Category: Ode to NYT

Sunday Morning Blueberry Muffins

On By lukephillaryhIn Ode to NYT2 Comments
Blueberry muffins simple recipe Julia Moskin recipe
Blueberries + Carrots + Walnuts = Perfection

Pancakes? Too sweet. Bacon and eggs? Too greasy. Yogurt parfait? Eh, been there, done that. Oatmeal? Don’t even ask. Sunday morning breakfast can be full of options, but with half of the weekend already over you deserve to be picky. You may want to lay in bed all day and treat yourself to an indulgent breakfast; or keep it lean before a 5 mile run. Hillary usually wants to be lay in bed a little bit longer while I’m gearing up to go…we compromise with a long walk. Whatever your appetite, day’s plan or mood, these whole grain blueberry muffins will surely satisfy.

This recipe comes from Julia Moskin via The New York Times. We omitted the orange streusel topping because we wanted these muffins to still have some simplicity. Filled with carrots, blueberries, oats, walnuts – there’s nothing more you really need. Indulgent, but still healty-ish, it’s the perfect way to start your morning. And if you take sometime to make these on Sunday morning, you’ll have muffin breakfasts for the rest of the week!

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2/3 cup yellow cornmeal (preferably fine-ground)
  • 2/3 cup rolled oats (not the instant version)
  • 2/3 packed light brown sugar
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 tsp nutmeg (or additional cinnamon)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 3/4 cups buttermilk
  • 1 1/3 cups coconut oil or neutral oil like canola
  • 2/3 cup maple syrup or honey
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 cups grated carrots or tart apple
  • 1 1/2 cups blueberries
  • 1 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Directions:

  1. Assemble all the ingredients on your table / countertop for birds-eye Instagram photo. You are baking on Sunday morning, it deserves documentation.
  2. Heat oven to 425°F. Heavily butter your muffin tin or use paper liners.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flours, cornmeal, oats, sugar, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt
  4. In a smaller mixing bowl, mix together the wet ingredients: buttermilk, oil, maple syrup and eggs.
  5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and carefully mix. Don’t over mix, the batter can be a bit lumpy. Stir in carrots, blueberries, and walnuts.
  6. Let the batter rest for 15-20 minutes. You can use this time to post the earlier “prep” photo to your Instagram story. After resting, give the batter a light stir to make sure it’s thick and fluffy.
  7. Plop enough of the batter to almost fill the muffin indentation. Mound the center so you’ll get nicely rounded tops.
  8. Place tin in oven and reduce temperature to 400°F. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Cool muffins in the tin on a rack for 5-10 minutes and then remove.

Details: Makes about 24 small/medium sized muffins

Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake

On By lukephillaryhIn Ode to NYTLeave a comment
Olive Oil Cake with blood orange Melissa Clark recipe
The perfect cake for dessert or breakfast 🙂

Citruses make the winter much more manageable. When December roles around, I’m always happily surprised to see lemon, orange, and mandarin dishes populate restaurant menus and appear on my favorite food blogs. They’re so cheerful and bright, I forget their best time is wintertime. Of all the citruses, the blood orange is an easy favorite. Tangy, sweet, and aesthetically delightful, its color adds a lovely pop to any plate. I’ve been intrigued by olive oil cake as it sounded like a dessert I could enjoy, without guilt, at all times of day. It is also incredibly easy to prepare. Our fav Melissa Clark provides the recipe for this cake. Don’t skip using good olive oil. It makes the cake more flavorful. And stock up on blood oranges! There’s no reason to be skimpy, they’re in season.

