Slow-Cooked Spanish Chicken and Chorizo (Plus Mangria!)

Ever since I moved into my big girl apartment, it has been my dream...nay...my FANTASTY! to throw a fancy themed dinner party. And so a couple weeks ago I decided to host Spanish Supper and Sangria with Stacy, a feast of the senses complete with tapas, sangria, and even a flamenco Pandora station.

Yes, I am a huge dork. Need further evidence? Check out my table setting:

Since I am not a trained Spanish chef, most of the recipes from my party were found online, so I will just include the links to the recipes and final photos at the end of this post. I did, however, develop my own recipe for Slow-Cooked Spanish Chicken and Chorizo and Mangria (that's mango sangria!) so I will go into more detail on those. Ole!


Ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

• 1/2 lb. bulk chorizo. The ground kind, not the links.

• 1 can artichoke hearts. The kind that are quartered...make sure to drain out the liquid.

• 1 can white beans. Drain and rinse to get rid of the salty gloop.

• 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

• 2 large handfuls frozen diced onions. I suppose you could always just dice up a fresh onion, but who does that??

• 1 tbsp. red wine vinegar. Helps to balance out the sweetness of the tomato sauce and smokiness of the chorizo.

• 1 tsp. paprika. You can't make Spanish food without it!

• 1 tsp. dried thyme

Okay, okay, this isn't exactly Cooking for One. But sometimes when you live by yourself, it's fun to cook for others every once in a while! Plus, this makes for fantastic leftovers: smoky, sweet, tangy, and savory all in one hearty dish.

Directions:

Heat a pot to medium high heat and crumble up your chorizo. Cook the chorizo until brown, stirring and crumbling as needed. Add in your handfuls of frozen diced onion and cook until soft and translucent.

NOTE: For some reason I can't get these pics to upload correctly even though they are not upside down on my computer. Rotate them in your imagination cause I can't figure this out...kthanx!

Add all the remaining ingredients to the pot and stir to combine. Lower the heat to medium low and let simmer until it begins to bubble.

Add your chicken breasts to a slow cooker and pour the sauce over the top, lifting up the chicken so some sauce gets underneath, too. Cook on low for 4-6 hours until the chicken is practically falling-apart-tender and your house smells like a tapas bar.

Spoon the chicken and sauce onto a plate and enjoy your Spanish feast!

Now, you can't have a Spanish dinner party without sangria. I am pretty sure there are laws against it. So, lucky you, here is a bonus recipe for Mangria!

Ingredients:

• Half pitcher of red wine. I filled up half a pitcher with some classy boxed red wine, so I am not sure what the actual amount was.

• Half cup of mango vodka. More if it has been a rough day.

• Ginger ale. However much is needed to fill up the rest of the pitcher. It's not an exact science, folks.

• 1 orange

• 1 apple

• Half bag of frozen mixed tropical fruit. Should include mango...duh! No need to thaw.

This is called Mangria because it is mango sangria, but I also highly encourage you to say "What up mang!" when you serve it.

Directions:

Gather together your five star classy alcoholic ingredients.

Fill your pitcher halfway up with the red wine and then add your half cup of mango vodka. Slice your orange in half and add the juice from one half.

Slice up the other orange half, dice up your apple, and add them to the pitcher with the frozen mixed fruit. Fill up the remainder of the pitcher with ginger ale.

Chill in the fridge until nice and cold...at least an hour so the fruit soaks up all the alcohol and becomes nice and boozy. Serve and enjoy!

And FINALLY, here are images and recipe links for the other menu items I served:

Roasted Seasoned Chickpeas

 Pan Con Tomate

Marinated Mushrooms

Gambas al Ajillo

Patatas Bravas with Spicy Aioli

Maple-Orange Pecan Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

When you are a mostly broke twenty-something who came of age during the Great Recession, you learn to become a hoarder. When you work for a food marketing and innovation company, however, this can become a problem. My pantry is jam packed with a random array of sauces, spice packets, meal helpers, etc. that only made it home by merit of that fact that they were free for the taking.

I think I hit a new low when I actually brought back one of those little maple syrup jars from room service on a business trip. Yes, that's right--I took a teeny jar of maple syrup home ON THE PLANE because it was free, and hey, I figured I would use it at some point!

Well, my friends, that time has finally come.

I found this little gem in my cabinet and was immediately inspired. Dickinson's maple syrup, since 1897! The crisp autumn leaves on the label! The fancy script writing! This tiny bottle took me away from my broke-ass lifestyle and made me think I could whip up a meal worthy of supper at a manor in the English countryside, eaten with pinkies in the air. I wish.

