Caramel Chicken

There are lots of reasons to make this easy dinner dish, but the most important reason is the sauce. The sauce is incredibly addicting. It's a slightly sweet, vinegary, and gingery sauce studded with golden and caramelized garlic cloves. I could (almost) drink the sauce.

This caramel chicken recipe from Bon Appetit is one of my favorites. It's easy to make– Z and I made this on a weekday night! Paired with some brown rice and a simple kale salad, it made for a delicious dinner.

I'll admit...it's pretty easy to pick up Asian-inspired takeout in a mystery brown sauce. But you're left with mystery cuts of chicken in a thick and even more mysterious sauce with MSG. Next time you are tempted to get takeout, make this Vietnamese-inspired chicken dish instead!

Caramel Chicken

From Bon Appetit Magazine

Serves 4

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 1/2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken legs and thighs

Kosher salt

8 garlic cloves, peeled

1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar

1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar

2 slices 1/4" thick of peeled ginger

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce

2 scallions, thinly sliced

Heat oil in a large and wide heavy pot over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt, and working in two batches, cook the chicken until golden brown and crisp, 6-8 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a plate. 

Add garlic to the pot, and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Transfer the garlic to the plate with the chicken. Pour off the fat from the pot. 

Return pot to medium-high heat and add 1/2 cup of water, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add sugar, stir to dissolve, then cook until the mixture thickens and turns dark amber in color. Carefully add the vinegar.

Add ginger, broth, soy sauce, and then chicken (skin side up) and garlic. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Make sure chicken is cooked through. Transfer chicken to another plate. 

Bring cooking liquid to a boil and cook until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes. Return chicken to pot, and toss to coat. Top with scallions and serve with rice!

Restaurant Raves: Souvla

I love cooking at home, I really do! But every home chef eventually needs a break from the kitchen. One of my favorite things about food is it's ability to help foster community. Restaurants are a key part of that. Imagine the Mission without Tartine and the taquerias!

So, in the spirit of community, good food, and good value, I'm going to start showcasing some of my favorite restaurants here on Hilary Stone Soup.

Today's restaurant, Souvla, is one of my newest obsessions. Whenever Z wants to go out to eat, I almost immediately suggest eating at Souvla.

Souvla is a Greek-inspired casual dining spot in Hayes Valley, San Francisco. During dinner and lunch, they have four main offerings: feta-brined rotisserie chicken, roasted lamb leg, pork shoulder, and a sweet potato vegetarian medley. You can get any of these in a gyro sandwich or in a salad, all under $15.

My personal favorite is the chicken salad. The salad comes with delicious roast chicken (perfectly moist and seasoned) with orange slices, pickled red onions, pea shoots, and delicious Greek-inspired ranch dressing. The salad is addicting. When I think about the perfect salads I've had in my life, this one makes the short list.

Souvla's received a lot of press lately from Bon Appetit Magazine and others, but Souvla is worth the hype.

Plus, the space is just gorgeous, right?

The TLDR:
-Get the chicken salad
-Hayes Valley, San Francisco
-$$

All images courtesy of Souvla

Le Weekend!

Happy Friday! This week has seemed hectic with performance reviews at work and planning out the month. I had intended to make hamantaschen this week in celebration of Purim, but that didn't happen at all. I did book a fun trip though for next week! This month will be filled with lots of traveling, so I am going to try and get in lots of SF plans this week. I'm visiting some new bakeries, seeing old friends at a party, and getting our apartment in order. 

To get you to 5pm happy hour time, here are some links for the weekend. 

Loving this article on Paris, pastry, and Japanese. {link}

I just purchased this facial cleanser from Beautylish, and I loved the experience. {link}

Dying to try this "good for you" ice cream. {link}

Also wanting to try this "ice cream cleanse". {link}

Off the Grid lineups are out for 2015! I love these food truck festivals. {link}

For all the Hello Kitty fans in SF. {link}

A great round up of events in SF this month. {link}

Where to find the best coffee in the sky. {link}

This portrait session made me smile. {link}

Excited to listen to this podcast over the weekend. {link}

Endive Citrus Salad with Avocado and Goat Cheese

I've been keeping this recipe a secret from you for quite some time now. I originally made this endive citrus salad back in December, and I immediately was smitten with how easy this was to make, yet it looked so impressive!

For those of you bundled up in lots of snow and cold weather, this light and citrusy salad is a burst of sunshine. It's the type of salad I would imagine eating on a white-sand beach, with a pina colada in my hand.

I initially intended to make this salad for Z's and my Chanukah party--we put out a huge spread of appetizers (including latkes!) for friends, and this salad was supposed to be on the menu. I ended up not having enough time to make these between everything else that was going on (latkes were my top priority), but I made this salad a few days later and loved loved loved the results.

This endive salad looks so fancy--I love the idea of serving it at a cocktail party! But it's so delicious and easy to make, don't be surprised if this becomes one of your new go-to dinner options.

Endive Citrus Salad with Avocado and Goat Cheese

Recipe inspired by Smitten Kitchen and Jose Andres

3 oranges (I used one blood orange and two navel oranges, but I also really like Cara Cara oranges in this)

2 heads of endive

2 ounces soft goat cheese, crumbled

1 avocado, diced

Red wine vinegar

Olive oil

Freshly ground pepper

Flaky sea salt

Cut the tops and bottoms off of your oranges. Cut the peels, including the white pith, off of the oranges. Slice between the membrane and the orange segment so you can release the orange segments. Chop the orange segments once or twice so that they are not too big!

Trim the endives and add them to a platter. Place a spoonful of orange segments into each endive. Add a little bit of avocado and goat cheese to each endive.

Drizzle the endives with vinegar and olive oil, then sprinkle with pepper and salt to taste. 

Enjoy!

Favorite Finds: Forage

I feel really guilty. I've had a really good secret now for quite some time, and I haven't shared it with you yet.

You see, Z and I receive a bag of ingredients packaged in dry ice, along with instructions for making delicious meals. But not just any delicious meals....meals from places like Bar Tartine, Grammercy Tavern, Alta, and SQRL that can all be made at home in under 20 minutes!

Meet Forage. Forage takes care of the meal planning and prepping for you. Almost every meal in a restaurant can be made in 20 minutes, and they are making it easy for you to do this at home as well.

Overall, the food is amazing. They provide high quality ingredients paired with easy-to-follow recipes. Every recipe we tried met the "20 minutes or less" criteria, which is big plus during the work week.

Want proof the recipes are easy enough? Z actually made me dinner thanks to Forage! I was coming home late from work, and I asked Z if he could start dinner. By the time I got home, dinner was ready on the table.

Forage is certainly more on the high end ($15 per person per meal), but it makes for a fun date night. I love seeing what restaurant dishes I can make at home thanks to Forage.

Order Forage here: https://www.forage.co/?ref=2f1aea4fdd

All photos from Forage