Double Dipped Fried Chicken

The day has finally come, readers! I made the fried chicken! I know you've all just been anxiously refreshing your browsers waiting for this post to go up and I'm here to say, the wait is finally over. You're welcome.


There was a slight issue with cooking time but that was operator error and not recipe error so fear not! This recipe will result in crunchy, moist, and delicious fried chicken that couples perfectly with an ear of corn on the cob and a dash of hot sauce.


Double Dipped Fried Chicken Breasts

2 chicken breasts, butterflied (I didn't do this myself, but I definitely should've)
2 C buttermilk
1/4 C milk
Dash of red pepper hot sauce
2 C flour
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp pepper
1 Tbsp oregano
1 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp cayenne
Canola or vegetable oil, for frying




Let me begin by saying I'm weird about meat. I don't like meat on the bone. I know it's more flavorful and moister and blah, blah, blah but it just innerves me. Don't ask me why but I've always been this way. Thus, I did not use a mixture of chicken pieces (legs, drums, wings, etc.) and instead used the boneless, skinless chicken breasts I have come to love.


The night before, pat the chicken dry with a paper towel and marinate chicken in buttermilk, water and hot sauce. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours but longer is better. The buttermilk helps to tenderize the chicken.


When you're ready to fry, in a doubled brown paper bag (trust me, this alleviates the "club hands" that can sometimes occur when dredging things), combine flour and spices and place now-marinated chicken into the bag and shake to coat. After the first coating, remove chicken from flour mixture and dip back into the buttermilk. Replace in paper bag and shake to coat again. This part is surprisingly fun! Allow the chicken to sit in the flour mixture for 5 minutes. This helps make the coating stick.


In a large Dutch oven or electric fryer, heat 1 inch worth of oil to 350 degrees or until flour sizzles when sprinkled in the pan. Gently place chicken in the oil and fry for 5 minutes per side. Here's where I messed up - I had 2 super thick chicken breasts (that I definitely should've butterflied) and 1 butterflied breast (more similar to a chicken strip) to fry. The butterflied breast was cooked through after 10 minutes in the oil, the other two could've used at least another 5 minutes in the oil to be cooked through. Unfortunately, Nate and I didn't realize their undercooked-ness until he was already halfway through his breast (which he promptly stuck back in the oil to fry longer). You live and you learn, right? So I'd recommend 1) butterflying your chicken breasts to make them thinner and thus they'll be cooked through in 10 minutes or 2) frying your super thick chicken breast for 15 minutes.


Remove fried chicken to a paper towel lined plate, sprinkle with salt and rest for 2 minutes.


Top chicken breasts with a few dashes of hot sauce and you have yourself a fantastic meal in the making! We ate our chicken with the classic side of corn on the cob and an ice cold beer to wash everything down. We were in fried food heaven!


Enjoy this recipe and remember I make this horrendous cooking mistakes so you don't have to. Have a great Thursday, readers!

Chorizo and Shrimp Quesadillas with Smoky Guacamole

Alright, so I know I promised a fried chicken recipe for today but I realized I hadn't marinated my chicken in buttermilk and I was at work so I couldn't really fix that issue so stay tuned for fried chicken!




Anyway, after a long workday, 3 mile run and just being all-around worn out; I wanted to make something quick, easy and utilized the avocados I knew would soon be turning overly ripened. I've said it once and I'll say it a thousand times - thank God for Rachael Ray. I've used my 30-Minute Meals Get Togethers cookbook more than any other I own I'm pretty sure. Seriously. Go buy this book! Follow this link and purchase it immediately Click here and buy this book. This recipe was simple, delicious and altered slightly from the original so I guess I should say this meal was inspired by Rachael's rather than is Rachael's.


Chorizo and Shrimp Quesadillas with Smoky Guacamole

For the guac:
2 ripe avocados, diced and smashed
3 Tbsp sour cream
2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, rough chopped
Juice of 1 lime
Pinch of salt


Normally I don't sway from my trusty guacamole recipe I've been perfecting for the past few years but I'll admit this one wasn't too bad.


