Drool-Worthy Baked Chicken Thighs with Butter and Onions
Plus: A Gay Wedding in a Rain Forest in Puerto Rico + Eating Old San Juan.
Hey everyone,
Sorry for the delay! We were in Puerto Rico for Craig’s cousin David’s fabulous wedding to his partner Herald which happened to take place in a rain forest (!). More on that in a second.
First, let me tell you about these chicken thighs that I made with butter and onions and a bunch of spices. It’s a deceptively simple dish: just a few ingredients and, yet, it makes a marvelous dinner… especially served with rice and some roasted broccoli.
It comes courtesy of this week’s podcast guest, Aaron Hutcherson, a Washington Post food writer who talks all about this dish’s origins — how he adapted it from his mother’s kitchen, where he first fell in love with cooking. You can listen to our conversation here or on Apple Podcasts:
As for the recipe, I just shared it on the blog and you can probably make it tonight if you grab ahold of some chicken thighs — you probably have everything else on hand. Click here for the whole shebang!
Now, let’s talk about Puerto Rico. It’s a beautiful place, in case you didn’t know!
That’s Craig and I at Cousin David’s wedding and if you think we look hot, you should’ve seen the grooms in their lace wedding outfits! Here’s Cousin David in his.
Naturally, there was lots of music and dancing. It was probably the most fun wedding I’ve ever been to, next to our own! Here’s Craig’s dad Steve dancing with one of the traditional dancers.
But you’re not here to talk about gay weddings in Puerto Rico, you want to know about the food. We ate lots of it.
My favorite discovery on this trip (and I was there once before) was the Mallorca: a grilled sandwich of ham and cheese dusted with powdered sugar.
I ate this Mallorca at — where else? — Mallorca in the heart of Old San Juan.
It’s a perfect breakfast if you’re the kind of person who loves eggs, cheese, and ham on the same plate with your pancake or waffle. It combines all of those things into one.
Julee and Steve, Craig’s parents, were at the other end of the bar and their neighbor was eating a chicken stew with pigeon peas (she goes there every Saturday to eat it), so they ordered that and said it was the best thing they ate the whole trip.
My favorite meal, though, was the dinner we had at La Casita Blanca in the Villa Palmeras neighborhood, away from Old San Juan.
They greeted us with cod fritters and plantain soup, so we knew we were in good hands.
Almost all of us ordered garlic shrimp, which was great; but the appetizer of tostones (flattened fried plantains) with crab was my favorite bite of the night.
The other highlight was day-drinking at the bar everyone recommended, La Factoria. I’m sure it’s a zoo at night, but we went at three-ish and got our own little booth.
I started with their Guanabana Rum Punch with Facto Grog, Guanabana pulp, a citrus blend, that was clarified with milk.
Despite all of those disparate ingredients, the drink was incredibly smooth… which is what made it so dangerous. I followed it up with a Mercado Roma with Mezcal, Ancho Pina Shrub, Grapefruit, Lime, Clove Honey, and Angostura.
The highlight was when a bachelorette party came through doing a scavenger hunt, looking for a couple that’d been married for fifty years and finding Craig’s parents who just celebrated their 50th anniversary. The bride had to put on lots of lipstick and kiss someone on the cheek; Steve gladly volunteered.
It was a terrific trip to Old San Juan (though I did get food poisoning on the last night and almost couldn’t fly home, but let’s not talk about that) and now I’m in Florida visiting my niece and nephew for my niece’s 6th birthday (and my 44th… gulp!).
Here are some links!
Paul Feig’s Valentine’s Day Gin Love recipe (The Guardian);
A controversial guide to tipping (Grub Street);
I’m all here for the pistachio trend (Eater);
That’s all for today, folks! If you’d like to get Thursday’s newsletter and gain access to my full archives, become a paid subscriber now.
Happy Valentine’s!
Your friend,
Adam
we're not here to talk about gay weddings in puerto rico? surely you jest! fine, i'll just speak for myself. glad you had a wonderful time (up until the end anyhow - yikes, but glad you're recovered and were able to get home ok!) and as always the food looks outstanding. i also have been enjoying the return of the recipe blog, thank you for that.
man...the tipping article...i think everyone has had every take possible on tipping already so i won't rant too much. but the one that always gets me is that delivery orders should be a % tip based on the cost of your meal. sorry but no, i'm never ever doing that. why should the driver delivering an expensive meal get more than any other driver who delivers a meal that costs less but requires the same drive time and the same size bag or box? it doesn't make sense at all. the driver didn't prepare the meal. i will tip more if it's a holiday and/or the weather is bad.
the same is true for amazon grocery deliveries - since the tip is for the driver and does not involve shopping or packing, just delivering, i do not tip based on cost but for the amount of stuff & the weight of it. the driver who has to schlep heavy things like kitty litter or cases of water should get more than the one who has to simply place one bag of steak dinner ingredients on your doorstep, regardless of whether the latter cost more.
and tipping for a bottle of water i picked up and brought to the register at a starbucks as the article suggests...LOL...no...i will never be doing that either XD (surely that is just meant to bait ppl like me into writing long pointless comments ;))