Creamy Chicken Pesto Pasta

When you have that one tomato left in the fridge or some rotisserie chicken leftovers, this is the easiest dish to make - granted, not the healthiest but easy and satisfying. Pesto is a staple in my fridge and with my abundance of basil in my garden, I like to make pesto every couple months to replenish my stock. You can keep pesto in the freezer in a tight container with plastic wrap touching the pesto and then the lid over that. It should keep for a month/two months max. I don't even let this defrost when I need it. I just take a few spoonfuls and put it directly into my hot sauce/pan, and it tastes pretty great every time. 

Creamy Pesto Pasta with Chicken and Tomatoes

Serves 2-3

1/2 cup heavy cream

3 tbsp butter

4 large spoonfuls of pesto (approximately 4-5 tbspn but really to your taste)

1 tomato chopped

Shredded chicken (I had leftover rotisserie chicken that I shredded)

Grated Parmesan cheese 

4-6 basil leaves, sliced into slivers (optional)

1. Bring large pot of water with good heaping of salt to a boil.  Toss in some pasta - I like ones that have holes/shells to scoop up the sauce - and let it cook for 8-10 minutes or via box directions.  

2. In a saucepan, heat up the heavy cream and the butter. Bring this to a boil and then once boiling, turn heat down to medium.

 

3. Take 4 large spoonfuls of pesto and add to the heavy cream mixture. Add more/less for your preference on how 'pesto-y' you'd like your sauce. Mix well and let it cook on medium for a 2-3 minutes to let the pesto incorporate and get all happy with the cream.  Add S&P if you need to - I did not. Your pesto may already be well seasoned so make sure to keep tasting!

4. Roughly chop up your tomato (or whatever fresh veggies you may have) and shred the chicken. You can certainly omit the chicken and add more veggies - broccoli or even spinach would be good in this dish.  

5. Drain your pasta (save some of the water if you'd like to add to the pasta if its too dry/thick) and put into the serving bowl. 

6. Now, mix everything together!  For the pesto sauce, don't add all at once but by large spoonfuls until it meets your preference.  Some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and some slivers of fresh basil on top - done!

Better Get Grillin For The Fourth!

Happy Fourth of July!  Despite the horrendous heat in Texas, you still have to celebrate the with some grilled meat, veggies and even some ice cream.  We had steaks last night at Flemings so today was chicken and corn with some Korean marinated beef and pork. 

Ross' brother, Koby, grilled the chicken and corn while his dad grilled the bulgogi - a Korean marinated beef.  Hope everyone has a good Fourth!

Chicken Wrapped in Proscuitto

I am particular with my Food Network shows and cooks, and unfortunately, Rachael Ray, is a victim of the pass by click of the remote control.  I'm sure her dishes are fantastic, but I just can't sit through an entire episode.  I'm also not going to into why. =)  Regardless, this is one of her recipes that I found online and it turned out pretty well.  It could use a few more tweaks but still pretty tasty for a first time recipe.

I have an abundance of rosemary and need to find ways to use it before the cold (whenever it comes in Houston) takes it away.  Holy, the many uses for rosemary.  I've used it with steak, with butternut squash, with chicken, with salad dressing, and on and on.  This dish combines the best of three things I'm loving - chicken thighs (hooray! for dark meat), rosemary and proscuitto (hooray! for proscuitto). 

  

I also made this for Hilda and Eric but cooked by quickly searing and then popping in the oven.  I don't think I have a preference on using the pan vs. oven.  I probably prefer to just use one so not to have to hassle with both.  Both tasted similar.  Again, I'll probably tweak this the next time I make it - use orange zest and juice instead of the olive oil, use different herbs (probably just as good with fresh thyme or oregano which I have now thanks to my friend Liz! Look at that trio of fresh herbs!), who knows, so many different ways to tweak! 

