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05 Jul 2010 Pickle Fried Chicken
Author:  |  Category: Appetizers, Poultry  | Tags: , , , ,  | Leave a Comment

Pickle Fried Chicken! Was it something I dreamed? I couldn’t find the recipe that I thought I had seen  ANYWHERE! I searched all of the food magazines I’d bought recently, and not so recently, and all of the none food magazines, too. I searched the Internet. I looked in my files. There’s not a recipe for Pickle Fried Chicken anywhere… A memory is a terrible thing to waste. Luckily though, I DID remember part of the recipe I thought I’d read: brine the chicken in “pickle juice until it turns a bit green… Stay with me here…!” I remember that part word-for-word!* So that’s what I did. I brined chicken tenders in pickle juice for 30 minutes. For the battering and frying part I used a technique I had used before. Success! Pickle fried chicken! Tasty, as I knew it would be. Next time, I think I will make Poppers…, Pickle Fried Poppers! I’ll cut the tenders into thirds and proceed as below, but probably cooking the chicken for a little less time. It’s time for the Olympics. These would be great as part of a TV dinner. BTW…, while you’re making these and waiting for the Olympics coverage to air, watch “Cool Runnings”. What a great way to spend a Saturday!

PS. My elder daughter wants to try these in a sandwich…, ciabatta, Thousand Island dressing, lettuce, Pickle Fried chicken, and a few pickles…, YUM!

Polly’s Pickle Fried Chicken

1 lb. chicken tenders (8 or 9)
about 1 cup pickle juice (drained from a jar of pickles)
1 cup flour (divided use)
1/2 cup buttermilk
salt and pepper, to taste
Oil for frying

Brine the chicken tenders in the pickle juice for approximately two hours. Put ½ cup flour in shallow bow (like a pie plate), ½ cup buttermilk in another shallow bowl, ½ cup flour in third shallow bowl. Set a wire rack next to the third bowl. Sprinkle a pinch of salt (yes, the chicken does need a bit more salt) and pepper into both bowls of flour, and stir. In assembly line fashion, take each tender from the pickle juice, dredge in first bowl of flour, carefully dip and cover in buttermilk, then dredge in flour in the next bowl and then place on wire rack to dry for about 30 minutes.

Heat oil to 350 degrees. Add 2 or 3 pieces of chicken and cook for about 5 minutes.

You might need to test one. Don’t overcook the chicken. Drain cooked chicken on a rack or on paper towel. Serve warm. One of my daughters wanted Ranch Dressing on the side. I just wanted a bit more salt (Maldon’s Sea Salt, of course).

*Found the source! This recipe was inspired by “Andy’s Pickle Fried Chicken”, page 113 in the magazine Mixing Bowl 2010 (a Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publication).

Olympics here I come! And if you stop by…, I’ll have some Pickle Fried Poppers and Nanaimo Bars to share with you 🙂

15 Jun 2010 Smoked Chicken Almond Sandwiches
Author:  |  Category: Poultry, Sandwiches  | Tags: , ,  | 6 Comments

My daughter, Abby, loves this sandwich. She longs for it. Dreams of it. She gets really excited and happy when I make it. I love that about her! Now I am putting it in her cookbook so she can make it for herself in her apartment.

The sandwich is has bold, hearty flavors from chopped smokehouse almonds. I use really good bread from a really good bakery for this sandwich. Don’t marry a from scratch, great quality filling to some cheap, tasteless bread. I suppose you could dress this sandwich up a bit with crisp lettuce and sliced tomatoes, which would probably be delicious, but we’ve never had time. Once we have the filling made, we want to eat a sandwich!

This recipe includes instructions for poaching the chicken, but if you have already cooked chicken, use that. If I am BBQ-ing chicken I always make extra to use in this recipe. The BBQ-ed flavor in the chicken makes the sandwich even better.

