More Stroganoff

For some reason, I try making chicken stroganoff. Chicken stroganoff, you say? Isn't it beef stroganoff? Well, yes, it is. But chicken is cheaper than beef, and chicken thighs cheaper than chicken breasts.

But you know what? It doesn't taste quite right. Chicken thighs need something to cover up its taste, like chicken curry or a Chinese dish. The beefy taste taste good in a simple sort of way.

I tried a recipe from Cooks Illustrated, and boy is it kinda complex. It requires tomato paste and brown sugar and white wine. It uses a kind of roux as well. A roux, for those who don't know, is a combination of flour and fat, usually butter, but oil will do. You heat up the butter, and mix it with about a tablespoon of flour, and once it's pretty warm, it thickens like no one's business. It's amazing how well it works.

Beef stroganoff usually has sour cream and, say, stock or water, which if you add too much, makes the result pretty watery. Thus, the roux to thicken it.

I've also made it using beef and a recipe from Cooking for Engineers. This is a site developed by an engineer devoted to cooking. Its recipe is simpler than Cooks Illustrated, and therefore I prefer it. Anytime I can use less ingredients, I'm all for it. They claim it takes 20 minutes to do the Cooks Illustrated to make the dish, and it took me almost an hour. What a pain.

So I think I'm going to follow the recipe out of Cooking for Engineers from now on, but because it's so fatty, I don't think I'll do it too often.

I think it's time to try something different.