The Impatient Chef Recipe: Chicken Schnitzel with Spaetzle and Mushroom Gravy

 

There is something about a mushroom gravy that just makes everything bad in the world go away for a short time.  The Impatient Chef has some German ancestry, and spent a couple of years there in the 1980's, and so retains some affinity for food that goes well with beer. 

There is really no better example of German cooking than the schnitzel, whether it be chicken or jager, and a side of spaetzle.  Sure, if you lived in Idar Oberstein, you would think that Speisbraten was the pinnacle of German cooking.  If you lived in Hamburg, or Frankfurt, you probably wouldn't think the hamburgers or frankfurters were the best, but you may like sauerbraten.  If you lived in Berlin, you may like ein Berliner.  John F. Kennedy called himself ein Berliner, not knowing that putting "ein" in front of "Berliner" makes him not a resident of Berlin, but rather, a jelly donut.  JFK called himself a jelly donut when he said "Ich bin ein Berliner" all those years ago.  Berliners loved him for that.  

The Impatient Chef makes a couple of impatient choices for ingredients that don't affect deliciousness.  These are store-bought spaetzle, and mushroom bouillon.  

Special tools:

• A kitchen mallet.
• A deep fryer, or a large dutch oven for frying.  
• 3 pie plates for breading.

Ingredients: 

• 2 half chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, and beaten flat with a kitchen mallet
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup flour, and 6 tbsp flour for roux
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tsp mushroom bouillon (Better Than Bouillon works best)
• 5 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp grapeseed oil (or another neutral oil)
• 4 large crimini mushrooms
• 1/2 tsp MSG (yes, The Impatient Chef dares to use this ingredient)
• 2 cups dry spaetzle.  

Directions:

In a stock pot, heat water for boiling spaetzel.  Prepare and turn on the fryer, or put peanut oil into a dutch oven, and heat to 360 degrees F.  If you are using a dutch oven, take extra care not to fill it too far.  These breasts will make the oil level rise a surprising amount.  

While the water and oil are heating, divide the half chicken breasts again in half, and lay on some butcher paper, or wax paper.  Lay some plastic wrap over it, and pound the chicken breasts with a kitchen mallet.  Use the tenderizing end of the mallet.  Make them about 1/4" thick.  They can be thicker, but they will get even thicker in the fryer.  You want them to be fairly thin.  

Place 3 pie plates side by side on a table.  In the one on the left, put 1/3 cup four.  In the center one, beat the egg, and in the right one, put the bread crumbs, and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Coat the breasts in flour, egg, and then the bread crumbs.  Lay them out on a tray with a wire rack on it.  

When the water boils, add the spaetzel, and stir to keep them from sticking.  Stir occasionally while doing the rest of the recipe.  

Slice the mushrooms.  Melt 2 tbsp butter in a sauce pan, add the grapeseed oil, and sauté the mushrooms  with a 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper until tender and fragrant.  Add 1 1/2 cups water, MSG, the bouillon.  Bring to a boil on medium heat while you make the roux.

To make the roux, melt 3 tbsp butter on medium low heat, and add 6 tbsp cup flour.  Stir often for 5 minutes, then add 1/4 cup water.  Stir until it is absorbed, and then add the last 1/4 cup.  Stir until it is absorbed.  Add roux to the mushroom broth, lower heat, and bring slowly to a boil.  

While the gravy is heating, add chicken to the fryer.  Make sure it is up to temperature first.  If you have timed it right, everything should be done around the same time.  Fry the chicken until golden brown, with an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.  Remove from oil.  

Drain the spaetzel when it is soft.  Serve with spaetzel on the side.  Ladle mushroom gravy over both.  Serves 4.  

The Impatient Chef Celebrates the Anniversary of the Great Cajun Shrimp Boil

It's been a year since I posted the Shrimp Boil recipe, and I have made it quite a few times since then.  Today I made a change.  Not to the recipe, but to the cooking method.

Enter: The Multi-Cooker.

The Impatient Chef is a cast iron pan kind of cook.  Give him a heavy pan, and a steady fire to sail her by, and you'll be in supper heaven before the sun sets.  So the Multi-Cooker seems like a sharp turn through the guardrails of cookware preference, and a fiery crash into the ravine of trendiness. But, fear not, all is well.  There is a reason for this that is more practical than it may seem.  

The Impatient Chef owns a Jenn-Air stove, half of which is a grill.  The grill half is a complete waste of cook space.  It will never be used as intended because it would be impossible to clean.  That leaves only 2 usable burners.  If the Impatient Chef was wealthier, he would replace it.  We play the cards that are dealt, so the grill side serves mostly as a place to put the deep fryer, or as a bread cooling rack.  An induction hot plate added a third burner, and now the Multi-Cooker makes a fourth, and, more importantly, is both a pressure cooker, and steamer among other things.

The Multi-Cooker version of the Great Cajun Shrimp Boil uses 3 of the cooker's functions, and makes only one pot dirty.  It also speeds up the process.   The multi-cooker you use for this recipe should have these settings: pressure cook, sauté, and simmer.  