My Maple-Orange Pecan Chicken with Sweet Potatoes was actually quite delicious, made all the better by the fact that the star ingredient was free. It is the perfect warm, comforting autumn dish. Enjoy!


Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast

• 1/4 cup of orange marmalade. Packed with orangey goodness and it helps thicken the sauce.

• 3 tbsp. orange juice

• 3 tbsp. maple syrup. I prefer the free room service variety.

• Handful of chopped pecans. These add a lovely crunch to the chicken.

• Big handful of frozen diced sweet potatoes. No need to thaw. Sweet potatoes are a pain to peel and cut up, so I love to buy the frozen kind instead.

• Salt 'n Pepa to taste

Of course this recipe can be modified to accommodate more people, but as is, it is the perfect simple and easy Cooking for One sort of dinner.


Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together your sauce ingredients: the marmalade, orange juice, and maple syrup.

Lay your chicken breast and frozen sweet potatoes down in a glass baking dish.

Sprinkle your chicken with Salt 'n Pepa to taste.

Drizzle your sauce over the chicken and potatoes, and then sprinkle on your handful of pecans. 

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until your chicken breast is cooked all the way through. Plate the chicken and potatoes and pour any remaining sauce over the top. That's all...pretty easy, eh? Dig in!

Do YOU have any tales of blatant food or free stuff hoarding? Share with the rest of us!

Roasted Balsamic Portobellos with Tomato and Feta

I am going to start off by admitting that mushrooms are a little weird. It's like...what the heck are they, really? A fungus?! A fungus that reproduces with spores, like some alien invader? They have a thick, meaty texture, but they aren't animals? They have gills, but they aren't sea creatures? They are high in vitamins and grow out of the ground, but they aren't vegetables?

Over all, mushrooms just have sort of a weird reputation compared to other foods.

You hungry yet? :)

Hey, I think mushrooms are delicious. Think about it this way: you get the satisfying, savory texture of meat, with the low-calorie vitamins of a vegetable. Jazzed up with a tangy balsamic marinade, sweet tomatoes, and salty feta, you have yourself a delicious and healthy meal!

And so, with the hope of standing up for mushrooms everywhere (hey, I do live in Boulder now...), I give you my Roasted Balsamic Portobellos with Tomato and Feta. 

Ingredients:

• 2 large portobello mushroom caps. Deliciously meaty, portobellos make for a great main dish. They tend to shrink down quite a bit as they cook, so two caps a meal do make.

• Handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half. Kinda depends on how big the mushrooms are...you just want enough that when sliced in half, they will cover the mushrooms.

• Handful of crumbled feta cheese. Don't use the reduced fat kind. For some reason, it has the same amount of calories as the full-fat feta, and it tastes like crap and doesn't melt.

• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

• 1 tbsp. honey. The sweetness helps balance the acidity of the balsamic.

• 1 tbsp. olive oil

• 1 tsp. minced garlic

• 1 tsp. dried thyme. When in doubt, always add thyme to mushrooms. It is like the peanut butter to mushroom's jelly. That sounds weird, but you know what I mean.

• 1 tsp. dried rosemary

• 1/2 tsp. salt

I prepare this in the oven, but it would be great on the grill as well. If you want, you could even make yummy portobello burgers with these by just throwing them on a bun. It is such a low-calorie dish that you are entitled to some carbs if you want to, dammit!

Directions:

Prepare your marinade in a small bowl by whisking together the balsamic vinegar, honey, olive oil, garlic, rosemary, thyme, and salt.

Cooking for One TIP: Pour out your tablespoon of olive oil BEFORE you pour out the tablespoon of honey...the residual oil on the spoon will help the honey slide right off. Neat, huh?

Wipe any visible dirt off the mushroom caps (don't wash them, since they will absorb all the water and become tough). Yank out the stems, which I promise you will find oddly satisfying.

Put the mushroom caps and your sliced cherry tomatoes into a large Ziploc bag (this blog post brought to you by the fine folks at Ziploc!**) and pour in your marinade. Slosh the bag around to make sure everything gets evenly coated, and store in the fridge for at least fifteen minutes, and up to a few hours. Mushrooms are like sponges and will soak up all the delicious flavors even faster than meat does.

