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Million Dollar Chicken

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I roast a lot of chicken. It’s my favorite way to eat a chicken. But this million dollar chicken? Oh my GAWD! It’s glorious. Succulent, juicy, insanely flavorful, I could go on, and I will. If you make this, you will subject yourself to an extremely couthless eating experience. Finger sucking, moaning, probably cussing and shaking your knees in anticipation for the next bite. This is by far my favorite way to roast a super sexy chicken. The creme fraiche sauce is killer, and as the hens cook and release their flavorful juices, that crusty bread on the bottom soaks it all up. Whew, Jesus are you there? It’s me, Resha.

A Million Dollars? Really?

No, not really. The guy who invented this recipe calls it “million dollar chicken” because it tastes like a million dollars. I’m pretty sure anything you slather with luxurious creme fraiche is going to taste like a million dollars. I remember last Thanksgiving when I chucked a whole 8-ounce container of it into some silky mashed potatoes and nearly cried.

Million Dollar Chicken

There’s a harmonious melody of flavor going on here that will make you prepare this meal at least twice in one week. It’s addicting. To the point where I’m ready to pour this creme fraiche sauce all over my favorite part of the bird — the thighs. Oh, I’ve got plans!

I used cornish hens for this recipe, but of course you can use any part of the bird, or a whole chicken if you prefer. Just know that cooking times will vary. Rule of thumb, always keep an instant-read thermometer on hand so you never have to over/undercook a chicken ever again.

How to Make Million Dollar Chicken

Million Dollar Chicken

This is what you’ll stuff and season each hen with.

Million Dollar Chicken

Sprinkle a generous amount of the seasoning blend into the cavity of each hen.

Million Dollar Chicken

Then stuff each hen with a bundle of rosemary, thyme, bay leaf, garlic and lemon.

Million Dollar Chicken

Perfect!

Million Dollar Chicken

Drizzle some olive oil all over the bird, about a tablespoon or so.

Million Dollar Chicken

Rub the oil all over the surface, don’t forge the bottom!

Million Dollar Chicken

Be generous with the seasoning, it’s your friend, not your enemy. Make it look exactly like this, trust me. No more, no less.

Million Dollar Chicken

Same with the other side.

Million Dollar Chicken

Drizzle olive oil on the bottom of the baking vessel you’re using, and layer the bread like this.

Million Dollar Chicken

Plop the chickens on top. Nestle them so they’re evenly tuckered. Place them in your super hot oven on the middle-rack for 50 minutes.

Million Dollar Chicken

Meanwhile, mix up the sauce that literally sends this chicken over the edge in a very delicious way. My god!

Million Dollar Chicken

Ohhh boy, this stuff is magical.

Million Dollar Chicken

50 minutes later…

Million Dollar Chicken

Slather that sauce all over.

Million Dollar Chicken

Just like this. Pop it back in the oven for 10 minutes.

Million Dollar Chicken

10 minutes later…

Million Dollar Chicken

Slather it again. Turn the oven off, and put the chicken back in for 5 to 10 minutes.

Million Dollar Chicken

Meanwhile, simmer the super sexy sauce for about 2 minutes over medium heat.

Million Dollar Chicken

You guys…you guys…my god. My god in heaven!

Million Dollar Chicken Million Dollar Chicken Million Dollar Chicken Million Dollar Chicken

I cannot stress how amazing this recipe is. Make this NOW!

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Million Dollar Chicken

Million Dollar Chicken

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews
  • Author: Chef Resha
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 1 hour
  • Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
  • Yield: 3 to 6 servings
  • Category: Poultry
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Description

By far the best roast chicken recipe I’ve ever done. Luxurious, silky creme fraiche slathered all over a perfectly roasted, super juicy bird. Slightly adapted from The Standard Grill.

Ingredients

  • 3 cornish hens, about 2 to 2.5 lbs. each (SEE NOTE)
  • 9 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 3 slices of lemon
  • 1 tablespoon herbs de provence
  • 3 tablespoons flaky kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • Olive oil
  • 1-inch slices of artisan sourdough bread (SEE NOTE)

Million Dollar Sauce

  • 8 ounces (1 cup) plain creme fraiche
  • 1 lemon, zested and juiced
  • 2 teaspoons aleppo pepper
  • 1 shallot, finely minced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
  • Pinch of kosher salt and black pepper
  • Garnish: 1 tablespoon flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Use a baking vessel that’s big enough to contain all of your chicken(s). In a small bowl or container, mix three tablespoons of kosher salt, one tablespoon of herbs de provence, and 1 teaspoon of black pepper together. This will be your seasoning blend.
  2. Drizzle about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large baking dish, stainless steel, or cast iron skillet. Layer the sour dough bread on the bottom.
  3. Pat the skin of the hens dry with paper towels. Sprinkle a generous amount of the seasoning blend into the cavity of each hen. Stuff 3 sprigs of thyme, 1 sprig of rosemary, 1 smashed garlic clove, 1 bay leaf, and one slice of lemon into each hen. Drizzle about a tablespoon or two of olive oil all over the skin of each hen, then sprinkle more of the seasoning blend all over the surface of the bird. Truss the legs together with kitchen twine, and place each hen on top of the sourdough bread slices. Place the hens and bread into your preheated oven on the middle rack, and roast uncovered for 50 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, mix all of the Million Dollar Sauce ingredients together in a medium bowl until well combined. Set aside in the fridge to chill.
  5. After 50 minutes, remove the hens from the oven. Slather each hen with the Million Dollar Sauce very liberally. It will melt like butter almost instantly. Pop the hens back into the oven for just 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove from oven, turn off the heat. Slather them again and put them back into the hot but turned off oven for about 5 to 10 more minutes. Remove from oven and allow them to rest for at least 10 minutes.
  6. Meanwhile, pour the remaining Million Dollar Sauce into a small saucepan or skillet and simmer over medium heat for about 2 to 3 minutes. Pour into a small serving dish, and serve alongside the hens.
  7. Serve the hens with a slice of the caramelized bread (if you want), and more Million Dollar Sauce for drizzling. Enjoy!

Notes

You can make this recipe with one or 5 cornish hens – quantity doesn’t matter here. You could also use a larger whole chicken instead. I’m giving you measurements based on what I used exactly, but as always, adjust the ingredient amounts according to however many or types of chicken you choose.

If using cornish hens, make sure you use enough bread on the bottom to cradle each one. If using a whole chicken, two to three large slices should suffice. Of course, you can totally skip the bread altogether. I swear, this chicken is so good on it’s own it really doesn’t matter.

Keywords: cornish hens, million dollar chicken, roasted chicken

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Chef Resha

Chef Resha is an accomplished self-taught private chef, home cook, public figure, and recipe developer based in the DC Metro area. Creator and owner of CarnalDish — an incredibly delicious and renowned website full of sinful comfort food recipes made with love. CarnalDish has been featured on Good Morning Washington, Ebony magazine, Essence, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Newport, The Dr. Oz Show, and many more notable publications.

https://carnaldish.com

Garlic Tuscan Chicken Pasta

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Fall is my favorite food season, hands down. It’s the one time of year you get to splurge on creamy, braised, roasted, baked, and slow-cooked things. Let’s celebrate Fall with this delicious creamy Tuscan Chicken Pasta. This dish is sexy as hell, and that’s that on that! There’s much room for customization, too. I used skin-on boneless chicken thighs, because you already know we’re thigh people around here. But if you’d like to use boneless/skinless chicken breasts or tenderloins, or leg quarters, you are more than welcome. This is technically a one-pot meal, and it comes together in under an hour.

Why did I use chicken thighs? Because they offer more room for over-cooking. You would be hard-pressed to overcook these babies. They stay so succulent and juicy, whereas white meat (while tasty) dries out like a raisin in the sun. You are free to use whatever you want or have on hand. You can even use boneless AND skinless thighs, but hell…you’re already making this decadent dish, why skimp? The texture of that crispy skin against all this rich creaminess is otherworldly.

tuscan chicken pasta

Tuscan Chicken Pasta Tips

There are lots of variations of this recipe online, and I’m sure almost all of them (mine included) have similar ingredients. It’s no coincidence, either. For the sauce alone, you kinda have to have sun-dried tomatoes (jarred, packed in oil) or red bell peppers, leafy green spinach, cream, and lots of fresh garlic. Many people add chicken, but you can also use seafood or another protein instead. You could also use mushrooms as the main ingredient to keep it somewhat vegetarian.

Save yourself some kitchen-stress, and prep as many things as you can. Measure everything out, chop and mince everything you need, and shred/grate every cheese. You’ll find this dish to be very rustic, and fixing errors will be easy. If you realize your liquid is evaporating faster than the pasta is cooking, just add more liquid! It’s easy. I didn’t use a full pound of pasta, just 10-ounces (yes, I weighed it). But if you don’t have a kitchen scale, here’s a visual I can give you. You know those 16- fluid ounce plastic food containers? I filled two of those with cavatappi right to the top, completely leveled.