In a medium bowl, mix together all ingredients and taste test. Adjust seasoning accordingly. Taste test again. And again and again just to be extra sure it tastes right. Refrigerate until ready to use.


For the quesadillas:
4 oz chorizo
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb medium cooked shrimp, deveined, tails removed, and roughly chopped
4 flour tortillas
2 C shredded chipotle & habanero cheese


In a large skillet, brown the chorizo sausage over medium heat for 3 minutes. Crumble it up like ground beef. After browned, remove the chorizo to a plate and cover with foil. Keep the grease in the pan.


Lower the heat to medium and brown the garlic for 1 minute then add in the shrimp.


*As a side note, I bought medium cooked shrimp completely by mistake but it ended up making everything so much easier! I didn't have to worry about cooking the shrimp, just about heating them up in the pan. It was great!


Throw the chopped cooked shrimp in the pan and cook until heated through, this should only take a minute. Remove the cooked shrimp to a plate and cover with foil.


Wipe skillet with a paper towel to remove grease and return to medium heat. Place tortilla in pan to stiffen for 1 minute per side. Believe me this step really helps when it comes time to flip your quesadilla! After both sides of the tortilla are browned, layer about 1/4 C cheese, a scoop of chorizo sausage, a scoop of shrimp and another 1/4 C cheese. Layer with another tortilla and cover skillet with a lid to melt the cheese. Flip the quesadilla after 2-3 minutes (when cheese melts and sticks to top tortilla) and cook for another 2-3 minutes.


Repeat with remaining ingredients.


Cut quesadillas into triangles and serve with guacamole.


These quesadillas were excellent! Smoky, salty, cheesy, gooey and filling. Nate and I were stuffed after 1 quesadilla each! I would highly recommend giving these a try for a busy weeknight meal or for a Get Together.


Fried chicken recipe tomorrow, I promise!

And here's a picture of my cat, Pickles just because. 

Poached Salmon with Dill Tzatziki Sauce

Well readers, here we are again: Tuesday. I hope your Monday morning went smoothly and you were able to keep your head down and work, work, work, work, work, work until it was suddenly quittin' time and you were able to go home and enjoy your leisure minute.


I got home last night to find Nate (once again) underneath the Jeep fixing something and I wanted to make something quick with minimum effort - enter poached salmon. I've never poached anything in my life so I needed a little guidance; I got this recipe from Daphne Oz' The Happy Cook cookbook and I have to say it was pretty simple.


Poached Salmon with Dill Tzatziki Sauce

For the salmon:
1 Tbsp coriander seeds
1 Tbsp peppercorns
6 C water
1 lemon, thinly sliced
1 bay leaf
2 4 oz salmon fillets
Salt and pepper, to taste


For the Tzatziki Sauce:


1 small cucumber, grated
1 medium garlic clove, grated
1/2 Tsp salt
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp dried dill (or 2 Tbsp fresh dill)
1 C plain Greek yogurt


I began by making the Tzatziki sauce so it could sit in the fridge and marinate while I prepared the salmon.


Over a colander or fine mesh sieve, grate cucumber using the small grater holes. Once the cucumber is completely grated, squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Transfer now less-moist cucumber to a bowl.


Grate garlic clove using a Microplane and add to cucumber.


Mix in lemon juice, spices and yogurt. Set in fridge.


To make the salmon, in a deep skillet (or small stock pot), toast the coriander seeds and peppercorns for 1 minute. Moving the pan around a few times during the toasting process.


Add in 6 C of water, lemon slices and bay leaf and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. After the liquid comes to a boil, simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes.


Season both sides of the salmon with salt and pepper and simmer in the liquid for 4-5 minutes or until edges stiffen. My fillets were pretty thin so I cooked mine for 5 minutes but depending on thickness add or subtract a minute of cooking time.


Remove from heat and allow the salmon to sit in the poaching liquid for 5 minutes.


Serve with a heafty spoonful of Tzatziki sauce.


I served this salmon with a side of sautéed asparagus.


While I enjoyed the ease of the poaching process, I'm not sure how much I like non-textured food. The salmon had none of the great crust and meatiness that salmon gets when you sear it in a hot pan. Poaching may not be for me...enjoy your Tuesday and stay tuned for Southern Fried Chicken and Corn on the Cob!

