Greek Lemon Chicken with Potatoes in the Oven - Κοτόπουλο του φούρνου με πατάτες και λεμόνι

Recently I posted a YouTube video demonstrating a traditional Greek/Hellenic recipe, Κοτόπουλο του φούρνου με πατάτες και λεμόνι, which translates to Baked Chicken with potatoes and lemon.

In this dish I use a "secret" ingredient that makes it smell yummy and taste delicious. Our family would visit Greece during the summer months and we would have lunch at Berry Trees, Μουριές, a darling little taverna nestled in Hania (village), Evia (region). I found a Facebook post on the page Avlonari, such a lovely place and I copied the following picture that shows the outdoor seating area of this taverna.

They have indoor and outdoor seating available, but it's just great having lunch under the canopy of a blackberry tree. There, I spoke with the mom of the owner and she told me that she smears mustard on the potatoes and chicken. The mustard gives this dish a delicate flavor and I've been using it in this recipe ever since with success.

Keep eating!

Baked Greek Chicken with Potatoes - YUM!!!!

Greek Chicken with Potatoes

This recipe has been upgraded and there is a video of it included at the bottom of this post.

Chicken á la Brett Kavanaugh

Brett Kavanaugh is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and he was nominated by President Donald Trump to succeed Anthony Kennedy.

Before his nomination, Professor of Psychology Christine Blasey Ford claimed that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in the early 1980s while the two of them were in high school. Two other women also accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. Kavanaugh denied all three allegations.

The Senate Judiciary Committee invited both Kavanaugh and Ford to provide testimony about the allegation. During Kavanaugh's testimony Kavanaugh talked at length about his drinking habits while growing up in suburban Maryland.

Kavanaugh said:

"I drank beer with my friends, almost everyone did. Sometimes I had too many beers, sometimes others did." The he continued "I liked beer, I still like beer,"

Well, this recipe is inspired by Kavanaugh's love for beer.  Here is the youtube video.

Keep on drinking beer Brett!

Κοτοπουλο Κοκκινιστο - Chicken in Tomato Sauce

This dish comes from Hellas and is a very common one there. The only modification that I have made is that I used canned tomatoes instead of fresh ones. My mom used to make it and I would grab a loaf of bread and use it for dipping purposes. Ahhhh, the good old days when I was thin and my metabolism (metabolism is a Hellenic word, μεταβολή, and means change) worked like a Swiss clock.

Here are the ingredients for this recipe:

• one whole chicken, cut up, 
• two tablespoons of olive oil,
• two medium onions,
• garlic to taste, I used six cloves,
• three small zucchini, 
• two bell peppers, 
• one 28 oz can on diced tomatoes,
• two tablespoons tomato paste, 
• one cup of red wine, 
• oregano to taste.

In the image below I mistakenly included cinnamon instead of oregano. Oops.

Russian Salad - Potato Salad - Carle Olivier Salad

I remember my mom's Russian salad that she used to make back when I lived in Hellas. It was just a great dish. You may say that it was a modified potato salad. It had diced potatoes, carrots, whole eggs, capers, and A LOT of mayonnaise. Here in the US, when I visit supermarkets I always look around at their deli case to see what they have and what ingredients they incorporate in their dishes. A few days ago, I was examining/spying their potato salads and this is what I have to say to them: easy with the mayonnaise. All salads are swimming in mayonnaise.

Please check the Wikipedia page to learn about the history of the Russian salad. The history of this salad is truly riveting.

Fast forward to today in our kitchen here in New York where I was going to make a modified Russian salad.

I got the ingredients for the Russian salad together and I was also going to make bbq beans and a salad with Romain lettuce.

Before starting I sharpened my knife. Always before staring to cook I sharpen my knife(s). Get used to it too and it will always be a pleasure to use your knifes.

Ingredients for the Russian salad.

• five small-ish potatoes.
• three carrots
• three hard-boiled eggs (I used six eggs because I saved three of them to use them at a later date)
• one small container of capers, drained and washed
• one small can of peas, drained and washed
• leftover rotisserie chicken or ham or turkey
• one large Granny Smith apple
• four spears, kosher dill pickles, diced
• 3/4 cup of mayonnaise 
• 1/4 tablespoon mustard
• one large mango, if available, or orange

 

Ingredients for the salad.

• Romain lettuce
• one anise bulb
• two peppers
• one cucumber
• one tomato

Ingredients for the beans.

• one large can of kidney beans, drained and washed
• two small onions
• two cups of my modified Neeley bbq sauce
• four cloves of garlic

For the salad I was going to mix in anise, which is sweet and very aromatic. I already had used the top of the anise in a soup that I had made earlier and now I had the bulb only to use. I sliced the bulb and then diced it and placed it in a sieve for washing. I didn't use any type of onion because I didn't want it to clash with the anise.

 Wash, wash wash...and put aside.

Place the eggs in a pot and cover them with cold water. Bring the water to a boil and cover the pot with the lid. Remove the pot from the heat source and let them stand for 12 minutes. I set the timer and this way I don't forget. After the 12 minutes, I run cold water in the pot and this way I stop the cooking and I let them sit for some more time. After that I peel the cooled-down eggs and set them aside.

In a pot filled with cold water I add the potatoes and carrots (both washed previously well). As you can see I had to cut the carrots in half for them to better fit in the pot. I didn't peel the skin from either to enhance their natural flavors.

It takes about 15 minutes for the potatoes and carrots to cook but you should check if they are done with a fork. If the fork goes in with ease, they are ready.

For the salad you just have to chop the ingredients. Make sure you discard any parts that you wouldn't eat otherwise you will have whining diners.

Take a look at the romaine lettuce that is a little brown. You should cut and discard that part if you want the diners to be satisfied.

Here are the two peppers and tomato ready to be processed. As you can see I chose two different peppers to have a nice mix of colors.

At the same time I check the blog stats. Nice! I do get a lot of visitors every day and this is because the content is fresh and also because I use the correct keywords and titles for every blog entry. So far today I have 47 page views. Sweet!

Here is the chicken I will add to the salad. If you use ham or turkey you will have to cut the pieces small and of uniform size. I used chicken because that is what I have in the refrigerator. 

Of course I had to give Raspy a nice portion of the chicken because she wouldn't leave me alone. She got her little tummy full and then she left me alone. Isn't she a beauty? Look at her. look at her, I tell ya.

For the bbq beans I added two tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and got it nice and hot. Then I added the two small onions and the four diced cloves of garlic. I stirred that for three minutes and then added the beans and the bbq sauce. I set the range timer to 60 minutes and I made sure to check the pot every 10 minutes and gave it a good stir.

I diced and peeled the apple...

and also diced the potatoes and carrots. Once the potatoes and carrots were ready I removed them from the heat source cooled them down by running cold water on them and started to process them. Each carrot was sliced in half and then each piece was sliced in thirds, this way each carrot was sliced in sixths. After that I diced the carrot slices. The carrot pieces must be small. The potato can be cut in a little larger pieces but not too large.

I used a large glass bowl and added the cut potatoes, carrots, apple, mayonnaise, mustard, and capers. I mixed all of them well and then I added the peas and I mixed those too.

Here is the salad with all the ingredients.

I cut the three eggs in thirds, and added the sliced mango. It looks scrumptious. The mango was sooooo sweet!

 I added diced chicken on the salad too. You will have to gauge the amount of chicken by the number of diners. In my case I had just two people.

For the regular salad I made a basic thousand island dressing with:

• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• grated three kosher dill pickles
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder

Here is the table as I had set it...

A small portion of the salad was on the plate, the beans were nice and warm and the Russian salad was ready to be devoured. My wife and I thought that the Russian salad was excellent. The amount of each ingredient was perfect and the bbq beans complemented the Russian salad very well. I also added two containers with our favorite olives to complement the salad.

 
Good day and good luck.

---

Voodoo Chicken

Please keep reading to learn why I chose this name.

I have seen in movies how people use voodoo dolls and I wanted to "use voodoo" in order to cook a chicken. The Internet is filled with chicken recipes, grilled and otherwise, but I wanted to give it a different spin, and I chose voodoo.

This is a 7.5 lb chicken and let me tell you that it is big and huge! I bought it on Monday from ShopRite taking advantage of the special they run every week for senior citizens. Yes. I am proud to state that I do have a ShopRite senior discount card. When I qualified for it I went to the counter to ask for it and the person just processed it. When  asked him if he wanted to see proof of age he said that no one asks for this card except...senior citizens.

I took the chicken out of the package, removed the bag with the miscellaneous chicken parts and gave it a good wash. Look at this chicken. look at it, I tell ya. She is a beauty.

Here are the ingredients I will mix together to make my rub. I used a teaspoon of each with the exception of the oregano which is behind the paprika and mustard. I used three tablespoons of oregano.

I placed these ingredients in a bowl and mixed them a little.

Chicken Soup for the Soul

I have a cold, it was a miserable day and I am hungry. Time to make my world famous Chicken Soup for the Soul! Going out to eat for lunch or dinner is not an option because whenever we go out I whine about everything. I love to order soup but:

• it never has the right amount of ingredients, 
• it's not the right temperature,
• it's too thick or too thin,
• and the taste is just wrong.

I decided to make chicken soup. Now to make chicken soup you need it to be just a little creative. You need to open the refrigerator and take inventory of possible ingredients. In our refrigerator I saw:

• carrots,
• leeks,
• onions,
• and of course...beer.

In the freezer I had several containers with chicken stock. When I make chicken stock I save it in containers by a specific volume. This way if I need one, two, or three cups of chicken stock... I have it ready. I make sure I have a variety of volumes to be able to match any recipe requirement. If you save the liquid in two-cup containers then what would you do if you needed three cups of it? But, I digress. 

The beer is NOT for the soup, folks. Here is a Corona getting ready to get acquainted with me.

So, when did we decide that beer will be consumed directly from the bottle? I just don't understand why when I go to a restaurant and I order a beer they serve it to me without a bottle. Anyway. Let's move on.

To make things simple and easy for me I went to the local supermarket and I bought an already cooked rotisserie chicken.  There was nothing else for me to purchase there for this soup because I had everything else.  As you can see there is a chunk missing from the chicken. Well, I had to take care of Raspy because there was no way that she was going to let me cook without having her little tummy full.

Chicken Strips Wrapped in Bacon

Yum!
I recently purchased two split chicken breasts and a small package of chicken strips. We already had a small package with bacon in the refrigerator and I decided to mix the two together and grill them. First, I removed the bones from the split breasts and I saved the bones for chicken stock that I will make the end of this week.

I took the chicken filets and split breasts and placed them in a bowl and added a mixture of one cup apple cider and 1/2 cup apple cider. I let the chicken filets get nice and comfy with the liquid for an hour.

After one hour I started taking out two chicken strips at a time for further processing.
Here is the five strips of bacon getting ready to be introduced to the chicken strips.

The first attempt to wrap the chicken was weak and the bacon didn't stick well enough to the chicken.

Grilled Chicken and Vegetables

Grilled Chicken and Vegetables 

I have been planning/thinking about this meal for a few days already because I wanted to grill the chicken and at the same time put a little twist to it and cook the vegetables under the chicken. This way the drippings from the chicken would add nice flavoring in the vegetables. Sweet! 

I got up early this glorious Saturday morning and went to ShopRite in Montgomery NY to buy three vegetables for the meal. I was going to buy brussels sprouts, zucchini, and baby pearl onions. The day was starting out rather well. The coffee I was drinking was hot, WVKR was playing hot Pennsylvania polka music

and I had a lot of things on my mind.

The onions at ShopRite were fresh, looked great and I bought 1.5 lbs of them. Much to my surprise they were only $.99/lb. Usually these go for $1.99/lb.

I wasn't too thrilled with the sprouts but don't forget that it's January and I am in New York. The sprouts came in a ice cream-type of cup and I found the packaging very strange.

Cooking chicken with charcoal for the first time

After putting the grill together I decided to go for it. I had purchased a package of six (6) chicken thighs, I think they were thighs.

On the way home from the supermarket I saw a train that had stopped next to the Walden Animal Deli.  I took a few minutes to snap pictures because this doesn't happen every day. The engine was huge.