Easy Lemon-Pepper Barbecue Chicken

D.Schmidt

Easy Lemon-Pepper Barbecue Chicken

This Easy Lemon-Pepper Chicken Recipe is juicy and extremely delicious, plus very easy to make. The simple lemon and black pepper marinade marry beautifully with grilled chicken, leaving the flesh succulent and tender. Make the marinade in less than 10 minutes, toss with the chicken, then barbecue - or bake in the oven. Serve this barbecue chicken any way you like - with rice or potatoes, over salad, or even Western-style: sandwiched between a bun. It's delicious any way you grill it, and makes barbecue chicken easy as a summer breeze!

Grandma's Secret Chicken Recipe (Best of 2007)

There's a certain magic in preparing a family recipe. Some recipes have been passed down from generation to generation. If we're lucky we make a point of writing down the delicious recipes of our childhood. Sometimes "secret" ingredients and recipes never make it onto paper. This is very sad. (The death of a recipe!) Make a point of recording your family recipes on a regular basis. Your kids will appreciate it so much, and special family memories will always be remembered through your favourite dishes.

I have a recipe my grandma used to make and then my mom used to make it, and now I make it. It's not a complicated recipe, but it will always be in our family because it tastes so good. It also conjures up some carefree childhood memories for me. We'd often have this dish on a hot summer day. My mom would make it ahead of time in the morning and we would it eat cold with rice for supper. I remember sneaking pieces before dinnertime because the taste was so addictive...

Here's the recipe:

Mix together: 1 packet of dry onion soup mix, 250ml of Russian salad dressing and 1 c. of apricot jam. Add 2 lbs. of chicken drumettes. Mix well. Chop up 8-10 dried apricots into slivers and place on top of the mixture. Bake covered at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, then bake for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees uncovered. The sauce tastes great over rice or mashed potatoes.

Oven-Fried Chicken

This recipe is truly wonderful and is low fat and low calories. What more can you ask for? The secret to the success of this recipe is to make sure that both the chicken and the yogurt are very cold (hence, soaking the chicken in the ice water). The preliminary soaking will help the breading adhere and produce a crisp coating much like that of fried chicken.

For more great Low Fat Recipes, Low Calorie Recipes, Low Carbohydrate Recipes, and Diabetic Recipes, check out my Diet Recipe Index. Also check out my Nutritional Chart for fat grams, carbohydrate grams, and calories for all your favorite foods.

Check out more great Poultry Recipes and how to Brine Poultry for a moister and tastier dish.

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Oven-Fried Chicken

12 chicken drumsticks, skinless*
3 1/2 cups ice water
1 cup plain non-fat yogurt
Breading Mixture (see recipe below)

* The U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as food agencies in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, advises against washing poultry. Rinsing chicken will not remove or kill much bacteria, and the splashing of water around the sink can spread the bacteria found in raw chicken. Cooking poultry to 165 degrees Fahrenheit effectively destroys the most common culprits behind food-borne illness.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a large baking sheet heavily with vegetable-oil cooking spray. In a large bowl with ice water, place chicken pieces; set aside.

In a shallow bowl, place yogurt. Remove one piece of chicken at a time from the ice water; roll each piece of chicken in the yogurt. Place one chicken piece into a plastic bag with Breading Mixture, reseal and shake to coat thoroughly. Transfer breaded chicken to prepared baking sheet. Repeat process until all chicken pieces are breaded. Spray chicken lightly with vegetable-oil spray.

Place baking sheet onto bottom shelf of oven and bake, uncovered, 1 hour, or until a meat thermometer registers an internal temperature of 165 degrees F. (juices will run clear when cut with the tip of a knife), turning the chicken pieces every 20 minutes to allow even browning. Remove from oven and transfer onto a serving platter. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Makes 6 servings.

Breading Mixture:
1 cup bread crumbs
3/4 cup all-purpose Ffour
1 tablespoon Creole seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
Red (cayenne) pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine bread crumbs, flour, Creole seasoning, garlic powder, pepper, cayenne pepper, thyme, basil, and oregano. Seal and shake well to mix.

Recipe: Southern Fried Chicken with Moroccan Spices

If you live in the South, you had better know how to make fried chicken.

Your “friends”-–all excellent home cooks--will be persnickety, so you have to get it right, especially if you’re a Johnny-come-lately who didn’t learn how to make perfect fried chicken standing at her Mama’s elbow. The meat must be succulent, enveloped in rich, crispy, golden brown skin, fried but lightly so, with just enough grease to make you whimper with pleasure as you’re devouring your third piece. And you’d do well have a little twist—a mystery ingredient--that makes your chicken different from your neighbor’s.

I’ve been told that I make great fried chicken and I owe it all to Salli. It started one foggy morning in Nantucket, when my children and I were curled up in bed watching a fried chicken cook-off between Martha Stewart and her friend Salli LaGrone. Martha’s dark mahogany-colored chicken, which had soaked overnight in buttermilk and was dusted with cayenne-spiked flour, reposed magnificently on a platter, garnering lavish praise--while Salli’s plate of fried fowl was almost licked clean by a hungry crew who couldn’t wolf it down it fast enough. (Go here to see Salli’s original recipe.)

