Weeknight Meals | Basics with Babish

Hey guys, this week's staple episode is not only sponsored by Blue Apron, but it is itself a love letter to fast

weeknight

meals

. Blue Apron is a meal kit delivery service that is a great option for anyone trying to cook more, cook healthier, or cook more deliciously. The first hundred people to use the link in the description of this video to sign up for the blue apron will get $50 off their first two weeks. We'll come back to that later, for now let's get down to the

basics

... Okay, when it comes to

weeknight

s, a great place to start is the single meal.

I first posted this dish on Reddit about four years ago and it's been stuck with me ever since. We start by peeling and dicing 2 sweet potatoes, setting them aside so we can peel, core, and dice 2 Granny Smith apples. You want to use this or any other good baking apple because we'll be fine baking this apple, so cut it into equal size pieces and we'll mash up some fresh sage. So here we go, we already have the foundation, now we are going to build a house. In a lightly greased and hot stainless steel or cast iron skillet, place four chicken thighs skin side down.

We have already seasoned the skin side, now we are going to season the meat with salt and freshly ground pepper and then we will not touch them until they are very golden brown and come loosely away from the bottom of the pot. Are they still stuck? Well, I'm not done yet! We pace around nervously as we let the other side of the chicken get a little bit of color, but we're not trying to cook them, we're just trying to get the skin crispy and we're trying to put a little bit of this stuff on. the bottom of the pot.

You all know what this is: bond. Right now it's swimming in a bunch of extra chicken quickly, so we'll drain most of it, reserving about a tablespoon into which we'll drop the sweet potato and apple. We sauté them over medium heat for about five to seven minutes. Again, we undercook them just to give them a little color and then deglaze them with the good stuff: a little bourbon. If you know what you're doing and have a fire extinguisher nearby, you can flambé the rest of the liquor, but this is mainly for show. It doesn't really add much flavor to this, we're going to add a little bit of chicken broth just enough so that you can see it pooling under the potatoes and apples, we're not trying to braise this we're just trying to eventually create a sauce.

Add the fresh chopped sage and stir so everyone knows each other and then we'll bring the chicken back to the party. Making sure the skin isn't submerged in the liquid and then we're going to pop this guy into a preheated 375 degree Fahrenheit oven while we toast some nuts. Then, once the thickest part of the chicken thighs has reached 175 degrees Fahrenheit, these guys are ready for extradition. I'll give it a little lemon, but I hope you can see how you can change this to make it your own. You can swap the sweet potatoes and apples for root vegetables, you can swap the bourbon for white wine, or garnish with hazelnuts or almonds instead of walnuts, add onions or shallots in the early stages instead of garnishing with chives.

The basic concept here is to partially cook the chicken by crisping it and sautéing and deglazing any starchy fruits or vegetables underneath. In that sense, it all comes down to timing and a great timing exercise is skillet dinners. In this case, we are going to prepare a starch, a vegetable and a protein, all on the same tray and in the same oven. For the starch, I'm going to use small, halved Yukon Golds, which I'm coating with olive oil, salt, and freshly ground pepper, stirring to combine, and then pouring onto a preheated baking sheet that I've had waiting in a 400-degree oven.

Fahrenheit. Approximately 20 minutes, placing them with the cut side down, this will help them acquire a little more color and put them in the oven first, since they take longer to cook, about 40 minutes in total. That gives us 25 minutes to prepare our vegetables in this case: asparagus. I'm using the old fold-to-break method, which after a Google search I discovered is a myth, so I just cut them up...tossing them with olive oil, kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper. Next we are preparing a quick sauce for our protein in this case: salmon. So I'm going to use some crushed garlic, the juice of one lemon; which you might notice I pressed and rolled there.

That actually helps the juice come out more easily when squeezed, a small teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a good glug of olive oil, a little kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. There are so many different directions you can take this little vinaigrette but this one responds particularly well to the heat of the oven. Next, we're going to compete with our salmon fillets, which I'll just make sure are boneless... Fishmongers don't always get all the bones, so always give the fillets a little squeeze before coating them generously with the vinaigrette. and now we are removing the potatoes from the sides, which you can see if they turn a beautiful brown color and since the salmon and asparagus have about the same cooking time, about 15 minutes, they are placed next to each other on the tray. pan and back into the oven until the salmon registers 125 degrees Fahrenheit at its thickest point.

Now, if any items in the pan are undercooked, simply remove the finished items, place them under aluminum foil, and keep warm until they are all done. Garnish with some parsley like I did if you want; and you have a super easy, super quick and super delicious weeknight dinner. Now there's another whole other stratum of easy weeknight dinners that we haven't discussed yet and that is: pasta. So we're going to try blue aprons with creamy pesto cavatelli and this is a great 'mise en place' exercise, making sure we have everything in its place. Let me read the instructions here...

Alright, we start by quartering the zucchini lengthwise and then slicing it into manageable mouth-sized pieces. Likewise, with a carton of cocktail tomatoes, we cut them into quarters, but it's a sliding scale based on reasonable mouth size; Something that we cut into mouth-sized pieces is garlic. Three cloves are worth, finely chopped and we are ready to put it on the fire. You just have to get everything out of the knife... Here we go, we have a non-stick frying pan heating over medium-high heat with a splash of olive oil and we start with our zucchini. We add just a layer and then let it sit to gain some brown, flavorful facets while we make our pasta.

By boiling it for I think it said seven minutes, we got some color out of the zucchini, so we stir it up a little bit and turn up the flames and then I deviate from protocol here and add the tomatoes because I want them to get slightly cooked. Personally, I like not totally raw tomatoes in my pasta. Next, we add the garlic and a little red pepper flakes if you like, if you want a little spice, stirring it until fragrant and then we drain our pasta, reserving half a cup of the pasta water if you haven't already learned that.

Pasta water is the stuff with which dreams are made. We're adding both the pasta and the pasta water to the pan, adding the small dollop of crème fraîche included, and stirring in rounds of those flavors so they get to know each other and the pasta can soak up all that delicious, flavorful liquid. Now, just before turning off the heat, we'll add about a cup of baby spinach. We want this to wilt from the heat of the pan, so stir it up a little bit to kill the heat and then we'll add the pesto. We want to avoid actively heating the pesto, as that dulls the flavor of the basil.

So we're just starting to make sure everything is incorporated and, most importantly, taste for seasoning. Then season to taste, mix to combine, and plate for dinner. As you can see, the blue apron once again saves the day with beautiful quick

meals

that include instructions you can follow and ingredients you can pronounce... and again, the first hundred people who sign up using the link in the description of this video you'll get $50 off your first two. weeks. I hope you try making these meals yourself, put your own spin on them, and see how delicious and fresh a meal you can make in less time than ordering a pizza.