El Pollo-style Chicken Marinade

Here's the recipe for the wicked good El Pollo-style chicken I made the other night. The recipe calls for chicken pieces, but you can use boneless, skinless breasts as well. You should feel free to up the chili content. Make some of this up and serve it up on tortillas a la fajitas or something like that. Enjoy!

El Pollo Chicken Marinade (from the Orange County Register)

This Mexican chicken marinade is fruity with just a hint of spice, and is inspired by the El Pollo Loco ("the Crazy Chicken") chain of restaurants.

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces passion fruit juice (can substitute pineapple and/or orange juice)
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon oregano
• ⅛ teaspoon ground pepper
• ¼ teaspoon mild chili pepper, e.g. ancho
• 8 drops yellow food coloring
• 1 tablespoon corn oil
• 4 pounds frying chicken, cut up

Directions: In a small bowl, combine all ingredients except chicken. Measure out 1/4 cup marinade and reserve for basting while grilling. Place chicken in a shallow glass baking dish and cover with marinade. Cover with lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, turning at least once. 

Remove chicken from refrigerator 45 minutes before cooking time. Drain chicken and grill over medium coals for 25 to 35 minutes or until no traces of pink color remain, turning every 10 minutes. Baste frequently with the reserved 1/4 cup marinade while cooking. (Serves 6)

I used ancho chili powder (from Penzey's) and it turned out great. Ancho has no heat to speak of, but good flavor.

The Whiskey Rebels

Not everybody likes historical novels, but I certainly do, and I certainly liked The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss. The story is set 10 years or so after the end of the Revolutionary War, and was inspired by the events of that War and by those of the Whiskey Rebellion of the mid-1790s. One thing I really liked about the book was that the narrative alternates between the stories of a former spy of George Washington's whose reputation has been ruined, and a smart and resourceful frontier woman who, with her husband and their friends, manage to make the best of dismal circumstances by learning how to make superior whiskey. The first hint of the two stories coming together doesn't happen until almost exactly a quarter of the way through the book, and they steadily become more and more intertwined through the end. In addition to these characters, the author used a good number of real historical figures in the book, such as Hamilton, Washington, Burr, Duer, and other names of which you've heard since grade school (OK, maybe not so much Duer, but this is why we read such books!). I thought this novel was very well-written, every bit as informative as it was entertaining, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Do I want a Kindle DX?

Amazon will release the Kindle DX this summer (it's available for pre-order now). You will know I'm a huge fan of the Kindle, so you might be wondering whether I'm going to rush out and buy one of the new ones. The answer is, nope. I really like the size of the Kindle 2, and I wouldn't want to carry around something as big as the Kindle DX (my Kindle 2 is with me pretty much everywhere).

Now, some of you parents out there will nod your heads in recognition when I say that my son goes to high school laboring under a backpack full of a good 45+ pounds of textbooks and various paraphernalia. As the Kindle DX weighs in at a bit over a pound, and is aimed at least in part at the textbook genre, do you think if I were him that I'd be interested in one? You bet I would be. I would love it if my kids could have all of their textbooks on a Kindle DX, and so would they. So, Amazon, if you're listening, if you work it out so that their textbooks are available on the Kindle DX (btw, you can pretty much skip anything from Texas, as far as I'm concerned -- no offense, Amy!), I'll take two.

Afraid

I read Afraid, by Jack Kilborn, on my Kindle 2. About halfway through (OK, at exactly 50% according to my Kindle) I thought I might just quit reading it. I'm not too prudish, but this book is chock full of some pretty sick sadism. It's all part of the story, so it's not gratuitous per se, but I really don't think that this book would be for everyone. I certainly don't think it's my cup of tea. But, I have to give Kilborn some props: he can (and does) pile it on relentlessly, and some of the action scenes truly rocket along. I'm going to look for more of his work.

The Book Thief

OK, I just finished reading Markus Zusak's The Book Thief on my Kindle 2, and I have to tell you I feel it is one of the best books I've ever read (thanks for recommending it, Kelly!). My favorite kind of fiction, where a lot of the time you're really reading poetry instead of prose. The Book Thief is the story of a girl in WWII Germany, narrated by someone you've heard about, and I will tell you no more about it except that it was so well written that I couldn't put it down. I hope you'll read it, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Well? Why are you still here? Go read it!

ted's Black Beans & Rice

A delicious, nutritious Caribbean favorite. There are many recipes; this is one I made up on rainy afternoon is St. Louis to serve up with some jerk chicken. Super quick and simple, and a big hit.

Ingredients:

• 2 servings white rice, cooked


• 1 15-ounce can black beans, with liquid


• 1 teaspoon ground cumin


• 1 teaspoon oregano


• ½ teaspoon sugar


• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar


• Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning, to taste (can make your own mix of cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt and garlic)


• 2 cloves garlic, minced


• water

Directions:
Cook the rice as you usually do. While the rice is cooking, open the beans and pour the entire contents out into a medium sauce pan. Add the spices, adjusting the amounts to taste, and stir.

When the rice is finished cooking, add it to the beans and spice mixture and stir. Add water if necessary to make it just a bit saucy. Put the pan on medium heat and heat the rice through. Serve.

(Serves 4)

Add a little chicken broth to the rice as you cook it to make it a bit more flavorful.

You can find Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning at http://www.slapyamama.com/. I don't work for those guys, but that's the best Cajun seasoning in the world (thanks to Joe Horton for turning me on to it!). Have some more Slap Ya Mama on hand in case this recipe isn't spicy enough as it is.

Happens Every Day

After making omelettes du fromage et jambon this morning for my kids and myself, I finished Happens Every Day: An All-Too-True Story, by Isabel Gillies (which I read on my Kindle 2). This is a quick read, not the kind of nonfiction I usually read but really good, I thought. It's the story of a woman with a storybook life, and how she was robbed of it. It's the best kind of story, in that it's simple, powerful, and so well-told and easy to relate to that it almost seems familiar. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I hope you will, too.