Fallen Souffle

So Evan decided he has a hankering for fried chicken. I don’t know who he thinks he is, or who he married, but I do not claim to be a southern cook. I cook healthy balanced meals that almost always include some kind of green veggie. (not that Evan eats the green veggie, but still, it is there). But because I am such a loving wife, I went out and bought a cast iron skillet and a tub of Crisco and decided we were going to fry some chicken.

What is hard about this dish is that I don’t normally eat fried chicken so it’s hard for me to know how to fix it. Luckily we happened to DVR an episode of Good Eats in which Alton shows an easy step by step method to fry up our favorite bird (Leave it to the southerners to turn an otherwise healthy protein into a grease pit). We re-watched the show and set up our stations just as Alton suggested. We armed ourselves with three sets of tongs and our handy digital thermometer. All and all the process went smoothly. The chicken burned just a bit because we have a flat topped stove and I think the direct heat kinda threw the cooking process off. But nonetheless the chicken is all gone between Evan’s two helpings at dinner and his breakfast the next morning. Thank goodness for his morning basketball games!

Alton’s Fried Chicken
1 broiler/fryer chicken, cut into 8 pieces
2 cups low fat buttermilk
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons Hungarian paprika
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
(I used Emeril’s Bam seasoning instead of this mixture)
Flour, for dredging
Vegetable shortening, for frying

Place chicken pieces into a plastic container and cover with buttermilk. Cover and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.

Melt enough shortening (over low heat) to come just 1/8-inch up the side of a 12-inch cast iron skillet or heavy fry pan. Once shortening liquefies raise heat to 325 degrees F. Do not allow oil to go over 325 degrees F.

Drain chicken in a colander. Combine salt, paprika, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper. Liberally season chicken with this mixture. Dredge chicken in flour and shake off excess.

Place chicken skin side down into the pan. Put thighs in the center, and breast and legs around the edge of the pan. The oil should come half way up the pan. Cook chicken until golden brown on each side, approximately 10 to 12 minutes per side. More importantly, the internal temperature should be right around 180 degrees. (Be careful to monitor shortening temperature every few minutes.)

Drain chicken on a rack over a sheet pan. Don’t drain by setting chicken directly on paper towels or brown paper bags. If you need to hold the chicken before serving, cover loosely with foil but avoid holding in a warm oven, especially if it’s a gas oven.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Because Evan and I have been eating like absolute crap the past couple of weeks, so we have put ourselves on a chicken diet for a little while. We have had quite a bit of red meat between the two of us (well more Evan- something about a 28 ounce porterhouse in Orlando- ouch!) so it is time to lighten things up. I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com and thought it would be fun to mix things up and grill some kabobs. It also allowed us to try out some kabob holders I never though we would use (they worked quite well!)

I loved the flavor of this chicken, we also added some pineapple to the baskets because Evan loves to grill pineapple- though I don’t think there is much he doesn’t like grilled! The chili is not at all spicy, it just adds a nice bit of smokiness. Though add more cayenne to spice it up. We also threw in some hickory woods chips to the grill which added another nice depth of flavor but I know this marinade would stand well on it’s own. I let my chicken marinade for an entire 24 hours, but I am sure you could throw this together in the morning for dinner that night.

Chili Lime Chicken Kabobs
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 lime, juiced
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
cayenne pepper to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
skewers

In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, and lime juice. Season with chili powder, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper. Place the chicken in a shallow baking dish with the sauce, and stir to coat. Cover, and marinate in the refrigerator at least 1 hour.

Preheat the grill for medium-high heat. Thread chicken onto skewers, and discard marinade.

Lightly oil the grill grate. Grill skewers for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the chicken juices run clear.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Evan and I had the bright idea to invite his parents over for Easter dinner since they have never been to our house for dinner! Shocking I know! Well then we were given a weekend in a huge beach house in the Outer Banks for that same weekend…so naturally we asked to push back the dinner which his parents kindly understood.

