Sous Salt Chicken ~

Heavenly Chicken….made easy with any one of our Sous Salts.

Whichever Sous Salt you enjoy this recipe can be interchanged with any of them. From the Grey Sea Salt & Herbs to the Olive, Thyme, Lemon or the Porcini Mushroom.  Use the Smoked Paprika or the Sun Dried Tomato. Whichever salt you choose to use you can add a complimentary vegetable to the pan after your flip the chicken. A cup of wine works as well for a wonderful reduction sauce. Thyme, slices of lemon, garlic, almost anything you would like to experiment with will work for this easy chicken dinner. I usually pair it with some roasted brussel sprouts and a great combination of basmati rice, quinoa, farro and orzo cooked in chicken stock.  It’s 1 cup of rice to 1/4 cup of the other three. Add three cups of chicken stock, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 15 mins.  Then let it rest, covered for five minutes.

Ingredients

4 Servings

• 6 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Preparation

Preheat oven to 475°. Season chicken with whichever Sous Salt you would like to use and pepper. Heat oil in a 12″ cast-iron skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking. Place the chicken in skillet, skin side down, and cook until golden brown approximately 2 – 4 minutes.  Reduce heat to medium-high and continue cooking skin side down for about 8 minutes until the fat renders out.

Flip the chicken and transfer skillet to oven and cook 13 more minutes. At this time you can add shallots, mushrooms, white wine, tomatoes, mustard or whatever you would like to enhance the flavor of the chicken. Remove the chicken after the remaining cook time and let it rest 5 minutes.

Photo by David Prince

sausage flat bread aka pizza!

flat bread by another name..is pizza…it just sounds fancy

Quick and easy to prep, you can either make the dough yourself or purchase good quality pre made pizza dough at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. This is a terrific meal with a Caesar Salad. I’ve included the pizza dough recipe here but don’t feel you have to tackle that as well if it feels daunting. Just make the sausage flatbread.

hot sausage and crispy kale pizza

Ingredients

4 SERVINGS

• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• ¾ pound hot Italian sausage, casings removed
• 1 bunch smooth lumache kale ribs and stems sliced into 1-inch pieces, leaves torn
• Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
• 1 pound prepared pizza dough, room temperature
• ⅓ cup finely grated Parmesan
• 1 tablespoon rosemary leaves
• 1 cup grated Fontina cheese
• 1 cup home made ricotta (you can use store bought)

Preparation

Place a rack in upper third of oven, place your pizza stone or pizza steel* on the rack and preheat to 450°. Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add sausage and break into small pieces with a wooden spoon. Let cook, undisturbed, until bottom sides are browned, about 4 minutes. Add lumache kale stems; cook, tossing occasionally, until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Transfer sausage and chard stems to a medium bowl with a slotted spoon.

Add chard leaves, turning to coat to the skillet. Season with Sun Dried Tomato Sous Salt and pepper. Add to the bowl with sausage mixture.

Roll out your pizza dough on a piece of parchment paper to an oblong shape approximately 18 x 12. Coat dough with remaining 1 Tbsp. oil and sprinkle with Sous Salt Olive, Lemon & Thyme. Top with half of Parmesan and rosemary, followed by sausage mixture, Fontina, ricotta, then remaining Parmesan and rosemary.

Bake pizza until crust is golden brown and crisp, approximately 15 – 18 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes.

Photograph by Nicole Franzen

* I use a pizza steel that I purchased from Sur La Table. I absolutely love it because it gets really hot and produces the perfect bottom crust.  Also cooking the pizza at the upper third of your oven cooks the top of the pizza and promotes a bubbly cheese topping.

 

amazingly easy tomato sauce

So this tomato sauce requires very little prep…the flavor comes from the roasting of the tomatoes, the anchovy fillets (which you won’t even be able to distinguish once cooked), garlic and red pepper flakes….of course the butter helps as well! Feel free to use olive oil in place of the butter.  The sauce is great on pasta as featured or used as a base for soup, stews or hash. You can easily double this recipe and freeze some for the future.

bucatini with butter-roasted tomato sauce

Ingredients

4 SERVINGS

• 1 28-oz. can whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 package baby tomatoes (I used the yellow and red ones)
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled, crushed
• 2 anchovy fillets packed in oil
• 2 shallots, peeled and sliced in half
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes plus more for serving
• Sous Salt Olive, Thyme & Lemon Zest you may substitute Sous Salt Pinot Noir
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 12 oz. bucatini or spaghetti
• Finely grated Parmesan (for serving)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425°. Combine tomatoes (crushing them with your hands), garlic, anchovies, butter, shallots, baby fresh tomatoes and ½ tsp. red pepper flakes on a baking sheet; season with Sous Salt and black pepper. Roast, tossing halfway through, until garlic is very soft and mixture is jammy, 35–40 minutes. Mash the mixture or put it in a food processor and give it a whirl.

