keeping it cool

The weekend of July 19th was indeed extremely hot. No one was interested in cooking, not even me. Although the weather has cooled off, it is still a bit sticky today. So, this morning, I went through the recipes on the Williams-Sonoma website for some supper ideas. I knew I wanted a chicken recipe (split chicken breasts are a Prime Member special at Whole Foods until Tuesday, July 30th at $2.99/lb.) and something that wouldn’t heat up the kitchen.

​I found a recipe for herbed chicken with zesty potato salad that starts off by browning the chicken in a fry pan, then finishes cooking in a crock pot. I changed my preparation by using bone-in split chicken breasts instead of bone-in thighs that the recipe calls for. While my husband didn’t find his chicken breast dry, I thought mine was. The chicken is cooked in a crock pot on low heat for 4 hours, the next time, I’ll use the thighs. The recipe calls for a yellow onion, garlic cloves, fresh thyme, fresh oregano, fresh bay leaf (the herbs were from my garden), dry white wine, white wine vinegar and a small amount of chicken broth. For the potato salad side dish, you’ll need Dijon mustard, small shallot, red wine vinegar, EVOO, 20 small red skinned potatoes, 2 cups cherry tomatoes and fresh oregano.
 
I happened to have red skinned potatoes, 8 not 20. As the recipe doesn’t clarify what they mean by small, I think if you find size C potatoes (less than 1.5 inches) in diameter you’ll be fine with the recipe proportions for the dressing. As my potatoes skewed larger, I had to double the dressing for the potato salad.
  
The taste of the chicken was wonderful. The light sauce was a nice accompaniment to the chicken. We really liked the potato salad. The combination of the herbs was more aromatic than zesty, but nonetheless delicious. It was a nice change to have a potato salad that wasn’t mayonnaise based. Overall, we enjoyed the taste of both the chicken and the potato salad. I can see why thighs would work best here, live and learn.
 
Just a side note, last week I had company so my husband brought home two varieties of specialty cupcakes from Delicious Orchards. One was strawberry shortcake cupcakes* (6/$11.25). The cupcakes had a bit of the cake scooped out for some strawberry and cream filling. Fresh whipped cream topped the cupcake along with half a fresh strawberry...divine. The other variety was chocolate cake topped with chocolate buttercream and chocolate cream filling topped with mini chocolate chips.

*Above image of strawberry shortcake cupcakes is from the Delicious Orchards Facebook page.