While a grilled steak can be pretty good I’m not happy unless there’s a sauce. For me, a pan fried steak is where it’s at. A splash of wine, a bit of stock – in this case veal stock – and a couple of flavour highlights and you move into serious territory.
The French have mastered at least 100 different pan fried steak dishes – and yet there’s no grilled steak recipes in the Cordon Bleu at Home…
French chicken in a pot. It’s a great way to mix up the Sunday roast chicken. It infuses the chicken with rich flavours and creates an unbelievably delicious sauce.
This is a simplified version of the poule-au-pot. It’s not stuffed. It’s not poached. It’s roasted. But it’s not really roasted because it’s sealed in a pot. Confused? Just go with it. It’s really, really good.
Lemon thyme chicken. Some flavours just work together. You see them over and over. Nothing original here but it works. A bit of white wine and some crushed chili flakes round it out. Just tasty. This is a great place to use concentrated chicken stock if you have some on hand. If you don’t, consider it seriously…
There’s not a lot of sauce though. Just a spoonful per serving. Leaves you wanting more. Lemon thyme chicken is fast enough for a weeknight but flashy enough for the weekend.
Panzanella is a tuscan tomato bread salad from the land of endless summer. If you like tomatoes and you like bread you owe it to yourself to try it at least once.
Where I live tomatoes are trucked for miles in winter. I think they’re tomatoes. That what the sign says. The taste says nothing. Nothing. Dust. In summer though, picked at the peak of ripeness from nearby farms the tomato is a magical thing. For me, it just screams summer and I work them into almost every meal for as long as they last.
Creole chicken. Spicy, creamy, a little bit rich. Satisfying. Maybe not what jumps to mind when you think comfort food but satisfying in a way only a fricassee can be.
Chicken, fire, flavour. So simple. So good. Take a good quality chicken, season it to your taste and spin it over fire, letting it self-baste until it’s done. Let it rest, make a quick board sauce and enjoy. Easy. Delicious. Rotisserie chicken.
Creole seasoning can be used to spice up just about everything. Instant cajun flavour.
A twist on a chicken sandwich. Hard to believe but true.
It’s a bold statement and I don’t blame anyone who just hits the back button when they see the title. But it’s true. It’s not the bread and it’s not the toppings. It’s not the condiments – no wonder ingredients in the mayo. No garlic, chipotle, anchovy, caper, lemon or anything else.