chicken

Chicken and Biscuits

~ nancyruth ~ 6 Comments

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This is not my usual chicken pot pie. This was inspired by Colleen of Leen Cuisine. Should we call this chicken cobbler because of the biscuit topping? Maybe, maybe not.

I had thawed two chicken breasts and needed to cook them. However, I had not thawed the disk of pie dough nor did I think I had my frozen mixed vegetables which is my “go to” veggie filler for dinner dishes. When I got home after work I found that I did not have frozen mixed vegetables. I did, however, find the frozen peas that I had bought for our Thanksgiving feast but did not use.

Do you know there are women/cooks who do not use frozen vegetables? I am super impressed that they cook real vegetables for dinner every night. I don’t expect to live up to that standard.

  • 1 tablespoon butter and about that in olive oil, too
  • 1 can grand type biscuits
  • 2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into “pennies”
  • 1/2 large onion, diced small
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic from jar
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • heaping tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheese
  • salt and pepper to taste

Start by putting a little oil or butter in the skillet to saute the garlic, onion, and carrots. Cook these for about 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you like additional spices, you would add them here. If, not just sprinkle on a little salt and pepper. Remove these vegetables to the baking dish or pie pan.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Add a little more oil to skillet and cook the chicken until no longer pink, maybe 5-6 minutes. Add a little of the broth to the pan and the vegetables, this time add the peas. Stir the cornstarch into the rest of the broth add to the skillet, and heat on high for a few minutes. Move this concoction from the skillet into the baking dish. Stir the cheese into this.

Remove the biscuits from their tube. And arrange artfully on top of the baking dish. Since all the ingredients are cooked it is just a matter of cooking the biscuits. Since the bottom of the biscuits are in the “stew” they will take a bit longer to cook than the directions on the tube.

I baked this for 20 minutes and then covered loosely with foil to keep warm in the oven while waiting for Hubby to come home. This dinner came together in less than an hour.

I served this with jarred pickled beets from an orchard in the Adirondacks. They did not disappoint! And the cucumber salad is similar to the salad Son made for Sister and me  when we visited him in Armenia. Thinly sliced cucumber and carrots, tomatoes, and green onions in a vinaigrette.

I had intended to make a green salad but the lettuce had gone rusty and was promptly added to the compost bucket. I like having a compost bucket. The service picks it up every other week. When I have to throw away food I know that it is being put to good use. With that, and our town recycling nearly everything in sight, our trash bin is getting emptier and emptier. Just my little part for the environment…I hope everyone can do a little something.

 

Chicken Cutlets with Herbes de Provence & Apple Compote

~ nancyruth ~ 4 Comments

This is another recipe from Eating Well Magazine Winter 2003. I had all these ingredients and it is supposedly a meal made in 30 minutes. Well, it took me 40 minutes, and an additional 8-10 for the sides.

  • 2 apples, peeled and slice thin
  • 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3 teaspoons olive oil, divided (These are what the recipe calls for. My amounts were approximations because I do not take the time to measure out oil for adding to skillets for sauteing and the like.)
  • 3 teaspoons butter, divided (see above note)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons Herbs de Provence
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste (see note above for salt and pepper as well)
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast; I had thawed four for this recipe and have no idea how much they actually weighed. Be sure to thaw the chicken!)
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon peel

First make the apple compote: Take two apples, peel them, and slice thin. Put in a bowl and mix with the  lemon juice and cinnamon. I cooked this in a little oil and butter in my cast iron skillet. That took about 5 minutes to cook. Set aside and keep the compote warm. Add 5-7 minutes for peeling the apple and squeezing and zesting the lemon. And another 2 minutes for cleaning the skillet and finding a bowl to hold the compote.

Mix 1 teaspoon of herbs with the salt and pepper. This does not look like enough seasoning but it is. Place chicken between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound with mallet until 1/2-inch thick. This went rather smoothly. I got to use the meat mallet Hubby had found that is all of one piece. It just won’t do to be pounding meat and have the head of the mallet go flying across the kitchen! Anyway, sprinkle both sides of the flattened chicken with the seasoning mixture.

