Second. Best.

Do you have a mother in law? Mine is a very strong presence in our lives. Hubby loves his momma very much. Sometimes, like most daughters in law, I suppose, I get a little jealous of just how much. My MIL is the quintessential mother. She will work herself to an early grave (G-d forbid) to serve her children (And grandchildren. And various family members. And guests. And people usually filed under "other".) Lazy bum that I am, it's impossible to compete. I could never spoil hubby the way his mommy can. Sigh.

But, compared to Rivka, I have it easy. Her MIL was dead. How do you compete with that? Death of MIL should make it easier, you say? Huh! Consider this: Yitzchak was very much attached to his mom (sounds familiar?) and her death hit him hard. The Torah says he brought his bride into Sarah's tent and she was a comfort to him after his mother's death. So, first of all, that's a pretty heavy load to carry, being a comfort to your brand new husband over a death that, in all probability, happened before you ever met. And second, if he was that broken, what could Rivka possibly do that would compete with the giant shadow cast by Sarah?

I firmly believe that each generation should be better than the one before (which, I realize, never happens, but is nice as an idea) or else what's the point? If we do not improve the race from generation to generation, how can we ever hope to be good enough for the Moshiach? So a daughter in law should be better than a mother in law in terms of housekeeping (oops), child rearing (as if) and cooking (hear that hollow laughter.)

OK. Not happening. But it's good to have something to dream about.

Anyway, my MIL makes this unbelievable chicken. In truth, she got the recipe from uncle Solly but still. She only make it twice a year (Pesach and Rosh Hashana) and I wait with bated breath (salivating all the way) for its appearance. I usually eat nothing else at the holiday table so as not to interfere with the flavor of the chicken. 

The problem is, the recipe sounds completely fictional. No one believes it. Neither did I until I tried it out of desperation and saw "ki tov".

But, as I said, daughters in law should strive to improve the MIL's legacy or we will still be stepping in place at the end of time. And here's the fun part: this dish creates leftovers that are not readily usable and I, MIL2.0, have found a use for them. So there.


First, the fictional chicken. Remember this is a recipe that makes no sense yet works like a dream.

Take one whole chicken. Put (breast side down) in an aluminum disposable (very important) pan. Add 2 or 3 onions sliced into thick wedges (about 12 wedges per onion). Sprinkle with a little (or a lot, your choice) kosher or other coarse salt. Place in middle of preheated oven at 350F. Cook for at least 2 hours, preferably 3, possible to go for 4 (but check it). The chicken should be a nice brown, lots of juices in the pan, onions mostly light brown (some darker than others) and the chicken looks like it's dried out. It's not.


That's it. I know, it sounds weird. But it works. Now for the "daughter in law living up to the MIL's legendary image" part. I made this chicken and used way more onions than we could possibly eat with the chicken. Do we throw them out? G-d forbid. After all, my MIL is Iranian. For my non Israeli readers, in Israeli folklore, Iranians are the cheapskates. So there was no way she would approve of me throwing out the extra onions. And here is what happened:



Stuffed mushrooms with leftover onions


6 large onions that were cooked with chicken as described above
1/3 - 1/2 cup (or more as needed) of pan juices from said chicken
2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 Lb ground beef
2/3 cup mixed grains (see note at the end) measured before cooking, cooked in vegetable or chicken broth.
14 very large white mushrooms (And I do mean very large, about 4 inches across. If you can't find them, use smaller ones but then I don't know how many this will make). Stems removed, peeled if you wish to (I always do).
Extra virgin olive oil (about 3-4 Tbs)
1/4-1/2 cup vegetable or chicken broth


In a food processor, grind onions with balsamic vinegar and about 1/2 cup of the chicken's pan juices. This will take some time and will produce a thick sauce (like oatmeal). 

Brown the ground beef in a pan (you can use a little oil or not, your choice), until no longer pink.

Mix beef with cooked grains. Add half the onion/balsamic vinegar sauce to the beef and grains mix. Mix well. There's no need for any spices (especially if you used salt with the chicken).

In a shallow baking dish spread the olive oil (enough to coat the bottom a little). Arrange mushrooms in dish (I had to use two large dishes. The mushrooms take up a lot of space). 

Stuff each mushroom with the beef and grains mixture (about 1 or 2 Tbs each, at least). Heap it up nicely. 

Spoon one tablespoon of the remaining onion/balsamic vinegar sauce over the stuffing in each mushroom. Pour whatever sauce remains around the mushrooms.

Add the broth to the sauce in the dish (if you used more than one dish because of space issues, use 1/4 cup for each dish).

Cover tightly with foil.

Bake at 350F for an hour.

Serve warm.


Makes 7 servings as a main dish; 14 as an appetizer.



Note about the grains: I used some sort of parboiled mixed grains I got at Costco, but any mix of grains will do. You can use leftovers of rice, wheat , barley, quinoa, millet, whatever. The more types of grains - the better the taste of the final dish. If using leftovers, you'll need to guess about the amount since the amount given in the recipe is before cooking. Basically, there was the same amount of cooked grains as cooked ground beef. Work from this.



And remember, the best mothers in law are those who leave room for their sons' wives to outshine them. It's for your own son's benefit when you really think about it, no?