Braised Chicken Thighs - Death Row Meal

When I'm desperate to make something different other than the "same old - same old", I go on a massive internet search. Chicken thighs, I've used them in many different ways, one of my favorite is this Pollo Guisado , I used chicken breasts and thighs in this posted recipe. However I've often made it with only the thighs. In any event, I had chicken thighs and was looking for something different and simple to make with them. That's when I stumbled upon this fabulous website, Stella Culinary . I love it. We loved this recipe too.

Chef Jacob says "Chicken thighs are the most used muscle of the animal, making it full of all sorts of great flavor. You see, the more exercise an animal’s muscle gets, the more connective tissue and collagen it is able to build up. This makes the cut of meat tough if cooked incorrectly (read seared rare), but if cooked low and slow in a braising liquid, all that collagen and tissue breaks down into gastronomic heaven!" I couldn't agree more.

Chicken, mushrooms, blanched garlic, shallot, and balsamic vinegar.

Chicken broth and baby spinach.

Sear the chicken over a med-high heat in a heavy pan with the skin side down. Cook until crispy golden brown. Flip and repeat for the other side. Remove to a plate and reserve.

Add the mushrooms and  butter to the pan, stirring to deglaze and pick up the fond (crispy brown bits in bottom of pan) in the bottom. Season with a bit of sea or kosher salt when mushrooms are softened and pan is almost dry. Add balsamic vinegar. Cook, reducing balsamic vinegar by half. 

Once the balsamic vinegar has reduced by half, add in the blanched garlic. Stir the mushrooms, garlic and balsamic together. Cook another couple of minutes, stirring mushrroms, garllic and vinegar to incorporate. Add in enough chicken stock to cover the thighs by 3/4's of the way up, leaving only the skin exposed.

Braised Chicken Thighs
Adapted from Stella Culinary


Ingredients
8 Chicken Thighs (Bone in, skin on)
1 lb Button Mushrooms
8 Tblps (1 stick) Butter
1 cup Balsamic Vinegar
15 clv Garlic (Blanched)
2 cups Chicken Stock
1 bag Baby Spinach

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Sear the chicken over a med-high heat in a heavy pan with the skin side down. Cook until crispy golden brown. Flip and repeat for the other side. Remove to a plate and reserve.
Add the mushrooms and butter to the pan, stirring to deglaze and pick up the fond (crispy brown bits in bottom of pan) in the bottom. Season with a bit of sea or kosher salt when mushrooms are softened and pan is almost dry. Add balsamic vinegar. Cook, reducing balsamic vinegar by half.
Once the balsamic vinegar has reduced by half, add in the blanched garlic. Stir the mushrooms, garlic and balsamic together. Cook another couple of minutes, stirring mushrroms, garllic and vinegar to incorporate. Add in enough chicken stock to cover the thighs by 3/4's of the way up, leaving only the skin exposed.

Bring this back to a simmer and then place into the oven for 45 minutes to an hour.When the thighs are cooked (165 degrees internal temp on meat thermometer) remove from oven and place thighs on a plate and cover to keep warm. Place pan back on the stove over med-high heat and reduce the braising liquid until it coats the back of a spoon. Add in the spinach and cook just to wilt it. Serve this sauce over the chicken, accompanied by some brown or white rice or even a short pasta.
Serves 4

I'm linking this up with:
Recipes I Can't Wait to Try with At Home With Haley
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace
Tasty Traditions at Coupon Cookin
It's a Blog Party at Delicious Dishes
I'm Lovin It Fridays with Tidy Mom
Follow Me Home Friday with A Moderate Life
Frugal Friday with Life as Mom
Foodie Friday with Designs by Gollum
Friday Potluck with EKats Kitchen
Food Trip Friday with Happy Meals
What's on Your Plate with Good Cheap Eats
Fat Camp Friday at Mangoes and Chutney
Rcipe Swap Thusday with Prairie Story
Froday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home
GCC Recipe Swap at Grocery Cart Challenge
Friday's Favorites at Whistlestop Cafe

We hope you'll give this a try. You'll be surprised that such few ingredients can turn out such a succulent meal. Also stop by Stella Culinary and poke around. I'm sure you'll put them in your favorites as I did.

Carla and Michael

Quick and Easy Keilbasa Pasta Bake

I have always had a love affair with polska keilbasa, bratwurst, or really any kind of specialty sausages, aside from your basic breakfast sausage. However my recipes for these seem to be stagnant. I find I am always using the same old recipes for them. Polska Keilbasa for instance is always a Roasted Rosemary and Keilbasa Casserole. I had always smelled it or been invited to dinner when my Aunt Mary made it. So once I got married eons ago, it became a quickie go to recipe in those early days, and I never knew what else to make with it. That is until I started searching and found this recipe for Polish Noodle Casserole from the go meat website aka Hillshire Farm.
So, do you have a favorite recipe using a special (polska keilbasa, bratwurst, chorizo, liguisa, etc...) kind of sausage? If you do, why not send it to me and if I try it and like it, I'll post it with a link back to your site. I'm desperate here people!

Eight simple ingredients. So simple yet so satisfying. This one's a keeper.

