It's fine, not great. Probably because I didn't include the ham hock and used dried thyme instead of fresh? I let this cook for hours, until the color and texture was the same as the picture, so it's not a 'didn't cook long enough' issue. Just sort of nothingburger. Needs hot sauce, which is certainly part of the recipe--but I wish it didn't. I will keep pursuing, because the red beans and rice from Popeye's is delicious and I want to make it, but I will use another recipe besides this one.
The recipe that introduced me to couscous! Very flavorful and refrigerates well. Labor-intensive, especially if you're doubling the recipe as I did. There's a lot of chopping and kneading and rolling and browning. A good recipe to enlist others for.
Never has lemon been more critical in a recipe. Use all the recipe says and more. Squeeze some on before eating. It's too rich otherwise. Not a difficult recipe, since it just uses pre-made ravioli. There was no sauce base for me to recreate, which I thank God for.
This recipe uses whole legs, sliced onions, and peppers. My friend's recipe uses diced thighs, diced onions, minced garlic, chicken stock, and dumplings. Both use sour cream and an enormous quantity of paprika, the only spice in the dish besides salt and pepper. My friend lent me her fancy paprika for this recipe, which I highly recommend. Fancy or fresh, really--just not paprika that's been sitting half-open in the back of the cupboard since the fall of the Berlin Wall. It's the only spice, so you will taste it if it tastes bad. I didn't even know paprika could taste like anything until I made this dish! Absolutely delicious with the sour cream. Though my friend's recipe says to cook the dumplings in the soup, I would cook and store them separately. The starch dissolved into the soup and made it a bit slimy, especially as the days went on.
Everyone in my family loves this, which is great, because it's not too diffiult. The worst part is making the Tex-Mex sauce by hand. Thankfully, here's a post on reddit with the ingredients on the back. I approximate this by throwing the kitchen sink at it. Tomato paste, barbeque sauce, ketchup, onion and garlic powder, oil, sugar, vinegar, cocoa powder if I have it. The Southwest Spice blend is easier. This reddit thread and the corresponding Google Sheet indicate that it's one parts cumin and chili powder to two parts garlic powder. All of these together create a very flavorful dish that you can just leave to sit once all the active cooking is done, and using canned beans means it won't take hours on the stove. Easy peasy and so good.
Very acidic, which is kind of my fault, since I used the juice and zest of four lemons (could'e done with two, even though I had doubled the recipe). The sauce and couscous are the best part, since the creamy + savory texture balances the acid. My family liked the salad, but it's hard to mess up cucumbers, tomatoes, lemon and dill. I used regular cucumbers rather than Persian, which would probably be better and less liquidy. A sweet element would've been good. I slightly overcooked the thighs--350F for at least 30 minutes. It wasn't too bad, since some parts were perfect and others a little dry. I'd give it either more time at a lower heat or check it every 15 minutes with a thermometer. While I know, intellectually, what the hummus is for, there's so much going on that I didn't want to add it as part of the main dish. I put it to the side with crackers. That was good, since it added another savory/nutty element.
I liked this one, and it was dead easy aside from cutting the fucking cabbage. Tip--even if you're doubling the recipe, just use one. I had no idea how much cabbage was in a cabbage. Also, get a huge sharp knife to cut it. I used our watermelon knife. I tried not to worry about getting wedges, which is good, because I didn't. (I'd never used cabbage in a meal before). I would cut the cabbage smaller next time, perhaps with a mandolin, as the cooking time got a bit lengthy and the cabbage were still very crunchy at the end. I had to pull the dishes out to stop the kielbasa and beans from overcooking. The recipe doesn't say to add sour cream, but I did and it added SO much to the dish, while also cooling it down enough to eat immediately.
