Disney Recipe Challenge: Breast of Chicken Citron from Club 33 (Disneyland)

 

Well, what do you know - I've only been blogging since March and already I've had a schedule slip of two months!  Oops.  Sorry about that, life got in the way.  But, without further ado, we have recipes! 

Ah, Club 33.  One day I'll be on your exclusive guest list, hobnobbing with all the VIPs lucky enough to have a connection.  I think most people know about the elite, semi-secret club next to Pirates of the Caribbean  that for many years was one of the only places on Disneyland property that served alcohol.  While the alcohol might not be quite so special now that Disney's California Adventure is across the Esplanade selling margaritas, Club 33 will forever hold a special place in my fangirl heart.  Someday I'll even get to eat there.  Until I then, however, I'll have to make do with the recipes and this awesome fan site (which is also the source of the above and below pictures).

The French Lift that Walt had lovingly recreated inside Club 33: Forget the alcohol, this is what I want to see!

(Quick tangent because something in the last paragraph is bugging me: I know that Disney's marketing wants everyone to call the second park Disney California Adventure but I studied the English language and I just can't do it.  I support possessive apostrophes!  I'm tempted, for the sake of correctness to use the official name but... it's just too ridiculous.  OK, got that off my chest.  Moving on.) 

So Breast of Chicken Citron... 

The Recipe

Copied directly from Mickey's Gourmet Cookbook, page 155

Ingredients

4 large chicken breasts, boneless (about 8 ounces each)
1/4 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup butter
1 tablespoon sherry
1 tablespoon white wine
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon orange rind, grated
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 cup half-and-half
12 lemon slices, very thin
Parmesan cheese, grated

The directions in this older cookbook aren't in convenient list form, so I'm going to type the steps as I go through them.  If you're just interested in the recipe, you can skip to Step 2. 

Step 1: The Set Up

First, compared to the Tuna "Burgers" from last time, this recipe leans on the expensive side.  My trip to the local Winco ended up costing more than expected, mostly because items like sherry and half-and-half aren't usually in my fridge, so this might be more of a party sort of dinner. 

I ended up with so much left over wine.  Seriously.  I finished the recipe back in May when I was gathering photos and I think I'm still nursing that same bottle of sherry in the fridge.  The amount you have to buy for 2 tablespoons of wine not particularly cost effective.  I did learn something though: I had no idea sherry was a wine.  This knowledge brings me one step closer to feeling like a real cook.

Also, for some reason, every recipe I pick asks for citrus zest.  Grating rinds is aggravating.  If you're short on time, prep that part first or you'll be in the kitchen a lot longer later.  Other than that, set up was not too bad for this one.  Buy cheese already grated and you'll be even closer to finished.

All assembled and ready to make a mess!

Step 2: The Execution

 Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Check.  Combine flour, salt, and pepper in small bowl.  Check.

I broke the cute purple ramekin later. :( Rest in peace, little guy.

Now, the messy part.  "Dust chicken with seasoned flour and place in a buttered casserole dish in a single layer" is apparently cooking code for "Bread the stupid things."   I was carefully dusting each breast with a light sprinkling of the flour mixture when my mom came by and asked what on earth I was doing.  I'm glad she did too because I don't think they would have cooked right if she hadn't.  She, having cooked a lot more than I ever have, read the recipe, laughed and my foolishness, and proceeded to drag the chicken breasts through the flour until they were evenly coated.  I ended up needing more of the flour mixture, but thankfully it was a simple mixture to make more of. 

To dust or not to dust... yes bad Hamlet jokes because Hamlet is a chicken.  Ha ha ... anybody?

 Next, it says to dot the chicken with butter and place in the oven for 25 minutes.  After the timer goes off, reduce temperature to 325 degrees. 

"Combine sherry, wine, orange juice, orange rind, and lemon juice and pour over the chicken," cover it, then cook the drenched chicken for 25 more minutes.  It looked a little bizarre, but it should start to smell pretty fantastic from all the citrus aromas. 

"Remove the pan from the oven and poor half and half around the chicken.  Let it cool slightly with the half-and-half."  I must have misread when I made it because I just dumped mine on top rather than around.  If it looked bizarre before, not it just looks gross.

