#!lvl11

I know I haven’t been around for a bit and I do apologize for burdening everyone, but I’m back and ready to go again! And to get started with some rebooting, I decided to start with something a little simple but also deceptively tricky! Plus, tomato sauce is a base for a LOT of recipes in Eorzea! Most of them I LOVE -- so you’ll be seeing this sauce a lot. You’ll need a couple things before we start though -- a blender or food processor and either a slow cooker (as you know, one of my favorite things!) or a large, heat conducting pot. I have made the sauce in both a pot and a slow cooker and both work perfectly fine. For this time I made with a slow cooker ~

First off, chop your garlic and onions and add to a hot sauce pan with olive oil, salt and pepper to crisp it up. While that’s caramelizing, add your other ingredients to your pot or slow cooker. If you are using cherry tomato’s instead of sun dired tomato’s as I did add those to your onions and garlic to soften them a bit. When everything is crispy, then add the garlic and onion to your sauce.

It should look a little like this before we start cooking. In this instance I added a little bit of chicken stock just so that the sauce has a little more moisture to prevent burning. You can use vegetable stock or omit all together if you have a cooker that has custom temperatures or a sturdy enough pot. A burnt tomato sauce will make chef’s everywhere cry though! Plus the little burst of flavor the broth adds will add another depth of flavor to your sauce. Set your stove and cooker to LOW and a timer for 4 1/2 hours and let the flavors run wild!

Look at how smooth the sauce is looking now! But it could be smoother .. remember how smooth the sauce was for our mole loaf? We want it to be like that! So put it in the blender and give it a nice little blend for about 30 seconds while its still hot and we should come out with a nice silky smooth sauce like so .. ...

When they say simple .. they mean simple! This is a very easy recipe to master and even easier to cook! However .. I actually HATE mushrooms, so for me to make this and enjoy it too? It was hard! But I found a really easy way to make them taste good ~ 

First off, mince your garlic and set aside. Then you’ll want to cut your baby mushrooms. There’s no real way to cut baby mushrooms. Just pop off the stems (I kept them on) and begin to cut them. I made sure my pieces were small (again, I’m not the biggest mushroom fan!) yet a decent cooking size; like so:

Put them in a bowl and set aside. Now for our chicken. Like everything else, season with salt and pepper and cut in half. Take your pan now and begin heating up some olive oil on high. Once it’s hot, place your chicken in the pan and brown on both sides. We’re not cooking the chicken, but creating a firm base so the chicken doesn’t become soggy when we cook it in our sauce! It should turn gold and crispy and pale on all sides. Once that’s done, remove from the pan and set the chicken aside.

Add oil to your pan again and lower your heat to medium. Once the oil is hot add your garlic, dill, oregano and mushrooms to the pan. They should begin to cook  as soon as they hit the pan. If your garlic starts to burn, lower the heat slightly. Stir gently and then add your chicken stock and balsamic and stir again. You’ll know when the mushrooms are cooked when they begin to soften and become plump with your sauce.

Once your sauce is simmering nicely, add your chicken back to the pan and cover. You’ll want to cook your chicken evenly so be sure to uncover and turn your chicken occasionally until it’s finished. Remember: it’s okay to cut your chicken open to check on its doneness. I would rather you have already cut chicken than have under cooked chicken! 

Once done, grab your plate and get ready to serve! Help yourself to a generous amount of sauce and mushrooms and begin to dig in! Even for a mushroom hater like me, I can eat this dish forever! The sauce is so good and the hint of dill is just perfect! 

This is definitely a little more complex than we’re used to now, but the payout is great! I’m sure the Twin Adder’s are gonna love this one! 

First off, prepare your veggies and place the carrots and potatoes into either a large pot or a slow cooker. I have both but prefer the slow cooker because heat distribution is more even. I know slow cookers and things that are similar are expensive though so if you don’t have one, the large pot is going to be perfect. After that, take your chicken and slice it into medium cubes, at least an inch or inch and a half. Season the chicken with your salt and pepper.

We’re not cooking this right away though! Notice we don’t have any oil? Well I’ve got something better! BACON! Place the bacon in a hot pan and begin to fry it up. You’ll notice that it’s going to start getting greasy and bubbly and that’s exactly what we want. Yes, you guessed it, you’re going to use the bacon fat to cook our chicken.

The bacon doesn’t have to be all the way cooked here, especially since we’re just using the fat, but the more you cook it, the more fat will be rendered and the more flavour we’re gonna get for our chicken. So cook to however you’re comfortable and remove from your pan. Don’t walk away too quickly though because while the pan is still hot we need to add our chicken. Once it begins to brown on one side, add the garlic, shallot and spices except for the balsamic. 

You’re not here to cook the chicken though, just brown it so turn your chicken pieces frequently. Once your chicken is nice and golden, take your balsamic vinegar and pour it over your pan. 

Like so! This is called deglazing. What this does is quickly adds flavour to your meat or veggies but allows your to also scrape up what’s stuck to your pan. Those supposed burnt bits? They are FULL of flavour and work especially well when making stew’s because while braising, they break apart and add a rich, full bodied flavour to your dish. Now, of course, if your pain IS actually burning, you’ll need to start a new pan of chicken.

This should be your end result now. Quickly add the chicken to your pot or slow cooker along with your vegetable stock and crank the heat up. Don’t actually though! You can either cook the stew on high for three hours or low for six. I have done both and prefer the low and slow method. Gives you something to look forward to later ~

Before:

Aaaaand after:

Look at the color of the chicken! It almost mimics what you’d think antelope looks like. At this point, you are free to serve your meal to whomever you’d like or, do what I did, and package some of it away for later. The little hit of balsamic adds a really nice bite to the sauce and personally I like oregano and thyme with my chicken just to add a little more flavor.