Sweet and Sour Chicken

I really enjoyed this. The recipe comes from Food Network Kitchens. I doubled the sauce in their recipe. Measurements have been adjusted below (along with my modifications).



4 tblsp honey
2 tsp chili sauce
4 tblsp rice wine vinegar
2 tblsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup orange juice
3 teaspoons cornstarch

4 tsp vegetable oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 1" pcs
Salt and pepper
2 coloured sweet peppers (I used red and orange)
5 green onions, cut into 1" pcs
Good handful of sugar snap peas, ends trimmed and cut into 1" pcs
Chopped peanuts, toasted

Put on some rice or noodles.

In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, chili sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, orange juice and cornstarch. Set aside.

Heat large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and add 2 tsp oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and cook, turning occasionally with a wooden spoon. Transfer to a plate and return pan to the stove.

Heat the remaining 2 tsp oil in the pan. Add peppers, green onion (the whites), and sugar snap peas. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Stir in the reserved chicken, give the sauce a final whisk and pour into the pan. Simmer, stirring occasionally until sauce is thickened (about 2 minutes).

Serve over noodles or rice and sprinkle with chopped peanuts if you wish.

Southwestern Chicken Salad with Chipotle Lime Dressing

This is another Chef Michael Smith gem. It will be added to our regular rotation for sure!



Dressing
1 chipotle pepper in adobo
Zest of 1 lime
Juice of 2 limes
2 tblsp agave syrup or honey
1 tbslp dijon mustard
Pinch of salt
4 tblsp olive oil

Salad
2 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
1/2 cup fine cornmeal
1 tblsp chili powder
Pinch salt
3 tblsp vegetable oil
Mixed baby greens
1 bunch cilantro
4 green onions, sliced thinly
2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 avocados, pitted, peeled and sliced
1 cup frozen corn, thawed (not heated)
Tortilla chips, crumbled by hand

In a blender, puree all of the dressing ingredients (adding the oil in a slow, steady stream at the end, as the blender is running).

In a shallow bowl, whisk together cornmeal, chili powder and salt. Slice chicken into long thin strips. Preheat a skillet and add vegetable oil. Dredge chicken strips in cornmeal mixture and fry in pan until chicken is cooked through.

Lay a bed of lettuce on a plate (or salad bowl), sprinkle cilantro and green onions over top. Mound tomatoes, black beans, avocado and corn on top of lettuce. Arrange chicken strips and drizzle dressing over the whole works. Crumble tortilla chips on top.

If you like, you can shred a little cheese on top.

I served the salad with cornmeal muffins.

Tandoori(ish) Chicken, Mashed Chick Peas, and Pepper and Onion Salad

Saw this recipe on Food Network Canada, and since we love Indian food, I was excited to make this.

I learned that I can make tandoori(ish) chicken. I also learned that our smoke detector does, indeed, work...and it's LOUD.



2 pitas (or Naan if you can get it)

1 cup plain yogurt
2 inches grated ginger root
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons coriander
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cut across in 1/2...the same amount of marinade can be used with 4 chicken breasts)
Salt and pepper
1 can chick peas (good for decent sized servings for 3 people...do up a second can if there are more)
1/4 cup chicken stock
2 tblsp tahini paste (use natural peanut butter if you don't have tahini)

1/2 small red onion, very small dice
1/2 yellow bell pepper, very small dice
Handful fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 lime juiced
Splash of apple cider vinegar
Drizzle of honey
Splash of green tabasco sauce
(I used the last three ingredients in lieu of the hot banana pepper rings and a bit of juice from the jar which I didn't think would be good, but after tasting it, I'm going to try it next time I make this, and ignore the last 3)

I chose to mix up the yogurt and spices (yogurt to olive oil from the above list) and marinated the chicken for a few hours. It's not necessary.

Preheat your oven to 500 (or as high as your oven goes). Cover a baking sheet with foil and if you have a baking rack, stick it on top.

Place chicken on baking rack (or right on the foil, if you don't have a rack). Roast for 20 to 25 minutes until chicken reaches a temp of 190 (or until it's cooked).

Heat a little olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Grate 1 clove garlic into warm oil. Put drained and rinsed chick peas in the bowl of a food processor, tahini (or peanut butter) and chicken stock and pulse until chopped. Scoop chick pea mash into skillet and warm through on low.

Combine red onion, bell peppers and cilantro. Add lime juice, vinegar, and honey (or add chopped hot peppers and juice to onion, peppers and cilantro). Drizzle a little olive oil over and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Warm the pitas (or naan) in the oven.

Serve pepper and onion salad over the chicken, with mashed chick peas on the side. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the whole lot and eat up!

