Loving Chicken French Redoux!

Playoff season across the U. S. of A. and we know what that means... great food, easy to access, and cheering for someone's favorite team once yours is knocked out of the running! So for us this year it's "GO VIKINGS" because my son-in-law Jon is from Minnesota...

Chicken and Artichoke French are big family favorites here... Farmer Dave doesn't like them, but the rest of the family loves both so we make it/them for big family parties, doings, whatevers... I'm repeating this post today with an eye toward playoffs and Super Bowl fun because it's a great make-ahead then heat up and cook the pasta at game time! And the videos are not exactly Ree Drummond-friendly skill level but I kept them in because you guys are always loving and forgiving! Here you go, from February 2014:

Okay, this may be a complete waste of your time, because I'm not exactly a camera guru. I'm barely literate with the PHD systems: Push Here, Dummy!!!!

But I thought it would be fun to video tape the step-by-step of making chicken and artichoke French for Super Bowl Sunday. Therefore, you get to see my lame attempts, laugh at me, get HUNGRY when you hear that food sizzle, and if you're a Seattle fan, you're feeling mighty happy still!!!!

I'm feeling happy about THIS:

DEREK JETER PRACTICING!!!!!!!!

I'm not quite as happy about THIS:

DEREK JETER RETIRING!!!!!!

Okay, so I was looking for a dinner that wouldn't require me to be in the kitchen during the game.  All cooking/clean up was done pre-game.

SUHWEEEET!!!!!

Here we go:

5 lb. bag of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 large jars of artichoke hearts
Extra virgin olive oil
2 sticks butter
Marsala wine (or dry sherry)
1 Quart lemon juice

For dredging:

A bowl of flour
A bowl of 6 beaten eggs, thinned with 1/2 cup water (I don't measure this, of course!!!)  :)

Drain artichokes. Pat dry with paper towel. Dip in flour first, then EGG....

Slip into heated olive oil in large "chicken fryer" type frying pan and cook on medium- medium low until cooked on all sides, golden with a hint of brown.... Don't use too high a fire and turn them every few minutes.

Then, when they're ALL GOLDEN, CRISPY NICENESS, you add in two tablespoons of butter,  1/3 cup lemon juice, 1/2 cup wine. Let simmer for 5 minutes or so to blend flavors, then pour the whole thing into a big baking dish to be warmed up later...  Wipe down pan between batches to avoid burn spots.

Burn spots taste blech!!!!!

Repeat this until all artichokes are done.

When all the batches were done I put them into two BIG aluminum roasters and covered them with foil, kept them cold (in the car, LOL!!!!) until time to reheat... then all I had to do was boil water for pasta and burn the garlic bread.

Which I did, as usual.  :)

There are NO PICTURES of the burned garlic bread. None. I removed all cameras from the smoke-filled area.  Trust me. It wasn't pretty.

But there is a picture of THIS:  More to come on this amazingly delectable three-chocolate extravaganza delight!!!!

 And of course our signature Floating Island Punch made my Casey, my amazingly talented and beautiful helper!!!

This is Casey doing Crayon Art projects with kids this week... Yes, our kids are off this week, and some of my little ones are on cruises, one is in Florida, and the others are STUCK WITH ME AND CASEY.

Poor babies!!!!

We have now officially found the solution to KILLING OLD CRAYONS with no guilt or remorse!

Melt them!!!!

Multi-published author Ruthy Logan Herne is on deadline and meting out time like she metes out M&Ms... very, very carefully! She is buried in a snow cave in Western New York, busily writing a beautiful story for Waterfall Press/Amazon and working on an absolutely fun mystery for Guideposts Books... and having the time of her life! 

Chicken Roulade, but first DEBONE the chicken!

Hi, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I have an interesting recipe for you. This is something I've eaten many times, even watched someone prepare twice, yet had never cooked it myself. Chicken roulade! It's always been one of my favorite dishes but I knew how much work there was to prepare it. Also, I couldn't remember the exact steps. So, when I saw this video being passed around on facebook, I thought, "NOW is the time." The video (if you don't want to click the link) is of Jacques Pepin deboning a chicken. It's actually pretty entertaining... and not just for his lovely accent.

 So, first ingredient is one whole chicken. We usually buy our fryers from a local farm but our freezer was all out of fryers and I wanted to make this for guests that night so... to the store I went! (This cost about $6, no kidding. The free range fryers are about $10 each, but it's worth it to know they're cruelty free. This one... not so much. Still tasted delicious, though!)

 So, per the video, I chopped off the wings at the join.

 Pull back the skin until the two bones are showing. I think we missed a photo here, but the next step is to pull back and remove the smaller bone.


Then peel the flesh down until the meat is at the end of the joint. Then cut at that joint. Pepin calls this the "lollipop" and he says it in his cute little French way. My children were calling this the loh-lee-pope all afternoon. Here, they are, raw. After this, you can roll them in egg and bread crumbs and fry. I did that while the roulade was cooking.

 Now, reached to the front of the chicken and find the wishbone. Usually, commercially produced fryers have the wishbone broken during processing so we were surprised to see this one intact. Bonus! My littlest were excited to see who got the wish.

 Unfortunately, neither one of them did. I think the bone was too fresh and bendy.

 Slice the chicken down the back.
                                 
Gently peel back the skin...

