Grilled Chicken Parmesan with Smoked Mozzarella

For the record, Uncle T does not recognize a "grilling season".  The only thing that will keep me from the grill is a thunderstorm.  Aside from that, if I want to cook something on the grill or in the smoker it will happen.  However, once the weather turns nice in the Spring the frequency of my outdoor cooking does increase.  Hey, better to heat the outside than the inside.

I've done a smoked Chicken Parmesan before where I did fry the chicken then assembled the chicken, sauce, and cheese before putting it in the smoker.  That recipe can be found HERE.

I decided to do everything but the pasta on the grill this time.  It helps that I had marinara sauce leftover in the fridge.  The only cooking that was done inside was boiling the noodles.  The smoked mozzarella cheese was a block that I'd cold smoked this past Fall and has been vacuum sealed in the garage refrigerator since.  The dish was topped with chiffonade basil from my herb garden.

Grilled Chicken Parmesan

1 boneless skinless chicken breast per person
marinara sauce
shredded smoked mozzarella cheese
grated Parmesan cheese
salt
pepper
Italian seasoning
olive oil
fresh basil

Pound the chicken breasts until they are a uniform thickness.  Lay them on a tray and season with the salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Place the chicken on a med-hot grill and cook until an IT of 165F is reached.  Turn partway through so you have nice grill marks.  Remove the chicken from the grill and place in a rimmed pan.  Top with marinara sauce then cover with shredded smoked mozzarella cheese.  Place the pan in the grill and close the lid and leave until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese has melted.

When the chicken is turned and almost done, get the water for your pasta boiling.  Cook according to package directions.  Yes, Uncle T uses dried pasta sometimes.  Once the pasta is cooked to your satisfaction drain it well.

Place portions of the pasta on the plates and top with a chicken breast.  Divide the marinara sauce that ran off the chicken between each plate by pouring it over the pasta.  Top with grated Parmesan cheese.  Chiffonade some fresh basil and sprinkle over the chicken.  I added the grated Parmesan after the picture because I thought it looked better plus I had some mixed into my marinara sauce.

Grilled Chicken Parmesan over thin Spaghetti

This is a tasty and filling supper by itself though some fresh crusty bread would go wonderfully with it.  Though we normally drink Cabernet Sauvignon this was accompanied by a surprisingly nice Syrah we found at Wal-Mart of all places.  As usual, drink what you like rather than what "they" say you're supposed to drink with a dish.

While my marinara sauce was made using tomatoes canned out of last years garden by the good wife and good quality jar sauce will work.  Smoked mozzarella can be found at several stores like Trader Joe's and Wegman's plus others I found online.  I do my own because we like a bit more pronounced smoke flavor with ours.

I didn't time it but I think this was done in about 30 minutes including the time to pound out the chicken breasts.  So it's an excellent relatively quick meal for anytime.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Uncle T

Chicken and Spinach with Noodles Soup

It's a matter of fact in the South that when you are sick you eat chicken soup.  Usually it's a basic chicken noodle soup but sometimes it's a little different.  The past couple of weeks the good wife and I have been trying to fight off some bug that's going around.  Being a large semidomesticated animal I ended up with just a sinus infection and a cough.  The good wife got hit a bit harder.  When she gets sick I cook according to how she's feeling.

A few days ago I'd asked her what she wanted for supper and she said chicken soup, with spinach.  Naturally I made it happen.  It was tasty and easy to bring together.

I used my pressure cooker but the same thing can be done with a stock pot and more time.  The recipe will be written as I did it in the pressure cooker so adjust as necessary.

Chicken and Spinach with Noodles Soup

4 chicken leg quarters
1 box chicken broth
4 oz spaghetti noodles
2 cups spinach, rough chopped
salt
pepper

Place the leg quarters in the pressure cooker with a little water and cook under pressure for 20 - 25 minutes.  The meat should easily pull from the bones.  Pull the meat from the bones and roughly chop and return to the pressure cooker.  Add the box of chicken broth and stir.  Break the spaghetti noodles in half and add to the pressure cooker.  Pressure cook the chicken and noodles for 8 minutes.  Stir in the roughly chopped spinach until it is wilted.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  This will serve 4.

