Healthy Chicken Salad

Sorry for not posting much since I have been back. This week has been crazy, but it will finally calm down on Friday so I hope to get caught back up on everything! I am still in process of getting some posts up about our food in Spain and I am behind on some new recipes posts too. Hopefully soon life will be back to normal and I'll get my posts caught up. Life has been so crazy that I actually forgot that I had a cooking class last night and missed it! I didn't realize it till it was an hour after the class! Bummer!

I found this super easy and delicious (plus healthy) chicken salad recipe. I decided to put it in a croissant since we had some and it was so good that we had it two lunches in a row. There isn't any mayo like typical chicken salad, but it's a little bit like guacamole with chicken. The second day that I made it, I added some cucumbers and used a lemon instead of lime (since I didn't have a lime). I am sure that some red onion would be great and you can mess with the recipe, so that it fits your needs.

Avocado and Chicken Salad from Serious Eats

- serves 4 - Adapted from Cooking Light and Mrs. Micah

Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, filleted

Kosher salt and fresh black pepper

1 Hass avocado, chopped

1 large beefsteak or slicing tomato, seeded and chopped

1/2 bunch scallions, chopped

2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped

1 lime

Procedure
1. Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high. While oil is heating, salt and pepper both sides of the chicken. Add chicken to pan and sear 4 or 5 minutes per side, until browned and just cooked through. Remove chicken from pan and let sit for 10 minutes.

2. While chicken is cooling, combine avocado, tomato, scallions, and cilantro in a bowl. Then cut the lime into approximate halves, with one slightly bigger than the other. Squeeze larger half over ingredients in bowl. Stir to combine.

3. Once fairly cooled, chop chicken into 1/2-inch chunks. Squeeze remaining lime over chunks and add to avocado mixture. Stir until combined. (Avocado should cover everything, but shouldn’t itself be annihilated.) Salt and pepper to taste.

Dinner with Friends Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, we had Jackie and Bruce over for dinner. I served them Moroccan chicken with couscous. It was a time consuming meal, but well worth it in the end. There are multiple parts to this, so you won't be able to just whip this up after work. This is menu from another one of my wonderful classes with Chef Nancy.

To start, you will have prepare some preserved lemons a week ahead of time for the chicken tagine. You won't want to miss out on these since they add a delicious salty element to the tagine that you will not have otherwise.

Preserved Lemons

4 large lemons (use organic ones because you'll be eating the peel part!)
2/3 cup kosher salt
1 cup fresh lemon juice
olive oil

To make preserved lemons, scrub 4 lemons and cut each into 8 wedges. In a bowl, toss the wedges with 2/3 cup kosher salt and transfer to a 6 cup glass jar. Add 1 cup fresh lemon juice and cover the jar with a tight-fitting lid. Let lemons stand at room temperature for 7 days, shaking the jar every day to redistribute the salt and juice. If you are going to keep these for a long time, place a small film of olive oil on the top of the lemons after the week is over. Store in the jar and refrigerated for up to 6 months.

Cumin Scented Couscous

1 cup quick-cooking couscous
1 1/2 Tbs. unsalted butter
2 shallots, peeled and minced
3/4 teas. ground cumin
1/4 teas. crushed fennel seeds
1 1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth, canned or homemade
3 Tbs. minced flat leaf parsley

Place the couscous in a medium sized bowl, set aside.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallots, cumin and fennel, cook, stirring frequently, until shallots are translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the broth and salt to taste. Bring to a boil.

When the seasoned broth is simmering, pour it over the couscous, stir and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let stand until the couscous has absorbed the liquid--about 7 to 10 minutes. Remove the plastic and add the parsley; fluff the couscous with a fork. Serve hot.

Serves 4.

Moroccan Carrot Salad

6-8 medium carrots, julienned

2 teas. paprika

1/2 teas. cinnamon

1/2 teas. cayenne

1 teas. cumin

2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice

1 Tbs. sugar

5 Tbs. light olive oil

salt to taste

Blanch carrots briefly in boiling salted water. Combine all the dressing ingredients in a large bowl. Drain carrots and add to dressing while still warm. Adjust seasoning and serve at room temperature. Serves 6.

