Pesto-stuffed grilled chicken

Pesto-rubbed chicken

From “Saveur: The New Classics Cookbook,” an instant classic if there ever was one. From the first appetizer recipe for baked feta to the last, there are enough prospects in this one to keep me busy for quite some time. I let my subscription lapse a few years ago amid the need to cut back, but I do like me a good Saveur recipe now and again.

Ingredients

2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts

5 tablespoons pesto, divided

Method

Loosen skin on one side of each breast. Spread 1½ tablespoons pesto under the skin of each half. Sprinkle all sides with salt and pepper. Place on a hot grill, skin-side down. Grill, covered, for about 25 minutes or until done, flipping once. Spread a tablespoon of remaining pesto over each breast and cook for another 5 minutes.

Rating: Super simple, but super tasty. The pesto keeps the chicken breasts moist.

Braised kale with Parmesan and crushed red pepper

Cacio e pepe-style braised kale
From Food & Wine, Dec. 2014
This is supposed to be a take on the cheese and pepper pasta flavors only coming to the rescue of kale.

Ingredients
1 pound kale leaves, torn into bite-size pieces
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons oil
2 cups chicken broth
crushed red pepper
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Method
Melt butter and oil in a large deep pot. Add kale in batches, stirring until wilted. Add broth and bring to a simmer. Cook until kale is tender and broth is mostly absorbed, about 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and crushed red pepper flakes. Top with cheese.

Rating: Fine enough. Could work with other sturdy greens as well.

And a place where you will never see kale on the menu just won a James Beard award in the America's Classics category: Archie’s Waeside, Le Mars, Iowa, was a running joke when I was growing up. Hasn't changed, apparently, although they now have their menu online, where you can see one of the a la carte selections is listed as simply "Jello." The America's Classics winners are selected for being a classic of their type and reflecting their region. Ouch.

Roast chicken with grapes, olives and rosemary

Harvest roast chicken with grapes, olives and rosemary

From “Smitten Kitchen Cookbook” by Deb Perelman

Ingredients

Eight pieces of chicken, bone-in and skin on

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup seedless grapes

1 cup pitted Kalamata olives

2 small shallots, thinly sliced

½ cup white wine

½ cup chicken broth

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

Method

Preheat oven to 450. In a stove-burner safe roasting pan (or oven-safe skillet), heat oil over medium high heat. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and cook until nicely golden brown, skin side down, before flipping over to brown the other side. Add grapes, olives and shallots. Cook in oven for about 20 minutes until done.

Remove chicken to serving platter. Put pan back on stove top. Add wine, broth and rosemary and cook over high heat until it’s reduced into a slightly thickened sauce.

Rating: Quite reasonably tasty, and the grape-olive combination works. I don’t give it a CR (company rating) because it’s not really particularly attractive and the sauce is a tad oily, but otherwise it’s repeatable. It’s quite similar to a recipe I’ve made previously from Martha Stewart Living Everyday Food  using cut up chicken instead of Cornish hens. That version is slightly prettier and lacks the olives. Both are a pretty good way to use up grapes that come in rather overly large packages for small families. So this appeals to my non-food-wasting sensibilities. 

Or if you're in the market for really low-brow food, there's this option.