Don’t have leftovers and don’t really feel like cooking much? Try one of these and have a nice weekend!
Post-Thanksgiving Food Coma
Annual Cranberry Sauce Rant
It’s time for my annual rant about crappy canned cranberry sauce that people buy for Thanksgiving dinner. Don’t buy that garbage! Make this cranberry chutney instead. It’s really easy, and you’ll be known as the one who freed the family from the pain, torture and anguish of canned cranberries.
Have a great Thanksgiving!
Magadip (Madurese Aromatic Chicken)
Madura is an Indonesian island off the coast of Java, and given all the other delicious Indonesian dishes, you know that this has to be good.
The recommendation for this dish is to cook it ahead of time so the flavors can better permeate the chicken, then re-heat it before serving. Cucumber salad is the recommended accompaniment, along with rice topped with fried onions.
Though there a fair amount of spices in the ingredient list, it doesn’t call for anything hard to source, and you may have most of them in your pantry already. The dish is also deceptively easy to cook.
I wonder how this would turn out if you swapped out the chicken stock with coconut milk. Hmm.
What you’ll need:
- 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, or 3 lbs whole chicken pieces
- 1t sugar
- 2T coriander seeds
- 2t cumin seeds
- 6 whole cloves
- 0.5t ground nutmeg
- 0.5t ground turmeric
- 1 small onion
- 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
- 1.25 cups chicken stock or water
- Salt and ground black pepper
What to do:
Put the chicken pieces in a large casserole or pot and sprinkle with sugar and salt. Toss to ensure the pieces are covered. Set aside if you’re cooking right away, or put them in the refrigerator.
Dry-fry the coriander, cumin and cloves over medium-high heat until they give off their wonderful aromas. Add the nutmeg and turmeric, heating just a little longer. Let them all cool, then grind them in a spice grinder. Set aside.
Roughly chop the onion and put it in a food processor, followed by the sliced ginger. Pulse until they’re like a paste, then add the ground spices and stock. Pulse the processor a couple of more times until everything is combined.
Pour the spice/onion/stock mixture over the chicken in the casserole, cover it with a lid, and cook it over gentle heat until the chicken is cooked through—about 45 minutes.
Serve with rice topped with fried onions and chilled cucumber salad.
