Foodie Friday--Lemon Chicken with Broccoli

This is a second lemon chicken recipe that you will find on my blog page. It’s just as good and as healthy as the other one. This lemon sauce is wonderful on broccoli . . . in fact, you could use shrimp instead of chicken if desired.

I have no idea who to give credit to as I seem to have cut the page down to fit into my notebooks and cut off the contributor. My bad. Sorry.  

Lemon Chicken with Broccoli

2 Tbls. flour

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

12 oz. chicken, thinly sliced

2 tsp. olive oil

 

1 ½ cups fat-free, reduced sodium chicken broth

 

2 tsp. minced garlic

 

2 ½ cups broccoli florets

 

2 tsp. lemon zest

 

2 Tbls. fresh parsley, chopped

 

1 Tbls. lemon juice 

Toss sliced chicken in flour, salt and pepper mixture.

Heat oil in large non-stick pan over medium-high heat (I have a wok). Add chicken and cook until lightly browned and cooked through, about 3-5 minutes. Remove to a plate.

Pour one cup broth and garlic into wok. Bring to boil, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add broccoli; cover and cook 1 minute.

Stir 1/2 Tbls flour, ¼ tsp salt into remaining ½ cup broth; add to skillet and bring to simmer over low heat.

Cover and cook until broccoli is crisp-tender and sauce is slightly thickened, about 1 ½ minutes.

Stir in chicken and lemon zest; heat through.

Remove from heat, stir in lemon juice and parsley. Toss to coat.

 

Tips & Tricks:

·         This recipe cooks quickly, in about 10-15 minutes, so have EVERYTHING ready to go. I use tiny bowls, the kind you see on cooking shows, which keeps me from having to keep measuring stuff.

·         I used two large chicken breasts, which was almost 21 ounces, double the recipe. Adjust everything accordingly.

·         Gallon-sized Ziploc bags are wonderful to use when coating anything in a flour mixture.

·         I cooked the chicken in two batches since all the chicken would overcrowd the pan if I had done it at one time.

·         When pouring the one cup of broth into the very hot pan, be careful of the steam.

·         Two cloves of minced garlic worked well for the recipe. The cloves were of an average size.

·         Two heads of broccoli was enough to make a pile of florets.

·         One lemon provided enough zest and juice for this recipe.

·         I cooked wild rice, which was a nice side dish with this recipe. Time the rice to finish a little early. Set it aside, covered, until chicken is ready. This allows the water/broth to absorb into the thick hulls of the rice grains.

 

Enjoy!

 

Foodie Friday -- Creamy Pesto Lasagna

I found this recipe in Food TV magazine. It looked good so I decided to try this recipe. It’s a winner! The family polished off the leftovers in two days, so it’s a keeper.

This makes 12 servings. 

Creamy Pesto Lasagna

Béchamel sauce:

4 Tbls. Butter

¼ cup flour

3 cups whole milk

¼ tsp. nutmeg

½ cup purchased basil pesto

Salt and Black pepper to taste

Lasagna:

1 15-ounce package ricotta cheese

1 cup grated Parmesan

½ purchased basil pesto

12 dry, flat, no-boil lasagna noodles

3 cups diced rotisserie chicken

4 cups shredded, part-skim mozzarella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For the béchamel, melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in milk and nutmeg, bring to a simmer, and cook 2 minutes more. Remove from heat, stir in ½ cup pesto; season with salt and pepper.

For the ricotta mixture, stir together ricotta, Parmesan, and ½ cup pesto; season with salt and pepper.

Assembling the lasagna:

Spread 2/3 cup béchamel in bottom of a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Lay 3 lasagna sheets side-by-side. Top with ½ cup ricotta mixture, ¾ cup chicken, 2/3 cup béchamel, and ¾ cup mozzarella. Repeat layering three more times, topping the final layer with 1 ½ cups mozzarella. Cover lasagna with foil.

Bake lasagna until bubbly, about 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake lasagna 15 minutes more, then broil on high until golden, 2-3 minutes. Let lasagna rest 15 minutes before serving.

Tips & Tricks:

·         I didn't have whole milk, so I used skim milk along with a little bit of heavy cream to make up the 3 cups.

