Wine and Tomato Braised Chicken

Here we have something that I like cooking with a lot - chicken thighs!  I recently, semi-unofficially, gave up chicken breasts.  I was tired of the chicken always coming out really dry and it was always so hard getting it to retain flavor.  Down with chicken breasts, I’d say, unenthusiastically cooking with it.  And then I realized … I am in charge of this here kitchen.  If I don’t want to cook with chicken breasts, who’s to say I have to?

No one, that’s who.  And this is why I kicked them out of my kitchen once and for all.

Amy suggested this recipe to me, in my usual early morning “I have this, this and that.  What can I make?”  quest.  Amy, you’re my greatest inspiration!  Martin, in contrast, is not helpful at all.  Sometimes, I even ask him basic decisions like “Chicken or pasta?” and he gives me a blank look.  I just need some direction, please!  Amy understands this and always points me towards a good starting point.  And, Amy, that is why you need to move to this area.  Seattle won’t love you the way I do!

I’m just going to link to the recipe I used, as I don’t think I made too many substitutions.  Here we go, here we go, here we go now.

Now, some notes.  The sauce was more watery than I was expecting.  I kept it simmering for a long time, uncovered, trying to cook off a bunch of the liquid, before giving up.  The flavor was tasty and strong.  And it might be better to go the boneless thighs route, as it was pretty hard to cut the meat off.  But that’s me and Martin’s laziness at work!  Go include the bones, if you feel like it!  It went well over pasta, as I can demonstrate here:

I thinly sliced some green onions to sprinkle on top because I had green onions chilling in the crisper.  I also like the extra snap green onions add.  Overall, delicious and I will make it again, when the weather cools down!

Chicken with Pappardelle

What is that, you might be asking yourself right now.  I mean, it doesn’t look too appetizing.  It’s a plopful of noodles along with a plopful of red stuff.  But it’s mighty tasty, if I do say so myself.

I can’t take credit for the crazy looking pasta.  It comes from my pasta man.  Well, he’s not my pasta man.  He’s just the guy who sells fresh pasta at the Farmer’s Market, who I buy pasta from.  He’s super nice and his kids, who can’t be more than 12, are adorable as they weigh my pasta and take Martin’s money.

Just kidding.  They just re-stock the bins!

This is herb pappardalle, I do believe.  (See, I told you I am officially in love with pappardelle and you didn’t believe me).  And I loved the tomato-based sauce that went on top of it because it was thick and chunky and had texture and chicken in it.

So let’s get started on how to make this chicken, shall we?

First, I used chicken thighs.  I used to buy chicken breasts breasts, before I realized I actually hate chicken breasts.  No matter how carefully you cook them, they always taste really dry and stringy.  No thank you, chicken breasts.  If I wanted dry and stringy food … well, when have I ever wanted dry and stringy food?

So I made an unofficial decision to only use chicken thighs, if I am eating chicken.  And I haven’t looked back since.  And here is something I’ve made while looking forward:

Chicken with Pappardelle

4 – 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
Olive oil
Salt
Fresh cracked pepper
½ - 1 medium onion, chopped
2 – 3 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup white wine
2 (28 oz.) cans crushed tomatoes
Pinch of sugar
3 – 4 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
8 large fresh basil leaves, chiffonaded
¾ lb. long noodle pasta
Fresh grated parmesan

1-  Bring pot of water to boil and cook pasta until al dente.  Drain.

2-  Heat olive oil in a skillet.

3-  When oil is hot, brown chicken thighs on both sides.  Remove to plate.

4-  In same pan, add onions and garlic and stir to combine.  Cook until softened.

5-  Add white wine and bring to a simmer.  Loosen browned bits of chicken from bottom of skillet.

6-  Add tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper.  Let simmer for 15 minutes.

7-  While sauce is simmering, dice chicken.  Add chicken and sauce on plate to tomato sauce.  Let simmer for 15 more minutes.

8-  Add fresh herbs and ladle over pasta.

9-  Sprinkle with Parmesan and serve.

