Pan-Grilled Chicken Breasts with Apricot Compote

Compotes originated as desserts, sometimes sprinkled with warm spices as a finish. Now they often end up as an accompaniment to the dessert course because they make a good syrupy, fruity topping for sweets like ice cream or pound cake.

I say forget dessert altogether. A rich, thick, not-too-sweet compote makes the perfect finishing drizzle for savory dishes like meat or poultry. I used apricots for this recipe and tempered the sweetness with a little shallot and fresh lemon juice. Spoon it on top of smoky grilled chicken to turn a simple main course into one that’s extra inviting.

Tip: To cut each apricot into eight pieces:

Fresh apricots

Run a knife blade lengthwise around the apricot 

Cut into halves and remove the pit 

Cut each half in half 

Cut each quarter in half

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 tsp finely chopped shallot
• 1/2 lb fresh, ripe apricots, each cut into 8 pieces
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tbsp light brown sugar
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil, for brushing
• 4 6-oz boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

Compote Ingredients

Preparation

1. Heat a small saucepan over medium heat and add the butter and shallot. Cook, stirring frequently, 2 minutes.
2. Add the apricots, water, brown sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon and season with salt and pepper.
3. Bring to a simmer, then decrease the heat to medium-low and cook, covered with the lid slightly ajar, until the apricots begin to soften, 10 minutes. Uncover and cook until the sauce is slightly thick and syrupy, 8-10 minutes longer. Rewarm gently before serving, if not using right away.

Butter and Shallot 

Remaining Ingredients Added 

Compote after 10 Minutes 

Cooked Compote 

Apricot Compote

1. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat and brush with oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and grill until golden and just cooked through, turning a few times, 12-14 minutes total, depending on thickness.

Chicken Beginning to Grill

To serve, plate the chicken breasts and spoon warm compote on top.

Pan-Grilled Chicken Breasts with Apricot Compote

  

Rotisserie Pork Shoulder with Smoked-Oil Rub

Recipe updated July 2019

Pork roast and a rotisserie were meant for each other. A low fire, slow cooking, and continuous self-basting in its own juices turn this hunk of meat into the most popular guest at the dinner table.

Loin roasts are the most common cuts of pork for cooking on a rotisserie because they’re lean and you can cook them at a higher temperature in much less time—pink inside means juicy tender for a loin cut.

But I prefer that low, slow method of turning a fattier, tougher piece of pork into some of the most flavorful, succulent meat you can feast on. That’s where pork shoulder comes in. This is the cut typically braised for hours in a low-temperature oven, then pulled into tender shreds before serving. You can get the same results with a rotisserie. Just give it time—starting with a deliciously smoky and spicy rub.

I received a bottle of Spanish smoked olive oil as a gift and couldn’t wait to try it. One taste and I was hooked. While you could use it by itself as a finishing drizzle over grilled steak or chicken, I thought it would also make a great marinade for slow-roasted pork.

Combining the oil with a few spices—including smoked sea salt—makes a bold, smoky slurry that you can then rub all over the meat and refrigerate for at least four hours. Overnight—even better. Of course, if you can’t find smoked olive oil or smoked sea salt, regular olive oil and sea salt mixed with the other spices will still make one flavorful, penetrating rub for the pork.

Smoked Oil

Smoked Sea Salt

About 15 minutes before removing the meat from the grill, I brushed it with a simple sweet and spicy glaze made with jalapenos and maple syrup—but only enough to give the meat a glossy finish. The biggest flavor comes from the smokiness and that beautiful crispy bark on the outside and tender deliciousness on the inside.

How to serve it? The rotisserie pork shoulder isn’t firm enough to slice, like a pork loin, so I used a fork to pull it into bite-sized chunks and served it with warm tortillas. Instant carnitas. You also can use it to top mashed potatoes or polenta, or serve it as is with a side of black beans or steamed rice. However you plate it, the meat will be the star of dinner.

Poultry is great on a rotisserie too. Check out Homemade Rotisserie Rosemary-Chicken.

Makes about 8 servings

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp smoked olive oil
• 2 tsp garlic granules
• 2 tsp chile powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground cayenne
• 1 tsp smoked sea salt
• 3-lb pork shoulder (Boston butt), fat cap trimmed
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 jalapeno chile, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 3 tbsp orange juice
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Pork Shoulder 

Glaze Ingredients

Preparation

1. Combine the first 5 ingredients (through smoked salt) in a bowl, stirring well to form a thick slurry.
2. Rub the oil mixture all over the pork shoulder, massaging it in to any crevices and coating completely. (Note: If you have a rolled roast that needs to be secured with kitchen string, do that now.) 
3. Place the roast on a plate and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 4 hours. (For even deeper flavor, refrigerate overnight.)

Smoked Oil Rub

Rubbed Pork Ready to Marinate

Marinated Pork

1. Prepare a grill for indirect cooking with a rotisserie, maintaining about a 300°–325° F temperature.
2. Secure the pork roast on the spit and grill, covered, 2-1/2 hours.

Pork Beginning to Grill

Pork Beginning to Grill2 

Grilled Pork

1. Meanwhile, make the glaze. Heat a small saucepan over medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the jalapeno and garlic and sauté 2 minutes. Add the maple syrup and orange juice and season with salt and pepper.
2. Bring to a simmer then reduce the heat to low and cook until the glaze has slightly thickened, 5-7 minutes.

Jalapeno and Garlic 

Remaining Ingredients Added

Cooked Glaze

1. Baste the pork with some of the glaze about 30 minutes before the meat has finished cooking. Brush with the remaining glaze about 5 minutes before removing it from the grill.

Glazed Pork 

Let the Pork Rest

Remove the pork from the spit and let rest 10 minutes. Use a fork to pull it into chunks and serve hot.

Rotisserie Pork Shoulder with Smoked-Oil Rub

Texas-Style Gulf Coast Jambalaya

My husband, of course, knows how much I love Mexican, southwestern, Tex-Mex, and authentic Texas cooking—and eating—so for my birthday recently, he came home with Dean Fearing’s The Texas Food Bible (Crescent-Fearing, L.P., 2013). Wonderful stuff, with info, insights, and anecdotes that read as much like a novel as a cookbook.

One of Fearing’s recipes, East Texas Seafood Jambalaya, highlights the ample seafood and rice production in Texas, both important industries in the eastern part of the state. And with Louisiana just next door, a bit of Bayou influence is unmistakable in the sausages (andouille is a must) and spices for jambalaya. Fearing includes shrimp, oysters, and crabmeat in his recipe, as well as andouille and lean pork, cooked in a bit of bacon fat.

For my own version, I used only shrimp along with bacon and two styles of andouille—one as a sausage in casing and the other sold in bulk, which I pinched into small pieces. I used both types simply for a variance in texture, but you can skip the bulk and buy a heavier sausage link, if you prefer.

Tip: To cut the andouille link into “half-moon” slices, first cut the sausage into about three-inch pieces, then cut those pieces lengthwise in half. Now you can cut each crosswise into half-moons.

Andouille Sausage Link 

Half-Moon Slices

Since genuine Texas rice isn’t easy to find in my Midwestern town, I substituted that other long-grain, nutty-flavored white rice, basmati. California long-grain white rice would be fine too.

Regardless of the ingredients, I view jambalaya as a southern version of paella. Both are dishes you build layer upon layer into a spectacular finished one-pot meal. I know it's tasty in east Texas. And from 1,200 miles north, I think this one turned out pretty darn good too.

Serves 5-6

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 slices bacon, chopped
• 1/2-lb andouille sausage link, cut into thin, half-moon slices
• 1/4 lb bulk andouille, pinched into small pieces
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 jalapeno chiles, finely chopped
• 1-1/2 cups chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp Tabasco or Texas Pete hot sauce, plus more for serving
• 1 tsp dried oregano (preferably Mexican)
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 bay leaf
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup long-grain white rice, soaked in water 30 minutes and drained
• 1-3/4 cups chicken broth
• 3/4 lb medium shrimp (26-30 count), peeled, deveined, and cut lengthwise in half
• 3 scallions, thinly sliced (both white and green parts)
• 2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
• lemon and lime wedges and salted radish slices, for serving

Jambalaya Vegetables

Prepared Ingredients 

Ready to Cook

Preparation

1. Heat a large, deep skillet over medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the bacon, both andouille sausages, onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic, and jalapenos and cook, stirring frequently, until the sausage browns and the vegetables often, 10 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes and next 5 ingredients (through bay leaf) and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the tomatoes are soft, 5-6 minutes.
3. Stir in the rice and cook 1 minute. Add the chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until most of the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, 15 minutes.
4. Add the shrimp and cook until just cooked through and the liquid is absorbed, 3-4 minutes. Remove the bay leaf.