Chicken Yakitori

This weekend has been so busy and of course, has gone by way too quickly. Nate has spent the last two days underneath his Jeep fixing something or another, yesterday I spent the whole day pampering myself and day drinking with some of my lady friends, and today I cleaned the apartment and went grocery shopping. I know what you're thinking, how can she possibly clean AND grocery shop in the same day? Anyway, after all that activity I either wanted to get a pizza or maybe use some of the $100 worth of ingredients I bought to make food. Making food won out.

I opened up my Rachael Ray's 30-minute Meal Get Togethers, truly a fantastic cookbook that I can't stop not-so-subtly trying to get people to buy, and found the recipe for Chicken Yakitori! Yakitori, according to Google, is a style of Japanese street food that is typically served on skewers. Sounds yummy, right? I thought so too. While I'm sure Rachel's recipe is truly fantastic, I made a few adjustments to the recipe in accordance to what I had on hand.

Chicken Yakitori

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into strips
3 Tbsp dry sherry
2 Tbsp light colored oil
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 C Tamari
5 Chives, chopped (Rachael suggests cutting in half)
2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil (not in recipe)
Yum Yum Sauce (optional)

Create a marinade for the chicken with the sherry, oil, sugar, chives and Tamari. Marinate the chicken for 10 minutes.

Rachael suggests cooking in a large grill pan, hibachi grill or barbecue grill. However, I unfortunately do not own any of the above so I used a skillet. In a large skillet, heat sesame oil and sear chicken for 3 minutes per side. The marinade will create a beautifully sweet crust on the chicken as it cooks.

I'm sure making the recipe as written results in a truly excellent meal. I used chive from my own planter but due to its limited size, I could only harvest the greens of the chive so I snipped them and threw them in the marinade as opposed to grilling them separately.

I served these chicken strips with my delicious curried rice and a side of yum yum sauce. It was incredible! Mrs. Ray you've done it again! Enjoy the last few hours of your weekend readers and good luck on Monday morning!

Garlic Shrimp with Fra Diavolo Sauce and Linguini

Good afternoon, readers! We finally made it to the weekend, thank sweet baby Jesus. Hopefully all of you feel the same way I do and are fortunate enough to be blessed with the fantastic weather Raleigh is currently experiencing (it's sunny, breezy and in the 70s)! This year Nate and I decided to stick to the Lenten tradition of no meat on Fridays (the first year since we've been together...sorry mom) and rather than eating greasy fried fast food fillets (ewe), I wanted to make something special. I cracked open my Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals Get Togethers cookbook and found a recipe for 4-minute Garlic Shrimp with 3-Minute Fra Davolo Sauce that sounded just excellent!

After the busy work week I had, running 3 miles at the gym, and feeling less-than-ideal, a recipe promising under 5 minute anything was too fantastic to resist.

4-Minute Garlic Shrimp with 3-Minute Fra Davolo Sauce with Linguini

The shrimp:
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, whole
24 jumbo shrimp, peeled, deveined with tails intact
2 Tsp grill seasoning
The sauce:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 Tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 small onion, chopped (recipe called for 2 shallots, but I didn't have any available)
1/2 C dry sherry
1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes (called for crushed but Aldi had diced on sale)
1 Roma tomato, diced
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 Tbsp chopped parsley (or 1 Tbsp dried parsley)

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook whole garlic cloves and shrimp in olive oil. Season with grill seasoning, salt and pepper. Cook shrimp until pink and seared on both sides. As Rachel promised, this only took a few minutes! Remove shrimp from pan and set aside (I recommend covering the dish with foil to keep warm).

Remove the whole garlic cloves from the shrimp and coarsely chop. Return the pan to heat and add remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil. Throw the chopped garlic, crushed red pepper flakes and onion (shallot) into the pan and cook until soft. Add in the sherry to deglaze the pan of all the yummy shrimp-drippings and allow the liquid to reduce by half. Add tomatoes and bring to a bubble for 2 minutes. Season sauce with salt, pepper and parsley.

