Eric
Fermented Red Chili, Chicken, and Kimchi
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Category Archives: Chicken
Brabant Potatoes Tossed in a Smoked Paprika/Chorizo Sauce with Poached Egg
Eric
Wanna Play Chicken?
I use chicken as a practice protein for ideas I have. It’s inexpensive because I buy a whole chicken then just break it down myself and then go from there….stocks are made, nice little airline breasts, dark meat for braising and whatever else I can make into a meal.
In the picture above I’m getting ready to work with duck in the near future but duck is expensive so for now I wanted to see how it would work with chicken…duck breast isn’t cooked like chicken breast but it’s close to the same size and I wanted to see how medallions would look on top of couscous with two broken sauces.
I learned about broken sauces at work….instead of doing those tight sauces that I have learned at school then broken ones look really cool if you have the right things to make it with. At work we do a broken tomato vinaigrette….it’s f’ing delicious.
The dish above is a brined the chicken is sauteed in bacon fat and cut into medallions. It’s sitting on top of glazed leeks and carrots which is sitting on top of coriander cous cous. The broken sauce above is a kale puree (kale that Mindy grew!) mixed with popped brown and yellow mustard seeds. The sauce on the bottom is a broken dijon pan sauce. With duck it will be incredible….pretty awesome with chicken too!
I wanted to work with polenta and one day use transglutaminase to make a roasted chicken piece with skin on that will go below the polenta (rectangle chicken piece). The polenta will be a different shape on the second go -around. The sauce is a take from one at work….brown butter almondine but this uses pumpkin seeds, peaches, and sage……yes, excellent………the one at work is f’ing amazing too! The next time I make this I’m going to use compressed pumpkin instead of peaches.
This is a piquillo pepper polenta cake over a sauteed chicken medallion with a brown butter, sage, pumpkin seed, and peach sauce.
This was a sous vide stew I did one night at 2AM. I put all of the things you see in a plastic bag then vacuum sealed it, cooked it, then seared the chicken. It was pretty good and a good late night snack.
Chicken, the practice meat!
Eric
Pickled Red Chili Pepper/Honey Glazed Chicken and more…..
Here’s a little of what’s going on here.
I did a soy/ginger/shallot/sesame seed sous vide of some of Mindy’s carrots and some green beans.
I brined the chicken in rice vinegar, sugar, and ginger. I removed the chicken from the brine then did a hard sear of the skin then through it in the oven and basted it with a pickled red chili pepper and honey glaze that I made. When then chicken was about to be finished I through some green onions in the pan from Mindy’s garden….
They picked up the sticky glaze so I was able to mold them how I wanted and they were a little crispy too….awesome.
I removed the chicken and then reduced the sauce in the pan.
The rice is a made with black sesame seeds then some rice vinegar is folded in once it’s done….sushi style.
I eat pretty well at 2AM.
Eric
Spicy Italian Sausage Pasta with Fried Basil Leaves
Fried basil….pretty cool stuff.
Thyme, Basil, Chicken stock, Spicy Italian Sausage, Crushed red pepper, olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, cerignola olives, sweet onion, chardonnay, sel de mer, garlic, and mangalitsa fat.
Eric
Roasted Chicken with a Mango/Togarashi Glaze with Ginger Rice and Yellow Bell/Carrot Topper
I had some of that honey mango puree leftover from the scallop “carpaccio” so I decided to make it into a glaze to put on some chicken. ”Wow Eric, you’re like McGyver in the kitchen without things going all explody time.
The glaze started off with a little chicken stock then I reduced it, added togarashi, added cornstarch then finally added the honey mango puree. I used the glaze on the chicken and to cook the carrots and yellow bell pepper.
The carrots and yellow bell pepper were cooked in sesame oil on low heat then the glaze was introduced. Carrots and bell, this is glaze. Glaze, this is carrots and bell.
