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A Spicy Tuesday Night

 In my younger years, I did not enjoy spicy foods. Luckily, I grew up...

Tonight for dinner, I made chicken and veggies with a new favorite: habanero cream sauce. I started with a couple mushrooms, a couple radishes, some shallot, a little yellow bell pepper, and a few cloves of garlic. 


I generally try to group ingredients by when I want to add them (I call them "firm," "soft," "aromatic," etc.). In this case, the sliced baby bellas and diced bell pepper were "soft," the sliced radish and slivered garlic were "hard," and the minced shallot and minced garlic were "aromatic." A little knife work, and they were ready to go, which meant it was time to tackle the habanero. 


I cut it up last just to help prevent getting that heat mixed in anywhere it didn't need to go. I mince that shit down so I can mix it around pretty thoroughly, and I threw that into the aromatic bowl.


As for the chicken, I had a few different pieces and a few different tricks up my sleeve. The liver was just seasoned with some salt and black pepper, then boiled for a few minutes so I could have a snack while I cooked everything else. Fat man's gotta eat, after all. The tenderloins and tail were seasoned with salt, pepper, and a healthy amount of paprika.


After the liver was boiled (still a little pink in the middle like Jacques Pepin "taught" me), I sliced it up poorly and snacked on it with a mixture of soy sauce and Tabasco sriracha.


I started up the chicken tail first to render a bit of that fat off. Pan frying in butter is always a great choice: lots of flavor and a great aroma. For the chicken, I used a tablespoon of butter with a second tablespoon of olive oil (just olive oil, not extra virgin). Once the bottoms were browned and the meat about halfway cooked, I flipped and basted, as one does.


Once the once and future top got started, it was time to add in the "hard" veggies and let them get started cooking. I turned the heat down a scooch, and let it all cook for a few minutes while I cleaned up some used utensils, finished my liver, and cleaned up the liver plate and sauce bowl. Cleaning while you go simplifies all of life, especially when your stovetop is your one usable surface.

As soon as the chicken was finished, I set it over on the cutting board and dumped the "soft" veggies into the pan. I didn't let them go for too long since I wanted my bell pepper pieces to have a bit of snap to them. I personally don't like them too soft, but if you prefer them with a bit more give, just let them cook a bit longer. Use a fork and you're done when it's how you like. That simple. Once the veggies were done, I threw them in a bowl and got ready for the best part: the sauce.


First, I deglazed the pan with some white wine (my current kitchen white is Josh Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc) and turned the heat to low. Once I scraped the bottom of the pan clean with my trusty wooden spatula, I added in the "aromatic" bowl and spread those pieces around to get good coverage on the bottom of the pan. I just let those sauté in the wine until it had reduced enough that it wouldn't run around the pan when I moved the solids and the pan had cooled a bit. I don't know the right words. Look at the pictures.


This was when I added in another tablespoon of butter, this time for the sauce. Sauces love butter if you didn't know. Once the butter melted and was thoroughly mixed in, I threw in a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar, mixed that in, and, finally, added about a quarter cup of cream and killed the heat altogether. I added a teaspoon of sauce thickener (aka "all purpose flour") and just kept on stirring with a whisk. From that point on, there was just a lot of whisking. I removed the pan from the burner and...kept mixing with that whisk until the sauce had cooled a touch and was at the right consistency: saucy. It ended up looking like some kind of cheesy ranch sauce, except smelling and tasting so much better than whatever shit that would be.


As for the plating, I scooped a few tablespoons of the veggie mix onto my plate, then stacked sliced chicken tenderloin around the interior of the veggie pile. 


After that, it was simply a matter of slapping some sprouts on the veggies, splatting some sauce onto the plate, dragging a spoon through it, and then drizzling a little across the chicken. Oh, and then eating the shit out of that food. 
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