Chicken-Bacon-Dijon-Pot-Pie

Anyone remember David Cross singing "Chicken-pot, chicken-pot, chicken-pot-piiiiiie" on "Just Shoot Me" ...? It's kind of an obscure reference, but it makes me laugh every time I think of it.

Now then, some disclaimers.

1. I'm a pretty decent cook, but I'm a mess when it comes to pie crust. This one actually turned out quite okay taste and texture wise, but it was hard to roll out and kept splitting apart. Nine out of ten times, I get a store-bought rolled pie crust for my quiches and pies, because well, it's $4 toward me not having a meltdown in the kitchen. Trader Joe's has a good one that I like which is not full of weird synthetic ingredients. However, I was not at TJ's yesterday so instead I opted to make my own crust, and I used the recipe in this book Good Kitchen Magic which I think should make a good crust in theory. My trouble is that I don't usually get the dough to bind together with the first 2 tablespoons of water as they say. Sometimes even the 3rd tablespoon of water doesn't do the trick so maybe I'm using too much flour. Who knows. Either way, I won't chide you for using a store-bought crust, because I do it all the time myself.


2. This is NOT a quick meal. It can be made significantly faster with a few shortcuts, which I'll put in parentheses next to directions or ingredients. Of course, as with any of my recipes, alterations are often necessary.

3. Even though I know my way around a DSLR, it is January in the Pacific Northwest, and rather gray, and I have no window light in my kitchen, and it was dark outside anyway, so I have done my best to get some good photos with my tripod and bounced light.

4. Because of the multiple steps and ingredients, read this all the way through before starting the recipe so you see the way I split up my directions and ingredients.

5. This recipe can make two 6-inch pies, (I made my pies in cast-iron skillets) or one larger 9-inch pie either in a skillet or in a glass pie dish, so you'll divide up your dough and filling accordingly. 

Thus, I present you with Chicken-Bacon-Pot-Pie.

Garlic & Pink Peppercorn Butterflied chicken with Pan Gravy

Woopity-doo!! I'm posting a recipe! I think some of you will find this one worth the wait, at least in terms of the gruesomeness of the step-by-step photographs. I have been hoping to do a photo-journalistic instruction on how to butterfly a chicken (a trick I only learned myself last year) but it's so useful for doing whole birds.  Bonus: It was a reasonably sunny afternoon (which meant BETTER PHOTOS!!) And Bonus #2: I wrangled my husband into manning the camera and tripod I didn't have to wash my raw-chicken hands every 3 seconds, set the camera timer. That would have been tedious, and impractical. So thank you, dear for making this infinitely easier. Good job on the pics, too!

Anyway, back to the bird at hand.

Chicken Pumpkin Paprikash

"Waiter, there is too much pepper on my paprikash." -- Harry Burns

Well, if you're a fan of late-eighties chick flicks starring [pre-collagen] Meg Ryan, wearing ill-fitting, floppy sweaters, chunky shoes and otherwise being her adorable self, then you've probably seen the classic "When Harry  Met Sally," and you might remember that scene at the museum where they are talking all funny about Paprikash.


I had not had much insight into this dish in the past.  So sometime last year, I decided to look it up, and was not disappointed.  It's one of the most yummy and reasonably healthy comfort-foods, especially delicious on a cold, foggy autumn evening such as tonight.  Not only that, but it's quick.  I can whip up a skillet full in about 25 minutes, which hits the spot every time. 

Curry (Rotisserie) Chicken Soup

This chicken recipe brought to you, courtesy of Olympia Local Foods who generously supplied me with a kosher, pastured, organic rotisserie chicken from Tachira Farms, in Olympia, Washington.  If you live in the South Puget Sound area, please support our local farms by shopping at Olympia Local Foods store.

My most recent recipe was for two side dishes to complement the rotisserie chicken.  I was also excited to run my first ever contest for a free rotisserie chicken and a $10 gift card to their store.  You can still enter this contest, by following the directions from that last blog post, up until October 23, 2012.  Local entries only.

