Category: Entree – Chicken

Chicken Biryani

Dave found this recipe long ago, and Margie keeps asking him to make it again. It’s a bit labor-intensive, but the results are well worth it. Biryani is a Pakistani/Indian cooking style, and you can find a lot of variations on this recipe out on the web. Dave writes:

Ingredients:

2 tbsp Oil (I use olive oil) [2]
1 mdm Onion, sliced
3 lg Potatoes, chunked [1]

1/4 tsp Cumin Seed
3 Black Peppercorns
3 sticks cinnamon

1 clove Garlic, minced
3/4 tsp Coriander, ground
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper, ground
1/8 tsp Turmeric, ground
1/4 tsp Ginger, ground
1 dash Salt, to taste

1 whole Tomato, chopped
1 tbsp Tomato Paste

6 pieces Chicken [3]
1 cup Water

Instructions:

  1. Heat oil [2] in a Dutch oven or large pot or large skillet [5] over medium heat.
  2. Saute onion clices in oil until golden; remove and set aside.
  3. Brown potatoes in oil (get those surfaces nice and crispy); remove and set aside.
  4. Add cumin seeds, peppercorns, cinnamon to pot; fry for about 30 seconds.
  5. Add garlic, coriander, cayenne, turmeric, ginger, and salt to taste; fry another 30 seconds.
  6. Add tomato, tomato paste; cook 1 minute.
  7. Add potatoes, chicken, water. Cover and simmer until tender. [4]
  8. Add onion slices and simmer a few seconds.

Notes:

[1] The original recipe calls for “quartered,” which makes for very large potatoes. I usually use smaller pieces, but if you make them too small, the simmering process will basically make them part of the sauce, esp. if you don’t brown the sides enough, rather than leaving them as chunks of potato. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but there’s probably a happy medium.

[2] The original recipe calls for 2 tbsp of oil, but, honestly, you will probably need an extra glug or two of oil after the onions and potatoes.

[3] It’s not always easy, in this packaged age, to find “chicken parts.” If you interpret this as a drumstick or a wing, that’s going to be different from a drumstick-thigh combo, or a boneless breast. Choose the size/qty of chicken you want as a serving and use that. The basic recipe will work okay with any of the above. You might also, with boneless breasts, chunk the chicken up into bite-sized chunks; that would fit with the more traditional Indian/Pakistani serving.

[4] If you end up with large chicken pieces (thinking here of boneless/skinless breasts with leg meat), it will look like you have much more chicken than you can handle. The fact is, though, by the time you’re done simmering enough to cook the chicken (180 degrees!), even large pieces like that will have simmered down into the sauce (which will have increased due to the water and fat from the chicken).

[5] I usually make double-recipes, so my 16 quart pot works great for this, eventually. It’s a bit more difficult in the onion and potato browning stages, though.

Serving suggestions:

Serve over hot rice (Basmati rice would be most traditional). Flat noodles also work (though since “biryani” means “rice,” that probably breaks a rule somewhere).

Source:

Derived from LA Times, 6 June 1985 (attrib. to Barbara Skaggs, Woodland Hillls, Calif.).

Chicken/Turkey Tetrazzini

The original dish is named after the Italian opera star Luisa Tetrazzini. It is widely believed to have been invented circa 1908–1910 by Ernest Arbogast, the chef at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, where Tetrazzini made her American debut at the Tivoli as Gilda in Rigoletto on January 11, 1905.

A perennial comfort food. And, by its nature, it begs for tinkering to the ingredients on hand, including seasonings and (even more often than chicken) a post-holiday turkey carcass.

Ingredients:

  • 1½ Chickens (fryers)
  • Water (to cover in the pot)
  • 1 tsp. Onion Salt
  • ½ tsp. Celery Salt
    ——
  • ½ lb. Vermicelli (or similar spaghetti-like pasta)
  • Salt
    ——
  • 6 tbsp. Butter
  • ¾ lb. Mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 tbsp. Lemon Juice
    ——
  • 2 tbsp. Flour
  • ½ tsp. Paprika
  • ½ tsp. Pepper
  • ¼ tsp. Nutmeg
  • 1 c. Milk
    ——
  • 1/3 c. Parmesan Cheese

Instructions:

Chicken:  These steps may already have been done (e.g., having a Thanksgiving turkey already broken down and broth made from the scraps and bones; see Notes below for more on this).

