Older Bolder Life

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the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Southwestern Hot Chicken Salad

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This Southwestern Hot Chicken Salad (great with turkey too) is based on one one that’s been part of our family food lexicon for years now; this version amps up the spice and flavor a bit with the addition of Mediterraneo Dulce and poblano peppers and (usually) 4 to 8 ounces of roasted, diced green chiles too. Packed with lots of crunchy vegetable goodness, we stir this one up now without digging the recipe out, typically throwing in whatever we have on hand.

The original recipe we were given for this dish was topped with cheese (by all means don’t add it if you’re not doing dairy – we’re happy and healthy Primal enthusiasts, so include it) and then crushed potato chips. As we’ve revamped all of the family favorite recipes to be healthier over the years, topping this dish with sliced almonds is far better than the potato-chip crowned version.

This is comfort food supreme, and not at all a complicated dish to stir together and slide into the oven on short notice. It reheats very well by the way, we never finish an entire recipe ourselves, and find it reheats best in the oven (350, 25-30 minutes) versus the microwave.

3 cups (+) cooked chicken, white and dark meat, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 medium Mediterraneo Dulce peppers, stemmed, seeded chopped
2 medium poblano peppers, stemmed, seeded and chopped
1 medium bunch celery including leaves, trimmed, sliced on the diagonal
1 small sweet onion or 2 shallots, trimmed and chopped small
1/2 cup diced pimento
1/2 cup sliced green olives (or more)
1 cup avocado or olive oil mayo
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
2-3 cups medium Cheddar or Monterrey Jack cheese, grated
1 cup sliced almonds (or more)
1-2 tbsp. paprika

Optional
Sliced water chestnuts
1 cup frozen peas
4-8 ounce can roasted, diced green chiles

Preheat the oven to 350.

Cut up the chicken and place in a large bowl. Add chopped peppers, celery, onion (or shallots), diced pimento, green olives, and if using – the water chestnuts, frozen peas, and green chiles. Now stir in the lemon juice and mayo, then season to taste with good salt and pepper.

Spoon into a 13 x 9 baking dish, sprinkle with the grated cheese then the sliced almonds. Top it all off with a healthy shake of a good paprika.

Now into the oven for 30-40 minutes until the cheese is gooey and melted, the almonds are toasty, and it’s bubbling around the edges.

Serve hot with a generous splash of your favorite hot sauce; reheat on a foil or parchment-lined baking sheet for 20-25 minutes if there’s any left over.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: New Mexico Red Spice Rub No. 1

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Earlier this week I posted on Instagram a pic of a quick dinner one afternoon, a blackened mahi fish taco over our house guacamole in romaine “boats”; several people emailed to ask about the spice mixes we use…

In part due to growing up in the Texas Panhandle and escaping often to nearby New Mexico to hike, camp, and ski growing up, and in part due to the fact that New Mexico offers a wonderful, and very unique, regional cuisine to those willing to invest some time learning about it, we’ve long been fans of New Mexico’s spicy food culture.

One of the things we’ve worked on over the years is developing spice mixes featuring New Mexico’s great array of chiles; this New Mexico Red Spice Rub No. 1 is our version featuring the Chimayo red chile (though you can of course use whatever red chile powder you have on hand).

This is outstanding with fish, chicken, or pork (trying a slow roasted pork shoulder slathered in this), and we even occasionally use it in places you wouldn’t necessarily expect, as in flavoring a vinaigrette or even sprinkle over scrambled or deviled eggs.

3 parts good New Mexico chili powder (Chimayo)
2 parts sweet paprika
1 and 1/2 parts ground cumin
1 part granulated garlic
1 part granulated onion
1 part freshly ground black pepper
1 part good salt (kosher salt)
1/2 part dried (Mexican) oregano
1/2 part chipotle powder
1/2 part ground coriander

This one couldn’t be easier, mix the dry ingredients well in a small bowl. Stir tightly sealed in a cool, dark place, and use generously.

the Older Bolder Friday Feast 1 March: Coconut Curry Braised Chicken Legs

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With much of the country is still hip deep in winter today, let’s talk about a warm, rich, tasty, and easy dinner to get on the table tonight – Coconut Curry Braised Chicken Legs.

Braised foods score big points on so many fronts. Braising allows one to take a humble cut of meat, one packed with tooth and connective tissue, and with the magical application of gentle heat, time, and liquid to convey both heat and flavor, turn that protein into a tender, moist, deeply flavored delight.

Probably my most remembered home dish from childhood was a beer-braised brisket; we have several great brisket recipes, but that’s the one we keep going back to. And how about those Thai-inspired Slow Roasted Short Ribs from a few weeks back? By the way, I just did a chuck roast using that recipe, and it was astoundingly good (post in the queue already).

