Alex's Crispy & Crunchy Baked Chicken

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Here's another recipe from my brother's girlfriend Alex and her blog The Bookish Cook.  In the words of Gordon Ramsay, "This chicken is cooked perrrrfectly."  Also in the words of The Hubby quoting Gordon Ramsay, "This chicken is cooked perrrrfectly" (in loud angry British accent).

Alex nailed it again.  Some of her other hits that I have copied on this blog are the Flour-less Spicy Dark Chocolate Cake (The Hubby's favourite cake and also gluten free!) and the Brussels Sprouts Salad with Bacon, Avocado, and Lemony-Dijon Dressing (which is actually the salad that appears at the top left of the plate in these chicken pictures).

I'm happily hanging out in town this weekend after a super fun girls weekend on Vancouver Island last weekend.  The Hubby and I ordered way too much Chinese Food last night (partly because I hangrily made the statement, "Let's order, like, WAY too much Chinese Food tonight."), so we have quite the task ahead of us this weekend in polishing that off.  Other than that, I'm checking out a new kids park in my neighbourhood with my BFF Sheena and her daughter Natalie, running with my mom Sunday morning, and then The Hubby and I are checking out some local breweries with our pals Kendra and Kyle on Sunday afternoon.  Nice little weekend!

I hope you enjoy another recipe hit from Alex!  Have a great weekend everyone.

For a printer-friendly version of any recipe, simply click 'Print' below the title of any blog post. Voila - a clean recipe without my ramblings or any pictures!

One Year Ago:  Classic Spinach Dip in Bread Bowl
Two Years Ago:  White Wine Sangria Jello Jigglers
Three Years Ago:  8-Layered Greek Dip

Crispy & Crunchy Baked Chicken

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 2 cups panko bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons dried Italian blend herbs
• 1/2 cup grated or ground parmesan cheese
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• Salt and pepper
• 4 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
• 1 heaping tablespoon mayonnaise
• Drizzle of olive oil

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Grease a non-stick cooking sheet with cooking spray and set aside.

In a large plastic bag, combine bread crumbs, herbs, parmesan, garlic seasoning, paprika, onion power, and salt and pepper to taste.  Set aside.

In a small bowl, toss chicken breasts with the mayonnaise, rubbing it with your hands until well coated.  One at a time, put the chicken breasts into the plastic bag with the bread crumb mixture, and shake to coat the chicken completely.  Repeat with all four chicken breasts, moving each to the greased baking sheet once coated.

Drizzle the chicken breasts with a small amount of olive oil, and place into the oven on the middle rack.  Bake for 30 minutes, then flip over and bake for 10 more minutes or until golden brown and no longer pink in the centre.

Enjoy!



Recipe Source: The Bookish Cook

Slow Cooker Creamy Santa Fe Chicken

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Oh, I looooooooove it when you don't have to pre-cook the ingredients going into the slow cooker before throwing them into the slow cooker!  This recipe does just that.  No browning, sautéing, or otherwise prepping of meat or vegetables...you just toss 'em into the Crockpot and you are on your merry way.  Which is the way that I feel it should be for slow cookers.

Oops, I did it again!  Another completely unappetizing picture of a total delicious meal. 

This was another winner from the Best of Bridge cookbook series.  The flavours of chicken, beans, and corn in a rich and creamy salsa and cream cheese sauce were oh so good overtop of white rice and served with a side salad.  My rice of choice is always jasmine (even though it's more frequently used in Asian cooking) because it has such great flavour.

This meal served The Hubby and me as the perfect weeknight dish on a cold rainy winter night.  This recipe is a definite keeper, and we will be making it again soon.

For a printer-friendly version of any recipe, simply click 'Print' below the title of any blog post. Voila - a clean recipe without my ramblings or any pictures!

One Year Ago:  Butternut Squash, Italian Sausage, and Spinach Pasta
Two Years Ago:  Creamy Roasted Garlic, Caramelized Onion, and Bacon Soup
Three Years Ago:  Tomato and Italian Sausage Risotto

Slow Cooker Creamy Sante Fa Chicken

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized chunks
• 1 can black beans (14 to 19oz.), drained and rinsed
• 1 cup corn kernels (frozen, canned, or fresh)
• 1 cup salsa
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
• 2 ounces cream cheese, cubed and softened
• 4 green onions, chopped

Directions
In a slow cooker, add chicken, beans, corn, salsa, tomato paste, and salt, and give everything a good stir.  Cook on low for 5 - 6 hours, or on high for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  In a small bowl, stir together the chili powder and vinegar until smooth.  Add the mixture to the slow cooker, along with the cream cheese.  Continue to cook on high for another 15 minutes until the cheese is melted, then stir again.

