Murgh Makhani (Butter Chicken), from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s The River Cottage Meat Book

1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breasts

For the Tikka Marinade:
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 tablespoon lime or lemon juice
2 tablespoons garam masala
2 teaspoons chile powder
2 teaspoons ground mixed spice (some mix of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and ground ginger)
2 teaspoons ground fenugreek
golf ball-sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 to 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
2 to 4 green chiles, finely chopped

For the Tomato Sauce:
1 28-ounce can chopped tomatoes
small nugget of fresh ginger, grated
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 to 3 small green chiles, finely chopped
5 cloves
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water

For the Makhani Sauce:
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons tomato puree
4 teaspoons honey
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon fenugreek
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon black pepper

Mix together all of the ingredients for the tikka marinade and then add the chicken. Let the chicken marinate for at least 4 hours in the fridge, although overnight is preferable if possible.

Take out the marinated chicken from the fridge and grill it when you are ready to make the curry. We put our chicken on the bbq, but you can easily cook it on a griddle, or even roast the chicken breasts in the oven.

Put all the ingredients for the tomato sauce into a pan and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and gently simmer the sauce for 20 minutes until it has nicely thickened. Rub the sauce through a sieve and set aside the strained sauce.

To complete the sauce, melt the butter in a large pan, add the ground cumin, and let it sizzle gently for a couple of minutes. Add the reserved tomato sauce, and bring it back to a gentle simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Add the tomato puree, honey, cream, fenugreek, lime juice, and black pepper, and continue to simmer, stirring gently, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce is rich, thick, and creamy. Finally, add the cooked chicken, mix and heat through, simmering for a final 5 minutes.

Serve the curry with plain white rice and lots of naan bread to soak up all that creamy sauce.

Turkey King Ranch Casserole, adapted from Homesick Texan
3 cups leftover turkey meat, shredded
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 poblano pepper, diced
1 10-ounce can Ro-Tel tomatoes, or 1 8-ounce can diced tomatoes and 1 small can green chiles
3 teaspoons ancho chile powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 teaspoons lime juice
1/2 cup half and half
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
4 cups grated cheddar cheese
10 corn tortillas
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium, and add the onions, red bell pepper, and poblano pepper. Let the veggies cook for 10 minutes, and add the garlic, flour, cumin, cayenne pepper, and ancho chile powder to the mix. Cook for another minute, and pour the chicken broth in the saucepan and cook over a low heat for a few minutes until the mixture thickens. Stir in the half-and-half and Ro-Tel. Cover the saucepan and let everything simmer for around 15 minutes while giving the sauce an occasional stir.

Take the lid off the saucepan, and add the sour cream, lime juice, and 1/4 cup of cilantro to the sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and take the sauce off the heat.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, as you begin to assemble the casserole. Grab a large baking dish, and spoon 1/2 cup of the sauce onto the bottom of the dish. Layer 5 of the corn tortillas on the bottom of the dish. I like to cut 3 of them in half and place the straight edge of the tortillas against the edges of the pan. Arrange the tortillas so the bottom of the pan is evenly covered.

Place half the turkey on top of the tortillas and pour over half of the remaining sauce. Top the casserole with half of the remaining cilantro and 1 1/2 cups of cheese. Repeat the layering process again starting with another layer of tortillas and ending in a thick layer of grated cheese.

Cook the casserole uncovered for around 30 minutes, or until the cheese topping gets nice and browned. The casserole tastes great served with a big dollop of sour cream.

I’ve been known to spend hours making turkey. My favorite recipe is to smoke a turkey (which takes about 8-10 hours), but only after soaking it in brine for 3-5 days. This recipe, though, is the other end of the spectrum: brine it for a day, then cook it in the oven for a few hours. It’s pretty easy — usually the hardest part is finding a container big enough to brine the turkey in — and turns out a moist, delicious bird that’s almost as good as the smoked ones I used to make. This recipe makes enough to brine a turkey that feeds 12 at 49 cents per serving, plus the cost of your turkey.

