Growing up in Charlotte, NC; Brooklyn, NY; Miami, FL; and other places far-flung, my brother and I learned a lot about adapting to new places and people. We got to try new foods, not that our parents didn’t already expose us to loads of things. The variety was awesome. Most of the time it was exciting, but my brother Don was always a little hesitant and sometimes completely refused to eat what he didn’t know. That’s no longer a problem for him. He’ll eat anything and everything you put in front of him. I always have!

After we ate, we’d settle down in front of the TV and watch our favorite Sunday night TV show, “The Wonderful World of Disney”. The excitement, the anticipation, and the joy of what was to come on every Sunday night was almost beyond the ability of a 12 and 9 year old to contain. It was a family event for us. Something we all did together, without complaining or wishing to be anywhere else, or doing anything else. The episodes that were my all time favorite were the ones about Davey Crockett. He was the coolest thing a 12 year old had ever seen! His “coon skin hat”, with the raccoon tail hanging down the back of his neck was something I HAD to have. I’d lay in bed those Sunday nights, trying to get my 12 year old brain to figure out how I could convince my parents to “get me one”. Hatching all sorts of schemes, every one of them failing, taught me a valuable lesson. As the song goes, you don’t always get what you want…..but you get what you need. Harsh for a 12 year old! Imagine my total shock and surprise at the age of 46, learning that Davey Crockett was a distant relative, by marriage, from my Mom’s side of the family. I learned about this from a small, paperback book, that my Great Uncle Clyde loaned to me. Oh my God, I so wish I had made a copy of it when I had the opportunity! It looked like it had been published by a small, local company, that is no longer in business. VERY boring to read. It was a recitation of the lineage of our family going all the way back to when they first immigrated to America in the 1750’s. As I slogged through the book, skimming a lot of it, a name popped out on the page, “DAVEY CROCKETT”. What! My mind screamed. I went back several pages and carefully read what lead up to this improbable linking of myself, a 46 year old man who still idolized Davey Crockett, to some degree. Still no hat though! Apparently, ole Davey took himself a Cherokee wife, he was known for having several wives, and she was a sister of one of the Whiteside Cherokees, who is an ancestor of the Whitesides part of my family. My mother’s maiden name is Whitesides. I know, it’s a razor thin relationship, but hell, Davey Crockett! Are you kidding me! Davey….Davey Crockett….king of the wild frontier….well you know the rest, maybe. Doing some research several years ago I learned that the Whitesides are descendants of family members who are still part of the Deer Clan of the Eastern Band Cherokee. I’m sure my mother probably never knew about this. Her Dad, my Grandfather Earl Regan Whitesides, aka Speedy, was probably unaware as well. I’m sure he would have told us stories about it when we were growing up, because Speedy loved to tell stories. I get that from Speedy and my Dad.

To bring all this back to the point, chicken, it’s something I love to fix in many different ways. Chicken is so versatile and it’s affordable, so it’s in a lot of our dishes at home. Now, I still absolutely love pan fried chicken. Especially when it’s fried in Crisco, but it’s not the healthiest combination, so it’s a rare treat. Having said all of this, I’m always trying to find ways to change it up, spice it up and make it an adventure for the palate. That’s where this recipe comes from. I saw a similar recipe on line and got to thinking about how to make it with some jazz and pop that your tastebuds will remember. This recipe will serve two, but is very easy to scale up.

Prep time: 20 minutes – Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

Making The Magic

Preheat your oven to 350°

Finely chop the fresh Rosemary. Combine it with Mayonnaise, Cayenne Pepper, Paprika (smoked Spanish if you have it), salt and pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly. Crush the garlic cloves and mix into the mayo blend. When you crush the garlic a chemical reaction begins to take place almost immediately. The longer it is allowed to change, the more pungent and stronger the garlic flavor will become. Mixing it into the mayo right away, minimizes the change and keeps the garlic flavor from becoming bitter. Once all is mixed, set aside.

Butterfly your chicken breast so you end up with two relatively equal halves. Pat each half dry and place the breast meat in a baking pan or in the air fryer basket. Air frying will take less time, but these directions are for a convection bake oven. Coat each breast with the mayo mixture and don’t be stingy. Once each breast is covered, sprinkle 1/4C Parmesan over each chicken breast, covering it completely.

If you use an air fryer this will cook faster. In a convection oven this will take about 20 to 25 minutes. In a regular oven, figure on 30 to 40 minutes. Place the chicken in the oven and bake. The last time I made this it went into the convection bake small oven.

The last time I did this, I kept watching it in the oven, and it looked great, until the last 5 to 10 minutes. At that point, all the toppings slid off the chicken, into the baking pan. It happens sometimes. If your’s does the same thing, don’t worry. When I took it out of the oven, I spooned the toppings that slid off, back over the chicken. It doesn’t seem to affect the flavor at all! This is one of the things I love about cooking. You can use your imagination and improvise as you go.

