Olympic Chicken

The idea of this recipe is to replace the skin with crunchy cornflake crumbs and then bake it instead of frying. You need to have bone-in, skinless chicken. It's easy to skin a chicken breast. And not bad to do thighs. Legs are a little more work. Some stores offer skinless chicken with the bones still in. I'd say it's worth paying a little extra for the saved time and effort. Otherwise, you may want to do breasts and thighs only. It's still delicious.


The recipe calls for a 2-1/2 - 3 pound frying chicken cut into serving pieces, but you can do 4 chicken breasts and/or six thighs. That'll give you leftovers for another time. And obviously this recipe is totally extendable. Just use more milk, cornflakes, seasoning and chicken. But see note below and don't crowd the chicken on the pan.

1 cup skim milk (any milk will do actually.)
1 cup cornflake crumbs
1 teaspoon dried rosemary (optional -- you could use any seasoning you like, including Emeril's)
Pepper to taste

Remove all skin from chicken, see note above. Rinse and dry the pieces. Combine cornflake crumbs and seasoning in a large zip lock bag. Dip the chicken in the milk and then shake in bag until covered with crumbs. Then, let the chicken pieces stand and dry for a bit so that the crumbs will stick on better.

Line a rimmed cookie sheet with aluminum foil (saves clean-up.) Put chicken on pan -- don't let the pieces touch (Remember my beef stew browning lecture. Moisture is the enemy of crispness. Fight sog.) Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. Play the national anthems of as many competing countries as you desire. Test everyone -- everyone -- for steroids.

Grandma Hogsett's Baked Beans

Happy Memorial Day!


Here's the bean recipe. It's not wildly specific, some of it you just have to wing. I'll tell you how I wing it:

2-3 cans pork and beans. Yesterday I used two of the really big cans of Campbells. That's a decent measure, but if you like you can stir in another medium-sized can or so when they start to cook down -- makes it more beany.

1/2 - 1 small bottle of ketchup. I usually just dump in the whole thing. Probably a couple of cups at least.

1 handful of brown sugar. I just reach in and grab some -- I'm guessing 1/3 - 1/2 cup, packed

1/2 cup pancake syrup. Really, don't use good maple syrup; it's not the right taste. Mrs. Butterworth's or Log Cabin or whatever works fine for this.

1 TBS. ground pepper (really.)

1/2 pound bacon, cut up.

A pinch salt. (That's just ludicrous. I never put any salt in. See bacon, above.... There is nothing in this recipe except the onion and the pepper that doesn't contain salt. Well, maybe the brown sugar. Maybe)

This calls for 3 medium onions. I used just one of those really big white ones. The recipe doesn't say diced, but duh. Dice them.

Bake at 350 until done. Oh, that's helpful. I bake them with the lid on until they start to really bubble and then I take the lid off and let them cook down. Around five hours, I'd say. Stir every half hour. Be careful. This is about a gallon of burn unit in a big heavy, steamy pan. And you can hurt your back, no lie.

Oven fried potatoes

You could do these with the fish if you do the potatoes first and set them aside while you heat the oven on up to 500 (shouldn't take long) and bake the fish for 10 minutes. Awesome with a burger, too.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 large baking potatoes [Cut in half lengthwise – be very careful, no kidding; knives can jump all over the place when your cutting something hard – and then lay halves face down and cut each half in half and then one more time. You’ll have eight pieces total.]

2 teaspoons seasoning blend (such as Emeril’s)

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°.

Spread oil on a pan with a raised edge. Place potato wedges on pan. Sprinkle with seasoning; toss gently to coat. Bake at 400° for 40 minutes or until tender. Sprinkle with salt.

4 servings [you can do one potato if you don’t want leftovers, but if you cut these up, they make great little hash browns for breakfast or lunch.]

Just in case.

