emeril's smothered chicken and onions

[kenny weir]

I ate once at Emeril's in New Orleans and didn't like it much at all. The food was OK, but - both by financial necessity and natural inclination - I am more drawn to more blue-collar Crescent City dining.

But I made this - nicked from that joint's website - for Bennie and me last Sunday. It was truly beaut.

I made it exactly as per the recipe, but used a mix of skinless thigh fillets and drumsticks, omitted the mushies and used canned corn and frozen peas, both of which I'd go lighter on next time 'round.

Man this tasted GOOD! And oh so sweet.

SMOTHERED CHICKEN AND ONIONS

Ingredients:
1 large fryer, cut into serving pieces (about 3 1/2 pounds)
Salt and cayenne
1 tablespoon flour
8 cups julienne onions (about 2 1/2 pounds)
1 cup thinly sliced bell peppers
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup water
1 cup whole kernel corn
1 cup young sweet green peas
2 cups sliced mushrooms
3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

Season the chicken pieces with salt and cayenne. In a large cast-iron skillet, heat the oil. When the oil is hot, add the chicken and brown, cooking for 6 to 8 minutes on each side. Add the onions. Season with salt and cayenne. Stirring constantly, wilt and brown the onions, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any browned particles, about 10 minutes. Add the bell peppers and bay leaf. Continue stirring, again scraping the bottom of the pot to loosen any browned particles, for about 15 minutes. Add the water, cover, and reduce the heat to medium. Stir occasionally and cook for about 30 minutes, or until the chicken is tender. Add the corn, peas, and mushrooms, cover, and cook for 15 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Add the parsley. Remove the bay leaf and serve immediately.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

[steve(thelil)]

There's a simpler recipe where I don't actually smother, I merely choke the chicken.

Serves 4.

[kenny weir]

Tasty!

[patricia]

Kenny, I left out the canned corn. Hate canned corn.
DELICIOUS!! Thank you.

And Steve, you gave me my first grin of the day.

[clinthopson]

Frozen corn would be a better subsittute.

BAM!

[Tom Storer]

I can't help myself. Please forgive me, but...

It shouldn't be "smothered chicken and onions." It should be "chicken smothered in onions."

[Jon Abbey]

Originally Posted by Tom Storer

I can't help myself. Please forgive me, but...

It shouldn't be "smothered chicken and onions." It should be "chicken smothered in onions."

yeah, you know better than Emeril.

http://www.emerils.com/recipes/by_na...nd_onions.html

[clinthopson]

Smothered is an old southeren technique.

Y'all can smother anythin' with this stuff: rabbit, pok chop, possum, catfish, Uncle Willie. . .

But don't smother yo mother.

[hornplayer]

Originally Posted by patricia

Kenny, I left out the canned corn. Hate canned corn.
DELICIOUS!! Thank you.

And Steve, you gave me my first grin of the day.

Patricia, where does it say "canned corn?" I read

1 cup whole kernel corn

I would cut them off the cob!

Tom: "Smothered" is a cooking technique native to the Southern US...

[patricia]

Originally Posted by hornplayer

Patricia, where does it say "canned corn?" I read I would cut them off the cob!

Sorry June. I guess I misunderstood.
To me, whole kernal corn means canned. The recipe didn't actually say to cut the kernals off fresh cobs of corn, so I assumed.....
I really like fresh corn, but always squirt juice in my eyes when I try to wrestle it off the cob with my biggest knife.
I might avoid the whole issue in this recipe, if I really wanted corn, by cooking whole cobs, serving them as well.
They don't take long and are always a welcome accompanyment among the folks with whom I customarily break bread.

[Tom Storer]

I confess to ignorance, and apologize abjectly to both this Emeril person and to Jon, who once again has had to put up with someone else's rank stupidity, poor man. Since I've only ever heard of things being "smothered in onions," I always thought it meant absolutely covered over, buried in onions (and Google does give over 11,000 hits for "smothered in onions" and another 14,000 for "smothered with onions"). The onions were doing the smothering, that's how I understood it. But a quick Google reveals that "Smothered" means to "brown" the meat with a little oil then simmer in a small amount of water to make a brown gravy. Live and learn!

