Tag Archives: chicken

Cookbook Recipe a Week

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Hey all!  I just wanted to pop in to let you know that cooking something new from a cookbook every week is going well for me!  Last week I cooked a recipe from this book:

Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats–A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners (A 30-Minute Meal Cookbook)

I cooked the Proscuitto, Garlic & Herb Cheese Stuffed Chicken.  I only had to purchase a few extra things to make this meal, but the expensive thing was tarragon.  I had to buy a bunch of it for $6.75.  I expected to taste more of it in the dish for the price, but no luck.  I want to incorporate it into a few meals this week so it does not go to waste!

It was not as flavorful as I expected, but it is probably because I served it with asparagus and not rice.  I think it would have been much better over rice — to soak up the extra sauce!  I also need to work on my chicken flattening skills.  I may have been using my real hammer since we do not have a meat pounder.  hahaha  The asparagus recipe was also from that cookbook — 2 new recipes in one meal!!

This week’s menu – lots of leftovers and eating from what is in the house.  Also, mashed potatoes and a green bean dish from Giada!

Happy Wednesday!

Abundant Crop Recipe: Fig Topped Chicken

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A few weeks ago, my friend asked if I posted the recipe flops.  I realized that I did not.  So, here you go, today’s recipe is somewhat of a flop.  I happen to know that figs + proscuitto + goat cheese + honey = heaven.  (You will find this out next week, hehe.)  So I tried to add chicken to the mix.  It did not fare as well as I had hoped.

The original "dinner plan."

Fig Topped Chicken

Ingredients:

  • 2 Chicken Breasts (we use the boneless skinless)
  • Handful of Spaghetti
  • Butter
  • Figs (pureed)
  • Goat Cheese
  • Proscuitto
  • Honey

First, cook the chicken.  I broil it for 20 minutes.  Cook the spaghetti.  In a saucepan, melt some butter and pour it over the cooked pasta.  You can then heat up the pureed figs in the saucepan.  Once it’s hot, you are ready to plate your meal.  Put the pasta on the plate, top with butter, followed by chicken and figs.  Smear some goat cheese on top and then melt under the broiler for a few minutes.

In case you were wondering, this meal was not perfect.  It tasted a little odd. So Matt and I improvised a bit.  He added some proscuitto to the top and drizzled on honey.  It was much better, but still not my favorite dish.

Dinner, Take 2

Aren’t you glad to know I fail too?  Yeah, I thought it would be comforting! :)

Have you ever had a recipe flop?  Any idea on how to fix this one?

Abundant Crop Recipe: Citrus Roasted Chicken & Gluehwein

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This last abundant crop recipe for May, will contain 2 recipes. There is a reason for that:  I ran out of tangerines.  I know.  It’s a travesty, right?  And totally ruins the point of the whole abundant crop thing.  Well anyways, I bought some mandarins to test out this chicken recipe (because Trader Joes had no tangerines) last week, and then this Sunday I found tangerines.  So I am still going to show the chicken recipe, even though it uses mandarin oranges, and not tangerines.

For the citrus chicken, I will just show you what I did with pictures.  There is not much of a recipe.  Oh yeah, and this is almost a whole meal right here!  I found this recipe from Giada, and then just winged it. I used one Whole Chicken, 2 Mandarin Oranges, 2 Lemons, 3 sprigs Rosemary, a few scoops of chopped Garlic, 6 or 7 Red Potatoes, Olive Oil,  and Salt & Pepper.

There are a few sprigs of Rosemary in the right side of the picture.  Just pretend you can see them.  And what’s funny is there is a shallot behind the chicken’s butt, but I cut it out of the picture — however I did not use it.  Keep this knowledge for later though, trust me!

What you cannot see.  I cleaned the chicken by rubbing it under running water and then pulling out the giblets. Yuck! Toss those.  I mean, if you have a good use for them, then save them. But I do not — I just toss away.  The easiest way is to keep that bag that the chicken was in right there, and put them straight in it, then into the trash.  I’m a smart girl, I know. :) Okay so you cleaned the chicken, then pat it dry with a paper towel.  Pour some EVOO (that’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil, but we all know that from Rachel Ray, right?) on it and smear it all around.  Pretend you are giving the chicken a massage.  Then sprinkle salt and pepper (freshly cracked is best) and rub in.  You want to put the EVOO and spices on both the outside and inside of the chicken.  Okay so once you do that, squeeze on juice from one lemon and one mandarin orange — which you can see in the picture.