Apple Cider-Brined Turkey, adapted from Cooking Light, November 2004
For the Brine:
8 cups apple cider
2/3 cup kosher salt
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon black peppercorns, coarsely crushed
1 tablespoon whole allspice, coarsely crushed
8 1/8-inch thick slices peeled fresh ginger
6 whole cloves
2 bay leaves

For the Turkey:
1 12-pound fresh or frozen turkey, thawed
2 oranges, quartered
6 cups ice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and divided
salt and freshly ground black pepper

To prepare the brine, combine all of the ingredients for the brine in a large saucepan and bring it to a boil. Cook the brine for 5 minutes or until the sugar and salt fully dissolve. Let the brine cool completely.

Remove the giblets and neck from the cavity of the turkey, and rinse the turkey with cold water and then pat it dry. Trim off any excess fat and stuff the body cavity with the orange quarters. Place the turkey inside a double layer of large oven bags, or trash bags if you don’t have any, and put the bagged turkey inside a large stockpot.

Add the cooled brine with the ice to the turkey in the bag. Tie the bag with some twist ties, and let the turkey brine in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours. During the brining process, be sure to turn the turkey occasionally so all parts of the bird get to soak up the brine.

When you are ready to cook the turkey, preheat the oven to 500¬?.

Remove the turkey from the bags, and discard the brine, orange quarters, and bags. Rinse the turkey with cold water and pat it dry. Lift the wing tips up and over the back, and tuck them under the turkey. Tie the legs together with kitchen string, or leave the plastic tag on the legs so you can easily handle the turkey.

Arrange the turkey, breast side down, on the roasting rack. Brush the back of the turkey with 1 tablespoon of melted butter, and season generously with salt and pepper.

Bake the turkey at 500¬? for 30 minutes. After that initial cooking, reduce oven temperature to 350¬?.

Remove the turkey from the oven. Carefully turn the turkey over using tongs so it is breast side up. Brush the turkey breast with 1 tablespoon of butter; and season with more salt and pepper.

Bake the turkey at 350¬? for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a thermometer inserted into the meaty part of thigh registers at 170¬?. When taking the temperature of the turkey, make sure to not touch the bone as that can throw off the reading. In case the legs of the turkey start to brown too fast, place some foil over the legs to shield them from the heat.

Once the turkey is cooked, remove the bird from oven and let it stand for 20 minutes before serving as the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving dinner.

Other suggested Thanksgiving recipes:
Back to Basics: Roast Chicken

This recipe with guacamole makes a huge baking dish of enchiladas that easily feeds 8 people at $2.54 a serving, or you can make the full amount just for yourself and have some great leftovers for a few days.

Roasted Hatch Green Chile, Black Bean, and Chicken Enchiladas
Enchiladas:
12 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
2 jalapeno peppers, stemmed
1 onion, quartered
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
2 limes, juiced
salt
3 Hatch green chiles, or poblano peppers if you can’t find any
extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, sliced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups canned chicken stock
1 deli roasted chicken, about 3 pounds, boned, meat shredded
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
Leaves from 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 large corn tortillas
1/2 pound Monterey jack cheese, shredded
1 pint sour cream

Chunky Guacamole:
4 ripe avocados
3 limes, juiced
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 serrano chiles, sliced thinly
1 big handful fresh cilantro, finely chopped
extra-virgin olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Although you can roast your husked tomatillos and chile peppers over an open gas flame or in an oven, it is really easy to also throw them on a hot bbq grill until you get some nice char marks on their skins. Once the chile peppers are roasted, put them in a closed brown paper bag or in a bowl covered with clingfilm and let them steam so it is easier to skin and deseed the chiles under running water. You can also grill the jalapenos and onions for the salsa to add a nice grilled flavour to the dish.

To make the salsa for the enchiladas, put the grilled tomatillos, jalapenos, and onion into a food processor with the cumin. Whiz everything together and then add the cilantro, lime juice, and salt and mix together.

To make the enchilada filling, heat up some olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute it until it is softened and about to caramelize, around 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or so, then add the cumin and cook for another minute.

Add the flour and mix it well into the onion and spice mixture. Slowly pour the chicken stock into the saucepan and stir constantly so the flour doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan or clump together. Bring the mixture to a simmer and let the liquid thicken. Then mix in the chicken, diced peppers, black beans, and cilantro, and season well with salt and pepper.

The end result is a nice soup-y filling. We had some filling leftovers after making enough enchiladas to fit into our baking dish, so I used it is as a sauce the next day in some incredible freestyle Huevos Rancheros.

To assemble the enchiladas, start off by preheating the oven to 350 degrees F and getting a large glass or metal baking dish.