[tippy]

LOL, Tom.

PEANUT BUTTER CHICKEN OVER RICE (AFRICAN ORIGIN)
Printed from COOKS.COM

----------------------------------------------


Fried chicken, approximately 1/2 cut in pieces
1 1/2 tbsp. peanut butter
1/2 sm. onion, diced
1 sm. tomato, diced
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. oil
2 c. rice, cooked
1 c. hot water

Melt butter and oil into saucepan. Saute onion and tomato until soft and 1/2 tablespoon of peanut butter in saucepan. Add hot water and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Lower heat to a simmer, add chicken and continue to simmer 6 minutes. Cover and serve over cooked rice.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by Tom Storer

I confess to ignorance, and apologize abjectly to both this Emeril person and to Jon, who once again has had to put up with someone else's rank stupidity, poor man. Since I've only ever heard of things being "smothered in onions," I always thought it meant absolutely covered over, buried in onions (and Google does give over 11,000 hits for "smothered in onions" and another 14,000 for "smothered with onions"). The onions were doing the smothering, that's how I understood it. But a quick Google reveals that "Smothered" means to "brown" the meat with a little oil then simmer in a small amount of water to make a brown gravy. Live and learn!

I bet Emeril's got a delicious recipe for frog legs and humble pie.

[shrugs]

use white wine in place of the water and season the chicken with salt, onion powder, garlic powder,red, black and white pepper, leave out the peas, mushrooms and corn and you'll have the more common smothered chicken. Most don't use so much onion or the bell pepper.
Oh yeah, and most cook for a couple of hours.
I have made it with fresh rosemary in the chicken seasoning too and it's very good.
s: Placing the bacon "under" the saucHere's another Emeril comfort food recipe:
(Nov/2005)
Emeril Lagasse
Cookbook: Prime Time Emeril

2 TB butter, 1 lg onion chopped, 1 rib celery finely chopped, 1/2 red bell pepper finely chopped, 2 tsp minced garlic plus 1 extra tsp more, 1 tsp chopped thyme leaves, 1 tsp chopped rosemary, 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley, 2 eggs, 1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard, 1/2 cup ketchup plus 1/4 cup more, 2 TB plus 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 2/3 cup breadcrumbs, 1 lb ground chuck, 1/2 pound pork sausage such as breakfast sausage, 1/2 lb ground veal, 1 1/2 tsps salt, 2 tsps plus 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper, 4 slices bacon cut in half, 2 TB white or red wine vinegar, 1/2 cup canned tomatoes chopped or crushed.

In a large skillet heat the butter over med-high heat until melted. Add all but 1/4 cup of the onions, the celery, and all but 2 TBs of the bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegs are softened and beginning to caramelize around the edges, about 6 minutes. Add 2 tsp of the garlic, the thyme, rosemary, and parsley and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. When the veg mixture is cooled, transfer to a mixing bowl and add the eggs, mustard, 1/4 cup of the ketchup, 1 tsp of the Worcestershire sauce, and heavy cream, and mix until thoroughly combined. Add the breadcrumbs, ground chuck, pork sausage, ground veal, 1 tsp of the salt and 1/4 tsp of the pepper and mix until just combined. Do not overmix. Transfer meat mixture to a 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan and using your hands, form mixture into a loaf shape. Arrange the slices of bacon on the top of the meatloaf and set aside.

In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/4 cup of chopped onion, remaining 2 TB of bell pepper, remaining tsp of garlic, remaining 1/2 cup of ketchup, remaining 2 TB of Worcestershire sauce, remaining 1/2 tsp of salt, remaining 2 tsp of pepper, vinegar, and canned tomatoes and bring to a boil over med-high heat. Cook until thickened, about 5 minutes. Pour the sauce over the uncooked meatloaf and bake for 45 mins to 1 hour, or until the bacon and sauce are slightly caramelized on the top of the meatloaf. Remove from the oven and cover loosely with foil. Let stand for 10 mins before serving. Serves 4 - 6.



