Chicken recipes that don't taste like chicken?

Himself has a great many admirable qualities, including an adventurous palate and an enthusiasm for a wide range of foods. Thus I humor him in his few culinary dislikes, but working around his distaste for poultry can be a challenge. I love chicken and duck, especially, and enjoy turkey and game birds. Usually, I get my poultry fix at restaurants. Right now, however, I have several chickens in the freezer -- a gift, with more promised in future.

They are fryers, and experience tells me they make disappointing broth, and besides, I have plenty of chicken broth frozen already. So I am looking for other things to do with them that Himself might like.

I suppose the best kind of thing would be dishes that have strongly flavored sauces or combine the chicken with other foods. I made a chicken curry he thought was OK, but I'm hoping to get a more positive reaction than that.

The chickens are either whole birds or quarters. I can bone them if necessary, and it probably will be, because the bones are one of Himself's objections to fowl. Boning raw poultry is not a procedure I enjoy, though, so I'd just as soon do it after cooking, if possible. Dishes that incorporate cooked chicken would be ideal.

I welcome your ideas and recipes.

Chicken is a great carrier of flavors. What I might suggest is splitting a chicken, soaking in a citrus solution an hour or two (orange juice, lemon juice, etc), put lemon slices on the chicken then slather with orange marmalade before roasting. I often do this on the grill in summertime as well.

Bacon wrapped chicken breasts stuffed with cheese and peppers often overpowers the chicken taste.

My mother used to make stuffed peppers with spicy rice and chicken. The chicken was more for a texture than taste as I remember it was so overpowered.

Mix shredded chicken in with pulled pork? One of the coka-cola chicken recipes?

I did once have (I do not remember what it was called) a dish that was two layers each of thin steak and flattened chicken slices with chopped vadalia onion and garlic seasoning in each layer. Wrapped up
and served with wild rice and a thick beef gravy. The same place also had a version where the outer layer was seasoned ham used like bacon slices and no gravy.

My only other suggestion would be buffalo Mac and cheese wrapped in a puff pastry shell.

Sorry I could not help more.....

Jon

I remembered one I haven't had in ages that was always good.
Chicken potato pancakes. Mix left over diced chicken (or chicken and ham) in with the mix.

You could make a pasta recipe or casserole and chop the chicken up in small dice so its kind of disguised.

There's always this famous Turkish chicken dessert. Only had it once or twice myself, but it's definitely not chicken-y.

mtgl wrote:There's always this famous Turkish chicken dessert. Only had it once or twice myself, but it's definitely not chicken-y.

Sounds interesting. But not like something he'd like, either.

What sorts of flavors/textures does he enjoy? That might help me in the creativity department here.

Dad used to like diced chicken in with his corned beef hash. I do not like corned beef hash, so I have no opinion.

sdbond wrote:What sorts of flavors/textures does he enjoy? That might help me in the creativity department here.

I just asked him to name six of his favorite foods. He said, "Sushi, bibimbap and NY strip steak," before he asked me, "Why?" and stopped. The only one that has potential there is the bibimbap, but he probably wouldn't like it if it were made from chicken.

Really, he's not fussy, and more adventurous than that list would make you think.

Put the chicken in the crockpot with a bottle of your favorite Italian dressing or some stock. You will end up with fall off the none chicken. Pull out the bones and add bbq sauce (or some other interesting sauce and you have pulled chicken.

I'm thinking of trying him on coq au vin. If I use smoky bacon instead of blanched and take the chicken off the bones after cooking, it could work. I might try a paprikash as well. He responded well to a chicken curry (which means he grudgingly admitted it was OK).

On the other hand, this might be moot, because the freezer died and the chickens are currently sitting in a cooler outdoors, with forecasts of above-freezing weather, and no diagnosis yet of what the problem is.

What about Country Captain? I've made it a few times for my father in law who is not a fan of chicken and he likes it.
http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/10401/Country-Captain-Chicken.html

Oh no! Again with the fridge/freezer?

LAZ wrote:I'm thinking of trying him on coq au vin. If I use smoky bacon instead of blanched and take the chicken off the bones after cooking, it could work. I might try a paprikash as well. He responded well to a chicken curry (which means he grudgingly admitted it was OK).

