A Taste Better Than Just Chicken?

I always shy away from the chicken dish at a restaurant, because chicken just tastes like chicken – rather bland and not all that interesting. Part of the problem is that restaurants tend to serve chicken breast, which I’ve always found to be dry and seriously lacking in any flavor. Well, this recipe was amazing – a huge burst of flavor. I found it on food.com, and I’ve so far only made it with drumsticks and wings, but I can’t wait to try it with chicken breasts to see if they can spice them up too! It’s a slow-cooker recipe, which means it’s super easy – but it does require a lot of spices (although you can probably make it with just salt, paprika, cayenne pepper, and onion powder). It’s also a very very cheap dish!

Ingredients (makes 5 drumsticks and 5 wings)

• 5 drumsticks and 5 wings (or you can use a whole chicken or 5 chicken breasts)
• 4 teaspoons of salt
• 4 teaspoons of paprika
• 1 teaspoons of cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons of onion powder
• 2 teaspoons of thyme
• 2 teaspoons of white pepper
• 2 teaspoons of garlic powder
• 1 teaspoons of black pepper
• 1 onion

1. Mix all the spices together in a bowl to make a rub for the chicken. If you don’t want your chicken to be spicy, then leave out the cayenne pepper and instead add in more onion powder, but note that the paprika will still make it slightly spicy.
2. Chop up the onion into approximate half inch squares and place at the bottom of the slow-cooker and add a cup of water so that the onions are barely covered.
3. Wash the chicken meat in cold water briefly. Place the washed chicken meat into the bowl with the rub, and rub the spices onto the meat thoroughly – try to get it under the chicken skin if you can. The wings and drumsticks work well here because you can rub the spices under the skin easily.
4. Place each piece of chicken covered with the spices into the slow cooker.
5. Set the slow-cooker on medium (325F if your slowcooker has a temperature controller), and cook for 5 hours or until the chicken meat falls off the bone (slow cooker times can vary dramatically).
6. You can serve the chicken with the bone on or take the bones out since the meat falls off so easily.

Crave Mashed Potatoes? Try Cauliflower Mash

Need some mash to go with those bangers? I found this great recipe for mashed cauliflower on foodnetwork.com and then modified it a touch to make it more buttery.

Ingredients (makes 4 medium portions)

• 1 medium cauliflower
• 1 tablespoon cream cheese (softened)
• 1/4 teaspoon grated Parmesan
• 1/2 of a small clove of garlic (or 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic) (I made the mistake of putting too much garlic on my first attempt by putting in one large clove of garlic, and it was seriously garlicky!)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• pinch of black pepper
• 3 tablespoon unsalted butter (softened)

1. Boil a pot of water.
2. Break up the cauliflower into florets and place into the boiling water (see photo above).
3. Boil for 8 minutes on high heat (make sure the florets are pretty soft and easy to cut with a fork).
4. Drain the cauliflower but do not cool. Instead, dry the florets with some paper towels and place into the food processor.
5. Add the cream cheese, grated parmesan cheese, garlic, salt, pepper, and butter into the food processor and blend until it’s pretty smooth (see photo below). This may take a minute or two.


Cauliflower Mash in Food Processor

6. Ready to serve. You can sprinkle some chives on top to make it look prettier – I mixed it into the mash (see the photo below).

A Meal for Two in Under 15 minutes!

Sausages are a low-carber’s dear old friends. They’re loyal, simple, down-to-earth and always ready to provide you with a delicious and healthy meal. My favorite sausages are these Apple Gouda ones from Niman Ranch. I know all Americans think that apple goes best with cinnamon, but really it’s apple and gouda that should win the best combo prize! And not only are they tasty, but they’re also healthy (no antibiotics, hormones and your pigs aren’t getting fed other pigs!). There’s a bit of sugar (probably from the apples), but unless you’re having 20 of these sausages a day, you’ll be well within the carb limit for most low carb diets.