I never use breakfast sausage in place of ground pork. My local store sells even amounts of ground beef, pork and veal all in one pack. I also form the loaf in a pyrex dish and almost always use more bacon on top than what he calls for.

[shrugs]

Originally Posted by kenny weir

I am more drawn to more blue-collar Crescent City dining.

Ah, but the creole cuisine that you cannot find anywhere in the world puts the more white-collar restaurants many steps above our great blue collar restaurants.

[Brian Olewnick]

Originally Posted by tippy

PEANUT BUTTER CHICKEN OVER RICE (AFRICAN ORIGIN)

Stop teasing me!

[kenny weir]

Originally Posted by shrugs

Ah, but the creole cuisine that you cannot find anywhere in the world puts the more white-collar restaurants many steps above our great blue collar restaurants.

Shrugs, that may be. But by whom? I'd love to eat at Commander's Palace and so on, but it hurts cash-wise, plus the folks I (used to) hang with there didn't do those places either. I did go to a wedding bash at Bayona once.

My kinda places - Mosca's, Liuza's and that place that does only catfish and potato salad. Any of them open yet?

[kenny weir]

Originally Posted by shrugs

use white wine in place of the water and season the chicken with salt, onion powder, garlic powder,red, black and white pepper, leave out the peas, mushrooms and corn and you'll have the more common smothered chicken.

That's for me next time. The corn and so on seemed like a distraction from the onions/gravy.

[Tom Storer]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

I bet Emeril's got a delicious recipe for frog legs and humble pie.

If I could have gotten down on my knees and wept on prime-time TV, I would have, I swear.

Meanwhile that meat loaf recipe looks very appealing. I'll have to check out more recipes from this guy.

[clinthopson]

Emeril's printed recipes are more accurate than his cooking gyrations on tv.

You can download a whole bunch of them from the foodtv site.

I usually have a bottle of his cajun spice mix on hand. I don't buy the retail stuff. I just mix it myself from his recipe. Of course, I add a few personal touches. More chile!!!!

[Rob C]

Whenever I think of Emeril, I think of The Onion issue right after Sep. 11, where they had an infographic on things that had changed in the aftermath, one of which was:

"Emeril abadons trademark 'Bam!" for new catchphrase: 'Okay, there we go. Everybody just take it easy. Everybody just take it nice and easy.'"

[shrugs]

Originally Posted by kenny weir

Shrugs, that may be. But by whom? I'd love to eat at Commander's Palace and so on, but it hurts cash-wise, plus the folks I (used to) hang with there didn't do those places either. I did go to a wedding bash at Bayona once.

My kinda places - Mosca's, Liuza's and that place that does only catfish and potato salad. Any of them open yet?

Clancy's is a better bet than Commander's Palace.

For a real blue collar place, go to Cafe Unique at Franklin and Dauphine. You gotta know the address because the only sign outside is one that says ATM Inside.

[shrugs]

Originally Posted by kenny weir

That's for me next time. The corn and so on seemed like a distraction from the onions/gravy.

And I was wrong about the bell pepper, confused it with something else.
I've found that two medium sized yellowm onions, a small green bell pepper FINELY chopped and a half cup of chopped fresh parsley does the trick.
Add freshly pressed garlic to taste. So I brown the bird, add the veggies until onion is clear, then add the wine and garlic and simmer for 2 hours.
If serving over mashed potatoes, dredge seasoned chicken in flour and then brown..........................

[shrugs]

also, if you have Prudhomme's first cookbook, try the Chicken Tchoupitoulas.

[MRS]

I've been to Clancy's thrice since shrugs initially recommended it.

A+, A+, A+

[kenny weir]

Originally Posted by shrugs

also, if you have Prudhomme's first cookbook, try the Chicken Tchoupitoulas.

I do, but haven't used it for yonks. I'll look it up.

[shrugs]

Originally Posted by kenny weir

I do, but haven't used it for yonks. I'll look it up.

and the stuffed pork chops, the sheperd's pie, the chicken/andouille gumbo...........

[Ron Thorne]

shrugs, you're makin' me hongry, man . . . I garontee!

Damn, I miss Justin Wilson.