Fennel-Garlic Grilled Chicken Legs

This week has been a slurry of ups and downs.  School has been hectic.  Work has been insane (September 1st marking the 1st day that people should start getting flu shots - p.s. go get one!).  And I'm just so undoubtedly happy that it's Friday.  For one, I've got the entire weekend off now!  (I was supposed to work on Monday, but somebody picked up my shift - hey, I get paid anyway, so I had to jump on that!) 

And tonight is Trolley Hop Friday in Louisville. What is Trolly Hop, you ask?  Well, it occurs on the first Friday of every month and it's basically a reason to go out and check out local shops, eat, and check out local art galleries on Market St. (A main cross-section through downtown!)  Of course, I'll be going for the food, which we've got group reservations at 732 Social, which we've been wanting to try since it opened up last year.  Their menu is all farm-fresh, local ingredients, and it's always changing due to what's in season.  And I love that about a restaurant, so I'm extremely excited about going.  And they have a good drink selection (or so I'm told)... and after the week I've had, I definitely need one!

This weekend is also World Fest, which is sponsored by Louisville Metro.  It basically showcases the diversity that Louisville and Kentucky have. (yeah, I know what you're thinking... Kentucky = rednecks, how diverse could it be?)  But you'd be surprised at how extreme the diversity is in my little mid-western neck of the woods!  So there's plenty of international events (even a large Naturalization Ceremony, which I think is really cool!), international music, and my personal favorite part of it all... all of the ethnic/international restaurants in town will be showcasing their food!  Yeah... you had to have known that there would be food going on! 

So hopefully Monday I'll have great pictures of how (hopefully) good the long weekend turned out to be! 

This grilled chicken was simple, flavorful, and definitely pleases a crowd!  Serve with simple vegetables like carrots and brussels sprouts and you'll have yourself a great meal in no time!

Ingredients:
Adapted from a Food & Wine recipe

2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon fennel seed
3/4 teaspoon oregano
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1 & 1/2 teaspoons olive oil, plus more for brushing
4-5 whole chicken legs

For Gravy (optional):
1 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon butter

In a small bowl, combine the garlic, fennel, oregano, red pepper, and salt.  Add in olive oil.  Stir and seaons with salt and pepper to taste.

Make 2 diagonal slits on each side of each chicken leg.  You want to cut almost to the bone so that the spices can get in those crevices. 

Rub the garlic-fennel "paste" on each chicken leg and set in shallow glass dish.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Light a charcoal grill under medium high heat.  Brush chicken with olive oil and grill over indirect heat, covered, for about 25 minutes, turning once or twice, or until chicken is white throughout.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, melt butter under medium high heat.  Stir in flour and let slightly brown, about 1 minute.  Slowly add chicken stock and simmer until you get a desired thickness.  Set aside.

Top chicken legs with gravy (if desired) and serve with fresh vegetables and dig on in!  Enjoy!

Everybody have a great Labor Day!!!

Food Science Friday and Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad

Alright, second installment of Food Science Friday. This week's article:

'Inverse Method to Estimate Kinetic Degradation Parameters of Grape Anthocyanins in Wheat Flour Under Simultaneously Changing Temperature and Moisture' by Lai et al., Journal of Food Science 2009, Vol. 74. No. 5 (this one just had an abstract up for free, so couldn't link to the full article unfortunately)

I know what you're thinking... what the hell does that title even mean. And if you're not thinking that, I'll be the first to admit this is probably one of the toughest journal articles I've ever read. It had a lot of charts, lots of mathematical formulas... and lots of physics related jargon. And I don't know if I've expressed how much I hate the subject of physics... but I do... with a passion.

So why read this article then? Well...the article is basically discussing a new way to measure or analyze degradation of anthocyanins. And now I know you're thinking... what the hell are anthocyanins?

Well, anthocyanins are water-soluble compounds that give certain fruits and vegetables their noticeable pigments... the reason grapes are purple, blueberries are blue, tomatoes are red... get it?

Anthocyanins actually play a major role in many of today's processed snacks. It allows extrusion-cooked (basically cooking prepared foods in a short amount of time, find out more here) snacks (cereal, pet food, puffed snacks, etc.) to attain a natural pigment and also provides health-promoting antioxidants.

Anthocyanins are particularly important in the wine industry because the value of most wine increases based on the color and flavor of the grape.

