Skillet-Braised Chicken

Braising. What does that mean?

Technically, it’s a cooking method that uses both wet and dry heat. First, you sear or saute the food at high temperature, then finish it in a covered pot at a lower temperature while sitting in some liquid, which adds flavor. Braising relies on heat, time and moisture to break down the connective tissue that binds together the muscle fibers of meat, making it an ideal way to cook tougher, less expensive cuts. Both pressure cooking and slow cooking are forms of braising.

Most braises follow the same basic steps. The food is first pan-seared to brown its surface and enhance its flavor (through the Maillard reaction). If the food will not produce enough liquid on its own, a certain amount of liquid that often includes an acidic element (for example tomatoes, beer, balsamic vinegar, wine) is added to the pot, often with stock. The dish is then covered and cooked at a low simmer until the meat becomes so tender that it can be “cut” with a fork.

Braising is ideal for beef, put you can also do it with chicken. This dish is adapted from “The Food Lab” cookbook. It looked delicious and it was!! It will take you about an hour to make and serves 4-6.

Skillet-Braised Chicken

Ingredients:

4-6 chicken leg quarters
Kosher salt and finely ground black pepper
1 Tbsp oil (avocado is good for high heat)
1 large onion, sliced finely
2 cloves or more of garlic, sliced finely
1 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 cup dry white wine (I used red)
One 28-oz can whole tomatoes, drained and crushed by hand
1/2 cup homemade chicken stock
1/4 cup capers, drained and rinsed and chopped
1/4 cup chopped green or black olives
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
2-3 tsp. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly season the chicken with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in an ovenproof skillet over high heat and using tongs, carefully add the chicken pieces skin side down. Cover with a splatter screen and cook without moving it, until the chicken is deep golden brown, about 4 minutes. Flip the chicken and cook until the second side is golden brown, about 3 minutes more. Transfer chicken to a large plate and set aside.

Reduce the heat under the pan to medium-high, add the onions, and cook, using a wooden spoon (I like to use the type that’s pictured to the right, with a flat edge) to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet and stir frequently, until completely soft and just starting to brown, about 4 minutes.

Add the garlic and cook about 30 seconds. Add the paprika and cumin and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute longer. Add the wine and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Add tomatoes, stock, capers, and olives and bring to a boil. Nestle the chicken pieces into the stock and vegetables so that only the skin is showing.

Cover with a lid, transfer to the oven and cook for 20 minutes. Remove lid and cook another 20 minutes until meat is fall-off-the-bone tender. Stir in the parsley and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.*

This would be delicious over egg noodles, creamy polenta or smashed potatoes to soak up the juices. Also serve alongside it any medium-bodied red wine, like a Grenache or Tempranillo.

*I found that the chicken skin does not stay very crispy when the lid is put on and if you don’t care, like me (who doesn’t eat skin) then by all means put the lid on. But if you want the skin crispy then I’d advise against the lid and cook the dish for 40 minutes without it. It will also help thicken the sauce a bit more. But then, it’s not technically braised chicken any longer!

A Show Review: Nancy Silverton on "Chef’s Table"

I recently looked for something new to watch on Netflix and rediscovered the series “Chef's Table". Scanning down the list of episodes available to watch, I landed on one featuring Nancy Silverton. It spoke to me because of the sourdough baking I’ve been doing lately. I felt like I could relate. 

For those of you who don’t know Nancy:

"Nancy Silverton is an American chef, baker, and author. The winner of the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Chef Award in 2014, Silverton is recognized for her role in popularizing sourdough and artisan breads in the United States.” (Wikipedia)

Wow. You had me at sourdough!


But it’s not just bread that she’s known for. Nancy is famous in Los Angeles for many things:

She got her start as the Pastry Chef at Wolfgang Puck’s “Spago” restaurant on Sunset Blvd.

She was on Julia Child’s cooking show and brought Julia to tears - her dessert was THAT good!

She travelled to Italy where she fell in love with the bread and decided to bring its deliciousness to L.A.. Her love for bread led to her opening La Brea Bakery where she’d sell out by mid-day. Eventually her little bakery turned ginormous and she started producing loaves commercially and were sold in supermarkets.

She ran a well-respected Italian restaurant in Los Angeles named Campanile with her husband. They later divorced and closed the restaurant.

She sold La Brea Bakery for about $60 million.

After selling La Brea Bakery, she went again to Italy to take a well-deserved break and probably figure out what would be next. While there she developed a love for cheese and upon her return to L.A. started making it in L.A., opening Osteria Mozza (short for mozzarella) and Pizzeria Mozza and several other cheese-themed restaurants through LA, Orange County and Singapore, collaborating with Chef Mario Batali.

This was a fascinating story about a woman who had a single-minded obsession with bread. In fact Mario said she had OCD. She tweaked and tweaked her recipes until they were perfect. Now she’s really into cheese.

I really enjoyed the episode.

If you’re a foodie and are looking for something to watch, check it out.

Here’s a link to the show:
https://www.netflix.com/title/80007945

Resources for the Digestively Impaired

Nobody likes talking about it.
But it affects nearly 10% of us.

IBS, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome. It’s a term used to describe a number of symptoms of digestive distress. It’s used when your doctor has put you through a battery of tests, has found nothing abnormal and doesn't know what else to tell you. After all that poking and prodding the doctor says there's nothing wrong with you. Well, there definitely is something wrong because you feel horrible! If everything was ok, you wouldn’t feel so bad!

