Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Someone's in the Kitchen with Shamu...

It's Chef Nikki and her almost winning recipe for roast chicken with apple and mixed vegetables. Yes, I actually bought all of the ingredients for this recipe. And while I spent a tad over my ten dollar limit, it's still a pretty good value for the amount of food I made. Sorry Whole Foods, I went with the local grocery store.Apples and Onions and Brussels Sprouts, oh my!Here's my one quibble with the dish. It's got some serious schmaltz going on. I added no liquid to the roasting pan, but since the recipe calls for legs and thighs there was some serious fat drainage. And that's not even counting the thigh fat that I trimmed before the chicken went into the pan. Yet, I suspect that not unlike bacon (and its fat), anything roasted in chicken fat comes out tasting much better than when it went in, even Brussels sprouts.All in all a very good dish. The sweetness of the apples and carrots balances the slight bitterness of the Brussels sprouts. Did the chefs really spend ten dollars and buy ALL of their ingredients at Whole Foods? I seriously doubt it, and rumors are flying that the well stocked Top Chef pantry played a much bigger role in the budget finagling than we viewers were led to believe. That being said, please don't let that deter you from at least trying Whole Foods. They have a wonderful variety of good food.

4 comments:

ThursdayNext said...

A local newscaster joked and said its called Whole Foods because it takes your whole paycheck! LOL...that store is a fave of mine, lately I dont go though because of the high cost of EVERYTHING.

Big Shamu said...

Sorry Thursday, I can't resist the Whole Foods Siren Song of Cheese. I must obey.

the dogs' mother said...

Okay. Now I'm intrigued (score one for Magical Elves). I went and looked up Whole Foods. There are four in the Seattle area and two more planned.
Wowza! I am going to be in the Seattle area twice in the next month. I'm going to try and see if I can go explore. (And I'll take my paycheck!)

Aunty Belle said...

Ho! Yep, I'se guilty of trekkin' off to Whole Foods too--I gits that silky Irish (or Danish) butter---oh mah goodness.

But I'se SO down in the dumps--(Front Porch) over the Mafia poisonin' the mozzarella in Italy. What about my Pizza Blanca???? Yikes.

I like brussel sprouts.