Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Home > 66
KitchenKatalog: Blog 66
Saturday, March 20, 2021, 07:25 PM
I made Peruvian Chicken for our friends. I mostly following The Food Lab / Serious Eats (LOCAL) but I also read some others including America's Test Kitchen. Also, the Food Lab Website version is slightly different with the spices bumped up.
I finally settled on the following for one chicken. I decided to use two (4.74 lbs and 4.34 lbs) so I doubled the following:
The Food Lab one has you dry-brine the bird and then add the spices right before cooking. The America's Test Kitchen has you make a saltier paste and apply that for at least 6 hours. So I kind of did both. I used salt (under and on top of the skin) to dry-brine for about 24+ hours. Then the next day, I made the spice mixture (again both under and on the skin) for another 5-6 hours.
I debated grilling or baking the chicken but eventually decided on the oven. I cooked it at 475°F with the thermometer set to 153°F (a bit of a compromise of a few different sources). Of course, at that point, my instant read showed everywhere was much hotter. Not sure what is going on with that...
Note: It put out a ton of smoke while cooking! I wonder if turning off convection would help with that filling the kitchen so much?
For the sauce, I followed the recipe with no major changes. For the three jalapenos, I de-ribbed and de-seeded two of them. Also for the "salt to taste", I did about 1/2 tsp. Next time a little bit less salt. I also may have gone a tad high on the garlic. I used the little bits leftover from the microplane for the spices. I did not have ají Amarillo paste.
We also served it with roasted asparagus and our friends made sweet-potatoes
Saturday, March 20, 2021, 05:43 PM
Meredith covered it for the last 10 minutes of baking since it needed more time but was getting too browned
Saturday, March 20, 2021, 01:23 PM
Friday, March 19, 2021, 07:00 PM
Meredith made Frijoles a la Charra [Homesick Texan] with Jalapeño Pinto Beans [Homesick Texan]. She actually made a lot of the Frijoles stuff a while ago but she had overcooked the beans so froze it and used it this time. She followed the bean recipe just going by taste to know when they were done.
They were super delicious as always!
Friday, March 19, 2021, 05:35 PM
I prepped Sous Vide Pulled Pork with our normal changes, though I forgot the coriander in the crust.
I put liquid smoke in one bag but not the other (forgot). I did the oven for 2 hours to finish it since I didn't feel like baby sitting the grill.
One thing I did differently (and added to the recipe) was to let it cool before distributing into bags. Way easier since I didn't have fat getting into the sealer and making the seal less good. Tip: Put the whole bowl on the scale, zero it, and measure out with negative weights into bags.
It started as 14.54 lbs and I made 7.77 lbs (though I also had some nibbles along the way before it was weighed)
Wednesday, March 17, 2021, 08:01 PM
I made corned beef for St. Patty's Day. It was pre-brined brisket from the grocery store. I rinsed away the brine and dried it with towel. I then sous-vide cooked it for about 10 hours at 180°F.
When it was done, I was able to slice/scrape off a lot of the fat. I cut against the grain and then seared each slice to crisp them up a bit.
It wasn't the most amazing corned beef but still pretty good. Salty as you would expect. Even Caroline liked it (with yellow mustard)
Tuesday, March 16, 2021, 05:51 PM
Spicy Salmon Black Bean Salad [The Kitchn]
Saturday, March 13, 2021, 07:01 PM
I made the Halal Cart Chicken from Serious Eats (LOCAL)
I didn't make too many changes. Notably for the chicken marinade, I used half extra virgin olive oil and half canola for “light olive oil”. I had read somewhere that it can make a big mess so I grilled it even though I still needed to clean the pans. I wish I had better char lines but this wasn't really bad. I also used about 1.5 lbs of chicken.
For the rice, I doubled the cumin and used 3 cups of water/broth. I also gave it a few extra minutes. Both changes to account for the altitude.
I didn't make any changes for the sauce but I wish I had. While the chicken was very good and flavorful, the sauce was way too sweet. It needed way less sugar. And maybe some other spices. I would definitely branch out and see what my other options are in the future.
Otherwise, it was pretty good. Lots of flavor and good all together.
For serving, we did it on spring greens with tortillas. Also, I had read the label as "harissa sauce", not "harissa salsa". That wasn't great on it.
