Recipe a Week, Week 2

Like last week, I made two new recipes this week, this time for our Sunday night dinner. (For the record, I don’t plan to do two a week every week!) The main dish, the chicken, was very good and not very difficult to make. It just took a little time. I think we all agreed that this one was a keeper. The side dish, the sweet potatoes, tasted fine, but did not seem worth the effort.

Again, I’m not incredibly satisfied with the picture of the plated food, but I’ll post it anyway:

Here are the recipes:

Cinnamon-Stewed Chicken

Ingredients

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 3 pound whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 yellow onions, coursely chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced and divided
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup water
1 cup chicken broth
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
1/2 cup ricotta salata cheese, grated

Method

1. Mix cinnamon, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Pat chicken dry with paper towel, and rub with cinnamon seasoning.

2. Heat olive oil in a deep skillet over high heat. (Don’t overcrowd chicken, or it will steam rather than brown.) Brown chicken in oil for about 4-5 minutes on each side. Turn frequently with a spatula. Remove chicken when nicely browned on all sides; set aside.

3. Lower heat to medium-high. Add onions and 3 minced garlic cloves, and cook stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes until onions are soft and golden brown. Add wine to pan, scraping up any browned bits with a spatula.

4. When wine has evaporated, add water, broth, tomato paste, oregano, and remaining 2 cloves of garlic. Return chicken to pan. (Liquid should cover the chicken about three-fourths of the way.) Cover and simmer over low heat about 1 hour or until chicken is tender and cooked through. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

5. Serve chicken topped with sauce and sprinkled with cheese. Remove skin before eating. (Serving size: about 1 piece of chicken with sauce.)

Notes

We could not find a whole chicken already in pieces, so to save time we decided to cook two breasts and four thighs. The weight of the meat made me decide to increase the recipe 1.5 x Because this wasn’t quite enough for two nights for three people (we usually count on leftovers from meals like this), I will probably double the recipe next time.

When rubbing the chicken, I made sure to rub under the skin as well as over it. Since you discard the skin at the end, this seemed to work well.

We could not find the ricotta salata cheese, so used grated pecorino romano cheese instead. This seemed to be a good substitution, but I’d be curious to see what the other cheese tastes like with this dish.

The chicken was very tender — falling easily off the bone when you cut into it. The sauce was very flavorful.

Overall, the dish was not difficult to make, just a little time consuming.

Servings: 6

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

5 medium sweet potato, 10 oz. each
1/2 cup cranberry relish
1/2 cup dried cranberries or raisins, snipped or chopped
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Method

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Scrub sweet potatoes and pierce all over with a fork. Place on oven rack. Bake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until tender. Set aside to cool slightly.

2. Cut each potato in half lengthwise. Using a spoon, scoop pulp from each potato half, leaving a 1/4 to 1/2 inch shell. Place pulp in medium bowl. Set aside shells.

3. Using a potato masher or fork, mash potato pulp until smooth. Stir in relish, cranberries, butter, and salt. Spoon potato mixture into each potato shell. Place, filled sides up, in a 15 x 10 x 1-inch baking pan. Sprinkle with walnuts.

4. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until heated through.

Notes

A little difficult to make. The potatoes were hard to handle after taking them out of the oven. I probably should have let them cool a little. Leaving enough potato in the shell was also a little challenging; if you take too much the skins rip easily making it difficult to refill them.

The taste was fine, but I’m not sure that it was a significantly better taste than simply baking them. Not sure this recipe is worth all of the effort.

Servings: 10

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