What I take from the study, even though I didn't really go in depth with it here, is that the degradation of anthocyanins also degrades the quality of a product. So they measured degradation using different methods so develop a formula for how fast or slow the anthocyanins degrade. Yeah, does that make sense? Maybe not, but I'd love to hear any feedback. This article was a bit of a bore for me really, like I said... a LOT of math and graphs. Most of which didn't make any sense. If you'd like to read the article I can e-mail you a PDF of it, or if you just have any general input on the subject, feel free to comment! I'll definitely try to have something more interesting next week!

Ingredients:
Adapted from Now Eat This! - "Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad"

small French baguette, cut into 1 inch slices
3 garlic cloves, 1 whole and 2 pressed
salt and pepper, to taste
3 chicken thighs, skinless and boneless, pounded thin
olive oil
juice from 1 lemon
5 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 to 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
10 oz. chopped Romaine lettuce

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

To make your croutons, rub the whole garlic clove on all sides of the sliced baguette. Cut the slices into desired sized cubes and place on baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper and add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Toss the cubes well in the olive oil. Bake in oven for about 10 minutes or until toasted. Let cool.

Preheat a charcoal grill under high heat. Rub chicken with about 1 teaspoon olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill chicken for about 2-3 minutes per side, depending on how thin/thick they are. Let cool on plate.

In a large salad bowl, combine the pressed garlic, lemon juice, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, and half of the Parmesan cheese. Mix until smooth and add in lettuce and croutons. Season with salt and pepper to taste and toss until everything is well coated.

Pile salad onto plates. Slice chicken thighs and serve on top of salad. Top with remaining cheese and dig in!

Andy couldn't get enough of this. This was super healthy and super delicious. I've never made Caesar salad without using anchovy in the dressing prep, so I was a little skeptical about this tasting correctly, but it was definitely spot on! One of the best caesar salads I've ever had!

Don't forget to place your bid on your favorite horse for the Derby! Derby is one of the best events to have a party for... basically because you're only glued to a TV for less than 2 minutes and the rest of the time you can mingle and socialize! Whatever you do this weekend, be safe and enjoy it! Enjoy!

Raspberry-Walnut Grilled Chicken Salad

We never have salad for dinner. But, to go along with our healthy eating, I figured why not. I've got to get that bikini body ready somehow and I've only got 1 more week until our vacation! I'm definitely in need of one considering I've taken two summer classes already and yesterday was my last day. It was a relief lifted off of my back to know that I got an A in both!

Anyway, got off on a little tangent there, but I was browsing some recipes and found this lovely cherry chicken salad recipe over at More Please.

I WAS going to use dried cranberries instead of cherries, but I forgot to save some cranberries from our cranberry-bacon fried rice the other day, that I just opted to do without the fruit because I was too lazy to go to the grocery. And a couple other tweaks also...

Ingredients:

2 Chicken Breasts
1 tablespoon strawberry jam
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon raspberry walnut vinaigrette
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon shallot, minced
salt and pepper to taste
bag of spring mix
1/4 cup maple sage walnuts
1 cup walnuts
3 tablespoons syrup
1 teaspoon dried sage or 1 fresh sage leaf chopped finely
4 tablespoon goat cheese

Combine jam, 1 tablespoon raspberry walnut (or any fruity vinaigrette really), olive oil, lime juice, lemon juice, shallow, salt and pepper in medium sized bowl. Add chicken and mixture into plastic bag and let marinate for about 2-3 hours.

While chicken is marinating, you can make the maple sage walnuts. These were probably my favorite part of the salad. Such a good use of walnuts.

In a small skillet under medium heat, add walnuts, syrup, sage, and a pinch of salt and cook for about 3-4 minutes. Make sure syrup covers all of the walnuts and let cool. Easy huh??


When chicken is finished marinating, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Heat medium sized oven proof skillet under medium to high heat and sear chicken until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. (as an alternative to an oven proof skillet, you could always lay a baking sheet in the oven while it's preheating, and when done searing chicken on stove, add chicken to hot sheet pan). Then put skillet in oven and cook chicken for about 10 more minutes. The searing of the chicken on the stove first allows the chicken to be "sealed" with flavor, and in my experience, I've found this to make the chicken juicier while it's in the oven, not dried out.

When chicken is cooked through, allow it to rest for about 5 minutes.

Prepare even amounts of spring mix on two plates. Slice chicken and add on top of salad. Sprinkle walnuts, goat cheese, and if you want to some dried fruit (cranberries, strawberries, or cherries). Then drizzle vinaigrette over salad and serve!


This is definitely a delicious and light meal that's great on a hot summer day!