Halal Cart Inspired Chicken and Rice

I love me some halal cart food, and while I’ve been meaning to try the Serious Eats recipe for a while, I’ve just never gotten around to it, because really isn’t it just easier to pay $5? I decided to take a slightly different approach to the tried and true cart version and use chicken legs and a marinade. The rice and sauce are taken directly from Serious Eats, but I added veggies to be sorta healthy. The chicken tastes pretty different from the cart version (expected), the rice tastes pretty dead on (expected), but the sauce tastes nothing like the carts (the ones in Philly at least). I was worried I would have a tough time finding harissa (I’m well situated for finding all things Asian/Mexican, but I can’t think of any middle eastern centric places nearby), but luckily Whole Foods has it right next to the mustard.

Chicken:

¾ cup greek yogurt

½ cup harissa

1 tablespoon oregano

2 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 garlic cloves, chopped

Salt and pepper

Chicken (I used 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks and a big breast)

Add all the ingredients of the marinade in a 1 gallon Ziploc bag. Mix, taste, and adjust seasonings as necessary. Add the chicken and marinate for 4 to 6 hours (I acutally like to chuck it in frozen the night before).

When it’s time to cook, place chicken in a roasting pan (leave on that delicious marinade) and roast at 400ºF for 40 minutes, or until you hit an internal temp of 165 ºF.

Rice:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 medium carrots, diced

1 teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon cumin

1.5 cups long grain rice

2.5 cups chicken broth

¾ cup frozen peas

Salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a medium pot. Add the chopped carrots and sautee for 5 minutes, until they start to soften. Add in the turmeric and cumin and cook for 30 seconds longer. Add the rice, and stir to coat, cooking for 3 to 4 minutes until toasted. Add the broth, season with salt and pepper, and cover, reducing to a simmer, for 15 minutes. Add in the peas with 3 minutes or so to go to warm through.

Sauce:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Add everything to a bowl, and stir.

Garnish:

Lettuce

Tomato Slices

Arroz con Pato Chiclayano - Peruvian Rice with Duck

In Peru they use the native Muscovy ducks, but since I could only get my hands on a Pekin duck here in the states, I used that instead. With the Muscovy, throw in all the duck pieces along with the braising liquid when you get to that step. I held back the breasts in the fridge, since the ones on a Pekin don’t need all that long to cook (especially after being browned). Also, if you are buying a whole duck, I highly recommend you trim the excess skin and render some delicious duck fat in a pan. And make some duck stock with the carcass, because why not.

Rice with Duck: (serves 4; cooking time: about 1 hour 15 minutes all together)

1 large duck, ideally a Muscovy

2 dried aji panca peppers (or guajillo)

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

6 large garlic cloves, diced

1 medium red onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

¼ cup white wine

1 quart water

1 cup chopped cilantro

1 cup long grain rice

Remove the stems and seeds from the aji panca peppers, and place in a small pot with 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 15 minutes. Add to a blender and puree.

Cut the legs and breasts off the duck. Brown in a dutch oven over medium heat – I did this in two batches. Pour off excess fat and reserve, but leave some in the pan. Add the onions and pepper, and sauté for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and continue cooking for another minute. Add in the ¼ cup of wine, and cook for a minute, until reduced by half. Add in the aji panca puree, and cook for 2 more minutes.  Add the 1 quart of water, the legs of the duck, the red wine vinegar, and the salt/pepper/cumin. Bring to a boil, the simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes. Reserve the duck breasts in the fridge.

Rinse the rice under cold water. Add the reserved duck fat into a large pan over medium heat. Add the rice and toast for 3 to 4 minutes.

Chop the cilantro, then ladle 1 cup of the broth from the duck pot into a blender, along with the cilantro. Puree. Add back to the pot along with the rice and the duck breasts. Cook for 15 minutes, until the rice is finished. Turn off the heat and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Thai Spicy Beef (Nuer Phad Phed)

I’m not too familiar with Thai food, but I’m always looking for recipes that are quick and do-able on a weeknight, and stir fries like this certainly fit the bill. This recipe comes from the book Simply Thai Cooking. It should be noted that “20 basil leaves” is a rule of thumb the book uses, so it doesn’t need to be exact at all. I didn’t have any Thai basil (I actually had some bi-colored basil growing in the summer that would’ve subbed well) so I used regular basil.