The original recipe came from Epicurious.com, but I fixed it! The Epicurious.com recipe is for tea sandwiches, cut with a circle cutter, and then rolled in chopped almonds. NAH! Too fussy. Enjoy it my way!

Smoked Chicken Almond Sandwiches

3 cups chicken broth or water plus 1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken breasts

OR 2 cups chopped cooked chicken (BBQ-ed is especially good)

1/2 cup mayonnaise (original recipe called for 1 cup, but I thought that was too much. Add more mayo if you’d like…)
1/3 cup minced shallot (if you don’t have a shallot use minced green onion OR minced red onion soaked in ice water for 10 minutes and drained before adding to the chicken mixture)
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
salt and pepper, to taste (and you will need some)
1/2 cup finely chopped smokehouse almonds (about half of a 6 oz can–chop the nuts, then measure 1/2 cup)

If you need to cook the chicken, in a large skillet bring the water or the chicken broth to a boil. Add the chicken breasts in one layer. Reduce heat and poach chicken at a mere simmer for about 7 minutes. Turn the chicken over halfway through the cooking time. Remove pan from heat and let chicken cool in the broth for 20 minutes. Drain the chicken from the stock. (SAVE the stock-refrigerate or freeze it-to use in another recipe). Discard any skin, and dice the chicken.

In a medium bowl stir together the cooled and diced chicken, mayonnaise, shallot OR onion, tarragon, and diced almonds. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread onto that good bread you just picked up from the bakery. Leftover filling can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for about 3 days.

Makes four to six sandwiches (depending on the size of the bread and how much filling you put in each).

05 Feb 2010 Shredded Beef Sandwiches
Author:  |  Category: Crockpot, Main Dish, Red Meat, Sandwiches  | Tags: , ,  | Leave a Comment

Here’s one more recipe suggestion, tried and true and oh so easy, for a Super Bowl party. On your way home tonight (game day minus two) pick up a 3-4 lb. beef roast, any kind–bottom round or rump are fine–just get whatever is on sale. Tonight, put the roast in a crockpot with 1/2 cup of water (and nothing else) then mix up the sauce and refrigerate. Tomorrow morning (game day minus one), shred the beef, mix with the sauce, and refrigerate the whole thing overnight to blend the flavors. Game Day, reheat meat and sauce in crockpot for 3-4 hours. Put the crockpot on the coffee table with some tongs, hamburger buns (or the smaller dinner rolls) and desired toppings (if any) of pickles, raw or sauteed onions, sliced tomatoes, and mayonnaise (I like mine “straight up”, no garnishes!). Fans can make their own BBQ Beef Sandwiches whenever they feel the urge.

Shredded BBQ Beef Sandwiches

For Beef
3-4 lb. beef roast, any kind, bottom round or rump work well (Last time, because it was on sale,  I used a tri-tip roast)
1/2 cup water (I suspect beer can be substituted, but I haven’t tested this)

For Sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tsp. chili powder
1 1/2 T. Worcestershire Sauce
2 T. vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1 T. brown sugar
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 medium onion, finely chopped, and sauteed
1/2 cup water

Place the roast in a crockpot with 1/2 cup water. Cover and cook on low for approx. 10 hours. In another bowl combine all the sauce ingredients and refrigerate overnight. Go to bed. When you get up, remove the meat from the crockpot and shred with a fork, discard any chunks of fat. Combine shredded beef with the sauce. Stir well. Refrigerate meat/sauce mixture, covered, for 24 hours or so. Return shredded meat to crockpot and cook for 3-4 hours on low. Serve on rolls* with sliced pickles, sliced tomatoes and mayonnaise (if desired). Makes approx 16 sandwiches.

*I found mini-hamburger buns at Trader Joe’s.  $1.20 for a package of 8…, but at that price, you can buy regular hamburger buns and use a circle cutter to cut them down to the size you want! (The buns were plain, and a bit dry and firm, not nearly special enough to make them worth an extra trip to TJ’s, but not bad enough to avoid either!)

Thanks for visiting!

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