Happy Equinox! Indian Summer has returned to New England this week, but the first two days of fall were a bit brisk. My taste buds, who really should just shut up, started thinking about soups and stews.
I need the occasional hit of pasta with lots of garlic. And homicide might result if I need it and don’t get it. So I do it, and then I’m OK for a while, and the body count remains at zero.
I have a favorite fall stew recipe that is heavy in flavor but unfortunately also heavy in fat. It uses pork butt AND bacon. Talk about gilding the lily. I was entertaining friends on the first day of autumn and this stew would be the perfect treat. They are not red meat eaters and I’m trying to lose weight, so I’m lightening this bad boy up.
The key to this recipe is the spice rub for the meat. It contains 2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. pepper, ½ tsp. cayenne, ¼ tsp. ground ginger, 1 tsp. rubbed sage, ¼ tsp. nutmeg and 1 tsp. ground fennel. I make a huge batch of this and use it on chicken I’m grilling, pork chops, whatever. It’s delicious, and comes from The Great Meat Cookbook by Bruce Aidells (of Aidell’s Sausage fame – the man knows his meat).
No issues with calories in the spice rub, so I’m attacking the pork products to make this dish leaner. I’m substituting 3 lbs. of boneless, skinless, chicken thighs for the pork and using olive oil instead of bacon. I cut each chicken thigh into 3-4 pieces, sprinkled the spice rub over them, gave them a mix and refrigerated overnight. The next day I sautéed the chicken in 3 T. olive oil until browned, removed it from the pan and poured off most all of the fat. Then I added 2 medium chopped onions and 3 chopped garlic cloves to the pan, sautéing until golden. I added 1 can of diced tomatoes, 1 cup of red wine and 1 cup of low fat chicken stock. I added the chicken back to the pot with 2 bulbs of anise (no stalks or fronds) chopped into 1” pieces and ½ of a 8-10” butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced into 1 ½” chunks. I brought it to a boil and placed it in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. I removed the cover to let it cook down and brown a bit for another ½ hour. Then I turned the oven to warm and went to pick up our friends.
The results? Delicious. I didn’t miss the pork or the bacon one bit, and while chicken thighs are not as lean as chicken breasts, the ability to stew chicken thighs and reheat them without the risk of drying them out is worth the bit of extra fat.
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When trying to lose weight we need delicious. We’d never be able to stick to a regimen without it. We all have foods we couldn’t live without, at least once in a while. I need the occasional hit of pasta with lots of garlic. And homicide might result if I need it and don’t get it. And I don’t mean some namby-pamby 2 oz. portion. So I do it, and then I’m OK for a while, and the body count remains at zero. And then I get right back to business.
Do you have a ‘can’t live without’ favorite?
Thanks for the recipe, Deb. Can’t wait to try it. Does it have a name?
My can’t live without? A glass of wine at the end of the day. Or a cold, really good IPA.
Cheryl,
The original recipe was called Pork Stew with Fennel and Butternut Squash. Kinda long. And there is so much going on in it, it would be hard to give it a nice, brief title. Any suggestions readers?
I’m with ya on the wine!
D.
Pork Stew Futternut – makes people read it to understand what the heck it is – plus a slip up could be fun! 🙂
Can’t live without string cheese, bread/pasta, salad or a Skype martini once a month with my dear friend in MA.
Awwwww. Thank you my friend!
D.