A fresh pot of soup ready to go

Once the timer goes off on the pressure cooking for the chicken you can let it naturally release pressure or you can manually release.  When it finishes after adding the spaghetti manually release the pressure.  When manually releasing pressure follow the manufacturer's guidelines and be safe about it.

We had cornbread leftover so some of it was reheated to accompany the soup.  They went very well together.

A filling and healing supper

Alternate methods to achieve this are varied.  One would be simmering a whole chicken until falling off the bone tender and using the resulting broth for the soup.  Another would be shredding a rotisserie chicken from the store.  Homemade broth is always best but a good quality boxed broth is good as well.

Whether you're feeling poorly or just want soup because it's cold, give this one a try and let me know what you think.

Uncle T

Smoked Chicken Parmesan

When I started thinking about this, I did a Google search to see if it was a thing.  All I found were recipes for chicken breasts stuffed with the other parts or for chicken parmesan fatties.  For those that may not be familiar with a fatty I'll explain it.  A fatty is made with sausage or ground beef laid out flat with other things laid down the middle then the sausage/ground beef is rolled into a log shape that is stuffed.  Many people will cover the fatty with a bacon weave before smoking it.  The closest I found to mine was a Rachel Ray recipe but she grilled the chicken rather than smoking it and used smoked Mozzarella.  She also called hers grilled chicken parmesan.  So it seems I'm safe saying this is my own thing.  Since there is just the two of us, I made three so I'd have one to to take to work for lunch.  I wrote the recipe for four.

A nice thin blue smoke, just what you want

I do have to say I don't know the temperature used to smoke the chicken since I did it on my Weber Performer and my remote thermometer probes are in the smoker.  I did use one of my baby dial thermometers to check the internal temperatures of the chicken breasts.  Yep, none of those new fangled digitals for me.

Chicken breast flipped for more even smoke

While I have a variety of woods available for smoking, I used pecan wood for this as it was what was most ready to hand.  Hickory would work well for this as would apple and cherry.  You'll want a wood with a good flavor and good smoke without being overbearing.


Smoked Chicken Parmesan


4 boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 quart canned tomatoes
1 medium white onion
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 Tbs olive oil
Grated Parmesan cheese
Grated Mozzarella cheese
salt
pepper
garlic powder
Italian seasoning
crushed red pepper


Season the chicken breasts with salt, pepper, garlic powder and let rest while the charcoal is getting to the proper stage to start cooking.  This means the charcoal is covered all over in a fine grey ash.  Put the chicken on the grill/smoker and add your choice of wood to the coals.  If using a grill, set it up for indirect cooking.  If you have a gas grill, put wood chips in aluminum foil and poke a few hole in it and place it over the burner that is lit.  Smoke until the internal temperature is 165F.  Once the chicken is at temperature take it off to complete the dish.

Chicken with tomato sauce ready for the cheese

While the chicken is smoking make the sauce to go on top.  Cut the onion in half from top to bottom.  Then make 3 cuts equally spaced around the side taking care to leave space at the root end to hold it together.  Then start slicing at the top end working to the root making 1/4 inch slices.  Heat olive oil in a skillet and add the onions and garlic and cook until translucent.  Once the onions are translucent, add the tomatoes and roughly break them up with a spoon.  Add salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper to taste and stir.  Let the mixture simmer in the skillet until ready to use.  Add the juice from the tomatoes if the sauce needs to be looser.

Parmesan and Mozzarella added ready for the smoker

Use a pan that the chicken breasts will fit in fairly snuggly and you won't mind putting on the grill/smoker.  Spoon a bit of the sauce on the bottom of the pan then put the chicken in.  Spoon the sauce over the chicken breasts equally.  Sprinkle Parmesan cheese then Mozzarella cheese over the chicken breasts.  Put the pan on the grill/smoker adding additional wood if necessary and smoke until the cheese is melted and has taken on as much smoke as you want.

The cheese is melted and it has picked up some smoke

Chicken Parmesan seems to mostly be served with spaghetti but you can use any pasta or other side you want.  I made a warm orzo side that also does well as a cold orzo salad.  It has orzo, a couple chopped canned tomatoes, about 2 Tbs finely minced onions, salt, white pepper, and olive oil.

