Zanzibar Chicken, one of My Most Favorites

I guess I've been in the mood for returning to old favorite recipes lately.  My orange tree has been producing - they are Valencias, and so make wonderful juice - and I really wanted to make Zanzibar Chicken again (pg 92-93), a recipe I've been making since 1990.

It comes from a book I have used so many times, 365 Ways to Cook Chicken, by Cheryl Sedaker.  

ISBN 0-06-015539-6

When I look through it, I see notes I have made on a variety of recipes.  This one comes to mind as a favorite because the concepts it holds transfer to other ingredients so easily.  It also is a fruit-and-meat combination, which I love, along with some of my favorite spices.

When I first started cooking from this book, I was a new mom, trying to learn how to manage a house and a baby.  The recipes are often quite easily assembled, then can be left to cook while I did other things.  In fact, this recipe comes from the chapter titled "Chicken Quick."

So here it is, recipe #144:

Zanzibar Chicken

3 pounds chicken thighs and/or drumsticks

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed through a press

3/4 cup orange juice

3 tablespoons raisins

1/3 cup slivered almonds 

That's fresh squeezed juice in that glass measuring cup!

1. Season chicken with cinnamon, cloves, salt, and pepper.  In a large frying pan, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add chicken, in batches in necessary, and cook, turning until browned, about 10 minutes.  Remove and set aside.

2. Add onion to pan.  Cook until soft, about 3 minutes.  Add garlic and cook 1 minute longer.

3. Return chicken to pan.  Add orange juice and raisins.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes, until chicken is tender.  Garnish with almonds.

My Notes

Today I had about 1 1/2 pounds of chicken thighs (boneless, skinless).  That works for me, so I used all the same ingredient amounts, not halving them at all.

I mixed the seasonings in a bowl, then rolled the chicken pieces in them until each piece was thoroughly covered with a thin layer.  Keep in mind that I love these spices, so it would take a lot to make them too strong for me.

The smaller amount of chicken meant I didn't have to brown them in batches.  But brown them I did.  They even got a little crusty, but they weren't cooked all the way through. (I like crusty.)

I had to turn the heat down a little when the garlic went in, as I despise burnt garlic.  A quick one-minute cooking should be enough to make everything smell good.

I sometimes measure the raisins but I might just throw in a handful, depending on how much I want to taste raisins.

Sometimes I spoon the juice-raisins-onions mixture on top of the chicken pieces before simmering.  Just to get the extra flavor into the meat.

Roll that thigh in the spices!  Coat it well.

They all fit in the pan.

Crusty level of browning. Without burning the spices.

Everything together and ready to simmer.

It's done.

The Verdict

Of course it tastes good!  It's one of my favorites!  

The spices were strong but not too much.  My guest taster thought they were just right. The chicken was cooked all the way through and very tender.

The sauce, oh the sauce!  Orange, spices, sweet from the raisins, meaty, luscious.  It is just so good.  

Put the pan on a trivet and serve it forth.

I served the chicken and sauce with rice, both in a bowl, so the sauce could flavor both the meat and the rice.  Spoon that sauce over everything.

The almonds add a lovely crunch. 

Get every drop of that sauce.

Success! 

Now, what I meant by "the concepts transfer to other ingredients" is that you can create similar dishes with the ideas contained in the recipe.

I have used apple juice instead of orange juice, sometimes adding pieces of apple to the pan, with either chicken or pork chops.  Use the same spices or add some ginger (especially good with pork).  Apples and onions are a made-for-each-other combination.  I may or may not use raisins.

I have also used coconut milk along with fresh lemongrass, curry powder, and maybe a little ginger.  For fruit, pineapple is a good choice as well as raisins.

What other combinations could you use?  Use your imagination.  Have fun with it.  Consider chicken, pork, fish, or seafood.  Think about the spices that taste good with the meat you choose.  Pick a fruit that complements everything.

