Home Stretch

On Saturday I get on a plane to visit the parents in Florida. I haven’t seen them in over a year and they have since moved into a new house. It should be a nice, albeit short, trip. Soon after I get back, Annie Birdie heads to Argentina and I have the house all to myself for two weeks. She has predicted the place will become a messy nudist colony in her absence; I do intend to do a lot of loafing around in my underwear. People, I am tired. Holiday parties, birthday parties, work insanity–I am at the end of my rope. I need to sleep for approximately 10 years and then take another nap.

In preparation of both of our holiday departures, Annie Birdie and I celebrated our own Christmas Monday night. It was the perfect little evening; she loved my gift to her as I loved hers to me (a year of Entertainment Weekly!), we watched TV, drank some wine, and ate a great meal. Annie even shared some of her famous mint brownies, one of my most favorite things that she makes. There was nary a Christmas carol even hummed, nor a mention of the baby Jesus. My kind of holiday celebration…

For dinner, I prepared cardamom honey chicken with pine nut couscous. Annie threw together a great little salad and we were in business. There was no way to really capture the beautiful brown skin of the chicken, flecked with cardamom and pepper. The picture below doesn’t do justice, but you get the idea. Annie isn’t a fan of savory dishes with sweet notes (for instance, a chicken salad with apples or pizza with pears on top) but I had faith that the sherry would cut the sweetness. This recipe created some seriously moist meat with a unique flavor. As an added bonus, the marinade is sans oil, so it tastes good and is good for you. I strongly recommend this for a dinner party; it even won Annie over, despite her trepidation.

Honey Cardamom Chicken

Slightly Adapted from Simply Recipes

Marinade
4 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp sherry
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds, ground
1 teaspoon peppercorns, ground

Chicken
6 chicken breasts, or one whole chicken, cut into parts
2 Tbsp Olive oil
1 lemon, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 390°F. Warm the honey, stir in the sherry, cardamom and peppercorns. Place marinade and chicken in a large bowl, coat chicken with marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

2 Heat olive oil in a large frying pan at medium high heat. Sear the chicken, skin side down, until golden.

3 Place lemon slices in a roasting pan. Lay the chicken pieces on top. Brush with the marinade. Season generously with salt and pepper. Place in the oven and bake until done, approximately 17 minutes for breasts, 22 minutes for thighs, wings, and drumsticks. (To compensate for the different baking times, I browned the dark meat first and threw it in the oven. I then browned the breasts, which take about 5 minutes, and added them to the pan.) Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.