Friday, 6/25/2010

It was "Meet Your Neighbors Night" at the Ackers home tonight. We've lived in our house for over four years. Three years ago, Mike and Cary moved in a couple houses away on the other side of the street. A year and a half ago, Bonnie and Ian moved in next to Mike and Cary. We've always been friendly with each other, but our conversations have always been brief and outside in front of our houses. We learned earlier this year that Bonnie and Ian are expecting a baby, Oliver, next month. It seemed like a good time to get to know each other better. So, tonight we invited them to come over for dinner.

Our friend Lyn offered to share the recipe for the delicious orange chicken we had at her house a couple weeks ago. I accepted excitedly! Not only did she share the recipe, she gave me most of the ingredients. I only had to pick up cinnamon sticks and chicken breasts. The rest of the ingredients I already had or she gave me. Thanks Lyn! (Recipe at the bottom of the post followed by my comments.)

To go with the chicken, our neighbors brought over several pasta salads they purchased at local grocery stores. They were all quite yummy. We finished the meal with vanilla ice cream with Special Dark Hershey's chocolate syrup. Oh yes, and we had quite a bit of delicious wine. We started with a Malbec, followed it with a Red Table Wine, and then had a Pinot Nior. At the end of the night, we feel like we have some really good neighbors:)

POLLO PIBIL
From "Cafe Pasqual's Cookbook" by Katharine Kagel

It is best to let the chicken marinate for 24 hours.
Serves 6.

Ingredients:
4 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 Mexican cinnamon stick, about 3 inches
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 1/2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
1/2 cup achiote paste (see note below)
3 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons finely minced garlic
2 cups fresh orange juice
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespooons stemmed fresh marjoram leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried marjoram leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
6 chicken breast halves

Directions:

To prepare the chicken, combine the cumin, cinnamon, and cloves in a small, dry saute pan over medium heat. Roast, shaking the pan frequently, until the aromas are released, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool. Place the spices in a spice mill or coffee grinder and grind until pulverized. Alternatively, pulverize in a mortar using a pestle.

Combine spices with all of the remaining ingredients, except the chicken, in a blender or food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process just long enough to incorporate.

Put the chicken breasts in a shallow glass dish. Pour the spice mixture evenly over the top to cover completely. Cover and place in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 24 hours or up to 36 hours, turning frequently.

Grill and enjoy!

Ok, if you read the directions above, you know this is a homemade marinade. Usually, I marinade with store-bought packets of seasoning that I only have to add water, oil, and vinegar to. The prep time for this one took me by surprise.

I was not prepared to have to roast and pulverize spices. We have a coffee grinder, but grinding spices in it was outlawed by Ben in our house several years ago after a fennel seed experiment. He could taste fennel in his coffee for weeks. So, I tried to pulverize the spices in our food processor. It worked a little. After letting it "process" for several minutes, I decided that not much more was going to happen there. I tried to crush the big pieces of cinnamon and cloves with a spoon in a bowl. That didn't do anything. So, I sifted out the pulverized spices and tossed out the remaining large pieces. I knew that might affect the balance of the marinade, but didn't have much of a choice. It was already 10pm and I still had work to do.

For the achiote paste, I used two packets of Sazon Goya's Con Culantro y Achiote. The recipe says to use a paste, and the packets say to add water, but I did neither. I just used two packets of this seasoning per Lyn's instructions and it was great. There is already a lot of liquid in the marinade; there is no need for more.

I had to squeeze 7 limes in order to get a 1/2 cup of juice. Lyn gave me 4 and I used 3 that I had at home. All were pretty tough and would not release their juices. That was another time suck. Thankfully, the rest of the ingredients were easy to measure out without additional preparation. I did manage to not read the last bit of the instructions that said to turn the chicken breasts frequently in the marinade. Just saw that now. Oops! I can now say, from experience, that the chicken will still taste wonderful, even if you only use a portion of the spices and forget to turn the breasts over in the marinade.

Now that I know what it takes to make this marinade, I am going to invest in a spice grinder. This recipe is DEFINITELY worth making again.