#yourmovemartha

This is a mashup of several recipes that I kind of cobbled together into a dish that my sister seems to really enjoy (and she’s rarely enthusiastic about anything.) When I cook in the kitchen, I usually have tunes going, so I decided that I would also recommend a record to play along with the dish and the reason why.

Recommended Album: SO by Peter Gabriel
This recommendation is a little on the nose, but as I was cooking chicken, it made me think of the dancing chickens in the Sledgehammer video, so I put this record on and even did some interpretive dancing in the middle of the kitchen for my sister before she rolled her eyes at me.

Ingredients:

• 8 chicken thighs (with skin and bones) or 4 leg and thigh quarters
• 2 Tbsps. olive oil
• 2 onions (diced)
• 6 garlic cloves (minced)
• 2 cups white wine
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 chicken bouillon cube or 1 Tbsp. Better Than Bouillon (I used Nom nom paleo magic mushroom powder for extra umami)
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• ½ cup Dijon mustard
• 2 Tbsps. apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp Worchestershire sauce
• A couple of dashes of paprika
• ½ cup half and half, whole milk, or cream
• Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Directions:

• Dice the onions and mince the garlic

• Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season both sides generously with salt, pepper, and garlic powder
• Heat up olive oil in a great big Dutch oven over medium heat (you want it big enough that you can put all of the chicken in 1 layer
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Once the oil is hot cook the chicken thighs, skin side down first for 5-10 minutes per side (depends on the thickness of your chicken pieces. The chicken will not be completely cooked through, but you want a nice crispy and golden brown texture on all of the skin). You may need to do this in a couple of batches to give the chicken room to crisp up and flip them over. Once the chicken is cooked put it aside on a plate uncovered while you prep the sauce.

• Drain all but a tablespoon or 2 of the drippings out of the Dutch oven and put back over medium heat. Add the onions and the garlic and let them release their liquid so that you can scrape all of the brown tasty bits off the bottom of the pan. Caramelize the onions and garlic for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently to get the drippings off the bottom of the pan. But, do not burn the garlic. If it is cooking too quickly, turn the heat down a notch or two.
• Once the onions are mostly done, turn the heat back up to medium high and add the 2 cups of white wine to the pan, using it to scrape the last of any brown bits off the pan and incorporating all of the onions into the wine for a couple of minutes. (At this point you may as well also pour yourself a glass of wine because you’ll have some down time to sit and enjoy it in a bit.)
• Once the bottom of the pan is clear, add the 2 cups of stock, thyme, bay leaves, Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, and bullion cube. Stir together until it comes back up to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the liquid is reduced by half and has thickened considerably. I reduce if until it is about an inch or so deep in my Dutch oven. I want the top of the chicken to stay out of the liquid and stay crispy, but the bottom to absorb all of that flavor.

• Once it has reduced down, turn off the burner, add in the dashes of paprika and the half and half and stir until incorporated.
• Use tongs to layer your chicken on top of your oniony sauce mixture.

• Place the Dutch oven in the oven uncovered for 30 minutes.
• Baste the chicken in the sauce and braise for another 10 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted near the bone reads 160 degrees. (I can usually eyeball beef and pork, but I do not mess around with undercooking chicken. Because this is using dark meat and is braising in the sauce, it is very hard to overcook it and dry it out.)
• Once the chicken is done, remove it from the oven and let it sit in the Dutch oven, uncovered for 10-15 minutes.

• To serve, you can remove the chicken to a plate and reduce the sauce down further to a thicker consistency, or just give it a good stir it and spoon it over as it is pretty thick after cooking down even further in the oven. I like to roast carrots, potatoes, and green beans or broccoli in the oven to go along with this dish and slather everything in the sauce. But, it also pairs well with mashed potatoes and Brussel sprouts.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole onion
• ½ carton of whole white mushrooms
• 2 whole carrots (small to medium or 1 whole large)
• 2 packed cups chopped spinach (divided)
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup freshly grated pecorino romano
• ¾ cup freshly grated parmesan (divided in half)
• 1 15 oz container of whole milk ricotta
• ¼ cup half and half, milk, or cream
• 1 egg
• 1 Tpsb black pepper
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp parsley flakes (or 2 Tbsp fresh chopped parsley)
• 8-10 fresh basil leaves
• 2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 tsp salt (divided)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 jars alfredo sauce (any brand/flavors you like, I usually use either Newman’s Own or Rao’s garlic alfredo)
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• 10-12 lasagna noodles
• 2 cups breadcrumbs
• 4 Tbsp butter

First thing I do is prep all of the cheese and veggies so that all I have to do is cook and assemble.

