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Why do I feel like I just won the Special Olympics with this thread??? This is not funny....Comment -
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Mirin....clear you PMs amigo!Comment -
First off - unless you are going for stewing, skin off is a bad idea, as that is literally the best part. That being said, my two favorite ways of preparing thighs are either by braising or by doing a thai stew. Thighs are loaded with connective tissue that will add a ton of flavor to a slow moist cooking process, and they will break down over time. Be aware, I do not use measurements when I cook, I go everything by feel, so the few measurements I give here will be estimates.
For braising:
Let us assume you are making, say, 6 thighs.
First off, peel and seperate around 20 cloves of garlic (yes, 20). Garlic is a member of the Allium family, meaning they are highly aromatic and flavorful, but extremely pugent. However, exposure to low heat will kill the pungency - this genus also covers onions, leeks, and the like. Cover them in cold water, bring it up to a simmer, then drain them, repeat this process twice after the initial simmering. What you will be left with is delicious garlic cloves that are highly aromatic, soft, almost melt in your mouth (but not quite) very flavorful, entirely edible, and without any of the pungent bite that raw garlic has. An alternative, which I use in almost all other applications is to roast them, however that has the tendency to make them soft and mushy, they break down when cooked, and for this particular recipe I like the whole clove intact.
Using a heavy bottomed pan, add some neutral cooking oil (canola is absolutely fine, grapeseed is better, people who saute with olive oil are either spanish or don't know what they are doing), bring it up to nearly smoking, you want this pan extremely hot. Season the thighs with kosher salt and sear the skin side in the pan until it gets some color on it, then remove it. You may need to do this in two batches depending on the size of your pan, if you overcrowd the pan you will not get proper caramelization. By the time you are done searing these, the pan should have a bit of a crust on it, this is something that is desired.
Using the same pan, add a bit more oil if needed, and if you have access to it at this time, a bit of duck or bacon fat. Get it smoking and add in some sliced crimini mushrooms. The key to cooking mushrooms properly is a matter of heat, you want a scorching hot pan to build a crust on them, but not smoking, much like the chieken. After they have cooked down you can reduce the heat a bit, add some minced shallot, about 2 or so ought to do, but it is a matter of personal preference, sweat these in the liquid released by the mushrooms, but be careful not to burn. By this point you have finished building the caramelized crust (fond) on the bottom of the pan, so you can reduce the heat, burned shallot tastes horrible. Add in some nice balsalmic vinegar, about half a cup minimum, and a nice splash of dry red wine at this point is also not a bad idea. What you want to do is scrape the bottom of the pan to dissolve the browned bits into the liquid at this point, and bring it up to heat. Then, add the blanched garlic, lay the thighs crusted side up and fill the pan with enough chicken stock to almost reach the crust you built on the thighs. The important thing here is not to cover the crust, and to allow a tiny bit of room for once the sauce comes to a simmer.
Bring this to a simemer on the stove, and throw it in a 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Ovens tend to vary, so use your own discretion in the cooking time. The idea is to have the chicken cooked through and the crisped side nice and caramelized. Might take more than 45, might take less, but it is a good benchmark. Because it is a moist cooking method, it is very hard to "overcook" the chicken until it is dry unless you are a complete donk.
Once this is done, take the pan out, and remove the chicken from it, and set the remaining liquid on high heat. You are going to reduce it to a glaze consistency, and once it reaches that, you are going to set the heat to low and slowly swirl in small cubes of raw butter 1 or 2 at a time. This should emulsify into a thich, rich, creamy sauce - but I reiterate, do this on low heat. If you add raw butter on high heat you are going to break the sauce and end up with an oily film.
As for the chicken - when I'm using my cheap shitty bachelor apartment oven at home, I will often heat up the broiler and crisp it under there for 30 seconds or so, like I say, depends on the oven.
Anywho, to serve, any type of wilted braising green is awesome, kale blanched than wilted in a bit of the stock is great, or just go straight up wilted spinach. Asparagus blanced in salt water for about 45 seconds, shocked in cold water than grilled is also a good call. Steamed rice works great here, so does roasted garlic mashed potatoes, or herb roasted baby potatoes. Nothing wrong at all with some fried polenta cakes either.
When serving, place the thighs on top of the veggies and starch and spoon a very large amount of that sauce around the plate, but not on top of the chicken, you want that skin (or in your case, unskinned crust) nice and crisp. Finish with a nice finishing salt if you have access to it. When I started cooking I figured "fleur de sel" was where it was at, but I'm getting turned on more and more to maldon salt, the flavor is almost as good, it is very affordable (about 10$ for a small box, which realistically should last you like 6 months) and the crystals are extremely large.
One note on chicken stock: Either make your own, or get REAL chicken stock. Chicken stock is made from bones, which contain gelatin, which give your sauce body and mouthfeel while also acting as a natural thickening agent (ideally, chicken stock should look like a very loose jelly when in the fridge), the stuff they sell in grocery stores in tetra packs as "chicken stock" is usually just a weak broth with artificial chicken flavor added to it, if you use it, when you remove your thighs and go to reduce your stock, you will just end up with a sauce that has the consistency of water.