Pollo guisados -- Stewed chickens, a Pinedo recipe

I have to admit that I love stews.  They are generally easy to fix, can contain a lot of flavors, feed a crowd, and can be made in advance.  This Pinedo recipe, on page 207, checks all those boxes.  

Her Recipe

My Translation

I also have to admit that I don't have any pigeons on hand, so I have to make this one with just chicken.  I noticed she didn't say to cut the birds up, but I assumed they were.  I chose to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs (a favorite).  But look at all the ingredients that make up the sauce!  

My Redaction

3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs

2 cloves garlic

7 ounces onion

1 1/4 pounds tomatoes

16 large, pitted black olives

4 ounces mushrooms

1/2 cup raisins

1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon flour

2 cups boiling water

1/8 cup fresh oregano leaves

olive oil for cooking

Everything but the chicken.  Its picture is further down. Not the olive oil, either.

First, heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven.  I put enough in to lightly cover the bottom of pan once it was hot.

Add the chicken thighs and brown them over medium heat.  You can do this in batches if you want them to be more brown.  I did one batch.  Note:  I interpreted "half fried" as "brown them."  After they cooked on one side, I turned them to brown the other side.

While the meat is browning, chop the tomatoes, garlic, parsley, oregano, and mushrooms.  Also, slice the onions and olives.  I had a big bowl nearby and I placed each ingredient in the bowl once it was chopped or sliced.  Add the raisins, too.

Once the meat is browned, add all the ingredients from the bowl into the Dutch oven.  Stir them well.

Add the boiling water, salt, and pepper.  The sprinkle the flour over the top.  The goal is to avoid lumps and clumps of flour.  Stir well.

Bring the whole mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low.  

Simmer over that low heat for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

Serve by placing one thigh with a scoop (or two) of sauce over the top.

This is a bit crowded for standard browning, but I didn't worry about it.

Everything in the bowl, as viewed from the top.

The bowl, as viewed from the bottom, after added to the chicken.

Stirred well.  Note the herbs are not finely chopped.

Now it is everything.  See how the flour was sifted with no clumps?

Stirred and starting to bubble.

Ahh, done.

My Notes

Miss Pinedo suggested using flour or toast.  By that she probably meant toasted or dried bread crumbs, which is a time-honored method of thickening a liquid.  I chose flour because it was convenient, although I do have copious amounts of dried crumbs that I store in my freezer.  Either works.  I have learned that with stews, bread crumbs seem to make a more "gooey" sauce, meaning thicker with more body.

For my low heat, I used 1 or 2 out of 10 on my stove's settings.  I was looking for just a little bubbling in the middle; that's all.  Slow cooking will get the meat very tender.

I judged the amount of water to use by how high the level in the Dutch oven was -- it was almost as high as all the ingredients together.  And that was 2 cups.  

The house smelled so good while the stew was cooking, and continued to smell good afterwards.  Yum!

The Verdict

I kept the meal simple:  stewed chicken, toasted onion rolls, and wine.  Don't forget the wine!

The chicken was tender.  I never used the knife because the meat broke up easily with a fork.  The meat was not dry, either.  

The sauce:  Oh, the sauce!  Full of flavors, textures, and surprises.  My guest taster, who didn't know all that I put in it kept saying, "Are these raisins?" and "There are mushrooms!" and similar comments.  He loved all the ingredients he discerned while eating.  

Overall, we both loved the sauce.  It was complex in its flavor profile, but no one flavor stood out.  I consider that a win.  I got the balance right, even for the amount of salt and pepper.  The tomatoes cleared formed the basis of the sauce but it was not a "tomato-y" sauce.  It was fun to taste different ingredients along with a bite of chicken.

The toasted roll came in handy for sopping up the sauce once the meat was gone.  

My guest taster had seconds.  That is also a win!

Success!

The leftovers were just as good reheated.  

