Here Comes Sanity Clause
by The Sous Chef
The holidays are undoubtedly heady times. By "heady," I mean completely and utterly insane, of course. The tradition of championing Good Will Towards Men must have originated in a remote antiquity that pre-dated parking lots, commercials featuring luxury cars with bows on top*, and deliberately-scarce toys that instruct you as to how they wish to be touched.** While there will be moments this time of year that are bound to tempt one to go George Bailey on everybody's ass, don't forget that there are plenty of chances to have a good time.
Most cooking shows and food magazines want you to believe that every holiday get-together needs to be a frilly-napkin affair, but hosting a less-formal event is a good, sanity-saving change of pace. The Improper Chef and I hosted a small get-together with friends this week, and indeed the effort put towards preparation and presentation was there, though serving and sharing some down-home comfort food like baked-potato dip and pulled-chicken sliders with a pitcher of home-made Bloody Mary*** was a refreshing departure from standard holiday party fare.
It's a bummer that the days have been getting shorter and colder, and it seems that traditional food and manners of celebration become the things that usher us toward packing it in for the winter. Instead of enjoying those things, we start to see them as reminders of the shoveling, shivering, and produce prices rising. Mix it up, relax, and put the pepto away.
Alright, enough Food Psychology 101, let's get back to those pulled-chicken sliders. Keeping in theme, this is a slow-cooker recipe- 'slow' being the operative word here. Yes, in a month where everything needs to be done yesterday, time is your friend here. I've never used any sort of measuring apparatus in my life doing my pulled chicken/pork/beef and somehow the world has never ended, so any quantities are going to be approximate and totally up to interpetation and alteration.
Here are your elements:
MEAT: Chicken, here, skinless chicken breat preferred. Our slow-cooker has a 6-quart capacity; 2.5-3lbs is a good fit and will get you a sufficient batch for serving and some leftovers.
RUB: I like spicy food, so I'm not looking for a balance between sweet and spicy as much as some fun interplay. My base for a rub is usually brown sugar (at least a cup for the task at hand), chili powder (maybe about 2TBSP between cayenne and chipotle), and black pepper (maybe a TBSP). If I'm feeling randy, perhaps I'll add some dry mustard, cinnamon, and cumin.
LIQUID/EXTRAS: Nothing wrong with enlisting a little help in breaking-down the meat. I like to line the bottom of the cooker with cider vinegar and toss a handful of peeled garlic in with the meat.**** To keep from drying-out, add cola, root beer, or beer for extra hydration. Keep a can of tomato puree handy for after you pull the chicken.
METHOD: Pour the liquid into the slow-cooker. Easy part, right? In a large mixing-bowl, combine the chicken with the rub. Hand-coat each piece of chicken with the rub. Spread out the chicken in the slow-cooker and top with garlic cloves. Close the lid and set the cooker at LOW. Go do something for 10 hours.
After 10 hours, the work resumes. Set the slow-cooker to WARM. Using two forks, reach into the pot and start pullin'! Try to get the finest pull you can, and if you find any of those garlic cloves, you can either remove them or mash them back into the mixture (depends on your love of garlic, I suppose). Let the pulled chicken sit in its native fluids (the mixture of the added liquids, rendered fat, and rub- mmmmmm!) for about an hour to moisturize the now-exposed surfaces. I like to make the chicken saucy, so I'll stir-in a couple cups of tomato puree and leave it for another hour since even though the cooker is set to WARM, it's still cooking and reducing the liquids.
PRESENTATION: I would say that there are more times than not where I've eaten pulled chicken by itself out of a bowl, but if you have the discipline to get it into an attractive format, read on. For last week's party, IC and I made sliders. Now that sliders are the hot item at every restaurant, many grocery stores stock mini-hamburger rolls to satisfy the demand, and I can safely say that they just don't cut the mustard. Standard hamburger roll bread takes on a wet toilet paper consistency the moment it is touched by liquid- we can't have that. Instead, try potato rolls; Martin brand makes small potato rolls that are perfect slider-size and they don't turn to mush.
Set the oven to BROIL. Slice the rolls and set the tops aside. Place a generous dollop of pulled chicken atop each roll and top with cheese of your choice***** on your favorite cookie sheet. Expose the broiler until the cheese is good and melty.
Enjoy!
* It took a near-Great Depression-level financial crisis for most people to comprehend the absurdity- huzzah!
** Billy Bass, who else?
*** With habenero-infused vodka- yowza!
**** IC's mom swears by stuffing a brisket with garlic cloves to help break-down the meat. It works like gangbusters. I have learned to not question Italian folk magic.
***** Gouda tasted great but didn't really melt to a satisfying consistency. White cheddar is always a delight.
