This was a spontaneous hack of a curry, after not quite finding a recipe I liked online. It turned out great, and is very scalable, in that you make a batch of curry sauce first, and can then use that in a variety of ways.

For the sauce:

(This makes ~ 4 cups of curry sauce)

• 3 T coconut oil
• 1 large white onion, diced
• 5+ cloves garlic, whole
• 2" ginger, chopped
• ½ cup carrots, shredded, optional
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 4 T of curry masala
• 2 t of cayenne
• 2 t curry powder
• salt to taste
• 1 14oz can tomatoes
• 1.5 cups broth
• 4 tbsp cashew butter

This New York Times recipe is good for a dinner party. It easily serves 4-6 and spends 40 minutes unperturbed in the oven, making it something that can cook during cocktails and chit chat. We made just a few tweaks to the original recipe.

This New York Times recipe uses a really interesting and tasty way to marinade chicken. The original also included a pineapple salsa recipe to accompany the chicken, but I think our pineapple chow recipe is better.

Also, the first time we made this we tripled the recipe. That created challenges in ensuring the chicken didn't marinate for more than 15 minutes, but I didn't think it was a problem.

This recipe is built off of The Kitchn's review on The Pioneer Woman's recipe. We doubled the recipe and used most of two rotisserie chickens, but it scales further up also. Highly recommend par-baking and freezing.

• salt-only Pie crusts (we like bottom crusts as well as on top) - for 12 small baking tins we needed 4 full crusts.
• 4 Tablespoons Butter (or chicken, duck fat)

An easy way to use miscellaneous southeast asian ingredients at the end of the week. We took our cues from the kitchn.

• Rolls
• Protein of choice
• Crunchy veg - cucumber, jicama
• Pickled veg - carrots
• Spicy veg - jalapeno
• Herbs - cilantro, mint
• Mayo
• Other sauces of choice

1 ~4lp spatchcocked chicken
Salt
dry rub

2 hours before grilling, rinse and dust the chicken with salt, let sit uncovered in fridge.

When ready to start, rub on the dry rub of choice - we used a rosemary/thyme/HdP/sage/pepper/smoked salt rub for a classic roast-chicken flavor.

Prepare the grill for 2-zone cooking, raising the ambient temperature to ~325-350°F

Add smoking chips; Place chicken off-heat, with the dark meat towards the fire, and roast until the breast reaches 135°F

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (preferably Spanish), divided
1 pound uncooked large shrimp, peeled, deveined, butterflied
1 pound skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 pound oyster mushrooms, sliced
1 cup chopped onion
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 cups paella rice (short-grain white rice)
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
1 dried California chile or New Mexico chile, stemmed, seeded, finely ground in spice mill
3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, crumbled
2 cups low-salt chicken broth, divided
1 cup mushroom broth

From Bon Appetit 2014 Food Lover's Cleanse

Serves 4, or 2 + 2 leftover portions to use in a salad (see below).

Courtesy of Cook's Illustrated.

This original recipe (attached) came from a cooking class we took at Lebanese Taverna for a friend's birthday. We finally made this at home, and frankly, the original recipe was way too complicated. I post here a simplified, notional recipe that I may refine in the future.

The basic thing you're making is a layering of chickpeas, chicken, pita chips, yogurt, and garnishes - "Lebanese nachos," if you will. To make this an easy weeknight meal, you're ideally using leftover chickpeas and chicken, buying pre-made pita chips, and doing only minimal preparation on the day of. It does require some pre-planning but makes the final "cooking" really easy. Yes, it's tastier if all of these things are freshly made and still warm, but whatever. I'm a working woman.