Wholefoods sells these sausages and various other Niman Ranch sausages for around $6.99 per pack. This may seem pricey, but honestly, I can’t eat more than 2 sausages per meal (and my boyfriend has trouble eating more than 3 per meal). So, one pack of these sausages with some vegetables would make a meal for 2 (which is seriously cheap for New York City). I pick up 3 or 4 packs of these every time I go to Wholefoods, which is about once a week, because Wholefoods sometimes runs out of this flavor. Although Wholefoods sells the sausages in the refrigerated section, I actually put them into my freezer as soon as I get home. They keep for a long time and are easy to thaw out (although you do end up having to cook all 4 sausages in the pack since you can’t thaw them out individually).

The cooking instructions on the back of the pack suggest heating in a frying pan, but there are other options obviously. If you have a grill, then that method is great. If you’re lazy, then try just putting it in the microwave (I’ve definitely done that before, and since the sausages are pre-cooked, you don’t have to worry about making sure you don’t get food poisoning from under-cooking them). Unfortunately, I don’t have a grill (a distinct disadvantage of living in NYC), but I still like that charred taste to my sausages, which microwave cooking doesn’t provide. Solution – the broiler (it’s part of most ovens).

So, after I take the frozen sausages out of the packaging, I put them on a plate and defrost them in the microwave for three and a half minutes so that they’re not frozen rock solid anymore but are still cool to the touch. I then put them onto a sheet of aluminum (I spelled it the American way!) foil on the top rack of the oven and switch on the broiler. If your broiler has a high/low setting, then put it on high. Broil them for 8 minutes but flip them over after every 2 minutes. It takes a bit of effort having to flip them over four times, but the results are worth it. Total cooking time with defrosting is still only 12 minutes (since there’s no preparation required), which makes this a speedy meal to prepare. You can pair the sausages with some sauerkraut, which Wholefoods also sells, for a German meal, or you can have them with some cauliflower mash (faux mashed potatoes) to create your own version of the British bangers and mash!

Faux Fried Rice

I was very skeptical when I first read about faux fried rice on nomnompaleo, which is a really interesting paleo blog, but it actually tastes amazing and very close to rice. The basis of the recipe is cauliflower chopped up in a food processor to simulate a fake rice look and texture. Personally, I think a more accurate description would be faux cous cous because the cauliflower bits you’re left with are very small. You can add pretty much anything (or nothing) to the chopped cauliflower for your dish (so it can be as simple or as complicated as you want). Below are some recipes I’ve come up with (modifying the basic idea that I got from Nomnompaleo). The first recipe is just a basic faux white rice, and the second is a Chinese fried rice (there’s a Thai version too). Countless other variations are possible!

Basic Faux White Rice (serves 2 adults)

• Half a large cauliflower
• Half a yellow onion
• 2 eggs
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (or some other oil or butter)
• Salt to taste

1. Chop the cauliflower and onion into small chunks so that it’ll fit into the food processor. Place the chopped cauliflower and onion and the garlic into the food processor with the S-shaped (sabatier) blade and chop until everything is in tiny bits.
2. Pour 2 tablespoons of the oil into a pan (any pan will do as long as it’ll fit all the ingredients in).
3. Heat the pan on a medium heat.
4. After 1 minute, add in all the food processed ingredients. Squeeze out excess liquid (mostly from the onions) if the food processed ingredients seem too soggy.
5. Leave the pan with the ingredients in it for 2 minutes. Then crack the two eggs and add them into the pan. Stir the eggs immediately in with the other ingredients so that it doesn’t form large lumps.
6. Continue cooking on a medium heat for another 10 minutes stirring every few minutes.
7. Add salt to taste.
8. Ready to serve. You can have the rice by itself, with some soy sauce, with stir-fried vegetables or meat, or basically with anything you want to have rice with.

