Weekend Cooking- Chicken Week on the Today Show

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

I flipped on the TV one morning this week and found myself in luck as Kathie Lee and Hoda were celebrating Chicken Week on The Today Show with a recipe I thought my husband would enjoy- 30 Garlic Clove Chicken.

The ingredient list was simple, all fresh ingredients, and the directions were easy as well. The only things I needed to get at the grocery store were some fresh rosemary and bone-in chicken thighs.

The prep only took fifteen minutes to brown the chicken first, then the onions, garlic and rosemary. Add the wine, cover and pop into the oven for one and one half hours.

It was a good night to make this dish, as my poor husband had a heckuva time getting home from work that night. President Obama was in town, which meant that traffic would be a disaster as streets were blocked off and when he went to the subway to get the 6 train, there was a delay and no trains were moving.

Finally, after about an hour and half after he left work, he made it home, a trip that usually takes twenty minutes. He was afraid that dinner would be ruined, but this dish held up great. I turned off the oven, left the cooked rice on the stove with a lid and when he got home, we were ready to go.

I added some fresh fruit salad and a sliced tomato with mayonnaise and black pepper and we had a wonderful meal. The wine made a nicely flavored sauce over the chicken and rice, but personally I felt that it could used a little bump of flavor, maybe some more fresh herbs. My husband liked it just the way it was, and as an added bonus, no vampires will come near you with all that garlic.

I checked out some other Chicken Week recipes, and I'm going to try the Crispy Chicken With Honey Sauce and the Chicken Salad Sandwich next.

From the Today Show- 30 Clove Garlic Chicken

30 Clove Garlic Chicken
from Craig Strong

1/2 cup vegetable oil
8 bone-in chicken thighs
2 cups thinly sliced onion
30 whole cloves garlic
1 cup white wine
4 branches of rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Salt and pepper chicken.

In a heavy pot that has a lid, heat oil over medium high heat. Add the chicken and brown on both sides. Remove the chicken from the pan and reserve. Add the onions, garlic and rosemary and cook for five minutes.

Place the chicken on top of the mixture and add the wine. Place the lid on top and place the pot in the oven. Cook for one and one half hours.

Weekend Cooking- Everyday Food cookbooks

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

Every once in awhile, I will catch the Today Show segment called "Steals and Deals", where Jill Martin highlights great deals from manufacturers at huge discounts, good for 24 hours only. In the past, I have gotten some terrific bargains on Christmas gifts for family members on jewelry and health and beauty items.

A few weeks ago Random House had a fantastic deal on several sets of three cookbooks from celebrity chefs. They had sets from Lidia Bastianich, Bobby Flay, Tyler Florence and Martha Stewart. The deal was three books for just $21, which really is a steal.

I chose the Martha Stewart Living Everyday cookbook set, which had Everyday Food Light, Everyday Food Great Food Fast, and Everyday Food Fresh Flavor Fast. I used to pick up the Everyday Food magazine once in a while because the recipes were usually pretty easy to make and used fresh ingredients that I generally had on hand.

Everyday Food Light features recipes all under 500 calories, and I like how the book starts with tips on poaching, steaming, and stir-frying, along with lists of what herbs work best for each style of cooking. The calorie counts are printed in big numbers right on the photo page for each recipe. The recipes are separated by season, which I always find helpful. I turned right to the Fall section and found several recipes to try, including:

• Butternut Bisque (117 calories)
• Roast Chicken with Pears (421 calories)
• Chicken Cacciatore (212 calories)

Everyday Food Great Food Fast is perfect for those weeknights when it you only have a short window of time to get a healthy dinner on the table. On each photo page, the prep time is helpfully printed in big numbers, making it easy to see at a glance how long it will take you to get dinner ready to go into the oven. Some of the recipes, though, can take an hour to cook, so that must be factored into the equation. I am confused as to why the nutritional information for the recipes is listed in an index at the back of the book; it would have been so easy to place on the recipe page itself. It is also divided by season, and the fall recipes I am looking at are:

• Braised Chicken with Mushrooms and Oven-Baked Polenta (30 minutes prep time)
• Steak and Onion Sandwiches (20 minutes prep time)
• Pork Chops with Apples and Shallots (30 minutes prep time)

Everyday Food Fresh Flavor Fast has 250 recipes in the book, which divides the book into categories like Breakfast, Appetizers, Pasta, Desserts. The end of the book has helpful tips with lots of photos on Chopping Onions, Peeling Ginger, and Softening Brown Sugar. Again, the nutritional information is indexed instead of with the recipe. I'm going to try:

• Roast Beef with Peppers, Onions, and Potatoes
• Warm Spinach Salad with Poached Eggs
• Mexican Ice Cream Sundaes with Cinnamon-Chocolate Sauce

All of these recipes are pretty basic, they don't require a lot of technical skill, making these books great gifts for people just starting out on their own. I also like that each recipe has a glossy photo so you know what your final dish should (sort of) look like.

The Steals and Deals website is here.