Come and get it!

Subscribe to get the scoop on all the latest juicy bits.

The Amiable Cooks

Just another WordPress site

Roast Chicken with Spring Vegetables

by Leave a Comment

If you make nothing else from this blog ever, make this. The beauty, flavor, and simplicity of this Roast Chicken with Spring Vegetables lands it in our top 5 favorite dinners. Despite a short ingredients list of chicken, lemon, olive oil, potatoes, radishes, scallions, carrots, and dill, this is a sheet-pan meal abundant with a brilliant rainbow of colors and fresh, dynamic succulence. It feels both refined and rustic, and is an excellent choice when having people over for dinner because there is very little prep work – and what prep work there is can be done beforehand so you only need to dump vegetables on your sheet pan and set it to roast. The best part of this meal is dipping some peasant bread in the pan juices it yields. Give this vivid show-stopper a go this spring.

Tips (unsponsored): We love the small bunches of rainbow carrots with stems that we find at Sprouts. No need to peel them, just trim the stems (not all the way – a little stem is charming) and wipe the dirt from the base of the stems. Trader Joe’s offers bags of peeled, colorful carrots – no cleaning or trimming required. We also love to use small radishes – they tend to be sweeter. Be sure and cut your vegetables small enough to allow them to become very tender during the approximately 20 minutes they will roast (we halve our carrots, quarter our radishes, and halve our small fingerlings). Allowing your vegetables to become very tender will render the most delicious pan juices (see below).

If you are doubling this recipe, add about 7 minutes to the cook time after you add the vegetables, use the “convection” setting of your oven, and rotate your two pans half-way through baking during both oven sessions.

Fresh lemon juice and dill lend some delicate magic:

    

Are you noticing these pan juices? It’s hard to describe this heavenly run-off that is a product of the roasted chicken and vegetables along with olive oil, lemon, dill, salt and pepper:

If you like your chicken skin extra crispy, simply prep your chicken as directed, place it on your sheet pan, but before drizzling with olive oil and lemon, leave it (uncovered) in your fridge for a few hours (or all day). Pick up with drizzling with oil & lemon and bake. This will dry out the skin a bit, allowing it to crisp up more during roasting. Don’t worry, your chicken will still be moist and succulent.

This recipe calls for chicken quarters, but we use thighs, drumsticks, and (sometimes) wings because they are a little more widely available.

Here’s the best part of this dish: dipping your toasted peasant bread in the pan juices. Make sure and grab a tender, roasted radish with your bread when you go in for a dip in the pan juices – it’s one of our favorite flavors in the whole wide world. Incidentally, raw radishes are pungent and not a widely-loved flavor. Roasted radishes are a very different story – trust us on this.

It truly is a striking meal to place before those you love:

As you prepare and enjoy this dish with those you love, teach them a few things about some of the ingredients:

  • It is said that dill can help relieve insomnia.
  • Carrots are one of the best things to eat to prevent heart disease.
  • Radishes can help clean out your digestive system and get rid of viruses.

Adapted slightly from: Roast Chicken with Spring Vegetables

Roast Chicken with Spring Vegetables
 
Print
Prep time
Active time
Total time
 
Author:
Difficulty: Easy
Est. Cost: $14
Serves: 4 servings
Ingredients
  • 3½ pounds skin-on, bone-in chicken quarters (or a combination of thighs and drumsticks)
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1 lemon, halved
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 pound fingerling or other small potatoes
  • 2 bunches radishes
  • 1 bunch scallions
  • 1 bunch baby carrots
  • ¼ cup chopped fresh dill
  • Toasted peasant bread (optional)
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Pat the chicken dry. Season generously with salt and pepper, then place skin-side up on a rimmed baking sheet. Squeeze ½ lemon over the chicken and drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Roast 15 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, cut the potatoes in half, the radishes in quarters, and cut the scallions into thirds. Toss the potatoes, radishes, carrots and the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a bowl; season generously with salt and pepper.
  3. Remove the chicken from the oven and scatter the vegetables around it. Continue to roast until the vegetables are tender and the chicken is golden and cooked through, about 17 - 20 more minutes. *If your chicken in done but your vegetables aren't very tender, remove your chicken and continue to roast your vegetables till they are very tender, then replace the chicken. Squeeze the remaining ½ lemon over the chicken and vegetables. Top with the dill and season with salt, if needed.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 569 Fat: 31 g Saturated fat: 7 g Carbohydrates: 27 g Sodium: 655 mg Fiber: 5 g Protein: 44 g Cholesterol: 132 mg