Heat the remaining butter and oil in the skillet. Heat over high heat. Add half the chicken and cook until no longer pink 2-3 minutes per side. Remove to platter and repeat with the other half of the chicken. Here is when I begin to get the idea that perhaps this recipe was made for 6 chicken breasts…did say it served six. Too bad, for Hubby and me I have the four. When chicken is done, remove to platter to keep warm.

Add broth, lemon zest, and remaining herbs de Provence to the skillet. Cook stirring to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Bring to boil and cook for about 3 minutes until slightly reduced. I kept cooking a few more minutes because it did not look reduced to me. Spoon sauce over chicken and serve with the apple compote.

 

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IMG_0714The magazine suggested serving this with orzo and green beans. I served it with leftover sweet potato mash and cooked mixed vegetables from frozen. If one were to make the orzo and beans this meal would take longer. The entire time I was focused on the cooking the chicken and compote. Next time around, I won’t have to keep referring to the recipe and that may shave 5 minutes or so from the prep and cook time.

This is a tasty chicken dish. I will make this again. I may leave out the apple compote and make a savory lemon sauce/gravy to pour over, or maybe an orange sauce! I think orange would complement the Herbs de Provence very nicely.

 

 

 

 

More chicken!

~ nancyruth ~ 2 Comments

So now I am making Orange Chicken with Carrots and Chickpeas from that same 1991 Woman’s Day magazine. The food editor, this time, left out the carrots from the ingredient list! And since the liquids make this dish quite soup-y I am cutting down on the amount of chicken broth.

The chicken:

  • 3 chicken breasts
  • 2 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs
  • 2 tablespoons oil

Sprinkle breadcrumbs on the chicken, both sides. Cook in hot skillet with the oil for 6-8 minutes.

The vegetables:

  • 1 cup canned chickpeas; I used the leftovers from when I skillet-roasted a can of these with Middle Eastern spices. (great on top of salads!)
  • 1 cup shredded carrots; these are from one of those packages from the produce department; it’s all I had in the house.
  • 1 cup frozen peas; my addition; I plan to add more vegetables to everything we eat.

The liquids and seasonings:

  • 1 cup chicken broth; this is a decrease from the 3 1/4 cups called for.
  • 1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves removed and minced roughly
  • salt and pepper; a dash of each

When the chicken have cooked for those few minutes add the vegetables to the skillet along with the liquid and seasonings. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

The finishing touches:

  • 3/4 cup orange juice whisked with 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch (original recipe called for one cup)
  • 1/2 can of mandarin oranges; again this is my addition

Remove chicken and vegetables from pan. Add the orange juice to the pan and bring to boiling. This will thicken into a sauce. I added the chicken and vegetables back to the pan along with the mandarin oranges. And kept this warm until Hubby came home from work. (I’ve been home from work for at least an hour; he has a longer commute.)

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This will serve as many people as chicken breasts used.

 

 

 

“Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner”

~ nancyruth ~ Leave a comment

I put the title in quotes in case it is copyrighted or something. Where did that expression come from anyway? Hmm?

Okay, I am back from my quick internet search…

This recipe is from the 1991 Woman’s Day magazine article “Make the Chicken of Your Choice.” I made one of the seven choices before, Chicken Piccata. The choice for this dinner was Chicken with Broccoli and Dill. And as usual, I changed it up, just slightly.

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So the changes I made were using a mixture of vegetables that did include broccoli but also had cauliflower, carrots, and yellow and green squash. I did not have red pepper but had a frozen mixture of red and green peppers with onions. All told it was about 4 cups of vegetables. They were cut large. I also used only two chicken breasts and unseasoned panko bread crumbs.

  • slightly brown the chicken sprinkled with the bread crumbs in a skillet with 2 tablespoons of oil, 6-8 minutes
  • add vegetables and liquid and seasonings
  • cover and simmer for about 20-30 minutes; I simmered mine for longer just because I was waiting for Hubby to get home.

