Savory Saffron Chicken...

       

Before I moved to Brazil, the only experiences I ever had with saffron were in a few Indian dishes I've tried here and there. I never knew just how easy I could prepare a delicious dish with saffron as the main ingredient until I tried my mother in law's Saffron Chicken. Wow.

         In Brazil, saffron is cheap and the most commonly used type is the kind that is a dark yellow-orange color. It has a very strong aroma, so it's not something you can just throw into any ol dish. In Portuguese, saffron is called "açafrão (ah-sah-frown)" and the dish I am about to show you is actually called "Frango ao molho de açafrão," or "Chicken in Saffron Sauce." I just call it Saffron Chicken.

        The ingredients are very simple, and there are only a few important steps that must be followed to ensure it turns out right. There are 3 key ingredients that you cannot skimp out on: Saffron, Garlic, and Green Onion (chive). You can make this as more of a soup by cooking it with more water, or you can start with a little less water and let it cook down into it's own sauce. Up to you, but I highly recommend making this along with Brazilian style rice and beans. If nothing else, just the rice. Slice up some tomatoes to serve with it, and you are SET!

          Your house will smell awesome. The food will taste like something you can buy in a restaurant, and you will make many bellies very happy. If you would like to give this one a go, here's how ya do it:

What you will need:

• Whole bone in  chicken breast or entire chicken cut into chunks - unseasoned at this point.
• large frying pan
• medium to large pressure cooker or soup pot (if you are not using a pressure cooker, fine, but this will take much longer.
• Large cooking spoon
• fork, spoon, knife
• enough oil to submerge chicken 75%
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• salt to taste about 1 tsp if you are not good at gauging how much salt to use... you can always add more at the end of it lacks saltiness
• pepper to taste - or 1 tsp - just like the salt situation
• 1 cup of chopped green onion (chives)
• 1 1/2 TBSP saffron PLUS 1 tsp saffron
• water

How it's done"

1. Put about 1 to 1 1/2 inches of oil into the frying pan and place over high heat. Allow it about 5-8 minutes to get hot.

2. Put chicken bits into hot oil and make sure it is submerged at least 75%. Too little oil and the chicken will fry too much too fast and will probably stick to the pan. Messy.

3. Leave the chicken to fry, occasionally turning the pieces and making sure they fry evenly on all sides. 

4. Once they have been frying for about 10 minutes, sprinkle your 1 tsp. of saffron over the top of the chicken and allow it to cook into the chicken as the chicken fries. 

5. Take your pressure cooker, leaving the top off for now (or your soup pot) and fill it about 1/4 of the way at first. Place it over medium to high heat to get it heating up for your fried chicken pieces. 

6. Go ahead and add the rest of you saffron, salt, pepper, garlic, and half of the chopped chives to the water and stir it until it looks to be mixed in. Leave it to start a boil.

7. Keep checking on your frying chicken. It needs to get to a dark golden brown color on the outside. It needs to look as if it is starting to get crispy, but isn't quite there yet. When it reaches that point (of not totally crunchy), they're ready to be removed.  Our goal is not to let them get too crunchy, but a nice dark golden color on the outside to seal in all those yummy juices on the inside.

8. Remove the fried chicken from the oil and transfer into pot of water which should be starting to boil by now. If it's not yet, that's fine. Not a big deal really. Take an additional 3 or 4 TBSP of oil from the fried chicken oil and add it to the water.

9. If you are using a pressure cooker, now you may give everything one last stir and lock the top on. If you are not using a pressure cooker, just give it one last stir and place the top on. Make sure heat is set to high.

10. Pressure cooker cooking time is about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes you can carefully remove the top (if someone hasn't shown you how to remove the top, you need to know how to do that first without ending up in the ER) and if the chicken has taken on a yellow color and looks tender, it's good to go. If you are looking to allow it to sit in a soup, you're done. If you are wanting it to be more of a thickened sauce, you need to return it to the stovetop on high flame WITHOUT the lid. Let it cook until it looks saucy enough for you. 

Then it's ready.

Normal pot cooking time is different. You will most likely need to leave it cooking with the top on for an hour. Occasionally you may need to throw more water in it when the water level starts to get too low. Once the chicken has taken on that golden color and looks tender, you're done. As said before, if you want more of a sauce consistency than soupy one, put it back on the fire with the lid off and let it cook down until it looks like what you want it to.

I prefer the soupier texture because I can pour that over rice or I can actually eat it like a soup. It's delicious!

11. Transfer your finished chicken with juices into a serving dish and sprinkle the remaining chopped green onion (chives) over the top of it.

12. Serve in a bowl or deep plate as a soup, add rice and pour soup over both for a chicken rice soup, or eat the chicken alone as is. 

Anyway you eat it, it will be delicious. The first time I made this for my husband, he told me I had completely outdone myself and if he hadn't seen me making it he wouldn't have believed I didn't buy that from a restaurant. It is super savory!

13. Prepare for "happy belly" faces!

Boa sorte! Good Luck!

Feijao Tropeiro!

Picture shows finished product dressed with chopped chives, spinach, and topped with pieces of Pork Rinds.