 

Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

by Leave a Comment

greek lemon chicken soup, from above-1

We know, we know – if you’re feeling the summer heat right now, soup doesn’t sound so appealing. HOWEVER, this is a superbly light and refreshing soup. Lemon and dill lend a lively, summery freshness, farro and carrots add heartiness, and rotisserie chicken makes this soup ridiculously easy. Pita bread stuffed with feta and dill then toasted makes for a perfectly pungently Greek dipper. Fifteen minutes prep time and $12 gets you a truly flavorful, healthful and lower-calorie soup that is delightfully different from the norm.

greek lemon chicken soup, lemon zest-1

Farro is a hearty, delicious, and underappreciated grain.

greek lemon chicken soup, farro in hands-1

Tip (unsponsored): We find our farro at Trader Joe’s (this package contains just over 1.5 cups farro). We’ve also gotten it at Sprouts.

greek lemon chicken soup, farro package-1

Have your kids help you juice the lemons, shred some chicken, and tear some dill, taking note of it’s unique aroma. As you prepare and enjoy this meal with those you love, teach them a few things about the ingredients:

  • Lemons contain flavanoids that help kill the free-radicals that can cause bad cholesterol build-up.
  • Farro is an “old world grain” that provides even more fiber than quinoa and lots of protein.
  • Eating dill can help kill bad bacteria in your body.

greek lemon chicken soup in pot-1

greek lemon chicken soup, from side-1

greek lemon chicken soup collage

Adapted slightly from: Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

Greek Lemon Chicken Soup
 
Print
Prep time
Active time
Total time
 
Author:
Difficulty: Easy
Est. Cost: $12
Serves: 4 servings
Ingredients
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1 cup farro
  • 7 cups chicken STOCK
  • 1 wide strip lemon zest (removed with a vegetable peeler), plus the juice of 2 lemons
  • 1 cup shredded rotisserie chicken breast, skin removed
  • 3 large eggs
  • ½ cup crumbled feta cheese (about 2 ounces)
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill, plus more for topping
  • 2 pitas, halved
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, onion, ½ teaspoon salt and a few grinds of pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables soften, about 5 minutes. Add the farro and cook, stirring, until toasted, 1 minute. Add the chicken broth; cover and bring to a boil. Add the lemon zest, reduce the heat to medium low and simmer, uncovered, until the farro is almost tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken.
  2. Whisk the eggs and lemon juice in a bowl; drizzle ½ cup of the hot broth into the eggs, whisking constantly. Gradually stir the hot egg mixture into the pot. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 3 minutes. Season with ¼ teaspoon salt.
  3. Combine the feta and dill in a small bowl; season with salt and pepper. Fill the pita halves with the feta mixture and lightly brush with olive oil. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake until the cheese melts, 2 to 3 minutes. Top each serving of soup with more dill; season with pepper. Serve with the stuffed pitas.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 530 Fat: 24 g Saturated fat: 7 g Carbohydrates: 53 g Cholesterol: 190 mg

 

 

Pickles (Zesty Dill!)

by 2 Comments

pickle jars in dipper 2-1

pickles asher holding jar -1

There is something sublimely delicious happening right now:  it’s pickle season! We are here to dispel any misconceptions that you might have about making pickles, because they are incredibly easy and so very worth the wait. Our beloved Aunt Jenny (only a few years older than myself) has a most excellent garden in Salem, UT. It is so excellent, in fact, that Blake and I find ourselves green with envy each time we visit her amazing home. In her fertile mountain soil, her garden produces only the finest and most exquisitely beautiful of fruit and produce (think Martha Stewart Magazine). In discussing the supremacy of her garden one day, her pickling method (which is pretty standard) came up. We tasted one of her delightfully zesty pickles and have been hooked ever since.