Serve over rice and top with green onions.  Enjoy!




Recipe Source:  Best of Bridge Slow Cooker Cookbook - Creamy Chicken Santa Fe

Curried Coconut Chicken Vegetable Soup

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Healthy.  Delicious.  Satisfying.  Orange.  

 

Souper Sunday has arrived early this month...you're welcome!  Here's a goodun' for ya.  Chock full of veggies galore (you've got carrots, cauliflower, onion, and celery in there), flavourful spices (how does a combination of curry powder, ground coriander, cumin, and chili powder sound?), shredded chicken (delicious bite sized chunks...no two pieces the same!) and rich coconut milk (coconut anything and I'm sold...you?), this soup is a keeper.  The Hubby and I have pounded this soup for lunches at work this week.  You can choose to puree some or all of the soup to create a chunky or smooth texture based on your preference.  Don't worry, the chicken gets added in after the pureeing step.  

Weeknight No-Brainer BBQ Chicken Salad

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The Hubby and I were recently in New Orleans for ten days for a combination of work and pleasure, and so it's pretty much been deep-fried catfish, and deep-fried shrimp po'boys, and deep-fried french fries and deep-fried chicken, and deep-fried crawfish, and deep-fried bacon (didn't even know this was a thing!), and deep fried chicken wings, and deep fried boudin, and deep-friend beignets, and even deep-fried pickles, jalapeños, and mushrooms.

One time I tried to be healthy and ordered a salad, and the only vegetable on my plate was 11 sprigs of arugula topped with fried green tomatoes, huge croutons, bacon, and a creamy dressing.  Another time The Hubby ordered a 1/2 sandwich, and what arrived was the biggest sandwich I've ever seen in my life.  I told the waitress that there was an error because we only ordered the half-size, to which she laughed and told me that was the half-size.  Makes sense, since it was the size of a small baby.  We were doomed a delicious, delicious fate.  Which leaves my waist-line in a bit of a predicament because The Hubby and I are off to our friend April's wedding at an all-inclusive in Mazatlan in just a little over a week, and I'm pretty sure that appropriate sun-bathing attire isn't my most comfortable pair of extra-large pyjamas.

Turkey Meatballs in Coconut Curry Sauce

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Happy new year everyone!  Also happy November and December, seeing as it's been awhile since my last post.  The reason for that...well, I'm going to blame our Netflix subscription.  I've become super well acquainted with Emily and Daniel from Revenge, Jess and Nick from New Girl, Mindy and Danny from The Mindy Project, and seriously, why didn't anyone tell me how awesome Grey's Anatomy is like ten years ago?  I'm now hopelessly addicted to it, and have a long haul of ten 27-episode seasons (quick math: 10 x 27 = 270 episodes) to catch up on, and apparently I've given myself a deadline of about four weeks to do this at the rate I have been going at.  No one tell me, but are McDreamy and Meredith going to stay together forever?  Because I seriously can't handle it if they don't.  And no one tell me, but what's going to happen with Addison and McSteamy, and with Izzie and Alex?  They can't get back together, can they?  So many questions, so little time for anything but getting all of the answers!

So, things that have happened in the real world for me in the past few months, at least food wise...

Healthy Southwest Chicken and Rice Bake

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What's in your freezer?

 

So, it's just The Hubby and me in our house, but in looking at our freezer you would think differently.  Here is what I saw when I reluctantly did a freezer clean recently:

• 8 chicken breasts, 1 beef tenderloin log, 1 whole chicken, 2 packs bacon, 2 steaks, 2 bags prawns, 6 salmon fillets
• 7 or more partially used bags of peas or corn or pea/corn combo
• 3 tubs partially-consumed vanilla ice cream with an inch of icy freezer crust on top
• 8 bags of sliced bread with only two pieces of crust remaining per bag (never to be eaten)
• 1,000,000 black bananas
• other, other, other x 100

My inventory of our pantry yielded similar (non-frozen) results.  8 cans of black beans, 7 boxes of pasta, 2,000,000 granola bars, too much uneaten food.  So I threw out the old ice cream, downsized my banana collection, and told The Hubby that we had to try to go a month without buying any new food except dairy products and fresh fruit and vegetables.  We're on about Day 14 now, our freezer is halfway emptied, and our pantry is slowly depleting in stock.  It takes a bit of planning and creativity, and so far almost every meal has included frozen peas or canned black beans, but it's been kind of a fun challenge at the same time.  For instance, I came home from work last night and The Hubby had prepared a chicken, pea, and pasta casserole...and after a long day at work it was exactly what I wanted to eat for dinner, and all that I could think was that I had married some kind of Top Chef or something. That is, until we flicked to Top Chef on tv while we ate dinner!