I made some linguini to accompany this fantastic dish and it will DEFINITELY be on my frequent dinners list! The shrimp was succulent and sweet, the sauce spicy and delicious and the linguini was the perfect vehicle for all the miraculous delicious-ness.

While trying to take the perfect food picture, I accidentally let half of my plate-full of food slip off my plate and onto the floor. And Nate's back...sorry honey. Look at how we suffer for you! 

Asian-Inspired Crispy Chicken and Zucchini

Good morning loyal fans! I hope your beginning of the week is going well and you're already chugging along toward Friday (I know I am). This weekend I have big plans! Manicures and Beauty and the Beast with some lady friends, sprucing up my balcony garden and a dinner date with frozen yogurt with my favorite husband! Just gotta keep pushing through for 4 more days!


Anyway, last night I came home from the gym and broke open my The Happy Cook (Daphne Oz)cookbook  and was preparing to make Crispy Chicken and Zucchini. I read the recipe and quickly realized two things - 1) for this huge skillet-full of food the only seasoning called for was 2 Tsp of soy sauce and 2) 2 cups of chicken and 1 medium zucchini is not enough for myself and my hungry husband so I improvised and concocted this delightfully sweet and spicy Asian-ish dish! Behold! Asian-Inspired Crispy Chicken and Zucchini!


Asian-Inspired Crispy Chicken and Zucchini

2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
2 Tbsp butter, divided
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 medium zucchini cut into 1/4 in rounds
3 russet potatoes, boiled and cut into 1/4 in rounds
2 C shredded chicken breast
4 Tbsp Teriyaki sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp red pepper flake
Fresh cracked black pepper


In a large skillet over medium-high heat, sauté onion in 1 Tbsp olive oil and 1 Tbsp butter until browned (roughly 3 minutes), stirring frequently.


After the onions have achieved their oh-so-delicious caramelized color, add in the zucchini rounds in a single layer. Flip them over to crisp up and brown the other side of the rounds after 3 minutes. Cook for another 3 minutes. Add in the potato rounds in a single layer and allow them to crisp and brown 3 minutes per side.


Push all the veggies to one side of the pan and add in the remaining 1 Tbsp olive oil and 1 Tbsp butter; then add in the chicken in a single layer. Allow the chicken to crisp and brown for 4 minutes and then flip to brown the other side. Once the chicken is adequately browned, mix in with the vegetables.


Now for the fun part: seasoning!!! Pour the Teriyaki and soy sauce over the mixture in an even layer to coat. The smell from the Teriyaki sauce hitting the hot pan is heavenly (and quite honestly made me miss my job at the sushi bar, if only for the delightful smell of the kitchen). Mix in the red pepper flake and fresh cracked black pepper and there you have it! A sweet and spicy dish fit for an Emperor!


Any Asian dish would not be complete without rice so I also made some curried rice.


Curried Rice


1 1/2 C water
1 C Jasmine rice
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tsp salt
2 Tsp curry powder
3 Tbsp rice wine vinegar


In a saucepan over high heat; bring water, butter and salt to a boil. Stir in rice and cover for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.


After your rice is cooked through, add in the curry powder and rice wine vinegar and stir until the rice has a light yellow color. The vinegar brightens the flavor of the curry powder.


The slightly tangy rice was an excellent pairing for the sweet and spicy chicken! Ah! It was truly a fantastic meal (I ate seconds!)


Enjoy your Tuesday, readers!

No Malarkey, Just Great Irish Food!

Good afternoon, readers! I hope your St. Patrick's Day weekend was filled with Guinness, Jameson and the Luck O' the Irish! Nate and I are hosting a dinner party of sorts this evening to celebrate the holiday and are making some Irish-inspired dishes! He is making Guinness Beef Stew with boiled potatoes and I made Irish Soda Bread and Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes.

Irish Soda Bread

5 C all purpose flour, sifted, plus more flour for kneading
3/4 C sugar
2 Tsp baking powder
2 Tsp salt
1 Tsp baking soda
1 stick unsalted butter
2 1/2 C raisins, soaked in water for 15-20 minutes and drained
3 Tbsp caraway seeds
2 1/2 C buttermilk
1 large egg, slightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter until mixture resembles course breadcrumbs.