So I had to make this dinner really great since (1) they have never eaten at our house and (2) I had to make up big time for postponing our dinner. So I turned to the queen of simple entertaining, Ina Garten, for a delicious and easy entree. I made her Chicken with Forty Cloves (yes it had forty cloves of garlic in it, I counted them!) which was fantastic! I saw it on her show a couple of weeks ago but I believe it is also in her Barefoot in Paris cookbook which I flipped through while at the beach and really liked the recipes,I may need to add this one to the collection. I also took some inspiration from one of her salads in the book and made a salad with pears, gorgonzola and a nice simple vinaigrette.

As a side I made my first orzo dish which had some carrots and peas in it. Nice and simple but really yummy. I really think homemade chicken stock makes a tremendous difference in dishes like this.

For dessert I tried out a recipe I made up for a cooking contest coming up in about a week. I am so excited because everyone had seconds! That’s always a good sign! I think with one minor change I will be on my way! I will have more on this recipes later.

unfortunately I did not have a chance to take pictures of anything but I assure you it was all quite beautiful and tasty!

Ina’s Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic
from Ina Garten
This recipe looks daunting but is really worth all of the browning and transferring of chicken, once everything is browned up you just throw everything in the pot and let the cookware do the work- I think this is a great recipe for entertaining. ~Jen

3 whole heads garlic, about 40 cloves
2 (3 1/2-pound) chickens, cut into eighths
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons good olive oil
3 tablespoons Cognac, divided (I used brandy)
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons heavy cream (I left this out)

Separate the cloves of garlic and drop them into a pot of boiling water for 60 seconds. Drain the garlic and peel. Set aside. (Peeling the garlic is a great task for the husband, wife or kids!)

Dry the chicken with paper towels. Season liberally with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat the butter and oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. In batches, saute the chicken in the fat, skin side down first, until nicely browned, about 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Turn with tongs or a spatula; you don’t want to pierce the skin with a fork. If the fat is burning, turn the heat down to medium. When a batch is done, transfer it to a plate and continue to saute all the chicken in batches. Remove the last chicken to the plate and add all of the garlic to the pot. Lower the heat and saute for 5 to 10 minutes, turning often, until evenly browned. Add 2 tablespoons of the Cognac and the wine, return to a boil, and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Return the chicken to the pot with the juices and sprinkle with the thyme leaves. Cover and simmer over the lowest heat for about 30 minutes, until all the chicken is done.

Remove the chicken to a platter and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of the sauce and the flour and then whisk it back into the sauce in the pot. Raise the heat, add the remaining tablespoon of Cognac and the cream, and boil for 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper, to taste; it should be very flavorful because chicken tends to be bland. Pour the sauce and the garlic over the chicken and serve hot.

Jen’s Confetti Orzo

1 T. olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 chopped carrots
3 cups chicken stock (homemade is best in this recipe if you have it!)
1 cup orzo
1/2 cup frozen peas
salt and pepper
2 T. milk or cream

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat, add onions, garlic and carrots and cook until soft.

2. Add chicken stock, raise heat to high. Once boiling, add orzo, stir and cover. Cook for about 10 minutes until liquid is absorbed and pasta is al dente, stirring occasionally.

3. Add frozen peas and cook for one more minutes, stirring constantly. Turn off heat and season with salt and pepper. Finish with the milk or cream to smooth it out and make it nice and creamy.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Monday night is usually the night I make a typically “Sunday meal.” Something like a roast, or elaborate pasta dish or chicken. This Monday I wanted a roast chicken because it just felt like a roasted chicken kinda day. We woke up at 5:30am with a trembling black lab on our bed. Bella is deathly afraid of any loud type of noise like fireworks or thunder. She shakes uncontrollable and there is really nothing we can do for her but pet her and try to comfort her. She always wants to be close to us in times like these, so we always let her up on the bed or couch.

So anyways, we were plagued with nasty storms all day so I wanted something comforting and warm. Roasting chickens are quite easy to perfect when you have a digital thermometer. Mine was from Target and cost about $16 and it is totally worth it. This particular one includes an alarm which goes off when the temperature of your dish is ready. It’s amazing! It is perfect for chickens, pork chops or anything that you would normally have to hack into to check for doneness.