Servings:  4 - 6

PS.  I feel like I didn’t used canned tomatoes, as I haven’t kept that stocked in my pantry for awhile.  I think what I did use was 4 - 5 medium-sized de-seeded vine-ripened tomatoes, coarsely diced.  But it’s hard to prove / remember by looking at the picture.  And there you go!  Try it!  Enjoy!

Chicken Nuggets

I like it when things are bite-sized and come in their own tidy little packages. So when I saw this recipe for chicken nuggets, I knew I wanted to try them. It is almost the ultimate throwback comfort food and exactly what I felt like one day.

Unfortunately, I read the recipe wrong and used leftovers from a roast chicken I’d made so the results were rather dry. And a little bit salty. But I have every faith in this recipe that were I to not have used leftover chicken, these would have been moist and tasty and bite-sized to my heart’s desire.

The recipe was pretty easy, especially since I wasn’t dealing with raw chicken. It was just mix mix squeeze squeeze fry munch. Easy peasy! I used dry bread crumbs as the coating, which made it very crispy but not as “light” as I wanted. Maybe next time I can do a nice beer batter for these. I want to try making these again one day the right way.

The original recipe can be found here.

Check out the color palate of my food.

Tasty fried goodness

Baked Chicken Parmesan

Scrambling for something to make for dinner, I closed my eyes, thrust my hand into my freezer and pulled out … chicken. Okay …. now what should I do with this chicken? I had tomatoes …. chicken … tomatoes …. chicken …. tomatoes … chicken parmesan?

I settled on a baked chicken parmesan dish I was curious about and realized I was missing two very key ingredients: marinara sauce and croutons. I craftily rigged both ingredients and was well on my way to making a very interesting chicken parmesan dish.

The developer of the recipe notes that it is difficult to create a baked chicken parmesan dish that is as crispy as the fried versions. A baked crust can never withstand the moisture of the tomato sauce and inevitably becomes soggy. He solves this problem by creating a casserole-style dish and placing a layer of croutons on top. The bottoms of the croutons soak up the sauce to make it a cohesive dish, but the top stays nicely crisp and cheesy.

I baked this last night with boneless, skinless chicken thighs rather than chicken breasts and loved it. I have no idea what its health information is, but it feels pretty not bad since nothing is fried. It’s very hearty, so I served it alongside a green salad rather than pasta and felt full but not yucky afterwards. Martin liked it a lot too, but he might just be being nice. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you and all that jazz.

The recipe came originally from here, but it’s in video format. If you ever need a quick reference for it, I’ve gone ahead and transcribed the recipe here:

Baked Chicken Parmesan

2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
Hot red pepper flakes
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 cups marinara sauce
¼ cup chopped basil
8 oz. mozzarella, separated
4 oz. Parmesan, separated
Croutons

1- Preheat oven to 350-degrees.

2- Coat bottom of an 8” x 8” square pan with olive oil. Sprinkle minced garlic and hot red pepper flakes to taste on top.

3- Layer washed and trimmed chicken thighs on the bottom of the pan.

4- Cover with marinara sauce until completely covered.

5- Sprinkle with half the mozzarella and Parmesan.

6- Sprinkle croutons on top.

7- Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is crispy and browned.

Servings: 3 - 4 people

Tasty delicious in the pyrex pan.

Roasted Chicken and All That Jazz

Quick Summary

Challenge Result: Wonderful
Tag, you’re it: Penney

Not-So-Quick Explanation

A few weeks ago, I challenged everyone to roast a chicken with me. As it turns out, I ended up roasting two chickens this month. Since I’ve never roasted a chicken before and I roasted two chickens this past month, that means my chicken productivity increased by infinity-fold. WOO. Check that out.

So, to first explain, I didn’t check the expiration date of my chicken and pulled it out of the refrigerator and realized “Oh … that’s not good.” It was two days past the expiration date. I checked the internet, which seemed to indicate that it would most likely be okay but everyone seemed really unsure either way. I gave the chicken the smell / feel test and it smelled and felt like a normal chicken, so I decided to go ahead and roast it. Brining was out of the question, as I wanted to brine overnight, and I wanted that chicken cooked as quickly as possible. So I roasted my first chicken. I did it the Amy / Brian way and stuffed it with garlic and lemon. I pulled the skin away from the breasts and slipped a few pats of butter in there too. Then I gave it a healthy coat of salt and pepper.

