I saw this on Simply Recipes and had to try it. First, it’s not too often you see the words “ghetto” and “confit” in the same phrase.  Second, duck confit is so delicious, but the multi-day preparation process has always been a huge turn-off.

The recipe calls for you to prick the duck skin with a needle before cooking it, which sounds laborious, but in reality only takes a couple of minutes. Not only is the duck meat wonderfully tender with an insanely crispy skin that there’s never enough of… you’re also rewarded with a nice big vat of duck fat to store in your fridge.

Look at all that tasty fat. Remarkable! I use my duck fat for popcorn.

Make it! Ghetto Duck Confit on Simply Recipes

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Here’s the how to: Chop potatoes and steak (or chicken, pork chop, meat loaf, whatev) into roughly equal size cubes (1/2 inch-ish). Chop a couple shallots or onions finely. If you’re like me, then for some odd reason your leftovers also fortuitously include a ziploc containing 5 cooked bacon slices and you should definitely chop those up as well. If you’re lucky enough to own a vegetable, like a bell pepper or broccoli or something, well then your fridge is better stocked than mine. Go ahead and pat yourself on the back, then give that the chop chop as well.

Heat some butter (or lard, duck fat, olive oil, whatev) in a large saute pan over high heat. Add the potatoes- those should get crispy so they need to cook the longest. If you have some hard vegetable like broccoli then throw that in with the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Toss or stir to brown the potatoes on multiple sides. When you’ve got some nice browning on at least a couple of sides, add the shallots (and your softer vegetable if you’re using one: I’m talking bell pepper or zucchini-type stuff) and cook another couple minutes until the shallots soften but not so long that they brown. Add the meat(s) and cook just until heated through, tossing or stirring, a couple minutes. Check the seasoning and adjust. If you really want to clog your family’s arteries, fry some eggs and put ‘em over the top. What the hell. You only live once.

I like to eat this with some Greek yogurt mixed in, but then again, I’m weird like that.

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Leeks are grown in soil so they tend to have dirt all throughout so it’s really important to make sure they are clean through and through. You want to cut off the root end and throw that away, then slice them thinly (a couple millimeters? My intrinsic metric system is not that well-developed, but that sounds right. 1/8 of an inch or less.) You can slice the white part and the light green parts but you shouldn’t use the dark green parts because they are kind of tough. (In a restaurant you would save the dark green parts and use them to flavor a stock, or you might julienne them and fry them to use as a garnish. At home, I tend to throw them away. I mean, compost them. You should compost them unless stock-making is in your near future.) To get the leeks clean, put the sliced leeks into a bowl of cold water and break up the little rings with your fingers. Agitate them in the water then put them in a strainer and run more water over them. Leave them in the strainer to air dry until you need to use them.

Also apropos of nothing really, I recently learned how to say leeks in Spanish – they are called “poros.” I don’t think of leeks as being particularly a staple of Mexican food, but, good to learn!

Chicken with Leeks
This will make plenty for 8 people.

Ingredients:

• about 4 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed
• 1-2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
• 2 shallots, chopped finely
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 cup white wine
• 2 cups sliced leeks
• 1 cup heavy cream (can use less if you like a lighter sauce or think that’s too fattening)
• 5 T dijon mustard
• 1 bag of prewashed baby spinach leaves (hence the ease of the recipe- you can, of course, just use regular spinach and wash it yourself but I am lazy)
• salt and pepper

Method:

• Cut each chicken breast into a couple of pieces, so they are about 2-3 inches by 1-2 inches (doesn’t really matter, you just want them to be manageable and basically the same size as each other.) Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Heat the oil in a big saucepan over medium high heat. (I like to use a non-non-stick pan- ie, a “sticky” pan like stainless steel- for maximum brown saucy bit creation.) Add the chicken, garlic, and shallots and cook, stirring, until the chicken is browned.
• Add the wine and lower the heat to about medium low. Cover the pot and cook for 20 minutes.
• After 20 minutes, open the pot and add the leeks. Simmer 5 minutes.
• Mix the cream and the mustard together with a whisk or by shaking them in a jar together. Add to the pan and cook for about 2 minutes until it looks and tastes tasty and saucy. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.
• Put the spinach in a big flat bowl and put the chicken and sauce on top. Serve immediately.

