Rotisserie Chicken

It is the Labor Day weekend, and one of THE GRILLING HOLIDAYS of the year. I tend to grill and smoke the year round, but this is the last big grilling events for the season.

Most people will do burgers, hot dogs, maybe a steak, possibly a chicken breast, or in a far chance spatchcock a chicken and grill, but none of those compare to a slow roasted rotisserie chicken that has cooked in the grill and been bathed in a combination of hard wood smoke and it’s own juices.

Wikipedia says:

Rotisserie is a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit – a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked over a fire in a fireplace or over a campfire, or roasted in an oven. This method is generally used for cooking large joints of meat or entire animals, such as pigs, turkeys, goats or historically, entire cattle. The rotation cooks the meat evenly in its own juices and allows easy access for continuous basting if desired.

Some people treat rotisserie chicken like they treat ribs and chili. A secret rub, massive preparations, all kinds of methods. This is just a bit much. As long as the skin is crispy, the meat meat moist I’m happy.
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Recession Food – Fried Chicken Livers

This is a recipe that will have some saying, EEEEWWW!!!!.

Stepping onto the soap box…

One has to consider the life experiences of the adults of my youth, from World War I, to the Great Depression, to World War II, all of which had some form of food rationing. If not by “law” by finance..

This was a time that most of the food eaten was grown by the people eating it. There were no “food factory” massive farms, but in the case of this dish a bunch of chickens running around in a barnyard. Each one was known, named, and cared for, from egg to skillet.

As such throwing items like liver and gizzards away was not just sinful, but wasteful. (Do note, I’d eat the “offal” from that barnyard a lot faster than I’d eat food from a “factory farm”.)

Chicken lights and livers are working organs and as such can take on some rather funky tastes and smells, but an overnight soak in buttermilk will remove all of these. Once these have soaked they can be drained, dredged, dipped and dredged again, then rested before frying. The point here is to generate a crisp crust that will help keep the moisture in the meat while it undergoes the thermal trip from au natural to nirvana. The fond left after becomes the base for a rich and wonderful cream gravy that is often served over these morsels.
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Curry in a Hurry

I am SOOO sure, everyone uses that line. But that still does not alleviate the fact this is soo true for this dish.

It’s actually a pleasant day, but I am tied up inside working on a data center make over… So it is a long, busy day for me, and that means very little time to layout a meal. With a bit of help from my friends the enzymes, and a bit of luck, I can still have a true rogue chef meal in a very short while.

I’ll start by marinating some chicken breast in buttermilk with a tsb of prepared curry powder, (yes, I know, but I did say “in a hurry”…), and I’ll let that sit in the fridge while I tear up raised floor, and try to trace network cables…. After I am worn out from bashing about the data center, I’ll prepare the meal…

My faithless Indian guide says …

Curry is a generic description used throughout European culture to describe a general variety of side dishes, best known in South Asian cuisines, especially Indian cuisine. The word curry is an anglicized version of the Tamil word kari which is usually understood to mean “gravy” or “sauce” rather than “spices”. In most South Indian cuisines, a curry is considered a side-dish, which can be eaten along with a main dish like rice or bread.

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Buffalo Chicken Tenders

It’s hot, it’s muggy, and I really do not want to stand over the stove.. Now tossing stuff into the fryalator is quite a different thing. I’ve written before about Chicken Rib Meat, and I have this fondness for buffalo wings, but HATE the bones…

Maybe chicken breast cut into tenders, seasoned, fried and, finished in a buffalo style..

Background

A Buffalo wing, hot wing, chicken wing or wing is a chicken wing section (drumette or flat) that is traditionally fried unbreaded and then coated in sauce. Classic Buffalo-style chicken wing sauce is composed of a vinegar-based cayenne pepper, hot sauce and butter. Buffalo wings are traditionally served with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing.

Cayenne pepper hot sauce and melted butter or margarine are the basis of the sauce. Buffalo wing sauce can be made with a variable amount of heat/spiciness, with the names of these sauces generally corresponding to the level of heat, such as mild, medium, or hot. Typically, the wings are deep-fried (although they are sometimes grilled or baked), drained, placed in a bowl with the sauce, tightly covered, and shaken until the wings are evenly coated. Plain wings can also be served.

