This sounds good. I think I’ll make it, and chase it down with the last of my S.A. Summer Ale as a last salute to summer time flavours.
There weren’t really any major substantive changes made, in my opinion, and it’s pretty easy to figure out how it would have tasted without the addition of vegetables. (And it sounds like at least Labrador and C3 made it to-the-letter.) I suppose I can go back and make the recipe to-the-letter and come back and report what I already know: that it’s going to taste good and the family is going to eat it up.
I loved the recipe. If you think using bone-in rather than boneless thighs is a change that did more than make it a little more work, you’re nuts.
I also find that if you cut the tomatoes in half and put them in about 10 minutes before it’s done (I simmer for 50 minutes), it adds more flavor. But if you want the tomatoes crunchy and cool, put them in at the very end like the recipe calls for. And I cut the butter in half, using olive oil for the other half. I’m just always leery of using lots of butter for health reasons, although thought on that matter seems to be shifting…
I had it with one of my favorite Pinots, but beer would be good, too.
I guess I’m nuts because bone in changes the cooking time and often how moist the meat stays. In my nutty apparently alternative universe.
It’s just a little peeve of mine when i am on a recipe site and the comments are all saying "this recipe is great! Only I subbed mayo for yogurt, added a bell pepper and made it in the oven instead of the barbecue! ".
It should be pretty clear to an experienced cooked what changes are substantive. In my experience, timing in pretty much all recipes is approximate, anyway, and you need to use your judgment. In this recipe and its preparation method, it should not affect the timings. And, no, it doesn’t really affect the moistness of the meat in a recipe like this. I have not noticed cooking bone-in vs bone-out significantly affecting the juiciness of a chicken or steak or anything. I believe that’s more cooking myth than anything.
For example, how the OP who is recommending the recipe left the mayo out of the sauce? Like I said it’s just a little peeve of mine. I don’t think recipes are a law or anything.
Some of the responses in this thread are making it one of the most bizarre ever, at least today. < groan > Anyway, I’m going to try this because it sounds delicious, no matter what its name or whether or not it should or shouldn’t be some big deal.
Your pet peeve is people leaving mayo out of a sauce (for example)? I don’t like mayo, and don’t keep it in my fridge, so it would be the first thing to go if I made this dish. Yogurt is just fine, and gives it that “middle eastern” taste.
The original recipe called for half-half yogurt-mayo in the sauce. My peeve is acting like you tried the recipe but really didn’t. Not that yogurt isn’t just fine but that it’s clearly different than a yogurt-mayo mix.
Meanwhile, I made the yogurt mayo-sauce, but I did add a little garlic and a little mint. That said, I know what it tastes like without the garlic and mint, and it’s fine. I know the base recipe is fine. I don’t have to make it exactly as written to know that. I know what my changes added, and I’m absolutely positive I would enjoy just as written.
Dang. I was really hoping i could convince you not to enjoy it!
I guess we have different ideas about reviewing recipes. As I said above, I share some of your concern WRT to reviewing recipes completely different than originally written, but I don’t find any of the changes here to change the basic character of the recipe (although subtracting the mayo from the sauce does come close for me.) It would bug me if people made big changes and then said they didn’t like the recipe, though.
I made it with pork instead of chicken, change the yogurt sauce to a white wine + chicken stock sauce, and served it over noodles instead of rice.
Loved it! I’d recommend the OP’s recipe to anyone.
People do that too! Aaargh!
Anyways I will shut up now.
Well, one of the things I like about these little sorts of changes with positive reviews is the ability to read all the comments and see if any of the ideas/tweaks speak to me. For example, I put mint in the mayo sauce, but a lot of people don’t like mint in that type of application, so I could see leaving it out of the basic recipe. The tahini addition sounds pretty interesting, too, and I’ll keep it in mind for the next time I make the recipe. So I do like hearing about those little sorts of tweaks, substitutions, additions, as they don’t change the basic character of the recipe. If the to-the-letter recipe didn’t work at all, the simple addition of mint or garlic wouldn’t change it from a crap recipe to a great recipe.
When I give out my own recipes, I make all sorts of notes and suggestions along the way for the reader, to tell them what variations are “to style,” which might be considered heretical by a few, but always with encouragement to adjust the recipe to their own tastes. But this makes my recipes a lot longer than they really need to be, and I feel most recipes have an implied “adjust to taste or ingredients on hand” to them, assuming you know what you’re doing and have reasonable experience as a cook. That’s all.
Hey I don’t mind tweaks. I prefer them to have a little reasoning behind them and admission when they are changing the character of the dish. Excluding the mayo without mention crossed my red line. Lol.
I am reminded of this old cooking show that used to be on in these parts called The Urban Peasant. During the show he would often say “sub in this if that’s what you prefer/have handy” except when it came to butter or sugar in desserts. Then it was "just eat less of it if you’re so worried! " Funny.
Yeah, this is good stuff. We don’t do mayo, either, but miracle whip works with upping the sweetness a bit to balance the bite.
Also, I didn’t change it at all.