I’ve got a recipe that’s quicker, healthier, and tastier than ordering takeout from your neighborhood Thai joint.  Just grab some chicken (or whatever quick-cooking protein on hand) add some frozen and leftover vegetables, and stir in some curry paste and coconut milk. After a few minutes on the stove, you’ll have a fragrant, flavorful curry. Instead of tipping the delivery guy, you can give yourself a pat on the back instead.

My PSA of the day: Make sure your pantry is stocked with a few Thai curry pastes. My favorite brands are Aroy-D and Mae Ploy and I like yellow, red, and green. You can buy these pastes at most Asian markets, but choose the ones that only contain herbs and spices. Read your labels, folks.

Ingredients (Serves 4 people):

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil or fat of choice
• 1 small onion, chopped medium
• 1-2 tablespoons Thai curry paste (whichever color you prefer)
• 1 cup full-fat coconut milk
• 10 ounces frozen vegetables
• 2 cups leftover roasted kabocha squash
• 2 tablespoons apple juice (optional)
• ¼ cup fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced

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• 1 bunch scallions, trimmed and cut into thirds
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 8 slices of fresh ginger, each approximately the size of a quarter
• 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons macadamia nut oil or fat of choice
• 1 tablespoon coconut aminos
• 1 tablespoon Red Boat fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons honey (or ½ small apple, peeled, cored, and diced)
• ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 4 pounds chicken thighs

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…especially if you live near a Trader Joe’s. 

TJ’s has been in California for almost half a century, but in recent decades, stores have been sprouting up all over the U.S. Each store opening has been met with rabid excitement, and it’s not hard to see why. As Fortune Magazine once put it, ”Trader Joe’s is no ordinary grocery chain. It’s an offbeat, fun discovery zone that elevates food shopping from a chore to a cultural experience.”

The success of the chain is due in large part to its offerings: A tightly-curated selection of budget-friendly upscale goods, gourmet staples, and time-savers like pre-washed bagged kale, trimmed leeks, hardboiled eggs, you name it.

Of course, like just about every other big grocery chain, there’s plenty of super-processed Frankenfoods in the shopping aisles, too. Not everything that TJ’s carries is awesome (or awesome for you), but after two decades of shopping at Trader Joe’s, I still supplement my farmer’s market and CSA hauls with a weekly visit to the friendly workers at TJ’s. After all, there’s always something new to discover.

In fact, just last week, my super chef sister alerted me to one of TJ’s newest items: Organic brined whole chickens!

With this bird, it takes just ten minutes of hands-on prep time to make a complete supper that’s satisfying and flavorful. (A caveat: the chicken ain’t Whole30-approved ‘cause the brine contains some sugar.) While you’re waiting for the chicken to cook in the oven, you’ll have time to cuddle on the couch with your kids — or spend quality time surfing the interwebs. No judgment, I promise.

Here’s what to gather to feed 4-6 people:

The brined chickens at Trader Joe’s are about 5 pounds each, and will easily feed 4 to 6 people. 

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Although the instructions on the packaging tell you to rinse the bird, just blot it dry with a paper towel. (It won’t end up too salty, I promise.)

With a sharp pair of kitchen shears, cut out the back bone…

…and trim away excess fat and skin. (Don’t forget to save the carcass and back bone for bone broth.)

Then, spatchcock the bird: Flip the chicken over and open it up like a book. Using a kitchen knife, cut a ½-inch through the cartilage on the breast bone and firmly press down with your hands to flatten it.

Next, prepare the veggies that will line the roasting pan.

Even though the trimmed leeks from TJ’s look clean, there’s still lots of dirt hidden in the folds. Keeping the root end intact, cut the rest of the leek in half lengthwise.

Give the leek a quarter-turn, and then slice it lengthwise again (at a right angle from the initial cut). Keep the root end intact!

Fan the leaves under running water to release the sand and mud.

Once the leeks are cleaned, flick off the excess water and slice ‘em crosswise.

Chop the carrots in uniform medium chunks…

…and toss them on a tray with the leeks.

Add the quartered mushrooms and toss on some salt and pepper. 

Dot the vegetables with half of the softened butter or ghee (2 tablespoons).

Lay the chicken on top of the seasoned vegetables, breast-side up.

Smush on the remaining two tablespoons of butter or ghee.

