It's not easy for me to catch Barefoot Contessa these days (VCR? Tivo? pfff! Takes out the joy of discovery!), but even just a few minutes almost always yields something. This time, it was a figure-friendly chicken chili she made for her chef friend and colleague, who'd recently lost 40 pounds. And simple. Roasted chicken, peppers, onions, pureed tomatoes, spices and herbs.
For me, the kicker was when she substituted basil for cilantro, because, the grand Ina Garten herself hates cilantro! Yoopee!
A brief aside on cilantro here. Anectodally, I've heard the (fishy) statistic that 10% of the population finds that cilantro tastes very strange, and the (equally fishy) fact that this odd perception is inborn, not learned. There are enough cilantro haters to have formed an online support group: www.ihatecilantro.com. I am not among those. I don't have issues with cilantro per se. But I really really dislike the taste of soap, and that's what cilantro tastes like to me. And, apparently, to Ina.
Basil, on the other hand, is one of my favorite herbs, so what a perfect substitute for the pretty, but soup-ruining Thai-food-ubiquitous cilantro. Ick.
So following Ina's instructions, I roasted the chicken, bone-in, skin-on. These days, so much chicken is done boneless skinless, I almost didn't know what to make of this! Especially when I saw the total price on the package at the checkout at Whole Foods. That's 20 bucks worth of chicken, folks, and that's not even the expensive organic stuff! OW!
I deliberately made the full recipe, since Ina mentioned this was one of those recipes that tastes better after being in the fridge for a few days, and that was a good freezer staple. It almost overflowed my inadequate pot.
I made a few other mods. I only put in 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, as "hot" and I have a very dicey relationship. And, half the chili powder called for, as I actually don't like that much either. This resulted in a ratatouille-ish flavor that I love -- it had me wanting to put eggplant in it -- but the chili flavor was still acceptably perceptible. I was really surprised not to see salt on the ingredient list; I added some anyway and thought it needed more.
As is almost always the case with Ina recipes (and her chef friend even commented that this was such an "Ina recipe"), I loved it. As is almost always the case with any preparation that mixes things together, my kids didn't. My husband, so-so on the whole thing. He was probably suspicious that I snuck some eggplant in there, as he likes eggplant about as much as I like cilantro.
But, no matter -- I stashed some in the freezer for the next time I have a hungry grownup in the house, and what I didn't freeze made for yummy low-carb lunches for days. Occasionally I count too.
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