Buffalo Chicken Bites

If you were a biblical type person, you might understand the allusion to a Doubting Thomas.

No, I'm not referring to my husband, but to myself in this case.

When I originally found this recipe, I was all gung-ho, all steam ahead, I can't wait to try it!  There aren't a lot of ingredients, the premise sounded easy enough, and I was on it like a bonnet.    It's when I got halfway through the recipe that I started having doubts...

Ingredients:
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken (I bought pre-cooked)
1 pizza dough (I bought pre-made)
1 onion, chopped
2 T butter
1/2 C Buffalo sauce
2 C fresh mozzarella

Directions (original):
1. Saute onions in butter, add chicken and continue until fully cooked (this was quick for me since mine was already prepared).
2. Add Buffalo sauce, heat through.
3. Divide pizza dough in half and roll out.
4. Spread out half the chicken and top with half the mozzarella.
5. Roll (like a cinnamon roll), slice into 2" rolls, and place in a greased muffin tin.
6. Bake for 15-18 minutes, at 400, until cheese is bubbly and dough is lightly browned.

Okay, so this part of the plan went off really well, but I started to doubt what this would look like when I took it out of the oven.  Plus, I had only made 12 'cupcakes', and I was expecting a party of 50.  I decided to revamp the recipe to make 24+ mini muffin/bite sized treats instead.

That being said, here's my revamped directions...

Directions (revamped):
1. Follow steps 1-3 above.
2. Cut dough into 24 even pieces (I just made squares).
3. Place in the bottom of a greased mini muffin tin
4. Add 1 tsp of the Buffalo chicken mix to each tin
5. Top with pinch of mozzarella
6. Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes, or until dough is lightly browned and cheese is bubbly.

I LOVED the large size, and split that tin with my assistants, but everyone loved the bite sized ones, and since we doubled the recipe, we had a ton of them! (48+ per recipe).

The dark around the edges is the cheese that overflowed/overcooked on the tin itself.  Still delicious!

Avocado Chicken Puffs

 Another accidental dinner?  Sure thing!  Wasn't sure that there was another kind...

It started off with this inspiration for puff pastries.

I really hate working with puff pastries, and I'm not a fan of how they taste, so I took the same general principal and added it to some Pillsbury Rustic French Loaf.

 Ingredients:
1 roll of french bread dough
2 pre-cooked chicken breasts
salsa
avocado or guacamole
chopped bell peppers
Mexican cheese shreds (or your own fav flavor)

1. Preheat oven to temperature on bread package (350?), and grease a cookie sheet.
2. Cut the dough into 6 even pieces.
3. Take one piece of dough and form it into a bowl.

4. Spread avocado/guac on the bottom of your bread bowl.
 5. Add chicken and desired toppings.  For me, this was chopped bell peppers and then salsa.
6. Repeat this process for all bread bowls, and then place each bowl on your prepared cookie sheet.
7. Top with shredded cheese
8. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until your bread is puffed and lightly brown.
9. Gently remove with a spatula from pan and onto your place.  Enjoy!

Monterrey Chicken

 Thomas has been in San Jose for over a month.  That kind of means that I don't cook too much.  It's not that I eat out more, necessarily, but my meals are more like grilled cheese sandwiches and simple pastas that aren't too worth blogging about.

However, I was in the mood to make something the other day.  Anything.

Luckily, there's always chicken in the house.  However, I never label it when I freeze it, so sometimes it's a surprise.

 Maybe not a big surprise, since I always get boneless and skinless, but it's more of a surprise about if it's thighs or breasts, since my freezer and zip lock bags never really let me know what I'm grabbing in the bleary eyed morning to defrost.  I always say I'll remember and don't need to grab that Sharpie.

Right.

 Regardless, I found a recipe for "Monterrey" Chicken, and it sounded great.  I found it at All Things Simple, which sounded right up my alley.

I quickly cooked the chicken on the stove top, although I was tempted to create it in the oven with the Rotel, much like my Salsa Verde Chicken.

My measurements weren't as precise as the original recipe, but it was straight forward.

 I cut my two large chicken breasts in half, then smeared BBQ sauce on top of each.  Then, I drained the Rotel (original recipe) and topped the BBQ chicken with the tomatoes and chiles.