Ingredients:

  • butter (for greasing the pan)
  • 3-6 blood oranges (more if you’d like to make compote)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • approx. 2/3 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tsp honey (optional, for compote)
  • whipped cream (optional, for serving)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9-by-5 inch loaf pan (we used a 9-inch round pan, 8-by-8 square pan works well also). Grate zest of 2 oranges and place in bowl with sugar. Fully incorporate the zest and sugar, using your hands to rub the ingredients to ensure even distribution.
  2. Supreme 2-3 oranges (these you will mix into the batter, so supreme more if you like more fruit chunks). To do this, cut off the bottom and top of the orange so it can stand upright on your cutting board. Then, with a sharp knife, cut away peel and pith, following the curve of the fruit. Cut the orange into segments along its connective membrane and let fall into a bowl. Set aside.
  3. Squeeze juice of 1-2 oranges into a measuring cup. Add yogurt or buttermilk to measuring cup until you have a little less than 1 cup of liquid. Mix and then add to bowl of sugar, whisking to fully incorporate.  Whisk in eggs.
  4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the dry to the wet ingredients, a bit at a time, whisking to incorporate. Switch to a spatula and then slowly add the olive oil. Fold into the batter and be mindful to incorporate before pouring in more. Fold in orange pieces. Pour batter into a pan.
  5. Bake for 55 minutes, or until a knife/toothpick inserted into cake’s center comes out clean. Cool on rack for 5 minutes, then unmold and cool at room temperature until ready to serve. Tastes even more delicious when served with whipped cream and honey-blood orange compote.
  6. To make compote, supreme 3 more oranges and mix with 2 tsp of honey. Let sit for 5 minutes then stir once more.

Garlicky Lemony Anchovy Chicken

On By lukephillaryhIn Ode to NYTLeave a comment
Garlic lemon anchovy chicken thighs Melissa Clark recipe
THIS is your weeknight chicken recipe

We love Melissa Clark. And Melissa Clark loves lemon, anchovies, garlic, capers, and chile flakes. Though not all chronicled here, we’ve made enough of her recipes to know these are her go-to pantry ingredients (see Salmon with Anchovy Butter, Fried Lemon Pasta, Seared Lamb Chops). And when a couple, or all, of these elements are combined, they do make for an incredibly quick, simple, and flavorful dinner. This chicken dish is so easy to make it’s almost shockingly delicious. Boring old boneless, skinless chicken thighs are transformed into succulent, tangy, salty, addicting goodness. Enjoy with a hunk of bread to sop up all that amazing pan sauce and you’ll be overwhelmingly satisfied.

Checkout Melissa’s recipe for video instruction!

Ingredients:

  • 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 1 tsp salt
  • freshly ground pepper
  • 6 garlic cloves (5 smashed and peeled, 1 minced)
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 5 anchovy fillets
  • 2 TBS drained capers
  • 1 large pinch chile flakes
  • 1 lemon, halved
  • freshly chopped parsley, for garnish

Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 350°F. Season chicken thighs with salt n’ peppa.
  2. Prep garlic, anchovies, and capers. Heat a large, ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat, then add the oil, smashed garlic cloves, anchovies, capers, and chile flakes. Let cook for 3-5 minutes, until garlic has browned around the edges. Stir with a wooden spoon to break up the anchovies (they will disintegrate).
  3. Add the chicken thighs and cook until nicely browned on one side, 5 to 7 minutes. Flip the chicken, place the pan in the oven and cook for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.
  4. When chicken is done, remove from the oven. Transfer chicken to a plate and return the skillet to the stove on medium heat. Add the minced garlic and lemon juice and cook for 30 seconds. Return the chicken to the skillet and garnish with parsley.

Details: Serves 2-4 (maybe Luke and I were just really hungry but we each had at least 2 chicken thighs)

Panzanella with Mozz + Herbs

On By lukephillaryhIn Ode to NYTLeave a comment
Panzanella mozzarella cheese Melissa Clark recipe
Panzanella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh

There’s still time – tomato season isn’t over yet! This is a perfect end of summer salad. It combines some of our favorite seasonal ingredients, tomato, cucumber, and basil, with year-round essentials, namely cheese (mozzarella) and bread. On self-respecting nights, when we manage not to finish off a whole baguette, we let a portion go stale and make this delicious Tuscan bread salad the next evening for dinner.  Traditional panzanella calls for stale bread, uber ripe tomatoes, a dressing of olive oil and red wine vinegar, and sometimes onions and basil. This oomph-ed up version comes from our favorite lady Melissa Clark. The cucumber adds freshness and crunch and the mozzarella makes it a heartier salad, worthy of eating as a main meal instead of a side. Make sure to enjoy this salad before summer is officially over!