·         The recipe called for refrigerated basil pesto, but I couldn't find it, so I found jarred basil pesto in the pasta aisle. I bought two 8.1 ounce jars because I couldn’t remember how much was needed. I did need the second jar when I actually measured it out.

·         I didn’t use rotisserie chicken, though it would have made this recipe really easy. Instead I grilled two very large chicken breasts that I seasoned with Cavender’s Greek seasoning.

·         Yeah, I don’t follow the “4 cups of Mozzarella cheese” number. I bought an 8 cup package and almost used the entire package.

·         The béchamel sauce is pretty easy to make, so freak out about it. Be sure to taste the sauce AFTER you add the pesto but BEFORE you salt it. The pesto I bought was pretty salty, so I didn’t really have to salt the sauce.

·         Depending on the store bought pesto, it might be very, very garlicy. . . the brand I bought was (Classico), but the family didn’t care.

·         Have everything prepared to make quick work of layering the lasagna

Enjoy!

Later, Peeps! 

Foodie Friday -- Chicken Pot Pie

I haven't been cooking much recently, what with taking the kidlet to swim practice and the hubs working late (7 or 8 PM). The kidlet and I would leave the house at 5:05 PM on the days she has dry land prior to swim practice, and at 5:45 PM on regular swim days. We get home around 8:00. I refuse to feed my kid a heavy meal when she's going to bed in the hour or hour-and-a-half.

This last week I had thawed some pre-made pie crust {If you've EVER read my foodie blogs, I will tell you that I a) hate these crusts, and b) can't make crust if my life depended on it}. So I buy the crusts. And I had thawed a package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I love these little vacuum sealed packages from Target's Archer Farms brand. Each package is either twelve ounces for 2-3 breasts, or sixteen ounces for 3-4. And let's just say these breasts are plump!

These two items had to be used or they would go bad. So I told the kidlet when I picked her up at school on Wednesday that I was making Chicken Pot Pie, and received the rousing encouragement of "meh".

So go hungry. See if I care. Erm, she had two servings of this stuff.

I didn't measure anything, so be sure to taste and adjust seasonings prior to baking it. I did use the Pioneer Woman's Chicken Pot Pie recipe as a guideline. If I could have made more filling, I would have. I wasn't going to post this recipe, until I realized that I didn't have one on my Foodie Friday blogs.

Here's my rendition.

Chicken Pot Pie

2 large stalks celery, diced (about 1 cup)
1 large onion, diced (about 1 cup)
Carrots, diced (about 1 cup) All I had were mini-carrots.
Green peas--if you have them, I didn't :-(
1 Tbls butter
1 Tbls olive oil
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, raw, cut into 1-in. cubes (about 2 cups)
flour (about 1/4 cup)
Kosher salt
pepper
thyme
1 Tbls Better than Bouillon chicken base
2 cups water
splash of heavy cream (I had some left over about 1/2 cup)
1 pre-made pie crust, Pillsbury

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Melt butter with oil in large pan until hot, toss in celery, onions, and carrots. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Toss in chicken and cook, about 3-4 minutes. Add Bouillon chicken base, salt, pepper, thyme and sprinkle with flour. Stir to coat and cook for a minute or two. Add water. Stir and boil for 3-4 minutes. It will start to thicken. Taste seasonings, adjust if needed. Add splash of cream and simmer for a few minutes until thickens. Pour mixture into baking dish. Throw crust on top. Poke holes in crust. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes, until crust is golden.

Hints & suggestions:

• I love the Better than Bouillon products
• I use a flat-bottomed wok for cooking. It has nice high sides that angle out to make for easy sauteing.
• Find the fattest piece of chicken and break in half to see if it's cooked (NOT pink), then continue with recipe.

Enjoy!

Later, Peeps!

Foodie Friday -- Pot Roast

So you're thinking, "Any idiot can make a pot roast, why do I need a recipe?"

Good comment, but let me tell you that until I looked up recipes, I had been doing it wrong.

Actually, my greatest mistake was not cooking it long enough . . . by an hour or two. Yeah, that much makes a big difference.

So I open my Pioneer Woman cookbook and see what she does to make her pot roast so special.

