Roasted Chicken Thighs with Tomatoes, Olives, and Feta

I suppose if you searched this site for recipes I proclaim to be super easy and delicious you would come up with quite a few. Truth is, I go for easy prep most of the time as our schedules are hectic. I am glad to have a job, happy it pays for good recreational pursuits as well as good food and wine. But getting home well after 5 and making time for dog walks and dinner prep means I opt for minimum fuss (most of the time).

So, in spite of previous proclamations on meals you must try – THIS is it! From Martha Stewart's magazine Living..........




This one is amazingly easy, moist, extremely flavorful and makes a gorgeous presentation. In my humble opinion, of course.

This looked so good once it was pulled from the oven that I forgot about the feta cheese. We plated the food, poured the wine and tucked into our meal. Since it was such a nice evening we sat outside on the patio and enjoyed good bread, conversation and, of course, Martha’s chicken. That’s when I remembered the feta…too late but no matter.


Roasted Chicken Thighs with Tomatoes, Olives, and Feta
·
· 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 2 1/2 pounds)
· 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
· 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise
· 1/2 cup pitted Spanish olives
· 6 medium shallots, halved lengthwise and peeled (about 6 ounces)
· 3 sprigs fresh thyme
· Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
· Fresh mint leaves, for garnish
· Feta cheese, crumbled, for garnish

All ingredients tossed together




Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine chicken, oil, tomatoes, olives, shallots, and thyme in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and toss. Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet and spread chicken mixture, skin side up, in a single layer. Roast until a thermometer inserted into thickest parts of the thighs (do not touch bones) reaches 165 degrees, 35 to 40 minutes.

2. Transfer chicken to a platter and loosely cover with foil. Return vegetables to oven and roast until golden brown in places, about 10 minutes more. Transfer vegetables and accumulated juices to platter with chicken, and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with mint and feta.



This reheats well too. Leftovers are always welcome..........



Adding my review to Beth Fish Reads for her Weekend Cooking Series and Cream Puffs in Venice for her roundup of Magazine Monday.



Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

New`Zealand Sauvignon Blancs - Mini Wine Review

Fault Line Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2012

This is a crisp wine, flavors of a summer fruit salad without being too sweet. Goes well with grilled fish such as mahi mahi, cobia and swordfish as well as grilled chicken.




Monkey Bay Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough
Very similar to the Fault Line but with more of a citrus aftertaste. Not too sweet, just enough to compliment the food.




You can’t go wrong with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc so I would take either of these wines paired with a seafood dinner or a risotto. Pressed to pick one I would go with the Fault Line. Just a slight edge. Reasonably priced at under $15 a bottle.

Cheers!

Rose and White Wine Risotto

Risotto is a beautiful dish….if prepared correctly. Wait, let me clarify – it’s a beautiful dish but usually tastes decadently creamy and mild, the first forkful almost melting in your mouth. My adaption had waaay too much tang!

Why is that, you may ask? I broke the rules by not reading through the recipe and then checking the pantry for all the specified goods. That’s very, very important. Below I have the recipe for the risotto which ought to have been served with the grilled grouper.

This isn't a failure as much as a good learning experience. This is a dish I prepared after reading the novel The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Review is at Novel Meals Here. (There aren't recipes in this book, for what that's worth)




Ok, here is where I got off track....so don't do this part:

First off, I swore I had a large bag of Arborio rice in the pantry. I did not. With the charcoal being prepared for the grill and me having approximately 40 minutes total to produce the risotto we had our mouths set for….I decided to proceed anyway and use plain old long grain rice. (smacks head)

As most of us know, long grain rice and Arborio rice cook up quite differently. It absorbs broth, wine, liquid at diverse rates requiring far less liquid for the long grain than you would for the Arborio. In my haste, I started it all and used the measured 2 cups of wine instead of mixing broth and wine together (to equal 2 cups total).

The end result was a tangy risotto……..fine for the first few forkfuls but increasingly sharp and strong the more you ate. Too much wine. (Did I actually say that?....huh.) Prepared as directed (below) or adjusting your palate to have a regular-Joe-rice-side rather than Italian risotto is my advice. Do one or the other. If you don’t have all the ingredients, make something else. Some adaptions are grand….this one was not. A side dish for one meal and unfortunately the rest was scrapped.

Grade on this one – Fail. Not an epic fail because that would mean it was inedible.

Recipe below, probably delicious and creamy….as risotto ought to be.

Rose and White Wine Risotto

1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
2 celery stalks
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 sprig fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 1/4 cups Italian rice (arborio works well)
2 cups white wine (I used ½ cup Rose and 1 ½ cups South African white wine)
3 cups simmering vegetable stock or water, divided
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh parsley, or 2 teaspoons dried parsley
3 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Directions:

Chop the onion, celery and garlic cloves.

In a large saucepan with a heavy bottom, heat the olive oil; Add the onion, garlic, celery, thyme, and red pepper flakes…cooking over low to medium heat, stirring frequently.

Let the vegetables cook slowly so the onion appears translucent. This will take roughly 10 minutes, depending on the heat of your stovetop..

Add the rice and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly, gently toasting the rice.

Add the wine and reduce the heat to maintain a simmer: Cook for about 5 minutes until the rice has absorbed almost all the wine.

Add 1 cup stock and stir until the rice absorbs the liquid..