Souper Sunday #17: Low-Fat Chicken Pot Pie Soup

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This soup totally tastes like you are eating the inside of a chicken pot pie, but with a spoon, and with the type of reckless abandon that I normally reserve for things that are not low-fat at all.

 

Bonus points if you go to the additional effort of making a puff pastry topping to dip into the soup.  That would be amazing.

The Hubby has been asking me to make him chicken stew for a few years or weeks now, and so I finally caved and made it for him today.  Only, chicken stew is so not what my waistline needs right now, so instead I cheated and made this Low-Fat Chicken Pot Pie Soup from the Skinny Taste website. (with a few small tweaks),  He took it to work for lunch, and isn't home yet so I haven't been able to hound him about how he liked it.  But, speaking for myself, "Daaaaaaaaaamn."  You would not even know that this was made with skim milk and without the addition of any butter or oil.  At about 250 calories for a 1 1/2 cup bowl, it's a super filling lunch or dinner that won't totally demolish your calorie allotment for the day.  I especially like that fact today, since I really need to get back on track with eating healthier after eating 'a lot' of the Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Bars last week.  I can't even talk about those bars because it makes me think about those bars which makes me want to go to the store and buy the ingredients for those bars which makes me want to eat almost the entire pan of those bars again.

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole with Creamy Curry Sauce

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Does anything beat comfort food?

Or even just...food.  I love food (hence the blog).

I've said it before and I will say it a thousand times mores if you let me...I love the cookbooks by the Best of Bridge.  My grandmothers used them, my mom uses them, and I use them.  If you are also a fan of that series, you may recognize this recipe as the 'New Classy Chicken,' which is a remake of the former 'Classy Chicken' recipe that my grandmother used to make.  The new version lightens up the calorie and fat factors substantially.

This is really really easy, and really really tasty, and you may even already have all of the ingredients in your fridge.  It's also another meal that brings back good memories, because my granny would sometimes make it for my family for Sunday dinners (it works well for The Hubby and me for a weeknight or a Sunday meal too).  We totally fiend for a great curry sauce in our house, and if you are the same way, you will find that this casserole really satisfies that craving.  I love it paired with a jasmine or basmati rice.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Using my granny's old Corningware is only fitting while making one of the recipes that she loved.

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole with Creamy Curry Sauce

Serves: 4 - 6

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cups broccoli florets
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (I used Bob's Red Mill gluten-free all-purpose flour)
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup skim or 2% milk
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup light mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup shredded aged cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs (I used gluten-free bread crumbs)
• 2 teaspoons butter, melted
• Rice (cooked, to serve the casserole on top of)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F.  Place chicken on a plate and season with salt and pepper.  In a large pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Saute the chicken in the pan for 5 - 7 minutes, or until browned and no longer pink inside.

Lightly grease a shallow 9x9 baking dish or any dish large enough to hold the chicken in a single layer.  Transfer the chicken to the baking dish.

Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook broccoli for 1 minute.

Drain right away and spoon the broccoli over the chicken.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, curry powder, and broth, making sure there are no lumps.  Stir in the milk, yogurt, and mayonnaise.



Pour the sauce over the chicken mixture.

Sprinkle the chicken mixture with the cheddar cheese.



In a small bowl, toss the bread crumbs with the melted butter, and sprinkle over the chicken mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbling and the top is golden brown (letting sit for 5 minutes or so after it comes out of the oven).  Cook rice according to package directions and keep warm until the casserole is ready.



Serve the chicken and broccoli casserole on top of the rice.  Enjoy!

Recipe Source: Best of Bridge

Souper Sunday #5: 'Get Well Soon' Soup

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It seems like everyone that I know is sick right now.

 

...or has just been sick this week or feels like they are getting sick.  I would fall into the latter category.  Ugh.  I hate the anticipation.

So, I thought it would be appropriate to make a classic chicken noodle soup for this week's Souper Sunday.  You know...carrots, celery, onion, chicken, noodles, broth, herbs...pretty standard stuff.  It's a feel-good kind of soup.  I'm sure everyone already has their own recipe for chicken noodle soup, but if not you can always borrow this one.

Mustard Chicken

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I told you that I had a lot of chicken recipes to post in January.

 

Only thing is, I made this in November and just never got around to posting it...oops.  Until now!  Mustard Chicken...sounds kind of weird, but it is really, really, really good.  I'm sure it's even better if you are not two drinks in when you try to follow the recipe directions.