From there, it was bacon pieces (from a bag, unfortunately), and then I sprinkled Mexican blend Colby Jack cheese shreds on top.

I also hate cleaning, so you'll note I lined my Pyrex with foil.

I popped the chicken in the oven at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes, or until the cheese was nice and melted, but not so long that it dried out my chicken.

This dish also made me remember why I love Rotel...  It not only adds flavor, but the heat keeps my portion sizes smaller.  

For my sides, I made quickly sauteed some peppers in a light touch of olive oil, with salt and pepper to taste.

I placed it all on a bed of quinoa.  Usually, I would make the quinoa in tomato bouillon base with the water, but I couldn't find that, or any chicken broth in the house to flavor it up.  Luckily the peppers and Monterrey chicken did their parts to add lots of flavor to the dish.

I made four portions out of my meal, and this was one of my leftovers the next day.  Still yummy!

Cranberry Chicken - from a crock pot!

 Four ingredients (plus sides) and dinner is ready.

Ready?  Let's Go!

The Cranberry Chicken recipe comes from here originally.







Here's what I did...







Ingredients:
1 dry packet of onion soup
1 can of cranberry sauce
8 oz of Catalina ("sweet & tangy French") dressing
Mix them together, pour over 5-8 chicken thighs/breasts (depending on their size.  I had 5 large...)

Bake on high for 4 hours in the crock, or at 350 for 1.5-1.75 hours.

 It turns out super juicy and AMAZING!

served with (leftover) brown rice and steamed broccoli - YUM!

Southwest Chicken Wraps

 The original recipe can be found here.  I know, I know, I didn't really follow it, but before we start off on the wrong foot, I want you to know my inspiration!

My ingredients:
1 Bell Pepper, cut into strips
2 Celery stalks, thinly sliced (could have used more)
1 lb pre-cooked chicken, cut into strips
whole wheat tortillas
toppings: lettuce and shredded cheese

The biggest departure point on that ingredient list is the celery.  I've never tried celery in my fajitas before.  I stir fried the peppers and celery, then added the chicken to heat through.  The celery maintains its consistency so well, I think I'll add it to all future fajitas.

The other part that's different is the sauce.  I normally add salsa and guacamole to my fajitas, but I created this sauce instead.  It was 1/2 C light mayo and 3/4 C fat free ranch, with about 2 T of taco seasoning.  That might be two packets' worth, I'm not sure.  I always buy it in bulk.

 The original recipe calls for you to cook the chicken (if necessary) and to mix it up in the sauce.  Thomas loves sauces, and if he were home I might have done it as such.  However, I just drizzled about 2 teaspoons of the SW sauce over my meat as I was creating the fajita and it added the right amount of flavor for me.  This sauce was definitely easier than making guac and salsa, but if you have those on hand, it might be interesting to try it all together.

Super YUM!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

 As I ramble through Pinterest, I find more and more every day that I want to try.  Luckily, I have a hungry husband to help me eat up my creations, and all of the leftovers!  Unfortunately, he'll start travelling soon and it'll be meals for one with more leftovers than I know what to do with.  Maybe I'll share with my employees to make things go more quickly.  Luckily, what I made for last night's dinner was so wonderful, there were barely any leftovers, and what is left will be gone within a lunch or two!  {Whew! Talk about rambling!}
 Just the same, I came across this recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken...  Which happens to be the only dish I'll eat at a Chinese restaurant because I love the way the sauce makes my rice pink (sometimes hot pink), and the veggies.  The chicken is neither here nor there, but I LOVE SWEET AND SOUR!

Here's my recipe, which I tweaked from the other:
Ingredients:
LOTS of Veggies!  Such as...
10 oz of sugar snap peas
2 bell peppers
2 celery stalks
10 baby carrots
1 can water chestnuts
1 can pineapple chunks
and I was going to add Manderin Oranges, but changed my mind last minute.



Plus, two pounds of teriyaki chicken breast.  I get this pre-cooked from Fresh and Easy.  The original recipe calls for you to bread and fry, but I wanted less fat, so I chose this as an easy alternative.

