Broiled chicken, covered with tomato slices and cheese, then baked in tomato sauce

On Friday afternoon, when I arrived home, I was hungry and thinking of what to make. I was in the mood for Italian because I happened to be thinking of that nice Italian restaurant in Marquette Michigan, Casa Calabria. I love their pastas, especially their lasagna with meat sauce. It is smothered in cheese and a rich sauce. 

I decided to take the same approach with some chicken. This was a recipe that I kind of made up as I cooked, but it came out great. The juicy Campari tomatoes added lots of fresh flavor, and all the cheese sealed it in!

2 boneless chicken thighs, flattened out

Cajun seasoning

Adobo seasoning

Thyme

Garlic powder

2 large cloves of garlic, sliced

Worcestershire sauce

Oregano

2 Campari tomatoes, sliced

8 oz. can of no-salt-added tomato sauce

Quarter cup of grated Parmesan cheese

2 cups of shredded Cheddar cheese

2 cups of shredded Mozzarella cheese

Fresh ground white pepper

Preparation

This dish is a lot easier than it sounds. Use a sharp knife to open up the chicken thighs, so they lay flat. Season them on both sides with a sprinkling of cajun seasoning, adobo seasoning, garlic powder, and a little thyme. Set them on a cast iron pan, a fajita pan would be perfect. Broil the chicken until the top is nicely browned. 

Turn the chicken over, but before you set it back on the cast iron, place the garlic slices under both pieces of chicken. This way the garlic can flavor the chicken as it cooks on the hot iron, without burning. Broil until this side is also browned, and the chicken is almost cooked through. Turn the broiler off, and set the oven at 350º. 

Take the chicken thighs from the cast iron, and set them in an oven proof pie plate. Place the cooked garlic slices on top of the chicken. Cover the chicken with the tomato slices. Sprinkle on some white pepper, oregano and a little more thyme. Pour the tomato sauce all around the chicken. Sprinkle on the Parmesan cheese. Now add a cup of shredded cheddar cheese on top of each piece of chicken, and then do the same for the Mozzarella cheese. Grind on a little more white pepper.

Bake this until everything is bubbling and the cheese is melted and starting to brown, about twenty minutes. Let this rest about five minutes before serving.

Serving

Serve the smothered chicken thigh on a plate next to linguine tossed with Parmesan cheese and garlicky olive oil. Spoon a little of the tomato sauce over the chicken. Now just add a tossed salad, and a good bottle of Italian red wine, and ring the dinner bell!

Chicken gyros

The other day I made some more chicken gyros. So simple, yet so tasty. Thinly sliced chicken breast seared with garlic, and then finished off with thinly sliced onions. But, when you combine that with a pita, tomato and creamy goat milk yogurt, wow, what a feast. Here’s how to put this together. You could make this out of leftover cooked chicken too. Just skip the first part, and begin at slicing the chicken.

2 large chicken breasts

Olive oil

4 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced

Cajun seasoning

Garlic powder

1 very large onion, halved and thinly sliced

Pita breads

2 large tomatoes, thinly sliced

Greek style goat milk yogurt

Preparation

Heat a large cast iron pan until it is hot. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom, and add the chicken breasts. Sear them on both sides, and then move them to the center of the pan. Place a lid, that is large enough to cover the chicken but still small enough to fit inside the cast iron pan and touch the bottom, over the chicken. Let that cook until the chicken is just cooked through.

While that is going on, slice the tomatoes and set them on the table. Place the yogurt on the table as well.

Remove the cover and cut the chicken up into thin slices, right in the pan. Add the minced garlic and stir. Move the chicken together and cover once again. let that cook for about five minutes, stirring a couple of times. Spread the chicken out, give it a good sprinkle of the cajun seasoning and garlic powder. Add the sliced onions and stir. Let this cook, stirring almost constantly, until the onions just begin to clarify. You want the onions half way between cooked and raw. Turn off the heat, you are ready to serve.

Serving

Take the pita breads and heat them in the microwave until they are soft and warm. Place them on the table. To assemble the gyros, place a pita on your plate. Add two heaping tablespoons of yogurt to the pita. Now pile on the chicken. Top with several tomato slices, and if you like, a sprinkle of cajun seasoning. Have a napkin ready, because you’re gonna need it! Fold the pita into a ‘U’ and dig in. I also like a few pickled peppers on the side, and a cold crisp dry white wine.

Spinach and cheese pie

Friday night I enjoyed dinner with several friends from college. We had a delicious dinner of chicken with pesto and Mozzarella, a big salad, cheddar cheese bread, and I made a couple spinach pies to add to the dinner. 

I don’t know why, but these pies took about twice as long to bake as they usually do, and I was a little late as a result.  It turned out ok. The pies were well received and we had a great evening catching up, telling stories, and laughing. I had a couple of requests for the pie recipe, so here’s how I made them. 

This recipe is for one pie, but as long as you are making one, you might as well make two. For this pie, I find the store bought pie crust is perfect. It only goes on the bottom, and it isn’t really worth the effort to make just a bottom crust from scratch. Ok, I’m getting lazy in my advanced age. Let the pie crust come to room temperature before unrolling it.

Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust

3 tbs. butter

1 large onion, chopped

1 16 oz. bag of frozen chopped spinach

15 oz. Ricotta cheese

1/2 lb. shredded Mozzarella cheese

1 cup fresh grated Parmesan

1 cup of shredded sharp Italian Provolone - imported not domestic

3 large eggs beaten

Cajun seasoning

fresh ground pepper

Nutmeg for grating

Preparation

Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet. Add the chopped onion and stir until the onions have softened, around three minutes. Add the spinach, a light sprinkle of cajun seasoning, and a little fresh ground white pepper. Cook, stirring until the spinach is hot and any water has evaporated. Grate on some nutmeg. Set aside.

