1.09.2008

panko-dijon crusted chicken with fingerling potatoes and tossed greens and feta

another lesson in how to use up ingredients in your fridge. i had a packet of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, a bottle of dijon mustard, a bag of mixed greens and some fingerling potatoes.

searching the terms, "chicken" and "mustard" on chow, i found the following recipe. there was no way i could get my hands on dukkah to coat the chicken, so i found a packet of panko breadcrumbs in my pantry. perfect! always be willing to substitute. no one ever has all the ingredients needed, especially on a weeknight. if you're ever interested in doing some food substitution research, check out the cook's thesaurus.

anyway, what follows is inspired by the chow recipe.

i first whisked 2 T dijon with some olive oil and salt and pepper to form a thick vinagrette which would act as a "batter" for the panko breadcrumbs to adhere to. knowing the original recipe's breadcrumbs had a lot of spice and flavor, i added the following to the "batter:" 2 cloves of chopped garlic, a teaspoon of cumin and a teaspoon of ground coriander, which are two spices commonly found in mediterranean cuisine. (now that i look at the dukkah recipe, i'm realizing cumin and coriander are the main spices; i had correctly guessed it without even reading the recipe. cool!)
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i then added 2 pounds of chicken thighs (about 7 thighs) and let it marinate while...
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i preheated the oven to 400* and prepared a make-shift cooling rack on a sheet pan. the roasting rack works in a pinch but isn't nice and flat like a mesh cooling rack would be. oh well. it worked.
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a batter line was then created to...
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coat the chicken pieces in panko...
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and line the rack. the elevated rack allows hot air to circulate completely around the chicken so that it browns and crisps all over, instead of having soggy bottoms.
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this then went into the hot oven for 25 minutes. meanwhile, i prepared a package of tj's fingerling potatoes in the microwave (only 5 minutes, amazing) and prepared a simple salad of tossed greens, sliced red onions, feta and balsamic and evoo.
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after the timer went off, the chicken needed some more time to brown, so while it stayed in the oven for another 8 minutes, i prepped a quick sauce per the chow recipe's directions using about a 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon or so of honey. this was reduced over a med-low flame for about 10 minutes until thickened. be careful if you try this, reduce it too far to a thick syrup and you'll have a hell of a time scrubbing the pot. it thickens as it cools.
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as you can see, the chicken browned quite nicely all over. i plated everything together and drizzled the balsamic reduction over the chicken...
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amazing! it suddenly looks like tonkatsu, the japanese breaded pork cutlet!
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a close up of the panko-dijon chicken thighs. panko creates a very crispy but light coating. the olive oil batter helped "fry" the panko here.
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the fingerling potatoes are a little tart on their own. nothing a drizzle of good evoo and fresh cracked pepper didn't save.
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ah. fresh greens with a little bit of tartness and the creaminess of feta cheese. perfect for offsetting the slightly oilier chicken.
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and as for the chicken, it was incredibly moist and tender on the inside, yet crunch on the out. the sweet-tart balsamic reduction perfectly countered the spicy bitterness of the dijon.
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wow. totally impressed myself with this one. crunchy goodness without the deep fried part. yes, i will be making this again, and yes, you should try it.

1 comment:

leslie ann said...

beautiful! I totally want to try this