While the ingredient list is long, don’t be intimidated. There are some things you could easily leave out, or swap in case you don’t have it. You just need the basics. You can even leave out the mozzarella, and you don’t need both pecorino and parmigiano, but definitely have at least one of those. Here’s a tip: Always keep your freezer stocked with chicken, your fridge stocked with dairy and fresh cheeses (if you eat them often), and your pantry stocked with various pasta shapes and jarred fruits and veggies, like sun-dried and canned tomatoes. Make sure you keep aromatics on hand as well, such as garlic, onions, and shallots. If you have a warehouse membership, buy your wines for cooking there. They’re far more inexpensive, and you get double the amount.

seasoned chicken thighs

First, you’re gonna season your chicken. We don’t do bland around these parts.

seasoned chicken

Drizzle a little oil on each piece to help better distribute the seasonings into the meat. Rub it in goooood.

seasoned chicken thighs

The yard bird is all seasoned and lightly oiled.

adding chicken thighs to dry pan

Place your chicken skin-side down in a dry, hot pan. If using skinless chicken, add a little oil to keep it from sticking too terribly.

crisped chicken skin

Flip chicken over when the skin releases without a fight, this takes about 8 minutes or less.

melting butter over heat with crushed red pepper flakes

Drain off all but one tablespoon of chicken fat, and throw in the butter and just one tablespoon of olive oil. Add the crushed red pepper flakes to infuse the butter and oil.

adding onions to hot butter

Let’s sweat those onions. Make sure they’re well coated in the butter.

kosher salt and pepper added to onions

These onions will have plenty of time to cook down, but for now let’s add some salt and pepper to them.

dried thyme and oregano added to onions

After about 2 minutes, add the dried herbs.

sun-dried tomatoes added to onions

Next up, the sun-dried tomatoes.

fresh garlic added to sun-dried tomatoes

Two minutes later, throw in all that yummy fresh garlic. Don’t use that jarred mess. Yuck.

fresh rosemary and thyme

After the garlic cooks and infuses for about 30 seconds, toss in the fresh herbs and stir those around for about 10 seconds.

pouring in white wine

Pour in the white wine, and scrape scrape scrape!

white wine reducing

Give the white wine time to reduce, about 3 minutes.

white wine sauce reducing

You should smell this *drool*

reduced white wine

When you can leave a quick trail like this, you can move on to the next step.

pouring chicken stock and half & half

I combined my stock and half & half in the same cup, so pour both in.

cavatappi pasta added to sauce

Pour in the pasta!

bringing pasta to boil

Your pasta should be fully submerged with just tiny peaks surfacing at the most, like pictured. Add the granulated garlic and onion.

bring to boil

Bring it to a boil, then reduce to medium-low, closer to low.

reducing pasta

Sauce will reduce and thicken as the pasta cooks. Keep checking the pasta for doneness. It should be al-dente, not mushy.

closeup of pasta cooking

so yummy

adding cheese to pasta

When pasta is tender, turn off heat and add the parm and pecorino.

folding in spinach

Fold in the spinach.

fresh basil and parsley added to pasta

Fold in the fresh basil and parsley

Garlic Tuscan Chicken Pasta

Add the mozzarella cheese (I forgot to take a pic of this step).

Garlic Tuscan Chicken Pasta

All done

Garlic Tuscan Chicken Pasta

Add the chicken to the top and enjoy!

Garlic Tuscan Chicken Pasta Garlic Tuscan Chicken Pasta Garlic Tuscan Chicken Pasta Garlic Tuscan Chicken Pasta

Also, make sure you check out some other yummy recipes:

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Tuscan Chicken Pasta

★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews
  • Author: Chef Resha
  • Prep Time: 20
  • Cook Time: 45
  • Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
  • Yield: 8 servings
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Description

Creamy, garlicky pasta with sun-dried tomatoes, lots of fresh garlic, fresh spinach and topped with crispy-skinned chicken thighs. You’re not ready.

Ingredients

For the chicken

For the pasta

  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 2 cups yellow onion, diced
  • Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 2 tablespoons dried thyme
  • 1/2 cup julienned sun-dried tomatoes (packed in oil)
  • 8 cloves garlic, minced (or 1/4 cup)
  • 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
  • 1/2 cup white wine (I used chardonnay)
  • 2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
  • 3 cups half-and-half, plus more if needed
  • 10 ounces cavatappi pasta (see note below)
  • 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon granulated onion
  • 1/2 cup parmigiano-reggiano, grated
  • 1/2 cup pecorino-romano, grated
  • 3/4 cup part-skim mozzarella, shredded
  • 1 small bag fresh baby spinach (about 4 loose cups)
  • 1/4 cup torn basil leaves
  • 1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped

Instructions

For the chicken

Season the flesh side of the chicken with kosher salt, black pepper, smoked paprika, granulated garlic and onion, dried thyme and oregano. If you need more spices, please add it. You wan’t good coverage. Drizzle a little oil on top of the herbs and spices, and massage it into the chicken. Make sure you get in all the nooks and crannies. Flip the chicken over, and sprinkle kosher salt all over the skin of the chicken. We don’t want to add any other seasonings to the skin side, because we don’t want them to burn.

Place a large deep-sided skillet or braising dish (at least 4 quarts) over medium-high heat. When it’s nice and hot, add the chicken to the dry skillet skin-side down. Thighs have enough fat on their own, you won’t need to add any additional at this point. If using a leaner protein, like white meat, please drizzle with oil first so the meat doesn’t stick. Let the skin sear and get crisp, this will take about 7 to 8 minutes. You’ll know it’s ready to flip when it’s easy to flip the chicken over. There will be a SLIGHT resistance, but if it’s resisting too much, it’s not ready. Cook chicken flesh-side down until cooked through, about 5 to 8 more minutes. Use an instant-read thermometer if you’re unsure. When chicken is done cooking, place it on a large plate and cover with foil to keep warm.

For the pasta

In that same pan, reduce the heat to medium. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of residual chicken fat. Add the butter, and one tablespoon of olive oil. When the butter starts to sizzle, start scraping up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan leftover from the chicken. Add the crushed red pepper flakes and cook for 20 seconds to infuse the fat. Add the onions to the pan, and cook until slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Sprinkle the onions with a generous pinch of kosher salt and black pepper, then the dried thyme and oregano. Allow the dried herbs to bloom, about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and saute for about 2 to 3 minutes. Next, toss in the garlic and cook for just about 30 seconds. When the garlic is fragrant, add the fresh thyme and fresh rosemary. Stir it in and cook for just 10 seconds.

Pour in the white wine while scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any bits. Allow the wine to reduce for about 3 minutes, or until you can leave a quick dry trail with the edge of your spatula/wooden spoon. Pour in the chicken stock and half-and-half (I had both in a large measuring cup to make it easier), stirring to combine all ingredients.

Next, add the cavatappi pasta, making sure it’s submerged. Add in the granulated garlic and onion, stir it in and bring the pasta up to a boil. As soon as it starts boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low (closer to low). The pasta will cook gently in the liquid, while simultaneously thickening it. This will take about 10 minutes or so, but be sure to test the doneness of your pasta often to see where it stands. If your liquid is evaporating faster than the pasta is cooking, simply add a little more half-and-half in stages. Make sure you stir this mixture often, to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan. You may need to adjust the heat during this step, so please do so.

When the pasta is tender and toothsome, but not mushy (al-dente), turn the heat off. The sauce will continue to thicken as it stands. Stir in the parmigiano-reggiano and pecorino-romano cheeses until well combined. Now’s the time to taste it. If you need to add salt and/or pepper, do it. Fold in the spinach until it’s wilted from the residual heat. Next, add the fresh basil and parsley and gently stir to combine. Stir in the mozzarella cheese (I forgot to take a picture of this step). Taste it again to make sure it’s seasoned right. Your finished pasta should be creamy, smooth, and cheesy. It shouldn’t be dry. If it’s not smooth or creamy, add a touch more half&half or chicken stock to loosen it a bit.

Chop your chicken into desired pieces or strips, and place on top of the finished pasta.

Serve immediately with your favorite side salad, or crusty garlic bread.

Notes

We’re not using a full box, so please weigh your pasta if you can. I like cavatappi because it expands nicely, has lots of grooves for sauce-cling’age, etc. If you are unable to weigh your pasta, you could use the whole box of cavatappi. Just add more liquid (stock and/or half&half) as it cooks.

Always grate and/or shred your cheese fresh. Don’t use pre-packaged shredded cheese, because it doesn’t melt well and isn’t nearly as delicious. For the love of God, please don’t use that “1,000 year shelf-life woodchipper parmesan cheese” in the green canister. That would be disrespectful AF!

Keywords: garlic tuscan pasta, tuscan chicken pasta, creamy tuscan chicken pasta

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Chef Resha

Chef Resha is an accomplished self-taught private chef, home cook, public figure, and recipe developer based in the DC Metro area. Creator and owner of CarnalDish — an incredibly delicious and renowned website full of sinful comfort food recipes made with love. CarnalDish has been featured on Good Morning Washington, Ebony magazine, Essence, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Newport, The Dr. Oz Show, and many more notable publications.

https://carnaldish.com

Herbs de Provence Roasted Chicken

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To know me is to know my love for herbs de provence. I adore this incredibly flavorful and richly fragrant herb blend so much, I put it on almost everything. Nothing sings to me louder than herbs de provence roasted chicken. It’s a song in the key of life. Now, I’ve roasted a lot of chicken in my life, many ways, many flavor combinations. But nothing comforts me more than biting into a juicy piece of crispy-skinned roasted chicken flavored with flaky kosher salt and heavenly herbs studded with lavender. My gawd! It’s so simple, and so good. I’m getting emotional, not even joking. This stuff tastes like a hug to your soul with a pinky in the air.

Apparently, I’ve put a lot of people on to herbs de provence via social media. Wonderful people from all over tag me in their photos and IG stories with their HDP purchases, telling me how wonderful it has elevated their food. That honestly warms my heart. I love being able to spread my love of food with people who are either novice or seasoned cooks. Food is the one thing that brings everyone together aside from music.

So let’s talk about this chicken. If you’re curious about trying this with a whole bird, thighs, breasts, or even wings — you can make this recipe. Of course, cooking times will have to be adjusted. Always make sure the skin of your chicken is as dry as possible when high-roasting. We don’t want the surface moisture to steam and give us flabby, dull skin. My fiancé always jokes that he wishes I could just make him a bowl of crispy chicken skin to snack on. To me, there’s nothing more delicious than biting into juicy meat with a crisp, crackling salty piece of chicken skin. Whewwwww!!!

Warning

Some of the following photos are admittedly gross, but hey — I’m not gonna sugar-coat the raw meat process. Sometimes it gets gross, and you gotta have a backbone to deal with it. I’m used to it, but a novice cook or vegan/vegetarian may want to cry looking at this. So, here’s your warning now…do not proceed (or just scroll really fast) if you’re squeamish.

patting chicken skin dry

Pat the skin of your chicken dry with paper towels. Taking away surface moisture allows the skin to crisp up perfectly!

taking fat off chicken leg quarters

Ok, now we have to do a few things to this chicken before we cook it. Flip it over, and look for any obvious pieces of fat. Take them off, we don’t need it.

fat pulled from chicken

Here’s what the fat looks like. Looks a lot like human fat, tbh.

chicken guts

This is where it gets gross. Scrape off any extra bone guts, if you feel like it. You could leave it on there, it won’t hurt you. It cooks away into tiny little brown chunks.

Also yank off any residual kidney’s if you see them. Again, they’re harmless if you wanna leave them on.

kosher salt on chicken leg quarters

We’re going to really season the meat side of this chicken, so sprinkle some flaky kosher salt all over the flesh side. If you’re using a finer salt, use discretion.

black pepper on chicken leg quarters

Next, layer these bad boys with some freshly ground black pepper.

granulated garlic on chicken leg quarters

Grab some granulated garlic, and generously layer that on.

herbs de provence on chicken leg quarters

Finally, give them a good sprinkle of that super fragrant herbs de provence. Ah! This stuff is heavenly AF!

olive oil drizzled over raw seasoned chicken leg quarters

Drizzle just a little olive oil over the seasonings.

seasoned raw chicken

The oil helps the seasonings penetrate the meat easily, so rub it in good. All in the nooks and crannies.