When the chicken is finished, plate it with your side dishes and enjoy. It’s just another variation on something my mother taught us to love as we were growing up.

We served this with pan cooked fresh Spinach, takes less than 5 minutes, and Butter Beans.

Variations To Keep This New

Add 1/4C Panko Bread Crumbs to the Parmesan Cheese. It will add some crunchiness to the finish. The breadcrumbs will darken more quickly as well.

Italian Bread Crumbs, about 1/4C, added to the Parmesan Cheese adds another level of flavor and crunchiness.

Increase the amount of Cayenne pepper if you want to heat things up a bit.

Adding a little Dijons Mustard, 1T, to the mayo mix will make it more tangy and adds a little heat.

Wines We Love With This

Any dry wines, except for big, bold reds go great with this dish. I like dry whites in the summer and light reds in the winter. I guess it depends on the mood at the time and what I was drinking when I started to make it!

Leftovers

If you have any, cut the remaining chicken into small cubes, or shred it, keeping any toppings that remain. Mix this with more Duke’s mayonnaise, sliced celery, red onions and halved seedless grapes. Serve it on a bed of lettuce for lunch or a light dinner.

As my Grandmother Gracie used to say:

“We may not have much, but you will never leave my table hungry!”

Question

What is your favorite chicken recipe? Do you make it often?

This is a Cuban dish, Bistec de Palomilla, that is so simple and quick. Plus, it delivers a great flavor on a very low budget, cut of meat. Suzanne and I lived in Tampa, Florida in the early 1980’s and I discovered an awesome little Cuban market a few miles from the house. The guys behind the meat counter were really helpful. When I went in to look for a kind of fish I had seen in a recipe, I started asking about some of the specialty items they had in the meat case. There was a thinly cut piece of meat, between 1/8″ and 1/4″, beautifully laid out in slices, offset, one on top of the other, like a stack of cards that had been fanned out. Each slice was about twice the size of my hand. I asked what it was. The butcher explained it was a thinly sliced top sirloin. I looked at it, thinking it would be impossible to grill it or even broil it! So I asked what was the best way to fix it. Suzanne and I loved steak, but found it was usually outside of our budget at the time. You know the saying, “champaign taste on a beer income”, so finding a “steak” recipe that was affordable and delicious was like hitting the lottery to us. The recipe he gave me is one we still use to this day.

There are a number of variations, but I’m going to share our favorite recipe and suggest you check out all the variations that you’ll find on line. You’ll see recipes made with cubed steak, flank steak and top sirloin, so there are many ways to get creative with this dish. Hint – thin and barely cooked is the most tender and the tastiest!

This recipe will serve two and is easy to scale up or down. Like I said it is very simple and quick to prepare and since the cuts are so very thin, it’s also a great last minute, “oh crap, I forgot to take something out of the freezer” life saver. I always vacuum seal any cuts of meat that I bring home, unless they are going to be used within a couple of days. Vacuum sealing will allow you to keep meats for up to two years or more in the freezer. We try to buy things on sale and in bulk. That keeps our freezer stocked and we tend to get better cuts of meat. The point of this is it allows you to fast defrost meat by dropping it into a pan of water. The laws of thermodynamics really work. Heat and cold transfer happens very quickly in water, so dropping a steak into a pan of water to defrost it will result in a completely defrosted steak in less than 1 hour. Of course, the water will ruin the cut of meat if it’s not sealed. Vacuum sealing works great because the meat will stay submerged. Without vacuum sealing, even if the supermarket packaging doesn’t leak, the meat will float at the top and the foam packaging acts as an insulator. Okay, enough about thermodynamics.

One of my best and lifelong friends, Dan Trammel, had this meal with us several times and it always put a smile on his face. Dan lives in Germany now, with his lovely wife Irene, and has two beautiful daughters. I so wish we could see them, but I think of Dan every time I fix this dish for Suzanne and me. When we sit down to eat it, I half expect Dan to pop through the kitchen door and ask, “Hey, what’s for dinner?”

Prep time: 5 minutes – Cooking time: 2 minutes

Ingredients

I got this Palomilla Steak at our local Publix. It’s a thinly sliced top sirloin. About 1/8″. Went to the meat counter and started to tell the butcher what I was looking for. Ended up, he is Cuban and knew exactly what I wanted. I bought 3 pounds and it will make about 6 or 7 meals for Suzanne and me.

Making The Magic

In a large pan, preheat the Butter and Olive Oil on Medium. Heat until the butter starts to sizzle when you swirl the combination in the pan.

Salt and pepper to taste, one side of the steak. I don’t usually add either because the mustard and bread crumbs have so much flavor, but some like to add both.

Spread the mustard over one side of the steak. Coat the steak with Italian bread crumbs.

Flip the steak, and coat the second side with the bread crumbs. if you want more mustard flavor, spread some on the second side.

Drop a couple of bread crumbs into the oil and look for them to sizzle in the oil.

Once the oil is hot, drop the steaks in the pan and let sizzle just long enough to brown a little on each side. No more than 2 minutes total for both sides.

