Chicken & Eggplant Parmesan Stacker

It seems like ages since my last post so I figured I'd make another contribution! Hopefully I don't neglect you guys as bad in the coming weeks - sorry!

Backstory: When I was younger, I used to go to a restaurant in Red Bank, NJ which served their version of Chicken & Eggplant Parmesan. That's right - chicken parmesan layed with eggplant parmesan. It was fantastic. The problem was that they removed this from their menu a few years back and since them, I had been dying to relive this meal at home. Below is the recipe I came up with in bringing this dish to life.

Prep Time: 20 Minutes

Cook Time: 40 Minutes

Ingredients:

Chicken Cutlets - Thinly Sliced

1 Eggplant

1 Jar of your favorite Marinara Sauce

1 Package of Shredded Mozzarella

~2 cup Seasoned Breadcrumbs (This will vary)

~2 Large Egg (This will also vary slightly)

Vegetable Oil (For Cooking)

Parmesan Cheese to Taste (mix with Breadcrumbs to add flavor)

Sea Salt to Taste

Black Pepper to Taste

1. Start by slicing your Eggplant. I found a lot of success with these being around 1/4 inch or thinner.

2. Prep the egg-wash. I used 2 eggs, added salt and pepper, and whisked it together.

3. Prep the breadcrumbs. Pour about 2 cups of breadcrumbs onto a large plate. If desired, mix some parmesan cheese into the breadcrumbs at this point.

4. Dip your eggplant slices into the egg-wash ensuring that it is fully coated. Then transfer to your breadcrumb plate and flip it back and forth until covered.

5. Take your chicken cutlets and repeat step 4 to egg-wash and breadcrumb the pieces.

6. In a large frying pan, pour enough oil to fill the bottom of the pan and heat up at around medium-high heat.

7. Place the eggplant into the pan using as much surface areas as you.

8. Cook each side until golden brown - mine cooked for about 90 seconds on each side. Try to only flip once.

9. Remove from pan and place onto a plate to cool. I always place 2-3 paper towels on plate ahead of time to absorb excess oil.

10. You will now proceed with cooking you chicken following the same rules as steps 7-9 with the eggplant. Chicken was about 2 minutes on each side.

Also, try your best to remove the burnt crumbs from the bottom of the pan. You'll notice that I didn't do the best job with this which explains the picture above.

11. Remove chicken and transfer to another cooling plate.

12. Transfer your chicken cutlets to your oven safe baking dish (also not a bad time to preheat your oven to around 400 degrees).

13. Add a spoonful of your favorite marinara sauce to the top of each piece of chicken.

14. Cover each piece of chicken with a piece of eggplant (you can cut the eggplant to accommodate for smaller chicken pieces.

15. Add another spoonful of sauce and cover each piece generously with mozzarella cheese!

16. Allow about 15 minutes to bake (give or take mainly based on how long it takes for the cheese to melt).

17. Serve!

18. Enjoy!

I hope you all enjoyed this recipe as much as I did making it. As always, please let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks!

- Corey

The Infamous Turkey Meatballs

Tonight, I bring you another one of my favorite recipes - my Turkey Meatballs. So many of you have been asking about the infamous meatballs and tonight, I will share exactly how I make them.

Before I start, I have to give a shout-out to my mother for the inspiration on these. So much of my cooking influence comes from her and I am thankful for everything she taught me... and continues to teach me in the kitchen.

Now, with this recipe, the first thing I am always asked is "why turkey and not beef"? Well, to me, I have yet to find a beef meatball that I enjoy better than these although I do love a good beef meatball from time to time. It all comes down to preference but I definitely recommend that everyone give these a try.

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Cook Time: 10 Minutes

Ingredients:

~1 lb Ground Turkey Meat

2/3 cup Seasoned Breadcrumbs

1/3 cup Parmesan Cheese

1 Large Egg

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (For Cooking)

Fresh Basil

Sea Salt to Taste

Black Pepper to Taste

1.  Start by portioning out your Parmesan Cheese and Seasoned Breadcrumbs and then blend together. This will ensure even distribution.

