Fried Chicken for Two

 March 2025

Recipe from Cook's Country, October 2014

I was attracted to this recipe because it promised fried chicken with less oil than other recipes. Dealing with large quantities of used cooking oil is one of the reasons for not deep frying chicken, or other foods, at home. I have tried several recipes for making fried chicken at home, some with and some without the oil-mess problem. Why not try another.

I used frozen buttermilk; after thawing it was whisked as the components had separated. The resulting buttermilk was not as thick as it had been originally. Four bone-in chicken thighs were trimmed and seasoned with salt and pepper. Flour, baking powder, garlic powder, dried thyme, cayenne, salt, and pepper were combined in a shallow dish. A little buttermilk was added to the flour mixture and rubbed with fingers to form shaggy pieces. Buttermilk was also placed in a separate shallow dish. The chicken pieces were dipped in the buttermilk, dredged in the seasoned flour, placed on a wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet, and chilled in the refrigerator for a little over half an hour. Vegetable oil was added to a non-stick, 10" skillet to a depth of ½ inch and heated over medium heat to 350°. The chicken was added skin-side down, covered, and fried until deep golden brown. The cover was removed from the pan, the chicken turned over, and fried to an internal temperature of 175°. Two smaller pieces were done sooner than the two larger pieces. During cooking the burner was adjusted several times to maintain an oil temperature around 300°. The finished chicken rested on paper towels for about five minutes. Total time, including 30+ minutes chilling, was 1 hour 20 minutes.

This is good fried chicken. The coating is crisp without being tough, adheres well to the chicken, and tastes good. The chicken is not too salty or too spicy and is well seasoned with a nice hint of garlic. This recipe provided two meals for the two of us. However the oil did overflow the pan when the chicken and lid were added. If I make this again I might try our other 10" skillet or perhaps use a little less oil. Cleanup was easier because of the availability of an empty oil bottle: I could ladle the used oil into the bottle and then discard it.

M&M Cookies

March 2025

Recipe from Cook's Country, December 2020

I've had M&M cookies but I've never made them myself. They are similar to chewy, buttery chocolate chip cookies, which I make on a regular basis, with M&M's in place of chocolate chips the most obvious  difference. A recent episode of the Cook's Country TV show inspired me to make them myself. As a bit of a bonus the dough is made by hand, no mixer.

I used plain, dark chocolate M&M's because that's what we stock in our cupboard for snacking and for trail mix. Flour, salt, and baking soda were whisked together in a bowl. In a larger bowl melted unsalted butter was whisked with brown sugar and granulated sugar. An egg plus a yolk and vanilla were whisked into the butter mixture until fully combined. Half of the flour mixture was gently stirred into the butter mixture followed by the second half of the flour mixture and the M&M's. The dough was portioned onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet using a #30 scoop. (This is my favorite size for making cookies, the recipe specifies somewhat larger cookies.) I put 8 scoops of dough on the half sheet pan then flattened them to ½-inch disks. These were baked in a hot oven, 425°, for about 8 minutes.  The recipe made 28 cookies in about 65 minutes.

The cookies are blond with a crispy exterior and chewy interior. When I first ate them I thought they were a little bland, perhaps I was unconsciously comparing them to brown butter chocolate chip cookies. They are not very sweet putting a premium on the butter and chocolate flavors. As I've eaten more of them I have grown to like them more and more. These colorful cookies are worth baking again.

Glazed All-beef Meatloaf

 March 2025

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, January 2006

I have tried several different recipes for meatloaf and written about them in this blog. For the last several years my go-to recipe was quick mini-meatloaf. Not only is the size of this dish convenient but it is easy to make and good to eat. I don't know what drew my attention to this older all-beef recipe, perhaps because it was an ATK Staff Selection for their 25th year, but I added it to my list of meatloaf experiments.

Monterey Jack cheese was grated on the medium holes of a box grater, spread on a plate, and placed in the freezer. Freezing prevents it from clumping. A rimmed baking sheet was lined with aluminum foil then a cooling rack was put inside. A perforated 10"x6" piece of foil was placed in the center of the rack. Finely chopped onion and celery were cooked in butter until they started to brown. Minced garlic, fresh thyme, and paprika were added and cooked for a minute then some V8 (in place of tomato juice) was added. This onion mixture was moved to a small bowl. Chicken broth and eggs were whisked in a large bowl then sprinkled with gelatin and let stand to bloom the gelatin. Soy sauce, Dijon mustard, crushed saltine crackers, minced fresh parsley, salt, pepper, and the onion mix were stirred into the egg mixture. The frozen cheese was crumbled into the mixture then ground beef was added (I used 1 pound 93% lean plus 1 pound 85% lean.) and mixed by hand. The meat mixture was transferred onto the foil rectangle on the cooling rack, smoothed with a wet spatula, and baked for about an hour in a 375° oven until the center of the meatloaf was 135°–140°.