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  • I removed the chicken and vegetables; blended one cup buttermilk with a tablespoon of flour and teaspoon of dried dill weed.
  • Add that to the skillet and stir over heat until slightly thickened. Well, I added a bit more flour because this was quite soup-y. I then added leftover Chinese rice to thicken it further.

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This was delicious! It is basically poached chicken with different vegetables and flavorings. Who knew that poached chicken could be so good? I’ll make one of these “choices” next week. Stay tuned!

 

 

Ginger Chicken in Crock-pot

~ nancyruth ~ 1 Comment

Hubby and I were driving on Main Street and noticed a Thai ice cream shop. So he says “ginger ice cream is really good”. Somehow the conversation ran on to ginger chicken, and then we ordered Chinese take-out after our camping weekend. This all inspired me to actually cook something other than chicken thighs on the grill and/or hamburgers and/or tuna noodle salad. So here is my version of Ginger Chicken with Vegetables and Rice. The amounts are approximations as I did not measure. This is why I am not writing a cookbook. No editor worth her salt would let this pass!

 

 

Get out your handy dandy crock-pot and supper will be ready when you get home from work. And the oven doesn’t have to heat up the house.

  • 4 chicken breasts; these were four medium-sized frozen ones
  • thumb sized chunk of fresh ginger root, peeled and minced
  • one onion, diced
  • 3 medium carrots,sliced
  • 1/4-1/2 cup broth
  • a good sized squirt of Dijon mustard
  • at least one Tablespoon of honey
  • a shake or two of garlic powder; ideally one wold use minced garlic but I forgot about the garlic until I was putting the lid on the pot.

I put all of the above in the crock-pot, vegetables on bottom, and cook on low for 7-8 hours. When I got home from work I added the following:

  • 1/2-3/4 cup frozen mixed peppers; if I had fresh I would have chopped these and put them in at the beginning.
  • 1/2-1 cup frozen green peas
  • 1/2 pint leftover rice from the Chinese restaurant

Stir this to mix all and continue to cook on low (or high) to get everything hot, about one more hour. I served this in bowls and had leftovers for the next night.

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So this is how I cook. I throw things together. The above could be made with all fresh vegetables if you have them. The rice could be kept separate or left out altogether. You could use more broth if you like a more soup-y dish. One could serve it with soy sauce. I will probably make something like this again but it won’t be exact. Most of you home cooks out there do this same thing.

 

Ordinary cooking!

~ nancyruth ~ 1 Comment

If you are like me, you, and mostly it is the woman—not to negate the men who do so, just go about fixing dinner without thought to innovation and creativity. Those of us who rarely use processed or prepared foods or take out fast-food, there is a general routine and rotation from pantry and freezer staples. What are yours?

In my kitchen pantry I usually have canned tomatoes, several types of canned beans, sometimes canned fruit, pasta of a variety of shapes, rice and grains, vinegar, oils, etc. in the freezer there is a variety of meats (fish filet, chicken breasts and thighs, small pork roast, the occasional rack of ribs, and burger patties) along with the various packages of frozen vegetables. Sometimes there are pie crusts or pie dough, frozen pirogi or ravioli, and the occasional pizza. We like the cheap but tasty pizzas available at the Aldi discount grocery store. Actually in my freezer I still have some venison sausage from the deer my son-in-law shot earlier this year. Breakfast strata anyone?

I don’t know how some of you are so creative all the time. I get tired, tired, tired! So I just make things up to cook, or to liven up the ordinary food. So browsing on Facebook I saw one of those videos on quickly preparing ginger chicken. I rarely pay attention to all the ingredients or the amounts or the directions.

So I try it on fish. Why not?

There is garlic (yes, I bought the jarred kind. My fresh garlic kind of got old and decrepit on me), fresh ginger root (this keeps in the freezer for millennia), soy sauce, and mixed vegetables on the side. I minced a nub of ginger root, added a pinch of garlic, and dumped that in the ramekin with some soy sauce. Trust me, I used those “exact” amounts! 🙂 I baked the four fish filet and brushed on the juice toward the end of the baking time. It smelled very good. I may have added a squeeze of honey as well.