It should look like this. The reason we’re seasoning the flesh side is because if we put this on the outside of the bird, it’ll burn. The only thing that can withstand a high roast without totally burning is salt. Black pepper can burn, but we’re gonna add that later anyway.

olive oil drizzled on raw chicken

Flip the chicken back over, and drizzle just a little olive oil on the surface of the skin. There’s enough fat in the skin for it to “self-fry” in our super hot oven, but the olive oil gives it a better color, and it allows the kosher salt to stick a little better. You can skip this step if you want.

excess chicken skin and back bones removed

Ok, so the way I cook is totally out of order. Sometimes I do things I should have done 10 steps ago, 10 steps later. Case in point: I forgot to remove the extra backbone pieces, and the excess skin between the leg and thigh. See the pic before this one, and the one after this one, to see the difference. But here’s all that excess stuff I chopped off.

kosher salt and black pepper on raw chicken

Nice and cleaned up. Seasoned with kosher salt and a little black pepper.

raw chicken leg quarters on sheet pan

Arrange your leg quarters on your sheet pan, making sure the tips of the legs are facing inside. Why? because most ovens are hotter around the corners, and we don’t want to overcook those because they have the least amount of meat.

shallots chopped in half

Chop 3 shallots down the middle, lengthwise.

thinly sliced shallots

Peel the papery skins back and thinly slice the shallots.

thinly sliced garlic

Thinly slice 4 to 5 cloves of garlic.

zest of one lemon

Zest a lemon.

freshly picked thyme

Pluck the leaves of 3 thyme stems.

butter melting with crushed red pepper and herbs de provence

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Throw in some herbs de provence, and crushed red pepper.

blooming crushed red pepper flakes and herbs de provence in hot butter

We want to bloom the crushed red pepper and herbs de provence, so help bring out their heat and flavors. This will take about a minute or two. Don’t let it go too long.

sprinkling kosher salt on shallots

Add the shallots, and a pinch of salt and pepper.

drizzling olive oil on shallots

Stir all that around, adding a little more olive oil if you need some extra lubrication.

sautéed shallots

Make sure you stir all that around, getting every piece of everything coated. If it’s lookin a little dry, add a few drops of olive oil.

sliced garlic cooking

Add the garlic.

adding butter to shallots and garlic

I opted to add a touch more butter. This is just how I cook. I don’t follow a guide, I just analyze the subject and determine what it needs lol.

shallots and garlic sautéed in butter

You want it to sizzle like this. If your shallots and garlic are browning too quickly, simply reduce the heat.

shallots and garlic sautéed in butter

A closeup. It’s so pretty. I wish you could smell this, but if you’re cooking along, you already are. This step takes about 5 minutes.

adding fresh thyme to shallots and garlic

Add the fresh thyme.

Fresh thyme added to garlic and shallots

Ok, be very careful at this point! Whenever fresh herbs hit hot fat, they release a ton of water in a very violent way. Expect things to pop like crazy, but luckily, you only have to stir this for about 10 seconds.

pouring wine in sautéed shallots and garlic

Pour in the wine, slowly.

scraping up bits on bottom of pan

Stir the wine around, scraping up any bits if you have any. Reduce the heat to medium-low.

reducing wine over heat

Let the wine reduce just slightly.

reducing wine over heat

Just a closeup. Let this reduce for about 2 to 3 minutes, it’ll happen quick.

pouring heavy cream into reduce wine sauce

Pour in the heavy cream.

combining heavy cream with wine sauce

Stir the heavy cream until everything is combined. Reduce heat to low, and let this simmer for about 5 to 7 minutes, tasting along the way.

adding lemon zest to white wine cream sauce

Add the lemon zest, and stir it in.

adding lemon juice to white wine cream sauce

Add a squirt of fresh lemon juice, about a tablespoon. This will add a nice bit of freshness.

finished lemony white wine cream sauce

Taste it! Does it need more salt? Now’s the time to add it. Turn off the heat and let it sit for a sec.

high roasted chicken leg quarters with crispy skin

Chicken’s done! Because we removed all excess fat pockets, we dont have a pool of grease…just a puddle lol. Let the chicken rest for about 10 minutes.

Herbs de Provence Chicken Leg Quarters with Lemony White Wine Cream Sauce

Arrange the chicken on top of the cream sauce and serve. When you plate it, you’ll of course pour some of that luscious sauce all over your chicken and close your eyes in bliss. Serve this with your favorite side, or some garlicky crusty bread for sopping!

Herbs de Provence Chicken Leg Quarters with Lemony White Wine Cream Sauce Herbs de Provence Chicken Leg Quarters with Lemony White Wine Cream Sauce Herbs de Provence Chicken Leg Quarters with Lemony White Wine Cream Sauce Herbs de Provence Chicken Leg Quarters with Lemony White Wine Cream Sauce Herbs de Provence Chicken Leg Quarters with Lemony White Wine Cream Sauce

This dish is best served with your favorite sides, and a few slices of crusty garlicky bread for sopping. It comes together very quickly, in under an hour, and I cannot stress how simple and crazy delicious it is. I think this one will become one of your favorites, for sure.

Enjoy, and don’t forget to pin!

Herbs de Provence Roasted Chicken Pin

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Herbs de Provence Chicken Leg Quarters with Lemony White Wine Cream Sauce

Herbs de Provence Roasted Chicken

  • Author: Chef Resha
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Description

High-roast herbs de provence chicken leg quarters over a creamy lemon white wine sauce with shallots and fresh garlic.

Ingredients

For the chicken

  • 4 large chicken leg quarters, trimmed of excess fat and skin
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more if needed
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, plus more if needed
  • 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
  • 1 tablespoon herbs de provence
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

For the Lemon White Wine Cream Sauce

  • 4 tablespoons butter, divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon herbs de provence
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 3 shallots, sliced thin
  • 5 cloves garlic, sliced thin
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
  • Zest of one lemon
  • Juice from half a lemon, about 2 tablespoons
  • 1/2 cup white wine (I used chardonnay)
  • 1 cup heavy cream

Instructions

For the chicken

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Allow chicken to come to room temperature at least 30 minutes before proceeding, it will help it cook more evenly.

Gently rinse off chicken with cold water, removing any surface gunk. Pat skin of chicken dry with paper towels, and remove any excess skin and fat pockets. Also remove any leftover guts and/or kidney’s if needed. Place chicken skin-side down, with the flesh facing up.

Sprinkle an even amount of kosher salt, black pepper, granulated garlic, and herbs de provence all over the chicken. Lightly drizzle olive oil over the herbs and spices, and massage it into the meat thoroughly. Flip chicken over, skin-side up, and drizzle a little olive oil over the skin, about a teaspoon. Rub it over the skin thoroughly. Sprinkle a good amount of kosher salt and black pepper over the oiled side. Place chicken, flesh-side down on a baking sheet. Arrange the leg quarters so that the ends of the legs are in the center, which will prevent them from over-cooking in the oven.

Roast for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the internal temperature chicken reads 170 degrees, and the skin is crispy and golden. Remove the chicken from the oven and allow it to rest 5 to 10 minutes. Serve with the lemon and white wine cream sauce.

For the cream sauce

In a 12-inch skillet, melt the butter over medium-heat. Add the herbs de provence and crushed red pepper flakes. Let the mixture sizzle and infuse for about a minute or two. Add the shallots, a good pinch of kosher salt and black pepper, and saute until softened — about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, and continue to saute for an additional 3 minutes, or until the garlic is a very light toasty brown around the edges. You may have to add additional olive oil or butter during this process to keep the aromatics well-lubricated. If your shallots and/or garlic is browning too quickly, simply reduce the heat. Toss in the fresh thyme, and stir around for about 10 seconds. Be careful with this step, fresh herbs react to hot oil/butter and splattering can happen.

Pour in the white wine, scraping up any bits that may be on the bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat to medium-low and allow the wine to reduce just slightly, about 2-3 minutes. Again, if your wine is reducing too quickly, lower the heat. Add the heavy cream, and stir to combine. Allow the mixture to come to a gentle simmer, then reduce heat to low. Add the lemon zest, and season with kosher salt and black pepper. When the mixture is smooth and creamy, add the lemon juice. Stir to combine, taste and adjust seasoning. When it’s perfect, turn off the heat and serve with the chicken.

Notes

About 15 minutes before the chicken is done roasting, start working on the cream sauce.

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Chef Resha

Chef Resha is an accomplished self-taught private chef, home cook, public figure, and recipe developer based in the DC Metro area. Creator and owner of CarnalDish — an incredibly delicious and renowned website full of sinful comfort food recipes made with love. CarnalDish has been featured on Good Morning Washington, Ebony magazine, Essence, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Newport, The Dr. Oz Show, and many more notable publications.

https://carnaldish.com

Buttermilk Fried Chicken with Thyme Cheddar Waffles

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Buttermilk fried chicken is one of those things people always want to know how to make. I get it, it’s seemingly so simple, but it’s also just as easy to screw up. There are several factors that need to be on point in order for your buttermilk fried chicken to be stellar. First, oil temperature. Nobody wants a golden brown stunner that’s bloody and raw inside. Salmonella doesn’t taste good, I’d imagine. If your oil is too hot, it’ll brown before it actually cooks — and yes, this is something I believe everyone experienced this at least once in their lives. You’re not alone, there’s a support group out there somewhere. On the flip, if your oil is too cold, the coating will soak up too much grease and you’ll have soggy, oily chicken. Then there’s the seasoning factor. Nothing worse than battering up your chicken only to find the end result bland or TOO salty (for your liking). I like my chicken enjoyably salty, not “spike my blood pressure” salty. I want to taste it, but not an insane amount of it. Throughout the years, I’ve made really good fried chicken and really bad fried chicken. It’s one of those things you just have to keep trying until you master it.

