Giant in the Kitchen: Awesome Cast Iron Chicken
Ok, I'm about to blow your mind. I have the best technique for cooking food indoors. Seriously, your mind is going to explode. Take a deep breath.
I'm demonstrating this with chicken breasts, but it works for just about any meat or vegetable you throw at it. Case in point, using this magical technique, I made shrimp taste good. I know, I know, you're thinking, "What??? But shrimp is boring. It HAS no taste. When I got that spinach and shrimp salad at Applebee's last year, the gummy shrimp made the salad unpalatable!" You're exactly right! Shrimp is like the wonder bread of the sea - chewy and uninspired. Arianna and I were making shrimp spring rolls, and the shrimp ended up being the best part of the rolls because of my wundiferous technique. (It's a good thing the shrimp was awesome, ‘cause the spring roll wrappers had the consistency of a condom...)
The only hardware you need is a cast iron skillet and an oven mitt. You can use whatever ingredients and seasonings you have around. It really works for anything.
Here is the fantastic chicken breast recipe using the technique:
I made a simple marinade for the chicken using 1 part soy sauce (maybe ½ a cup), 1 part olive oil, 2 parts orange juice, 2 tablespoons of grated fresh ginger and 2 diced garlic cloves. The measurements are approximate. I really just eyeballed it. (This part is totally up to you. For vegetables or a good steak, don't worry about a marinade; just give it a good dash of salt. For shrimp, go with a flavorful marinade)
Set an oven-rack at the top level and turn on your broiler to full kick. Heat your cast iron skillet on the stove top until it starts to smoke. At this point put on the oven mitt, quickly toss the chicken into the skillet, and transfer the skillet to the oven-rack, right under the broiler. This is going to cook the chicken extremely fast because it is getting seared both on the top and the bottom. This locks in the moister and keeps the chicken juicy and succulent. After about 5 minutes, flip the breasts. Let cook for another 4-5 minutes until they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
The whole point of cooking food this way is getting this amazingly intense heat and applying it to very basic ingredients. It is the closest thing to grilling you can do indoors. This is important for me because I live in an apartment and don't have the room to store a grill. The cooking technique is quick and has always worked for me. Be aware that it can be really smoky, so make sure to open a window or turn on a kitchen exhaust fan. Also, make sure you are using cast iron. Not much else can handle this kind of high heat.
Awesome, right?
