Baking chicken breasts in the oven seems like a foolproof method, but often results in dry, bland meat. Here’s a simple baked chicken recipe with minimal involvement.
cooking
NOTE: An updated version of this recipe appears in my cookbook, The Ancestral Table.
If you’ve ever been to a Vietnamese restaurant and not headed straight to the pho section of the menu, you may have tried lemongrass pork, which is a sweet/savory grilled pork dish. I decided to incorporate these unique flavors into thick-cut pork chops (because face it, there’s only so many ways to cook pork chops) and I added a citrusy pan sauce on top for good measure.
Brining is an essential part of juicy pork chops (even the traditional Vietnamese recipe calls for marinating overnight), so be sure to start this recipe well in advance of dinnertime.
My wife bought the fermentation jar you see above for my birthday today, and I am pretty stoked. I’ve been wanting to make my own pickles, sauerkraut and kimchee for a while now so this is perfect. It’s under $10 and available here. I’m looking forward to finding the most natural and healthy pickling methods around, so if you have any suggestions please send them my way.
She also got me Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol 1. I think it’ll give me insight into some hearty, full-fat French culinary methods that I can use as a baseline in the future. I’ve found that my cooking instincts have eerily fallen in line with French culinary style, so this may really push me to refining my taste.
NOTE: An updated version of this recipe appears in my cookbook, The Ancestral Table.
Editor’s Note: this recipe is from before I switched to the Paleo Diet, but all you need to do to make this dish Paleo-friendly is omit the beans.
Ah, chili. One of the most hotly-debated dishes a person can serve in America, perhaps second only to BBQ ribs. And like many of my other recipes, I’m quick to concede that this recipe isn’t for everyone; this is a generally mild chili that goes well with chili dogs, chili burgers, or on top of a scoop of white rice.
For me, the most important aspect of chili is having it blend into one single element and texture – nothing bothers me more than a chili that just looks like a bunch of ingredients thrown together. Luckily, my handy Magic Bullet helps to puree most of the chunkier ingredients while still retaining its necessary taste. I also add a couple of seemingly odd ingredients, which play important roles: cocoa powder for richness and complexity, and mayonnaise for smoothness and just a touch of creaminess.
This dish takes a little over three hours to make: one hour to prep and soften the tomatoes and two hours to cook the chili itself.
The Domestic Man 