|
I will make a chickencheese or I will die trying
|
#
¿
Jan 13, 2020 02:03
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 05:41 |
|
|
Okay, listen. There have been a lot of incredible examples of both cooking and cooking-related photography in that thread. We're not gonna do any of that tonight, largely because we can't. But we are going to cheese some chicken, and we're gonna try and get back to our roots while we do so. Or at least I'm going to try to get back to mine. So come along for the ride as I lament the weird lighting in my kitchen. Step One: Remember you signed up to make a chickencheese. Find the thread. Tell your wife that tonight's dinner is going to be sauteed chicken, cheese, and onions on a sandwich because you promised the internet you'd make a chickencheese. Realize how badly you've hosed up when you see her reaction to the word "chickencheese." Step Two: Ask the kitchen chicken for guidance.  Step Three: New plan, let's roast a bird!   Cut some aromatics up and put it in the bottom of your pan. Mom always used to do it so you drat well better do it too.  Cut the whole goddamn spine outta a chicken. Ordinarily this'd go straight in the gravy pot but we've already got our hands full so I guess... do whatever you want with it.  Mash that chicken down good and flat and liberally sprinkle the bird with a mix of salt and baking powder, which will help the skin crisp up and give it some flavor. I also included rosemary and pepper, and you probably should too. Pop that thing in the fridge and let it hang out for like 12 hours if you can, or like 1 hour if you're me and it's 6 pm and you've planned this poorly. Optional Step  Throw out the egg nog you found in the back of your fridge. Gross! Step 3, Cont.  Spend a really long time trying to get a decent picture of your chicken. Consider going to get your real actual-rear end camera, but decide against it. Throw a temperature probe in that bird, hit it with some olive oil, and pop it in a 500 degree oven. Ultimately you're looking for the coolest part of the breast to hit 150 and the leg to hit 175. It should take 40 minutes or so, but check it at 20 to make sure the skin's not browning too fast.  Folks, we got ourselves some chicken. Let it rest for 10 minutes. Chickencheese theory break: I've never had a chickencheese before. But I lived in Camden county when I was a kid, and I ate my fair share of cheesesteaks back then. To me, a good cheesesteak is steak, onions, cheese, and bread. There are plenty of other fine ingredients, but those are the ones I wanted to stick with for my first chickencheese. Ultimately, when I make this again, peppers are going in at the very least. A note on cheese: I love Cheez-Whiz. Yeah, yeah, provolone, I know. My family still calls me a tourist. But I love the stuff. You know, that nuclear orange stuff that comes in a can:  I almost got some, but I decided maybe we could do better. So it went back on the shelf and I went home to see what I could come up with. Step Four: Cheese sauce  I've got a boatload of shredded cheddar. It's not great, but let's be real: I'm not wasting the good stuff on my very first chickencheese. Now I need a liquid base. Or, you do, I guess? Anyway, normally you'd use milk but that seems boring. Let's see what we've got.  Apple and cheddar? Why not. Now we just gotta turn it into a sauce.  Dig through your cabinets until you find that sodium citrate from when you were super into "molecular gastronomy" like five years ago, and hope it's still good.  Dissolve 11 grams of sodium citrate in 265 grams of cider (or like... whatever, some liquid) and bring to a simmer. Slowly whisk in 285 grams or so of shredded cheese until you hit your desired consistency. Step Five: Onions  Put some onions in a pan with butter. I'm gonna level with you, I don't really like actual onions a whole lot, but they're integral to the sandwich so they're going in. Finish what's left of the cider and repeatedly question the choice of bulbs in your kitchen lighting while they cook. As far as how long, idk just cook them until they don't taste like poo poo any more I guess. Step Six: Assembly   Grab a plate that befits the fine stature of the chickencheese. Roll (scooped or not, but I went scooped because publix rolls have a shitload of bread in the middle), chicken, onions. Top with way too much loving cheese because you decided today was a good day to try out the "super slo mo video" feature on your phone's camera for the first time. Step Seven: Eat your chickencheese while your wife has roasted chicken and some vegetables like a normal person. Verdict: It's not a great looking sandwich but honestly it tasted pretty dang good. It very much reminded me of the cheap, messy cheesesteaks that I used to love as a kid. The roast chicken is a recipe I make all the time so I didn't have any concerns there, and the cheese sauce came out great. Apple and cheddar is a combination I'm not sure everyone would be down for on this, but it worked with the chicken and could be easily swapped for like lager and cheddar or something. Definitely would put some peppers in next time if only to give it a little splash of color. Likewise with the chicken skin - I hosed up and tented the chicken while it rested, which softened the nice crispy skin up a little bit. I had a brief moment of madness where I considered frying the skin to make some crispy chicken cracklings to layer in, but I set it aside cause it was already late and I was hungry. Definitely something I'll try next time though.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 24, 2020 04:10
|
|
|
Honestly those veggies don't usually come out so great after roasting at 500 degrees for almost an hour. I normally toss 'em and all the chicken drippings into the gravy when I'm just making roast chicken. I just popped some fresh ones in for her while I hosed around with my onions and cheese sauce, but the sandwich wouldn't have hurt for some roasted carrots or peppers if I had thought about it for sure. Thanks, that makes me feel better about not trying to fry it up. I've never fried chicken skin before so it probably wouldn't have been successful for me either. Beet Wagon fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Jan 24, 2020 |
|
#
¿
Jan 24, 2020 04:46
|
|