Here's what everyone should know about putting out a cooking fire. Don't feed it air. Drop a lid on it. Do not use water. At the very least it will cause a skillet to flame up big before it goes out. [Your Grandmother Snider and I melted the kitchen curtains doing that, back in the day. We were lucky that's all that happened.] A fire inside the oven will generally go out if you turn off the oven and keep the door closed. Opening the door will feed it air. Also. Buy a box of baking soda and keep it in the cupboard close to (but not above) your stove. If you catch something on fire, rip the top off the box and dump the soda on it. And never hesitate to call 911 if you don't get it on absolutely the first try. I believe you have a fire extinguisher that's certified for oil and electrical fires. It'll say on the label. Keep it in the kitchen. Know how to use it.

Fish Crispies

This is not only incredibly easy; it's incredibly fast.

1 pound fish fillets [I suggest you get orange roughy. And don't buy more than two pieces. It's expensive and leftovers won't be very good. So pick out a piece that will be a meal for you and get that.
Olive oil
1/3 cup cornflake crumbs

The roughy will be frozen. Probably will thaw before you get it home. If not. Stick it in a plastic bag and float it in a couple of inches of cold water. (Not warm.) It should thaw in fifteen minutes or so.

Preheat your oven to 500˚
Rinse off the fish, cut it into serving-size pieces. Two pieces roughy would probably cut into four. Use your fingers and spread some olive oil all over each piece of fish to give the crumbs something to stick to. Just a light coating of oil is fine.

Put some cornflake crumbs in a flat dish and dip the fish in. Get them nicely coated with crumbs.

Use Pam to spray a pan that will hold the fish without them touching each other.

Bake for 10 minutes without turning.

NOTE: It's possible that your range may not heat all the way to 500˚. Don't worry, just bake at 450 and allow a minute or so extra. That's a really hot oven so be careful.

Grandma Ada Bea's Pancakes

This is the recipe your great grandmother wheedled out of a short order cook somewhere in the great American South, circa 1955. The key is to gather all your ingredients before you start putting it together. The buttermilk interacts with the baking powder and soda to make fluffy bubbles. Protect the bubbles! Don't beat them to death.

1 cup flour
1 rounded teaspoon baking powder -- that means heap it up a bit.
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoon pancake syrup (I use about 3 -- can't hurt.)
1 cup buttermilk
1 well beaten egg

The basic instructions are "combine all at once. Beat just as little as possible."

Here's how I do it. I've highlighted the items you may need to buy

I sift the dry ingredients together -- just to get rid of any lumps. The original recipe didn't require that. (Do you have a sieve? You can get one at the grocery store. Question #2: Do you have a whisk?) Anyway, I put the sieve over the bowl I'm going to mix in and just measure the dry ingredients into it -- anything that doesn't just fall through, you can stir through with a spoon.

* Put the syrup (a little less than a quarter cup) into a little bowl with the two tablespoons butter and mike it for about 40 seconds. (Don't let it boil over.)

* Measure the buttermilk into a microwave safe bowl big enough to hold all the dry ingredients, too and break the egg in on it, beat the egg in. Pour the syrup and butter mixture into that bowl.

* Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl.

* Use a spoon or a whisk (whisk works best) and beat the ingredients together -- about five to ten strokes. Just combine. You can throw in a cup of fresh (rinsed and shaken dry) blueberries, if you like. Do not overmix. Really. Protect the bubbles.

* Use the griddle on your George to bake them I think. Just leave the lid open. Or use a non-stick fry pan. Control the heat if you do it on the stove. Practice.

NOTES: Two things. If you used dry buttermilk you just add enough to make a cup to the dry ingredients and then add a cup of water to the wet ingredients. That way you always have it on hand. Buttermilk keeps quite a while -- week, week and a half or so, but the dry stuff is great.

This recipe can be doubled. Just use twice as much of everything. Also, you can put the dry ingredients together in a plastic bag and keep it in your cupboard and then just warm up the butter & syrup and throw in the buttermilk and egg. That makes it really quick.

Remember: Only Mom can make the bears.