Stuff the cavity with the squeezed lemon and orange halves.  Also throw in a sprig or 2 of rosemary.  Then you will lift up the top layer of skin and rub with oil and salt and pepper and garlic.  I had to cut the center membrane a little bit, but it worked.  Now, your chicken should be ready to go.

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Abundant Crop Recipe: Orange-Balsamic Chicken

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Hey, everyone! I’m back hogging Megan’s Abundant Crop posts. Matt likes this, since it means I actually cook for once.

You know by now that we went away for the weekend. When I came back, my tangerines grew like crazy … in the bowl … which is why they’re so much bigger in the picture below. No, actually that’s not the case. The tangerines got somewhat smaller and greener, as in rotten. Yuck. So, in the spirit of cousins, we’re going to use a close relative of the tangerine this week: an orange. (Please, aggies, don’t tell me an orange is not a cousin to the tangerine. I can’t take it. It makes sense and cousins are awesome!)

This is actually one of my favorite recipes, though I modified it a bit. It comes from Rachael Ray’s magazine, which Megan got for me after she found a year subscription for only $1!  The recipe sounded easy enough and, as is the deciding factor in most of what I cook, I had the ingredients on hand. Rachael’s version is slightly different — calling for polenta, asparagus and green beans. While I usually make it with at least one of the two latter items, I had mashed potatoes on hand. (In the spirit of full disclosure, it’s the potato flake stuff. Guilty as charged.)

Rachael Ray’s Orange-Balsamic Chicken

Ingredients:

  • 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 tablespoons evoo
  • 1 c chicken broth
  • juice of one orange
  • zest from one orange
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat evoo over medium/high heat. Add chicken and cook, turning once for about 12-14 minutes, depending on thickness. Transfer to plate and cover with foil.
  2. In a skillet, melt butter. Whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in vinegar, orange juice and chicken broth. Simmer until slightly reduced, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in juices from chicken and season with salt and pepper.
  3. Drizzle sauce on top and serve.

Hopefully, this will be good enough to make you forget about the little tangerine-orange switch. In case you have a ton of tangerines, I suspect that substituting them for the oranges would taste very good, too.

Abundant Crop Recipe: Chicken Chardonnay with Mushrooms

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New month = new food!  March is a month of mushrooms over here at Abundant Crop.  I read somewhere that they are in season, so I chose them for this month.  Over at our house, we have a new appreciation for the lovely ‘shroom.  It all started with today’s recipe.  I made this in January of 2009, and it has been getting people like us to eat mushrooms ever since!  I fed this to a friend and her boyfriend, and they both loved it, even after initially thinking “oh it has mushrooms, I will pick them out.”  haha.  My hubby now puts mushrooms in everything.  He apparently likes them way more than me.  I need to disguise the flavor, but he loves them in any form!  This recipe is from Janelle over at Talk of Tomatoes.  She is currently living in Italy and blogs about the wonderful things she gets to taste and see!

Chicken Chardonnay

Salt & Pepper
Flour
2 – 4 Chicken Breasts
Butter
1/4 cup minced Shallots
12 oz sliced Mushrooms (I use white button)
1/2 cup White Wine
3/4 cup Chicken Stock
3/4 cup Heavy Cream
parsley, finely chopped (as needed)

To prepare chicken: pat dry, season with salt and pepper, dip in flour and shake off excess flour. Heat saute pan to just above medium, melt butter add chicken with tongs.  Saute chicken breast until golden brown. Turn and saute second side. Remove breasts, place in baking pan and finish in 350 degree oven (thermometer should read 165F).

Meanwhile, in the same saute pan add or remove butter as needed; add shallots and mushrooms and saute 3-5 minutes. Add wine and reduce by half; add stock and reduce by half; add heavy cream and reduce by half (to thicken). Season with salt & pepper to taste; garnish with parsley. Choose your consistency; if it gets too thick, continue to add broth and/or cream. Do not add wine at end as the alcohol flavor won’t have time to burn off/integrate.

Notes: This recipe is easy, but looks and tastes fantastic.  I served it with a white rice rissotto (basically rice with extra water/chicken broth, so it’s juicier and not sticky) and Pioneer Woman’s Bacon Onion Cheddar Biscuits.

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