Chicken and Rice w/ Cilantro Base

I came across some Goya Recaito which is a cilantro based seasoning good for rice. I had to use it because I like rice and cilantro, so I came up with a simple recipe.

What you'll need:
- 1 cup Basmati Rice
- 2 cups Chicken Broth
- package green onions (chopped)
- 1 can whole corn
- 1 lb chicken breast (cubed)
- 4 heaping tbsp Goya Recaito
- olive oil
- pepper
- chili powder
- garlic clove

Heat oil over medium/high heat. Add chopped onion and cook for several minutes. Add diced/pressed garlic clove and cook for another 30-60 seconds.

Add chicken and cook until no longer pink on the outside.

Add the basmati rice. Continually stir to coat with the oil/juices in the pot. Then add the chicken broth and the corn.

Lastly add the Goya and touch of pepper and chili powder (about 1 tsp of each). Cook until broth is evaporated. Then enjoy!

Chicken Soup II

Made another batch of chicken soup to enjoy over the winter. This one had some odd ingredients that turned out well.

Ingredients
- 3 chicken breasts bone-in
- 2 carrot sticks (cut up)
- 2 celery sticks (cut up)
- 1 yam (cut into chunks)
- 1 - 1.5 cup brown rice
- salt & pepper
- chili powder
- red pepper flakes
- ground ginger
- chopped fresh cilantro
- chopped fresh parsley

Boil chicken breasts with skin on in water seasoned with salt and pepper until cooked - about 1 hour. Remove chicken from the newly created chicken broth. Remove the skin and shred the chicken and add back to the broth.

Add carrots, celery, yam, rice, red pepper flakes (add extra if you want spicy soup) dash of chili powder, dash of ground ginger. Add water if needed to replace water that may have boiled off.

Bring pot to a boil, cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook until carrots are soft (about 1.5 hours).

Remove from flame and stir in cilantro and parsley. Salt and pepper to taste.

Baked Panko Chicken Fingers

I've been hearing good things about Panko for about a year now. I finally saw it in the store, it was cheap, so I bought it.

I'd heard Panko chicken fingers and fish sticks are the best. I started with the chicken fingers since I had some honey mustard from Chick-fil-a (possibly the best honey mustard sauce ever - with Red Robin honey mustard coming in a close second).

Ingredients are easy:
Panko
Chicken strips
salt
pepper
dash paprika
dash chili powder
Eggs
Oven at 400

1) Depending on chicken, beat 1-2 eggs in bowl (about 2 eggs per pound).
2) Pour panko in another bowl.
3) Dip chicken in egg, dip in Panko, put on baking sheet (if you have a wire rack - use that, else you'll have to flip half way).
4) Sprinkle with seasoning.
5) Put in oven for 10 minutes at 400. Increase temp to 450 and cook another 10 minutes.
6) Serve with honey mustard and a veggie side. Enjoy.

Chicken Soup

This is great to make if you happened to have made chicken burritos and chicken and rice bowls on the same day and you don't want to throw away all the leftover chicken broth and aren't sure what to do with extra chicken.

Soup is about the easiest thing in the world to make.

Take the leftover chicken broth and put through strainer (if you have one). Be sure not to strain into the sink, but into a pot.

Put some chicken in the broth. Put some veggies in the broth (i used carrots). Put some seasoning in the pot. Lots of pepper, some salt, celery seed, pepper flakes, anything else you think is good. If you have anything else laying around that you want to put in the soup, add it.

Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and let simmer for a while. Right before it's done, bring to a boil and throw in pasta and cook according to package. Remove from heat and enjoy. Goes well with a huge piece of bread.

Chicken and Rice Bowls

The great thing about chicken and rice bowls is that they are a meal in themselves. It contains meat, veggies & grains all in one bowl.

