Mom's Chicken with Coffee Barbecue Sauce (Grill Not Required!)

There are a lot of things people will do for family, take a bullet, flip a car, walk through fire.  My personal, heroic sacrifice was to make barbecued chicken for my mom's Mother's Day present.  Barbecued chicken on a rainy, cold Saturday in May. 

Honestly, I'd rather walk through fire. 

Because I don't like barbecue sauce.  It's messy and cloying and the smell of it makes me sick.  However, when I started this blog, I did it with the intention to broaden my culinary horizons and even prepare things I loathe.  One of my mother's favorite stories to tell is how she revived Christmas dinner in the 80s with a pan of barbecued chicken.  So instead of taking her out to breakfast, I started researching barbecue sauces.


I found dozens of recipes with at least 15 ingredients...molasses, brown sugar, weird peppers I have no hope of finding.  Then I stumbled upon this recipe by Michael Chiarello.  It had rave reviews, and it was distubingly simple.  I didn't even have to buy anything.  So I started cooking, making my dad taste it.  He said it was too sweet and not tangy enough.  And I wanted to add all of those funky ingredients.  But I didn't.  I trusted the recipe, the reviewers and Mr. Chiarello.  This sauce is made to be baked.  It marries the flavors and it becomes something sweet and bright and amazing.  I ate two pieces...and I actually dipped my chicken in it.  I'm a believer in the BBQ!  But only this one.


After the dinner was done, after my mom ohhed and awwed and yummed, she kissed me on the cheek and declared that this recipe was hers. 



Coffee Barbecue Sauce
Adapted from Michael Chiarello



Sauce

4 tablespoons mashed and minced garlic, can use crushed garlic

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 cups ketchup

1 1/3 to 2 cups honey

½ to ¾ cup of stronger coffee or 2 demitasse cups espresso

Mash garlic with the side of a knife and then mince finely to release oils or use crushed, jarred garlic to save prep time and weeks of garlic hands.

Add olive oil to a preheated saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute until it gets light brown, about 1 minute. Add cider vinegar, soy sauce, ketchup, honey and coffee and whisk to combine. I recommend adding 1 1/3 cup of honey as mixture will be very sweet. The coffee will help curb the sweetness. You can adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper, but it honestly doesn’t need it. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 15 to 30 minutes, stirring and tasting ocassionally.



Chicken

2 lbs of chicken thighs or your favorite cut

Salt

Black Pepper

Cumin

Garlic Powder

Cayenne

Paprika

Preheat oven to 375.

Season chicken with the spices on both sides. Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add enough olive oil to barely cover bottom of pan. When oil is hot, add chicken skin-side down. Brown thighs thoroughly on both sides, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Place chicken on foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the chicken measures 150 degrees. Pour 2 cups of sauce into a bowl and submerge chicken to coat. Place chicken back onto sheet and cook for 20 more minutes, basting with sauce every 10 minutes. Thighs internal temperature sure measure about 165 to 170 degrees when done.

Let chicken rest for 5 to 10 minutes.

Use the remaining sauce as for dipping or…drinking. It’s that good.  Freeze the remaining sauce.

Simple Wonders: Homemade Challah Bread

In the world of awesome electronics—have you seen the iPad?!—and 24-hour supermarkets, simple wonders have been lost to the ever-expanding reach of modernity and convenience. And I think that is a little sad. Yes, Amazon's Kindle is cool and playing with the iPad might make you feel like the Jean Luc Picard, but can it replace the feeling of curling up with a real book or magazine on a rainy day, feeling the grain of the pages with your fingers? For this writer, it doesn't. 


I don’t consider myself a baker. My cakes are usually messy, yet tasty disasters. And I have an allergy to too much heavy cream.  To my own credit, I have made pretty good soft pretzels, bagels and cinnamon rolls. So I’m not a complete novice and I'm baking more than ever. Whenever I use yeast, I am always quietly awed and exubertantly giddy when the dough rises. It is a little majesty, like the sparkle of fresh snow, that is worth the work and the patience baking requires. It seems impossible that a little packet of dry powder are actually microorganisms doing incredible things to flour and eggs and water.  Tell me that's not cooler than sea monkeys?!

Challah is one of those fantastic chance buys that changed my expectations of bread. I was looking for brioche—a fancy bread that the celebrity chefs covet for french toasts and bread puddings. My local grocery store didn’t have brioche, but they had challah. I was taken by the glossy finish, festive braid and the slightly sweet taste. I buy it almost exclusively now.

So it was only a matter of time before I started looking at recipes. I spent a day blending, kneading and braiding, and I fell in love with breadmaking in the process. There is something cathartic about working the dough and seeing it take shape. It’s also great cardio. I may have jumped for joy when the loaves came out of the oven and were actually bread-like, hearty but fluffy and totally Challah-esque.

If you’re at home on a rainy day and happen to have a bucket of flour and a packet of dry yeast, let those little buggers free and behold a little culinary magic.



Challah I

By Joan Calloway
Makes 2 Large Loaves

2 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1/2 cup honey

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 tablespoon salt

8 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Directions
In a large bowl, sprinkle yeast over warm water. I used a meat thermometer to test the temperature of the water. Beat in honey, oil, 2 eggs, and salt in a strong mixer with a large bowl. Add the flour one cup at a time, beating after each addition. By the eighth cup, the mixer—my Kitchen-Aid—could barely incorporate the last cup of flour. Remove it from the bowl and place on immaculate, floured countertop and knead to incorporate.

Knead until smooth and elastic and no longer sticky, adding flour as needed, about 5 to 8 minutes. If the dough tears or seems dry, dribble a bit of warm water over it with your fingers and continue to knead. Cover with a damp clean cloth and let rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until dough has doubled in bulk.

Punch down the risen dough and turn out onto floured board. Divide in half (my halves were about 1 lbs, 12 oz. Yes, I measured). Knead each half for five minutes or so, adding flour as needed to keep from getting sticky. Divide each half into thirds and roll into long snake about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Pinch the ends of the three snakes together firmly and braid from middle.

Either leave as braid or form into a round braided loaf by bringing ends together, curving braid into a circle, pinch ends together. Grease two baking trays with shortening and place finished braid or round on each. Cover with towel and let rise about one hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Beat the remaining egg and brush a generous amount over each braid.

Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for about 40 minutes. (NOTE: I convect baked bread, and my loaves were done in 25 minutes). Bread should have a nice hollow sound when thumped on the bottom.

Cool on a rack for at least one hour before slicing.

Chef’s Note: This bread has no preservatives and will spoil faster than regular bread. It also produces two gigantic loaves. I suggest halving the recipe or giving the extra loaf to co-workers or your boss. You might get those days off you wanted.

 
Challah in Pictures:


Before its first rise.


Braiding is easy.

 
Proofed and polished.

 
Ready for its close-up.