0 comment Wednesday, May 14, 2014 | admin
For nearly thirty years my wife and I have been using SchlememmerTopf Clay Pots to make a variety of recipes (We have more than one pot). They are super vessels to cook a fabulous meal in all by themselves.
Further, when it comes to cooking indoors, it very hard to beat a clay pot, why? Simply because cooking in one helps retain the moisture in food, is self-basting, and food tastes phenomenal after it's cooked. Plus, it cooks super fast.
Schlememmer literally means"to feast"! They kid not! Why they haven't caught on like a "slow cooker" has I don't know. But, for clay pot fans here's just a couple of tips for making even more delicious dishes using a Schlememmer.
So, let's get creative. What happens when you combine grilling on the BBQ with clay pot cooking? The answer is: "Awesome"!
Anything grilled outdoors just seems to taste better. Grilling meats and vegetables, and then to finish cooking in a clay cooking pot is where the awesome lies and can make for an exciting dish.
This is a modified a recipe for a Chicken and Asparagus Casserole right out of the SchlememmerTopf Recipe Book. Since it involves cooking the chicken and the asparagus ahead of time, it was a no-brainer to grill those two ingredients on the BBQ.
I added Balsamic Vinegar, Spice Rub and Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Also, I doubled up on the chicken but not the asparagus.
The condensed chicken soup was salty. Next time I will opt for a low-sodium substitute, or dilute the chicken soup.
Cut off the none-essential ends of the asparagus. Now, the basic recipe doesn't call for marinating the asparagus in Balsamic Vinegar and Extra-Virgin-Olive Oil. Do it anyway! A tad of each goes a long way. Marinating the asparagus in this concoction for thirty minute will suffice.
I applied a "Spice Rub" to the chicken breasts. Most any quality Poultry Rub will do. Apply a generous amount of Rub, along with a little EVOO and set aside for 30 minutes.
Fire up the grill to a moderate temperature and then grill the chicken and asparagus. Keep turning the asparagus on the grill until you have nice grill marks on all sides. The asparagus will be fairly limp when it's done.
You are going to cook both the chicken and the asparagus some more in the clay pot. So, I didn't get too testy with the internal temperature of the chicken.
Meanwhile, we are going to make a sauce. Get yourself a fairly large sauce pan and combine the soup, cream, butter and half the Parmesan in the pan.
Hey, you can do this on the grill�.there's no rules. Stir it until it's all mingled, heat it up and set aside.
Fill the lid of the SchlememmerTopf with tap water for ten minutes, and then pour out. Place a layer of the asparagus at the bottom of the pot. Place two chicken breasts on top of the asparagus.
Place another layer of asparagus on top of the chicken, and then the remaining chicken on top of that. Pour the sauce over the chicken and asparagus.
Put the Schlememmer in a cold oven and set the temperature to 425 degrees. Cook for 25 minutes.
The recipe calls for sliced chicken. I opted to slice up the chicken after it came out of the oven. This works real well.
You can eat this dish all by itself, or you can put it over pasta. If you go this route, cut everything into bite-size chunks.
I would also dilute the Cream of Chicken Soup to give you more sauce. Add the remaining Parmesan. Sprinkle with Paprika.
All this sounds terribly complicated. Actually, it's simple, fast and is fun to fix. If you don't have access to a grill, I would still add the Rub, EVOO and Balsamic Vinegar as outlined.
Labels: Ceramic Clay Pots For Cooking, Schlemmertopf, Tips For Grilling