Chicken Fingers

Normally I make this recipe in the form of popcorn chicken, but somehow that doesn't ever seem to photograph well, so I've been unable to post the recipe here. Luckily for you my roommate has a super crazy better-than-mine camera and now everything seems to photograph well! Phew!

I have been playing with variations of this recipe for years, and once upon a time a friend of mine made me fly from Brooklyn to the Midwest for her birthday party and make a big batch of this despite her boyfriend being a chef. Ohh snap. And So Began my smugness about my kitchen skills. But, I gotta give credit where credit is due, my darling roomie Catherine showed me what's what when it comes to technique - there was something about the way I was making this that worked beautifully sometimes and not so well others, and she pointed out the key. Lucky you! You can use vegetable, canola, corn, or peanut oil for frying. I use a mix of vegetable and peanut oils, but we're fancy at my house, and you don't have to be. Plain old vegetable oil works just fine.

If you want to make the honey mustard we poured over the chicken fingers in this photo, stir together in a bowl: honey, dijon mustard. Yes it's that easy.

Chicken Fingers or Popcorn Chicken

2-3 lbs boneless chicken

1 cup cup all purpose flour

3 eggs

1/2 cup of milk

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp adobo

1/2 tsp paprika

oil for frying

Put about a cup of flour into a wide shallow dish and set aside.
Preheat the oil in a deep skillet or frying pan, or even a wok.

Whisk the eggs, milk, and spices with about 1/4 cup of the flour. Cut the chicken into pieces the size you prefer (small for popcorn chicken, strips for fingers). Dip chicken pieces one at a time in the egg mixture then place into the flour. Set the floured chicken aside on a wire rack or paper towels, whatever you've got, and let them rest a minute while you prepare another round. 

A handful at a time, give the chicken a second round through the egg mixture and the flour, then straight into the oil. Fry until golden brown and drain on paper towels.

To keep early batches warm, I recommend putting those paper towels on a cookie sheet, maybe with a wire rack under the towels, in the oven on low heat.

Chicken & Black Bean Tacos

So I'm on a Mexican kick. Sue me. I get a thrill (or at least a full stomach) out of making standards with my own twist, as I think we all know by now. This is just another example, and it's definitely worth trying. Really quick and easy and healthy, too! Well, depending on how much cheese and sour cream you put on them...

Chicken and Black Bean Tacos

flour or corn tortillas, small is better.

2 chicken breasts

1/2 cup mojo sauce/marinade*

1 can of black beans, drained

baby spinach

sour cream

panela (crumbly white Mexican cheese)

Marinate the chicken breasts in mojo overnight, I use a giant ziploc and toss it in the fridge. It's still good if you only marinate for an hour or two, but way better if you give them a day.

If you have a grill, or an iron grill-pan for your stove, that's best. If not, you can cook the chicken in a skillet, just give it 10 minutes or so on each side. While the chicken is cooking, throw the beans and some fresh black pepper in a sauce pot with a smidge of butter or olive oil over medium heat. Stir from time to time and add water or more oil if the beans start to stick.

In a shallow frying pan over low/medium heat, warm the tortillas enough that they can fold without breaking, one at a time. set the already warmed ones under an ever-so-slightly-damp cloth to keep them warm and flexible.

Cut the chicken into thin strips. If it looks a little too pink in the middle for your comfort, as often happens with grilling, throw them into the frying pan for a minute with a bit of marinade til they're definitely thoroughly cooked.

Place some spinach leaves in the center of each tortilla, place beans and chicken on top, garnish with sour cream and panela and a little hot sauce if you're so inclined.

See? Easy!

*Mojo can be bought in the Mexican and/or condiment aisle at most grocery stores, but here's a quick list of the contents if you want to do it yourself and keep some handy in a jar in your fridge - just throw it all in the blender. Boom. You're done:

• 6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup minced yellow onion
• 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chopped oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 cup olive oil

Sausage & Egg Biscuit Sliders

We all love sliders. I mean, how can you not love a miniature burger? Honestly, I made them small because the only breakfast sausage patties at my closest grocery store are small, but I am really keen on the idea of making them small from now on. What an adorable breakfast!