Measuring while I cook isn’t something I naturally do, unless I plan on sharing a recipe. If I feel like sharing it with you, I’ll write down exactly what I did, and go from there. Give this buttermilk fried chicken recipe a try. There may be an ingredient or two that you don’t have, and that’s fine. Don’t cry about it, don’t get discouraged, just swap it for something else or leave it out. Recipes like this are flexible as far as individual tastes go, so what I like, you may not and vice versa. I’m always gonna encourage you to venture out on your own and develop flavors that make YOU happy. But this is damn good chicken. Probably my favorite fried chicken to date, and I’ve made some bomb chicken recently.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Waffles

Buttermilk Fried Chicken Tips

  • First, don’t feel pressured to marinate your chicken for a full 24 hours. Sure, it won’t hurt at all, but in most cases it’s not necessary — especially if your craving for it forces you to have it the same day you dunked it in that tangy buttermilk. You can do this in as little as two hours for crazy delicious results. If you’re going to do the full 24 hours, don’t pre-salt the chicken as much. Just enough to season the buttermilk.
  • Chicken cooks more evenly when it’s room temperature. So before you plan on frying, take it out of your fridge and let it sit at room temperature for at LEAST 30-minutes, and no longer than two-hours. Your chicken should also be covered, either in a bowl with plastic wrap or inside of an air-tight ziploc bag. This will help keep outside evils from getting into your yummy yardbird and causing problems.
  • Our grandmothers didn’t use thermometers, but times have changed. You don’t want to risk frying up some beautiful salmonella, so please get a cheap thermometer so you can keep track of your oil temperature and the internal temperature of the chicken.
  • Fry your chicken in a vessel that’s designed to conduct heat evenly and stay hot. You could use an electric fryer, but if you don’t have one, use cast iron. Doesn’t matter if it’s enameled or non-enameled, cast iron is amazing for frying chicken — ask your grandma.
  • Now is not the time to be shy with the salt. Everyone loves that perfectly salty, crunchy bite of fried chicken. It’s arguably the reason why it’s so good in the first place. Ever had bland fried chicken? It’s an abomination, and a waste. Again, you’re not looking for “All I taste is salt”-salty, but “Ahh, this is delicious”-salty. The type of salt you use matters. I prefer a flaky kosher salt in my dredge, it adheres better, has a larger surface-area, and doesn’t sink to the bottom of your flour mixture as you’re mixing. That means the salt is actually gonna be on the bird in the end. Even though you salt the dredge, you want to also sprinkle just a liiiiittle bit on the finished product once it comes out of the fryer.

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In my humble opinion, a well-seasoned piece of fried chicken pairs best with a savory waffle. As I get a little older, I like things less sugary-sweet. Sure, you could pair your chicken with a sweet waffle, but I think a savory one works far better.

I’m using the King Arthur Flour Classic Buttermilk Waffle recipe as a base. I’ve been using it for years, and it’s really a great recipe if you don’t have time to make a yeasted waffle. What I love about the KAF recipe, is that it’s fully customizable. You can make it sweet, or savory. Just leave the sugar out, and add in your own preferred ingredients.

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Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Waffles

Buttermilk Fried Chicken with Thyme Cheddar Waffles

  • Author: Resha from CarnalDish
  • Prep Time: 2 hours 30 mins
  • Cook Time: 30 mins
  • Total Time: 3 hours
  • Yield: up to 8 servings
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Description

Waffle recipe adapted from KAF

Ingredients

For the chicken:

  • 4 cups self-rising flour
  • 1/3 cup cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons flaky kosher salt, plus more (Diamond Crystal or David’s)
  • 1 tablespoon onion powder
  • 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder (I used Hatch Chile powder)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 tablespoon smoked paprika
  • 1/2 tablespoon black pepper
  • 2 to 4 cups whole buttermilk (depends on how much chicken, SEE NOTE BELOW)
  • Chicken for frying
  • 1 quart vegetable oil for frying

For the waffles

  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 3/4 cups whole buttermilk
  • 8 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar
  • 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
  • Maple syrup for serving

Instructions

For the chicken

  1. Toss your chicken in kosher salt, enough to cover it. Place chicken in ziploc bags or a large enough bowl to fit it, and pour in your buttermilk. Don’t add a ton of buttermilk here, just enough to coat it and allow it to penetrate the meat. Marinate the chicken for at least 2 hours and up to 4.
  2. When ready to fry, make sure your chicken/buttermilk mixture comes to room temperature, at least 30. Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and seasonings with a whisk, set aside. Heat your oil to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, gently and thoroughly coat the chicken in the flour mixture. Shake off the excess, and place each piece on a clean cutting board, or baking sheet. Allow the coating to adhere for about 15 minutes. Re-dredge the chicken one more time, and allow to adhere an additional 10 minutes. Once your oil has reached 350 degrees, gently place up to 6 pieces of chicken in the hot oil. Turn the chicken often to prevent concentrated burn spots, if necessary. This happens because any coating that sinks to the bottom cooks up fast and can burn onto the chicken, especially as you do it in batches. Fry the chicken until it’s a deep golden brown, and registers at least 170 degrees internally for dark meat, and 160 degrees for white meat. You’ll also know when your chicken is about done when the crackling sounds of the oil start to simmer down and lessen. The chicken will also kinda float to the top. Dark meat, particularly thighs and legs are notorious for cooking unevenly because of the way the meat is formed along the bone. If you find that your chicken is golden brown on the outside, and still pink in the middle, pop it into a 400 degree oven and cook until the juices run clear. This will prevent the outside from darkening too fast, which is what will happen if you continue to fry it.
  3. When the chicken is done, place it on paper towels or a baking rack to allow excess oil to escape. Immediately sprinkle a very fine dusting of finishing salt over the chicken, not too much, just enough to punch up the flavor.
  4. Serve with the thyme and cheddar waffles, and enjoy!

For the Waffles

  1. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla.
  2. In a separate bowl whisk together the dry ingredients.
  3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, stirring just until nearly smooth; a few small lumps may remain.
  4. Spray your waffle iron with a non-stick cooking spray before preheating it. Cook waffles according to the manufacturer’s directions. For an 8″ round waffle iron, use about 1/3 cup batter; cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the iron stops steaming.
  5. Serve immediately with the fried chicken and maple syrup.
  6. Enjoy

Notes

You don’t need the chicken swimming in a TON of buttermilk, just enough to coat each piece thoroughly. Start with 2-cups, and add more if you have a lot of chicken.

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Chef Resha

Chef Resha is an accomplished self-taught private chef, home cook, public figure, and recipe developer based in the DC Metro area. Creator and owner of CarnalDish — an incredibly delicious and renowned website full of sinful comfort food recipes made with love. CarnalDish has been featured on Good Morning Washington, Ebony magazine, Essence, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Newport, The Dr. Oz Show, and many more notable publications.

https://carnaldish.com

Garlic Ginger and Soy Braised Chicken Thighs

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Thighs again? Yes, dammmit. Thighs again! If you can’t tell by now that we are thigh lovers, then you haven’t been paying attention. There’s nothing more succulent, flavorful, and satisfying than a fat juicy thigh with skin rendered so crisp, it shatters in your mouth. Perfection! These gingery-garlic soy braised chicken thighs are pretty dang tasty. The sauce? Oh man! It’s just so good. We served this over some fluffy jasmine rice alongside some sautéed snow peas and carrots, and it was the perfect meal. It gave us that “take out” feel without the gross take-out taste. It was fresh, juicy, flavorful, and it hit every note our palates were begging for. Sweet, salty, savory, tangy, bold, fatty, juicy, crispy, soft…I could go on.

Why braise with dark meat?

Because dark meat (thighs and legs) has enough juicy fat to prevent it from drying out even if its just slightly overcooked. White meat isn’t as forgiving, nor as flavorful. But that’s not a diss against white meat, I love a good chicken boob from time to time. I think of white meat as a blank slate — you can brine or marinate it and have it taste like basically anything. However, I would never advocate braising it. Just..nah. Stick with dark meat.

Ok, but white meat is all I have, what do I do?

For this particular recipe, you could absolutely use white meat, but you’d need to adjust not only the cooking time, but your whole game plan. I would simply sear my chicken breasts on one side, and pour the sauce in as soon as I flip the chicken over and let it finish cooking that way. Less chance of it getting overcooked. Another method would be just to dump everything in a dish and bake it all, but you’d miss out on the delicious maillard of browning the chicken first, which lends a ton of much needed flavor. Simply put, it’s up to you. Now, with wings? Oh goodness! Prepare your wings however you’d like — bake, naked fry, roast, grill, whatever. Bring the liquid to a boil to reduce and thicken, then toss the wings in. That would be amazing.

The reason I chose to cook the chicken without the sauce for the first 15 minutes was because I wanted to give the chicken skin a chance to shrink and dry up just slightly. If you want to just pour the liquid in with the raw chicken and chuck the entire thing in the oven and say “To hell with that step”, I promise you can.

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Season your chicken with kosher salt and black pepper.

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Pour your soy sauce in a large measuring cup or bowl, and then add about 2 tablespoons of Sambal (garlic chili sauce).

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Add some garlic paste, or freshly grated garlic (plus the juice).

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Then squeeze in some ginger paste, or finely grated ginger (plus the juice!)

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Add a splash of rice wine vinegar.

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

and some honey.

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

a tiny splash of dark soy (optional)

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Add some brown sugar. Start with 1/4 cup, and continue to taste and add as you see fit.

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Add a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil. Be careful with this stuff, if you add to much it can be very overpowering.

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Pour in some chili oil, about a teaspoon to start.

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Whisk all of this together until the brown sugar dissolves. TASTE IT and adjust until the level of sweet and heat and savory is to YOUR liking. I cannot stress this enough. We all have different palates, some like more savory and heat, some like more sweet, please taste and adjust. I’m begging you 🙂

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Place each thigh in a large skillet or braising pan on top of about a tablespoon of oil, and make sure they’re arranged nicely.

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Season the patted and dried skin with salt and pepper. Place the chicken in the oven for just 15 minutes to start the drying out process of the skin.

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

After 15 minutes, take the chicken out and pour the soy braising liquid almost halfway up the chicken. PLEASE NOTE, this mixture will bubble up in the oven, so don’t cover the chicken higher than I did here and use a vessel with sides about 3 inches high if possible.

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Like so. Pop this back in the oven and cook for an additional 25-30 minutes. To be safe, place a baking sheet or a long strip of aluminum foil under the pan to catch any potential drips if this sauce boils over. It can get pretty violent, with its delicious little self. If you have any sauce leftover, keep it in your fridge for another day.