**False.

Heat your oven (or toaster oven) to 450 degrees. Put your mushrooms cap side up on a foil lined baking sheet, leaving the tomatoes in the bag with the marinade. Roast for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, remove the mushrooms from the oven, flip them over so they are cap side down, and top evenly with the sliced tomatoes. Drizzle any remaining marinade over the mushrooms and tomatoes, and return to the oven for another 15 minutes.

Remove the mushrooms from the oven, sprinkle with the crumbled feta cheese, and enjoy your healthy, flavorful meal! You still may not understand what the heck a mushroom is, but I promise you will love this dish.

Chicken and Pumpkin Curry Soup

Well, now that it has been about a year and a half since my last post, and it is autumn and all, I decided it was time to turn over a new leaf (har har!) and pick this blog back up again. I apologize for the mass starvation of single twenty-somethings I most likely caused in my absence.

There is something special and unique about the fall season...days when it is 25 F in the morning and 65 F in the afternoon that leave you utterly perplexed as to what to wear to work...irritation at all the evergreen trees in your neighborhood and their uninspiring lack of festivity...and the sudden explosion of pumpkin flavored EVERYTHING!!

Between September and November, the sight of pumpkin flavored anything on a menu makes us squeal with delight and take out our wallets. Starbucks in particular capitalizes on this...check out some gag-inducing copy from their website on their famous Pumpkin Spice Latte:

"The ideal vision of fall: bright days that grow cool and call for warm knits as we walk under leaves that curl red and gold in a soft wind."



Sweet Jesus. I don't even know where to begin with that.

Anyways, in keeping with this festive time of year, I bring you my Chicken and Pumpkin Curry Soup. I can assure you the chicken is as tender as a warm autumn fire with your loved ones, the cauliflower as crisp and crunchy as fallen leaves under foot, and the thick creamy soup spiced as warmly as flannel pajamas on a chilly October night.

(See Starbucks? I can do it too!)


Ingredients:

• 2 large handfuls of diced frozen chicken. Huge time saver to buy a big bag of this stuff! Pre-cooked so you don't have to worry about salmonella, pre-cut so you don't have to worry about slicing off your finger...hell, it's practically pre-eaten for you!

• 1 bag of frozen cauliflower florets. Adds nice texture to the soup.

• 1 cup of frozen diced onion. Can you tell I rely on my freezer a lot?

• 1 can of chicken broth

• 1 can of lite coconut milk. The regular kind has a STAGGERING amount of fat in it--you have been warned.

• 1 can of pumpkin. It's like autumn in a can! Make sure the only ingredient on the can is pumpkin puree...don't buy the pumpkin pie filling stuff.

• 2 tbsp. of curry powder. More if ya like it hot!

• 1.5 tbsp. of cumin. Adds a smoky depth of flavor.

• 1.5 tbsp. of minced garlic. I use the bottled kind that lasts for eons in the fridge.

• 1 tbsp. of ginger. I used ground ginger powder, but you could use fresh as well.

• 1 tbsp. of cinnamon. Smell that folks? That's fall.

• 1 tbsp. of nutmeg. See above.

• A drizzle of olive oil

• Green onion to garnish. Optional.

This recipe makes about 3-4 servings, so you can enjoy it all week, torturing your coworkers or roommates with the tantalizing aromas of autumn.

Directions:

Heat a pot to medium high and add a drizzle of olive oil. Add in your frozen onions and minced garlic and saute until the onions are soft and translucent.

Add in all your spices (the curry powder, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg) and stir to combine with the onions and garlic for a couple minutes. Cooking the spices first before making the broth helps release their flavor and aroma.

DISCLAIMER: Stacy Chudwin assumes no liability for the lingering reek of curry in your household.

Add in your frozen diced chicken and frozen cauliflower, stirring to coat with the onion and spice mixture.

Let the frozen chicken and cauliflower saute in the onion and spice mixture for a few minutes. Then add your liquids (chicken broth, coconut milk, and pumpkin). Stir to combine everything, breaking up the thick pumpkin puree.

Turn down the heat to medium low and let the soup simmer until everything is heated through and the broth is thick and creamy. The longer it simmers the better!

Ladle into a bowl, garnish with green onion if so desired, and enjoy your sweet, savory, and lightly spicy autumn meal.

What's YOUR favorite pumpkin-flavored something this fall? Drop me a line in the comments section!

Red Bean Gumbolaya

As I mentioned in a previous post, I enjoyed a fantastic trip to New Orleans a few months ago. The city was beautiful, the people were full of life, and the food was outrageously good. The spirit of the city was so infectious and my memories so fond that I thought it was high time I try to recreate my New Orleans experience at home.