I went to several GI (gastrointestinal) doctors and underwent an endoscopy, a colonoscopy, a CT scan of the abdomen, was tested for SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth*), lactose intolerance, celiac disease and intestinal parasites, and all of them came back negative. I was diagnosed as having a “functional” problem. After months and months of tests and such, there was nothing else for them to do. It was now up to me to find solutions.

What I absolutely 100% knew was that I was not going to put myself on pharmaceutical drugs to mask symptoms. I was prepared to give up whatever offending foods and habits I needed to in order to get on top of this, naturally. I saw this as a wake-up call: a sign that I was not taking the best care of myself that I could. Changes would have to be made.

Throughout my journey I did a lot of reading on the subject of digestive health, getting as many ideas and opinions as possible. I was like a sponge, absorbing everything. Over time, I created my own little “pharmacy" of products that have helped me, books that have been a great resource and cookbooks to help navigate eating during the healing process. I still keep all of these on hand for when trouble strikes, as it inevitably will. Sometimes I eat perfectly but nevertheless something won't sit well and I'll have to reach for a product to get me through the night or through the work day so that I can function with minimal discomfort until the offending thing passes. It's clearly something I'll have to live with the rest of my life.

The problem with treating IBS is that everyone is different. We each have our own triggers. Could be foods, could be stress. I joined several Facebook user groups to see what other people were doing to cope and it helped tremendously! I got a lot of ideas for what foods could be triggers and what to take when trouble strikes, to relaxation techniques and what books to read and websites to visit.

While I have no idea what could be going on in your digestive tract, what I can share with you is what I've done in the hopes that something here might be of help to you. My advice is to keep trying different things until you find the combinations of things that work for you. I do encourage you to seek out a GI doctor that you feel comfortable with and work with them, go through the testing process to see if your symptoms can be pinpointed to something specific and a diagnosis made. Don’t guess, find out for sure what’s going on!

But while you’re doing that and are still uncomfortable, there are things you can do to help yourself.

The #1 thing that I would recommend you do is clean up your act! Remove as many toxins from your diet as you can. This means eliminating all processed foods, adopting a whole foods diet and switching to organic meats and wild-caught fish, and organic dairy, fruits and vegetables.

The next thing I would do is immediately cut down (and I mean drastically) the number of starches you consume. It seems, in the digestive literature, that almost all experts agree on this. Your intestines contain live bugs (bacteria), which is normal and necessary, but they love starches and with them present, they seem to proliferate. So the more you eat, the more the bad bugs take over, crowding out the good ones. Help achieve balance by reducing crappy carbs. Focus on protein, good fats (like organic or pastured butter, and avocados), fruits and vegetables (preferably cooked in the beginning, raw stuff is harder to digest) and minimize even the good carbs for a while, until you bring symptoms under control.

So, here’s my list of items to have in your arsenal.

What to take to ease symptoms right away
Pepto-Bismol (not exactly natural, but can help when you’re in pain and need relief now)
Iberogast - good for cramps and pain, bloating, gas (taken 3x a day). This stuff is nothing short of amazing. You can get it on Amazon.

Herbals for immediate but gentle soothing of symptoms
Peppermint in every form: capsules (these on the left from Heather’s Tummy Care are my faves), peppermint tea, and 100% pure peppermint essential oil applied to the abdomen as a compress or taken internally a little warm water (however, avoid peppermint if you have GERD)
Ginger tea - good for nausea
Fennel tea - good for bloating and gas

Supplements to aid digestion
Digestive enzymes (those I’ve found to work best are these from DigestGold)
Digestive bitters (I like these from Urban Moonshine)
Bromelain - an anti-inflammatory that aids in protein digestion
Turmeric - anti-inflammatory that aids in the digestion of fats and sugars
Activated charcoal - helps trap toxins and gas and eliminate them

What to drink and eat to support good digestion
Lots of pure filtered water, preferably with a little lemon in it
Homemade bone broth
Probiotics** in the form of yogurt and kefir (organic of course)
Kimchi or homemade sauerkraut
Gut Shots (I like the ginger beet!)
Fermented foods in general

Other modalities to help while you’re in pain 
Full-day or multi-day fasting - to give your system a chance to rest
Meditation and gentle, restorative yoga

Eating plans to look into
Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)
Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) Diet
Low FODMAP Diet

What to read
Optimal Digestive Health - A Complete Guide (a FANTASTIC resource for all things digestion)
Breaking the Vicious Cycle

Cookbooks
Low FODMAP Diet
Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet

*Resources for SIBO
SIBO and Dr. Pimentel

I hope this list helps you as you begin to navigate taking control of your digestive health. I won’t lie to you: it’s a daunting task. But it can be done. I find that staying open-minded, being willing to experiment on myself, and staying true to a course of eating with the long-term mindset that I was going to resolve this, helped tremendously.

Today, I have mostly good days and less bad days and I am happy with that. When my digestive problem flares up, I know what to do to bring it under control, naturally.

If I can help you in any way by sharing my experiences, please let me know.

**There is some controversy around probiotic supplements. Some can actually make things worse. Read up and experiment and see for yourself. I believe they are best taken once things are under control, as a preventative measure and not as a cure.