Ingredients

• 2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 4 oz cream cheese, divided into eight chunks
• 3 tbsp Grey Poupon
• 2 medium-size onions, chopped
• water, enough to poach the chicken
• olive oil, enough to saute onions

Method

1. Fill a frying pan with enough water to poach the chicken. Turn chicken part way through the poaching if you like.
2. In a separate frying pan begin saute the onions until translucent.
3. Once the chicken is cooked through, remove to a cutting board and cut into bite-sized pieces.
4. Remove all but about a cup or two of the poaching water from the chicken pan. (Save the extra for some other recipe.) Add cream cheese to pan and heat over medium heat until it begins to melt into water. Mix in the mustard. Whisk till smooth. Add the onions, bring to a simmer.
5. Return the chicken to the pan and simmer it in the sauce until the sauce has become as thick as you like.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups full-fat Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 ½ tablespoons ground turmeric
• 2 tablespoons garam masala
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 3 pounds chicken thighs, on the bone
• ¼ pound unsalted butter
• 4 teaspoons neutral oil, like vegetable or canola oil
• 2 medium-size yellow onions, peeled and diced
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 3 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and grated or finely diced
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 medium-size tomatoes, diced
• 2 red chiles, like Anaheim, or 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced
• Kosher salt to taste
• ⅔ cup chicken stock, low-sodium or homemade
• 1 ½ cups cream
• 1 ½ teaspoons tomato paste
• 3 tablespoons ground almonds, or finely chopped almonds

Method

1. Whisk together the yogurt, lemon juice, turmeric, garam masala and cumin in a large bowl. Put the chicken in, and coat with the marinade. Cover, and refrigerate (for up to a day).
2. In a large pan over medium heat, melt the butter in the oil until it starts to foam. Add the onions, and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent. Add the garlic, ginger and cumin seeds, and cook until the onions start to brown.
3. Add the cinnamon stick, tomatoes, chiles and salt, and cook until the chiles are soft, about 10 minutes.
4. Add the chicken and marinade to the pan, and cook for 5 minutes, then add the chicken stock. Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for approximately 30 minutes.

5. Stir in the cream and tomato paste, and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

6. Add the almonds, cook for an additional 5 minutes and remove from the heat.

Ingredients

• 3 -4 cups diced cooked chicken
• 1 lb pork sausage
• 1 stalk celery, chopped fine
• 1 tablespoon onion, chopped
• 1⁄2 lb mushroom, sliced
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 16 ounces frozen cauliflower, cooked well and drained
• 8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
• salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon pepper
• paprika (optional)

Method

1. Brown the sausage with the celery, onion and mushrooms.
2. Stir the softened cream cheese into the sausage mixture until well blended.
3. Coarsely chop the cooked cauliflower.
4. Mix all ingredients and spread in a greased 9"x13" baking dish.
5. If desired, dust the top with paprika.
6. Bake, covered with foil, at 350º for about 30 minutes.
7. Uncover and bake until hot and bubbly and top is lightly browned, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Attempt 1

This first try came out sub-mediocre. Instead of 4 cups of diced chicken I used two pounds of ground chicken. I didnt' have any foil, so I just cooked it for 35 minutes. My largest casserole dish is not quite 9x13, so I used it plus another dish. Next time I might want to try this version of the recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 2 red peppers, sliced
• Oil for frying
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 4 chicken breasts, i.e., two full chicken breats
• a clove of garlic, minced
• 1 10-oz can of red enchilada sauce
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 8 oz of cheddar cheese, shredded

Method

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Put onions and peppers in frying pan with a bit of oil. Add a bit of salt and pepper and start softening them over medium heat.
3. If the chicken breasts aren't all that big, then flatten them in plastic so that it doesn't spatter. You can flatten them by whacking them with a manly cast-iron frying pan or using the womanly approaching with a rolling pin or a meat tenderizer (mallet). If the chicken breasts are thick, slice them in half again flatwise before pounding. Fry them in oil till they are mostly cooked through. As the chicken gets cooked, transfer to a plate for storage.
4. Throw in the garlic, enchilada sauce, cream cheese and half of the cheddar.
5. Once all the cheese is melted, briefly dip each piece of chicken in the sauce and then transfer the chicken to casserole dish. Add the onions and peppers to cover the chicken.
6. Put sauce on top.
7. Top with remaining cheddar cheese.
8. Put in oven for 15-20 minutes till the cheese starts getting brown and delicious on top.

Results

Tasty. Definitely a repeater.