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Here’s what it looks like when it’s done. Notice the darker rim around the skin of the chicken? That’s how high my sauce rose while cooking in the oven. I was able to have some crispy skin, so that was really all I cared about. This. was. so. damn. good!!!

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Garnish with sesame seeds and thinly sliced scallions, and enjoy with some fluffy rice and a squeeze of fresh lime.

Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Enjoy!

It’s extremely important that you keep tinkering with this sauce until its to your liking. I gave you starting point measurements, so please feel free to add more of something if you need to. We started with a fourth cup of brown sugar, and ended up adding another (damn near) half cup. That’s just me, though. It came out perfectly balanced. I had just a few tablespoons of sauce leftover, and I almost saved it, but I knew I had to stop being a sauce hoarder and just let it go. If you have any sauce leftover, by all means, save it! It would be good glazed over just about anything, especially vegetables.

 

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Soy Ginger and Garlic Braised Chicken

Ginger Garlic and Soy Braised Chicken

  • Author: Resha from CarnalDish
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 40 mins
  • Total Time: 55 mins
  • Yield: 4-6 servings
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Ingredients

  • 8-10 chicken thighs, bone-in skin on
  • 2/3 cup soy sauce (you can use low-sodium)
  • 2 tablespoons garlic chili paste (Sambal)
  • 2 tablespoons garlic paste (or grated garlic)
  • 2 tablespoons ginger paste (or grated ginger)
  • 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar, *plus more if needed
  • 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon chili oil (optional)
  • kosher salt & black pepper

Garnish

  • Scallions, thinly sliced
  • Sesame seeds
  • Lime wedges

Instructions

    1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
    2. Dry the skin of each thigh with paper towels and season the flesh side with salt and pepper. I can’t tell you how much to add here, because it depends if you’re using regular soy sauce or low sodium, as well as your personal preference. When in doubt, use a little less, because you can always add more at the end if needed. Pour 1 tablespoon of oil (olive, canola, or vegetable) in a large skillet or braising pan. Arrange the chicken so that there’s just a little space between them and they’re not crammed. Season the dried skin side with salt and pepper, set aside.
    3. In a large measuring cup or medium sized bowl, add the soy sauce, garlic chili paste (Sambal), garlic paste, ginger paste, rice wine vinegar, honey, brown sugar, dark soy sauce (if using), toasted sesame oil, and chili oil. Whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Taste this mixture. If you want it sweeter, add more brown sugar. If you want it spicier, add more Sambal or chili oil. When it’s perfectly balanced for your tastes, set aside.
    4. Place the chicken in the oven and roast for 15 minutes. Remove, and pour in the soy braising liquid in until it goes up the sides of the chicken, but not too much — because this mixture boils in the oven and rises quite a bit. Please use my photo as a reference as to how much to put in. Pop it back in the oven and continue to cook until the internal temperature of the chicken registers 175 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 25-30 minutes longer. The sauce should be thickened slightly and sticky, but easily pourable.
    5. Serve over fluffy rice and garnish with scallions and sesame seeds. Squeeze with fresh lime to really set the flavors off. Enjoy!
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Chef Resha

Chef Resha is an accomplished self-taught private chef, home cook, public figure, and recipe developer based in the DC Metro area. Creator and owner of CarnalDish — an incredibly delicious and renowned website full of sinful comfort food recipes made with love. CarnalDish has been featured on Good Morning Washington, Ebony magazine, Essence, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Newport, The Dr. Oz Show, and many more notable publications.

https://carnaldish.com

Chicken Tikka Masala

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If you haven’t had Chicken Tikka Masala, you haven’t lived. I must say this now: this is not authentic, it’s just damn good. I rarely do authentic anything, because I love and kinda must put my OWN spin on just about everything I cook. This stuff here is magic in your mouth, just sooo yummy and rich. The chicken literally melts in your mouth. I need you to try this version, just do it. Make it a weekend project, because the 4 hour marination REALLY sets this off.

Living near an international market is a blessing. I highly recommend you Google or Yelp for one in your area, you’d be surprised. Some of them hide in places you’ve probably driven by or flat out ignored. International markets are amazing for many reasons, but my favorite reason? The low prices on spices and seasonings! I remember going to regular grocery stores and paying between $5-$11 for a single spice. Girl, why? I can find a bag of dried chilis, or ground shrimp powder, or Indian cumin for like $2. So, naturally, I have a VERY large collection of spices and seasonings. I want to be able to whip up just about any kind of cuisine whenever the mood strikes. Today, the mood was chicken tikka masala. We literally buy chicken thighs several times a week, so the only thing I needed to buy was the yogurt.

Typically, people make this dish (which originated in Britain — wild!) with chicken breasts. No. No. Absolutely not. I mean, you’re grown, you can do what you want, but I don’t recommend breasts at all — at least not in this context. I HIIIIIIIGHLY recommend you find a pack of boneless/skinless chicken thighs and proceed to the magic. Thighs are just way juicier, more flavorful, and they are able to be braised a lot longer than breasts — which dry out fast and become leathery and chewy and just…no. No! Please don’t use breasts for *THIS* recipe, because I’m suggesting you let this baby cook for a while. Not too long, under an hour but not the normal 20 minutes it would take with breasts. I am all about developing flavors, so sure, you could make this in 20 minutes with breasts, but I can’t guarantee you’ll get the kind of mouthgasm we got from the thighs and a longer braising time. It’s up to you though, boo.

I also added more spices than most recipes you’ll find online, just due to personal preference. Again, we like flavor around here, and I like to make things my own.

This is Chicken Tikka Masala, the CarnalDish way.

If you want authentic, you might wanna skip this recipe. But if you want damn good, keep scrolling.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Chop your thighs into bite sized pieces.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Gather your spices.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Combine the spices, yogurt, ginger and garlic paste.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

So, this is how I cook. I add things as I think of them. Here, I was like “hey! lemme add some dried cilantro”, so I did.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Add that blob of goodness to your chopped up chicken.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Mix it all around. See how thick it is? I mean, that’s cool and all, but I want it a tad creamier…

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

So, I added about 2-3 tablespoons of water…oh, I’m not done on the moisture front.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

See…it needs a nice squeeze of lemon. I used a whole lemon. Roll your lemon around on the counter with some pressure to release even more juice.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Now, this is the consistency I wanted. If you use regular yogurt instead of greek, you’ll already have this consistency. But still add lemon.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Heat about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil to your skillet. You could also use ghee, but I didn’t have any on hand, so I’m using this. This works perfectly in a nonstick skillet, but I didn’t feel like fumbling around for mine.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Over medium-high’ish heat, brown the chicken until you get lil golden brown specks like this. The goal here is just to get a little color (if possible), but we don’t want to fully cook the chicken because it’s gonna stew later. So do this for about 3min per side.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

So you should have some nice brown bits at the bottom of your pan, as well as some fat from the chicken. We’re gonna sauté the onions in that. So throw those in, with the garlic and ginger paste.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Add kosher salt. This will help the onions release some liquid, which will also help you scrape up even more of those yummy brown bits at the bottom.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Add the curry, garam masala, cumin, and turmeric. Toss around so those spices bloom and release their flavors.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Oh! I added some hot and sweet paprika here, optional for you, but I highly recommend it if you have it.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

A nice blob of rich tomato paste.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Mix the tomato paste around to coat the onions and cook this down for about 3-5 minutes, or until the paste kinda turns brownish-red.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

It’s just pretty. Let’s take a second to admire.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Now, add the tomato puree, diced tomatoes, and add about a half cup to a full cup of water. The water will help loosen the sauce, so it gives you a lil more time to cook it down and reduce.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Let this simmer on medium-low heat for about 20 minutes. I didn’t take a pic, but I added some cayenne pepper, granulated garlic and onion, and a little more salt here.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Brown sugar will really help round out all of the flavors. It’s not going to make it sweet, but it will give it a much needed balance so it’s not so harsh. I added about two tablespoons total. Start with one tablespoon, taste, and see if you need more.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Ok, so assuming you’re in control of this dish, seeing as how you’re cooking it — and you’ve been tasting it along the way, making sure it’s perfect for YOUR standards, this is when you add a nice hunk of cold butter. The cold butter will slowly melt and emulsify this sauce, making it velvety AF!

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

See how thick? Nice and perfect. Well-seasoned, just yes. YAAAS!

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Add the cream.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Stir that cream up in there.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Add the rested chicken to the sauce, stir it in there, and get ready…because we’re down to the wire.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

I added a little more turmeric, about a half teaspoon if I had to guess, just to help emphasize that yummy burnt orange color. Plus, turmeric is just lovely for the body. Cover this, turn the heat to low, and let this get happy for about 10-15 minutes.

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

Give it a taste, if it needs anything at all — which it shouldn’t, because yanno, you’ve been cooking and tasting this whole time — go ahead and add it now. Then sit back and marvel at your sexy dish. You did that. Garnish with cilantro, serve it over rice or naan/roti/chapati/whatever (or both if you’re into fatassery like myself). Enjoy, m’love!

The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

This. Was. SO. DAMN. GOOD!!!

It was even better the next day, I swear. The chicken was STILL tender and damn near melting in our mouths, just so good after being reheated. I’m sad it’s almost gone. I may have to warm up a bowl before my boyfriend wakes up — because I know he’ll kill it and leave me assed out.

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Chicken Tikka Masala

  • Author: Resha from CarnalDish
  • Prep Time: 4 hours
  • Cook Time: 50 mins
  • Total Time: 4 hours 50 mins
  • Yield: Invite friends, hella servings
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Description

Please understand how amazing this is about to be for you. I need you to prepare yourself, kthxbi.

