Chicken in Guinness Red Sauce

I once found myself sitting in the Guinness factory in Dublin, Ireland, after taking the tour.  I don't know about these days, but more than a decade ago, you could sit in their little factory pub after the tour and drink pint after pint of Guinness for free.  For my friends, this made the price of admission well worth it.  As for me ... well, I nursed my one pint of Guinness for a long, long time.  By the time we left, I'd probably drunk about a quarter of it.



I don't think I've made any secret of the fact that I'm not a fan of alcohol.  It's not a judgmental thing; it's a I'm-pretty-sure-I'm-allergic thing.  Once, in college (of course), having drunk what to another person would be a moderate amount of alcohol (two shots and two beers), I broke out in splotchy redness all over.  Not to mention beet-red flushing after just a few swallows of wine.  Or the fact that after a few sips, any alcohol simply tastes like poison.  So while I often regret the fact that I can't drink socially, sticking out like a sore thumb, I know my limits.

Luckily, alcohol in food doesn't bother me.  In fact, I'm a huge fan of using it in cooking.  If you saw my full liquor cabinet you'd never think that I any kind of issue.  You might even think me a bit alcohol obsessed.  Of course, what I know is that it's all used for my big passion -- food!



This chicken in Guinness red sauce recipe is probably my favorite Crock Pot recipe of all time.  It's not just that it's simple (which it is, ridiculously so).  It's not just that it's delicious.  It's also that it doesn't look or taste like it came out of a slow cooker.  You know how some dishes, by either a certain kind of flavor or a certain kind of look, just has that Crock Pot feel?  This isn't one of them.  In my opinion, at least.

I use bone-in chicken thighs.  Thighs are my favorite part of the chicken -- they're tender and flavorful.  I like using bone-in pieces because, just like making stock, when you cook it for that long, it adds an extra dimension of flavor.  I also keep the skin on, then remove them and skim off the fat from the surface after the dish is done cooking.  But I think this recipe would be good no matter what you use.  If you want to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, more power to you.  After cooking, the meat will be tender and falling off the bone at the slightest provocation.



The sauce is simply tomato paste, Guinness, and the juice from some green olives.  It's incredible how, after hours of cooking and simmering with the juices from the chicken, this turns into a sauce that's complex and delicious.  The olives don't turn to mush, but are soft while still maintaining their olivey-ness.  Their sharpness and tang, however, definitely mellows into the sauce.

I like to serve this chicken on top of a long pasta like spaghetti, but other starches such as rice or potatoes would probably work as well.  I've often doubled the recipe with great success.

Chicken in Guinness Red Sauce

Ingredients

• 4-6 chicken pieces (I like bone-in thighs)
• 1 6oz can tomato paste
• 3/4 cup Guinness (or other dark beer)
• 4oz green olives along with juice (about 24 olives + juice)
• salt and pepper, to taste

Method

1. If you like, wash and pat dry the chicken.  I don't unless they're really bloody or dirty for some reason.  Season the chicken with salt, pepper, or any other preferred spices -- paprika, garlic salt, etc.  Err on the side of underseasoning; if it needs more after it's cooked, you can add it then.  Place the chicken pieces in the slow cooker as evenly as possible.
2. Mix the tomato paste with the Guinness and pour on top of the chicken.
3. Add the olives and their juice on top.
4. Cook on low for 6-8 hours (I've gone as long as 12 and it was fine, but not as ideal), or high for 3-4 hours.
5. Taste and adjust for seasoning, then serve hot on top of pasta or rice.

Slow Cooker Potatoes Au Gratin

When Trix picked potatoes au gratin for our weekly slow cooker meal, I agreed readily because... potatoes and cheese, what's not to love? The problem was, the recipe served 10-12 (!!!). I decided to cut it in half, but I really should have quartered it. It's lucky I decided on half, at least, because it turns out that my Crock Pot was just able to fit that amount. I can't imagine the size of the Crock Pot needed to make the entire recipe. O.o



Some people are able to have just potatoes for a meal; for me it's more of a side dish (though believe me there was plenty to have made an entire meal on its own). But in order to adhere to the spirit of a hot meal without spending too much time on preparation, I bought a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and also quickly stir fried some broccoli. Not very upscale, maybe, but quite yummy just the same.

