Loaded Chicken Wrap

I don't really like reviewing fast food because...well....it's fast food. I'm not some snob that looks down my nose at fast food or anything like that. I have been trying to cut back on it for numerous reasons, but occasionally I'll stop by a spot and pick up something I can eat on the go.

As usual, I was doing my last minute mothers day shopping and came across a Popeye's. Contrary to popular belief, black people don't daydream about fried chicken and watermelon. I couldn't remember the last time I had Popeye's, so it didn't seem like a terrible option.

When I walked in, I stood back for a minute to find something cheap I could slam down in-between shopping destinations. I saw a few Po' Boy sandwiches they had, but those seemed like they were a bit more than what I was looking for. Than I saw the one that I was gonna go with. The Loaded Chicken Wrap.

The menu said it was a chicken strip with rice and beans wrapped in a tortilla. Sounds good, right? And with a price under $2, I was sold. I ordered 2 and a small drink for the road. When my order came up, I grabbed the bag and was quickly surprised. This small to-go bag had some weight to it.

I got to my car and quickly took one out to see just what I had gotten myself into. For a $2 wrap, this thing had to some serious size to it. I was originally going to eat it while driving to my next stop. After seeing it, I just put it back in the bag and waited to eat until I got to the next parking lot.

When I finally dug into the wrap, it was as good as I thought it was gonna be. Popeye's knows how to deep fry a bird. You don't have to worry about the chicken. Their red beans and rice are on point. The only thing it needed was hot sauce.

As good as this thing tasted, it was the sheer size of it that made the biggest impact. I ate both of them and was full. No bullshit! If you want to get the most bang for your buck, try one of these "Wraps" out. For real, I think these are more along the lines of burritos than wraps. In any case, it's cheap eats. For less than $2, names are not that important.

That's it. A little story about a snack that became a full meal in-between shopping. Hope you enjoyed it. And to all the mothers reading this, hope you had a great Mothers Day and know that everything you do is greatly appreciated.

Take Care,

J. Miller

Avec Eric

They say that inspiration can come from anywhere. You know what? They are right. You can be driving down the street and see something that will inspire you to read a book or write a song. You may see a plastic grocery bag floating in a breeze and think "Wow, that kid from 'American Beauty' must have been really high to zone out on this.". Where was I going with this........oh yeah, INSPIRATIONS!

Some people search far and wide just to get the creative juices flowing. Some simply look out the window or take a walk around the block. For me, I never have to really look that far. I can usually find inspiration within my career, that is to say, the food biz. Drugs or booze were never really needed for this process. Sure, I may have already downed 3 shots of whiskey as I'm writing this, but I don't need to do that to write. I just like to. :)

From time to time I'll head to Barnes & Noble and skim through some of the new cook books out there. I'll laugh for a bit at all the losers and half-wits who got cook books(i.e. cast offs of various reality cooking shows), then I'll grab a book from a chef that I know is at the top of their game. Guys like Rick Bayless and Eric Ripert. When you see chefs like these two cook, you can see the passion that they have for what they do. You can see how much pride they have for even the simplest of dishes that they prepare. I see that and it makes me want to get in the kitchen. So what if it's 2 a.m.! I'm gonna get my ass in that kitchen and try something! 3 a.m.? Yeah, I'll wait until the morning.

What inspired me to make the dish above was an internet video I saw of Eric Ripert. You might have seen him doing a quick demo on a morning show like "Today" or "Good Morning, America". I mostly see him on No Reservation with Anthony Bourdain. He's the calm, cool French guy that Bourdain can never get a rise out of. When Bourdain went back to his old job to work a double, he dragged Ripert on the line with him because he thought he would suffer just as much as he was. Ripert just smiled and did his job. Bourdain got annoyed because Ripert actually enjoyed himself!

Eric Ripert actually has his own cooking show on PBS called Avec Eric. His latest book has the same title as well.

Simply put, I dig this guys style. Simple, fresh, and delicious. He makes it all look so easy. I could say more, but it will be easier to see for yourself.

After watching the video, a couple thoughts really stood out. First, I couldn't believe how easy it was to do chicken like that. Second, he just said "I'm tossing my salad"! When I stopped giggling like a little girl, I knew I had to try this out.

So, after work I stopped by the store and picked up the chicken tenderloin strips. I figured I'd make some pasta to go with it, just to make it a more filling meal.

I Soaked some skewers and ran those right up the keyster of the tenderloins. A few of them I added some cherry tomatoes. I didn't have any herbs de provence, so I just used a little italian seasoning mix.

I chopped up 1small onion and 1 small bell pepper and sauteed those just for a few minutes. I threw in a few chopped garlic cloves to the mix and cooked a few more minutes. I poured in some chianti and reduced that before adding the pasta sauce.

I used a plain jar pasta sauce. I just doctored it up a bunch. When I dropped the pasta in the water, I put the chicken in the broiler. When the pasta was about 2/3 done, I took it out the water and put it right into the sauce.

By the time the pasta was done, the chicken was done.

This meal really took no time at all. It came together so quickly that everyone else in the house was like "Your done already?" You gotta love meals like that. Here's one more pic of the finished product. I know the plate up isn't that great. I'm a pastry chef, ok? Cut a brotha some slack! I'm trying!

After I took that picture, I added some ricotta that I made the day before. The pasta was great. I think I actually got it al dente. Maybe that pole smoker Scott Conant from the show Chopped would approve. Come to think of it, no, he wouldn't approve. Why? Because according to him, he's the only one that knows how to cook pasta right. Fuck you Conant! That's why you were too pussy to compete in Chopped All Stars. Fucking asshole.

Anyway, the pasta was dope. The chicken...was almost dope. Everyone else liked it, but I thought I overcooked it by just a hair. It wasn't dry, but I felt it had slightly crossed that line from perfect to just starting to dry out. It still tasted good though.

I had a few uncooked strips left, so I tried it again the next day and got it right. I also made that honey mustard Ripert made, and that was some really good stuff. Just dijon and honey. It doesn't get any easier.

Well, that's it for this one my friends. I hope you enjoyed my little story of inspiration and what turned out to be a tasty Saturday night dinner. I don't expect this to inspire you to cook something up. If anything, I'd like to think that this might get you to think about what inspires you. Even if it's just for a second.

Take Care

J. Miller

Spanglish Muffins

Like the title? I know you do. I can sense you smiling as you are saying it. Now I'm sensing you don't quite like where this is headed. DON'T LEAVE! You just got here! I promise it's gets better from here. Just give me a second and this will all make sense. And I'm gonna try not to use the word "sense" anymore, ok?

What you see above are english muffins....with a little something extra. That something extra is Masa. That's right, I added the stuff to make tortillas to this muffin mix. What in the hell would posses me to do this? Drugs? Nope. A bet? Nope. Drugs???? I said NO GODDAMMIT! Let's get this out of the way...

Somehow I got it in my head that I wanted to attempt a yeast based bread that had masa in it. I had never seen anything like it. I figured it at worst, it would be an "Epic Fail"(I am not a fan of that phrase.). I searched around the net and found a few recipes that would make a loaf-type bread. Then I started thinking about incorporating the masa into something else. I came upon a recipe for english muffins and felt it would be the perfect test dummy to try this out on. Most recipes for english muffins are pretty safe and there's almost no baking involved. Sounds logical, right?

But I didn't go about this as I usually do. I made them once, and got a fairly warm reception to it from the people that tried it. Then, I made it again. And again. AND AGAIN!.Normally, for the blog, it's one and done. This was the first time that I made something more than once before posting it. I didn't intend it like that, but that's how it worked out.

I kept tweeking the recipe and the way I rolled out dough until I got it just the way I wanted it. I'll explain a little more when the time comes. For now, I'll just give you the ratio of flours to masa.

1 part Masa
1 part Bread Flour
2 parts All Purpose Flour

That magic ratio is what got me to my perfection. I'll post a link at the bottom to the page I went to for the recipe.

For now, let's make some muffins!

You are gonna start by blooming your yeast with the sugar and half of your luke warm milk. Once the yeast has done it's thing, add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix in the rest of the milk. It should take about 5 minutes to mix in a kitchen aid and 10 minutes by hand. Round out the dough and let rise to double the size in a bowl lubed up with non-stick spray.

Punch the dough down to release the gasses and get the dough on the bench. I like my breads being close to even in size, so I scaled out the dough. After splitting the dough in two, I portioned out each muffin to about 4 1/4 ounces. Now, that makes a very healthy size muffin. If you want something closer to what you might be used to, go about 3 to 3 1/3 ounces per dough ball.

I rolled out my dough with a rolling pin. Most recipes will tell you just round out the dough to a ball and it will just flatten out on the griddle. I tried that and it didn't work so well for me.

Once you get them to shape, place them on a tray with cornmeal sprinkled on it. Once down, sprinkle the tops with a little bit of cornmeal as well.

Once I took that pic, I realized I forgot the cornmeal. I quickly took them off and dusted the tray. :)

Cover the rounded/rolled dough with either a towel or plastic wrap and let it rise to about 1 1/2 times the original size.

After it's risen, heat a griddle or saute pan to medium to medium-low heat and set your oven to 350F. Gently pick up the dough and place on whatever it is you are gonna cook these things on. You do NOT need any oil on the cooking surface. This is one of the few times lube is not necessary.

When I set them in the pan, the bottom side that was on the tray was the first side that hit the pan. The next batch, I placed the the top side from the tray onto the heat first. Check out the difference in color.

Notice how the bottom pic had very few spots that didn't hit the pan? It's the little things like this which make cooking so complex.

It should take about 4-5 minutes each side on the stove top. Once done, throw them in the oven and bake for 8 more minutes. This will ensure that center is fully done.

Let cool for about 30 minutes before digging in. When you do dive in, you will be tempted to grab a knife to split this thing in half. DON'T DO IT!!! Instead, use a fork and poke holes all along the side. By the time you work your way around, it will split and you will get all those little nooks and crannies.

OK, I know it doesn't look like a certain name brand muffin, but it tastes a hell of a lot better.
I like mine with just a little butter and honey. For the sake of the blog, I put jelly on one half.

When I first started making these, I really didn't know what this thing might taste like. The first attempt was 1/2 masa. The taste was "Intriguing". At least, that's what a coworker told me. And he was right. The taste of the corn and natural sweetness from it came in as a secondary taste. It really took a few seconds for it to hit you. It was a nice change from all the flavorless english muffins I previously had. But, it was very dense. And the dough itself was very tough to work with. The lack of gluten made the dough crumbly.

This ratio pretty much fixed all the problems and kept that sweetness from the masa. If you've ever had an english muffin and thought these things have no flavor, try this out. It may just become your new favorite breakfast item.

I said I was gonna give a link to the site, so here it is.

ENGLISH MUFFINS BABY!!!

Even the person on that site went nuts for these things. And that's WITHOUT the masa! Give it a try, you might just surprise yourself.

I'm out!

J. Miller