Sherry Citrus Chicken and Sangria!
As the weather gets warm people tend to break out the grill more often. It is easy to just put a little salt and pepper on whatever we want to grill, and call it good. While that is ok, it is not all that interesting. I’ve been playing with various marinades and grilling chicken to make it more interesting. When I had some fruit I needed to get rid of, and some leftover wine I decided to combine them and make sangria. Since we had sangria I thought it might be nice to have sort of a Spanish theme for dinner!
Since the sangria will take more time than the chicken I’ll start with that. It is kind of a free-form thing (for me, anyway). A little leftover wine, some fruit, some more wine, a little sugar, some juice, and let it sit. That is literally what we did. We had quite a few cherries (We pitted them before they went into the jar.) that we needed to get rid of before they turned to mush, some blue berries, a couple of oranges that we cut into wedges. All of that went into a glass jar with a quarter cup of sugar. We had some leftover merlot, and some riesling in all totaling maybe a bottle’s worth of wine. Then just a little bit of orange juice. We put it in the fridge and let it sit for a few days.
On our quest for something different to do with grilled chicken we went looking in one of my books for a marinade. This is what I found! It originally called for saffron, bloomed in hot water, but I don’t have any at the moment so I left it out. It is very tasty with nice bright fruity flavors.
zest and juice of 3 oranges
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup sherry
2 TBSP soy sauce (obviously gluten-free)
2 TBSP sherry vinegar
1 tsp paprika
1 TBSP cracked black pepper
2 TBSP olive oil
Combine all of the ingredients, and marinate the chicken breasts for 4 hours or so. I used my vacuum sealer to marinate mine, but you can use a zipper bag just as easily. This marinade would work quite well on shrimp or pork as well.
While I waited, I decided that I wanted to make some roasted potatoes as well. A while back I went to a tapas bar and had a very tasty dish that had grilled baby octopi and roasted potatoes in a sherry bacon vinaigrette. I decided that I would do something similar with our potatoes. I made up a quick sherry vinaigrette with sherry vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, dry mustard and cayenne. Then quartered some red skin potatoes and popped them in the oven. When they were ready I poured them in a bowl, and tossed them with the dressing. It was very easy, and very tasty. Keep in mind that the sherry vinegar will get pretty potent as a smell when you pour it over the hot potatoes!
When I was about ready to cook I started the fire. When the fire was ready I sprayed the chicken with cooking spray and put them on the grill. Remember, when you grill if you start moving the food around it will stick. Leave it alone for a bit, and it will release. Then you can turn it or flip it. Once the chicken is done bring it inside and get ready to eat. 
We had some asparagus that we sautéed, the chicken, potatoes, and a nice salad. With the sangria it made for a very nice summer supper, and we didn’t even have to travel to Barcelona! (Not that it wouldn’t be nice to go there at some point!)
Chili con carne… possibly the best you’ll ever have!
Clearly this is not for the vegetarians among you. If you are one, perhaps now is the time to go look at something else…
Are you still with me? Good, now, lets talk about meaty chili goodness!
I know most of you probably make chili using ground beef or turkey, but we won’t be doing that. What I used might make this the most expensive pot of chili you have ever made. What I used is a piece of beef called the chain. The chain is a strip of meat that is located next to the tenderloin. It is pretty similar as far as tenderness and flavor, but because it is wrapped in fat and connective tissue it is rarely eaten except as ground beef. You can’t buy chains* in the store so I would suggest a chuck roast, and cut it into cubes. Since you will be simmering this for a while you will end up with nice tender meat by the time the chili is ready.
This wasn’t originally going to be chili. I’m not sure what I was making, exactly, but I had a few ideas in mind. As I gathered ingredients it sort of became obvious that it was, in fact, chili.
2# beef chuck cut into cubes
1 TBSP achiote paste
1 TBSP canola oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 large onion diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 large poblano, diced
5 cloves of garlic, minced
25 oz can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 quarts chicken stock
2 cups cooked black beans
salt and pepper to taste
ground cumin, corriander, dry oregano to taste
3 bay leaves
ancho chili powder to taste
The first step is to get the meat marinating. Combine the achiote, oil, salt and pepper, and mix them into a smooth paste. Add your cubed meat. I used the cryovac machine at work to seal this up, and left it in the fridge overnight. Obviously a ziplock bag would do almost as well. At this point you should also cook your beans. Drain them and cool them in the fridge.
When you are ready to cook, gather all of your ingredients. We are going to start with the meat. Heat some vegetable oil in a large pot, and add the meat. Lightly brown the meat, and add the onions, peppers and garlic, and a little salt. Cook until the vegetables have softened, and then add the tomatoes and stock. Bring up to a boil, turn down to a simmer, and season to taste with salt, pepper, ancho powder, bay leaves, coriander, cumin, and oregano. Allow your chili to simmer, and add the beans after an hour or so. Taste it after a while and adjust the seasonings if you need to. If it is to acidic you can add a little bit of honey. That will help balance things out. Give it a couple of hours to simmer, and enjoy. This is not going to be a spicy chili, but it is tasty! If you like it spicy there are lots of possibilities, for instance chipotle peppers would be nice in place of the ancho chilies while still giving you a nice smoky flavor.
This chili was a huge hit at work, and I think it will be for you as well. There are plenty of things you can tweak, but this should get you started. Enjoy it! I know I did!
*In the course of day to day prep at work we do some butchering, and end up with scraps that are perfectly edible. The chain falls into that category. The only way to get chains is to buy beef tenderloin PSMO (peeled, silver skin, side meet on or pismo). To make this chili you would probably need three chains. Of course if you like filet mignon or chateaubriand this will save you quite a bit of money. The less processed the meat the less expensive it tends to be. The last time I went to the store pismos were $19.99/pound, and filet mignon were $23.99. Breaking down PSMO’s takes a bit of practice, and time. It is certainly something you can do, but you do need a sharp knife, and the time to do it.
What do you want to eat?? 