Chicken with Penne and veggies (yum!)

I made an absolutely fantastic pasta dish last night, and it is light and delicious and reminds me of spring!

Chicken with Penne and Veggies

1 large boneless skinless chicken breast

1/2 box of penne (about 1/2 lb)

1/2 a head of broccoli, chopped small

1 bell pepper (I used yellow) chopped

1/2 a small onion, chopped

1 can diced tomatoes, drained

1 qt (or a box will probably do) fat free chicken broth

2 big handfuls of baby spinach

salt/pepper/garlic/italian seasoning

I used the Pampered Chef covered baker for this, but you can probably just use any covered baker that can go in the oven and the microwave. OR you can buy a Pampered Chef Covered Baker. Go to http://www.pamperedchef.biz/breannadoyle?page=2ways-order-products and put in Lynne Powell as the hostess. See? Now you supported my Pampered Chef party too!

OK, Here's what you do. Place the chicken in the covered baker and sprinkle your seasonings and cover. If the breast is frozen, microwave on high for about 10 minutes. If it is not frozen, microwave on high for 6 minutes. Chop chicken well and leave in the baker. Add everything else except the spinach, stir well, and put in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and add in spinach, stir well, and cover for another 5 minutes. Add more seasonings to taste.

Makes about 6 servings.

Chicken Mushroom Orzo Soup

So let's say you are like me and you like roasting a chicken. And let's say you're also like me and your family eats 2 drumsticks, a breast, and maybe a wing or two, and leaves you with lots of thigh meat and a whole chicken breast and maybe a wing, too. And let's just say you're so much like me that when you finish dinner, you pick off all the remaining meat and make a broth out of the carcass.

Well, if you're usually like me, then you have a lot of broth the next day and you make chicken soup.

But today, see, today I decided that I didn't want plain old chicken soup, with veggies and chicken and maybe noodles or rice. In fact, I wanted to take my sister's yummy beef and mushroom and orzo recipe and turn it into a chicken soup.

So I did. Here it is:

Chicken Mushroom Orzo Soup

Dark Meat Leftovers from a roasted chicken, shredded

6 cups chicken broth

1 cup (dry) orzo

1 box mushrooms, sliced

1 small onion

2 cloves garlic

cooking spray

salt/pepper/sage/thyme

Saute onions and garlic in cooking spray until the onions soften. Add mushrooms and cook until they start to give off some liquid. Season with salt, pepper, a little sage, and thyme (don't overdo the sage. a little goes a long way). Add chicken broth and chicken and bring to a boil. Add orzo and cook 9 minutes more. Serve with a nice hearty bread. Delicious.

Lemon Caper Chicken

Years and years ago, back about 10 years ago, I was on an online diet program called eDiets. I ended up quitting because they went from this awesome diet that concentrated on healthy eating habits and a diet based on the American Heart Association's recommendations to a site that let you choose between "traditional eDiets," Atkins, and someone else's diet. I thought they were sellouts and I told them so. Looking at their site now, it looks like they still offer three choices, if not specifically two branded diets.

Anyway, the other reason I quit was that the support was in forums, and since not everyone was on the same plan anymore, the forums got weird and unhelpful. As it was I made a bunch of friends, which was pretty cool. And I got a recipe for Lemon Caper Chicken, which I have evolved over the last 10 years. Last night, about 1/2 hour before dinner time, I realized I had not planned anything, took a quick look in my fridge and freezer, and realized it was Lemon Caper Chicken time. Good thing my brain always makes sure I buy ingredients for it even when I'm not particularly thinking of making it.

2 small boneless skinless chicken breasts, butterflied and then cut into small pieces

2T whole wheat flour

salt/pepper/garlic/paprika

2T capers

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 c fat free chicken broth

cooking spray

Sprinkle spices into the flour and mix well. Spray a nonstick pan with cooking spray and set the heat to medium-high. Pat dry your pieces of chicken and lightly coat the pieces in the flour mixture, and add them to the pan. Cook for a few minutes and turn. Cook a few more minutes on the second side.

