Weeknight dinner staple: Crispy Breaded Chicken

Good afternoon!

I'm writing from a coffee shop near my house and am particularly excited that I have managed to write another blog post within a reasonable amount of time. My goal is 3 posts per week, wish me luck ;)  I wanted to dial it back some, and talk to you about the most basic, boring yet urgent of needs -  What do I want for dinner? With as many recipes that are floating around there, I'm still always a little surprised that I feel bored or unimpressed when asking this very important question to the Gods of the inter webs. Over 10 years ago when discussing press releases in class, one of my Communications professors in college once proclaimed loudly in class- KISS students!! Keep. It. Simple. Stupid. It stuck with me. Like many of you, I've found that my most treasured pleasures tend to be of the most simple variety - warm toast with really good butter and homemade strawberry jam, popping a few Manzanilla olives while cooking, the first gulp of chocolate milk from a big Trickling Springs Creamery jug. So many times, the answer to this ever-revolving question about dinner is simple: chicken. It's light, full of protein and relatively cheap. My current client's family is a protein packed family and chicken is a weekly "must-have" on the menu. One of the most popular ways people like to eat their chicken is breaded and fried-  think chicken tenders, fried chicken, schnitzel....the list goes on. I know breading is a pretty basic technique, but this blog is meant for cooks of every level and hey, we covered this in culinary school, so maybe I can teach you something. There are two important things to remember when breading :

1. Don't be afraid of making a mess/using too many dishes. This is not a canned soup in a pot kind of night. Let go, breathe out and give in to the mess and one too many bowls you will inevitably use. 

2. When you are ready to bread, choose a "breadcrumb" hand and choose an "eggy" hand. Do not interchange their jobs and keep them focused on their task to speed up the breading process and minimize trips to the sink to rinse off your hands. 

Let's get started. 

Italian Style Breaded Crispy Chicken 

Ingredients: 

• 5-6 chicken breasts
• Breading mix 
• 2 eggs

Technique: 

1. Unwrap your chicken breasts and season them well with salt and pepper. If you like, slice them in half. If you want them thinner, wrap them in plastic wrap and pound them thin. This all depends on how much time you have and what your preference is. The thinner the chicken, the faster and more evenly it will cook

2. Place your breading in one bowl, and your two eggs in another bowl. If you want to go Gluten Free, I highly recommend Ian's brand over Glutino as far as breading goes - they are two different products and Ian's is hands down superior. Pictured below is the "Italian Style" flavor, but both this one and plain are solid choices for Ian's. Take one chicken breast in your "eggy" hand and dip in the egg bowl. Lift and then place in breadcrumb bowl. Take your "breadcrumby" hand and make sure the breast is coated on both sides completely in breadcrumbs, shake gently and place on a plate. This might seem trickier than you thought to keep those  hands on task, but you'll get it after some practice.

3. Once all the breasts are breaded and assembled on a plate, heat oil (olive oil, coconut oil, whatever you prefer) in a medium skillet until warmed but not smoking on medium -high heat. If I'm quick enough, I'll bread the chicken and place directly on heated skillet - one less dirty plate!  Don't be afraid to play around with the temperature. If it's browning too quickly and you fear burnage- turn down the heat. If you don't hear a sizzle before you see a turtle cross the room, turn up the heat. This is a basic and important skill of a trained chef - understanding, feeling out and respecting temperature to achieve consistent top quality browning. Throw on 3-4 breasts so that you are using most of the pan, but not overcrowding. Never overcrowd when you are cooking. Chicken needs space and alone time just like us to become the best version of itself. Cook on each side for 1-2 minutes until nicely browned, then place on foil lined oven pan in oven at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes or until your meat thermometer registers at 165 degrees. Everyone's oven is different, so air on the side of caution at first and check after 5 minutes until you master this recipe. Once cooked, pat yourself on the back for making this gorgeous chicken that you can dress up for a fancy dinner party with pasta/rice/tomato sauce or dress down to amp up your boring salad or lunch time sandwich. It may be tempting to just throw this chicken in the oven, and that is fine if you are short on time, but I will tell you that when you take the extra 5-10 minutes to sear each side of those chicken breasts, you will achieve some nice browning, and as we all know.... more brown = more flavor.

I made this chicken with some tomato sauce with spinach and brown rice pasta. If you're having trouble getting your kids to eat their veggies, try chopping up a green (arugula, mesculin, spinach, kale) very finely and sneaking it into a sauce. I think Jerry Seinfeld's wife started this "let's sneak veggies into food so kids don't know they're eating them" and it seems to have stuck and progressed into smoothies, mashed potatoes, and purees. So far, it's worked like a charm.

Bon App mon amies! Enjoy :)

Arroz Con Pollo (Chicken with Rice)

Hello hello!

This will be my second post in 5 months, good lord- this needs to stop! I was putting off making this blog public until I had at least 5 posts, but found that there was always an excuse to put off blogging. Please excuse the half hazard banner of a culinary school picture I took, the lack of food categories or overall "beginner feel" but I had to start somewhere, right?  Granted it's been a busy 5 months full of surprises (yay, we're expecting baby girl in July :)!), so I figured if I made these recipes available, both you and I would hold myself accountable for more blogging, more recipes, more pics. I cook every day for a living, so that's the hard part really - all I want to make sure I do now is write about it and take a few pics, so help me out.I promise to shower you with fantastic tested and tweaked recipes if you do instead of just quick Facebook photos of my food. 

Yesterday I had a stay-cation from work and decided to cook, which I realize sounds a little nuts, but the fun part about cooking at home when you cook for a living is that you get to cook all the things your client/boss is too afraid, not interested or too allergic to try. When I cook for myself and whoever is around to have a helping, I always ensure to make enough to have leftovers. Why go through the process of making a mess of the kitchen, pots, pans, bowls, knives for one serving? When I worked as a personal chef with a variety of clients, a client favorite was Arroz con Pollo. It also happened to be a Latin dish that I was very familiar with growing up with a Colombian grandmother who could cook her cola off. I remember the first time we tackled this dish for a Cuban client, it was intimidating - poaching chicken in exact liquids, then timing it just right to know when to add the rice without letting it burn. Another time, I made a minor change like substituting brown rice for white rice and basically ruined the dish because the cooking time and liquids are that exact and it turned into a mushy mess. There has to be an easier way, I thought and tonight I came up with one. High five!  I'm not making promises though- this is not Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals, the recipe is still numerous paragraphs long and I was hesitant to even post this recipe up so early into this blog, but I figure the end result was tasty and comforting enough and way easier than the Cooks version to make you follow through with all the steps and yes, all of the ingredients. You will learn what a sofrito is and how to make one in case you didn't know. I also realized afterwards that this is almost an entirely gluten free recipe. If you prefer to make this gluten free, simply take care to purchase gluten free tomato sauce and chicken broth. So, for a quick 30 minute dinner, look away I tell you! If you want a good " healthy Sunday night dinner that extends for the week as leftovers meal", or "my in-laws are coming and they have a soft spot for authentic Latin cooking", try this guy, dare I say - this is like a warm hug from your abuelita. Or my abuelita. It's like I loaned her to you. Here you go and good luck!

Mise en place (the stuff you chop/prep in order to cook)- red and green peppers, onions

                                        Chopped Onions, pimentos and capers

                I happen to have some extra green onions, so I threw them in

                                       Chicken thighs waiting to be shredded

       Steaming, simmering sofrito

                                              Chow time!
Arroz con Pollo
(Originally Published in the September 2006 Edition of Cooks Illustrated Magazine)

Chicken marinade:

6 medium cloves garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press 
Table salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar plus 2 additional teaspoons
Ground black pepper
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs 

Brown rice: 
3 cups medium-grain brown rice

Boiling water

Sofrito:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped fine 
1 small green bell pepper and 1 small red bell pepper stemmed, seeded, and chopped fine

 (about 1 1/2 cup)
1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce (Insert GF brand, if making Gluten Free)
3/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (Insert GF brand, if making Gluten Free)

Final Mix ins:

1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro leaves
2 cups green olives stuffed with pimentos (manzanilla), pitted and halved 
1 tablespoon capers
Lemon wedges, for serving (optional)

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. While chopping or mincing garlic, add one tablespoon of salt and scrape into paste with knife. Add oregano, 1 tablespoon vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper to garlic-salt mixture; stir to combine. Place chicken in bowl with marinade. Coat chicken pieces evenly with marinade; set aside for 15 minutes then cook or place immediately on foil lined oven pan (depending on how much time you have) and cook in oven for 15 minutes. Use meat thermometer to tell when they are cooked at at least 165 degrees as every oven is different. Once cooked, set aside to cool.

While chicken is cooking, place medium large pot of water to boil. Once boiling add 3 cups of brown rice and set timer to follow package instructions. Remember, brown rice takes longer than white rice. Once cooked, strain and set aside in bowl.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion, green and red peppers, and pepper flakes; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to soften, 4 to 8 minutes. Add tomato sauce can and broth; stir to combine. Bring to simmer; cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until thickened and ready to be added back to rice.

