All posts by jfaucett@gmail.com

Chicken Bryan

Ok, real quick. Bryan is a city in Texas where the Carrabba clan settled from Italy. This is one of my favorite dishes from my favorite restaurant.

CHICKEN BRYAN
MAKES 4 SERVINGS

Bryan is a place, not a person. It is the community where the ancestors of the Carrabba family settled and became cotton farmers after they arrived from Sicily. In honor of our Texan hometown, we’ve used some our favorite ingredients to create a signature dish that has become a fan favorite.

4 boneless and skinless chicken breast halves, 7 to 8 ounces each
1 1/2 teaspoons Grill Seasoning
3 tablespoons Grill Baste or olive oil
4 ounces rindless goat cheese log, cut into 8 (1/4-inch) rounds
Lemon Butter Sauce
4 sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained, and cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-wide strips
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil, plus more for garnish

  1. Prepare an outdoor grill for direct cooking over medium heat.
  2. Meanwhile, using a flat meat pounder, lightly pound each chicken half to an even thickness of about 1/2 inch. Cut each breast half in half crosswise to make a total of 8 chicken breast pieces. Season with the grill seasoning. Let stand at room temperature while the grill heats.
  3. Brush the grill grate clean. Lightly oil the grate. Brush the chicken on both sides with the grill baste. Cook, with the lid closed as much as possible, turning after 5 minutes,until the chicken is nicely browned and feels firm when the top is pressed with a finger, about 10 minutes total. During the last minute, top each piece with a goat cheese round. Transfer to a platter and tent with aluminum foil to keep warm.
  4. Stir the lemon butter sauce in a small saucepan over very low heat with a heatproof spatula just until warm and smooth, but not hot and melted, about 1 1/2 minutes. Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes and basil.
  5. Place 2 chicken pieces on each serving plate. Spoon equal amounts of the sauce over each serving, sprinkle with basil, and serve hot.

BROILED CHICKEN BRYAN Broil the chicken in a preheated broiler with the rack adjusted about 8 inchesfrom the source of heat. Cook, turning occasionally, until firm when pressed with a finger, about 10 minutes. Add the goat cheese about 1 minute before the chicken is done.
TIP
Boneless chicken breast is too thin to test correctly with a thermometer, so the “touch test” works best. The more well done the meat, the firmer its texture.

GRILL SEASONING
MAKES ABOUT 1/2 CUP

Why use salt and pepper when you can use this zesty blend of herbs and spices? A sprinkle of this seasoning on meat, chicken,and seafood really makes the food sing. It will keep in a cool, dark cupboard indefinitely, but you will use it up too quickly for it to go stale.

1/4 cup kosher salt
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons granulated garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons granulated onion
1 1/2 teaspoons dry oregano
1/4 teaspoon crushed hot red pepper

  1. Mix all of the ingredients together in a small bowl. Transfer to an airtight container. (The seasoning can be stored in a cool, dark place indefinitely.)

TIP
Granulated garlic and granulated onion are gritty and not pulverized like their powdered versions. They are easy to find at supermarkets and online.

GRILL BASTE
MAKES ABOUT 1 1/4 CUPS

Shhhh. Here’s another secret ingredient that gives our food its special flavor. Instead of using plain oil for brushing on food before grilling, we use this basting mixture. You cansubstitute olive oil for the butter if necessary. Or use this and sit back and gather the compliments.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

  1. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until the onion is translucent, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour, stir well, and cook without browning for 1 minute. Whisk in the oil, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, and sugar. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the parsley and cook, whisking often, until lightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Let cool. The baste will separate. Whisk well before using. (The grill baste can be made up to 1 week ahead, cooled, covered, and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before using.)

