Greek Dinner and Fruit Frangipane

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Pre-recorded for 2022-11-14

Greek chicken and lemon potatoes

Print Recipe
Course Main Course
Cuisine Greek

Ingredients
  

  • 4 lbs Chicken pieces I prefer dark meat for this.
  • 2 lbs potatoes, peeled, and quartered lengthwise. see #1 below
  • 1 tsp dried rosemary
  • 1 tbsp dried oregano preferably Greek
  • 1 tbsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp ground pepper
  • 1 pinch cayenne pepper 1/16 tsp
  • 6 cloves minced garlic 4-6 tbsp
  • 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 2/3 cup chicken stock/broth Plus 2 tbsp for later

Instructions
 

  • Place the pieces of chicken skin-side up in a bowl.
  • Add everything other than the potatoes and chicken stock
  • Get your hands dirty and gently toss all the ingredients until the potatoes and chicken are thoroughly coated
  • Wash your hands
  • At this point, you can cover the bowl with cling wrap, and put it in the fridge for up to 2 hours, or start cooking now.
  • Preheat oven to 425F
  • In a lightly-oiled pan, place the chicken pieces skin-side up.
  • Place the potatoes between the chicken pieces, and make sure to fill in all the gaps.
  • Pour the chicken stock into the pan – this will prevent the garlic and herbs from sticking to the pan.
  • Spoon the remaining marinade onto the chicken and potatoes.
  • Bake uncovered for 15 minutes, toss each piece in the liquid, and put it back where you found it, and make sure the chicken is still skin-side up.
  • Repeat previous step.
  • Bake for a total of 45 minutes, or until the chicken is nicely brown, and is cooked through (internal temp of 165 F).
  • Remove the chicken and put it on your serving tray.
  • Toss the potatoes one more time, then broil them for a few minutes to get them nice and crispy.

"Optional" final steps

  • At this point you could be done, but we’re not!
  • Put the potatoes on the serving tray with the chicken.
  • Add the 2 tbsp of stock to the pan, and scrape off all the amazing bits of flavour off the bottom, and stir it all together
  • Strain this sauce into a bowl, taste for seasoning (it probably needs a bit of salt), then spoon it over the chicken and potatoes.
  • OPA!

Notes

  • 1 You can cut up an entire chicken, but dark meat works best, and I especially like thighs for this recipe.If you want to save money, buy a whole chicken, and learn to cut it into pieces. If there's enough interest, I'll make a video on this.
  • 2 Depending on the size of your pan, you might want to make more potatoes, and these are awesome for leftovers.You want these to be peeled and quartered, or cut into sections that are around 1.25" at the thickest part.Russet or Yukon Gold are good, stay way from the waxy (red) potatoes because they don't turn out as well.Some recipes suggest blanching, soaking in water, coating in semolina/cornstarch, etc., but I don't think it's needed.The blanching (boiling pieces for 12 minutes then put in an ice bath) or soaking in a bowl of salted water help make the potatoes more fluffy, and the coatings help crisp up the potatoes, but if you follow the directions, you'll get this result anyways, and it's fewer steps, and it's cheaper, so I forbid it!
  • 3 This has to be real lemon juice. Don't cheap out or you not only risk ruining the dish, but the wrath of the Olympians.You probably need 2-3 lemons.
  • 4 If you forget to stock up on chicken ... stock, you can use water, but I'm generally opposed to using water when a flavoured liquid is (almost) always better. Make sure you have a tablespoon or two left over for the final steps.

Notes

  1. Either Russet or Yukon gold potatoes are fine, but Russet are ideal. Cut the potatoes lengthwise into quarters (in half along the longest side, and cut those in half again along the longest side - we want wedges, not chunks).

 

Fruit Frangipane

Print Recipe
Course Dessert

Ingredients
  

  • 3 rectangles Puff pastry - we want a rectangle and a 1" border to go around the entire pastry ( see below )
  • 1.5 tbsp butter, softened
  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 1 tbsp white sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 3/4 cup almond flour
  • 1/4 tsp fine salt
  • 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)
  • 3 random fruit, about 2 cups worth

Glaze (optional)

  • 3 tbsp apricot jam
  • 2 tsp water

Instructions
 

Pastry base

  • Preheat oven to 400F
  • Form a long rectangle with puff pastry on a silicone mat or parchment paper.
  • Build up a second layer along the edges with 1" wide strips.
  • Dock the entire base all over with a fork.
  • Bake pastry shell in the preheated oven until it starts to turn golden brown, about 15 minutes.
  • Remove from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 375 F
  • Adjust the borders if needed and push the bottom down with the flat side of a fork. Let cool completely while preparing filling.

Filling

  • Place butter and 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar in a bowl; smear together using a spatula until combined.
  • Whisk in egg until mixture is creamy.
  • Add almond flour, salt, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Mix thoroughly.
  • Cut fruit into wedges if they're larger like plums or apricots. Fill pastry shell with almond paste. Stick fruit snugly, but not too deeply, into filling.
  • Bake in the preheated oven until browned and almond filling is set, 30 to 40 minutes.
  • Transfer tart onto a wire rack and let cool completely, at least 40 minutes.
  • Combine apricot jam and water in a microwave-safe bowl. Bring to a boil in the microwave. Let cool until warm. Brush glaze over cooled tart.

Notes

If your puff pastry comes in smaller rectangles, 3 is probably the right amount. overlap the edges and glue them together with a but of water, and cut up the third one to make the border. 9" x 6.5" is about the right size
The optional glaze can also be made with simple syrup, and flavoured with whatever you like to compliment the fruit in the tart.