Monday, November 16, 2020

PANDEMIC DIARY - How I Spent My Sequester - Pt. 6 - Chicken in Every Pot (or Pan)!

 

PANDEMIC DIARY - How I Spent My Sequester - Pt. 6 - 

Chicken in Every Pot (or Pan)!

 
 
So the pandemic has taken away our ability to socialize (eat) with friends in an indoor restaurant and now it's too cold to eat outside.  (Well, to be honest, Ojai isn't Syracuse.  We don't get eight feet of snow, nor below freezing temps and most of our restaurants have outdoor heaters, but I digress...)  This inability is at least for those who take to heart that this is a pandemic and don't live in a town with fewer than ten citizens.  After nine months, give or take, my gestating need to be out with friends has given birth to wanting to know at 6 a.m. what dinner Richard's planning to make for dinner each night .... a pandemic habit that's beginning to annoy him.  In my defense, I am a paid food writer and need food writing fixes, AND since I can't be out and about doing my food writing thing, I need something to look forward to each day besides weighing myself everyday and seeing that I still have not lost the six pounds I've gained while sheltering in place.  
 
AND, sigh, Thanksgiving is fast-approaching AND large family gatherings would be Covid spreaders, so no larger gathering for us...  Hopefully, many of you can do small, in-house dinners with immediate family or share Zoom celebrations with a larger number of friends and family.  But, since we've been sequestered, Richard hasn't roasted any turkeys for me to write about.  However, you've heard the expression, chicken in every pot, right?  So, if you're making a small Thanksgiving dinner and don't want to go afowl (pun intended) of the day's poultry tradition, here are some of my favorite Richard "cooking in place while sheltering in place" chicken dinners.
 
Joanna Gaines' chicken Florentine... 
 

Boneless, skinless chicken breast in a creamy fresh tarragon sauce...
 

Chicken corden bleu...
 
MY chicken parm... Yes, I do cook now and again... 


Chicken piccata...

Chicken pot pie from our friend Nigel Chisholm...

 Chicken thighs baked w/ a honey mustard crust...


Chicken with blueberry sauce...

Nigella Lawson's coq au Riesling...
 
Roast chicken -  stuffed w/40 garlics from "My Beautiful Cookbook - France"...
 

Bake/roasted Rock Cornish game hens w/ a couscous/pine nut stuffing...
 

As I said - a chicken in every pot - chicken for every occasion.  
 
Bon appetit!!!