Thai Spicy Beef (Nuer Phad Phed) (Serves 2)

10 oz. Flank steak, trimmed of excess fat

¼ medium green pepper

¼ medium red bell pepper (plus some extra for garnish)

Snap peas (enough for 2 servings, so like a big handful)

Canola/vegetable oil

1 teaspoon chopped garlic (1 clove)

2 tablespoons red curry paste

5 tablespoons coconut milk

2 lime leaves, torn into thirds (I substituted lime zest and a bay leaf)

½ cup bamboo shoot strips

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

20 fresh Thai basil leaves

Cut the beef into pieces that are ¼” thick, 1” wide and 2” long. Dice the peppers. Set aside some strips of the peppers for garnish. Get the rest of the ingredients ready as the cooking goes quickly and you’ll be too busy stirring to prep ingredients, open cans, etc.

Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add vegetable or canola oil (the original recipe calls for 5 tablespoons, I used something in the neighborhood of 2.5-3 tablespoons) and heat until it’s just about to smoke. Add the curry paste and garlic, stirring and frying for 45 seconds, then add the coconut milk and lime leaves. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until thick and bubbly.

Add the beef, the bamboo shoot strips, the snap peas and the peppers all together. Stir fry for 1 minute. Add the fish sauce and sugar and cook for 2 to 3 more minutes, until the peppers are softened. Add ¾ of the basil and cook for 45 additional seconds.

Serve over rice, and garnish with remaining basil and pepper strips.

Chicken Korma

This week’s 52 weeks of cooking theme is Indian food, which I have literally never eaten before. Jamie Oliver has a section on curries in Jamie’s Food Revolution, so I figured that would be as good an entry point as any. I ended up really enjoying the dish, especially once you get a forkful of everything with a little bit of yogurt on it.

Serves 4 to 6

Total time: 50 minutes

1 ¾ lb. chicken breasts, diced into bit sized pieces

1 large yellow onion

2 fresno chili peppers

1 thumb sized piece of ginger

Small bunch of cilantro

15 oz. can garbanzo beans

½ cup korma paste

14 oz. can coconut milk

2 heaped tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut

Sliced almonds

Salt and Pepper

Yogurt

Peanut Oil

Butter

Thinly slice the onion, finely dice the peppers and ginger, as well as the stalks from the cilantro (reserve the leaves for garnish).

Heat a large pan or dutch oven (this just barely fit a 12” sauté pan) over medium/medium high heat. Add peanut oil and a bit of butter, then add the onion, peppers, ginger and cilantro stalks and cook until golden, 5 to 10 minutes.

Add the curry paste, garbanzo beans, coconut milk, shredded coconut, chicken and half a handful of sliced almonds. Add 1 cup of water as well. Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes, covered season with salt and pepper at the end of cooking. Serve with rice, and garnish with almonds, cilantro leaves and yogurt.

Ham, Pea, and Mint Risotto

Do you like mint? That’s cool. I don’t. I guess it just reminds me too much of toothpaste. However, since this week’s themed ingredient was mint, I forged ahead anyway, and decided to do a savory dish instead of an obvious mint/chocolate dessert combo. I do like how the mint acts as a fresh herb to cut through the richness of the rest of the dish; I just wish it didn’t taste so… well, minty. If you happen to like mint, however, I think you will really enjoy this recipe:

Ham, Pea, and Mint Risotto:

2 shallots, diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

1.5 tbsp Bacon grease

1 cup Arborio rice

½ cup dry white wine or vermouth

4 cups chicken stock

1 cup frozen peas

4 tbsp chopped fresh mint

¼ lb. Smoked ham, chopped into pieces

3 tbsp butter

Black Pepper

Parmesan Cheese

Green Onions

Salt (optional)

Pour your stock into a medium sized pot and bring to a bare simmer. Keep the stock at this temperature for the duration of the process – adding the hot stock to the risotto aids the cooking process.

Heat a medium sized pan over medium-low/medium and add the bacon grease. When the grease is melted, add the shallots, and cook for about 3 minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the rice, stirring to coat, and toast for about 1.5 minutes.

Pour in the white wine, and cook until the wine is evaporated/absorbed. Add 1 cup of the stock, stirring frequently. When the stock has been pretty much all absorbed, add in another half cup, again stirring and waiting for the stock to be absorbed by the rice. Repeat this process until the stock is all used up, about 17 minutes. After the last addition of stock, add in the the peas and ham. The ham just needs to warm up, and the peas only take about 3 minutes to cook.

When the rice is fully cooked, turn off the heat and stir in the butter and mint. Season with black pepper and salt (shouldn’t take much – also, the parmesan you’ll be garnishing with adds saltiness). Serve with grated parmesan, an extra crack of black pepper, green onions and mint leaves for garnish.