I chopped up a bunch of ginger then used some sweet sushi rice and put it in the rice maker with a touch of salt. If you eat this by itself then it’s nothing to write on a blog about but paired with carrots and yellow bell it’s quite amazing.
After the chicken was roasted I deglazed the pan with some whiskey then added some of the glaze to make the final sauce on the plate.
Green onions garnish, sauced plate, food is ready!
Eric
Random items
My sister and her husband invited me and Mindy over the other night. They were hungry, I cooked something. I wasn’t going over there to cook in the first place but that’s what I do when people are hungry, I cook. The difficulty with cooking at someone else’s house is that you don’t know what they do or don’t have. The difficulty with cooking at your sister’s house is that she is the opposite of me. She doesn’t cook at all but she does know her way around a wine rack or two…..if things go right she will be my sommelier one day….she just needs to start school soon…..Wait what? Yeah, my sister is thinking about going to sommelier school. Keep things in the family.
What you see above in the picture is a grilled chicken with dijon buerre blanc. Normally I would reserve that sauce for fish but it works fine with boneless skinless chicken breast…..no fat so it needs flavor! It is on a bed of fingerling potatoes made with rendered genoa salami, peaches, and basil…you think that sounds weird? Taste it, tell me about your experience….best potatoes ever?? Who knows….just another version 1.0.
Need someone to get rid of extra ingredients during the week? Meet Sunday Staff Meal Rivera. Hey Eric, I want you to cook with this or this and make it good. Sounds good. This week was extra fine Chinese noodles. I caramelized brown sugar then added pineapples, ginger, hoisin, plum sauce, soy sauce, and a little bit of sambal olek to make a sauce. Saute the hell out of the chicken, cook the noodles, combine them all, garnish with green onions and cilantro with a little dash of sriracha (THE ROOSTER). Lunch is ready!
Eric
Fried Egg, Chorizo Sauce, Rice…..Yes please!!
My friend Sean came over last night after class. I talked with him because I was out of class early because I had just finished my last final for the quarter. I had thoughts of going around West Seattle and getting into trouble but I forgot how tired I was. “Dude, come over, I have rum and I’ll cook”. Sean replied with an awesome response and he was over quickly……HE LIVES IN WEST SEATTLE TOO!!! MUAH HAHAHAHA.
I had this idea for this chorizo sauce so I put it to the test. It worked! Now, I was going to strain the meat from it but I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away, so good, so it stayed. Chorizo, red wine, iberico ham fat, saffron, and a touch of pepper reduced until I reached the desired consistency.
I diced up some avocado then placed it in a little bit of vinegar, extra virgin olive oil then salt and pepper. Drained it after 30 minutes….
The sauteed onion and yellow bell pepper are there to add color and depth of flavor. Sauteed in clarified butter.
Steamed jasmine rice, fried egg, and ta-da it’s all done. Sean’s reaction: “This is amazing”. My reaction: “Wait until I put a duck egg on top and clean the presentation up!”
Eric
“Yeah, I’ll have the 8 piece fried chicken with champagne”
Awesome, have a seat this is going to take a little while.
“What, why?”
Well, I’m going to brine the chicken in a salt, brown sugar, and pepper solution for a few hours.
“Brine?”
It’s awesome, trust me.
“Alright, but I don’t have all day…”
Believe me, it will be worth it. I’m gonna brine that chicken then I’ll pour you a glass of champagne.
“So what kind of champagne are you going to serve?”
Huh, I guess it’s technically not champagne……those French people are a little weird. Anyway, it’s a rose sparkling wine to be “correct”. It’s good, that’s all you need to worry about. Champagne, sparkling wine, fermented grapes with carbonation….who cares, just drink it.
“Oh alright, I guess I’ll try it, I was expecting champagne”
I can say a couple words in French if it makes you feel better.
“That’s rude”.
Sorry, I don’t really understand the whole wine thing. However, this sparkling wine is a 92 point on some magazine…..Does that do anything for you?