Today I'm going to show you how I used up the left over chicken to concoct a spicy, hot, healthy and flavorful  curry soup from scratch. And when I say 'From Scratch' here, I mean FROM SCRATCH.  We're even going to make our own broth... no bouillon required.

Rotisserie Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Cardamom Roasted Cauliflower

 

I'm excited to announce my first ever give-away contest! For this meal-blog I'm plugging Olympia Local Foods and in exchange, they are offering a give-away of a hot, juicy rotisserie chicken and a $10 gift card at Olympia Local Foods.   More rules and details about this give-away can be found at the bottom of this page, below the recipe.

Olympia Local Foods is a business which I support, nearly weekly.  They are family owned by local farmers, who work in conjunction with other local farmers to offer area residents a convenient way to shop for locally grown and produced food items, with weekly in-store pickup.  You can even pay a nominal fee to have them deliver to your house. One of their signature items is freshly rotisserie-prepared, kosher, organic, pastured chicken by the owners of O.L.F. who also run Tachira Farms.

So for this recipe, I picked up a hot, savory bird, and also an organic head of cauliflower,  some red potatoes, and went home to come up with a recipe for an autumnal comfort food with a bit of a  sophisticated twist. 

Quinoa Risotto with Chicken, Zucchini & Bacon

I was in an experimenting mood tonight, and I have so.much.zucchini from my veggie garden that I'm trying to come up with interesting ways to eat it.  I have both tiny little baby zucchini, and bigger ones. As I am learning in my foray into vegetable gardening, the best zucchini shouldn't get too big or they get dry and seedy.  So I'm happy to have some of these little tender ones, because they are so delicious!

A long while back, I made an almond-fig brown rice risotto which was very delicious, and I thought I'd try something in that vein but with quinoa instead, and feature the zucchini, along with some left-over bacon, and my go-to chicken tenders. 

Chicken Enchiladas

All right, all right, all right... I am a total slow poke.  It seems the last few months have just slipped out of my fingers, and into the great abyss of "History."  Have I made some meals?  Yes.  Have I had the time to make anything worth blogging about? Not so much.  (In fact, I have relied on many of my old recipes the last few weeks and months.)

But I just remembered that maybe a month or so ago, I did take the time to photograph the steps in making these yummy enchiladas, so now I'm going to backtrack and write up a recipe that is also loosely based on a recipe of my mom's.  So I'll do a little updating here, and at least you can also backtrack and go try some of my old recipes if this one doesn't interest you.

I'll make no claims to this being some authentic Mexican masterpiece.  But it sure is good comfort food! Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Black Bean Chili with Cilantro

I promised in the last entry that there will be a "Chili" theme on the blog. Quite overly ambitious as I tend to be, I may have even promised a "Chili Week" but then I realized that would involve cooking chili multiple times in *ONE* week, and that led to the sure knowledge that I'd probably quickly tire of both cooking and eating chili.  Thus, to be realistic, I will just make a reasonable attempt to blog all the chili recipes by the end of November.

Thai Swimming Rama (or Showering Rama)-- Chicken, steamed spinach and peanut sauce

While I’m not entirely sure of the first time I had Rama (or whether it was referred to as Showering or Swimming) it is one of my very favorite types of Thai food.  Basically, it’s steamed spinach, sauteed chicken, and a peanut sauce that is TO DIE FOR.  I seriously have to stop myself from eating half the sauce out of the pot with a spoon while I’m “tasting it” … Yeah, it’s so good. It’s almost like a dessert.  **Edited to say that since I first published this recipe many years ago, I have developed a nut allergy, so I now make this with sunflower-seed butter, and it is basically indistinguishable.** 

Chicken, Bell Pepper & Mushroom soup with rice

I have been blogging three mushroom-based recipes that I made the last few days with a CostCo container of Baby Bellas. I like buying in bulk and finding fun things to do with the ingredients during the course of a week, without feeling like I’m eating the same thing over and over.


This soup is completely ‘off the cuff’, and I will do my best to replicate the ingredients as I was just kind of throwing them in to my pot.