At this point you'd think you'd be done.  You'd be wrong.  It's time for the most pointless part of the recipe - the lemon garnish.  Arrange the lemon slices on a broiler-proof pan, sprinkle Parmesan on top, and broil until they're lightly brown.  You can't really eat them because they're sour, but they look pretty.  I guess.  Honestly, if I made this again, I think I'd skip this part.

Useless lemon garnish (before broiling)

Assemble the plates, add a cute lemon on top, and voila.  It should look something like this:

Step 3: The Verdict

You know, for guessing my way through the instructions and wishing I had a picture of what it was supposed to look like, I think this one actually turned out pretty well.  At the very least, it was tasty and the chicken was pretty succulent.  It didn't get quite as brown as I had thought, but that may very well be the temperamental oven I'm using.  The smell of the dish alone is fantastic and it's not all that complicated for all that it looks like it is.  Even the prep time was pretty low.  My whole family liked it and said they'd eat it again... make of that what you will!

One thing is bugging me though.  Typing this out and thinking back to the different steps, I can't help but wonder if my mom was wrong.  She assumed it was supposed to be a breaded dish based on the flour mixture, but "dust" as in sprinkle could have been correct.  Maybe it was meant to be a light coating and that's why my chicken didn't brown as much as I had anticipated.  I tried to google images of what chicken citron should look like, but I came up pretty empty.  Come to think, I'm pretty sure every copy of the recipe that came up on Google was the Disney recipe.  Go figure. Either way, I may revisit this in the future with less flour coating.

It doesn't look like this dish is currently on the Club 33 menu, so don't expect to see it at the parks.  This particular Disney cookbook is rather dated.  Still, give this one a try at home.  If you like chicken and citrus, and especially citrus chicken, it might be worth your while.


... someday, Club 33, someday...


Next time:  I need a recipe break, so maybe I'll knock a fiction book off the To Read List!

Disney Recipe Challenge: Tuna Burgers from Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship (Disneyland)

Today’s recipe is a blast from the past; in fact, it’s from so far in the past that I wasn’t born before the restaurant was demolished during the Fantasyland remodel of 1982.  The Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship was one of the most unique dining experiences in the Disneyland park, whether under its original Chicken of the Sea sponsorship or after when it became Captain Hook’s Pirate Gallery.  I mean, just look at the pictures from Yesterland.com :

A 1969 photo of the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship from Yesterland.com

How cool would it be to eat your tuna in a giant pirate ship or explore a life-size replica of Skull Rock from the Peter Pan movie?  Pretty darn cool.  I always found canned tuna to be rather boring, but canned tuna served in Captain Hook’s ship?  Pure awesome.  So how does it hold up in a kitchen instead of a pirate ship?  

The Recipe 

(copied directly from Chef Mickey Treasures from the Vault, page 87)

Ingredients:

1 (9 ounce) can tuna

1 tablespoon chopped onion

¼ cup chopped celery

1 teaspoon lemon juice

4 tablespoons mayonnaise, divided

2 tablespoons ketchup

Sweet pickle slices, to taste

4 unsliced hamburger buns

Directions:

Serves 4

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
2. Combine tuna, onion, celery, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons mayonnaise in a medium bowl; set aside.
3. Combine remaining 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise and ketchup in a small bowl; set aside.
4. Slice bun horizontally into 3 equal slices.  Spread bottom layer with mayonnaise-ketchup mixture, then top with sweet pickle slices.  Make a double decker with middle bun slice and tuna.  Repeat for remaining sandwiches.  Wrap in aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes.  Serve hot.

Step 1: The Set Up

It figures that even with the simplest recipe I could find I would still be missing key ingredients.  To the store! 

Things were going OK until I got to the tuna aisle.  There are no 9 oz. cans of tuna.  Sizes must have changed between 1959 and 2012, shrinking in ounces but rising in price.  Figures.  Two cans into the cart.  My family hates mayonnaise, so I got Miracle Whip instead.  While I am trying to follow the recipe as exactly as possible, I doubt Miracle Whip will change the taste too much and it saves roughly 70 calories.

