Jalapeno-Apricot Glazed Chicken Thighs and Cookbook review: Milk Street: Cookish

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If you’re already a Milk Street fan, you are going to adore Cookish!! This is my 4^th Milk Street book, and it absolutely delivers. It’s my favorite kind of food – lazy posh. To my delight, it opens with a really extensive vegetable chapter. The ingredients are few, and it’s always just a couple steps between you and a plateful of flavor. The dishes are imaginative and balanced. They give lots of alternatives so it’s easy to make it work with what you have on hand, and you wont feel like you need to have every vinegar and jarred sauce available. I recommend this to anyone who likes lots of global flavor and enjoys minimalism.

I’ve only had the book for a few days and didn’t want to start in with a review until I really cooked the book. I’ll share my thoughts and pics of the dishes we tried in a second, but first I wanted to share a fabulous recipe with you, Jalapeno-apricot glazed chicken thighs. They’ve got tons of flavor and are on the table in 20 minutes, and only 5 of those involve the cook. I made my favorite sweet potatoes to go with them and had to get them started first so everything would finish at the same time. A big thank you to Milk Street for letting me share it with you!

Jalapeno-Apricot Glazed Chicken Thighs

These glazed chicken thighs feature an addictive combination of sweet, savory, and spicy flavors. We fire roast the thighs in a hot oven, then finish them under the broiler to caramelize the glaze. Use either apricot or peach preserves – whichever you prefer or have on hand. For easy cleanup, line the baking sheet with foil before setting the wire rack on top.

2 Tablespoons ground cumin
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1/2 cup apricot preserves or peach preserves
3 Tablespoons cider vinegar, divided
1 jalapeno chili or 2 Fresno chilies, stemmed and sliced into thin rounds

Heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Set a wire rack in a broiler-safe rimmed baking sheet. Stir together the cumin, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper; use to season the chicken on all sides. Place the thighs, skin up, on the rack. Roast until the chicken reaches 175 degrees F, about 35 minutes. In a small bowl, mix the preserves, 2 Tablespoons vinegar and the jalapeno. Brush the chicken with some of the mixture, then broil until bubbling. Stir the remaining 1 Tablespoon vinegar into the remaining preserves mixture and serve with the chicken.

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Now I’ll share more of the book with you!

-Beef, spinach, and feta golzeme. These are super easy and decadent, like a middle eastern quesadilla. My teenagers were looking over the recipe afterwards and were super happy to see they’d be easy to make for buddies on a weekend.

-Shaved carrot salad with olives and parsley. This is flavored with cumin, olives, lemon, honey, and parsley. You don’t need a spiralizer or anything. That $5 potato peeler in your drawer does all the work.

-Almond, caper and herb-crusted chicken cutlets. Yum!!!! We all loved these! A lot of my coating came off in the pan, so I just fished it back out with a spider and piled it back on the plated chicken. The shaved carrot salad plays really nicely with this!

I’m pairing these three together, because I made them as side dishes for my bbq smoked brisket burnt ends tonight. You need a greens dish, a corn dish, and a sweet potato dish, so I flipped through the veg section and found these. Fun spin!!!
-Sweet-sour swiss chard with apricots and almonds. This is divine! I love greens and the sweetness of the apricots and the acidic pop of the vinegar make these fantastic!
– Charred corn with coconut, chilies, and lime. Great flavors. Total face melter.
– Roasted butternut squash with hoisin and chives. Wonderful butternut squash recipe.

-Warm lentil salad with charred grapes and scallions. Fabulous. If you’re new to applying heat to grapes, you’re in for a treat! This uses canned lentils, so it’s on the table in 5 minutes. Fun flavors. There’s nothing drab about these lentils.

-Pasta with shrimp and browned butter. The pasta cooks right in the same skillet as the shrimp, so you don’t have to dirty multiple pans. Nice. The flavor’s great and the sauce has a wonderful texture with the combination of butter, lemon, and all the starch the pasta contributes.

-Pan-fried chicken and vegetable patties. Yum. There’s plenty of produce in this one, because there’s carrot grated right into the patties, adding moisture and a delicate sweetness that offsets the heat of the horseradish or harissa.

-Jalapeno-apricot glazed chicken thighs – Fabulous 20 minute dinner and only 5 of it is the cook’s time! Tons of flavor! I paired it with my favorite sweet potatoes.

*I received a copy to explore and share my thoughts.

Need more Milk Street? Here are a few more recipes and books of theirs I reviewed…

Milk Street’s recipes for Israeli Hummus with Spiced Beef Topping and Lebanese-Style Tabbouleh

Beef, Orange and Olive Stew

Maple-Whiskey Pudding Cakes

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Here’s a link to all my boards.
Here’s a link to my recipes on Pinterest.
Here’s a link to my cookbook reviews on Pinterest.

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Cookish

My food processor – Breville Sous Chef

My Vitamix. It’s a 5200. The best!

My favorite knife. It’s a 7″ full tang Santoku. I chose the Ikon handle design, which is wonderfully ergonomic. I have spent hours on a produce sculpture before and my hand was just as comfy at the end. It’s worth the pennies.

Wusthof WU4176 Classic Ikon 7-Inch Santoku, Hollow Edge, Black

WÜSTHOF CLASSIC IKON 8 Inch Chef’s Knife

My favorite non-stick skillet.

T-fal Titanium Nonstick Dishwasher Safe Fry Pan with Lid, 12-Inch, Black

My favorite cast iron skillet is a 12″ Lodge dual handle pan. Why, the long handles are too heavy to hold with a single hand when they’re loaded up. Since you’re using two hands anyway, you might as well get the ones that take up less space and stack so much better!

Lodge 12″ dual handle cast-iron pan

Best sheet pan

Same sheet pan with a cooling rack/roasting rack insert. Ooooo!

I get asked about my spice wall all the time. The magnetic tins on the wall are great for any spices or salt-free blends. Salt corrodes the tins, so anything with salt is in a glass jar on the counter underneath.

20 magnetic spice tins

Escali Primo P115C Precision Kitchen Food Scale