So, not really a true recipe, but pretty good and pretty easy. Maybe next time we'll get fancy and make our own empanada dough, but for the first try this turned out pretty good.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (skin removed and cut into 1 1/2" cubes)

Marinade:
1 scallion (white part only, cut into very thin slices)
1 tbsp miso paste
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp sake (or dry vermouth)
1 slice bacon

Yakiniku no tare (for basting and dipping)
1 cup low-salt chicken broth
3/4 cup mirin (sweet Japanese rice wine)
1/2 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup sake (or more mirin and some vermouth)
3/4 teaspoon (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 scallions, chopped

We recently got a digital antenna for our TV, which has opened up a mostly crappy selection of ".1" stations to us. But... there is an entire PBS station seemingly dedicated to cooking shows. My new favorite: Pati's Mexican Table. This is the first recipe of hers that we tried, and it was easy and delicious! I was especially excited to make this dish because we actually have a large log of piloncillo (like brown sugar) that we've been eating down for the last 2 years. Any opportunity to use that stuff is a win in my book.

This is an adapted Rick Bayless recipe that we use with our mole.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup Classic Red Mole
1/8 cup agave syrup (preferably organic raw) or dark corn syrup
Bone-in chicken pieces
Salt and fresh ground pepper
Sesame seeds (toasted, if you like)

DIRECTIONS
Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

This is a tribute to the Southwestern Enchilada at Chuy's, with a twist of classic Mexico add on - hence - the South by SouthWestern stacked enchilada. It is also the ultimate recipe to use up the leftover yummies from a week of Mexico/TexMex eating. Random weird elements from that mole recipe? Let's find a place for it. Make some verde sauce from those lonely leftover tomatillos, and you're on your way.

Per Enchilada:
2-3 corn tortillas
1 egg
1 Tbsp crema
1/2 cup chicken, partially shredded - dark meat preferred
1/4 cup salsa verde

When I was in high school, I dated a Persian (Iranian) guy for a few months. I don't remember much about our relationship, but I do remember his mother's cooking! After we'd been dating for while, his family invited mine over for a Friday night dinner. All I remember is a chicken/rice/currant/nut casserole that was absolutely delicious.

This recipe eventually turned in to the Shahi Paneer recipe, and the sauce is the same. We broke them out separately to make them both easier to follow.

We generally followed this recipe, except we used a whole chicken and only cut up the breasts and thighs. We left the wings and drumsticks in tact, and just ate them. It being winter, we just broiled the whole thing for about 10-15 minutes, though traditionally this recipe would be skewered and BBQ'd.

Ingredients:

1 chicken, cut into piece parts; breasts and thighs cut into pieces

SATAY MARINADE:
1/4 cup minced lemongrass, fresh or frozen (if using fresh, use only the soft inner part)

After many tries, we've settled on this yummy chicken enchiladas recipe. Makes about 4 big enchiladas.

Ingredients:
Non-breast parts of a rotisserie chicken (bought at Eastern Market), torn into pieces
Green chiles (hatch/anaheim chiles, canned works)
1 Onion, chopped
Flour tortillas
Enchiladas Sauce (see below)
Jack Cheese (Pepperjack, if you want a little kick)

Make Enchilada Sauce
Mix together:

1/2 cup of you favorite salsa / hot sauce (use Salsa Verde for a "suizas" enchilada)
1 cup sour cream

4 chicken breasts (bone-in, with skin on is best)
5 Tbsp Jamaican jerk seasoning (I recommend Grace or Walkerswood)
1/4 cup extra olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 finely chopped scotch bonnet/habanero (optional)
1 scallion, chopped
1 tsp Jamaican allspice
1/2 tsp smoked salt
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 paprika,

Marinate chicken in the jerk seasoning, garlic, and olive oil for at least 1 hour.

Mix in the rest of the seasonings, reserving some scallion for a garnish

Grill over high heat for 20-30 minutes, turning often, or broil in the oven using the guidance below:

Turkey Carcass Soup V.2 - Venezuelan "Chicken" caldo

I was making turkey carcass soup (http://audreyandjon.com/recipes/turkey-carcass-soup) and it ran away from me into a soup styled after the fantastic caldos de pollo I had in Merida, Venezuela. Here's a discussion of Spanish Caldos. Venezuela is not big on spicy foods, so I concentrated on savory spicing and the broth itself.

1 liter turkey broth/soup with ~ 1 cup of turkey meat. It's best if there's still some turkey fat included.
1 can diced tomato