Adding Flavor to Everyday Cooking with STAR Usage Pairings Olive Oil

Olive oil is a part of my daily cooking routine.  Basically, if it is something that I cook on the stovetop – – it has olive oil in it.  Other dishes (i.e. in the oven, in the slow cooker, etc.) may also have olive oil, but if I cook it on the stove, then it is a given – it will be in there!  So, I was pretty excited to head to Walmart and check out STAR Usage Pairings Olive Oil.

Even though I cook with olive oil frequently, I guess I don’t know everything there is to know about it.  Did you know that like wine, certain varieties of olive oil pair best with certain types of dishes?  STAR has taken the guess work out of figuring out the best type of oil to use by offering three unique varieties of STAR Usage Pairings Olive Oil: Arbequina Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Vegetables, Hojiblanca Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Poultry/Fish and Picual Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Beef/Lamb. All three varieties are gluten free and they are a great alternative to butter and margarine (seriously – does anyone even use margarine any more?)

I chose the Hojiblanca Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Poultry/Fish to try first.  According to the STAR web site, it is a “fruity oil, smooth, but persistent wit han aroma that lingers on the palate and in the memory”.  We cook a lot of chicken so I knew I would get a lot of use out if this oil right away.  Since I like to cook from scratch, but don’t always have time to do it.  I find one thing that makes quick meals more possible is to keep a stash of cooked chicken in the freezer.  That takes a little planning ahead, but it’s easy.  Here’s how:

Easy Chicken Marinade with Hojiblanca Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Poultry/Fish:

1/4 cup Hojiblanca Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Poultry/Fish
1/4 cup white cooking wine
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp italian seasoning
salt and pepper

To make this easy marinade, I mix all the ingredients together and pour over chicken in a covered baking dish, turning the chicken to coat all sides.  Then it sits overnight in the fridge to soak up the flavor.  The next day I throw the chicken in the oven in the covered dish to cook at 350 for 30-45 minutes or until cooked through.  Once it’s cool, I just chop it up and put in meal size portions in the freezer.  When mealtime comes, I can grab cooked chicken to stir fry with veggies, add into a quesadilla, or make a quick chicken and rice dish.  When I make the final dish, I will also add a drizzle of the Hojiblanca Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Poultry/Fish to enhance the flavor.

Since this particular STAR Hojiblanca Olive Oil in intended for poultry, I figured it would also work for eggs – and I was right!!  I used it to fry an egg this morning and it turned out delicious!  All I did was coat the bottom of my fry pan with a teaspoon of Hojiblanca Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Poultry/Fish and then cooked my egg as usual.  It had great flavor!

Enter to Win:  Right now you can enter the STAR Fine Foods Facebook Sweepstakes for your chase to win a set of 3 Usage Pairing Extra Virgin Olive Oils.  There will be 5 winners!   Promotion ends December 20, 2013.

For more information on STAR Usage Pairings Olive Oils you can visit the STAR web site, follow them on Twitter or check them out on Facebook.