Wow. I just realized that my macarons post was my 100th post. I suppose it’s fitting that I included a more temperamental dessert in a milestone post, rather than the flop I’m posting today. I’m quite embarrassed to post the picture, as everything about the dish turned out that bad. But, flops happen. And I promised to post what I did with the leftovers of Project Chicken, so there was no getting out of this one.

I confess that I usually buy a gourmet spicy peanut sauce from a local specialty shop. The sauce is delicious, the price is decent, and I don’t have to stock 10 bottles of various Asian sauce components in my fridge. I make these sauces so rarely that the ingredients always seem to go bad before I get around to using everything up. The purchased peanut sauce, however, gets used up every time.

Well, this time I made my own sauce, following a recipe I found here. I had all of the ingredients, but I chose to forego the pasta and just do chicken with vegetables. At that point in the week, I really needed to use up that chicken, and having a bunch of leftovers was not ideal, since I wouldn’t be able to eat them anyway.

Um, I didn’t like this sauce. I only tasted peanut butter, and even though I thinned it not once, but twice, and only used some of it, it still was just way too overpowering. I’m curious as to whether anyone has a go-to spicy peanut recipe that actually tastes good…

Spicy Peanut Chicken and Vegetables
adapted from Delish

Leftover shredded chicken (I used about one breast)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons chili sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons minced ginger
One bag of stir-fry vegetables
1 teaspoon oil

In a bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, soy sauce, garlic, chili sauce, and ginger.

Heat oil in a wok or large saute pan (preferrably non-stick) over medium-high heat. Add vegetables and saute until tender. Add chicken and saute for a minute to warm through. Reduce heat to medium-low and add peanut sauce. Thin with water to desired consistency.

*This dish likely would have turned out better with the noodles, as the peanut sauce would have been covering more food, and the noodles would have absorbed a little of the sauce. Then again, I didn’t like the flavor of the sauce, and I don’t think noodles would have helped that.

The next installment of Project Chicken involved using up the leg and thigh meat. These are by no means traditional enchiladas, but they’re fast & easy, and you can assemble everything the night before and just bake them for dinner. Served on top of a bed of lettuce, and you have a nice meal. Add a margarita, and you can even invite people over for dinner.

Chicken Enchiladas

Leftover leg and thigh meat from Easy Roasted Chicken, shredded
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
8 ounces salsa, divided
1 poblano pepper
1 small onion
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon chili powder
salt
2-4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
2-4 ounces monterey jack cheese, shredded
4-6 flour or corn tortillas

Heat a small skillet with olive oil over medium heat. Dice the onion and poblano, add to skillet. Season with chili powder and a dash of salt. Saute until soft, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, mix the cream cheese and 4 ounces of the salsa. Add the cooked onions and poblano peppers, stir to combine. Stir in the shredded chicken.

Spray a 7×11 glass baking dish with cooking spray. If baking now, preheat oven to 400*F.

Place a generous spoonful of the chicken in the center of each tortilla. Roll the tortilla up and place seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas until all of the chicken is gone. (If baking immediately, proceed with the recipe. Otherwise, cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 24 hours.) Top the tortillas with remaining salsa and shredded cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

If baking the next day, remove plastic wrap from the baking dish and top the tortillas with the remaining salsa and shredded cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 400*F for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake until the cheese is bubbly, about 10 minutes.

I never really thought I would like BBQ Chicken Pizza, but I have a friend obsessed with BBQ sauce; several years ago when we went out for pizza, I let him talk me into a thin crust BBQ Chicken Pizza.

It was really, really good.

Once I got over my shock at actually liking the pizza, I have put in on the menu from time to time. Unlike your standard tomato sauce & cheese pizza, which I could quite happily devour at every meal, I really have to be in the mood for this pizza.

The mood struck when I happened to have a fridge full of leftover chicken and cilantro that was quickly going to seed; I had very little time left to take advantage of this flavorfull herb. If I had some pre-baked crusts, I certainly would have used them, but that particular night, I had planned on making a flatbread. When dinner rolled around, laziness trumped the flatbread plan, and I used a tortilla.

The results were excellent. This was the first time I actually toasted the tortilla over a burner before using it as a pizza base, and I have to say, this is definitely the way to go. The entire “crust” was very crisp, and for the first time in my experience, strong enough to actually pick up a slice of the pizza, without the crust going limp (which always seems to result in an avalanche of cheese and toppings).

Super Quick BBQ Chicken Pizza

1 tortilla
BBQ sauce
shredded cooked chicken
shredded mozzarella
shredded cheddar or gouda
1 teaspoon chopped red onion
1 tsp chopped cilantro

Preheat oven to 400*F. Heat an electric or gas burner over high heat. If using gas, throw the tortilla on the burner until it starts to puff up, then flip it over to repeat. For electric burner, hold the tortilla with a tongs, close to the element until it starts to puff up. Flip over and repeat.

Place tortilla on a baking sheet. Top with desired amount of BBQ sauce and cheese. Sprinkle with onions, chicken, and cilantro. Bake until cheese melts, about 5-7 minutes. Let cool for 2 minutes before cutting.

And now for some shameless self-promotion: If you enjoy My Madison Bistro, consider nominating this blog on Foodbuzz! You don’t have to have a blog to nominate others, this is merely a way for you to show support for your favorite food blogs in a variety of categories. You can click on this link for additional information, including the categories, or simply vote by clicking here. And if you are also a food blogger, you can nominate your own blog for up to two categories (but not best food blog)!

I can be a bit scattered at times. I also have some commitment issues. As much as I love this blog, I keep getting ideas for other “formats” for a cooking or baking blog. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve either started, or considered starting, other blogging projects, all revolving around food. And then I usually just ask myself, why not just consolidate? Why do you need 99 blogs?

This particular grouping of posts came from one of those other projects. But, the thought of keeping that project going and going just took too much of my time. Plus, with daylight hours dwindling, I simply don’t have the ability to snap photos of my dinner every night anymore. As it is, some of the photos from this series of posts will have used the flash, a big no-no when it comes to food photography (unless you have a super-expensive flash or lights, which I don’t have the budget for right now. If you really want to see my dinner everynight, I accept gifts. )

So are you wondering what on earth I’m talking about yet?

Well, here goes. Most of the time, I just cook for myself. So when I roast a whole chicken, that results in a lot of leftovers that I have to figure out what to do with. Some of the leftover chicken gets earmarked for salads for lunches, but there’s still a lot of meat left. Especially when you accidentally buy a five pound chicken from the butcher, and you usually go for a three pound chicken.

So with this series of posts, I’m going to show you what I did with the leftovers. I used every piece of that chicken, including the carcass. I like to get my money’s worth.

Night #1 – The Easiest Roasted Chicken Ever

5 pound chicken
salt
herbs de provence

2 large sweet potatoes
1 pound carrots
1 medium red onion
1 medium white onion
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon herbs de provence

Two days ahead: salt the inside and outside of the chicken and place in a pyrex dish. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

The day of: take the chicken out of the refrigerator one hour before starting prep work, to bring the bird closer to room temperature (this ensures even cooking).

Preheat the oven to 425*F.

Peel and slice the sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch pieces. Cut the very large slices in half. Peel and cut the carrots into 2 inch pieces. Peel the onions, cut in half, and then cut each half into fourths. Place all vegetables in a roasting pan and drizzle with the olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and herbs de provence, and give them all a toss with your hands to distribute the oil and seasonings.

Position the rack about the vegetables. Place the chicken breast-side up on the rack. Roast for 20 minutes, then flip the chicken over, with the breast-side down.

Roast for 30 minutes and flip the chicken back to being breast-side up. Roast until the chicken is cooked through (thermometer registers 175*F when inserted in the thigh) – this took about seven more minutes. Remove chicken from rack to a platter, breast-side down (this allows juices to “run down” into the breast, resulting in moist meat), for 10-15 minutes.

Stir the vegetables and return to the oven for 10 minutes to crisp them up.

Carve the chicken and serve with the vegetables.

After dinner, I shredded the remaining chicken and divided the breast meat and thigh/leg meat – each got their own container.

Stay tuned to see what happens to the leftovers!

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Whatever you do, do NOT skip the step of salting the chicken ahead of time. This lends flavor to the bird, as well as keeps it moist.

Save the carcass for chicken stock! If you can’t make it that night, throw the carcass in a plastic bag and freeze it. Continue adding chicken bones to the bag until you have a day where you can make stock.