Souper Sunday #3: Curried Chicken and Rice Soup

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This...I should have doubled this.  Or tripled would have been good too.

 

Once in awhile, a soup comes along that really makes The Hubby happy.  This, my friends, is that kind of soup.  The only thing is that it only made 3 - 4 servings, making this a 'must-double' soup for the future, and 'why didn't I double that?' soup of today.  Either way, it's a keeper.

Here it is, Souper Sunday again, and this post is coming in hot and fast at 11pm on Sunday night.  Which still counts.  Today was a domestic kind of a day...grocery shopping, recipe drooling, soup making, house cleaning, errand running, healthy seafood dinner serving, laundry doing, cookie baking, and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo watching.  Nice little Sunday.

Meyer Lemon Chicken Piccata

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I'm on a bit of a chicken kick.

 

...as in I have eaten chicken every night for dinner this week.  As in there are going to be a lot of posts on the blog about chicken in January.  As in I even let The Hubby drag me to Swiss Chalet this weekend for the first time in my life (my mom says this is a lie and that I went once as a kid too...must have blocked it out) and ate all of the following:  1/4 chicken (dark meat) with a side of Chalet sauce, 1/3 rack BBQ ribs, side of cole slaw, extra-large side of poutine (I knooooooow) with Chalet sauce instead of gravy (keeping it gluten-free even at times like these), and a glass of white wine.

Baked Chicken with Creamed Spinach and Squashed Potatoes

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I decided to try another recipe from my Jamie Oliver's Meals in Minutes cookbook recently, and this happened:

 

I don't know why I don't use this cookbook more often!  This time I decided to make Baked Chicken with Creamed Spinach and Squashed Potatoes.

Now, did it happen in about 30 minutes this time you ask?  No.  Did it happen in about 2 x 30 minutes this time?  Close.

Bacon Night!

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Friday night was intense.  Saturday I had a major bacon hangover.  Sunday I ate more bacon.

Here's the line-up from our bacon-themed Supper Club night.  And yes, even the dessert had to contain bacon:

• Bacon-infused vodka Caesars with bacon stir sticks and all of the other necessary Caesar accoutrement
• 
• Bacon and caramelized onion dip with veggies and tortilla chips
• 
• Spinach salad with bacon
• 
• Boursin and bacon stuffed chicken wrapped in prosciutto
• 
• Bacon hasselback potatoes
• 
• Brussels sprouts with bacon, garlic, and shallots
• 
• Gluten-free bacon brownies topped with chocolate sauce, walnuts, and vanilla ice cream.
• not pictured here because by this point it was wayyyy too late to care about taking pictures.    You can actually see the deterioration of the pictures as the night goes on in the series above.

Holy crap it was good.  I love Supper Club.

Boursin and Bacon-Stuffed Chicken Wrapped in Prosciutto

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Definitely make this.  DEF-IN-ITE-LY make this.

 

Boursin is one of my favourite things on this planet.  I just.  Want it.  My taste buds love it.  I could legitimately sit down with a box of Boursin, open up the foil, plop it onto a plate, lick the foil clean (oops, no, I haven't done that every time I've eaten it), and then eat the entire package of it in one sitting.  I've never allowed myself to do that before, but every time that we have company and Boursin is one of the appies that I am putting out, I secretly want to do it.  I want to eat it all before anyone else arrives.  To have it all be mine would be, just, no words.  To me, that's how good Boursin is.

So then, as I was using my expert Google sleuthing skills to hunt down a meat-dish entree for my recent bacon-themed supper club night, I stumbled across this recipe for Boursin and bacon stuffed chicken on the So Delushious blog (which I am now probably going to become addicted to).  How could I not make this?  (Rhetorical question...I couldn't not)

Buffalo Chicken Tacos

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Oh, heyyyy.  How about I just take 3.85 weeks in between writing new posts?  K.  Thanks.

It's been so very sunny and hot, and I have been so very busy.  There's also the problem fact that I am so completely an 'all or nothing' person, that once I get out of a routine I really get out of a routine.  That's the reason that I will occasionally use for how little I go to the gym too (that would be the 'nothing' part of the 'all or nothing' that I refer to above).  And for how often I eat pizza (the 'all' part).  And for how many reality show series recordings I have scheduled on my PVR (again, the 'all' part).  And for how infrequently I water my plants, even in 32 degree Celsius weather (the 'nothing' part).  Routines are important.

