Rotisserie chicken for dayzzz

The succulent and affordable rotisserie chicken can be eaten off the bone, chopped up for fresh salads, folded into cheesy casseroles, or shredded into simmering soups. When Boston Chicken (later Boston Market) saw success with rotisserie sales, Costco and Kroger jumped onboard and started selling whole chickens in 1994. We’ve been clucking about them ever since!

This versatile poultry is a staple for so many, and everyone seems to have a favorite way of repurposing this ubiquitous bird. I reached out to my pals asking, what’s your fav way to incorporate a rotisserie chicken into a recipe? I got so many great answers, I’m sharing them here.

When possible, there are links, and absence of links, I posted condensed explanations of the recipe. Enjoy!

  • Tlisa’s Chili Verde Soup: Combine vegetable or chicken broth, a can of white beans, cumin, garlic, chicken, and a jar of salsa verde and heat through. Serve with corn chips, onions, cilantro, etc.
  • Jessica’s Roast Chicken Soup
  • Natasha’s Instant Pot Stock: Crack the bones with pliers, slow cook for 6 hours with onion, celery, carrot, bay leaf, peppercorns and water; then pressure cook for 2 hours and strain.
  • See Natasha’s blog for a ton of other recipes using rotisserie chicken.
  • Mathue’s Mexican Lasagna:
    Ingredients: 16 oz container ricotta cheese; 16 oz sour cream or plain Greek yogurt; 1 cup salsa of your choice; 2 diced tomatoes; 1 can sliced olives; 1-2 tsp chili powder; 1-2 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp granulated garlic[ 1 tsp granulated onion; salt and pepper;  rotisserie chicken shredded or 2-3 cooked chicken breasts shredded or cut into small cubes; shredded cheese; Tortillas cut into triangles or strips (corn or flour). Directions: Mix everything except the shredded cheese and tortillas in a bowl to combine. (The seasonings can be altered to your taste.) Spray an 8×11 glass baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Cover the bottom with a single layer of tortillas, slightly overlapping to be sure it’s completely covered. Add half of the creamy chicken mixture and evenly spread it out. Sprinkle with shredded cheese. Another layer of tortillas to cover the cheese, then the rest of the chicken mixture, more shredded cheese. Cover with one more layer of tortillas and cover that with shredded cheese. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for about 30-40 minutes until bubbly and cheese is melted. Let it rest for about ten minutes before cutting/serving. You can add any other veggies you like to the mix, sometimes I add a can of drained/rinsed black beans. Add avocado or guacamole, salsa, cilantro.
  • Ivy’s Sesame Miso Chicken Salad
  • Sue’s Creamy Chicken over Rice: Make a white sauce using half milk or cream and half chicken stock. Add a pinch of turmeric for color. Season as desired. Thin with more milk or stock or simmer gently to thicken. Stir in chunks of cooked chicken and whatever cooked veggies are desired. Peas and chopped parsley recommended. Heat through and stir over rice.
  • Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Spaghetti (recommended by Sue!)
  • Roy’s Mole Chicken: Mole chicken. Mole from the jar, blended with water, pour over chicken in skillet, add cooked rice.
  • Aaron’s Go-To Soup (sub chicken for ham)
  • Jill’s wild rice soup
  • Jessica’s chicken divan: Make a white sauce, pour over cubed chicken, broccoli and cauliflower and bake, with more cheese on top.

Other ideas included chicken tetrazzine, enchiladas verdes, and soups — so many soups!

In the end, after Costco fairies magically deposited said chicken on my door (thank you Instacart!), we opted for enchiladas with red sauce. I also added onion, cumin, fire-roasted green chiles, several kinds of cheese, and green onion; and served it with sour cream, Spanish rice and corn.

Enjoy, fellow foodies.

Book review: “Turn of the Key”

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In this novel, Rowan is the narrator, a young woman writing letters from jail, where she is incarcerated for murdering a child, pleading for help. In flashbacks, we learn Rowan takes a nannying job in a restored Victorian on the remote outskirts of a Scottish village for a married pair of architects who have painstakingly updated a Victorian house so that it is now a strange amalgam of the traditional and the ultra modern — fingerprint panels, cameras, voice commands, every trapping of a smart home. Under Rowan’s care are two young girls and their infant sister; a fourth teenage girl is at boarding school and rarely home. From the beginning, the assignment is unsettling. The vast home and its grounds are the stuff of local legends — untimely deaths, fleeing nannies, an ancient garden of poisonous plants. The pay is good and Rowan is determined to ride it out, but the unsettling oddities quickly creep beneath her skin. Just what is going on beneath the bones of this home, who’s to blame for its strangeness, and is someone trying to drive Rowan away? Who died — and what role did Rowan play? Another Ruth Ware page-turner.



