Family Recipe: Party Chicken!

Now that I live in the Northeast, I am forced, as a Southern transplant, to endure The Questions:

1. Do you wear shoes?
2. Does your family have teeth?
3. Do you eat fried chicken a lot?

     The answers: sometimes, yes, and no. My family has never heeded the call of the KFC bucket. Our poultry of choice is Party Chicken. People, of course, laugh at the nondescript, yet distinctly Southern name of our signature dish. But once they taste the bacon-wrapped deliciousness, they stop laughing. They're too busy begging for seconds. 

      Instead of baking a ham on Easter, my grandmother always made Party Chicken by the panful. It takes an agonizing 4 hours to cook, so my childhood Easter Sundays were often spent rocking on the glider on my grandma's front porch, tormented by the savory smell of dinner. By the time Party Chicken comes out of the oven, I've always conveniently forgotten that I don't eat beef. (In fact, when no one's looking, I steal the dried beef from the piece of chicken next to mine.) It's that good. 

What you need
8 half boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 slices bacon
1 carton sour cream (8 oz)
1 jar dried beef
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
½ cup water 

Put it all together

1. Preheat oven to 250°F. 
2. Soak dried beef in boiling water for 2 or 3 minutes. Chop beef, then place in the bottom of a 9x13" baking dish. 
3. Wrap each chicken breast in bacon. Place on top of beef. (To ensure more even cooking of bacon, you can also simply drape the chicken with bacon.)
4. Mix the sour cream and condensed soup with water. Pour over chicken. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil. 
5. Bake for 3 hours, then uncover and bake for another hour. 

Cadbury Egg Fudge Cookies

Brownie taste, cookie texture.

My childhood best friend could easily scarf half a dozen cookies in one sitting. I, however, was a more casual cookie consumer. I wanted one, maybe two, and only while they were hot. Fresh-baked cookies—I'm talking barely out of the oven—have the texture I like: gooey, with a little crispiness on the outside. But then, a few hours later, as they cool and firm up, I inevitably lose interest. I've even gone so far as to throw entire batches away, just because they bore me. 

       But then I discovered instant pudding mix. Folding the powder stuff into cookie dough yields the kind of chewy cookie you'd expect to find at a bakery—and they stay that way for days, long after most cookies would have gone stale. Now, I can easily eat an entire batch myself. (I'm still torn over whether or not this is a good thing.) 

       I have a basic pudding cookie recipe that I've adapted dozens of ways: classic chocolate chip, cranberry white chocolate, mint chocolate chip, chocolate peanut butter, to name a few of my favorites. For Easter, I stirred Mini Cadbury Eggs into a fudge chocolate base. The result, as described by my mother: "Crunchy on the outside, semi-creamy on the inside, with a nice little burst of yummy." 

Home at Nance Farm for Easter!

What you need

Adapted from AllRecipes

2 ¼ cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 sticks butter, softened

¾ cup brown sugar, packed

¼ cup white sugar

1 package chocolate fudge instant pudding mix (3.9 oz)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 bag Mini Cadbury Eggs

Put it all together

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. 
2. Use a mixer to cream the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar in a large bowl. Add the pudding mix, and beat until incorporated completely. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. 
3. Combine the flour and baking soda, then add to the butter mixture. Blend thoroughly.
4. Stir in the Mini Cadbury Eggs with a wooden spoon. (Don't use the mixer. It will crush them.) 
5. Roll dough into 1" balls, and position them at at least 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper (or an ungreased cookie sheet). Bake for 10-12 minutes.*

* I bake mine for 11 minutes. The cookies will come out slightly gooey in the middle, but once cool, have the perfect textural balance of crispy and chewy. 

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5-Star Style: The Redbury @ Hollywood and Vine

Booking your stay at a fancy chain buys you quality assurance—your suite will be predictably well-appointed. But you're also playing it safe. If you take a risk with a smaller boutique hotel, you'll most likely be well-rewarded with artful, distinct decor, rather than the "appealing to the masses" vibe of chain hotels. 

       At The Redbury @ Hollywood and Vine, described as having a "bohemian counter-culture feel," the style is both elegant and eclectic, upscale and lived-in. What I love is that it doesn't look like a hotel—you know, the standard white sheets, all-neutral look of most places. That pristine aesthetic is beautiful, yes, but it's not functional for most people (especially if you're stealing a style for your home).  The Redbury gives you the feeling of being in an exotic Moroccan escape—but one that's yours. Hello, House Hunters International.