Add chicken broth, lemon, and capers to the pan with the chicken and turn heat down to medium-low. Continue cooking until the broth becomes thick and sticks to the chicken.

Serves 2. I ran this through WW's points builder and I cannot believe it but it's 3 points per serving! Serve with brown rice or pasta or whatever you want because it's 3 points!

Baked Chicken with Orzo

A few trips to Dinner Zen-ago, I made this really yummy dish of baked shrimp with orzo. Today, having nothing really ready to go for dinner, I realized I had orzo, and lemons, and tomatoes, and I could wing the rest of it.

1 cup (uncooked) orzo

2 4-oz chicken breasts

1 15-oz can of diced tomatoes

zest off of 1 lemon

juice of the same lemon

1T dried oregano

salt/pepper

Cook orzo and drain. Cut up chicken into bite-sized pieces. Combine chicken and orzo with diced tomatoes, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, salt, and pepper. Pour into a square baking pan and bake covered (with foil) for an hour at 350.

Serves 3, at 6 points per serving. You can add 1/2 cup of feta cheese to the mix for an additional 2 points per serving.

I would say that this would probably freeze well (since the Dinner Zen one was a freezer meal). Make a double or triple batch and press into Gladware bakers to freeze.

Mango Curry Chicken Revisited

A while ago, I made Mango Curry Chicken. It was great, but we as a family felt that there was not enough liquid and the chicken dried out a bit. In revisiting, I made 3 bags of Mango Curry Chicken for the freezer, and each fed 2 adults and a child. Original recipe from Recipezarr but mine is different enough now that I'm rewriting the whole thing. Remember that this is a freezer recipe so you are intended to make it in a big batch. You'll need three freezer bags.

Spice mix:

2T sugar

2t curry powder

2t ground coriander

1/2t ground cinnamon

1/4t cayenne pepper

1t turmeric

1t salt

1/8t ground cloves

Combine all spices well and divide into the three freezer bags.

Now you'll need:

1 extra large sweet onion, chopped

5 or 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 1/2 cups mango chutney (I use Trader Joe's brand but you can get other brands too)

Divide chicken pieces, chopped onions, tomatoes, and chutney into the three freezer bags that the spices already went into. Press out air and seal freezer bags, and mix everything well inside the bag so that chicken is well coated. Freeze.

To cook, defrost and then you can either put it in your crockpot for 4-6 hours or bake in a covered baker for an hour.

5 points per serving. Serve over brown basmati rice for 4 points per cup.

Chicken and Chickpea Stew

My husband is out of town today, so I got to cook with legumes! On the menu, Crockpot Chicken and Chickpeas, a recipe that I got from the internet here.

I, of course, rearranged the recipe to make it my own. It was fantastic, and enjoyed by both me and the small boy.

Chicken and Couscous Stew

3 four-oz boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of any fat and cut into bite-sized pieces

2 carrots, sliced

1 large onion, sliced thinly

20 oz can of chick peas, rinsed and drained

15 oz can of diced tomatoes (with liquid)

4 cloves garlic, pressed through a garlic press

1t paprika (I used Hot Hungarian Paprika but you can use sweet if you object or can't get it)

1/2 t ground ginger

1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 t turmeric

1/2 t salt

Throw everything into the crock pot and mix well to distribute spices. Cook on high for 3 hours and low for 1 hour, then on warm until it's time to eat. If you have more time than that you can keep it on low for 6 hours.

I ran this through the weight watchers recipe builder. Based on 4 servings, this comes to a whopping 5 points per serving. One serving was plenty for a hearty dinner when served with whole wheat couscous (1 cup = 3 points) for an 8-point meal.

Although I hate when my husband is out of town, it was a nice chance to try a new recipe and eat something that we can't normally have when he is home! My house smelled amazing while it was cooking, and it was quite tasty, too.