So then I tried it on chicken…two chicken breasts, one onion, peas and carrots, and quick cooking mixed grains (from Aldi). This worked out well too.

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Directions: dice chicken and cook through in a bit of olive oil. Mince the ginger root, bit of garlic, add soy sauce, a bit of honey, and add to the skillet with the chicken. The amounts depend on your taste. Separately I saute the onion in a bit of olive oil for a few minutes, then add the peas and carrots. Remove to a bowl. Cook the grains as per the package. I had planned to have a “rice pilaf” type dish as a side, but at the last minute dumped the almost cooked grains and the peas and carrots into the big skillet with the chicken. This I covered and let simmer a bit more until Hubby came home and dinner was served.

 

So I made Barbecue Chicken Pizza!

~ nancyruth ~ 4 Comments

As I had mentioned previously I was thinking of making a pizza in my cast iron skillet. Well, I made the pizza but not in the cast iron. And I got to use my handy-dandy pie circle gadget that I just bought. Silly item: a bag to roll out pie crust into a perfect circle.

I used my favorite pizza crust recipe. I found this years ago on allrecipes.com.  It is a yeast dough but there is no rising time. It is ready to go as soon as it comes together.

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 pkg active dry yeast
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F)

Combine the dry ingredients. Mix in the oil and water. When dough forms spread it on a large pizza pan. Top as desired. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20-25 minutes.

I had Hubby take the meat off of 4 chicken thighs that had already been barbecued. He also sliced an onion. We made a bit more sauce with ketchup (1/4 cup), sriracha (1/8 cup), and Worcestershire sauce (1/8 cup). I had seen that combination somewhere on line, most likely one of those Facebook food videos. You can use more or less sriracha depending on how hot you like your sauce. I have also substituted apple cider vinegar for the Worcestershire sauce.

Spread the sauce on the dough, scatter the onion and the chicken pieces, top with cheese of your choice. This is one of those Monterrey jack and cheddar blends.

It was a very tasty pizza.

Chicken with Lemons and Olives

~ nancyruth ~ 5 Comments

I like the idea of Mediterranean cooking. I have a variety of cookbooks that are published in the UK. I go through and mark my cookbooks for the recipes I want to try. I know I have done a lemon chicken with garlic before but this is a bit different. The only garlic in this one is the garlic infused chicken broth I used.

I had not been inspired by any recipes in particular lately. We have been eating plain food: cheeseburgers on toast, frozen filet of fish, chicken pot pie, chili, grilled Italian sausages, scrambled eggs. Baking has been put off due to stomach issues and wanting to lose a bit of weight. What am I supposed to do in my kitchen?

So I wanted to put together a nice dinner. And although I had planned to make a shepherd pie I found I did not have ground meat, but did have chicken. So I looked through my Mediterranean cookbook and found this one. The combination of spices sounded so tasty. I really wanted to use the crockpot and not have to do all the cooking when I came home from work. So I got out the crockpot and just threw it all in there. Well, I made the recipe my own. Here is what I did.

  • 2 large boneless chicken breasts
  • 1/2 cup garlic-infused chicken broth
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
  • a bit of salt and pepper
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 2 inch piece of fresh ginger, chopped fine
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 1/2 lemon, cut in wedges
  • 1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives

I wanted to throw everything in the crockpot and do nothing else. But I decided to briefly saute the onion with the ginger in a bit of olive oil. I then placed this in the bottom of the crockpot. I mixed the dry ingredients together and rubbed this on the chicken before placing them on top of the onion in the pot. I drizzled the honey on top and then added the broth. I set the pot on low and left it from 7:00 AM until 4:00 PM. At four I turned it down to the keep warm setting and added the lemon and olives. We ate dinner at 6:00 PM.

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I served this with a salad and couscous. I skillet toasted some walnuts and added them to the couscous along with a sprinkling of dried parsley and crumbled feta cheese. Dinner was a hit and there are leftovers for tomorrow night’s supper. Yea!