In most cases, each contains the same base sauce but varies in the amount of butter or margarine and hot sauce used. Wings can also be served dry with the sauce on the side.

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Chicken Salad from Smoked Chicken

As I have said before:

So what’s so great about smoked whole chicken?

This is like the 60’s. If you can remember them, you were not there… Likewise, if you have not had smoked chicken, you just don’t know …. Imagine a roasted chicken bathed in flavorful smoke and slow cooked to the point where it melts in your mouth.

Now take that juicy, smokey, tender chicken and add fresh spring veggies and a home made mayo, put it on fresh ciabatta with a slice of raw onion, ….. (maybe a slice of jalapeño for a little rogue chef kick…)

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Saki – (to me) Grilled Chicken

I am in an undisclosed location somewhere in upstate New York, to escape the oppressive heat and humidity, as such I am in a celebratory mood and am in the mood to cook…

I still do not want beef, but chicken is defiantly on the radar screen. I’ve recently done smoked chicken and grilled chicken is just so lame, and every guy named Buba with a pickup truck does beer can chicken…. Maybe if I prepare a paste / rub / stuffing to insert into the body cavity, to steam and flavor (similar to a beer can, but with out country music), add to that perhaps a balsamic glaze or better yet some of my cherryaki sauce... Definitely, I’ll take this Asian and add the Asian Slaw salad as a side. But we still need that roguechef twist and bourbon is just NOT going to fit here… Maybe a ozeki saki, (not superb stuff, but good), as always do NOT cook with anything you would not drink. (The tasting is half the fun…)

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Chicken Shawarma from the Grill

Remembering a wonderful meal I had in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, I’ll try to replicate a Chicken Shawarma. Again,Thank you Ben and Aryeh..

As I seem to be in a mid eastern bend of mind, and the temperatures / humidity are keeping me there, let’s look at a favorite meal from The Levant….

Wikipedia says:

Shawarma is a Middle Eastern sandwich-like wrap of shaved lamb, goat, chicken, turkey, beef, or a mixture thereof. The meat is placed on a spit, and may be grilled for as long as a day.

Shawarma is made by placing strips of beef, lamb or marinated chicken on a stick. The meat is roasted slowly on all sides as the spit rotates in front of, or over, a flame for hours. Traditionally a wood fire was used, now a gas flame is common. While specialty restaurants might offer two or more meat selections, some establishments have just one skewer. After cooking, the meat is shaved off the stack with a large knife or an electric knife.

Shawarma is eaten as a fast food, made up into a sandwich wrap with pita bread or rolled up in an Armenian Lavash flatbread together with vegetables and dressing. Vegetables found in shawarma include cucumber, onion, tomato, lettuce, eggplant, parsley, pickled turnips, pickled gherkins, cabbage.

Dressings include: tahini (or tahina), hummus, or flavored with vinegar and spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Chicken shawarma is served with garlic mayonnaise, toum (garlic sauce), or skhug (a hot chili sauce).

Once the shawarma is made, it might be dipped in the fat dripping from the skewer and then briefly seared against the flame. In Israel, Syria and Lebanon, chicken shawarma is toasted after being made, whereas those made of lamb or beef are immediately eaten.

I’ll not try to do all of this, but I believe a good solid marinade in a oil / spice / lemon sauce, a run around the grill, in the case of the lair the grill pan, and serving with the traditional sauces / pita / veggies will be more than adequate to assuage the hungers for tasty, hot food without utilizing several hundred thousand btu’s of heat.

Just for the rogue chef twist, I’ll char these on the grill pan, and then finish with the stove top smoker…

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Chicken Salad

It was 90 yesterday, it’s 90 today, I’m NOT cooking.

But thanks to the local modern megamart, I have roasted chicken breasts. add some Indian spices for a taste twist, a fresh blender mayonnaise, some finely chopped veggies, and serve on a nice ciabatta ..

Background
Chicken salad is any salad that comprises chicken as a main ingredient. In Europe and Asia this may be complemented by any number of dressings, or indeed no dressing at all and the salad constituent can vary from traditional leaves and vegetables, pastas, cous cous to noodles or rice.

In the US it refers to a salad consisting primarily of chopped chicken meat and a fat-based binder such as mayonnaise or salad dressing. Like tuna salad, it is served as a creamy spread, and it is often used for sandwiches. Typically it is made with leftover or canned chicken in the United States.

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