There are all kinds of salsa verde recipes out there. The Mexican Style Salsa Verde made with tomatillos is very popular. Other salsa verde recipes are basically herb sauces. My favorite salsa verde recipe that I’ve come across is the chef Richard Blais recipe for salsa verde. I’ve discovered that now I’m making salsa verde semi regularly. It’s so delicious and goes so well with just about any protein. The other reason why I’m making it so often is because it’s a great delicious way to use up your fresh herbs so they don’t go to waste.

Below is a picture of what I put in my no measure salsa verde.

In the orange colander is all my leftover tarragon, lots of parsley leaves, scallions and a little cilantro. (tarragon is really delicious in salsa verde………)

You need a chopped up hot green or yellow pepper ….I like using my own pickled hot peppers (the pickled adds something and it helps make the sauce stay fresh.

You need something sweet I used honey because it is a preservative.

You need fresh squeezed lemon.

You need olive oil

capers are very good in salsa verde.

Depending one how it taste you might need salt.

Maybe you might use a small amount of water to thin the sauce.

It comes out amazing all the time. You can play around with the sauce. Maybe add something like almonds for a different taste. Richard Blais uses golden raisins for sweetness and also uses anchovies for depth and salt flavor.

This taste amazing on most proteins.

Enjoy!

Safeway has had some pretty good buys on chicken breast recently so I’ve been busy making lots of different dishes with chicken breast. Today I played around with a Mexican tasting marinade for chicken breast. WOW DID IT COME OUT FORKING GREAT! It is NOT a traditional Mexican marinade but the flavors swing that way. I then pan seared the breast and they were full of juice and flavors. The outside I forgot to write down exactly what I put in my dusting mix but it was a LIGHT DUSTING of masa flour (VERY LIGHT) that was mixed with salt, pepper and Emerils’ recipe for Bam (a cajun seasoning) I just pan seared the chicken in a regular fry pan that I sprayed with non stick canola oil.

recipe for up to 2 pound of skinless boneless chicken breast

2 pounds chicken breast – skinless, boneless, pounded some, butterflied and cut in reasonable sizes – room temperature

4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 large garlic cloves – ground to paste

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground annatto

1/4 teaspoon coriander

1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder (I buy at Sprouts)

non stick spray

Directions

In a gallon ziplock bag add everything but the chicken first and squish the bag so the liquid is mixed. Then add the chicken and squish it around till the chicken looks all coated. Leave this sit on the counter and squish it around a few times during the hour.

Get your fry pan on medium high heat with non stick spray.

Take maybe a 1/3 of the chicken from the bag and blot them off with paper towels. Season the chicken on both sides LIGHTLY with a seasoned masa flour dust.

Timing will differ but put the chicken in the pan and don’t crowd it too much. Cook the chicken till it looks half way cooked on one side and then flip the chicken over to finish the other side. Timing will differ but with my stovetop and my pan mine took around 5 minutes on one side and around 4 minutes on the other side.

Place either on a cooling rack with a liner or a pan that is lined with paper towels.

Repeat till alll the chicken is cooked.

Serve with fresh cilantro, lime, pickled onions and other vegetables.

Everyone will love this!

I got these lobster mushrooms so I knew that I had to do something special with them. Lobster mushrooms are different from other mushrooms and do have a faint seafood taste. I thought seafood and that is how I came up with Old Bay Beer Batter and Caper Sauce. They came out delicious but I made about twice as much batter as I needed so I also battered onion rings and a couple small heirloom tomatoes. My idea of serving size might differ from your idea of serving size. For us this made 8 small servings. I used almost a half a pound of lobster mushrooms and one large onion. (I am guessing around a total of 8 servings) I do note that reheated servings did become crisp again when reheated in the oven.

Ingredients for around 8 servings

canola or vegetable oil to fry with (about thumbs length in pot)

1 can beer (I used almost the whole can….the amount of liquid will differ slightly depending on the flour you use)

1 cup flour

1 egg – beaten

1 Tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning – plus extra to dust afterwards

1/2 lb lobster mushrooms cut in strips

1 large onion – thick slices for rings

6 anchovies

1 Tablespoon anchovy oil from can or bottle

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice

1 garlic clove – ground to paste

1 teaspoon capers

1/4 cup parsley leaves

Directions

Make sauce. Blend together the anchovies, oils, lemon juice, garlic and parsley. Set to the side.

Line a pan or two with paper towels for your fried food.

Get your sauce pot for frying. Fill about a thumbs length with oil. Set it on medium high. Once hot turn down around medium. When oil is ready make the batter. In a big bowl add the flour and old bay seasoning. then add beer and egg and mix well. Do a sample piece first before you fry all of them so you can adjust the flour and beer ratio. It will be very hot so be careful. When you are happy with it drop some mushrooms into the batter and coat them. Shake off excess batter and BE CAREFUL. Use tongs to drop them in the oil. They get done really fast but need to be turned over to brown on both sides. Do the same with the onion rings. Dust lightly with more Old Bay Seasoning. Serve.

