three-tastes party chicken

A great way to entertain a bunch of standing, balcony-invading, chatting, newly arriving and otherwise not organizable guests is to place a baking tray full of chicken bits in some strategic location close to the drinks. In order to avoid big or unwieldy pieces I don’t do it the cheap way this time, which would be chopping up a few whole chickens. Robin likes chicken wings; I find that they often have too much crunch in relationship to the meaty part. I buy a lot of chicken drumsticks.

I preheat the oven to medium high, 360-370 F (180-190 C). I pour an appropriate amount of salt over all the parts and mix them by hand. I press some garlic over two thirds of the chicken bits and mix again (I do wash my hands before and after). Then I make three heaps, two with garlic and one without.

ithaca brunch sausage

Ithaca, NY. One grey October Sunday morning in 1999, I was shockingly out of supplies for breakfast. After an hour or so of mental dry-spinning - a consequence of my yawny hungry-ness - I fetched my coat and went down the hill to see where I’d find some food. First I meandered through the whole downtown without much success. When I finally entered the DeWitt mall, the cafe was just about to open, and completely empty.

Cafe DeWitt lies right across the world-famous Moosewood restaurant.

tahini chicken - tahini fish

Chicken fillets normally turn out best when prepared like I have described elsewhere: you separate the small and the big muscles of one fillet, and you slice the big one into two (or in big specimens several) horizontal layers. A really sharp knife is a Must in this operation, or you will get sloppy fillet bits and minced fingertips. The problem is now that in order to turn these fillets-of-fillets into something edible, you actually have to stand there, watch them, turn them in time, stop the cooking in time, and let the house elf or kitchen troll do everything else in the meantime.

I tried to solve this by creating an oven dish, which was inspired by ground lamb in sesame sauce, as served in a restaurant in Abu Gosh west of Jerusalem.

chicken thigh fillets again

And as an elaboration of an earlier post about chicken thigh fillets,

I am adding a shockingly crossover variant:

At least several hours ahead of cooking, I take around six or seven chicken thigh fillets, cut off any excess of fat and cut them into small bits. These are now immersed in a mixture of lemon juice and plain Japanese soy sauce, covered and stored in the refrigerator.

Also ahead of time, I soak three cups of green lentils.

When cooking proper is to begin, I slowly sauté a cup of finely chopped celeriac in two tablespoons of butter and one tablespoon of olive oil. After five minutes, I add half a cup of chopped onion to the mix, even later a chopped clove of garlic. Before anything starts to brown, I add the lentils, water to cover, one chopped tomato, a bay leaf, freshly ground black pepper, salt, a teaspoon of dried oregano and a pinch of dried thyme. This is stirred and adjusted to a pleasant bubble.

Now the chicken bits are drained, patted dry, carefully dusted with flour and quickly browned in vegetable oil. The browned bits are directly dumped into the lentils. The cooking residue, dissolved in a dash of white wine, is added as well. Then the stew is cooked until both chicken and lentils are done. A few tablespoons of lemon juice enter at the very last. The result should be creamy and yummy.

I came to this horrifying mix of cooking traditions because, from Dutch Vegetarian days long gone, I knew that lentils and soy sauce go together really well. Having started down the path of natural taste-enhancing ingredients (such as soy sauce) I just assembled more of them: celeriac is, if treated friendly, a fantastic ingredient to almost anything (except vanilla ice cream); tomato is a well-known natural taste enhancer; I do not need to mention wine, butter, onion and garlic.

chicken thigh fillets with tomatos

About ten years ago, if I’m not mistaken, the skinless chicken thigh fillet made its glorious entry into the Swedish food stores. Everyone knows how they are almost indestructible through inexpert cooking, and that they provide quick help when all ideas seem to have stopped from coming. Heat some oil, rub chicken thigh fillets in curry paste, fry - done. The downside is that the results almost never really bring you to the point where you can say “hey, that’s really something else!”

brick’n chicken

Fillets of chicken are easy to prepare well. The small muscle is about half as thick as the big muscle, so when I, after dividing the two, slice the latter horizontally in two, I get three flat bits of fillet that will cook evenly. One can dust them with flour or not, one can cook them in butter or olive oil (or goose fat, hmmm), one can make a sauce with the cooking residue and white wine, or lemon juice or whatnot else, and spice it with anything from chipotle to fresh sage and back. Easy and quick - I’d guess quicker than the average time needed to warm up a frozen meal.

The only specialty feature is that fillet of chicken is à-la-minute food. Stop cooking when its done, not earlier (because this is bad for your health) and not later (every second equals an increase of one degree on the concrete scale).

Chicken fillet is low-calorie food and hence a recurring item in lunch restaurants. In lunch restaurants, many people come to choose from a small variety of items. Lunch restaurants typically cook the fillets whole, that is, the entire big bit of muscle, until very well done. Then the bits are piled up, waiting to be heated when needed, or kept warm in stainless steel containers. Chicken à la minute becomes brick à la hour. Yum.