2. Take your Ground Turkey and place into a large bowl. Break into smaller pieces.

3. Next, add your Egg, Basil, and your Parmesan/Breadcrumb blend. Add Salt & Pepper if desired.

4. Using your hands, mix together all of the ingredients thoroughly.

5. Now it is time to shape your meatballs. I try to make mine slightly bigger than a golf-ball. Feel free to experiment here with sizes.

6. Heat up your pan to a medium heat and lightly coat the bottom of the pan with extra virgin oil.

7. Once heated, drop in your meatballs leaving space between each.

8. The hard work is all done. You goal now is to simply rotate the meatballs every few minutes until browned on a few sides.

9. And that is it folks. Once you feel the meatballs are cooked through, remove from the pan and transfer to a plate to rest. It is at this point that I often drop them straight into my sauce pot but this is optional. This does give the sauce lots of flavor and the meatballs definitely get some great flavor as well.

Fin.

Fast and Flavorful Filet Mignon

Today, I bring you one of my favorites - Filet Mignon. For those of you that know me, you know that I'm a bit of a steak-snob. I always try to get the best cuts because I believe that you truly can taste the difference. Always try to start with the best product you can.

The other key here is the cook temperature. Everyone prefers different cook temperatures whether it be that they prefer a certain taste, or more commonly, because more rare steaks scare some. I'm here to tell you that Rare-Medium Rare steaks are better - they are more tender and have more flavor. Don't believe me? Try this technique! You'll never order Well Done again...

Prep Time: 20 Minutes

Cook Time: <10 Minutes

Ingredients:

2 Filet Mignon Steaks

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (For Cooking)

3-4 Tbsp Salted Butter

Fresh Rosemary (or any other Fresh Herbs you have)

Sea Salt to Taste

Black Pepper to Taste

An oven safe grill pan is used in this recipe.

That is it!

1. To start, we need to prep our steaks. As with many of my recipes, I go a bit overboard with Sea Salt and Black Pepper. In this case, this helps to crisp the outside so definitely take the opportunity to spice up things! Just remember to cover both sides.

2. After seasoning, I let the Filets rest for about 25-30 minutes - this is crucial to bring the Filet to room temperature and allowing for even cooking.

3. Preheat your oven to 400 Degrees.

4. Next, you want to heat up your Grill Pan. You pan should be very hot before you put the steaks in. Once the pan is hot, coat the bottom with pan with your Extra Virgin Olive Oil. You don't need much - a quick drizzle is sufficient.

5. Now you can finally start cooking! Drop the Filets in the pan and let them cook for about 2 minutes (90 seconds if your Filets are thinner than usual). Once your Filets start cooking, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT TOUCH THEM. Only Flip them once they have had the correct amount of time in the pan.

6. So you flipped your steaks. Now just patiently wait another 90 seconds or so for the other side to cook. At this point, you should have your Herbs and Butter (cut into pieces) ready.

7. Now drop your pieces of butter in the pan around the Filets and place your Herbs on top.

8. As soon as you have done this, transfer the pan to the oven to finish cooking. This process only takes an additional 2 minutes.

9. After you take the pan out of the oven, tilt the pan so that the Butter can be drizzled on top with a spoon a few times adding some flavor back the the Filet.

10. You should now remove the Filets from the pan and place on a plate to rest. Do not cut the Filet early.

11. Once the Filet has had about 5 minutes to rest, serve!

And there you have it folks - a fantastic Filet Mignon.

Super Simple & Savory Pan-Fried Chicken

It is good to be back! I have to admit that i missed blogging but I simply did not have the best tools to work with. Now, with a full kitchen, I simply have no excuse.

So it has been quite a long time so I figure we get back into the swing of things with an easy one that does not sacrifice anything in flavor.

Here we have some of the best Pan-Fried Chicken that I've ever had and the best thing - it is the simplest thing you'll ever make.

*** UPDATE ***

Complements of my buddy Mr. Dave Cacciatore, wanted to add a possible variation in here before starting. Take your chicken drumsticks and soak them in buttermilk for several hours before using. This is sure to make the recipe even better.

Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Cook Time: ~20 Minutes (Varies based on Chicken Drumstick size.

Ingredients:

5 Medium Sized Chicken Drumsticks
Vegetable Oil for frying
1 Cup Flour
Salt & Pepper to taste
Any other spices that you so desire (definitely experiment here).

