Recently in Poultry Category

Served with a smoked shallot and asparagus orzo.

Too busy to write a detailed post, and I think it'll be more fun if I just answer any questions you have about it in the comments. Anyone?

It's our usual spicy chicken and eggplant curry on basmati rice, though I did add some raisins this time, which I really like. Julie, not so much.

Been cooking? Dish!

I've been fooling around a lot with Indian food lately, and out of all the curries I've dabbled with so far, this was my favorite. The base of this dish was a hot curry paste that's added to the skillet after the eggplant, onions and chicken were browned individually.

The paste sauteed until the the smell was driving me crazy, then I added a can of diced tomatoes and some water. I let it simmer for about 15 minutes, then added everything back in. It simmered for about half an hour while I made some basmati rice.

The plating was uber simple- just a good scoop of rice, the curry, and topped off with some cilantro and toasted sesame seeds.

Dang. I think there's leftovers.

Our internet has been really spotty tonight, so I'll post this quickly while I can, and tweak it later. These were marinated in soy, rice wine vinegar, and tons of fresh ginger and garlic all afternoon, baked in the oven, then tossed in homemade teriyaki sauce that I reduced with the leftover marinade, along with some Scirachi hot sauce, scallions, and toasted sesame seeds.

I made a few veggie sushi rolls that I've posted before, too, nothing new but fantastic nonetheless.

Been cooking? Let's hear about it!

It's tough to come up with variations for a Thanksgiving, but this year was a good one. As I mentioned before, I tried to get away from the usual starchy sides- stuffing, mashed potatoes and breads. I love 'em, I mean I really love 'em. You'd have to, if you made stuffing sandwiches like I do, you'd know what I mean.

This turkey, which was about 11 pounds basically got cooked the way I grill a lot of chickens, over indirect heat. this accomplishes a few things- eliminating flare-ups and also keeping the breasts protected from drying out. To do this, just cut out the backbone and season as you see fit. I marinated this bird in orange juice, chicken stock, onions, garlic and lots of Survival Spice®. A few pictures of the turkey in progress are below the fold.

This is an easy version of the Indian classic Chicken Tikka Masala, using a sauce I picked up at Fresh and Easy. I made it in a totally unconventional way- first roasting chicken parts with Survival Spice® barbecue rub until it was nearly done, then cubing it and baking it in the sauce for 15 minutes or so.

Simple, and really good. I also made some aloo gobi and picked up some garlic naan, and I'll post that later.

Any Indian food fans out there? I'm going to dive into it more, but it's fairly pantry intensive, so the jarred sauce is an easy way to get started.

In a never ending quest for variety at dinner time, this is a quick meal idea that worked out great.

I cubed a turkey breast, then seasoned well with Survival Spice®, which is great with any poultry I've experimented with. Placed in a cast iron skillet, I cooked it at a fairly low heat (275º) until it was most of the way finished, then I added some barbecue sauce to the skillet and let it simmer until it was done.

I cranked up the broiler to crisp it up, and we had it with baked potatoes and a salad.

Try it with beef, chicken, or pork shoulder.

It's hard not to get in a rut with weekday cooking, so lately I've been trying really hard to bring some variety into the same old staples I keep on hand.

With chicken breasts that needed cooked, a bag of lemons that was a bit past its prime, and a head of garlic that desperately needed to fulfill its destiny, I decided it was time to do something with them.

After cutting the chicken breasts into cubes and seasoning them a bit, I made a sauce with roughly a 2:1 ratio of squeezed lemon juice and Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva, then added chopped garlic, dry oregano and parsley and a splash of Tibvrtini Aceto di Vino Blanco to give it a little more zip.

I tossed the chicken with more of the Tibvrtini oil and broiled the chicken until it was just about done, then added the sauce, mixed it well with the chicken, then broiled it all for a few more minutes.

I served it with parsley buttered potatoes and some broiled asparagus. Variety is a good thing.

Whoo boy, this was good.

I took a few minutes yesterday afternoon to marinate some chicken breasts in soy sauce, sesame oil, and Survival Spice® for about 3 hours, then grilled them off on our gas grill with a little pecan wood.

