I just can't talk about any more of the dismal stuff for a while (although I think it's getting better), so for a change, let's have a recipe... and this is a great one.
The basis and inspiration for this recipe is from Jacques Pépin's Fast Food My Way, which is a fantastic cookbook for simple dishes, every one delicious. I've made this for years, and evolved it into a more-or-less low carb dish. But the beauty of it (see below) is that really you can modify the carbs, modify the fat, and still have something that's both easy to put together, quick, nutritious, and just great comfort food. (His recipe is Chickpea Ragout, p. 91, and it's a side dish. Mine is a one-dish meal.)
This is a very forgiving recipe, and thus the proportions are all pretty vague.
Chicken-Chorizo Autumn Stew
- 1 package boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 6 thighs. Don't use breast because it will dry out.)
- about 4 inches spicy chorizo (the Spanish style... a hard, pepperoni-like sausage, not the Mexican kind. I prefer the hot kind, which adds a kick, but you can use the regular kind if you prefer)
- olive oil
- 1 red onion, roughly diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
- 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets (discard any tough stems or dice small)
- 1 14 oz. can chopped tomatoes (I like the fire-roasted ones.)
- 1 legume choice... see note below... a can of chickpeas or a package of lima beans or butter beans, etc.
- choice of optional vegetables: fresh mushrooms, zucchini, fennel, etc.
- salt and freshly ground pepper
- about 1 cup chicken stock
- finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, if desired
Finely dice the chorizo and cube the chicken thighs. Heat the oil in a (preferably nonstick) large skillet (with a lid!), and sauté the chorizo, onion, garlic, and chicken over high heat until lightly browned. Add all of the rest of the ingredients except the salt and pepper and the parsley, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are done, about 1/2 hour. Season to taste, and sprinkle with fresh parsley if desired.
The prep time is very quick, and then you can pretty much ignore it while you relax and have a glass of wine.
This is a hearty and delicious fall/winter meal. Serves 4-6, depending on portion size and how many vegetables you use. As listed above, with chickpeas and mushrooms, 4 very generous servings.
A note on legumes: the carb content of this dish is almost entirely determined by the choice of legume. You could leave out the legume entirely, and it would be lower carb, but I think that they really add something... so I've tried to just cut the proportion way back. I make this usually with chickpeas, but lima beans are really good, and an alternative might be just a few green peas. (Suggestions welcome!)
A note for the low-fat crowd: We don't pay much attention to fat proportions these days, but I first made this dish when I counted calories, not carbs. If you go very easy on the oil and use about half the chorizo, diced very small, this is a pretty low fat dish as well.
Oh, and if you like your food very spicy-hot, a dash of chili oil is excellent in this (I add this to my bowl, at the end, so that the rest of my family doesn't gasp and run for the water!).
Most of this recipe is from Gourmet magazine (March 2008, p.80), but I made a few modifications although, for once, not many. This is a great way to make some slightly different sort of chicken, and I always think that anything with a sauce looks like you've made a fuss, even if it's simple! It takes about 45 minutes, but most of that is cooking time, not prep time.
You will need:
3 lbs chicken, cut into parts (I used all thighs)
olive oil (or cooking oil of your choice)
2 small shallots, thinly sliced
3/4 c. dry white wine (I use Chardonnay)
3/4 c. chicken stock
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons prepared Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
salt and pepper to taste
Optional: thyme, smoked paprika
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees, put rack in the center.
- Trim chicken of excess fat and skin. Yes, it's low carb, and we don't care about fat, but a lot of excess will just make your sauce greasy. And supermarket chickens tend to come with a LOT of excess fat these days. Pat chicken dry, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. (Optional: if you just use salt and pepper, the chicken is nice but has no particular flavor. Try using some dried thyme or a little smoked paprika, too. Thyme is more... French, I suppose. Paprika adds a little heat and depth of flavor.
- Heat oil in an ovenproof skillet. The original recipe calls for 1 tablespoon; this is not really enough, but you don't want a ton, either, because it will become part of the sauce, so if you end up with excess, drain it off before you roast the chicken (see below). Important: you are going to roast the chicken in the skillet, so pick on that's big enough to lay out all the chicken in one layer. If you don't have one large enough, it's not the end of the world, but all of your chicken will probably not be done at the same time, so you'll have to be careful about this and possibly return some chicken to the oven in a different pan to cook a little longer. Or roast in two pans.
- Brown the chicken in the oil, skin side down first, turning once. It is better to do this in two batches because if you put too much in the pan at once, it steams rather than browning (I have learned the lesson of patience when browning the hard way, sigh!). This takes about 6 minutes, about 3 minutes per side.
- Return all chicken to the pan, skin side up, in one layer if possible (see above). Place in oven and roast until done, about 15-20 minutes. (Invest in a digital meat probe if you don't have one; well worth it!)
