Older Bolder Life

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red peppers

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Hasselback Chicken with Feta, Red Peppers, and Olives

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As we’ve moved into the New Year my wife and I had resolved to work harder to find a reasonably-priced source of pastured chicken; pasture raised chicken is a bit harder to find via our local farmers markets, and it’s often damned pricey when purchased via the biggest online purveyors.

We found a regional provider after digging around a bit (a full review is upcoming) and have of late been experimenting a bit with different ways to prepare chicken breasts, which as we call know, can be a bit dry and chewy if overcooked.

Don’t get me wrong, we love well-prepared chicken of all sorts, and have our favorite grilled chicken down to a perfected routine, and can get delectable results every time on the grill after a short sous vide par-cook.

That said, for most of us around the country, easy access to grilling outside doesn’t present itself often during the month of January, and I’ve been experimenting with a few new oven-roasted chicken recipes of late – including this Hasselback Chicken with Feta, Red Peppers, and Olives.

The “hasselback” trend is perhaps a bit long in the tooth these days, though I have to admit we still roast a fair amount of vegetables that way and still see it offered on menus here and there.

After playing around with some fairly classic roasted stuffed chicken breast recipes, Chef Libby in Austin recently mentioned that she’s been serving a Tex Mex version of today’s recipe (for another day here on the blog) for catering gigs in Austin, and the proverbial light bulb went off to try this one with feta, roasted red peppers, and good Kalamata olives.

The hasselback concept with chicken breasts allows you to add more flavorful stuffing “goodies” to each chicken breast and is a breeze to do – just don’t cut all the way through the breasts when you’re slicing each one.

These are great one their own, and we’ve served with a simple marinara-type sauce, tzatziki, and even a spicy Columbian guacamole at different times and it plays well every time. This recipe calls for roasting in the oven, though they’d be great on a Traeger type smoker or even grilled (over the low heat side of a two-zoned fire).

By the way, adding a couple of tablespoons of chopped roasted pine nuts to the feta mixture plays very well too.

6 boneless, skinless, free-range chicken breasts
3/4 cup crumbled full fat feta cheese
3/4 cup roasted red peppers, diced small
3/4 cup thinly sliced kalamata olives, divided
Good salt and pepper
1 tbsp good paprika
1/2 cup or more grated/shredded Mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup basil leaves, at least half in chiffonade

Fire the oven to 350, line a baking sheet with parchment.

Crumble the feta into a bowl, add the diced red peppers, and half the sliced olives; stir to combine and set aside.

Take each chicken breast and slice 6-8 slits across the breast (perpendicular to the long edge), roughly 3/4 of the way through the breast meat (don’t cut all the way through); your slices will be roughly 1/2-inch apart. Now stuff a bit of the feta mixture into each slit.

Place the stuffed chicken breasts on your baking sheet, generously season with good salt and freshly ground pepper, then dust with the paprika. Finally equally divide the shredded Mozzarella among the chicken breasts, sprinkling on top.

Bake the chicken for 20-22 minutes until firm and cooked through; you can optionally turn on the broiler for the final 2-3 minutes of the cook to brown the cheese further if you’d prefer.

Let rest for 2-3 minutes and serve hot, sprinkled with the remaining sliced olives and basil chiffonade.

Enjoy.

The Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Libby’s Chile Crisp

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We’re always on the lookout around our camp for interesting sauces, spice mixes, and flavorings of all shapes and sorts to add interest to the foods we enjoy.

It really helps to have a friend “in the industry” to politely pester now and again, especially one who’s as creative as our compadre Chef Libby down in Austin. For reasons that aren’t wholly clear to either one of us, our palates align pretty damn closely, as do our tastes in recreational pursuits, namely fly fishing and other diversions undertaken on or around the water.

Libby and I were chatting several months about sauces, and I mentioned that we were looking for something along the lines of a typically sweet (make that overly-sweet) Asian chile sauce when she asked if we’d ever tried her version of a chile crisp?