If you are going to serve it with pasta…while the tomatoes are roasting, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Drain, reserving ½ cup pasta cooking liquid.

Return pasta to pot and add tomato sauce and pasta cooking liquid. Cook over medium-high heat, tossing until sauce coats pasta, about 3 minutes. Serve topped with Parmesan and more red pepper flakes.

You can easily kick this up a bit with a saute of either pancetta, bacon, sausage, kale, spinach, brocolini or asparagus. Saute any of the ingredients or combine some of them and add the tomato sauce to the saute pan incorporating your additions along with the reserved pasta water.

Photograph by Hirsheimer & Hamilton

tuscan white bean dip

This dip lends itself to being incredibly versatile and welcoming to your own unique additions. In this particular recipe I used a teaspoon of a good olive tapenade but you could chop up some artichoke hearts and add them as well.  This dip is also a perfect thickening agent for soups and stews because of it’s consistency. Rich in flavor it adds a viscosity to a soup or stew without the addition of flour. One other note, if you use one 15 ounce can of small Italian white beans in the recipe you will make about a cup of dip. So if you are having a large party or want leftovers, I’d use two cans of beans and increase the rest of the ingredients accordingly.

ingredients

• 1 – 15 ounce can of small Italian northern white beans
• 1 clove of garlic (if you happen to enjoy roasting garlic that is wonderful in this dip)
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1/2 t Sous Salt Olive, Thyme & Lemon
• 1 t olive tapenade or 3  coarsely chopped kalamata olives
• 1 T chopped parsley
• 1 t fresh thyme
• apx 1/4 c olive oil (use a good one because it will be apparent if you don’t and depending on the consistency you want of the dip you might need to add more)
• Pepper to taste

directions

In your food processor place all of the ingredients (if you are using artichokes I’d use the ones in the can or defrost frozen ones don’t use the marinated kind because it will change the flavor). For a smooth consistency I’ve blend about 1 – 2 minutes. If you want it chunkier …. blend it less time. The longer you blend the lighter the dip will be.

Put the dip in a beautiful bowl, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle the top with some fresh thyme leaves and a squeeze of lemon juice if you’d like.

This is a terrific dip for pita chips, crusty toasted bread, rice crackers…almost anything!

Enjoy!

 

Sous Salt Crackers

Due to over popular demand and a bit of free time on a Saturday morning….here’s the recipe….finally! Just a couple of notes. Feel free to use any cheese you like, a goat cheddar, a jalapeno jack, parmigiano reggiano, just remember to not put salt in the dough if you are going to serve with with the Sous Salt on top.  If you aren’t you can put the salt in the dough. Also don’t forget to let them cool slightly on the baking sheet before you move them so they can set up a bit.

Ingredients

• 1 cup grated Romano
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened, I use Kerry Gold
• 1 cup flour, I use King Arthur
• Sous Salt of your choice for dusting

 

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the cheese, butter and flour in a food processor and blend the mixture until it forms a ball. It will be a soft, lovely, light dough. Remove the dough from the processor and wrap it in plastic wrap. Pop it in the fridge for 20 mins so it sets up a bit. You can refrigerate it for a couple of days or even put it in the freezer for a week. Just remember the colder it is the longer it will take to work with.

Remove the dough from the fridge, unwrap it and roll it our on a floured work service. Using your chosen size of biscuit cutter, cut the biscuits and place them on
parchment paper-lined baking sheets. If you are topping them with the Sous Salt of your choice, sprinkle the tops of them and tape the salt down gently with your fingertips. Bake until just beginning to brown at the edges, about 10 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes. Transfer to a serving plate. Depending on the temp your oven cooks at or if you have a convection over the cooking time will vary. So I use my eyes. Cook them just until the bottoms are a light brown.

Enjoy!