Take a large mixing bowl and add the Ricotta, Mozzarella and Parmesan, and that good imported Provolone cheese.  Now add the eggs and the spinach mixture. Stir to mix well.

Place a pie crust into a pie plate. So people don’t think you are a slob, crimp the edges of the pie crust so it looks halfway decent. Add the spinach mixture and spread it out uniformly in the pie. Grate a little nutmeg over the top of the pie. 

Bake the pie at 350º for about forty minutes until the top is nicely browned. Or, at least that is how it usually goes. For some reason, Friday's pies took about an hour and a half, before they were fully cooked. When the top is risen a bit, and it is nicely browned, you can remove it from the oven. Let the pie sit for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Serving

We had this pie with chicken breasts cooked with pesto and Mozzarella, which was great, and I need to get the recipe. We also had a huge salad, bread and cheesecake for dessert. Oh, and lots of wine, beer and stories. Fun time!

Mexican style pork sandwiches

I still have lots of roast pork left from Saturday’s dinner. I made a pork sandwich on Sunday, just like it was a turkey sandwich, with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. On Sunday, I also made pasties with some of the pork. On Monday, it was more pasties. 

A couple of nights ago, I decided to make a Mexican style sandwiches. Ok, maybe these aren't authentically Mexican, but they were tasty. I admit, there isn’t much to this recipe. It goes together quickly.

If you want to avoid the heat, use bell peppers, and enchilada sauce instead of the jalapeños and Herdez salsa. I’m going to skip some of the measurements because, well, this is a sandwich. You’ll figure it out. This recipe is for two sandwiches.

Olive oil

A bunch of thin slices of roast pork

2 large jalapeños (or 1 bell) cut into strips

1 large shallot, sliced and minced

Thyme

Cajun seasoning

About a cup of Herdez 5 Chile Salsa

Large hamburger buns

Several slices of Cheddar cheese

Preparation

Pre heat the oven to 350º. Heat a large cast iron skillet and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the jalapeño strips and the minced shallots. Stir that and set a skillet lid, that just fits inside the cast iron pan (not on it), so it nests over the peppers and shallots. Let those steam a few minutes. Place two large hamburger buns in the oven to warm, and to crisp up the outside.

Thinly slice a bunch of roast pork, enough for two large sandwiches. When in doubt, slice some more. Evenly distribute the pork slices on top of the peppers, covering them completely, but together enough that the lid will still fit over the pork, and touch the bottom of the cast iron pan. Let the pork and vegetables steam for about five minutes, until they are piping hot.

Pour the Herdez salsa over the pork. Season it with a sprinkle of thyme and some cajun seasoning. Return the lid so the salsa gets to steam as well. Finally, stir it all together, and make sure all the pork slices are completely coated in the sauce.

Remove the hamburger buns from the oven and set them on an oven proof plate. Place a slice of cheddar on the bottom half of each bun. Pile half of the pork mixture on the cheese of the first bun. Get lots of sauce too. Place a slice of cheddar on that. Repeat with the second sandwich. Make sure all the sauce is on the sandwiches. Top the sandwiches with top half of the buns. Place the plate with the two sandwiches in the oven, so the cheese is completely melted, and you are ready to serve.

Serving

I served my sandwiches very simply, with a pickle wedge. I also made a huge tossed salad. I opened a bottle of ice cold Vinho Verde wine and sat down to a feast.

Roasted pork for Saturday dinner

I made a big pork roast and had the neighbors over for dinner on Saturday. I originally planned on doing the roast on my charcoal grill, but about the time I was going to light the grill, a combination of snow, sleet, and ice came blasting out of the sky, and I decided that the oven was the way to go.

The roast I had was a big bone-in sirloin roast that was actually in two pieces, packaged together. They fit perfectly in my blue enamel steel roasting pan. Once again, I should have invited all the families on the next block, because I had enough food for all of them. Here’s how I prepared the roast.

8-1/2 lb. bone in pork roast

Olive oil

Onion powder

Garlic powder

Cumin

Cajun seasoning

Thyme

Adobo seasoning

Wondra gravy flour

Water

Preparation

Set the roast in a roasting pan and rub it with olive oil all over. This roast came with one side mostly bone, so I set in in bone side down. Sprinkle onion powder  evenly on the top and sides of the pork. Repeat with a dusting of garlic powder, then cumin, and finally the cajun seasoning. Now sprinkle on lots of thyme. Finally, give it a sprinkle of adobo seasoning. Look at that. We haven’t even turned the oven on, and I already used most of the ingredients. Let the roast sit at room temperature for about an hour.

Pre heat the oven to 380º. Place the roast on the bottom rack of the oven. For a roast this size, it will take about three hours. With pork, I shoot for an internal temperature of 155º on my instant read thermometer. After the roast was in the oven for an hour, I placed a bunch of potatoes on the top rack, to bake.

When the roast reaches the right temp, remove it from the oven and set the roast on a platter in a warm place. Cover the roast with foil, and let it rest for about ten minutes. While that is resting, set the roasting pan on the stove over medium heat. Add enough flour to absorb most of the fat in the pan. Stir and cook the flour for a minute or two, and then start adding water, a little at a time, to make a gravy. After you hit the right gravy thickness, let it simmer for a minute or two and then adjust for salt and pepper. I also added a spec of cajun seasoning to the gravy.

Serving

We had a huge feast of roast pork, gravy, baked potatoes, green beans and almonds sautéed in butter, a big salad, a vegetable tray, and homemade bread. We also had ravioli and tomato sauce for the vegetarian neighbors. The beverage was German beer, and the conversation was lively.