As a devout follower of Top Chef, I have to admit that Chicago chef Koren Grieveson didn't impress me much with her demeanor on the show - remember her, the expressionless young woman who headed up the "beer pairing quickfire" on Season 4? But, the African-born chef is now featured in Food & Wine magazine's "Best New Chefs" issue, and the marinade on her "Tangy Roasted Chicken Thighs" sounded quite good - and most importantly, featured ingredients that I often have in my kitchen.
So I decided to give her another go. Maybe, just maybe, her personality comes out in her cooking, instead of her face. And the marinade was quite good - not earth-shattering, but pretty good nonetheless.
I had two bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts in the fridge, so I used them instead of thighs for this recipe, and they worked well.
Tangy Roasted Chicken Thighs (from Food & Wine, July 2008)
4 large garlic cloves
One 1/4-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp chopped cilantro
1 scallion, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup chicken stock
2 pounds chicken (either thighs or breasts, bone-in, skin-on)
1. Pulse the garlic and ginger in a mini food processor until chopped. Add the paprika and lemon juice, and pulse until smooth. Transfer to a bowl.
2. Add the chicken, cilantro, scallion, parsley and olive oil, and toss to coat.
3. Marinate chicken in refrigerator for about 3 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 375. Heat some vegetable, canola or olive oil in a skillet.
5. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and place in hot skillet, skin side down. Cook for about 5 minutes, until browned.
6. Turn the chicken and add chicken stock (I was out of chicken stock, so I added 1/4 cup water and a splash of white wine. It was delicious this way!).
7. Place pan in oven and roast the chicken about 15 minutes, or until cooked through.
I served this with some simple Yukon Gold potatoes, which I scrubbed, coated with olive oil, rubbed with grey sea salt and baked, and some sweet corn. I wanted to grill the corn, but the downpours outside made it impossible - in fact, I think the chicken would be pretty good on the grill as well. It was a pretty delicious marinade, and I think next time I'll make a quick pan gravy with the drippings to serve over the chicken.
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But I've got to tell you about dessert. Flipping through the pages of Real Simple, I came across a recipe for blueberry cobbler that looked like heaven in a pie plate. And it was. And true to the magazine's philosophy, it was actually REAL SIMPLE.
Blueberry Cobbler - from Real Simple, July 2008
Filling:
2 pints bluberries (use wild blueberries if you can find 'em)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp flour
Topping:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon lemon zest (I was too lazy to grate lemon zest, so I skipped this. It was fine.)
6 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp heavy cream (I only had 1% milk, so I added some melted butter to it to thicken. It turned out fine!)
1. Heat oven to 375. In a shallow 1 1/2 quart baking dish or pie plate, toss blueberries with sugar and flour.
2. In a medium bowl, combine baking powder, salt, flour, lemon zest and sugar.
3. Add the butter and use your fingers (or two knives) to blend until coarse crumbs form. Then add the cream and mix until a shaggy dough forms.
4. Drop mounds of dough haphazardly over the blueberries, and bake for 35-40 minutes. Serve with additional cream for drizzling, or whipped cream, OR vanilla ice cream.
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