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2015-10-24: Variation. I had a bunch of left over pork tenderloin in the freezer that I wanted to use. Instead of red enchilada sauce, I had about 10 oz of left overs of a can of green Macayo's enchilada sauce. So I sauteed the onions and peppers. Mixed the sauce and cream cheese and half the cheddar. Put enough of that on the bottom of the casserole dish to cover it. Added the pork. Covered it with the onions and peppers. Added the remaining half of the cheddar. Popped it in the oven.

This turned out adequately. The pork doesn't combine as well with enchilada sauce as chicken does. Not bad, but no need to repeat.

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2015-11-12: I did a beef variation using 2 pounds of hamburger and a 28 oz can of of Las Palmas enchilada sauce. 1/2 tsp black pepper.

This was entirely adequate. I would repeat it for myself, and repeat it for non-picky family.

This made more than my large casserole pan could handle, so I had to also use another half size casserole dish. Next time I would use 1 lb of hamburger and 14 oz of enchilada sauce.

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I should try a variation with La Victoria enchilada sauce and Monterey Jack cheese.

Fry's Grocery has in the butcher case pre-spiced Malibu chicken breasts that look pretty good and are about $3.49 a pound, which is currently a reasonable price. "Malibu" just means the savory/peppery spice rub on them. I bought a couple and asked the butcher how to cook them. He said 15 maybe 20 minutes at 350°. Idiot. I don't think he has actually cooked these things. They are pretty thick, and it took me 30 minutes at that temperature, with one opening of the oven. Next time I'll 25 minutes before checking. I think 30 made them just a bit dry.

Ingredients

• 2 pre-spiced chicken breasts

Method

• Put them on a baking sheet in the oven for 25 minutes at 350°.

Result

Not bad at all. The spice rub may have had too much salt in it. Either that or my tongue was mistaking some of the spices for salt. I'll definitely try this again with their lemon pepper breasts.

This is a dish I cook fairly regularly with variations on the spices. This time around I'm using some Indian chile that the Tadjik lady at my local market said would be spicy.

Ingredients

• sunflower oil
• 5-6 small onions chopped coarsely (two ordinary onions)
• 4 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 1 tbsp of whole cumin seed, ground in a spice grinder or pestle
• 1 tbsp of Indian chile
• 1/4 of a huge head of cabbage (half of a medium head), chopped
• 750 grams of ground chicken (~ 1 2/3 lbs)
• 1 cup of boiling water
• 1 chicken bouillon cube

Method

1. Chop onions coarsely.
2. Pour enough sunflower oil into the bottom of a frying pan to cover it. I'd guess the pan can be from anywhere from nine to twelve inches in diameter. Put the frying pan on medium heat.
3. Pour in the onions. Stir occasionally so that they all approach transparency together.
4. Once the onions are barely beginning to brown, add the garlic and cook till fragrant, which should be about a minute, maybe two.
5. Add the cumin and chile. Cook for one minute or so, stirring, to release the flavors into the oil.
6. Add the ground chicken. Fry. Stir occasionally, breaking up the chicken into smaller and smaller chunks.
7. Pour the boiling water into a cup. Add the bouillon cube. Mix it up till it is a broth.
8. Once the chicken looks roughly cooked, add the cabbage. Add some of the broth. Cover. Let it cook a while.
9. Stir occasionally. Add more broth if it seems like it needs it. The goal is to get the cabbage cooked and all the flavors mixed.
10. As the cabbage approaches being done, remove the cover so that the excess broth begins to evaporate and concentrate. It's okay if there is some liquid left, but we aren't aiming at a full-fledged stew.
11. Once done, turn off heat. Cover with a splatter guard so that more liquid escapes and flies don't land on the finished product.
12. Once you think it's ready, serve.

Notes:

Any time a Russian tells you that something is spicy, don't believe ’em. This recipe did have a minor bite, but it was not as spicy as the spice lady at the farmers' market said that ?Indian chile? would be. Okay, she was actually a Tadjik, still...

Nonetheless, this dish turned out great.

I'm currently in Russia. Back in the States we often cook with neutral tasting oils like safflower oil or Canola oil or mixed vegetable oil. That's understandable. They allow the taste of the ingredients to come forward. But I find myself liking Russian sunflower oil more and more. It has a distinct odor as it cooks, and a pleasant, subtle flavor in the resulting dish. Frankly, I'm tempted to try cottonseed oil and mustard oil before I leave Russia. The latter is legal here, but not in the States.

Ingredients

• Vegetable oil
• 4 small onions, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 1 tbsp cumin, crushed
• 1 tbsp ground chipotle
• 1 tsp pepper
• 750 grams of ground chicken (about 1.5 pounds)
• 1/2 head of cabbage, shredded
• 2-3 cups boiling water
• About 1 tsp salt

Pour vegetable oil into frying pan. Add onions. When they are almost translucent, add garlic. Cook for a minute. Add cumin, chipotle and pepper. Cook for a minute. Add chicken. Fry till done, stirring and breaking up into reasonable bite size. Add water and salt. Add cabbage. Bring to a slight boil, cover, and cook until the cabbage is soft. Remove from stove. Serve.

