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Tag: Chicken

Spiceology Contest!

In case you weren’t aware, I like to participate in food contests. My favorites are the ones hosted by Chefsroll (www.chefsroll.com). My first competition with them was over a year ago, where I came in the top 10 (out of 500) with my Southern Fried Chicken and Mac and Cheese Waffles.

I then competed again in their Callebaut Outside the Box Chocolate Contest and had two of my entries move on to the final rounds. That was a fun competition because I literally just had to use Callebaut chocolate in what I was making, and choose from one of the categories. My Chocolate Balsamic Lamb and my Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcake both made it.

So now, Chefsroll and Spiceology (go check out their site if you haven’t, they have such amazing spices!) are having a contest. So OF COURSE I am competing. And time permitting, in multiple categories. I’ve already finished and submitted one.

The first category I am competing in is the Best “Blend” Dish, using Spiceology Vadouvan. Vadouvan is an Indian Curry Blend with added aromatics like onion and shallots. It’s just such a warm and wonderful spice blend. I decided to use it to make a fried chicken dish. My Vadouvan Fried Chicken with Roasted Fennel and Pickled Carrots has already been submitted to Instagram and you can see it there @chefzoe.

Stay tuned for more of my submissions to the Spiceology contest!

July 6, 2019
Chicken Bacon Ranch Manicotti

Hopefully you’ve seen the video and you already know… IT’S MUNCHIES WEEK! Whether or not you take part in marijuana, these munchies are perfect for any stoner or really anyone who loves cheese and chocolate. Believe me when I say, a food high is definitely a thing.

We’re starting off our week of munchies with a whole mixture of food that is delicious when under the influence. Bacon, pasta, cheese and ranch dressing. Oh, and did I forget, the whole mess is topped off with crushed doritos.

While you can truly make this in any way you want, you can find my recipe for it here. I hope you enjoy munchies week!

April 15, 2019
“Final” Blue Apron Review Series – Smoky Chicken & Brown Butter-Orange Sauce

This month we are reviewing the meal order service Blue Apron! Each week we’re going to review a new recipe, and in the last installment we’ll look at the service as a whole. Each week we’ll score on three key points: Quality of Ingredients, Ease of Instructions, and Taste. Each will have a five-point scale: 1-Poor, 2-Could be Better, 3-Okay, 4-Good, and 5-Excellent.

This week’s, and the final, recipe we tried from Blue Apron was the Smoky Chicken & Brown Butter-Orange Sauce with Sautéed Cabbage & Mashed Potatoes.

Quality of Ingredients: All of the ingredients for this recipe were very good. The produce was fresh and in good condition. The honey and butter were of great quality individually packaged in the correct amounts. The portions also seemed very appropriate.

Ease of Instructions: The instructions for this recipe were the most complicated yet. With multiple steps and times occurring simultaneously, things did get confusing. I ended up keeping the chicken in a little too long, but thankfully it wasn’t overdone.

Taste: The flavor of this recipe was excellent. I really enjoyed the spice blend with the sauce on the chicken. There was a great depth of flavor with the spice, fat and acid of the sauce with the brightness and sweet flavor of the orange. The potatoes and cabbage were simple but also paired well with the sauce and chicken.

Overall: Blue Apron overall provided great recipes with good quality ingredients. The recipes were sometimes confusing, but reading them through once or twice before beginning helped with that. The service was prompt with email alerts and an app to help you order and track your meals. I found this convenient. All orders ship at the beginning of the month, so you can’t simply order a meal at any point, which wasn’t a problem for me. However, due to inclement weather the first delivery was delayed a day. This just meant I needed to plan around it. The flavor of all the recipes were excellent. The attention to detail with the combination of ingredients is really amazing. Especially when there are so few ingredients in each one. I love the cards they give for each recipe as well. I’ll definitely hold on to these and make them again. Overall I’d give Blue Apron a 4.5/5. It’s a great service!

February 21, 2019
Cookbook Review: Warm Wild Mushroom and Chicken Strudel

This hors d’oeuvre is by Chef Charles Palmer and was featured at Aureole.