I felt that my first chicken was not in the spirit of my brining chicken challenge, so a couple of weeks later, I bought another chicken. Then I read the brining page.

A dry brine? Really? This was my second “Oh … that’s not good” of the month. I obviously did not read it well the first time, since I’d wanted to do a wet brine recipe. I didn’t have a rack to put the chicken on, so I decided to do the wet brine anyway. I followed this recipe and let it brine for 24 hours. Then I did it Amy / Brian style again. I thought I should make it the same way, for full comparison sake.

Roasting was pretty easy - I stabbed the breasts with our meat thermometer and went on our merry way. I removed it from the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then Martin did his awesome carving job and with that first bite - oh my! You really COULD taste a difference.

I am so pleased I finally learned how to cook whole roast chickens. What was once a daunting task has now turned into a tasty monthly meal. After both roasts, Martin asked to turn the leftovers into chicken pot pie. Maybe next time, we will try something different but we do love pot pie.

Roast chicken to soothe the soul.

Artichoke and Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken

There’s no picture again today, people. I feel like a food blog can kind of let you down when it describes everything in words but includes no pictures. So, I’m sorry for letting you down but I promise that this will be the last post in (hopefully) awhile that does that.

Where to begin. I made chicken last night. It was super easy - bang bang done. The original recipe called for mayonnaise, which I don’t have in my house. So I used Amy’s recipe. Easy peasy super lemony.

Then I mixed everything together, dumped it on top of the chicken and baked and baked. While I baked, I cut up some broccoli florets and put them in a saucepan, ready to blanch when the chicken came out of the oven. I like plain broccoli - is that weird? As it stands, that’s what Martin gets to eat when I cook.

The chicken came out moist and the mayonnaise-artichoke-sun dried tomato mixture on top was tasty tasty. I don’t know if it was the combination of the freshly-made mayonnaise or just its creamy goodness when baked but it was damn tasty. Just ask Martin.

Reviewers of the recipe noted using sour cream and mayonnaise as a combination, because the all-mayo left a “strange aftertaste” and the sour cream helped the taste a lot. I think the aftertaste of my chicken dish was “delicious” but I will definitely try it the other way sometime to see if I notice a difference. Also, it’s very important that the artichokes are marinated, I think. It helps the overall flavor of the sauce.

Artichoke and Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken

1 cup marinated artichoke hearts
½ cup sun-dried tomatoes
¾ cup mayonnaise
¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 chicken breasts

1- Preheat oven to 374-degrees and prepare baking dish.

2- Finely chop artichokes and tomatoes.

3- Combine artichokes and tomatoes with mayonnaise and cheese. Mix together.

4- Pour on top of chicken.

5- Bake for 40 – 50 minutes or until juices run clear.

6- For last minute or so, broil until sauce is lightly browned. Remove from oven and serve hot.

Servings: 4

Chicken Penne in a Tomato Cream Sauce

Usually, I post chronologically but the next recipe to post is Avocado Shrimp Salad. While I thought this was lovely and yummy and all that jazz, I am pretty sure everyone knows the basics of dicing up ingredients, mixing them all together and then chilling them. But perhaps if I’m slow to upload the new shots, I’ll take the time to write something more in-depth.

Instead, I will talk about the utterly fabulous chicken penne in a tomato cream sauce that we made. It is fabulous. I forgot to check serving size and, as much, made a BOAT LOAD of pasta that lasted Martin and I for days. But (rare for me in leftovers), I wasn’t complaining.

The first thing you might notice about the picture is that there seems to be a haze in front of it. That’s steam. Also, it will appear in several other photos, as I am too impatient to eat to wait any longer than necessary. I am lucky I managed to stifle my hunger long enough to snap the shot!