Bed

Splurge: Lifestyle Solutions Wilshire Platform Canopy Bed ($673, Wayfair)

Steal: Coaster Furniture Symphony Poster Canopy Bed ($578, Furniture Barrel)

 

Bedding

Splurge: Elephant Indian Bedsheet Sheet ($65, Novahaat)

Steal: Boho Floral Tapestry Bedspread ($22, Amazon)

Pillow

Splurge: Ikat Decorative Pillow Cover ($35, Etsy) 

Steal: Thai Design Cushion ($8.50, Ten Thousand Villages) 

Bench

Splurge: Verde Collection Aydin Kilim Bench ($491, Amazon)

                                           

Steal: Button Tufted Upholstered Bench ($210, Target)

Rug

Splurge: Safavieh Persian Legend Collection Rug ($1,687, Amazon)

Steal: Safavieh Anatolia Collection Rug ($358, Amazon)

Sofa

Splurge: Essex Sofa, Paprika Herringbone ($1,300-1,700, West Elm)

Steal: Klaussner Dopler Dreamquest Sofa ($954, furniture crate)

Mirror

Splurge: Bertina Venetian Mirror ($670, PlumStruck) 

Steal: Venetian Gems Loreta Wall Mirror ($389, Wayfair)

Lamp

Splurge: Laura Ashley Renee Table Lamp with Charlotte Shade ($133, Buy.com)

Steal: Red Shade with White Candlestick Base Table Lamp ($56, Lamps Plus)

Orange Side Chair


Splurge: Madeline Chair ($349, Urban Outfitters)

Steal: Noho Orange Lounge Chair ($266, Overstock)

Coffee Table Cubes

Splurge: Butler Masterpiece Bunching Cube End Table, Chesnut Burl ($279, Wayfair)

Steal: Mesa Storage Cube, Antique Walnut ($46, Walmart)

Wallpaper


Splurge: Paisley Wallcovering by Van Luit ($55 per roll, Creative Wallcovering) 

Steal: National Geographic Paisley Print Wallpaper ($54.58 per bolt, Home Depot)*

*Yes, it's only a few cents cheaper. But I love them both!


Patterned Side Chair


Splurge: Skyline Furniture Swoop Ikat Chair ($256, Home Furniture Showroom)

Steal: Athens Slipper Chair, Cinnabar ($225, Target)

Tomato-Vodka Soup with Kale Pesto

Perfect partner: pulled pork.

I broke out my white pants for the first time today. It's a little premature, I'm aware—any good Southern girl would wait until after Easter to wear her whites. But I live in the Northeast now, and it's still cold outside. White pants reassure me that spring is here, even if the weather refuses to agree. 

      That said, I'm not ready to give up my favorite cold-weather food: soup. My partiality to soup is partly laziness—I love to make a big batch, then eat it for lunch all week. But I also love that I can work vegetables into something that tastes so indulgent. As you'd guess, I'm a fan of classic tomato soup—there's no better vessel for veggies—but even better is tomato-vodka soup. It has an extra layer of robust, smoky flavor that rounds out the crisp taste of tomatoes. You don't even need crackers—it's that satisfying. 

    For a little freshness (since it is spring), I whipped up a batch of kale pesto to throw on top. I've been on a pesto kick lately—I can't get enough pesto pizza—and I'm semi-addicted to kale chips. So I combined the two. One word: primo. 

Tomato-Vodka Soup

Adapted from the Rachael Ray Show

What you need

1 contain chicken stock (32 oz)

A handful of sun-dried tomatoes (not in oil)

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 bay leaf

2 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme

Salt and pepper

1 cup vodka (I used Smirnoff)

1 can crushed Italian tomatoes (28 oz)

1 cup heavy cream

Smoked paprika

Put it all together

1. Pour 1 ½ cups of the stock into a small saucepan. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, and bring to a low boil. Reduce the heat, simmering until the tomatoes soften, about 6 minutes.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrot, garlic, bay leaf, and thyme. Sprinkle in a little salt and pepper, and cook until the vegetables soften, about 5 minutes. 
3. Stir in the vodka, allowing it to reduce for 1 minute, then add the crushed tomatoes. Let the soup thicken for 15 to 18 minutes, stirring every few minutes. 
4. Add the rest of the stock, as well as the sun-dried tomato stock. Puree with an immersion blender (or in a food processor), bring it back to a bubble, and mix in the cream. Top with a teaspoon of pesto and a pinch of smoked paprika before serving

Kale Pesto 
From Southern Living

What you need

2 cups chopped fresh kale, firmly packed

2 garlic cloves

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

½ tsp dried crushed red pepper

2 tsp lemon zest

¾ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

Put it all together

1. Boil the kale in salted water until tender, about 6 minutes. Then plunge the leaves into ice water, so they don't continue cooking.
2. Process the garlic in a food processor until finely ground. Add kale, olive oil, and red pepper, then chop for 2 to 3 seconds. Stir in remaining ingredients. 

Court Cafe Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

The perfect biscuit: crispy outside, pillowy inside.

In the South, where I grew up, buttermilk biscuits signify something much deeper than the start of a hearty meal. They're the symbol of down-home tradition, of a place where dinner doesn't come from a can. The irony is that the only biscuits most people can make are those Pillsbury Flaky canned jobs—a shameful adulteration of the real thing. Mimicking the pillowy perfection of Granny's biscuits is admittedly tough. They're finicky little things, requiring both time-honored technique and a real Southern recipe. And, no, Paula Deen isn't the answer. 