Not much.

I followed her instructions and discovered that you can't get the yummy burnt bits from the onions, carrots and roast when you use a non-stick pan. Bummer. So I had to make adjustments.

Here's my version of:

Pot Roast

2-3 pound roast--suitable for oven cooking, without marbling

1 Tbls. oil

carrots--I had bag of baby cut carrots

2-3 onions, peeled and cut in half

2 cups of beef broth (or more)

large sprig of rosemary, about 6-inches long

5-6 stems of thyme, about 3-4 inches long

2 lb. of mixed potatoes (Yukon gold, red, blue)

2 pkgs. brown gravy mix

Place large pot (5 quart) on stove over high heat. Add oil. When oil is shimmery add onions. Toss onions around until they are slightly charred. Remove from pan and add carrots. When carrots get slightly charred, remove. Season roast with sea salt and pepper, all sides. Place roast in pan and sear all sides. Add the onions, carrots. thyme and rosemary. Add enough broth to reach 2/3 of the way up the roast. Bring to boil and then lower heat to low simmer. Cover and cook for 3-4 hours. Add potatoes and cook until potatoes are fork-tender, about an hour. In the last 15 minutes, empty pouches of gravy mix into 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Ladle cooking broth into cup and stir, then mixed add back into pot with the roast.
Roast should be tender by this time. Remove roast and slice into thick slices, about 1/2 inch. Place slice in deep bowl and ladle carrots, potatoes, onions and gravy over beef.

Hints & Suggestions:

· As I mentioned, a non-stick pans won't leave charred bits on the bottom of the pan to enhance the gravy. Bummer, but there you go.

· I happen to eat a lot of those pre-washed baby carrots so I had them on hand. If you have regular carrots, just cut them in 2-inch chunks and throw them in the pot.

· I put potatoes in the pot, but if you don't want to do that just make mashed potatoes to get a starch in your diet. Plop the taters in your bowl, add a thick slice of meat and then douse in gravy and vegs.

· Much taste testing was performed on the meat during the last hour of cooking. Total cooking time was 5 hours. Yes, FIVE hours.

I think that it's for now.

 

Later, Peeps!

 

 

 

 

Foodie Friday -- Skillet Hash

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I had leftover meat and not a whole lot of options. Well, when I was looking for a recipe, I remembered this one for Skillet Hash. It's originally from a Betty Crocker cookbook and I've used this recipe numerous times when I've had left over roast beef.

Skillet Hash

2 cups chopped cooked beef
4 small potatoes, cooked and diced (about 2 cups)
1 med. onion, chopped (@1/2 cup)
1 Tbls. snipped parsley
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup shortening

Mix beef, potatoes, onion, parsley, salt and pepper. Heat shortening in large skillet over medium heat until melted. Spread beef mixture evenly in skillet. Fry, turning frequently, until browned. 10-15 minutes.

 
Hints & suggestions:

·         Oven Hash--Omit shortening. Spread mixture evenly in greased 8 x 8 baking dish. Cook uncovered on 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

·         My beef is already seasoned, so I will taste it before adding the additional salt and pepper.

·         Can easily double the recipe, but you might need two skillets to cook them in or work in batches.

Enjoy!

Foodie Friday -- Spicy Twice Cooked Beef

Last week, I was cleaning out my freezer and I found a couple of frozen steaks. They had been vacuum sealed, so they still looked okay, but I need more room for my candy stuff, which meant I needed to cook them.

Normally, my family likes and eats only filet steak--not because we're snobs, but because we aren't fans of the fat marbling most other types of steaks. So don't ask me why I picked up Sirloin Tip steaks.

I coated them in some Montreal Seasoning and grill them. We didn't eat them that night because we were enjoying some filets. So they sat in the fridge--and none of us are fans of reheated steak.

What to do?

Stir-fry, baby! Or hash, but I didn't have any potatoes. So, STIR-FRY, it is!

Spicy Twice Cooked Beef

Marinade:

2 Tbls. minced ginger root
1 Tbls. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes, add more if want it hotter
1 cup teriyaki sauce
Add to the marinade,
1 1/2 cups of julienned steak* (@ one sirloin tip steak)

Mix well and refrigerate for about 6 hours.