Hmm... trying to think of anything else that applies here. If the sauce is too rich, cut it with a small squirt of lemon juice, also hold off adding salt until it is finished, as you will be reducing it and that will concentrate its salinity.
Hope this helps, a great econd recipe to follow shortly, I just gotta do a beer run and make a phone call.
EDIT: for clarityLast edited by Sacrelicious; 09-26-14, 11:14 PM.Comment -
Sac have you met Gordon Ramsay?Comment -
Your move, Jibbby.Comment -
2nd recipe to follow momentarily, hold on.Comment -
Requesting a good one for Asian Stir fry, either Noodles or Rice. I have the most trouble with frying that shit probably without it sticking to the wok and actually getting fried, and not just a soggy, oily mess.
Also if it incoperates Fish / oyster sauce, much the better.
You can redeem your self here Sac, dont fk this up.Comment -
Awesome recipe and will be getting chicken thighs with skin from now on.
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Nah, sounds pretty interesting though - not sure if its easy to get the ingredients in my country though.Comment -
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So this is a particularly strange preparation, but it is not at all difficult, almost impossible to penetrate up, and one of the two "exotic" ingredients can usually be found at almost any legit supermarket, and the second can be found at any legit asian supermarket. I'm in the redneck province of Canada, so things here tend to be a bit more difficult, I don't know where you live but I'm sure if you look around you can find it much easier than I can.
One thing you will need to do is prepare a vegetable stock, this is extremely simple. Simply take some fine diced leek, onion, carrot, and celery, put them in a pot, cover in water, and bring to a simmer, simmer for 20 minutes. This is not a typical vegetable stock, but for this recipe it works. What we do at my restaurant is make an "all purpose" vegetable stock like this in a huge tilt skillet each morning, as we go through about 40 litres a day. When we need to use it for a particular application we take the AP stock, simmer it with whatever aromatics we may need, then use it. A classical veg stock has things like parsley stems, whole peppercorns, some thyme sprigs, a bay leaf and possibly a clove or two added to it, you do not want that for this recipe. However, what you can absolutely add to it for this application is a knob or two of ginger. Anyway, simmer for 20 minutes ,strain, reserve.
Lets go by that same measurement I used before, I'm assuming 6 thighs, like something to serve 3-4 people or some shit like that, adjust as you deem necessary.
Okay, so heres what you are going to saute in a pan: rough chopped onion, a nice green thai curry paste (or red, if you want, I just prefer green), garlic (skin on) just hack off a few cloves, some ginger knobs, lemongrass, and then caramelized lime and kaffir leaf.
This gets to the "exotic" ingredients: lemongrass and kaffir leaf. I don't know what city you live in but I can find lemongrass at just about any legit supermarket, kaffir can be tougher. Most asian supermarkets have both, if necessary these can both be purchased or ordered frozen. Never, ever, use anything dried, it will ruin the dish.
As for the caramelized limes - caramelized cirtus fruits are delicious, i reccomend just slicing a couple limes in half and grilling them till they get some nice deep grill marks. If you don't have a grill, just do it in a pan.
Get your pan searing, add the onion, let it brown for a minute or two until it gets some color. Add the whole garlic cloves, and ginger knobs, get a bit of color on them, but be gentle - don't burn them. To give you an idea of ratio - for this particular seving, 3-4 people, I'd do 1.5 moderate sized onions, 3 or 4 cloves of moderately sized garlic cloves, an inch or so of ginger (less if your stock has more of the strong ginger taste), then add your curry paste and cook until aromatic. Then add coconut milk, for a batch this size, I don't know how measurements work outside of canada, but we can get it in 12 oz cans, for this recipe 3 should be fine. I HIGHLY advise adding this one can at a time over medium heat and whisking constantly, it will keep the fat from seperating, this is rare, but it can happen, and it will f-ck up the whole sauce.
Throw in your caramelized lime halves, add a couple kaffir leaves and lemongrass stalks. One mistake people make with lemongrass is they just toss it in, that does not work, it needs to be bruised and perforated. Use the back of a kitchen knife to smash it at about half inch intervals before you throw it in.
You want to cook this down until all the flavors absorb - it will reduce and thicken as it stews, but this is why you made that vegetable stock. As it starts to get thick, you simply add some vegetable stock to the pot, it not only replenishes the lost liquid and allows the flavors to cook longer but it adds a nice armoa - much better than adding water, right?
After this is done, strain all solid matter from the sauce, then season the sauce. Start by seasoning with fish sauce before you even think of adding salt, but add salt afterwards if necessary. Then season with lime, and depending on personal taste (though highly recommended) pineapple juice The reason for waiting for salt is because this sauce needs an "umami" flavor to balance the extremely complex flavors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami if you are unfamiliar), which fish sauce is rich in, but it is also very rich in salt.