Stir in raisins, caraway seeds, buttermilk and egg to form a dough.

Form dough into a loaf, using extra flour as needed. Bake for 1 hour.

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

For those not in the know, an Irish Car Bomb is a mixed drink popularized in America and so-named for it's ingredients of Guinness beer, Bailey's Irish Cream and Jameson Irish Whiskey. To concoct this cocktail, fill a shot glass halfway with Bailey's Irish Cream and the rest with Jameson Irish Whiskey. Drop the shot into a half-pint of Guinness Stout and chug! You can probably understand why it's a popular St. Patrick's Day drink. My cupcake version takes the wonderful flavors from the drink and while you don't have to chug, you'll want to gobble these treats up just the same!

for the cakes:

2 sticks unsalted butter
1 C Guinness beer
3/4 C cocoa powder
2 C cake flour
2 C sugar
1 1/2 Tsp baking soda
3/4 Tsp salt
2 eggs
2/3 C sour cream

Preheat oven to 350.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, simmer together butter and Guinness for 5 minutes. Whisk in cocoa powder until combined. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs and sour cream until smooth. Slowly beat in the cooled butter mixture and set aside.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until combined.

Line a muffin tin with liners and fill using a 1/4 C measuring cup. Fill cups 3/4 of the way and bake until a toothpick can be inserted into the cake and come out clean. This took about 20 minutes for my cakes.

For the buttercream:

1/2 C unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 C powdered sugar
6 Tbsp Bailey's Irish Cream

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream butter until light and fluffy. Alternate adding in half-cups of sugar and tablespoons of Bailey's Irish Cream.

Using your favorite offset spatula or pastry bag fitted with your favorite piping tip, frost cupcakes when completely cool.

These cupcakes are much more pleasant to eat than the Irish Car Bomb is to drink, in my opinion anyway. Chocolate is the perfect pairing for the Guinness and helps to bring out the subtle flavors of the beer and the creaminess of the Bailey's makes the already delicious buttercream extra decadent and luxurious.

Enjoy and I hope your St. Patrick's Day was safe and fun! Thanks for reading!

Falafel

Lately I've been making it a personal mission to eat more vegetarian meals. As you may or may not know (depending on how long you've been reading my humble blog), I was a vegetarian for 8 years and Nate was raised a vegetarian for 16 years. It's truly amazing how many options are available to vegetarians and vegans that weren't even thought of as recently as 5 years ago! I remember a time when going out to eat vegetarian meant a pathetic side salad or a plate of french fries. Anyway, back to my point, so I've been making it a goal to eat completely vegetarian 3 days a week.

Last night's meal was falafel patties and tzatziki sauce. For those of you not in the know, falafel are deep fried patties made of chickpeas, fresh parsley and lots of warm spices. They're exceptional with pita bread, tomato, slices of red onion and dollops of creamy and cool tzatziki sauce. It's obvious I loathe these things, right? They're just the worst.

Tzatziki Sauce

1 C plain Greek yogurt
1 small cucumber, grated
1 clove garlic, pressed or grated
1 Tsp dill (fresh or dried)
1 Tsp lemon juice
1/2 Tsp salt

Using the small holes of a box grater, grate the cucumber into a colander and press to remove as much moisture as possible.

In a small bowl, mix together all ingredients and enjoy!

Really, it's that simple. It's fresh, it's cool and it's utterly delicious. I wish I had doubled this recipe because I would've gladly eaten it by the spoonful.

Falafel Patties

 2 cans garbanzo beans, drained
1 shallot, chopped
3 garlic cloves
2 slices whole wheat bread
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 Tsp ground cumin
1 Tsp coriander
1/2 Tsp tumeric
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 Tsp lemon juice
2 eggs, beaten
2 Tbsp buttermilk
1 C breadcrumbs
Vegetable oil, for frying
Whole wheat pita bread, for serving
Tzatziki sauce, for serving (or devouring with a spoon, no judgment)

Using a food processor, combine garbanzo beans, shallot, garlic cloves, bread, bell pepper, lemon juice and spices. The mixture should retain some texture.

