The other day I thawed out some chicken thighs for a meal the next day. But with my new job responsibilities I didn’t have time to cook the chicken the next day. I didn’t want to put them back into the freezer so I needed to figure out some way to make them keep another day or so.

I had just made some corn bread pancakes with some buttermilk so I put the chicken in a bowl and covered them with the buttermilk I had left over and added about a 1/4 cup of Louisiana hot sauce.

So the next day I get home from work and the wife had already ordered pizza but I was craving something home cooked so I decided to throw this quick meal together. I pulled the chicken out of the buttermilk marinade, shook off the extra liquid and placed it in a baking dish with some sliced sweet onions.

I put that into a 400° oven along with another baking dish that had some Brussels sprouts, olive oil and garlic. I cooked both of those for about an hour, maybe a little less. I also boiled up some corn really quick.

This turned out to be a really delicious dish that required almost no work. The chicken was super moist and tender with a great flavor.

The pizza went pretty much untouched that night.

This recipe was submitted by a friend of The Rock and Roll Geek Show and host of The Homemade Hit Show, Tony Butterworth. Thanks, friend!

Tomatillo Salsa

Ingredients:

2 pound tomatillos, husked

1 cup chopped onion

3 teaspoon minced garlic

3 Serrano chili peppers

2 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

1 teaspoon ground cumin

3 teaspoons salt, or to taste

1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste

2 chicken bouillon cubes

1 lime (juice)

5 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Cut the tomatillos and onion into chunks and add into a blender with the garlic.

Place blended tomatillo mixture into a pot and add the remaining ingredients except cilantro.  Cook for 10 to 15 minutes under medium heat. When finished, allow to cool then add the cilantro and an extra chopped raw Serrano chili (if you like it spicy).

Optional:

Red chili flakes to taste (Can add before cooking)

Olive Oil (Can add after cooking – add a little richness)

Mirin (Japanese cooking wine, can add a little before cooking – sweet)

Roasted Anaheim chilies

Yesterday I finally got to cook some food so I spent all day in the kitchen. My favorite kind of Sunday.

I made a dish from the Cooking Up A Storm cookbook. The dish was Chicken and Sausage gumbo.

I’m going to try to take you step by step through my process with photos below.

Ingredients:

1   4-5 lb chicken cut into serving pieces
Salt
Cayenne pepper
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chopped yellow onions
1 cup chopped green bell peppers
1/2 cup chopped celery
About 2 1/2 quarts chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 lb andouille sausage sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/4 cup chopped green onions (white and green parts)
2 tbs chopped fresh parsley
Hot cooked rice for serving

First I combined the oil and flower to make the roux. I stirred it very often for about 45 minutes till brown.

Here it is after about 20 mins. It’s a little darker

This is after about 45 minutes. It’s pretty dark. I probably should have made it a little darker but I was getting impatient so I moved on to the next step.

Next I added the chopped onion, bell pepper and celery.

I cooked this for about 10 minutes till the vegetables were really soft.

I added the chicken broth, stirred to blend well, then I added the bay leaf, thyme and chicken and brought it to a boil. Once it was boiling, I lowered it to a simmer and cooked it for 3 hours.

After 3 hours I added the sausage, green onions and the parsley. I tasted it to check the seasonings. I then added some cayenne pepper and some salt. Boy was it good!

I also made a seafood gumbo that I’ll give the recipe for at another time.

So my Sunday dinner consisted of 2 kinds of gumbo and some delicious corn bread pancakes.
The corn bread pancakes were good but I still need to perfect this a little bit.

For lunch today I made corn chowder. I’ve never made it before but I needed to use the corn I picked up on Sunday from the Farmers Market.
I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. I think it will be even better tomorrow. One thing I’d probably do different next time is to either use whole milk instead of 2% or cut down on the lowfat milk and mix some heavy cream with it.

The recipe is after the photos. Note: I quadrupled the recipe because I like to have a lot of leftovers.

The picture below is step 2 of the recipe. You add the stripped corn cobs to the soup to help make the broth. They get removed after 30 minutes.

Corn Chowder Recipe

[...]

Tonight  I made a great dish called Ficase De Pollo (Cuban Chicken Stew). I make this about once a month. It’s pretty easy to make and there’s a ton of leftovers. It’s even better the next day.

Recipe after the photo

Ingredients:

4 packets of Sazon Goya (mexican spice)

Preparation

In a large pot, brown chicken and set aside.
On medium high heat, add onion, peppers and carrots to pan and cook till tender (about 10 minutes)
Add garlic and cook for 1 minute
Add Sazon Goya, cumin and stir
Add wine and cook for about 2 minutes
Add chicken, potatoes, olives and water
Cover and cook on medium low for about 2 hours.

Serve with white rice

add potatoes,

Recipe after the break