Did the flour really thicken the sauce?  I will say, "Probably not" but the long cooking with the lid off reduced the sauce and it did thicken up a little.  How much was from the flour, I cannot tell.  Would bread crumbs have been better?  I've used them in stews before and I think it would be thicker.  But with only one tablespoon, maybe not.

It just occurred to me that Miss Pinedo's tablespoons were probably two of ours - so it could have been thicker had I thought of that earlier.  I realized that after reviewing her table of weights and measures on page 274:  she said, "A tablespoon measures an exact ounce."  Our standardized tablespoons measure one-half ounce.  I need to keep that in mind for future experiments.

Pudin de Lolita, Lolita's Pudding -- a Pinedo recipe

On page 215 is this pudding, dedicated to Lolita.  I wish I knew who she was.  There are other puddings dedicated to other women, some of whom are clearly Encarnación Pinedo's nieces.  This could be to one of her nieces who was referred to by a nickname.  Or it could be to a family friend or cousin.  

What is intriuging about it is that it is a sweet pudding (one and a half pounds of sugar!!!) but it also has meat in it.  It reminds me of the old (early 1800s and prior) ante recipes.  They were originally designed to be served at the beginning of the meal (thus ante or "before") which did have meat and sugar in them.  Later they were declared to be desserts, and typically did not have meat in them.  Pinedo put several ante recipes in her book.  I made one previously, which you can view by clicking here:  Ante de Camote y Pina - A Luscious Dessert with Sweet Potatoes and Pineapple (pg 16).

The questions I had with this recipe are:  Exactly what kind of pudding is it?  She offered a variety of pudding styles, from boiled to steamed to baked to baked in a bain marie.  She mentioned using crumbled bread, so is it like a bread pudding?  But with the requirement of cream and eggs, presumably lots of them, I wondered if it were more like a baked custard.  I still don't know exactly what a "kettle cup" is, but I presume it is around what we call 2 cups or 16 ounces.  She said three kettle cups, which is six of our cups.  That is a lot of cream!  

I decided to create it as a custard pudding, with the eggs and cream being the major support and the other ingredients making it interesting.  I was very tempted to bake it in a bain marie, but decided she would have specified that if she felt it was important.  Puddings like this need to be baked in a very low oven so the custard doesn't curdle or cook up like scrambled eggs.  I also chose to interpret a kettle cup as one of our 8-ounce cups, at least at the beginning of making the recipe, until I saw how the thing was going together.  Then I would adjust as needed.

She did mention early in the pudding section that puddings should be put into shallow baking dishes.  Instructions noted!

Her recipe

My Translation

My Redaction

1 pound sliced almonds

1 1/2 pounds sugar

8 ounces chicken breast, already cooked

3 cups cream

1/2 ounce butter, melted

1/2 cup bread crumbs

6 large eggs, separated

For crumbs: I started with two 3-inch diameter rolls, broken open to dry, & pounded in the mortar.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.  Butter the inside of a large, shallow ceramic dish.  (See Notes.)

Chop the chicken breasts into about 1/4-inch pieces.  

In a large bowl, mix the cream and sugar together until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the melted butter and mix well.

Separate the eggs.  Beat the yolks well and then mix them into the cream mixture.

Mix the bread crumbs into the cream mixture.

Mix the chicken and almonds into the cream mixture.  

Whip the egg whites to stiff.  Fold them into the cream mixture.

Fill the baking dish.  

Bake for 1 hour (see Notes), until the center jiggles when the pan is shaken but stops when the movement stops, and the top is browned.  

Let cool at least a little before serving.

Chopped chicken.

Cream, sugar, yolks, and breadcrumbs, all mixed.

With the chicken and almonds.

With whipped egg whites.  That is one full bowl!

My Notes

Instead of two chicken breasts as she specified, I decided the one really big one I had on hand would suffice.  I weighed it instead of counting the quantity.

The chicken breast was previously cooked on a grill after being rubbed with olive oil and ground black pepper.  There was not a lot of seasoning on the piece I chose, so I don't think the pepper influenced the flavor of the dish.