My professional photographer daughter has been braising chicken legs in coconut milk and curry for years, and we’ve lately been using this amped up Coconut Curry Braised Chicken Leg recipe as later winter battles early spring here in North Texas.

We like spicy, full-flavored food, of course you can ramp up or tone down the spices in this recipe, but remember the chicken legs are a mildly-flavored blank slate here. This recipe yields big results for about 10 minutes prep time before it slides into the oven…

1 can full-fat unsweetened coconut milk
2-4 tbsp prepared Thai curry paste
1-3 lemongrass stalks, outer layer peeled, crushed (see note above)
2-3 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled, coarsely grated
4-6 garlic cloves, crushed
4 chicken legs (thigh+drumstick)
Good salt to taste

Optional
1-2 chopped serrano or jalapeno peppers
1-2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp brown sugar

To serve
Chopped cilantro leaves and tender stems
Lime wedges and/or zest
Toasted unsweetened coconut flakes
Cauliflower rice

Prep the chicken, lightly season with salt and set aside. Preheat the oven to 400.

Stir the coconut milk, curry paste, and grated ginger together in a baking dish large enough to hold the 4 chicken legs. Add the lemongrass and garlic, then add the chicken legs and spoon the mixture over.

Bake for 60-75 minutes (depends on the size of the legs), basting with the cooking liquid/sauce every 15 minutes until the chicken is browned and cooked through (the joint will move fairly easily).

Plate, spoon some sauce over, and top with the cilantro, zest, and coconut flakes.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast 22 February: Chicken Etouffee

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I’m not Cajun, though at times I wish I was. Cajun and Creole cooking, anchored in Louisiana, has long held a fascination for me ever since I was a kid, eating fresh seafood with my grandparents at their beach house on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Grandmother Mama (pronounced maw maw) wasn’t Cajun either, but she loved gumbo, etouffee, and fricassees, and still made the best I’ve ever tasted.

Though it’s clearly wide open for debate, and the pedantic foodies among us may certainly argue their position below, MaMa made her etouffee’s with a lighter, blonde roux, before smothering the shrimp, fish, or chicken to cook over time. Given her results loving produced over an ancient gas stove at “the Camp”, we’ve always been on the “etouffee has a roux base” side.

One other thought about cajun cooking and roux – we’re now in our fourth year of eating Primal/Paleo around our house, and for that entire time, I’ve struggled making a great roux with gluten free flour replacements. I know it can be done, and I’ve tried five or six options over the years, but especially when making a darker roux, the flavor just doesn’t come together for us unless using the otherwise verboten standard AP flour (which I frankly never use otherwise). (This is, at this particular point in time, our only deviation using one of the standard grain-based products we normally eschew. Life goes on, and so do our health gains; you make the call for your recipe. )

Finally, this is a simple recipe in practice, and can be spiced up a bit with extra seasoning or hot sauce, and when it’s really chilly out, my wife prefers it with a grass-fed beef or chicken andouille sausage throw in too. And it might even be better the next day…

2 tablespoons avocado oil or EVOO
2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
2 tbsp your favorite cajun seasoning OR
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/3 cup all purpose flour or gluten free flour replacement
1 large onion, medium dice
1 large green bell pepper, medium dice
1 large red bell pepper, medium dice
4 stalks celery, sliced
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 can diced tomatoes with chiles
2-3 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Louisiana hot sauce, your favorite to taste

Optional
Andouille sausage
1 bottle beer of choice
1-2 tbsp additional Cajun seasoning
1 tablespoon molasses or maple syrup
Fresh parsley, minced or chiffonade when served
Thinly sliced green onions when served

Heat your oil of choice in your trusty Dutch oven over medium-high heat and brown the seasoned thighs for 3-4 minutes per side, remove to a plate when done.

Reduce the heat to medium-low, melt the butter, then stir in the flour/flour replacement and cook, stirring frequently, until a blonde roux forms. Be sure to scrape up the browned crusted bits and seasonings from the bottom of the DO.

Now stir in the onion, bell peppers, and celery, and cook for 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened. Stir in the garlic and sausage (if using), cook for another two minutes.

Now stir in the beer, then the tomatoes, chicken stock, Worcestershire, bay leaves, hot sauce, and if using them, the additional Cajun seasoning and molasses or maple syrup. Now nestle the chicken thighs in, bring to a gentle boil over medium heat, then simmer for an hour or so. Keep an eye on the liquid level and add a bit more stock if needed.