While the meatloaf baked a glaze was made by cooking together ketchup, hot pepper sauce (as usual I used half the recipe amount), ground coriander, cider vinegar, and light brown sugar until thickened. Half of the glaze was spread on the meatloaf and broiled until bubbly. The last half of the glaze was then added and broiled again. It took 70 minutes to prepare the meat loaf for baking and a total of 2 hours 40 minutes from start to table.

This meatloaf was bit of a project to make though the ingredients were all pantry staples and nothing was difficult to do. We enjoyed eating it both the day it was made and as leftovers. It is tasty and has a nice tender texture, nothing like a burger, say, due in some part to the inclusion of gelatin in the all-beef mixture. The glaze is well balanced and not too spicy so its flavor did not overwhelm the meat loaf. This meat loaf should keep well in the refrigerator or the freezer and will provide us with many dinners.

French Onion Soup

March 2025

Recipe from Cook's Country, February 2020

I like having French Onion Soup in restaurants but I have little experience making it myself and I haven't tried it from a can. About ten years ago I made a version of this soup which came out well but I don't think I've made it since then. After seeing a newer recipe demonstrated on TV I was tempted into trying it again.

Four pounds of onion (four largish onions) were sliced thin and placed into a Dutch oven with melted butter, sugar, and salt then covered and cooked for about 20 minutes with occasional stirring. The cover was removed and cooking continued to evaporate most of the liquid that had been released from the onions and to start to caramelize them. With the liquid gone the cooking continued for an additional 30 minutes, with occasional stirring and scraping the bottom of the Dutch oven, until the onions were a uniform caramel color. A cup of red wine was stirred into the onions and cooked until almost entirely evaporated. Beef broth (we use Better Than Bouillon concentrate to make broth), fresh thyme sprigs, bay leaves, salt, and pepper were added and the mixture simmered for another 30 minutes. (During this time croutons were made from a store-bought baguette, olive oil, salt, and pepper.)  Because we don't have oven-safe soup bowls, two portions of the soup were transferred into a Corningware dish then sprinkled with grated Gruyère cheese, croutons, more Gruyère, and some grated parmigiano reggiano cheese. This was baked in a 500° oven to melt the cheese then transferred to soup bowls for serving. Total time 2 hours 40 minutes; while much of this time was hands off the soup required frequent visits to stir the onions and adjust the burner temperature. We should get about four dinners from this recipe.

We enjoyed this soup. It was not hard to make but because of the time taken to cook the onions it is a bit of a project. Because the final step of melting the cheese was not done in the serving bowls the croutons  were mixed in with the soup, becoming soggy, and the melted cheese was more dispersed through the soup than it would be otherwise, but these are minor complaints. Served with salad it makes a good cold-weather dinner.

Note: The notes in the recipe described a method for adding the cheese and croutons for bowls that are not oven safe. I tried this for some of the leftover soup and it worked well, better than toasting the croutons and cheese in a different bowl than used for eating. A mound of croutons is made on a baking sheet then covered with grated cheeses. This is placed under the broiler for 2-3 minutes then transferred with a spatula to a bowl of hot soup.

Cold-start Pan-seared Chicken Breasts

March 2025

 Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, March 2024

I have used the cold-start method for steak and for pork chops. This straightforward technique is my go-to method for cooking steak. So when a recipe was published using this technique for chicken breasts I immediately want to try it. 

The recipe is for chicken breast plus a mustard and caraway pan sauce. A boneless, skinless chicken breast was pounded to about ½-inch thick, brushed with vegetable oil, and sprinkled with kosher salt. It was placed in a cold nonstick skillet then cooked over high heat (8 on our stove) for 2 minutes. The breast was flipped and cooked for another 2 minutes.  The heat was reduced to medium (4) and the meat was flipped every 2 minutes until the internal temperature read 155°. It was rested under a loose foil tent for 10 minutes. While the chicken rested the pan sauce was made. Chopped shallot was cooked on medium heat in olive oil until lightly golden. Chicken broth was added and simmered on medium-high heat to reduce it to about 2 tablespoons. Cream and chicken juices were stirred in and reduced slightly. Dijon mustard and ground (mortar and pestle) caraway seeds were stirred into the sauce. Total time to make this dish was about 45 minutes.

This is a good chicken dish. Cooking the chicken this way couldn't be much easier. The sauce, which was also easy to make, tasted good and it was a good accompaniment to what is a lean and rather bland protein. We shared one chicken breast and had enough sauce left over for another. It was quick enough for a weeknight meal. The web site also has a recipe for a cherry and rosemary pan sauce and I could see using barbecue sauce, too.

Pasta alla Vodka

March 2025

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, September 2024

I have a vague memory of once making penne alla vodka. There are several America's Test Kitchen recipes for this dish backing up this memory. However, I could not find an entry for it in this blog so I have nothing in writing to jog my memory of the effort.  A recent issue of Cook's Illustrated brought this to mind with a new recipe. It looked appealing so I gave it a go. 