“I love 90+ point wines so this will do”.
*cough* F’ing snob *cough*
“What was that?”
Oh nothing, so do you want this now or with dinner?
“Dinner is fine”.
Cool, hey let me whip up a quick salad for you while you wait. It’s a spring salad with goat cheese, diced strawberries, candied meyer lemon, and elderflower vinaigrette. It’s no 90 point wine but I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
“This is really good! I can do without the wine comments though”
Sorry, I just get a little bent out of shape sometimes. You like spicy food? I was going to fry off the chicken wings early so you can have a little preview before the chicken comes, is that cool with you?
“Yeah, I love spicy!”
Alright, it’s a spicy wing with recao hot sauce, my own by the way, a little tabasco, lime, and cilantro. Let me know what you think.
“Geez, you went a little crazy with the sauce on the plate but it’s great”.
Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking…….Oh, fancy wings!!!! I’ll just keep it simple next time. I’m going to season the chicken real quick, I’ll be back.
Chicken is removed from the brine and run under water and left to dry. The it is seasoned with I’ll never tell you spices. Then lightly dusted with flour and put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. It’s removed, then I ran it through some spiced flour, into eggs, then into seasoned Panko, then back to eggs, flour, eggs, flour, and finally Panko (this gives it a nice layer of crunch). The chicken is then placed back in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Canola oil is placed in a large skillet, then pieces of chicken are placed in large skillet, cooked on one side then the entire pan goes into the oven at 400F until the meat is done. This is a better way to go than deep frying, the flavor develops more and you end up with a crispy crunchy piece of fried chicken.
I’m gonna serve up some waffle fries with this. I have something special I want you to try.
“Ok, uh sure”.
Alright, here you go fried chicken, champagne, with a tomato powder, urfa biber infused honey, enjoy.
“Urfa what?”
Don’t worry about it, just try it.
“Ok”
What do you think?
“I’ve never had anything like this, it’s great”.
Awesome, thanks! Here’s the tab by the way, just pay whenever you’re ready.
“YOU WANT HOW MUCH!?!??!?!?”
Hey man, that sparkling wine is expensive and this food didn’t cook itself. 
Eric
Sauteed Chicken with Braised Kale and Dutch Potato Chips
Kale is way to healthy for me. I’m not a big fan of the way healthy food is marketed. You always hear about all the great things….possible cancer prevention, amounts nutrients, vitamins, weight loss potential and all that jazz. My first question when someone goes on a healthy food product freak out is, HOW DOES IT TASTE?!?!??!?
Raw kale is gross. I’ve seen people put it in a smoothie then add 8 billion other ingredients in the smoothie to make it ridiculously unhealthy. Wait a second though, don’t be fooled here, I’m not a health food blogger. I’m not going to do a bunch of yo-yo dieting or tell you about how you can change your lifestyle by doing obvious things like “dieting” and “working out” so I can keep your attention and you can get inspired by my experience. I think about doing stuff like that all the time so this blog can finally take off……I won’t though, I cook!
There are nutrition density charts that say kale is one of the healthiest things you can eat. Kale, today is your day to be knocked down a few notches, I’m tired of you doing nothing and getting all the credit.
Take some kale and cook it like some collard greens. Render some bacon, pull the bacon bits out, cook some onions, celery, and carrots then deglaze with white wine and add vegetable stock then add the kale and through it in the oven at 325F until it starts to wilt. Wait, that’s not so unhealthy…….. YOU WIN TODAY KALE!!!!!
The chicken is brined then salt and peppered. Sauteed in duck fat skin side down first until the skin is crispy then flipped over and finished in the oven.
The dutch potatoes are sliced thin on a mandoline. Deep fried then salted and peppered.
A light pan gravy is made with the chicken/duck fat. I leaned it out with pickled mustard seed juice then poured a little bit over the dish to bring it all together but not overpower.