Rustic Chicken with Mushrooms and Polenta

This is one of our favorite chicken dishes. I finally got a chance to use the organic chicken thighs that I bought from a local farm. They ended up being delicious.

adapted from magazine The Best of Fine Cooking; Comfort Food Issue Comfort 2004

For the chicken:
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 Tbs olive oil, more as needed
8 bone-in chicken pieces (3 to 4 lbs total) or one 3 1/2 lb chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1 cup sliced yellow onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups sliced portabella mushrooms
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups canned diced tomatoes, with their juices
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped

Polenta:
1 tbs unsalted butter
4 cups water or chicken broth
1 tsp salt
1 cup medium ground cornmeal

To make chicken: Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Cook the chicken pieces, skin side down in batches, until browned on all sides, 3 to 4 minutes per side, adding oil if necessary. Transfer the chicken to a plate as it's browned.

Reduce the heat to medium, add the onions, saute, stirring, until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, another 2 minutes. If the pan is dry, add 1 Tbs, oil. Add the mushrooms and cook until they release their juices and begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Add 1 tsp, salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Add the wine and scrape up any browned bits in the pan. Return the chicken pieces to the pan (they should just fit in snugly) and simmer until the wine is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, broth, olives and thyme. Reduce the heat and simmer the chicken, turning occasionally, until it's completely cooked and very tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Meanwhile, make the polenta while the chicken is cooking.

To make polenta:
In a medium saucepan, bring the butter, water (or broth) and salt to a boil over medium-high heat. Slowly, add cornmeal, whisking until smooth. Reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook, whisking or frequently stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture is thick, about 30 minutes. If polenta is done before the chicken, cover with foil and stir occasionally to keep a crust from forming.

Serve the chicken over the polenta with some of the sauce.

Curried Chicken Salad

I was really glad that Nathaniel ended up liking this because the recipe makes a lot of chicken salad. It's a Barefoot Contessa recipe and you can adjust it to your taste by making it spicier with more curry powder or sweeter with more chutney. If you want to omit the raisins or cashews, you can (I omit both because I don't like raisins in my savory foods and Chris doesn't usually like nuts).

Curried Chicken Salad from Barefoot Contessa's Family Style cookbook
serves 6

3 whole (6 split) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on (you'll want the skin on to keep the juices in, but get rid of it before putting it in the salad)
olive oil
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups good mayonnaise (DON'T use Miracle Whip--whatever you do, don't do it!)
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup Major Grey's chutney
3 tbs curry powder
1 cup medium-diced celery (about 2 large stalks)
1/4 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts (2 scallions)
1/4 cup raisins
1 cup whole roasted, salted cashews

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub the skin with olive oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is just cooked. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Remove the meat from the bones, discard the skin, and dice the chicken in large bite-size pieces.

For the dressing, combine the mayonnaise, wine, chutney, curry powder, and 1 1/2 teas salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Process until smooth.

Combine the chicken with enough dressing to moisten well. Add the celery, scallions and raisins, and mix well. Refrigerate for a few hours to allow the flavors to blend. Add the cashews and serve at room temperature.

Chicken and Biscuits

This is one of my favorite dishes that I make and the boys are fans too (always a plus). It's a time consuming recipe, but totally worth the work. I made this for our unexpected guests (which I loved because we rarely have people staying the night). Dave, Danielle & baby Aila-come back soon and I'll make you something else yummy!

Chicken Stew With Biscuits from Barefoot Contessa Family Style cookbook

serves 8

Stew:

3 whole chicken breasts, bone in skin on

3 tbs olive oil

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

5 cups chicken stock

2 chicken bouillon cubes

12 tbs unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)

2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)

3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup heavy cream

2 cups medium-diced carrots (about 4 carrots), blanched for 2 minutes

1 10-oz package of frozen peas

1 1/2 cups frozen small onions (I omitted this because it's a little too much onion for my tastes)

1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbs baking powder

1 teas kosher salt

1 teas sugar

1 stick cold unsalted butter, diced

3/4 cup half & half

1/2 cup chopped parsley (I didn't have enough, so I omitted this too)

1 egg mixed with 1 tbs water, for egg wash

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub them with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, or until cooked through. Set aside until cool enough to handle, then remove the meat from bones and discard the skin. Cut the chicken into large dice. You will have 4 to 6 cups of cubed chicken.

