Foodie night!!!

I was sitting in my kitchen at 6:10 and I realized I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner!  I went to Allrecipes.com to look up recipes for chicken leg quarters and I found a few that I liked but nothing thrilled me.  I noticed that my recent copy of Everyday Food was sitting on the table next to the computer so I looked through it and found a great recipe from Emeril called Emeril's Chicken-patty pockets.  Now, I really wanted to make them but I had no ground chicken and no pitas---so I decided to make it all from scratch.  Yes,  I am crazy, LOL!

I found some pita recipes, I decided to make a white pita for the kids and whole wheat pitas for me.  Here are the recipes:

Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast 1 tablespoon molasses 1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 1 1/2 cups white flour cooking spray cornmeal for dusting

Directions:

1.	In a bowl mix the water, yeast, molasses, and salt. Let sit 5 to 10 minutes, then gradually mix in the whole wheat flour and soy flour. Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead until smooth. Place in a large bowl lightly coated with cooking spray. Cover with a towel, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
2.	Punch down the dough, and knead for 5 to 10 minutes. Divide into 6 pieces. On a lightly floured surface, flatten each piece to about 1/8 inch thick with a rolling pin. Cover with a towel, and let rise 30 minutes.
3.	Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Warm a baking sheet in the preheating oven for about 2 minutes, then remove from heat and sprinkle with cornmeal.
4.	Arrange the dough rounds on the prepared baking sheet, and bake 6 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from heat and cover the bread with a moist towel to soften. When cooled, slice in half and use a knife to cut pockets in the bread.

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  Pita Bread

Ingredients

• 1 1/8 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in bread pan of your bread machine, select Dough setting and start. When dough has risen long enough, machine will beep.
2. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently roll and stretch dough into a 12 inch rope. With a sharp knife, divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll each into a smooth ball. With a rolling pin, roll each ball into a 6 to 7 inch circle. Set aside on a lightly floured countertop. cover with a towel. Let pitas rise about 30 minutes until slightly puffy.
3. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Place 2 or 3 pitas on a wire cake rack. Place cake rack directly on oven rack. Bake pitas 4 to 5 minutes until puffed and tops begin to brown. Remove from oven and immediately place pitas in a sealed brown paper bag or cover them with a damp kitchen towel until soft. Once pitas a softened, either cut in half or split top edge for half or whole pitas. They can be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for 1 or 2 months.

Emeril's Chicken-Patty Pockets (from Everyday Food issue 71)

Ingredients

1 lb. ground dark-meat chicken
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
1/2 cup plain dried breadcrumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 T. minced garlic
1 t. course salt
1/2 t. cayenne pepper
1/2 t. ground coriander
1/4 t. ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 T. olive oil
whole grain pita pockets
lettuce, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, for serving

Preparation

1. Heat broiler, with rack in highest position. In a large bowl, combine chicken, egg whites, bread crumbs, onion, parsley, garlic, salt, and spices and mix until well blended. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and drizzle with 1 T. oil. Divide chicken mixture into 8 portions (about 2 1/2 to 3 ounces each) and place on sheet. Shape each into an oval patty and use your hand to flatten slightly. Drizzle 1 T. oil over patties.

2. Broil until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Flip and cook until cooked through, about 4 minutes more. Serve in pita pockets with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and Tzatziki sauce.

Ok, so I had no ground chicken, but I did have 10 thawed out leg quarters so I decided to make my own ground chicken.

Here are 10 leg quarters reduced to this plateful.

 

Here is my old trusty Kitchen Aid.  It's been rebuilt by Scott twice because I blew out the motor making bread dough 2-3X a week.  Now it's only good for grinding meats and whipping cream.  That's ok, my all powerful Bosch is behind it!!

Here it comes!  The kids were grossed out, LOL!

I didn't take pictures of the preparation of the patties, my hands were covered in raw chicken and I was so involved in what I was doing, I forgot!  Here is the end result, though!

OMG these were SO good!

Ok, here is the pita prep---

White pita dough and whole wheat pita dough.

Here they are all rolled out and risen and ready to bake.

And here they are all baked and ready to go!

And here is the end result.  Sorry the picture isn't clear, I didn't realize it was fuzzy until after dinner and after everything was eaten.  They were very good, everyone liked them, even the kids and they said the recipe was a keeper!