Chicken Wrapped in Proscuitto

Recipe adapted from Rachael Ray

4 chicken thighs, boneless

8 sprigs of rosemary (half minced and half whole leaves)

5 garlic cloves, half minced, halfed sliced

4 slices of proscuitto

1 lemon (zest and juice)

1/8 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup chicken broth (you may need more based on your preference)
Dash of dried oregano
Dash of garlic powder
S&P

1. Make sure to wash and dry the chicken thighs. Cut off those excess fat pockets on the thighs. S&P each of the thighs.

2. In a bowl large enough to hold the all the chicken, pour the olive oil, minced garlic and sliced garlic, minced rosemary, oregano, garlic powder, lemon zest and juice. Mix well, add the chicken and coat each side of the thighs.  Let this sit for about 15 minutes.

3. Take the proscuitto out and lay each of the four slices on a board. Take a thigh and put a bunch of rosemary leaves, garlic slices in the middle, wrap up in a roll (as much as you can), and wrap the proscuitto around it.  4. In a medium high pan, sear each side of the chicken.  Don't worry if the middle is not cooked, you just want that crispy proscuitto.  Once seared, add in the chicken broth and cover the pan.  Let it steam cook until done.  

Baked Lemon & Thyme Chicken

While shopping at the amazement that is Costco, I tend to get sucked into the book section as well and that day, found an Ina Garten Back to Basics cookbook.  Hooray!  Since I'm already going to spend $100 bucks at Costco (why is it that you can NEVER leave Costco without spending at least $100?), what's one book?  It seems that convincing yourself to buy more things when you're already spending a lot is pretty easy....

I've tried this two ways - baked in the oven and also on the grill.  I prefer cooking in the oven since the meat is a little more tender, moist and juicy.  Grilling seemed to make the chicken a tad too dry and didn't hold the flavor as well since you are not grilling directly in the juices. 

I suggest marinating this the night before in a plastic bag or in the baking dish so when you get come, preheat the oven and then just put in the dish.  So easy.

Also, notice those green beans in that top picture?  From my daddy's garden!  He's the only one in this family with a green thumb.  I usually get a bag of fresh green beans every time my folks come over = very spoiled.  Clean, snap and cook in oil with garlice, salt and pepper - so good and love the crunch too.

Baked Lemon & Thyme Chicken

Adapted recipe by Ina Garten

4 chicken leg and thigh (bone-in)

6 sprigs of thyme and chopped

2 tspn of salt

2 tspn of pepper

4 lemons (zest of 2 and juice from four)

1/3 cup of good olive oil

5 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

1. Take the thyme and roughly chopped.  Do the same with the garlic.  Add both to a baking dish large enough to fit the chicken. 

3. Clean the lemons and zest two directly into the baking dish.  Squeeze juice from all four.  Add S&P and the olive oil.  Give it a good mix.  Do a quick taste test - and add more lemon juice or S&P as ncessary.  

4. Rinse and pat dry the chicken.  Add to the baking dish, moosh around and then turn over the chicken.  Cover tightly and let it sit in the fridge for at least 4 hours.  I highly recommend doing this the night before and the next morning, turn over the chicken before heading into work. 

5.  In a 420 degree oven, cook chicken for approximately 20-25 minutes.  Halfway through the cooking process, I like to scoop the juices over the top.  When time is up, insert a fork and make sure it's cooked through.  Serve with a side of veggies and rice!

Chicken Curry Pioneer Style

I follow a number of blogs that talk design, fashion, food, cooking, photography or pets.  I was recently introduced to Pioneer Woman, laughed out loud reading the most recent post and then ended up reading her archived blog posts for the next 30 minutes.  To shed light on her killer following, some of her posts will have 20,000+ comments.  She has several sections including confessions, cooking, home & garden, and photography.  Hello, sister!  That's my blog roll all in one.  I purposely don't read her blog every day so that when I do, I'll have several posts to catch up on.  I don't know why that gives me that little extra pleasure but it simply does.  Ha! 

Anyways, if you haven't read her blog, you need to.  She has this hilarious sense of humor and she couples everything with photos.  Two of my favorite posts include the one about Charlie and the one about her college handbook for her sister.    

She has a new cookbook as well, which will probably be on my next bookstore run.  On her blog, she featured an easy chicken curry recipe from her friend, Tom.  It definitely was easy!  I actually loved the flavor, extra punch and depth provided by the onions, tomatoes and garlic.  This was so good that my mom asked for the recipe and even made it herself!  What was even better, this was a one pot dinner. 

