Rustic Braised Chicken with Mushrooms (PCP)

• 6 slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
• 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/4 pounds cremini mushrooms, trimmed and halved if small or quartered if large
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 ounce dried porcini, rinsed and minced [Typically, dried mushrooms are rehydrated in hot water, but I guess that's unnecessary with a pressure cooker.]
• 4 (12-ounce) bone-in split chicken breasts trimmed [Argh, I wish they had also said to leave the skin on.]
• Salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 1/2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley.

Mise en place.

I was debating whether or not to do actually do this blog entry since apparently I kept forgetting to take photos at the end, but here we go.

Browning the bacon.

Pour off all but one tablespoon of the bacon fat and soften the onions in that.

Stir in tomato paste,  garlic, thyme, and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant.

And then I decide to keep forgetting to photograph anything else that night:
Deglaze with wine.  Stir in broth, mushrooms and tomatoes.  Season chicken with salt and pepper and lay on top of vegetables.
Cook at high pressure for 15 minutes and then quick release pressure.

Before seasoning, create slurry with cornstarch and water and whisk in.

Forgot to take photographs prior to any of the servings besides this last splash of leftovers.
The flavors were pretty bold however the chicken was dried out.  This could've been attributed to the fact that I had removed the skin from the chicken, but I guess we may never know since I rarely re-cook recipes.

Served over a mess of fried rice that my mother had given me towards a housewarming party that was eventually just tossed.

Charcoal-Grilled Thai-Style Chicken with Spicy Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce (CI)

This is completely unrelated to the recipe I'm featuring in this blog entry, but I didn't exactly want to do a full travel blog entry about the food I ate while on vacation in NYC a couple weeks ago.  Especially now since I have a smartphone and can post pictures and updates right to Facebook these days.
However, for the people I'm not Facebook friends with, this was hands-down the most amazing meal I had in the city that week and also representative of my NEW FAVORITE RESTAURANT: Mission Chinese Food at 154 Orchard St in the Lower East Side.

Picture here is the Beef Heart & Hokkaido Scallop Sashimi (sublime), the ridiculously popular Thrice-Cooked Bacon (ooh, spicy!), and some rye-based cocktail with a name riffing on Twin Peaks.  I assume that's what I had to drink.  They don't list their cocktail menu on the internet.

In other food related ventures over the course of the handful of days I spent in NYC, I ate at Acme, Fatty Crab, M Wells, Hide-Chan Ramen, Tacos Matamoros, and Crif Dogs.  I sipped a few cocktails at PDT and a soju slushie and Momofuku Noodle Bar.  Also drinks at less notable bars.
Anyway, the entry on a recipe from Cook's Illustrated Summer Grilling 2010 issue.

Chicken and Brine

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup table salt [I don't really believe in plain-Jane iodized salt.  I know that kosher salt is not at all a one-to-one swap with table salt, but I use it anyway in brines.]
• 4 split bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, about 12 ounces each
• Disposable aluminum roasting pan   

Dipping Sauce

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1/4 cup juice from 2 limes
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3 small garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press (1 1/2 teaspoons)
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Rub

• 2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 1/4 cup juice from 2 to 3 limes
• 12 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1/4 cup)
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons ground coriander
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for cooking grate.

Brand new grill, brand new chimney starter, and natural hardwood charcoal briquettes.

Sorry, folks, starter fluid and gas grills are for sissies.

The dipping sauce resembles the condiment my parents perpetually make and have on hand in the fridge.  Except instead of red pepper flakes, they use fresh Thai chiles.

I had my parents take home a piece of each part of the resulting food I made, but I figured they didn't have to take any of this sauce home with them.

The rub involved a stupid amount of prep.  I'm really not sure how long exactly it took me to microplane all that garlic, but it was a long-ass time on top of everything else.  Plus I was grill-roasting sweet potatoes in the meantime which meant I dash up and down two flights of stairs every 15 minutes.  Christ, what a pain in the ass.

Brine the breasts for at least 30 minutes but no more than 1 hour.  I've read about the science of brining several times by now, but all I can tell without looking shit up is that there's some sort of hocus-pocus that's provides additional protection against dry poultry or pork.  However, proteins should only be brined for an appropriate amount of time.

A modified two-level fire means that the coals are banked to one half of the grill.  The chicken's first browned on the hot side and ideally left to finish cooking on the cooler side.
The retarded amount of prep and the fact that I had pretty much completely cooked the sweet potatoes by the time I was ready to grill the chicken and also that I have a baby rather than full-size Weber means I was eventually tempted to cook shit on the "hot" side (the coals being pretty spent).  Even taking this short cut, it took much longer than stated in the recipe to get the breasts to register 160 degrees.

It was about 9:30 PM on Saturday night when I was finally ready to eat my first goddamn meal of the day.  I'm sure anything would've tasted terrific after running around all afternoon on empty, but this was really insanely good.  The chicken was so moist and flavorful.
I ate this and subsequent leftovers using only my hands.  So primal.