Paella

From Cook's Illustrated
.
Serves 6

This recipe is for making paella in a Dutch oven (at least 11 to 12 inches in diameter). It can also be made in a paella pan. If making in a paella pan, increase chicken broth to 3 1/4 cups and wine to 1/2 cup. Before placing paella pan in oven, cover it tightly with foil.

1 pound extra-large shrimp (21 to 25 per pound), peeled and deveined
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra as needed
8 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed and halved crosswise
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch wide strips
8 ounces Spanish chorizo sausage, sliced 1/2 inch thick on bias
1 onion, chopped fine
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained, minced, and drained again
2 cups Valencia or Arboria rice
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, crumbled
1 bay leaf
12 mussels, scrubbed and debearded
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 teaspoons fresh parsley
Lemon wedges

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Toss shrimp, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 1 tablespoon oil, and 1 teaspoon garlic in medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate until needed. Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper and set aside.
2. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until skin begins to blister and turn spotty black. 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer bell pepper to small plate and set aside. 
3. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in now-empty pan until shimmering. Add chicken pieces in a single layer and cook, without moving, until browned, about 3 minutes. Turn pieces and cook until browned on second side, about 3 minutes. Transfer chicken to medium bowl. Reduce heat to medium and add chorizo to pot. Cook, stirring frequently, until deeply browned and fat begins to render, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer chorizo to bowl with chicken and set aside.
4. Add enough oil to fat in pot to equal 2 tablespoons and heat over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in remaining garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes and cook until mixture begins to darken and thicken slightly, about 3 minutes. Stir in rice and cook until grains are well coated with tomato mixture, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in chicken broth, wine, saffron, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Return chicken pieces and chorizo to pot, increase heat to medium-high and bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Cover pot (if using paella pan use foil to cover along with lid), transfer to oven, and cook until rice absorbs most of the liquid, about 15 minutes. Remove pot from oven. Uncover pot, scatter shrimp over rice, insert mussels, hinged side down, into rice (so they stand upright), arrange bell pepper strips in a pinwheel pattern, and scatter peas over top. Cover, return to oven, and cook until shrimp are opaque and mussels have opened, 10 to 12 minutes.
5. FOR SOCARRAT (a layer of brown, crusty rice): Set pot, uncovered, over medium-high heat or about 5-minutes, rotating pot/pan, 180 degrees after about 2 minutes for evening browning.
6. Let paella stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Discard any mussels that have not opened and bay leaf. Sprinkle with parsley and serve, passing lemon wedges separately.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Ingredients

8 ounces cream cheese

½ cup blue cheese dressing

1/2 cup finely chopped celery

1/2 cup hot sauce (recommended: Frank's)

1 rotisserie chicken, shredded

1 cup crumbled blue cheese

Crackers, bread or carrot sticks, for serving

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a medium saucepan over moderate heat, melt the cream cheese until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the celery, hot sauce and chicken and mix well. Transfer the mixture to a 9-inch pie plate and sprinkle the crumbled blue cheese on top. Bake until hot and bubbly, about 25 minutes. Serve with crackers, bread or carrot sticks.

What Makes This Recipe Really Sing: This has all the great flavors of Buffalo chicken wings without all the fat of the chicken skin and oil. Want to make it lighter? Feel free to use light cream cheese.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 whole roasted chicken, shredded
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 green bell pepper, diced
3 cans chicken broth
1 can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatos
2 cans Rotel tomatos and chilli, mild
1 cup corn, frozen or canned
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

Garnishes:
avocado
cheddar cheese, grated
sour cream
cilantro
tortilla chips, crushed

Saute onion, garlic, jalapeno and bell pepper until soft. Add everything else up to and including black beans. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 mins. Top with garnishes.

Butter Chicken

The sauce is what makes this dish. The recipe says to pound chicken, bread it and fry it to make schnitzel to dip in the sauce. Any cooked chicken would be good. I broil or BBQ the chicken and then cut into chunks to add to the sauce. If you have extra I have successfully frozen it and reheated.

Butter Chicken (from "Vij's at Home" - Serves 6)

1/4 cooking oil
2 to 3 tablespoons crushed garlic (6 to 9 medium cloves)
1 small can tomato paste or 3/4 cup crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin (or 1 tablespoon if you are not using garam masala)
2 teaspoon garam masala (optional but I used it and it was good)
1 teaspoon ground coriander (optional but I used it)
1 teaspoon ground cayenne
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups whipping cream

Heat oil in a medium pot on medium for 1 minute. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute, or until golden. It will become slightly sticky, but keep stirring. Add tomato paste (or crushed tomatoes) and stir well, then reduce heat to low and add paprika, turmeric, salt, garam masala, coriander and cayenne. Stir well and saute for 4 minutes. Stir in water and cream, then turn off the heat and set aside until you are ready to serve.

Once ready to serve, warm the sauce on medium-high heat. As soon as it boils, stir well and reduce the heat to low. Simmer 5 minutes, then turn off the heat.