pickles before canning-1

There is, indeed, a pickle season. We suggest giving your local Asian market, Sprouts, or farmer’s market a call periodically, starting at the end of May, to ask when they’re pickling pickles are on sale. We find ours for a good price (99 cents to $1.50/lb) at our local Asian Market. You can absolutely get them cheaper if you’re on the lookout. You want the short, stocky pickling cucumbers, sometimes called “Kirby’s.” You never want to use a waxy cucumber for pickling. Look for pickles that are uniform in size, heavy and firm, and straight (you will fit more spears side-by-side in each jar):

pickles from above, how many to stuff in a jar-1

We put plenty of dill (also bought at our Asian market, 59 cents/bunch, we used 3 bunches) in each jar before adding the pickle spears:

pickle jars, dill focus-1

We also enjoy some heat, so we use quite of few whole dried red peppers (usually found with the Mexican spices):

pickle jars, from below with peppers & garlic-1

Your kids will LOVE helping you make pickles. Let them drop garlic and stuff each jar with dill. Be sure not to fill your jars too full to the top:

pickles in jars before liquid-1

There are a few items of equipment that will help making pickles a cinch (unsponsored): a large enamel canning pot, a rack for lowering and removing jars into the water bath, a jar grasper (?) for allowing you to handle hot jars, a funnel for getting brine into jars without a mess, and a magnetic lid grabber (?) for handling hot lids. The set we have can be purchased on Amazon for about $60. We used 8 wide-mouth pint jars (cost is about $10 for 9 jars at Walmart) for this batch of pickles. We aren’t sure we love wide-mouth jars for pickles as they are shorter and only allow for a shorter pickle.

pickles, equipment-1

Six weeks will seem like forever, but good things come to those who wait and you will have some fantastically zesty pickles to slap along side your sammichess (our kids’ pronunciations surface sometimes) and burgers, like this Perfect Burger.

pickle jars in dipper, close-up-1

As you prepare and enjoy these with your family, teach them about some of the health benefits of homemade pickles:

  • Cucumbers offer a good amount of fiber, which is retained even after pickling. Fiber helps your body digest things properly and keeps your digestive tract clean.
  • Cucumbers also provide your body with iron, which helps your blood to oxygenate your body.

pickles collage

Pickles (Zesty!)
 
Print
Author:
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 8 jars, 80-95 pickles
Ingredients
  • 8 c. water
  • 4 c. vinegar
  • ½ c. kosher or sea salt (do not use table salt)
  • 8 lbs pickling cucumbers (sometimes called "Kirby's)
  • 16 whole cloves garlic
  • 2-3 bunches fresh dill
  • whole dried red peppers (6 for hot or 2 for mild spice)
  • You will need 8 sterile canning jars with lids (wash with soap and water or in dishwasher).
Instructions
  1. Mix the water, vinegar and salt in large pot.
  2. Bring to a rolling boil then reduce heat to low boil.
  3. Meanwhile, rinse and dry your cucumbers. Cut into spears, discarding the ends.
  4. Drop 2 cloves garlic, 2-6 red peppers, and ¼th bunch (or more) dill into each jar.
  5. Pack 8-10 spears tightly into each jar.
  6. Ladle the hot brine into each jar, being careful not to overfill (leave ½ inch space at the top).
  7. Screw lids on jars, only until the lids give you some resistance (they will finish securing in the water bath).
  8. Lower jars into the water bath in batches and let process for 15 minutes (water should be at least 1 inch above the tops of the jars. It is not uncommon to have a jar break). Remove each jar using jar tongs.
  9. You will hear popping sounds from the jar lids as they cool. This means that the lids are securing properly.
  10. After jars have cooled, remove the outer lid ring and test the seal. If it comes off easily, then that jar won't have the proper shelf life.
  11. Let stand 6 weeks before eating.