Finally, pull the chicken thighs, shred the meat, and return the meat to the pot. Adjust the seasonings to taste, and serve hot with the parsley and sliced green onions.

Enjoy.

A Quick Comment on Oysters and a Nifty Guide to Southern Oysters

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This past week a client asked a couple of great questions about oysters and she also shared with me a recent resource worth passing on here.

Recognizing that oysters aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, I have to confess that I grew up watching my grandfather sit on his dock (Colorado River mouth in the Gulf of Mexico, just south of Matagorda, Texas), shucking a bushel of oysters for dinner, and slurping the occasional one right out the freshly opened shell.

It wasn’t until some years later while in medical school in San Antonio that I truly learned to appreciate raw oysters; we had a wonderful place just down the street from our apartment that trucked fresh oysters in the shell up from the Gulf Coast every single day, and shucked them right before you enjoyed them at the old-fashioned wooden bar.

Eating raw seafood of course carries some risks (vibrio parahaemolyticus and norovius, we’re thinking about you two in particular); there are dozens of tasty ways to cook your oysters as well, most of which preserve oysters’ impressive nutritional offerings.

Ounce for ounce, oysters have an amazingly dense nutritional profile, offering up nutritious protein and fat (including omega-3s), vitamins D, C, and A, several B-vitamins, and a nifty collection of minerals, including selenium, magnesium, iodine, copper, phosphorus, and zinc.

A Nifty Guide to Southern Oysters

From the good folks over at Garden and Gun, here’s a link to their Guide to Southern Oysters, a very useful reference covering favored oyster variants from Maryland down through the Gulf.

Image via the linked post at Garden and Gun.

the Older Bolder Friday Feast 4 January: Thai-Inspired Slow Roasted Short Ribs

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Last March or April Chef Libby sent us this jaw-droppingly good recipe for Thai-Inspired Slow Roasted Short Ribs that she’d adapted from one published in Bon Appetit. She noted back then that she significantly upped the ‘spice package’ for the spice-infused coconut milk the ribs slowly roast in for nearly six hours (!).

She also added a bit of heat, in the form of a sliced jalapeno or fresno chile, to the toasted coconut, cilantro, and lime gremolata sprinkled over the top.

Our daughter Jess from Missoula recently visited over the holidays, and I slow roasted five pounds of short ribs using this recipe one coolish, windy afternoon her first day in town. The enticing aromas of coconut, ginger, and lemongrass drove us crazy during the last half of the roasting time, and we all agreed this was probably the best tasting short rib prep any of us had ever chased around a plate.

Libby also had shared a tip last year about using lemongrass; if you’re not feeling up to actually prepping lemongrass stalks, you can certainly using some of the pre-prepared lemongrass purees that are available in produce sections around the country. (We’re big lemongrass fans, so I actually used both…)

Take your time with this one, and get those ribs fall-off-the-bone tender.

4-5 lb beef short ribs
Good salt

3 lemongrass stalks (see note above)
2 medium shallots, trimmed and chopped
5 large garlic cloves
3 jalapeno chiles, stemmed, seeded, chopped
2-inch piece of ginger, peeled, finely chopped
1 tbsp + 1 tsp good curry powder
1 can (14-ounces) full fat, unsweetened coconut milk
Optional: 1 tbsp fish sauce

For the gremolata
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1 cup cilantro leaves and tender stems, chopped
1 jalapeno or fresno chile, stemmed, seeded, sliced into half rings
2 tbsp fresh-squeezed lime juice (one average lime)
Salt to taste

Preheat your trusty oven to 250.

Trim the uppermost three quarters of the lemongrass stalks off and lay in the bottom on your dutch oven or large cast iron skillet (if using the prepared lemongrass puree, skip this step of course). Salt the short ribs generously and lay atop the lemongrass, bone side up.

Into the blender go the coconut milk, shallots, garlic, jalapenos, ginger, curry, the lemongrass (at least 1 tbsp of the puree if using, grate the bottom quarters of the stalks in otherwise), and the optional fish sauce, puree until smooth. Pour over the ribs, and slide into the oven.

Roast at 250 for 3.5 hours; you’re looking for the meat to begin to tenderize, and the liquids to reduce by roughly half. (It will look broken and oily, don’t worry about that). At 3.5 hours, turn the ribs on their sides and throw it back into the oven for another 2 hours (maybe 2.5) until the meat is fall apart tender.

During the last hour, toast the coconut until golden (10-15 minutes), set aside to cool. When cool, combine with the cilantro and sliced pepper; add the fresh lime juice and salt just before serving.