As for the star of today's show, the potatoes were great. Maybe not as cheesy as I expect from potatoes au gratin, but the dish makes up for that by being surprisingly sophisticated in flavor. Not very salty, a bit tangy, with surprising heat -- or maybe I added a little too much pepper. Or mustard. Or both.

Dishes like this are why I have a mandoline. Actually, I have two. One full-sized mandoline, which I love, but am loath to drag out and actually use, because it's a chore to clean. Then there's my little OXO hand-held mandoline, which I got only recently, and it is a DREAM. It works incredibly well, and is convenient, small, and easy to wash. It's not good for very wide items, but it worked perfectly in this case.



I should also mention that I didn't have the heavy cream that the recipe called for. I actually deliberately went to Trader Joe's on Labor Day (thank goodness they were open), with the EXPRESS PURPOSE of buying heavy cream, but I somehow got home without any whatsoever, and I didn't realize it until late at night. How a person can go to the store to buy a specific item and walk out with practically everything BUT that item, is still a mystery to me. Sigh. It could have been more of a disaster, I suppose. I substituted 1 1/4 cups of half & half and 1/2 cup of soy milk. The half & half made things decently rich. The sauce came together beautifully, and while I don't know what the dish would have tasted like made with heavy cream, it tasted just fine to me. Plus, it helps that after the dish is done you're adding cheese to it.

Warning, if you're like me and with work and travel time, are gone from the house for longer than 8 hours or so, the potatoes may overcook a tad on the edges. I had to leave mine in (on low, of course) for about 10 hours, and the potatoes on the outside were already starting to darken too much. They weren't burned, but texture wise was extra chewy somehow, not great. I know it kind of defeats the point of a slow cooker to have to watch the dish, but in this case of these potatoes it would probably be a good idea if you were able to check on them once in awhile, or know for sure how long you'll be gone.

I think this would be a great dish to make for a big family dinner, or maybe as a contribution to a pot luck. :D

Slow Cooker Potatoes Au Gratin (adapted from A Year of Slow Cooking)

Ingredients

• 3 large Russet potatoes, thinly sliced
• 1 parsnip, thinly sliced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 4 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1 3/4 cups heavy cream
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp dried mustard
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Method

1. Place prepared vegetables in the slow cooker.  Combine haphazardly.
2. In a small saucepan, melt the butter.  Add the flour and stir to create a roux.  Cook the roux for 3-5 minutes, until it turns golden in color.  Slowly add the cream.  Cook until heated through and the sauce has the texture of a slightly thickened sauce (not thick like gravy).  Add thyme, sea salt, dried mustard, and black pepper.  Stir until everything is well incorporated into the sauce.
3. Pour the sauce on top of the vegetables and turn on the slow cooker.  Cook on high for 5-6 hours or on low for 8-9.
4. Just before serving, stir in the cheese until melted.

White Chicken Chili

I've known of the existence of white chicken chili, peripherally, for years, but had no desire to try it myself, whether homemade or otherwise.  See, I'm a big fan of chili, or what I know of as chili, with ground beef, onion, kidney beans, lots of chili powder (I've even made my own), and tomato sauce (which is what would make it not chili to some folks).  "White" chili held no appeal for me; it sounded so... bland and uninteresting.

Boy, was I ever wrong.

White chicken chili, where have you been all my life?!



Maybe I was lucky to find a really great recipe right off, or maybe all white chicken chili is this delicious.  All I know is that now that it's in my life, I'm never letting it go again!  Like regular chili, this version is easy to make, even if it uses different ingredients.  Reading the recipe, I thought the results would be quite spicy, but in fact it's not.  It's fairly mild, actually.  Lovers of spicy food should use more chilies or include the seeds (I didn't), or use more cayenne than the recipe calls for.  I used leftover chicken from a grocery store rotisserie chicken, Trader Joe's chicken broth and Great Northern beans in the chili, and topped it with a Mexican blend of shredded cheese.

