Homemade Better Than Swiss Chalet Chicken

On an extended stay out of Canada we started having a craving for the magic that is Swiss Chalet chicken. I know it's a chain and I hate chain restaurants but as a Canadian this one gets a pass. There's just something about it that makes me feel like if I don't have it I've done my country a disservice. So, I started doing research and came up with the following like to Bea's Swiss Chalet Style Rotisserie Chicken Marinade: http://www.food.com/recipe/beas-swiss-chalet-style-rotisserie-chicken-marinade-415018

The first time I made it I followed the recipe pretty closely but since I don't buy soup mix I had to substitute, choosing V8 instead. It was great, very close but I decided it needed some changes, not necessarily for authenticity but because I wanted a slightly different taste. What I've come up with is, in my opinion better than the original. We need to invite some people over at some point who are familiar with the original to get a good opinion, though we've recently done the Festive Special (with Toblerone, not Lindt!) for guests and it seemed well reviewed:

We did use a packet of the sauce mix but did do homemade stuffing and Rach made the bread.

So... on to the chicken:
In a stainless steel container or bag with container combine:
3 cups Spicy V8

2 cups water

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1.5 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp dried shallots
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp savory
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp allspice
Mix thoroughly

Add:
1 5-6 lb washed whole chicken

If the liquid doesn't cover the whole bird add water and V8 in a 4:1 ratio until you are able to cover the chicken.

Let the chicken sit in the brine, refrigerated, for up to 24 hours. If you're brining for 6 or less hours stab the chicken a few times so the brine can get in.

Remove the chicken from brine and coat lightly with a rub of:
2 parts brown rice flour
1 part hot paprika
1 part thyme
and a dusting of salt and pepper

You will probably want to fire up the grill at this point, high heat beside the bird, burner off directly below.

Next up, remove a 355 mL can of beer from the fridge and drink approximately 160 mL. Get your beer can chicken holder out and assemble - I usually actually do this before applying rub but it might be easier to apply the rub if the chicken isn't standing upright with 195 mL of beer in it.

Now, with that assembled and hopefully with your grill running around 400 degrees, put that chicken on and remember, not over direct heat.

And finally, the most important part, turn the chicken 90 degrees every 5-10 minutes to ensure even cooking. Believe it or not, after 50-60 minutes, this thing will be done and then it's just cutting and eating.

Specialty Burgers

Two of my recent burgers I've been working on and have to the point where I'm very happy with.

Bacon Bourbon Burger
1 lb ground beef 85/15 (or 80/20 if you trim the bacon)
1-2 oz bourbon (use something with a lot of flavor, like Wild Turkey 101)
2 slices of thick cut bacon
2-3 tbsp panko
kosher salt
pepper
1 tbsp finely diced onion

Bite Back Burgers (Habanero Burgers)
1 lb ground beef 80/20
1 large habanero diced with seeds
1 tbsp diced onion
2-3 tbsp panko
1 egg or 1-2 tbsp soy milk (egg if using soon, milk if they're in the fridge for 4+ hours)
1/2 tsp of
ground coriander
ground cumin
kosher salt
pepper
oregano

With both of these I like to soak the panko (either in the bourbon for the first the milk or egg in the second) and just mix everything together by hand.

Now make sliders or regular burgers:

Sliders preparing for formation.

Full sized burgers on the grill

Food of the May Europe Trip: Part 6 - Munich

So embarrassingly we did go to Hofbräuhaus three times in Munich. I would do it again! So let's get to the food...

Okay, it's Hofbräuhaus, of course the first picture is of some of our beers!

Dinner 1: Half roasted chicken with potato salad; the pork knuckle with grated potato dumpling and some sides: spaetzle, bavarian sauerkraut and red cabbage. This made coming back a second night necessary.

Dinner 2: Pork knuckle up close and personal!

Dinner 2: Sauerbraten with bread dumplings and cranberries.

Sauerkraut.

More beer! A Dark Radler and a Ruß'n.

Pretzel and sausages.

Food of the May Europe Trip: Part 5 - Zurich

Zurich Street Meat

These sausages, just plain old brats, were unbelievably good - great seasoning and piping hot. The mustard was great with a nice little bit. What really got us was the bun that came with it - the burli! Incredible texture and taste. Mollie Stones makes one over here that is similar but not perfect. I need to pic some up at the beer house in Redwood City to see if they're as good.

