I lived in New York City for about five and a half years, and as they say, it is the city that never sleeps. You can get anything at any time, especially food. Restaurants are open very late, which was fortunate for me when I worked very late, but some of my favorite food came from food carts. For breakfast I often grabbed a Portuguese buttered roll and coffee from a cart going into work, and the halal carts were the best for lunch or dinner. Shawarma and falafel are always great for a snack or sandwich, but my favorite was always the halal chicken with white sauce. Everyone has their favorite cart (ahem: north east corner of 58th and 9th) and this recipe is adapted from The Golden Balance’s recipe for halal chicken. It comes pretty close to eating it right out of a white styrofoam container on the street.
Halal Cart Chicken
Chicken thighs tend to stay more moist when cooking in a pain, however if you prefer chicken breasts its perfectly fine. Sazon is the more traditional seasoning, also used in many latin dishes, but can be hard to find and is just a blend of coriander, cumin, achiote, gallic powder, oregano, salt and pepper. Some recipes call for Sazon, in this one paprika is essentially used as the substitute for achiote.
Ingredients:
Chicken Marinade
- 2 lb chicken thighs, boneless, skinless (or skinless, boneless chicken breast)
- 1 table spoon plain yogurt
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- 1 clove minced garlic
- 1tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp chili flakes
- Salt and pepper
Rice:
- 2 cups basmati rice
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp salt
- 3 cups veggie broth
Red Sauce:
- 20-30 Chile de arbol
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1/4 cup chili water
- 5 cloves garlic cloves
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cumin
White sauce:
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup full fat plain yogurt
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 Tbsp sazon or seasoning salt
- 1 Tbsp dried parsley (I prefer over fresh)
- Optional: 2 tsp honey or sugar
Finishing: Shredded lettuce and tomato
Preparations: Butterfly chicken thighs, then drizzle olive oil and massage, then add your spices, lemon juice and yogurt and place in the refrigerator to marinate. You can do this just before and continue to prep the rest of the dish, or do it ahead of time to let the flavor develop more.
To make the red sauce, place the chile de arbol on a cutting board (careful not to touch your eyes in the process), and cut off the stems from each chili pepper. Then, remove and discard the seeds. Next, soak them in boiling water. They should soak for about 20-30 minutes. This will soften them up considerably. Once chilis are hydrated, finish making the red sauce by placing the hydrated chilis into a blender with chili water, garlic cloves, vinegar vegetable oil, chili powder, paprika, coriander, cumin and salt. Fully blend and then strain into a condiment squeeze bottle using a small mesh strainer or colander, or just into another bowl. (Chef tip: while the chilis are hydrating, you can make the white sauce!)
To make the white sauce, place mayonnaise, sour cream yogurt, vinegar, lemon juice, and parsley into a bowl and whisk until smooth. Give it a taste, and if you’d like to make it a bit sweet, and cut out a little acidity, pour in honey or salt, whisk again. Carefully pour sauce into a condiment squeeze bottle using a funnel, this makes it very authentic. Or just use a spoon later.
Cook chicken in a pan on medium high heat. Chicken thighs cook quickly, so it should only take 8-10 minutes on both sides. Internal temperature of thighs should read 165 degrees. After they’re done, let rest 5-10 minutes, then cut chicken in small cubes. Do not rinse the pan, use it again for making the rice to keep all the chicken flavor.
To make the rice, first rinse with cold water. Then, in a large, deep nonstick pan (hopefully the original pan you cooked the chicken in) melt butter and scrape the chicken renderings. Add turmeric, cardamom and cumin. Allow to toast for about 1-2 minutes. It should become fragrant and then you can add the rinsed rice to toast as well for about a minute. Then add salt and vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover with lid, and bring heat down to low. Allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes. Do not stir it.
To serve, spoon a bed of rice on a plate, spread a small handful of shredded lettuce on top, then a small handful of tomatoes, followed by the diced chicken on top, and red and white sauce to your desired taste.
Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding CopyCat
I lived in walking distance to Magnolia Bakery, luckily it was a decent walk to earn a treat. Bananas are not my favorite, but for some reason the Magnolia bakery banana pudding elevates this mundane fruit into a luxurious desert. This is a copycat recipe using instant pudding for time saving and still ends up great.
Ingredients:
- 1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup very cold milk
- ˝ cup very cold water
- 1 3.4 oz box instant vanilla pudding
- 1 11 - 12 oz box of Nilla Wafers reserve 5-6 wafers and crumbs from box
- 3 cups heavy whipping cream
- ˝ teaspoon clear vanilla flavoring
- 5 bananas just barely ripe sliced
Preparations: Using either a hand held mixer or a stand mixer, combine the sweetened condensed milk, cold water and cold milk. Mix on low-medium for 1-2 minutes. Add the vanilla pudding mix and beat on medium for 2 minutes. The pudding mixture should just start to thicken. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight to ensure the pudding completely sets. Using either a hand held mixer or a stand mixer, combine the heavy cream and vanilla flavoring and beat until the cream is stiff. Gently fold the whipped cream into the fully set pudding. Fold until the cream and pudding is completely combined and uniform in color, with no visible streaks. For presentation, use either a large serving bowl, trifle dish or a compote dish. (you can also use mini trifle dishes for individual servings) Line the bottom of the bowl with a of the vanilla wafers (about 30 wafers).
Evenly layer 1 ˝ cups of the sliced bananas on top of the wafers.Top banana slices with a of the pudding mixture. Repeat until there are 3 layers of wafers, bananas and pudding. Crush the reserved 5-6 wafers.
To finish, sprinkle the top of the pudding with crushed wafers. You may also use any leftover crumbs from the wafer box. Cover and keep refrigerated until serving.