Dip a corn tortilla into the tomatillo salsa and place it on a cutting board. Use a slotted spoon to dollop some of the chicken mixture on to the center of the tortilla. Sprinkle with a little cheese on top and then roll the tortilla like a cigar to enclose the filling. Use a spatula to place the enchilada seam side down in the baking dish, and continue to fill all of the tortillas in the same way and arrange them in the baking dish.

As the above photo demonstrates, it is a bit of a messy process but don’t get too discouraged about non-perfect enchiladas:

as they get hidden by a thick layer of cheese and no one will notice anything when the enchiladas are cooked and served.

Pour the remaining tomatillo salsa over the top of the enchiladas and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top to make a nice thick layer. Bake the enchiladas uncovered for about 30 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and cracked on top.

To make the guac, halve and pit the avocados and scoop out their flesh into a mixing bowl. Mash them with a fork to leave them a little chunky, then add the remaining ingredients and gently mix everything together. To prevent the guacamole from going brown before you serve it, place a piece of plastic wrap right on top of the surface of the guac and put it in the fridge until dinner.

Serve the enchiladas hot with a side of the guacamole and some sour cream.

When we went to LA a few weeks ago, we both wanted to try their Korean-inspired bbq, but with a long list of other restaurants to try, we didn’t get a chance. So when I saw a recipe for Korean style tacos with Kogi bbq sauce on Steamy Kitchen, I knew I had to finally try what lots of people are talking about.

The recipe calls for some leftover chicken, pork, or beef. If you don’t have any leftovers on hand, shredding up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store would work well too. We had some leftovers from the Chicken Under A Brick, so I used that meat as the base for our Kogi BBQ Tacos.

The tacos were incredible with a whole lot of spice cut by the sweetness of the sugar and rice wine vinegar. They were a bit juicy from the sauce and the kimchi, but well worth the mess! This recipe feeds 4 people at 57 cents per serving.

Kogi BBQ Tacos
1 pound leftover chicken, pork, or beef, shredded
2 tablespoons chili-garlic sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
12 corn tortillas
kimchi

Combine all of the wet ingredients and add the sugar. Mix everything together well until the sugar is thoroughly dissolved.

Add the shredded meat to the sauce and let it sit to marinate for a few minutes.

Place the shredded meat in a warmed up corn tortilla and top with some kimchi for some finger licking tacos.

You butterfly the chicken by removing the backbone so it will lie flat, then you set the brick on top of it to press the skin down on to the pan, which makes it nice and crispy. Starting on the stove then finishing in the oven adds nice, juicy meat to the crispy skin, which is what I like in a roast chicken. The lemon and rosemary flavors and scents were pretty strong, making a nice addition. The end result was great, and to be honest, turned out a lot better than many of the plain roast chickens I’ve cooked! This Chicken Under a Brick recipe feeds 4 hungry people at $1.19 per serving.

Chicken al Mattone
1 4-pound chicken, backbone cut away and discarded, rinsed and patted dry
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
2 garlic cloves, pressed
coarse kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
chopped fresh Italian parsley

Butterfly your whole chicken. This video best demonstrates how to easily butterfly your chicken. Or you could ask your butcher to butterfly the chicken for you.

Mix 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of chopped rosemary, and the minced garlic in a small bowl. Rub the marinade all over both sides of the chicken. Put the chicken in a large Ziploc bag and let it chill overnight in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, and find a brick from your garage or garden and wrap it in aluminum foil.

Sprinkle the chicken with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a heavy large ovenproof skillet over a medium-high heat. Place the chicken skin side down in the skillet and cook it until the skin turns golden brown, around 7 minutes.

Do not turn over the chicken, but place the foil-wrapped brick crosswise on top of the chicken. Roast the chicken in the oven for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, take the skillet out of the oven and remove the brick. Turn the chicken over in the pan and replace the brick on top again. Place the skillet back in the oven and continue roasting the chicken until the juices run clear when the thickest part of the thigh is pierced, around 15 minutes longer.

Take the chicken out of the oven and remove the brick. Transfer the chicken to a platter and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Sprinkle the chicken with crushed red pepper and fresh Italian parsley.

However this fast and easy Thai Chicken, Zucchini, and Tomato Curry can make you rethink that Thai delivery because you can have dinner on the table faster than the delivery guy can make it to your house at a fraction of the cost. This Thai Curry feeds 4 people at $2.03 per serving.

