Bill's Chicken Pizzaola

Bill In the underground city at Orvieto.
Those of you who remember uncle Phil, imagine how he would have liked this place...Look at all the holes for raising pidgeons!

I used to do this recipe all the time years ago when I had a set of one cup(approx) covered casseroles. I used them like ramekins uncovered or as little covered baking dishes covered.

This is so ridiculously easy as to be laughable.
Always avoid tomatoes with calcium chloride in the ingredient list. Your tomatoes do not like to break down with that as a preservative.

This is also easy to do in just a flat baking dish and adjust the amounts for the number of breasts. With large chicken breasts, you might cut into large chunks.

Place the chicken breasts in a baking dish without overcrowding.
Slice pepperoni or sausage so that spreading the meat over the chicken you will have three slices per breast. Mince one clove of garlic for every two breasts or to taste and sprinkle over the meat. Dust the entire dish with basil and about twice as much oregano. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour one can (per four breasts) of crushed tomatoes over the chicken. add a pinch or two of crushed red pepper if very spicy chicken is desired(the pepperoni will heat things up, so be careful).
Bake at 375 covered for 45 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with parmesan or Romano cheese and a generous layer of mozzarella over the chicken and continue to bake for another 15 minutes uncovered.
Serve with pasta. If using ramekins, cut the baking time slightly.

Fred and Sis' Chicken

Fred, Mary and Dusty Burrill at the house in Lakeville on Lombard Lake.



My sister Mary does not like to cook. She is actually a very good cook, and a very careful cook so she is very consistent. This simple casserole is too much for her to bother with, but oddly enough, Fred likes it so much he does it himself. He likes to take it to events such as pot lucks.
A little salt and pepper might not hurt this.

Cube 6 boneless chicken breasts.
soak in 2 beaten eggs and 1 teaspoon of Accent for one hour.
Flour the chicken cubes.
Brown in butter and drain.
Layer into a casserole with sliced mushrooms and Muenster cheese.
Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.
Using 1 cup of chicken broth, baste twice in the first 15 minutes of baking.

Pennsylvania Dutch Pot-Pie and Clarified Butter

I remember many years ago when my cousin came to stay with us in Maine. She brought her exchange student from Holland. Rudy Jansen was his name. He was homesick for something from home so I decided to cook Hotsput. This is sort of an unofficial national dish in Holland. It was basically a boiled dinner. I used Corned Beef but any big cut like that would do. I started the dish, but he hung over me pointing out that I had not cut the onions just the right way, or the potatoes had to be just this shape. It slowed me tremendously. Anyway, after hours of cooking this at 185 degrees exactly, it was finally done, and when his plate went in front of him he mashed it to a pulp before consuming it.....I almost killed him!
As you may know, the Pennsylvania Dutch are not Dutch. They are Swiss for the most part, from the German speaking part of the country. But there is a certain similarity in their cooking to other Germanic areas like Holland.
Virginia Good, odious woman that she was, was a good cook as detailed elsewhere in the blog. She was from an area and later lived in areas that were influenced by the Pennsylvania Dutch. They called this Pennsylvania Dutch Pot-pie or just Pot-pie. Just how Pennsylvania Dutch it was is up to you to research. I just know it was very good, though not as tender as a Pot Roast. The meat falls apart, but it remains in a sort of stringy form. Not tough by any means, but the texture is not like a New England or Yankee Pot Roast.


Ginny Good would buy a large Bottom Round Roast. I have used other cuts that you might associate with Pot Roast, but this is what she used.
She would cut the meat apart along it's natural divisions, and remove every scrap of fat, gristle and silver skin from the meat. She would cut the remaining blocks of meat into the largest uniform sizes possible.

