look ma! fried chicken!

DISCLAIMER: this is not my healthiest recipe. If you get fat from making this recipe, it's not my fault. If you do however gain weight, at least you'll be fat and happy.

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Fried chicken is one of those things a lot of people love to eat but aren't too good at making. It's one of the trickier dishes but once you practice a few times you can get a system developed tht really helps you become more confident with your chicken. My boyfriend (who is almost sickeningly obsessed with KFC and Popeyes) and I tried our hand at making our own fried chicken for the very first time a few months ago. We were actually shocked how good it turned out, but made a list of things we would do differently when we did it again.

Well yesterday I found myself with some spare time on my hands and some drum sticks..because that's just a typical day for me, so I decided I'd put the list of things to do differently when making fried chicken to use!

I researched a good bit of fried chicken recipes and based off the knowledge I learned from making chicken with my boyfriend, I came up with this recipe:

Fried Chicken (Hmm..)

Ingredients:

• 1 quart low-fat buttermilk
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped finely
• 1/4 cup hot sauce
• Whatever chicken pieces you'd like
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons salt (kosher works best)
• 2 tablespoon finely ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons garlic salt
• 4 eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 3 cups vegetable oil 
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter

Directions:

Combine the buttermilk, garlic, and hot sauce and stir well. Submerge the chicken pieces in the buttermilk. Let soak for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator, but I let it sit overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat the oil  over medium heat in a large skillet ad add the butter after the oil has heated, about 5 minutes.

Mix together flour, garlic salt, salt and pepper in a shallow dish. Mix eggs and 2 tablespoons milk in another shallow dish.

Pull the pieces of chicken out of the buttermilk 1 at a time. Let the excess buttermilk drip off into the bowl and then place the chicken into the seasoned flour. Coat well and shake off any excess flour.

Dip the chicken into the egg mixture and coat well. Return to the flour mixture, ensuring the chicken is coated on all sides. Shake off excess.

Place the chicken skin side down into the hot oil. Cook until nicely browned, 10 to 12 minutes per side. (If you're using small pieces like I did, it'll take about 8-10. If you're using larger pieces like breasts, it may take up to 15.)

Place the chicken on a sheet tray and bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes. This will ensure that the chicken is cooked through and that the skin is nice and crispy.

Let sit on paper towel until most of the grease has been absorbed.

Go ahead, make yourself fat & happy :)

For a video tutorial that follows the same basic step-by-step process that I followed (not the exact same recipe, but close), check this out:

everyone's irish on st. patrick's day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! And happy start of Spring Break for my Marylanders ;) here's some fun to start your weekend and your break off right, and to get you feelin the Irish spirit! Enjoy:

Shamrock Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Melon vodka
• 1/2 oz triple sec
• Splash of orange curaçao
• juice of 2 limes

Preparation:

1. Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice cubes.
2. Shake until frothy.
3. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Irish Car Bomb

Ingredients:

• 3/4 pint Guinness
• 1/2 shot Irish cream liqueur
• 1/2 shot Irish whiskey 

Preparation:

1. Pour the Irish cream liqueur into a shot glass.
2. Pour the Irish whiskey on top.
3. Pour the Guinness into a pint glass or beer mug 3/4 of the way full and let settle.
4. Drop the shot glass into the Guinness and chug

Irish Flag Shooter

Ingredients:

• 1 part green creme de menthe
• 1 part Irish cream liqueur
• 1 part Grand Marnier

Preparation:

1. Pour the crème de menthe into a shot glass
2. Float the Irish cream liqueur on top of the crème de menthe.
3. Float the Grand Marnier on top of the Irish cream liqueur.
   
   courtsey about.com

Or you could just get yourself some good ol green beer. hmmm...

throw together dinners

A few nights a week I get a real big urge to make dinner. But typically in my house we don't have too much on hand unless we have our meals planned out before the week starts. So when I get my spontaneous urge to put my culinary skills to good use, I'm pretty much S.O.L. However, there will be a few times where I'll get lucky, and even if we don't have everything I want on hand, I can typically throw something together.

Tonight, I was lucky enough to create an amazing stir fry. Somehow everything came together. And even though I didn't have everything I wanted for the dish, it still worked out. I've found stir fry is something you can put together in an infinite amount of ways. Typically I make it differently everytime. This is how it went tonight:

Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients:

1lb skinless boneless chicken tenderloins, cut into bite sized peices

Vegetable oil

2Tbs chopped garlic

1tps ground ginger

1/2 c chopped carrots

1/2 c chopped brocolli

1/2 c chopped celery

1/2 c chopped red bell pepper

1/4 c onion

1/4 c chopped mushrooms
1/4 c chopped water chesnuts

1c chicken broth
Stir fry sauce
Soy sauce
Duck sauce
3c white rice



I'm being serious when I say I make it different everytime. Varities often include:

Chicken breasts
Beef tenderloin
Shrimp
Fresh ginger
Green onion
Beef broth
Asian noodles
Brown rice
Sesame seeds
Hoison sauce
Oyser Sauce

Really, whatever you want/have.

