Shortcuts In The Kitchen
Do you find yourself in a time crunch for almost every meal you prepare at home? I know I do, and lots of other parents I talk to do too. It seems like I always have hungry boys waiting on me, so in this house it’s the faster the better.
You have the best intentions to cook delicious homemade meals for your family, but this vision is hard to match up to the rigors of daily life. When you have all kinds of competing priorities, sometimes dinner inadvertently falls to the bottom of the list. It’s times like these when everyone can use a few kitchen shortcuts under their belt.
My kitchen techniques of today would have been laughable to my restaurant cooking self of ten years ago. Today I often rely on prepackaged chicken or vegetable stock. Back then it was homemade stock, carefully strained and clarified, even when cooking at home. Pre-peeled garlic? No way! Nowadays it’s one of my kitchen staples. With a busy toddler in the kitchen with me, having garlic cloves on the ready (we use lots) is a tremendous time saver. While frozen foods were once verboten, I find myself relying on them since both of my sons love peas and corn.
In fine dining restaurant kitchens, these time saving techniques are referred to as shoe making. Perhaps this term came about due to a novice cook overcooking a steak into leather, or maybe it’s the way a speed focused cook would cobble together a meal without concern for doing it right. Where the goal in restaurant cooking is preciseness and consistency, cooks must execute the chef’s vision exactly the same way each time. There is little room for waste or sloppiness.
While chef Ratatouille might not use some of my time saving techniques, they have saved me from hunger revolution and time and again. I am not exactly sure why the term shoemaker is used, but I often find myself in the kitchen, cobbling dinner together as quickly as I can. I still rarely waste ingredients (I even feel pangs of guilt for throwing away broccoli stems that could be made into delicious soup), and I remain a pretty neat cook. But my technique has become more “hurry up and get it done,” rather than “work quickly and efficiently, but do it right.”
One French chef sanctioned restaurant technique that does work for the busy home cook is the concept of mise en place. It refers to having all ingredients and equipment needed in place, prepped and ready to cook. If you are organized enough to pre-plan your meals in advance, this can work to your great advantage. For example, on shopping day you can pre-peel and chop any veggies you might need for the next few days. Imagine how simple it would be to put dinner together if it was all laid out and ready to go.
You can use the mise en place concept to make a delicious Italian dish, Chicken Scarpariello. This Italian American restaurant dish actually translates to “Shoemaker Style Chicken.” Feel free to use store bought chicken stock and peeled garlic cloves like I do. You can also substitute crushed red pepper, to taste, for the cherry peppers.
If I were cooking for a paying public or teaching someone a cooking technique, I wouldn’t think of using most of these little shortcuts. But if you have young kids in the house and a busy schedule, I say shoe make away! What are your favorite time savers in the kitchen?
Made with oregano, parsley, garlic, olive oil, sweet Italian sausage, butter, onion, chicken stock, sweet or hot cherry peppers, white wine
Serves/Makes: 4
- 2 1/2 pounds bone-in chicken thighs, washed and dried
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, to taste
- 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
- 2 teaspoons chopped oregano
- 1 tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 links sweet Italian sausage, cut up (or other Italian-style sausage)
- 2 tablespoons butter, divided
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1/4 cup white wine (optional)
- 1 cup jarred sweet or hot cherry peppers, quartered
- 1/2 cup cherry pepper juice, from jar
- salt and black pepper, to taste
Place chicken in large bowl and add salt and pepper, half of chopped oregano, rosemary, and parsley, garlic cloves, and olive oil, and toss to coat. Reserve lemon juice for cooking chicken and place squeezed lemon halves in bowl with chicken. Cover, place in refrigerator and marinate for up to two days.
Warm olive oil over medium heat in high-sided, large saute pan. Cook sausage for 8-10 minutes until brown and remove to ovenproof serving dish. Remove chicken from marinade (reserve garlic from marinade) and let liquid drain off chicken. Add each piece of chicken slowly to pan, cooking all chicken in one layer. Let chicken cook for 10 minutes on one side, until very brown and crusty. Turn chicken over and continue cooking on other side, another 8-10 minutes until brown and crusty. Add reserved garlic and cook, turning, until cloves are brown and tender. Place chicken in ovenproof dish with sausage and place in oven to keep warm.
Empty oil from saute pan, remove and reserve garlic cloves. Add one tablespoon butter to pan and cook chopped onions over medium heat until soft. Add browned garlic and remaining chopped herbs, and cook over low heat for one minute. Turn heat to high, add white wine, then chicken stock, cherry peppers and juice, and stir to scrape up brown bits at bottom of pan.
Cook, reducing sauce by half, and add remaining tablespoon of butter, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Pour sauce over chicken and serve over pasta or orzo with crusty bread.
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