Put a generous amount of olive oil in the bottom of the pan. I had a steel pressure cooker that worked well, though I never used it as a pressure cooker. I use just standard oil, not Extra Virgin. Butter works, but it burns easily, so clarify it first. I preheat the pan and add the oil, but she started cold and raised the temperature till the smell of the oil was obvious. Very hot!. Then brown the meat on all sides till it is very dark but not burned. You may have to lower the heat a bit, but adding the meat itself will lower the heat while it is on high. Nevertheless, you want a lot of color. While browning the last side, add a tablespoon per pound of Italian seasoning. I just mix my own, but she warned that you should avoid too much Rosemary. She sprinkled a generous layer of granulated beef bouillon over the meat at this point as well.(see below) Lower the heat to a simmer and cover tightly. The meat should develop a broth from the smothering process. Feel free to add water or broth at any time. The beef can go in the oven(She and her sister would do this in shallow foil baking trays, but it would be good in a dutch oven as well. Bake, or simmer at about 300+- for about two to three hours, till the meat is ready to fall apart, but still retains it's shape. Serve as chunks in the broth, sliced, in sandwiches or continue with the recipe below.

As the meat was covered, she would add pearl onions. I use chopped onion to taste, You can also add carrot chunks or baby carrots. As the broth developed from the smothered meat she would also add large chunks of potato. The carrots are my addition. The recipe calls for double starches, but no vegetables other than the onions.

Meanwhile, she would make pasta sheets. See earlier recipes in the blog. The pasta was rolled out very thinly on a table or counter. Stretch it if necessary. Then it was cut into huge squares. Perhaps four inches by four inches. Remove the meat and potatoes from the broth. Bring to a boil and drop in the squares of noodle one by one. Shred the meat very coarsely or leave in large chunks. When the pasta is cooked, return the meat to the broth and noodles. If you cannot stomach the double starch and no veggies, add the carrots with the onions and a couple of hands-full of peas in the last five minutes. Serve in large shallow bowls with plenty of broth and starch number three, bread.

Clarified butter. Salted butter is for spreading on bread, potatoes, or veggies. Any time you plan to fry or bake with butter, always use unsalted butter. This means that the amount of salt that you use in the recipe is the amount called for in the recipe. Salted butter is very salty indeed.

To clarify butter, you simply melt the butter in a sauce pan on low heat. The completely melted butter will have a cloud of milk solids in it. You simply ladle or siphon out the clear part of the butter and leave the solids behind. The butter that is left behind may still be used, but not for anything where looks are important or where heat will be applied.
The clarified butter is straight fat. This is less likely to burn when frying as the solids burn before the fat does. This does not give you leave to use smoking hot fat to fry. As soon as it smokes, you start to get into health problems above and beyond the ordinary dangers of fat.

Chicken in Red Wine

I do not drink.  Well, I do, but not on a regular basis.  I am always happy when I get a bottle of wine for a gift, but not if they expect me to drink it while they watch.  I like a glass of red wine now and then.  I love Malvasia, but cannot really afford it.  Anisette, Amaretto, Calvados(OH MY GOD!), Grand Marnier.  I got tired of Creme De Menthe and all those things I was allowed to TASTE as a child.  I have never been a beer lover...Hate the calories...but on occasion, paired with the right foods, I like a nice dark beer and always a good Bock Beer.  Strangely, I like beer with pizza.

So, when we get a bottle of wine, I may have a glass or two in the course of a couple of weeks, by which time a serious wine drinker would say that the wine is spoiled.

So, the answer is clear.  Cook with it.

Every time someone cooks on a TV show, the first thing they say is:"Don't cook with a wine you would not drink". and they are so right.  But, do not get into the habit of buying expensive wines and dumping half of the bottle into a chicken dish for Saturday lunch, even if friends are coming over.  Save such obvious waste for wedding food or for the president when he visits.

A good, solid wine that you might drink, that has a nice full bodied flavor, will make a nice meal without breaking the bank.  (Of course you could do this with white wine if that is what you got for your birthday.)

That being said, use wines you know.  If you have not tasted it before, make sure you take a slug before you dump it into a dish you have been working on for two hours.  Some German wines are very fruity, and you might find a Sauterne a little sweet for some dishes, though it is wonderful in Grammie's chicken in wine.(With lemon, cinnamon and pine nuts or almond slivers)(posted elsewhere)

Today, I used a nice Merlot.

Cut up a chicken into ten pieces or buy Chicken thighs, breasts, or even a mess of wings.(lots of work to eat, but they taste good). Perhaps a four pound chicken is OK.  If you use a bigger bird, you may want to cook it longer.  I find that the dark meat has a stronger flavor that I do not like in a large bird.

