Chicken Avgolemono Soup

I’ve made avgolemono as a sauce, but it makes an excellent soup as well. 

Serves 2-3

• 1-2 lbs chicken legs
• garlic
• a sugar of sorts (white, maple, honey)
• balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper
• any kind of beer
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup rice
• 1 lemon

Marinate the chicken in a ziplock bag for a few hours: splash vinegar, mince garlic to taste, sprinkle/drizzle sugar (about 2 T), salt and pepper.

Boil and then simmer chicken broth reserve 1 cup. Add Rice for 20 minutes and turn off heat. 

While that is simmer, heat some oil in a pan on medium and add the chicken legs and its marinade. Pour some (about 1/2 cup) of beer over and cover.

Use a blender to beat the eggs and slowly add lemon juice and 1 cup of broth. Return to the broth and rice pot and simmer (DON’T boil).

When the chicken legs are finished, remove the meat and add to the soup and partake!

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Beginner’s Buttermilk Fried Chicken

(The real recipe calls for breaking down a whole chicken, which is not my forte, so I practiced the recipe on some easy breasts)

serves 2-3

• Chicken Brine (the key to the brine is the water/salt, and then adding aromatics you like.  This time I used 8 cups water, 1/2 cup kosher salt, 1/2 lemon, brown sugar, thyme, rosemary, peppercorns, several halved cloves of garlic, and a bay leaf)
• 3 large chicken breasts
• a lot of canola oil
• buttermilk
• flour, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, kosher salt, pepper

The night before, prepare the brine and let it cool.  The chicken will be in the brine for twelve hours, so be sure to put the breasts in at the appropriate time (e.g. 9PM if you get up before 9AM).  

12 hours later, remove breasts, rinse them and store in tupperware.  About an hour before frying, take them out of the fridge and bring them to room temp.  Slice into nugget chunks.

Heat up the oil on medium.  Set up three bowls. In two bowls, each gets 2/3 cup flour, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, kosher salt, pepper & one with buttermilk.  The proportions of the dry goods is up to you, I like more garlic powder and cayenne, less salt, but generally I stick to a couple of shakes into each flour bowl.

Lay out a large piece of parchment paper (or wax paper) near the bowls.  Using tongs, dip the chicken pieces into a dry bowl, and then the buttermilk (let the excess drip off) and then into the third dry bowl to coat and let it rest on the parchment.

If you have a kitchen thermometer the oil should be 340 degrees.  Slowly drop the coated chicken nuggets into the oil and let it fry up for about two minutes before stirring to make sure they are evenly frying.  If the coating is browning too fast, turn down the heat!  Fry until it is crispy golden brown and drain on a rack (if you are fancy) or on paper towels.  Tent under tin foil as you finish the second batch.  

Too hot equals:

(turn down the heat if they look like this after a few seconds!)

The secret ingredient is the brine, without the brine the chicken is NOTHING! ENJOY! 

Citrus Chicken

I ran out of the normal citruses and had a brick of cilantro so I came up with this recipe for 2.

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 grapefruit
• cayenne pepper
• s & p
• 1-2 cloves garlic diced
• 1/2 onion diced
• splashes of white wine vinegar
• a ton of cilantro
• butter & olive oil
• avocado 

I know this marinade looks ridiculous, and trust me it is ridiculous (good).

Squeeze 1/2 of grapefruit over trimmed chicken breasts and spritz in some white wine vinegar.  Shake in cayenne, salt and pepper over both sides of the chicken.  Throw in some diced onions and garlic and mix it all up.

Heat up some butter and olive oil on medium and throw in the chicken and marinade when it’s nice and hot.  When the onions/cilantro look at toasty, push them to the side of the pan while the chicken cooks through (but don’t over cook).

While they are frying up, slice up some avocado, squeeze some more grapefruit over it and salt it up. ET VOILA. summer deliciousness.