The sauce was ridiculously simple, too - why have I not made this before?!?!
1 C sugar - could probably cut this back more
1/2 C ketchup
3/4 C cider vinegar
1 T Worcestershire sauce (or soy sauce)
2 T garlic powder - could probably cut this back to
1 1/2 T.

I mixed up the sauce, wok-ed/fried the veggies in about 1 T of olive oil, added the chicken and poured the sauce over the top.  I waited until everything was heated through and then served it up with Jasmine rice.  If it were up to me, I'd almost double the sauce, but I LOVE S&S, so that's a personal preference.  Thomas loved the meal, and the vinegar in the sauce helped to clear his cold-riddled head long enough to enjoy the meal.  Perfect all around.  Plus, it was so simple and took very little time.  Thomas thought I should have breaded the chicken, but when he tasted it, he said it played well, so no breading/frying for this girl!

Chicken Sausage and Butternut Squash "Risotto"

The joy of running a workout facility as part of my daily tasks is that we get a lot of magazines for our gym, and I'm always up on Hollywood gossip, health and fitness articles, and Time magazine.

Fitness Magazine, last month, ran a recipe for Pumpkin and Chicken Sausage "Risotto."  While we don't necessarily do "healthy" around our house, I'm always up for trying a really good new recipe, especially if it looks filling and relatively cheap.

Luckily, the local Fresh and Easy keeps butternut squash in already cubed packages.  I bought 2, 16oz packs because I love extra veg.  Same amount of oil and sage, though, as I mixed it up all together in the bowl.

I couldn't find a "dried sage," but I did get a powdered sage in the spice aisle.  I figure it's still sage, and I still used a heaping amount, as called for in the recipe.  It's mostly for fragrance, right?  I don't know that sage is really great for anything, other than keeping the harmful spirits away.

I piled everything onto a raised edge cookie sheet (lined with foil since I hate cleaning).  I bought two of the apple chicken sausage packages (5 pre-cooked sausages a piece), sliced them into chunks, and loaded them on the bottom and on top of my squash.

Then, we roasted at 375 for 15 minutes.

As the squash and chicken roasted, I started my three cups of broth, 1/4 cup white wine, and 3 cups of quinoa to simmer.  I'm sure I could have used farro, like the recipe called for, but quinoa was at Costco last month, so we'll have enough to last us through January.

I flipped everything in the pan after 15 minutes, and roasted for another 15.  I didn't separate it or anything, just turned it the once and then added in some chopped, flat leaf parsley.  Super simple, no worries.

Once the quinoa had absorbed the liquid (about 15 minutes or so), I mixed in one 5 oz pkg of Parmesano Reggiano cheese shards. This really congealed everything, so I added a bit more white wine so it wasn't so...pasty like.

I put the rest of my flat leaf parsley in here.  I probably only used a third of a cup total, but I split it between my roasted items and the quinoa.  I did this because I skipped the last part of the recipe where it says to mix the grains, veg, and meat together. 

I kept them separate because I liked the look.  They are definitely amazing served together, though, so definitely make them both for the same meal!

Sorry I didn't clean the plate pre-photo.  I was more interested in eating than picturing!!

Pan Roasted Chicken and Veg

Time for something a little more healthy, eh?

For starters, here's the recipe.  I'd hate to forget the springboard that might have inspired this dish.

So then, start with a veritable ton of vegetables.  These are a bunch from my garden, plus some store bought, to really fill you up.  I didn't have a big enough bowl to stir them all in, so I decided to mix them up in the wok.

While I waka-ed it up like Fozzie Bear, I connived convinced Thomas to cut, season, and bread the chicken.  He understands that I HATE (yes, really, HATE) touching raw meat, and to speed up the process, it was much easier for him to do it.  Otherwise, it would be me, with my two pinching finger (on only one hand) "ew"ing and "gross"ing the whole time.  MUCH quicker this way.

We used a combo of Panko and Italian seasoned bread crumbs for the chicken.  Thomas also used paprika, s & p, and probably other spices we had in the house as well.

Back to the vegetables....

Once they're all cut, (roughly the same size), you're supposed to layer them in your stoneware pan.  I did.

Three times!