I skin the bird.  I am always on a diet.  It is definitely inferior in taste, but you save a ton of calories.  To be absolutely correct, you might flour the pieces, then brown them, then remove them while you brown the veggies.   When you return them to the pan, you have to monitor them, because you have already introduced a thickener.  I hate monitoring something so closely that it takes the joy out of cooking. The slightly thickened sauce cooked for a long time, is more likely to scorch at some point, so I prefer to thicken at the end.

OK..So you have ten pieces of chicken..
Two wings, tips removed
Two thighs
Two legs
Two breast tips (Divide the breasts by cutting 2/3 of the way back from the tip because the back part of the breast is much thicker.)
Two breast parts from the thick end

Leave the meat on the bone, but do remove the ribs and their little scraps of meat, wing tips etc and put them with the backbone to make chicken soup.

Crush and peel five cloves of garlic or to taste.
Chop four medium carrots.  (My dog, Harry, loves carrot chunks, so I have to peel extra that never make it to the pot.)
Chop a large onion.
Chop two ribs of celery.
Reserve one cup of peas till near the end.
Chop a couple of large tomatoes.
One pound of white mushrooms if desired, left whole, or quartered if large.

Brown the chicken in vegetable oil(olive might be too strong) on all sides.(floured or skinned or unskinned...just as you prefer)
remove to a plate on the side.

Remove excess fat, leaving about a tablespoon.

Brown your vegetables, except your tomato and peas.  When they just begin to soften and brown a bit, nestle your chicken pieces into the vegetables.   I use a large frying pan that was made as a chicken fryer.

Add salt, black pepper, 3 bouillon cubes and a cup of water (or better, a can of broth), two bay leaves, a rounded teaspoon of thyme, and a tablespoon of parsley.  I sneak a dash of cayenne in when no one is looking.

Pour in 1/2 bottle of red wine.  This should come close to covering the chicken.  Add a bit more wine or broth if it is not close.

Cover tightly.   Bring to a boil and then lower the temp to simmer for one hour at very low temp.  It should be just bubbling.

Turn the chicken once or twice so that it will color evenly.

At about the halfway point, add the tomatoes.  At about 45 minutes, add the peas.

Test the chicken with a fork or by eating half of it.  It should be very tender, and READY to fall off the bone, but do not let it disintegrate.  Do not hesitate to cook longer if it is not perfectly tender.

Mix two tablespoons of cornstarch with a bit of cold water, and pushing the chicken aside, stir into the broth in several places.  Bring to a gentle boil, and allow to thicken.  Taste critically, salt is an issue here.  This is very easy to get too bland, but remember you have broth or bouillon cubes, and salt already.

Serve over rice, mashed potato or noodles.  Maybe couscous would be good.

You could alternatively place the entire meal  into a covered casserole just after you add the wine.   Earthenware would look wonderful.  Slide the whole thing into a 325 oven for your hour of cooking time.  Thicken on top of the stove if the casserole will take it, or do it a little earlier, and allow it to cook for a few minutes in the oven at a slightly higher temperature so the cornstarch will activate.

Lazy Man's (or woman's) Chicken in Sauce

I had to be out of the door in half an hour.  There was going to be someone there in the house to put out fires if I caused them, so I put together a great sauce in no time flat.
I had thawed a three pound chicken breast...That was one formidable chicken! Perhaps an old one. This would be a great way to cook a whole chicken or capon as well.  Perhaps pigeons?  Who buys capons these days?
Cut a large onion in slivers and drop into the bottom of a large oven safe pot or covered casserole.
Add a teaspoon of salt and three bouillon cubes(Broth would be nice but you will end up with really soupy sauce as you are baking this covered and the chicken will contribute liquid.)
pepper to taste(Remember to over season chicken sauces as chicken blands a sauce like crazy.), two medium bay leaves, a dash of red pepper flakes, a tablespoon of basil, and if you have a garden, a stalk of oregano, flowers and all. (One and a half tablespoons of dried.)
Lower your chicken or breast onto the bed of onions, and pour a can of crushed tomato(Or crush up canned whole tomatoes) over the chicken, juice and all.  Add a small can of tomato paste, stirred into the rest of the tomatoes, breaking up the mass of paste.  The chicken should be about half submerged.
Cover tightly and slide into a 325 oven for three hours.  Take out and baste the chicken or turn it over every 45 minutes to an hour. Try not to break it up, as you could end up with shreds of chicken instead of nice meaty chunks, flavorful from cooking on the bone.
Break the chicken up a little, warn everyone of the bones(or remove them) and serve with bread, Parmesan and Spaghetti.  Try to leave the pieces large if you break it up. 
One of my greatest pleasures is mopping up the sauce with a piece of bread.  Serve with a big glass of red wine!  I would love to serve Brunello di Montalcino, but I cannot afford it.  How about a decent or even a not so decent Chianti or Zinfandel.  Not great wines, but I remember them on the table when I was a child.  A good time for a box of wine!!!

