Celebrity Chefs

Ways to Prepare Crispy Fried Chicken

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Crispy. Crunchy. Tasty. Best eaten with hands. What else could this be but the all-time favorite fried chicken.

The month of July is significant in the U.S. It’s during this month when the country marks the National Fried Chicken Day specifically every 6th of July.

The first fried chicken in the U.S. was created in the countryside in the south. It was prepared in a straightforward manner — soaked in buttermilk then seasoned with flour by shaking the chicken in a brown paper bag and then fried in a cast-iron skillet. History has it that the oldest recipe for this popular food written by Mary Randolph dates back to 1928 and published in The Virginia House-Wife.

Today, there are numerous variations of the fried chicken. The difference is in the way they are prepared from seasoning to marinating.

Marinating the chicken in your preferred spices and seasoning is a must if you want to make it tasty. Letting it stay in the marinade overnight is strongly recommended. This way, the flavors can really get into the chicken.

If you want it well-done and juicy on the inside, you can also boil the chicken first then marinate it afterwards.

To achieve that crisp, there are various steps that you can take. One way is to dredge it directly in flour or cornstarch. You can do it once but to create a thick crust, you need to double dredge. By doing the double dredge, you can be sure that your fried chicken stays crunchy even if it won’t be eaten right away.

Another way is to dip it first in beaten egg before dredging it in flour. The goal here is to make the flour stick well to the chicken and the egg does this job well.

Photo by easychickenrecipee

Quick and Easy Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

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Here’s one more yummy recipe worth trying out, fresh from one of last week’s episodes of Ready Steady Cook, by one of the show’s regular chefs, James Martin.

Perfect for a quick weekday supper and easy enough to whip up when unexpected guests arrive, this is one dish that will please the entire family (just omit the salsa for the little ones and serve it as in the photo above, with greens and pasta).

Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Ingredients

1 chicken breast
30g/1oz Emmental cheese, grated
sprig fresh thyme
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil

For the basil oil
1 tbsp olive oil
small bunch fresh basil leaves

For the salsa
avocado, peeled and stone removed
red chilli, seeds removed, finely chopped
1 lime, juice only

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. Using a sharp knife, cut a pocket lengthways into the thickest part of the breast. Stuff the pocket with the cheese and fresh thyme and season the breast with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
2. Heat the olive oil in an ovenproof frying pan over a medium heat and add the crushed garlic. Fry for one minute then add the chicken breast and fry until golden-brown. Turn the breast over and transfer to the oven to roast for 10-12 minutes, or until cooked through.
3. For the basil oil, place the olive oil and fresh basil leaves into a food processor and blend until smooth.
4. For the salsa, finely chop the avocado into small cubes and place into a bowl. Sprinkle over the chopped chilli and squeeze over the lime juice.
5. To serve, place the chicken onto a warmed plate. Add a spoonful of the salsa and drizzle the fresh basil oil around the edge of the plate.

Gale Gand’s Glorious Goodies

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Her name could be one of those tounge twisters (try saying it fast 10 times!), but if you’ve seen Gale Gand’s show “Sweet Dreams” on the Food Network, you’ll find that there’s nothing twisted about Gale – in fact, she comes across as a down-to-earth big sister you wish you had, who’ll bake you the most deliciously moist chocolate chip cookies when you’ve been dumped.

Although today she has won numerous accolades for being a fabulous pastry chef, Gale’s first claim to fame was a photograph taken for Life magazine when she was 6 years old, as she was making mud pies.

She’s the executive pastry chef at Tru, a fancy Chigago restaurant popular with connoisseurs, and holds the same position at Cenitare restaurants, LLC, and is polularly known as the lady who makes the best desserts in the city.

Aside from her tv show, Gale has been writing cookbooks since 1997, her sixth and latest one, entitled “Chocolate and Vanilla” is due out in bookstores later this year. Her awards are many and too long to mention, but needless to say, the unassuming Gale has won the praise and respect in the culinary world for her simple talent – creating the most dreamy desserts.
Next time you’re in Chicago, drop into her casual and scrumptuous pastry/coffee bar, simply called “Gale’s Coffee Bar”, and you may bump into Gale herself in another role she loves, this time as Mom with her son Gio and 2-year-old fraternal twin girls, Ella Nora and Ruby Grace. Those lucky kids are bound to be the hit at their future school bake sales.

Anthony Bourdain’s Steak Tartare

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Anthony Bourdain shares this recipe for Steak Tartare in Les Halles Cookbook. “Les Halles, the restaurant, was pretty much created to serve this dish,” he says. “The key to a successful steak tartare is fresh beef, freshly hand-chopped at the very last minute and mixed tableside. A home meat grinder with a fairly wide mesh blade is nice to have, but you can and should use a very sharp knife and simply chop and chop and chop until fine. The texture will be superior. And do not dare use a food processor on this dish – you’ll utterly destroy it.”

Ingredients:

2 egg yolks
2 tbsp Dijon mustard (28 g)
4 anchovy filets, finely chopped
2 tsp ketchup (10 g)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (5 g)
Tabasco sauce, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup salad (i.e., corn or soy) oil (56 ml)
1 oz Cognac (28 ml)
1 small onion, freshly and finely chopped
2 oz capers, rinsed (56 g)
2 oz cornichons, finely chopped (56 g)
4 sprigs of flat parsley, finely chopped
1 1/4 lb. fresh sirloin, finely chopped (560 g)
French fries, optional
4 slices fine quality white bread, toasted, quartered, for toast points

Directions:

Place the egg yolks in a large stainless-steel bowl and add the mustard and anchovies. Mix well, then add the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, and pepper and mix well again. Slowly whisk in the oil, then add the Cognac and mix again. Fold in the onion, capers, cornichons, and parsley.

Add the chopped meat to the bowl and mix well using a spoon or your hands. Divide the meat evenly among the six chilled dinner plates and, using a ring mold or spatula, form it into disks on the plates. Serve immediately with French fries and toasted bread points.

Bolognese ala Batali

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TV chef Mario Batali shares this excellent bolognese recipe. It originally appeared in the magazine, Bon Appetit.

Ingredients
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
2 cups chopped celery
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 lb ground veal
1 lb ground pork
4 ounces pancetta or bacon, finely chopped
2 (14.5 ounce) cans whole tomatoes, in juice
1 (14.5 ounce) can reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup whole milk
5 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme or
2 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
12 ounces fettuccine
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Directions
Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add onions, celery and garlic an saute until vegetables are tender and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Increase heat to high; add veal, pork, pancetta or bacon and saute until meat is brown, breaking up meat with the back of a fork, about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes with their juices, 1 3/4 cups chicken broth, milk and thyme. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 1 hour 15 minutes, breaking up tomatoes with the back of a spoon, adding more chicken broth if mixture is too thick and stirring occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook fettuccine in large pot of boiling water just until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally. Drain. Add fettuccine to pot with ragu and toss to blend. Transfer to large bowl. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup Parmesan.