Roast the chicken in the oven for 45 minutes or until the breast registers 150° F on a meat thermometer and the thigh meat hits 170° F.

(As you can see, I cooked my chicken in my amazing toaster oven. Yes, my regular oven remains broken. Boo!)

Brined chicken skin doesn’t get as toasty and crispy as a dry-rubbed chicken — but I’ll trade perfectly bronzed skin for juicy meat any day. 

Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let it rest for 15 minutes before carving it. In the meantime, toss the vegetables in the pan with a splash of balsamic vinegar.

While you’re waiting to cut the chicken, sauté some greens to go with your chicken and roasted veggies.

Voilà! 

When Julia Child recommends a fool-proof way to roast a chicken, I sit up, shut up, and listen. 

In celebration of Julia Child’s incredible culinary legacy, this week’s JC100 recipe is the classic roast chicken from Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom. Her techniques and tips for roasting a bird are simple and straightforward, and produce a bird with crispy skin and juicy, succulent meat. Even if — like me — you’re too lazy to baste as often as she recommends, the chicken will taste wonderful. Just make sure to follow this guide for cooking time: 45 minutes + 7 minutes per pound [e.g. 4-pound chicken = 45 + 7(4) = 73 minutes]. Also: Use LOTS of butter.

What I love best about this recipe is that you can double it and roast two chickens at the same time. That way, you’ll have plenty of leftovers and two carcasses with which to make bone broth. Winner, winner….oh, you know the rest.

Here’s what to gather to roast two chickens (serves 6-8 people):

• 2 whole chickens, 4 pounds each
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 1 large lemon, thinly sliced
• 2 small onions, peeled and trimmed
• 1 bunch of fresh thyme
• 4 tablespoons of softened butter
• 1 cup of chopped carrots
• 1 cup of chopped yams
• 1/2 cup of chopped onions

Here’s how to roast the pair o’ birds:

Round up two roast chickens and pat them dry.

Liberally season the birds inside and out with salt and pepper. 

I like to salt my meat for at least a few hours and up to a day before I roast it to maximize  the flavor-boosting potential.

An hour before you’re ready to cook the chickens, take them out of the fridge to come to room temperature. At the same time, put your butter on the counter to soften, and preheat the oven to 425°F.

Once the chickens are no longer chilly, dry them off with a paper towel and stuff the cavities with lemon slices, onion, and thyme.

With a piece of string, tie the drumsticks together…

…and tuck the wingtips back behind the chicken.

Use your fingers to massage the softened butter all over the skin, and lay the chickens breast-side up on the V-rack in a large roasting pan.

Place the roasting pan in the oven for 15 minutes to brown the skin. 

Next, decrease the oven temperature to 350°F and baste every 8 to 10 minutes if you’re so inclined. (Me? I didn’t baste AT ALL. I told you: I’m lazy.)

In a bowl, toss the carrots, yams, and chopped onions…

…with the remaining butter and salt and pepper. 

A half hour after the chicken first went in the oven, add the root vegetables to the pan and toss in the accumulated juices.

Check the chicken for doneness about five minutes before the recommended weight-based cooking time (see formula above) is up. (I checked my pair of 4-pound chickens at the 70 minute mark.) Use an instant read thermometer to make sure the thighs reach 165-170° F.

Remove the rack from the roasting pan and let the chicken rest for 20 minutes prior to carving.

Spoon on the root vegetables, carve up the birds, and dig in.

I’ve been hankering for an Asian chicken salad with a nutty dressing for a while – especially since I got my hands on some Red Boat fish sauce.

When I held the Red Boat fish sauce Twitter and Facebook giveaway a few weeks ago, George Z. posted a recipe for a Thai “peanut” sauce that he originally found on the wonderful Primal food blog, This Primal Life. I modified it a little bit by adding a touch of applesauce for sweetness and subbing out rice wine vinegar with coconut vinegar. All in all, it’s a tasty dressing that you can use as a dipping sauce or drizzle on your favorite meats and veggies.

Check out the recipe after the jump!

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Did that title catch your attention? Good.

This recipe was inspired by David Lebovitz — whom I’ve already written about crushing on. I love his easy and delicious recipe for roast chicken with caramelized shallots, and this is my take on it. It’s super simple and scrumptious — MAKE IT ALREADY!

