I used coffee two ways in this recipe- in a brine for chicken, and as part of a mole sauce. The chicken was served with black beans and grilled corn. Here's how:
Chicken and brine:
1 cup brewed coffee
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp peppercorns
3 cups water
1 orange
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Mole:
1 14 oz. can stewed tomatoes
1 tbsp adobo sauce from a can of chipotles
1 square dark chocolate
1/2 cup brewed coffee
1 tsp minced garlic (or one clove, smashed, if you have it)
1 can black beans (not rinsed. I'm a dummy.)
4 ears of corn
I mixed the dry brining ingredients all together with hot coffee until everything was dissolved, and then added the water. The most fun part of this dish, and any dish that calls for it, is using the mortar and pestle to mash up the coriander and peppercorns. Wicked cool. Four slices of orange and the brine went into a big bowl with the chicken very early in the morning- I also added the juice from the rest of the orange (why waste it, right?). Pete was awake, so I was awake too. C'est la vie. Periodically during the day, I turned the chicken to make sure it all got brined properly. As I've never brined anything before, I don't know that this was necessary, but it made sense.
Dinner time was about 6:30 or so, and the Cavanaughs were coming over, so this had to be special. At about 5:00 I started on the mole sauce, blending the tomatoes, coffee, adobo and garlic.
Let's take a timeout here. Is there a good way to buy a small amount of adobo sauce so it's not wasteful? I know it's only like a four ounce can, but I only used one tbsp, so the rest goes to the fridge with the hope that we use it for something else. Of course we don't. So if you have any suggestions on a better way to do this, please post in the comments section at the end.
Ok. Time in.
So it's now about 5:15 and the mole is blended but not cooked yet. As you can imagine, it's a bit watery at this point, and needs to thicken. I've got about an hour until the Cavs come over, so I start simmering it to reduce now, which was a good idea in theory. I also added the chocolate when I put it on the burner. Big mistake. Huge. Why? Chocolate melts quickly, and then burns. This is the reason the dish wasn't a Great Success, but instead just outside the foul pole. Oops!
Anyway, over the course of the next hour it simmers to reduce, but twice I add more chocolate to cover up the slightly burnt taste of the original chocolate. I also shuck the corn and boil it for about five minutes- I love the taste of grilled corn, but cooking it all the way on the grill takes way too long. Par-boiling is the way to go.
Doorbell rings, guests are here. Chicken goes on the grill, black beans (not rinsed. I'm a dummy.) go into the pot with the mole, corn goes on the grill. Dinner is served.
The results:
The chicken was awesome. Really really great. We didn't eat it all, and it made great leftovers for the next few days. It never dried out, which is good considering it was frozen when I started, and chicken loses a lot of water during the thawing process. The coffee taste was faint, so maybe I'll use either stronger coffee or more of it next time. But the big winners here were the orange and coriander. Any time I brine something (Thanksgiving is coming up!), I'm using orange and coriander. Oh man was it good.
The black beans in mole was good. Could've been great. Coffee wasn't the star here, either- it really was the chocolate. The downside was that some of the chocolate was burned, and the mixture was REALLY salty, because I didn't rinse the black beans. I'm a dummy. With some more forethought, I would just buy dry beans and soak them overnight, but this recipe was thrown together with a mid-day trip to the grocery store, so that wasn't possible.
I'll try this again later this month and do it right, so look for more results later. I really think this could be a winner if I just think through everything. Maybe sauteed greens instead of corn as it's getting colder, we'll see.
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