For this chicken I rubbed roasted garlic under the skin and shoved the remaining garlic bulb in the cavity. I them smeared a tablespoon of softened butter over the skin to make it crispy and yummy. Bake it at 425 degrees for about an hour and 15 minutes or until done (180 degrees internal temperature)

To compliment this juicy chicken I decided to try my hand at risotto. I have been a little intimidated by this just because you have to babysit this thing for 30 minutes while getting your arm workout for the day. It’s not something that sounded fun to me. But I did get the real rice from the Italian market and decided to give it a try. Though because I was catching up on a weeks worth of DVR-ed shows I was not interested in the constant stirring. So I broke a cardinal Italian rule by microwaving it- but it was SO MUCH EASIER! The microwave literally does all the work. I stirred it about 4 times total and the result was really yummy. I added a load of Parmesan cheese to this but you could add anything- peas, prosciutto mushrooms…yum! Evan even enjoyed it even though he doesn’t really like rice…but even he couldn’t turn down this cheesy delight.

Microwave Risotto
3 tablespoons butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup uncooked Arborio rice
3/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. In a 3 quart, microwave safe casserole dish combine butter, garlic and onion. Place dish in microwave and cook on high for 3 minutes.

2. Place vegetable broth in a microwave safe dish. Heat on microwave until the broth is hot but not boiling (approximately 2 minutes).

3. Stir the rice and broth into the casserole dish with the onion, butter and garlic mixture. Cover the dish tightly and cook on high for 6 minutes.

4. Stir wine into the rice. Cook on high for 10 minutes more. Most of the liquid should boil off. Stir the cheese into the rice and serve.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

It’s Saturday morning. The first load of 10 is in the washer. Suitcases are all over the living room floor. The dogs are sleeping after a week with the Grandparents. Evan is catching up on his 1800 e-mails. I have no motivation to do anything. I need a vacation after my vacation. Needless to say I had no desire to cook but I didn’t want to eat out anymore. I wanted something healthy and light but filling. Leave it to Rachael to come to the rescue. I rarely make any of her dishes but I do like watching her and getting ideas. Her menu on Saturday morning was all about chicken, which was perfect since I had had my fill of red meat for a while. The ingredients were “normal” no running around trying to find something. So I head upstairs to find the recipe online only to find that FoodNetwork.com has misprinted the recipe for the chicken and “slaw” she made. Now I had to rely on my memory. Yikes!

The recipe turned out just fine though. She grilled up some pineapple with lime juice then sprinkled lime zest and honey over it. Evan really liked that! I am going to link to the recipe for the chicken and slaw here.

I really liked this dish. It took me 45 minutes only because I had to butterfly the chicken myself but it really cuts down on the cooking time when you do this. The only think I would change about the slaw would be to add less oil in the beginning. I think I added more than Rachael called for, some my veggies steamed instead of getting crispy. But the pickled ginger is really awesome. I would have never thought to use this but it is perfect with the honey and vinegar. A nice alternative to a salad but you still get the benefits.

I will definitely make this again for dinner. It’s quick and easy and really tasty. And it’s easy to slim down to two servings!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

When I was in college I worked as a leasing consultant for an upscale apartment community. I loved working there, sure there were days where the residents were less than nice and I had to show apartments in the rain but all in all, I couldn’t ask for e better place to work. They were super flexible with my schedule even letting me off 3 weeks (twice!)while I went to Europe.

I got to meet many wonderful people, one of theme being a lady named Roberts, but we called her Bobbie. I rented her the apartment over the phone, she needed temporary housing while she was building a house. She needed the largest apartment we had because she had to cram all of her belongings (including a baby grand piano!) into it for the time being. Little did I realize that the apartment I rented her had teal green carpet…yuck! I felt awful when she arrived to discover this less than appealing carpet color she would have to live with for the next 6 months, but she never yelled our screamed or made any kind of fuss. It became a constant joke around the office, and don’t you know I personally checked every carpet color after that event!

