Although I rarely post here, this experiment turned out great (IMHO)
and in my enthusiasm, thought it would be worth sharing. The chicken
and the gravy were smoky and tangy and the bleu cheesy salad offset
the heat nicely. The tangy-ness of the soup ingredients merged nicely
with the peanut flavor and the sweetness of the oatmeal bread. All
leftovers this morning disappeared into family lunchboxes!

A couple of nights ago:

7 lb. chicken roasted on a vertical rack in the center of a 3-burner
grill. Center burner off, outside burners on, cover closed, 350
degrees F till done (~2.5 hours). Wet hickory chips were dropped into
a can on top of one of the burners every so often to add some smoke
flavor.

Basted in the last half hour or so with Buffalo sauce: 1/4 cup melted
butter mixed with 1/4 mild vinegary hot sauce ("Dave's" brand in my
case).

Gravy: Hot-saucy, buttery drippings collected (~1 cup). Mix heaping
Tbsp. flour into ~1 cup water, stir into drippings and cooked until
thickened. S&P to taste.

Dinner: Chicken. Plain homemade biscuits with gravy. Green salad
with homemade bleu cheese dressing:

1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream (OK, more sour cream than mayo, 1 cup total)
2-3 oz bleu cheese, crumbled
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
milk to thin to desired, uh, thinness

Put dressing ingredients into jar and shake or stir or mash until
consistency is the way you like it.

Stock: Chicken carcass/skin with generous bits of meat left on bones,
1 large onion, 1 stalk celery, 1 carrot (veggies coarsely chopped) in
water to cover, in pressure cooker. Pressure cook ~20 minutes. Drain
through sieve, store in container in refrigerator overnight, peel/skim
off fat when cold.


Dinner last night:

Ghanian Peanut Chicken Soup

2 cups leftover chicken, diced
2 cups coarsely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups cubed (1 cm) butternut (or other winter) squash (~ 1/2 squash)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes (and liquid)
leftover gravy (~3/4 cup)
1 packet (~1 tsp) seasoned salt (I used Goya "con azafran" (with
saffron))
chicken stock
2 Tbsp. butter

More mild vinegary hot sauce ("Dave's" again)
2 Tbsp. chopped peanuts


Soften onion and garlic in butter in soup pot. Add everything else,
with enough chicken stock to cover. Simmer ~20 minutes or until
squash is soft but not mushy. Add squirts of hot sauce to taste while
cooking.

Garnish with chopped peanuts and serve with freshly baked:

Oatmeal bread (moist and slightly sweet):

2 2/3 cups bread flour
1 1/3 cups oatmeal
2 2/3 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. milk powder
5 tbsp. butter
1 1/3 cups water
2 1/2 tsp. yeast

Put ingredients into your bread machine the way your particular
machine says to and run the regular bread cycle. Mine takes 4 hours,
so plan ahead.

This dinner was also served with a green salad and more cooling bleu
cheese dressing!

--
Silvar Beitel

On Oct 10, 9:16*am, Silvar Beitel > wrote:
> Although I rarely post here, this experiment turned out great (IMHO)
> and in my enthusiasm, thought it would be worth sharing. *The chicken
> and the gravy were smoky and tangy and the bleu cheesy salad offset
> the heat nicely. *The tangy-ness of the soup ingredients merged nicely
> with the peanut flavor and the sweetness of the oatmeal bread.

Sounds outstanding. I agree that bleu cheese salad dressing is cool;
the chicken didn't sound that hot to me, unless you went crazy with
the hot sauce.

> Gravy: Hot-saucy, buttery drippings collected (~1 cup).

How do you collect drippings from the grill?

> Ghanian Peanut Chicken Soup
>
Snipped recipe also looks really good. Probably also good without the
tomatoes?

When you can make food this good, you ought to post more often. -
aem

On Oct 10, 8:16 pm, aem > wrote:
> On Oct 10, 9:16 am, Silvar Beitel > wrote:
>
> > Although I rarely post here, this experiment turned out great (IMHO)
> > and in my enthusiasm, thought it would be worth sharing. The chicken
> > and the gravy were smoky and tangy and the bleu cheesy salad offset
> > the heat nicely. The tangy-ness of the soup ingredients merged nicely
> > with the peanut flavor and the sweetness of the oatmeal bread.
>
> Sounds outstanding. I agree that bleu cheese salad dressing is cool;
> the chicken didn't sound that hot to me, unless you went crazy with
> the hot sauce.
>
> > Gravy: Hot-saucy, buttery drippings collected (~1 cup).
>
> How do you collect drippings from the grill?

The vertical roaster is two stiff U-shaped wires that cross over each
other and clip into / stick up out of a shallow round pan. The pan
collects the drippings. Probably some "as seen on TV thing" I
collected a long time ago. Roasting in a normal pan would work fine
too - it was just a gadget I had on hand :-)

> > Ghanian Peanut Chicken Soup
>
> Snipped recipe also looks really good. Probably also good without the
> tomatoes?

Probably. Personally, I think the tomatoes and peanuts go together
well.

> When you can make food this good, you ought to post more often. -
> aem

Thank you!

Somewhere I have a recipe for "Algerian Chicken" which has peanuts
(peanut butter) in it and is braised in a spicy (and IIRC tomato-ey)
sauce that's pretty good. Might have yogurt in it too. If/when I
find it again, I'll post it.

--
Silvar Beitel