Category: New England

Chicken A La King

I know what you might be thinking.  For many, the thought of Chicken A La King conjures up the worst of that era of the 50s and 60s when everything came from a can.  When people couldn’t figure out what to do with leftover chicken,  they smothered it in cream with canned mushrooms – or worse, just doused it in cream of mushroom soup (shudder).  But Chicken A La King is a misunderstood dish.  Before it was hijacked by the 50s canned-everything era, it enjoyed a place on the menus of some of the finest restaurants in the world – including the Delmonico Steak House in New York City and the Claridge Hotel in London – as far back as the late 19th century.  This version is devoid of canned mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup, jarred pimentos, patty shells and leftovers; rather, it is a bright and fresh version closer to the originals from over a century ago that more closely resembles an elegant version of gravy on toast.

Time: 30 – 45 minutes
Level: Easy
Cost: About $3 per plate
Serves: 4- 6

Ingredients

  1. 1.5 – 2lbs chicken breast, cubed
  2. 8oz Crimini or Baby-Bella mushrooms, quartered
  3. 2 TBSP olive oil
  4. 1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced
  5. 2 TSP fresh thyme (or 1 TSP dried)
  6. 1 red bell pepper, finely diced
  7. 1/4 TSP cayenne pepper, or to taste
  8. 2 TBSP butter, diced
  9. 3 TBSP all purpose flour
  10. 1 cup Sherry wine
  11. 1/4 cup Brandy (for flambé, optional)
  12. 1/4 – 1/2 cup heavy cream, or half-and-half
  13. 3 TBSP fresh parsley, minced
  14. Dash of Paprika, garnish
  15. Rustic loaf of bread

Instructions

Prep all your ingredients and get ready to cook – this dish moves pretty fast.

After you’re finished prepping, preheat oven to 500°F for toast (this will take about the same amount of time as it will to cook the rest of the dish).

Heat olive oil in a large skillet or sauté pan over medium-high heat.  When oil is shimmering, add mushrooms and sauté until they begin to caramelize just a bit, 2-3 minutes.  Add diced butter and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the butter is mostly melted.  Add bell pepper and continue to cook until soft, 2-3 minutes more.  Add garlic, thyme and cayenne pepper and sauté until very fragrant, about 2 more minutes.

Optional:  Add 1/4 cup Brandy and flambé

Add cubed chicken and stir to incorporate.  Stir in flour and continue to cook chicken until it is white all around and no pink is visible (it doesn’t need to brown, and it doesn’t need to be cooked through – it will finish cooking in the sauce).

Add sherry wine, bring to a boil, and reduce until the raw alcohol is cooked off, 2-3 minutes.  Reduce heat to medium, stir in cream and reduce until sauce is thickened to a gravy-like consistency, 5-7 minutes over medium heat.

Meanwhile, while the sauce is reducing, thickly slice several pieces of rustic bread – about 1 or 1.5 inches thick – figure on two pieces per person.  Drizzle both sides with olive oil and place them on a baking sheet.  Place them in the 500° oven for about 5-6 minutes or until beautifully golden brown.

Remove toast from oven and plate.  Ladle chicken and sauce generously over the toast.  Garnish with fresh parsley and a dusting of paprika.  Serve with steamed broccoli or asparagus.

Cook’s Note:  Due to the richness of this dish, it can come across as a bit overly decadent (even though this version isn’t too bad for you).  But the garnish here isn’t really optional – the parsley and paprika will brighten it up significantly.

 

Herb Crusted Pork Loin with Shiitake Mushroom Gravy (2017)

This method for roasting a pork loin is the best I’ve found so far.  It yields a juicy, tender roast accented by savory garlic and herbs.  Served with Shiitake Mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes it makes the perfect autumn dinner for those first few crisp, cool nights.  Although it takes a couple of hours to prepare from start to finish, most of that time is just waiting for the pork to roast in the oven while you enjoy its savory scent.  Save this recipe for a weeknight when you’ve got a little extra time or, even better, a weekend evening at home with a football game to watch in the background.

Time: 120 minutes
Level: Easy/Intermediate
Cost: About $4-6 per plate
Serves: 6-8

 

Ingredients

For the Pork

  1. Pork Loin Roast, 3-4 lbs, trimmed of excess fat and/or sliver skin
  2. 2 TBSP butter
  3. 4-5 garlic cloves, finely minced
  4. 2 TSP each, dried: oregano, basil, thyme and rosemary
  5. 1 14oz can beef broth
  6. 2 140z can chicken broth

For the Shiitake Mushroom Gravy

  1. Pan drippings and broth from pork loin (above)
  2. 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  3. 1/2 cup dry Sherry
  4. 2 tablespoons butter
  5. 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
  6. 1 small shallot, finely minced
  7. 12 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, sliced (dried ones work too, just be sure to reconstitute them ahead of time – if using dried, follow the instructions on the package for how to do this)
  8. (about) 1/3 cup whipping cream

Instructions

For the Pork:

Preheat oven to 275F

Take whatever pan you plan to make the gravy in (I prefer a large sauté pan) and add all three cans of broth.  Place a cooling rack (or spare grill grate) on top of the pan.

Crush garlic cloves and herbs together using a mortar and pestle or in a bowl with a wooden spoon.  Add butter and continue to crush/mix until formed into a relatively smooth paste.

Using cooking twine, tie the pork loin up in several places, getting it as cylindrical as possible to ensure even cooking.  Slather pork loin on all sides with garlic-herb-butter mixture and place on top of the cooling rack which is on top of the sauté pan.  Pop the whole assembly into the oven on the center rack and roast for 2-2.5 hours, or until the internal temperature of the pork loin registers 155F.  Use an instant-read thermometer or probe thermometer to ensure correct temperature (you DO have at least one of these tools in your kitchen, right?  If you don’t, order one now!)

Sit down with a beer and watch a football game.

When the internal temperature of the pork reaches 155F, remove the roasting assembly from the oven (careful, it will be HOT).  Place the sauté pan on the stove top.  Transfer the pork loin to a baking sheet.  Change oven setting from BAKE to BROIL – HIGH and pop the pork loin on the baking sheet under the broiler for 3-5 minutes to brown the herbs.  Keep an eye on it; you want the herbs to brown not burn.  Once the herbs are browned, remove the pork loin from under the broiler, transfer to a carving board and allow to rest under loosely tented aluminum foil while you make the gravy.  Don’t forget to turn the oven off!

For the Gravy

Mix flour and sherry together to form a smooth paste.  Try to eliminate any large clumps of flour – the smoother the better!

In a separate frying pan (not the one that was in the oven), melt butter over medium-high heat until foamy and add shallot and mushrooms.  Sauté until most of the butter is absorbed into the mushrooms and shallots are mostly translucent, 3-4 minutes.  Add garlic and sauté until fragrant, 1-2 more minutes.  Add mixture into the pan with the drippings and broth. Stir in flour-sherry mixture and bring to a boil, stirring often.  Boil until thickened into gravy, about 10 minutes.  Add cream, and allow gravy to return to a simmer.  Continue to stir frequently until gravy reduces to desired consistency.

Slice pork loin into 1/4 inch thick medallions.  Serve with gravy, mashed potatoes, and green beans.

Easy New England Clam Chowder

This version of a New England classic is as easy as it is delicious.  Perfect for a cold night, it is garnished with bacon bits and oyster crackers and is best served with a rustic, crusty bread (for dipping) or warm biscuits.
Growing up in Massachusetts my family and I used to take an annual vacation down to a little island called Planting Island just off of Cape Cod.  I remember gathering clams from the muck in the shallow, brackish waters behind the causeway that led to the island.  My cousin would then make a delicious chowder.  This recipe, however, uses canned clams rather than fresh ones because fresh ones are an enormous pain in the rear end to gather, scrub, steam and de-sand.  A true New Englander would probably shoot me, but being a California transplant fresh clams are in short supply and I’ve never noticed an appreciable difference.  Without further ado, here goes:

Time: 60 Minutes
Level: Easy
Cost: $4-6/plate
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbsp butter, divided
  • 4 slices bacon, chopped
  • 1 large white onion, diced
  • 1.5 – 2 cups celery, diced
  • 3-5 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
  • 1 bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped
  • 2 tsp tobasco (optional)
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
  • 2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and chunked
  • 1 15oz can low sodium chicken broth
  • 1 bottle clam juice
  • juice from 4 (4oz) canned clams (3 cans minced, 1 chopped)
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 2 Tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 2 Tbsp cold water (optional for thickening; this is called a slurry, by the way) OR
  • Optional for roux, if you like a really thick chowder…
    1. 1/4 cup vegetable oil
    2. 1/4 cup flour

Instructions

  1. In a large saucepan, sauté bacon until nearly all the fat is rendered and bacon is well browned (Note:  You’re going to brown it a lot more than you would when you’re cooking breakfast, you want to be able to crush it in your hands to make bacon bits!)  Remove bacon from pan with slotted spoon and set aside on paper towels to drain.
  2. Remove pan from heat and melt 1 Tbsp butter in bacon fat.  Reduce heat to medium and return the pan to the stove
    1. Note:  Make sure the fat has cooled somewhat; you don’t want hot bacon grease splattering everywhere in the next step!  Also, it will burn your ingredients and the whole meal will taste burnt.  This is really important, and is the only place where you can really screw up this recipe.  If you’re not sure how hot the fat is, toss ONE little piece of onion into the fat; if it crackles loudly and grease spatters everywhere, it’s still too hot.  You basically don’t want anything to react when you toss it in the pan.
  3. Add onion, celery and parsley to pan and sauté in bacon fat until onion is translucent, 3-5 minutes.  (This combination of stuff is called a sofríto, by the way).
  4. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant, 1-2 more minutes.
  5. If using, add Tabasco and cayenne and saute until fragrant, 1 minute (Trust me on this, use these ingredients – I know it sounds crazy in clam chowder but it adds a nice zing without being overpowering)
  6. Add potatoes, chicken broth, bottle of clam juice, and juice from canned clams.  If there isn’t enough liquid to cover the potatoes by at least 1/2 inch, add warm water until the potatoes are submerged.  Cover, bring to a rapid boil, remove cover, reduce heat to a simmer, and allow liquid to reduce and sauce to thicken until potatoes are cooked through, 20 – 30 minutes (test the potatoes by sticking a fork in them).
  7. Once sauce has reached desired consistency and potatoes are done, stir in clams, cream, and remaining butter.  Bring to a simmer and allow to cook for 5 minutes more (clams don’t take long to cook).
  8. If your chowder isn’t thick enough, add the slurry of cornstarch and water OR
  9. Optional, if you like a really thick chowder:  Heat 1/4 cup vegetable oil in a small saucepan and slowly whisk in the flour all while continuously whisking.  Incorporate the flour and continue to stir, until the mixture becomes a light blond color.  Remove from heat and continue to whisk vigorously.  After 1-2 minutes, add 1/4 cup of the soup mixture to the roux and continue to whisk vigorously (did I mention to whisk vigorously?  Don’t stop whisking!)  Once the soup mixture is incorporated into the roux, add the contents of the sauce pan back into the chowder and stir.  It will thicken tremendously.
  10. Turn off heat and stir for 3 -5 minutes to aid the cooling process and help flavors marry.

Serve into bowls and garnish with reserved bacon bits and oyster crackers.  Serve with bread or biscuits.