Here's the thing about this recipe - you can go all out and do the whole thing: marinated chicken, whiskey caramelized onions and mushrooms, whiskey cheese sauce, and it'll take a few hours, but be well worth it! Or... you can only go half ass and make it quick! You could just marinate the chicken and bake it, easy enough. You could make the onions and mushrooms to stuff in the chicken breast, and pass on the cheese sauce. Or throw the whiskey onions and mushrooms on a burger. You could just make the cheese sauce to go on some veggies, or nachos, or pasta or whatever you want to put cheese sauce on. I'm trying to say it's versatile! And only as complicated as you want to make it. But it was smokey and rich... delicious.
I could see this being good with a variety of whiskeys. I used Jameson, because that's what we like to drink. Jack would be good. Use whatever you like to drink... and I highly suggest shots while cooking.
So tunes to go with it... some SoCal punk we were just introduced to and really enjoying - The Sparring. Check out their Facebook page for tour dates, news and new music! But first... enjoy their video for "Straitjacket". -jen
1-2 teaspoons minced garlic, depending on taste (we love garlic)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
a few good cranks of fresh cracked black pepper
4-6 chicken breasts
2 cups Whiskey Caramelized Onions And Mushrooms (see recipe below)
2 cups shredded Smoked Gouda cheese
Whisk all ingredients together. Butterfly chicken breasts and place one at a time in a Ziploc bag and using a mallet or bottom of a sauce pan, pound the chicken out to 1/4" thick. Then place all the butterflied breasts into the Ziploc and add the marinade. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (for quick clean up) and coat foil with non-stick cooking spray. Lay the butterflied chicken breasts open on the foil and on one half of the breast, sprinkle a layer of smoked Gouda. Top with a big mound (about 1/2 a cup) of the caramelized onions and mushrooms, then sprinkle another layer of Gouda on top. Fold the breast the other half over the stuffing like a taco. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until chicken has reached 265 degrees. Cooking time is going to vary depending on size of chicken breasts. (We use a leave-in thermometer, they're awesome.)
WHISKEY CARAMELIZED ONIONS AND MUSHROOMS Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30-40 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Yields: about 4 cups
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions, julienned
16oz of sliced crimini mushrooms
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger
3 shots of whiskey
Heat butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add onions and mushrooms, Worcestershire, brown sugar and pepper flakes. Toss to coat, then let cook for about 10 minutes, stirring once or twice. When onions start browning, turn heat to low and add garlic, ginger and whiskey. Let cook an additional 20 minutes or until all liquid has evaporated and onions have caramelized, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
(If you're going to make the cheese sauce below, you can remove the caramelized onions and mushrooms and just use the same skillet - no need to even rinse it out. That's flavour!)
WHISKEY AND SMOKED GOUDA CHEESE SAUCE
Time: 15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Yields: about 2 cups
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 and 1/2 shots whiskey (divided)
1 pint (2 cups) heavy cream
1 cup chopped Caramelized Onions and Mushrooms (optional)
dash of cayenne pepper, depending on taste
1.5 cups shredded smoked Gouda cheese
salt and pepper
In a skillet or sauce pan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add flour and whisk for 3-5 minutes. Whisk in 1/2 a shot of whiskey and heavy cream. Add Caramelized Onions and Mushrooms (if you choose to) and cayenne. Continue stirring until sauce begins to thicken. Once thickened, turn off heat and stir in shredded cheese, one handful at a time, until melted. Stir in 1 shot of whiskey. Add salt and pepper to taste if needed.
Justin's cousin Mike was visiting us from St. Louis and we'd had all these amazing things we wanted to cook for him, but it was his first visit to Northern California and we stayed busy (and lazy and purple hazy) and hadn't made anything after several days into his visit. So I brainstormed some things I'd been craving and was originally going to make stuffed chicken breasts with a pesto ricotta, cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and olives. Then Mike kindly reminded me how his mother's side of the family was Italian and his mom could make some mean Italian food. I'm going to admit it... I chickened out of the challenge, at least part of the way. What if after all the recipes he's seen, I try to make something "Italian", but really it comes off as a pathetic botched American version?! Could I stand for him to go back to St. Louis and tell his mom?! I wasn't sure. So I compromised and changed it up to a little coastal crab stuffing! Something he wouldn't get a lot of in the midwest, so it'd be both appropriate for his visit and it'd be something I'd been wanting to make for a while (crab stuffing). But I was bound and determined to show him that I wasn't too much of a slouch in the ethnic cooking arena, and I kept the Pesto-Alfredo sauce.
Didn't take too long to cook for as "fancy" as it might have sounded, and it was delicious! And we ate the hell out of it! Oh! And got some crab cakes out of it, too, the next night! Sadly, we were too busy enjoying our company and food to take some nicer plated pictures. :)
I don't even remember what we were listening to when we made this. But I love the band Against Me!, and this song is so great, albeit the acoustic version. No matter how many times I hear this line, "...and we'll dance like no one was watching... with one fist in the air," I get chills. Actually the whole damn song gives me chills. Though I'm still trying to get behind their more recent sound, I really love their earlier years. Good band. Good song. Good food. -jen
CRAB-STUFFED CHICKEN THIGHS
8-10 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup shallots, diced fine
1 cup mushrooms, diced fine
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, diced fine
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 pound crab meat
3/4 cup green onions, chopped
1.5 cups panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup finely shredded parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large skillet, heat olive oil on a medium-high heat. Add shallots, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, thyme, and Italian seasoning. Cook until shallots and mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and crab meat and cook for another 3 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in bread crumbs and cheeses. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Set aside.
Place chicken thighs between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound until 1/4" thick. Place 1/4-1/3 cup stuffing into each thigh and fold over like a taco. Place in a lightly oiled baking dish and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until chicken is thoroughly cooked.
PESTO ALFREDO SAUCE
12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) butter
1/3 cup shallots, diced finely
2.5 cups heavy cream
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup grated Asiago cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, finely shredded
3 heaping tablespoons pesto
In a medium-sized sauce pan, melt butter on medium-high heat. Add shallots and cook for 3-5 minutes, until tender. Add heavy cream and bring to a boil. Turn heat to a simmer and cook, stirring constantly, until cream becomes to thicken. Add a small handful of the cheeses and stir until cheese is entirely blended in before adding another small handful. Continue until all the cheese is incorporated. Then stir in the pesto and remove from heat.
The last month or so, I've been listening to a lot of music by Rancid - a great punk rock band that bridged the dirty ditches between different genres/styles of music and brought them all together with an incredible, original sound. We were lucky enough to catch bassist Matt Freeman's other band, Devil's Brigade, in San Francisco recently - it was a complete fluke that we were in town the weekend they were playing, so we jumped on that! Lars Frederiksen (guitarst) even showed up and sang a song with 'em. Needless to say, I've just been in a Rancid mood, and they've been on a lot of the play lists I've been listening to while cooking... and working, and driving, and reading, and sleeping. Sometimes I gotta wear a band out, set 'em aside for a while, and then bring them back out for a comeback.
So I got this idea in my head... what if I took a Rancid album, and made a recipe for each track of the album that somehow related to the song? I started with their self-titled 1993 album... but found it a little difficult, as it's hard to come up with any ideas other than Ramen noodles when listening to a song called "Rats In the Hallway". :\ Instead, I decided to switch to the 2003 album, "Indestructible", thinking there was a lot of mentioning of worldly places in that album; surely it'd be easier to come up with some recipes. Track 1 proved to be very inspiring and I had all these amazing ideas for Greek food and NY Deli style food... but once I got to Track 2, I had absolutely nothing.
Naturally, I came to this conclusion: Fuck it. ("Fuck it! Yes! That's your answer. That's your answer for everything! Tattoo it on your forehead!") I decided to just find kick ass songs that inspired kick ass recipes, from any Rancid album, in no particular order.
You might ask what the point of this project is, to which I would reply... "I dunno." I love punk rock, and I love cooking. Why shouldn't the two come together... in a dirty, sticky, angry, buttery mess?! Just like that porn movie you watched last night.
Of course, I expect soon after I begin the project, this blog will go global. I'll be offered my own Food Network show, which I will snidely turn down, though I may be inclined to accept a cookbook offer. The talented men of Rancid will no doubt start begging to come over for dinner on a regular basis and hang with us, because that's just how I roll. Soon enough, my food will inspire punk bands everywhere, I'll have to start my own band, Tim Armstrong will have to produce it...