Lo Mein

~ nancyruth ~ 8 Comments

At a shopping trip a few weeks back I picked up a package of lo mein noodles and a package of soba noodles because they were on the clearance shelf. Yes, I occasionally buy foodstuffs from clearance. Hubby and I like “Clarence”! That’s often where we look first when shopping but not usually for food. But this was at one of those lot clearance warehouse type stores: Ocean State, Odd Lots, and when and where I was growing up it was Grandpa Pigeons!

I figured I would use some leftover cooked chicken that I had in the freezer. I read the recipe on the back of the package and it was BORING! It was a few vegetables and broth. So I substituted my own ingredients.

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  • one package lo mein noodles (upper right corner)
  •  4 cooked chicken thighs, bone removed
  • 2 stalks of celery, sliced
  • about a cup full of sliced carrots
  • 1 green pepper, diced
  • 2 green onions, sliced, green and white parts
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 1 tablespoon tahini
  • 2-4 tablespoons mushroom soy sauce

Chop all the vegetables. I started off sauteing these in a bit of olive oil in a skillet but had to move them into the wok. I forgot about having a wok. We may have used it no more than two or three times. I cooked the noodles in water in a separate pot. Everything else went in the wok after the vegetables were cooked for about 5 minutes.

The noodles were drained and added to the wok. This gets stirred around until all is warmed. Sprinkle on a bit more soy sauce and it is done.

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I was pleasantly surprised that it actually tasted like the lo mein from a Chinese restaurant. Hubby thought it was delicious. And I had leftovers for lunch all that week. Now, what to do with the soba noodles?

Lentil Soup

~ nancyruth ~ 8 Comments

 

I have been browsing through food magazines while walking the treadmill. The problem with this is that I get too many ideas and want to make them all at the same time. Last week I found an article in Rachel Ray’s magazine on One Grocery Bag: 3 Great Meals. This was from March of last year. One of the menus was lentil soup with pita and whipped feta. Sounded interesting. I have a bag of lentils in the pantry and feta in the fridge. So what’s the problem?

Before I get to make that meal, I am browsing through one of her magazines from 2014 and find other interesting recipes that I want to make and have the ingredients (or most of them). One of them is a pasta with chimichurri and tomatoes. This is fabulous because in my “Want to Try” recipe clippings I have a chimichurri recipe that I was trying to figure out what it should go with. Pasta!

But one thing at a time!

For Monday night’s meal I go with the lentil soup. I have leftover chicken so this will not be a Meatless Monday. I use the recipe as a guideline only. I use chicken broth and add potatoes and celery. I want to make a lentil stew as Hubby likes stews better than soups.

  • 20160613_201937620_iOS1 cup rinsed lentils
  • 4 cups chicken broth plus two cups water
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 stalks celery
  • 1 medium potato
  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • about 1 cup chopped carrots
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • about one cup cooked chicken, diced or shredded
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2-1 cup crumbled feta
  • fresh parsley for garnish

Chop the vegetables. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in large pot. Throw all the chopped vegetables, including garlic, into this pot and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the rinsed lentils and chicken broth along with the cumin. Add the chicken and bring to a boil.

Cover the pot and let simmer for 30 minutes until the lentils are tender. This could take a bit longer, up to 40 minutes.

Now for the whipped feta. I used my immersion blender instead of a food processor because I only had 1/2 cup of cheese. I put this in a glass measuring cup and added 1-2 tablespoons olive oil. Blend/whip/process until smooth and fluffy. Mine was more smooth and creamy than fluffy. I added about 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano as well and drizzled a bit of lime infused olive oil on top. I added some parsley for presentation.

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I served this with Keebler Townhouse Pita Crackers instead of the toasted Pita bread wedges suggested in the magazine. The soup and this made a nice supper. The dip was “grown up” per Hubby and is definitely worth making again. I think I would add a sprinkle of red pepper flakes to the soup next time. I forgot to add chopped parsley to the soup for the picture. When I added it to my soup it gave it a nice fresh flavor addition. This is parsley growing out on my porch. Much nicer than the dried stuff!

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Dinner is served!