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Chicken Tacos with Cayenne and Avocado Salsa

Chicken Tacos

Again, it’s been a little while. But you guys, I have so much food to share with you! There has been much eating lately. And good eating too. YUM. This first recipe is a super easy recipe from Martha that was adapted into chicken tacos. Originally it was just the cayenne-rubbed chicken with avocado salsa, but everything is better in a tortilla (and sprinkled with cholula), am I right? So chicken tacos it is. This meal was so simple because we had everything except the chicken and the avocado. I love quick and easy trips to the grocery store that don’t require you to buy too much stuff for a meal.

Chicken Tacos with Cayenne and Avocado Salsa

Ingredients

salt and ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (you can use breast too, but we like dark meat a little better, plus it’s cheaper)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 Hass avocado, pitted and cut into chunks
tortillas of your choosing (the little taco ones are good for this)
other condiments (think sour cream, cholula, salsa if you want, cheese…)

Instructions

In a small bowl, combine 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and cayenne, mix to combine. Rub this spice mixture all over the chicken. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook until cooked through and browned on the outside. Shouldn’t take too long (think 10-15 minutes). My trick with chicken is to cook it with a lid on the pan to get it cooked through, and then once it’s cooked through, take of the lid and turn up the heat a little bit to get the nice browned outside.

While the chicken is cooking, put the onion and lime juice in a bowl, and cut up the avocado. You can also heat up your tortillas now, which I did by throwing ours in a lightly greased pan, flipping them, and then storing them between two plates so they stayed warm. Just before serving, fold the avocado pieces into the onion mixture and season with salt and pepper. Serve and enjoy!

Matzoh Brei

Matzoh Brei
Matzoh Brei

Matzoh Brei

This is the last Passover related dish. I had been wanting to make matzoh brei for Jonah, that’s the real reason I bought a box of matzoh at all. This morning, after a weird run (there was a pretty bad house fire down the street from us, so went went out for a run, and then spent a little while watching all the fire trucks arrive and such before finally starting our workout) we came home and I got started.

I remember my parents making matzoh brei for us when we were kids. I think they did it as more of a scramble instead of like little pancakes (as I did here), but either way, it’s delicious. I think my parents also used a higher matzoh to egg ratio than I did, but it was still dang good.

Matzoh Brei

Makes enough for 2 hungry people

Ingredients

3 pieces of matzoh, broken into 1/2 inch pieces
3 eggs
salt
pepper
vegetable oil for frying
jam, syrup, and/or sugar for serving

Instructions

Break matzo into 1/2″ pieces and put them in a medium mixing bowl. Cover the matzoh with piping hot tap water and let stand for about 30 seconds, then drain. In another bowl, beat the eggs and season with salt and pepper. Pour the eggs over the matzoh (or the other way around, doesn’t really matter) and mix thoroughly until combined and a batter forms.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Scoop scant 1/4-cupfuls (or 1/5-cupfuls) of batter into the pan. You don’t want them to be too thick because you want them to cook through and get a little crispy on the edges. Fry, turning once, until golden and cooked through, about a minute per side. Serve hot with jam, sugar, and/or syrup! Enjoy!

Haroset!

HarosetHaroset

Continuing along the Passover theme here: When we returned from Tucson, I was craving some haroset. It’s one of my favorite passover foods, and a great snack to have throughout the week. So much better than chips and salsa (in my opinion). For those of you who don’t know, Haroset is simply a combination of the following: apples, walnuts, cinnamon, and wine. I’ve also seen it with raisins, pears, other spices, and sugar. But today we’ll just keep it simple. Here’s what you’ll need:

Haroset

Ingredients

4 granny smith apples
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup (more or less) sweet red wine (this is where Manischewitz comes in handy)
1 Tbl brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

Peel, core, and finely dice the apples. I peeled them and cut them into chunks, then threw them in the food processor and pulsed them a few times. It worked really quite well and got the pieces smaller than I would have been willing to go if I had been chopping them by hand. Put the apples in a medium mixing bowl. Chop your walnuts too (I did these in the food processor too), and add them to the apples. Now pour in the wine, mixing so that the apples become a light pink. Feel free to add more wine if you want. Just don’t add too much; You don’t want a bunch of liquid sitting at the bottom of the bowl. Stir in the cinnamon and the sugar, and you’re done! Eat it on top of some matzoh with a bit of horseradish (not too much!) and enjoy!

Bubbe’s Chicken Soup

Chicken Soup

Chicken Soup

Once again, it has been a while. But this time I have a real excuse: Passover. I was busy cooking and cleaning last week for the family I nanny for and THEN on Thursday Jonah and I left (very early in the morning, mind you) for Tucson, AZ to be with my Dad’s side of the family for seder. Passover is one of my favorite holidays. I love the storytelling that’s involved, plus the singing, plus the amazing food. I love that the food you eat (or at least the food on the seder plate) isn’t arbitrary, that it represents all these parts of this story that took place so long ago. I love the celebratory feeling of the seder, that we (Jews) are remembering where we came from and celebrating the miracles that happened and the hardships our ancestors went through and then were freed from. It’s just so dang cool. Plus the food is ridiculous.

My aunt held the seder at her house. She is known for putting on beautiful seders full of fun props (Slingshots and marshmallows for hail? Bouncing toy frogs? Locust masks?) and parodies of famous songs. My bubbe (grandmother in Yiddish) made her famous matzoh ball soup. While I have her matzoh ball recipe hidden away somewhere, I thought I’d at least give you the recipe for the chicken soup part. Because who doesn’t love chicken soup?

Chicken Soup

Ingredients

2 chickens (can be cut up or whole)
1 parsnip, peeled and cut into bite size pieces
1 turnip, peeled and cut into bite size pieces
2 large onions, cut into bite size pieces
as many carrots and celery stalks as you like, cut into bite size pieces
fresh dill (probably about 1 Tbl)
fresh parsley (probably about 2 Tbl)
peppercorns
1 Tbl salt

Instructions

Cover the chickens with water in a large pot. Bring it to a boil, and skim. Add all the other ingredients, and simmer the soup for 2-3 hours. Strain it, to get all the big pieces out, and you have just broth. Let the chicken cool and take the meat off the carcass (it shreds pretty easily). Add the vegetables (and chicken) back to the soup as desired. Season with salt and pepper to taste! The chicken also makes really good chicken sandwiches or chicken salad. Enjoy!