Chef critique
Tunisian Chicken & Butternut Stew
This is a well-structured recipe that accurately handles poultry temperatures and spice blooming, but it is held back by an erroneous squash ingredient and severe underseasoning of the vegetables and rice.
Score: 6/10
Suggested fixes
- Remove the delicata squash from the ingredients list completely.
- Increase the total Diamond Crystal kosher salt in the ingredients list to 7.5 teaspoons. Use 2 teaspoons for the squash, add 2.5 teaspoons when cooking the onions and carrots, and increase the rice salt to 1.25 teaspoons.
- Instruct the cook to juice the lemon and chop the parsley during the 15-minute stew simmer in step 6 so they are ready for final plating.
Issues
- medium / ingredient_usage: The ingredients list includes an entry for 'organic delicata squash' with a quantity of 'none' that is never used in the recipe.
- high / flavor: The stew vegetables and rice are significantly underseasoned. The vegetables and water in the stew weigh over 1,200 grams and require about 4.5 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal kosher salt to reach a 1% salinity, but receive only 1.5 teaspoons. The rice and water weigh about 340 grams and require about 1.25 teaspoons of salt, but receive only 1/4 teaspoon.
- low / timing: Chopping the parsley and juicing the lemon are introduced in the final step just before serving, rather than during prep or idle cooking time.
Strengths
- Excellent use of a bulleted list in step 2 to group the vegetable prep together.
- Correctly targets 175 Fahrenheit for chopped chicken thighs to achieve a silkier, tender texture.
- Clearly states exact ingredient quantities when they are first used in the instructions.