Three Things

A homey one-pot chicken dinner, game day nachos, your podcast listen of the week

Greetings eaters and readers! Hope you all had a rich and chaotic holiday. I spent Sunday morning doing my Thanksgiving 2023 self a big favor: cutting and pasting every single recipe we used into a word doc with a few annotations on what to do better next year. (Speaking of which, thank you to everyone who emailed such thoughtful notes about my essay, my mom, my mom’s recording ritual, and the holiday chaos in general.) I also watched a ridiculous amount of soccer and devoured Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin, a novel that everyone seems to be reading right now. (What a cover!) Herewith, Three Things I’d like you to know about this week…

1. One-Pot Chicken with Artichokes and Orzo

I’m so used to cooking for two in my recently emptied nest, that I felt almost like I had to re-learn how to cook for four when the girls came home for break last week. And because I was busy doing advance prep work for Thanksgiving, I found myself craving family dinner recipes for them that were welcome-homey and cozy, but didn’t call on an army of pots and pans that would pile up in the sink like a jenga tower. You know, the kind of recipe that you want every day of your life when you’re feeding kids. This one was the winner.

2. Game Day Nachos

Like a lot of you, we spent a good amount of hours watching the World Cup over the holiday break. The soccer, of course, has been (mostly) exciting, but the best part is that the whole event gives everyone a good excuse to get together, and thinking back to the last few Thanksgivings, I am never going to take that for granted again. It’s not breaking news that food helps lock in specific memories — sometimes good, sometimes bad — but, for me, big sporting events do this, too, so we got a double memory-making bang for the buck when both Thanksgiving and the Cup joined forces last week. I already know that every time I see a replay of that sick Richarlison goal, I’ll remember that I was in the kitchen with Andy, my brother and my nephew prepping Brussels sprouts for Thanksgiving dinner. And that what I’ll remember about the U.S. v England game, besides how shockingly well the young American squad held their own, is that we were in New Jersey watching with Andy’s brother’s entire family — every kid, cousin, niece, nephew home from college squeezed together on the couch eating leftovers and cheering on Pulisic and Adams (and Kane and Saka because there are a few traitors in my midst who shall go nameless). I’ll also remember the day one of Abby’s friends came over for the Mexico-Poland match, and at halftime, opened our fridge to survey the snack options, which I count as a personal triumph in the Make-a-Guest-Feel-at-Home Department.

On that particular afternoon, the offerings were slim, but I knew I could scrounge up some tortilla chips and beans and cheese for quick sheet pan nachos. So that’s what I did. It reminded me of my Big World Event Super Nachos that I wrote about in How To Celebrate Everything. That version, the one you’re looking at above, has stewed chicken and plenty of toppings, but you don’t need all that to make a bunch of teenagers happy. The one I made was as basic as it gets — I skipped the chicken, then topped with refried beans, cheese, salsa, and fresh jalapeños — and my guests cheered for me as loudly as they did for Lewandowski. Below is the recipe for the whole shebang if you’re feeling the nachos vibe at some point in the next few weeks.

P.S. I don’t want to imply that this year’s Cup is all warm-and-fuzzy togetherness. The Daily discussed the underlying unease a lot of us feel supporting the games in Qatar.

P.P.S. Don’t you want to know the tapas spread that José Andrés lays out for his family on game days?

Big World Event Super Nachos
Again: You can easily make this vegetarian by skipping the chicken.

For the chicken

2 to 3 split chicken breasts (about 1 pound)
2 to 3 tablespoons good-quality olive oil
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, with juices
1⁄2 cup apple cider vinegar
1⁄4 cup water
2 cloves garlic, halved
1 medium onion, chopped
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 chipotle in adobo (not the sauce, just the dripping single pepper; you can freeze the rest)

Nachos
1 14-ounce can refried beans (I like pinto, but if you prefer black, go for it!)
1 18-ounce bag tortilla chips (look for thick and sturdy ones)
2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1⁄2 cup chopped red onion
1⁄4 cup sliced jalapeño chile rounds

Suggested Toppings
Sour cream, guacamole, salsa, crumbled queso, thinly sliced radishes, chopped cilantro

Make the chicken: In a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat, brown the chicken in the oil on all sides, 4 to 5 minutes a side. Add everything else to the pot so the chicken is just barely immersed in liquid, and stir. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Cover, leaving the lid slightly ajar, and cook for about 30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken, shred with two forks (discard the bones), and place back in the braising liquid.

Make the nachos: Preheat the oven to 325°F. In small saucepan, heat the refried beans until smooth and somewhat thinned out. Cover a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Distribute the tortilla chips with as little overlap as possible (though of course some is inevitable) on the paper. Evenly distribute dollops of refried beans and pulled chicken on top of the chips. (If you’d like part of the nacho plate to remain vegetarian, limit chicken to only one side of the baking sheet.) Evenly distribute the cheese on top of the chicken and beans, being sure to cover as many chips as possible. Top with the red onions, then top with the jalapeño rounds. Bake for 20 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and golden.

While the nachos bake, get the toppings ready. Remove the nachos from the oven and let cool slightly, then, carefully holding the sides of parchment paper, slide the nachos onto a platter. Top as desired with fixings.

3. Listen of the Week: On Beauty

Last week, I asked Phoebe for a podcast recommendation, and she pointed me in the direction of The Inner Landscape of Beauty, an episode of “On Being” featuring the Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue, who died in 2008. O’Donohue believed in beauty as a human calling, and the idea that if we approach the world with “a watchful reverence” we will be amazed by what it will reveal to us about ourselves. He goes deep on friendship, love, art, music, and religion (what he calls “spiritual homecoming”), and Phoebe told me she listened to the episode multiple times so she could commit to memory everything he said. I know what she means — O’Donohue is wise and lyrical and I can’t overstate how comforting his worldview is. There’s one story he tells about listening to a violinist play Tchaikovsky on her 1727 Stradivarius at Lincoln Center that will give you the chills. Do yourself a favor and queue up the episode for your next walk or drive to Trader Joe’s.

Have a great week,

Jenny

P.S. It’s Menu Plan Week

Subscribers, check your inboxes on Friday! You’ll be receiving your downloadable, printable five-day menu plan — including shopping list. You’re very welcome!! Reminder that menu plans are for paying subscribers only. You can subscribe here if you don’t want to miss out — or if you don’t want to wait until Friday, just check out the archive: Here’s last month’s (vegetarian, and good for the week after Thanksgiving!) and here’s one from October 2021. Subscribers: See you Friday!