I realize now things have gotten out of control. What started as a simple pursuit to find the ultimate method to roast a chicken has taken up way too much of my time. I like to roast a chicken at least once a week. But this is less a ritual than a weekly torture session. Rather than repeat the same well-worn recipe that has been time-tested and approved, I try something new every singl...
_ Check out Day 1 to figure out why Nick is spending so much time on lunch spots in Manhattan . _
While the $5 limit I usually impose on lunch might seem low by some standards, there are times when even that is a little too high. Whether it's close to payday or after a long expensive weekend, sometimes you need to go lower. That's when you have to dive deep into the belly of the city t...
Happy New Year! Those are the first words we've written in a long time here at the Paupered Chef because for all the holiday spirit, the roasts, the wine, and the interesting family rituals we could have informed you about, we decided to be lazy. Unlike successful people, we took the break for exactly what it was, and waited until our respective families fed us until we couldn't stomach an...
There's a passage in Anthony Bourdain's book of bistro recipes, Les Halles , that goes something like this: "If you can't roast a chicken, you are a sorry, incompetent idiot who should dig his own grave." Apparently, roasting a chicken should be marvelously easy: throw salt and pepper on that bad boy, put into the oven, and out comes a crisp-skinned, succulent, juicy, hot dinner, twice as...
"Just use whatever leftovers are in the fridge."
That little statement is repeated endlessly throughout the course of one day on the Food Network and I'm not sure who they are trying to fool. It's as if those celebrity chefs aren't paid enough to send an assistant to the store to pick up some tomatoes--not that they need to. Their fantastically clean fridges come stocked with leftover t...
This wasn't one of those Manhattan street fairs that blocked traffic on random weekends and offered the same tired stand of roasted corn, corn dogs, and grease laden elephant ears, block after block. Brooklyn's Atlantic Antic (rated number one street festival by Time Out!) was as hodge podge as Atlantic Avenue always is, except now the music spilled onto the streets and so could the beer (...
As we were pulling the dark brown breaded chicken nuggets from the bubbling pot, dropping them onto the oil-soaked paper towel to cool and drain, the whole thing struck me: this is the most unhealthy food I’ve eaten all year. It follows: Kids eat total crap in school. If it isn’t fried, it’s poor quality meat seasoned like crazy, processed and emulsified and water-injected and general...
Grilled chicken breasts are the obligatory un-hamburger. They tend to grace all backyard cookouts because someone ultimately didn't want red meat. And even though most chicken breasts lack flavor, cook unevenly, and will undoubtedly be dry, they, like burgers, can be easily pressed between two pieces of bread. They keep the cookout rolling, but they're essentially a cop out.
So when it c...
Yeah, it's true, I did decide to roast a chicken on the hottest day of the year , much to the chagrin of my girlfriend, my neighbor Jason, and my brow which had to battle the entire evening against a downfall of sweat pouring over my forehead. And while the hysterics of previously mentioned cocktail mistress (girlfriend) could be seen as an over-dramatization of slightly toasty dinner, s...
With half a chicken left and none of the dark meat in sight, I was left with two slabs of white meat and not one good idea. Sure there are thousands of cookbooks dedicated to what to slap on boneless, skinless chicken breasts to give them some semblance of flavor, but I don't like lying to myself. So instead of trying to figure out something creative, I decided to punt and completely d...