Chicken Multi-Day Cooking

When I was in the Safeway the other day, they had giant chickens on sale. So, even though I had just done a Multi-Day Beef Cook, it looked like time to do a Multi-Day Chicken Cook. Lady Ozma calls this "A Week of Chicken."

So, first the chicken--very basic roasted chicken but it's huge! Right? Bake your giant chicken with something citrussy inside of it and some gentle herbs and seasonings on the skin. I used sage, thyme, salt, pepper, and garlic. I didn't use extra fat because I am weight watchering. Bake that baby and serve it up to your family. Use the drippings to make some gravy. Since we are a family of three (who eat), this meant that we ate one wing, one drumstick, and one breast, leaving a great deal of meat left for more food.

Now, for making your one chicken into Many Days of eating!

Dismantling your chicken

Cut off any remaining limbs (oh that sounds bad!), cutting off the wings and legs. Pull off the remaining white meat -- you should be able to get the breast off in one or two pieces. The dark meat may be more difficult but do your best to pick the carcass mostly clean. Store the white and dark meat separately, and plan to send your loved one off to work the next day with a chicken leg in his lunch box :)

Making Broth

It's important that you make the broth before you make additional items because you will need it for your other dishes.

Take your very ugly looking chicken carcass and any extra skin that might be hanging around it, and stick it in the biggest pot you own within reason. I use a pasta pot. Add to that a couple of carrots, cut in half, the leaves off of the celery that you have in the fridge (that's what they're for!), an onion cut in quarters, a couple of tablespoons of peppercorns, 5-6 cloves of garlic, some bay leaves, any poultry-like herbs that you have lying around (sage/parsley/thyme are great. Scarborough Fair was actually a song about making a chicken), and cover the whole thing with water. Set that puppy to high and boil it for an hour, then turn it down to medium and simmer it for 3 or more hours.

Strain all of it and toss away everything you strained out. Really. Don't think about the chicken bits that you see that just got boiled for 4 hours. Not worth it.

Now you have Broth! But what to do with it? Well, first. Put it in the fridge. The next day, you'll see a congealed layer of fat on top. Just scoop it off and throw it away. Or not. The fat will make it taste better, because that's what fat does, but if you take it off your broth is zero points/free food on just about any diet.

Chicken Pot Pie

Now you're ready to make Chicken Pot Pie.

This is the Chicken Pot Pie that I have made in the past and you can certainly use that recipe. Of course, the chicken broth that you are going to use for that recipe will be from the batch you just made. Today I had some left over gravy that I made for the initial chicken dish, so I incorporated that as well. Awesome and DONE!

Now, if your chicken was the size mine was, and your family is the size mine is, you still have plenty of white meat left. Use it to make chicken salad!

Now, I happen to like dark meat, and we still have a bunch left, plus all that broth, so let's make soup!

Chicken Soup

Before you make your soup, check how much broth you have. If it's a ton, which it probably is, pour it by 1-cup measures into some ziploc bags, double bag (put multiple single bag portions into a larger bag), and freeze. It will work great for additional recipes and will be available to you one cup at a time.

Here's my chicken soup recipe:

Cook up some diced onions, celery, and carrots, and maybe a little minced garlic in some cooking spray and add salt and pepper to the mix. When the onion gets a little soft, add about a cup of white wine if you have it. Let that cook for a couple of minutes and add your chicken broth. If you have one, cut up a tomato and throw that in as well, and if you like you can put in a small bag of frozen spinach, which will make it healthier and just as tasty. You can also add a box of mushrooms for something different. When it's just about done, throw in your shredded chicken (white or dark meat is fine) and Eat! It's delicious!

Anything else?

If you have ANY chicken left over after all of that, for the love of all that is holy, put it into a quesadilla or enchilada and freeze it because you've had too much chicken this week and need to diversify!

Orange Chicken with Singapore Seasoning

I've been branching out and trying my hand at mixing perhaps surprising ingredients. Today, it was a great success! I did use two specialty items, but I'm pretty sure you could replace them if you needed to (that is, I used the Pampered Chef Covered Baker and Penzey's Singapore Seasoning.