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 of a baguette or rustic loaf (preferably stale) cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 6 TBS olive oil
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 tomatoes, use a mix of varieties and colors!
  • 6 oz mozzarella, cut or torn into bite-sized pieces
  • 2 shallots (or 1/2 red onion) thinly sliced
  • 2 garlic cloves, grated to a paste
  • 2 TBS red wine vinegar
  • 1 TBS chopped fresh oregano or thyme (or a combination)
  • pinch of red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1/2 cup Persian or English cucumber, cut into thin quarter pieces
  • 1/2 cup torn basil
  • 1/4 cup roughly chopped parsley
  • 1 TBS of capers, drained

Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 425ºF. Spread bread pieces onto a baking sheet and toss with 2 TBS olive oil and 1/2 tsp salt. Bake until golden brown and dried out, about 7-15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
  2. Cut tomatoes into pieces just a bit smaller than the bread cubes. Put them into a large bowl and then thinly slice the shallots lengthwise.
  3. Add the shallots into the bowl and use a microplane to grate 2 cloves of garlic into a paste. Along with the garlic paste, add 1 TBS vinegar, oregano or thyme, 1/4 tsp salt, and red pepper flakes.
  4. Cut up the mozzarella into bite-sized pieces and add to the bowl, toss everything together and set aside.
  5. In a medium bowl, combine 1 TBS vinegar, mustard, 1/2 tsp salt, and black pepper. While continuously whisking, add 4 TBS olive oil one-by-one to the dressing. Stir in cucumbers, basil, and parsley.
  6. Add bread pieces, dressing, and capers to the large bowl and mix well. Let it sit and soak for at least 30 minutes, up to 6 hours. You can keep chilled in the fridge. Add extra oil, vinegar or salt if needed!

Notes: Serves 3-4 as a main meal, 6 as a side.

Hot Honey Shrimp

On By lukephillaryhIn Ode to NYT2 Comments
hot honey shrimp NYT Food recipe
Spicy, sweet, speedy – delicious!

Shrimp dishes are the ultimate quick and easy dinner for two. We make shrimp when we’re feeling lazy, haven’t done grocery shopping for the evening, and there’s a sale at Whole Foods. Yes, we shop at Whole Foods…occasionally. It’s a guilty pleasure. To cook our fancy, albeit discounted, shrimp we look to two of our favorite chefs for guidance. Mark Bittman’s Simplest Best Shrimp Dish and Melissa Clark’s Hot Honey Shrimp are delicious – impossible to screw up – recipes that use few ingredients and can be thrown together in a matter of minutes. While Mark’s dish had been our go-to for years, Melissa’s recently wooed us with her perfect mix of sweet and spicy. A side of rice is an absolute must for each. If you’re fully committed to making this one the the easiest dinner meals ever, stop by your local Chinese spot for a takeout box of white rice.

Ingredients:

  • 1-2 TBS honey
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne
  • zest of 1 lime
  • 1/2 tsp finely grated ginger
  • 1 garlic cloves, grated (use Microplane or finely mince)
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp freshly cracked pepper
  • 1 pound cleaned, deveined shrimp (the larger the better!)
  • 2 TBS cold butter, cut into small cubes (1 per shrimp)
  • lime wedges, for garnish
  • 1 jalapeño, thinly sliced, for garnish
  • 1 scallion, thinly sliced, for garnish

Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 450°F.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine honey, cayenne, lime zest, ginger, garlic, salt, and pepper. Toss in shrimp and mix until coated.
  3. Arrange shrimp on a large rimmed baking sheet and place a lil’ cube of butter on each shrimp. Roast until shrimp is pink and firm, about 5 minutes. Garnish with lime juice, jalapeño, and scallion.

Details: Enjoy as dinner for 2 or an appetizer for a intimate get together.

