Polenta

Chicken and Polenta:

• Chicken thighs
• ½ head of cauliflower- cut into florets
• ¼ lbs. of mushrooms
• ½ a large onion-sliced
• 1/3 can of chicken broth

Grease a square baking dish and put in the cauliflower, mushrooms, and onions in it and season with salt and pepper. Pout the chicken broth over the top. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Stir the veggies. Season the chicken thighs and place them on top. Bake at 375 for 75 minutes. Every 20 minutes or so, stir the veggies and baste a little of the broth over the skin of the chicken.

You can also make a simple gravy with the remaining chicken broth to pour over the top of everything.

1/2 cup corn meal-medium-fine ground

1 2/3 cans chicken broth

½ cup grated cheese (cheddar or parmesan)

3 Tbs. buttermilk

2 Tbs. butter

Start by putting the corn meal and 1 cup of broth in a pot on low-medium heat. Stir often with a whisk. As the liquid evaporates and cooks in, add ¼ cup of broth at a time until you are out of broth. Keep stirring. There should still be some texture to the polenta but not gritty. At the end, add in the buttermilk for a bit of tang and the cheese and butter. Stir well.

Serve a ½ to ¾ of a cup of polenta with a piece of chicken and some veggies over top.

If you have leftover polenta, form it into a log shape in some plastic wrap and stick it in the freezer. Next time you want polenta you can thaw it out, cut slices off and fry them in a shallow pan of oil. 

Sausage, peppers, and onions with polenta and a red wine gravy. 

• polenta
• 6-8 sausages
• 2 peppers-sliced
• 1 onion sliced
• 1 can stock
• 1 cup red wine
• 2 Tbsp. corn starch

While the polenta is cooking, cook up the sausages in a pan and set them aside. Saute the onions and peppers in the same pan with some oil until the onions start to get transparent and everything starts to brown. Set aside. De-glaze the pan with the red wine. Then add in the stock and simmer for 3 minutes. Mix the corn starch in a little water until it dissolved mostly and then slowly stir in the corn starch to the boiling liquid. Simmer until it thickens a bit. Serve the sausage and veggies over the polenta with some gravy.