Upscale Re-purposed Beach Dinner (Multiple Recipes)
What to do with the leftovers in our fridge is often quite the perplexing quandary. Quite frankly, the thought of eating what you cooked yesterday again today is sometimes just so unappetizing, that in all likelihood, those leftovers in that Tupperware container are just going to sit there until it’s pretty much a health code violation to eat them again. Nod your head, you’ve been in this situation before. I recently found myself in this exact situation with two huge Ziploc bags of barbequed chicken.
At the time, grillin’ those chicken wings, legs, and thighs just sounded so perfect for a hot summer day down at the beach. And don’t get me wrong, they were tasty, but when faced with deciding dinner the next evening, nobody wanted any more chicken — at least not that chicken. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and re-purpose the chicken, rather than let it go to waste. The process wasn’t pretty (hand-removing the skin from the chicken and hand-pulling it off the bones), but the dish ended up being a hit and no one could ever tell that my fancy Basque Chicken recipe ever came from “yesterday’s chicken BBQ.”
Basque Chicken
Ingredients
1 large rotisserie chicken (or yesterday’s barbequed chicken), pulled
2 red bell peppers, sliced the long way thinly
2 green bell peppers, sliced the long way thinly
1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
2 heads of garlic, one roasted, the other roughly chopped
1 tablespoon Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried parsley
4 bay leaves
1 box low sodium chicken stock
1 cup red wine (merlot works well)
5 stalks of celery, sliced horizontally
1 can whole peeled tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
Extra virgin olive oil
Preparation
In a skillet over medium-high heat, saute the red and green peppers, the onion, and garlic in a dab of olive oil until the onions are translucent.
In a dutch oven over low heat, combine the remaining ingredients with another teaspoon or two of olive oil. Add in the sauteed peppers, onion, and garlic. Let the mixture sit and marinate in itself over the low flame for about 45 minutes to an hour, if not longer (to taste). Feel free to add in additional herbs and spices to taste.
Serve over brown rice.
I served the Basque Chicken with two side salads. Both were quite popular and had varying but complimentary flavor profiles that added to the lightness and summeriness of the whole meal.
Spinach and Feta Salad
Ingredients
1 container baby spinach
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
6 tomatoes on the vine, chopped
Black pepper
Dressing
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons Wortcestershire sauce
1 heaping tablespoon mustard (Dijon, yellow, etc)
1 tablespoon honey
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Preparation
Combine the salad ingredients in a bowl and sprinkle with black pepper to taste.
In a separate, smaller mixing bowl with high sides, combine the dressing ingredients. Whisk until the emulsified and dress the salad, tossing well to evenly distribute the dressing.*
*Note, you can always blend the dressing in a blender rather than hand-whisking.
Summer Corn Salad
Ingredients
5 ears of corn
1 package of arugula
1 red onion, finely sliced and then cut into one-two inch pieces
2 cans cannellini beans
White pepper
Dressing
Equal parts olive oil and red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Preparation
Clean the corn (removing the husk and spindly, stringy remainders).
You can choose to either serve the corn raw or pan sauté it with a bit of butter or olive oil. I prefer raw because good white corn is not too starchy when raw and is quite juicy and flavorful.
Holding the corn in a bowl with the pointy side down, shave the corn off the husk and let the kernels accumulate.
In a salad serving bowl, combine the arugula, onions, beans and corn, and top with Feta and a sprinkle of white pepper to taste. Follow with the feta.
In a separate, smaller mixing bowl with high sides, combine the dressing ingredients. Whisk until the emulsified and dress the salad, tossing well to evenly distribute the dressing.*
*Note, you can always blend the dressing in a blender rather than hand-whisking.