 ... until you see the "oysters". (See, I'm pointing them out. )

 The chicken breasts are exposed there. Remove them from the rib cage, which is pretty simple. Lay the chicken breast on a flat surface and hold down the white tendon with a rag or your thumb. Take a sharp knife and separate the breast from the tendon. This keeps the chicken filet from having that tough and chewy part when you cook it. Discard the white tendon (looks like a ribbon, but somehow I didn't get a picture.)
Now, hold the rib cage firmly and pull until it releases from the flesh. I don't know if Jacques is stronger than I am, or if the commercial chickens are less happy to give up their bones because I was sweating. But, eventually, the rib cage was removed.

 Now, back to the chicken legs. We were working with the wings before, remember? We're going to get all the bones out. Use the handle of the knife and break the bone right at the joint. You can easily remove the bone from the other side now and there's only the joint left without breaking the skin.

 Random photo of innards. I cooked them and the dog was very happy.

 Now, we have a chicken coat, no bones, no innards. All meat and skin.

 You can wrap it up like this, tie with ribbon, and cook it like this.

I made some stuffing out of a box. I know, not fancy, but i reallllly love stuffing from a box. I don't know why. I think it's because it reminds me of feasts at my neighbor's house when I was little. My friend Barbara always made stuffing from a box and to me, it tastes like "happy days"!

 

While the stuffing was cooking, I rolled the low-lee-popes in eggs and bread crumbs and fried them. Hmmmmm.

 This is the finished product. Everyone looked at it and decided they would take a pass. Again, the dog was thrilled.

 When the stuffing was done, I chopped up some spicy kielbasa, peeled a head of garlic, and stuffed it in the center of the chicken.

 Now, pull the skin tight and make sure the stuffing is falling out. (Hello, Virginia's tummy! Get ready! Something tasty is coming!)

 Bake at 350F for about an hour, depending on the size of your chicken. It cooks faster because there are no bones, but if you stuff it with something raw, like sausage or anything with raw egg, you'll want to sue a meat thermometer. I didn't have twine so as it was cooking the skin started to pull back. I kept basting it to keep it moist, but I knew it wouldn't be a perfect circle like it would have been if I tied it closed like Jacques does.

 Here's a shot of the sliced roulade. It's really one of the most delicious dishes and I was glad I made it. I think if I deboned chickens more often, the first part would go a lot faster, but this time it took about 30 minutes prep (which may have included a few trips back to review the video). Restaurant roulade is much tidier, and usually has a lovely "jellyroll" appearance but I was happy with how this turned out. Bonus- my house smelled amazing!

Sliced Fuji apples and orange sections were the perfect accompaniment (although a friend of mine promises that baby spinach salad and blue cheese dressing is the best pairing).
 So, I hope you enjoyed this little foray into deboning a chicken. Next week, maybe we'll debone something else!
Until next time!

Chicken and Artichoke French Mini Movies!!!!! Bring Popcorn

Okay, this may be a complete waste of your time, because I'm not exactly a camera guru. I'm barely literate with the PHD systems: Push Here, Dummy!!!!

But I thought it would be fun to video tape the step-by-step of making chicken and artichoke French for Super Bowl Sunday. Therefore, you get to see my lame attempts, laugh at me, get HUNGRY when you hear that food sizzle, and if you're a Seattle fan, you're feeling mighty happy still!!!!

I'm feeling happy about THIS:

DEREK JETER PRACTICING!!!!!!!!

I'm not quite as happy about THIS:

DEREK JETER RETIRING!!!!!!

Okay, so I was looking for a dinner that wouldn't require me to be in the kitchen during the game.  All cooking/clean up was done pre-game.

SUHWEEEET!!!!!

Here we go:

5 lb. bag of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 large jars of artichoke hearts
Extra virgin olive oil
2 sticks butter
Marsala wine (or dry sherry)
1 Quart lemon juice

For dredging:

A bowl of flour
A bowl of 6 beaten eggs, thinned with 1/2 cup water (I don't measure this, of course!!!)  :)

Drain artichokes. Pat dry with paper towel. Dip in flour first, then EGG....

Slip into heated olive oil in large "chicken fryer" type frying pan and cook on medium- medium low until cooked on all sides, golden with a hint of brown.... Don't use too high a fire and turn them every few minutes.

Then, when they're ALL GOLDEN, CRISPY NICENESS, you add in two tablespoons of butter,  1/3 cup lemon juice, 1/2 cup wine. Let simmer for 5 minutes or so to blend flavors, then pour the whole thing into a big baking dish to be warmed up later...  Wipe down pan between batches to avoid burn spots.

Burn spots taste blech!!!!!

Repeat this until all artichokes are done.

When all the batches were done I put them into two BIG aluminum roasters and covered them with foil, kept them cold (in the car, LOL!!!!) until time to reheat... then all I had to do was boil water for pasta and burn the garlic bread.

Which I did, as usual.  :)

There are NO PICTURES of the burned garlic bread. None. I removed all cameras from the smoke-filled area.  Trust me. It wasn't pretty.

But there is a picture of THIS:  More to come on this amazingly delectable three-chocolate extravaganza delight!!!!

 And of course our signature Floating Island Punch made my Casey, my amazingly talented and beautiful helper!!!

This is Casey doing Crayon Art projects with kids this week... Yes, our kids are off this week, and some of my little ones are on cruises, one is in Florida, and the others are STUCK WITH ME AND CASEY.

Poor babies!!!!

We have now officially found the solution to KILLING OLD CRAYONS with no guilt or remorse!

Melt them!!!!