Ingredients

Marinade

  • 8-10 boneless/skinless chicken thighs, chopped into chunks
  • 2/3 cup plain greek yogurt
  • 1 rounded tablespoon garlic paste
  • 1 rounded tablespoon ginger paste
  • Juice from 1 lemon
  • 1/4 cup water (optional, SEE NOTE BELOW)
  • 1 rounded tablespoon kosher salt (SEE NOTE BELOW)
  • 2 teaspoons turmeric
  • 2 teaspoons garam masala
  • 2 teaspoons coriander
  • 2 teaspoons cumin
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon granulated onion
  • 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
  • 1 teaspoon dried cilantro

Masala Sauce

  • 2 tablespoons butter, ghee or vegetable oil
  • 2 large white onions, diced
  • 1 rounded tablespoon ginger paste
  • 1 rounded tablespoon garlic paste
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
  • 1/2 teaspoon hot curry powder (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon hot paprika (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon sweet paprika (smoked would be great)
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 15oz can diced tomatoes
  • 1 15oz can tomato puree
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon granulated onion
  • 1-2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • Kosher salt & pepper to taste
  • Fresh cilantro, to garnish
  • Serve with lime wedges, rice and/or flatbread of choice
  • Extra virgin olive oil, to drizzle (optional)

Instructions

For the marinade

  1. In a large bowl, combine all of the dried spices and herbs with the greek yogurt. Add the garlic and ginger paste, and the lemon juice and water (if using). Mix well, and add the chunks of chicken thighs. Mix to evenly combine, cover with plastic wrap and set aside on your kitchen counter for at least 1 hour on your counter, up to 2. You can also marinate this for up to 4 hours in your fridge. Do not let this marinate more than 4 hours! The lemon juice and yogurt will start to “cook” the chicken and compromise the texture. So FOUR hours MAX!!
  2. Heat a large skillet (nonstick would be easier to deal with, but not entirely necessary) over medium-high heat. Add a couple tablespoons of fat (butter, ghee, or oil). When the fat is hot, add enough chicken to cover the pan, but leave about an inch of space between each piece. You don’t want to overcrowd the pan because then the chicken will steam instead of brown. And because you’re using thighs, they’ll need a bit more room to release their fat. Brown both sides of the chicken until spotty brown, some will be browner than others and that’s okay. Also, if your chicken is sticking to the pan (and you’re using a non-stick), leave it alone until it’s ready to release on its own. You may need to do this in batches, I had to do mine in 3 batches total. Which was cool, because I had a nice layer of fond (browned bits) at the bottom of the pan by the time it was over. The goal here is to just get a little color on the chicken, you don’t want to cook it all the way through because it will continue to braise in the sauce later. Set your chicken aside and let’s work on the sauce.

For the sauce

  1. You should have a good amount of fat left in the pan from the chicken, but if you don’t, add a little more. Reduce the heat to medium, and add the onions, garlic paste, and ginger paste. Add some kosher salt to help the onions sweat a little faster. Cook the onions until softened — about 5 minutes, stirring and scraping up the browned bits at the bottom of the pan. Add all of the dried spices to the onions except for the granulated garlic and onion. Let these spices bloom in the fat, continue to scrape the pan if necessary. Tip: If at any point your heat is too high and things are burning, please lower it! Add a splash of water if the browned bits aren’t releasing easily enough, and don’t worry, this will evaporate.
  2. Add the tomato paste. Stir the paste around and toast for about 5-7 minutes or until the paste deepens in color. Add the pureed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and water. Continue to scrape any browned bits if necessary. Bring to a simmer, and reduce the heat to medium-low. Leave uncovered or semi-covered. If it’s splashing everywhere, reduce the heat! Add the granulated garlic and onion, kosher salt and pepper to taste. Let this sauce reduce until its nice and thick, about 15-20 minutes. Add the cold butter, and stir in in to let it slowly melt and emulsify the sauce. When it’s visibly thicker in consistency, add the brown sugar and stir to combine. Give it a taste! See what it needs, add whatever you need to. You are in full control here. The measurements I give you for the seasonings specifically, are starting point measurements. You may want to add more of this and that, and feel completely free to do so!
  3. When you’re happy with it, add the heavy cream. Stir that around until it’s fully incorporated. Give it another taste, because cream can mute some flavors, and you may or may not need to re-boost certain things. Now, add the rested chicken and the accumulated juices back to the sauce. Stir gently and make sure each piece of chicken is basically covered. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer gently for an additional 10-15 minutes. Give it one last taste, because this is your last chance to adjust anything.
  4. Finally, you’re done. Serve this delicious stuff over rice, or alongside any kind of flatbread. We’re fans of the carb, so we ate it with both. Garnish with fresh cilantro, and serve with wedges of lime and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Whew! Get your life.

Notes

If using regular plain yogurt, you may not need to add the water. I used water to help thin out the super thick greek yogurt, but it’s totally optional either way.

If you don’t have kosher salt, which is a much bigger flake and less salty than regular salt, you will need to adjust the measurement. Don’t use a full tablespoon of fine or table salt, it will give you high blood pressure! That’s way too salty, maybe a teaspoon at the most. Be safe and use as little as you can, because you can always add it later, but you cannot take it away.

If you cannot find garlic or ginger paste, just use finely minced fresh garlic and ginger instead.

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Chef Resha

Chef Resha is an accomplished self-taught private chef, home cook, public figure, and recipe developer based in the DC Metro area. Creator and owner of CarnalDish — an incredibly delicious and renowned website full of sinful comfort food recipes made with love. CarnalDish has been featured on Good Morning Washington, Ebony magazine, Essence, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Newport, The Dr. Oz Show, and many more notable publications.

https://carnaldish.com

One-Pot Lemon Oregano Chicken and Rice

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Sleep deprivation really sucks. I’m hungry every day, but I don’t always have the energy nor time to cook something yummy to keep me sustained. Enter “One Pot Meals”. I call them culinary life-savers. The entire concept of throwing everything into one vessel and letting it cook until it’s done while you chase your kid around, or plop on the couch watching Family Feud — is a frickin blessing. Today, it’s all about this one-pot lemon oregano chicken and rice. I cook a lot of different one-pot variations these days, because I just don’t have the time to do anything too intricate. Maybe on the weekends, but weekdays? Nah.

We are huge fans of the chicken thigh. It’s the most succulent part of the chicken. The best part? That rendered crispy skin clinging to the juicy flavorful meat. My GAWD! If you don’t like chicken thighs, I promise it’s because you haven’t had them properly cooked. My boyfriend used to HATE chicken thighs. But then he met me, and I changed his life. He thought the skin had to be flabby and fatty and super greasy, because that’s how most people prepare them, sadly. So I threw some fatty chicken thighs into a super hot skillet, rendered the fat, and then finished them in the oven and he basically got the blessing he had been missing all his life.

Thighs are tasty on their own, needing only salt and pepper at the bare minimum. But just like white meat, they can benefit from some extra TLC. I marinated these in olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, fresh oregano, fresh thyme, dried oregano, herbs de provence, salt, pepper, and fresh garlic. Just a few hours, no need to do this overnight. As a matter fact, I wouldn’t marinate anything with this much lemon juice (or any other acid) for more than 2-4 hours. It starts to make the texture of the meat weird, kind like it’s almost cooking it. If you’d like to marinate this overnight, leave out the lemon juice or drastically reduce it. I realize fresh oregano isn’t widely available everywhere — I’ve been to several stores and haven’t found it, but if you can find it, buy it and use it. It’s especially delicious as a garnish on the final product.

Here’s the bird soaking up some marinade, getting all happy. It’s about to get even happier, because we’re about to cook it. If refrigerated, make sure your chicken has come to room temp at least 30min prior to cooking, it just helps it cook thru more evenly.

Whether you’re using all rice, rice and quinoa, or all quinoa, make sure you rinse it THOROUGHLY for at least 2 minutes. Leave it to drain while you prep everything else.

I’m using fresh oregano, fresh thyme, garlic chive flower (optional), garlic, and parsley.

Get your cast iron skillet (mine is 12 inches) nice and hot over medium-high heat. Make sure it’s very lightly coated with a high smoke point oil (such as vegetable, canola, grapeseed, etc.) just until you see a sheen. When the skillet is super hot, add the chicken thighs skin-side down and walk away.

Seriously, leave the chicken alone for about 8-10 minutes, or until it easily releases on it’s own. If you’re trying to turn it, and it’s not budging, it’s NOT ready. Leave it alone. You’ll be able to easily flip it when it’s ready. If too much fat accumulates at the bottom of the pan, don’t be afraid to gently and safely pour some of it out.

See what happens when you leave it alone? You get a nice golden brown color. Let the chicken cook on the meat side for just 1 minute, then set aside on a plate.

Reduce the heat to medium-low. After you remove the chicken, make sure you leave about 2 tablespoons of fat in the pan, or just add some fresh oil and sauté your shallots (or onions) and garlic. You only need to do this for about 2-3 minutes.

Add the well-drained rice/quinoa to the pan, tossing it with the onion/garlic mixture, making sure it’s evenly and thinly coated in oil. You’re basically toasting it. Do this fo about 2-3 minutes.

Add the chicken broth and scrape up any bits on the bottom of the pan. Make sure the rice is completely covered.

Add the fresh thyme, dried oregano (and any other herbs you’d like — I also added herbs de provence). This would also be a great time to add the lemon juice and zest, but because I have mommy-brain, I didn’t remember to do this until a few steps later. If you’re feeling froggy, throw in a tiny splash of white wine!

Don’t forget to season it with salt and pepper, giving it a taste to make sure it’s where you need it to be. Remember, the rice will soak up this liquid, so make sure it’s well seasoned!

See? Mommy-brain in full effect. I was like, “Oh snap, I forgot the lemon zest!”

“And I forgot the damn lemon juice, doh!”

Slice up another lemon and arrange slices between the thighs, tucking it into the rice. Throw in some fresh oregano and tuck it into the rice so it infuses, and you’ll remove these stems after it’s done cooking — because nobody wants to eat that. Place this entire vessel into your 400 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until the thighs register 175 degrees on an instant read thermometer, and the rice is tender. Don’t worry if some juices are left at the bottom. As long as the rice and chicken is cooked, a lil pan jus never hurt nobody.

Bruh.

So yeah, if you’re short on time, or kinda lazy — throw this meal together. I will say this with every recipe I post, because it’s worth repeating, but if there’s something you’re either missing or unable to get your hands on (ingredient-wise), just use what you have.

“Can I use boneless skinless chicken breasts?” Sure. They’ll come out drier than the Sahara, but you probably know that already. Braising white meat really isn’t a good idea. So you’ll have to adjust some things. For example, try taking the chicken breasts out as SOON as they reach 165 degrees internally. Or, just cook them completely on the stove and then cook the rice separately, then put everything together right before you serve it. Proceed with caution, though.

“Do I have to marinade this chicken? I don’t have time…” NOPE! You can totally skip the marinade, I promise this will still come out phenomenal. Instead of marinating it, just add the seasoning and dried herbs to the meat side, and season the skin of the chicken with salt and pepper. Boom. See, I just saved you two hours — although when and if you have time, try the marinade, because it’s damn tasty.

When you serve it, hit it with a little more fresh lemon juice and some fresh herbs — especially the fresh oregano, and enjoy this stuff. It’s really yummy, adaptable, and comes together fast.