Orange Chicken with Singapore Seasoning (serves 2)

2 four-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts

one onion, sliced thinly

one navel orange, cleaned well, and sliced thinly

5 cloves garlic, sliced in half.

Penzey's Singapore Seasoning

salt

Pampered Chef Covered Baker

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Line the bottom of the Pampered Chef covered baker with oranges. Place chicken breasts on top of oranges, and sprinkle lightly with salt and liberally with Singapore Seasoning. Place remaining orange slices on top of chicken, top with onions garlic. Cover the baker, and bake for 45-50 minutes. (You can actually leave it in longer if you need to if you use the covered baker; we were in a conversation with a friend and it went over an hour and was still awesome).

Serve chicken breasts topped with oranges, onions, and garlic. We had this with some broccoli on the side and it was lovely.

Aaaaaand.... according to Weight Watchers' Recipe Builder, it's 5 points per serving!

Swiss Chard and Chicken Quesadillas

Last week our CSA newsletter came with a recipe for Chard Quesadillas. I made them this weekend and Omnomnom. We thought that if we added chicken it might be very good too.

So I did. And Double Omnomnom mostly because they have a different texture with the chicken. So here's your recipe. I prepped 8, cooked one to share with my kiddo, and froze the rest.

Swiss Chard and Chicken Quesadillas

1 lb bag of shredded mexican cheese

8 large flour tortillas

2 chicken breasts

sazon goya and adobo or whatever you like to season your chicken breasts

1 large bunch of chard

salsa

Chop up chard into small pieces, stems and leaves together. Place in a microwave safe bowl with a lid (or a plate for a lid) and cook for 4 minutes. You shouldn't need to add water if you have washed the chard--whatever water sticks to the leaves is enough to steam it.

Cook chicken breasts, seasoned however you like. I used 1 packet of sazon goya and a sprinkle of adobo. You can cook them however you like to--I used my Pampered Chef covered baker and cooked them from frozen in the microwave in 10 minutes, but if you don't have one, you can boil, broil, pan fry or whatever it takes to get it cooked and seasoned. Then chop the chicken really well.

If you are going to freeze these, prep 8 pieces of aluminum foil large enough to hold an open tortilla. Build your quesadillas by layering ingredients on one side of the tortilla (so you can fold it over). Layer Cheese, Chard, Chicken, Salsa, and more Cheese. Fold over.

If you are freezing them, fold over the foil and wrap it up. If not, spray a pan with cooking spray, place quesadilla on the pan, and spray the top. Bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes on the first side and another 5 on the other side.

If you are cooking from frozen, spray both sides of the quesadilla with cooking spray and bake at 300 degrees for 15 minutes on the first side and 10 minutes on the second side. (potentially will come back to fix this after baking one from frozen, but quesadillas from Dinner Zen cooked well this way).

This was a HUGE hit with my toddler. I haven't seen him devour anything so quickly in a long time.

Leftover Chicken

The other day my husband was on his way home from class, and asked if he should pick up dinner. I suggested a Safeway roasted chicken, and then made some side dishes from our farm share food.

Of course, with a family of 3, we always end up with leftover chicken, usually dark meat. So what to do with it? Since we are in a state of needing quick meals, the answer was either soup or salad, but who makes dark meat chicken salad? 

Well, after making THIS dark meat chicken salad, I think the answer is "us."

So here you go, Leftover Chicken Salad (the dark meat version)

Dark meat pulled from leftover roasted chicken

1 T romesco sauce bought from the Crackpot Gourmet 

2 small ribs celery, chopped finely

2 shallots, diced

mayonnaise to taste

salt to taste

small amount of fresh parsley

Chop chicken, parsley, celery, and shallots together, and mix in sauce, mayo, and salt. Serve on very good bread with a slice of heirloom tomato, and say YUM a lot.

Coming soon: Fresh Corn and Tomato Soup. Now with a kick!

Chicken with Cherry Sauce, also, My husband, the cooking fiend

It's Cherry Season!!!

Last year at Cherry Season, my friend Maggie and I invented the Best Cherry Sauce Recipe There Ever Was. This year, I had to ask my husband to make it, based on some very nebulous directions that I had scribbled into my Livejournal. These included directions like "Add a whole lot of Five Spice." Well, he followed my crazy directions but then told me exactly what he did so that we can emulate it in the future. So today, I present Chicken with Cherry Sauce!

Chicken with Cherry Sauce

by Lynne Powell, Maggie Kolb, and formalized by Adam Terio

1 whole roasting chicken

olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika

1 cup sour cherries, pitted

1/2 cup sweet cherries, pitted

1/4 cup Smart Balance 

2t salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 of a bottle of red wine (estimate here)

1t five spice

1/2t black pepper

splash of apple juice

Coat chicken with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, garlic, paprika. Roast chicken. While chicken is roasting, start the sauce.

Saute sweet and sour cherries in Smart Balance. Add salt and sugar and continue to saute until cherries are coated. Add wine, five spice, black pepper, and a splash of apple juice. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium-low. Smash cherries with a fork or potato masher and allow to continue reducing until chicken is ready to eat. 

We serve the chicken with the sauce on the side, as if you do have leftovers of both, they reheat better separately. This is traditionally (both times) served with cous cous and corn on the cob. 

In other news, my husband has been a cooking fiend today. He started out making breakfast burritos with eggs, cheese and chorizo. On our list of things to cook or prep are this fabulous dinner, a cherry pie (which he made, and we had for dessert), swiss chard empanadas, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and beer. And since I can't stand up, he has been doing everything himself! I did help pit the cherries because I could sit and do it in about 10 minutes now that we have a cherry pitter. I know it's a uni-tasker. But it's probably even more useful than my favorite gadget, the mango pitter, because cherry season lasts longer. 

So he's been cooking. The ice cream is cooling before we put it in the ice cream maker, the pie has been partially eaten, the dinner was demolished, and the water for the beer has been boiled. If we don't get to the empanadas, oh well, there's always tomorrow (it's more important that the beer get made actually, based on my due date!) When I met him, my husband knew how to make three things--Boboli pizza, chicken stir fry, and taco salad. (He claims he knew how to make other things but that's all we ever ate at his house unless I cooked!) So after today he has made a believer of me!! He even noticed that he had extra heavy cream from the ice cream, so he made whipped cream for the pie! I'm seriously impressed, and I love him dearly!

CSA Meals!!

Since I was excited but not mentally prepared for the amount of food that showed up in my home yesterday, dinner was stir fry. Let's face it, large number of veggies + no ideas = stir fry.

So, our stir fry:

One head of Mei Qing Choi, chopped coarsely

2 spring onions (from the farm market last week), chopped

1 garlic curl, chopped

2 small chicken breasts, marinated for 1/2 hour in harissa (from the farm market) and soy sauce

Stir fry in olive oil. Serve.

We wrapped the kiddo's into an egg roll, and everyone else just ate it plain with no starch or anything, and it was great!

I need to look up some recipes for escarole and kale, but we should be eating very well this week. Also, with three heads of lettuce, I think we will be eating salad. A lot of it.

The unidentified herb was identified by my husband as oregano. Since we have that and basil, I forsee something Italian, too!

Any ideas?

Mango Curry Chicken

I've been meaning to post about my Mango Curry Chicken freezer cooking. I felt weird because I didn't actually cook it yet so I don't know how it came out! But for ease of freezer cooking, you can't beat this recipe.  http://www.recipezaar.com/Mango-Curry-Chicken-Oamc-247894

So here's what makes the recipe so easy. You measure out your spices, mix them up, split them in 2 and dump into 2 freezer bags. Then you cut up your onion and dump into the bags. Then add the store-bought mango chutney to the bags and then the tomatoes. You cut up your chicken, throw it in last, seal it, smoosh everything around, flatten it out as best you can and throw them in the freezer. Easy peasy.

Now, as I had said earlier, I bought a giant package of chicken breasts at BJs. My plan was to make 2 recipes and freeze them for 4 meals.  I figured I'd make 2 one evening and 2 the next, just to make sure that everything went right the first time. So I measured out the spices, chutney, etc., split into the two freezer bags, and opened the package of chicken only to discover OMG MUTANT GIANT CHICKEN BREASTS!!

Yeah, so I didn't need six. I cut up four instead and it was plenty for two meals for three people.

I guess I'm really used to buying organic chicken breasts from Trader Joe's, which are normal sized and where one feeds one person. 

Anyway, the next day I made a second batch, and then I froze the rest of the breasts because I had no plan for them. They will likely become enchiladas. My husband will be home next week so I expect we'll cook up the mango chicken curry while he's here. To cook, you just partially defrost, throw it in a crock pot, and cook on low for several hours. I can't wait.

Easy Dinner: Trader Joe's Korma Simmer Sauce

We were wandering around Trader Joe's today and I thought to pick up their Korma Simmer Sauce. I am often wary of such sauces as they tend to have peanut ingredients, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that this sauce was made with almond butter instead! Fantastic!

After tossing it in my cart, I noticed that they were actually sampling the product in the store! I gave it a taste and decided it would be dinner.

Now, according to the package, you use it by pan-frying some chicken, adding the sauce and a cup of water, warming through, and serving over basmati rice. We decided that this presented a lack of vegetables. So here is what I did instead:

Prepare basmati rice according to package directions (I also added a small amount of bullion and 2 pinches of saffron)

In a handy Pampered Chef Covered Baker, throw in 2 chopped stalks of celery, 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (frozen), and about 1/3 of a bag of frozen tri-colored pepper strips. Microwave covered for 10 minutes. Remove from microwave, chop chicken, return to baker. Add the whole jar of sauce and a little less than a cup of water (there was already be liquid at the bottom of the baker, so I estimated how much water was needed to bring it up to one cup total in addition to the sauce) Return to microwave and cook for 5 more minutes. Serve over rice. 

It was extremely good. In all it took less than 20 minutes to prepare and that is because the chicken was frozen. We are all quite full right now and expect to try this again on a busy weekday evening some time. Delicious.

Chicken Pot Pie (for freezer cooking)

I had a request for this recipe today, so here it is:

This is a freezer cooking recipe, and it works really really well. It makes two pies and can easily be doubled for a freezer cooking/swap day:

2 packages pre-made pie crusts (4 crusts total)

2 chicken breasts

2 cups chicken broth plus some more for later in the process

splash of white wine if you have it on hand

corn starch

Penzy's Bouquet Garni (or your favorite herb mix)

salt/pepper

2 stalks celery

2 carrots

1 onion

2 potatoes

frozen corn

frozen green beans

Cook chicken in chicken broth and wine

At the same time, chop potatoes, carrots, onion, and celery.

Line 2 pie tins with pie crusts. I used 8.5" pie tins for this.

When chicken is cooked thoroughly, remove from the broth and reserve the broth. Chop or shred the chicken, and add the chicken and chopped vegetables to the pie crusts. Add frozen corn and green beans to fill out the pies.

Now take a look at how much broth remains. If you don't think you have enough for 2 pies, add some chicken broth and wine to give you enough. I don't douse my pies in gravy but I like to have at least 1/3 cup per pie. Mix corn starch with cold water and add it to the broth. Add some bouquet garni, salt, and pepper, and bring to a boil. Distribute evenly across both pies, and add a little more seasoning to the pies. 

Top with the remaining pie crusts and cut air holes. Cover with foil, label, and freeze.

To heat for dinner, remove the pie the morning that you'll be eating it and keep in the refrigerator. Remove foil and restructure it to cover the edges of the pie crust so they don't burn. Bake at 300 degrees for 2 hours. If you remove the pie the night before you can bake it at 350 for an hour instead.