The final product, a fine tasty meal

I also drizzled a bit of brandy over the chicken breast when they were seasoned just to add another layer of flavor.  You could also add some red wine to the sauce to boost the flavor but I didn't do that this time.


This dish has the advantage of easy clean up since you're only using the skillet inside and one pan outside.  This is an easy meal to throw together and yields great flavor.  The good wife said I could do this one again.  I can also attest that any leftovers are very good the next day as lunch at work or to have for another supper.


Give this a try, especially if you are wanting to try something different with your grill/smoker.

Sous Vide Confit Chicken Leg Quarters

Yep, another recipe using the Joule.  One of the recipes in the guides that come with the Joule app is for sous vide confit turkey legs.  I've done them and they turned out very good.  The problem is that turkey leg quarters are hard to come by unless you purchase a whole turkey and take it apart yourself.  Chicken leg quarters are readily available and sized to make a good meal.  An added benefit is that leg quarters are very flavorful on their own and with the addition of a dry brine and some other things they become great.


I try to keep leg quarters in the freezer but I'd run out a few months ago.  I like having them on hand to make soup for the good wife along with using them in any other recipe.  There is a meat market in one of the nearby cities that had 40 lb cases of chicken leg quarters on sale for $19.99 so I got a case.  That 40 lb case yielded 32 pairs of leg quarters to be packaged.  Not a bad return on investment I'd say.  I kept out one set to be cooked sous vide for our supper the next evening.

Since the Joule app didn't have a pre-programmed cook for confit chicken leg quarters I had to search online for the temperature and time.  The most common I found was 165F for 8 hours.  Given that I wanted to have it for supper I had to enlist the good wife to start the cook.  I wrote down step by step instructions and she could also text me at work if she had questions.  Before I left that morning, I dry brined the leg quarters, put some sprigs of rosemary in the bag, and added a bit of olive oil then returned the bag to the refrigerator.  The dry brine I used was the same as ChefSteps recommended for the confit turkey legs, 5 parts salt and 3 parts sugar.  I used 1/2 Tbs as my "part" and ended up using a bit over a third of the total mix to brine both leg quarters.  The leftover is in a ziplock bag to be used later.

Once the leg quarters came out of the sous vide, I put them on a sheet tray with a rack in it to let air circulate all around.  Following the recipe from ChefSteps, I gently dried the chicken skin then put the leg quarters in the oven under the broiler for a few minutes to darken and crisp the skin.  It doesn't take very long so just watch the chicken through the oven window.

A tasty meal courtesy of the Joule

The good wife had wanted some broccoli and cheese sauce so I steamed some broccoli and covered it in a fresh hot cheddar and fontina cheese sauce.  We also had roasted potatoes with the meal.  The chicken leg quarters came out as good as the sous vide confit turkey legs did.  All you had to do was stick a fork in the chicken and rotate the fork and the meat came loose.  It was super flavorful and tender.

I hope you add sous vide cookery to your kitchen repertoire.


Uncle T

Ultimate Grilled Chicken Breast

OK, I don't know that these are the Ultimate, but they are pretty tasty.  Ultimate is one of those words that get thrown around in the culinary world till they have no meaning.  It is in the same realm as the phrase, cooked to perfection.  This habit is particularly prominent among TV chefs and those hoping to be.  My question is always, "If it's not cooked to perfection, why would you send it out to a customer?"  One TV chef even has Ultimate in his show's name which to me sounds like he thinks his version of dishes is the ultimate version.  I've watched his show and have not always been impressed, especially when he screws with traditional dishes.  Now that my mini rant is over, on with the more serious stuff.

Cheesy, peppery goodness

A more proper name for this would be Grilled Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Chicken Breast.  I know some will say that adding bacon to it makes it ultimate.  I'll agree that adding bacon to most anything makes it awesome.  I decided to do this for a couple of reasons.  One is to use up things we've canned from the garden.  The other reason is that due to weather and other issues popping up, I haven't been able to use the grill or smoker as often as I'd like.  Yes, I grill/smoke year round but combining wind and rain makes temperature control difficult and I hate my grilled/smoked food getting rained on as I'm  taking it inside.

The raw ingredients for greatness

The beauty of doing chicken breasts this way is that you can easily tailor it to suit your tastes or what you have on hand.  I'll tell you how I did it and then you can follow suit or use it as a guideline to do your own thing.