Zeughauskeller

Yeah, so how could I not go here. On top of the cool name it came highly recommended.

Wienerschnitzel and Rosti - "Swiss Style" hash browns. This is really one of my favorite German dishes, so good and *gasp* better than chicken fried steak. That should be no surprise though, veal trumps normal beef :)

This is the meal that changed the theme for our food adventures. The pork shank/pork knuckle/schweinshaxe.  This dish was so good we got it a couple more times in Germany. The potato salad was excellent and creamy too.

Food of the May Europe Trip: Part 4 - French Riviera

Next up was Monaco and Menton but only a few pictures.

Monaco

We stopped for drinks at Miramar in Monaco and decided we needed to get this cool tapas appetizer plate. It was really quite nice, especially the falafel.

Menton
A few pictures of our dinner at Le Petit Prince in Menton. As was so often the case in France the best choice was the tasting menu.

Now that's a co-brand!

Baked raviolis with eggplant.

Baked salmon with dijon mustard and greens.

Lamb Shank!

Okay, so you're going to think I like desserts after the last few posts (don't worry, none of that crap in Switzerland and Germany) but this was too cool! This is a ball of raspberry sorbet in chocolate that had burning brandy poured over it. Melting ensued and voila (see I can pretend to speak french), deliciousness occurred.

Lemon sherbet and vodka.

Food of the May Europe Trip: Part 3 - Lyon, France

So after picking up the rental car and checking into our hotel out by Orly on May 14 we kicked around the idea of not going to Barcelona. Cool, it was a long drive, a little over 1000 km and we'd just booked a day for it. I'm in but where? Lyon!

There's more story than food here, we had some decent experiences, Blue Elephant Thai at the Lyon Hilton and a cool pizza place, Pizzeria di Napoli, but the real experience was Chabert & Fils:

My Brie Salad: I thought it was supposed to come with cheese...

Rach's bacon and egg salad. I don't remember what it was called but bacon and egg sounded cool.

My Chicken Fricasse: Never had it, it was delicious, it was pure cream. I will never have it again :)

Rach's lamb stew.

Dessert 1: I don't honestly recall what it was but it was good, just a little too rich and creamy.

Dessert 2: Rach's chocolate ganache.

Food of the May Europe Trip: Part 2 - L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon Etoile (Paris)

Why didn't I make this part 1? I'm not sure, let's blame user error...

Anyway, we decided to go to one of our favorites for our "memorable" Paris dinner and L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon Etoile did not disappoint. I might actually say it was the best meal (food wise and of course we got to see into the kitchen) ever...

We did the 8 course tasting menu:

L'Amuse-Bouche: what's better than Foie Gras? That's easy, Fois Gras  reduction, a thin layer of balsamic vinegar and a top layer of parmesan foam.  Amazing.

Le Caviar Imperial: beautiful caviar along with cauliflower, chilled beef stock and a selection of oils in chilled coconut milk. Another incredible course as long as you can get past the fact that the beef is basically beef fat.

Bread, can't forget about the bread!

Le Zephyr au Fromage: A cheese souffle and custard with green asparagus and beet slices.

Le Homard: Now that's what I'm talking about, lobster! Cooked in a pea broth and incredibly well seasoned.

Le Foie Gras: Yes, round 2 :) This time our goose friend makes an appearance perfectly seared with kumquat  compote and pomegranate juice.

Le Salmon: Not just salmon, the greatest salmon ever. I wish I could recall the story of where this little beast was from because it was pretty cool. You'll just have to deal with my picture and description. Cooked perfectly, with mango noodles and chili oil.

L'agneau de Lait: Lamb Chops with thyme and (off to the side) mashed potatoes. We heard the story of how  Joel Robuchon started to make his name for himself, it was with his incredible mashed potatoes - half potato, half butter. Great main course.

Le Parfum des Iles: Glorious layers of creamy passion fruit, amber rum and coconut. From someone who doesn't like dessert, this is a must have!

Le Jaune Fleuri: a beautiful citrus cheesecake with fruit.