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Book review: “One by One” by Ruth Ware

One by One by Ruth Ware

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The “Ten Little Indians” trope has been retold many times, and this version does not disappoint. The eight members who comprise the upper echelon of music app Snoop have arrived at a French chalet for a week of bonding, skiing, and corporate retreat; their hosts are chef Danny, and one of our two narrators, the hostess Erin. In her early 20s, she was once an avid skier herself, but has retreated here — and away from her usual life — following an unimaginable tragedy. Our other narrator is Liz, an original staffer at Snoop who left the company but has inexplicably been brought along for this glitzy and indulgent team-building getaway. But this seemingly cozy team is divided by competitive schisms, competing agendas, and complex backstories, and early on in this book, one of the Snoop crew vanishes on the Slopes. Then, a cataclysmic avalanche strikes. What follows is a compelling page-turner that literally snowballs toward the thrilling conclusion as more team members are picked off, and deep secrets are revealed. Thumbs up from me!



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Book review: “Monogamy”

Monogamy by Sue Miller

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The premise of this book: how is widow Annie impacted when she learns her recently deceased husband of many years, Graham, was unfaithful? It’s an intriguing question and I imagined a book full of dramatic confrontations and cataclysmic breakdowns. But it was entirely not that book. Instead, it was a nuanced exploration of identity and grief, of what we absorb from and give to our partners, and how the ripple effects of relationships reverberate through the lives of tangential loved ones. It was really a book about grieving, anger, weakness, sacrifice, and ultimately, love. I really enjoyed it.



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Farewell to John, the Flower Man of Anchorage

We found out tonight that many of us lost an old friend with the passing of John the flower guy.John was one of those people who was in our lives so often that it’s hard to remember not knowing him, and with him gone, you’re surprised by how much you didn’t know as much as what you did know. For example, what was his last name? Where did he live? I don’t know.

But I do know that he spoke four languages. I know he helped put at least one nephew through med school. I know he drank one beer and one bourbon a day, if that, and that was it. And I know nearly every day of the week, John circled the sidewalks among Anchorage’s best-known bars with a bucketful of $5 roses. He sold flowers to blushing new couples and eager young singles and lonely older folks who would buy a rose for every woman in the room.

John had nicknames for everyone. Everyone. He dubbed me “The Professor” years ago when I would sit at the Blues Central bar reading books and drinking rum and diet cokes. It stuck so convincingly that others called me that, and others yet asked where I taught college. Joe was “Sexy Josef,” or sometimes he’d call us “Josef and Mary” and joke about us adopting him and calling him “Jesus.” He’d walk up behind Joe and flick his ear and deadpan, “Nice legs.” If I was alone at the bar with a book, he would watch my things while I used the restroom. Other times, he’d just sit down for a while and talk. He always remembered my NBA team was the Blazers and if they were mid-game, his first words to me would be something like, “Your team is losing!” Or, “You’re winning!” John paid attention to details; he remembered things about individual people.

John was conversational in an observant and easy way, one of those who was truly the amongst the fabric of the small, tightly knit nightlife community of bartenders and waiters and waitresses and musicians. He was unafraid to say his piece and carried himself with a kind of bemused dignity. He was excited about our wedding (this picture is from us celebrating at Club Paris) and offered to help us get flowers for it.

In sharing news of his death earlier, one family member said, “I hope wherever he is now, there are flowers.” Cheers to that.

And as the whole town seems to mourn you and share memories, we also learned your name: Jean Jilwan. Rest in peace, Jean. You will be missed!

Book review: “When She Was Good”

When She Was Good by Michael Robotham

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The second installment in Robotham’s Cyrus Haven series does not disappoint. Cyrus is a layered and perceptive forensic psychologist trying to unravel the mystery of complex, troubled Evie — a teenager who became famous years earlier after a novice policewoman found her gaunt, starving, hiding in a house where only weeks earlier, a gruesome murderer was uncovered. Public narrative decided Evie had been abused by said murdered guy, but in reality Evie — who has refused to share her real name or where she came from — has confessed to Cyrus at the first book’s end that the murdered man actually had rescued her. But from what, and whom? This novel deftly, intoxicatingly continues the story of the teenager girl whom the press once dubbed “Angel Face” and the psychologist committed not only to protecting her, but uncovering her deepest truths and bringing her demons to justice. An excellent page-turner, set in the UK, gripping at every turn. Sure to please any mystery readers, but definitely start with the first book in this series, “Good Girl, Bad Girl.”



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Recipe: Stuffed Peppers!

Stuffed peppers! Another great way to use veggies, grains and protein. They’re pretty, rustic, melty, and just overall fantastic.

I boiled these bell pepper halves for five minutes and piled on a mixture of pre-cooked ground chicken, onions, celery, spiralized zucchini, garlic, green onion and spinach, then stirred in tomato paste and chicken broth to make it saucy. Baked covered with foil for 20 minutes at 400 degrees, then added mozzarella and Parmesan and cooked uncovered for 10, then broiled for a few minutes. Done, and delicious!

Book review: “The Identicals”

The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I do love a good Elin Hilderbrand read: with tones that are quintessentially breezy, beachy, comedic, compassionate, amusing, and self-deprecating, her flawed but relatable characters stumble through life with the best intentions, understandable shortcomings, typically in the mesmerizing setting of Hilderbrand’s own Nantucket. I had somehow managed to not read his particular novel, for which I’m grateful, as in this non-traveling time, it was a refreshing gift to immerse not just in the world of Nantucket, but also Martha’s Vineyard. The author sets the stage as establishing these two storybook American islands as having their own personalities and feeling some degree of superiority against the rival other.