Ooo...if he liked the chicken curry, maybe you want to try Donald Link's (author of "Real Cajun") chicken sauce piquant. That recipe gets raves every time I make it. It's pretty straight-forward, but lovely. Key is make sure you develop the roux to medium brown/peanut butter there. I find five minutes is a bit optimistic, but it's possible my stove doesn't get as hot, so go by your instinct and senses.

Ms. Ingie wrote:Oh no! Again with the fridge/freezer?

Afraid so. The problem seems to be intermittent, some kind of issue with the defrost cycle, but having been burned twice now, I'm not inclined to load it up again until we're sure it's fixed.

Thanks, Diane, Binko. Both of those recipes have real potential, although I guess I'm going to get in practice at boning raw birds. (I know the country captain just calls for cutting it into 12 pieces, but I'm sure that Himself will like little pieces of bone-in chicken even less than he likes big pieces of bone-in chicken.)

LAZ I was going to suggest Coq au Vin. If you brown the meat well, you will pull out some richer flavors. Using smoky bacon helps as well; I always use a nice thick cut bacon. I understand the aversion with bones; for me it's bones and gristly-bits (*shudder*). Is it possible he would prefer the breast meat over thigh meat?

I have some other recipes that are stronger in flavors other than chicken. Let me take a spin through them and see what I can find.

LAZ wrote:Thanks, Diane, Binko. Both of those recipes have real potential, although I guess I'm going to get in practice at boning raw birds. (I know the country captain just calls for cutting it into 12 pieces, but I'm sure that Himself will like little pieces of bone-in chicken even less than he likes big pieces of bone-in chicken.)

Now I'm wondering about slow-smoked chicken? Smoked with hickory chips? I can still conjure up the taste of my dad's "magical" chicken; I've never tasted anything else like it. Sigh.

Sharon

dees_1 wrote:Is it possible he would prefer the breast meat over thigh meat?

He definitely does. And I like dark meat best, so that works out.

Sdbond, smoked chicken would be preferable, but unfortunately I'm not able to do the smoking. I've been considering tea-smoking some of it, but it's a very long process.

I did a modified tandoori-style chicken the other day that got a qualified OK. ("This is pretty good ... for chicken.") I rubbed the chicken with spices and yogurt and then broiled it.

LAZ,
Sorry I have been out of touch, email me so I can drop off the smokers to you.

LAZ wrote:

dees_1 wrote:Is it possible he would prefer the breast meat over thigh meat?

He definitely does. And I like dark meat best, so that works out.

Sdbond, smoked chicken would be preferable, but unfortunately I'm not able to do the smoking. I've been considering tea-smoking some of it, but it's a very long process.

I did a modified tandoori-style chicken the other day that got a qualified OK. ("This is pretty good ... for chicken.") I rubbed the chicken with spices and yogurt and then broiled it.

Liquid smoke? Ha ha, kidding!

I had a tea-smoked dish at a restaurant in Chapel Hill a few years back, and it was quite delicious, so maybe for a special treat on a birthday or anniversary?

Sharon

Cook's has a pretty slick way to tea smoke. See their Sept. 2006 issue.

Geo

I have done a fair amount of stovetop tea smoking, a process that involves a wok and a lot of aluminum foil. I usually do turkey breasts, but I'm sure chicken will work. The recipe takes three or four days. First the poultry is rubbed with salt and spices and marinated a couple of days; then it's smoked, then steamed to complete cooking. My guess is that Himself, who is not overly enthused by the turkey, but will eat it in sandwiches, will like tea-smoked chicken even less.

I just read an article in the most-recent issue of Cook's Illustrated about how to smoked fish or chicken breast indoors with a homemade contraption. It seemed very labor-intensive and the caveats about ventilation gave me pause. However, something to consider!

Sharon

Maybe a chicken confit, or oil poached chicken.

Recently, I found that I had enough saved rendered chicken fat that I could submerge 10 skinless thighs in it. Added a whole bunch of thyme, rosemary, some sage and marjoram. Placed in a slow cooker, ran it up to about 160F while on hi, and then turned down to keep warm for about 5 hours. Meat fell off the bones. Strained the liquid, put the meat back in and chilled for a day. The meat was completely infused w. the herbal flavor, and the bit of gel that formed under the fat turned into a reasonable sauce.

Also, did a half chicken in (I think) canola oil w. lots of sage. 155F for about 6 hours. Again, meat shredded off the bones, and the leftovers were already just about the consistency of chicken salad.