When the ribs are done, serve hot with the gremolata spooned over the top.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast 28 December: Rib Rub Pork Shoulder

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In keeping with our recipe theme of late focusing on traditional Southern foods that, according to folklore, bring good luck for the New Year, here’s a wonderful, and ridiculously simple, recipe for a tasty pork shoulder prep, the Rib Rub Pork Shoulder.

Pork is of course a celebrated protein in many cultures around the world, and the fact that pigs root moving forward symbolizes (ostensibly according to tradition) progress and attainment for the New Year. As noted before, both my wife and were raised in the South and learned these traditions around our Grandmothers’ tables; we eat pork today because it tastes so good.

A slowly smoked pork shoulder is still considered a treasure in the modern South today, pulled and most often served with a regionally-favored sauce (for example, the mouth-puckering vinegar-based sauces in the Carolinas). Not always having the time to tend a smoker for the day, we oven roast a pork shoulder using this recipe every six weeks or so and eat on it for a week in various preps. This technique is simple as can be, and produces foolproof results every time.

Two summers ago, in the days before my son married, we even catered a backyard party he and his then fiancé threw for visiting family and friends, using the very rib rub recipe my son had crafted years before (Jake’s Rib Rub). I’ve included a link to that recipe below – it’s delicious, but you’ll note it contains sugar, as do many rubs you’ll find commercially these days. We typically make a batch of one of a number of our favorite rubs without any sugar; there are a number of great recipes around, and Jake’s recipe works well (in terms of flavor profile and balance) with the sugar greatly reduced. You make the call…

6-10 pound whole bone-in heritage pork shoulder roast (Boston Butt)
Your favorite pork or rib rub (we use Jake’s Rib Rub occasionally, see above)
Apple cider vinegar

Preheat your trusty oven to 425.

Rinse the pork shoulder and pat dry; paint with the ACV and coat with a generous layer of the rub (all surfaces).

On a foil-lined baking sheet place a rack covered with a sheet of parchment paper; settle the rubbed shoulder atop the paper, skin side up, and side into the oven for 20 minutes.

Reduce the heat to 250 and plan on at least a 6 hour cook; you need a deep meat temperature of 185 for the fat to render out and the toughest meat fibers to fully (and magically) tenderize. Bigger shoulders (9 to 10 pounds and up) may even need times more in the range of eight hours.

When done, rest for at least 30 minutes before pulling, slice or shredding.

For those making tacos tonight, here’s a little trick to put this one over the top – pull or shred the shoulder and heat a skillet over medium high heat. Place a healthy layer of meat in the skillet, sprinkle with a bit more rib rub (you’ll know when it’s enough), and heat, turning now and again, until hot, sizzling and just beginning to caramelize.

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast 21 December: Libby’s Honey Thyme Holiday Ham

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Being children of the South, my wife and I often think about enjoying a nice ham during the holiday season. As our palates have changed over the years eating Primally, the commercially prepared, overly-sweet, glazed hams made famous by a certain franchise just don’t fit the bill these days.

We have a family favorite mustard-glazed, hardwood-smoked version we’re partial to, though Libby convinced me to try her Honey Thyme Holiday Ham recipe recently, and I have to say, it’s very likely the best ham we’ve ever cooked at home.

She adapted the recipe from one posted in the now-defunct Gourmet magazine years ago, and true to her Southern roots added a bit of creole mustard to the glaze. And yes, this ham has a glaze sweetened with honey; the flavor added, particularly working in concert with the thyme, is well worth the sprinkle of additional carbs in our book, and isn’t cloying (like the above mentioned commercially-prepped hams…).

Give this one a try if you’re thinking about a ham this year; it’s one you’ll come back to again.

12-14 pound fully cooked ham

1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup mild honey
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 tbsp + 1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tbsp creole or dijon mustard
1 and 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Optional: fresh ground pepper

Set your ham out at room temp an hour before starting to cook.

When ready to get started, fire your trusty oven to 350 and trim any rind (skin) from the ham, then score the surface ham fat in a crosshatch pattern (just the fat, not the meat).

Place the ham on a roasting rack in a hefty roasting pan, cover with a piece of parchment paper, then cover the entire roasting pan with foil. Bake for an hour and 45 minutes.

While the ham is baking, bring the vinegar to a boil in a small saucepan, and reduce to roughly 1 tbsp. Remove the pan from the heat, whisk in the butter until melted, then the honey, thyme, mustard, and Worcestershire. Set the glaze aside until the hour and 45 minutes are up.

When the first baking period has passed, remove the foil and parchment paper, brush the ham with half the glaze, pour a cup of water or apple cider into the roasting pan, and bake for 30 minutes.

Reglaze the ham with the remaining glaze and bake another 30 minutes (or until done).

Enjoy.