In a small saucepan, heat the chicken stock and dissolve the bouillon cubes in the stock. In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and saute the onions over medium-low heat, until translucent. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the hot chicken stock to the sauce. Simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring until thick. Add 2 teas salt, 1/2 teas pepper and the heavy cream. Then add chicken, carrots, peas, small onions and parsley. Mix well. Place the stew in a huge oval or rectangular baking dish. Bake for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the biscuits. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the butter and mix on low speed until the butter is the size of peas. Add the half & half and combine on low speed. Mix in the parsley.

Dump the dough out on a well-floured board and with a rolling pin, roll out to 3/8 inch thick. Cut out twelve circles with a 2 1/2-inch round cutter.

Remove stew from oven and arrange biscuits on top of the stew. Brush them with egg wash and return the dish to the oven. Bake for another 20 to 30 minutes, until the biscuits are brown and the stew is bubbly.

Chicken Noodle Soup for the Sick Kid and Birthday Cake

Yesterday was Angela's birthday, so I decided to make some dinner to celebrate instead of going out to a restaurant like we usually do for our birthdays. It was a stressful day because I had just gotten back from my trip and found out that the kiddo was sick (viral infection, but thank goodness not strep). Since he had been so sick, I had promised him that I would make some homemade chicken noodle soup. It turned out pretty yummy and Nathaniel ended up eating 1 1/2 bowls of it.

I ended up making Chicken Spaghetti for the adults since Angela likes pasta, chicken and cheese (and since she hadn't had it yet), but I tried out a new recipe for her birthday dessert. I didn't think that I would have enough time to make dessert for the birthday girl since I was taking care of the sick kid, but I ended up whipping it up right before they got to the house.

Molten Chocolate Cakes I found this recipe in Food & Wine magazine while I was flying back from D.C. and figured that it would make a great birthday dessert. This recipe was delicious, but I did have some issues with it because I left it out sitting while the spaghetti was cooking in the oven, which made a couple of my cake's fillings mix in with the chocolate and not be gooey in the middle. I did have one perfect cake (that the birthday girl got) and a semi-perfect one (that Blake ended up with). Even the non-perfect cakes were yummy, just not picture perfect. I am sorry to say that I forgot to take a picture of the filling oozing out of the cake. If you do make this, be sure to make it before you are going to pop it in the oven. It's not going to be the same if you let it sit out. Also, I used large muffin tins instead of the ramekins (my ramekins are pretty small and I wanted bigger cakes). Since I couldn't get 70% cacao chocolate at the grocery store, I used 60% cacao Ghiradelli chocolate (which still produced a great chocolatey cake).

The other great thing about this cake recipe is that you can change the fillings. They aren't listed on the online recipe, but I'll be nice and post them on there for my readers.

1) Caramel Filling-- Replace the peanut butter filling in each cake with 1 heaping teaspoon of cold store-bought caramel sauce and a sprinkling of flaky sea salt (I used this one, but forgot the salt. It still tasted wonderful).

2) Raspberry Filling- In a small bowl, coarsely mash 16 raspberries with 4 teaspoons of seedless raspberry preserves. Replace the peanut butter filling with the raspberry filling.

3) Marshmallow Filling- Replace the peanut butter filling in each cake with 1 tablespoon of marshmallow fluff--use a slightly moistened spoon to prevent the fluff from sticking.

Everyone loved these cakes (including Nathaniel who overcame his sore throat to eat one). This recipe is actually easier than it sounds, so give it a try! Happy Cooking!

Dinner With Our Friends (aka Don't You Wish That You Were Eating At My House)

Well, I didn't just feed my guests cupcakes on Saturday night, so I guess my readers want to know about what I made for dinner (plus I was threatened that if I didn't post my recipes from that night...well, who knows what they would have done to me).



Anyway, it's hard to get too crazy with your dinner choices when you have more than a couple of people coming over especially since you want to cater to your guests' preferences (like Paul's dislike of pretty much most things green.....hahah), so I usually make something that is pretty universally liked. I stuck with a couple of baked pasta dishes that seemed to be a hit with our guests since there was very little food leftover.