Peach + Blackberry Crumble Pie

On By lukephillaryhIn Ode to NYT6 Comments
Peach blackberry crumble pie Melissa Clark recipe
Enjoy for dessert tonight and breakfast tomorrow

This past weekend, Luke and I celebrated the Fourth of July in Philly. With Luke’s parents away on vacation we had the whole house to ourselves. Comfy bed, lil’ backyard with a BBQ, washer and dryer, big screen TV – it was heavenly. The best part of all: the kitchen and all of it’s wonderful appliances, namely, the Cuisinart food processor. I’m always afraid that making pie crust in our tiny BK apartment will be a complete disaster. And currently we don’t have the space or the shekels for a proper food processor. So all last week I had been looking forward to making a pie, homemade crust and all. And it was delicious. We enjoyed for dessert, breakfast, late night and afternoon snacks all weekend long.

This recipe is adapted from one of our favorites, Melissa Clark. The original recipe includes a very helpful video if you’re a relatively novice pie crust maker like myself.

Ingredients – Crust (yields 2 9-inch crusts):

  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 2 1/2 sticks cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 6-8 TBS ice cold water

Ingredients – Filling:

  • 1 lb ripe peaches (about 3 medium peaches), cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks
  • 2-3 cups blackberries
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 TBS corn starch
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • 2 tsp lemon juice

Ingredients – Crumble:

  • 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 cup oats
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp cardamon
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • pinch of salt
  • 6-8 TBS unsalted butter, cubed

Directions – Crust:

  1. In a food processor, combine flour and salt and briefly pulse. Add butter and pulse until mixture forms chickpea/lima bean sized pieces (you don’t want it to be too grainy). Add ice water, 1 TBS at a time, and continue to pulse until mixture is just moist enough to hold together. You’ll know you’ve added enough water when you take some dough, pinch it, and it holds together. Dump contents onto a big sheet of plastic wrap and form dough into a large ball. Wrap with plastic wrap and flatten into a disk. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
  2. You’ll have enough pie crust for either a 9-x-13-inch baking dish or 2 9-inch round pie pans or an 8-x-8-inch baking dish and a 9-inch pie pan. For this recipe, we used half for an 8-x-8-inch baking dish to make a sort of slab pie and saved the other half. You can double the filling if you want to make a giant 9-x-13-inch slab pie. You’ll have lots of leftovers!
  3. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out half of dough into a roughly 10-x-10-inch rectangle. Transfer to lightly greased 8-x-8-inch baking dish and press crust into bottom of the dish and up the edges so it’s flush with the top of the pan. Return crust to the fridge while you make the filling and crumble.

Directions – Filling:

  1. In a medium sized bowl, toss together peaches, blackberries, sugar, corn starch, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Let sit for 20-30 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425°F. Arrange one rack on the lowest position and the other in the center.

Directions – Crumble:

  1. Whisk together flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg, and salt. Mix in butter with fingertips until the mixture is uniformly moist and comes together in large clumps.

Directions – Assemble and Bake:

  1. Spoon filling into crust and create a mound. You want more filling in the middle, so aim to create a small, slopping hill. Top with crumble, which you’ll have to gently press into the filling to make sure it clumps together and is evenly distributed. Place on lowest rack and cook at 425°F for 15 minutes. Reduce temp to 375°F and move pie to center rack. Cook for 1 hour more, or until pie is golden brown and filling is bubbling. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before slicing and serving.

 

Adobo Chicken Tacos

On By lukephillaryhIn Ode to NYTLeave a comment
Chicken adobo tacos New York Times food recipe
Taco with all  the fixings

Cinco de Mayo came a little early for Luke and I this year. Up until recently (currently, the NY forecast is rain rain rain), spring had been treating us very well. For two weekends in a row we enjoyed clear skies and 70 degrees weather -ahhhmazing! When the weather is nice, I drink margaritas (and Luke by default). Always on the rocks, with salt. And nothing goes better with margs than tacos. So last Saturday night for dinner, we made these simple and delicious chicken tacos. The chiles in adobo are critical – their amazing smoky, spicy flavor makes the meal. It took a little bit of searching the supermarket aisles to find them, but besides that it was smooth sailing! Enjoy these tacos for Cinco de Mayo and all summer long.