Okay, maybe I really wanted more vegetables than I had room for.  Thomas swore it would be okay...

Then he had about three times as much chicken, and layered that almost twice on the vegetables!

It's time for a bigger pan, me-thinks!

So, now we have five layers of veg and meat and we're still trying to stick to the directions on the recipe as much as possible.

Didn't work.  Should have just wok-ed the veg and baked the chicken.  It took way too long, and by the time we ate, I didn't even want it any more!  :(

However, it was healthy, and pretty, and a very filling meal!

A Tuesday for Thomas: A Man and his Potjie

 

 I don't have a lot to say about this.

You basically take everything you have in the kitchen that you want to get rid of.  In Thomas' case, it starts with two, mostly de-boned young chickens, and some root vegetables from the garden.  Then he adds some seasoning (like the curry rub).  He found some cilantro, dried apricots, garlic, and the like in our house.

This seems to be about as traditionally South African as it comes.  At least in our house.  It's a potjie (pronounced poi-key).  It's just a big cauldron you put over an open flame and cook your entire meal in.  Or as much of your meal as you'd like.

 Typically?  You'd probably see potatoes in here, but in our house, we had jicama.  It holds up better than potatoes, and still absorbs the flavor nicely.

We had tons of veggies to add.  Tomatoes, bell peppers, sugar snap peas, zucchini, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, you name it.

We also added about a liter of chicken broth, almost a bottle of white wine, some lemon juice, and a million other things to help it simmer.

Then you close the lid and wait.  It takes about an hour and a half.

You don't really open it except for once or twice.

By the time you're done, you have a really hearty stew.  You can't tell where one thing begins and another one ends, really, but it's all super delicious, and it's a great way to not through out a lot of food that tends to accumulate in the drawers of your fridge!

 We just made some Jasmine rice to put it over.  Serve it with a little chutney, and you're in heaven.  If you have multiple potjies, you can bake your bread, side dishes, or whatever other meals you'd like, but as it is, we just have the one.  MMMMMMM!  I hope you're jealous, because even though there was no real recipe, it was amazing, and you can google some anyway, if you're ever so inclined to buy yourself a cauldron!

Quick and Healthy Curried Couscous

 

Here's another sneak peek recipe from our Season's Best Fall/Winter 2011 recipe collection: Quick Curried Couscous Skillet!  Thomas loves curry, so I thought this would be fun to try.  It prepped very easily, and once I started it was a quick make.  Loved it, too! 

Here's the ingredient list:

1 1/2 C sugar snap peas

1/2 small red onion

1/2 C dried apricots

1 orange and 1 lemon

1, 1" peeled ginger root

1 T olive oil

1 tbsp Indian Mild Curry Rub

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 C low sodium vegetable broth ( I used chicken)

1 C uncooked whole-wheat couscous (I used Israeli)

1/2 C loosely packed fresh cilantro, divided

1/2 C sliced almonds, toasted

2 oz goat cheese

grilled pita wedges (I used Tandoori Naan)

I also added some pre-curried chicken I made in the deep covered baker while prepping the rest of the ingredients.

Trim peas, coarsely chop onion, and cut apricots into strips.  Zest orange for 1Tbsp, and grate ginger to get 2 tsp.

Then, heat the oil in a skillet, heating for 1 - 3 minutes.  Added the peas, onion, and apricots.  Cook until the onion is translucent, stirring frequently.  Stir in ginger, rub, and salt.  Cook 10-20 seconds, or until fragrant.

Stir in broth and orange zest.  Bring to a boil.  Remove skillet from heat and add couscous. 

Cover skillet and let stand for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, coarsely chop cilantro and juice lemon to equate to 1 tsp.  Add half of the cilantro, all lemon juice, and half of the almonds to the skillet. (I added cooked, chopped chicken at this point)

Stir couscous mixture, divide amont the plates, add remaining cilantro, almonds, and the goat cheese.  Serve with grilled pita wedges if desired.

(I forgot the cheese, but Thomas had the leftovers with cheese for his lunch and he loved it!

Instead of grilling the Naan, I took the quick option: buttered and then microwaved for 1 minute.  Love the soft gooey-ness!