Pasta with Chanterelle cream sauce

When I was a little girl in Sweden, we went out in the woods to pick Kantareller (or Chanterelles).  They peeked out of the moss and pine needles, like little golden trumpets in the woods.  They were so delicate and buttery in flavor, especially when sautéed in butter!  Fresh chanterelles are hard to find, as they are seasonal, and cannot be cultivated.  They seem to only grow in the wild, and only where they choose, but they seem to prefer evergreen forest conditions.  About once a year, there is a 4-5 week time frame when I can find these golden fungi at the grocery store or farmer’s market, but usually at a cost of $28-30 a pound.  CostCo sometimes has them, and then it’s more like $10-12 a lb, which is much better than $28 a pound. But still, pricey.

So imagine my delight when I heard through the grapevine that a girl from our church lived near a wooded area that seems to have prolific Chanterelle growth every fall.  Sure enough, I went out there this morning for about an hour or so, in my rubber boots, and carefully meandered around the woods behind her yard.  Carefully, since the mushrooms often were tucked underneath the moss & leaves, and even though brightly colored, they often just blend in with the autumn foliage on the ground. As soon as my ‘chanterelle eyes’ became accustomed to looking beyond and underneath the camouflage hiding these little gems, I started finding dozens and dozens of them, ranging in size from 1/2” in diameter to several inches wide.

I picked almost a whole grocery bag worth. And now that I have had my dinner, I thought I’d tell you what one of my favorite chanterelle-based meals is.

INGREDIENTS:

1-2 cups worth of chopped chanterelles – brush off dirt and debris with a pastry brush
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 sprig fresh rosemary, de-stemmed, and finely chopped up (probably about 1 tsp of dried rosemary)
3-5 large sage leaves, finely chopped up (I suspect it would be about 2 tsp worth of dried sage)
1-2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup- 3/4 cup heavy cream

Sauté the mushrooms in the butter, until soft, and then sprinkle flour over them, and stir it in until absorbed.  Pour cream, and herbs and seasonings in, and allow to simmer over low heat until the cream thickens a bit from the flour.

Meanwhile, prepare your favorite type of pasta according to directions, and drain it.  Stir in the cream sauce over the pasta.

This pasta is particularly delicious when served with grilled poultry, such as turkey breasts or chicken.  I had chicken tenderloins (because I always have them in my freezer) so I defrosted them, marinated them with olive oil, sage, rosemary, salt & pepper (probably about 3 or 4 sage leaves, minced, 2 sprigs of rosemary, chopped up, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp ground pepper) and grilled them on a very hot grill for about 2 minutes on each side.  Then I cut the chicken tenders into bite-size pieces and stirred them in with the pasta.   I have also served this with chicken breasts stuffed with brie, and made a similar sauce to drizzle over grilled turkey breast.  Roasted rock hens are also excellent with chanterelles. 

The chanterelles are so delicate in flavor that you really don’t want to overpower them with a lot of other flavors or heavy meats.  I stick with sage, and rosemary as the only real seasonings. I don’t use onions or garlic with chanterelles, because just a couple of woodsy herbs are enough of a good complements, and the cream sauce just enhances it all.

 

Technorati Tags: chicken,pasta,mushrooms,chanterelles,cream,herbs,main dishes,side dishes

Chicken and Tomato pizza

I have been lazy for years, and make no excuse for the fact that this was my first time of trying an actual yeast-based pizza crust.  I always just made a yeast-free one, thinking it was somehow faster, but it was always quite dense, and not necessarily faster.
There is an overnight-fermented pizza dough that I intend to do next time I think of having pizza 24 hours in advance.  But for tonight, I found a  30-minute dough that I was willing to try.  I’ve pasted the recipe below, too, for convenience sake.

