Butter is out this month. Sigh.
Tonight’s dinner was a bunch of my go-to dishes reformulated to fit the Whole30 program. Specifically, I removed butter from the dish or switched it out with “approved” fat.
Here’s what was on the menu: Crispy sous vide chicken thighs, roasted broccoli (sans bacon), and winter squash puree:
Here are some of the modifications I made to make this meal Whole30 compliant:
When I vacuum sealed the thighs, I wasn’t sure whether to include a dollop of alternative fat so I decided to go without any additional fat just to see how they’d turn out. Did I do this in the name of science or laziness?
Don’t answer that.
I cooked the thighs in my SousVide Supreme yesterday night (150 F for 2 hours) so all I had to do this evening was crisp up the skin.
I fried them up in 2 tablespoons of macadamia nut oil and discovered that I shoulda included some sort of fat in the bag because the skin stuck to my WELL-seasoned cast iron skillet and I had to forcibly scrape them off with a metal spatula.
Some pieces were okay…
…but other pieces were plain ugly. Tasty, but ugly.
Next time, I’ll include some lard or butter (post Whole30).
For my winter squash puree, I subbed out the butter with some coconut oil and it was delicious!
I don’t always like using coconut oil because the coconut flavor can be too overpowering but it works really well in the puree.
Lastly, I roasted some broccoli with some macadamia nut oil, salt, and pepper.
To finish it off, I drizzled on some aged balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.
I was initially annoyed that I had to modify my recipes with Whole30 approved ingredients but it dragged me out of my cooking rut and I created some tasty variations.