A quick, easy, and inexpensive meal.



Polish Noodle Casserole
Slightly Adapted from Hillshire Farm
Ingredients

1 pkg. Polska Kielbasa
2 cups sour cream
½ cup chicken broth
¼ cup chopped onion
½ teaspoon dry mustard (Coleman's-little yellow tin)
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
8 ounces uncooked egg noodles, cooked according to package directions
2 cups frozen baby peas, thawed
½ cup (2 ounces) grated Parmesan cheese


Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut sausage into ¼” slices; set aside. In large bowl, combine sour cream, chicken broth, onion, ground mustard, salt and pepper, mixing until smooth.

Fold in sausage, cooked noodles and baby peas. Pour mixture into a greased 13x9-inch baking dish. Cover and bake 25 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with cheese and bake 5-10 minutes longer or until heated through.
Makes 6 Servings


If your stuck for something other than Roasted Rosemary Potatoes and Keilbasa, give this a try. It won't disapoint. Quick and easy comfort on a plate.

This was the post I was trying to get finished on Thurday when Blogger decided to go down for maintenance for hours. So I gave up. Then on Friday I was out all day. So it is finally done two days later. Thanks Blogger, hope you don't make a habit of it.

I'm linking this to:
Recipes I Can't Wait to Try with At Home With Haley
Delicious Dishes at It's a Blog Party
I'm Lovin it Fridays at Tidy Mom
Follow me Friday at A Moderate Life
Frugal Friday at Life as Mom
Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum
Friday Potluck at EKats Kitchen
Fat Camp Friday at Mangoes and Chutney
Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helen's Country Cottage
Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home
Saturday Swap atQuit Eating Out
Food Trip Friday from Happy Meals for a Happy Family










 
 

Carla and Michael

Mexican Pulled Pork - Carnitas

I love America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country on PBS. It usually airs on the week-ends and I always check to see if they're running an episode that I might have missed over the years. I have only cooked one of their recipes that we did not find favorable. However these Carnitas were a complete hit. We absolutely loved everything about them. They came out perfect and were quite easy to cook. No dragging out the deep fryer either.

Braised

Then crisped in the oven


Mexican Pulled Pork - Carnitas
Courtesy Ameica's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

Pork

1 (3 1/2-to 4-pound) boneless pork butt , fat cap trimmed to 1/8 inch thick, cut into 2-inch chunks
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 small onion , peeled and halved
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons juice from 1 lime
2 cups water
1 medium orange , halved

Tortillas and Garnishes
18 (6-inch) corn tortillas , warmed
Lime wedges
Minced white or red onion
Fresh cilantro leaves
Thinly sliced radishes
Sour cream
 
 
 
Directions
Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Combine pork, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, cumin, onion, bay leaves, oregano, lime juice, and water in large Dutch oven (liquid should just barely cover meat). Juice orange into medium bowl and remove any seeds (you should have about 1/3 cup juice). Add juice and spent orange halves to pot. Bring mixture to simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Cover pot and transfer to oven; cook until meat is soft and falls apart when prodded with fork, about 2 hours, flipping pieces of meat once during cooking.

Remove pot from oven and turn oven to broil. Using slotted spoon, transfer pork to bowl; remove orange halves, onion, and bay leaves from cooking liquid and discard (do not skim fat from liquid). Place pot over high heat (use caution, as handles will be very hot) and simmer liquid, stirring frequently, until thick and syrupy (heatsafe spatula should leave wide trail when dragged through glaze), 8 to 12 minutes. You should have about 1 cup reduced liquid.

Using 2 forks, pull each piece of pork in half. Fold in reduced liquid; season with salt and pepper to taste. Spread pork in even layer on wire rack set inside rimmed baking sheet or on broiler pan (meat should cover almost entire surface of rack or broiler pan). Place baking sheet on lower-middle rack and broil until top of meat is well browned (but not charred) and edges are slightly crisp, 5 to 8 minutes. Using wide metal spatula, flip pieces of meat and continue to broil until top is well browned and edges are slightly crisp, 5 to 8 minutes longer. Serve immediately with warm tortillas and garnishes.
Serves 6

Beautiful garnishes of monterey jack cheese, sour cream, crisp red onions, cilantro, diced avocado, and lime wedges.


I want to apologize to those of you that have dropped in to visit and found I have been idle for a month now. I have been in excruciating pain for 2 of the last 4 weeks with a pulled back muscle. Which kept me on and off of a heating pad and off of the computer desk. The pain is finally starting to go away, though I am being very careful not to re-injure it. So I will be back on here with a little more regularity.

                  Happy Mother's Day to All of you Wonderful Mom's out there.

I'm linking this up with:

Delicious Dishes with It's a Blog Party

Foodie Friday with Designs by Gollum

Fat Camp Fridays with Mangoes and Chutney

Saturday Swap with Quit Eating Out

GCC Recipe Swap with Grocery Cart Challenge

Friday's Favorites with WhistleStop Cafe Cooking

Friday Favorites with Simply Sweet Home
This Week's Cravings with Moms Crazy Cooking

 

Carla and Michael