The pasta (rigatoni) and sauce are prepared separately then brought together in the last step of the recipe. The only modificationI made to the ingredients was a nod to our dislike of spicy food, using half the red pepper flakes, just ⅛ teaspoon. After preparing the ingredients, chopped pancetta and red pepper flakes were cooked in a Dutch oven. Minced garlic was added and cooked followed by tomato paste. Vodka was added to the mixture and cooked until most of the liquid was gone. (I did not remove the Dutch oven from the heat, as described in the recipe, as I was using an electric stove with no open flame.) Passata (an uncooked tomato puree found at the supermarket), cream, salt, and pepper were stirred in and simmered about 10 minutes. A little more vodka was stirred into the sauce then the cooked rigatoni was mixed in  along with a small amount of pasta cooking water to adjust the consistency.  The pasta was served with grated Parmesan cheese. Total time was about one hour; this could have been reduced some by cooking the pasta sooner.

This is a good dish, pretty easy to make and taking only an hour. We should get at least four meals from this preparation. It was not spicy and so could have been okay with the full ¼ teaspoon of red pepper flakes. The sauce is velvety, it adheres well to the pasta, and the acidic nature of the tomatoes is muted by the cream. It was good as a leftover, reheated in the microwave, though perhaps a little dry. According to the recipe the vodka enhances the flavors of the other ingredients without adding any flavor of its own.

Fresh Corn Chowder

January 2025

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated All Time Best Soups, America's Test Kitchen, 2016, p. 83

In the cooler months we like homemade soup for dinner. I have made corn chowder before using a family recipe but this time I decided to try an ATK recipe. Among other things it uses fresh corn, which is not easy to come by in the winter. But the supermarket had some packages of ears of corn that I could use. While they are probably not very fresh their availability made this dish possible.

The recipe specifies 10 ears of corn. The packages I bought had 4 smallish ears of corn each and I bought 2. The kernels were cut off 3 of these and the remainder were grated on the large holes of a box grater. Finely chopped bacon was cooked in a Dutch oven until crisp. One finely chopped onion was added and cooked until softened then 2 cloves of minced garlic were added and cooked until fragrant. Flour was sprinkled over the mixture and cooked for a few minutes. Chicken broth and whole milk were stirred in slowly. Cubes of red potato, bay leaves, thyme, and the grated corn were added and the chowder brought to a simmer. When the potatoes were almost tender the corn kernels and cream were added and cooked until the corn kernels were tender. Finally, minced parsley was added along with salt and pepper to taste.  Total time was around 100 minutes.

The chowder is good. I can't compare it with the family recipe chowder as it has been a while since I've had the latter. The kernels of corn provide sweet, slightly crunchy bits that are enjoyable to eat. Overall, though, the chowder could have had more corn flavor, probably a combination of not enough corn plus lack of freshness. Making this chowder in the summer with fresh corn should improve it. While we don't usually have soup in the summer this recipe might provide some inspiration to change that pattern.

Peanut Brittle

 January 2025

Recipe from Cook's Country, December 2024

I don't have much experience making candy. However, during the holidays, my wife, Diane, often makes several batches of nut brittle. She uses a family recipe that relies on a microwave oven to cook the candy. I enjoy eating the brittle, especially peanut brittle, so I was interested in trying the ATK recipe published recently in Cook's Country.

I made one ingredient substitution, using salted Cocktail Peanuts in place of salted dry-roasted peanuts. Getting all of the ingredients and needed hardware ready in advance was very helpful. Water and butter were cooked in a large saucepan until the butter was melted. Sugar and light corn syrup were added to the middle of the pan then stirred to moisten the sugar. This was brought to a boil and heated, without stirring, to a temperature of 300°. The heat was reduced and the mixture cooked until it reached 325°. Peanuts, which had been warmed in a 350° oven so the candy would not be cooled too much, were stirred into the mixture. Off heat, baking soda was stirred in; unfortunately it did not foam as expected. Working quickly as the candy hardens quickly, the candy was poured onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper sprayed with oil then immediately sprinkled with sea salt. After one hour to cool, the brittle was broken into pieces and stored in a sealed container. Total time, not counting the cooling, was one hour. 

The candy taste good but was hard rather than brittle. It could still be bitten and eaten but it did not have the expected consistency characterized by small holes throughout. This is because of the lack of foaming when the baking soda was added, something I was expecting from watching Diane make brittle. I suspect the baking soda was too old, it was well past the date printed on the box. I will have to try again with some newer baking soda, once I eat up this batch!

February 2025

I made this again with a fresh box of baking soda and using slated dry-roasted peanuts. The texture of the candy was a little better, a little lighter than with the old box of baking soda. The type of peanuts didn't make a significant difference.