This recipe is also very flexible in that it can be made in both a slow cooker (which is what I did) or on the stovetop.  The former takes 6-12 hours; the latter 20 minutes.  Perfect for if you want to come home to a hot meal, or if you decide to make dinner at the last minute.  How great is that?

White Chicken Chili (adapted from Serious Eats)

Ingredients

• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups diced, cooked chicken
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 seeded jalapeño pepper, chopped
• 1 15.25oz can corn, undrained
• 1 15oz can white beans (such as cannelloni or Great Northern), undrained
• 1 4oz can chopped green chilies
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 3/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano or Italian seasoning
• pinch ground cloves
• pinch cayenne pepper
• grated white (or mixed) cheddar cheese

Method

1. Combine everything into a slow cooker and cook on low for 10-12 hours or on high for 5-6 hours.  If cooking on the stovetop, heat the olive oil.  Saute the onion until soft and translucent.  Add all the other ingredients and simmer for about 20 minutes.
2. Spoon chili into bowls and top with as much or as little cheese as desired.

Red-Braised Beef

A traditional Chinese dish (one of my favorites) is "red"-cooked beef and tendon. I think the reason it's called "red" is due to the resulting color, which isn't really red as it is rich, shiny, and wonderful. I suppose you could say it has reddish tones.



The flavor is indescribably good. It's flavored with soy sauce, sugar (in the form of rock candy), rice wine, and star anise. That's it. And yet the transformation of the meat once it's been braised for hours is quite incredible.

Most commonly this dish is made with beef brisket, but my mom likes to make it with beef banana shank because it has less fat content. Once it's all been cooked, the beef is so tender and falling apart that the difference between the two is minimal, so I'm good with going with the healthier version.



Just as important as the beef is the tendon, a creamy white substance that connects muscle to bone. The only way to eat it is when it's been cooked for a long time, so that it becomes soft, melty, slightly sticky, and delicious. Both the beef and the tendon need to be pre-boiled, to get rid of some of the surface blood and impurities, and when you do this, they both become very hard and solid. Only hours of cooking will coax them into being as tender as they need to be.

The recipe I got from my mother is imprecise ... she's a wonderful cook, and as is the case with most wonderful cooks, does no actual measuring. Grrr. So I had the ingredients and the general method down, but actually making it turned out to be more challenging. I made this about 3 times (always too salty) before I finally perfected it this last time. The key is not to use too much soy sauce. It'll seem like it's not enough, just a small amount sitting at the bottom of the pot, with huge hunks of beef and tendon on top -- what chance does the soy sauce have of seasoning it all? Don't worry, it will.

Speaking of soy sauce, the absolute key to red braising is using dark soy sauce. If you don't, it won't get that deep, dark, 'red' color, which is what makes a red-braised dish so appealing. However, you also don't want to use only dark soy sauce, which contains molasses, as it hasn't got the same flavor as regular soy sauce. You want to use a mix of both. Dark soy sauce is available at Asian markets like 99 Ranch, but in this day and age your local Safeway may carry it also.

If you find that you have star anise but it's in bits and pieces, use a cheesecloth and some kitchen twine to make a pouch for it. It's important not to let a bunch of stray pieces of star anise get lost in the pot, because at some point you'll need to fish them out (if you leave them in for the entire duration of cooking, your dish will end up bitter -- at least according to my mom). As for the rock candy, it's traditional to use it (and very common in Chinese grocery stores, so if you're there for the star anise, might as well pick up a box), but ultimately it's really just sugar, so if you don't want to bother, substitute with plain sugar and I'm sure it'll be fine. Here's the rock candy that's popular in our household:



Finally, you can cook this in a pot on the stove (as my mother does), but that requires a little more attention as you don't want the sauce to burn. If you're more like me and want to use something you can turn on and pretty much not have to worry about, use a slow cooker.