Ingredients:

  • 4 bone-in chicken thighs
  • 3 scallions, left whole
  • 1 thyme branch
  • 5 black peppercorns
  • 3 allspice berry
  • 2 cloves
  • salt
  • 3 TBS olive oil
  • 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 2-4 chipotle chiles in adobo, chopped
  • 3 TBS adobo sauce, from the can
  • 1/2 cup broth (use broth from simmered chicken)
  • corn tortillas

Onion, thinly sliced radishes, avocado, queso fresco or feta cheese, cilantro – all excellent garnishing options!

Directions:

  1. Put chicken thighs in a saucepan and cover with 3 cups water. Add scallions, thyme, peppercorns, allspice, cloves, and 1/2 tsp salt. Simmer for 30 minutes, then remove chicken and let cool. Shred chicken with your fingers or with a fork, discarding the skin and bones. Strain broth and reserve.
  2. Put olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the diced onion, season with salt, and cook until softened and a bit browned, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cumin and cook for 1 minute more. Add chopped chipotle chile and adobo sauce and stir to combine. Add shredded chicken, salt lightly and stir to coat in sauce. Add chicken broth and simmer for 2-3 minutes, until the sauce has thickened a bit.
  3. Heat the tortillas however you like, we find that cooking them in a dry skillet, about 1 minute on each side, works well.
  4. Build your tacos while the chicken is still warm! Garnish however you like. This time, we chose avocado (nicely balances the spice), feta, cilantro, radishes, and a spritz of lime.

Details: Makes 4 servings, about 2 tacos per person.

Pasta alla Gricia

On By lukephillaryhIn Ode to NYT2 Comments
Pasta alla gricia with guanciale
Guanciale, better than bacon

Like most, we are big fans of bacon and pasta, respectively and combined. Two of our favorite dishes come from Cal Peternell’s Twelve Recipes. His carbonara and amatriciana recipes are always smashing successes. Admittedly, we typically opt for regular old grocery store bacon instead of pancetta or the even more authentic option of guanciale. Feeling a bit adventurous, but also wanting to keep it simple for our Saturday night dinner, we decided to try Mark Bittman’s version of a Roman classic, pasta alla Gricia. Marky B stresses the importance of using guanciale, so we finally committed, trekking into Manhattan to buy a nice hunk of pig jowl at Eataly (we’ll visit our favorite butcher Los Paisano’s in Cobble Hill next time). The guanciale elevated this pasta from a simple weekday dinner to a delicious Saturday night feast. And now we feel like slightly more legit gourmands.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 pound guanciale (cured pig jowl), cut into 1/4 inch pieces*
  • 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper + more to taste
  • 3/4 pound spaghetti or other long pasta
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated pecorino romano or parmesan

Directions:

  1. Cook the guanciale in a large skillet over medium heat until deeply golden. You may need to adjust the heat to not cook too quickly. You want the fat to render without burning the meat. The meaty parts should be brown and the fatty parts should be cooked but still slightly transparent. This should take 10-15 minutes. When done, add the black pepper and turn off heat.
  2. While cooking the guanciale, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When the water reaches a boil, add the the pasta. Cook till al dente and drain, reserving 1 1/2 cups of pasta water.
  3. You want the pasta to still be wet and hot, so while it is cooking add 3/4 cup of the pasta water to the cooled guanciale. Turn heat to high and reduce liquid by half.
  4. Once reduced, transfer pasta to the skillet. Mix vigorously and stir in more pasta water if necessary to create a creamy sauce. Add the cheese and extra cracked pepper.

Garnish with additional cheese! Enjoy with a glass of red wine.

Details: Serves 4

*Note 1: If you can’t find gaunciale, pancetta or bacon will also work. But guanciale is a game changer in this recipe!!

 

Four Spice Salmon

On By lukephillaryhIn Ode to NYT1 Comment
Salmon with four spices Mark Bittman recipe
Lil squeeze of lemon, always a good addition

Hillary is the recipe-finding maven in this relationship. She digs through our small cookbook collection or searches online to make sure we don’t fall into cooking monotony . I have a much simpler approach: Mark Bittman. I’ve used his workhorse of a cookbook, How to Cook Everything, since 7th grade when I made crab cakes for Mother’s Day. This Four Spice Salmon recipe is quintessential Bittman: simple, quick, and delicious. It’s salmon + cumin/nutmeg/coriander/cloves. Period.