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One-Pot Lemon Oregano Chicken & Rice

  • Author: Resha from CarnalDish
  • Prep Time: 2 hours
  • Cook Time: 45 mins
  • Total Time: 2 hours 45 mins
  • Yield: 4-6 servings
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Description

4 lemons were harmed in the making of this recipe.

Ingredients

  • 6 to 8 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat and skin
  • 1/2 cup shallots (or onion), chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 cup rice (I used a basmati, brown rice, and red quinoa mix), rinsed and drained thoroughly
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 2 sprigs fresh oregano
  • 4-5 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon herbs de provence
  • 1 lemon zested and juiced, and 1 lemon sliced
  • Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Marinade:

  • 1/4 – 1/3 cup olive oil
  • juice and zest from 1 lemon
  • 5 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 2 sprigs fresh oregano
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon herbes de provence
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon kosher salt (depending on how much chicken)
  • 1/2 teaspoons black pepper

Garnish

  • Fresh parsley
  • Fresh oregano
  • Garlic chive flower, finely chopped (optional)

Instructions

  1. If using marinade (yes, it’s optional): Add all of the marinade ingredients to a large sturdy plastic bag, or bowl and mix well until salt is dissolved. Add the chicken and let it get happy for about 2-4 hours. If marinating overnight, reduce the amount of lemon juice, using just the juice from one half of a lemon instead of a whole lemon. You can leave this on your counter for the entire 2-4 hours, but if you decide to put it in the fridge, remove it at least 30min prior to cooking to take the chill off.
  2. If you decide to skip the marinade, just season the flesh side of the chicken with salt, pepper, and the dried herbs. Then proceed with the recipe.
  3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  4. In a large 12-inch cast iron skillet (or any oven-safe skillet you have), very lightly coat the pan with a high smoke-point oil (such as vegetable, canola, grapeseed, etc.) just until theres a very light sheen, over medium-high heat. You won’t need to add any additional fat to the pan because the chicken thighs are already fatty and coated in olive oil.
  5. When the skillet is nice and hot, remove each piece of chicken from the marinade, letting any additional stuff drip off so it’s not too wet and place it in the skillet skin-side down. LEAVE THE CHICKEN ALONE! Let it sear until the skin easily releases, about 8-10 minutes. Now, if you’re noticing too many juices accumulating in the bottom of the pan, tilt it and scoop it out with a ladle or, if you’re bold, pour it off and discard — but PLEASE be careful! This stuff is hot, and you also don’t want any of your chicken to fall out. After the chicken skin is seared and gorgeously golden brown, let it cook on the meat side, just 1 minute. Transfer each thigh to a plate and set aside.
  6. Reduce the heat to medium. You should have about 2 tablespoons of fat leftover in the skillet. But if you don’t, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Saute your shallots (or onions) until softened, about 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the well-rinsed and drained rice, and toast it with the shallots and garlic in the leftover chicken fat (or olive oil) for about 2-3 minutes. Pour in the chicken stock, lemon juice, and lemon zest, while scraping up the browned bits at the bottom of the pan. Season the mixture with salt and pepper to taste. Add the fresh thyme, dried oregano, herbs de provence and stir gently until evenly combined. Place the chicken back into the skillet, making sure the skin isn’t submerged. Tuck slices of lemon between the pieces of chicken, and place 1 sprig (torn into two pieces) of oregano into the rice — you will remove this once it’s done. Turn the heat to high, and as soon as it reaches a boil, place the skillet in the oven on the middle rack.
  7. Cook until the rice is fully absorbed and tender, and the chicken registers 175 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Remove the whole sprig of oregano. Let rest 10 minutes.
  8. Garnish with fresh parsley, oregano, and garlic chive flower (optional). Feel free to squeeze a tiny bit of fresh lemon juice over your individual serving and enjoy.
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Chef Resha

Chef Resha is an accomplished self-taught private chef, home cook, public figure, and recipe developer based in the DC Metro area. Creator and owner of CarnalDish — an incredibly delicious and renowned website full of sinful comfort food recipes made with love. CarnalDish has been featured on Good Morning Washington, Ebony magazine, Essence, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Newport, The Dr. Oz Show, and many more notable publications.

https://carnaldish.com

Cider-braised Pork with Caramelized Apples, Fennel, and Onions

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I don’t know about you, but I’m so over turkey for the holidays. No, that doesn’t mean I don’t like turkey, because I absolutely do — but I’m just tired of sitting around a big turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Can we do something different, please? I beg. I have the perfect recipe for you that will allow you to be the star in your kitchen. Braising large cuts of any kind of meat can be intimidating for the average home-cook, but I promise you it’s easier than you’ll ever imagine. All you have to do is essentially sear/brown your meat, cook down some aromatics, add the meat back, add some liquid and cook very slowly.

Pork is perfect anytime of the year, any season. It’s versatile, easy to cook, and always extremely flavorful. This cider-braised pork shoulder is the perfect vessel for your holiday table. Fennel is in season, and it lends a delicious anise’y flavor to this juicy, naturally rich piece of meat. The way the onions, fennel, and apples cook down are just amazing — giving you a rich, savory compote effect to compliment the pork. The herbs lend even more flavor, and the cider infuses into the meat and helps enhance it’s natural sweetness. Bottom line, everything here absolutely works.

ciderbraisedpork1

If you don’t have a dutch-oven, you can absolutely finish this off in your slow cooker. My advice would be to start this meal out the way I recommend, by searing, sautéing, the whole-9…then finish it off in your slow cooker. You can choose High or Low heat, it’s up to you. Just be prepared to enjoy one tasty bounty of porky deliciousness. ciderbraisedpork2 ciderbraisedpork3 ciderbraisedpork5

Serve this up alongside some white wine braised brussel sprouts, and maybe some creamy roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and enjoy the well deserved nap you’re bound to take later.

For more delicious recipes, visit PorkBeInspired.com

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Cider-braised Pork Shoulder

  • Author: Resha from CarnalDish
  • Prep Time: 48 hours
  • Cook Time: 4 hours
  • Total Time: 52 hours
  • Yield: 12-16
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Description

The perfect pork recipe for the holidays

Ingredients

  • 1 bone-in pork shoulder, excess fat removed
  • 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 cup dijon mustard
  • kosher salt
  • black pepper
  • Braising ingredients:
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large honey crisp apple, cored and chopped
  • 1 large yellow onion, chopped
  • 1 bulb fennel, chopped
  • 2 cups apple cider
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 sprig fresh rosemary, left whole
  • 5 sprigs fresh thyme, left whole
  • pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 star anise (optional)
  • salt & pepper, to taste

Instructions

  1. Remove excess fat from pork shoulder if necessary. There should be a quarter-inch layer of fat left. Score the fat cross-wise, careful not to cut into the meat. Inject pork shoulder with worcestershire sauce, and rub thoroughly with dijon mustard. Season with kosher salt and black pepper. Cover with plastic wrap and let marinate 24-48 hours in the refrigerator.
  2. When ready to cook, take the pork shoulder out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature for at least an hour before searing. Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees.
  3. Heat olive oil in a large heavy-bottom dutch oven over medium-high heat until you start to see wisps of smoke. Lay the pork shoulder fat-side down and allow the fat cap to sear and render for about 3-5 minutes, or until golden brown. Brown all sides of the pork shoulder until golden brown, about 3-5 minutes per side. Remove pork shoulder from dutch oven, and set aside. You should have flavorful brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Pour off all the remaining fat, reserving 3 tablespoons.
  4. Sautee the onions, fennel, apples, and crushed red pepper in the reserved fat until translucent and softened, about 8 minutes. Add the pork back to the onion, fennel, and apple mixture, making sure the veggies and fruit provide a nice “bed” for the pork. You can bring up some of the veggies/fruit mixture up the sides of the pork as well. Pour in the apple cider and water into the dutch oven, making sure it comes up 3/4 the sides of the pork — it shouldn’t be covered in liquid. If you don’t have enough liquid, pour in more water until you’ve reached 3/4 up the sides of the pork. Add the rosemary, thyme, star anise (if using), cover the dutch oven and bring to a boil. Once the pork has reached a full rolling boil, place the dutch oven into your pre-heated 300 degree oven, and braise for 3 hours with the lid on. Remove the lid after 3 hours, and braise an additional hour.
  5. Remove the dutch-oven from the oven, and let the pork shoulder cool for about 20 minutes. Skim any excess fat from the top of the liquid. Taste the braising juices and adjust seasoning as needed. Carefully carve slices of the tender meat and serve.

Notes

If you do not have a large dutch-oven, you can use a slow cooker instead. Sear the meat, cook the aromatics until they’re softened, then add everything to your slow cooker. Cook on desired high or low heat setting until the meat is completely tender.

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Chef Resha

Chef Resha is an accomplished self-taught private chef, home cook, public figure, and recipe developer based in the DC Metro area. Creator and owner of CarnalDish — an incredibly delicious and renowned website full of sinful comfort food recipes made with love. CarnalDish has been featured on Good Morning Washington, Ebony magazine, Essence, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Newport, The Dr. Oz Show, and many more notable publications.

https://carnaldish.com

Crispy Roasted Chicken with Creamy Marsala Sauce

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Hey yawl! This recipe and video is the first installment of my Roasted Chicken Series on Youtube. I am ALWAYS roasting a chicken, at least once a week, so why not? Roasted chicken is literally my favorite thing to eat. That intense aroma that permeates your soul and wraps its arms around you like an old relative you haven’t seen in years. The sexy scent of herbs, citrus, and garlic infusing your kitchen and invading your nose — oh, it’s to die for. However, a lot of people struggle with roasting a chicken and I for the love of me, can’t figure out why. It’s one of the most simple things to prepare, so hopefully this will help you guys out. I think that once you know a few basics, you can carry those facts thru each chicken you roast and do them differently each time and still achieve phenomenal, delicious results. Roasted Chicken Marsala First things first — To achieve a crispy skin, you have to remove excess surface moisture. Paper towels will absolutely do the job. When the protein is too wet, that water on the surface will steam, and prohibit browning. Browning, in this case, is also known as the maillard reaction. My-Yard-what?? Well, it’s a simple. When sugars reduce and animo acids intertwine, they cause a chemical reaction (known as maillard), and that is how food browns. So when you’re searing seafood, poultry, beef, or pork, and color develops, that is what’s going on. Just remember, wet surface = steamy, possibly flabby skin and/or texture, and a dry surface = a better promoted maillard reaction.