Red-Braised Beef and Tendon

Ingredients:

• 1.5 lb beef tendon
• 1.5 lb beef banana shank (whole)
• 1/4 cup dark soy sauce
• 1/4 cup regular soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tbsp rice wine (I like Shaoxing)
• 2-3 slices of ginger (about 2 inches in length)
• 1 medium-sized chunk of rock candy or 1 scant tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 whole star anise (phonetically called "bak gok" in Cantonese)

Method:

1. Boil a large pot of water. Add tendon and shank and boil for a few minutes, to let the blood and other impurities out -- there will be foamy gunk. Remove tendon and shank from water and put them into a clean slow cooker or pot, arranging the pieces so that you get maximum surface area.
2. Pour the soy sauces directly over the meat, doing your best to splash a bit on every surface of the meat and tendon. Tuck the ginger in between the pieces of beef. Add the star anise, making sure that it's in the soy sauce (same thing if you're using a pouch). Add the water and rice wine. It will seem like there's very little liquid in the pot; resist the temptation to add more.
3. Set your slow cooker to 'high' (or simmer this on the stove using low heat) and cook for a few hours. Periodically, about once an hour, check on it and turn the pieces, as well as skim off any fatty oil that accumulates on the surface.
4. After about 3 hours, remove the star anise and add the chunk of rock candy. Cook for another 2-3 hours, again turning the pieces every so often and skimming off fat.
5. After 5-6 hours, the beef will be soft enough to cut. Remove the meat and the tendon from the pot and cut into smaller pieces (the meat may be so tender at this point that you can just use tongs to pull it apart). Add the meat back into the sauce, stir everything to coat, and cook an additional 30 minutes to an hour.
6. Serve with rice and some veggies (like garlic stir-fried spinach)!

Saturday Dinner: Turkey and Broccoli Goulash

Saturday night dinners are officially being changed to Friday night dinners. It's so we can be just like Lorelai and Rory on Gilmore Girls. Ha! No really, as much as we love them, and as much as we are tickled to be able to say that we have Friday night dinners just like on GG, it's a scheduling change to better suit our (or more specifically, my) needs. We made this decision too late to do anything about this week, so tonight we made yet another (relatively!) healthy recipe. Perhaps not the most visually appealing thing we've ever made, but once you taste it and know how little work went into making it, I guarantee you'll be a fan.



The original recipe (I don't have a link for it) was called simply "chicken and broccoli pasta" and involved a slow cooker. It sounded good, even though I generally don't like ground poultry (it's just so watery). After reading the recipe I could not really picture what it was supposed to turn out like -- what was it? After having made it, it seems very like what one of my friends calls "goulash," so I've elected to call it that as well. I also made a few adjustments to the recipe, and it came out really great, so I'm going to stick with the tried and true.

My favorite thing about this recipe is that it utilizes the slow cooker, which is one of the greatest inventions ever. Throw a bunch of stuff in, then come back hours later to find perfectly cooked and yummy food? What's not to like? This recipe requires a little bit of pre-slow cooker work, but not much. And best of all, I think the leftovers will be just as good -- if not better -- than the first serving.



Turkey and Broccoli Goulash

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 lb ground turkey (or chicken breast)
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large shallot, minced (optional)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 12 oz frozen broccoli flowerets
• 14 1/2 oz canned Italian-style tomatoes, undrained
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 7 oz rotini pasta, cooked and drained
• 3 1/2 oz cheddar cheese, shredded

Method

1. In a large skillet, cook turkey, garlic, shallot if you're using, and onion until turkey is no longer pink.
2. Mix in basil and oregano.
3. Transfer mixture to slow cooker. Add broccoli, tomatoes, and chicken broth. Mix well.
4. Cover and cook on low for four hours.
5. Stir in tomato paste, pasta, and cheese.
6. Cover and cook on high for an additional 30 minutes.

Note: You can use lowfat/low sodium versions for each ingredient if you wish; I don't think it would make a big difference, flavor wise. As for the tomatoes I used stewed whole tomatoes, but I think diced might be even better. About 4 1/2 oz of dry rotini pasta was used to make the 7 oz of cooked. I don't think the shallot would make a big difference, but I threw it in because I had it. Also, Jade used ground chicken instead of turkey, so the choice is really up to you. Despite the fact that I don't usually like ground poultry, it worked really well in this dish.

Oh also -- today is apparently National Bundt Pan Day, so I made a quick white cake using an easy peasy Betty Crocker mix. Hey, it's been a very cold autumn and my open kitchen with its hardwood floors isn't my favorite place to be!