Also, unsliced hamburger buns?  Were these special ordered for Disneyland?  I walked up and down the bread aisle at my local Winco three times, and all I could find were pre-sliced.  They would have to do.

Step 2: The Execution 

The ingredients are assembled, now it's just a matter of cooking.  While preheating the oven, I start chopping.  For my birthday last month, I bought myself something I had always wanted:  a food processor.  No really.  And it's purple.  It's like it was made specifically for me.  It has nothing to do with the recipe, but look at that beauty:

That is a gorgeous food processor, yes it is.

 So I have my ingredients chopped and ready to go thanks to my new toy.  Next, the tuna, Miracle Whip, lemon juice, and chopped celery and onion all get thrown in a large bowl.  Mix together and I'm halfway done already.  I purposely picked an easy recipe, but this might be too easy.  

Pre-mixed...

Mixed!  I had some leftover spinach and ground flax seed that I mixed into the bowl on the left.  Healthier, but rather disgusting looking.

Step 3 involves mixing ketchup and Miracle Whip to more or less make Thousand Island dressing.  It's Special Sauce!

The fourth and final step is tricky.  The sandwich, as written, is a pseudo triple decker, but as I mentioned above I couldn't find unsliced buns.  My solution was to take a sharp knife and slice the top bun in half.  It worked about as well as you might expect:

No, you shouldn't be able to read the pickle jar label through the bread slice...

The bottom layer of bread gets the Special Sauce, and then pickle slices are arranged on top.  I was later told by my taste testers that I put too many pickles on, so you may want to go easy.  Pickle slices are a bit less strong than the whole sweet pickles I used, so that may help ease the overbearing pickle taste.

Hidden Mickey!

Middle bun goes next, then tuna, then the top slice with more Special Sauce slathered on it.  Wrap in aluminum foil and bake.  Be careful when you unwrap the foil as it is hot.  And you're done!

The one on the right has the spinach.  It's not quite as disgustingly green as I had thought.

 Step 3: The Verdict

This is not a burger.  These are tuna salad sandwiches.  They tasted good.  Not spectacular, and perhaps not very memorable, but good.  They'd even make a solid dinner choice for busy parents.  But they are not burgers.  Maybe if the tuna had more of a binding ingredient mixed in, where you could take it to a skillet and brown it into a patty of some sort.  It's too bad too because it's a sturdy little recipe that you can alter easily (such as adding leftover spinach and flax seed) and makes an affordable, tasty lunch.

But they are not burgers...

I just can't get over it.  I'm a self-proclaimed word enthusiast, Disney, and this usage bothers me.  At first, I wondered if I made a mistake somewhere, but after checking out other blogs, such as this entry from Kevin Kidney, theirs look pretty much the same.

Perhaps it's nostalgia speaking, but I think they need the pirate ship.  I bet if I were eating there, on the water imagining myself in Neverland sword fighting Captain Hook, I would even be able to ignore the non-burger quality of this otherwise good lunch.

Next up:  More Disney Recipes!  My poor, poor kitchen--things will get messy.

Disney Cookbooks - A Review of Sorts

Theme parks and good food are two things I don't usually equate with each other.  So imagine my surprise when, while celebrating my birthday last year at Walt Disney World with a college buddy, I found not one but two Disney themed cookbooks for sale in the gift shops.  'Aha!,' I thought to myself, 'these must be the special recipes from the fancy restaurants at the themed hotels that I can't afford.  If I didn't buy this book, I would never be able to try them.'  Besides, I reasoned, I had been meaning to learn how to cook and what better motivation for a Disney nerd than Mickey with a chef hat plastered on the cover. 

So did the cookbooks live up to expectations?  Well... yes and no.

In case that "meaning to learn how to cook" line wasn't clear, I am not an experienced, or even particularly good, cook. And some of these recipes are not very forgiving, or are hard to follow as written, or are just plain off in terms of cooking times.  I specifically chose Chef Mickey Treasures from the Vault and Delicious New Favorites  because I saw pictures when I flipped through it in the store (the other book currently being sold at the parks is Cooking with Mickey and the Disney Chefs.  Both books are complied by Pam Brandon,  but Cooking with Mickey lacks pictures).  I hardly know what I'm doing at it is - at least with a picture you can see your goal.  Unfortunately, most of the pictures are not of the recipes themselves and thus not helpful.  Basically, if you're a beginner, you may want to hold off on these cookbooks, or work through them with a friend who knows about cooking.  The recipes aren't usually difficult in and of themselves, but the instructions are hit or miss.

