I think dinner parties are going to become my new thing. Or, at least, the act of cooking coursed dinners at home. Whether it’s having 5-10 people over for several bottles of wine along with some large format roast, or cooking an intricate meal for an at-home date night—I consider anything that looks to emulate a restaurant meal in your home or apartment as a form of a dinner party.
The thing with dinner parties is that they’re not nearly as hard as they might seem. We all know the over-the-top kind—the thematically put-together meals complete with appropriate plateware and matching glassware that made careers out of the likes of Martha Stewart. While I appreciate these displays of talent, it’s not the style I go for when I’m hosting one of my own. After all, I have to enjoy myself, too—and I don’t have Martha’s eye for the details.
Instead, I go for mismatched plateware, reusing utensils across courses, an open bar cart in favor of a themed cocktail and family-style dishes so people can build a plate exactly how they see fit.
I had my friends over this past weekend to do just that. The plan was simple: a salad to start, bring-your-own liquor (or help yourself to the cart), a roast to serve the group and an easy side to go along with it. Oh yeah, and dessert—that’s non-negotiable. This group is low-maintenance, so I threw baseball highlights on the TV, a playlist of our favorite music on the speakers and I got to work putting together the meal while they drank Guinness and caught up.
The key to enjoying yourself while hosting is to prep in advance. Seriously, I cannot stress this enough. Hours before anyone arrived, I had the tiramisu done, my chickens brined and dried, aromatics cut, herbs picked and dressings made. Everything labeled and put away in the fridge, so that when it came time to cook, I was ready to go. Here’s the menu:
First
Kale Salad
Asian pear, shredded cabbage, dried cranberries and pear-dijon vinaigrette, Parmigiano
Main
Chicken Under a Brick
Nuoc Cham dressing, herb salad and soy-pickled cucumbers
Side
Chow Mein Rice Pilaf
Dessert
Classic Tiramisu
By the time you’re ready to eat, everything should be able to be cooked/prepared and served. In a restaurant, we would call this “mise en place,” which translates to “everything in place.” Like in a proper kitchen, you work hard at prep to make service a breeze (that’s the idea, anyway).
First Course: Kale Salad
I think salad is pretty much a no-brainer for hosting a dinner. They’re easy to throw together, you can flex seasonal produce and everything can be prepped ahead. My idea was to serve a winter-themed salad with fine chopped kale as the base.
I sliced Tuscan kale thinly, washed it thoroughly, and gave it a spin in the salad spinner. I did the same for some fine-shredded cabbage. This became my “salad mix,” which I threw into a gallon bag and tossed in the fridge a good eight hours before anyone came over.
For the dressing, I sliced an Asian pear in half, and blended it along with the juice of one whole lemon, rice vinegar, sesame oil, olive oil, dijon mustard, honey, and salt and pepper to taste. I saved the other half of the pear to thinly slice and toss with the salad right before serving.
I also cubed and roasted squash for this salad, which I forgot to include (more on that later).
When it came time to serve, I added my ingredients to a bowl, poured in the dressing and tossed with clean hands. Each portion of salad got finished with a generous shower of grated Parmigiano Reggiano.
Second Course: Roast Chicken Under a Brick
Four hungry guys calls for two whole chickens—minimum. I could have roasted these traditionally, but truth be told, I wanted nothing to do with carving the birds. Again, I’m trying to enjoy my time, too!
Instead, I opted for a fully deboned chicken, which a good butcher will happily do for you. This is how chicken is often prepped in restaurants when you see “Half Chicken” on the menu, except here, it’s the whole thing. You can do this yourself rather easily if you’re good with a knife. The leftover carcass, wings and other bones goes right into my freezer for a future stock.
I took these boneless chickens and salted the skin side the night before, storing them uncovered on a wire rack in the fridge to dry out and brine. This lends you glassy skin that crisps up with ease and seasoned, moist meat. Because of a process called osmosis, salt draws moisture out of meat’s surface, while injecting moisture and seasoning into the interior.
I cook the birds one at a time, skin-side down in a Dutch oven. The “brick” part of the recipe simply means weighing down your meat with food weights, a heavy pot, or if you want to be literal, a tin-foil wrapped brick (this is how many restaurants do it). Once the chicken is in the pan, you can season the flesh side with salt, pepper and any other seasonings you want—keep in mind that the skin side should remain seasoned only by salt to avoid burning. Cook your bird on medium-high heat for 5-10 minutes until the skin is a light golden-brown, keeping in mind that the flesh is still undercooked. Invert the bird onto a wire rack to hold and go forth with searing your next one.
Once all of your birds are seared, you can go ahead with popping them into an oven set between 375 and 400 fahrenheit to gently finish cooking through. Because there are no bones and one side is already thoroughly cooked, the chickens should not take long to reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
Once done, I sectioned the chicken into four parts each: two thighs and two breasts, and sliced. For ease, plate the chicken on a large, serve-yourself platter. Top with picked cilantro, mint and basil and spoon over your Nuoc Cham dressing (recipe below). This is where the casual element of my cooking style comes into play. I took a look in my fridge to see what else I had to put this bird over the edge. I found soy-marinated cucumbers and jalapenos that I made earlier in the week, as well as the roasted squash that I forgot to use for the salad—“f*** I forgot to use the squash!” quickly turned into a lightbulb moment. Spoonfuls of bright orange squash created a contrast that made the whole dish pop.
