Shrimp and Grits

In my never-ending list of things I've either never tried or never liked, I have always placed grits somewhere firmly at the top. I'm not a mush kind of gal; I dislike mashed potatoes, do not care for oatmeal, etc. So it should come as no surprise that I never even attempted eating or making grits before in my life. But then, a funny thing happened. I asked my husband what meal he would like me to prepare for his birthday dinner, and I was fully expecting him to say Chicken and Dumplings. Well, he didn't. Instead, he asked me to make Shrimp and Grits. He's never actually had Shrimp and Grits as a meal before, but he loves shrimp and he loves grits separately. Turns out, he's always wanted to try it together. Determined to make him proud, I figured I would make this for him, and then make up my mind when I was serving it about whether I would give it a taste.



It's actually super simple to make. Now, admittedly, I did cheat a little bit, and I used quick-cooking grits rather than making my own from scratch, with cornmeal. Other than that, I was pretty faithful to the recipe. I found this recipe in my Bobby Flay's Throwdown cookbook, and although Bobby did not take home the crown in the Shrimp and Grits battle, I was still drawn to his version above the other one. The grits are simmered in shrimp stock, which you make from scratch using shrimp shells and tails and assorted vegetables. Then, they're finished with a heaping pile of white cheddar cheese and a touch of heavy cream. The shrimp is sauteed in bacon fat infused with garlic, then piled on top of the cheesy, creamy grits. The bacon (which of course is the source of that bacon fat) and some green onion is scattered over the top. Not including the time it took to make the homemade shrimp stock, this whole meal can be on the table in half an hour, so you can't beat it for its fast prep.

So, the verdict? Hubby was actually pretty underwhelmed by it, and I actually really liked it! Totally not the two reactions I was expecting, to be sure! It's not that my hubby hated it, but he kept saying it just was not what he thought it would be. I think because the recipe had Bobby Flay's name attached to it, he was anticipating some spice or heat to the shrimp. He also said it was his first time eating cheesy grits that were so creamy, and that it was just okay. I was a bit disappointed about his reaction, since it was his special dinner. He still ate two huge helpings, though, so it wasn't a complete loss!

I had a really small portion, since I didn't know how I would feel about it, but I could have eaten more. The shrimp was juicy and crisp, and of course bacon fat always makes things better. The grits were definitely creamy, but I didn't mind the texture nearly as much as I thought I would. The cheesiness and the shrimp stock really enhanced the grits for me; it gave it great flavor, as opposed to reducing the grits to a flavorless pile in the bowl. So, I survived my first helping of Shrimp and Grits, and I would even be so bold as to say I might even eat it again!





Bobby Flay's Gulf Shrimp and Grits
adapted from Bobby Flay's Throwdown
makes 4 servings

Ingredients
4 cups shrimp stock (recipe follows)
Kosher salt
1 cup stome-ground yellow cornmeal
8 oz. thick-cut, double-smoked bacon, cut into 1-inch-long matchsticks
20 large (21- to 24-count) shrimp, shelled and deveined
Freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
1 1/2 cups (6 oz.) grated white cheddar cheese
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 green onions, thinly sliced, for garnish

Directions
1. Bring the shrimp stock and 2 tsp. salt to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Slowly whisk in the cornmeal and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, whisking every few minutes, until the grits are soft and have lost their gritty texture, 25 to 30 minutes. If the mixture becomes too thick, add a little more stock.

2. Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a medium skillet over medium heat until it is golden brown and crisp and the fat has rendered, about 8 minutes. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towels.

3. Remove all but 3 Tbsp. of the bacon fat from the skillet, and return it to high heat. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper. Add the shrimp, garlic, and thyme, in batches, if necessary, to the skillet and saute until the shrimp are light golden brown on both sides and just cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Remove the shrimp to a plate. Reserve the garlic oil left in the skillet.

4. Stir the cheese and heavy cream into the cooked grits, and whisk until smooth; season with salt and pepper. Divide the grits among 4 bowls, and top each with 5 shrimp. Drizzle with some of the garlic oil from the skillet, and sprinkle with the green onions.


Shrimp Stock
from Bobby Flay's Throwdown
makes about 8 cups

Ingredients
2 Tbsp. canola oil
4 cups raw shrimp shells and tails
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 small carrot, coarsely chopped
1/2 medium celery stalk, coarsely chopped
1 cup dry white wine
1 medium tomato, chopped, or 1/2 cup chopped canned plum tomatoes
1 bay leaf
8 black peppercorns

Directions
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over high heat until almost smoking. Add the shrimp shells and tails, onion, carrot, and celery, and saute, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add the wine and boil until reduced by half. Add 8 cups cold water, the tomato, bay leaf, and peppercorns.

2. Reduce the heat to medium, cover partially, and simmer for 40 minutes. Strain the stock through cheesecloth or a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl.

Adobo Seasoned Chicken and Rice

A good friend of mine recently bought me a copy of Bobby Flay's wonderful new cookbook, Bobby Flay's Throwdown, and I could not wait to crack this puppy open and start cooking from it. If for some reason you're not familiar with Bobby Flay's Food Network show of the same name, here's a quick rundown. Iron Chef Bobby Flay travels all over the country, challenging unsuspecting cooks to make their signature dish while he cooks his own version of the same dish. Then, after both sides have prepared their dishes, the lucky crowd who has been watching it all take place get to sample all the delicious food. At the end of each episode, the dishes are judged and a winner of the throwdown is declared. It's all very entertaining, and almost every single time both dishes sound amazing. Honestly, I don't know how it's not a tie each time!

So, I started out by making Bobby's chicken wings, but they disappeared before I even had a chance to blog about them. They were pretty darn tasty, so I was eager to try something else. Next up was Bobby's Adobo Seasoned Chicken and Rice. This dish was up against a more traditional Arroz con Pollo (chicken and rice) on the show, and even though Bobby's take on it did not win, we thought it was truly divine in its own right.



I think the secret to the whole thing is his adobo seasoning. A flavorful blend of spices is rubbed into the chicken before you brown all the pieces in a Dutch oven. You finish baking off the chicken in the oven, and then you start making the rice in the Dutch oven. The flavor left behind in the pot becomes part of the rice mixture, and just simmers away and gets all deeply ingrained in all the veggies and the rice. It's magical. Then you stir in some peas and allow the rice to finish cooking. Towards the end, you add in olives (Bobby threw in some fresh cilantro and parsley, too, but I didn't have any that day) and freshly squeezed lemon juice (Bobby had a lime; I did not!), and finally the chicken goes back in, now that it has fully cooked in the oven.

Boy, did we love this dish! To me, it bore a strong resemblance to paella, which is a dish I have made several times. However, this one is a bit simpler, and packs a sneaky punch. It's got all these layers of flavor; the flavor of the chicken itself, the flavor the chicken imparts on the rice, the flavor of all the different veggies, and then that salty kick from the olives. Plus, it was so homey and comforting on a chilly evening. I don't know what the winning dish on this episode of Throwdown tasted like, but I can tell you that this one totally deserves the crown. Don't take my word for it, though. I think you should try it yourself!




Adobo Seasoned Chicken and Rice
adapted from the Food Network
makes about 8 servings

Ingredients
2 Tbsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. granulated garlic
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. granulated onion
1 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp. ground turmeric
1 Tbsp. fresh oregano leaves, finely chopped
4 chicken thighs, with skin, cut in 1/2
4 chicken breasts, with skin, cut in 1/2 lengthwise
5 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large Spanish onion, finely diced
1 medium green bell pepper, finely diced
1 medium red bell pepper, finely diced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced (Bobby used a serrano)
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, reconstituted in warm water (Bobby used 3 plum tomatoes, seeded and finely diced)
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 cups long-grain rice (we used 1 cup)
4 3/4 cups chicken stock (we used 2 cups)
1 bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup pimento-stuffed green olives (Bobby used a combination of green olives and picholine olives, but I don't even know what a picholine olive is!)
Squeeze of lemon juice

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Mix together the first 8 ingredients (salt through oregano) in a small bowl. Season both sides of the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and then season with the mixture in the bowl.

2. Heat 3 Tbsp. of the olive oil in a Dutch oven over high heat. Saute the chicken pieces in batches, skin side down, until golden brown. Flip and cook on the other side until golden brown. Remove the chicken to a baking sheet and put into the preheated oven for 12 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 2 Tbsp. olive oil back over the heat, turning down to medium-high. Saute the onion and peppers for about 3 minutes, until soft. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and garlic and cook for 1 more minute.

4. Add the rice to the pot and cook for a minute, stirring to combine with the vegetables. Add the chicken stock, bay leaf, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil. Stir well, cover, reduce the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes. Remove the lid, add the peas to the pot, then replace the lid and cook for another 8 minutes, or until the rice is fully cooked.

5. Remove the pot from the heat and let sit for 5 minutes, covered. Remove the lid, fluff the rice with a fork, and gently fold in the olives; squeeze the lemon juice over the top. Spoon the rice mixture into shallow bowls, then top with the cooked chicken pieces.

