family raves about it and I hope you will too.

Here's what you'll need:

• 2-3 Chicken Breasts
• 1 LB Tomatillos
• 1 Onion
• 3 Garlic cloves
• 2 Jalapeno Peppers
• 2 TBS Olive Oil
• 3 Cups Chicken broth
• Salt and Pepper
• Chopped Cilantro
• OPTIONAL:  Cayenne pepper
• OPTIONAL: 2 Limes

There are four basic steps to this step that involve preparing the tomatillos, preparing the chicken breast, preparing the veggies, and finally putting it all together.

Prep and Broil Tomatillos

• Set an oven rack about 7 inches from the heat and pre-heat on "Broil" setting
• Peel off the husks of the tomatillos and rinse well with cold water.  I use large tomatillos to minimize the number I have to peel.  Below is what tomatillos look like with skins and without skins all cleaned up.

• Cut the tomatillos in half and place them on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil and sprayed with PAM

• Place them under the broiler to char the skins.  It should take 7-9 minutes.  When they look like this, take them out.  They can sit on the aluminum foil until you need them.

Prep and Saute Chicken Breast

• Season both chicken breast sides with salt and pepper.

• Heat 2 TBS of olive oil in a sauce pan large enough to hold your chicken breasts. Saute for 5 minutes per side.  The oil needs to be hot in order to brown the sides.

• Remove the chicken to a plate and adjust the fat in the sauce pan if needed in order to saute the veggies.

Prep and Saute Veggies

• Chop the onion and garlic
• Remove jalapeño pepper seeds and veins and chop.  You can leave them in if you like it spicy.

• Add the veggies to the sauce pan with the chicken juices and olive oil.  Sauté for 10 minutes until softened and all the brown bits of the chicken are incorporated into the veggies.
• Add the chicken broth and tomatillos. 

Putting It All Together

• Nestle the chicken breasts in the sauce pan and simmer for 15 minutes until chicken is done but tender.  

• Once the chicken is done, remove the breasts to a plate to let them cool down a bit. 
• Remove the veggies and chicken broth from the heat and let cool for about 10 minutes.
• When the veggies are cool, use a blender to coarsely chop them.  Depending on the size of your blender, this step will probably be done is stages.  Pour each blended mixture into another sauce pan over a medium heat.
• By the time your blending is complete and the liquid is back into a pan, the chicken will be cool enough to touch.  Shred or chop into 1/2 inch cubes and place the pieces back in the pan.

• Taste and adjust with salt and pepper.  If it's not spicy enough, you can add some cayenne pepper.  It if is not tangy enough, you can add lime juice.  Finally, garnish with fresh cilantro, open a beer, and enjoy!!

Crispy Skinned Chicken Breast

To complete a task successfully is to "nail it!"   We've all nailed it and not nailed it before.  To nail it or not nail it is sometimes intuitive and other times just plain obvious.  For example, back in the day, I used to compete in gymnastics.  My events were rings, parallel bars, and high bar.  In all three events, if I landed up-right, arms to my side, and in perfect balance on a dismount, I KNEW immediately that I nailed it.  Once I attempted a single fly-away dismount off the high bar.  I got the speed on the giant but let go of the bar too late resulting in a one and a half flip.  This landed me in a sitting position on the gym floor matt,  supported by both hands in back of me.  CRACK!!  I knew immediately I didn't nail it (unless you consider two shattered wrists and an entire summer in casts as nailing it).

So last night I tried a new recipe from America's Test Kitchen - Crispy Skinned Chicken Breast.  As I sat down with my wife to eat, I knew IMMEDIATELY that I nailed it.  How did I know?  First of all, three minutes into dinner, my wife was half-way through her portion.  Secondly, the skins were crispy.  I mean, Crispy with a capital "C."  You could almost hear the skins snap with each bite.  Even after adding pan sauce on top of the skin,  they were still crispy.  Third, the meat was tender and juicy.  I didn't sacrifice the inside for the outside.  Fourth, the sauce, which I rarely make, was fragrant, velvety, and had just the right amount of tanginess.  That, my readers, is what I call landing up-right, arms by my side, and in perfect balance.  I NAILED IT!!

