Cooking: Fried Chicken Fingers and Blue Cheese Salad

I usually don't deep fry stuff from home because it uses up so much oil and it makes a mess. Oh, and it's not good for you so that's an added disincentive to deep fry at home.

But one day I wanted to have chicken fingers. So I went to my trusty Everyday Food roster and found this cool combo of fried chicken fingers and blue cheese salad. Everyone knows fried chicken goes well with blue cheese. Remember all those cheesy dips for buffalo wings?

This one I found online (the old one I used is no longer available) has a "buffalo" twist where it's smothered in that sticky sweet and spicy sauce. You can skip the sauce and just deep fry the chicken and have it with the blue cheese salad. It's fine that way unless you're a hard-core buffalo sauce fan.

Cooking: Easy Chicken Roast with Baked Potatoes and Arugula Salad

I like to make a pit stop at Mitsuwa Market every once in a while to stock up on their excellent seafood and meat selection. Just for shabu shabu beef, it has like five different kinds. It has sushi grade sashimi that's much better than what's sold at fancy markets in the ready-to-eat sections. Anyway, I had bought a full leg and thigh with skin on and wondered how best to eat it.

I had a hankering for a western-style meal so I seasoned the chicken leg with salt, pepper and thyme on both sides, got the pan really hot (it's important not to use a non-stick pan here because it will not brown your chicken nicely) and when it begins to smoke, place the chicken leg in the pan. There should be smoke coming out of the pan and a sizzling sound. Otherwise, the pan isn't hot enough.

Sear and brown the chicken in olive oil for about 7 minutes without moving it and flip it and cook for about the same time.

Meanwhile, pre-heat oven to about 425-450 degrees. If you want to have baked potato chips, check out the recipe here. Toss a salad of baby arugula with some tomatoes and light vinaigrette.

Once the oven is hot enough, stick the pan with chicken in the oven and cook for about 15-20 minutes.

When done, the skin should be super crispy and go swimmingly well with the potato fries and salad.