Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 (23 page)

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Authors: Todd Wilbur

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HARD ROCK CAFE HOMEMADE CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP
Give this simple soup clone a shot and I guarantee you’ll never again want to eat chicken soup from a can. The recipe is a breeze since you use pre-cut chicken fillets—rather than cutting up a whole chicken—and you don’t have to create a stock from scratch. Swanson sells a 32-ounce carton of chicken broth that’s the perfect amount (4 cups) for this recipe.
I pound skinless chicken breast
fillets
I pound skinless chicken thigh
fillets
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
I tablespoon butter
I cup diced onion (about ½ of a
medium onion)
I cup diced carrot (about
2 medium carrots, peeled)
½ cup diced celery (about
1 stalk)
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
I teaspoon salt
I teaspoon freshly ground black
pepper
I teaspoon minced fresh parsley
3 cups wide egg noodles (dry)
GARNISH
minced fresh parsley
1. Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute chicken breasts and thighs for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned on both sides and cooked through. Remove chicken from the skillet to a cutting board to cool a bit.
2. Reduce heat to medium/low, add butter to skillet then toss in onion, carrot and celery. Slowly cook the veggies (sweat them) for 10 minutes, stirring often, or until carrots are beginning to soften.
3. Chop the chicken, then dump all of it, plus the veggies, chicken broth, water, salt, pepper and I teaspoon parsley into a large soup pot. Bring soup to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add noodles and simmer for an additional 15 minutes or until noodles are soft. Serve with a pinch of minced fresh parsley sprinkled on top.
• MAKES 8 SERVINGS.
HARD ROCK CAFE BAR-B-QUE BEANS
If you like baked beans you’ll go nuts over this clone recipe from the world’s first theme restaurant chain. It’s really easy to make too, since you just stir the ingredients into a covered casserole dish, and bake for an hour and a half. This makes the dish handy if transporting to another location for a party or potluck, since you can fill the dish, cover it, then pop it into the oven once you arrive. The only element that may give you pause is the pulled pork from the recipe that follows (on page 164) for Hard Rock Cafe Pig Sandwich. It’s an effortless addition if you’ve got some of that pork on hand. If not, just leave that ingredient out. Or you could add a couple tablespoons crumbled cooked bacon. Either way the beans will still come out great as a nosh-worthy side dish or solo snack.
2 15-ounce cans pinto beans
(with liquid)
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons cornstarch
½ cup ketchup
cup white vinegar
¼ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons diced onion
I teaspoon prepared mustard
½ teaspoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon coarse ground black
pepper
½ cup shredded pork (from recipe
on page 164)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Pour entire contents of the can of pinto beans into a casserole dish (with a lid).
3. Dissolve the cornstarch in a small bowl with the 2 tablespoons of water Add this solution to the beans and stir.
4. Add the remaining ingredients to the dish, stir well and cover
5. Bake for 90 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Stir every 30 minutes. After removing the beans from the oven, let the beans cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
• SERVES 6 TO 8 AS A SIDE DISH.
HARD ROCK CAFE COLESLAW
Smashing a guitar and hanging it on the wall will not give you the true Hard Rock Cafe experience unless you then eat a sandwich with this coleslaw served on the side. You have to be patient, though, since it’s not something you can enjoy right away. Good coleslaw needs a little time to chill in the cool box—24 hours at least. The cabbage needs a chance to get it together with the other ingredients before rocking out at the gig inside your mouth.
1
cups mayonnaise
3 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons
granulated sugar
2 tablespoons milk
dash salt
8 cups chopped cabbage
(I head)
½ cup shredded carrot
1. Combine all ingredients except the cabbage and carrots in a large bowl and blend until smooth with an electric mixer.
2. Add cabbage and carrots and toss well.
3. Cover and chill overnight in the refrigerator. The flavors fully develop after 24 to 48 hours.
• SERVES 6 TO 8 AS A SIDE DISH.
HARD ROCK CAFE PIG SANDWICH
MENU DESCRIPTION:
“Select pork, hickory-smoked then hand-pulled, so it’s tender and juicy. ‘An old Southern delicacy’ with our famous vinegar-based bar-b-que sauce. Served with fries, ranch beans and homemade coleslaw.”
 
Take a big honkin’ bite out of one of these and you’ll soon know why it’s the Hard Rock Cafe’s most popular sandwich. The pork is hickory smoked for 10 hours, but since we’re impatient hungry people here, we’ll cut that cooking time down to under 4 hours using a covered grill and carefully arranged charcoal. Just sprinkle wet hickory chips over the hot charcoal arranged around the inside edge of a grill (such as a round Weber), and let the smoking begin. You can certainly use an actual smoker if you’ve got one, and go the full 10 hours with this puppy. But while you’re still waiting for your sandwiches, the rest of us will have already dragged our full, round bellies over to the couch for a nap. By the way, you should try to make your marinated cabbage a day ahead of time so it has time to soak up the flavors.
MARINATED CABBAGE
2 tablespoons white vinegar
I tablespoon granulated sugar
4 cups thinly sliced cabbage
4 cups hickory smoking chips

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