        I learned my technique from Margaret Byrd, who cooked for two decades at a mom-and-pop diner, Court Cafe, in my hometown. The café stood at the tail end of Knoxville's main thoroughfare, Kingston Pike, a stretch of which was once a moonshiners' route. Back in the 1930s, Court Cafe served breakfast and lunch to guests of a nearby motel, long since demolished. Later, it became the morning spot of dozens of locals, my parents included. 

       The cafe was once featured in a documentary about Hank Williams Sr., but it was still best known for its food: sausage gravy, biscuits, chicken and dumplings, all the classics of home cookin'. Then, a few years back, as strip malls sprang up in the area, Court Cafe was forced to suddenly close. And my parents were forced to eat sausage biscuits at Hardee's. An utter tragedy. Fortunately, with the help of Byrd, you'll never reach such a level of biscuit desperation. 

    

The perfect homemade biscuit, she says, starts with soft flour, baking powder, Crisco, and ice-cold buttermilk. It sounds simple, but Byrd swears by it. "You can tell the difference between a homemade and a store-bought biscuit," Byrd told me. "We use White Lily Flour, nothin’ but White Lily Flour, self-rising. Our biscuits are made the old-timey way with buttermilk. We don’t add any water at all. That’s all I have ever seen my Mom do." 

     The recipe is basic, but it's easy to screw up the technique. Working the dough for more than 2 or 3 minutes will make your biscuits tough, as will twisting the biscuit cutter—or in Byrd's mother's kitchen, the round edge of a tin can. 

Court Cafe Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

What you need

2 cups self-rising White Lily flour
¼ cup Crisco (vegetable shortening) 
¾ cold buttermilk
½ Tbsp baking powder
Melted salted butter


Put it all together

1. Preheat the oven to 500°F.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder together. Then using your hands or a pastry blender, gently cut in the vegetable shortening to create a coarse mixture.
3. Stir in the buttermilk, only until a soft dough firms, then turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Knead it for 2 to 3 minutes, no longer. 
4. With a rolling pin, flatten the dough to ½” thickness. Then without twisting, cut out your biscuits. Arrange them on an ungreased baking sheet, with each round barely kissing its neighbor.
5. Bake 10-12 minutes, and immediately after removing, brush the tops with melted butter.

    

National PB&J Day: Graham-Crusted Peanut Butter & Jelly French Toast

The average kid scarfs 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before graduating high school. I probably consumed twice that. I religiously ate PB&J's every day, at least once a day, for the first 18 years of my life. My mom was strict about her formula: creamy Peter Pan with Bama grape jelly, slathered on Iron Kids white bread. And I was her devoted follower, convinced no one could replicate my mother's masterpiece. Then, suddenly, she announced her lunch-packing days were over. I was on my own.

       At first, I was devastated. Bitter, even. Every time I tried to make a PB&J, it fell flat, tasted entirely wrong. But then I discovered Peanut Butter & Co. Cinnamon Raisin Swirl. And natural peanut butter. And whole-fruit jelly. Toasting my bread. Constructing PB&J's became a welcome exercise in creativity—even today, I'm still playing with my formula and flavor combinations. (And sorry, Mom, white bread just won't cut it.) I've even branched out to non-sandwich arenas, as with my latest creation for National PB&J Day: 

Graham-Crusted Peanut Butter and Jelly French Toast

French toast
Inspired by the Big Book of Breakfast

What you need 
8 slices of thick-cut bread*
3 eggs
¾ cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp butter

Peanut butter sauce
½ cup peanut butter
½ cup heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp dark brown corn syrup
¼ light brown sugar, packed
1 tsp cinnamon

Toppings
All-fruit strawberry jelly
Powdered sugar

*I used Martin's 100% Whole Wheat Potato Bread—one of the supermarket's best kept secrets. It's at once fluffy and hearty, and is perfect for whole-grain haters. The potato flour masks the flavor of the grains and gives the bread a slightly buttery taste. Delicious. 

 

Put it all together

1. Combine all of the peanut butter sauce ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until the consistency of the sauce is smooth. Turn heat down to low, so the sauce stays warm. 
2. Whisk the eggs, milk, vanilla, and ½ tsp cinnamon together in a large bowl. Mix the graham cracker crumbs, 1 tsp cinnamon, and brown sugar in a separate shallow bowl.
3. Dunk each slice of bread in the milk mixture, thoroughly coating each side. Then dip into the graham cracker mixture, so each slice is completely covered. 
4. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Cook each side of the coated bread a couple of minutes, until slightly crispy. 
5. Place two slices of bread on a plate, pour sauce over top, then finish it off with a tablespoon of jelly and a sprinkling of powdered sugar. Repeat with remaining slices.

Makes 4 servings.

Want more PB&J fun? Check out my Guy Gourmet post: Blueberry & Cream Cheese PB&J, courtesy of Peanut Butter & Co.'s founder, Lee Zalben.