Almost forget to take a picture of the madelines... because you know we hadn't had enough food. 

After a visit from the Grand Marnier it was time for a double espresso.

So overall, a very impressive and memorable meal, we've debated since what was our favorite and I don't think we were able to decide but that salmon was definitely in the running.

Food of the May Europe Trip: Part 1 - Paris (except JR)

Just some plane food
From Toronto to Paris we got an upgrade which was a huge bonus, along with the bed-seats came food. It was actually the highlight of the trip until day 2 as the first two meals in Paris were abysmal. So, let the games begin:

Atlantic smoked salmon with Sweet Potato Blinis, Asparagus and Mustard Dill Creme Fraiche

Roasted Chicken stuffed with Ratatouille in a Morel Mushroom Sauce with Basmati Rice, Green Beans and Cherry Tomato Confit

Selection of cheeses

Breakfast: fresh fruit, yoghurt and a muffin

All in all a pretty good offering.

Day 2 has been intentionally left unphotographed so as to not disgust you
The two pieces of advice I will leave you with is don't eat at Le Café Des Officiers near the Eiffel Tower and if you're over by La Defense there are better places to be found than Pizza Pasta Mama. I know, shocking, right?

French food is saved
I forget what we had for lunch when we went to Versailles but it couldn't have been terribly memorable but I decided to get some online reviews for dinner since I knew we'd be over by Eiffel again. So, I found this place called Le Beaujolais which turned out to be a pretty decent find. Rach had the salad (you can't see it in the picture because it's covered in prosciutto so that's a pretty damn good salad if you ask me) and I had the pan fried steak (been YEARS since I had pan fried!) and both were great.

Trust me, there's a salad underneath that bread and prosciutto... I think

Pan fried steak and salad - what you can't see is the plate of fries and loaf of bread that accompanied this!

When in Paris... have Lebanese Food
So after an adventure waiting for service at another cafe for about 10 minutes we found this place called Beirut Cafe after our trip to the Eiffel (yep, 3 times but this time we walked up!). We split a couple apps but really should have just had one. They were both good but we didn't really need that much food.

Dip platter: Baba Ghanoush, Hummus, Tabbouleh and something else I don't recall...

Ground meat in a pita, how could you not love that?!

And now for a random Salad Nicoise...
Okay, so it's not random but I didn't photograph my meal this night for some reason but it appears to have fries... it was okay if I recall but Rach said the salad was good.

How Smoked Turkey Breast Ruined Thanksgiving

Last Thursday morning I woke up with a plan. Sunday's dinner would be smoked turkey breast, something I'd never made and had only once. I don't understand why I have these thoughts, I just do. I spent time researching how to prep it Thursday evening and acquired one, actually 2, on Friday.

Saturday evening the thawed turkey breast was put in a brine I concocted from a variety of online sources. It ended up being about 8 cups of water, 1/2 cup kosher salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar and some spices - dried shallots, allspice, cayenne, parsley and Worcestershire sauce. I then popped the whole thing in the fridge for the next 12 hours.

Sunday morning, bright and early I got up, rinsed the turkey, patted it dry and hit it with my somewhat standard poultry rub - paprika, cayenne, onion, garlic, thyme and rosemary. At that point I put it on a rack and placed it uncovered in the fridge for about 6 hours so that the rub could take hold and the skin could dry a little for later crispy deliciousness.

I turned on the left burner on my grill, popped some wood chips down beside it and a tray of beer above the burner. Once the chips were smoking a little bit and I had the temp hit about 250 degrees, the turkey hit the grill. I didn't do a whole lot more from that point on, just turning the bird a little bit every 30-45 minutes or so since the side near the burner was obviously hotter. After a few hours I added the meat thermometer to the mix to make sure I didn't overcook. At 155 degrees it came off and let sit for about 10 minutes. The whole thing took about 3.5 hours.



Then it was time for carving and eating with homemade coleslaw and corn on the cob (also grilled) - more pictures below.

While this was the best turkey I've ever made and had, forever ruining roast turkey for me, I'd mix things up a little next time with a different brine (I like a poultry brine with V8 juice in it) and I'd put the beer tray underneath the turkey next time.

Some pictures of the finished product: