A new favorite

Don't you love finding a new recipe that everybody devours and loves?  This next recipe is relatively new to us but it has already been repeated several times.  Homemade breaded chicken tenders!  YUMMY!

I have made these to be the main (and only) dinner dish, and then used the leftovers the next day in a chicken wrap or placed over salad greens.  The ideas are endless!

Please remember that when I cook, I almost always make enough for two people, and then some for leftovers -- I guess that makes about 3-4 portions.  This recipe is soooooo good that using 4 chicken breasts tests our temptation limits on getting seconds.  4 chicken breasts, depending on size, should be enough for 3 portions.  (It also depends on what you are serving with this for the meal). 

Breaded Chicken Tenders

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 egg, beaten
1 cup buttermilk***
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon
1 cup flour
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
vegetable oil to fry

***There is no buttermilk in Mexico.  I let 1 cup milk and 1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar sit for 5 minutes and then continue with the recipe.  Tonight I used lemon juice instead of white vinegar and I actually liked the taste even better.  I imagine with plain buttermilk the flavors will be similar. 

1. Mix egg, buttermilk, garlic powder, and paprika.  Pour over chicken strips in a ziplock bag.  Refrigerate at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours. 

2. Combine flour, bread crumbs, salt, and baking powder.  Mix well.

3. Take each chicken strip out of the buttermilk marinade and place in the flour mixture.  Coat each chicken strip well and place on a plate until ready to fry. 

4. Heat oil to 375 degrees (190 C)

5. Fry chicken strips until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.  This usually takes 2-3 batches. 

Bon appetit!

The Little Chicken that Could

There is an amusing story about this next recipe.  If not amusing, it is, at the very least, educational. 

Just before Christmas vacation, we decided to try this whole chicken roast.  The recipe clearly states the amount of time necessary to cook but somewhere, somehow inbetween converting kilograms into pounds (time based on weight of chicken), I completely screwed up.  I underestimated how long we needed to cook it by about 1 hour.  (I did it for 55 minutes).  We undercooked the bird and ended up cutting off all the meat and then continued cooking in a skillet, thinking that would be faster.  I ended up spending my Christmas vacation with a terrible parasite.... and this cooking fiasco might be to blame. 

SO.  I knew the recipe had great potential and I finally got the nerve to try it again.  This time, I cooked it for just under 2 hours and it was perfect.  Well worth all the time spent marinating, letting the chicken rest at room temperature, the rub and seasonings, and the long amount of cooking time. 

Lesson learned:  make sure you cook the chicken long enough!  I had never cooked an entire bird before, so I didn't have knowledge of what a "normal" cooking time should have been.  Use the thermometer!

Peruvian Syle Roast Chicken

Buttermilk Soak
3 cups buttermilk
2 crushed garlic cloves
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons salt

Peruvian Style Rub
1 full head of garlic
1 teaspoon EVOO
4 tablespoons softened butter
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt

3-4 limes
3-4 springs fresh thyme, destemmed and chopped
1/2 cup chicken stock
3-3.5 pound whole chicken, rinsed and tidied up

1. Mix together all ingredients for the buttermilk soak.  Soak the chicken in the buttermilk brine for 3-4 hours.  I place the chicken in a large ziplock bag and then pour all the liquids over it.  Place in refrigerator and turn occasionally.

2. Roast the head of garlic. Slice off the top of the head, exposing all the cloves. Drizzle the oil in between all the cloves, and wrap the whole thing up in foil. Bake for about an hour at 350 degrees.  (I use my toaster oven).

3. Squeeze all the tasty roasted garlic out into a small mixing bowl.  Add the butter and spices, and the juice of one of the limes, and make a paste.

4. Remove the chicken & brine from the refrigerator.  Rinse the chicken and pat it dry.  Rub the paste under the skin of the breast and thighs and then over the entire chicken. Tuck one or two quartered limes in the cavity and truss the chicken loosely.

5. Allow the chicken to come to room temperature, and the paste to season the chicken, for about 30 minutes.

6. Preheat the oven to 375 with the rack in the bottom third of the oven.

7. Slip in the chicken, back side down, onto a roasting pan and then place in the oven.  (In the states, I will probably use my Dutch Oven, but for down here, I bought an aluminom roasting pan and placed it on a baking sheet.)

8. The chicken needs to cook for a long time.  The only reliable test is a thermometer reading of 160 degrees.  I started checking mine at the one hour mark.  Mine cooked for 1 hour and 55 minutes.

9. Remove the chicken and juices from the roasting pan and put it on the stove in a large skillet with deep sides.  Over high heat, add thyme and 1/2 c chicken broth, then spoon the broth over the chicken. Allow the bird to rest for 10 minutes, then quarter and serve.

Bon appetit!

Buttermilk soak

Peruvian style rub

Letting the chicken rest at room temperature

Out of the oven

In the pan with thyme and chicken stock

Lots of meat!

Pardon me, but would you have any Grey Poupon?

Creamy Chicken with a Dijon Mustard Sauce

Ingredients

3 chicken breasts or 6 chicken thighs
8 garlic cloves with skin on
herb of choice:  4 sprigs of fresh thyme, or 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary, or 5 sage leaves (thyme and rosemary should be de-stemmed and chopped)
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons EVOO
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup white wine
1/3 cup cognac (or peach juice)
1 cup chicken stock
1 container button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup cream
1 tablespoon flour
salt, pepper

1. In a large enough pan, add the butter, EVOO, garlic cloves, and seasoning of choice over medium heat.  When the butter starts to sizzle, add the chicken and let them get golden brown on each side.  They will be cooking later so you just want to get the golden brown now.