Thai Chicken, Zucchini, and Tomato Curry
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, sliced crosswise 1/3 inch thick
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 onion, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 zucchini, cut into 2-by-1/2-inch sticks
1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste, or to taste
1/2 cup unsweetened light coconut milk
2 tablespoons water
finely grated zest of 1 lime
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
rice, for serving

In a large pot, heat 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil. Add the chicken seasoned with salt and pepper, and cook it over a high heat until the chicken is just white throughout, around 2 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate.

Add the remaining oil to the pot, and add the onion and stir-fry over a moderately high heat for 2 minutes. Throw the zucchini and cherry tomatoes into the pot and stir-fry for another 2 minutes. Stir in the curry paste (you can add as much as you want depending on how hot you like your curries), coconut milk, water, lime zest, and lime juice and bring the curry to a simmer. Add more coconut milk if you think the curry needs a bit more juice and then stir in the chicken and cook for a couple of minutes.

Serve the curry with cooked rice and top with fresh chopped cilantro for a quick Thai dinner at home.

I went down to Austin with my sister, nieces, and brother and basically got to sample pretty much every chicken finger in and around the city since chicken fingers seem to be THE number one food of choice for all the 1-4 year olds that we know.

So it is only fitting that we start reblogging today with a tasty Crispy Chicken Fingers with Sweet Potato Fries recipe that both little and big kids can enjoy. I found this recipe for chicken fingers in one of my Fitness magazines, and while I’m normally very hesitant of whether light versions of fatty foods can taste good, these chicken fingers tasted just as close to the real thing as you can get while still maintaining a healthy moral superiority. The chicken fingers recipe makes enough for 4 big kids at $1.37 per serving, and the sweet potato fries cost 72 cents per serving.

Crispy Chicken Fingers, from Fitness Magazine
12 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 cups cornflakes, finely crushed
dash of black pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 F. Cut the chicken into strips. In a shallow dish, combine the egg, honey, and mustard, and in another dish, stir together the cornflake crumbs and black pepper.

Dip the chicken strips into the egg mixture, and roll in the crumb mixture to coat. Arrange the chicken strips on an ungreased baking sheet. Be sure to use an ungreased baking sheet or else the bottoms of the chicken fingers become soggy when you cook them.

Bake the chicken for about 12 minutes, or until the outsides are golden and chicken is no longer pink on the inside.

To make the sweet potato fries, cut up a whole sweet potato in strips (or cheat like me and buy the pre-sliced fries from Trader Joe’s). Spray some olive oil on a baking sheet and then place the fries on top and spray the tops of them with more olive oil. Season with lots of salt and pepper and cook in a 450 F oven for around 15 minutes, or until they are crunchy.

I put my fries in just a few minutes before the chicken fingers and they both came out of the oven at the same time perfectly cooked.

Since this dinner was for big kids, we made some spicy ketchup by mixing together chili-garlic sauce with ketchup to taste because even big kids love tons of ketchup with their food.

To prepare for my debut, Carlo explained how to turn on the grill and work all the knobs. After seeing my sister lose far too many eyelashes and arm hairs in her grilling experiences in high school, I’m a total wuss when it comes to flames. He also found some helpful chicken grilling tips in the Steve Raichlen book, How to Grill: The Complete Illustrated Book of Barbecue Techniques. If you are a grilling newbie or just want to improve your ‘que, I would definitely recommend this book. Not only does it go over the basics, Raichlen proves his bbq guru-ness with tons of recipes that he has found by traveling the world in the pursuit of the grill.

Since I’m an amibitious cook (not always a good thing), I decided to jump right into grilling and cook everything on my dinner menu on the grill. Carlo wanted me to make this delicious looking Publican Chicken that was published in the New York Times food section last week, and I added the sides of Grilled Bread Salad and Grilled Corn.

I had everything prepared in the kitchen, the grill heating outside, and was only waiting on Carlo’s phone call to tell me that he was on his way home from school for me to put all of the food on the grill. I had even memorized Raichlen’s tips on how to grill chicken quarters properly. I first started by putting the bread on to grill for the Grilled Bread Salad, and all was going well until I flipped the slices over and the other side would just not toast.