All of this sounded way to healthy so I made some creme brulee for me, Mindy, my sister and her husband.
Oh yeah!!!!!
Eric
Steamed Buns with Sauteed Brined Chicken, Lemongrass Chicken Glace, and Hoisin/Rooster Sauce
Like I said in a previous post. I’m working on a few techniques so the final product really isn’t that much of a concern but once again, this turned out great. I’m stealing all the plays from that Momofuku cookbook and I am starting to deviate from it in order to make things my own. That’s how things work in this cooking world.
(I just deleted a three paragraph rant…..blah blah blah)
The basic make up of this dish is from the Momofuku cookbook. I have added the Lemongrass Chicken Glace, jicama, carrots, and substituted pork belly for chicken (I was brining it at the time). These additions aren’t needed but are nice. The steamed bun idea is genius and I will be making them from scratch soon….so stay tuned.
Also, I’m keeping the procedure for the chicken sauce for myself. I’ll give you the ingredients but not much more.
Ingredients:
- Chicken drum sticks and thighs brined in sugar/salt mixture then drained and topped with salt and pepper then sauteed and finished in the oven then pulled apart
- Jicama, thinly sliced
- Carrots, thinly sliced
- Green onions, thinly sliced
- Cucumbers, quick pickled
- Cilantro
- Hoisin
- Sriracha (THE ROOSTER)
- Lemongrass Chicken Glace: Chicken stock (reduced a ton), lemongrass, japones peppers, brown sugar, galangal root, kaffir lime leaves, ginger, szechuan pepper, cornstarch
- Steamed buns (wow, what a pain in the butt these were to find)
Procedure:
- Combine all ingredients on freshly steamed buns and arrange as shown.
United Way of King County’s Hunger Action Week: The Importance of Stock
(Chicken stock for the day: Chicken, water, onions, celery, carrots, thyme, black peppercorns, and parsley stems)
While in culinary school and at work I have learned how important making stock is. Chicken, Beef, Veal, Vegetable and just about any other meat if you want to give it a go. Whichever you choose it’s a great way to save money while increasing the flavor of your dishes.
A stock is usually made with the bones of meat with some vegetables and herbs/spices added to the mix. The classic beef stock consists of beef bones that are roasted then a mirepoix is added (celery, carrots, onion) and caramelized then a bunch of water is added and the stock will cook for 8-12 hours. The same thing is done with chicken minus the caramelization of the vegetables and roasting (unless you’re Eric Ripert, he roasts the chicken…that’s why he’s awesome). The herbs are debatable and most consist of thyme, bay leaf, and pepper….of course additions and subtractions can be made. (Oh if you’re curious, a broth is made by using the meat and the bones).
So why is this stock so important? I like to think of a stock as a great way to dispose of odds and ends in your kitchen. Restaurants have standards and want to keep their stocks tasting the same way every time because those stocks will later go into soups, sauces, or braising liquids but you don’t have to do this at home. Have a few extra mushrooms that aren’t enough to put into a meal? Throw them into the stock! Fresh herbs starting to look a little less than perfect? Walk the plank! I like to treat my stocks at home like a little garbage disposal. Why throw a lot of that stuff into a compost bin, trash, or let it spoil? Put it into a stock, you paid for the food so eat it!!
At home I make stocks on Wednesday and Thursday’s. The beef ones I let sit overnight in a rather large stock pot. I will start the chicken when I get home then cool down and bag before I go to sleep. A vegetable stock takes about 45 minutes so that’s easy! Make stock, stop throwing your food away, eat it! When a recipe asks for water 9 times out of 10 you can use stock to create something more flavor.
A few tips for making a stock at home:
- Skim the fat as it rises to the top
- Do not let it boil, a little bit of steam coming out of the pot is perfect
- Do not stir it, this will give you a cloudy stock.