Country Captain Chicken

Bobby Flay's Food Network show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, is one of those shows that just sucks me in, no matter what I am doing at the moment. I get totally wrapped up in the competition of it. In the show, Bobby Flay "surprises" a cook or cooks that are well-known for cooking one particular thing very well. He shows up at an event where the cooks are going to be demonstrating how to make their signature dish, and challenges them to a head-to-head cook-off. Two impartial judges come in at the end and determine which dish reigns supreme. Usually, Bobby loses, and that's kind of the point. He prefers to showcase other peoples' legendary cuisine, rather than toot his own horn.

I happened to catch an episode a few weeks back where he challenged the Lee brothers, two chefs based out of Charleston, to a Country Captain Chicken throwdown. I had never heard of this dish, but I was instantly intrigued. After rendering some bacon or pork fat in a Dutch oven or pot, you brown some chicken thighs, then saute some vegetables and simmer them in a tomato-based sauce that contains a healthy dose of curry powder, as well as a couple other surprising ingredients (raisins, anyone?). You simmer the sauce, thicken it up, then serve the whole concoction with rice. Garnish with parsley, slivered almonds, and the bacon that was previously reserved, and you've got an incredible taste combination that literally sets off explosions of flavors in your mouth. It's unbelievable.

When I looked up this dish online (like, immediately after the show ended, because it seriously just looked that good), I read through both the Lee boys' and Bobby's recipes. Even though his version lost on the show, I decided I was going to try Bobby's, just because I thought my family would like his spin on it a little bit more. The Lee brothers' version looked awesome too, though, and I'm sure I'll be trying that one too someday!

It turns out that this takes quite a while to make, but I was confident that it would be worth it. The hardest part is waiting while it bubbles away on the stove,


and then waiting again when it is transferred to the oven to reduce further. The smell is just amazing. And even though these flavors may sound like they wouldn't work together, they totally do. They work so well, in fact, that I can't wait to make this again! It's the kind of dish you remember, long after the final dish is cleaned and put away.

I'm posting the recipe the way I did it, because I changed things just a bit from the original recipe. The exact version of Bobby's dish is found here. He makes his own spice blend for the curry powder, while I just used the hot curry powder from Penzey's. Their curry powder is delicious, by the way. In addition, he made a coconut rice to go alongside, while I just opted for the plain kind. Finally, I cut his recipe in half, since I was just feeding myself and the boys. Here's what I did:

Country Captain Chicken

adapted from Bobby Flay

serves 2-3

Ingredients
1 cup white rice
2 cups water
2 green onions, thinly sliced
3 slices bacon, diced
1/2 Tbsp. canola oil
1 Tbsp. butter
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
4-5 bone-in chicken thighs, skin removed
1 small red onion, chopped
1/2 a green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 a red bell pepper, chopped
1 small red jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
3/4 tsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp. ancho chili powder
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken broth or stock
1 14 oz. can crushed tomatoes (diced is fine, too)
2 Tbsp. raisins or currants
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
honey
1/4 cup coarsely chopped freshly parsley
slivered almonds, lightly toasted and chopped

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place a Dutch oven or high-sided saute pan over medium-high heat. Add bacon and cook until brown and crisp. Remove to a towel-lined plate and reserve. To the rendered bacon fat in the pan, add the oil and butter; heat until it begins to shimmer.
2. Place flour in a shallow bowl or pie plate and season liberally with salt and pepper. Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper, dredge each thigh in flour, then shake off the excess. Sear chicken on both sides until golden brown, then remove to a plate.
3. Add onion and bell pepper to the pan, season with salt and pepper, and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and the red jalapeno and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the curry and ancho chili powders, and cook for another minute. Add the wine and cook until reduced by 3/4. Add the chicken broth, bring to a simmer, and reduce slightly. Stir in the tomatoes, raisins or currants, thyme, 1 teaspoon honey, and salt and pepper, and bring to a simmer. Nestle the chicken thighs into the pan, cover with a tight-fitting lid, and transfer into the oven to bake for 35 minutes.
4. Remove the lid after 35 minutes and continue to bake for 15 minutes. After removing the lid, start the rice in a different pot. Bring the 2 cups water to a boil, add the 1 cup rice, return to a boil. Turn the heat down to low, cover, and simmer for 18-20 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed by the rice. Turn off heat, add green onions, fluff with a fork, and let stand for 5 minutes more.
5. After baking without the lid for the additional 15 minutes, remove the chicken mixture from the oven. Place it back on the burner over high heat and let it come to a boil. Allow mixture to reduce slightly (I just did so until I liked the consistency, about 5 minutes), then remove from heat. Add salt, pepper, and honey, to taste.
6. To serve: place rice in the bottom of a shallow bowl. Add 1 or 2 chicken thighs, then spoon the sauce mixture over the chicken. Garnish with reserved bacon, parsley, and slivered almonds.
Savor and enjoy!