1. Finely chop/dice the onions and mushrooms.
2. Peel the carrots and then use the peeler to make fine carrot shreds. Finely chop the shreds to about the same size as the onions and the mushrooms.
3. Mince the garlic as finely as possible (protip - after slicing the garlic, sprinkle it with salt to help absorb the juice and keep the garlic sticking together so that it is easier to chop)
4. Destem and chop the fresh spinach.
5. Chop the basil (protip - take the basil leaves, stack 3-4 of the same size leaves on top of each other and roll them up along the long side like a little tiny cylinder. Chop the stemmy bit off of the end and then finely chop the cylinder into tiny slices and you’ll have very thin slices of basil that is much easier to manage than the flat leaves by themselves.)
6. Grate the romano and the parmesan

Next, I prep the ricotta cheese mixture:

1. Combine the ricotta, half of the parmesan, egg, half of the chopped spinach, basil, black pepper, 1 tsp of salt, parsley, garlic powder, basil, and the nutmeg together in a medium mixing bowl. You want to fully incorporate everything together fully and then let it sit in the fridge while you’re putting the sauce together and cooking the pasta. You can even make this a day ahead. YOU MUST ADD THE NUTMEG. It’s the secret ingredient that makes this work.

Now, for the sauce:

1. In a pretty large sautee pan (large enough to hold all of the veggies and both jars of sauce) heat the olive oil up over medium heat.
2. Add the chopped onions, carrots, and mushrooms to the pan and brown for a few minutes until the onions start to turn clear (you don’t want too much colors on this so that the sauce stays white, but you do want to work it all together so that the flavors meld).
3. Add the garlic and continue cooking and stirring in the pan for another 3-4 minutes over medium heat until the onions and garlic are almost done. Add the lemon juice and the rest of the black pepper to the mixture and keep stirring until the lemon juice has almost cooked off.
4. Add the 2 jars of sauce (protip- add the half a cup of wine to the jars and shake them to get as much of the saucy goodness as possible out of the jars.) and bring to a good simmer. Taste as you stir and adjust spices to your liking. Once it comes to simmer, turn off the heat and let the sauce sit while you cook the pasta.

Cook the pasta:

1. Use the biggest pot you have. The more room for the pasta to move around, the more evenly it will cook.
2. Salt the water. I use about a Tablespoon.
3. Most lasagna noodles need about 10 minutes to reach al dente.
4. Drain the pasta and run them under cold water to keep then al dente (remember, they’ve gotta go in the oven)

Lasagna lovers, assemble!

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Take a 9x11 casserole pan and spray it with a bit of Pam or olive oil (I swear by my Misto)
3. Put a fourth of your veggie sauce in the bottom of the pan and spread it into an even layer.
4. Add a layer of lasagna noodles. I don’t overlap them. Give them some room to absorb the saucy goodness around them.
5. Add a third of the ricotta mixture, spreading it evenly across the noodles (don’t miss the corners and sides)
6. Sprinkle with a third of the romano.
7. Sprinkle with a third of the remaining chopped spinach.
8. Sprinkle with a third of the mozzarella. (This is important, you want the romano and the mozzarella to blend with the spinach.
9. Add a layer of noodles, another layer of ricotta, a layer of veggie sauce, a layer of Romano, a layer of spinach, a layer of mozzarella. (Repeat this again.)
10. To top off the lasagna, you want to pour the rest of your sauce on top (make sure all of the lasagna noodles are fully covered to prevent them from getting overcooked in the oven), another thin layer of the cheeses (no spinach on the top) and your top layer of breadcrumbs mixed with the butter, spreading them evenly on top.
11. Pop it into the preheated oven and bake for 30-45 minutes (check at 30 minutes to make sure the breadcrumbs aren’t browning too fast, you can always cut the oven down to 375 for the last 15-20 minutes or tent with foil, if needed)
12. Once it’s done, take it out of the oven and let it sit for at least 15 minutes. The cheeses and sauce have to come back together and it’ll also be molten lave if you try to slice it right out of the oven.

Slice it up and enjoy. I live to garnish mine with a bit of grated romano and some fresh basil, but you can also add sliced tomato or whatever you want.