In a small bowl, beat together eggs and buttermilk. On a plate, spread out breadcrumbs.

Portion falafel balls using an ice cream scoop. Coat in egg mixture and coat with breadcrumbs. Form into 3 oz patties.

In a deep skillet over medium heat, heat oil to 350. Fry patties for 3 minutes per side in the oil. Remove from oil and allow to cool on a wire rack lined with paper towel.

Once again, viola! Falafel and tzatziki are truly that simple to make! The patties were moist, flavorful and absolutely filling. The recipe yielded 11 3 oz patties. My goodness they were just incredible! I can't wait to eat my leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Mediterranean Quiche

One of my favorite flavor profiles is Mediterranean. It's fresh, it's light, it's flavorful and just reminds me of great times (dates, birthdays, getting Gyros at Caesar's on Lomas and Wyoming at unspeakable hours of the night). I also love quiche! The flaky crust, the rich filling, the perfect pairing with Mimosas on the right occasion...I'm getting off topic. Anyway so tonight I decided to get my mind off the terrible weather in Raleigh (it's cold, rainy, windy) by making Mediterranean Quiche! I adapted this recipe from my Fix-It-And-Forget It Vegetarian cookbook.

Mediterranean Quiche

The tried and true no-fail quiche crust:

2 C flour
1 Tsp salt
1/4 Tsp sugar
4 Tbsp shortening, chilled
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, chilled
1/2 C ice water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar, shortening and butter using a pastry cutter until mixture resembles course cracker crumbs. Slowly add in 1/2 C of ice water and knead until the dough resembles...dough.

Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick and place in springform pan. Using a fork, score the dough to prevent over-rising.

Par-bake the crust for 9 minutes.

The filling:

1/4 C vegetable oil
1 small red onion, diced
1 small eggplant, diced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
2 C spinach
2 Tbsp capers
2 Tbsp pimentos
1/2 Tsp dried basil
1/2 Tsp dried parsley
Salt and pepper, to taste
3/4 C heavy cream
3 eggs
1/2 Tsp salt
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 C grated Parmesan cheese

In a deep skillet, saute onion and eggplant in oil until fork tender over medium-high heat (helpful hint: covering the skillet helps!) Add in the tomatoes, spinach, capers and pimentos and cook until spinach is wilted and season.

In a separate bowl, whisk together cream, egg, salt, garlic and Parmesan until combined.

Spoon vegetable mixture into prepared crust and pour egg mixture over it. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until set.

This recipe would've easily yielded two full quiches! Regrettably, I only prepared one crust so I divided my mixture into my crust and turned the remainder into a fritatta.

I served my delicious quiche with a simple salad of spinach, fresh blackberries, kalamata olives, chopped walnuts and feta cheese. It was the perfect accompaniment to the rich and buttery quiche.

Stay safe out there readers! I know Raleigh isn't the only place Mother Nature's hitting hard this week.

Raleigh Raw

I'm sorry for the hiatus, readers! The last few weeks have been very busy and haven't really been eating very much but that changed yesterday and today!

Yesterday Raleigh hosted it's St. Patrick's Day parade downtown! We began the parade with pastries and coffees from Lucettegrace located at 235 S Salisbury St, Raleigh, NC 27601 (it's a truly magical place, please go and eat all the macarons they have to offer.) The parade itself was fantastic! Lots of music, candy, dogs and a surprisingly low number of bagpipes. After the parade was over Nate and I decided to go to Raleigh Raw for lunch. An attorney I work with has been raving out Raleigh Raw all week so I was a little worried that it wasn't going to live up to the hype but boy did it!!!

Raleigh Raw

Raleigh Raw is located at 7 W Hargett St, Raleigh, NC 27601. The cafe offers organic pressed juices, poke bowls, sushi, smoothies and breakfast items.

Decor: good. The cafe is very compact and has limited indoor seating, however there are a few tables set up outside on the sidewalk that are just lovely when the weather isn't in the 30s or 40s (as it unfortunately was yesterday). There is local art lining the walls, low lighting and a few cozy alcoves with tables.