Directions:

Heat wok/skillet over medium high heat. Add vegetable oil after wok has preheated, turn to coat the pan well. Add chicken. Cook about 8 minutes, but don't stir, let the chicken sit. After is it obvious chicken has cooked thoroughly on first side and most of is has become white, stir. Add ginger and stir more. Reduce heat to medium and add garlic and 2Tbs sauce of choice. Cook about 5 more mintues. Transfer chicken to bowl or plate to rest.

Recoat the pan with oil and add vegetables. Add chicken broth and allow to sit and steam, covered, about 15 minutes.

Pour over equal amounts of soy sauce, stir fry sauce and duck sauce.

Return chicken to pan, tossing with the vegetables.

Serve with rice.


You really can't go wrong with this reciepe. Even if you have only a 1/4 of the ingredients listed, you got yourself a pretty tastey stir fry.

ENJOY!

chow down on some chowda

In all honesty, I can't say the word "chowder" without pretending I'm from Boston and saying "chowda". Chow-da. If you're from New England, it's what you know as the heart-warming creamy soup with lots of veggies, potatoes, and clams. If you're from Manhattan however, when you order a bowl of chowder, you're expecting a tomato-y concoction with a much less creamy consistency. But when I think of chowda I think of a rich, creamy, thick, potato-filled soup, and seeing as it was cold yesterday, I decided to make me some chowda! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

nocoupons

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, divided
• 2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
• 2 cups medium-diced celery (4 stalks)
• 2 cups medium-diced carrots (6 carrots)
• 4 cups peeled medium-diced boiling potatoes (8 potatoes)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 quart (4 cups) clam juice
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• 3 cups chopped fresh chowder clams (1 1/2 pounds shucked clams)

Directions

Melt 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) of the butter in a large heavy-bottomed stockpot. Add the onions and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until translucent. Add the celery, carrots, potatoes, salt, and pepper and saute for 10 more minutes. Add the clam juice, bring to a boil, and simmer, uncovered, until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.




In a small pot, melt the remaining 8 tablespoons of butter and whisk in the flour. Cook over very low heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Whisk in a cup of the hot broth and then pour this mixture back into the cooked vegetables. Simmer for a few minutes until the broth is thickened.


Add the milk and clams and heat gently for a few minutes to cook the clams. Taste for salt and pepper. Serve hot.

NOTE: I actually decided as soon as I started this that I didn't want to use clams, I'd rather use chicken. I'm not a big clam person. So instead I baked 2 pounds of chicken tenders in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and added the bite size pieces of chicken right after I added the chicken stock to the veggies, another slight modification. But feel free to use whatever you'd like :)

make sure to season very well with salt and pepper throughout the process. I actually even sprinkled a little old bay over the bowls as I served them. Not bad for my first chowda attempt!

cheap treat

Most of us have a sweet tooth. I sure can't speak for anybody else, but when I get a hankerin' for somethin' I just gotta have it A-SAP. And I sure as hell don't want to spend an arm and a leg for the sweets I'm craving. I came across this recipe from something my Mom collected from a friend. I was struck by the title, but was intrigued to find out more. As I read on, I decided to make this dessert and was pleased to find that all the ingredients I needed wouldn't leave me broke :)

Oreo Cookie Balls

Ingredients

• 8 oz softened cream cheese
• 18 oz package of Oreo cookies, crushed- don't remove the filling!
• 2 cups semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips
• 1 Tbsp shortening or oil

Instructions

Crush Oreos in a food processor or blender until extremely fine. (If being done in a blender, it's easier to do in batches)

NOTE: Difficult as it may be, DO NOT EAT THE OREOS! If you do not have enough cookies to mix with the cream cheese, the consistency of the candy will not be right! To keep this from happening, buy yourself an extra packages of cookies :)

Mix cream cheese with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the crushed Oreos and beat on high until well mixed. Chill mixture for at least an hour in the freezer.

Once chilled, roll Oreo cookie mix into one inch balls. (I used a small ice cream scoop to make them uniform).

Melt the chocolate chips and shortening or oil with a double bolier. (You can use the mircowave instead, but I've found it's more difficult to regulate the temperature of the chocolate and can cause it to seize! Using the double boiler on a low temp prevents that from happening.)

Dip the Oreo balls completely into the melted chocolate using forks, spoons, toothpicks, whatever you find works for you!

Place coated candies on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and leave them to harden in the refrigerator for about an hour.

I'm not crazy about the name. When I go to serve them to a crowd or make them for some sort of event I need to think of a better name. Ideas? I'm not a fan of the name "Oreo" in the title, to me it sounds very packaged, and I'm also not a fan of a recipe that includes "balls", regardless of them being shaped as such.

Give the recipe a try! You'll be suprised how chocolately these yummy treats are, and happy you'll have money over to make another batch :)

Chels