I actually have another, slightly larger batch of these biscuits in the oven as I type this, while my boyfriend makes some thick-cut bacon to go with them. We love breakfast food around here, even (especially!) around mid-afternoon on weekends.

There are 2 keys to making these biscuits turn out beautifully.

1) I'm serious about the butter & milk being very cold.

2) Do not overmix, follow the kneading directions. It's worth it, and it's not difficult.

Best Flaky Biscuits

makes 10-12 depending on size.

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons butter (7 for dough, 1 for brushing on top)

3/4 cup very cold milk + 2 tbsp for brushing on top

Preheat the oven to 425º.

Slice off 1 tbsp of butter and set aside. Cut the remaining butter into thin slices and place in the freezer for a few minutes.

In a medium/large bowl, whisk together the flour, paking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the frozen thin butter and cut it in with a pastry cutter. When the mixture looks like lumpy crumbs, pour the milk in and stir with the pastry cutter until it just barely forms a dough. Dump out onto a clean surface and press into a solid rectangle. Fold it in thirds (like a letter), press out to the original rectangle's size, and repeat 3 or 4 times until the dough is fairly smooth. Roll or press out to about 1/2" thick and cut with cutters. Brush the tops with a mixture of milk & melted butter before placing in the oven for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned on top.

Now to make them into breakfast sliders!

While the biscuits are in the oven, cook some sausage patties (I used 8). Crack 4 eggs into a bowl and lightly beat them with salt & fresh ground black pepper. Cook them in a skillet omelet style with some butter. Cut out egg rounds with the same cutter you used for the biscuits.

Assemble the sandwiches as soon as everything's cool enough to touch.

Chicken Flautas

I live in a predominantly latin neighborhood. I don't specify what kind of latin because it's a mix, which means I am surrounded by pretty amazing (and cheap) food. My first apartment in this neighborhood was wonderfully placed, a block away from the best cheap taqueria in the neighborhood (in my opinion, anyway). It was there that I got hooked, obsessively, permanently, on chicken flautas.

Flautas, in case you are not familiar with them, are basically pre-cooked meat (pork, beef, chicken, whatever), seasoned and wrapped in a flour tortilla then deep fried. Of course, it's not required that you eat them with beans and Spanish rice and guacamole, and the plantains are just there because I love them. But it's really not a bad idea.

Chicken Flautas

serves 2 to 4 people, depending on how many side dishes you make.

2 boneless chicken breasts

1 teaspoon adobo

1 teaspoon Sazón

1/2 tsp onion powder

6 to 8 small flour tortillas

Cut the chicken into long thin strips, about 1/2" wide. Heat a skillet with about 1/4 cup of water in it, then place the chicken in it, dust with seasonings and cook until the chicken is solid white. Remove from heat. Dump any excess water.

Pour about 1 1/2" of vegetable oil in the skillet and heat over medium-high. Wrap a few strips of chicken tightly in a tortilla, place it in the hot oil carefully, repeat with the rest of the chicken. Cook them until the tortillas are golden brown and crispy. Drain on paper towels before topping with sour cream, salsa, crumbled queso fresco, hot sauce, whatever.

Banana Pancakes

What, more pancakes? Look, if you have people over for brunch as often as I do, you have to have more than one pancake trick up your sleeve. This is my basic pancake recipe (the sour cream ones I posted last week are my basic recipe now) with an over-ripe-spotty-but-not-solid-black-yet banana thinly sliced and added to the uncooked side just before flipping them over. If you have a little butter in the pan, the bananas caramelize ever so slightly and get sweetly fragrant. Way better than just slicing some bananas on top of the pancakes after they're finished.

I learned this method of banana pancake making from one of my former roommates, Yves, who also happens to be the person who schooled me on plantain frying. Go figure. I wonder if I still have a photo of her huevos rancheros... they were to die for!

Banana Pancakes

serves 2-3 people, makes roughly six 8" pancakes.

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 cup milk

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tbsp melted butter

1 or 2 overripe bananas thinly sliced

In a medium bowl, whisk the dry ingredients. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, sour cream, and melted butter. Stir gently into the dry ingredients, leaving the batter a little lumpy. Add more milk if needed to make the batter pourable.

Use a 1/3 cup or 1/2 cup measuring cup to pour batter onto a hot, lightly buttered griddle. When the large bubbles start to show up, lay a few slices of banana on the batter before flipping the pancakes over. If you put the bananas down too soon the batter underneath never cooks.

Grilled BBQ Chicken & Pan-Fried Sweet Potato Thick Chips

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while (or are actually my friends in real life and have been here for dinner) know that I am more than a little obsessed with sweet potatoes. Not a week goes by that I don't include them in my dinner, and I am always trying to think up new ways to prepare them.

When I was a kid, my grandma used to occasionally cut potatoes about 1/4" thick and pan-fry them in a little vegetable oil. They'd get nice and brown and crispy around the edges and soft inside, like fries, only flatter. I have attempted to make an oven-baked version of those thin-cut potatoes (and sweet potatoes) and, well, it wasn't pretty. Tasty, but not pretty. I'll spare you those recipes, because they usually ended up being served as mashed potatoes (ha!) anyway.

This barbecue sauce recipe is just a basic idea, of course one can't always measure when throwing in a dash of this and a few shakes of that, but if you use this as a guideline you can adjust however you like and it'll still be barbecue sauce. If you don't like the idea of using ketchup, feel free to use plain tomato sauce and throw in some extra vinegar.

I like my bbq sauce dark and thick and sweet and a little spicy, specifically, I like it to taste like the so-called 'sweet' sauce at a Floridian BBQ chain called Sonny's - deep down we all love what we grew up with, right?

It's worth noting that this meal only cost like $5.ºº to make and we were stuffed.

Grilled BBQ Chicken

BBQ Sauce:

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp brown sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 1/4 cup ketchup

1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tbsp mustard powder (or prepared mustard)

3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp molasses

1/2 tsp paprika

1 tsp garlic powder

pinch of allspice

2 chicken breasts with fat removed

Whisk together all ingredients (except the chicken, obviously) in a bowl or jar. Adjust seasonings as desired.

Pour half of the sauce into a medium bowl or wide shallow dish. Cover the chicken in sauce and let marinate for at least 30 minutes. Reserve the other half of the sauce for dipping or pouring later. Be sure not to let it come into contact with any raw chicken.

Heat a cast iron stovetop grill over medium-high heat and lightly oil. Place the chicken on it when a drop of water sprinkled on the grill sizzles like crazy. Flip the chicken with tongs after 8-10 minutes, and cook the other side another 8-10 minutes. Check for doneness before serving.

Pan-Fried Sweet Potato Chips

1 gigantic sweet potato

2-4 tbsp vegetable or peanut oil

1 tsp kosher or table salt

Peel the sweet potatoes and slice them about 1/8"-1/4" thick. (1/8" makes crunchy chips, 1/4" give you soft centers with crispy edges).

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil. Place a layer of potatoes on the bottom, not overlapping. When they start to turn dark brown, flip them. Drain on paper towels while you cook the remaining batches, adding a tiny bit of oil if needed. As the last batch finishes, put all of them back in the pan to get hot again. Remove them onto paper towels and sprinkle generously with salt. It always takes more salt than I expect to get sweet potatoes nice and salty.

Best. Pancakes. Ever.

I think it's pretty clear that I'm a breakfast fanatic. These are the best. BEST. pancakes I have ever had. I've been on a kick lately of putting sour cream into quickbreads of all kinds, after a really successful experiment involving waffles a few weeks ago. I somehow always seem to be out of sour cream now. Small price to pay for fluffy delicious breakfasts, if you ask me. The quesadillas can live without it, right? Err... not really.

Often with thick pancake batter, you end up with really nice pancakes with a bit of uncooked batter in the middle. It's always so disappointing, and I hate serving pancakes to friends only to find halfway through brunch that they've found themselves a glob of uncooked batter on their plates. That doesn't happen with these. That's only part of why I'm so in love with them, though. You'll understand when you try them.

For the record, since the first time I made this recipe, 2 weeks ago, I've made them 5 times. Damn! I also discovered that pancakes are really really awesome with Nutella and sausage and apples. Not that I'm surprised.

Amanda's Favorite Pancakes

serves 2-3 people, makes roughly six 8" pancakes.

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 cup milk

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tbsp melted butter

In a medium bowl, whisk the dry ingredients. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, sour cream, and melted butter. Stir gently into the dry ingredients, leaving the batter a little lumpy. Add more milk if needed to make the batter pourable.

Use a 1/3 cup or 1/2 cup measuring cup to pour batter onto a hot, lightly buttered griddle.

You know how to make pancakes, do I really have to explain? Nope. :)

Ropa Vieja, Plantains, Fried Cheese, and Rice of course.

My friend Eddie is a wonderful cook. From the first time I went to his house and he served me this meal, I have been obsessed with it. I have asked him to make it for me every time I've gone to visit him and his wonderful wife Sabina ever since, and am never let down. His recipe is a lot different from mine, probably more authentic, but mine is fairly simple and tastes really good, so I hope he doesn't mind my alterations too much. Eddie says to use pot roast, skirt steak, flank steak. I usually just pick out the thickest, prettiest steak I see that's reasonably priced. It works. You can save yourself a lot of time by doing the chopping while the steak sears in the first step.

The rice is way plainer than it should be, just do me a favor and pretend it's real Cuban-style rice. Plantains and fried cheese are absolutely the most perfect thing you could eat with ropa vieja. I can only assume that they are classically served together because the fried cheese has such a punch it can actually hold its own against the strong, smoky spicy flavor of the beef, and the subtle sweetness of the plantains is a welcome break from the intensity of the other dishes.

This all may sound very complicated, but there's nothing that difficult about it. I urge you all to try this, because it's DELICIOUS. Oh, and don't forget the sangria (or mojitos)!

Ropa Vieja

2-3 lbs steak at room temperature

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

a few tablespoons olive oil for the pan

1 cup white wine (I tend to use sherry, of course)

3 cups water or more as needed

1 large onion, chopped (preferably a Spanish onion)

6 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1/4 cup lemon juice

2-3 plum tomatoes, diced

1/4 to 1/2 cup chipotle hot sauce (This is my fave)

Rub the steak with salt and pepper. Heat a large pot over medium/high heat with a little olive oil and place the steak in the center. Don't move it for 5-10 minutes, until it has seared to a nice rich brown and left a mark on the pan, then flip and repeat.

Remove the steak from the pan and set aside for now, but do not turn off the heat. Pour the wine and 1 cup of water into the pot, scraping the bottom to get the browned juices. After 2-3 minutes return the steak to the pot.

In a separate pan, sautée the onion, green pepper, and garlic in olive oil until the onions are clear. Add the tomatoes and lemon juice, stir for another minute then add all to the steak pot. Add a cup or two of water and the hot sauce, stir well, then cover and simmer for an hour or two, stirring and adding liquid occasionally as needed. When the beef looks really tender, shred it with two forks. Adjust seasoning as desired.

Fried Cheese

1 12-oz block queso blanco or queso fresco

oil for frying

Cut the cheese into slices about 3/8" thick. Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat and add the oil. Place a few slices of cheese in the pan, far enough apart that they won't touch after melting a little. Fry until the cheese is golden and flip once. Drain on paper towels while you cook the rest. Serve immediately, returning the first batch to the pan to get hot again if needed.

Fried Plantains

3 very ripe plantains

oil for frying

Cut the plantains at an angle, 1/2" to 3/4" thick. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and add the plantains. Fry until golden brown on both sides, then remove from the pan and drain. Smash them a bit with a plantain press or the bottom of a glass, then return to the oil and fry both sides again. Drain on paper towels again and salt as desired.

Potato Skins

It's been awfully quiet around here. The blog, I mean. I can't believe we haven't added any recipes since Thanksgivingish! I have a good excuse, though, I went on a road trip to Florida, then went to DC for Christmas, and somewhere in there I acquired a boyfriend and well, a lot has been going on. Fortunately, I have still been cooking and taking photos, so I can catch up now. I don't know what Jesse's excuse is.

Potato skins are a personal favorite, always so tempting when listed among appetizers but they always seem a little overdone, a little too greasy, a little too scraped-out. What can I say, I'm picky. That's what got me cooking in the first place!

These were served at a party co-hosted by a vegetarian (Jesse, in fact!) otherwise I would've definitely put crumbled bacon all over them. They're great to take to potlucks, because they're really easy and you can make a ton of them for very little money - much like deviled eggs, which were also at this party. More on that later...

Potato Skins

6 whole baking potatoes
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded cheddar (or monterey jack, colby, etc)
1 scallion or chive stem, chopped
salt & pepper to taste
bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional)
4 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

Preheat the oven to 350º. Wash the potatoes thoroughly and place them on a cookie sheet. If you want soft skins, wrap them individually in foil OR brush them with butter. You can also roll the potatoes in coarse salt before baking for extra flavor. Bake for about an hour, then remove from the pan (and foil if used) and allow to cool. When they are cool enough to touch, cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop out the centers with a teaspoon, leaving about 1/4" of potato in the skin. (I like to set aside the scooped-out insides and make mashed potatoes out of them the next day. ) Back on the cookie sheet, brush each one with melted butter, then sprinkle with cheese, chives, bacon, then salt and pepper. Bake until cheese is melted and/or edges of the potatoes are browned. Add tons of sour cream before serving.

Steak & Potatoes

You'll be surprised how easy this is to make. It's about 10 minutes of prep time, really, unless you're a slow potato-chopper. The potatoes recipe kinda came to me as I walked to the grocery store, all I could think was potatoes and goat cheese. It just so happened that I had some whipping cream I needed to use up and the thyme (among other things) I planted in the early spring was finally ready to be plucked and used, and there is nothing like fresh home-grown thyme picked off the plant moments before going into the pan. I can't wait for the basil and rosemary to be big enough to use! There's some spinach that's only a few days away from meeting its fate under some balsamic vinegar...

Sherry Steak
3 steaks of your preference
1/3 cup sherry
4 to 6 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
1 tsp mustard powder
salt
black pepper

Let the steaks come to room temperature. Rub both sides with salt and black pepper. In a medium bowl, whisk the sherry, mustard, and garlic. Put the steaks into the bowl and be sure they're coated with the marinade. Let sit for an hour while you cook the potatoes.
Heat your skillet or iron grill for several minutes before spraying with a little cooking spray or sprinkling a little olive oil on it. If it sizzles, add the steaks all at once, flip after 3 minutes, and remove from heat. Serve immediately.
If desired, mix the remaining marinade with some butter or worcestershire sauce and bring to a simmer briefly before pouring over the steaks.

Goat Cheese Potatoes with Thyme
3 large-ish potatoes, washed and slightly peeled
4 oz goat cheese (with herbs already in it is nice but not necessary)
3/4 to 1 cup heavy whipping cream
4 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
1 to 2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp black pepper
salt to taste
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves

Preheat the oven to 375º. In a sauce pot, mix the goat cheese and heavy cream over low heat, stirring to combine. As soon as the goat cheese is dissolved in the cream, remove from heat and add the garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme.
Slice the potatoes around 1/4 to 1/8" thick. Spread a tablespoon or two of the goat cheese mixture in the bottom of a round baking dish and cover with a layer of potatoes. Repeat until the dish is full, finishing with a slightly more generous layer of cheese on top. Cover with foil and bake for about an hour, removing the foil toward the end for some light browning.

Serve with toasted challah if you've got it.

Baked Breaded Catfish with Parmesan

When I got back from a vacation in Belize this time last year, I was addicted to fish and looked up a ton of recipes, more than I could possibly make in a month, and tucked them away. This is one of those, and is so easy and so good that the first time I made it, I made it again the next night. There are witnesses. It goes really well with corn bread or couscous or roasted potatoes, and spinach sauteed in garlic mixes with it quite nicely, in case you were wondering. It doesn't even need the cheese, really, but I can't help but add cheese to things. It's not the worst habit a girl could have.

This recipe takes about 5 minutes of prep work and is done baking before you know it. 2 large fillets serves 3 to 4 people, depending on the fillets and the people. You can use seasoned breadcrumbs if you prefer, but the pre-seasoned breadcrumbs tend to be Italian and that gives a different feel to the dish. Tasty, though, I'm sure. Also, if you have grated parmesan instead of shredded, you can mix it in with the breadcrumbs at the beginning.

Yes, that's sweet potato cornbread in the picture.

Baked Breaded Catfish
1/2 to 3/4 cup plain breadcrumbs
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/3 cup lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
2 large catfish fillets
1 tbsp paprika
1/4 cup shredded parmesan

Preheat oven to 400º. Generously grease a baking pan (I prefer glass for fish) and set aside.
In a shallow dish, combine the breadcrumbs and garlic powder. In another shallow dish (or on a plate), stir the lemon juice and olive oil together. Coat both sides of each fillet with the oil mixture and then lay both sides in the breadcrumbs, making sure to coat evenly. Lay them in the prepared pan and sprinkle with the paprika and parmesan.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 and bake another 8 to 10 minutes.

Venison Chili

You can, of course, make chili that's quite delicious out of beef, but I happened to have a freezer full of venison. This is what happens when you're close to someone whose dad hunts. Anyway, chili takes very little work, all things considered. Once you've browned the meat and brought everything to a boil, the only work left to do is to stir occasionally and let it sit for an hour or two. One batch of this lasts us about a week, having it every night for dinner and a few lunches...though honestly I get sick of it and freeze a bunch after a few days. Which isn't to say it isn't lovely when I've taken a break from eating it every day!

Leftovers only get better when it comes to chili, and if you add a little extra water and some hot sauce, this can be made into a pretty serious chip dip for parties.


Venison Chili
2 tbsp corn oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, cut into ½” cubes
6 to 10 cloves of garlic, minced
¼ cup chili powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 ½ pounds ground lean venison (or beef)
1 15-oz can dark red kidney beans
1 15-oz can black beans
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 28-oz can tomato puree
salt to taste
shredded cheese & sour cream to garnish

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat until simmering but not smoking. Add the onions, bell pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, coriander, pepper flakes, oregano, and cayenne. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon until the vegetables are softened and lightly browned, about ten minutes.
Turn the heat up to medium-high and add half the venison. Break it up with the spoon and continue to stir occasionally until the meat is no longer pink. Add the beans, tomatoes, tomato puree, and half a teaspoon of salt. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for an hour or so, stirring occasionally to make sure the bottom's not sticking. Uncover the pot and simmer another hour, still stirring occasionally, adding around 1/2 cup of water at some point. Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream, or dip tortilla chips in it.

Sweet Potato Fries

Sweet potato fries are one of the best simple foods around, if you ask me. That salty crispy exterior that holds in all the sweet melt-in-your-mouth goodness inside. Man, I just had these for dinner last night but I already want some more!


Sweet Potato Fries
Serves 3, prep time 30 minutes plus hour of freezing time

2 large sweet potatoes
1 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp brown sugar
several cups of vegetable or canola oil for frying

Cut the sweet potatoes into fries. I always start this by cutting them in half to give myself a nice flat edge to sit them on while I cut them up. Put the cut fries into a large bowl, and put them in the freezer for at least one hour.
Heat your oil in a deep pot or turn on the fryer, if you have one. Lay out some paper towels on a pizza pan or big plate to drain the fries on. Mix the salt, paprika, and brown sugar in a small bowl. Sprinkle the tablespoon of corn starch over the fries and make sure they are all thinly coated. This is what gives them crispy exteriors.
When the oil is very hot, add the fries. A two-hand handful is about the right amount to fry at one time, for most pans. If there are so many fries in the oil that some are not submerged, it's too many. Fry each batch until browned around the edges. Remove them to the paper towels and sprinkle with the seasoning mix.
Once all the fries are done, shuffle them with your hands so that the hot ones and the not-so-hot ones are evenly distributed and everything gets plenty of seasoning.

I strongly recommend dipping these in ranch dressing, and/or serving them with turkey burgers. I'll post that recipe for you tomorrow.