Greek Roast Chicken

Cooking for my family can be a bit of a balancing act: My dad is more-or-less carnivorous (though he doesn't eat pork) and my mom doesn't really like strong flavors (read: garlic) or massive amounts of meat.  So what to make for my first home-cooked supper in North Carolina?

It's decidedly spring here and, as such, a young girl's fancy turns to thoughts of Greece.  "Ah-ha!" I thought: Roasted chicken with lemon, olive oil, and scads of oregano—simple, fresh-tasting, and delicious. Basically, this is my take on a dish that is often on offer at tavernas called kotopoulo fournou (κοτόπουλο φούρνου), which is served with pan-roasted potatoes and a green salad.

Grilled Chicken and Peaches

The time had come to really cook something in my new Brooklyn kitchen.  It didn't have to be super-fancy or difficult, but it had to involve more steps than throwing hot dogs into the grill pan for the Fourth of July. But, since it is summer and I am deeply enamored with my grill pan, I wanted to make something in it.

Enter Bon Appétit.  I have a strange relationship with this magazine, since I want to dislike it because it replaced my Gourmet subscription after Gourmet went under, but it is simply TOO GOOD for me to maintain ill will.  Plus, the recipes are significantly more user-friendly than Gourmet's ever were.  Not that it means I will forgive Condé Nast for the death of Gourmet, but it softens the blow.

So, to make a long story short, I made one of the recipes out of Bon Appétit's July grilling issue and it was easy, tasty, and quick.  Now I'm going to share.

A quick note: For the apartment-bound without a grill, a grill pan is an amazing alternative.  Basically, it's a heavy cast-iron pan with grill-like ridges.  I have a Cuisinart model that was about $30 and it's one of the best investments I've made, kitchen-wise.  Cleaning it is a little bit of a trick, but a wet paper towel and some elbow grease will handily get off the caked-on burned stuff.

Tangy Chicken Salad

For 99% of my life, I have really and truly loathed chicken salad.  My dislike was so great that I actually had to leave the room if somebody was eating it.  So when my friend Rachel made chicken salad for dinner one night, I was slightly horrified.  Fortunately, my sense of politeness forced me to eat some and, boy, was it good!

The problem with most chicken salad recipes, I think, is that they rely on huge globs of mayonnaise to provide taste.  This recipe circumvents that problem by adding giardiniera for taste and color.  Now I am a chicken salad convert.  I made a few slight changes to the recipe for a little added zing.

You'll need:
1 roasted chicken (I got mine at the local Treasure Island for $4.99)
1 16-oz. bottle of giardiniera (mild or hot)
2 tbsp. mayonnaise
1 tbsp. white vinegar
Freshly grated black pepper, to taste

The first thing you'll need to do is disassemble the roasted chicken.  Now, I almost never cook with meat, so this was a new experience for me.  I attempted to remove the skin with a knife, but wound up using my fingers to de-skin and then to strip the meat from the chicken carcass.  I'm sure there are more elegant ways to do this, but using your hands is effective, efficient, and a chance to become intimately acquainted with the structure of a chicken (this could be a plus or minus).

Dispose of the skin and carcass, but be sure to save a little bit if you have a hungry pet:

Yes, I have to hold the chicken for her.  She is very spoiled.

Chop the chicken up coarsely and place in a medium-sized bowl.  Then chop up the giardiniera, but reserve the liquid.  Add the chopped giardiniera and the liquid to the chicken.  Add the mayo, white vinegar, and black pepper.  Mix thoroughly.  You probably won't need to add salt, as the giardiniera liquid is plenty salty.

Then it's ready to eat!  Or if you prefer your chicken salad really cold like me, cover it and put it back in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.  Serve with some crusty bread.

I'm going to guess this will make 4 or 5 servings.  We shall see.

In other news, I'm finally all caught up on LOST.  I think I'm a little bit in love with Michael Emerson, particularly the way he pronounces words that start with "wh."  Yeah.