Not to toot my own, but this was really delicious.
Side: Chow Mein Rice Pilaf
As soon as my chickens were done searing, I threw a small diced onion into the Dutch oven to sweat and pull up some of that chicken fond. The plan was to make a pilaf-style rice in the tasty chicken schmaltz, but I wanted to add an x factor. A quick look in my pantry led me to a packet of dried chow mein noodles that were perfect for what I had planned.
Once the diced onion is translucent, you can throw 3.5 cups of rice into the pan, along with your broken up packet of noodles (use a ramen packet if you don’t have chow mein). Staying on medium-high heat, toast and coat your rice in the residual fat—this helps it absorb moisture and develop flavor. After about two minutes of constant stirring, you can add a quart of chicken stock and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, drop the heat to low, toss a lid on and move it to the back burner.
Leave your rice cooking on low for 20 minutes, don’t lift the lid until then. After 20 minutes have passed, you can remove the lid and check for doneness—it might need five more minutes or so. Once done cooking, adjust seasoning, add a handful of sliced scallion, and a squeeze of lime. It’s infused with chicken flavor, has a slight pop of acid from the lime and those noodles stud the rice bringing just a touch of contrast.
Dessert: Tiramisu
You don’t have to make dessert from scratch, but you must have something for it. Dinner is all but complete without a sweet treat (trademark that).
Usually, I would just get a box of pastries, but I felt like making something this time around—specifically something with low effort and a high reward. Tiramisu is the name of the game. I placed espresso-soaked lady fingers in a square baking dish, then layered with a whipped cream and mascarpone mixture, which was flavored with vanilla and lemon zest. Repeat. Another layer of ladyfingers, another layer of cream. When your dish is filled to the top, you can dust the final layer of cream with cocoa powder to get that signature tiramisu look.
I made this the morning of, and held it in the fridge until it was time for dessert. To serve, forget neat square cut outs, just give your guests big scoops of the stuff, and throw seconds at them as soon as they’re done.
We enjoyed our dessert with pours of Cynar topped with a splash of club soda. The perfect dessert pairing.
Throwing a Dinner Party is Easy
Dinner parties don’t have to employ large, intricate menus complete with wine pairings—though, they totally can. I like to set mine up in a way that is able to be prepped ahead as to alleviate the amount of work that needs to be done a la minute.
The most hands-on part of this menu was searing the chicken, which I was able to do easily while continuing to entertain my guests. It helps to live in an apartment where the kitchen table is the same counter I work off of. I can serve straight from there, and it gives my company a true “chef’s table” experience.
Recipes
Ginger-Garlic Nuoc Cham Dressing
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp water
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 clove of garlic minced
- 1 inch knob of ginger minced
Method:
- Combine ingredients in a container with lid
- Attach lid and shake to combine
- Taste for additional seasoning
Pear-Dijon Vinaigrette
Ingredients:
- ½ of a large Asian pear, peeled and cut into chunks
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- EVOO to emulsify
Method:
- Place ingredients (except for EVOO) in a blender, or a cup with an immersion blender
- Blend until loosely combined
- While blending, stream in EVOO until emulsified and creamy
- Season with salt and pepper to taste
Pan-Roasted Chicken with Herbs and Nuoc Cham
Ingredients:
- 1 fully deboned chicken, seasoned with salt and air-dried in fridge overnight
- 1 tbsp neutral oil
- Salt and pepper
- Picked cilantro leaves
- Picked basil
- Picked mint
- Sliced jalapeno (optional)
- Nuoc Cham (see above)
Method:
- Season chicken with salt one day in advance and leave uncovered, skin-side up on a tray fit with a wire rack in the fridge overnight
- When ready to cook, heat a Dutch oven or stainless steel pan on medium-high heat and sear chicken skin-side down in neutral oil with a weight on top to ensure full contact with the surface
- Once golden-brown, remove and transfer to a sheet tray to finish cooking in a 400F oven
- Once breast reaches internal of 160F, remove and allow it to carry-over until 165F
- Slice and arrange in platter
- Top with herb salad and your Nuoc Cham vinaigrette
- Serve with wedges of lime
Chow Mein Rice Pilaf
Ingredients:
- 3 ½ cups of rice (I used Jasmine)
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 packet of dried chow mein or ramen noodles, broken up
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 tbsp of butter
- Sliced scallion for garnish
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
- In the same Dutch oven you seared the chicken in, heat 1 tbsp of butter and add onion to sweat, scraping bottom as you go to release the chicken fond
- Add rice and noodles and parch in oil, two minutes constant stirring
- Add stock, salt and pepper, and bring to boil
- Cover and reduce to lowest flame, leave gently cooking for 20 minutes without lifting lid
- Lift lid, check doneness
- Once rice is cooked, fluff it, adjust seasoning and finish with lime juice and scallion
Peter Candia is the Food + Drink Editor at New Jersey Digest. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, Peter found a passion for writing midway through school and never looked back. He is a former line cook, server and bartender at top-rated restaurants in the tri-state area. In addition to food, Peter enjoys politics, music, sports and anything New Jersey.