What you'll need:
1 cup brown rice
Broccoli, cut up
Carrots, cut up
3 chicken breasts
Soy Vay

First, place chicken breasts (w/o skin) in boiling water. Cook for about 45 minutes or until done

Next, while Chicken is cooking, start the rice according to package. Be sure to add extra water (about 1/4 cup)

When rice has 10-20 minutes left, add the vegetables on top of the rice. This will steam them. This is what the extra water is for. When rice and veggies are done, if needed, drain extra water and separate veggies from rice.

Pick and pull chicken from bones and put onto frying pan. Add some Soy Vay and mix it up over medium high until you feel good about it. Then remove from flame.

In a serving bowl, add scoop of rice & then some veggies. Top with chicken. Add more Soy Vay if needed to taste. Eat.

Chicken Burritos

Sick of boring lunches at work, I decided to spice things up and make some frozen burritos to eat throughout the week. I already wish I made more...

What you'll need:
Burrito sized tortillas (6-8)
2 chicken breasts, skin removed
1 cup brown rice
1 can tomatoes and jalapeno peppers
shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 can non-fat refried beans

- Place chicken breasts in boiling water until cooked (~45 minutes).
- Meanwhile, make brown rice according to package. Add a little extra water and drained can of tomatoes and jalapeno peppers. If desired, add spicy spices like chili powder, cayenne pepper, etc.
- When rice and chicken is done, it's time to build the burrito.

Step 1: Lay out tortilla flat.
Step 2: Spread some beans on the tortilla.
Step 3: Spoon some spiced rice on top of the beans.
Step 4: Pick chucks of chicken off the breast and put on top of rice.
Step 5: Sprinkle cheese on top of chicken.
Step 6: Roll burrito, stick in freezer safe bag, put in freezer.

To thaw, simply put it in a microwave and cook it for 90-120 seconds per side. Chances are you'll burn your tongue at least once.

Quick Tomato Sauce

With a large inflow of tomatoes from my garden, I have been eating pasta with tomato sauce 5 out of 7 days of the week. Each time I make it the sauce is a little different. The sauce below is one I made for friends we had over for dinner - it is for 1.5 lbs of pasta.

1 pound chicken sausage, diced
1 can tomato paste
10-12 fresh tomatoes
Italian Seasoning
2 Bay Leaves
4 cloves Garlic
1 Onion
salt/pepper
red pepper flakes
olive oil
Dash of beer

Pour some oil in a frying pan and add sausage. Cook. When mostly done, add half can of tomato paste and a dash of beer to help thin out the paste (could also use wine or water). Mix all together and finish cooking. Remove from heat.

In saucepan, add oil, garlic and onions. Cook until onions are soft. Add the tomatoes, sausage mixture, remaining paste & all seasonings. Mix well.

Bring to a boil and simmer/light boil it to reduce water for 20 or so minutes - until sauce looks a little thicker.

If you have bread on hand, it tastes great sopping up any leftover paste/sausage juice in the pan you cooked the sausage in. So good in fact, that after I run out of tomatoes I may try to make a sauce based on sausage, tomato paste and beer.

Once sauce is done serve over any short pasta with a side of bread and a glass of wine and enjoy.

Chicken and Peanut Sauce

Every time I think about making this recipe I'm always a little unsure if it will be any good. Every time I make it it's always very good. You think i'd learn my lesson, but for some reason I don't.

Chicken:
Marinate cubed chicken for one hour in the following:
Soy Sauce
Olive Oil
Brown Sugar
Ginger (fresh grated is best)
Garlic (fresh chopped is best)
Dash of red pepper flakes
Sesame Oil

Peanut Sauce:
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon vinegar (or, even better, 2 tablespoons lime juice)
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp cumin
dash salt
cayenne pepper (the more the spicier)
garlic
dash olive oil

Whisk all peanut sauce ingredients together until smooth and put in saucepan.
Sauté marinated chicken in pan.
Once chicken is about halfway done, start heating the peanut sauce.
Finish cooking chicken while keeping an eye on peanut sauce and stir it occasionally. Make sure not to burn.

