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Tag Archives: Robert Irvine

Ahoy! A Simple Catfish Dinner

As much as I love seafood, the price of it most of the time is a bit too much for many families so don’t get to eat it that much at home unless I can find something that is on sale at the fish market. I did happen to stumble across some catfish when I was there last and decided to pick some up since it was such a good deal. I have made catfish before and posted catfish recipes here, but I had come across one from Robert Irvine a while back and had been waiting for the right opportunity to give it a try. It is a very simple fried catfish with a nice little sauce to go with it and it only takes about twenty minutes to make the whole meal.

Catfish Dinner

For the Catfish:

4 catfish fillets
2 cups buttermilk
Vegetable oil, for frying
1 to 2 cups cornmeal
Salt and ground pepper
1 to 2 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten for egg wash

For the Sauce:
1/4 pound (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup minced red onion
1/2 cup minced bell pepper
2 ribs celery, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 cups heavy cream
1 pound Louisiana crawfish tails or small shrimp
2 cups cooked grits or polenta, for serving
Chopped green onions or chives, for garnish

To prepare the catfish: marinate the catfish by placing the fillets and buttermilk in a flat-bottomed container. Allow the catfish to marinate in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes and a maximum of 1 day.

Preheat a deep fryer, large cast iron skillet or Dutch oven to 350 degrees with vegetable oil. Before frying, remove the catfish from the marinade and allow any excess buttermilk to drip off. In separate bowls, place the cornmeal, seasoned with salt and pepper, the flour, and the beaten eggs to set up dredging stations. Coat a catfish fillet by dipping it into the flour, shaking off any excess, then dipping it in the egg wash, allowing any excess to drip off, and then dipping it in the seasoned cornmeal and repeat the process with the remaining fillets before frying. Fry the fist until the catfish reaches 145 degrees and is golden brown, about 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the fish from the frying oil and allow it to drain any excess oil on a plate with paper towels.

For the sauce: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the butter and melt it. Next, add the onions, peppers and celery and sweat the vegetables until they are translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the flour, seafood seasoning and garlic to thicken the butter. This will take 1 to 2 minutes.

Next, add the cream and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook the mixture until the cream sets. Finally, add the crawfish or shrimp, if using, and whisk to blend, cooking for the final 2 minutes.

To serve the fish, place 1/2 cup of grits or polenta on the plate, then a quarter of the prepared sauce and top with a crisp cooked catfish fillet. Finish the dish with green onions or chives.

Of course, finding crawfish tails in my neck of the woods is next to impossible, and I didn’t have any tiny shrimp on hand either, so I omitted them from the recipe, but I think they would really round things out nicely. The flavor from the sauce mixed with the catfish was fantastic and I served the meal with some polenta. The combination was great and it was all very simple to make. You could try the same dish with other types of fish if your prefer, such as flounder or tilapia.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

It’s a Chicken Invasion, Part 2 – Pan Seared Chicken Breast with Herb Jus and Potato Vegetable Hash

29 Jan

For the next chicken meal for the week I decided again to try to keep something simple and different. I find I don’t but chicken breasts very often, but I saw some on sale recently and picked up a package because it was on sale. Usually the bone-in chicken breasts are pretty large and end up cutting them in half so we get more meals out of them. That is what I did this time and then I decided I was going to try this recipe that I saw from Robert Irvine of the Food Network. it is for a simple pan seared chicken breast with herb jus and a really tasty potato vegetable hash. it’s a simple recipe that’s easy enough to make during the week for a nice dinner.

Pan Seared Chicken Breast with Herb Jus and Potato-Vegetable Hash

For the Chicken:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts, cut in half

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup dry white wine

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoons minced fresh thyme leaves

1 teaspoon chopped rosemary leaves

1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley leaves

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon minced fresh chives

For the Potato-Vegetable Hash:

1 potato

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves

1 teaspoon minced fresh tarragon leaves

1 teaspoon Cajun spice

Vegetable oil

Salt

For the chicken, heat a large saute pan over high heat and add the vegetable oil. Heat the vegetable oil until it is shimmering. Season both sides of the chicken breasts with salt and pepper to taste. Sear the chicken, skin side down, until the skin is a golden brown, about 5 to 6 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium, flip the chicken breasts over, cover the pan and cook on the second side for 7 to 8 minutes.

After the second side has been cooked, add the white wine, the garlic, thyme, rosemary and parsley and continue to cook the chicken until the liquid is reduced by half, about 7 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter and cover it loosely with aluminum foil to allow it to rest.

Remove the saute pan from the heat and whisk in the butter, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

For the potato-vegetable hash, using a box grater, shred the potato, zucchini and yellow squash and add them to a large bowl. Stir in the red onion, egg, flour, garlic, thyme, tarragon and the Cajun spice. Blend the mixture well and add more flour if the mixture seems too wet. The mixture should hold its shape when it is squeezed.

Heat a large saute pan over medium heat and add two tablespoons of vegetable oil. Heat the oil just until it is shimmering and portion the potato mixture into cakes, gently patting and forming them in your hands. Cook the cakes until they are golden brown on one side, about 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the cakes over and cook until the other side is browned, about another 3 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pan and set them on a paper towel-lined plate and season with salt to taste.

Serve the potato vegetable hash warm with a chicken breast piece on time and some of the herb jus sauce.

This was a very simple meal that makes good use of the white meat of the chicken if you need a new recipe. Sean is a big white meat-eater so he really liked this meal. The sauce for me was the winner as it had great flavor and everyone really liked the potato-vegetable hash, which was the real hit of the meal. The combination of the potato, zucchini and squash was perfect with the herbs and spices and it wasn’t cooked so long that it got all dried out. It was nice and flavorful from the vegetables with some crispness. It was definitely one I would make again.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for the next chicken recipe. I have some fried chicken sandwiches, an oven roasted turkey breast, a skillet roasted chicken and more still to come. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!