Here are the recipes:



Baked Ziti with Pesto from Quick From Scratch Pasta by Food & Wine Books



1/2 pound ziti (I used penne since the store was out of ziti)

2 tbs oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, mince

2 cups canned crushed tomatoes in thick puree

1/4 teas salt

1 bay leaf

1/2 teas fresh-ground black pepper

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cups grated, packaged mozzarella cheese

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (you can omit this if you want)

1/4 cup pesto (store-bought or homemade)



1)Preheat oven to 350. Oil (or spray) an 8 by 8 inch baking dish.



2) In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the pasta for 7 minutes. It will be partially cooked.

Drain, rinse with cold water and drain again.



3) In a medium saucepan, heat 1 1/2 tb of the oil over moderately low heat. Add onions and

cook, stirring occasionally until translucent. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, salt and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer over moderate heat and cook until very thick, about 10 minutes. Stir in 1/4 teas. pepper and remove the bay leaf.



4) In a bowl, combine the ricotta, 1 cup of the mozzarella, about half the Parmesan (if using), the pesto and the remaining 1/4teas. pepper.



5) Put half the pasta in into the baking dish and top with about a third of the sauce. Spread the ricotta mixture on the sauce in an even layer. Cover with remaining pasta and then then the remaining sauce. Tope with the remianing 1/2 cup mozzarella nd the remaining Parmesan. Drizzle with the remaining 1/2 tbs oil. Bake until bubbling, about 30 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes before cutting.

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While that recipe was good, this next one was great. I believe that Dave was debating on if he should lick the pan after we were done eating it! It's a Pioneer Woman recipe again and right now, she is batting 100% with the recipes of hers that I have tried. It's not even close to being low-fat, so maybe you don't really want to look at the recipe. One thing that I did do differently is that I cooked my spaghetti in all of the water that the chicken cooked in (she tells you to cook it in 2 cups of the chicken water--that's too much work for me), but you could probably just cook it in plain water if you are really lazy (I won't judge)! I am sure that this would have made excellent leftovers, but we wouldn't know since there wasn't any!



http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/recipes/chicken-spaghetti.pdf

Chicken Monterey

Since we had just gone to Costco, I always get avocados (5 in a bag). Avocados are one reason that we could never go on a 200-mile radius diet while living in KS (we could come pretty close, but there are a few things that we would not want to give up eating). Chris almost always orders things that come with avocados if he sees them on a menu. He would eat them everyday if we lived in CA and had a tree. But we don't, so we have to settle for avocados at Costco (which usually are pretty good).

This is one of Chris' top 3 favorite things that I make. Once when Josh was over, I made it and he asked for some bread, so that he could mop up all the sauce that was leftover in the dish. It's that good.

Chicken Monterey adapted from NO JACKET REQUIRED by Neiman Marcus

serves 4-8 (depending on what else you have for dinner)

4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved

salt and pepper to season

2 tbs flour, plus more for dusting

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

8 large button mushrooms, diced

1 teas. celery salt

1/2 teas. white pepper (do not use black pepper, the taste would ruin this dish!)

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup white wine (please use something that you would drink. Bad white wine will ruin any

dish!). And then drink the rest of the bottle yourself...haha. Just kidding. Ok, maybe not.

1 avocado, pitted, peeled and mashed (I usually throw in another one since we love them)

3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided into 1/2 cup and remainder

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Use a 9x13 baking dish. Pound chicken breasts until 1/4 inch thick (you can also cheat and find this already done for you in the store to save time and energy). Lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper: dust with flour. Melt 1/4 cup of butter in large skillet over medium heat and brown chicken. Transfer to baking dish in a single layer.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the skillet, melt remaining butter over medium-low heat, saute onion, garlic and mushrooms until tender. Stir in 2 tbs of flour, celery salt, white pepper, chicken stock and wine. Cook over low heat for 4 to 5 minutes until thick. Stir in avocado and 1/2 cup cheese to blend. Adjust seasonings if needed. Spoon mixture over chicken and top with the rest of the cheese. Bake for 15 minutes until chicken is cooked and cheese is melted.

Enjoy!