HARUMPH! I followed a recipe, not my instincts, and now my dish is too salty. HELP

[bbenedict]

SO, I decide that BC's Chicken with Tabbouleh would be great for lunches this week for DH and myself. I'm at the step where I'm adding everything in to the bulgur, lemon juice, olive oil and salt. I'm thinking to myself, WOW that sure sounds like a LOT of salt. My instincts tell me to cut WAY back. However, although I have not tried a lot of BC's recipes, the ones I have tried have been right on. (Although, I have cut back on the oils etc.)

So, as my instincts (which I ingnored) told me, it is WAY too salty. The only thing I can come up with to fix it is to make another 1/2 recipe (I had to borrow a cuke from my neighbor) without any salt and then mix it into the salty stuff.

Any other ideas?? I don't want to have to throw out all this food.

TIA
Bonnie


Chicken with Tabbouleh
Copyright, 2001, Barefoot Contessa Parties!, All Rights Reserved
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Recipe Summary
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
User Rating:_



1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 cup bulgur wheat
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
Olive oil
Kosher salt
1 whole (2 split) chicken breast, bone in, skin on
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup minced scallions, white and green parts (1 bunch)
1 cup chopped fresh mint leaves (2 bunches)
1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (1 bunch)
1 hothouse cucumber, unpeeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and medium-diced
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a heat-proof bowl, pour the boiling water over the bulgur wheat. Add the lemon juice, 1/4 cup olive oil, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Stir. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the bulgur to stand at room temperature for about 1 hour.

Place the chicken breast on a baking sheet and rub it with olive oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until just cooked. Set aside until cool enough to handle.
Remove the chicken meat from the bones and discard the skin. Cut the chicken into medium dice and add to the tabbouleh. Add the scallions, mint, parsley, cucumber, tomatoes, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Season, to taste, and serve immediately or cover and refrigerate. The flavors will improve as it sits.

[slawrence]

Bonnie-I would probably do what you thought of already-add another 1/2 batch to it. I have never run into trouble w/ BC recipes (although they aren't much on the light side). I'm glad you mentioned this since that is on my list of 'to do soon' recipes. I will watch it. I know when I have too much lemon or lime, I use salt to balance, maybe a bit more lemon? Good luck! Sue

[bbenedict]

Sue,

I'm glad to hear that you would've done the same thing. The thing I love about Ina's recipes is that they are always winners. I try to, except for special occasions when I'll splurge, to cut back on the fat when it doesn't compromise flavor. But I would've never thought that she would've been off on the salt or seasonings.

I pulled the recipe off FoodTV and thought, well maybe there was a mistake when they loaded it onto the site. I went to the BC cookbook that has the tabbouleh recipe and no misprint. Exactly the same amount of salt.

Then I checked the reviews on FoodTV of this recipe and all thought it was great, except for one, who said they didn't add the 2 tsp in at the end but added to taste. So, it must've tasted okay to most everyone else.

I just hate to follow a recipe and then have it not turn out. Not to mention, the effort and the ingredients involved. I just hope that adding to it will fix it. I'll post back and let you know. I hope you'll let me know how you prepare the recipe when you do and what amount of salt worked for you.

If this doesn't work, I'll give add a little more lemon juice. Couldn't hurt!

Thanks bunches.
Bonnie

[bbenedict]

Reporting back to say that adding in an extra 1/2 recipe of all the ingredients without any salt couldn't salvage this overly salty dish. Harumph! Next time, I'll just leave the salt out entirely then add to taste when it is all thrown together.

Bonnie

[Arete]

Although it's too late for it now, I was just wondering if you used kosher salt or regular table salt? If you used regular table salt, that would explain it since kosher has bigger grains and is less "salty" tasting. I've heard that if a recipe calls for regular table salt but you want to use kosher, you should increase it by 50%. Which means that if you used regular salt in this recipe calling for kosher you should have decreased the amount by 1/3 to 1 tsp.

Other than that, all I can say is bummer, I hate it when a recipe doesn't turn out good.

[bbenedict]

Artre,

Thanks for your insight. I actually didn't know that about table salt. However, I've been using kosher salt forever so sadly that wasn't the case. I wish it had been.

I don't do well with kitchen disasters. That is why, the first time I make a recipe, I ALWAYS follow the directions precisely. That way if it doesn't turn out, it isn't anything I did.

Thanks for the advice AND the empathy. It pained me to throw it out, but it was inedible. Sigh!