Ingredients

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
  
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  
• 2 cups bread flour * I used 1 cup whole wheat, and 1 cup white flour*
  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 teaspoons white sugar

Directions

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
   
2. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups bread flour, olive oil, salt, white sugar and the yeast mixture; stir well to combine. Beat well until a stiff dough has formed. Cover and rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
   
3. Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Form dough into a round and roll out into a pizza crust shape. Cover with your favorite sauce and toppings and bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
   
   Toppings:
   4-5 vine ripened tomatoes (depending on the size)
   1/2 yellow onion
   6 chicken tenders (frozen or defrosted)
   1-2 cloves minced garlic
   1/2  tsp rosemary, ground
   1 tsp oregano
   2 tbsp fresh basil, minced
   1 cup grated mozzarella
   2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan
   2 tbsp Caesar dressing (or Ranch)

While the dough was rising, I thinly sliced half a yellow onion, and sautéed it in olive oil until caramelized, and then added thinly sliced tomatoes, a clove of minced garlic, and a couple of tablespoons of minced basil leaves into the skillet. In a separate skillet, I sautéed chicken tenders with a few pinches of ground rosemary, and oregano and seasoning salt, and when the chicken was cooked through, I sliced it up into small chunks.
Once the dough had risen, I followed step # 3 above,  and then covered the crust first with a couple of tablespoons of Caesar dressing, about 2/3 cup mozzarella, and then all the sautéed ingredients from above, and a bit more mozzarella and grated parmesan.   I baked the pizza about 25 minutes on a pizza stone, and it was good!  I regret that I did not take any pictures, but them’s them apples.

Technorati Tags: pizza,yeast-crust,chicken,tomatoes,basil,onions,main dishes

Cranberry Almond Chicken Salad

What’s always funny to me is when people refer to things as “salad” that to me do not constitute a salad—case in point: the ubiquitous “marshmallow salad.” There are zero vegetables and absolutely no redeeming nutritional qualities to them—they are really a dessert, but I suppose by calling it a salad, people feel vindicated in eating it with their dinner.

A few nights ago I had a “salad with chicken.”  It was salad greens, with tomatoes, cucumbers, grilled chicken pieces, sauteed red bell peppers, feta cheese and balsamic vinaigrette.  So was that a chicken salad? Well, it was, but not the kind of chicken salad that this recipe entails. 

For most Americans, the “chicken salad” is something like 1 cup of mayo, canned chicken, and some chopped celery and salt & pepper.  This is kind of the cholesterol bomb lunch equivalent of the marshmallow salad I mentioned above. 

My sister-in-law-once-removed (i.e., my sister’s husband’s sister) makes a really good chicken salad that’s considerably healthier, and I’ve tweaked her version a little, and come up with my own version.  Most of the ingredients can be substituted, and I’ll make note of other suggestions that are equally good.

INGREDIENTS:
1 - 12 oz can of chicken breast (or approximately 1.5 cups of chopped, grilled chicken, whichever you prefer.)
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 carrots, peeled, and grated with a cheese grater
3/4 cup “craisins”
4 green onion stalks, cut into rings, about half-way up the green stem…(fresh chives will also suffice if approximately the same amount.)
1/2 cup slivered or chopped raw almonds – make sure the chopped or slivered pieces are small enough to blend in well with the salad’s texture, and just add a bit of crunch and extra protein.  Another option is salted, toasted sunflower seeds or pine nuts

Optional: 1 apple (preferably something like Gala, Fuji, Cameo, Jonagold…) diced, and/or 2/3 cup red grapes, sliced

Dressing:
2-3 tbsp mayo
1 tsp Dijon mustard (or try any other deli mustard that you like)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

Mix all together in a bowl until evenly coated, and serve in a tortilla, pita pocket, or with bread or crackers.

Technorati Tags: chicken,carrots,green onions,Dijon Mustard,salads,lunches,cranberries,celery,almonds

