Brad Olson
TVWBB Diamond Member
Awhile back I was in the mood for some chicken thighs with a black olive tapenade placed under the crust, but an inspection of the pantry showed that I was missing certain ingredients so I decided to improvise.
No anchovies? Ok, bacon's salty. No capers? Well, dill pickles are brined. No kalamata olives? No problem, there's a can of ordinary black olives in the cupboard.
The first thing I noticed was that the processor blade had warmed the bacon, so the mixture was a bit greasy. But that's OK, because it was bacon fat.
Everything all buttoned up and ready to go in the fridge overnight.
So at this point I was feeling pretty good. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary and the tapenade didn't taste all that bad - it was different and a bit unusual, but not horrible. So the next afternoon I put the thighs on an indirect fire until they were done.
Never. Again. The chicken itself was OK and the skin got a little crisp, but the tapenade flavor definitely changed and not for the better. It was way too pickle-y and despite the ingredients, the salt just faded away.
Lesson learned: some recipes are far less forgiving of substitutions than others!
No anchovies? Ok, bacon's salty. No capers? Well, dill pickles are brined. No kalamata olives? No problem, there's a can of ordinary black olives in the cupboard.
The first thing I noticed was that the processor blade had warmed the bacon, so the mixture was a bit greasy. But that's OK, because it was bacon fat.
Everything all buttoned up and ready to go in the fridge overnight.
So at this point I was feeling pretty good. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary and the tapenade didn't taste all that bad - it was different and a bit unusual, but not horrible. So the next afternoon I put the thighs on an indirect fire until they were done.
Never. Again. The chicken itself was OK and the skin got a little crisp, but the tapenade flavor definitely changed and not for the better. It was way too pickle-y and despite the ingredients, the salt just faded away.
Lesson learned: some recipes are far less forgiving of substitutions than others!