For the chipotle I used ground chipotle powder I had found at Cost Plus (World Market). Awesome. A tablespoon of that stuff gave the dish a bite, despite the fact that the chipotle had sat on the shelf for a year.

The ground chicken I used was made from breast meat, which is nearly fat free. It meant the broth was kind of boring. Next time I'll through in a bouillon cube.

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Notes: Properly speaking, bigus is made with both fresh cabbage and sauerkraut, some kind of meat, and often has prunes added, but people in Russia sometimes fudge and call any nondescript mix of meat and cabbage bigus, so that's the name I'm giving this dish.

Next attempt. This time I had opened a bottle of Fetzer Gewurtztraminner. I had thought a sweet wine would not work for poached chicken, but what the heck. Why not give it a try.

Method

1. I sliced a medium sized yellow onion thin. Began to sauté it in a frying pan with olive oil.
2. In the meantime I sliced a boneless, skinless chicken breast into two cutlets.
3. Once the onions have got a little bit of brown, I removed them from the pan. Added the cutlets. Sprinkled the top side with garlic powder and black pepper.
4. Flipped the cutlets. Cooked a while.
5. Removed the cutlets. Returned the onions to the pan. Added some steamed asparagus to the pan that I had made previously to warm them up.
6. Once they were warm, I removed them to the plate. Drizzled all the extra sauce over the veggies and the chicken. All done.

To my surprise, this was pretty tasty. Mild flavor, but no salt needed.

Now I'm curious to try it with a really assertive red wine.

I decided to try this recipe myself in an attempt to duplicate Diane's lovely dinner.

1. Sauteed a thinly sliced onion in olive oil. Removed the onions to a bowl once sweet.
2. I started with three skinless half-breasts of chicken. To reduce cooking time, I cut the thick parts away from the thin parts, and then sliced the thick parts longwise in half. Then I browned them (not very brown) on both sides in the olive oil from the previous step. Removed the chicken from the pan.
3. Returned the onions to the oil. Poured a glass of red wine into the pan. Brought to a gentle boil. Added the chicken back to the pan. Poached about ten minutes on one side. Sprinkled lightly with table salt, black pepper and garlic powder.
4. Turned the chicken to the other side. Sprinkled lightly with table salt, black pepper and garlic powder. Added more wine as needed to continue poaching.
5. Removed the breasts after 10 minutes.
6. Served the chicken with onions and sauce over it.

It came out edible. This time the preparation was more interesting than the actual result. Thoughts for next time:

• For wine I used a Fetzer Merlot. My theory was that chicken has a gentle flavor, and I didn't want to overwhelm it with too spicy a red, whereas in fact generally I favor very peppery cabernets. Frankly, it was a bit dull. Next time I'll try the peppery cab.
• Next time I'll brown significantly longer, hoping for a bit more umami, carmelly meat taste, and I'll poach longer to soften the meat more, probably fifteen minutes per side.
• Next time I'll put more time into the sauce after the chicken has been removed, maybe adding some vinegar and lemon, perhaps guided by this recipe. Then perhaps I'll run it through the blender before serving.
• I like the idea of a bay leaf in the poaching sauce.

The other day a new acquaintance, Diane, prepared chicken poached in red wine for me and my friend Scot. It's a standard go-to dish in Spain where good, inexpensive red wine is commonly available. Here is what she did.

1. Sauteed a thinly sliced onion in olive oil. Removed the onions to a bowl once sweet.
2. Removed the tendons from three skinless half-breasts of chicken. Browned them (bare hint of brown) on both sides in the olive oil from the previous step. Removed the chicken from the pan.
3. Returned the onions to the oil. Poured a glass of red wine into the pan. Brought to a gentle boil. Added the chicken back to the pan. Poached about ten minutes on one side.
4. Turned the chicken to the other side. Sprinkled with lemon salt. Added more wine as needed to continue poaching.
5. Removed the breasts after 10 minutes

Comments:

• She removed the tendons because the tendons tend to shrink up and distort the shape of the chicken breast as they brown.
• When she browned the chicken, she didn't try to cook the breasts all the way through. They were just barely browned.
• She commented that the poaching took too long because the breasts were too thick. She said the should have pounded them first.

The dish makes an impression for several reasons. First off, the simplicity is striking. Secondly, the purple color of the final product. She served it with asparagus steamed plain on the side, which was a lovely contrast.

I've never done such a thing, so this recipe is high on my list of things to try.