LEMON BUTTER SAUCE
MAKES ABOUT 1 CUP

We have many “secret ingredients” at Carrabba’s. But it is our lemon butter sauce that gives some of our most popular dishes a wonderful creaminess and mild tang. A variation on the classic beurre blanc (“white butter” in French), there is a trick to its success. Cook it over the very lowest heat so the butter can soften into a beautiful sauce. Once you get the hang of it, you will love making this sauce as much as you’ll love eating it.

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, divided
2 tablespoons finely chopped yellow onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup dry white wine, such as Cavit Pinot Grigio
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper

  1. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a nonreactive medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until the onion is translucent but not browned, about 3 minutes. Add the wine and lemon juice and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until the liquid is reduced to about 2 tablespoons, about 3 minutes.
  2. Reduce the heat to its very lowest setting. A few pieces at a time, whisk in the butter, letting the first addition melt before adding more butter. Be sure that the butter is softening into an emulsified sauce, and not melting. With practice, you will be able to increase the heat a bit to speed the softening. It should take you about 3 minutes to add all of the butter and “build” the sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat.
  3. The sauce can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 hours. Remember, it will be reheated in each recipe. Be sure to heat the sauce over very low heat when reheating, or it will separate. (That is, it will look like melted butter and not an emulsified sauce.) If this happens, remember it will still taste the same!

Chicken Broth

Ingredients:

  • 2 stalks celery, quartered
  • 1 large carrot, quartered
  • 1 onion, quartered
  • 1 head of garlic, halved horizontally
  • 5 to 7 fresh parsley sprigs
  • 8 to 10 thyme sprigs
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 10 to 15 peppercorns
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 3 ½ to 4 pounds bone-in, chicken pieces, a mixture of dark and light meat 10 cups cold water
  1. Add all ingredients except water and chicken to large stock pot.
  2. Cut up chicken into pieces and add on top of other ingredients in stock pot. Add water.
  3. Bring to boil and reduce to a simmer. After 25 minutes remove chicken breasts and pull meat.
  4. After 30-35 minutes remove dark meat and pull meat from bones. Bones can be added back to broth if desired or stop right there and strain. Discard vegetables (they’ve given their all). Save meat and broth for soups etc.

Fried Green Tomatoes

An acquired taste, fried green tomatoes are excellent when done right. There are a few tricks to getting them perfect. Like most simple recipes, the key is getting those simple details exact. One of these tricks is to get green tomatoes that are just starting to get a slight pink color. A tomato that is too ripe will become mushy, a green tomato with just a little bit a pinkness will have be slightly sweeter and less firm than a super green one.

Also, you need to slice to the right thickness. In general you’ll be better off with nice thin slices. They’ll fry up all crispy-like.

If you see in the above photo, I have wisely chosen a slightly pink green tomato, and I have sliced them consistently thin. Next is let us bread and fry these puppies. I use a 50/50 cornmeal / flour mix. Cornmeal is really important for the best texture. Since the tomato is already wet, you don’t need egg wash or milk. You can go straight to it.

Now we fry. Melt some butter in oil. Another little flavor trick here that’s important is that we salt and pepper each side, but we also add a little pinch of sugar as well.

Fry, season with salt/pepper, add a pinch of sugar. Flip, season the other side and another pinch of sugar. And…booom!

Voila!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 (or however many you want) slightly pink green tomato
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup cornmeal
  • 3 TB vegetable oil
  • 2 TB butter
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Sugar

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Slice tomato horizontally into thin (~1/4″) slices.
  2. Combine flour and cornmeal.
  3. Dredge tomato slices in flour/cornmeal mix.
  4. Heat oil in frying pan or skillet on medium. Melt butter into oil.
  5. When oil is hot, add as many slices as will fit. Do not overlap.
  6. Season each tomato slice with salt and pepper. Add a pinch of sugar to each.
  7. When bottom is golden brown, flip each slice.
  8. Season again on fried side with salt and pepper. Add a pinch of sugar.
  9. When golden brown on both sides, remove from oil and drain on paper towel lined plate. Add more salt to taste. Serve immediately.