Chicken, honey? Sure, but it's Honey Chicken.

One night, a few months ago, just when I started shooting almost every meal I made for this here site, my friend came to dinner.

She is a lovely tiny woman. But she can eat. Which is just the kind of friends I love to have. When she arrived, I realized I hadn't come up with a main dish. There were some chicken thighs in the fridge, so I started there. As I thought about what else I had in the house, I came across some fresh oregano and sherry vinegar. The recipe began to form in my head, all I needed was some lemon and a bit of honey and we were off and cooking.

It's a simple affair, if a little messy. I started by heating a pan to super hot, added some oil and salt and put the chicken thighs in skin side down. The fat splatters, so be ready for a little bit of cleanup. The extra step of searing these on the stove top before baking them makes the skin come out super crisp and delicious.

The key to this dish is the combination of the honey, sherry vinegar and oregano. You add these just before the chicken goes into a hot oven for 15 to 20 minutes. And let me tell you, the chicken comes out moist, a little sweet, and very tender. I served it with some roasted brussels sprouts and a quinoa salad. Most delicious.

This past weekend, I found myself with some chicken thighs and recreated the dish for my daughter. She ate two pieces and asked that I save the others for her dinner the next night. A hit, if I do say so myself, and a dish that is so quick to make, I can do it on a weeknight while helping with homework.

So if you are asked "Chicken, honey?" I hope that you respond "Sure, but it's Honey Chicken."

Honey Chicken with Oregano and Sherry Vinegar

makes 4 portions

Ingredients

  • 4 Chicken thighs, skin-on and with bones
  • 4 Tbsps Olive Oil
  • A pinch of Salt
  • 3 sprigs fresh Oregano (or 1 tsp Dried Oregano)
  • 3/4 cup Sherry Vinegar (Red Wine Vinegar works here, or just some leftover White Wine is good, too)
  • 2 Tbsps Honey (I like the dark amber kind)

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Heat up a large non-reactive skillet over high heat.
  3. Put the olive oil and salt in the pan once it is super hot (technical term).
  4. Place the chicken thighs in the pan, skin-side down.
  5. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes until the skin starts to curl up on the edges.
  6. Turn the thighs over. Cook for 1 minute more.
  7. Turn off the heat. Add the sherry vinegar.
  8. Turn the heat back on and cook for 2 minutes.
  9. Add the honey, turn off the heat and put the pan in the preheated oven.
  10. Bake on the top rack of the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until the chicken juice runs clear.
  11. Remove from the oven, let rest for 5 minutes, and then dig in.

Simply Baked Potatoes

Do you love a good baked potato as much as I do?

I noticed that I rarely make them at home these days. Ordering them in a restaurant is out of the question: they always show up soggy and over cooked. But, they are quite easy to make and reheating them is a snap as well.

A good baked potato can really start your day out well. During High School my Dad (Joe, remember him?) used to give me a baked potato for breakfast on occasion. It was a great, warm breakfast with plenty of butter and I recall it keeping me good and full for the morning.

There were some very nice small russet potatoes available at the market this past weekend. I bought a bunch and cooked them up and cooked them in the evening.

The next morning, I reheated them for a few seconds in the microwave and we enjoyed a lovely breakfast. For myself, I put anchovy butter (recipe here) on one and onion and shallot marmalade (recipe here) on the other. For Ms. Iz (my daughter) I just put plain old butter on the baked potato.

The best breakfast ever! Just as I recalled, it lasted all day and I was happy to pass along a nice breakfast memory from my childhood to my daughter.

Baked Potatoes

Ingredients:

Method:

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  • Scrub potatoes under cool water.
  • Cut an X into each potato, not all the way through, to allow the steam to escape as the potatoes cook.
  • Place the potatoes in the hot oven.
  • Cook for about 1 hour, or until the potatoes are soft enough to give a little when pressed with your thumb.
  • Remove from the oven, pop one open, top with your topping of choice and enjoy!

Don't Eat The Unopened Clams!

I'm on some kind of a fish kick right now. It probably has to do with the amount of meat I consumed over the holidays. I've been craving fish and salads, so I'm going with it.

Just after my salade nicoise evening, I decided to make some clams served over a saffron rice. Just before I began to cook, I realized there was no saffron in the house. Gran Fran is always very innovative when it comes to missing ingredients. I thought for a minute, went through my spice cabinet and pulled out the smoky Spanish paprika I love.

Gran Fran uses anisette or vermouth in her saffron rice preparation, but again, I came up empty. A bottle of nice white wine with lots of fennel seed added to the pot, along with some clam juice and lemon juice, saved the day. My McGyver-type survival skills will do Gran Fran proud.

I've often watched her make clams, but I rarely do so myself. If memory serves, Gran Fran would flip out if more than just one or two of the clams she had steamed didn't open up when cooked. Her take on this, I think, was that all of the clams were tainted and maybe we shouldn't eat them because who knows what kind of disease one might get? Botulism? Salmonella? I'd like to point out right here and now that we all made it through, just by avoiding those unopened clams along the way.

But, her fears did come bubbling up within me when I prepared to cook these clams last night. What if I didn't cook them long enough? What about those diseases, or worse yet some unknown hazard came up? I tried to channel the other side of Gran Fran in the kitchen: the devil-may-care cook who throws ingredients in a pan with reckless abandon and comes up with wonderfully delicious dishes in the end.

It worked. The clams turned out great, it was fast and simple and the broth was really interesting with the extra hit of paprika in the end. The rice turned out well, too, though different in flavor than my beloved saffron rice, it was a hit. No one got sick, and the food was delicious.

Steamed Clams with Fennel and Red Rice

serves 4

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound clams, cleaned and soaked in cold water
  • 1 cup white wine
  • 1/2 cup clam juice
  • 2 tbsps lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp dried fennel seeds
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic chopped roughly

Method:

  • Put everything in a large pan and cover with a lid.
  • Bring the mixture to a boil.
  • Cook for 10 minutes.
  • Lift the lid and check to see if all (or almost all) of the clams have opened up.
  • If not, cover and cook for another two minutes.
  • Serve over rice (see below).

Steamed Red Rice

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup white Basmati Rice
  • 1 cup Water
  • 1/3 cup Clam Juice
  • 3 Tbsps Lemon Juice
  • 3 Tbsps Butter
  • 2 tsps Smoked Spanish Paprika
  • 3 cloves Garlic chopped
  • 2 tsps Fennel Seeds
  • 1 Bay Leaf
  • Salt and Pepper to Taste

Method:

  • Put all ingredients except for the rice in a large pot that has a lid.
  • Boil the mixture,then lower it to a simmer for 10 minutes.
  • Add the rice.
  • Return the pot to the boil.
  • Stir once.
  • Reduce the heat to low.
  • Cover the pan and cook for 12 minutes.
  • Turn off the heat and allow to stand for 6 to 8 more minutes until the rice is cooked through.
  • Serve with the clams, using some of the broth the further flavor the rice.