Serves 6 with leftovers

This version follows my general attempt to add more vegetables to our diet and to use meat more as a bit player than as a main ingredient. To that end, I’ve added a variety of vegetables, as well as chicken thighs. We ate this with saffron rice and adored the whole meal.  The roasted eggplant adds a little extra time, but is well worth it.  It adds substance and a little extra body and texture. I’ve broken the recipe into three parts, but fear not, it’s still under an hour of prep. You can prepare the first part the night before.

Ingredients, part 1:
4 chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized chunks
2 tablespoons Tikka Masala
2 teaspoons salt
½ cup Greek yogurt

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1 lb chinese eggplant tossed with olive or avocado oil to coat
1 1/2 tablespoon ghee or oil
2 small or 1 large onion, diced
3 cracked black cardamom pods, cracked (optional)
1 small hot chile, minced, if fresh, or crumbled, if dried
3 green cardamom pods, cracked and seeds removed, or a generous 1/4 teaspoon decorticated cardamom
1 tablespoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

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Here's a recipe for a quick mole with Chipotle Chocolate Rub.  

1 medium onion, diced
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup almonds, ground (a food processor or blender will work) or a scant 1/3 cup almond meal
2 tablespoons orange juice concentrate and a scant 1/2 cup water or 1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons of Chipotle Chocolate Rub
14 ounces of tomatoes
1 3-4 pound roasting chicken, cut into pieces

In a large frying pan, cook the onion and garlic in the olive oil until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the Chipotle Chocolate Rub. Stir, cooking for two minutes.  Add the almonds and tomatoes, mix, and then turn off the heat. Puree the mixture in a blender, then pour back into the frying pan and cook until the mixture thickens and reduces by 1/4-1/3.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the dutch oven. Take the chicken pieces and place them skin side down in the pan, first brown the skin side (3-5 minutes) and then flip and brown the other side.  Pour the mixture from the frying pan over the chicken, put on the lid and cook.  I cook it until the internal temp of the thigh is 150-155 degrees.  Please keep in mind, however, that the USDA says 165 degrees.  So you should do that if you're litigious.  

I recommend serving this with green beans, cooked briefly and at high heat, so they just start to blister and are still crunchy.

Chicken Sofrito adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi

Just in time for Passover, or for spring, or for whatever suits your fancy, here’s a truly delicious, colorful, and easy chicken dish.  You can easily scale this for a larger group by doubling.

1 3-4 pound chicken, cut into quarters or pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon pepper
10 cloves of garlic, peeled and halved
the juice of one small or ½ a large lemon
3 cups diced white or yellow potatoes (not russets), cut into a 1” dice
Olive oil

Utensils needed: a shallow, heavy bottomed pan; a frying pan; a paring knife; a chef’s knife; a cutting board.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Heat the heavy pan.  Add 2 tablespoons of oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Mix the salt, pepper, paprika, turmeric, and sugar in a small bowl.  Pat the spice mixture onto the chicken and place the chicken, skin side down, in the pan.  When it is thoroughly browned, flip it and place in the oven.

Heat the frying pan to medium high and add 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil.  Add the potatoes and leave until they are browned on the first side.  Toss to turn and brown another side or two.  Take the chicken out of the oven, briefly put the pieces onto a plate, and put the potatoes and garlic into the pan. Place the chicken pieces atop the potato mixture and drizzle the lemon juice onto the chicken.  Put the whole shebang back into the oven until cooked to your desired temperature. 

 

 

Kale Salad with Avocado and Apple
1 bunch kale (I prefer Lacinato or Dino kale)
1 avocado
1 small apple (or ½ a large one), cut into matchsticks
juice of ½ lemon
1 tablespoons light vinegar (I like champagne vinegar)
salt and pepper to taste

Remove the center stems from the kale leaves (if the leaves are larger than 8”). Wash them and dry them in a salad spinner.  Slice the leaves crosswise into ¼ - ½ inch strips.  Put them into a large-ish salad bowl.  Here’s where you get to get messy.  Cut the avocado into 1” chunks and put them in the bowl with the kale.  Now make sure that when you washed your hands before you started this, you washed the backs of your hands and under your nails.  If you didn’t, go do it now. 

With your fingertips, mash the avocado into the leaves of kale.  You’re done when each leaf has been coated and there are few distinct bits of avocado left.  The rubbing of the leaves helps to tenderize them and makes them, to me at least, far more palatable.

Now add the apple, half of the lemon juice and a teaspoon of the vinegar.  Toss. Add ¼ teaspoon pepper and ½ teaspoon salt.  Toss & taste.  Add more pepper and acid (lemon juice and vinegar) as needed. 

1/2 teaspoon Ras el Hanout
1/2 teaspoon Moroccan seasoning (You can skip this and just use 1 teaspoon Ras el Hanout)
1 teaspoon Urfa Biber (or other mildly spicy dried pepper)
2 carrots, quartered and sliced
4 green onions, darkest green part removed and sliced thinly
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups of cooked chicken meat (I used the leftovers from 
8 leaves kale, main rib removed and cut across into 1" pieces
1/3 cup of pitted kalamata olives
1 large or two small garnet yams
2 medium yellow potatoes
1 tablespoon butter
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Oil a casserole dish with 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Put large saucepan of salted water onto the stove.  Bring the water to a boil and add the potatoes.  Boil until fork tender and mash with butter and 1/3 cup milk.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan.  Add the green onion and onion.  Cook on medium heat for ~5 minutes, until transluscent.  Add the garlic, ras el hanout, Moroccan seasoning, and urfa biber, along with 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Cook until the spices begin to stick to the pan and the garlic is aromatic.  Add the carrots and kale and cook until the kale becomes bright green.  Add the chicken and olives and cook until the mixture is warmed through.  Taste and correct salt and pepper as needed.  

Spoon the mixture into the casserole dish and smooth it with the back of a spoon.  Spoon the mashed potatoes over the chicken mixture in tablespoons and smooth with the back of that same spoon.  Cook for 35 minutes.  

Serve with a light green salad with a citrus vinagrette.