Okay, I had planned on roasting the chicken with a persimmon glaze. However, there were two major problems with this approach. Problem One: persimmons are delicately flavored and, short of a mild cream or custard sauce, are difficult to pair with other flavors. Even too much sugar or honey seems to destroy the subtlety of the persimmon. Problem Two: fuyu persimmons, the kind I usually buy, don’t really have the texture to make a proper glaze. Imagine trying to make a glaze out of something like partially cooked carrots. (Usually you glaze the carrots themselves, not make a glaze out of them.) Nothing I did, including softening the persimmons via cooking and straining in a sieve, yielded the smoothness you associate with a glaze. Arrowroot might have given me a more shiny or glossy sauce, but without the texture, the whole deal was a bust anyway. So there’s a lesson learned: never, ever try to make a savory sauce out of fuyu persimmons. Hachiya persimmons might do better, but you’d have to use the softest, ripest fruits to avoid the astringency associated with that variety. It’s such a shame; I love persimmons. I was really hoping to bring their deliciousness to a main course.

That said, dinner was far from a bust. The spice rub was good, the chicken was beautifully tender and juicy, and the wilted greens were fabulous—that last bit is the real surprise because I usually find myself saying "meh" to most green side-dishes. Also, spatchcocking a chicken is just plain darn fun.

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Chicken Marsala

Modern chicken marsala is usually prepared using chicken breast, which is then butterflied or pounded with a mallet.  However, I find the richness and sweetness of the marsala wine perfectly complement the depth of flavor in dark meat; chicken thighs are also conveniently the right thickness for this dish.

4.64 lbs chicken thigh
1 lb 9.8 oz mushrooms, sliced
1 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
homemade chicken stock
Florio sweet marsala wine
Ruffino Orvieto Classico 2008

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The inspiration for this dish came from the popular Greek savory pastry spanakopita and it’s lesser known cousin the kreatopita.  Instead of lamb or spinach, however, poultry is the main star in this recipe; I also went with leeks over onions for a more subtle flavor and added feta cheese for extra richness.  Google tells me the result is appropriately referred to as “kotopita.”  As I’m not fluent in Greek, however, I can’t verify.

3 lbs ground chicken
3 large eggs, slightly beaten
2 small boxes, reduced fat crumbled feta cheese
1 bag spinach, washed
1 large leek
2 cloves garlic, minced
rosemary, chopped
white pepper, ground
salt
phyllo sheets, thawed

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The cool weather in northern Pennsylvania was a good excuse to revisit this wonderful, rich and hearty soup. There’s not much in the way of broth—at least when I prepare it—but if thick and chunky isn’t your style, you can easily change the consistency by adding more milk, cream, and roux. This recipe is easily one of my all-time favorite comfort foods.

5-7 pieces of thick cut bacon
2½ lbs chicken breast
1½ lbs chicken thigh, with skin and bone
2½ tsps salt + extra
fresh ground pepper
1 white onion, chopped
6-8 stalks of celery, chopped

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As the end of summer approaches, the juicy, ripe nectarines and peaches are fast disappearing from the farmer’s market. The heat wave, however, is still here; so this week I decided to celebrate the passing of the summer produce season with a cold chicken salad and caramelized nectarines. To be fair, I must credit the idea of caramelizing nectarines with onion to the folks at Christine’s. The nectarines at said restaurant were plated with a fish entrée, and at the time I thought to myself, “This would be great with a salad.” So here’s the breakdown of my procedure:

Breaded Chicken
chicken breasts, 3 lbs
leftover panko breading from the freezer (see my article on the ono)
egg
vegetable oil
cayenne pepper

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Bobby really delivers two more winners with his Bulgur Salad and Tandoori Spiced Chicken Breasts with Grilled Tomato Jam and Herbed Yogurt. The bulgur salad packed a punch with the acidity of lime juice and the brightness of the serrano chile; the grilled tomato jam with balsamic vinegar and saffron took an ordinary dish to above-ordinary levels. The only real flaws were ones of my own making:

• Use canola oil or a good (but not extra virgin) olive oil! The olive oil should not impart much flavor to the dish.
• Store the dressing in a separate bottle and apply as necessary. Do not drizzle all the dressing over the bulgur salad or you will turn a fluffy bulgur salad with crisp fresh veggies into a soggy mess.
• I doubled the tandoori spices, which turned out to be a mistake. Way too much for 4 lbs of chicken!

Fresh lemongrass stalks at the farmer’s market inspired this attempt at a classic Asian dish. I used Charles Phan’s recipe on Food and Wine as a springboard for whipping together my own creation, which was scaled up and done more or less by taste rather than with measuring instruments.

The Procedure:

1. Wash 4 lbs of chicken breast in cold water, then pat completely dry. Cut chicken into small bite size pieces. Put peanut oil in the Calphalon Everyday Pan and heat until ready to fry. (Heat Setting: 8 ) Then add enough chicken to cover the bottom-but no more-and season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cover the pan for a few minutes to minimize splatter. Use a plastic spatula to scrape the chicken from the bottom, then switch to your slotted spoon and remove the chicken from the pan. Continue frying the rest of the chicken in batches, being sure to add peanut oil as necessary to prevent excessive sticking. Do not clean the pan between batches!

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This recipe from Diary of a Foodie is an excellent starting point for a mole. I followed the instructions with a few important changes:

1. It was impossible to obtain the prized (and rare) chilhuacle negro. As a substitution, I used pasilla negro chiles.
2. I used ancho chiles (essentially dried poblanos) instead of mulatto chiles, also known as ancho negro.
3. The variety of chipotle chile to be used was not specified in the original recipe, but I used morita chipotles.
4. Since I used pasilla negros in place of the chilhuacle negros, I did not follow the directions, which called for an additional four pasilla chiles.

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