My words of advice for anyone looking for a midweek meal: when in doubt, Bittman is best.

Ingredients:

  • 4 6-ounce salmon fillets > Bittman suggests aiming for equal sized fillets, best to go for center cut
  • salt & peppa
  • 1 TBS coriander
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 2 TBS neutral oil (grape seed, peanut, canola, etc.)

Directions:

  1. Season your fillets with salt and pepper on both sides.
  2. Combine all the spices and press spice mixture onto the top of each fillet.  Should be completely covered, don’t skimp!
  3. Heat a large nonstick skillet or cast iron pan over med-high heat for 2-3 minutes.  Add oil and when it shimmers, place the fillets, coated side down, in the pan.  Cook for 2-3 minutes and then flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Better to undercook than overcook!  You can test doneness with a thin-bladed knife.  Stick the knife into the thickest part of the fish.  The fish should slightly resist the knife.

If you’re not familiar with Mark Bittman, we highly suggest checking him out!  His cooking video for this recipe is very entertaining.

Details: Serves 4.  You can reduce portion size by buying fewer fillets and halving spice mix.

To print the recipe, click here: 4 Spice Salmon

Feta-Brined Roast Chicken à la Melissa Clark

On By lukephillaryhIn Ode to NYTLeave a comment
Brined roast chicken Melissa Clark recipe
The ~ perfect ~ sunday night dinner

Roasted chicken. It’s a classic dish. But what recipe to choose? It’s all over the web, in every cookbook. There’s a plethora of tips, an abundance of varieties. The options are endless! Luke and I initially made your typical roast chicken – lemon and garlic in the cavity, salt and pepper, yada yada yada. But then NYT Food posted a new Melissa Clark video – Feta-Brined Roast Chicken. Of course we had to try it. Melissa makes just a few modifications to the usual recipe. The result: a roast chicken with all its wonderful traditional characteristics, but a nuance of newfangled taste.

One important lesson we’ve learned from Melissa’s recipe:

Brining makes everything better!!

You’ll find that this recipe produces an especially moist and flavorful chicken with extra crispy skin.

Ingredients:

  • 1 3.5-4 lb whole chicken
  • 2 oz feta (plus about 2 oz more if you’d like to add to the pan drippings at the end of cooking)
  • 4-6 cups water
  • 2 tsp salt (brine) + 1 1/2 tsp salt (dry rub)
  • 1-2 TBS freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 TBS dried oregano
  • 2 large lemons
  • 1/4 cup olive oil

Directions:

  1. Brine the chicken: Do this the night before serving or morning of (brine for at least 8 hours, up to 36 hours). In a blender, combine water, 2 tsp salt, and 2 oz feta and blend until smooth. But your chicken in an extra-large resealable plastic bag or container and cover with feta-brine.  Add extra water to fully submerge chicken if necessary.
  2. Prep chicken to cook: Remove chicken from the brine, pat dry, and let rest for about 1 hour so that it reaches room temperature.
  3. Make dry rub and dress chicken: Combine 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1-2 TBS black pepper (we tend towards 1 TBS), 2 TBS oregano, and zest of 2 lemons. Rub all over the bird and in the cavity.  Do not skimp on rub!! Cut one lemon into quarters and place into the cavity. Truss the chicken.
  4. Cook: Preheat the oven to 450°F. Place a large, oven proof skillet (cast iron pan) over high heat.  Once heated, add oil. Place chicken breast-side up (legs in the air!). Transfer entire pan to the oven.  Cook for 50 minutes – 1 hour, basting once or twice. To test if finished, pierce chicken with a knife.  If juices run clear the chicken is ready!*
  5. Remove chicken from oven.  Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing (check out this video for carving instruction). Add some feta and juice of 1 lemon to the pan drippings to make a simple sauce. Enjoy with a baguette and green salad!

Details: Serves 4 (Luke and I love using the leftovers for chicken salads).

*Note 1: Another way to test doneness is with a meat thermometer.  Chicken is finished when the internal temperature reaches 150 – 160°F.

To print the recipe, click here: Feta-Brined Roast Chicken