Peak Summer ✌🏼🍒🌽🍉
all the hits and a recipe for my "winner, winner, chicken dinner" - which doesn't sound like a summertime food, but hear me out on this one, ok?
Summer is arguably the easiest season when it comes to cooking. Produce is popping, plums are vibing with corn and tomatoes and cherries et al. There is a psychedelic level of color abound making it easier to eat with your eyes, and sunshine makes most meals taste a little sweeter. Cooking in this spectacular season is a triumph in the art of editing (or laziness?) either way, it allows peak ingredients to shine bright with very little effort. Here in no particular order are things we are eating, cooking, and craving right now, at this very moment. Peak Summer.
stone fruit salads with burrata fresh herbs and crusty olive oily bread hunks
open faced mayo and garden tomato sandwiches with loads of rock salt and cracked black pepper (speaking of tomatoes, check out Sam Loves the Market!)
Greek salad variations with whatever we have at home. Must contain big hunks of feta, and fresh oregano if possible ;)
pesto with whatever herbs or greens are abundant - all blitzed up together and emulsified with something cheesy and something nutty. with lemon juice!
slippery thin slices of summer squash dressed with olive oil and lemon and mountains of parmesan-y bread crumbs
no cook cherry tomato sauces
corn on the cob eaten every which way but most definitely with miso butter (soften butter, fold in a dollop of good miso, enjoy!)
NEP (never enough popsicles)
mango creamsicles from TJ’s (IYKYK)
ice cream sandwiches. the ones where the chocolate fully sticks to your fingers and can only be cleaned by scraping them with your teeth. otherwise known as the ‘after party’.
vanilla soft serve with rainbow sprinkles…in a cone.
whole melons whacked in half eaten with a spoon
smashed cucumber salads and cold sesame noodles
hot dogs and cheeseburgers in that order
melon feta salads with mint
fish tacos with cilantro and crema
watermelon by the buttload
chopped salads with green goddess dressing
chicken salads with fish sauce and fried shallots
sungolds smushed into toasted bread rubbed with garlic
cold steak sandwiches
grilled veggies so charred and mangled they soak up whatever dressing or vinegar-y sauce you dredge them in off the grill
ice cold drinks dripping with condensation
ceviche and oysters and clams and crudos
a super savory chicken and rice bake otherwise known as Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
The last one really feels like a joke. Like it landed in the wrong season entirely! Who wants to turn on the oven in the summer? I hear you! and yet I would argue that standing over a hot grill is somehow equally unappealing? My feeling, and I will go on to explain further, is that a truly fucking easy dinner without fuss is what makes a dish perfect for our summertime tables.
Here’s my pitch.
It took me under ten minutes to throw this rice and chicken in a baking dish with seasoning and pop it in the oven. I was back outside (with a timer on my phone) playing with the hose and my daughter until dinnertime.
Timer went off, I plopped this down on the table with a spoon and some big torn lettuces with balsamic on the side and we chowed down together. Did I mention the cleanup is nearly non-existent? Wrap those leftovers in the same dish you cooked them in and that will leave even more time to play on the swings before bath and bed.
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner
it’s like a one pot meal but in a dish. A one dish meal. it’s got well seasoned crispy crunchy rice bits and juicy chicken that is nearly impossible to dry out using this method.
4-6 boneless skin on chicken thighs
2 cups well washed rice
Handful of raisins (optional)
1 small onion sliced in 1/4” rings
1 tomato sliced 1/4”
2-3 garlic cloves sliced
2-½ cups stock of choice ( i use better than bouillon)
Olive oil for the baking dish
salt and pepper
Chicken sauce
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp date syrup
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp sumac
1-2 tsp salt
black pepper
2 cloves grated garlic
Preheat 425F
Mix the chicken sauce in a bowl, taste for seasoning, and set aside
*the sauce ingredients are so random and I just grabbed what was in front of me, all of these can be substituted! Do honey instead of date syrup, use a spice rub you’ve got sitting around collecting dust! use whatever you have just make it taste yummy.
Ready the rice
Oil the bottom of a baking dish with olive oil and add the sliced onions and tomatoes. add your rinsed rice and gently even it out in the dish. Sprinkle the rice with raisins and nestle in the sliced garlic.
Chicken time
Tuck the chicken thighs skin side up into the rice and then coat the chicken with the sauce everywhere that it’s exposed. Pour the broth around the chicken so the rice is submerged (ideally the chicken skin is still above the liquid surface).
Keep it steamy - this is key!!!
Wet a piece of baking paper the size of your baking dish under the faucet and crumple it up before squeezing it out. Lay this flat on top of your dish. Finally, cover that tightly with foil.
Bake for 40-45 minutes.
At this stage both the chicken and rice should be nicely cooked. If it needs more time, cover and set timer for 5 minutes until done. I use a meat thermometer (165F) to take the guesswork out of it all - but if you cut into it and the juices run nice and clear you are good to go.
Brown the top
While you are setting the table or getting out the drinks, remove the foil and baking paper and broil the shit out of it uncovered for 5 minutes. Remove and give it one more sprinkling of salt before you dig in.