- More tips/recipes here (click)
Right now I am making a stock that will go into a braised chicken recipe and then tomorrow I will take more stock and make a potato and leek soup.
There will be lots more coming up on this blog throughout the week for Hunger Action Week so stay tuned. If you like what’s going on here or even if you don’t and you hate me then just forget about that and donate to the United Way of King County. My words, pictures, and recipes don’t matter. Making sure someone has something to eat for their next meal is important, you can help.
United Way of King County (click here)
Roasted Chicken Halves on Leek, Carrot Bed with Herbs De Provence Potatoes with Pickled Mustard Seed Pan Gravy
Mindy’s dad is in town and we rarely get to see him. She told me he really likes chicken so I decided to put on a little show. Oh, he also brought me a bunch of cast-iron pans so I had to put them to the test!
The pan gravy isn’t pictured but it was a monster sauce, so many textures and layers to it….actually, everything in this dish had a lot of textures and layers. The pickled mustard seed…..David Chang is a f’ing genius….if you haven’t picked up a copy of MOMOFUKU then you’re not really cooking. Yeah, that good.
Ingredients:
Chicken
- 1 whole chicken, cut in half with sternum, wishbone, and back bone removed
- Duck fat, uh huh
- Kosher salt and crushed black pepper
Braised Leeks and Carrots
- White through light green parts only, cut into 6-8 inch long pieces about 1/2 inch wide
- Carrots, peeled, then with peeler makes cuts to equal same size as leeks
- 1 garlic clove peeled
- White wine
- Chicken Stock
- Shallot, 1/4 thick shavings
- Clarified butter
- Fresh Thyme
- Herbs de provence, dry mix
- Salt and pepper, tt
- Picked mustard seeds
Potatoes
- Red Potatoes, quartered
- Clarified butter
- Herbs de provence, dry mix
- Salt and pepper, tt
Pan Gravy
- Flour
- Drippings used from every pan except for the potatoes
- I made a smaller fortified sauce to lean this out. It was a reduction featuring the mustard seeds, shallots, parsley stems, dijon, and a chicken glace de viande
Procedure:
- Would you make this or am I just wasting my time posting a long procedure? Let me know if you want it.
- Enjoy
Eric
Duck Fat Fries, Herbs de Provence Chicken Tenders with a Duck Fat Country Gravy
Duck fat is in…..Yup.
Ingredients:
- DUCK FAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Russet potatoes, shoestring cut……buy a mandoline
- Standard breading procedure………..flour with herbs de provence, sel de mer (salt), and pepper……whisked eggs……and panko bread crumbs with herbs de provence, sel de mer, and pepper
- Chicken breasts cut into 1 inch by 4 inch long pieces
- AP flour
- Heavy cream
- Milk
- Butter
- Parsley, minced
Procedure:
- Have a heart attack!
- Cut potatoes with mandoline then blanch them in duck fat then freeze
- Standard bread the chicken then freeze
- Remove fries and chicken
- Fry chicken in canola oil
- Fry fries in duck fat
- Season fries with sel de mer and black pepper when done cooking
- In a small sauce pan add duck fat then whisk in flour
- Add herbs de provence, butter, heavy cream, milk, and pepper to sauce then cook slowly
- Pour sauce over fries and chicken
- Have another heart attack!
- Enjoy
Eric
Black Garlic Chicken Thigh Stir Fry
I’m experimenting with a bunch of different noodles so the actual recipe is a little secondary for me right now but this was pretty damn good so here is the ingredient list so you can give it a try for yourself…..or at least use some of the ingredients the next time you make a stir-fry
Ingredients:
- Chicken thighs
- Black garlic, 5 cloves
- Soy sauce
- Sesame oil
- Crushed red pepper
- Carrots
- Sprouts
- Yellow Onions
- Scallions
- Bamboo Shoots
- Peanut Sauce
- 1 whole egg
Procedure:
- Stir fry it!
Enjoy,
Eric
