Soups

Well, it's cold outside and it is officially soup season.  But I'll get to soup in a minute.  A couple days ago Meagan said she wanted grilled chicken.  I had seen Alton Brown's grilled chicken episode not long ago and had it in the back of my mind.  So when she said grilled chicken I said, "Ah ha!  Get me a 5 lb chicken woman!"  After yelling at me for calling her woman, she got me a whole chicken.

Unfortunately, by the time I got around to cooking it was raining.  So instead of grilling the chicken I baked it.  (For some reason, the foodnetwork site is down, so here is his brine and rub):

Brine:
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup salt
1 quart warm water

Part your chicken.  I know, easier said than done.  It just takes practice and patience.  This also helps.  Skip to 5:13 of this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbc1aW5C1W0

Put all the parts, minus the guts, plus the salt, honey, and water into a 1 gallon ziplock bag.  Let it rest for 1 1/2 hours.  Why brine you ask?  Many reasons.  You see, brining helps break down the internal proteins allowing the bird to cook more evenly and allowing the skin the crisp better.  If you overcook it, the flesh will still be juicy.  If you undercook it, the the acidity in the salt will have killed most of the nasty bacteria making it safe(r) to eat.  Also, flavor.  There are so many good reasons to brine poultry.

Ok, now that your chicken has brined get out another ziplock bag and dump in your spices:

1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon adobo powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon hot smoked paprika

 
Put your chicken completely dry and drop the pieces in your spice bag.  Shake it up until each piece is coated.  Put in a roasting pan and bake for 25-30 minutes on 400.  Internal temp should be 161-ish.  So sosososososososososososo good.  But...  yeah, don't sub indian chili powder for regular chili powder.  They're not the same.  I knew that going it, but I like things spicy.  It was a bit...  too spicy.  Yeah.  It was deadly, but I like deadly.  Anyway, this post is supposed to be about soups. 

Tonight I'm making Giada's Italian Wedding Soup.  I love love love this soup.  When I normally make it I use spinach because the wife is crazy about spinach.  She hates it when I use endive or escrole.  Apparently, she thinks I hate spinach.  I don't, but it is boring.  Also, expensive when you buy it fresh ($7.99 /lb!!!!).  And the store was out of frozen spinach.   And endive was $1.99 /lb.  Guess what I bought.  Hope she isn't mad.

Ok, so I'm going to start this segment with a little bit of back story.  This is my friend Noah:

Everybody say hi to Noah.  Noah likes to cook.  Well, I think he likes the idea of cooking, but he's afraid to actually get in his effing kitchen and MAKE anything...  other than quesadillas and nachos...  and he's so proud of them too...  it's really kind of cute.  But he has the potential to be a serious foodie, I can tell.  Anyway, Noah showed me a video of someone making Menudo on youtube the other day.  For those of you that don't know, Menudo is a Mexican soup that has tripe and pig or cow feet in it.  Tripe is stomach meat.  And it just so happens that I stumbled across an excellent market close to my house that sells every kind of organ meat imaginable (not to mention, they had a big rack of blue crabs that were all fighting and shit...  it was epic.  I stood there for 5 minutes watching these crabs duke it out).  But anyway, so on Sunday Noah is coming over in the afternoon and we're going to cook some Menudo.  Shit yeah.

Now, the only organ meat I've ever successfully cooked is liver, and apparently tripe can be very tricky to cook, and there are many different methods.  I'm thinking I'm going to go with a lime and salt bath, and a long-ass cook time.  Maybe I'll even try to make my own tortillas.  Anyway, I dare not make menudo without my lucky Mexican on hand.  Love you Nurrrrr.... 

-CJ