Everyone will love this.

Thai Style Son-In-Law are delicious and easy to prepare. They are so easy that you don’t need a recipe. They are usually hard boiled eggs that are fried in either lard or coconut oil and are served with fried shallots and a delicious sauce that is made from tamarind, fish sauce and usually palm sugar.

Start by cooking eggs to either hard or less. That means slow boiling 6.5 minutes for somewhat loose. 7 minutes for jammy. Up to ten minutes for hard. Place in ice bath and when cool peel shells and set to the side.

Make sauce. Boil part of tamarind brick. For 5 eggs I used around a thumb sized piece (maybe more but I wasted some). You boil a block of the tamarind and let it get soft. It says that it is seedless but that is a lie because they always have pieces of seed in them. The softened tamarind has to be pushed threw a fine strainer….or some people just use the tamarind water…..but I think it’s to watery that way or I have to reduce too much. This gets mixed with a little bit of some kind of sugar (usually palm or brown sugar) I used a little squirt of honey and fish sauce to taste (I used Red Boat Brand fish sauce) My sauce seemed too loose so I reduced it some. Then set it to the side.

Start by frying up thinly sliced shallots till crisp. Drain on sheet pan lined with paper towels. In the same oil fry up the eggs till they brown some (this is pretty quick).

If you like spicy fried up some hot peppers for the eggs. (Thai peppers would be good here)

Finish with some fresh cilantro and ENJOY!

Everyone will enjoy this.

Safeway has been offering chicken breast on special at very low prices so I have been taking advantage of that. Here is my marinade recipe for juicy FORKING Delicious chicken breasts. I marinated mine for close to two hours dried them off with paper towels. Then I LIGHTLY dusted them with a very light dusting of seasoned flour. I whipped up the flour mixture real fast and didn’t measure it exactly. It was something like a half cup of flour with maybe 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, heaping teaspoon cayenne, teaspoon paprika, 1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic, 1/4 teaspoon white pepper. Then the chicken got pan seared in a fry pan with non stick spray on medium high heat. The chicken came out FORKING Scrumptious! Everybody will love this. I hate to brag but this came out FORKING GREAT! Very moist and incredibly delicious. Even leftovers and from frozen came out juicy.

Ingredients for up to two pounds of chicken breasts. (8 smaller servings)

2 pounds chicken breast , boneless, skinless, butterflied, pounded, cut in reasonable sizes

4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 large garlic cloves – ground to paste

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon paprika

pinch of celery seeds

non stick spray

Directions

Everything except for chicken and non stick spray goes din a gallon zip lock bag. Squish the bag to mix up everything in the bag. Now add the chicken and keep squishing it around till the marinade is all over the chicken. Marinade 1 and no more than 2 hours. Blot off chicken with paper towels.

Get your fry pan on medium high heat. Chicken gets seasoned on both sides with your seasoning of choice or seasoning of choice with a small amount of flour. (Your chicken won’t come out as delicious as mine if you do something different than what I described in the beginning.)

Place chicken in pan but don’t crowd in too many pieces and cook till it looks around half way cooked and then flip over and cook the other sides. Timing will differ but on my stove top in my pan my chicken took around 5 minutes on one side and around 4 on the other side.

When cooked place on cooling rack or pan lined with paper towels.

Serve with vegetables

EVERYONE WILL LOVE THIS!

Joel Robuchon Style carrots and Jean George Vongerichten carrots are very similar and both feature carrots with cumin and orange so that is what we are doing here. I watched someone on YouTube doing Robuchon style carrots and I thought If I cooked them that much they’d fall apart so I am doing them different and easier. I also used frozen concentrated orange juice since I had it in my freezer for a rich concentrated orange flavor. I do note my idea of serving size might differ from your idea of serving size.

Ingredients for around 10 servings

2 lbs of carrots – peeled and sliced into thinner coins on a mandolin

1 garlic clove – ground to paste

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 Tablespoons sweet butter

1 Tablespoon cumin seeds

1/4 cup water

12 oz frozen concentrated orange juice – thawed

1/2 teaspoon piment d’ espelette

1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves – chopped

Directions

Steam carrots. You can do them stove top or do them much quicker with less mess in a microwave. If you do microwave it’s just- Carrots go in a microwavable bowl. Add 1/4 cup watering cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high three minutes. Let it sit on the counter.

In a large fry pan on medium high heat add the oil, salt, sugar, butter, cumin seeds,and orange juice concentrate. Cook till it reduces and it’s like caramel. It’s not delicious until the sauce turns to caramel. Drain your carrots.

At this point you can add the garlic, piment d’ espelette and carrots. Cook a few minutes. Add the chopped cilantro and serve.

Everyone will love this!