Ultimate Grilled Chicken Breast


2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 oz jar poblano peppers
Fontina cheese
Swiss cheese
bacon


Cut a pocket in each chicken breast by slicing down the middle of the breast without going all the way through and stopping 1 inch from each end.  Then cut a pocket in each side trying to get the top and bottom to be the same thickness.  Divide the poblano peppers between the breasts and place evenly in the pockets.  Add as much of the two cheeses as you can to each breast and still close the pocket.  Starting at the large end, start wrapping the breast with bacon.  Once completed, let the bacon wrapped breasts sit on a tray until the grill is ready.  Place on a hot grill with the cut side down.  Once the bacon has cooked and is done turn the breasts over to complete cooking.  Once the chicken is done, remove from grill and allow to stand for a few minutes before serving.

Goodness on the grill

To accompany the chicken breasts, I fixed Parmesan roasted potatoes and sautéed carrots with a brandy and butter sauce.  It was a highly flavorful meal.  Luckily, I made enough potatoes for leftovers and an extra chicken breast to take to work for my lunch the next day.  Where is it written that a work lunch has to be boring?

An awesome supper

A quick word on the carrots.  They were sauteed in butter with 4 smashed cloves of garlic and and 3 thin slices of ginger.  Once they were almost done, a couple of ounces of brandy was added to the skillet and cooked down to make the pan sauce.  Finish it with a light pinch of kosher salt.

 See, a quick simple way to make grilled chicken much more flavorful.  Give this a try and create your own ultimate.  Let me know how it turns out.


Uncle T

Kimchi Chicken Soup

Yeah, I know, you're thinking this is an odd combination.  It did start as one of those let's see how this works kind of things.  I think I've mentioned before that we do a calorie restriction diet two days a week.  During the Fall and Winter our meals for those two days tend to be soups.  This soup has the benefit of being filling while consuming less of it.


Usually when I'm making soup for a fast day I pick kale or bok choy from the garden and add it to whatever broth and protein I've selected.  Add some sautéed sliced mushrooms and you have a quick flavorful soup.  When using bok choy I'll usually season the chicken or shrimp with Korean red pepper powder to add some heat and an Asian flair to the soup.


As you know, I make my own Kimchi and for the past two years I've made it from bok choy grown in my garden.  I did buy a large nappa Cabbage from our favorite international grocery and  made some with that while waiting for the time to fully harvest the bok choy.  Once the freeze threatened I harvested  and converted the bok choy to kimchi.  Once all the fermentation was done, I dumped both jars into a large bowl and mixed them thoroughly and put the mixture back in the jars.  That gave me two gallons of mixed nappa and bok choy kimchi.


We had been out running errands and didn't get back to the house till after dark.  So, instead of putting on my head lamp to go pick some kale, I decided to throw in some kimchi.  This is lighter and less hot than my standard kimchi soup but still filling.  I've fixed it twice and neither of us has finished our bowl.

Steaming Hot Kimchi Ckicken Soup

The written recipe is combined and should make four bowls for a normal meal with a little something extra on the side, like a bowl of rice.


Kimchi Chicken Soup


2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
8 oz mushrooms
5 cups chicken broth
18 oz kimchi
3/4 cup kimchi liquid
3 Tbs sesame oil, divided
salt
pepper
garlic powder


Slice the chicken breast into three strips each and then slice about 1/4 thick.  Set on plate and season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Slice the mushrooms and place in hot skillet with half of the sesame oil in it, season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  While the mushrooms are cooking, put the chicken broth, kimchi, and kimchi liquid in a pot and turn on medium heat.  When the mushrooms are done, transfer to the pot.  Add the  rest of the sesame oil to the skillet and when hot, add the chicken.  Cook the chicken till brown on that side then flip.  Once the chicken is done on both sides add to the soup.  Stir to combine.  Bring the soup to a simmer, if not already there, and simmer for 15 minutes.  Serve hot.


See, quick and easy.  My batch had more than the good wife's and the whole bowl came to just under 400 calories and I ate about half of my bowl.  This is a flavorful filling soup that you ought to try, especially if you are a fan of kimchi.  If you give this a try let me know what you think.


Uncle T