Chicken Enchiladas

from The Best Light Recipe by ATK

• 1 medium onion, chopped fine
• 1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil
• Salt
• 3 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)
• 3 tablespoons chili powder [Made my own according to Mark Bittman's recipe in HTCE]
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 (8-ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2 large breasts), trimmed of excess fat
• Ground black pepper
• 8 ounces 50 percent light cheddar cheese shredded (2 cups) [Used some pre-shredded 4-cheese Mexican blend.  Full fat, y'all.]
• 1 (4-ounce) can pickled jalapeno chiles, drained and chopped
• 12 (6-inch) soft corn tortillas
• Vegetable oil spray
• 1 lime, cut into wedges (for serving)

Couldn't locate a 4-ounce can of pickled jalapenos, but I found an 11-ounce can.  I was surprised to find it contained carrots as well.

I suppose a 4-ounce can, drained, would contain even fewer jalapenos than the can I bought, but I thought it was worth noting that the total weight came out to be 2.3 ounces.

Mise en place.

Sweating the onions in 1/2 teaspoon of oil with a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, and sugar.  Cook until fragrant.

Stir in tomato sauce and water, bring to a simmer, and cook until slightly thickened.

Nestle chicken into sauce and cook until thickest part registers 160 degrees on thermometer.  Set aside to cool and shred.

 
Strain sauce through medium-mesh strainer.  The sauce was crazy spicy at this point since I used chile de arbol in the chili powder rather than "mild" chiles.  I hoped the heat would even out later, and it did.

I guess you're supposed to toss the chicken, 1 cup cheddar, jalapenos, and cilantro with a 1/2 cup of the sauce, but I kind of flaked and threw it all in there.  Pouring out as much sauce as I could later.

Wrap tortillas in plastic wrap and microwave until warm and pliable.

Place a 1/3 cup of filling evenly down center of each tortilla.  Tightly roll and set seam side down in baking dish.  I only managed to use 9 of them.
Then you're supposed to spray the tops (I guess this uses less oil, but my spray has expired and I didn't have a new one.), but i just brush them with vegetable oil.  Pour 1 cup of sauce over the top and sprinkle cheese evenly.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes covered with foil at 400 degrees and then uncovered for 5 minutes to brown the cheese.

 

Pretty serviceable enchiladas.  Not crazy greasy.  Certainly not terrible.  Sour cream and store-bought salsa picante to accompany them.

Bouillabaise with Fennel over Grits (FM)

• 1 cup grits or coarse cornmeal
• Salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 fennel bulbs, cored and thinly sliced, fronds roughly chopped and reserved
• 2 leeks, trimmed, well rinse, and cut into coins, white and tender green parts only [Frankly, I think that cutting the leeks into coins is counter-intuitive to the traditional means of washing leeks.  Bittman himself in HCE outlines the typical halving of the leeks almost through the root end and fanning out the layers while rinsing.  Oh well.]
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• Grated zest from 1 orange
• Big pinch of saffron, optional
• 1 dried hot chile, or pinch of cayenne, or to taste
• 2 cups chopped tomatoes (canned are fine; drain their juice)
• About 1 pound almost any seafood (like monkfish, cod, scallops, squid, or shrimp), peeled, skinned, boned, and cut into chunks as needed
• 1 carrots or parsnips, cut into coins
• 2 cups vegetable, shrimp, or fish stock; dry white wine; or water; plus more as needed
• Black pepper

Mise en place.  Full-on except for the carrots.

Slowly whisk the water into the grits with a large pinch of salt.  Set over medium-high heat until almost a boil then simmer until the consistency of oatmeal.

I think this happened way more quickly that the suggested 10 to 15 minutes.  Whisk in 1 tablespoon of oil and season aggressively with black pepper.

Heat oil over medium heat.  Add fennel, leeks, garlic, and orange zest and cook until softened.

Add saffron and chile and cook for another minute.

Add tomatoes, seafood, carrots, and stock to just cover fish and vegetables.  I started pouring more of that boxed pinot to cover but worried about being unable to cook off the taste of alcohol with at least three cups of wine going on.

I was fine!

Bring to a boil, cover, and turn off heat.  Supposedly you're supposed to let this sit for five more minutes to cook through the shrimp, but they were already pink once this finished boiling.

Serve stew over grits.  Drape with those frilly little fennel fronds.

I think I've largely considered bouillabaise, inaccessible since it's rather delicate, but if Bittman doesn't care too much if I use all shrimp I guess I'm fine.
Grits are stupid easy to make.

Altogether the dish was good but not exactly rave-worthy.

Chicken and Dumplings (CATKTV)

Stew

• 5 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 12 thighs)
• Table salt and ground black pepper
• 4 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 2 celery ribs, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 6 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 4 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

Dumplings

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3 tablespoons reserved chicken fat

Mise en place for a dish I've literally cooked 4 or 5 times by now in a little over a year though for the first time this season.  I'm a sucker for anything with a pot pie base.  Back when I first started cooking in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, I cooked an actual pot pie out of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.  I don't think I remember that wowing me.

This does it without the hassle of a crust.  I'm pretty sure the base in the pie got somewhat watered down.  I'd make this all the time if I thought it wouldn't kill or bore the hell out of me.

Browning the chicken.  You're supposed to split the oil between batches of chicken thighs.

But why add fat when all this eventually render out?  Silly recipe.

Way more than enough to make the dumplings.

Cook vegetables until softened.

Stir in flour to thicken the sauce.

Add back the chicken and everything but the peas and the parsley (which I didn't have).  Simmer for 1 hour.

I usually risk burning my fingertips shredding the chicken thighs because I'm too impatient to wait and wait for things to cool.
I was running out of time and saved that for the next day instead.  Looks delish, no? 

Whip up the dumpling batter, throw spoonfuls of it onto the simmering base, cover, and cook until they have doubled in size.

 

Perfect as usual.