Turns out the grill had run out of gas, or at least that is what I thought, even though in the back of my mind, I wondered if I had somehow broken the grill. I turned it off and waited for Carlo to get home where he confirmed that the grill was indeed out of gas (man, was I relieved that I was not a grilling idiot!). He got a new tank and eventually took over on the grill while I observed and helped out a bit. So my grilling debut turned out to be a bit more collaborative than I had intended, but I’m ready to face the grill solo soon!

We used chicken legs for the Publican Chicken recipe to make 3 servings at $1.37 each. The Grilled Bread Salad made 4 servings at $2.12 each, and the Grilled Corn cost 50 cents per serving for a total dinner cost of $3.99.

To make the marinade for the Publican Chicken, mix together olive oil, lemon juice, brown sugar, hot paprika, oregano, garlic and salt and pepper. The marinade is a nice combination of sweet and savory, which works great with the dark meat of the chicken legs.

Our favourite way to marinate meat is to put it in a large ziploc bag and then pour in the marinade. Close the bag and shake the bag to get the marinade all over the chicken. By putting it in a bag, you are able to really massage the marinade into every nook and cranny of the meat without getting your hands dirty and making a mess. I highly recommend that you marinate the chicken for a few hours in the fridge to fully allow the marinade to flavor the meat.

After a few hours in the fridge, the chicken is ready for the grill, where you should place it skin side down first over medium to high heat. Grill the legs for a few minutes until the skin is beginning to brown and then move the leg to a cooler section of the grill and cook until the skin is fully browned. Repeat the process on the other side for perfectly cooked chicken quarters.

To make the Grilled Bread Salad, start with some really great tomatoes. I got some more from the Farmers Market since they were so good in the Tomato and Mozzarella Salad with Basil Vinaigrette. They were supplemented by one for our own garden, the bigger red one in the middle–sadly, my tomato bushes right now only seem to be ripening one tomato per day which isn’t ideal for using them in recipes!

Another key ingredient is good bread. I used some leftover ciabatta that I got from the Farmers Market as well. Ciabetta is a good choice for the bread salad because it toasts well and the airy slices help soak up the juices of the tomatoes better. Cut the bread into thickish slices and then put them on the grill and toast them on both sides until the bread browns and chars slightly.

As for the tomatoes, I cut the cherry tomatoes in half and then put them in a large bowl and mixed them with olive oil, lemon juice, red onion, and finely grated garlic. Be sure to taste the mixture and adjust to your liking. This tomato mixture forms the basis for the salad, so you need to make sure it is seasoned well and tasty.

After the grilled bread cools, cut into up into large chunks and add them to the tomatoes along with a handful of cut parsley and basil. Mix everything together so all of the flavors meld together. I prefer a crunchier bread salad, so I serve mine fairly quickly after I add the bread cubes. Incredible!

BTW: If you love bread salad and ever find yourself in Marfa, Texas, check out the Pizza Foundation. Not only are their pizzas to die for, but they have an incredible Tomato Bread Salad on the menu too.

My preferred way to eat summer corn is grilled with a smidgen of butter and a sprinkle of salt. Grilling corn is really easy: just shuck the corn and put it on the grill over medium heat. Keep an eye on the cobs so they don’t burn, but just have some nice charred parts on them.

The recipe says that you can use either Meyer lemons or regular lemons. The Meyer lemon is a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange, so it is sweeter and more fragrant than a regular lemon, plus it has much thinner skinner too. If you don’t have a Meyer lemon hook up like we do or a tree growing in your yard, you can use regular lemons but I would suggest cutting them up into thinner slices than the recipe calls for so they can caramelize a bit easier while cooking. The recipe reviews also suggest different ways to make the dish with regular lemons too.

Once again we used Mary’s Free Range leg quarters from Whole Foods to make the dish, and they tasted great. They hold up really well while braising or grilling because they are air chilled and aren’t injected with lots of water that makes them shrink when they cook. I highly recommend checking out the Whole Foods meat department and picking up a few packages, even though when we went to Whole Foods over the weekend, they were out.

The Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives and Lemon turned out great and was really easy to make. All of the sweet spices in the sauce paired nicely with the tartness of the lemon and the briny olives. The Meyer lemons totally cooked down and you could eat them whole with pieces of chicken. We just ate the dish on its own with a green salad, but next time, I will cook up some couscous to soak up that good sauce.