Serve chicken with peanut sauce on the side. Add veggie and rice if desired.

Baked Chicken

It's been a while since i've posted since I've been busy and haven't cooked anything exciting. Like one night I bought cereal for breakfast and beef for dinner, and I wanted the cereal so much I ended up having it for dinner. (I made the beef tacos a few days later, in a post to come).

However, last night I made Bisquick baked chicken. It brings back memories of being a little kid and shaking chicken in a bag coating it with Bisquick - it was like a big rattle with raw meat instead of beads. I realize now that shaking chicken in a bag is highly overrated and just coating it side by side in a bowl works just as well and saves a bag.

The coating:
2/3+ cup Original Bisquick
2 teaspoons paprika
1.5 teaspoons salt
.5 teaspoon pepper
1 tsp italian seasoning

The rest:
1 tablespoon butter
3.5 - 4.5 -pound cut-up whole chicken

Preheat oven to 425. Put pan and butter in oven. Mix everything but butter and chicken in a bowl. When butter is melted in pan, remove from oven. Dip chicken in coating and cover very well on both sides. Place in pan, skin side down.

Depending on thickness of chicken, cook for 30-60 minutes. Then flip and cook for an additional 15-30 minutes (until internal temp = 170-180). Basically when the top is nice and crispy.

Serve with brown rice and homemade pickles from your previous growing season (if you don't have these, i guess you could use broccoli, but really the meal would be missing something...so go get a garden and grow too many cucumbers/zucchini and learn how to can veggies... recipe coming this summer).

Camera is out of batteries, but i think i snagged a picture of my tacos before it happened. Just imagine baked chicken.

Pesto Chicken Sandwich

A pesto chicken sandwich done right is one of the best sandwiches you can eat. Not in a cooking mood I decided to buy stuff to make them. They were not very good. Hamburger buns (the local market didn't have any real bread), grilled chicken breast, pesto and feta cheese. Sounds great on paper, but in practice not good. First off, you need real bread. Secondly, you need some arugula or other mustard leaf in there. Thirdly, store bought pesto sauce is never very good (though deli stuff sometimes is okay).

This was my first attempt at making pesto chicken sandwiches. I thought it would be easy, it wasn't. I did eat 4 of them though, so they weren't all that bad. Next free weekend I'll have to try making my own focaccia bread and pesto sauce and give it another go.

Mediterranean Lemon Pepper Chicken

First recipe I wish to share here is a new one I found online over the weekend. I cooked it up Tuesday and had leftovers tonight. On a scale of 1 to very good, i give it a good.

I stole this from a recipe on www.cooks.com and modified it a bit to my liking. The original recipe can be found here: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1639,134190-245192,00.html

3-4 chicken breasts
2 lemons
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large sweet onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons lemon pepper
2 cups chicken broth
3/4 can garbanzos, drained
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
1 tablespoon Flour

1 tsp corn starch

Step 1: Rub the chicken breasts with half a lemon. I also squeezed the juice all over the chicken for extra lemony flavor. 

Step 2: In large frying pan, heat oil and saute onion till soft

Step 3: Rub chicken breast with lemon pepper. 

Step 4a: Sear chicken on both sides for 2 minutes total (1 min each side). This helps the lemon pepper rub stick to the chicken throughout cooking and cooks the flavor in. 

Step 4b: During the second minute, add the crushed garlic.

Step 5: Add broth, chickpeas, and remaining juice from lemon. Be sure to remove the seeds from the lemons before squeezing the juice into the pan. I ended up with a bunch of seeds in my meal. They are hard and not tasty. Bring to boil.

Step 6: Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes

Step 7: Add flour and corn starch. I like a thick sauce. If you prefer thinner, skip corn starch. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Step 8: Add 1 heaping tablespoon of parsley. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Step 9: Remove from heat. Serve over rice, top with fresh chopped parsley. 

Pretty tasty.