Buttermilk Roast Chicken with Roasted Parsnips & Carrots with Brown Rice

The chicken was, in a word, delectable. Marinated overnight in a simple brine of buttermilk and spices, it was tender and juicy. Mike went back for a third piece. The parsnips and carrots were a great complement to the chicken. It makes so much chicken I'll definitely make this for company next time.

Buttermilk Roast Chicken

slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen's recipe

2 cups buttermilk

5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed (we used about 8 cloves)

1 tbsp. table salt

1 tbsp. granulated sugar

2 tsp. paprika

Lots of fresh ground pepper

2 1/2 to 3 lbs. chicken parts (we used legs and thighs)

drizzle of olive oil

flaked or coarse sea salt, to finish

Whisk buttermilk with garlic, table salt, sugar, paprika, and lots of freshly ground black pepper in a bowl. We placed the chicken in the bowl, swished it around to make sure all the pieces were good and coated with the brine, and covered it. The original recipe suggests putting everything into a gallon freezer bag, but a) I have very bad luck with leakage and ziploc bags, and b) we were out of them anyway! Refrigerate the chicken for at least two hours or for up to 24 to 48 hours.

When ready to roast, preheat over to 425 degrees. Line a baking dish with foil. Remove chicken from buttermilk brine and arrange in dish (we shoved as much of the chicken as we could into a 9 x 13 in baking pan, and we still have some chicken left over for roasting tomorrow). Drizzle lightly with olive oil, then sprinkle with additional paprika and sea salt to taste. We roasted the legs and thighs for 40 minutes, until brown and scorched in spots. The original recipe suggests roasting legs for 30 minutes, or if you're roasting breasts, for 35 to 40 minutes.

Serve immediately.

Roasted Parsnips & Carrots

3 large parsnips, sliced into rounds

4 medium carrots, sliced into rounds

2 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves

1 tbsp. olive oil

coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a large baking dish (with an oven preheated to 425 degrees), combine all ingredients. Give them a quick toss or two to incorporate, and then roast in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until the parsnips are golden brown and blackened in spots.

The roasted veggies were very flavorful - almost crispy on the outside in places, and tender on the inside.

Overall, a very satisfying meal. So satisfying, in fact, that Mike and I sat over our empty plates and chatted for over an hour before we were ready to tackle the dishes. Definitely a meal we'll make again!

Arroz Tapado

I found this dish in one of my regular food blogs. The idea looked really awesome and Brit seemed pretty interested. Thankfully for my amazing girlfriend, I came home late from work, but she had done almost all of the prep work for dinner. She graciously let me take over at that point to do the actual cooking so she could take a break and just enjoy the rest of the evening. Overall the dish was good and tasty, but not very impressive and didn't have much of a Wow! factor. We both felt that using ground beef, instead of ground turkey, would have added some extra moisture and flavor to the fish, but that there was still something lacking and we're not sure exactly how to improve it.

Arroz Tapado
(adapted from a Food In My Beard recipe)

Serves a lot

2 cups basmati rice, cooked and seasoned well with salt and pepper
1 lb. ground turkey
2 medium sweet potatoes, diced
28 oz. diced tomatoes
1 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tsp cumin
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 hard boiled eggs, roughly chopped
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1/4 cup black olives, roughly chopped

Roast the sweet potatoes at 450 F in some olive oil and salt until browned and tender. Remove and set aside.
Brown the turkey in a skillet in some olive oil and then set aside. Cook the onion and pepper until soft and then add in the garlic, paprika, and cumin for a few more minutes. (Chef's note: It would probably be better to cook the veggies first and then add the meat directly to the skillet. The flavor of the veggies and meat can blend together while keeping the meat from drying out while sitting aside.)
Return the meat to the skillet along with the tomatoes, eggs, parsley, and olives. Simmer for about 15 minutes and then stir in the sweet potatoes.
To assemble this dish, take a medium-large sized bowl and spray it with non-stick spray. Fill the bottom 1/3 with rice, fill the middle 1/3 with the meat mixture, and then cover the top 1/3 with more rice. Ensure that each layer is firmly in place and invert the bowl onto a plate. Gently tap and lift up the bowl revealing a very nice looking mound of food.

Delicious Indian Dinner!

As I mentioned in a previous post, Mike's friend Trisha's mom gave us some great Indian recipes to try out, along with some spices for each recipe. We did a test run of two dishes (I made the Masala Masoor and Mike made the Alu Gobi), and they turned out really REALLY well, so we decided to invite Trisha and our friend Gabe over to partake in the delicious Indian food. Plus we definitely needed validation from Trisha that our dishes were made correctly!

Mike made the Alu Gobi again, and I reprised the Masala Masoor recipe this evening. I also made Indian spiced rice (recipe below).

All in all it was a great evening. We ate, talked, ate some more and then we relived our childhoods by playing a couple of rousing games of Candy Land (which, by the way, was A LOT more challenging when I was 6 years old...). We're going to try more of the recipes and then have them over again sometime soon!

Aromatic Rice

Loosely adapted from a recipe I hand wrote in a notebook in college - I have no idea where I got it

2 cups jasmine or basmati rice, rinsed

3.5 cups vegetable broth

1.5 - 2 tbsp olive oil

2 shallots, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp salt

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and saute, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for an addition 60 seconds. Add the cumin, coriander and salt and stir to incorporate. Stir in the rice and saute for 1 minute - until the grains become translucent. Add the vegetable broth, bring to a boil and stir the pot one time to incorporate all of the spices into the rice. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is fully cooked.

Fluff with fork and serve.