Not sure the picture does it justice, but they had a beautiful color, and they were incredibly moist. I made some basic fried rice and grilled some asparagus to go with it.

Fortunately, there are leftovers. Life is good.

Unfortunately these days, it would seem, on the rare evening that I get to cook anything at home, my focus is more on words like 'simple', 'easy', and 'quick' than my old goals of 'astounding' and 'unforgettable', but the news isn't all bad. Indeed, as I do everything I can to minimize prep time and shopping hassles I'm rediscovering how good simple meals can be.

For this no-hassle oven fried chicken I replaced a traditional breading station like the one at the link with a zip-loc bag. The basic steps were the same, but simpler- for a change I started with some organic chicken breasts and some Tabasco sauce in the bag, coated them, hit it with some more Tabasco, then added a mixture of flour and Survival Spice®, tossing it well to coat it fairly evenly. I didn't use bread crumbs because, well, I didn't have any on hand and easy was the point here, remember?

I prepped some red potatoes, tossing them with kosher salt, Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva, cracked black pepper and some dried rosemary and put it all in to roast. While the chicken and potatoes were roasted, I trimmed up some asparagus, coating it with some more of the amazing olive oil, and with about 10 minutes to go I popped them in the same cast iron skillet with the potatoes and gave everything, including the chicken, a good squeeze of lemon juice, which really makes all the flavors pop.

Two cast iron skillets, one EZ-Hook®, and a one quart Ziploc® bag. Simple. And really, really good.

Well, it's finally starting to cool down here in Phoenix, and I've found myself cooking more meals inside that outside lately. Not that there's a foot of snow on the grill or anything, but it's usually dark when I get home, so cooking inside just feels right.

This dish was a piece of cake- I guess I could have made a pan sauce, but after stuffing a turkey breast seasoned with Survival Spice® with apples, it stayed nice and moist. I added some polenta wedges to the cast iron skillet during the last 20 minutes, and some steamed brussel sprouts finishied it off really well.

Been cooking? Let's hear about it!

Well, the football season got off to a good start- my Pittsburgh Steelers beat up on the Cleveland Browns until they couldn't take it any more. And no, I'm not a fair weather fan; during the 60s I was a fan when they were far and away the worst team in football.

What's football without hot wings? Nothin'.

I like to grill my wings, but I was getting over some kind of bug, so I had to content myself with seasoning them well with Survival Spice™, then roasting them on a parchment lined sheet pan until they were crispy:

As they were in the oven, I mixed some hot sauce, butter, more Survival Spice®, and a bit of chipotle BBQ sauce in a sauce pan, got it all melted and bubbly, poured the sauce into a work bowl, then tossed the crispy wings with the sauce. Taking a fine suggestion from Julie, I plated them on a Steelers platter.

Mmmmm... spicy, crispy and full of flavor. They tasted great with a few cold beers.

In another of a long-running series of "What Did You Have for Dinner Last Night", here's a quick rundown of a quick dinner.

I threw a bunch of minced garlic in Ziplock bag, along with the ever present Survival Spice™ and a few all natural chicken breasts to marinate, while I fired up our gas grill. I took a nice sweet potato and cut it into 4 wedges and threw it in the microwave for about 2 minutes, so it could cook through while I got a steamer basket ready for some organic brocolli crowns.

Once the sweet potatoes were tender, I drizzled on a bit of our organic TIbvrtini Extra Virgin Olive Oil and seasoned them with some kosher salt and pepper.

Okay, brocolli's in the steamer and the chicken and sweet potatoes are ready to go on the grill. I grilled the taters on medium high, to get some grill marks and carmelize the sugars, then turned them down to finish cooking while the chicken was cooking. A few pecan wood chips made it all nice and smoky.

Sorry, nothing fancy about this, but it was wonderful.

Been cooking, especially with Desert Island Foods®.com products? Email me!

This is not what you would call a traditional Caesar salad. Traditionally, a Caesar salad would have whole leaves of romaine lettuce, and the dressing would include a few coddled eggs. The nouvelle Caesar dressing I learned in culinary school only contains one egg yolk per cup of oil, and the egg is 'cooked' with a combination of lemon juice and vinegar, so the dressing tends to be more like a loose aoili.