For the life of me I couldn’t remember her ever sharing the recipe, one that she’d sourced years ago from Bon Appetit and fiddled with to clean up the ingredients to align more with a Primally-influenced palate.

Libby’s Chile Crisp has become probably my personal favorite table condiment of all time, displacing the ever-so-durable Tex-Mex table salsa (some might even call that a pico), a condiment that’s become increasing essential and good on just about everything I can imagine being seared, roasted, or otherwise cooked on a grill, eggs of every sort, and even vegetables (roasted or grilled in particular).

This recipe produces a rich, red slather that’s at the same time spicy (the red pepper and ginger), crunchy (the toasted shallots and garlic), with a hint of Asian-inspired flavors (the star anise, tamari, and ginger), with a soothing, flavor-infused oil to tie it all together.

Eggs will never be the same again with chile crisp in the fridge – I just had it drizzled over three chilled boiled eggs (cut in half so the just set yolks could soak up the flavor) for lunch as I finished this post in fact.

The recipe easily doubles, and you’ll get a better crisp-ing effect if you use at least an 8-inch sauce pan to spread the shallots and garlic out in a thin layer (go bigger if doubling the recipe); just watch them and don’t push them too fast. Oh, and by the way, we like it with more red pepper flakes; this is the recipe Libby originally shared with us back in the day.

3/4 cup oil of choice (we use half olive oil, half avocado)
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced
1 head garlic, separated into cloves, thinly sliced
2-3 star anise pods
1 cinnamon stick
2 to 3-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled, chopped fine
2-3 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 tbsp coconut aminos or tamari
Optional: 1-2 tsp sugar of choice

Combine the oil(s), prepped shallots, garlic, star anise, and cinnamon stick in a saucepan at least 8-9 inches in diameter. Place over medium heat until simmering, then reduce the heat to keep it just simmering and swirl now and again for 20-30 minutes, until the shallots and garlic have crisped and browned.

Meanwhile combine the prepped ginger, red pepper flakes, tamari or coconut aminos, and the optional sugar in a medium bowl and set aside.

When the shallots and garlic have browned and are crispy, strain into the ginger-pepper bowl, and leave the shallots and garlic to cool in the strainer (makes them crispier). When cool, stir back into the infused oil.

Keep in the fridge between uses, and yes, the recipe doubles easily (you’ll want more…).

Enjoy.

the Older Bolder Life Sauce Monday: Roasted Red Pepper Mayo

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One of the food discoveries we’ve made along the way on our Primal/paleo journey is how incredibly useful flavored mayo’s and aioli’s are when it comes to making mealtime time much much more interesting. We reach for our mayo and aioli jar just about every meal there’s a hot or cold protein on the plate.

Being able to consistently make delicious avocado oil, olive oil, or a combination of the two (our favorite) mayo at home in minutes has revolutionized the way we think about using this condiment. And I’m not kidding, when it’s time to make another batch, I don’t even think about it, quickly gather the goods, and can have it done and in cooling in the fridge in under 5 minutes.

Back a few months ago I posted this list of some of our favorite mayo and aioli flavors and variations, and listed among those a red pepper version.

Here’s the full recipe we’ve been using to make this one, and while you can certainly roast your own red peppers like I did for this Easy Romesco Sauce a few weeks back, using well-drained commercially prepared red peppers works here just as well. You will most likely have everything you need in to zip up a batch of this one in the fridge or pantry; don’t leave out the capers – their briny, tart flavor adds to the final taste ensemble nicely.

As always, consider this a base recipe to modify from, though I’d suggest making a batch as it’s written before deciding where you want to take it next time around.

1 cup avocado or olive oil mayo (use this recipe)
1/3 cup drained and chopped roasted red peppers or roast your own (see above)
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp drained and chopped capers
1 tsp good paprika
1/2 tsp salt (to taste)

Into your trusty blender or food processor go the ingredients; blend/pulse until well combined and smooth. Store covered tightly in the fridge for up to 5 days, though it’ll never last that long.

Enjoy.