Hey guys this week's episode of basics
is not only sponsored by Blue Apron, it
is itself a love letter to quick
weeknight meals. Blue Apron is a meal kit
delivery service that's a great option
for anybody who's trying to cook more,
cook healthier, or cook more deliciously.
The first hundred people to use the link
in this video's description to sign up
for blue apron will get $50 off their
first two weeks. We'll get back to that
later, for now let's get down to basics....
Okay, so as far as weeknights a great
place to start is the one pot meal I
first posted this dish to Reddit like
four years ago and it's stuck by my side
ever since. We're starting by peeling and
cubing 2 sweet potatoes pushing those
aside so we can peel, core, and dice 2
granny smith apples. You want to use this
or any other good baking Apple because
we're gonna be well, baking this Apple, so
chop that up into similarly bite-sized
pieces and we're gonna mince up some
fresh sage. So there we go, we got the
foundation now let's go build us a house.
Into a lightly oiled ripping hot
stainless steel or cast iron skillet we
are placing four chicken thighs skin
side down.
We've already seasoned the skin side now
we're gonna season the meat with salt
and freshly ground pepper and then we're
not touching these until they are deeply
brown and pull away freely from the
bottom of the pot. Are they still stuck?
Well ain't done yet! Pace around
nervously as we let the other side of
the chicken get a little bit of color
but we're not trying to cook these
through we're just trying to crisp up
the skin and we're trying to get some of
this stuff on the bottom of the pot. Y'all know what this is: bond. Right now
it's swimming in a whole bunch of extra
chicken fast so we're gonna drain off
most of it, reserving about a tablespoon
into which we are depositing our sweet
potato and apple. We're sauteing these
over medium heat for about five to seven
minutes. Again, not to cook them through
just to give them some color and then we
are deglazing with the good stuff: a
little bit of bourbon. If you know what
you're doing and you've got a fire
extinguisher nearby you can go ahead and
flambé the rest of the liquor off but
this is mostly just for showboating.
Doesn't really do much for the flavor to
this we're going to add a little whisper
of chicken stock just enough so that you
can see it pooling underneath the
potatoes and apples, we're not trying to
braise this thing we're just trying to
eventually create a sauce. Add the minced fresh sage and toss around let everybody
get to know each other and then we're
bringing the chicken back to the party.
Making sure that skin is not submerged
in the liquid and then this guy's going
in a preheated 375 degree fahrenheit
oven while we toast up some pecans.
Then once the thickest part of the
chicken thighs have reached 175 degrees
Fahrenheit these guys are ready for
extradition I'm gonna give this a little
squeeze of lemon but I hope you can see
how you can change this up to make it
your own. You could swap the sweet
potatoes and apples for root vegetables
you could change out bourbon for white
wine, or garnish with hazelnuts or
almonds instead of
pecans, add onions or shallots in the
earlier stages instead of garnishing
with chives. The basic concept here is
did part cook your chicken by getting it
nice and crisp and sautéing and
deglazing whatever starches fruits or
vegetables you have underneath in that
sense it really all comes down to timing
and an excellent exercise in timing is
sheet pan dinners. In this case we're
gonna do a starch, a vegetable, and a
protein all on the same sheet pan in the
same oven. For starch I'm going with halved
baby Yukon Golds that I'm coating an
olive oil, salt, and freshly ground pepper
tossing to combine and then dumping onto
a preheated sheet pan that I've had
waiting in a 400 degree fahrenheit oven
for about 20 minutes
placing them cut side down this is gonna
help them pick up a little bit of extra
color and they're going in the oven
first as they take the longest to cook
about 40 minutes all told. That gives us
25 minutes to prep our vegetables in
this case: asparagus. I'm using the old
bend to snap method which after a Google
search I discovered is a myth so just
cut these... tossing with olive oil, kosher
salt, and freshly ground pepper. Then
we're whipping up a quick sauce for our
protein in this case: salmon. So I'm gonna
go with some crushed garlic, the juice of
one lemon; which you might notice I
pressed and rolled there.. That actually
helps the juice come out more easily when squeezed, a nice little teaspoon of
Dijon mustard, a good glug of olive oil,
some kosher salt, and freshly ground
pepper. There are so many different
directions that you could take this
little vinaigrette but this one responds
particularly well to the heat of the
oven. Next up, we're contending with our
salmon fillets which I'm just gonna make
sure are free of bones... Fish mongers
don't always get all the bones so always
give your fillets a little squeeze
before generously coating in your
vinaigrette and now we're scooting the
potatoes off of the side which you can
see if picked up some lovely brown color
and since the salmon and asparagus have
roughly the same cook time about- 15
minutes they're getting arranged side by
side on the sheet pan and back into the
oven they go until the salmon registers
125 degrees Fahrenheit at its thickest
point. Now if any elements of the sheet
pan dinner is undercooked
just remove the finished elements put
them under foil keep them warm until
everybody is ready to go. Garnish a
little bit of parsley like I did if you
want; and you've got yourself one super
easy super quick super delicious
weeknight dinner. Now there is a whole
other strata of
so the easy weeknight dinners that we
haven't yet discussed and that is: pasta.
So we're gonna try out blue aprons
creamy pesto cavatelli and this is an
excellent exercise in 'mise en place,' making
sure that we have everything in its
place.
Let me just read the directions here... All
right, so we're starting by taking the
zucchini cutting it into quarters
lengthwise, and then slicing into
manageable mouth sized pieces.
Likewise with a carton of cocktail
tomatoes we're cutting these into quarters, but it's a sliding scale based on what's
a reasonable size for your mouth,
something that we're chopping down to
sub mouth sized pieces is garlic. Three
cloves worth, finely chopped and now
we're ready to move over to the stove.
Just got to get everything off our knife...
Here there we go, we've got a nonstick
skillet heating over medium-high heat
into it goes a splash of olive oil and
we're starting with our zucchini. Tossing
it just a coat and then letting it sit
so it gets some nice brown flavorful
facets while we negotiate our pasta.
Boiling for I think it said seven
minutes we got some color going on the
zucchini so we're getting that a little
toss, and firing the flames and then I'm
deviating from protocol here and adding
the tomatoes because I want them to get
a little bit cooked. I personally like
not totally raw tomatoes in my pasta.
Then, we're adding the garlic and some
red pepper flake if desired- if you want
a little bit of heat- tossing that until
fragrant and then draining our pasta
reserving one-half cup of pasta water if
you haven't learned by now pasta water
is the stuff from which dreams are made.
We're adding both the pasta and the
pasta water to the skillet adding the
little included pat of creme fraiche and
stirring rounds of those flavors so they can get
to know each other, and that pasta can
soak up all that delicious flavorful
liquid. Now just before killing the heat
we're going to add about a cup of baby
spinach. We want this to just wilt from
the heat of the pan so give it a little
toss kill the heat, and then we're adding
the pesto. We want to avoid actively
heating pesto as that dulls the flavor
of the basil. So we're just starting that
making sure everything is incorporated
and most importantly tasting for
seasoning. We are then seasoning to taste, tossing to combine, and plating up for
dinner. As you can see blue apron once
again saves the day with quick beautiful
meals featuring instructions you can
follow and ingredients you can pronounce..
and again the first hundred people to
sign up using the link in this video's
description will get $50 off their first
two weeks. I hope you guys try making
these meals for yourselves put your own
spin on it and see how lovely and fresh
a meal you can make fast
than it takes to order a pizza.