A second thing, which I will point out rather than hope you can read my mind, is how textural the pasta is. I liked that it wasn’t just some soupy cream sauce with a few pieces of chicken thrown in. The onions and chicken came together with the penne to make a great dish. I had accidentally bought “small” penne apparently but I was actually glad that I did. As weird as it is to say that I hate a pasta shape, I actually thought I hated penne because of its weird tubular tube-ness. But these small penne were great - all easily scoopable with a fork and little prongs of pasta holding lots of tomato-y goodness.

One thing I wish, however, was that I’d had a cup of white wine to add instead of the chicken broth that I did add. I feel that that would have packed a nice extra zing, though it was still yummy all on its own.

Martin absolutely loved this dish, and I don’t blame him. I put in a cup of heavy cream. A CUP! With that much fat, who could possibly hold out against it?

No one human, that’s who. And with that said, here is the recipe. It is SUPER!

Chicken Penne in a Tomato Cream Sauce

4 - 5 boned skinned chicken thighs
1 lb. penne or other short pasta
1 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. olive oil, separated
Onion
2 cloves garlic
1 cup white wine (or low-sodium chicken broth)
1 can (8oz.) tomato sauce
1 cup heavy cream
Parsley
Basil
Salt
Pepper

1- Finely dice onions. If using fresh herbs, finely dice these as well. Mince garlic. Bring pot of water to boil, in preparation for pasta later.

2- Heat 1 tbsp. butter in skillet until bubbly. Add chicken and cook, turning occasionally, until cooked throughout. Remove to plate and set aside.

3- Add pasta to water and let cook until al dente.

4- Lower heat of skillet. Add onions and garlic to skillet and cook until onions are golden and translucent.

5- While onions are cooking, chop chicken into cubes. Set aside.

6- Add white wine or chicken broth to onions. Let bubble for a few minutes.

7- Add tomato sauce and stir well. Add heavy cream and stir until well combined. Turn heat to low and let simmer.

8- Add basil, parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Chop more basil if desired

9- Add pasta a few scoopfuls at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Re-taste and add more seasonings if desired. Serve hot!

Servings: 2 people over the course of 4 days

Mmmm, so good.

Oven-Fried Chicken

As Amy knows, I love fried chicken but hate frying things. The mess, the possibility of being burned … it just doesn’t appeal to me at all. So when Brian made this oven-fried chicken that tasted just as good as fried chicken, I was sold. It was tasty, crispy like fried chicken and didn’t require frying! It was win-win-win, all around. I almost feel like throwing in a few more ‘wins’ in there because of how tasty I thought this was.

Originally, I made it with mashed potatoes and green beans. Then we had two legs leftover and lots of mashed potatoes. A couple of days later, I threw all of this into the oven, along with a broccoli crumb casserole I made from Thanksgiving dinner’s leftover steamed broccoli. Overall, tasty and very comfort food-y. I like it, I like it!

I’ll post the broccoli crumb casserole recipe tomorrow. For now, here’s the recipe Brian and Amy gave me for Oven-Fried chicken, but I tweaked it a little. Perfect with mashed potatoes that have seen lots of sour cream and butter.

Oven Fried Chicken

1/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp. dried mustard powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup fine bread crumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan
10 chicken legs

1- Preheat oven to 400-degrees. Melt butter.

2- In shallow bowl, mix mustard powder, garlic powder, black pepper, salt, bread crumbs and Parmesan.

3- Dredge chicken legs in butter and coat with bread crumb mixture. Place in lightly greased baking dish.

4- Bake for 30 minutes or until skin is crip and golden brown.

Servings: 4

One damn tasty leftover dinner

Kjersti’s Crock-Pot Chicken

I do not have a crock pot, but I was still able to make this dish and it was super easy. It was sort of creamy cheesy casserole-y goodness, just the thing you feel like on a cold night.

