Twisted Logic: Soft Pretzels, Pretzels Rolls and Pretzel Dogs

OK. This post is looong overdue. First I haven't posted a recipe in about six months. Secondly, I teased my friends on Facebook with this one a month or two ago. Anyway... let's get to it.

The wonders of modern technology allow me to listen to Philadelphia sports radio during my drive to and from work in North Carolina. One of the commercials on the station is the owner of a pretzel company who says, "Did you know the average Philadelphian eats 12 times the amount of pretzels as the average American?" I believe it. Pretzels are ubiquitous in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. Far more than anywhere else I've ever been. And in my opinion the best pretzel of all is the soft pretzel, which is as much a staple of Philadelphia cuisine as the legendary cheesesteak.

Of course, like so many other popular foods, there are countless recipes for soft pretzels. I've found one that I think is pretty easy to make, tastes great and is versatile for some variations, including pretzel rolls, which have become a popular trend in restaurants.

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
• 1 (1/4-ounce) envelope active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
• Vegetable oil
• 2 3/4 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling (though I haven't gotten it myself yet, there's actually something called pretzel salt that is likely best for sprinkling)
• 6 cups water
• 1/4 cup baking soda

Directions

Place the warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Set aside to rest until the mixture bubbles, about 5 minutes. (If the mixture does not bubble, either the liquid was not at the correct temperature or the yeast is old.) Meanwhile, coat a large mixing bowl with a thin layer of vegetable oil and set aside.

Place the flour, sugar and 1 tsp kosher salt in a large bowl and whisk briefly to break up any lumps and combine. Once the yeast is ready, fit the bowl on the mixer, attach a dough hook and start adding in the flour mixture. Mix on the lowest setting as you add the rest of the mixture and until the dough comes together, then increase to medium speed and mix until the dough is elastic and smooth, about 8 minutes.

Form the dough into a ball, place in the oiled mixing bowl, and turn the dough to coat in oil. Cover with a clean, damp dishtowel and let rest in a warm place until the dough doubles in size, about 30 to 35 minutes.

Once the dough has risen, punch it down and knead it on a floured, dry surface just until it becomes smooth and springs back when poked, about 1 minute. Divide the dough into eight pieces.

OK. Here's where you can do some different things. 

If you want to make pretzel rolls, form the pieces into oblong rolls. Place the rolls on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray and cut four 2-inch diagonal slashes across the top of each. 

If you want to make traditional twisted pretzels, you'll need a little skill. Fortunately, thanks to some visits to the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery in Lititz, PA, the first commercial pretzel bakery in America, I am an Official Pretzel Twister, and I am here to share my knowledge.

First roll out the dough into thin ropes, like when you used to make a snake out of Play Doh as a kid. You want it probably 8-12 inches long. Now, lay it out in front of you in the shape of a U with the ends farthest away from you. Pick up the ends and cross them, switch hands, then twist so the loop at the bottom rotates a half turn so that when you put the loop back down and bring the ends down to the loop the middle interlocks. See the picture above for what it should look like. An easier way is to take two of the dough ropes and twist them together into braids. Same great taste. A lot easier to deal with. Whichever shape, place the pretzels on a sprayed baking sheet.

Finally, if you want to make pretzel dogs, roll out the long, thin ropes and wrap them around hot dogs. Place on a sprayed baking sheet.

Regardless of what form you've made, cover the pretzels with a damp towel and let the dough rise in a warm place until almost doubled in volume, about 15 to 20 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 425°F and bring the 6 cups of water to a boil in a large, deep saucepan over high heat.

Once the pretzels/rolls have risen, stir the baking soda into the boiling water (the water will foam up slightly). In batches, boil the pretzels/rolls for two minutes per side. Using a slotted spoon or spider, remove the pretzels/rolls, drain and place on the baking sheet, cut side up. Sprinkle well with salt and repeat with the remaining rolls. Fair warning: when you try twisting the pretzels, they can be very difficult to handle, especially flipping them in the water. That's why I make the long twists.

Once all the rolls are ready, place in the oven and bake until golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes

The pretzels rolls I made were great. They were firm, but light inside. The pretzels were perfect. The pretzels dogs were a huge hit with our 3-year-old.

