Skin Is Cracked And I Realize That I Hate The Sound Of Chickens, A Thousand Grudging Young Fryers

We eat a lot of chicken — it’s something the boys will eat — so I’m always on the lookout for new chicken recipes, except that I’m kind of not, but that said, whenever I happen upon one from the Times on my Twitter feed, I’ll definitely click on it. Here are two I tried lately.

Sam Sifton immodestly tweeted that his three-cup chicken was “an easy, awesome recipe to cook weekly for, like, the next two years”. Of course I clicked on that. The recipe is pretty straightforward. (Notes: I correctly guessed that it was probably OK to substitute sake for rice wine though I’m pretty sure regular “soy sauce” — i.e., what I used — is “dark” and “light” means something different, and I went way light on the chili pepper flakes because I wanted the boys to eat the dish.) It was good; not sure it’s weekly good, but it was good, and I’d try it again.

Meanwhile, Mark Bittman’s Stir-Fried Chicken With Ketchup was as advertised. I feel like it’s somehow cheating to rely so heavily on ketchup, but the vinegar in the ketchup deglazes the pan so well that, when you think about it, the ketchup is kind of like an umami-rich dishwasher soap: you’re wasting time not finishing the chicken in a cup of ketchup. Suffice it to say, it tastes very good. Jen thought it might have been tomato paste. She was surprised, and in a good way, when told it was ketchup. I have no idea how I stumbled on the recipe: it’s from 2004 so it’s not new, but it was new to me. This is an extremely simple recipe that guests would be very into.