To make this, I grilled off a chicken breast with Survival Spice™, and sliced it. I like a simple crouton with my Caesar, so they're just lightly oiled, along with some kosher salt and black pepper, then toasted.

I went high end with the ingredients in the dressing- an organic egg yolk, a few liquified cloves of garlic, TIbvrtini Aceto di Vino Blanco, our organic white wine vinegar, and a blend of canola oil and TIbvrtini Olio Extra Virgene. I also used lemon juice, parmagiano reggiano cheese, a bit of Worcestershire sauce, and some dry Colman's mustard.

It's not the lightest salad in the world, but it's one of my favorites.

I had a hankering for wings over the weekend. Actually, I hanker for wings far more often than that, but I just happened to be at the grocery store when this particular hanker began, so it was an easy hanker to satisfy.

Wow. I just used the word 'hanker' three times in a sentence. Is that a record? Try it sometime, it's not as easy as you think...

I like to grill my wings, rather than deep fry them. Grilling them over wood imparts smoky flavor to chicken, as oppposed to deep frying, where the only flavor to be picked up is the delightful essense of the Mrs. Paul's fish sticks you threw in there the last time you used it. No, thanks.

I grilled these with our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub, low and slow, to render out the fat and get them nice and crispy. In a skillet, I whipped up a "kitchen sink" sauce of butter, Frank's Red hot, Tabasco, Sciracha, hot chipotle bbq sauce, and more Survival Spice™.

Quick toss in the sauce after the wings were done, and life was good.

Don't ask me why I cropped the photo so close, there was just something mesmerizing about the glaze on the wings.

Cook anything good this weekend? Give it up!!!

Bob, as part of his Thanksgiving feast, sent along this shot of his Southwestern turkey that he rubbed with our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub and smoked over mesquite. Mmmmmmm....

I really like the fact that he also incorporated our rub into his "Green Baby Beans"- sauteed with mushrooms, red onions, garlic, Survival Spice and a cabernet wine sauce over polenta. A lot of imagination and hard work went into this, Bob. Well done, sir!

Happy, happy Friday the 13th, all! I hope you've got something culinary-oriented going on this weekend, email me some pictures of what you're cooking and eating to share!

We have an ususual Friday Funny this week, it's a fowl joke/recipe from Kathleen, thanks! The recipe and photo of the finished dish is below the fold.

Have a great weekend, everyone. Please contribute to our "Two For the Troops" effort for Operation Gratitude by clicking in the sidebar ad for more information, and please help us spread the word.

The good news- there was absolutely no Spam® in this...

My buddy Bob gave me a bunch of home-grown basil the other day. I wasn't in the mood for pesto, so I decided to make some pasta sauce with it. You know my M.O. for basic pasta sauce- lots of sauteed garlic in Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva, crushed to order tomatoes, crushed red peppers and basil only- so I won't go into detail on that.

To make the cacciatora, I oven-roasted some chicken legs and thighs seasoned with our Survival Spice™ until they had a nice color and were nearly cooked through, and also sauteed some mini red and yellow peppers along with a chopped red onion. I deglazed these with some white wine, then added them to some of the tomato sauce. Once the chicken was ready, I added it as well, then simmered the whole thing for an hour.

Boiled some penned until it was al dente, then garnished with parmaseano reggiano and a sprig of Bob's be-YOO-tiful basil. Thanks again!

Bottle of red, and some crusty bread. Life was good.

It's starting to cool off here in the desert, and I found myself craving a Thanksgiving dinner. By cooling, I mean temps under 100º, but it makes a huge difference here in Phoenix.

Well, it's not Thanksgiving yet, and I didn't have a turkey on hand, but this stuffed chicken dinner satisfied my "turkey jones" nonetheless.

Paul, aka Chilebrown, sent me this terrific picture of a turkey that he smoked on his Weber recently. He didn't send any information, but grilling or smoking a turkey on indirect heat is a great variation from traditional birds, though I recommend that you don't stuff them. Many times on Thanksgiving I've both oven-roasted and smoked a bird to provide variety, and the smoked turkey was always gone first. The leftover meat and carcass makes an awesome smoked turkey soup, too, try it!