Slice your chicken into small pieces, brown it in a searing pan with any vegetables you may like, cover in sauce, bring to a simmer for a good 45 minutes or until whenever it is done, penetrating money. This sauce works great with chicken but is OUTSTANDING with shellfish.Comment -
This is a photo of a prawn dashi cooking down that I made when I worked at a seafood restaurant:
You will never want to use oyster sauce again, though fish sauce can be added to this in a small amount. You need two ingredients: kombu and katsuobushi. Both of which can be ordered easily, are shockingly cheap, and last for weeks if not months. Kombu is dried kelp, katsuobushi is flaked dried bonito. Take a pot, add a penetrate ton of katsuobushi, more than you think necessary, some kombu stalks, and simmer it for about 20 minutes, drain it and reduce. Season it with some good soy sauce and a bit of mirin. This is the "fish sauce" you wish you had. I serve it all the time, maybe an ounce or two poured into the bottom of a plate with some dumplings with something like a miso glazed piece of fish on it.
This is literally where "umami" comes from, once you learn how to make dashi, you will never use fish sauce again. One really good recommendation I picked up from the momofuku cookbook is also to take some bacon lardons, render out the fat, and then steep them in the dashi broth with the other two ingredients - the result is shocking and will give you a better base for a miso soup or stir fry sauce then you may have ever imagined possible.
To clarify the above photo: we served peeled prawns as an appetizer, and by simmering the shells in the strained broth it just added another dimension of flavor. When at a restaurant, this is simply making use of waste product, as a home cook, I kind of get a kick out of going to places and asking for things like prawn shells, lobster heads, or veal knuckles. In all honesty, you can find this stuff dirt cheap, and the flavor it contains is unreal.Last edited by Sacrelicious; 09-27-14, 12:09 AM.Comment -
Understood all measurements and ingredients. Got hungry while reading. Cheers Chef Sac.
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I'm going to guess Calgary? No good food in Edmonton, nobody lives in Banff. Lethbridge used to have a place that made donuts out of potatoes, but that place closed, so I'm not sure if the town exists anymore. Maybe Stephen Thompson trains there.Comment -
Why do I always gotta make a move mang... Home and chilling.. Baked and drunk.. I got no fight in me.. Coherent enough to talk about grub habits though me tinks..
Sac sounds like a good cook though.....
My philosophy is simple when it comes to food intake...
1) Eat to live and don't live to eat.. Abs are made in the kitchen and not in the gym... Get serious about exactly what you put in your body.. No shiiit in the shrine in other words..
2) Read what you are eating on the back of packages before purchasing at the grocery store.. Sugar and calories/carbs per serving daily % is big...
3) Get use to not eating sweet things by not eating sweet things. Don't drink red wine like me, too much sugar... Lost my six pack a few years ago with the red grape drink.. Gotta a 2 pack now..
4) Buy frozen vegetables and cook them into all meals, use olive oil and not butter to cook, eat white cheese and not yellow cheese if you must.. Eat grain breads and not white breads..
5) Pay FULL attention to the top 10 foods you can possibly eat on this planet for good health.. THINK to eat them as often as you can.. Can't find a link but these are them off drunken memory..
1) Blue Berries
2) Salmon fish
3) Mellon fruits (Cantaloupe)
4) Yogurt and mixed nuts
5) Broccoli and Spinach
6) Oatmeal and grain breads (not white breads)
7) Green Tea
8) Beans
9) Garlic
10) Red Wine and Coffee maybe.. Forgot number 10.. Google search.. THINK and DIGEST smartly anyways to live and feel healthy.....
That's all I got... Oh and stay away from those delish chicken wings with ranch and those happy hour beers when gambling in the sports bars if ya can.. LOL...Last edited by JIBBBY; 09-27-14, 12:36 AM.Comment -
Sorry, i'm getting drunk and missed part of this post. If you end up with an oil mess, it has to do with the amount of heat, or more specifically, the lack of, you've charged the pan or wok with. Traditional stir fries are meant to be cooked in woks over massive open flames, we do not have this luxury in most of our homes. Try using a very very heavy bottomed pan and charging it on the element until hot enough, and do not overcrowd the pan.
You will notice the oil start to shimmer in your pan when it is almost there, try it with a teaspoon of canola oil, you will know when you see it, that means it is about 10-15 seconds away from getting too hot and smoking and this is where you want to add your protein. Any further than this point and the oil will burn and turn your food bitter.
Also on the subject of an oily mess, aside from improperly heating pans, one of the biggest mistakes amateur home cooks make is overcrowding pans. Lets say I have a small pan and I throw a penetrate ton of room temperature chicken into it, especially on a home stove, well f-ck, that chicken is not only going to cool the pan but it is going to release moisture that keeps the pan from reaching an appropriate temperature to actually sear it properly.
Heat control is more important in cooking then the ingredients, and I'm not joking.
Do not use a wok at home, use a heavy bottomed pan - the reason? The heavy bottom will hold heat longer once your initial protien is added.
I can not reiterate enough either, USE AN OIL WITH A HIGH SMOKE POINT. Grapeseed is the best, canola is a very solid second choice, it allows you to reach the temperature you need to do without burning the oil.Comment -
Good stuff jibbeh.Comment
I guess my funny pics aren't so bad after all.. LOL...