Wednesday, January 6, 2016

October Road - Chicken, Sweet Potato and Kale Hash

Oh, how I love Fall! I know, I have said it a million times. I find it funny when I hear people say they don't like Fall because I tend to take it very personally, as if they have just insulted my first born or cut me off while driving. I always feel like I need to pull up a chair and present them with my bullet points highlights of Fall and why it is the best season.
This season we have been trying a few new "healthier" things in my house like turkey bacon and quiona. Not that anything has been a huge sacrifice or major bust, but I usually hold my breath the first few minutes of dinner time in preparation for a plate to fly across the room in protest. But, so far so good. I bought a few different flavors of chicken sausage the other day at Trader Joe's. We have had chicken sausage several times but since I am new to cooking it I typically grill it and we eat it like a hot dog with grainy mustard and caramelized onions. A few nights ago I was craving breakfast food for dinner but not something sweet and syrupy. I decided to just go with my gut and it ended up being a good gut night. My oldest gobbled it up and asked for more while the youngest muffin picked out the sausage and ate his toast without complaining so that counts as total success. I love hash because you can use any extra veggies you have on hand. The key to this, I feel, is an over medium cooked egg. I love to burst the yolk and let it be the gravy for my potatoes and toast. This made enough for two adult and two kids portions so you can easily adjust with more veggies. We ate this with some buttered toast and all left satisfied.
This meal is one of the bullet points that I would present for sure.

Chicken Sausage, Sweet Potato and Kale Hash
1-4  Pack Chicken Apple Sausage cut in round 1/2" disks (I used an apple for this and loved the sweetness)
1- russet potato, peeled and small diced
1- large sweet potato, peeled and small diced
1/4 cup minced onion - use a sweet or purple
1-2 Tbsp olive oil oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
1-2 cups chopped kale or Swiss chard

In a super large skillet, heat the olive oil on medium/high heat. Throw in the potatoes, onion, and next 5 seasoning ingredients and allow it to cook for 15 minutes while stirring once every 5 minutes. You don't want to over stir because you want the potatoes to cook thoroughly and to caramelize on the sides. Throw in the chicken sausage, stir around and again, cook for 15-20 minutes stirring once every 5 minutes. Make sure that you have as much as the chicken touching your pan as possible. After the 15 minutes or chicken cooking, or once the mixture starts to caramelize, stir in the kale with another small dash of salt, pepper and olive oil. Allow it to cook until wilted, about 4-5 minutes.

Once you have added the kale, spray a separate small non-stick pan and let it heat to medium high. Once the pan is hot, gently crack 1-2 eggs per person in the pan. Allow the egg to set solid along the outside, about 2 minutes. When ready to flip, tilt your pan at an angle and gently slide a soft rubber spatula under the egg and turn it over. You can spread it back out once flipped it the whole egg didn't flip at once. Allow it to cook for about 45 more seconds until the area around the yolk feels semi set. If you are making a lot of eggs you can gently slide them onto a serving pan and put it in a warm oven for a few minutes but not too long or the eggs will cook too much.

To serve, ladle a spoonful of hash on each plate, slide the eggs on top of the hash and sprinkle with a splash of pepper.

Enjoy Y'all!

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