1. Preheat oil - approximately 1 centimeter up in the pan at about medium temperature.

2. Rinse your chicken under water. This is something I do out of habit to clean but this will help later in the process as well. You do not need to blot the chicken dry.

2. Next comes the spices. Honestly, I go nuts here. Put as much as you want here. I use my sea salt and pepper grinders almost excessively here.

3. Now the flouring stage - I use a ziplock for this. Simply pour the flour in the bag and drop the chicken in 1 at a time. With the chicken in the bag, seal (or hold it closed) and shake the bag to fully coat the chicken.

4. Next, drop the chicken into the frying pan. The main thing here is to not get overly flip-crazy. Just let the chicken do it's thing in the until you feel the need to flip it - about 3-4 minutes a side depending on your pan.

5. Once it looks a nice golden brown like above, remove the chicken from the pan and place directly onto a plate with a paper towel on it (to remove some of the excess oil).

And that is it folks. I hope you enjoy this one and look forward to posting again soon. Corey's Crave Case is back!

As always, post comments!

Double Baco Cheeseburger. It's for a Cop.

Well, I am way behind on posting some recipes so I thought I'd make an addition or two as I enjoy my day off! This recipe will be a special step by step with photos of each stage for your viewing pleasure. We shall start with one of my burger experiments. Now I have done many different things with burgers ranging from Jersey Burgers, to Pizza Burgers, to the basic Bacon Cheeseburgers. Here is my take on a Bacon Cheeseburger with flair... The Double Baco Cheeseburger!

Now, as you can see, this thing is massive. There is definitely some tweaks I would have made looking back based on roll size and burger thickness, but it was delicious either way.

3 tips before we begin... This burger also takes some decent coordination of multiple tasks at once so if necessary, cook the bacon first so that you don't have to run all over the place like I did. This is also necessary if you wish to cook your burger medium rare (I'll go into this more below after explaining how I did it) - mine was actually a bit more well done than I'd normally prefer. Also, as my buddy Tom pointed out, pushing down the burger in the center with your thumb would ensure a thinner patty and not this leaning tower o'burger seen above.

Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 15 Minutes

Ingredients: (Serves 2 Double Baco Cheeseburgers)

4 High Quality Angus Beef Patties
10 Slices Apple Smoked Bacon
1/4 Pound Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese (about 4-6 thin slices)
2 Poppy Kaisers
Salt & Pepper to Taste
A small portion of butter to fry the bacon (not necesary but why not at this point)

1. Start by slicing half of the uncooked apple smoked bacon into small pieces and splitting into 4 even portions (this is quite difficult without poultry scissors but just try your best if you don't have a pair). Next, one at a time, take 1 portion of the bacon and crumble it into 1 angus burger patty.

OPTIONAL Replacement Step 1: Precook the bacon and crumble the cooked bacon into the uncooked burger patties. This is very important if you are desiring a more rare cooked burger.

2. If you haven't already done so, begin/finish cooking up your bacon

3. Preheat and grease your grill as necessary with cooking spray. Carefully place each burger on the grill (the are quite fragile at first so being gentle is key to the patty holding together).

4. Once the burger is close to being cooked through, season accordingly and then place 2 slices of bacon on each patty.

5. Then, place the cheese on each patty covering the bacon.

6. Now remove from the grill, place the patties onto the rolls and serve!

And that is all there is to it. I hope you enjoy these as much as we did... My brother was quite lucky he was home the afternoon I cooked these (:

Let me know your thoughts with comments!

BBQ Chicken

Memorial day always proves to be a perfect opportunity and excuse to grill. Well, this year was no exception. Yesterday, I decided to grill up some BBQ Chicken for me and the family. Now I preface this by saying that this isn't quite a recipe by any means as you can get away with just chicken and BBQ sauce, but I felt like talking through the process in which I cook it.

There really isn't too much complexity with this one and you have lots of options to make it your own. I tend to stick with Chicken Legs & Thighs as well as Bull's Eye Original BBQ Sauce. For me, there really is no alternative to the BBQ sauce I use, but this is all based on personal preference. Sweet Baby Ray's and KC Masterpiece aren't terrible alternatives. You will also notice that the chicken above will appear burnt. Now this is for 2 reasons: First of all, we like it that way. Second, our grill is old and flames up for like no apparent reason.