By the way: Real Philadelphians eat soft pretzels with mustard. I prefer brown, spicy mustard.

Crumby Baked Chicken

Wow. Has it really been more than two months since I last posted? I guess things have been busy.

Well, time to get back on track with some good, simple recipes. Here's one that will help you make use of something you probably have in your kitchen that you don't know what to do with.

Admit it, you have somewhere a bag of chips or box of crackers that is approaching or already become stale. Well, you don't have to throw them away. Use them to make dinner.

Ingredients
1-2 cups of chip/cracker crumbs
bread crumbs (optional)
4 chicken breasts
1/4 cup mayonnaise
Salt and pepper

Directions
Crush up the chips/crackers. You can do it by hand, or put them in a food processor and pulse a few times. Put the crumbs in a shallow dish. Add in some bread crumbs if you think you don't have enough chip/cracker crumbs.

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Coat with mayo. Roll chicken in crumbs to evenly coat.

Place breaded chicken in a baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked.

This goes great with vegetables and a potato.

You can use any kind of chip/cracker you'd lip. I used an aging box of Cheese Nips. You can use potato chips, tortilla chips, Ritz, saltines, Doritos, whatever! And of course, you don't have to use ones that are stale. Fresh works just fine, too. The idea behind the stale ones is just to use

Intermediate Italian cooking: Chicken/Veal Parmagiana

I promised early on in this blog that I would share some of what I've learned about Italian cooking, as it's what I'm asked about the most. A few months ago, I shared a very easy started recipe in Baked Ziti. I've also shared Chicken Lombardi, Veggie & Turkey Sausage Lasagna, Chicken Cacciatore and even Pepperoni Rolls. Now, though, it's time to share another staple of Italian restaurants: Chicken/Veal Parmagiana. In this instance, I'm gonna give you the recipe based on chicken, because that's what I just made, but it works just the same veal.

Now one thing I've learned the last few years is an amazing bit of culinary magic. If you want to take a small amount of food and make it look like a big amount of food, change the form is some way of a chicken breast. Dice it, shred it, flatten it, slice it. Whatever you do, you'll probably be amazed how much chicken you actually have in the end, and this recipe for Chicken Parmagiana proves it.

To make this dish, you'll need to pound chicken breasts flat. This accomplishes a couple of things. Most importantly it helps ensure even cooking, which is very important with chicken. It also helps stretch what you have.

There are a couple of ways to flatten out the chicken. First, lay out a boneless, skinless chicken breast on a cutting board and cover it with a sheet of plastic wrap that is at least three times the size as the pieces of meat. I use the flat side of a meat hammer/tenderizer to gently pound out the chicken to about a half-inch thick. If you don't have a meat hammer, you can use a rolling pin to roll it out under the plastic wrap. When you flatten them out, the chicken breasts will be quite large. I recommend cutting each in half, giving you eight pieces in all.

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts, rolled to about 1/2-inch thick
Salt and pepper
3/4 cup flour
3 eggs, beaten
1-2 cups Italian style bread crumbs
1/4 cup olive oil, divided
2 jars spaghetti sauce, divided
2 cups shredded mozzarella or Italian mix cheese
Oregano
1 lb pasta of your choice

Directions
Pound chicken out and cut into eight pieces as described above. Season each piece with salt and pepper on both sides.

Set up a breading station using three shallow dishes. The first dish has the flour, the second the beaten eggs, the third the bread crumbs.

Working in batches, bread the chicken by coating with flour, then eggs, then bread crumbs. Make sure in each step to get full coverage and too shake off the excess.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, heat some of the olive oil (enough to coat the pan) and place the breaded chicken in the skillet. You should be able to do half the chicken in each batch. Cook for about three minutes on each side until you have a golden brown crust. Keep in mind, you do not have to cook the chicken completely in this step. The goal is to sear in the juices and get the crust just right.

Using one of the jars of spaghetti sauce, spread a little of it across the bottom of a large baking dish. Layer the dish with the fried chicken cutlets. If your dish is large enough, you can make two layers, which is preferable. Mine was not, so I made two layers. Spread some of the sauce on top of each cutlet (using the entire jar by the time you're done), then top with the shredded cheese. Sprinkle with some oregano and/or other Italian spices.

Bake in a 375-degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and starts to brown. Make sure the chicken is cooked inside, which it should be.

While the chicken is baking, make the pasta as directed and heat up the other jar of sauce. Serve the pasta (I used rigatoni) along side the chicken. I suggest some garlic bread and a salad, too!

It may seem like a lot, but this is really a very simple recipe, and it's well worth the effort. Try this, and you'll probably never bother getting chicken (or veal) parm in a restaurant again, because you can do it just as well at home.

Unless you're having a lot of people over for dinner, you'll probably have a lot of leftovers, so you can certainly cut this recipe in half if you'd like. Of course, Italian leftovers are the best, so enjoy for a few days. You can even make a chicken parm sandwich!

Game Day Eats: Kickin' Chicken Philly

We're getting close to kick-off for the Super Bowl, so it's time for another game day idea. Of course, chicken wings are popular dish. So are sandwiches. So try out this recipe that combines the best of both worlds.

The very first recipe I posted on this blog was a copycat of one of my favorite sandwiches at a restaurant here called Two Guys Grille. Well, since then I've found a new favorite at Two Guys called the Kickin' Chicken Philly, so I decided to try my own version.

Now as you may know, as a native of the Philadelphia area, I'm something of a cheesesteak purist. The cheesesteaks/chicken cheesesteaks at Two Guys typically include green peppers, but green peppers are not a traditional ingredient in a cheesesteak (You can usually find a pepper steak on the menu at real cheesesteak places, but it's usually at the bottom of the menu. Bottom line is that green peppers are NOT a staple ingredient.), so I leave them out. The Two Guys sandwich also calls for jalapenos, and I've just never been the biggest fan, so I left them out. You, of course, are welcome to add back in the peppers as you wish.

Ingredients (per sandwich)
1 chicken breast, thinly sliced
Olive oil
Chopped onion
Sliced mushrooms
Hot sauce/Buffalo wing sauce to taste
2 slices white American cheese
1 hoagie roll

Directions
Slice a chicken breast as thinly as you can. The thinner the better. Marinate the chicken in the hot/wing sauce.

On a hot griddle or frying pan, heat up a little olive oil. When it's hot, add the onions and cook a little. Push them out to the edge and add the chicken. Turn over the sliced chicken and add the mushrooms. Mix the chicken, mushrooms and onions together until the chicken and mushrooms are cooked. Top with cheese slices and continue to heat until the cheese starts to melt. Pile everything into a hoagie roll.

You can top your sandwich with what you'd like. In this case, I added some ketchup and tomato slices. If I'd had some lettuce, I would've added that, as well.

Game Day Eats: Bacon Mushroom Sliders

Looking for some meal ideas for Super Bowl Sunday? I'll give you a couple new ones this week starting  with this one.

To be honest, I'm not sure what all the fascination the last several years has been with "sliders." For those that don't know, sliders are just small hamburgers. They get their name, as I understand it, from the tendency of White Castle burgers to slide right through you. In the last decade, though, they've become something of a culinary, but when all is said and done, they're just small hamburgers.

I decided to make them, to get my two-year-old to try something different, and it worked. So be creative with these and do with them what you'd like.

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
A few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
Garlic powder
3 slices of bacon
3 slices of cheese
Sliced mushrooms
Slider rolls (or small dinner rolls)

Directions
Fry up the bacon until crisp. Saute the mushrooms in some of the bacon drippings. Keep bacon and mushrooms warm on the side.

Mix the beef with Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder. Divide it up to make six small patties. Grill the burgers or cook them in a frying pan. Two to three minutes on each side should be plenty. Top each with half a slice of bacon, half a slice of cheese and some mushroom slices, plus your favorite burger toppings.

As I said, the little man like these burgers built to his scale. He also enjoyed the baked sweet potato fries on the side.

Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore

My father is Italian. My mother is Irish. When they were dating, the first meal she made for him was chicken cacciatore. That was bold. But she forgot the spaghetti. That was a little embarrassing, and a cute story she's told many times, which makes a dish a sentimental favorite for me.

Now silly family stories aside, chicken cacciatore is a truly classic Italian dish. Translated, it means hunter chicken, and alla cacciatora means a dish prepared hunter-style. Now real chicken cacciatore involves braising the chicken slowly in wine, etc. But we don't have time for that in our busy lives, right? Of course not. But we do have a Crock Pot that will let us make a simplified yet delicious facsimile of the classic recipe.