Hawaiian Chicken casserole

This is one of my mom’s best-loved dishes, and the one we request multiple times a year when we visit our parents.   My dad's co-worker had shared this recipe with them, and perhaps she got it from a Swedish cooking magazines.  Of course, we still lived in Da Ol’ Country.  So, go figure – Hawaiian chicken, via a Finnish woman, who got it from a Swedish nurse. The Hawaiian part is the pineapple, but other than that, I don’t suppose this is an actual Hawaiian chicken dish.  Then again, I’m not Hawaiian, so someone may correct me if needed. 
Granted the ingredients may sound a little peculiar, but trust me, it’s so savory and delicious, it may just be one of your go-to recipes when dinner guests come over. 
INGREDIENTS:
4 chicken breasts (with or without skin, depending on your preference) (or 12-15 chicken tenders)
1 cup heavy cream
8-12 rings of fresh pineapple slices (or 1 can if fresh can’t be gotten)
1-2 TBSP Dijon mustard
1 egg yolk
Seasoning salt
Fresh ground pepper
DIRECTIONS:
First season each chicken breast with some Seasoning salt.  You could go all gourmet, but seriously, Lawry’s is really good on here, so the paprika should be a part of the equation. Then the two options are to either pre-bake the chicken in a casserole dish, which you will use again for the completed dish, or to fry the chicken in a skillet with some olive oil until cooked all the way through and reading 160 with a meat thermometer.
When the chicken is prepped, this would be a good time to get some long-grain white rice going in a pot or rice cooker.  For four chicken breasts, I’d probably use about 2 cups of uncooked rice and 4 cups of water.

Layer pineapple rings at the bottom of the casserole dish. 

Then put the fully cooked chicken on top (I used chicken tenders, because I always have them in the freezer.) 
Pour heavy cream into a bowl, and whip it until soft peaks form.
 
Beat in the egg yolk and Dijon mustard, and whip another minute or so until you get a nice golden colored cream mixture.
Spread out the cream-mixture over the top, like you’re frosting a cake.
 
Now, put it all back in the oven at about 400 for about 15-20 minutes until the cream bubbles up and browns. 

Serve over white rice, and don’t forget to ladle on that creamy goodness all over your rice… (And add a vegetable of your choice, to offset the ultra decadent cream-sauce!) 

Technorati Tags: chicken,dijon,pineapple,main dishes,casseroles,cream,Hawaiian chicken

Pad Thai

I absolutely love Thai food, but I have really thus far only learned a few recipes. My mainstay is Pad Thai, which is delicious, and I've found that I've got a decent grasp of making my own sauce for the noodles, which is really half the battle of making a good Pad Thai.

I also incorporate bell peppers (because I love them and buy a bag of six of them every week at CostCo, and you can put them in Mexican Food, Italian Food, Asian food... you name it).

This recipe is sort of an amalgam of the directions on the back of the noodle-package, as well as some various pad-thai sauce recipes that I've fused together the last couple of years.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 package Thai rice noodles -- prepare according to directions and set aside
1 lb of chicken meat, cubed** (See Short-Cut below)
2 eggs
1 red bell pepper, sliced thinly into strips
6-8 green onions, trim ends and tops off about half way, and slice lengthwise)
1 bag of fresh Asian bean sprouts (or 1 can, if fresh can't be found)
1-2 limes, washed & wedged
1/2 cup crushed peanuts
1 cup fresh chopped cilantro (rinse & drip-dry first)

SAUCE INGREDIENTS:

4 tbsp Fish Sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp paprika
1-2 tbsp lime juice
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/4- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (more if you like super spicy!)

Mix sauce ingredients together in a small bowl, and set aside until last minute.

DIRECTIONS:

Heat a wok (or large, deep skillet) to medium high, and add 1 tbsp of sesame oil. When oil is hot, crack 2 raw eggs into it and IMMEDIATELY stir-fry the egg. It will get an interesting, bubbly texture from being fried in oil. Scoop it out and set it aside in a small bowl for now.

Add cubed chicken into wok, (or chicken tenders which can be cut up once cooked) and stir fry until nearly cooked through.

Add all ingredients in this order: Bell peppers and green onions, (stir fry for 3-5 minutes until softened), the noodles, (stir fry 1-2 minutes to heat up the cold noodles.) Then add bean sprouts, the fried eggs, distribute sauce evenly by drizzling it over the wok as you keep turning the ingredients, and lastly top the whole thing with cilantro and stir it in. Top with crushed peanuts, lime wedges and serve it up piping hot.

(**My favorite short-cut is to just saute the "chicken tenders" and then use tongs and scissors to cut them into bite size pieces while they're still hot & cooked... less messy that way, since you're not handling raw poultry. )