Beware, if you don't have a good kitchen ventilation system, your house and everything else - including your pets - will smell oh so, curry.  Don't think that it will only last a few days.  Nope, I had a curry smell in my house for a week and even after that was gone, my Sasha smelled like curry for two more weeks.  Poor girl. 

One Pot Chicken Curry
Recipe adapted from Pioneer Woman
Serves 4

6 chicken thighs
1 tsp mustard
1 onion, chopped and separate into two equal portions
2 tomatos, chopped
8 cloves garlic, chopped
Handful of cilantro, chopped
3 tbsp yellow curry powder
1 3/4 cup water
1 cup chicken stock
4 tbsp veg. oil
S&P

1. Wash and pat dry chicken thighs. Put in a large bowl and sprinkle with S&P.  Then add in the mustard and mix well.  Chopped up the garlic, tomato, 1/2 onion and cilantro.  Add to the bowl and mix around so that the chicken is thoroughly mixed and covered.  I let it sit in the fridge for an hour.

2. If you want to serve this with rice, would start cooking the rice now.

3. In a small bowl, combine the water and curry powder and mix well.  In a pan on medium high heat, add the veg. oil and the curry water mixture.  Once mixture has reduced down slightly, add in the other 1/2 onion and let them cook for about 3-5 minutes.  If it gets to be too dry, add in a little bit of water.  

4. Now add in the chicken along with the marinade mixture.  I put all the chicken in and then flip each one to make sure each side is coated with the curry mixture.  I let it sit and cook for about 5 minutes covered.

5. Flip the chicken again if you need.  Now add in 1 cup of water and 1 cup of chicken stock.  I let it cook covered for another 15-20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.  Halfway through, I spooned the sauce over the tops of all the chicken. 

6. Cut through a chicken to make sure it's cooked all the way.  Then server with hot rice with a big spoonful of the sauce (for the chicken AND the rice).  Enjoy!

Say What? Chicken in Milk?

I've started paying more attention to Jaime Oliver particularly since he is now has the reality-TV show Food Revolution.  For work, I've been looking into TED conferences, which is a gathering of visionaries who give talks on what we can do to change the world.  Jaime gave a talk on "Teach every child about food," and I was fascinated about his findings.  He pushes for parents, teachers and schools to use fresh food as nutrition/obesity-related deaths are higher than even smoking.  What surprised the heck out of me was when he showed kids fresh food and asked them what they were called.  Easy right?  Nope, they had no clue.  They called tomatoes - potatoes, beets - onions, cauliflower - broccoli.  Anyways, watch his show or watch his talk if you have some time.

About a month ago, I found his "Chicken in Milk" recipe and was so perplexed by the combination and then even more perplexed when I read all the ingredients - cinnamon stick????  However, all the reviews and comments say that this dish is spectacular.  While not a simple dish to cook - you need the stove and the oven, the meat was definitely very tender.  I don't love this dish simply because I was a tad put-off by the cinnamon flavor, which is also my fault since I used cinnamon powder instead of the sticks.  I just couldn't justify spending eight bucks for sticks when I hardly use them.  Overall, it was good but not spectacular. I don't think I'll be trying again for awhile until I have a good reason to use lots of cinnamon sticks!

Chicken in Milk

Slightly adapted recipe by Jaime Oliver

2 cornish hen (or you can use 1 chicken)

1/2 stick of butter (don't fret, you throw some of it away)
1/2 cinnamon stick (I tried to cheat and use 1 tsp of cinnamon...)
2 tsp olive oil
S&P
Zest of 2 lemons
1 tbsp of fresh sage
10 cloves of garlic, skin left on
1 pint milk

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. 

2. Wash and pat dry your cornish hen.  Season with S&P all over and even inside the cavity.  Find a pot (that is also oven safe) that can fit the two hens.  Heat the pan on the stove and melt the butter and olive oil.  Once medium hot, add the hens and let them brown on each side.  