Bobbie also went to the same church I went to, she sang in the choir and helped with the altar guild, while I spent alot of time watching kids in the nursery and taking part in the college program. She grew pretty close to us in the office, so much so that she invited us over to her new house once she had settled in. Her house was gorgeous! Much more house than one person needs, but she did have to accommodate grandchildren in the summer. When went over around Christmas time so she had a huge tree in the foyer that smelled amazing. We chatted over wine and cheese and then she pulled this casserole out for dinner. I was surprised to be served a casserole, until I tasted it. Talk about a comfort food! This dish is amazing! We all raved about it and begged for the recipe. She e-mailed it to us all about a week or so later. I have had this recipe for about 4 years now, I whenever I make it I think of her and her warm personality. We lost touch when I graduated but I know in my heart she is taken care of.

Bobbie’s Chicken and Broccoli Casserole
with slight modifications by Jen

florets from one head of broccoli steamed
2 cups of cooked, diced chicken
1 cup of rice cooked in 2 cups of water
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 cup of mayo
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup soft bread crumbs

1. Layer a casserole dish with broccoli, chicken, and rice, in that order. Mix the remaining ingredients except the bread crumbs and spread over casserole. Top with soft breads crumbs and additional cheese if desired.

2. Bake 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees until bubbly.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

So Evan’s request this week was that we have chicken tenders for dinner. The thought of reheating the frozen ones was not too appealing to me so I set out to the grocery store to find something that would do. Just my luck! Chicken tender strips were $1.99 a pound! I love a deal!

Instead of covering them in plain old bread crumbs I decided to use panko bread crumbs. These are a Japanese crumb used in tempura I believe. Nonetheless, they are the new chic ingredient on Food Network, and I bought some a while ago from Earth Fare to use in Chicken Parm.

I kept things simple; a 400 degree oven, a cooling rack placed on top of my baking sheet so that the hot air would create a crisp crust all around. A simple egg wash with 3 eggs, some salt and pepper. The coating was about 1 cup of panko crumbs, a tablespoon of dried parsley, and a teaspoon each of garlic powder and paprika. These only took about 20-30 minutes to cook, just look for the toasty crust. A healthy alternative to the fried ones, Evan said they taste just as good!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Evan noticed that I have been trying out new recipes, and I am glad they are turning out! We used to rotate the same 8 or 9 recipes and I just got sick of the same old grilled burritos, so my new year’s resolution was to try new dishes for dinner and so far so good!

I was trying to come up with a good name for this dish but there are just so many different flavors it’s hard to pinpoint. When you look at the ingredient list it may look a little odd but this is truly a great dish…probably my new favorite chicken dish. Even Evan liked it and I wasn’t sure if it would because of the mix of flavors. I had everything in my pantry and just had to get some chicken from the store. This took me exactly one hour to do, the last 15 minutes I threw in some broccoli to roast and dinner was done.

Sweet and Smokey Chicken

1 whole chicken, cut up
1/2 cup butter, divided
salt and pepper
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1 teaspoon curry powder

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place chicken in 9×13 inch pan, season with salt and pepper, and pour 1/4 cup of melted butter over. Bake for 45 minutes uncovered.

2. In a medium saucepan; combine remaining butter, honey, molasses, mustard and curry powder. Cook over low heat for about 5 minutes or until butter is melted.

3. After 45 minutes, pour sauce over chicken and bake another 15 minutes or until juices run clear.

On a side note, I want to congratulate our friends Thomas and Ashley who tied the knot this past Saturday and have moved to Seattle to start their new happy lives together. We wish you nothing but the best and will miss you!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

This was by far one of the best gifts I got this year (along with the carpet steam cleaner, Coach bag, and pink Yankees hat :), I have been wanting and lusting over these for ages. I made my Mom go into the outlet store in Smithfield just so I could drool over all of the beautiful pots…yes they are beautiful! So needless to say this gift brought out the 8 year old in me when I opened it Christmas morning. I shrieked and danced and skipped for joy when I opened the mammoth gift. I couldn’t figure out how to open to box, which was frustrating in and of itself and I all about carried it around with me all morning. My kitchen felt complete.

So it was about time I broke this baby in. She weighs a ton but her heft is worth the incredible cooking job she does. She retains heat like no ones business and I have never cooked such a meal so fast and efficiently. I made a true one pot meal.