Chicken Parmesan(Veal as well)

The bad thing is that breading anything for frying is a bit messy. It is not overpowering though as long as you are organized. The good thing is you are not deep frying here. Less mess, less waste and easier to clean up in this recipe.
I have an aversion to cooking baby animals. I avoid Veal and Lamb at all costs. I have no issue with others who eat them, after all this has been going on for millenia, but I just opt out.
I went to a well respected hotel and it's attached restaurant recently. It was really a seafood restaurant. I ordered Chicken Parmesan. I should know better. If they are not sensitive to Italian foods and especially chicken, I have only myself to blame. The chicken was a whole breast with crumbs. It was over fried because it was so thick. They had to fry it forever because it would not have cooked in the middle otherwise. The sauce was half cooked(diced tomato with calcium cloride). It was perhaps not my worst experience with Chicken Parm, but I expected more from a nice restaurant.
I have already discussed tomato sauce, but you could do a very simple Marinara for this...I am hoping someone will send me a couple more sauces, but we can work with the ones I have already posted.

There are no specific amounts here. Chicken, these days, can be very unpredictable. I have cooked chicken recently that must have been right out of a Jules Verne movie. I did Chicken Parm tonight, and John could not finish the single half breast I made for him. This thing filled the bottom of my chicken fryer completely and that is 10 1/2 inches across.
Neatness does not necessarily count when it comes to the outline of the cutlet. It will be hard to come out of this with a neat round or oval. You may wish to remove the tender from the breast and use it for something else, or cook it separately in this recipe breading them individually or even pounding the devil out of several together so they become a single cutlet.

Lay out three plates and a bowl on your counter, near your stove.

In the first plate, put a cup or so of flour and hold some out in a second container to replenish the supply as you use it up.

In the second plate, make a layer of finely grated Parmesan cheese. Powder fine grating not the shreds. Keep extra on the side for when you run out.

In the third plate, put a layer of PLAIN bread crumbs(Pani Caliatu if you can). This is one recipe where you should avoid Panko. Keep an extra supply of this as well.

In the bowl, beat one egg for each large cutlet you plan to coat and add a couple of Tablespoons of cold water for each.

Place your boneless chicken breast on a flat surface. You may put it between layers of plastic wrap if you like, but it is easier, I think, just on a surface that does not absorb the chicken juices. Marble and Granite are good choices but watch out if you are pounding with a bottle(see note). Using the textured surface, pound with a meat hammer gently.(if you do not have a meat hammer, just use a very thick champagne bottle) You are trying to flatten the breast till it is all equal in thickness and well tenderized, but try not to make hamburger out of it. Start in the middle and work outwards with glancing blows that will spread the cutlet. Using English...sort of.

Lay the meat into the flour, and try to cover all surfaces. Press it in, but do not leave more than a nice dusting everywhere. No caking.

Place the meat into the egg and get it completely covered.

Lay it into the cheese. It is hard to get a perfect coating of the cheese, and it is not necessary.

Lay it back into the egg to coat again.

Now you finish by coating in bread crumbs. Leave it in the crumbs while you heat a large skillet with a heavy coating of olive oil. It should be hot, but not above say, medium.

Cook till the first side is nicely browned(You do not have to cook the chicken completely through) and turn with tongs or a large spatula. Brown the second side. Do not over brown.