Continue adding the simmering liquid, 1/2 cup at a time, until the rice is tender but firm.

The total cooking time of the rice should not exceed 15 minutes. The rice should have movement but no excess liquid.

Season with salt and pepper; Remove from heat. Toss fresh parsley and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.



Enjoy!

Magazine Monday: Linguine With Scallops, Brown Butter, and Peas

It's been a while since I participated in Magazine Monday. Certainly it's not because I have run out of foodie magazines sitting around in stacks. But I have gotten better about weeding them out.



There is actually a morbid reason why I am getting a bit better at tossing things I am done with. Not too long ago I read an article about a woman dying, quite expectantly as she wasn't ill or elderly or anything, but there was all that mess to go through in her house. Then I saw something else similar in a movie we watched recently.

It's bad enough I have a forest worth of paper in the form of genealogy notes stuffed in the downstairs closet. Bad enough I have every single letter my father wrote me up until the day he died; all the cards from my husband and son over the past 30 years.........clothes I can't wear but refuse to accept I won't ever be a size 6 again...you get the idea.

Cleaning up, bits at a time. That's me. Pacing myself. Now that I dumped those morbid thoughts in your head, let me share a recipe from a magazine (which has departed the premises) that's healthy, easy and quite summery.

Linguine With Scallops, Brown Butter, and Peas


Photo from Real Simple


Ingredients
· 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
· 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
· 2 tablespoons olive oil
· kosher salt and black pepper
· 12 ounces linguine (3⁄4 box)
· 1 cup frozen peas
· 16 sea scallops (about 1 1⁄2 pounds), patted dry
· 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
· 2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
·
Directions

1. Heat oven to 350° F. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the bread crumbs and lemon zest with 1 tablespoon of the oil and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Bake, tossing once, until golden, 6 to 8 minutes; let cool.

2. Meanwhile, cook the linguine according to the package directions, adding the peas during the last minute of cooking. Reserve ½ cup of the cooking water and drain the pasta; reserve the pot.

3. Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Season the scallops with ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper and cook until golden brown on one side, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn and cook until opaque throughout, 1 to 2 minutes more.

4. Wipe out the pasta pot and cook the butter over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the pasta and peas, scallops, tarragon, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ cup of the reserved cooking water and toss to coat (add more cooking water if the pasta seems dry). Serve sprinkled with the toasted bread crumbs.

From Real Simple Magazine, September 2011 Linking up to Ivonne's Magazine Monday Series.

Book Reviews and a Motorcycling Riding Oak Snake

Recently I wrote up a few book reviews and prepared some inspired meals. Every once in a while when I ponder why I take the time to write these reviews I realize.....it's not just the pleasure of doing it on a personal level, it's a stab at some dream where I am working at a publishing house. Since I was in my late teens I had dreams of living in a large city and walking to my job as an editor or book reviewer.

I don't want to live in a large city now. Haven't wanted that for quite a long time. But I can still write even if it's not in a professional setting and I am not getting paid. The world would surely be full of cowboys, ballerinas and firemen if our youthful visions became a reality.

So then.....if you'd care to check out a few reviews here are some links and pretty photos I'd like to share.

A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy and the corresponding dish of grilled salmon, black beans and rice with asparagus and grilled mahi mahi with potatoes and minted peas. And wine.



and grilled mahi mahi with potatoes and minted peas. And of course wine.




Eat Well, Eat Right by Edward Gioachino Giobbi is represented by fettucine alfeta. Quite tasty, love the feta.



I have a post and review for The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry coming up too.

Let me leave you with this photo of an oak snake, quite a long one, who sat sunning him/herself on Doug's bike. It was reluctant to leave and had to be chased off rather forcefully!



Cheeky Devil.....



I will return with a Magazine Monday and perhaps a weekend wine review. I hope the world is treating you right and you are enjoying Spring!

I ♥ Nigella: Chicken Schnitzel with Bacon and White Wine

It's been quite awhile since I participated with the group at I Heart Cooking Club. They have a new feature called Potluck allowing you to play along cooking with any of the former featured chefs. There are quite a few which I love but Nigella always wins out for me. I love her cookbooks.



This version of Nigella's Chicken Schnitzel with bacon and white wine is one our go to recipes. It's easy, it's flavorful and has bacon. Love me some bacon! In stead of breast halves or tenders we used chicken legs and thighs. And rather than use a skillet, this was tipped into a roasting pan. This recipe comes from Nigella Express.

You need just a few ingredients.......

1 teaspoon garlic infused oil
4 strips of bacon (I used 6 strips)
chicken tenders, breast halves, thighs or legs...whichever you prefer
1/3 cup white wine

After heating the oil a bit add bacon and fry up until crispy. Set aside and crumble when cool.
Fry the chicken in the leftover bacon grease for a few minutes, turning to assure browning. Now tip into a large roasting pan and cover with bacon bits and white wine. Roast until chicken is cooked through, roughly 50 minutes for legs and less time for breast pieces if you are using those.



Potluck is scheduled for the week of May 20th so be sure to check it out next month at IHCC and also right here at Squirrel Head Manor. I will be linking with them with another Nigella recipe...or perhaps Jamie Oliver. We'll see what's on the menu by then.

Sharing this with IHCC. Hope you enjoy this one as much as I do. ♥ ♥