I did some reading in my Ratio book by Michael Ruhlman in order to get a sense of how many eggs were "necessary."  Believing this would be a custard-like dish, I decided to use 6 eggs for 3 cups of liquid, giving a ratio of 12 ounces eggs to 24 ounces cream.  Keep in mind that eggs are very carefully sized for us, whereas Señorita Pinedo made do with whatever eggs were available to her.  They could have been all different sizes.

I had no idea how much volume the recipe would make, so I ended up using two ceramic baking dishes; one held 2 1/2 liters and the other 2 liters.  It helped to use a ladle to move the batter into the dishes.  

I thought it was done after 45 minutes of cooking, but once I broke through the crust on the top, the middle looked liquid, so I put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes.  It is possible it was ready at 45 minutes -- it was browned and it certainly smelled good.  

Ready for the oven.  Two full baking dishes.

After 60 minutes of baking time.

The Verdict

Letting the pudding cool a little seemed to give it a chance to set up in the middle.

The browned top was a crunchy crust.

My first bite was ... interesting.  Wow, was it sweet!  But the flavor of the meat came through, which was intriguing when combined with the almonds and the sweet.

The custard I expected was more like the matrix which held together the chicken and almonds.  It was not dense; I suspect because of the whipped egg whites.  

It tooks a few bites before I really liked it.  My mouth had to adjust to the concept of meat and sweet.  But then I liked it.  The almonds added a nice crunch.  

It was sweet, as I said, and it was rich.  I will have more, as will my guest taster who was trying to guess all that was in it and thought there was some fruit in it.   He certainly enjoyed it.

In thinking about this blog post, I had trouble deciding if it was a dessert (but it had meat in it!) or a side dish (but it was sweet!).  My guest taster thought you could have it as either, depending on what you wanted for the meal.  I think that is good advice.  

I then shared this with two other guest tasters.  One, quite the foodie, thought it wasn't very sweet at all (I was astonished) and liked that because he doesn't really like sweet foods.  He also felt, at first, that it had undercooked bread in it but then later decided that wasn't it and it wasn't a problem.  He loved the nuts and how crunchy they were.  He was surprised to know there was meat in it.  

The other guest taster did not enjoy the food.  He felt his mouth was "conflicted" because of the meat and sweet combination.  It was "okay" but not something he would want to repeat.  But he did think that he could get used to it if he other opportunities to try it.

Success!

It was just as good warmed up the next day.  Maybe even better, as I got more of the custardy part in each spoonful.

I hope Lolita would be pleased with my result.

If I were to do this again, I would use half the amount of chicken and almonds, and I would use about 1/3 of the amount of sugar.  But I would still use the same amount of cream and eggs and bread crumbs because my mouth kept wanting more of that matrix around the meat and nuts.  I think changing the amount of butter is optional.

If I did this as a modern "upgrade," I would reduce the amount of sugar a lot, try using whole milk instead of cream, and consider using raisins as a delightful bit of chewy sweet.  But still use chicken, because I think it surprises people, and that is always fun.

Playing With Fire - Chicken Thighs and a Chicken and Veggie Stew

A recent cold day gave me the opportunity to build a fire in my fireplace, which of course means cooking!

I didn't have any particular recipe in mind, I just wanted to play and see what I could make.  Also, I wanted to try out my new fireplace crane.

Lovely, no?

It is important to manage your fire and hot coals supply before, during, and after cooking.  You always have to be thinking ahead and considering, "Do I have enough to cook now?  Will I have enough later?  How quickly are the coals burning out and do I need to put fresh wood on the fire to start making more?"

A lot of these answers depend on the wood you are using and the foods you are cooking.  With practice, you can assess the situation quickly and adjust as needed.  When I do historical food demonstrations, I start with charcoal, which is easier to haul and use than chunks of wood.  