I’ve prepared this dish a number of different ways (subbing in different alliums, vinegars, and fats) depending on what I have available in my pantry, and it always comes out wonderfully. 

Here’s how I made enough chicken to feed 6:

• 10 drumsticks
• 2 large shallots, minced**
• 3 Calçot onions or scallions, thinly sliced**
• 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 3 tablespoons avocado oil, virgin red palm oil, coconut oil, etc.
• 1 tablespoon coconut aminos
• 1 tablespoon Red Boat fish sauce
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• Fines herbes (optional)

(*in place of the alliums, you can sub in 3 tablespoons of Penzeys Spices’ Sunny Paris seasoning)

Here’s how to make it:

Mix together the shallots, onions, vinegar, oil, coconut aminos, salt (2 large pinches), fish sauce, and pepper in a large bowl.

Then, plop the drumsticks on top, and…

…use your hands to make sure the chicken is well-covered in marinade.

Allow the chicken to marinate in the fridge for a few hours. Personally, if I know I’m going to be short on time (which is almost always), I marinate this dish in the morning — that way, the drumsticks’ll be ready for me by the late afternoon, when I start preparing dinner.

When you’re ready to cook, preheat the oven to 375 F on convection bake (or 400 F non-convection). Arrange the chicken in an oven-safe baking dish, sprinkle on some Fines Herbes seasoning (if you want), and pop it in the oven.

Bake the chicken for 40-45 minutes, flipping the pieces halfway through the cooking time.

Arrange the drumsticks on a platter, and…

Pour the cooking liquid over the chicken.

Simple and ridiculously good!

Man, oh man, this chicken dish is easy and delicious! Provided you have some Penzeys Tandoori seasoning on hand…

You do need to plan ahead a little bit because the chicken has to marinate for at least 4 hours, but the actual hands-on time is pretty minimal. In fact, this dish can be thrown together in about 10 minutes before you head off to work and it will be ready to bake when you get home. (Or, if you’re a night shift worker like me, you can throw it together in the morning before going to bed and it will be ready to go when you wake up.) I followed the tandoori chicken recipe on Penzeys Spices website with a few modifications and my results were quite remarkable.

Here’s what to assemble:

• 4 pounds chicken thighs, bone-in and skin-on
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 cup full fat Greek yogurt (or substitute full fat coconut milk)
• 1 heaping tablespoon Penzeys tandoori seasoning
• Juice from ½ a lemon
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil or fat of choice

Here’s what to do:

Grab your thighs and trim off any excess blobs of fat. Season the chicken parts evenly with kosher salt and stick ‘em in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, combine the yogurt and the tandoori seasoning.

Pour in the lemon juice and mix well to combine.

Sometimes little hands are better at this step.

Once the marinade is ready…

…spoon it over the salted chicken…

…and work it into the poultry with your hands. 

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for 4 to 8 hours to marinate.

When you’re ready to bake the chicken, preheat the oven to 375°F on convection roast setting (or 400°F in a non-convection oven).

Place a wire rack on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Grease the rack with a paper towel dipped in melted coconut oil.

Arrange the chicken on the rack skin-side down…

….and pop the tray in the oven for about 40 minutes…

…flipping the pieces skin-side up at the halfway mark.

The chicken’s done when there’s yummy charred bits all over and the juices run clear when stabbed with a skewer.

This dish was super-duper easy, moist, and delicious to boot. Get your keisters to a Penzeys ASAP!

I’m obsessed with good food so I’ve always checked out food blogs to get ideas about what to cook or where to eat.  But since going Paleo, I’ve been dismayed to find that most of the recipes on my favorite food blogs are, unfortunately, carb-heavy dishes with Neolithic ingredients that I’ll be able to cook only as an occasional F-off/cheat meal.

That’s why I got so excited when I found Dorie Greenspan’s recipe for Chicken-In-The-Pot. Dorie is an effing genius in the kitchen, and her well-written blog is so much fun to read. She’s definitely one of my food-blogging idols.

I made Chicken-In-The-Pot tonight with some modifications to make it Whole30 compliant and to customize it for my tastes. Dorie’s recipe is super-simple, really flexible, and the resulting dish was amazingly delicious.