This doesn't look rubbed, but our Survival Spice™ barbecue rub is awesome on turkey, chicken, and Cornish hens, too!

If Paul checks in, hopefully he'll provide some details, but I'd say this picture speaks for itself. Well done, Paul!

(Photo: Paul's Chicken Chilebrown Bleu. I had to sharpen this a bit in Photoshop, possibly something "went wrong" with Paul's camera lens during an afternoon at the grill, indulging in a few adult beverages...)

Well, Biggles started it. After sending me a sneak peek at the Grilled Chicken Cordon Bleu he had made, we got to emailing about how to do it differently, and through that afternoon we had convinced ourselves that not only should he post it, but that I was going to give it a try using a different approach.

Paul, aka Chilebrown, of course got wind of this, and deciding that a venture involving poultry, pork and cheese was a noble undertaking indeed, sent me this:

You guys were killing me with your Cordon Bleu. I am giving it a stab. I am kicking it up a notch. I boned the chicken and stuffed it with "Paul Bertoli's Italian Sausage". I then put a layer of home smoked 'Buckboard Bacon"with a center of Jack Cheese. I then rolled and tied it. I finished with a sprinkling of everybodys favorite rub. (TPC note: Survival Spice™, of course!) It will be baked in the barbeque tonight.

Nicely done, Paul! This was another approach that we had talked about, but I decided to do the "stuff the skin" method first. There are more pictures below the fold.

Here's a simple dish I made last night, after seeing bunches of fresh basil at the market. It's fun to just shop, then let whatever I find inspire my meal ideas, because most of the time I don't really crave anything in particular.

In keeping with the low-glycemic lifestyle that reality has thrust upon me, I found some whole wheat rotini that were really good. The idea behind eating whole wheat, as opposed to a pure white flour, is that the bran tends to slow down the conversion of the starch to glucose, so that your blood sugar levels don't spike as much.

While I was pan-frying some boneless chicken breasts in Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva, lemon and S & P, I mashed 5 cloves of garlic in my mortar and pestle with a little kosher salt. I added a few handfuls of the fresh basil and pounded my frustrations away. I toasted a small handful of pine nuts, beat the crap out of them as well, then added a handful of grated parmesano reggiano, a generous glug of the wonderful Tibvrtini oil, salt and pepper.

I drained the pasta, put it back into the pot, added the diced chicken, gave a quick toss with the pesto, and dinner was good to go.

What did you have for dinner last night?

Dr. Biggles really outdid himself last week when he smoked a Chicken Cordon Bleu on the grill. In the comments, we discussed alternate ways of creating a smokey, gooey, delicious combination of chicken, ham and Swiss cheese. Dr. B noted that he lost quite a bit of cheese during the cooking process, so I thought about different ways of addressing that. Here's the approach I tried first.

(Photo: Mary)

This wraps up the dishes I made for Cuban Night, a fun Cuban Food-Fest we had recently. In addition to the Fried Plantains and Masitas de Puerco, I made a few other Cuban staples.

(Photo: Mary, of her Chicken Piccata and Capellini w/truffle oil)

This was the entreé for the Italian night we had recently. My friend and photographer Mary had us begging for mercy when she served this terrific combination. A classic piccata, with breaded and browned off thin chicken filets, and a pan sauce of olive oil, marsala wine, capers, lemon juice and parsley.

She served it with some angel hair pasta she tossed with chives and truffle oil. Between this, a terrific Caesar salad, and my tiramisu, this quality of this great meal was equaled only by the friends I shared it with.

It's such a great way to have a party. Pick a theme, plan a menu and let each guest bring a part of it. A highly recommended low-stress way to entertain, I think.

(TPC's Penne Arrabbiata con Pollo)

Here's another delicious and easy dish. This is great baked in an over for an hour or more, but I'm giving you the quick version.