One of Salli’s secrets is a pinch of cinnamon added to the flour in which the chicken is coated. Over the years, I’ve gradually increased the pinch to a scant teaspoon. I love the way cinnamon’s sweetness coaxes out the natural flavor of the chicken, while its astringent edge contrasts pleasingly with the luscious fried skin. One other change I’ve made is substituting peanut oil for the shortening, which I dislike on principle. Peanut oil is great for frying and gives the chicken a tasty flavor. I’ve developed my own timetable for turning the chicken as it cooks, but these are minor tweaks to a truly stellar recipe.

One shouldn’t fiddle with success, but last week I added a teaspoonful of ras-el-hanout, the robust Moroccan spice blend that works so well with chicken cooked in a tagine, to the flour. It too contains cinnamon, but also black pepper, nutmeg, mace, allspice, ginger and turmeric. The results were subtly different, the chicken even more devilishly delicious than usual. “Your best ever,” said my husband, reaching for a forbidden fourth piece.

Now that’s my secret for great fried chicken.

Recipe: Southern Fried Chicken with Moroccan Spices

(adapted from Salli’s Fried Chicken on Martha Stewart Living)

Ingredients:

3/12 to 4 pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces
Salt to taste
1-3/4 cups flour
1 scant teaspoon cinnamon
1 scant teaspoon ras-el-hanout (see note)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Peanut oil
1-1/2 cups buttermilk

Lemon wedges (optional)
Siracha or other hot sauce (optional) (see note)

Equipment:

Cast iron frying pan
Deep frying thermometer

Method:

1. In the refrigerator, soak the chicken overnight in a bowl of cold water covered with plastic.
2. When you are ready to cook, pat dry with paper towels and sprinkle with salt to taste. If the breasts are large, cut them in half with kitchen shears.
3. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, ras el hanout and black pepper. Dip each piece of chicken into the flour mixture and shake off the excess. Let the flour dry for 15 minutes. Pour the buttermilk into a large bowl and set aside.
4. In the meantime, pour about 1 inch of peanut oil into a cast iron frying pan and turn the heat to high. When the oil reaches 350 degrees on a deep frying thermometer, adjust the heat to maintain that temperature.
5. Dip half of the chicken pieces in the buttermilk and then into the bowl of flour, shaking off the excess. Carefully place them in the hot oil, skin side down, using tongs if necessary. Fry the chicken until it is light golden brown, turning frequently.
6. Place the chicken skin side down, cover the pan and turn the heat to low. Cook the chicken for 6 minutes, then turn and cook, covered, for another 6 minutes. Remove the top and turn the heat to high. Cook the chicken until it is crispy, about 2 minutes, then turn and cook until the other side is crisp, about 1 minute.
7. Remove the chicken from the pan and drain on several layers of paper towel. Place them on a baking sheet in a 250-degree oven to keep them warm.
8. Repeat steps 5-7 with the remaining chicken. Be sure to bring the temperature of the oil back to 350 degrees before putting the second batch of chicken in the pan.
9. Serve the chicken on a platter with wedges of lemon and small bowls of siracha, the Vietnamese hot sauce, if desired. I like to accompany it with a bowl of cole slaw made from red and green cabbage dressed with a white balsamic vinaigrette.

Note: I made Kitty Morse’s recipe for ras el hanout. You can also buy good ready-made versions from www.chefshop.com and www.herbies.com.au. Siracha, the fiery Vietnamese hot sauce, can be found at most Asian markets.

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Recipe: sweet and sour chicken

Posted by spots (Singapore, Singapore) on 10 January 2007 in Food & Cuisine and Portfolio.

i must be eating too much chinese take-out, cos i suddenly developed a craving for sweet and sour chicken! here's my home-cooked version:

Combine 1tb light soy, 2tb tomato sauce (aka ketchup), 2tb rice wine vinegar and 1 tb sugar. Heat up the mixture lightly till warm & all the sugar is incorporated, then set aside. Use a kitchen scissors to cut about 250g (about half pound) of boneless chicken thigh meat into bite-sized cubes. In batches, dunk the meat cubes into a beaten egg & then douse in flour, before deep-frying till browned.* When done, mix the sauce into the chicken and serve immediately. Enjoy!

*It helps to have 2 bowls - one for the beaten egg and one for the flour. So, you basically dunk batches of meat into the egg bowl, then transfer to the flour bowl, then fry! To save on oil, you can also pan-fry the meat cubes on both sides till crispy brown. Just use enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan, and replace for the next batch if the oil runs out. Either way, the oil must be hot before you put in the chicken, otherwise the coating will become oily & soggy.

malaysia food-Hainan Chicken Rice

Ingredients:

1 1/2 kg whole chicken
2 cups long grain rice
14 shallots
12 pips garlic
½ inch long ginger
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
4 tbsp cooking oil
Ingredients for Chicken stock:
250 gm chicken bones
750 ml water
salt to taste

Ingredients for Chilli Sauce:

5 red chillies
4 pips garlic
1 lime
1 Tbsp sugar
½ inch long ginger
¼ tsp salt
Garnishing Ingredients:
1 cucumber
1 tomato
1 sprig spring onion
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp light soya sauce

Preparation of Ingredients:

Boil chicken bones with water to obtain chicken stock. Add salt to taste.
Smash 8 shallots, 6 pips garlic and ginger.
Clean the chicken and stuff the inside with the smashed ingredients. Rub the skin with salt and pepper.
Finely slice the remaining shallots and chop the remaining garlic.
Pound red chillies, ginger and garlic together. Extract lime juice. Add lime juice, sugar and salt to the pounded ingredients. Set aside mixture.
Finely slice the cucumber and tomato.
Cut the spring onions into 2 cm lengths.
Mix the sesame oil and light soya sauce together.
Wash the rice grains.

Method:

Heat oil in wok. Fry the chopped garlic and sliced shallots until golden brown. Then add in the washed rice grains and continue to fry until fragrant.
Transfer the fried rice grains into a rice cooker. Add in the chicken stock and continue to cook until rice is done.

Steam the chicken in a wok or steamer for about 20 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
Once the chicken is cooked, remove from heat and cut into bite-size pieces.
Arrange the cucumber and tomato slices around the edge of a serving platter. Then place the chicken pieces in the centre of the same platter. Sprinkle the spring onions over the chicken and pour the mixed sesame oil and light soya sauce over it.
Serve chicken with the steamed rice and chilli sauce.

malaysia food

malaysia food

Lemand and Rendang

Hari Raya Aidilfitri (Malay term for the Muslim festival of Eid ul-Fitr, Muslim celebration) is coming very soon. Here I would like to share traditional Malay (Malaysian) food for this special festive occasion.

Lemang is a traditional Malay food cooked in a hollowed bamboo stick. This dish is usually eaten with rendang.

Rendang is a popular dish in Malaysia which is traditionally prepared. Though rendang is sometimes described as being like a curry, and the name is sometimes applied to curried meat dishes in Malaysia, authentic rendang is nothing like a curry. It is made from beef (or occasionally chicken, mutton, water buffalo meat, duck or vegetables like jackfruit or cassava) slowly cooked in coconut milk and spices for several hours until almost all the liquid is gone, leaving the meat coated in the spicy condiments. The cooking process changes from boiling to frying as the liquid evaporates. The slow cooking process allows the meat to absorb all the spices and to become tender.

Lemang Recipe

1 kg glutinous rice
2 liters coconut milk ( Add in salt to taste)
Banana leaves
Bamboos

Soak glutinous rice in water for 6 hours.
Drain the glutinous rice.
Meanwhile clean the bamboos and insert the banana leaves in the bamboo as an internal wrapping.
Put the glutinous rice in the bamboo.
Pour in coconut milk until 1.5 inch higher than rice level.
Make stand for the bamboo and set alight firewood.
Cook the bamboos in the fire one side at a time.
You have to turn the bamboo regularly until cook to avoid the bamboo burnt.
Once cooked, let it cool to room temperature.
Split the bamboo; take out the rice with banana leaves.
Cut the rice 1~2 inch thick and serve with rendang.

Beef Rendang Recipe

1 cup oil
5 cm long cinnamon stick (kayu manis)
4 cloves (bunga cengkih)
6 star anise (jintan manis)
4 cardamom (pelaga)
1kg stewing beefcut into 1.5 to 2 inch cubes
2 cups thick coconut milk
4 teaspoons of assam water from tamarind pulp (assam glugor)
4 kaffir lime leaves (daun limau purut), julienned
2 turmeric leaf (daun kunyit), julienned
4 tablespoons of fried grated coconut (kerisik) *
3 teaspoons sugar or to taste
Salt to taste.
4 shallots (daun bawang)
4 cm lengkuas
5 stalks of lemon grass (daun serai)
5 cloves garlic (bawang putih)
5 cm (3/4 inch) ginger (halia)
10 dried chillies (cili boh) soaked in hot water to soften

Peel and coarsely chop lengkuas/galingale
Crush the lemon grass
Lightly mash up red chilies, cinnamon and cloves with a little
Peel and coarsely chop shallots, ginger and garlic. Put the above into an electric blender and blend into a smooth paste.
Fry the paste with a little cooking oil in a non-stick pan until fragrant then throw in the cinnamon, cloves, star anise and cardamom. Cook for about 8 minutes or so, adding water IF necessary. Pay close attention and make sure the paste is not overcooked.
Add the beef cubes, coconut milk and tamarind water. When mixture boils, reduce heat to medium and cook for about 30 minutes. Stir often to prevent curdling.
When the meat is almost cooked, add in kaffir lime leaves, turmeric leaves and fried grated coconut.
Add sugar and salt to taste.
Reduce fire and gently cook until the meat is really tender and the gravy has disappeared.

* To prepare fried grated coconut

Fry 300g fresh grated coconut in a dry wok or wide shallow saucepan until brown on slow fire to avoid scorching. Ground the fried coconut until oily. Leftover fried grated coconut can be kept in an airtight container.