Sometimes I see television shows or movies portraying cooking with fire as a pot over robust flames (ahem, Star Trek Voyager and Neelix's kitchen!) but that gives you little control over the cooking process.  You need to be able to adjust the heat by moving coals in and out, sometimes under the pot but sometimes on top of or next to.  When I cook when flames are present, the pot is usually off to the side while the contents are stirred often and the pot rotated to offer the cooler side to the fire.  In very old kitchen setups, you will see areas where a few coals can be placed on bricks and the pot is set on a grate over them.  With this, you can get very gentle heat for delicate cooking.

So I lit the fire and waited for the coals to form.

This wood popped cinders often.  Note the small black chunks on the tile.

Then I pulled some coals towards me and started preheating my Dutch oven.

Those coals are HOT!

Into the pan went olive oil.  I had prepared the boneless, skinless chicken thighs by rolling them in breadcrumbs spiced with pepper, cinnamon, garlic powder, and paprika.  The following picture reminds me that you should always have a plan for where you will set your utensils.  I don't want to put them on the tiles.  In this case, the tongs rested on the plate that held the meat.  Sometimes you need a separate plate or bowl, depending on how many tools you are using.  

Gloves with leather palms work well for heat protection and are easy to put on or take off.

I used the tongs to put the thighs in the pan and wiggled them a little to help keep them from sticking.  They started sizzling immediately.  

(Note:  I learned the wiggle technique from Hank Shaw's website, "Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook", found here:  https://honest-food.net/  Look at his post for "How to Sear Fish."  Credit where it is due!)

I checked them often, and when the downside was browned, I flipped them and moved the pan further from the heat so they could cook thoroughly.

I love the crust they developed!

Notice that I put a lid on the pan at this point.  Remember how I said the wood was popping a lot of cinders?  I tell you, cinders taste bad and you want to keep them out of your food as much as possible.   I needed a long time to get the meat's interior cooked, which means exposure to cinders.  Cover your pans as often as possible.  Some of my pans didn't come with lids, so I use lids that I do have to cover them, even if they don't fit well.  I'm also in the process of making ceramic lids that will fit them.  

The pan is getting heated on one side now, but the bricks were pretty warm and the pan was still hot.  I was confident that the thighs would cook as I wanted them to.  I also reduced the number of coals in the cooking area.

When they were done, they had released juices into the pan.

Smelled good!

The thighs were cooked all the way through, maybe more than I would normally cook them, but they were still moist and tasty.

I decided last minute to make a gravy out of the pan juices.  I added more breadcrumbs and adjusted the spicing (including salt) to enhance the flavors.  This I cooked in the Dutch oven but on my stove.

A very thick gravy.

The meal consisted of chicken thighs topped with gravy, whipped sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce.  You can find the recipe for the sweet potatoes by clicking here:   Cardamom-Scented Sweet Potatoes.

MMMMMM!

A very lovely meal indeed.

Hey!  I still had fire and coals and the time to make something that cooked slowly (while I enjoyed the meal).  So I made a chicken and vegetable stew and utilized the crane.

This time I used my large kettle (not the giant one you see in the corner of the fireplace).  I put in olive oil, chopped chicken thighs, and chopped onions.  I cooked them over hot coals, covered but checking them and stirring often, until the onions were transluscent.  A few times I rotated the kettle to warm up the cool side.

This is one of those situations when you need to think ahead about where the utensils would be placed  and where the hot lid would go while I was stirring and checking.  A nearby clean pot held the spoon when it wasn't in my hand, and the same pot held the lid when I was stirring the food.

The lid is too big, but it worked.

Then I added the rest of the ingredients, all canned: corn, garbanzo beans, green beans, tomato sauce.  I didn't throw any spices in until later.  I included the liquid from the green beans and corn, too.

After everything was stirred, up onto the crane it went!  Online reviews of the crane said it could hold a lot of weight, but I was worried anyway.  What if it pulled out from the wall?  Well, it didn't, and I was glad.  I built up the fire and put a lid on the kettle.  It was high enough that the live fire wasn't overheating the food.  