This recipe also parts with the previous by using frozen shelled and de-veined shrimp instead of fresh.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds frozen shrimp (shelled and de-veined)
• 3 ears of corn
• 4 andouille sausages (I use ones that are about 10" long. Use more sausages as necessary.
• 1 1/2 lbs new potatoes (small and red), or other, just not russet. 
• 8 cups water (including the shrimp broth) 
• 7 large cloves garlic, pressed 
• 3/4 cup hot sauce (Franks, or Louisiana Hot) 
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp Old Bay Seasoning 
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or more if you dare) 
• 1/2 stick of butter 
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• Freshly ground pepper to taste 
• 1 1/2 tbsp Tony Chachere’s Cajun seasoning, or Buck’s Zestier BBQ seasoning

Directions:

I used the steamer basket for the potatoes, but used the pressure cook setting.  Go figure.  I think that they turn out better when not submerged in water.  I used a cup and a half of water.  

Prep: 

1. Get the shrimp out of the freezer.
2. Crush the garlic.
3. Husk the corn, and cut each cob into 3 to 4 pieces
4. Cut the sausage into 1" diagonal slices.
5. Measure out the seasonings into a small dish.  
6. Measure out the hot sauce.  
7. Measure out the 6 cups of water.  

Cooking:  

1. Add the potatoes to the steaming basket, put the lid on, and set the valve to Pressure.  Set the function for Pressure Cook/vegetables/high/5 minutes, and hit Start.
2. When the cooker alerts you that it is done, Select Stop (or off), and let the steam out by turning the pressure valve to Steam, or by whatever means your multi-cooker uses to do the same thing.  Just don't open the lid before depressurizing the cooker.  Remove the potatoes, and dump out the water.   Set the potatoes aside.
3. Set the cooker for 300 degrees/Sauté.  Hit Start.  Melt the butter, and add the garlic.  Sauté, stirring constantly for a minute, no more. 
4. Select Stop on the cooker.  
5. Immediately add water, and the corn.  If your cooker does not advise adding cold water to the hot kettle, warm it up first while completing the first 4 steps.  Put the lid on, and set the valve to Pressure.  Select Pressure Cook/vegetables/high/8 minutes, and hit Start.
6. When the cooker indicates done, set the valve to Steam to vent the pressure.  
7. Remove the lid, and add the potatoes, and sausage.  Add the spices and hot sauce.  Stir and put the lid on.  Leave the valve on Steam.  
8. Set the cooker for Simmer/Soup/55 minutes.  You won't use all of that time, so if your cooker has smaller time settings, the total time should be 15 minutes when up to temperature.  Hit Start.
9. Once the cooker indicates that it is up to temperature, set a timer for 10 minutes, or just look at a the clock on the cooker.
10. After 10 minutes, remove the lid, add the shrimp, stir, and put the lid back on.  Let simmer for 5 more minutes total.  If your cooker uses some of that time to get back up to temperature before restarting the timer, the shrimp will be overdone.  It should be 5 minutes from the time you add the shrimp.
11. Serve in a bowl with buttered sourdough bread on the side.  

Notes:  

This version streamlines the recipe quite a bit, and still yields a flavorful broth with the right hit of spice, and all of the high notes of the shrimp and sausage.  Total prep and cooking time was less than an hour.  Impatient Chefs everywhere rejoice!

Thanks for looking!

--The Impatient Chef.  

The Impatient Chef Makes Quick Tomato Soup

So, this happened: We were tired, and really didn't want to cook. We weren't very hungry, either. What to do? I'll start by saying that I didn't take pictures, but I do have the recipe. 

This recipe is the epitome of The Impatient Chef: a delicious meal that does not take long to make. It is not what I would call gourmet, or even fine dining, but as Alton Brown says, it's good eats. First, the set up. I binge listened to Milk Street Radio (Christopher Kimball's new empire) over the past few weekends, and one of the things that stuck with me was the use of sugar in tomato sauce. I have avoided that for years, but I decided to be open to it after hearing it. 

 My wife and I were tired, and not very hungry, so I opted for a simple supper of store-bought tomato soup. I pulled a carton of soup down from the cupboard, and shook it up before pouring it into the pan. It was chicken stock, not tomato soup. Oy. Time to change gears. How to make a quick soup? I put together the following: 

• 1/2 cup chicken broth 
• 1 24.5 oz jar strained tomatoes 
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder 
• 1/2 tsp berberé 
• salt and pepper to taste 
• 2 tbsp honey 

 First taste was a little disappointing. It was on the bitter side despite the honey. Tomato soup usually gets mellowed out by some dairy, but we had only half and half, which needed to be saved for tomorrow's coffee. That's when inspiration struck. We had some leftover whipped cream in the "Whip It" dispenser. I served the soup in two bowls, and added a generous helping of the whipped cream, covering the entire top of the soup by about an inch or more. That made the difference. It was a decent soup for a total prep and cooking time of about 15 minutes. 

 Thanks for looking! 

 --The Impatient Chef.