I used the Dry Italian Dressing (from my previous post) and it came out very salty. Like consuming salt lick salty. So, I would definitely cut back on the salt next time. I remember reading articles trying to figure out if I could make it less salty. While some people recommended adding unbaked potato slices to leech out the salt or a pinch of sugar, one particularly helpful grandma said no and it should be a lesson learned on the horrors of adding too much salt.

Regardless, will definitely try making this again and perhaps tweaking the recipe a little. Also, I will halve the recipe as it was definitely more than enough for 4 people and the only munchers were me and Martin.

I also found that the rice didn’t cook all the way through with just one can of broth, though I did use a little can and I had to add water and emergency-fix it. Perhaps a bigger one next time?

Since I had no crock-pot to use, I am writing up this recipe the way I did it, but keeping crock-pot in the name. Wrong, yes. But it shouldn’t detract from the yumminess of the dish!

Kjersti’s Crock-Pot Chicken

2 tbsp. butter
½ cup water
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 pkg. Good Seasons Zesty Italian dry dressing mix
1 can cream of mushroom or cream of chicken
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese
1 can broth
1-¾ cup rice

1/ Combine water, butter and dressing mix into large pot. Bring water to a boil. Add chicken and lower heat to a simmer.

2/ Boil until chicken is cooked completely through.

3/ While chicken is boiling,combine rice and broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and allow rice to absorb all the water.

3/ Shred chicken completely.

4/ Add cream cheese and cream of chicken to hot water / dressing mixture. Stir until completely melted.

5/ Add chicken and rice, mixing until combined. Serve!

Servings: 4 hearty servings

Crock-pot chicken

Chicken Fajitas and Guacamole

I’d bought three beautiful Italian peppers from the Farmer’s Market last week without any thought of what I’d do with them. Then the solution came to me - fajitas! I’ve always loved them and Martin, who never made time in his life for fajitas, tried them a few weeks ago and loved them. The fajitas were nothing out of the ordinary but this recipe provided about 11 fajitas, for future reference, and was cooked in a 12″ skillet.

Chicken Fajitas

3 medium-sized Italian peppers (probably equivalent to 2 medium-sized bell peppers)

1/2 sweet yellow onion

Mushrooms as desired

1 clove garlic

Olive oil

2 chicken breasts

Preparation: Prepare large skillet for cooking. Set oven to warm for tortillas.

1/ Slice chicken, peppers and onion into long strips for optimal fajita-making. Mince garlic.

2/ When oil is nice and hot, place garlic in skillet and saute until golden brown.

3/ Add chicken and sprinkle generously with pepper. Cook until most of the chicken is done. Add vegetables, season with salt and pepper, and cook until tender.

4/ Serve!

Servings: 11 fajitas

Before starting the fajitas, I also laid the table out beforehand, spooning sour cream, salsa and chips into small condiment bowls. I should have made rice but didn’t have any on hand. I also made my own guacamole. Everyone’s idea of guacamole is always different - chunky versus smooth, to tomato or not, salsa what what? But here is my personal favorite version of guacamole, so I shall dub it Melanie’s Guacamole

Melanie’s Guacamole

1 - 2 medium sized avocados

Red onion

Jalapeno peppers

Garlic powder

Salt

Pepper

Lime juice and / or hot sauce

Preparation: Let avocados ripen.

1/ Cut avocados in half and remove pit. With knife, score a grid pattern through the avocado, piercing the avocado entirely but not the skin. Scoop out with spoon. You should now have a delectable pile of avocado cubes in your bowl.

2/ Mince jalapeno pepper and add a little, with the seeds. Finely chop the red onion and also add a little. Give a few shakes each of pepper, salt and garlic powder. If you have hot sauce or lime juice on, also add a couple of shakes or a quick squirt.

3/ With form, mix up everything. This motion will also partially mash up the avocado cubes for you.

4/ Taste. Add more of whatever flavor is missing and keep mixing, trying to smooth the edges of the avocado cubes but keeping it CHUNKY. I usually add a medium-size slice off of a red onion and 3/4 of a jalapeno pepper. The result is a nicely chunky guacamole with a kick. KICK IT.

Servings: Just right for generous spoonfuls onto 11 fajita