A hit! My grandmother said it was "the best chicken I've ever had." My aunt swapped out the chicken thighs for breasts, since she didn't like the texture of thighs, but I managed to make it work. I followed the USDA chicken chart and roasted them uncovered in a pan for 30 minutes. I can't remember if I did more, but I then stuck it under the broiler on high for 5 minutes to be thorough and get some browning, since the regular oven wasn't doing it. Still not as brown as I'd like, but I didn't want it to get dry or burn. I also skipped the coriander and turmeric in the recipe, subbing them for oregano, mustard, ginger, and an enormous amount of za'atar left over from the chicken gyro couscous bowls. Still underseasoned imo, but not badly so. I was shy with the acid everywhere except the (delicious!) sauce. I also used leftover cabbage instead of iceberg lettuce and got the same effect. A mandolin or cheese grater is easier than chopping the cabbage. I used a mandolin. I struggled a bit with keeping the cabbage layers together enough to slice on the mandolin, but that would definitely be easier with a mandolin glove. The pitas didn't have a lot of structural integrity, but I didn't mind.
Every time I make this recipe, people like it. Probably because mac n' cheese, bacon, and jalapeños are hard to mess up. It would be an easy recipe if you had the cream sauce base, but I didn't, so I substituted a bechamel. But hey, I know how to make a cheese sauce now! Aside from a mandolin-related injury, the prep wasn't too bad. Even easier if you use pre-minced garlic, which I did. I feel like using pre-minced or garlic paste doesn't matter when you're cooking the dish to death and the garlic flavor isn't the main deal, which it isn't in this case. The bacon took longer than expected, about 15-20 extra minutes, but that's my bad for doubling the recipe and preferring my bacon crispy. Tip--when broiling at the end, don't let the broiler sit before you stick the dish in. It gets way hotter than necessary. It had been less than three minutes before I burned the breadcrumb topping. My fault for letting the broiler get too hot + not watching, so learn from my mistakes. Also, I'm pretty sure you could brown the top by cranking your oven high instead of using the broiler--I think I've seen it in a couple homemade mac Youtube videos. Another tip--I'm sure that cheese shredded from the block is better, but I used pre-shredded and it was plenty tasty. Next time, I'd salt more liberally. I was being a baby about it because I was using bacon fat, which is already salty, but the recipe really suffered from undersalting.
Recipe-time to actual-time ratio: 35 minutes: 2 hours 20 minutes. If I double the time on account of doubling the recipe, it's 1 hour 5 minutes : 2 hours 20 minutes.
Every time I make this recipe, people like it. Probably because mac n' cheese, bacon, and jalapeños are hard to mess up. It would be an easy recipe if you had the cream sauce base, but I didn't, so I substituted a bechamel. But hey, I know how to make a cheese sauce now! Aside from a mandolin-related injury, the prep wasn't too bad. Even easier if you use pre-minced garlic, which I did. I feel like using pre-minced or garlic paste doesn't matter when you're cooking the dish to death and the garlic flavor isn't the main deal, which it isn't in this case. The bacon took longer than expected, about 15-20 extra minutes, but that's my bad for doubling the recipe and preferring my bacon crispy. Tip--when broiling at the end, don't let the broiler sit before you stick the dish in. It gets way hotter than necessary. It had been less than three minutes before I burned the breadcrumb topping. My fault for letting the broiler get too hot + not watching, so learn from my mistakes. Also, I'm pretty sure you could brown the top by cranking your oven high instead of using the broiler--I think I've seen it in a couple homemade mac Youtube videos. Another tip--I'm sure that cheese shredded from the block is better, but I used pre-shredded and it was plenty tasty. Next time, I'd salt more liberally. I was being a baby about it because I was using bacon fat, which is already salty, but the recipe really suffered from undersalting.
Recipe-time to actual-time ratio: 35 minutes: 2 hours 20 minutes. If I double the time on account of doubling the recipe, it's 1 hour 5 minutes : 2 hours 20 minutes.
Necessary context here and here. I didn't feel particularly bad about my unfaithfulness to Roman's 'original' recipe. My family doesn't like turmeric, so I used powdered mustard, ginger, cumin and paprika the first time. The second, I doubled the amounts and used ginger paste. It was incredible the first time. The second time, I hated it. Perhaps I was sensitive to it the second time because I got COVID before making it, so the lack of taste enhanced the sliminess of the long-cooked onions and weird chickpea skins. I even left out the red pepper flakes, but it didn't save it. Wouldn't make again, unfortunately.
Recipe-time to actual-time ratio: 55 minutes : 1 hour 30 minutes. The ratio was even more off the second time, but I can blame that on needing to hand-chop the onions instead of using a vegetable chopper and doubling the quantities.