Do you like Frank's Red Hot Sauce?  I do.  Of the six hot sauce varieties in our fridge, which yes are all necessary and each have their own important role, Frank's ranks at least second place in my heart/mouth/stomach.  This week, however, it's been in first place.  I just ate it a few minutes ago on popcorn.  And of course I also ate it a few days ago on these tacos.  The chicken in these tacos is doused in Frank's sauce before being wrapped up with all sorts of goodies like fresh avocado, cabbage, cilantro (come to mama), green onions, tomatoes, and ranch dressing.  I like it.  I like it a lot. (said in Lloyd's voice from Dumb and Dumber).

Classic Chicken Jambalaya

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In case you don't want to read this entire blog post, I will summarize.  The lessons to be learned here are that everyone needs a Jeff, and everyone needs this jambalaya.  I will explain...

Lesson 1:  Everyone needs a Jeff
There's something to be said about having a really great platonic friend of the opposite sex.  Some might scoff and say that it's impossible...that it's simplistic or unrealistic to think that two people of different genders can have a healthy, normal, nonphysical friendship.

Don't get me wrong, because for the most part I think that the scoffers are correct.  It is supremely difficult to find a person of the opposite gender who A) wants me to be good friends with someone of the opposite gender, B) wants to be just good friends with someone of the opposite gender, and C) after you get married, still fits into your life really well and even becomes (possibly probably better) friends with your spouse.

Well, I'm here to tell you that my (straight) friend Jeff and I have this type of friendship, and have since that first day in grade 8 when we watched the 1996 MTV Movie Award-winning slasher-film 'Scream,' and did not feel attracted to each other.  Jeff and I have never kissed,  hugging is even awkward, and he's one of my best friends.  It's the perfect male/female friendship.  I actually just got off the phone with him where a good part of the conversation was me tormenting him about how he is going to be the star of this blog post, so I'm tempted to tell a juicy story about him but will save it for another day.  Mwah ha ha, the power I hold!

Crispy Chicken with Green Curry Sauce

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Something you should know about me is that I have an unhealthy obsession with cookbooks.  I love them.  I want more of them.  I need them.  I'm a cookbook hoarder.

Ask The Hubby, there probably isn't any night of the week that while we are sitting watching TV I am not flipping through the tattered, stained pages of any given cookbook.  If you and I are talking on the phone, and I end the sentence with the word potato instead of whatever you were expecting, you know what I was really doing while we were chatting.  I usually even have a cookbook on the passenger seat of my car so that I can sneak a peek at a red light on my long drive home from work.  And what makes it worse is the suffocating feeling that even if I cooked one new thing every day for the rest of my life, I would never ever be able to make all of the recipes that are out there in all of the cookbooks!  It's bad.  I'm an addict.

So, imagine how excited I was on Christmas Eve when I got to open my stocking from my mother-in-law (yes, I am 30 years old and still get a stocking from both my mom and my mom-in-law, and I LOVE it!), and inside was a brand new copy of Jamie Oliver's Meals in Minutes!  So many new recipes and pretty pictures and yummy things!!!  Pure bliss!

So, I decided to finally put the Meals In Minutes concept to a test this past Friday.  A whole delicious meal in just a few minutes?!  Um, yes please.  With my new cookbook on the car seat beside me, I decided during my commute home from work that Crispy Chicken with Green Curry Sauce was going to be the object of my affection that day.

Off to the grocery store I went.  The recipe called for some ingredients that I have never cooked with before, namely lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves.  The lemongrass part wasn't hard to find, but after going to two grocery stores and having a few awkward conversations with the 17-year old produce department employees about what I was trying to buy ("Lime leaves?"), I opted out of the optional lime leaves.

Then I had a stroke of genius!  Since it was only 6pm on a Friday night, and since this meal was literally only going to take me a few minutes to construct, maybe The Hubby and I should invite some friends over for dinner and cards!  The Hubby's brother and his fiance were totally in.  Sweet...last minute dinner plans!

Chicken Parmesan

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Chicky Chicky Parm Parm! What to make for a Sunday dinner when the parents are coming over? Tonight it was Chicken Parmesan with Caesar salad, garlic bread, and broccoli. Delicious!! Some recipes skip the step of frying the chicken before putting in the oven, either to simplify the recipe or to make it more healthy, but the flavour and crispiness that it gives was my favourite part! Rather than making my own marinara sauce, I used a couple of jars of store-bought spaghetti sauce to speed up the prep time.

Chicken Cacciatore

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Mmmmm...The Hubby and I love us some chicken cacciatore! It's the perfect weeknight meal, with just a hint of wine flavour to make it taste fancy. The best part is that this recipe is easily transposed into a slow-cooker preparation if you just want to walk in the door and eat! Here is what The Hubby and I had for dinner tonight: