Clementine-Soy Chicken Thighs

January 22, 2012 Filled under Asian, Chicken and Poultry, Fruit, Light, Winter
17 Comments

Happy (Chinese) New Year!

For some reason, we always celebrated Chinese New Year when I was a kid. I don’t know why, but I always looked forward to it. It was so fun, and we didn’t eat Chinese nearly as often back then as we do now. Mom would take out the electric wok and cook dinner right on the table – usually a chicken stir fry. The next night, we’d wrap the leftovers in tortillas and eat them as fajitas. Yum.

I made this clementine-soy glazed chicken a few weeks ago and thought it would be the perfect Chinese New Year post. But then I started researching and apparently I had it all wrong. The holiday has all sorts of food traditions, like eating noodles to bring long life and dumplings to bring wealth. And apparently serving a chicken or duck whole represents health, but serving it cut – like these thighs – is the opposite. Oops.

Oh well. This dish is delicious any time of the year, and you should definitely make it (if you’re superstitious or prefer to celebrate the New Year more traditionally, just wait until tomorrow.)

I almost always have a crate of clementines sitting on my counter this time of year, but they go bad quicker than I can eat them so I’ve been trying to come up with ideas for cooking with them. I’ve found that roasting them concentrates their flavor and makes them super juicy! For this dish, I roasted them along with some chicken thighs, then used the juice in an Asian-inspired sauce. The chicken was great, with a perfectly crispy skin stretched over juicy meat, but the sauce was really the highlight of the dish. It was delicate and tangy, with a slight hint of perfume from the citrus. It was delicious spooned over the chicken, but even better mixed into the red quinoa that I served on the side. Thanks to the sauce, I’d say it was some of the best quinoa I’ve ever eaten.

Clementine-Soy Glazed Chicken Thighs

Serves 4.
Prep Time: 5 minutes; Total Time: 45 minutes
Tucking aromatics under the skin and roasting them at a high temperature gives these citrusy chicken thighs a delicately crispy skin while keeping the meat moist and succulent. This recipe is a great way to use up clementines that are on their last legs but, if you prefer, you can substitute tangerines or naval oranges –  simply adjust the amount so that you have enough to give you about 1/4 cup of juice. 
I like to serve this dish with sautéed bok choy and plenty of wild rice or quinoa to soak up the etra sauce.

Ingredients

  • 4 (about 1 pound) Bone-In Chicken Thighs
  • 1 Tablespoon minced Shallot
  • 1 clove Garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon grated Ginger
  • 1 teaspoon Olive Oil
  • 4 Clementines, halved
  • 1 Tbs + 1 teaspoon Low Sodium Soy Sauce
  • 1 teaspoon Dark Brown Sugar
  • 1 teaspoon Sake or White Wine

Preparation

  1. Preheat the oven to 450*F. Place the chicken thighs in a small baking dish with sides (I used a 9-inch cake pan). Gently slide your fingers between the meat and the skin to separate it. Combine the shallot, garlic and ginger and run it into the meat, beneath the loosened skin. Rub the skin with olive oil and season with black pepper. Tuck the clementines around the chicken, cut sides up. Roast for 20 minutes.
  2. Pour off any fat that has accumulated in the bottom of the pan. Remove 4 clementine halves from the pan and juice them into a small bowl. Whisk in the soy sauce, brown sugar, and sake. Pour the sauce over the chicken thighs and return to the oven. Roast for another 15 minutes, spooning the sauce over the chicken 2 or 3 times.
  3. Remove the chicken thighs from the pan and place them on a plate. Tent with foil to keep them warm. Transfer the sauce to a small saucepan set over high heat. Bring to a boil, then let reduce by half – about 5 minutes.
  4. Serve the chicken thighs with the reduced sauce and a roasted clementine half.

