Sunday, July 30, 2006
Blackened
I decided to try to cook some blackened chicken following a recipe in a spicy cookbook. The end result was pretty good, but getting there was a bit of a mess. We also decided to have some Gujerati style green beans. Basically all this involves a lot of heat and a lot of spices. One of the steps of the green beans calls for heating some oil, dropping in black mustard seeds and waiting for them to pop - and boy do they pop - all over the kitchen.
The blackened chicken was the biggest "problem." I've had blackened chicken and fish in local restaurants (mid-Michigan) and they all left a lot to be desired. Blackened means just that - cooked in spices until blackened. Most of the places I've been to figure that coating the meat with enough spices is what blackened is all about. This time, I tried to get as close as I could to the original southern meaning of blackened.
The recipe I had involved mixing up some dry spices containing black and white pepper corns, cayenne, thyme, cumin, onion, garlic and more. You filet some chicken breasts to make them thinner, coat with a little melted butter and then sprinkle the spice on them. To cook, you toss on a HOT skillet and cook until "blackened" and then flip and cook some more. It only takes a few minutes and if done correctly you end up with a nicely cooked and moist piece of chicken (or fish).
Now while it wasn't mentioned in this recipe - I have read that cooking blackened anything isn't recommended for the home unless you have a serious cooking hood - which we don't. Needless to say, the other recipe was correct! In a matter of minutes all the smoke detectors were blaring and visibility in the kitchen was down to a few murky feet. The stove top was glowing red, mustard seeds were popping all over the place, smoke detectors were blaring and burnt cayenne and red pepper vapours filled the air. My wife had her mouth and nose covered with her apron and I was coughing and sneezing while flipping chicken filets on a scorching cast iron skillet.
But guess what? After all that, including opening all the doors and windows and turning on extra fans to replace the smoke and cayenne vapours with the hot and humid outside air, we sat down to some darn good tasting chicken.