Here’s what I assembled:

• Approximately 2/3 cup avocado oil (in place of extra virgin olive oil)
• 4 heads of garlic, broken into cloves, but left unpeeled
• 16 shallots, peeled and trimmed
• 8 carrots, peeled, trimmed and quartered
• 4 celery stalks, trimmed and quartered
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 4 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary 
(she calls for 3 sprigs but my sprig was extra bushy – and I don’t really like this herb)
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 16 prunes (USE THEM! Don’t be afraid to add fruit to your savory dishes!)
• 3 pounds of organic chicken drumsticks (you can also use 1 chicken, whole or cut-up but I like all dark meat)
• 1 small green cabbage cut into 8 wedges (try Savoy cabbage)
• 1 ½ cup chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (I used extra chicken broth and the vinegar to replace the white wine called for in the original recipe)

Here’s what I did:

I preheated my oven to 450° F, assembled all my ingredients, and prepped my veggies.

(I ended up cutting the cabbage into eight wedges post photo, by the way.)

In two batches, I browned the garlic, shallots, carrots, and celery in a couple tablespoons of avocado oil over medium high heat…

…and placed the browned vegetables in my large Dutch oven. I added the herbs, lemon zest, and prunes to the vegetables and mixed everything together.

Don’t be leave out the prunes – they help balance the dish.

I love this brand:

(These super moist, sweet prunes make Sunsweet prunes taste like dessicated turds. I’m just sayin’…)

I seasoned my drumsticks with salt and pepper…

…and browned them in avocado oil over medium high heat (the browning part is optional per Dorie).

Then, I put the drumsticks on top of the vegetables in the Dutch oven and I added the cabbage wedges.

I whisked the chicken broth, ½ a cup of avocado oil, and apple cider vinegar together and poured it over the cabbage.

After adding a sprinkle of salt and pepper on top, I laid a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil over the top of the cabbage, put my lid on top, and crimped the edges of the foil up and over the lip of the lid to form a tight seal.

Lastly: Into my oven for 70 minutes.

It smelled so good when I took the cover off!

I served the chicken with garlic and purple cauliflower mashed “potatoes” and baked Japanese yam.

Good stuff. I can’t wait to get Dorie’s new book in the mail in two days…

About a month ago, I posted videos of Michael Voltaggio’s recipe for sous vide crispy chicken thighs but tonight was the first time I actually made them. Man, his recipe is awesome. I’m competent in the kitchen but this recipe (and the SousVide Supreme) will make you look like a phenomenal cook. The only hands-on stuff I had to do was season the thighs, vacuum seal them with a pat of butter, dump them in the water bath, and brown them. I seasoned the thighs differently from how Mr. Voltaggio did but I followed his technique and that’s the part that will make you look like you have mad skillz.

Here’s what I assembled:

• 6 skin-on, boneless chicken thighs
• Kosher salt
• freshly ground pepper
• Your favorite seasoning
• 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter, ghee, or duck fat
• 2 tablespoons of lard

I started with my store-bought, skin-on, boneless thighs.  Hey, if you guys have great knife skills debone the thighs yourself.  I don’t have the skills or the time or the inclination. Sorry.

[Update on 5/30/12: I have since honed my deboning skills and I routinely use bone-in and skin-on thighs. I save the bones for quick pressure cooker bone broth.]

I patted the thighs dry and then I seasoned the flesh side with salt and pepper and some seasoning (I used garlic powder and dried thyme).

 Then, I vacuum sealed each thigh with a pat of butter.

I dunked all six thighs in my SousVide Supreme set at 150 F and I left them in there for 1.5 hours. When I took them out of the bath, I dunked two thighs in an ice bath (to cook off later in the week) and I stuck the other four thighs in between two baking sheets with my cast iron skillets on top for around 30 minutes.

I removed the flattened thighs from the plastic bags and dried them thoroughly.

I heated 2 tablespoons of lard over medium heat (not high) and when the lard started smoking, I added two thighs, skin side down.  I left them undisturbed for 5 minutes and then I flipped them over and fried them for an additional minute. 

Then, I removed the chicken thighs and placed them on a wire rack…

…before sprinkling some fleur de sel over the crisped skin.

You can serve the chicken thighs with your veggie sides of choice. 

These thighs are awesome.  Super crispy skin and juicy, tender, flavorful meat. It takes so little time and tastes so good!  Definitely a dish I’d serve company because you can sous vide it ahead of time and just crisp up the skin when it’s time to nosh. I can’t wait to fry up my remaining two thighs in the fridge…