Sunday Gravy with yeah right: It’s OK to Play with your Food

Good morning everyone!

We’ve got Olympic things going AND preseason football. All good things. 

I watched the first 2 series of the Hall of Fame Game and it held my interest for the first two series. I was intrigued by the new kickoff alignments. Something to keep an eye on for sure.

Honestly, I haven’t seen much of the Olympics at all this year. Weekends only, because by the time I get home from work it’s like 3 AM in Paris and they’re showing highlights of shit that happened hours ago and the news has already yapped about it like 17 goddamn times. 

I’m watching later today though. 

Strange inspiration for our menu today but I thought it was a little creative. 

It all started here.

I ordered these Crab Chips a few weeks ago after seeing them suggested on the open thread. They were indeed quite tasty. Salty as fuck but still tasty.

I liked the idea of them because I’ve already tried Chickie and Pete’s crab fries when I was at a Phillies game at Citizen Bank a few years back. 

They were not crazy exotic with say pieces of jumbo lump crab drenched in a lovely hollandaise or anything like that. Just hot and fresh fries sprinkled with a healthy pour of Old Bay. 

Perfect beer food by the way. 

I had these crab chips along with a couple of dogs on the 4th of July.

Festive!

However thanks to Amazon shipping these poor fucking things were crab dust for the most part. 

Hey. I’ll own that shit. I’ve had past experience with busted ass potato chips being shipped to me previously but I still did it. 

These fuckers right here. Sterzings potato chips “Tri-some!” Pride of Burlington Iowa. I used to get these when I lived in the Quad Cities and they’re fucking incredible. They were beat to living piss when I had some delivered after ordering on-line.

Pack your shit right people!

What to do with half a bag of crab chip crumbs?

I actually love this part where your brain is spinning, circuits are short circuiting, all of your remaining brain cells are engaged, then it hits. 

 Chicken strips with a panko and crab chip crust!

I didn’t say I was gonna win the Nobel fucking prize with this idea, it just sounded like something that could be fun to do and would be next to impossible to fuck up!

We’re gonna need some goddamn fucking chicken. 

Pre-cut into tenders to make my ass even lazier than normal.

We’ve done yogurt marinades here many times in the past. One container of plain Greek yogurt, juice of 1/2 lemon, clove or two or three of garlic and seasoning profile of your choice. Old Bay seems to be our selected profile so why the fuck not?

Combine these things, dump in the chicken tenders and place into a gallon zip top freezer bag.

Squish that shit around like your playing with a bag of medical waste or something.

Actually don’t really play with medical waste people. That’s nasty.

We will marinate overnight.

Since we’re making tenders we should probably consider a sauce or two.

Honey mustard! Which is a couple of tablespoons of mayo, a heaping teaspoon of dijon, an equal ratio of honey to dijon and the juice from 1/2 of 1 lemon.

Hey! Don’t we have a leftover half lemon from that marinade thing?

You lucky motherfucker, you sure do. 

Make whatever your favorite chicken tender sauce you prefer here. Nothing fully scripted today just winging it. Buy a bottle of barbecue sauce, hell use some ketchup if you’re into that sort of thing.

While the brain was percolating ideas for today it thought, wouldn’t it be cool if we came up with a side dish where you could toss some of those busted ass chips on top?

Why yes. That would be very cool. 

Then the brain said,  “Oh shit. I got it! “

Get yourself some really nice Gruyere to start. 

Grate it up.

Peel and thin slice a big old spud.

Yeah, you know what I’m talking about don’t you?

Damn right we’re going potatoes au gratin. 

Recipe-wise it’s about 1 big potato, half to 3/4 cup of heavy cream, 3/4 cup of the Gruyere, some cayenne and nutmeg, salt and pepper. 

Then build the dish. Finish with a sprinkling of fresh chives.

Oh shit! Almost forgot.

Hell yes. Give a nice coating of the crab chip crumbs right on top. Into a 375 degree oven for fifty, 5-0! Minutes. 

Let the gratin cook first before cooking the chicken tenders. The small amount of time needed for the chicken will allow the gratin to cool a bit.

Chicken time!

Build a dredge with panko and more crushed ass chips.

Grab your oven rack.

You are going to be really happy that you put that sheet of parchment paper underneath. 

Place the now dredged chicken on the rack.

Remove the gratin from the oven.

You can actually see the boiling cauldron of molten lava. 

Yes. Do let this cool a bit alright?

I ain’t looking for any lawsuits over here close to retirement as my ass is. 

Place the chicken into the same 375 degree oven for just 15 minutes. Any more time and you’ll have dried up, fucked up chicken and that would be a goddamn shame this late in the proceedings. 

 Finally remove the chicken from the oven

Grab a plate.

We sure do love some beige food up in this motherfucker don’t we?

Chicken close-up.

The gratin up close.

Of course I had to try some with chili crisp.

This meal is fucking delicious! How could it not be?

I have to say that the gratin potatoes were cooked Capital P Perfectly. Sometimes if they are layered too dense they can come out a bit undercooked but I layered the potatoes, the onion, then some cheese, then some garlic then some cream and repeat.

Exceptional. The chicken is exactly what you think. A very nice chicken tender with a small hit of garlic and lemon from the marinade and, I’ll be go-to-hell, those crab chips and panko made an outstanding crust.

Delightful!

That chicken with the chili crisp on it? Embarrassed the shit out of my honey mustard. Just destroyed it in taste comparison and that was a pretty solid honey mustard too.

Fun stuff in the kitchen and a very low-impact meal to prepare.

Thanks as always folks. Love all of you and appreciate you.

Enjoy your sports filled weekend and do watch some preseason football later this week, OK?

See you next week.

PEACE!