I used chicken thighs because I had them on hand, and I really like them. They work well in a simmered dish like this because they have enough fat to keep them moist. If you make this with breasts, you'll want to cook them off almost entirely then remove them while the sauce comes together, adding any juices from the meat to the skillet, of course. Adding peppers and onions (some add mushrooms as well) would make it a cacciatora, but I didn't go that route.

To define a few terms, Arrabbiata means "angry", referring to the spiciness in the dish. Cacciatora is an Italian word for "hunter", inferring a rustic style of cooking.

Easy, easy, easy. Here's how it came together.

(Photo: Mary)

Here's some chicken I marinated and grilled over mesquite and a little pecan wood this weekend. The marinade was just lemon and oranges, olive oil, some Tibvrtini Aceto di Vino Bianco, lots of garlic and a sliced onion, fresh rosemary, kosher salt, and black pepper.

I really like to do this in one gallon plastic bags, because it makes it so easy to turn, but you might want to double bag it or put it on top of something in the fridge just in case you spring a leak.

I used breasts and thighs, but I cut the breasts in half because I grilled some tri-tips, too, which lets guests try a small piece without feeling wasteful, and you can see that I separated them as I took them off the grill to make it easy for them to choose what they wanted. It was juicy and packed with flavor.

The grilling season is here! Life is good.

(Photo: 2 of 4 sheet pans of Parmesan Chicken Strips, ready for par-cooking.)

Welcome to another working week. As you know, I'm a big fan of making an extra batch of whatever I'm making and freezing it for later whenever possible, so when I got a request for some chicken fingers, I decided to make a bunch of them. It's such a great way to make great food efficiently and it's convenient once they're done, just put them on a cookie sheet with a little oil and brown them until they're crispy and juicy.

Curse you, Biggles!!

I just about had to go change my shirt when Dr. Biggles emailed with a cool gadget I'm going to post later this week, and to taunt me about a chicken dish he had just written about. When I went to his site, I was dumbfounded at the sight of prosciutto stuffed under the skin of a tasty 'chicky.' I commented that I had to have chicken for dinner Friday night, and I did.

No prosciutto on hand, and on a Friday evening after a long day in the office, there was no way I was going to the store. I did have some some chicken breasts and some leftover pesto, though. Hmmm.....

(I like to call it Mt. Chefmore...)

Happy President's Day, everyone. Are you supposed to say happy, really? I guess you do if you don't have to work, I guess. Well, we don't get the mail today, and because I don't have to deal with shipments I had time to goof off a bit.

As I pondered what to make for dinner tonight, it got me thinking about what our past President from days of yore might have had for dinner on this special day, though I guess it really wasn't all that special at that point. Anyhoo, I have these really cool recipes from the late 1800s so I thought I might offer this as something they might have enjoyed.

Our friend, the chicken. What a great pallet to build flavors on. Enough fat to carry flavors deep into the meat, then they melt away, leaving you with a lean, healthy meal.

This was so easy. Take a whole chicken, tuck the wing tips under the wings, cut out the backbone with a pair of poultry shears or a sharp knife, and press to lay it flat. Drizzle with olive oil, kosher salt, and some lemon juice, then rub generously with Survival Spice™ on all sides. I cooked this indirectly on the gas grill with some pecan chips, but you can easily just put it on a sheet pan in a 375º oven.

This took about 45 minutes, then I let it rest for 5 minutes or so. Man, it was good. Crispy skin, and nothing but flavorful, juicy meat underneath. A crusty baguette and some grilled asparagus finished it off.

Did I mention it was easy?

(Photo: Mary, of TPC's Easy Orange Survival Glaze)

I've been working on this for a while now, and I think it's ready to share. This is a simple glaze that gives both a beautiful appearance and a nice hit of flavor to ham, turkey, chicken and duck. It's well balanced, with lots of orange flavor, a nice sweetness, lots of depth from the dijon mustard, and a subtle bit of heat from the Survival Spice™.

It would be easy to add lots of interesting stuff to this, if you wanted to customize it- garlic, tarragon, use a different citrus component, the list is as long as your imagination.

Try it this year! Please let me know if you do, and if you experiment with variations! Pictures are a plus. It was a huge hit at the photo shoot this weekend, after eating a pot of gumbo we weren't even hungry, but couldn't stop nibbling at it. I HAVE to try this on duck...

(Photos: Dr. Biggles)

This episode of "What did you have for dinner last night?" is brought to us by the revered master of the coals and all that's carnivorous, Dr. Biggles of Meathenge fame. Shame on you if you call yourself a foodie and don't visit his site every day!

Biggles did an uber-simple weekday meal, "Survival Citrus Chicken a la Biggles", along with a green salad. A quick marinade of lemon juice on the chicken and a healthy rub of Survival Spice™, and he was cookin'. Biggles tells the tale in his inimitable way, in the extended entry.

What did you have for dinner last night? Email me with a picture and a description! Important: delete the spam busting "REMOVETHESEWORDS" from the email address. I hated to put that in, because it's confusing, but I already have plenty of Nigerian investment opportunities to consider over the weekend.

(All photos: Mary, of TPC's Mediterranean Madness)

Okay, so I overdid it. Ana's entry really got me thinking about a style of food that I haven't prepared nearly enough, and it was time to correct that a bit. Ana's salad featured homemade falafel and pita bread, so I had to make those, but what else? Part of the charm of Mediterranean cuisine is all the wonderful side dishes- dips, spreads, salads, so I had to make some of those, too.

This was getting to be a lot of work, and I hadn't even gotten to an entrée yet! To keep it simple, I decided to grill a bunch of kabobs, chicken, shrimp and lots of veggies. Something for everyone, and some low/no carb options for those who requested it. I'll post some recipes later, lots of pics and comments are posted below. Thanks to Mary, a great photographer friend of mine, who took all these great pictures, despite inadequate lighting and all of us trying to steal food off the plates before she could shoot them.

(Photo: Mary, of TPC's version of Matt and Jerry's Mississippi gumbo)

I'm submitting a recipe this time, not for judging, but as a tip of the hat to New Orleans and Mississippi, and I thought it would be fun for someone to make.

I love gumbo, and there at least as many ways to make it as there are cooks. This technique comes from my friends Matt and Jerry, both from the Biloxi/Ocean Springs part of Mississippi. Even they make it a million different ways, too, but this is my way of smashing their techniques together.

Every gumbo has a roux at its base, usually made from oil and flour. This roux is cooked together first, and the color can end up anywhere from a light golden to very nearly black. This acts as part of the thickener and is what differentiates a gumbo from a soup. Remember, a dark roux will not thicken as well as a light one, so you'll need more of it.

Gumbos also thicken by the addition of either okra or filé powder. I love okra, but left it out of this gumbo at the request of those who were going to eat it with me, sadly. Filé (feelay) powder is ground sassafras root and thickens a gumbo nicely, but used it properly. You add it at the very end of cooking, off the heat. Stir it in and wait 10 minutes. Warning: Don't add it to the pot if you're not going to eat it all in one sitting. If you boil filé, it can get stringy, you're better off just adding a bit to each bowl as you dish it up, stirring it in well.

In the spirit of Food Fight, I've made this with simple, inexpensive ingredients but this technique can be embellished with any type of seafood including fish, oysters, mussels, clams, crawfish and prawns. If you're making a seafood gumbo, I would substitute some of the chicken stock for fish stock or clam juice. Andouille sausage is great if you can find it.

Jerry and Matt serve this gumbo over rice with a scoop of potato salad in the bowl as well, which I'd never seen before.

The recipe is in the extended entry.

(Photos: Dr. Biggles)

This is a great dish. One pan, no fuss. Dr. B used Survival Spice™, which I love to see, but don't feel like you have to have to use one of my products to send in your dish. This is all about giving people ideas for simple, amazing weekday dinners. Though I really feel that my stuff really makes that easy, I'm not going to stand on a soapbox with a frickin' megaphone. Here's Biggles' email:

Here is tonight's meal. What with Gout in the forefront of my mind, using mostly vegetable matter is what I need to be eating. So far, I've found roasting those nasty things the best way to go. No vegetarian dinner would be complete without two slices of horizontally sliced thicky bacon within the veggies and a whole chicken roasting up on top. After putting, carrots, celery, onion, shallot and broc in to a bowl and tossing with extra virgin olive oil, I sprinkled in a large amount of Survival Spice. I did this because I wanted a sweet and spicy return on those little bastards. The darned broc is pretty tender so I piled it high under the chicky. Everything is better when it comes from under a chicken's wing.