Lid went on after this picture was taken.

The beauty of the crane is that I don't have to lean into the fireplace and lift a heavy kettle up and out.  Safer, for sure, and easier on my back and arms.  It swings the kettle over to me, and I just need to lift it off the hook and set it on the hearth.

Aside from the occasional checking to see how the fire was doing and to stir the stew, I ignored the cooking process.  A lovely slow-cooking process ensued; I was looking for the tomato sauce to darken, which means it is well-cooked.

At some point I added spices:  pepper, garlic, salt.  After about three hours (or so), the stew was ready.

We ate it the next day, which allows the flavors to meld and develop.  Always a good thing to do with stews.

Of course it was good!  Success, twice!

It is always fun to play with the fire and cook something.  I'm hoping for another cool day in the near future so I can do it again.

Cheers!

Empiñada - a Tomato, Pineapple, and Chicken Stew (a Pinedo recipe)

I'm on a roll making stews from the Pinedo's cookbook, El cocinero español.  ("On a roll" - a cooking pun!)

Last month I wrote about a beef and onion stew.  This time I tried a recipe on page 93, Empiñada.  This is not empanadas (a hand pie or dumpling) but a chicken stew with the dominant flavors of tomatoes and pineapple.  Yes, pineapple!

My Translation

My Redaction

1 cup dried bread crumbs

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 can crushed pineapple with its juice (20 ounce can)

2 cans diced tomatoes with their juice (14.5 ounce cans)

2 teaspoons cinnamon (or 1 tsp and then add more at the end to taste)

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic

1 teaspoon salt

2 to 2 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thigh meat

Use just two cans of tomatoes and half that amount of chicken

Heat skillet over medium heat.

Add olive oil; swirl it to heat it.  

Add bread crumbs.  Stir constantly until the crumbs are golden brown.

Add pineapple, tomatoes, cinnamon, cloves, garlic, and salt.  Mix well.

Simmer over low heat while cutting the chicken into chunks.

Mix the sauce and the chicken pieces together in the slow cooker.  

Cook on low for 4 hours or until the meat is fall-apart tender.  Adjust salt to taste.

Beginning to toast crumbs

Toasted!

The sauce.  Just right.

My Notes

I did this recipe twice.  The first time I completely got the sauce-to-meat ratio wrong!  There was too much meat and the sauce was lost between the pieces.  My redaction above reflects the changes I made from the second time around. 

The point of toasting the bread crumbs - the technique is similar to toasting nuts but with oil to lubricate things - is to create an ingredient that will thicken the sauce.  

I didn't need to add any more water since I used the juices from the pineapple and tomatoes.

The first attempt did not include salt and boy, was it obvious.  I made sure there was salt in the second attempt.

You just have to love the slow cooker for making this recipe easy to cook and the chicken super tender.

For the second attempt, I created the sauce following the above directions then let it simmer for 30 minutes.  Then I added the first batch to it (the full amount was reduced from the three people who taste-tested it, but that wasn't much) and simmered it on low for 20 minutes warm it all the way through.

The Verdict

My guest taster who does not like cinnamon only tried the first version, which contained so little sauce that she couldn't taste it.  Honestly, we all tasted just tender chicken and not much else, so it was a bust.

Not enough sauce.

However the second time around had chunks of meat swimming in sauce.  Perfect!

See how thick it is?

The pineapple and tomatoes were the dominant flavors and they blended well together.  There was a bright acid note along with the sweetness from the fruit.  The spices were there but not competing for attention, although I noticed that I really enjoyed the slight dominance of the cinnamon. As one guest taster said, "They make something go on in the background so it is not just pineapple and tomato."  I agree!

The bread crumbs did their job and the sauce was thick.  I served the stew the first time with the pasta shells and the second time just by itself.  Both worked well.  

Success!  Simple and yet intriguing to have the pineapple and tomatoes working together.  I would probably add a little more cinnamon if I did this again.