Quick chicken burritos for a crowd

I don’t know why, but I like burritos on a hot summer evening. Last Saturday was another lazy day for us ‘river people’ at my humble abode. I spent most of the afternoon with my book and a chair in a shady spot in my backyard.

At dinnertime, I pulled out my cutting board and started slicing. I was in the mood for something spicy. This is how I put dinner together. It must have been ok because there are no leftovers and there were only three of us.

Olive oil

2-1/2 lb. chicken breasts, cut into strips

3 bell peppers, cut into strips

4 jalapeños, cut into strips

3 large onions, cut into wedges

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. white pepper

1 tsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. smoked paprika

1 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. adobo seasoning

4 limes, cut into wedges

Extra large sized tortillas - burrito wraps

Preparation

Heat an extra large cast iron pan and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the chicken and spread it out. Cook the chicken until it starts to brown and any liquid is boiled off. Stir often. Add the seasoning a little at a time as you stir.

When the chicken is cooked through, add the peppers and stir. After about five minutes, add the onions and stir. Keep cooking, stirring often, until the onions are softened. Squeeze the lime wedges and stir.

Serving

Heat another large cast iron pan until it is very hot. Have each person heat their large tortilla and place it on the plate. Next you simply add some of the meat and vegetables. Now add some hot salsa, a little greek yogurt and a bit of cheese and wrap it up like a burrito. 

Wolf that down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Ice cold beer is good for washing everything down.

Smokey neck bone spaghetti with San Marzano tomatoes

This is one of those recipes where you have to do something the day before. You see, on Saturday I went to the store to get something for the grill. I picked up a pork roast and on the spur of the moment, I bought some pork neck bones, which are good for spaghetti sauce.

I lit the grill for the pork roast, and I decided to roast the pork neck bones on the smokey charcoal grill as well. That night we had pork roast, with a smokey gravy over boiled potatoes with a side of wilted cucumbers and onions. 

The next afternoon I pulled out those charcoal roasted neck bones and made this spaghetti sauce. I ended up making two meals out of one batch of charcoal. 

2 lb. pork neck bones

Cajun seasoning

Olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped fine

3 large cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp. thyme

1tsp. marjoram

2 tsp. basil

2 cups red wine

2 cups chicken broth

2 28 oz. cans of San Marzano tomatoes

1 6 oz. can of tomato paste

1-½ lb. of spaghetti

Preparation

The day before you make the spaghetti sauce, season the neck bones heavily, with cajun seasoning, on all sides. Roast them over indirect heat in a covered charcoal grill. Add a few pieces of hardwood to add a little extra smoke. Let them roast for a couple of hours. Cool them, and save them in a zipper bag for tomorrow.

The next day, heat a large heavy bottomed pot. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the smokey neck bones and stir. Add the onions and let them cook for about ten minutes, stirring often. Add the garlic, thyme, marjoram and basil and stir. Let that cook for another couple of minutes. Add the wine and bring it to a boil. Add the chicken broth and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover the pot. Let that simmer for an hour or more, stirring often.

Add the San Marzano tomatoes and break them up with a knife and fork. Stir and let that simmer for another half hour. Stir in the tomato paste and keep stirring until it is well mixed in. Let the sauce simmer, uncovered, while you put spaghetti water on to boil. Stir the sauce often. Cook and drain the spaghetti and serve.

Serving

Serve large mounds of spaghetti, covered in the sauce. Now most of the neck bone meat will have fallen off the bone by now, but there will be some still attached to the bone, so pile on the neck bones too. Cover it all with tons of fresh grated parmesan cheese. Add in a large salad, some homemade bread, and open a bottle of Montepulciano DʼAbruzzo. Dinner is served.

Norman's pepper steak hash

I don’t often have too many leftovers on hand. You see, I am not supervised in my daily life (except by my two dogs), and I usually eat until the food is all gone. I often serve dinner for four, without inviting the other three. (I know someone famous said that, but I can’t remember who, so I’ll pretend I’m the first one to say that.)

Anyways, a while back I had cooked a bunch of steaks for a group, and I had two leftover. Here’s how I turned them into a meal for four (this time I did invite the other three).