Zoe’s Take:
4/10

While I liked the flavors in both the sauce and the strudel, there was a lot that was lacking. First off, the instructions for forming the strudel itself was very confusing. The sauce was oily, and could have used more acidity. The strudel dough itself took a lot longer to cook. I used puff pastry because the strudel dough just didn’t work out at all. Also, the chicken and mushroom mixture felt dry. Overall, I disliked it, but it definitely has potential to become a better recipe with some work.

Eric’s Take:
5/10

I’m not sure where to begin with this recipe. I love basil, and the chicken and mushroom filling was good with the sauce. Then the problems come. I also could not find strudel dough, so availability of ingredients lost a point for me. I also ended up using puffed pastry. Flavor lost two because for me this was just ok. There was a lack of heat and fat. The sauce provided acidity, but for some reason mine was a bit thin. Double cooking the chicken ended up drying the filling out. The instructions were too vague on the folding method. Zoe took a hand-pie approach, and I made more of a stromboli. I understand that all the recipes in this book have been standardized to a particular format. This one may have been lost in translation.

February 13, 2019
Blue Apron Review Series – Hoisin Chicken Steam Buns

This month we are reviewing the meal order service Blue Apron! Each week we’re going to review a new recipe, and in the last installment we’ll look at the service as a whole. Each week we’ll score on three key points: Quality of Ingredients, Ease of Instructions, and Taste. Each will have a five-point scale: 1-Poor, 2-Could be Better, 3-Okay, 4-Good, and 5-Excellent.

This week are reviewing some Hoisin Chicken Steam Buns with Marinated Carrots and Miso Cabbage Slaw.

Quality of Ingredients: The ingredients for this recipe were all very good. The produce was fresh and clean, with no blemishes. The chicken had no excess fat and was already cut, which was fantastic. I loved the “bao” buns. They were very pillowy and steamed up well without sticking.

Ease of Instructions: There is a lot going on in this recipe. But the instructions were broken down very clear. The only problem I had was that the chicken is the second out of five steps, and although the instructions include covering to keep warm, it still ended up cooling down a bit.

Taste: The flavor here was great. A little heat, sweetness and sourness. The carrots added a nice fresh and acidic component. The buns were great and had the perfect chew to them. The slaw was also very good, but a little one-note, even with the miso dressing. Overall very good mouth-feel and flavor.

February 8, 2019
Blue Apron Review Series – Tandoori Style Chicken

This month we are reviewing the meal order service Blue Apron! Each week we’re going to review a new recipe, and in the last installment we’ll look at the service as a whole. Each week we’ll score on three key points: Quality of Ingredients, Ease of Instructions, and Taste. Each will have a five-point scale: 1-Poor, 2-Could be Better, 3-Okay, 4-Good, and 5-Excellent.

The first recipe I tried was the Tandoori-Style Roasted Chicken. Each meal comes with all of the ingredients pre-packaged. It also comes with a recipe card and nutritional information. This was nice to have, especially if you like the recipe and want to make it again.

Recipe Card and Ingredients

First up is Quality of Ingredients. The ingredients for this meal were fairly simple, with the more complicated flavors already combined in a tomato chutney. I only had a problem with the freshness of two pieces of produce, the Cabbage and the Poblano Pepper. They weren’t unusable, but the cabbage started to spot and half of the pepper was very soft (almost mushy). For the cabbage I just had to peel a few extra layers off. With the poblano I discarded the top, and as I had a green bell pepper on hand, I subbed in a little of that.

The Ease of Instructions were good. Although thorough, they were complex for only having seven ingredients. Each needed to be prepared separately and cooking times varied between the Farro, Vegetables and Chicken. Overall, if you read the whole card in advance (maybe twice) there shouldn’t be any issues.

This recipe takes home the gold on flavor. The yogurt-tomato chutney covered chicken was very flavorful, with a good combination of acid, sourness and spice. The Farro/Vegetable mixture was simple, yet had a nice complex flavor from roasting the cabbage and pepper.

February 1, 2019