Serve chicken with lime wedges to squeeze over top. Serve mashed chick peas alongside. Top the chicken with pepper salad. Cut pitas in half and pass at table.

Apple Cider Chicken

I've talked about how easy it is to make things up on the fly if you know what tastes good together, and this is an example of an "off the cuff" meal.

I'd planned to have chicken parm with spaghetti, but I just wasn't feeling like cooking that. We have a bit of stress in our lives at the moment, and it's very easy to fall down the, "I just don't feel like cooking, let's get fast food instead" slope. That isn't good for anyone.

I love the "chicken marsala" I make, but I didn't have any marsala wine or mushrooms. What I did have were some shallots, and some apple cider that needed to be used up. I threw some potatoes on to boil, and set to work on the chicken. This served 2 and Quinn.

Apple Cider Chicken



2 boneless chicken breasts
A bit of flour
Salt and pepper
Oil
4 shallots, sliced
About 2 cups apple cider
About 1 cup chicken stock
Sprig of rosemary
1 tblsp cold butter

Put frying pan on to heat to about medium. Rinse, pat dry and pound chicken breasts to about 1/2" thick.

Put about 2 tblsp of oil into the pan and toss in sliced shallots to soften. Meanwhile, season a few tablespoons of flour with salt and pepper and lightly dredge chicken breasts and place in pan. Cook a few minutes until done on one side, and flip.

Once chicken is cooked through, add cider and chicken stock and boost heat to high.

At this point, after tasting the sauce, I thought it might need a little something more. Apples and rosemary go well together, so I went out and grabbed a sprig of rosemary and tossed it in to infuse the sauce with its flavour.



After about 5 minutes of boiling, I removed the sprig, and put the chicken breasts on a plate, allowing the sauce to reduce further. Make sure to taste and adjust for seasons. After about 3 minutes, remove from heat and put 1 tblsp butter in pan, swirling until butter is melted (this will make the sauce richer).

I served this with riced potatoes and corn kernels.

This was a great experiment. I will DEFINITELY make this one again! This would be great with pork too!

Coconut and Chicken Soup

I was very surprised by this soup. I love the way the flavours balance one another, and it's suprisingly hearty. I'm not one for "soup for dinner". It always leaves me wanting more.

The recipe I based this off of comes from a 2 year old issue of Chatelaine magazine, and it was labelled "Hot and Sour Chicken Soup". I didn't get the "hot and sour" vibe...but they did give a nod to the Thai flavours.

This could easily be made vegetarian by swapping the chicken stock for veggie, and the fish sauce for a titch of salt. The chicken could easily (and tastily) be replaced with firm tofu!

Sambal Oelek is a chili sauce that you may find at your grocery store, or in your local Asian or Dutch market. We love it and use it quite often. If it's not available to you, use any hot chili sauce you have on hand. In a pinch, you could use a dash or two of tabasco.

Coconut and Chicken Soup



4 cups chicken stock
1 can coconut milk (not the light stuff)
Handful of button or crimini mushrooms, sliced
Two handfuls of shiitake mushrooms, sliced
Small can bamboo shoots, drained
1 tablespoon fish sauce (or less, to your taste)
1 tablespoon Sambal Oelek (more or less, to your taste)
2 limes
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
Fresh cilantro, chopped

Pour broth and coconut milk into a soup pot and stir to blend. Add mushrooms, bamboo shoots (mine came in strips and I cut them into matchstick sized pieces to add interest and make them easier to eat), fish sauce, and the sambal. Add zest and juice of both limes. Bring to a boil.

While waiting for the soup to heat, cut chicken into bite sized strips. Once soup is boiling, add chicken. Give it a stir and reduce heat to simmer. Cook about 10 minutes, until chicken is fully cooked. Taste and adjust salt and chili sauce balance if necessary.

Serve with a sprinkle of cilantro.


This soup was a hit with all three of us, and Quinn loved the spicy broth. He is still not really a fan of the mushrooms but neither was I when I was younger. He ate the chicken and drank the broth.

What to make when you have chicken that HAS TO BE cooked?

So, I took some chicken out of the freezer the other day with the intention of making a stir fry. I have some bottled schezwan sauce that I was planning on tweaking a bit, and some frozen "stir fry" veggies. Nice, quick, easy...except I really wasn't in the mood for eating stir fry.

That's one of the down sides of planning your meals ahead. Everything sounds so delicious when you make your list, but by the time you need to start cooking it, you might not want it.

I HAD to cook this chicken. What was I going to make?