Food appearance: good. Food is served to you on ceramic and glass, despite being a quick-serve style restaurant and there is definite attention to detail. Sushi is drizzled with sauces, poke bowls are piled high with all the fixin's and smoothies are topped with fresh garnishes.

Food taste: excellent. Unfortunately for Nate and I, the restaurant was out of several of their sushi items due to increased volume (great for them, bad for us) but we still were given a delicious meal! We started with The Hustle poke bowl with yellowtail and sticky rice. The bowl was topped with chives, dragonfruit, jalapeno, pistachio dust, sesame asparagus, seaweed salad, shallot, and chef's mixed microgreens. The jalapeno was fresh and spicy, the asparagus had the perfect toasted sesame flavor, the dragonfruit was juicy and sweet and every flavor complimented each other perfectly! My only complaint would be the chive was a little strong but it was absolutely fantastic! The poke bowls are served with raw cashew spicy mayo and some type of soy sauce. Had I not known the mayo was dairy-free, I would've never guessed! The texture and consistency was right and had the perfect spicy and nut flavor. We also ordered the Spicy Avocado sushi roll which was drizzled with the spicy mayo and dusted with pepper powder. The avocado was cut into thick slices and was an excellent pairing for the poke bowl. We ordered the Green smoothie to drink and it was absolutely divine!  The smoothie itself was a vibrant green and a mix of mint green tea, date, avocado, spinach, mango, Himalayan sea salt, spirulina, lime and topped with coconut flakes. The smoothie was sweet and fruity and I can't wait to order it again!!

Service: good. We were greeted when we entered the cafe and the employee helping us seemed genuinely apologetic that we were unable to order the fish we wanted with our poke bowl. We also had a gift card that couldn't be used due to a change in their point-of-sale system and informed us that our lunch would be on them that day despite the gift card not covering the whole balance. It was very kind and professional of them. The one negative note I have regarding their service would be the food all came out at different times. The poke bowl was served about 5 minutes after we ordered, the smoothie several minutes after that, and the roll after so much time we were convinced they'd forgotten it.

Cleanliness: good. The cafe was clean and orderly and tables were turned over quickly.

Total: 11/15

I will have to thank my co-worker because Raleigh Raw really is worth raving about! The food is fantastic and fresh, the smoothies are sweet and just make you feel healthier while you're drinking them and eating local is important! Fortunately for me they also deliver in the downtown area so I think I know what I'm going to get next time I have to work through lunch!

Shredded Chicken Tacos

Hello again, readers! Now I know you just finished reading my review of Raleigh Raw and now you're itching to know what I made for dinner! I read your mind just now, didn't I? Well tonight's dinner was quick, easy and absolutely tasty!

Part of my job at the law firm is ordering catering for lunch meetings and occasionally this ordering results in leftover items. A few weeks ago I ordered Mexican food for work and wound up with an entire stack of corn hard taco shells! So tonight I finally decided to put them to use by making shredded chicken tacos.

Shredded Chicken Tacos

1 Tbsp butter
1 yellow onion, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into strips
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 Tsp garlic powder
1 Tsp ground cumin
1/4 Tsp chile powder
1 chicken breast, shredded
1/2 C black beans
4 Tbsp adobo sauce
2 chipotle peppers, diced
1/2 C water
Shredded cheddar cheese, for serving
Hard corn tortilla shells, for serving
Sour cream, for serving

Begin by preparing your chicken breast. Boil chicken in 2 C water until cooked through, this took about 15 minutes. Then shred chicken using two forks.

In a separate skillet over medium-high heat, melt butter and saute onions and bell peppers until tender. Add in seasonings, chicken, black beans, adobo sauce, pepper and water. Simmer the mixture uncovered, stirring occasionally until a thick sauce forms.

Serve immediately.

We served these wonderful tacos with white rice seasoned with curry powder.

These tacos were quick to make and tasted absolutely sublime! They were slighly spicy and smoky from the chipotle peppers and adobo, the chicken was tender and juicy and the peppers were slightly crisp. Enjoy, readers!