Sausage Mixture Beginning to Cook 

Tomatoes Added 

Rice Stirred In

Broth Added 

Liquid Nearly Absorbed 

Shrimp Added

Cooked Jambalaya

Divide the jambalaya among 5-6 shallow bowls and garnish with scallions and parsley. Serve with lemon and lime wedges, sliced radishes, and extra hot sauce at the table.

Texas-Style Gulf Coast Jambalaya

Slow-Cooker Italian Meatball Subs

Why spend more than six hours making sub sandwiches? Because you won’t find more succulent, tender, tasty meatballs on a bun if you don’t. At least, that’s what I discovered.

Start the meatball mixture with a traditional milk-soaked bread binder, add ground beef, pork, and all the classic ingredients, then slowly braise the meatballs in a slow-cooker with a no-fuss, easy marinara to result in mouth-watering tenderness and savory tomato taste.

The meatballs flavor the sauce and the sauce tenderizes the meatballs. One perfect union.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup soft, fresh bread cubes
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 lb ground beef
• 1/2 lb ground pork
• 1/2 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped, divided
• 1 small shallot, finely chopped
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 2 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil, plus more as needed
• 1/2 cup white chopped onions
• 1-1/2 cups crushed tomatoes (from a 28-oz can)
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 4 sub buns or hoagie rolls, centers hollowed out
• 8 very thin slices provolone cheese

Hollowed Out Bun

Very Thinly Sliced Provolone

Preparation

1. Place the bread cubes in a small bowl and pour the milk over them. Press the bread down to submerge and let soak 15 minutes.

Soak the Bread Cubes in Milk

1. Place the ground beef, ground pork, Parmigiano-Reggiano, 2 chopped garlic cloves, and next 5 ingredients (through black pepper) in a large bowl.
2. Pour off the excess milk from the bread cubes and squeeze the bread until no longer dripping. Add to the bowl with the beef mixture and mix lightly to combine all.
3. Form the mixture into 12 equal meatballs (about 1-3/4 inches in diameter) and place on a large plate. Refrigerate 15 minutes.
4. Heat a large, deep skillet over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the meatballs and cook, turning until lightly browned on all sides, 4-5 minutes total.
5. Transfer the meatballs to a slow-cooker. Do not wipe out the pan.

Meatball Mixture 

Meatballs Ready to Chill 

Meatballs Beginning to Brown 

Browned Meatballs

Transfer the Meatballs to a Slow-Cooker

1. If there is less than 1 tablespoon of oil in the skillet, add a little more. Add the onion and remaining 2 chopped garlic cloves and sauté 2 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes and oregano and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until beginning to simmer, 3-4 minutes.
2. Transfer the marinara to the slow-cooker with the meatballs. Cover and cook the meatballs and sauce on low for 4-1/2 hours. Uncover and cook 30 minutes longer.

Onion and Garlic 

Marinara Beginning to Simmer 

Marinara Added to Meatballs 

Slow-Cooked Meatballs in Marinara

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F. Line a large baking pan with parchment paper.
2. Lay the hollowed out buns cut-side up on the pan. Fill each bottom half with 3 meatballs and a generous amount of marinara. Top each with 2 slices of provolone cheese, folded in half.
3. Bake until the cheese is melted and the buns are just beginning to brown, 3-4 minutes.

Buns Ready for Filling 

Meatball and Sauce Filled Buns 

Ready to Bake 

Baked Subs

Remove, close the sandwiches, and serve hot. (Slice in half, if desired.)

Slow-Cooker Italian Meatball Subs