Approx. 275 calories, 17.4 grams fat, 8.5 grams carbohydrates, 0.6 grams fiber, 20 grams protein

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Fettuccini with Cauliflower, Prosciutto and Peas

January 12, 2012 Filled under Italian, Pasta and Noodles, Winter
7 Comments

Can we talk about cauliflower for a second? It’s a great vegetable with a really unique flavor. I love it and, if you haven’t tried it lately, you really should give it a second chance. But there’s a right way to do cauliflower and a wrong way. The cauliflower “steaks” that food editors seem to have decided should be all the rage this winter? NOT the right way. In fact, it’s a pretty decent way to confirm any suspicion that you may have had that cauliflower is gross.

This pasta, on the other hand, with the some of the cauliflower caramelized in the oven and the rest pureed into a creamy sauce? Even if you think you hate cauliflower, you’ll love this.

This dish is based loosely on one that I had at OTTO when I was in New York City last September. If you ever find yourself in NYC looking for a great meal at a reasonable price, I highly recommend you check OTTO out. It was easily the best meal I had in 2011.  The house-cured charcuterie was amazing. The pizza, a perfectly thin, perfectly charred crust topped with anchovies, capers and chilis, was sublime. And the pasta with spicy cauliflower? There’s no way to describe it other than sexy. Don’t even get me started on dessert.

There was only one problem with the pasta: After a few transcendent bites, it started to get … boring. There was no variation in texture, no acidity to cut through the rich sauce. It was fork full after fork full of the same of the same delicious bit, and I thought it needed something more. Something to jar your senses and bring you back down to earth.

It took me a few attempts to get this recipe exactly the way I wanted it, but it was worth every last attempt. I added roasted cauliflower and peas for texture, prosciutto for richness, and a smattering of sun dried tomatoes to give it a little bite. The sauce isn’t quite as smooth and luxurious as Batali’s (I suspect his uses heaps of butter and cream), but the flavor and texture is wonderful. It sure is a pretty darn good way to eat cauliflower.


Fettuccine with Cauliflower, Prosciutto and Peas

Serves 8.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

In this dish, based off of one I ate at Mario Batali’s restaurant Babbo, cauliflower is pureed into a smooth sauce that coats wide, flat pasta. Prosciutto, Peas, and sun dried tomatoes turn it into a meal.

While you can use sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil in this recipe, they will add unnecessary fat. I like to buy tomatoes that are dry packed in a cellophane bag. To rehydrate them, steep in boiling water for 10-15 minutes.

Ingredients

  • 1 large (6″-7″ diameter) Cauliflower, cut into small florets
  • 1 teaspoon Olive Oil
  • 1 cup Skim Milk
  • 1 cup Chicken Stock
  • 3 ounces Pecorino-Romano, shredded
  • 1 Tablespoon Flour
  • 1 cup Frozen Peas
  • 1/8 pound Prosciutto
  • 10 Sun-Dried Tomatoes (not packed in oil), rehydrated and chopped
  • 1 pound Fettuccine or other wide, flat pasta, cooked
  • Cracked Black Pepper, to taste

Preparation

  1. Preheat oven to 400F. Place 1/4 of the cauliflower florets on a baking sheet and drizzle with oil. Roast for 30 minutes, or until tender and slightly browned.
  2. Meanwhile, add the remaining cauliflower to a large pot of water set over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then cook for 20 minutes or until very tender. Drain the cauliflower and return it to the pot. Turn the burner to medium.
  3. Add the milk, chicken stock, and cheese to the pot. Use a handheld mixer or immersion blender to process the cauliflower into a smooth puree. Whisk in the flour and bring the sauce to a gentle boil to help it thicken.
  4. Stir in the tomatoes, peas, prosciutto, and roasted cauliflower. Combine sauce and fettuccine in a large serving bowl, tossing gently to coat all of the pasta. Season with black pepper.

Calories 241. Total Fat 5.9 grams. Saturated Fat 2.9 grams. Carbohydrates 34.3 grams. Fiber 6.6 grams. Protein 14.4 grams.

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