Chinese Faux Fried Rice (for Thai Fried Rice, switch the green onions and cilantro for basil)

• Half a large cauliflower
• Half a yellow onion
• 4 green onions (or spring onions or scallions)
• A cup of cilantro leaves (a large handful if you scrunch it up) – try to cut off most of the stalks
• 2 eggs
• 4 cloves of garlic
• Half an inch cube of ginger
• Roast beef chopped into small pieces (I use the slow cooker roast beef because it’s already very flavorful)
• 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (or some other oil or butter)
• Salt and soy sauce to taste

1. Chop the cauliflower, onion, and green onion into small pieces so that it’ll fit into the food processor. Place the chopped cauliflower, onion, and green onions and the garlic and ginger into the food processor with the S-shaped (sabatier) blade chop.
2. Pour 2 tablespoons of the oil into a pan (any pan will do as long as it’ll fit all the ingredients in).
3. Heat the pan on a medium heat.
4. After 1 minute, add in all the food processed ingredients. Squeeze out excess liquid (from the onions and cilantro) if the food processed ingredients seem too soggy.
5. Leave the pan with the ingredients in it for 2 minutes. Then crack the two eggs and add them into the pan. Stir the eggs immediately in with the other ingredients so that it doesn’t form large lumps.
6. Continue cooking on a medium heat for another 10 minutes stirring every few minutes.
7. Add the chopped up roast beef and stir.
8. Add salt and soy sauce to taste.
9. Ready to serve.

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

There are some simple inventions that I wish I could have thought of! Toilet seat covers is one of them (I never understand why people laugh at me when I tell them that!) and the slow cooker is another. I’ve always hated cooking meat. I usually either undercook the meat or burn it until it disintegrates into bits of black soot. The slow cooker is simple. It’s pretty hard to undercook it or overcook it! No matter what you do – the meat always comes out tender and full of flavor! So, here’s my recipe (modifications you can make to the basic recipe are at the end):

What you will need:

1. Slow cooker. I have the Presto 06001, which doubles as a convenient deep frier, but I would probably recommend one with a timer as well as temperature settings, like the Hamilton Beach 33967.
2. 2lbs of beef (I like to use a cheap cut like the bottom round roast, but you can use most cuts that would be suitable for a roast). Cut the meat into 1lb pieces like the ones shown in the photo.
3. 2 cups (0.5 quarts or 500ml) of soy sauce (you can use the gluten free or low sodium or even coconut aminos depending on what you’re avoiding in your diet).
4. 3 tablespoons of sea salt.
5. 1 tablespoon of onion powder or minced onion.
6. 1 tablespoon of garlic powder.
7. 1 tablespoon of cilantro leaves (this is optional – you can also use fresh cilantro).

Cooking Instructions:

1. Put all the ingredients into the slow cooker.
2. Fill the slow cooker with enough water to cover the meat (approximately 4 cups). You can let the meat marinade in the slow cooker with no heat for 2 hours so that the meat is more flavorful, but this is optional.
3. Put the lid onto the slowcooker, turn on the heat to 325F, and cook for 8 hours.

Wasn’t that simple?? I like the 8 hours cook time because if your slow cooker doesn’t have a timer (like mine), then you can put the meat in just before bed and then voila it’s all cooked when you get up in the morning. You can then take it out of the slow cooker, place it on a plate to cool for a bit and then stick it into the fridge.

You can eat the meat just by itself or with some extra soy sauce or chili sauce for more flavor. I like to put the meat in the fridge so that it hardens a bit and then to cut it into thin slices. I then dip it in soy sauce or chili sauce.

Modifications

1. For a more Chinese flavor to the meat (as if the soy sauce wasn’t enough!), you can add in 3 or 4 star of anise and 1 tablespoon of Sichuan (or SzeChuan) peppercorns (see photo). I buy these down in Chinatown, New York. I’m sure your local Chinese supermarket will carry them, or if you prefer, Amazon.com also sells them!
2. For a more traditional pot roast, replace the soy sauce with 3 cans of beef broth.
3. If you want some tasty vegetables with your pot roast, try adding some carrots or daikon (also known as white radish, Japanese radish, Oriental radish, Chinese radish or lo bok). Cut the carrots or radishes into half inch thick slices and throw them into the slow cooker an hour before the meat is done. All the flavor gets cooked into the veggies, making them soft and delicious.