Note: if you have leftovers, the best way to enjoy this dish the next day is to just put the chicken and the spinach and everything in a frying pan together- it doesn’t need any oil or anything- and cook it up. You will now have a similar dish but with cooked spinach. MMMM!

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If you’re having trouble grasping the concept, think crab cakes but made with saucy shredded chicken and diced green apples. Their winning version was served over green apple risotto, but I served the cakes over mashed potatoes, with acorn squash on the side. I suppose you could use bottled bbq sauce to save time and effort, but the sauce with this recipe is divine and not that hard or time-consuming to make, so I recommend putting in the extra effort. In fact, I recommend you make a double recipe of the bbq sauce and save some for later!

Barbeque Chicken Cakes
This makes enough for 6 people- 2 cakes per person.

Ingredients:

• Honey BBQ Sauce (recipe below)
• 1 whole chicken breast, boneless and skinless, cut into big chunks
• 2 chicken thighs, skinned and boned
• 2 Tblsp butter
• 1 medium onion, diced finely
• 1 granny smith spple, peeled and diced finely
• 4 eggs
• flour for thickening and dredging
• panko bread crumbs for coating
• salt and fresh ground pepper
• oil for searing

Method:

• Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat about 1 Tblsp vegetable oil in a saute pan over high heat and brown chicken on both sides.
• Add about half of the bbq sauce (1 to 1 1/2 cups) and turn the heat down. Cook with the pan loosely covered and cook until the chicken shreds easily with a fork,  around 20 minutes. Remove to a bowl and shred chicken, using 2 forks.
• Heat 2 T butter in a saute pan and saute onions and apples over medium low heat until soft. Add to chicken.
• Add a bit more bbq sauce to the chicken, enough to moisten. Make sure to reserve about 3/4 cup of the sauce for garnish.
• Add 2 eggs to the chicken mix. Add flour 1 Tblsp at a time and mix in until mixture holds together, but doesn’t become pasty. Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Heat a couple Tblsp. oil in a saute pan. Meanwhile, prepare a small plate with a small pile of flour, and another with bread crumbs. Beat remaining 2 eggs together.
• Form chicken mixture into patties. Dredge in flour, then eggs, then panko on both sides. (If the patties start to fall apart smoosh them together.)
• Saute on both sides until browned. Feel free to remove to a cookie sheet and keep warm in a low temp oven while finishing the sauteing.
• Warm the reserved bbq sauce, and drizzle over top of cakes with a spoon.

Honey BBQ Sauce
One recipe will make enough for one recipe of BBQ chicken cakes, about 3 cups total.

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 jalapeno, seeds removed, chopped finely
• 1 Tblsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup coarse-grain mustard
• 2 Tblsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp Tabasco
• 3 Tblsp firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 Tblsp curry powder
• 1 1/2 tsp paprika (not smoked)
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Method:

• Heat vegetable oil in sauce pan over medium heat. Cook onion and jalapeno until soft.
• Add all remaining ingredients.
• Turn down heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. When you stir make sure to scrape the bottom so all of the brown caramelize-y bits get mixed in.

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Not only did it taste a heckuva lot better than the original, it seemed a slightly more balanced nutritionally, and yeah, a lot less white trashy. I served it over a bed of kale wilted with a little garlic and cayenne in homage to its down-home roots.

Pecan-Crusted Chicken

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, 6 to 8 oz. each
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 cups pecans, finely chopped
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• olive oil for sautéing

Method:

• Use a mallet to pound chicken breasts into a uniform 1/2 inch thickness. Cut each breast into 2 or 3 pieces for manageability.
• Combine lemon juice, yogurt, mustard, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a bowl and set aside. Put chicken pieces in mixture and let sit for about 10 minutes.
• Combine pecans, crumbs, and 1 teaspoon salt in a bowl and set aside.
• Heat about 1 tablespoon olive oil in a sauté pan over medium high heat. Wipe excess yogurt off chicken and dredge in pecan mixture. When oil is hot, add chicken pieces to pan and cook about 3-4 minutes on each side until golden brown on the outside and cooked through. You may need to do it in batches, in which case you should wipe the pan out between batches and add a bit more oil.
• Serve immediately.

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