- Put chicken on a plate. (Cover if you want to keep it piping hot.)
- Deglaze the pan with the wine (that is, pour in the wine and use it to scrape all the little brown crunchy bits off the bottom). Then add the chicken broth and the shallots, bring to a boil, and simmer until reduced by about half (about 5 minutes depending on how juicy the chicken was).
- Add cream and boil until slightly thickened.
- Strain sauce through a sieve (into a bowl), and whisk in the mustard and chives. TASTE. Add salt and pepper if needed, but a lot of salt comes through from the chicken seasoning, so you probably will not need it. This sauce tastes quite mustardy by itself, but is great on chicken and vegetables.
- Serve chicken (with sauce).
This is very good with cauliflower mash and/or vegetables that are good with gravy, like Brussels sprouts.
Carbs: depends on the amount of sauce, but maybe 2 (from the cream and wine). Induction-friendly. Wheat and gluten free.
I hadn't roasted a chicken for years... possibly decades... when we started eating low carb, but chickens have quickly become a staple for us. I do this so often that I've got the prep down to a 5 minute job, and if you do this a few times, it's the easiest thing in the world.
But first, two equipment tips... to make this quick and simple, you really need two things, a nonstick roasting pan with a rack (and this can be quite small. Cooking.com sells the one I have, and I love it. Look here.), and a food thermometer, preferably digital. Like this one. It's the only reliable way to know if chicken is done. I know a ton of other quick checks, but why take a risk on undercooked poultry? It's pretty kind of nasty even if you're not worried about bacteria.
This is a cheap meal, too, which is a novelty these days. I buy two whole frying chickens. You can buy roasting chickens, but they will cost more (usually more per pound, not just more because they're heavier) and take longer to cook, without (in my opinion) giving you much more in the way of usable meat. Cook two at once; it's the same cooking time, and then you have a cold one to make salad with tomorrow.
You will need:
Two chickens
and a choice of whatever the following seasonings you prefer
1 or 2 whole lemons
Celery
Onions or shallots
Garlic (peeled and crushed slightly)
Salt and pepper OR a seasoning blend like Weber's Lemon Pepper. Cajun mixes are nice if you like spicy.
Any fresh herbs that you have around. Thyme is particularly nice.
Preheat the oven to 425-450 F.
Rinse the chickens and pat dry with a paper towel. If you're using garlic, stick a little of it under the skin of the breasts. Rub the chicken inside and out with either salt and pepper or a seasoning blend. You can also rub the chicken with olive oil first... I've done this both with and without, and really I don't notice much difference one way or the other, except that it's messier... so these days I generally don't.
Then stuff whatever you like into the cavities. (Don't laugh!) I use: a lemon (cut in quarters), an onion (cut in half or quarters, and you don't really even need to peel it), crushed garlic, some celery, a bunch of thyme from the garden. Stuff to overflowing (they're little chickens!). Then just set the chickens next to each other on the rack... no need to truss, although it's a good idea to turn the wingtips under.
Put in the oven at 425-450 for 15 minutes. Then turn down to 300-325 for an hour. Test for doneness (see this link for lots of info about checking for doneness and food safety). Be sure to test the inside legs of both chickens, if you roast them in the same pan as I do, because since they're close together, they can cook more slowly than the outsides and thus remain underdone for longer.
It's a good idea to let any roasted meat stand for 20-30 minutes before carving to reabsorb the juices. Then hack apart and eat! (I'm a terrible carver.) You can also make a nice pan gravy with the drippings if you want to fuss with it.
This recipe has basically no carbs in it at all, since you're going to discard the onions and things in the cavity. (By the way, another great way to have better, economical food is to use those giblets you took out of the cavity plus the bones from the chicken and the leftover cavity stuffings and make a quick chicken stock. Better than the store stuff, takes no prep time to speak of, and makes you feel like you're really doing something!)
One of the things that you notice when you're a recent convert to low-carb is what I think of as the Great Low-Carb Gulf. I think that approximately 2004 was the height of the latest low-carb-as-a-fad craze... and then, like all fads, it dropped off in popularity. And the result of that is that if you look at a lot of the low-carb groups, it's like this great void, like the comet that wiped out the dinosaurs... then and now, before and after. Nowhere is this more clear than in lists of low-carb products and restaurant reviews. Most of them don't exist any more, and it's frustrating to think, wow, that sounds good... only they stopped producing it in 2005 when demand fell off. Oops.
On the whole, I don't see this as much of a loss, because I think that the less processed gunk that we eat, the better, and I am SO not a fan of the Atkins bars and similar items, although I'm sure they're a lifesaver if you're pressed for time. And I think that PJ, the Divine Low Carb, is exactly right when she says that you have to get out of the mindset of making things that are "like" higher carb things... as if they're inferior substitutes for something that you'd rather have. But, hey, it's not like I wouldn't like a bagel now and then.
