GUEST POST!!!: Smoked Chicken and Brisket

Big moment for the Pre-Culinary... a GUEST POST!!! Yes Alex J. Dyzenahus has not only provided a recipe for a dish that he made but its a smoked meat dish (note: smokers are awesome!).

Highlights:
In this recipe there is not only smoked chicken and brisket but also a homemade BBQ sauce. Alex's recipe description is as follows:

SMOKED CHICKEN!
2 four pound chickens

A Brine to Soak Chicken #1:
3.5 quarters of water
2 cups of Guinness
Bring to boil and then add .75 cup of brown sugar and salt. Allow to cool for a while. Soak chicken in brine for 3-4 hours. Before putting it in the smoker, dry it down and let sit for at least 30 minutes, then rub Guinness on it and brown sugar.

A Dry Rub for Chicken #2:
The usual suspects - mix in salt, pepper, garlic, onion, fennel, cayenne and chili powder, maybe cumin as well. Rubbed some oil on the chicken and then the dry rub.

Smoke both chickens at 225 degrees for 4 hours.


Brisket
Used a dry rub like for the chicken... mostly the same ingredients... added more garlic and cumin to this one. It was hotter than usual. Let it sit for 45 minutes and the rub really got in there. Let it smoke for 4.5 hours.


Homemade BBQ Sauce
Equal parts ketchup and applesauce. Threw in some apple cinnamon syrup, honey and then garlic, pepper and salt. Threw in some mustard for taste and worcestershire sauce and soy sauce for color. Then franks red hot plus brown sugar, which thickens it up. It was very sweet and then had a nice hotness at the end.

The dinner was completed with 2 smoked sweet potatoes, just with some olive oil rubbed on it


Picture 1: The Smoker


Picture 2: Chickens Before Smoking


Picture 3: Smoked Chicken


Picture 4: Dry-Rubbed Brisket


Picture 5: Homemade BBQ Sauce


Picture 6: Brisket Plate

Could be Veal: Chicken Roulades w/ Mushroom Sauce

Highlights:
This is yet another addition from the cookbook 365 Ways to Cook Chicken which has one of the best chapters in a cookbook... "Could be Veal". The highlights of this dish is the fact that you make your own stuffing and mushroom sauce for this dish. Additionally, the fact that you fold the chicken breasts over the stuffing and cook them so that they keep this shape looks really nice and dare I say elegant.


Picture 1: Homemade Mushroom Stuffing


Picture 2: Mushroom Sauce


Picture 3: Toothpick Folded Chicken (Pre-Oven)


Picture 4: Final Product

Company-Supplied Recipes

Side Note:
A convenient and smart resource that many people find helpful are off-of-the-box recipes. I recently found such a recipe for chicken curry off off of a curry spice container that was great for a curry novice. However, there has been a trend for food companies to provide recipes for their products off of their websites. Some of these websites are very well developed (i.e. http://www.barillaus.com/Pages/Home.aspx and http://www.san-j.com/recipes.asp). These resources are good if you want to learn some basic recipes for a new cuisine for free and they're great if you have a product that you love but don't yet know how to fully utilize.

Simple Sauteed Baby Bok Choy

Highlights:
Add some sliced green onion, crushed garlic, and sesame oil to our usual vegetable oil sautee/stir fry. Remember to cut the bok choy into pieces big enough that it doesn't get soggy from the sautee but small enough that there is ample surface area for cooking. Its a great and quick addition to frozen dumplings or leftover chinese food that could use some more green.

Picture 1: Green onions and crushed garlic w/ vegetable and sesame oil.


Picture 2: Sauteed Baby Bok Choy

Punch it up: Add Chicken to Penne Ala Vodka

Adding some chicken to a good canned penne ala vodka sauce can make the dish feel like a more complete meal. Grilling or broiling the chicken will give it a crispy exterior and a nicer contrast to the texture of the pasta.

Picture 1: Broiled chicken


Picture 2: Finished product



Enjoy!

Pumpernickel-Rye Breaded Pork Chops

Pumpernickel-Rye Breaded Pork Chops

Highlights:
Cutting into the fat - making little slits into the sides of the pork chop will prevent them from shriveling around the fatty areas. When meat cooks, especially at high heat the fat will contract and this will deform the general shape of the meat.
Homemade bread crumbs - toast a few slices of pumpernickel-rye swirl bread and then hand crumble them into a bowl. Try to make the crumbs rather small. This adds a nice strong taste to the pork chops.
Honey mustard replacement of yolk - instead of using the whole egg to make a dipping batter for the pork chops. You can use just the egg whites and mix in honey mustard instead of the yolks.

Picture 1: Cutting into the fat


Picture 2: Pumpernickel-Rye swirl bread crumbs


Picture 3: Finished product w/ some chutney


Enjoy!

Change of Plans

So my lovely fans, med school has rightfully been demanding more of my time (this is a good thing). And as such I must change my format of posting. I have not posted in a really long time and will post pics of the major stuff that I have cooked since then. From now on my posts will be more along the lines of pictures and particular notes, kind of like inspirational food porn (so to speak). I hope that this format will still be effective in spreading the disease that is only cured by more cooking and culinary exploration. Bon appetit!