1-2 Tbls. oil
1 Tbls. cornstarch
1/2 onion, sliced thin, crosswise**
1 celery rib, sliced thin
1/2 cup carrots, julienned
3 cups packaged grated cabbage

2 packs Ramen noodles, broken once and cooked according to directions without seasoning packet.

Heat 1 Tbls of oil in wok, or large skillet, on high heat. Using tongs, drain meat, and place marinaded beef in pan, reserving liquid. Add cornstarch to liquid, mix and set aside. Sear meat 3-4 min. Remove meat and set on plate. Add a little oil and toss in vegetables. Saute until tender, 2-3 min. Return meat to wok and add reserved marinade, stirring constantly until cooked down. Add noodles. Stir and serve.

Makes 2-3 servings

Notes and suggestions:
*julienne--sliced into matchstick-like pieces, about 2-3 inches long and 1/8-inch on each side
**crosswise--slice whole onion from top to root, pull papery skin back toward root. Lay 1/2 onion flat on cutting board and slice into half moon shapes about 1/4-inch thick.
--You can add 1/4 cup soy sauce to marinade, but if meat is already seasoned, it will make it too salty
-- recipe cooks quickly, slice all the vegetables ahead of time
--cornstarch will thicken the liquid without it being 'floury' and gummy
--can add more vegetables to stretch the meal into more servings

Enjoy!

Later, Peeps!

Foodie Friday -- Chicken Piccata

I love chicken piccata. I think it’s the lemon part of the equation, or maybe it’s the tiny bits of salty from the capers. I don’t know what it is, but if I want a special meal this is what I make. Well, or the hubs will make, because he’s made this recipe for my birthday, mother’s day, or just because day. The only problem with his cooking for me is that I become his sous chef. I prepare everything ahead of time, ready to go in their little glass cups, and then I have to do the clean up . . . and there is a lot to clean up!

Things to remember:

--this recipe cooks quickly. Have everything ready to go, including your side dishes, salad, pasta, etc.  

Chicken Piccata

4 chicken cutlets

2 Tbls. vegetable oil
¼ cup dry white wine
1 tsp. garlic, minced

½ cup chicken broth

2 Tbls. lemon juice
1 Tbls. capers, drained
2 Tbls. butter
Fresh lemon slices, thinly sliced

If using boneless, skinless chicken breasts, then they need to be pounded thinly prior to cooking. Place chicken breast on plastic wrap, cover with another piece of plastic wrap, pound until thin cutlet. I’ve used a kitchen hammer to do this or bottom of a pot.

Season cutlets with salt and pepper, dust with flour, shaking off excess. Spray pan with non-stick spray, add vegetable oil, and heat over medium high.

Sauté cutlets 2-3 minutes on one side. Flip the cutlets and sauté the other side 1-2 minutes. Transfer cutlets to warm plate, and tent with foil.

Deglaze pan with wine and add minced garlic. Cook until garlic is slightly brown (do NOT burn) and liquid is nearly gone, about 2 minutes.

Add broth, lemon juice, and capers. Return cutlets to pan and cook on each side 1 minute. Transfer cutlets to warm plate.

Finish sauce with butter and lemon slices. Once butter melts, pour sauce over cutlets. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve.

 

Enjoy, Peeps!  

 

FOODIE FRIDAY -- Italian Drip Beef

Again, I’ve taken a recipe and made it my own. The original of this recipe was from The Pioneer Woman’s blog, but I adapted this to Italian Drip Beef in a crockpot.

Italian Drip Beef

1 2.5 to 4 lb. Chuck Roast

2 onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
¼ cup soy sauce
1 cup dry sherry
2 cups beef broth
3 Tbls. Italian seasoning

Place ingredients in crock pot with the meat on top of the onions and garlic. Cook for 8-10 hours on low. Shred meat, remove the remaining fat and discard. Return meat to crockpot, cook on low for ½-1 hour.

Cut and toast deli rolls. Add provolone cheese and broil until bubbly, top with desired amount of meat. Add pepperoncini or dip in au jus, if desired.

Enjoy!