Some things to consider if you are interested in these books:

• These recipes are mostly from the more upscale restaurants on the Disney properties.  Some are quite complicated, have expensive or bizarre ingredients, take hours to cook, etc.  If you're looking for recipes for nightly family dinners, this is probably not the cookbook for you.
• Many of these recipes are ridiculously unhealthy.  We're talking six cups of heavy cream and a stick of butter in one soup levels of unhealthy.  It's something you don't usually think about when you're splurging on your vacation, but it becomes hard to justify when you're cooking at home. And they don't offer any ideas for substitutions.
• While not so good for everyday cooking, these recipes wow at parties.  I made Blackberry Zinfandel Braised Short Ribs and Wine Country Wild Berry Cobbler for a dinner party once and no one believed I had actually made them myself.
• There are a lot of reprints.  Some editions are even page for page the same.  This irks me.  A lot.  If you don't know any better you'll end up buying the same book (albeit in different packaging) twice.  Glance at the pictures below and you'll see what I mean.  It may make you feel cheated.
• I want more Disneyland recipes!  OK, this one is personal, but all my nostalgic memories are from Disneyland.  I want more Cafe Orleans.  More Blue Bayou.  More Club 33.  More Napa Rose.  Where is the Anaheim love?

Cooking with Mickey: Mickey Gourmet Cookbook Volume II is, from what I understand, page for page the same as Mickey's Gourmet Cookbook.  I don't know how they match up with the current edition Cooking with Mickey and the Disney Chefs, but it does makes you wonder...

 Also, there's a lengthy forum topic on DISBoards that lists just about every Disney recipe, vintage or current, that fans can get their hands on.  It even includes a searchable index as a separate topic.  When I first stumbled upon it, I was blown away.  The physical books are rather superfluous in comparison to that thread, provided you're comfortable working from electronic copies of recipes.  I prefer an old-fashioned book, but it's nice to have as reference. 


Overall Verdict:  For all their flaws, I do love the Disney cookbooks.  I even picked up a used copy of Mickey's Gourmet Cookbook for a buck after I purchased Chef Mickey so that I could fill out my collection of Disney recipes.  But I am also a hardcore Disney fan, which not everyone is.  If you dive into the series expecting them to be be something you can use everyday, something you can pick up with little to no experience, you'll probably be disappointed.

I'm not quite comfortable, however, giving such a generic, overarching review of a whole cookbook series.  That's the reason this is only "a review of sorts"; what good is a cookbook review without testing recipes (with real pictures!)?  So, over the next few weeks, I'll be testing out individual recipes from two Disney cookbooks  (Chef Mickey and Mickey's Gourmet) for taste, affordability, and whether you'll ever want to make them again.  I like to think of it as an "in the trenches" practical review.  It will be messy.  And delicious.

Next blog:  The Disney recipe challenge begins!  Tuna Burgers from the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship Restaurant at Disneyland.  This is a from the vaults recipe, 1950s meets now.  Hopefully better than it sounds...

Happy Reading!

So Many Books, So Much Time

As an English major, I've had the opportunity to read a plethora of books in my life. I've also read my fair share of blogs - silly musings, product reviews, the overly personal, the completely fictional, and more top 10 lists than you would think there were subjects. 

I never felt the need to make my own.  Then I got laid off.

Suddenly I had the time to read all the books on my "to read list" but no coworkers to talk to about what I had read.  I started this blog to discuss whatever I'm currently reading and hopefully give some insight into whether you should read it too.  After all, there are a lot of books out there and not everyone has the time to sort through them.

My goal is to update at least once a week; I am not a fast reader and it will take some time to finish each book before I review it.  I'm open for book suggestions too.

First up:  The various Disney cookbooks published through Disney Custom Publishing

Happy Reading!