Or... I'll just be satisfied if I can get five people to read the damn blog, let alone find someone who will actually try cooking one of the Rancid Recipes (which is probably not the most appetizing title to use in relation to food, but it gets the point across, and there's even alliteration.)
Well... without further unnecessary rambling... here is the first installment of my Rancid Recipes. -jen
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Song Title: Indestructible
Album: Indestructible (2003)
Lyrics: "the great Athenians, they're not even from Athens"
I love this album! It got a lot of criticism when it came out, but it's still my favourite Rancid album - I liked listening to the way the band evolved on this one. Thinking of recipes for this song was a no brainer! Greek food is awesome, and I even went so far as to do a little research on Athenian dishes (which is where I got the couscous idea from). Being that the internet is full of incorrect information, I don't know if couscous is really a staple in Athens or not. But I knew from the start I wanted olives involved... a butt load of olives. I'm not claiming it's totally Greek - I used mozzarella cheese, definitely not Greek. So really, my Great Athenian Stuffed Chicken's not even from Athens. But it's Greek and Punk Rock inspired! So you know it's going to be killer!
GREAT ATHENIAN STUFFED CHICKEN
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
15 oz ricotta cheese
1 head roasted garlic
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped
1/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 tesaspoon minced garlic
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella
Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Chop the stem-end off of a garlic head and place on large square of aluminum foil, cut side up. Drizzle with about a tablespoon of olive oil, sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top, and fold the foil into a little pouch. Roast at 500 degrees for 50-60 minutes. Let cool. Gently squeeze the whole head to squish the roasted garlic out.
Empty ricotta cheese into a large bowl. Add roasted garlic, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, basil, lemon zest, minced garlic, egg, and salt. Stir to combine. Mix in mozzarella and refrigerate 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pat chicken breasts dry. Place single breast between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound out until about 1/2" thick. Repeat for the next 3 breasts. Scoop about 1/4" of the ricotta filling into the middle of the breast and roll. Place chicken seam-side down on a lightly greased baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-40 minutes, until juices run clear. Remove from oven and let cool 5-10 minutes before serving.
Punk Rock Tip #1: Don't spill food on your boots!
VEGETABLE COUSCOUS SALAD
1 cup plain couscous
1-1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Caldo de Pollo (or chicken bouillon)
1 cucumber
1 cup broccoli florets
1 roma or plum tomato, diced
3 tablespoons lemon juice (about 1 lemon's worth)
oregano
fresh ground black pepper
1/3-1/2 cup Feta cheese
In a medium sized sauce pan, bring water, Caldo de Pollo, and olive oil to boil. Stir in couscous and turn off the heat. Cover and let sit for five minutes, until all the water is absorbed. Transfer to a large bowl and refrigerate until cool. Once cooled, add cucumber, broccoli, tomato, and lemon juice. Sprinkle oregano and black pepper to taste and toss. Mix in Feta cheese and serve at room temperature.
OLIVE TAPENADE CROSTINI
1 loaf of French bread
1/2 cup of muffuletta**
1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives
1 heaping teaspoon capers
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
Provolone cheese
**I used Granzella's Muffuletta. If you can't find a good Muffuletta, you can always use equal amounts of kalamata olives, green olives, and giardiniera mix to make your own quick muffuletta.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice french bread into 3/4"-1" slices. Place on a cookie sheet and brush the tops with olive oil. Toast for 10-13 minutes at 350 degrees, until tops are just beginning to turn golden and crisp. Remove from oven and set aside. Turn the oven up to broil.
In a food processor, combine muffuletta, kalamata olives, capers, garlic, and anchovy paste. Pulse until it's large chunks. Add lemon juice and olive oil and pulse several more times until the tapenade is in small, spreadable chunks (but don't process too much or it will turn into a paste!) Spread tapenade thinly over toasted bread. Top each crostini with a slice of provolone cheese. Broil for 1-1.5 minutes until cheese is melted.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Heat butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add onions and mushrooms, Worcestershire, brown sugar and pepper flakes. Toss to coat, then let cook for about 10 minutes, stirring once or twice. When onions start browning, turn heat to low and add garlic, ginger and whiskey. Let cook an additional 20 minutes or until all liquid has evaporated and onions have caramelized, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. 