You too can nail it with the following ingredients:

• 2 boneless, chicken breasts with skin
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tbs vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
• 1 minced shallot
• 1 tsp flour
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1/4 cup chopped pickled cherry peppers (I used the sweet variety)
• 1/4 cup brine from the pickled cherry peppers
• 1 tbs butter (I used unsalted)
• 1 tsp minced fresh thyme
• 1 12 inch sauce pan
• 1 6 quart dutch oven lid (or other heavy object that will sit inside of sauce pan)

There are 2 tricks to this recipe.  The first is in the preparation of the chicken and the second is the use of a heavy object when cooking the chicken.  As you are about to see, neither requires brain surgery.

Preparing the chicken

Use a sharp knife and poke the skin of each breast.  The original America's Test Kitchen recipe calls for 30-40 pokes.  That's a lot of pokin'.  I stabbed 'em maybe 15 times on the skin side, flipped 'em over and pierced 'em again another 10 times.  Here's what mine looked like after all that defiling.

Once both sides were tortured with a sharp object,  I covered them with parchment paper and proceeded to pound them each 1/2 inch flat with a blunt force object.  I redeemed myself by lovingly sprinkling each breast with 1/2 tsp of salt, covering them with plastic wrap, and placing them in the refrigerator.  Keep 'em this way for between 1 to 8 hours.  The longer you keep them chilled, the more likely they will forget your indiscretions.

Cooking the chicken

• Take the chicken out of the refrigerator and pat dry.
• Sprinkle both sides of each breast with 1/4 tsp of pepper.
• Ready for the first trick?  Place the vegetable oil in a 12 inch sauce pan or skillet and swirl until the entire surface is covered with an even amount of oil.  Note that the skillet, at this point, should not be hot.
• Place the breasts skin side down in the oil.

• Now, place the skillet over medium heat.
• Place a heavy object on top of the chicken breasts.  I used the top of my 6 qt dutch oven.  I've heard others use a brick wrapped in foil.  The object just needs to be heavy enough to exert pressure on the breasts.

• The oil will slowly heat up under the breasts and you may hear "popping" as the skin starts to crackle.
• Cook the breasts for 7-9 minutes this way.  The skin will start to brown and the edges of the breasts will turn opaque.
• Remove the weight and continue to cook skin side down for another 6-8 minutes.

• Flip the breast, turn the heat down to medium-low, and cook meat side down for another 2-3 minutes.
• You should now see your masterpiece taking shape as the skin will have turned brown and crispy.  You will be tempted to touch to confirm its crispness but take my word for it, from experience,  the chicken is hot and will burn your little cuticles if you touch.  In other words, NO TOUCHY!!

• Remove both breasts from the pan to a separate plate, skin side up so you can still see your masterpiece.  The internal temperature should be between 160 and 165.  You can check if you don't believe me.  Limited touching is ok now :)

Pan sauce anyone?

If you've been following my blogs, good on you mates, thanks a lot.  But more to the point, you should know how easy it is to make a simple pan sauce.  We're going to do that again now.

• Pour out all but about 2 tsp of oil from the sauce pan.
• Turn the heat back up to medium.
• Time to alchemize the party by adding in the the minced shallot and stirring for about 2 minutes until softened.

• Thickening the mixture will provide further transformation and so we add flour and stir for up to a minute until the fully incorporated.

• Continue the party by heating up to medium-high and adding the broth and brine.
• With the liquid and the heat up, the party is cooking and your sauce should be simmering.  You can stir to scrape up those delicious brown bits on the bottom of the pan left by the chicken.
• After 3 minutes or so, the party should be in full swing with the liquid thickened up a bit.  The stage is now all set to knock it out of the park.

• Remove the pan from the heat, whisk in the butter, thyme, and chopped cherry peppers.

• Taste with a spoon and add salt and pepper accordingly.

This sauce can be added on top of the chicken or you may want to plate the sauce first as a bed of gravy and add the chicken on top.   I ladled the nectar over half of each breasts and let it run down the sides.

NAILED IT!!