  1. Place chicken, salts, water in large pan. Simmer covered 30 min, until tender.
  2. Remove chicken, save broth.
  3. Cool chicken, remove meat from bones, refrigerate.

Pasta:  Reserve 2½ cups of broth from the previous step if that’s when you made the broth.

  1. Add water to remaining broth to fill the pan (if the both had previously been made, add a cup of the broth to the pot for making the pasta).
  2. Add 2 tbsp. salt.
  3. Bring to boil, add pasta. Don’t fully cook; leave it a bit al dente (the pasta will absorb the sauce in the oven).
  4. Drain, return to pan or a large bowl.

Mushrooms:

  1. In frying pan, heat 3 tbsp. butter.
  2. Add mushrooms, sprinkle with lemon juice, ½ tbsp. salt.
  3. Sauté until soft but not brown.
  4. Put with pasta.

Sauce:

  1. Melt 3 tbsp. butter in pan.
  2. Stir in flour, paprika, 1½ tsp. salt, pepper, nutmeg. Cook 5 minutes.
  3. Slowly stir in reserved broth. Cook until it boils (it will be thin).
  4. Add milk.

Put it all together:

  1. Mix the pasta, meat, and mushrooms into a large bowl (or a pot you already used).
  2. Put the mix into a 9×13 buttered/sprayed baking dish.
  3. Pour the sauce over the the dish, wetting everything. The sauce will fill about half or more of the pan. (The pasta’s going to such that up.)
  4. Mix everything together in a large bowl. Place in a 9×13 baking dish. Sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese.
  5. Bake covered at 400F for 20 minutes.
  6. Uncover, add more cheese, before baking another 10 minutes.

Serves: 8-10 if half are ladies. On the other hand, a family of four can polish it off without much trouble.

Prep time: 1:30

Notes:

  • This will keep two days refrigerated. Oven heat from the fridge 45 minutes to an hour, until bubbly. Freezes well. As with most casseroles, many folks consider “aging” in the fridge or freezer an improvement over “fresh.”
  • If you are dealing with an existing carcass (chicken or turkey), pick the (presumably cooked) carcass from the bones. Use the (meaty) bones in water with with some celery, onions, maybe garlic salt and pepper, to simmer as described to make the broth. The amount of meat you pick off first will determine proportions on the recipe. You can also substitute chicken tenders or boneless breasts.
  • Yes, it’s spelled “Tetrazzini,” not “Tetrazini.”

Source: Ann Kleerup Coombs, as tweaked on more than one occasion by Margie.

Italian Chicken Stew

This is an old favorite of Dave’s, and great for company. Upping the pepper in the flour mixture makes it spicier. As with most stews, it’s better the second day.
Ingredients:
6 lbs. Chicken Breasts
¼ c Flour
2 tsp Salt
1/8 tsp Pepper
6 tbsp Olive Oil
—
12 small Carrots, cut into strips
2 c Celery, cut diagonally
4 mdm Onions, cut in eights
6 cloves Garlic, minced
4 Green Peppers, chopped
2 lbs Stewed Tomatoes
2 c White Wine
1 tsp Basil, crushed
½ Bay Leaf
Salt, to taste
Directions:

  1. If using whole chicken, cut into serving pieces.
  2. Combine flour, salt, pepper, and dredge chicken in mix.
  3. Heat oil in Dutch Oven, and brown chicken.
  4. Drain (leaving in little crispy bits), then add the rest of the ingredients.
  5. Simmer 1-1½ hours, until chicken is tender.

Serve over buttered noodles or rice.
Prep Time: 2 hrs.
Servings: 8
Source: LA Times