   

Feijao Tropeiro literally translates into "Cattle Driver's Beans". A Cattle or Sheep Driver is one who forces cattle/sheep to move where they need to go, usually to and from the market. So without looking up the actual background of this recipe I am going to assume that this was a popular recipe brought along by these kinds of people. I am thinking maybe due to it's extremely high fat and protein content, it kept them full and able to tend to the job at hand, which I'm sure required a lot of stamina and energy depending on how far the market was.
      For me though, this is my favorite bean meal here in Brazil. It uses several sources of protein along with flour made from mandioca (called Yucca Root at US grocery stores) and just a couple veggies, to make up a dish that can be eaten as a side dish or all by itself. It is very filling! Feijao Tropeiro is traditionally served alongside boiled mandioca (Yucca Root), white rice, and espetinhos (shish kabobs). Anytime you find a street vendor serving shish kabobs, they USUALLY also serve white rice, mandioca, and feijao tropeiro.

To make this recipe you will need to make a trip to the International Market to pick up a bag of Mandioca Flour.. here called Farinha de Mandioca or Farofa. Any type will do, and usually you will find it by a brand called Yoki. Mandioca also goes by the name of Yucca Root in other South American Countries, or Cassava Flour in African Countries.

So, here's the recipe...

Ingredients Needed:

1. 1 pound or about 4-5 cups of Beans (preferably a small brown bean type) Cooked, drained, and set aside to dry a little.
2. 1 lb. bacon (preferably a slab that you can cube, otherwise normal pre-sliced bacon will do, just cut it up as best you can into cubes)
3. 1 lb. smoked sausage (2 cans of Vienna sausage will also work) - cut into 1/2 in slices
4. 2-3 eggs, depending on how much you like them
5. 1/2 cup minced onions
6. 1/2 cup chopped raw spinach
7. 1/2 cup chopped green onion (chive)
8. Vegetable oil for frying bacon and sausage
9. 1 bag of Farofa aka Mandioca Flour aka Yucca or Cassava Flour. It should be appear as brown to yellowish crumbs. Any seasoning or flavor will do and you can usually find it by a brand called Yoki in the states. (Most Mexican Stores carry this as well.)


Utensils Needed:
1. Knife for Chopping and Cutting
2. Spoon and fork for cooking.
3. 1 pan to fry bacon and sausage and 1 pan for scrambling eggs.
4. I large pan for Feijao Tropeiro.

Directions:
1. In Brazil, Carioca type beans are generally used for this dish, but you can use any bean you like. I have had Feijao Tropeiro also with White beans and kidney beans, but you want a bean that will not easily mush up when cooked. People here usually buy dry beans  and soften them in a pressure cooker first, but if you do not want to go through the hassle, the best way to buy them would be in a frozen bag. Let them thaw and try to keep them as dry as possible. You want them to be cooked, but not mushy. If you MUST buy canned beans, do so, but try to drain them and let them sit out and dry a little as much as possible before cooking.

2. After you have figured out your bean situation, allow those to dry a little as you prep the rest of the ingredients, and set the beans aside. I usually just go ahead and put them into the big pan and leave them sitting on the stove as I do everything else.
3. Put onion,cubed bacon, and sliced sausage into a frying pan and add a little vegetable oil. Fry until everything starts to get a little crispy.

You want there to be a good amount of grease leftover, as you will use it later. You can go ahead and remove the onion, bacon, and sausage and add it on top of the beans. Set the oil aside.
4. Beat your eggs, throw a little butter or oil into a pan, and cook your eggs scrambled until they're medium to hard.

You can also go ahead and throw those in with your beans and meats as well. Don't stir anything together yet.

5. Add chopped raw spinach to bean mixture.
6. Turn on the stove and begin to lightly stir everything in the pot together over a medium fire with a normal fork. Don't do it too rough or you'll smash the beans.

7. After a few minutes of mixing it together over the fire, turn the fire off.
8. Drizzle the oil leftover from the bacon into the bean mixture, and lightly mix into the beans with a fork.

9. Add chopped green onions (chives) and begin slowly mixing in the Mandioca Flour. Mix in a little at a time with a fork, until the beans have been completely coated.

As soon as you begin to mix it large clumps will form, keep adding more and more mandioca flour and mix through gently with a fork until these large clumps have gotten much smaller, but there should still be lot's of small clumps, this is normal.

Once you feel like there is plenty of Mandioca flour, continue gently mixing through with fork until everything seems even. Done!

10. Ready to serve! Best served with BBQed meat and rice. Maybe some diced onion and tomatoes.

Note: The spinach and onion (not green onion) are both optional. I usually leave out the onion because my husband despises them, and it's still just as delicious. Sometimes when there is no spinach in the house, I leave it out as well, and it doesn't affect the overall taste either.
I highly recommend buying some pork rinds and breaking them into little pieces over the finished Feijao Tropeiro, as this is something a lot of restaurants do here. They make pork rinds from scratch here though using bits of fat and deep fry until crunchy, called Torresmo. Feijao Tropeiro is excellent topped with this. Not the healthiest selection, but it is DELICIOUS!