Hate marshmallows? A cure for the Thanksgiving side dish blues!

There are some things about Thanksgiving I just dread. The vile green bean casserole with the canned mushroom soup and canned fried onions is bad enough. So is the ubiquitous lime Jell-O mold. But one thing I just can't abide is marshmallows on the sweet potatoes, so I'm going to offer up an alternative. Chipotle sweet potatoes.

I know, the dish you're used to is generally referred to as candied yams, but I'm assured that yams and sweet potatoes are related to each other in much the same way that an armadillo is related to a giraffe. What you get in the can from the supermarket, though it may be labeled as yams, is actually sweet potatoes. Since I have an aversion to almost all canned food with the exception of tomatoes and tuna, I'm going to suggest you use fresh ones.

Basically, you have two choices. You can make a "mashed" dish or something similar to a gratin. Either dish starts with the same thing, canned chipotles en adobo pureed with milk, half and half or cream. It's your call depending upon your waistline's tolerance level for butterfat.

The key here is to truly puree them, not chop them. A blender (either the upright type or an immersion blender) or a small food processor is a must here. I'm pretty good with a knife, but the one time I tried mincing them very fine I almost killed someone who didn't have much of a tolerance for heat when she got a small chunk of chipotle stuck in her throat for a bit - until she could wash it down with some water. Trust me and use a blender. If you don't have one, Amazon (shameless plug, here) is running a special on the Cuisinart immersion blender and the ad is in the "Deals" section in the sidebar of this blog. It's a great tool, especially if you like to make soup. Okay, the blatant attempt at generating ad revenue from Amazon is over. Back to the recipe.

How many chipotles? I can't tell you. They're all a bit different in heat like all chiles, and it depends on the tolerance levels of your guests and how many people you're serving (and, naturally, how many sweet potatoes you're cooking as a result). Start with one or two along with some of the sauce from the can to a cup or so of dairy product and taste the result. You can always add more. And don't forget - wash your hands after you've handled any chile, preferably 2 or 3 times.

If you're making the "gratin", peel and slice raw sweet potatoes and layer them in a baking dish, salting and peppering as you go along. Add some of some of the chipotle mixture - to which you've added some honey (not much - maybe a tablespoon for every sweet potato, but trust your personal taste) which cuts the slight bitterness of the chipotles - after every layer. Dot the top with butter and bake, covered with foil, at 350 until the potatoes are tender.

If you're making the "mash", poke a few holes in the sweet potatoes as you would if you were baking a russet and bake in a shallow pan (they tend to ooze all over the oven floor if you put them directly on the rack) at 350 until they're soft, then scoop the flesh from the skin. Season with salt and pepper, add a big lump of butter and some chipotle/milk/honey mixture and stir. There's no mashing involved.

If you don't have any honey you can use brown sugar or maple syrup (the real kind, not something with butter flavor in it), but the whole point of the honey is to get away from the cloying, brown sugar-laden and overly sweet traditional dish. Along with the cranberries, this is one of the reasons it's so difficult to match wines to the traditional Thanksgiving meal.

Enjoy, don't over-eat, and may your bird be nicely browned.

Another Step-by-Step: Chicken Cacciatore "Modernized"

I love chicken. I love vegetables. I love them together, but I never loved chicken cacciatore. For that matter, I never loved coq au vin, either. Why? The disgusting, rubbery mess that chicken skin turns into when you braise the pieces in liquid. Further, though I like white meat chicken, boneless-skinless breasts (which are one solution) are often like eating cotton. What to do?

I was vexed and set out some time ago to solve this problem.  Surprisingly, it wasn't all that difficult and it makes for a nice presentation to boot. I just had to think outside the envelope a little and get away from the "traditional" recipes you can find all over the Interwebs.

First, I borrowed some techniques from other dishes, the first being the ratatouille I posted about a while ago. Here's a shot of the vegetables all prepped and yes, that's a carrot you see. It adds a nice, earthy component to the dish. Bear in mind that  what you see is for one serving, so don't fret that there don't appear to be many vegetables.

Once you have your vegetables prepped, the first step to get the chicken started. Choose nicely-sized bone-in, skin-on breast haves and season them with salt and pepper. Heat some olive oil over medium heat in an oven-proof skillet until shimmering, and brown the breasts skin side down until nicely colored. Turn them skin side up and put the skillet in the oven at 375 degrees until they're cooked through -  about 25-30 minutes.

The second step is exactly like the ratatouille, and that's to separately lightly brown the zucchini, mushrooms and carrot and set them aside, then sweat the onions and peppers until soft and then stir in the garlic and allow it to become aromatic. If you don't like zucchini you can substitute (or add) yellow summer squash, and you can leave out the carrots, but the mushrooms have to stay or it's not "hunter's style". Add some diced canned tomatoes (about half a 14.5-ounce can for this one serving), return the other vegetables to the pan and cover. Simmer over low heat about 15 minutes. If you like, you can add a little white wine before adding the tomatoes and boil off the alcohol, but this isn't necessary.

In the meantime, bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it liberally. It should almost taste like sea water. Cook a pasta shape of your choice (I like thin spaghetti or angel hair, but penne rigate or ziti would work) until done al dente, or "to the tooth". With all the other things in this dish, about 2 ounces per serving should be about right - half what you'd normally consider a serving of pasta. A note on pasta: I'm a huge fan of Barilla pasta. It's inexpensive and almost impossible to overcook. I used to like DiCecco, but I've graduated to Barilla. Also, this dish is not the place for fresh pasta, which would be overpowered by the strong flavors.

When the chicken is done, remove it from the oven and allow to cool just a bit so you can handle it, and carefully remove the meat from the bones.  Cut the breast into fat diagonal slices and serve it over the vegetables, which you've tossed with the cooked pasta. Shave some parmigiano reggiano over the top and you'll have something that looks like this.

Wine match: As with any dish with tomatoes, you want something relatively high in acid. It's easy to pick something from Italy, but this is a blog dedicated to food and wine of the Northwest, so try a barbera from Oregon or Washington. Mystic Wines in Salem makes an excellent one, and there are several I've seen but haven't tried from the Columbia Gorge. Lower-alcohol zinfandel would be good, too, but they're harder to find these days. And, in the summer, the Shy Chenin syrah rose would be just the ticket.

Buon appetito!