2. Heat the chicken stock in a small pot.

3. Remove chicken from pan.  Add the white wine and cognac (or peach juice) and deglaze the pan.  Let the alcohol evaporate completely, then add the dijon mustard and dissolve in sauce with a whisk.

4. Return chicken back to pan.  Add the hot chicken stock and sliced mushrooms.  Season with salt and pepper and let simmer over low heat, covered, for 20 minutes.

5. Remove the cooked chicken and keep warm.  Let the sauce simmer over low heat to reduce as much as you like (hardly none at all, for me.  The more sauce, the better!).  Squeeze the garlics in the pan to release more flavor, then discard the flaky skins.  Also remove the sage leaves at this time if you chose sage as your seasoning.

6. In a separate bowl, dissolve flour in 3 tablespoons of the cream.  Add the remaining cream and stir.  Add a small spoonful of the hot wine/mustard/stock sauce.  Whisk together very well and slowly pour into the pan.  Keep stirring so the sauce doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. 

7. Let the sauce warm through and reduce slightly. 

8. Pour the sauce over chicken and serve immediately. 

Bon appetit!

This recipe is amazing!  (I know, you're thinking that anything made with a cream sauce can't be too shabby, right?!??)  I've made it twice in the last two weeks - once using fresh thyme and again using fresh rosemary.  The original recipe calls for sage leaves, but I don't have any available.  I do have some ground sage that I'm going to try next time.  I served rice pilaf and sauteed spinach alongside this.

Cream sauce with thyme

A Creamy Culinary Creation

I love this recipe so much but can't figure out a good introduction for it.  So.....  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Creamy Mushroom and Chicken Linguine

Ingredients

linguine pasta
2 chicken breasts
EVOO
2 garlic cloves, minced
handful of button mushrooms (maybe around 8-9), sliced
1/2 small white onion, diced
1 chicken bouillon cube, crumbled
1/2 cup water
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup milk
green onions, chopped

1. Cook pasta according to directions on package.  Drain. 

2. Season chicken breasts to your own desire (For this recipe, we usually season with pepper, montreal chicken spice, and lawrys seasoning salt).  Heat EVOO in large skillet and cook chicken, approximately 6 minutes each side.  Remove chicken from pan and place aside, covered.  Drain most of the liquid from pan.

3. In the same pan, sautee garlic, mushrooms, and onion for about 3 minutes.

4. Add the chicken bouillon cube and water.  Stir until the bouillon cube is completely dissolved.  Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for 8 minutes. 

5. Add the cream and milk.  Heat until sauce warms through and reduces slightly.  After the heat is turned off, add in a handful of chopped green onions for a nice pop of color and added flavor.

6. Combine pasta noodles and sauce.  Serve one portion of noodles onto a plate and add chicken breast on the side. 

Bon appetit!

This sauce is incredible.  I could happily eat this as just a pasta dish, in fact, I often eat only half of my chicken breast.  We add in the chicken breast to beef this recipe up for Shea.  The last few times we went grocery shopping, they didn't have linguine noodles so I substituted penne pasta.  I knew I needed a pasta that could stand up to the heaviness of the sauce.  Shea and I both preferred the penne pasta instead of the linguine noodles, so I will probably be making this with only penne from here on out. 

Fresh Herbs

If you have paid close attention to my previous recipe entries, you might have noticed that I use fresh herbs as opposed to the dried versions.  When I started cooking in the United States I never once bought fresh herbs.  To be honest, I'm not even sure I knew they existed.  I bought all types of the jarred McCormick spices and herbs and never thought twice about how using dried or fresh herbs could affect the flavor.  My good friend and section mate in the orchestra introduced me to the fresh herb world.  It started with the discovery of a small section of the produce department at Walmart: it contained bags of fresh rosemary, basil, thyme, parsley......  I mentioned this discovery to my section mate and she and her husband both commented on how much they enjoy cooking with fresh herbs.  Later that evening I cooked this recipe using my newly bought rosemary... and I haven't gone back to using dried herbs ever since.  I look forward to growing my own basil and rosemary plants so that I can always have these fresh herbs on hand.

Honey Rosemary Chicken

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
EVOO
salt, pepper
1 large shallot, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
juice of 1 lemon

1. Heat EVOO in large saucepan.  Season chicken simply with salt and pepper.  Add to pan and cook approximately 6 minutes on each side.

2. After chicken is done cooking, pull out of pan, place on a plate and cover with aluminom foil to keep warm.  Drain most of liquid out of pan.

3. In same pan, sautee shallot, garlic cloves, and rosemary.  If necessary, add more EVOO.  Cook 2-3 minutes until rosemary is fragrant. 

4. Add in honey and mustard.  Stir to create a yummy glaze.

5. Add chicken to pan.  Place glaze all over each chicken breast.

Bon appetit!

We usually pair this chicken dish with a side of vegetable rice pilaf (recipe to be added soon).  The honey glaze is very nice with the chicken and also along with the rice.  A great pairing.