 

 

Hungarian Pork and Potatoes

by Leave a Comment

hungarian pork and potatoes, head on-1

If you’ve read our about page, you know that we love venturing out of the U.S. for dinner… via the menu. It’s just SO DANG FUN to experience the flavors, spices, and cooking styles of other countries. It’s also a fantastic opportunity to teach the ones you love a few things about that country and it’s people, including where it is on a map (just pull one up on your phone. Maybe a pic of a child or family from that country too. Then immediately put your phone away to be present with those you love, please). Tell them what constitutes the food they’re eating as being from that country (or at least having that flare). For example, tell them that pork, potatoes, onions, cabbage, sour cream, and paprika are all very common ingredients used in Hungarian cooking. Pickled foods are also very popular, and you get that tangy pickled flavor in the this dish when you add some apple cider vinegar to the vegetable mixture. They may decide this flavor isn’t their #1 favorite thing on the planet, but hey, at least you’ve done your part in bringing a little culture into their lives. This dish embodies classic Hungarian flavors, so give it a try the next time you’re ready to try something new. Oh, and it’s only 420 calories (*applause).

hungarian pork and potatoes, pork loin-1

Tip (unsponsored): All pork tenderloins aren’t created equal. We’ve found the smaller loins (weighing around a pound, usually no more than two) are more natural and offer the best texture and flavor. In our experience, the larger pork loins, weighing two pounds or more, are more like meat that’s been pressed into the shape of a pork tenderloin, but having a gelatinous texture. Buy smaller pork tenderloins when you need to hit a certain weight and steer clear of the larger pieces of… meat? that are labeled as pork loins.

Sweet paprika can be hard to find. We suggest using half smoked paprika and half regular if you can’t get your hands on some sweet. We love the bulk section of Sprouts for spices.

hungarian pork and potatoes in pot-1

Have your kids help you tear herbs and toss them into the pot, taking note of their beautiful fragrance. As you prepare and enjoy this meal with those you love, teach them about some of the ingredients:

  • It is said that dill can help relieve insomnia.
  • Red potatoes’ skins are full of iron, which helps your blood to oxygenate your body.
  • Cabbage has tons of fiber, which helps you have a healthy weight.

hungarian pork and potatoes, from side-1

Let’s learn a few things about Hungary and it’s people:

  • Hungary has been home to some of the most popular mathematicians in the world.
  • Hungary is also home to the best men’s water polo team in the world.
  • Hungary is famous for it’s sweet spas and baths.

hungarian pork and potatoes collage

Adapted ever so slightly from: Hungarian Pork and Potatoes

Hungarian Pork and Potatoes
 
Print
Prep time
Active time
Total time
 
Author:
Difficulty: Easy
Est. Cost: $18
Serves: 4 servings
Ingredients
  • 1 large pork tenderloin (about 1¼ pounds)
  • 1 tablespoon sweet paprika, plus more for topping
  • Kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 pound small red-skinned potatoes, chopped
  • ½ head green cabbage, shredded
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 1 cup chicken STOCK
  • 1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill and/or parsley
  • ⅓ cup low-fat sour cream
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Rub the pork all over with 2 teaspoons paprika and ½ teaspoon salt. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large Dutch oven or pot over medium-high heat. Add the pork and cook, turning until browned, 3 minutes. Remove to a rimmed baking sheet. Roast until a thermometer inserted into the center reaches 145 degrees F, about 18 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, wipe the pot clean and heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, 4 minutes. Stir in the cabbage, onion, the remaining 1 teaspoon paprika and ½ teaspoon salt. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage wilts slightly, about 4 minutes.
  3. Add the broth and brown sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium low; cover and cook until the vegetables are tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the vinegar. Increase the heat to medium high; cook until the sauce is reduced, 4 minutes. Add the herbs. Slice the pork; serve with the vegetables. Top with the sour cream and more paprika.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 420 Fat: 15 g Saturated fat: 5 g Carbohydrates: 34 g Sodium: 440 mg Fiber: 6 g Protein: 35 g Cholesterol: 100 mg

 

 

Newsletter

subscribe for email updates!

STAY CONNECTED