This metaphor also applies to our two main characters, Harper and Tabitha, two identical twins just shy of 40. Tabitha lives on Nantucket with her famous fashion designer mother. Harper resides on Martha’s Vineyard with her beloved hardscrabble dad, Harry. They both have problems: recently-single Tabitha finds herself hollowed out by her teenage daughter, an unmitigated hellion. And Harper’s unfulfilling and dramatic life is further upended when she’s outed for having an affair with the venerable local doctor. Then there’s this: since being split apart by their divorcing parents as teenagers, Parent Trap-style, the identical twins have suffered a fractured relationship that was really pulverized irreparably with the death of Tabitha’s infant son, and she still blames Harper for this tragedy.

When their father Billy dies, everything comes to a head. The sisters must face their broader families, each other, but most notably their own worst selves to work through a summer for the ages.

A fun read!



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Recipe: Perfect Halibut!

One of the best things about living in Alaska: free fish! Okay, so not always free. Sometimes we spend a lot of money on fishing gear, or charters, or maybe we even give up and (gasp) buy fish at the store. But most Alaskans have also benefited from the gift of fish. It’s just one of those things, and it’s glorious. So when my future brother-in-law gifted us with fresh halibut, it knocked all other protein out of the top spot for our next dinner. It turned out perfectly cooked – flaky, moist, with a lemony buttery caper sauce to top it off. Here’s what I did.

Ingredients:

  • Halibut (I had two individual portions, probably about 6 ounces each)
  • 1 Tb. olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • 3 Tb. butter, divided
  • 1/4 cup white wine (keeping it classy, I used boxed chardonnay)
  • A few lemon slices
  • Annnnnd 2 Tb. lemon juice
  • 1 Tb. parsley
  • 2 Tb. capers
  • 1-2 minced garlic cloves

Tools you will need:

  • A pan that can go in the oven
  • A good broad spatula to scoop out the halibut

Directions:

  1. Put your oven-save pan in the oven (cast iron would be ideal), and turn the oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Wait 15 minutes.
  3. And in the meantime, prep your fish. If it has skin on, remove it (look to YouTube for how-to videos – you need a flat cutting surface and a big sharp knife). Sprinkle salt and pepper on the halibut’s pretty (no-skin) side.
  4. After your 15 minutes are up and the oven and pan are hot, remove the pan (POTHOLDER!!) and put it on the stove top. Add a splash of olive oil, and a tablespoon of butter. These will melt quickly and sizzle. As they do, place your fish pretty side down in the pan. Place the lemon slices in the pan. Return this to the oven.
  5. Cook your halibut unbothered for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove, turn off the oven, transfer halibut to a plate (I use pie pan tins – I have a million of them and they are endlessly useful during cooking).
  6. Strain the pan juices to get any bits and solids out and return the liquid to the hot pan over medium heat (again, potholder!).
  7. Add your garlic and cook for 1 minute.
  8. Add your wine and cook until it cooks down to almost gone.
  9. Add lemon juice, parsley and capers and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
  10. Stir in 1-2 Tb. butter to taste, and return your fish to the pan for only about 30 seconds as you spoon the mixture over the fish.
  11. Plate fish with a generous spoonful of sauce overtop. Serve the remaining sauce on the side to share.

The most challenging thing about this recipe is it’s fast-paced and, of course, it’s really easy to overcook fish. Your finished halibut should flake moistly at a fork’s prodding.

Pro tips: don’t skimp, use fresh lemons and fresh parsley. No plastic squeezy lemon or parsley flakes, please.

Enjoy!

Book review: “In Five Years”

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I finished this book in one day, so if this isn’t a testament to how readable I found it, I don’t know what is! But the premise was so unusual and clever that I literally couldn’t go to bed without finishing it.

The premise: Dannie has a plan and everything is falling into place. She’s getting engaged — right on schedule — to her boyfriend , whose as serious about his career and she is, and who checks all her boxes. She’s also about to land her dream job at one of New York’s most prestigious law firms.

But then: the night of her engagement, they head home to celebrate… and Dannie wakes up. Only it’s not 2020, it’s 2025. She’s in an apartment she’s never been in before — with a man she’s never seen in her life. And he seems to know all about her. They share just this brief time together, she falls asleep, and she wakes back right where she left off, newly engaged and about to start her dream job. What was that, WHO was that, and what did it mean?

This book is kind of about destiny and fate, but above all it’s about the different kinds of love and loyalty that sustain us, and truly, it’s about friendship. The fourth character left off in the brief description above is Bella, Dannie’s lifelong dear friend, a sparkling and free-spirited girl to Dannie’s list-making, schedule-driven Type A. Theirs is the real love story in this book. Whether or how Dannie will ever realize that vision she had in the first few pages is a lingering question, but less the focus as those people in our lives we can truly lean on, as well as those we can’t.



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