1,000 Jewish Recipes (204 page)
Read 1,000 Jewish Recipes Online
Authors: Faye Levy
4.
Bake uncovered about 1 hour and 15 minutes or until chicken is tender when checked with a knife, rice is tender, and water is absorbed. Serve garnished with cilantro or parsley.
This festive, simple casserole, pairing chicken thighs with orzo (rice-shaped pasta), is great for Sukkot because it's a portable one-dish meal. It's seasoned with allspice and ground coriander, in the Egyptian Jewish manner.
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
2
1
â
2
pounds chicken thighs
1 tablespoon olive oil
1
â
2
teaspoon ground allspice
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 cup chicken stock
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1 cup smooth tomato sauce
2 cups boiling water
1 pound orzo or riso (rice-shaped pasta)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
1.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Put onion slices in a large baking dish or roasting pan and top with chicken. Sprinkle chicken with oil, allspice, and pepper and 1 teaspoon coriander. Turn to coat chicken evenly with flavorings.
2.
Bake chicken 15 minutes, turning once. Reduce heat to 350°F. Add stock to pan. Bake 20 more minutes. Remove chicken thighs; they will not yet be done.
3.
Add garlic, tomato sauce, remaining coriander, and 2 cups boiling water to pan. Season generously with salt and pepper. Add orzo and stir. Bake 15 minutes without stirring. Set chicken on top in 1 layer and press gently into orzo. Return to oven and bake 15 minutes or until chicken is tender when checked with a knife and orzo is tender but slightly firm to the bite. Serve sprinkled with parsley.
"It is the interplay of tart apples and sweet prunes that makes this dish taste so good," Orit Knoller explained when she gave me this recipe. She brought this easy-to-make dish to a Rosh Hashanah pot-luck dinner, a popular custom these days among working people. With plenty of fruit, it helps symbolize our wish for a sweet year, but it's also a delicious choice for any dinner occasion.
3 pounds chicken thighs
Salt (optional) and freshly ground pepper, to taste
About
1
â
2
teaspoon paprika
4 or 5 large tart apples, such as Granny Smith or Pippin
1
â
2
pound large pitted prunes
About 1
1
â
2
cups chicken stock
1.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Remove skin from chicken, if you like. Put chicken pieces in one layer in a large roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt if using, pepper, and paprika. Core and slice apples; leave peels on. Scatter apple slices and prunes around chicken. Pour stock into side of pan, not over chicken, adding enough to go about
1
â
4
-inch up sides of pan.
2.
Cover and bake 1 hour; check from time to time and add a few tablespoons hot water to pan, adding just enough so juices do not burn but are not soupy. Uncover and bake, basting and checking juice level once or twice, about 15 more minutes or until chicken is tender and slightly brown. Serve hot; spoon juices over chicken and fruit.
Resourceful cooks can make chicken do double duty: after it has simmered until nearly tender to flavor chicken soup, it is put in the roasting pan with spices and browned in the oven,
so it can be served as a main course. I've seen both my Polish mother and my Yemenite mother-in-law do this, so it's definitely a widespread custom!
Use chicken and broth from
Old-Fashioned Chicken Soup with Kreplach
or
My Mother-In-Law's Spicy Chicken Soup
.
4 cooked chicken legs or thighs, from chicken soup
About
1
â
2
to 1 cup chicken soup broth
1
â
2
teaspoon paprika
1
â
2
teaspoon onion powder or ground cumin
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Put chicken pieces in a small roasting pan and add enough soup broth to just cover bottom of pan. Sprinkle chicken with paprika, onion powder or cumin, salt, and pepper.
2.
Bake uncovered, basting once or twice, about 15 minutes or until chicken is brown and very tender.
Baking chicken in barbecue sauce was a popular Shabbat dish in our family from the time I was a child. We called it barbecued chicken and for a while didn't realize that barbecue had a different meaning. We loved the chicken with noodle and mushroom kugel (
Lukshen Kugel with Mushrooms and Onions
) and with glazed carrots.
Now I like to make it with horseradish barbecue sauce for extra zip but of course you can use any barbecue sauce you like. I add the sauce when the chicken is half done so it won't burn. If you would like extra barbecue sauce to accompany the chicken, double the recipe.
2 medium onions, sliced
2
1
â
2
pounds chicken breasts, with skin and bones
2 or 3 teaspoons vegetable oil
1
â
2
teaspoon paprika
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste
1.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly oil a roasting pan or spray it with oil spray. Put sliced onion in roasting pan. Lightly rub chicken with oil and sprinkle it with paprika, pepper, and cayenne. Set chicken pieces on onion slices in one layer. Bake chicken uncovered 20 minutes.
2.
Prepare sauce while chicken is baking. Then, reduce oven temperature to 350°F. If you like, remove skin from chicken breasts.
3.
Spoon about half of sauce over chicken. Bake 15 minutes; cover if chicken begins to brown too fast. Turn chicken pieces over and coat them with remaining sauce. Bake 15 minutes longer or until meat is no longer pink in thickest part; cut to check. Serve hot.
This may be the main course I make most often for family meals. The reason is simple: everyone in my family loves it, children, teenagers, and adults, no matter where they liveâIsrael or the United Statesâand no matter what style of cooking they grew up withâAshkenazic, Moroccan, Yemenite, Indian, or a mix. The clean, simple tastes appeal to everyone. It's very easy to make. There's no marinade, just a spice rub that you can put on while the barbecue is heating.
3
1
â
2
pounds chicken legs (drumsticks with thighs attached)
1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)
4 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1
â
2
teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1
â
4
teaspoon salt (optional)
1.
Put chicken on a plate and rub lightly with olive oil, if using. Combine cumin, turmeric, pepper, and salt, if using, in small bowl and rub evenly all over chicken. You can season chicken up to 2 hours ahead and keep, covered, in refrigerator.
2.
Heat barbecue or grill. Set chicken on rack 5 to 6 inches above glowing coals or other heat source. Cover and grill about 18 minutes per side, regulating heat to moderate so that chicken cooks through and does not burn. To check whether chicken is done, insert a skewer into thickest part of thigh; juices that run from chicken should be clear. If juices are pink, continue grilling chicken briefly and check again. Serve hot.
Perhaps the most common type of restaurant in Israel is known in Hebrew as a
Misadah Mizrahit
, which literally means an "Eastern restaurant" and is often mistakenly translated on restaurant signs as "Oriental restaurant." From a culinary standpoint it refers to the food of Jews from Middle Eastern countries. A popular entree at such restaurants is kebabs of lemon-and-garlic marinated chicken, served sizzling on a skewer atop a bed of rice or accompanied by a pita and often by Israeli salad or fried potatoes.