I took some inspiration from Giada on this dish and had all intentions of following her recipe exactly but when I was at the store the mushrooms looked superb so I decided to try them out. I figured I had had such luck with brunch yesterday that I would see if the food gods were on my side again today. Oh yeah…I must have been a good girl because I made an incredible meal that made the whole house smell cozy and even perked up the hubby who was engrossed in a college bowl game.

This takes about an hour or so in all to cook and the flavor is just amazing, I think it has to do with the lemon juice added at the end. I could literally just eat the veggies, they were so flavorful and the artichokes pick up the lemon so well. Yum!

Chicken and Artichokes

4 tablespoons olive oil
4 chicken thighs
4 cloves of minced garlic
6 small red potatoes, cut in quarters
1 small package of button mushrooms, wiped clean
1 15 oz can of artichokes, quartered
1 cup white wine
1 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary
salt and pepper
1 lemon

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Over medium high heat, heat olive oil then add thighs skin side down and allow to brown. Flip and allow to cook about 8 minutes or so. Remove from pot and add potatoes. Allow to carmelize a bit, about 7 minutes. Add wine and broth and scrap brown bits from bottom. Bring to boil and add mushrooms and chicken to the pot. Add garlic, salt and pepper (about 2 teaspoons each), rosemary and juice of one half of the lemon. Cover and put in oven for about 20 minutes.

3. Check chicken after 20 minutes, the temperature should read 180 degrees. When done remove from oven and stir in artichokes and juice from the other half of the lemons.

I whipped up some biscuits and dinner was done! One pot to clean!

As you can see, I tend to be a bit like Rachael Ray and not measure much when I cook, but I tried to take better notes of what I was putting in. I hope you enjoy!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

So two of my fellow foodie bloggers, Alicat from Something So Clever and Sara from i like to cook have developed an awesome idea for all of us that love to cook and collect cookbooks, the Weekend Cookbook Challenge. I don’t have nearly as many cookbook as some of these ladies do, but I confess I don’t use mine very much. I am much more into finding recipes online and sticking them in my gigantic, overflowing binder. Yet I do enjoying flipping through my few cookbooks for ideas and inspiration while the hubby is watching sports.

So this week’s challenge is to pull out our oldest cookbook, either oldest by copyright date or the one we have had the longest and make something new out of it. I have once again turned to my cookbook bible, the All New Good Housekeeping Cookbook from 1991. It’s not really new anymore, it isn’t even printed anymore, yet I do love all 831 pages of it.

I was actually going to buy this cookbook for one of my room mates in college for her birthday. She wasn’t the best cook and I figured this book covered just about every basic recipe you would ever want. It covers every type of meat, fruit, bread, cheese, appetizer, drink and jam you could imagine and then some. I was flipping through it in the store and just could not bare to give it to her. She wouldn’t appreciate such a gem, so I kept it for myself

I have all sorts of post it notes and other recipes sticking out of it. The pages for foccacia and lemon poppyseed pound cake are so sticky and stained and wrinkled from the many times I have made these recipes. It is my all time go to book for recipes.

So with that being said I had a hard time choosing a recipe to make. I am trying to make more unique dinner and not so many desserts so that narrowed it down to about 10 chapters. I bought a rotisserie chicken this morning but it was plain so it needed to be spruced up. I found the recipe for Apricot Glazed Chicken and figured this simple glaze would be perfect over the chicken. I am in love with anything with apricots though funny enough I have only had them dried or in preserves, maybe next summer. I will leave you with the recipe in it’s entirety yet I only made the glaze then slathered it over the chicken while it reheated at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes. The glaze was awesome and easy and even the hubby liked it!

Apricot Glazed Chicken

1/3 cup apricot preserves
1 tablespoon chili sauce
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large bone in chicken breasts

1. Preheat over to 425 degrees. In small bowl combine first 4 ingredients. Arrange chicken in 13×9 inch baking dish and brush with glaze.

2. Bake, brushing occasionally with glaze, until chicken is tender and juices run clear, about 25-30 minutes.

PS- Only 338 calories and 2 grams of fat per serving! Eat up!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!