I meant with FOOD of course!!

While in New Orleans, I enjoyed (among other things) red beans and rice, gumbo, and jambalaya. To this day, I don't fully understand what the hell the difference is between the three. They all tend to involve a reddish stew mixture with pork and Cajun seasoning served with rice.

So, in typical Cooking for One fashion, I picked bits from recipes of all three traditional dishes, threw it in a crock pot, and called it a day. Thus was born my Red Bean Gumbolaya, and it is quite possibly one of the most delicious things I have ever made (if I do say so myself).

Laissez les bons temps rouler!


Ingredients:

• 4 Andouille sausages. These are delicious smoked pork sausages you can find in your grocery store. They add that authentic New Orleans heat without being too spicy (cause I am a wimp, after all)

• 2 large handfuls of diced frozen chicken. No need to thaw. This makes it super easy, but you could also just dice up a couple of raw chicken breasts as well.

• 2 large handfuls of frozen shrimp. See above.

• 1 large onion

• 1 small bag frozen cut okra. Very traditional southern veggie!

• 1 quart chicken broth. This means four cups.
  

• 2 cans diced tomatoes in juice. Do not drain.

• 1 can red kidney beans. Drain.
  

• 2 tbsp. garlic

• 1 tbsp. Cajun seasoning. Or more if you like it hot!

• 1 tbsp. dried oregano

• 1 tbsp. dried thyme

• 2 dried bay leaves
  

• Hot cooked rice. Optional. You can either stir it into the mixture for a more jambalaya-like dish, or lay a bed of it underneath.

Yeah, I know this seems like a ton of ingredients and a ton of Red Bean Gumbolaya. But these are all easy pantry and freezer staples, and it is so yummy you will for sure want leftovers!

Of course, if you have a smaller slow cooker or just don't want to make so much, feel free to adjust quantities accordingly.

Directions:

Get your Lorena Bobbit on and slice up your sausage. The easiest way is to slice them in half lengthwise and then cut them into half moon shapes. Peel and dice up your onion as well.

Now, dump all your remaining ingredients (EXCEPT FOR THE RICE AND THE SHRIMP) into a large slow cooker. Stir to combine everything.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. During the last half hour, stir in your frozen shrimp and close the lid again.

Once the shrimp are heated through, spoon your Red Bean Gumbolaya over hot cooked rice and enjoy! See, only three steps! They don't call New Orleans the Big Easy for nothing ;)

Key Lime Pie

Summer has arrived! Yeah, I know, it's not June 21 yet. But I think summer begins the first time you go out to the bars at night without a jacket, the first time you burn your ass on a hot car seat, and the first time you take a bite of key lime pie.

For me, lime in general signifies summer, whether it's sipping a Bud Lite Lime by the pool or digging into some guacamole at a BBQ. Everyone loves lime! Well, almost everyone....

Key lime pie is an unbelievably easy dessert to make and. It only has five ingredients!! So go ahead and dig into that first bite of summer :)

Ingredients:

• 9 inch graham cracker pie crust. I get the reduced fat kind at the grocery store...way easier and less messy than making your own!

• 4 egg yolks. Save the whites for a yummy omelette the next day.

• 2 14 oz. cans of sweetened condensed milk. Find these in the baking aisle, and feel free to use the low fat kind if you are gearing up for bikini season.

• 1 cup bottled key lime juice. At first I wanted to buy fresh key limes, but they are small and you would need to cut and squeeze about twenty of them to get the juice you need (aw hell, no!) The bottled kind is so much easier, cheaper, and still delicious!

• Whipped cream for topping (optional). But not really optional.

That's it! You can play with the amounts a little depending on how sweet/tart you like your pie, but this turned out great. Feel free to garnish with fresh lime slices or add a drop or two of green food coloring to the mix (oh you fancy, huh?)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Separate your eggs and put the yolks in a mixing bowl.

Whisk in your sweetened condensed milk and key lime juice (and food coloring if you are using it).

Pour the mixture into the pie crust and smooth it out.

Put the pie into the oven, making sure not to burn the $#% out of your arm like I did! Let it bake for about 15 minutes or until the pie is set and only jiggles slightly in the middle when you shake it, kind of like me.

Let the pie cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for at least a couple hours. Slice it up and top with whipped cream!

What are YOUR favorite summer foods?