While sofrito simmers, take cooled chicken and shred over bowl of brown rice. Once sofrito is thick enough, add in chicken and brown rice mixture. 

Finally, mix in olives, capers (chopped if you prefer), 2 tablespoons of white vinegar and salt/ pepper to taste; stir well. Squeeze 1 lemon on top.

Gluten Free Zucchini Bread

Hello hello hello and welcome back to some!


I'm back at the blogging game, this time coming to you from a kitchen in Washington DC . As a quick background, I'm a 30 something private chef that decided to give up the sales/marketing corporate world for a little adventure to get French culinary training in Paris. After a few years in Paris, I moved back to DC and had the opportunity to work as a personal chef under a great mentor with numerous clients that included people wanting specific diets because of having cancer, gluten issues, wanting weight loss, recent heart attacks, even professional athletes....the list goes on. After a wonderful year full of great experiences, I knew it was time to fly the coop and go off on my own and now have settled in with a family in DC as their private chef and house manager. I enjoy using whole ingredients like fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs, experimenting with new flours (why does brown rice flour deteriorate on its own in recipes sometimes? and what about the level of arsenic in it? ), re-introducing vegetables to children AND adults to erase past traumatic cooking experiences, and trying to perfect the ultimate meatball - I'm pretty close with my gluten free buttermilk chicken pancetta meatball. I am testing recipes daily as I cook for the family as well as being a recipe tester for Cooks Illustrated on the weekends. Unfortunately, I can only blog about my trials at work because the CI recipes have yet to be released, but I will always try to share lessons learned whenever I'm cooking. I will also try to further break into the gluten free world, as I have to cater many dishes to a family member with celiac disease. It's not a huge obstacle, and I've found that while it's a mult-billion dollar industry, cooking gluten free is not as tricky as it sounds once you are prepared with the correct substitutes and use a little imagination. Mostly, I want to inspire you with pictures of food so delicious, you can't help but get in the kitchen and start choppin'. I really believe it's about the little things, paying attention to the little details about the ingredients and your technique while you are cooking, that really make the difference between an average meal and one you will always remember. 


Zucchini muffins are something I have always held near and dear to my heart. Growing up, I was lucky enough to have a Colombian grandmother that could take a pantry with nothing in it to a child's eyes (flour, canned tomatoes, old rice) and make a heart warming feast that left everyone wanting seconds - she is to this day, the best cook I know. I also have a mother who dabbled in baking from time to time, but focused her energy on growing her dental practice and becoming a successful business woman that I look up to today. Nonetheless, Mama Cuellar had a few tricks up her sleeves, one of which included her famous zucchini muffins. I asked her a few years ago if she still had the recipe, and how this magical muffin came to be. Imagine my surprise when I learned she had ripped it out of a Cooking Light magazine in the early 90s. I figure, if you can't have the original recipe, it's time to get to work to make a new one, and maybe even a new one that one day your kids will ask you about and you can tell them all about how it came to be. So, my journey began. Scouring magazines, the queen of baking herself- Ms. Stewart, Cooks Illustrated to start comparing recipes and techniques. My only other requirement was to keep the recipe gluten free. I found this recipe on Epicurious, but didn't want the barrels of oil used, the nuts, or extra spices. By all means, if you love walnuts - add em. If you see cinnamon and naturally reach for allspice, nutmeg and cardamom like me, then throw some of that warmth in there. However, I wanted to keep it simple. I substituted olive oil, because I now consider extra virgin olive oil to be more medicine than food and I love the way it tastes in baking. I've also found the Whole Foods Gluten Free flour stands up pretty well on its own giving whatever you are baking a good sturdy foundation, but I will find a cheaper way and blog about it later to make this at home so you won't have to pay $4 for a small box of it. The best part about this recipe is that you only really need a bowl and a whisk to prepare it. Any baking recipe that keeps it that simple wins my heart over every time. Enjoy!

                                        Lonely Zucchini 

                                Shred baby, SHRED!

                        The meet cute of the dry and the wet

                                                  All mixed up

                                         Ta DA!

                                     Ta DA! part deux

                                         Ok, now just give me one

Ingredients: 

• 2 1/2 cups gluten free flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup olive oil (vegetable oil will work too)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel 
• 2 cups coarsely grated zucchini (2 medium zucchini) 

Technique: 

Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter and flour two 8x4x2 1/2-inch metal loaf pans. Whisk flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, and lemon peel in large bowl to blend. Whisk in flour mixture. Mix in zucchini. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake breads until tester (I used a toothpick) inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes. Turn breads out onto rack and cool completely. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Wrap in foil and store at room temperature.)