I opened the fridge, stared in there blankly for a while, then closed the door. Opened the cupboards, stared in there blankly for a while, then closed the door. Got distracted by Iron Man Armored Adventures with Quinn, then realized that we needed to eat and I needed to stop procrastinating...and then it hit me.

I had an idea!

Checking the fridge again, I had eggs, mozzarella, parmesan, lettuce, caesar dressing, focaccia, and the chicken. In the cupboard I had jarred pasta sauce, spaghetti, and bread crumbs.

This was a no brainer...I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner!

Chicken Parmasan!

I don't have measurements here...because it's not really a recipe that you need to follow to the letter. Remember, a few posts ago when I said that you just need to know what tastes good and then put those flavours together? If you've ever had chicken parm in a restaurant, you already know how it works...you just need to have a little faith in yourself and give it a go!

You can do it (Tom *cough*)!

So here's what I did...the timing is pretty easy on this meal as well.

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

- Rinse and pat dry chicken breasts (I cooked up 3 small ones, boneless, skinless).

- In shallow bowl, beat one egg.

- In second shallow bowl (or plate), put some bread crumbs (I'd say about 1/3 cup?), pepper, a titch of salt, and a handful of parmesan cheese (either freshly grated, by you, or that stuff you buy in the fancy pants cheese section already grated for you...not the Kraft stuff), and some italian herbs, dried, whatever...I used some chopped fresh basil from the garden. Alternately, you can also buy some "Italian seasoned bread crumbs" and not have to fuss about it.

- Get a baking sheet, line with foil (because I'm lazy and hate washing baking sheets). I also use a baking rack so that the chicken gets crispy on the bottom too, but that's not imperative. It's not the end of the world if you don't have one.

- Dip a chicken breast in the egg, and then the breadcrumbs to coat. Place on baking sheet (or rack) and repeat.

- Pop chicken into preheated oven for about 20 to 30 minutes, depending on how big they are. I use two methods to check doneness...a digital thermometer should read 165F to kill all the pathogens (plus, it will continue to cook a bit after you remove it, AND you'll be putting it back in to melt the cheese anyway), or I actually cut it open and look. For this recipe, you're going to be covering it up anyway. Who cares if there's a cut in it?

Ok, so you have about 20 minutes to kill at this point. Why not make some homemade croutons?

I have some "Tuscan Herb Focaccia" for some portobello burgers later this week. I cut one up into cubes, tossed in some olive oil, placed in another (foil lined) baking dish, and toasted in the oven. Keep an eye on them so they don't burn, but you're looking at about 10 minutes. Pull them out and let them cool.

Pasta cooking time (you still with me, Tom?)

- Put a pot of water on to boil.

As far as timing goes, the chicken should be nearly done when the water boils. This is where you need to be a multitasker, but it's nothing you can't handle (Tom).

Get all your stuff together in these last moments: jar of tomato sauce (I used PC Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce because it's what we had), slice some mozzarella (maybe 1/4" thick?), pasta (we love the Healthy Harvest spaghetti), mixed greens, parmesan cheese, caesar dressing, and croutons.

Ok, you ready?

- Put pasta in boiling, salted water and turn down a bit so you don't have boil over. Stir this pasta occasionally so it doesn't stick.

- Pull chicken out of the oven. Spoon a couple of tablespoons of sauce (yup, right out of the jar!) onto chicken breasts and top with sliced mozzarella. Sprinkle on a bit more parmesan cheese, and place back in oven to melt.

- Start your salad. Place a couple of tablespoons of ceasar dressing (we use the type you find in the produce section...it's super tasty!) in the bottom of a bowl, toss in your mixed greens, and mix to coat with dressing. Serve in bowls, toss in a few croutons, and top with a bit of parmesan cheese (I love using a veggie peeler to slice cheese ribbons on top...looks all "fancy pants")

Salad is done.

- Check your chicken...cheese should be melted by now. If you like a little browning on top, hit up the broiler and KEEP AN EYE ON IT! I like it just melty, and I'm a total spaz, so I avoid the broiler thing as much as possible (or most of what I make would be burnt).

Chicken is done.

- Check your pasta. Should be al dente (we should all know what that means by now, but if you like your noodles smushy, cook it until you like it). Drain pasta in a colander. While it's doing its thing in the sink, pour some of that jarred sauce into the bottom of the hot (now dry) pasta pot, give the colander a shake to get rid of any extra water, and plop the pasta into the warming sauce. Toss it around to coat with sauce, and you're ready to plate!

Pasta on the plate, chicken beside it, a little more shredded parmesan (Death by Parm?), pepper, fresh chopped basil if you have it, et voila! You've made a really fancy fricken dinner, using what you probably have in your cupboards, and it was pretty easy, no?

Enjoy, and revel in the compliments.

Chicken Benedict and Honey Mustard Chicken

My Mom gave me this recipe, and she swears it came from my Aunt, who swears that she's never seen it before. I can't take credit for it, but I don't know who I can give credit to.



It's a fairly healthy recipe, depending on how you make the sauce. I don't do "low fat" mayo and sour cream, and Don finds the creamy sauce too heavy, so I make a honey mustard for him.

There are three components to this dish, the rice, the chicken and the sauce. You should probably make them in that order. By the time the sauce is done, the chicken and rice should be about ready to go.

The Rice

1/4 cup brown rice
1/4 cup red rice (or 1/2 cup brown rice in total)
1 1/4 cup water
4 spinach nuggets (the pkg tells me it's 85g worth, or one serving)

I have a small Salton rice cooker and the perfect ratio for rice is 1/2 cup uncooked rice, 1 1/4 cups water. I usually do half and half brown rice and red rice, but do what you like. I couldn't tell you how long the rice cooks for, my little rice cooker dealie tells me when it's done.

I add the spinach (I found genius frozen chopped spinach nuggets at WalMart) when the water is nearly cooked in. The spinach I use is already cooked. I have also done this with a handful of fresh baby spinach as well. If that's what you have, add this a tad sooner to allow it time to wilt...and make sure you chop it. No one likes a wad of slimy spinach in their rice.

Once your rice is started, it's time for...

The Chicken

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 egg, beaten
Bread crumbs (I love Panko)
Salt and pepper (or any other seasoning you like)

Preheat over to 350.

Dip chicken breasts in egg and then coat with bread crumbs (I usually season mine with a Garlic and Wine seasoning from the most heavenly restaurant, The Melting Pot - but salt and pepper, Italian seasoning, lemon pepper, whatever you like...the chicken shouldn't be super strongly seasoned though)

I place breaded chicken on a rack placed on a foil lined cookie sheet. I like to limit the amount of cleanup I (make Don) do.

Place in preheated oven and bake for about 20-30 minutes until a thermometer tells you it's done (or juices run clear, or whatever method you use).

Time to make the sauces!

Mock Hollandaise (or, "The Best Part of This Meal")

6 or so mushrooms of your choice (I usually use crimini but we had button mushrooms on hand), sliced thinly - or a can of sliced mushrooms (but these are not allowed in our house)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
Juice of half a lemon
Salt
Paprika

Throw sliced mushrooms into a saucepan with a bit of water and boil to soften. Drain mushrooms once done and put aside. If you're using canned mushrooms, drain and rinse and set aside.

In saucepan over medium low heat, add mayo, sour cream, mustard and lemon juice. You won't die if you need to use the bottled lemon juice, but it really does taste best with fresh if you have it.

Taste this awesome sauce (and resist the urge to eat it by the spoonful) and add a little salt and a sprinkle of paprika. Add the mushrooms and heat through.

Honey Mustard Sauce for Don



4 tablespoons whole grain Dijon mustard (or whatever mustard you have on hand)
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons white wine (we had some hanging out in the fridge, im sure you could omit this if you needed to, or add water, orange juice, or stock?)

Add everything to a saucepot, bring to a boil and simmer until slightly thickened.


At this point, your rice and spinach, and chicken should be good to go.

Plate up a bed of rice, pop the breaded chicken on top, and cover with the sauce.

Curried Chicken Salad

I've been making this for a while. It's a comforting recipe to me, and I find it's great all year round, for lunch or for dinner. If you're not one for curry, this is a great dish to try. It has a lightly curried flavour...aromatic, warm, I love this...and it's one of Don and Quinn's favourites as well.

It's not the pretties thing to look at, but I urge you to give it a try and let me know how you like it.

Curried Chicken Salad
(makes enough for my brood of 2 plus a wee one, adjust as necessary)

2 chicken skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoons curry powder (adjust to your taste)
2 tablespoons grated ginger root
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
3 tablespoons chopped walnuts
1/2 (or so) diced Granny Smith apple (I leave the peel on)
(other additions that sometimes find their way in include green onion and celery)

Poach chicken breasts by placing them in a saucepan, covering them with cold water, and bringing to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cover until the chicken is cooked through (maybe 20 or 30 mins). Cut into bite sized chunks (or pull) and leave to cool.

Mix together yogurt, mayo, lime juice, curry powder, ginger root (I freeze my ginger root, one of the best tips I ever got), parsley, walnuts and apple. Combine with cooled chicken breast pieces and refrigerate.

Serve cold with pita chips, or pita halves (makes great pita pocket sandwiches), in a wrap, or between two pieces of bread.