The high heat and the bread crumbs will help to sear each side of the steak. If you overcook this, it will still be tasty, but will get chewy very quickly.

Variations To Keep This New

Add some Panko Bread crumbs to the Italian Bread Crumbs to give it a little crunchiness. Try different mustards, hot, sweet, yellow. Serve it with Black Beans. Marinate the steak in garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper.

Wines We Love With This

Merlot

Chianti

Dry Rose

Leftovers

Never had any!

“Buen provecho!”

Question?

What was the Cuban dish in the movie, “Chef”, that started his comeback?

Like several recipes that are my favorites, this one also comes from Nick Stellino. His cooking show still runs on PBS and I try to record every one of them so I can watch and rewatch each show. Nick is a great Chef and an awesome storyteller. This recipe reminds me a lot of a very basic Southern meal we had when visiting my Great Aunt Hallie Dellinger, only with an Italian twist.

The first time I took Suzanne to meet my Aunt Hallie and Uncle Dorse, we were visiting with my Grandparents, Speed and Grace Whitesides, in Charlotte, NC. I called ahead of time to be sure it was convenient for them. God bless my Aunt Hallie, she lost a lot of her hearing as she got older and tended to talk extremely loud. When I got her on the phone, I held the receiver at least 12 inches from my ear and could still clearly hear everything she said. Aunt Halley said she was “tickled” to have us out, and said she would “make a little something for lunch”. I knew what that meant, so I pleaded with her not to make a fuss. She insisted she would not and said, “Ya’ll come on now. We’ll have a nice visit and a little lunch.”

It was a very memorable visit, one of my last with her before she passed away. Of course, her “little something” was, pan fried pork chops, pinto beans, white rice, bacon seasoned green beans, country fried steak, fried chicken, fresh corn, cut from the cob, turnips, butter beans, scratch made buttermilk biscuits, sweet potato pie and pecan pie. Pitchers of “sweet tea” and home made jam for any leftover biscuits. That was Aunt Hallie’s way of saying, “I love you Darlin'” and she said it often.

Funny how I connected Nick’s recipe to this memory when I ate it for the first time, but it probably was triggered by Nick sharing how this dish was one his mother often made.

So, this recipe is good for two people and can be scaled up for more servings.

Prep time: 6 Hours – Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

Making The Magic

The secret to making these pork chops tender and juicy is the majority of the prep time. It may take 6 hours, but you get to sit or do something else for most of that time. We’re going to brine the pork chops for at least 5 to 6 hours.

Combine the water, salt and sugar, in an air-tight container or plastic bag, stirring until dissolved. Drop in the pork chops and let them marinate in the brine for at least 5 to 6 hours in the fridge.

About 20 minutes before you want to eat, begin prepping the rest of your ingredients.

Chop the onion, garlic, fresh basil and fresh rosemary.

Drain the tomatoes, saving 1C of the juice. Save the remainder of the juice if you want to store the leftover canned tomatoes in the juice. Finely chop the tomatoes, set aside.

To make the “Ucelleto” add the Extra Virgin Olive Oil to a large sauté pan and heat to medium. When you see the oil start to swirl in the pan add the onions and garlic. Sprinkle some of your favorite pork chop rub into the mixture and continue to cook the onions and garlic. Next add the chopped Basil and Rosemary, stirring constantly and cooking until the onions are translucent. At this stage the fresh herbs, garlic and onions start to release their flavors and aroma. Take a deep breath and enjoy it! Add the Red Pepper flakes and stir in. Once it’s all blended add the chopped tomatoes and the beans. Stir all of it thoroughly. Finally add the tomato juice that you set aside. Bring it to a fast simmer, then move it to a back burner and reduce the heat to let the Ucelleto simmer while you cook the pork chops.

Preheat some extra virgin olive oil in another pan. Take the pork chops from the brine and pat them dry. Rub the dry pork chops with olive oil and then sprinkle your favorite pork chop rub over both sides of the pork chops. Pan fry the pork chops on medium heat for about 2 minutes per side. Add the butter to the pan. Once melted, spoon the butter over the pork chops, coating them thoroughly, letting the butter glaze the pork chops and helping them to finish the cooking in the pan, about 2 more minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.

Bring the simmering Ucelleto back to the medium burner and move the pork chops to the pan. Gently settle and push the pork chops into the Ucelleto and let them cook, covered, for about 5 minutes.

Remove your sauté pan from the heat. Rest it for about a minute, then plate your dish.

I love this dish with rice. It stretches the meal and gives you a nice combination for leftovers.

Variations To Keep It New

Try different types of beans to change the texture. Add more or less Red Pepper flakes. Serve with steamed cabbage.

Wines We Love With This

Pinot Grigio

Chianti

Merlot

Dry Rose

Leftovers

This dish is great when it’s reheated and it doesn’t make the pork chops tough. The brining works!

Momma Mia, questo é cosi delizioso!

Question

Would you try this dish with pasta?