Cooking a Good Everything Else

I've been off beef in general for the last couple of years, because the price has just been ridic. But the grocery store has beef necks for $1.69/lb yesterday, so I thought I'd see how they were for birria. OMG, probably the best birria I've ever had. Cooked them low and slow in the crock pot until all the meat fell of the bones and the cartilage gelatinized.

Nothing in there but water, peppers (mostly dried guajillo, some arboles, two ghost, some cracked black pepper, and a fresh yellow bell), garlic, onion, cumin, and some better than bullion beef. Added a shot of espresso balsamic vinegar late. No tomato. Just wasn't feeling that acidic.

So effing good. The bones really added a rich umami, and were easy to deal with as they came out clean. Made it into birria ramen for dinner tonight. Quesadillas with the rest, probably.

^Need some pics of this beef bone birria.

I mean, it's birria. It's not very photogenic. Looks like broth in the pot, and like shredded beef when pulled out of the broth.

made my own guac this year and after realizing how easy it was, moved on to making my own salsa, again, incredibly easy and can easily be done to taste, key for me is doing at least half your tomato content to be canned diced ones rather than fresh chopped and go minimal on onion and bell pepper but heavy on garlic

first time did it with all jalapenos, and put in like 9 and was still very mild

2nd time did a poblano, a habanero, and a jalapeno and was 10x better and spicier

No photos but I was inspired by insta to make a new chicken salad recipe which I’ve made twice now and is now I think my go-to

Start with cooked chicken. I used 165f sous vide boneless thighs but would be good with 145f breast too or poached or rotisserie chicken meat

Use the machines. Stand mixer with paddle to shred the chicken food processor to chop the inclusions.

You could modify this a million ways. I was shooting for a more classic/southern profile so mine looked like

1.5-2lbs chicken shredded in stand mixer

Inclusions
5 ribs celery
4 spears dill pickle
1/2 cup pepperoncini
1/2 cup curly parsley
1/4 cup mayo
2T pickle juice or hot sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Put the chicken in the stand mixer and shred it. Put the veggies in the food processor and pulse to fine mince. Combine and add mayo, mustard, pickle juice or hot sauce, season and serve

Chips are good, white bread with lettuce, a spoon out of the fridge.

Who keeps spoons in their fridge? 😆

Took me a minute... recipe looks incredibly tasty.