Dear friends,
I took sheet-pan dinner to its natural conclusion recently with sheet-pan hash, and it was a winner. I figured, why not just dice the hash ingredients and bake them? No reason not to, I discovered. No standing over a skillet flipping and turning. Just dice, season and bake.
Of course, you still have to do all that dicing. And with the baked version, it’s best to use fresh vegetables and meat rather than leftovers, but maybe that’s what made my chicken and tarragon hash so good. I scaled the recipe for four people, which meant one serving for me and three for Tony. He liked it.
Coating the raw cubed chicken with mayonnaise kept the meat moist and helped carry the flavor of the tarragon while preventing the herb from burning.
You can apply this technique to just about any protein, and use whatever vegetables you have that go well together. Cubed beef with root vegetables and thyme would be good, as would cubed pork loin with vegetables, sage and maybe apples.
Chop the vegetables and meat into like-sized cubes and spread on baking sheets with ingredients that take the same time to roast. The chicken and asparagus in my recipe took 20 to 25 minutes to cook, so I put them in the oven first while chopping the other vegetables. Then I had the entire oven free for the two trays of mushrooms, onions and potatoes, which took 30 to 40 minutes.
All of the ingredients are combined before serving, and the remains of the melted, tarragon-flavored mayonnaise infuses the entire hash.
Top each portion with a fried egg, if desired.
ROASTED TARRAGON CHICKEN HASH
10 oz. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut in 1-inch cubes
Salt, pepper
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 tsp. dried tarragon leaves
1 1/2 cups asparagus, trimmed and cut in 1-inch pieces
Olive oil
8 oz. white mushrooms, cut into big (1-inch) chunks
1 1/2 cups scrubbed thin-skinned potatoes such as Yukon gold, in 1-inch chunks
1 cup cubed (1-inch) yellow onion
Coarse sea salt
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Combine mayonnaise, mustard and tarragon in a medium bowl. Add chicken and coat thoroughly. Place in a single layer, with all of the mayonnaise mixture, on half of a foil-lined, lightly oiled sheet pan.
Coat asparagus with olive oil and arrange on the other half of the sheet pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and asparagus is tender. Transfer chicken, asparagus and pan drippings to a large bowl and set aside.
While the chicken and asparagus roast, wash and chop the mushrooms, potatoes and onion. Toss in a bowl with 1/4 cup olive oil and 1 1/2 tsp. sea salt. Spread on two foil-lined sheet pans. Roast at 400 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes, until edges of potatoes begin to brown.
Transfer the potato mixture to the bowl with the chicken and asparagus. Combine gently and add more sea salt if required. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 4 servings.
TIDBITS
What’s on the menu for your reunion? Thanks to vaccinations, my Facebook feed is filled with photos of joyous get-togethers with family not seen for a year. Food is usually involved.
The pictures I’ve seen are clearly celebratory: A friend baking cakes with her grandchildren, the layers still in their pans on the kitchen counter; an extended family gathered around a table, ready to dig in; hand pies tucked in a basket, awaiting loved ones who were on their way.
What will you or did you cook to welcome loved ones back into your lives? I’m still a month away from mingling, so I haven’t decided. What about you?
GUT CHECK
What I cooked last week:
Tuna salad on toast, steamed asparagus; frozen Sam’s Club thin and crispy pizza; pan-grilled strip steaks with Gorgonzola, wilted spinach with olive oil and garlic, mashed potatoes; stir-fried green beans in a spicy sauce over crispy tofu, frozen samosas (heated up); spicy stir-fried green beans and chicken; Dublin coddle; ham frittata and toast; French toast and ham.
What I carried out:
Andouille sausage po’ boy from Sonnet’s Coffee & Whiskey Bar in Wadsworth; two hamburger sliders from Hamburger Station; roast beef, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, carrots and biscuits from Bob Evans.
THE MAILBAG
From Pennie:
My son and I made the Dublin Coddle for our Sunday meal, and wow! This is a case of the result was better than the sum of the parts. Pure deliciousness.
We had a few substitutions. Giant Eagle had no barley, but they did have farrow, a grain from wheat that is a similar size and consistency, so we used it instead. We did not alter the cooking time. I forgot to put in the bay leaves. We didn’t miss them, although they probably add to the flavor. All the cooking times were spot on.
We used dark ale for the beer, and the bitterness complemented the meats, which were five slices of Farmer’s Rail bacon, and Johnsonville brats (uncooked). I bought fresh carrots and leeks, and pre-chopped onions. Instead of slicing potatoes, I used a container of Bob Evan’s Mashed Potatoes. I left them on the counter to come to room temp during the first 30 minutes, figuring they didn’t need to cook as long as raw potatoes. Before putting the dutch oven in the real oven, my son blopped on large spoonfuls of mashed potatoes on top, something like drop biscuits on a beef stew.
It was stupendous. Thank you!
I took some liberties, but this recipe can handle it.
Dear Pennie:
I, too, took liberties when I made the stew again last week. I skipped the leeks only because I had none, and doubled the onion. I swapped sliced yellow squash for the carrots. I had no bacon so I used fatty little cubes of ham. Why do such humble ingredients taste so good? You’re right, Dublin Coddle is better than the sum of its parts.
From Noreen S.:
No “squash hands” for me either! If I need to peel a butternut squash, I microwave it for about 2 minutes first. Maybe that zaps the sticky stuff.
Dear Noreen:
It’s a mystery. Maybe a particular hybrid of butternut squash releases sticky stuff when it is peeled. All I know is that every butternut I’ve peeled has been dry to the touch, with nothing sticking to my hands.