10 medium potatoes

Water

Salt

½ lb. bacon

2 large bell peppers

2 large onions

2 large cloves of garlic

2 medium rare strip steaks

Red pepper flakes

Ground cayenne

Paprika

Adobo seasoning

Worcestershire sauce

Louisiana Hot Sauce

Preparation

Grab a large pot and fill it half full of salted water. Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes. As each one is cut, put the cubes in the pot of water. When all the potatoes are peeled and cut, place the potatoes on the stove to heat the water. Bring the potatoes to a boil and let them boil for about five minutes. Drain the potatoes.

While the potatoes are on the stove, heat a very, very large cast iron skillet (or use two if you must). Cook the bacon until it is crisp. Set the bacon on a paper towel and add the potatoes to the skillet. Spread them out.

While the potatoes are in the skillet, chop the onions, bell pepper and garlic. Set them aside and cut the steaks into cubes.

Turn the potatoes over with a spatula and sprinkle them with a generous sprinkling of red pepper flakes, cayenne, paprika, and adobo seasoning. (Adobo seasoning is a Mexican version of cajun seasoning. If you don’t have adobo, just use cajun seasoning.) Every few minutes, turn the potatoes. After about ten minutes, add the chopped bell peppers. Continue to stir every few minutes. After another ten minutes, add the onion. 

When the onion begins to soften, add the garlic and steak. Also chop and add the bacon. Continue to stir every few minutes. After the hash develops a nice crust each time you turn it over, (about another ten minutes), sprinkle on a generous sprinkle of Worcestershire sauce and then splash on a little Louisiana Hot Sauce. Stir and let the hash cook another five minutes, turning it over often. When the hash is kind of crusty and sizzling hot, turn off the stove and serve.

Serving

Serve a huge pile of hash on a plate and have ketchup and/or hot sauce and/or salsa available to spice up your hash. You also want a crisp salad, homemade bread and butter and plenty of ice cold beer to wash everything down. A big fruit salad makes a nice dessert.

Pasta with tuna, basil and lemon

I almost always have a couple of cans of Italian tuna packed in olive oil on the counter. I just love that stuff, and I could eat it right out of the can. A few years ago I started making a pasta out of it that always turned out pretty good.

The other night, I was going to make up a batch of this for some friends. As I was getting started, I saw a large lemon on the counter. Hmm. Then I remembered I have some fresh basil in my garden. I decided to add these to my tuna pasta. Here’s what I did.

Olive oil

Red pepper flakes

1 large onion, chopped fine

1/2 tsp. oregano

1/2 tsp. dry basil

4 anchovy fillets, chopped

1 tsp. flour

Cajun seasoning

White pepper

1/2 cup white wine

1 cup (approximate) of chicken or vegetable broth

2 6 oz. cans of tuna packed in olive oil

Juice of one lemon

1/4 cup fresh torn basil leaves

1 lb. rigatoni, cooked and drained

Preparation

Heat a large skillet until hot. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the onion and red pepper flakes and stir. Let that cook about ten minutes until the onion is soft and starting to turn golden.

Add the anchovy, basil and oregano and stir until the anchovy kind of dissolves. Stir in the flour and sprinkle on some cajun seasoning. Stir until all the flour is absorbed in the oil and let it cook for about a minute. Add the white wine and stir, and then add a cup of the broth. Stir and bring it to a boil. 

Reduce the heat so it simmers. You want it to have a gravy consistency, so you may have to cook it a few minutes to thicken it (Or if you are like me and don’t measure anything, you might need to add more broth. Either way, adjust it so it has the right thickness).

Add the tuna and break it up with a knife and fork. Stir to incorporate it into the sauce. Once it is simmering again, stir in the lemon juice. Let that simmer one minute and turn off the heat. Add the torn basil leaves and toss the sauce with the rigatoni in a large bowl. Serve immediately.

Serving

We served this pasta, next to a pasta with a basil/tomato/sausage sauce. To that, we added some homemade bread, a bowl of olives and a bottle of ice cold Vinho Verde wine. I sprinkled a little crumbled blue cheese over my tuna pasta and grated parmesan over my tomato pasta. I also went back for a huge second helping and got a sidewards glance from my friends, for overeating.