Now to the "recipe". This is as simple as it gets.

Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: About 25-30 Minutes (Based on Grill Heat)


Ingredients:


Selection of Chicken Legs & Thighs
Bull's Eye BBQ Sauce (about 1 full bottle about 12-15 pieces of chicken)
Cooking Spray

1. Not relevant to the recipe but crack open a beer.


2. Make sure to rinse your chicken under water prior to cooking to ensure it is as clean as possible. Heat your grill to a medium to high temperature. Spray a thin layer of cooking spray on the grill CAREFULLY as it will flame up.


3. Next, place the chicken onto the grill spaced out evenly across the grill. Now there isn't an exact science here since all grills are quite different but what you are looking for here is to slightly brown each side of the chicken before starting to spread the BBQ sauce on the pieces. With my grill, I cooked for about 5 minutes on each side.


4. Once the chicken has browned, you can begin spreading the BBQ sauce generously on each piece of chicken using a brush. Once coated, flip all of the pieces and repeat.


5. We tend to like ours with more sauce so I actually coated each side one more time and flipping accordingly. Make sure to cook each side that you brush BBQ on.


6. Finally, remove the pieces from the grill and serve.

Salmon Teriyaki

Hi Everybody - I know I have been MIA for a while but things have been quite busy as of late. The one thing about cooking is that so many recipes take too long to be feasible during a busy schedule. Well, I have a solution - a very simple, yet delicious Salmon Teriyaki recipe.

The great thing about the recipe is that it only take a matter of minutes to prepare and the majority of the time is spent in the oven letting you throw it in the oven as soon as you get home and then a few minutes to unwind.

Without further ado, here is the breakdown of the recipe:

Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Cook Time : 30 Minutes

Ingredients:
Salmon Steak (with or without skin is all by preference)
About 1/3 cup Teriyaki Sauce
Garlic Powder to taste
Ginger Powder to taste

Optional:
Soy Sauce
Instant Sticky Rice

1. Start by preheating your oven to 350F.

2. Now, make sure to clean your salmon steak by rinsing briefly. After cleaned, place the salmon in an oven safe dish.

3. Pour an even layer of the Teriyaki sauce over the steak. Sprinkle on garlic and ginger powder generously (I truly believe the ginger sets this salmon apart so don't be shy).

4. Flip the steak and repeat step 3.

5. Place in the oven uncovered for 30 minutes or until cooked through.

6. Serve immediately. I actually like to put a few drops of soy sauce on the salmon after cooking for some added flavor so feel free to experiment with flavors that you enjoy.

I hope that you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. Comment and let me know your thoughts!

 

Corned Beef & Cabbage

This one is a bit belated but here is the only meal that I will eat when celebrating being Irish on St. Patrick's Day - Corned Beef & Cabbage. This has been a meal that my mom has made for me for as many years as I can count and she doesn't fail to amaze me that each time, it seems better than the last.

This entry is based on my mom's version which is always delicious but also leaves a lot of room for experimentation. This recipe does take several hours but it is definitely worth the effort.

This recipe does take some time to come together but much of that time doesn't require constant attention. Anyways, the recipe is actually quite simple. Well, enough chatter, let's get right to it.

Corned Beef
Head of Cabbage
Salt, Pepper, Pepper corns to taste
1 Large Yellow Onion
1 Bottle of Harp Irish Beer
4 Cloves Fresh Garlic

Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 3 Hours

1. Add your corned beef (Fat Side UP) and seasoning packet to a large pot filled with water high enough to fully cover the meat.

2. Now, this is where you can add any seasonings you want but here is the breakdown of what I threw in: Salt, Pepper Corns, Whole Onion (Peeled), 4 Cloves of Garlic, 1 Bottle of Harp Irish Beer.

3. Once you have finished seasoning, simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

4. Now add Cabbage (Quartered) to the water. After cabbage has been added, you will cook for an additional 1 1/2 hours. At this point, feel free to check and make sure the cabbage is cooked through and the corned beef is tender. If it needs additional time, feel free to continue cooking but checking frequently - about every 5 minutes.

5. Remove the corned beef from your pot and place on a cutting board. Trim off any excess fat and carve into slices. Now serve on a platter with your cabbage.

6. Open another Harp for yourself and dig in.