Hi friends!
Wow, it’s been a minute.
Let me start by saying how much I’ve missed you. These last few months have been a whirlwind and pretty much just as full as my belly — we’ve celebrated holidays, attended weddings and baked under the Florida sun on vacay. Friends got engaged, Max officially moved to Denver and Anna got into nursing school. KU won the national championship (rock chalk baby!). We toasted to promotions, new jobs and side hustles. The best way I can describe how we’ve felt is, as gaga puts it — bus-club-another club-another club-another club-plane-next place-no sleep.
And despite the crazy schedules, long days and busy weekends, one thing has remained consistent — we’ve been cooking some good ass food.
Our winter consisted of several whole roasted chickens and even more salmon. We made Carla Lalli Music’s One Pot Chicken and Rice with Blender Green Sauce from That Sounds So Good, Molly Baz’s Golden Get-Well Soup from Cook This Book, and too many Alison Roman dishes to name. We whipped up dozens of dips, and I confidently say that Kate’s ‘top secret curry dip’ still reigns superior. We made ALL the soups—vegetable minestrone, french onion, chicken noodle, red pepper-tomato. We even experimented with making homemade veggie and shrimp tempura, and it actually turned out to be a success, if I do say so myself.
Over these last few months, I’ve felt horribly guilty that despite making all these dishes, I never got around to sharing them with all of you. That ends now.
I’ve missed sharing all our cooking adventures with you, so I’m committing to do better. I’m going to try to be in your inbox at least once a month, to share what we’ve been cooking and what’s been giving us life, and if we’re lucky, I might even have some more newsletter takeovers coming your way. Want to write about your favorite recipe for the newsletter? Let me know what you’re wanting to share here!
But as for now, let’s get into the recipe that’s rebooting the newsletter — Crispy Chicken Thighs and Piccata-Style Potatoes.
The chicken half of this recipe is one I’ve made at least a million times, and I can confidently say that it never disappoints. It utilizes the ‘cold pan method’ (thank you BA), which essentially means that you start the chicken thighs skin-side down in a cold pan. When the skillet comes to temperature with the chicken already in there, it results in the crispiest, crunchiest skin— and who doesn’t want that?
Now, the second recipe — Piccata-Style Potatoes — is the brainchild of craving chicken piccata, but needing to make a side-dish, not the main course. We had the idea, experimented, and ended up with the best parts of ‘smashed’ potatoes, but with all the capery, lemony, wine-y deliciousness of traditional chicken piccata. And now that we’ve made this, I think it’s going to be in regular rotation in our house because wow — it’s really freakin’ good.
As for what you’ll need to make these recipes yourself, let’s start with the Piccata-Style Potatoes because those will take longer to cook than your chick. Here’s what you’ll need—
1 to 1 ½ pounds fingerling potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lemon, half cut into thin slices and the other half reserved for juicing
2 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed — if you’re a caper girl like me, feel free to use more! #capergirl
⅓ cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Salt and pepper
Start by heating your oven to 425 degrees F, and bringing a big pot of salty water to a boil.
Once at a boil, drop in your fingerling potatoes and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until you can easily slide a fork through the tater.
As your potatoes boil, in a medium skillet, heat about 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Add your lemon slices and capers. Let these bad boys fry until fragrant and the lemon begins to brown, about 3 minutes.
Add the lemon juice and wine, cooking for another 3-5 minutes, or until the alcohol has cooked off. Add a tablespoon of butter, swirling the pan as the butter melts, to bring the sauce together.
Season with salt and pepper, and set aside.
When a fork can easily pierce through the potatoes, drain the potatoes and let them cool for about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large rimmed baking sheet.
Using the bottom of a cup or mug, smash each potato until they’re about ½ inch thick. Smashing the potatoes shouldn’t require too much force if you’ve boiled them long enough.
Liberally cover the now-smashed potatoes with the lemon-caper sauce. Make sure every potato gets some sauce action. If need be, add a few more glugs of olive oil over any of the non-sauced potatoes, so they too can crisp up in the oven.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are crispy and brown.
Something we didn’t do BUT we should have is serve these potatoes with a side of sour cream. If you’re smart, you’ll do this!
For the Crispy Chicken Thighs, the ingredients are —
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ to 2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 5 thighs)
Salt and pepper
1 whole garlic head, cut in half crosswise
1 red onion, quartered
3-4 sprigs of thyme
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
In a large skillet or cast iron, add a tablespoon or so of olive oil, and place the chicken thighs skin-side down. Bring the skillet to medium-high heat, and cook the thighs for 8-11 minutes, or until the skin is crispy and brown.
Flip the chicken thighs so they’re skin-side up. Tuck the onion quarters and thyme in-around the chicken thighs, and add the garlic halves cut-side down. Add a bit more olive oil to the added veg, so they have some moisture going into the oven. Cook for another 3-5 minutes.
Remove from heat, and transfer the cast iron skillet to the oven. Cook for 20-25 minutes, or until the chicken thighs register at 160 degrees F.
Transfer the chicken thighs to a plate, skin-side still up, so the skin doesn’t get soggy.
Return the cast iron with the onions and garlic to the oven. Cook for another 20-ish minutes, or until the onions are caramelized and garlic is falling out of its sleeve.
Return the chicken thighs to the cast iron, and serve!
If you plan to make the Piccata-Style Potatoes with the Crispy Chicken Thighs, I suggest starting your thighs when your potatoes are boiling, so everything comes out at about the same time.
We also served our chicken and taters with a radish-herb-arugula salad. We doused the greens with the strawberry rose vinegar by Acid League (go ahead and get yourself some fancy vinegar for all your Spring and Summer salads — it’s the move) and some spicy, crispy brussel sprouts.
And because it’d be WAY too difficult to list all the things that have given me life these last few months, let me just mention some of the things that have given me life this past week. It was getting to spend time with both my VMLY&R family and my KU family in Kansas City. It was discussing People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry at book club (ladies, chapter 26… one word - steamy). It was drinking Japanese-style old fashioneds with Max, eating lemon ricotta pancakes with Cait, and cooking spicy-creamy shrimp with Anna. It was snuggling with baby Ford, drinking morning coffees with Marin, and eating a kick ass steak dinner at Katherine Mayfield’s (new name alert!) new house.
More than anything, what’s giving me life is picking this newsletter back up. I’ve missed it so much, and I hope you all use it as inspiration to pick something back up that maybe you love, but haven’t had time for.
Wish I was with you,
Maddie
Cooking With Maddie Newsletter #55
So excited to see "Cooking With Maddie" is back!!!! I always enjoy the stories and the recipes...keep up the great work :)
So fun! Glad you're back. I was just talking to your Mom about this! 💕