So, now that you understand why our chicken has to have a dried surface, you also have to understand that for this particular goal, we need to add a fat. The fat we’re adding today is olive oil. If you don’t have olive oil, you can use another oil such as avocado, canola, or grapeseed. Why not butter? Well, while butter does give chicken an amazing flavor on the outside, let me explain to you how butter works. Butter contains water and milk solids. When butter is applied to a chicken that is to be roasted at a high temperature, the water can prevent the skin from really crisping to it’s full potential AND, the milk solids will absolutely burn — there’s no way to avoid it. Butter is better for chicken that is roasting at a lower temperature (under 400 degrees). You could add a little clarified butter to an oil if you choose, but for this method, stick to using just one fat. Olive oil helps with the hot-oven sear we’re going for. Preheating our cast iron skillet is key to helping us achieve a crispy skin on the bottom of the chicken — an area that usually stays pretty flabby otherwise. Searing the bottom immediately gives it a head start so that all of those juices stay sealed and we have great texture and flavor.

chickenmarsala3

There is no need to brine your chicken because we are doing what is known as a high-roast. This means we are simply roasting it in a super hot oven so that the outside surface of the chicken sears and traps all of the wonderful juices inside of the bird. When you roast a chicken at a lower temperature, you’ll still have juicy meat, but the skin may be kinda soggy. We want crisp skin, and juicy, flavorful meat. Kosher salt is key, as it also helps draw moisture to the surface, promoting a nice sear, and it really infuses the meat during the short time it roasts in the oven. So don’t be shy about seasoning this bird with a generous amount of kosher salt on the skin AND inside the cavity.

Also, because we’re doing a high-roast, it’s important that you know many other seasonings can burn if applied to the surface of the skin. I have found that Herbes de Provence seem to hold up quite well in high heat situations, so that is the only other flavoring component we’re using aside from kosher salt and black pepper. Don’t add granulated garlic or onion to the skin, they will burn — trust me.

What is in Herbes de Provence? The main ingredients are rosemary, thyme, savory, marjoram, and lavender. Some recipes include oregano, parsley, and even tarragon. It can vary, but for the most part, if you have the first five main ingredients, you’re ok. All of these wonderful herbs add to the aroma and flavor of our chicken, and make it so incredibly amazing.

Roasted Chicken Marsala

The marsala sauce we’re making is very simple and straightforward. Caramelizing the mushrooms is key here, because that is going to give our sauce a much deeper flavor. It all comes together in about 15-20 minutes, and it’ll taste like a sauce you spent a good hour on. It’s all about building flavors. Allowing the mushrooms to brown and create a nice fond at the bottom of the pan really build up a dope sauce. Adding just a little heavy cream give it the right amount of creaminess and body, while the lemon zest brightens it up perfectly.

I used a compound butter for the base of my sauce — which is a mix of unsalted butter, garlic, herbs (parsley, rosemary, thyme, and oregano), and lemon zest. If you don’t have a compound butter, just sprinkle in some fresh flat-leaf parsley at the end to brighten the whole dish up and give it a nice touch of freshness. The marsala sauce will be loose but shouldn’t be flat out watery nor gloopy and thick. As long as it lightly coats the back of a spoon, you’re good money.

chickenmarsala5 Ready to make this? Of course you are. Video instructions below, recipe below that. Enjoy!

EQUIPMENT/ITEMS USED

Cast Iron Skillet
http://amzn.to/1m9BVpd

Garlic Press
http://amzn.to/1JUDiDR

Chef’s Knife
http://amzn.to/1m9CaRc

Cutting Board
http://amzn.to/1QDWgha

Herbes de Provence
http://amzn.to/23G8GMF

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Crispy Roasted Chicken with Creamy Marsala Sauce

  • Author: Resha from CarnalDish
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Description

How to make a crispy high-roast chicken with a creamy mushroom marsala sauce.

Ingredients

For the chicken:

For the Marsala Sauce:

  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 cup onions, diced
  • 3 cups mushrooms, sliced (I used baby portobellos and shiitakes)
  • 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 1/2 tbsp flour
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 1 cup marsala wine
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • *2 additional tbsp unsalted butter to finish
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
  • herbes de provence, to taste
  • zest of one lemon
  • fresh flat-leaf parsley to garnish

Instructions

  1. *Please refer to Youtube video for detailed instructions
  2. Preheat cast iron skillet in a 435 degree oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and add prepared chicken.
  3. Roast for 50-60 minutes, or until breast meat registers 160 degrees and thigh meat registers 170 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Let chicken rest for 15-20 minutes while you make the sauce.
  4. Melt butter and heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions, cook until softened and lightly browned, about 5 minutes.
  5. Season with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flake.
  6. Add mushrooms, cook until they caramelize, about 8-12 minutes.
  7. Add garlic, cook 30 seconds.
  8. Add flour, stir until absorbed, then add chicken stock and marsala wine. Bring to boil, then reduced to medium. Let simmer for about 5 minutes. Add heavy cream. Once slightly thickened, turn off the heat and add butter. Add lemon zest and fresh parsley.
  9. Serve with the chicken, and enjoy.
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Chef Resha

Chef Resha is an accomplished self-taught private chef, home cook, public figure, and recipe developer based in the DC Metro area. Creator and owner of CarnalDish — an incredibly delicious and renowned website full of sinful comfort food recipes made with love. CarnalDish has been featured on Good Morning Washington, Ebony magazine, Essence, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Newport, The Dr. Oz Show, and many more notable publications.

https://carnaldish.com

Sweet-n-Spicy Garlic Ginger Chicken Wings

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Happy Saturday! Today I’m gonna show you how to make crispy chicken wings in the oven without any added fat. This crisping technique has been around for years, and is very popular amongst those who hate flabby baked chicken wings. This is a wing recipe that can be adapted ANY way you want. Once you crisp up the wings, the world is yours — you can do so many different and delicious things.

How do we make our chicken wings crispy? We simply coat them with aluminum-free baking powder along with other spices, and let them do their thing. When the fat and liquid escape from the chicken’s surface, it bonds with the carbon dioxide in the baking powder, creating tiiiny pockets of air that crisp up and harden in the oven. A hardened surface, gives us a crispier wing. This is awesome when you want to lower your fat content but still have something for your chicken’s sauce to cling to. Nobody likes flabby wings.

Sweet n Spicy Garlic Ginger Chicken Wings

I have to drum this into your head — PLEASE make sure your wings are completely dried. Pat them THOROUGHLY with paper towels. This method will not work if your wings are soaking wet. The water will cause them to steam and you won’t get that nice crisp texture. Chicken will always have a level of moisture, no matter how good you dry it, but just try to remove as much surface moisture as you possibly can. In the video, you can see that as I’m tossing my wings with the baking powder mixture, there are no signs of wetness inside the bowl. So again, make sure your wings are nice and dry — the skin should feel tacky, and it’ll be just enough tackiness for the baking powder mixture to stick to.
Sweet n Spicy Garlic Ginger Chicken Wings Sweet n Spicy Garlic Ginger Chicken Wings Sweet n Spicy Garlic Ginger Chicken Wings

You won’t taste the baking powder, so don’t worry about that, but it’s important you use aluminum-free baking powder for this method. You can find it anywhere you buy food.

Feel free to use chicken wings that have already been cut into party-wings. However, in this economy, I find it more economical to buy a large pack of whole wings, then butcher them myself. I can skip paying for someone else to do it this way, and I get to keep the tips and freeze them later for stock or making schmaltz (beautiful rendered chicken fat).

Lastly, this isn’t really a recipe — it’s more of a technique. You can adapt this however you prefer, but I will give you some guidelines and tell you what I used for my version.

I used 4 pounds of whole chicken wings, and you want to use about 1 tablespoon of baking powder per pound of chicken. I used almost 4 tablespoons of baking powder for all of my chicken, but just slightly under. Why? Well, once the tips were removed, that 4 pounds came down to just a little over 3, so I used about 3 1/2 tablespoons of baking powder if I had to guess. For the glaze, use equal parts of honey to samba oelek (garlic chili paste) — quantity is entirely upon you. I’d say I used about 1/3 cup of each. Rice wine vinegar was used for my recipe, but you can use water or the juice from your lime if you don’t have it. The rice wine gives it a nice bit of tanginess to cut thru the sweetness and spiciness, and it also loosens up the honey so it’s easier to toss with the chicken. I used about 1 teaspoon of low-sodium soy sauce for color and earthy saltiness, a bit of umami savoriness. You can use as much ginger as you want. If you can’t find fresh ginger, I’m pretty sure it comes minced in a jar — but please find fresh if you can, there’s nothing like it.

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Sweet-n-Spicy Garlic Ginger Chicken Wings

  • Author: Resha from CarnalDish
  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Cook Time: 55 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hour 15 mins
  • Yield: 6-8 servings
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Ingredients

  • 4 pounds chicken wing parts, patted dry!

For the baking powder mixture:

For the glaze:

  • Equal parts honey and garlic chili paste (Sambal Oelek), quantity is up to you.
  • 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated (feel free to add more)
  • 1 – 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
  • 1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Garnish

  • Lime zest
  • Chives
  • Cilantro (optional)
  • Toasted sesame seeds

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425
  2. In a small bowl, combine all glaze ingredients, taste and adjust, then set aside.
  3. Thoroughly coat chicken with baking powder mixture, and bake in the center of your oven on a baking rack over a foil lined baking sheet for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, flip all pieces over and bake an additional 20 minutes. Lastly, remove from oven and flip once more and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes or until chicken is crisp. Let chicken rest 5 minutes, then toss in 1/2 of your glaze mixture to coat. If it needs more, add more.
  4. Garnish with chives, lime zest, cilantro (if using), and toasted sesame seeds.
  5. Serve.

Notes

Use about 1 tablespoon of aluminum-free baking powder per pound of chicken. If your wings are particularly tiny in size, cooking times will definitely vary. You may want to shave about 10-20 minutes off total cooking time for smaller wings. If you have leftover glaze, it can be refrigerated for up to a week.

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Chef Resha

Chef Resha is an accomplished self-taught private chef, home cook, public figure, and recipe developer based in the DC Metro area. Creator and owner of CarnalDish — an incredibly delicious and renowned website full of sinful comfort food recipes made with love. CarnalDish has been featured on Good Morning Washington, Ebony magazine, Essence, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Newport, The Dr. Oz Show, and many more notable publications.

https://carnaldish.com

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