Ingredients1 lb chicken
1 onion cut into eight pieces
1 green pepper cut into strips
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 small can tomato paste
1 lb pasta of your choice

DirectionsFirst a word about the chicken. Traditionally, you should use a cut up chicken still with the bones in. I find that a little more difficult to eat, especially when you're feeding it to children, so I prefer to use boneless chicken. When I made this the other day, I used breasts, but you can use whatever pieces of the chicken you'd like, including boneless thighs, which are readily available in your grocery store's meat department.

OK. Now that we have our chicken, put it in a Crock Pot. I like to put it in when the meat is still at least partly frozen so that it hold together a little better during a full-day's stewing. Next add in the onion and green pepper. Dump in the spaghetti sauce and the tomato paste. (I added this ingredient to the recipe even though I didn't use it myself the other day, because I found the sauce to be a little thin in the end, and I think the paste will help thicken it. I will update the recipe the next time I try it.)

Turn the Crock Pot on low, put on the lid and go to work. Dinner will be pretty much ready when you get home. All you'll have to do it make the pasta (I used rigatoni) when you get home.

Sorry for the bad photo. I'll update this, as well, the next time I make this.

The chicken will be fork tender. Serve it over pasta with some garlic bread and a side salad. It doesn't get much easier than this, and is perfect for a chilly day.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

This is a family classic. My grandmother used to make this, and it is one of my Dad's favorites, so it's something we had fairly regularly, especially in the winter.

Now for those of you expecting regular old mac and cheese, think again. This is not a side dish. This is a meal in and of itself, though I seem to remember my grandmother occasionally serving it with baked flounder. But if you're looking for some serious comfort food, especially when it's cold, this is a legitimate, stick-to-your-ribs kinda meal. And on top of that, it's pretty darn easy to make. 

Ingredients

1 quart whole milk (you want to use whole milk, because you need the fat in it, or else the milk will cook off)

2 lbs. sharp cheddar (The traditional family recipe is white cheddar, but I like to use yellow as well just for color. The sharper the cheese the better!)

1 pound macaroni

Butter

Salt and pepper

Bread crumbs (I prefer Italian style)

Directions
Cook macaroni. Coat a large baking dish with cooking spray. Spread a layer of cooked macaroni in the dish and top with butter and cheese. Repeat until everything is used up with the top layer of cheese, sprinkling in a little salt and pepper as you go. Carefully pour in milk. You may not use it all. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top. Bake for at least 30 minutes at 350 until everything gets bubbly and melty, the milk is curdled and the top is well browned.

Again, this is not your usual mac and cheese. This is milky and a little messy, but oh, so good!

Cheesy Chicken Rolls

Full disclosure right off the top: This is not my recipe, and I don't know whose it is.

My Aunt RoseMary made this years ago during a trip I made to Illinois when I was in college, and I've always loved it. It does take a little time, which means it's nice for a Sunday afternoon, when you have a little extra time to cook. Believe me, it is worth the wait.

Ingredients
6 chicken breast halves, boned
garlic salt and onion salt to taste
1 small jar button mushrooms, drained (Per Aunt RoseMary's preference, I use regular mushrooms)
1/2 lb sharp cheddar cheese, cut into cubes
1/2 c. melted butter
1 1/2 c. cracker crumbs (saltines)
2 tsp dried parsley flakes

DirectionsPound breast halves until flat. Sprinkle with garlic and onion salts. Place one mushroom and one cube of cheese in center of breast and roll tightly. Hold it together with toothpicks. Dip chicken roll in melted butter. Mix cracker crumbs with parsley; roll chicken in crumb mixture. Place in buttered casserole. Cover. Bake at 300 for 1hr 30 min. Remove cover, Pour cream of chicken soup over rolls and bake 30 more minutes uncovered.

As you can see, it makes a great, creamy, cheesy sauce, which goes very well over egg noodles. It goes nicely with a green veggie on the side.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Don't forget to take out the toothpicks, especially if you're serving it to children. I make sure to use two toothpicks in each so that I know exactly how many to take out.