The bird got some extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt and an assortment of herbs. Since I can't eat most of the chicken, I put some Survival Spice on the chicken wings, those MINES. Add about 3/4 cupfuls of natural chicken broth and install in to a preheated 375 degree oven.

Every half hour pull out and toss the veggies. At this point you could put a lump of butter over the chicken or baste with good dry white wine. Hells bells, do boff. As with any basic roasting meat, this goes on the bottom rack. Serve this, if necessary with some starch. Fresh corn located on the cob would be a good choice.

The important thing to remember here is to roast your vegetables, use your roast or bird to marinate and not use too much broff in the bottom of the roaster.

ps - As far as the size of your roaster goes, you want most of the vegetables to be exposed to the heat. Leaving them under the bird will steam the them and while this isn't a bad thing, it isn't what we want. We're looking for blackened portions of your food, something tasty.

What did you have for dinner tonight? Email Me a dish you're proud of.

(TPCs easy weekday Chicken en Molé)

I love to make molé. Technically, since 'molé' is derived from 'mulli', the Nahautl word for 'sauce', this is a real molé, but a traditional molé has lots of ingredients that combine to create a wonderfully textured sauce with layer upon layer of flavor.

This ain't it by a long shot, but since the pantry and my time were both equally lacking, I made do with what I had. I took some chicken thighs I had grilled off the day before and simmered them in some chicken stock and some of the chili pureé I had left from the Traditional New Mexico Pork Chile I made recently, which gave me a big head start.

I added some more dried oregano, a bit of cumin, a pinch of cinammon, a few bittersweet chocolate chips, a squeeze of honey and simmered it until it thickened up to the right consistency. A classic molé gets its texture from pureéd nuts and tortilla but none of that here today. I took the kernels of a few ears of fresh corn and added that too for a bit more sweetness and texture. Grilled off a few flour tortillas and you have a very decent molé in less than an hour.

This looks like a pretty good molé if you've got the time to check it out. I wouldn't use as much oil as they call for, I'd replace some of the cloves with allspice, substitute almonds instead of peanuts, etc. but the recipe gives you a pretty good representation of the techniques involved.

What did you have for dinner last night?

Food Fight #2 is over. Thanks to everyone who entered, keep sending in those pictures, you could win next time! The second Food Fight was won by Chris from Phoenix, AZ. His updated Chicken Cordon Bleu was simple, imaginative and his description was the most enthusiastic I read this time:

One of the first things I really made well was Chicken Cordon Bleu, and still have a mild addiction to stuffed chicken. I thought about how you go to Arby's and they have this in sandwich form, combined with how I like a good chicken club. I mean, chicken, cheddar and bacon! It's great. So I thought I'd reverse this into stuffed form.

Cheddar and bacon seemed like it may not work quite right, so I opted for prosciutto and a sharp white cheese.

His recipe was also well done, using a standard breading technique of flour, egg and bread crumbs. This technique using Survival Spice makes terrific fried chicken, too. Here's the recipe:

It takes: -2 good sized chicken breasts -4 slices prosciutto -4 small slices of a sharp white cheese (measurements are relevant and not really exact - also depending on how much you really like cheese) -1 cup flour -1 cup bread crumbs -2 tablespoons Survival Spice™ -1 egg

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- In a small warm pan, warm up prosciutto a bit (this may not be needed)
- Butterfly cut chicken open (I like to open it up further so I can cover and create a pinwheel effect)
- Place prosciutto and cheese inside chicken and roll up into a nice little package (set aside)
- In one bowl, add flour and mix in 1 tablespoon of Survival Spice
- In another bowl whisk egg
- In a third bowl, add bread crumbs and 1 tablespoon of Survival Spice
- Take chicken and dredge in flour, then coat with egg, and breadcrumb mix
- Bake at 350 for 20 minutes

Goes great with garlic mashed potatoes...