Tag: Nigella Lawson

Buttermilk Roast Chicken

On By lukephillaryhIn ClassicoLeave a comment
Nigella Lawson buttermilk roast chicken
Chicken dinner for the WIN

This recipe, which we sourced from Nigella Lawson, has made its way around the web a bit. You can find a version from Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen. Martha makes a similar recipe with just two additional ingredients – lemon zest and fresh dill. It’s a tried and true recipe that is welcome to a little tinkering. And like Romeo and Juliet or Jay-Z and Beyonce, buttermilk and chicken are an illustrious couple, most famous of course for the wondrous results of frying buttermilk brined chicken. Buttermilk is such an amazing marinade because it not only imbues flavor, but its acidic composition also tenderizes the meat – double win!! As long as you can remember to whip together this super simple marinade the night before, this chicken recipe comes together real quick and yields flavorful, tender meat with salty, crispy skin. Enjoy with a green salad and some bread to sop up the chicken juices. You’ll feel like you’re seriously spoiling yourself for a weekday dinner.

Ingredients:

  • 4-6 chicken bone-in thighs (or a mix of thighs, drumsticks, wings – important to have bone-in chicken, whatever you choose!)
  • 2 cups buttermilk
  • 1/4 cup + 2 TBS veggie oil (we used canola)
  • 1 TBS freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 TBS sea salt
  • 2 TBS freshly chopped rosemary
  • 1 TBS honey
  • 2 cloves peeled and crushed garlic + garlic cloves with skin on for roasting (optional)

Directions:

  1. The night before, marinate yo chicken! Place chicken in a large freezer bag. Add buttermilk, 1/4 cup oil, salt, crushed garlic, rosemary, and honey. Seal bag securely, mix contents around, and store in your fridge. Chicken can be marinated for up to 2 days.
  2. Remove chicken from marinade and place on rack so excess can drip off. Try to let your chicken rest at room temperature for 30 minutes, or an hour ideally. This will allow your chicken to dry off a bit and come to room temperature, which ensures even cooking and crispiness.
  3. Preheat oven to 425°F. We opted to cook our chicken in our cast iron skillet, but you can also cook on a tinfoil lined roasting pan (tinfoil makes for easy cleanup). Drizzle chicken with 2 TBS of oil. Sprinkle with a bit more sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. Throw the couple cloves of garlic in the skillet as well, if you’d like (they turn soft and are great spread over a slice of bread). Place in oven and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until when chicken is pierced the juices run clear.
  4. Remove from oven and let rest for about 5 minutes. Then enjoy immediately!

Details: Serves 4-ish. Maybe we’re gluttons, but we have a hard time eating just a single chicken thigh per person.

Classic, Simple Banana Bread

On By lukephillaryhIn Luke's DishesLeave a comment
Banana bread simple Nigella Lawson recipe
Baked to ~ perfection ~

Often, we purposefully set aside a couple of bananas, letting them get seriously ripe. We love a pile of black speckled bananas because it gives us the perfect excuse to make a loaf of banana bread.  And if we are ever lacking enough bananas, there’s a good chance our bodega on the corner will have an excellent selection of extra ripe bananas. This is Luke’s recipe (originally sourced from Nigella Lawson) and he is the b-bread maker. But I am the expert on moistness.  And, strongly believing moistness is a vital characteristic for perfectly baked banana bread, I always insist that we take the bread out of the oven a bit earlier than Nigella suggests. Despite banana bread being Luke’s domain, he begrudgingly listens. The result (in my opinion): perfectly baked b-bread.

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup + 2 TBS whole wheat flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3-4 **very** ripe bananas, mashed
  • 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 325°F and butter and flour a 9 x 5 inch bread pan.
  2. Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt) in a medium sized bowl.
  3. In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time.  Then add the mashed bananas, whisking until incorporate with eggs and sugar.  It’s ok if there are a few banana lumps. Next, with a wooden spoon, stir in walnuts and vanilla extract.
  4. In 3 batches, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing with a wooden spoon until relatively smooth.
  5. Pour mix into loaf pan.  Give a few shakes to make sure the mix is even in the pan.  Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes (Nigella’s suggestion.  We typically cook closer to an hour).  You can tell when the bread is ready by inserting a toothpick into the middle (the thickest part).  When you remove the toothpick, it should come out fairly clean.

Details: Makes one 9 x 5 inch loaf of banana bread.

Perfect for breakfast, though we also enjoy a slice toasted in a buttered skillet with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert!

To print the recipe, click here: Classic Banana Bread