Potato Salad

14 Feb

So simple, yet so delicious!  My kids call this GT’s (Grandma Terry) Potato Salad.  My mother-in-law shared this recipe with me.

Tips:

  1. For a creamy potato salad, use Yukon Gold.  Make sure you peel them before cooking.
  2. The more eggs you add, the creamier  the potato salad is.  My rule of thumb is 1 egg per medium potato.
  3. You can add shredded carrots to add a different layer of flavor to this potato salad.
  4. Potato Salad is best when you let it sit in the fridge for a while so that all the flavors blend together.  4 hours for this dish will do the trick.  You can also prepare this a day ahead.
  5. The vinegar cuts down on the starch.
  6. Potatoes are done when you can easily stick a fork through it without any resistance.
  7. I’m a Hellmann’s girl so no Miracle Whip for me :)

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes (approximately 6 medium potatoes), peeled
  • water
  • 1/2 cup white vinegar
  • 4-6 hardboiled eggs, peeled and quartered
  • 1 small onion finely diced
  • 2 celery stalks, sliced
  • 1 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/8 teaspoon celery seeds
  • salt

Directions:

1.  In a large stock pot combine potatoes, vinegar and enough water to cover the potatoes.  Bring to a boil  and cook until potatoes are tender, about 45 minutes.  Drain water and let potatoes cool before cutting in eighths.

2.  Once potatoes have cooled down and cut, combine with celery, onion and eggs in a large bowl.  Mix together.  Add mayonnaise and celery seeds.  Season with salt to taste.  Transfer to a serving bowl, cover, and refrigerate for up to 4 hours before serving.

Enjoy!

Tags:

Slow Cooker Pork And Tomatillo Stew

26 Jan

An awesome Pork Stew that can be served over rice or with tortillas.

Tips:

  1. Remove as much fat as you can off the roast.  The slow cooking process will produce a lot of fat if they are not sliced off prior to cooking.
  2. If you use canned Tomatillos, make sure you drain all the liquid.  Use 1 28-oz can as a substitute for 1 lb of fresh tomatillos
  3. Make sure to thoroughly rinse the tomatillos once you remove the husk to get the waxy substance off it.
  4. You can add vegetables such as bell peppers as well as starch such as Hominy but do this at the last 30 minutes of cooking time so they are not mushy.  If you are adding harder vegetables such as carrots, you can put add them at the start of cooking.

Ingredients:

  • 3 – 3 1/2 lb Boston roast  (butt) cut in 1 inch chunks
  • sea salt
  • pepper
  • 1 tablespoon cooking oil
  • 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 pound tomatillos, quartered (approximately 6-8 tomatillos), removed from husk and thoroughly rinsed
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 2-3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 1 jalapeño, thinly sliced (remove seeds if you don’t want heat)
  • chopped cilantro

Directions:

  1. Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat.  Season pork chunks with salt and pepper.  Brown all sides in skillet.  If skillet is not large enough, brown pork in batches.  Transfer cooked pork to slow cooker.  Stir in cumin.
  2. Once pork is cooked, remove skillet from heat and slowly add chicken broth.  Return to heat and with a wooden spatula, scrape all the brown bits off the skillet.  Allow  to simmer for 2 minutes.
  3. While broth is simmering, add tomatillos, onion, garlic and jalapeño to pork.  Remove broth from heat and pour onto pork mixture.  Stir, cover and cook for 3/12 – 4 hours on HIGH.  Once complete, transfer pork to a serving bowl using a slotted spatula.  Skim fat off of sauce.  Season sauce with salt for taste.  Pour over pork and finish with a garnish of chopped cilantro.  Serve.

Enjoy!

Tags: , ,

Honey Glazed Roasted Chicken

18 Jan

Although this Chicken dish takes a little more than 2 hours from prep to serve, you will be surprised with how good and moist it turns out.  Since I got the whole chicken on sale at $.99/lb, this dish was actually less than $10 to make and enjoy.

Tips:

  1. Season under the skin.
  2. To truss chicken, put legs together, one over the other, and with a cooking twine, bind them together.  Tuck the wings underneath the breast and use toothpicks to hold them in place.
  3. Checking the chicken’s internal temperature is a better way to check for doneness rather than doing it by time.  Sometimes you just never know if your chicken is completely thawed out when you cook it.
  4. Cooking it breast side down first allows it to cook the same time as the rest of the chicken therefore avoiding the breast meat to dry up while the rest of the chicken is still cooking.  Use a roasting pan with a V-rack to cook the chicken on.
  5. The glazing is done towards the end so as not to burn it on the chicken.  Don’t forget to glaze underneat the chicken as well.
  6. Do not discard drippings if you want to make gravy.

Prep and Cook Time: approximately 2 hours

Serves:  4-6

Ingredients:

  • 1 whole chicken (about 3-4 lbs, giblets discarded)
  • 2 tablespoons sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 tablespoon paprika
  • 1/2 tablespoon ground pepper
  • 1 cup low or no sodium chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons water
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon corn starch

Directions:

  1. Arrange oven rack to lower middle portion.  Pre-heat oven to 350°F.  Thoroughly rinse chicken and dry with paper towel.  In a small bowl, combine sea salt, garlic powder, paprika and pepper.  Loosen the skin from the meat and season generously underneath the skin and over the skin with the dry rub.  Truss chicken and arrange on a V-rack roasting pan breast side down.  Cook for 45 minutes.
  2. After 45 minutes, remove rack from oven.  With a tong inserted in the cavity, flip bird breast side up.  Add chicken broth and 1/2 cup water at the bottom of the pan.  Return to oven and cook for 50 minutes to 1 hour.
  3. While chicken is cooking, make glaze by combining honey and vinegar in a small sauce pan over low heat.  Bring to a simmer.  Dissolve corn starch with water then whisk in to honey until glaze thickens up.  Remove from heat.
  4. With an instant read thermometer, check chicken for doneness.  It is done when the thickest part of the thigh’s temperature reaches 165°F – 170°F.  Brush half of the glaze all over chicken and return to oven for 10 minutes.
  5. Remove from oven and set on a cutting board.  Cut the twine and remove any toothpicks used.  Brush remaining glaze all over and tent cover with aluminum foil for 10-15 minutes before slicing up to serve.

To make gravy:

Loosen and remove brown bits with a wooden spoon from the bottom of roasting pan.   Transfer to a cup or bowl and skim off the fat with a spoon. Drippings should come to at least 1 1/2 cups.  In a medium sauce pan, create a roux by melting 2 tablespoons of butter then adding 2 tablespoons of flour over low heat.  Slowly whisk in drippings and simmer for 5 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.  Serve with chicken.

Enjoy!

Tags: , ,

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 83 other followers