You can be working on pounding, and coating the second cutlet as you fry the first and continue till all the cutlets are fried.

As you take the cutlets out of the pan, put them in a large, (very)lightly oiled baking dish...I mean large as these cutlets will be huge...you do not want these to be overlapped any more than necessary.

Place the pan(s) into a 350 degree oven to bake while you are heating your pasta water and slicing your Mozzarella.

I slice a ball of Buffalo Mozzarella for every two breasts. You can also use shredded Mozzarella, though the quality is lower.

Remove the Chicken from the oven when you are sure the chicken is cooked through(Just barely...do not overcook)and spread half to one cup of tomato sauce on top of each breast. Lay a few slices of Mozzarella on top and allow to melt while the pasta is cooking. Serve one(half boneless) breast per person. This may not seem like much for a big eater, but the egg, cheese and breading give you plenty to eat.

About Salt.
To be sure of your salt, you may profit from coating a small scrap of chicken and frying it up before continuing with the rest of the chicken. You can decide then if you need to add salt to the crumbs. Be careful, as the cheese is already salty.

Chicken with wine and lemon.

I am holding on to a deep regret. I suppose it is a little thing, but it was a symptom of Grammie's aging process and as often happens people feel redundant. I have always felt guilty that I made the wrong choice. Grammie lived in the apartment at the back of our house. I shared the bathroom with her. We became very close over the years that she lived with us. I know that she was feeling like a fifth wheel in the house. Mom pretty much ran the show at holiday meals. She was a great cook, so it was the natural choice. One Thanksgiving Grammie made this chicken recipe and brought it to the table, a few minutes late. I had already filled my plate, probably beyond my ability to consume the meal. She offered the chicken to all and was refused by everyone, as the meal had already been served. I was the last to be offered. I did not remember ever having seen it before, and it was unconventional looking and smelled just as unusual. Nevertheless, I would have loved it had I tried it, but there was no way I could take it. I was her last straw I guess. She took her chicken and stormed off to her apartment. We did not see her at the rest of the dinner. I felt so bad. It ate at me for days(still does I guess). A few weeks later I made the point of going up and asking her how to make it. She taught me how, and I have been doing it ever since.
I am terribly concerned about calories, so I have not really done it this way for years. Chicken skin just doesn't make it onto my table as a rule. It is never the same! You just have to bite the bullet and do the chicken skin.

Cut up a small chicken into serving pieces, the breast is good in two pieces. Leave the skin intact.

Place in a covered casserole that will go from stove top to oven. She used Corning Wear. Place on the stove on low heat and simply stew the chicken in the juices that come out of it till it is about half done.

Remove it from the heat and squeeze the juice of a whole lemon over the chicken.

Pour in about a cup of a semi-sweet white wine. She used Silver Satin...Where you would get that today is a mystery to me. A Sauterne would be good if you can find one you can afford. I use Marsala these days. Perhaps this is a way to use Malvasia if you take out a bank loan to pay for the meal.

Shake a fairly heavy coat of white sugar over the chicken.

Dust the whole thing with cinnamon.

You might do well to put on another layer of sugar over the cinnamon.

Put the pan uncovered into a fairly hot oven and baste very carefully every 10 to 15 min. Be careful to moisten the sugar without washing it away.

You are trying to crisp the skin and caramelize the sugar on the surface.

Toast a half cup of slivered almonds or Pine nuts in the oven and sprinkle over the chicken the last time it goes into the oven.

The Arab world touches Sicily in this dish, and this would be great served with rice or couscous soaked in the resulting syrup.

In speaking to my cousin Jenny DeFina, I have another version of this.
Her mother, Rose Cincotta used Alspice instead of Cinnamon. Also, instead of layering up the sugar and spice on the top of the chicken, she made a sort of sweet lemonade with sugar and lemon and poured it over the chicken. She also grated a bit of lemon rind and put minced onion into the dish after it braised. She toasted slivered almonds and sprinkled them on the dish only on holidays.
Of course this is still the same dish with its roots firmly in the Arabic world....Spice, sugar and lemon...That is Arabic all right.