3. Once golden, take out the chicken and discard the oil and butter (phew!).  You should have some chicken debris at the bottom.  Put the hens back in the pan.  Then add in the zest, cinnamon, garlic, sage and milk.

4.  Put in the oven for 1 1/2 hours.  Half way through the cooking process, take out and quickly spoon the liquid over the chicken.  Don't worry if the sauce looks curdled - it's caused by the lemon zest with the milk.

5. Take out and let it sit.  The meat should fall of the bones!  I ate this with some white rice and make sure to spoon some of the sauce on the chicken and rice!

Sorta Lemon-y Chicken

You all know I love my dark chicken and the many different ways to cook and eat them. This dish is fairly simple but make sure you have a good ventilation system in your kitchen.  I was scrambling to open up my windows to make sure my smoke alarm didn't go off!  Or, I think this is a clear sign I need to invest in some more corningware or even a dutch oven - hooray!

This dish can be served with a slew of sides.  Best with some steamed carrots, cauliflower or green beans - all of which I had none.... Sigh.  So my staple of plain white rice it was! 

I'd adjust a few things on this recipe. First, I'd actually squeeze in lemon juice and the zest of one or two lemons. I mean, this dish is called lemon chicken and if that citrus bang doesn't hit or even nudge you when you take that first bite, might as well just be called baked chicken.  So flavor was a little too faint and its probably attributed to the overwhelming power that is called soy sauce.  So less soy sauce, more lemon and more honey to balance the more lemon.

Lemony Chicken

Serves 2

Recipe adapted from Cook, Eat, Love

Four chicken thighs

1/3 cup hot water (or chicken stock)

Splash of olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

Fresh thyme, pull off from about 4 or 5 sprigs and give a rough chop to release aroma
Splash of sherry vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
5 tbsp honey
1 lemon, finely sliced
1 juice and zest of one lemon (Extra that I would add)
S&P

1. Wash and then thoroughly pat dry your chicken.  Combine the S&P, garlic and thyme in a bowl. Then sprinkle this on the chicken - stick some under the skin as well. Do not take the skin off.  This will help when you brown the chicken and add flavor to the sauce. 

2. Heat some olive oil in a pot and brown the chicken so you get a nice browning on both sides. This is where my kitchen started to smoke!  Can you see from the below picture? Make sure you turn the vent on high or have some windows open.  Ha!

3. Once brown, add the vinegar and let it quickly bubble and reduce by half.  Then add in the soy sauce and honey (I mixed my soy sauce and honey together first before adding).  Make sure this mixes well with the vinegard and move around your chicken so they are nicely distributed and coated.  I like to flip my chicken a few times to make sure.

4. Add 1/2 cup of hot water (or chicken stock) and add the lemon slices (make sure you wash and dry the lemon before slicing.  Who wants dirty lemon slices in their food!). This is where I would add in the juice and zest of one lemon. Turn your heat to medium, let it bubble and reduce. This should take 5-10 minutes.

5. Take off heat and then serve immediately with fresh veggies or rice. Make sure to spoon some of the sauce on the chicken and the rice.

Side note: Cleaning this pot is no bueno.  I highly suggest you take the chicken out, serve with sauce and then immediately soak the pot in warm water while you are happily eating your meal.

Easy Chicken Drumsticks w/Ginger Apricot Marinade

Chicken is one of the easiest things to cook. I also love that it is so versatile. I had several drumsticks defrosting in the fridge and came across this recipe from Sassy Radish. Voila! Dinner of ginger apricot chicken is it!

What’s my favorite chicken dish? Wingstop lemon pepper chicken wings with their fries that are sprinkled with salt and sugar. Who knew sugar on fries could be so good? Ugh, I can’t tell you how much I love fried chicken wings. If I could eat these at least once a week without gaining any weight, hands on, I would. Heck, I’d eat them twice or three times a week.

This dish is fast and most importantly easy. I can make the marinade the night before and then when I get home from work, just pop them in the oven and cook some rice. 30 minutes later, I have a delicious dinner!

I suggested this dish to my sister who was not as big a fan as me. However, she didn’t pour the marinade with the chicken in the pan to cook. I think that makes a big difference. Not only does it help with a great glaze coating, but I opened and spooned the marinade over the chicken twice while I was cooking. Again, can I say YUM?