So having said that, here a few product reviews.
1. Shirataki Noodles. Omigod, are these the greatest gift to low carb living in the universe, or what? I think you have to like Asian noodles, and you DO have to remember that you must rinse them carefully and/or boil them for a while, but they're just terrific. I tried them but didn't really believe that they'd be as good with, say, alfredo sauce, but I was oh so wrong. You can get these online (in a lot of places), but if you live in the Northeast, Wegman's carries them (in the organic foods dairy case), and others report finding them wherever the refrigerated tofu is.
2. Arnold's CarbCounting Multigrain Bread. I probably haven't got the title quite right. The pro: it's the only low-carb bread that they have regularly at the grocery store. The con: it's just not great bread. First of all, it's as if a committee got together and said, we're only going to sell one low-carb bread product, so let's make it appeal to the widest audience possible. Well, fine, and good marketing, but as they say in the marketing literature, you're satisficing. Not getting what you really want. If you really want white bread, it's not. If you really want wheat bread, it's not... or at least not a substantive wheat bread. And, as Michael complains about all the time, it's sweet-ish, like nearly every commercial wheat bread product in the U.S. So I'd give this a 5. We buy it because M. likes a slice of toast with his poached eggs, but on my own, I'd skip it.
3. Controlled Carb High Fiber Plain Bread. This bread I got from LowCarbU, and the single biggest downside is that it's a staggering $6.99/loaf (they have a zero carb version, too, and it's $7.99/loaf). It's sliced thin, and each slice weighs a pretty consistent 3/4 ounce, but the package is labeled for a 1 ounce serving size. For an actual slice, this will net you about 3 carbs, which is not bad if you don't go crazy. It comes in lots of other flavors, too. The pro: it tastes a lot better than the Arnold stuff, and makes a pretty good piece of toast if you don't overtoast it. The con: it's dry. Very dry. This is ok in toast, but I think it would be downright nasty untoasted. This may be because there are no preservatives (you have to freeze it if you're keeping it for any period), and maybe it would be better fresh. Hard to rate overall; has some real pros and cons, and then there's the price...
4. Ostrim. These are Slim-Jim like Ostrich snacks. Ok, we bought them because we just liked the idea of Ostrich Snacks. It just makes you want to say it a few times... here, honey, have an Ostrich Snack. You can get them from Netrition, but we didn't like them. VERY salty-tasting, and they're not all ostrich, and they are low fat but they taste incredibly fatty. It's not that low fat content was a selling point for us... but I just don't like that greasy, fatty taste. We tried the Teriyaki flavor... there are about 4 flavors, I think. Also, they are kind of expensive.
4. Whey Gourmet. Yum. Yumyumyumyumyum. This is a protein shake mix, whey protein obviously, and it tastes better than most milkshakes I've had. I make it like this: for 2 servings, 1 cup water, 2 scoops protein, about 1/2 c. whole-milk yogurt (we like Stonyfield Farms), a good slug of whatever DaVinci syrup you like (I like caramel), and some ice. Blend on slow speed for about 5 minutes (this comes out a LOT better than blending it fast). Whey Gourmet comes in a bunch of flavors. We've had the Dreamy Milk Chocolate and the Artic Cappuchino; both excellent. The price on this stuff varies a lot. The lowest that I've seen is $21; Netrition sells it for about $25, and I've seen a lot of prices around $32. There are about 12 flavors, but most places seem to only carry a few. It's 3 net carbs and 21 g protein.
As long as I'm at it here... I'd like to list my top two food-related irritations of the moment.
1. Artificial colors in EVERYTHING. Michael is very sensitive to both red and yellow colorants (and if you think these things are no big deal, read up on tartrazine. Hope I got the spelling right.). And Nutrasweet. I'm pretty convinced that Nutrasweet (aspartame) is best avoided, but try to find a soda without it! Diet Coke makes a Splenda version (which, I have to say, tastes overly sweet to me), and there's a brand called Diet Rite that is also sweetened with Splenda... BUT, despite making a big deal on their label about 0 calories, 0 carbs, 0 artificial flavors... what DO they have? Colorants in most of the flavors. Sigh.
2. Chicken (and other meats) "enhanced" with broth. We eat roast chicken about once a week... easy, fast meal, everybody loves it... and this week I happened to buy a couple of Purdue whole chickens at Wal-Mart (because I was doing my monthly stock-up on big stuff run). Didn't read the label carefully. Made two lovely chickens, and we both went, weird, really salty. Pulled the labels out of the trash... and, yeah, in tiny print, there's salt and maltodextrin and who knows what else added. Won't ever buy those again. Ditto on Wal-Mart's "Angus Steak House" beef, which is also mostly injected with salt. Awful. I mean, if you're selling chicken, the only ingredient on the package should be CHICKEN.
