One Dish Chicken Dinner

Do I have great friends or what?

The Daffodil kitchen was delighted to have guest cook, Tiffiny, put together a fantastic meal for us this weekend.

Following Jamie Oliver's Tender and Crisp Chicken Legs with Sweet Tomatoes recipe, a satisfying main dish came together in about 15 minutes of prep time. Probably could've been done in 10 minutes, but the ladies of the kitchen were gabbing and you know how that goes. 

Jamie's recipes are known for being folksy and down home, and his recipe style follows that with lots of wordy instructions. But at ECUD, we like to get down to the point, especially about food. So here's the simplified recipe.

Tender & Crisp Chicken Legs With Sweet Tomatoes
4 servings

Ingredients

• 4 chicken legs, preferably with thighs attached (alternate chicken pieces could be subbed)
• 1/2 pint or more to taste of cherry tomatoes
• 1 and 1/2 lbs of small yukon gold potatoes, quartered into 1-inch pieces
• 14 ounce can of white beans, such as cannellini 
• 3 shallots, quartered
• 10 basil leaves
• 3 cloves of garlic, whole
• 1/4 Teaspoon chili flakes (optional)
• Olive oil for drizzling
• Salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350°F/180°C/gas 4. Season your chicken pieces all over with salt and pepper and put them into a snug-fitting pan in one layer. Add basil leaves, beans, tomatoes, shallots, garlic, chili flakes. Drizzle with olive oil. Mix around a bit, letting the tomatoes and beans fall to the bottom to reduce their exposure to high heat. 

Assembling the raw ingredients

 Place in the oven for 1½ hours, turning halfway through, until the chicken skin is crisp and the meat falls off the bone.

Squeeze the garlic out of the skins before serving. Serve over pasta if desired.

The meal was rounded out with Lemony Dill Asparagus and Herbed Biscuits.

Okay, I helped a little too. 

Getting my hands dirty between sips of wine

Some more shots of dinner.

Banana Zucchini Bread Recipe

A perfect sweet, but not too sweet, afternoon snack

A family recipe from my home to yours. It's banana bread but with a serving of vegetables and you'd never know it.  This recipe uses both whole wheat and white flour, but subbing all white is fine if that's all you have on hand.

Banana Zucchini Bread

makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 medium zucchinis, shredded
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose white flour
• 1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9x5 inch loaf pans.

Freshly shredded zucchini ready for its transformation

Blend the eggs, buttermilk, oil, bananas and zucchini. *Tip: Peel the zucchini before shredding if you need to disguise it from your hungry crew.

Sift together the sugar, flour, baking soda and salt. (I vary the sugar amounts by 1/4 cup in either direction depending on how sweet I want this.  Adjust it to your liking. ) Add to banana mixture and stir in pecans.

Pour into prepared loaf pans and bake for 55 to 65 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.  It won't be easy, but let the loaves cool to room temperature in their pans before trying to remove. 

Enough delicious loaves to share

 The finished loaves are moist, dense and fragrant with banana.  Enjoy.

Snickerdoodle Biscotti Recipe

Pep up your morning coffee or tea with a biscotti version of that classic childhood cookie, Snickerdoodles. 

Snickerdoodle Biscotti
makes 24 biscotti

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 beaten egg (for brushing) 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with a silpat mat or a piece of parchment paper to prevent sticking.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.

In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Scrape down and beat in the egg and egg yolk. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter.  Mix until all ingredients come together into a moderately stiff dough. Divide the dough in two mounds on the baking sheet. Shape each half of dough into a 8-inch by 3-inch rectangle.  Note that I've angled the sides of my dough to maximize the number of tasty biscotti that result once they're cut on an angle.  The dough will spread considerably so give yourself ample room between the logs.

The angled edges mean more full-sized biscotti per each log.

Whisk together the cinnamon and sugar for the topping. Brush the shaped dough with the beaten egg and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Bake for 20 minutes. Rotate the cookie sheet for even baking and bake for 20-25 more minutes until golden and firm to the touch.

Notice the spread after baking

Remove from the oven and let the biscotti cool until able to handle. Using a sharp knife, cut logs into 3/4-inch wide diagonal slices.  Try to cut each biscotti in one smooth motion.  This will give your biscotti nice clean sides without the edges snagging on the knife the way a sawing motion does.

Place biscotti cut side down on baking sheet and sprinkle with more cinnamon sugar, if desired (I did not). Bake again until pale golden, about 10- 20 minutes.  Check every 5 minutes to ensure that they're not getting overly browned.  Some recipes instruct you to flip your biscotti half way through this process, but I find this unnecessary.  The biscotti will be browned successfully on both sides provided the slices are not overly wide (greater than 1 and 1/2-inches).

 

Your tasty snickerdoodle biscotti will crisp up as they cool.  Enjoy with coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or all by themselves.

Like recipe riffs on traditional biscotti? Take a peek at these posts on Peanut Brittle Biscotti and Mint Biscotti Dipped in Chocolate.

Adapted from EatMakeRead.