Apricot-Glazed Sriracha Ginger Chicken
From Sassy Radish who loosely adapted from Gourmet

1. For ingredients, click here for list. The only difference I did was use a different type of hot sauce instead of Sriracha and I only used drumsticks.

2. Peel garlic and ginger. Add to food processor and chop, chop! Add the apricot jam, soy sauce, water and hot sauce. Grind until well blended.
3. Wash and dry the drumsticks. I can’t tell you how important it is to rinse meat you buy from the grocery store. You never know what’s it has gone through. Put in plastic bag and add the marinade. Let sit for at least an hour. I usually like to do it the night before and let it sit overnight.

4. Oven to 400 degrees. Put chicken and the marinade into pan. Bake for 30 minutes. I checked at 10 minutes and spooned some of the marinade on top. Did it again at 20 minutes. Make sure chicken is done at 30 minutes – cook longer if it’s still a tad pink or if you poke it with a knife and red juices come out, cook another 5 minutes or so.
5. I served this with rice, which is good to balance out the sweetness of the chicken. Next time, these would go very well with some green beans.

Roasted Cornish Hen with Fingerling Potatoes

Cluck cluck cluck! Like everyone else, chicken is the main meat I eat. So really, how many ways can you cook chicken? Apparently, more than I thought. Searching chicken on food network returned 7,000 results. Hrmph, who knew chicken was THAT interesting? A tad overwhelmed at trying to figure out what I should do differently with the two cornish hen I had....I just realized, you know - I haven't perfected a roasted chicken recipe.

A dash of seasoning, salt, pepper, etc. and pop it in the oven and voi-la, you're suppose to have perfect chicken? Sorry sir, not me. There's always something that is slightly wrong each time - too dry, not enough flavor on the entire chicken, burnt wings, etc. So this is the third attempt and I think I got it.

Roasted Cornish Hens with Fingerling Potatoes

1 or 2 cornish hen

two lemons sliced into quarters (de-seeded)

fresh basil

thyme

2 tbsp melted butter

entire garlic bunch

s&p

olive oil

fingerling potatos

1/4 cup chicken stock

Tony's seasoning (durh, if you read my blog you know I LOVE this stuff...)

Wash and pat dry the two cornish hens. Season the inside cavity of the hens with pepper and a sprinkle of tony's seasoning. Let it sit in the fridge for around 3 hours (overnight is better). Take the chicken out of the fridge - let it warm up on counter for about 20 minutes. Pre-heat oven to 375.

Slice the entire garlic bunch in half horizontally and then in half. I also like to smoosh each portion a little to get the garlic juices going. Zest the two lemons. Slice into quarter and make sure to deseed (but do not squeeze!). In a bowl, toss that with the sliced quarters garlic bunch, lemon zest and a quick dash of olive oil (roughly 2 tspn). Add basil and thyme. Stuff this into the cavity of the two cornish hen. Place hens in an oven safe pan. (I bet for a chicken - you can add other veggies like onions, carrots, bell peppers.)

Melt butter in microwave and once melted, use a brush and quickly brush skin of the hen. Season all over with salt and pepper. (I was tempted to season with tony's again, but I know I can overdo it at times. Ha!).

Wash and dry the fingerling potatoes. Slice in half. Lightly season with salt and pepper. Add these to the pan. Pour chicken stock in the pan and pop into oven for 1 hour (For chicken - would think you'd keep in there for 1 and 1/2 hours). I covered the chicken lightly (don't fold down sides) with aluminum foil. After 45 minutes, I took it off and let it cook uncovered. You'll notice there greens mixed with the potatoes - I had lots of leftover basil so I chopped and just tossed it in there. Added to the aroma but not really the taste of the potatoes in my opinion.

Take out and let it cool. Don't cut into it right away. By letting it cool, you make sure that the juices say in. Now, after patiently staring at the hen and all its golden brown goodness, get a plate, knife and chow down!

