Sweet and Savory Dinner Combos

I was watching youtube last week and came across Claire Saffitz's channel. Many of you probably know her, she writes for NYT Cooking. She was making this all-purpose enriched dough recipe that just looked divine! The soft, buttery bread got me thinking about what I want to pair it with, and my original creation, Cherry Chipotle Chicken, came to mind. Let's dive into dinner!

The problem: My cherry chipotle chicken is sweet/spicy and I thought it would pair well with the buttery dough recipe by Claire. However, I wanted a more savory version of the bread to contrast to the chicken's sweetness. I also wanted a chicken thigh + thicker sauce version of my original recipe - which uses shredded chicken breasts in a thinner sauce.

The solution: After several test dinners with my lovely parents I nailed down taste, texture, cooking times. I settled on a feta/pistachio/red chili flake loaf paired with a pan-roasted chicken thigh in reduced cherry chipotle sauce.

First thing first, I had to make the bread in the original form presented by Claire. She has a great recipe. Soft, pillowy, buttery, enriched (which means fat added) bread. Aside from some longer kneading times and an overnight rest in the fridge - it is fairly straightforward to make. I learned a few new things from this recipe as well, which is always welcome to me. For instance, this recipe uses a tangzhong. In some Asian baking recipes, this technique cooks a bit of the flour and liquid first (much like starting a pate choux - but the fat is added later) to expand the starches, allowing them to absorb more water and create a bit more structure. I found this blog by King Author that did a great job of explaining it.

I also made the pistachio morning buns variation she has on there...go try them, just lovely.

But I needed something with a savory kick to it. I had the pistachios on hand and also happen to have some feta in the fridge. I thought what a great combo to go with my sweet chicken!

The second batch of bread was split into a plain loaf and one with added feta/nuts. This one I did as a rolled loaf with spirals of the filling. It was good, but the center remained a bit doughy and didn't rise as much as I wanted. It seemed compact. There also wasn't as even a distribution of cheese/nuts as I wanted. Lastly, I used already roasted pistachios in this batch. Some turned out with a harder bite than I thought was pleasant.

The chicken turned out amazing. I had some very happy recipe tasters serving that up. A thick, sweet, spicy, BBQ-esque sauce complete with whole bits of cherry. The cherry sauce coated juicy chicken thighs with a slightly crispy. I usually leave the skin on the thighs and crisp it up, but I decided to remove them to cut the fat and get a beautiful crust using the sugar from the sauce instead.

The next round of bread I changed up the pistachios and also the shape. I went back to the original dough balls used to make the loaf, which I coated in the feta/nuts before placing. This solved the problem of even distribution and mostly the problem of the texture for the nuts. It also kept the loaf light and airy. It rose more than expected, was perfectly done in the middle, and has a wonderful presentation.

While most of the nuts were great, a few on top still suffered from over roasting. A final fix for that was easy, download my recipes at the end for that little tip.

With the addition of some steamed veggies, this turned out to be an amazing combo for dinner. The sweetness of the chicken played counter to my added savory bits in the bread, while at the same time the butteriness of the bread did something to enhance the cherry sauce. This effect is the same as when finishing a pan sauce with a few tablespoons of butter whisked in at the end. It created something new that was better than the original - a little dance of complexity in the mouth that left me smiling and wanting more.

When you first make the loaf, the many steps make it seem daunting. I promise though, it doesn't take many practice runs to see the routine. I've broken down the steps, the times, the techniques, and have included several pictures and short demo videos to help the uninitiated to the world of enriched dough. The chicken has a longer baking time, but shorter prep. It can be made a day ahead and reheated. I've also included timing for both recipes to have them ready for dinner at the same time without killing your whole day.

As usual, download your {fancy, picture-heavy copy here} or your {printer-friendly copy here}. Thanks for joining me again, if you make these I'd love to hear the results in the comments section.