Chicken and Dumplings w/Leeks

Ah, I love me some chicken and dumplings. I've tried this dish many a times...and not once have I had that "this is it!" mini-scream. Okay, no real scream but my heart/stomach jumps a little when the dish turns out so perfect, you know you'll use this recipe for the rest of your life. So I have to give thanks to Smitten Kitchen for giving me this recipe. So, what makes this dish so good? First, is the chicken broth and soup. The chicken has to have it's own flavor without getting lost among all the other ingredients in the soup. Second - which is a deal-breaker if not just right, are the dumplings. I've made these suckers so many different ways - from using bisquik mix to making it from scratch. For some reason, every time I made those dumplings, they weren't even close to the elementary school chicken and dumpling lunch plates that I so fondly remember. How do I explain the broth in this recipe? Easy. YUM. I've only used leeks for one other recipe - potato and leek soup. I'm disappointed in myself for not thinking to use leeks for a good chicken broth. For this recipe, in replacement of the onions, I used....surprise, shallots! The other ah-ha moment for this recipe was seasoning the chicken generously and searing them until they half-way cook. My previous attempts resulted in a bowl of soup where I didn't want to eat the chicken b/c it was too bland even though I seasoned with S&P - I think it says a lot when I would rather just have the broth on its own.

Obviously the dumplings were the best I've made. The key? I think it was adding the chicken fat to the milk and then heating it before adding to the flour. Genius! Also, I'm a pretty big fan of the 'ole Tony's seasoning...and I couldn't resist adding just a little dash into the dumpling mixture.

Chicken and Dumplings

Smitthen Kitchen

Don't use low-fat or fat-free milk in this reciipe. start with dumpling dough only when you are ready to top the stew. Serves 6-8

Stew

5 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken thigh (I used an entire chicken & cut it into large pieces...beware, this took me about 25 minutes to do but I'm not expert)

S&P

4 tsp veg. oil

4 tbsp unsalted butter (1/2 stick)

2 medium leeks, white & light green parts only, cut in half lenghwise and then into 1-in pieces (wash these thoroughly! lots of sand between each layer)

1 large onion, minced (I used three shallots instead)

6 tbsp all purpose flour

1/4 cup dry sherry

1/4 cup whole milke

4 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth (I used exactly two cans)

1 tspn minced fresh thyme leaves

2 bay leaves

1 cup frozen peas

3 tbsp minched fresh tarragon leaves

Dumplings

2 cups unbleached flour

1 tbsp baking power

1 tsp salt

1 cup whole milk

3 tbsp reserved chicken fat (or unsalted butter)

(I added a few dashes of tony's seasoning)

1. Pat chicken dry then season generously with S&P. Heat 2 tbsp oil in Dutch oven over medium heat until just smoking. Add half the chicken and cook until golden brown, about 10 minutes. (this took me a little less, ~5-7 minutes). Remove chicken and power off the chicken fat and reserve (for the dumplings, yum!). Repeat if you have more chicken. Remove and put to side.

2. Add butter to the Dutch oven and add the leeks, onion and 1/4 tsp salt. Cook until softened for about 10 minuts. Stir in the flour. Whisk in the sherry, scraping up any brown bits. Stir in broth, milk, thyme and bay leaves. Add chicken to the stew with any accumulated juices on plate, into the pot. Cover and simmer until chicken is fully cooked and tender. About 1 hour.

3. Remove chicken, discard the bay leaves. (I turned the heat off at this point.) Allow the sauce to settle then skim the fat from surface. Shred the chicken and discard the bones. Then return chicken to the stew.

4. For the dumplings, stir the flour, baking powder and salt together. (I also added a few dashes of tony's seasoning.) Microwave the milk and fat in a bowl until just warm (1 minute). Add warm mixture to the flour mixture until smooth.

5. Return stew to a simmer. Stir in peas and tarragon (I only use 1/2 of peas) and season with S&P (I didn't have to add any salt - make sure to taste first!). For the dumplings, scoop with a spoon and then drop into the stew using another spoon. Keep them around 1/4 inch apart in the stew. My dumplings were about half the size of a golf ball. Reduce heat, cover and cook until dumplings have doubled in size (15-18 minutes).