Fried Chicken

Someone once told me that if your're going to eat junk food then it's better to make it at home. Fried chicken is definitely not something we eat very often but man, it's so good! By the way, when I say "someone told me" I am usually referring to Oprah. 

Peter was all over this dinner. Either he was starving or he REALLY liked this chicken. I am going with the latter. This recipe was spot-on and I didn't have to make any adjustments. Perfection!


Fried Chicken

Serves 4

1 egg

2/3 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon hot sauce

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 cups canola oil

6 to 8 pieces of chicken

In a baking dish whisk together the egg, buttermilk and hot sauce. In a second baking dish combine the flour, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, salt and pepper.

Heat the canola oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat to 350 degrees F.

Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour mixture and shake off excess so they are lightly dusted. Dip them in the buttermilk and egg mixture coating both sides, then put back in flour mixture making sure to coat completely.

Fry the chicken in the hot oil until brown and crispy, approximately 8 to 10 minutes per side.  Drain on a wire rack over a baking sheet.  Keep warm in a 200 degree oven until ready to serve.

Garlic and Lemon Chicken

Once again, I am trying to clean out the kitchen before our move next week. I had some extra chicken breasts and I wanted to try something new. This recipe is very similar to one I posted last month but it was a nice twist on an otherwise routine weeknight meal. Peter declared that he liked this one better than the lemon thyme chicken but I thought they were both great!



Garlic and Lemon Chicken

2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 fat cloves garlic, peeled and slightly smashed
1 lemon, halved
1 egg
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
2 Tbsp. romano or parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. chopped rosemary
2 chicken breast halves, pounded to about 1/3 – 1/2″ thickness

 

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-low heat and add the oil.  Once the oil is hot, add the garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and soft, about 7 minutes.  Remove the garlic with a slotted spoon, and keep the oil in the pan.

Zest half the lemon into a dish or bowl, and to it add the breadcrumbs, cheese, rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste.

Crush the browned garlic cloves and whisk in a separate shallow bowl/dish along with the egg and juice from half the lemon.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper.  Dip the chicken into the egg mixture, and then dredge into the breadcrumb mixture.

Heat the garlic oil over medium heat and once hot, add the chicken.  Cook until done, about 2.5  minutes per side.  Serve with slices or wedges of the remaining half lemon.

Source: Stephanie Cooks

Lemon Thyme Chicken

I am always looking for easy chicken meals that I can prepare in no time. I came across this one a few weeks ago and decided to give it a try. It was super easy to make and very tasty! I liked the seasoning so much that I am thinking of trying it on fish. This is great for a weeknight meal I usually have all of these ingredients in my kitchen at all times.



Lemon Thyme Chicken
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 egg
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 lemon, zested
6-8 sprigs of thyme
1 tablespoon water
canola oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place the chicken in the freezer for approximately ten minutes. Remove and cut into 1/4" strips.

In one bowl, combine the egg and water. Whisk to form an egg wash. In another bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, lemon zest, thyme leaves, salt and pepper. Dip each chicken strip into the egg wash then coat in the breadcrumb mixture.

Over medium heat, coat the bottom of a non-stick skillet with canola oil. Cook the chicken for two to three minutes on each side. Remove the chicken from the skillet and squeeze fresh lemon juice over the top.

Freezer Meals

Long time, no post. I have reasons (excuses?) for my lapse in posting over the last month. First, this pregnant lady only wanted to eat cupcakes and Tootsie Rolls until late January. I didn't think those eating habits warranted any new blog entries. Second, as soon as I felt like eating normal food again, I was off to Houston for ten days. The trip did give me an excuse to try out some yummy freezer meals. The week before I left I prepared double of everything, wrapped them in individual servings and left heating instructions for my sweet but domestically challenged husband. Peter very much appreciated the homecooked meals and he managed to only eat at Chipotle twice while I was gone. I call that a huge success!

I did a lot of research on freezer friendly options and settled on five meals. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the finished results but I am providing links and reviews for each dinner. This was a trial run for when little Ruppenthal arrives. I plan on making a month's worth of meals ahead of time so that when we're tired and cranky, we don't have to resort to fast food...but I'm sure there will be a few Chipotle nights in our future :)

Next week I will be back with all new recipes!

• Baked Chicken with Penne and Sun-Dried Tomatoes- this was by far Peter's favorite. He loved it so much that he has already asked for it again. Martha Stewart has a nice collection of freezer friendly options on her website. I am definitely going to refer back when I need new ideas. The reheating instructions indicate that the dish needs to be in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. I reduced the time to an hour and everything turned out great!
• Green Chile-Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas- these were a very close second. I loved them more than Peter did because I thought they really tasted like good Tex-Mex restaurant enchiladas. Yum...I want to make these again!
• Crab Manicotti/Cannelloni- OMG, these are amazing! They are so rich, yummy and perfect. I had to increase the reheating time to about 75 minutes.
• Beef Lasagna- I'm not Italian nor do I have even a drop of Italian blood running through these veins so I was very nervous about making lasagna from scratch. I won't lie, it's a messy process but SO worth it! It turned out perfectly and reheated wonderfully. I did change th original instructions a bit. I put the leftover lasagna in the fridge overnight and cut it into individual squares the next morning. I froze two servings in each foil pan. I reheated at 400 degrees for one hour, removing the foil for the last ten minutes.
• Stuffed Shells- I didn't get to these because we had a ton of leftover lasagna so I will be trying them next week!

Roasted Chicken and Brussel Sprouts

Recently I was reading Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw. He writes,

"Everyone should be able to roast a chicken. And they should be able to do it well."

I read that and immediately realized that I did not know how to roast a chicken. What would Anthony think???

My original idea was to roast a whole chicken but I chickened out (haha) and decided to start with roasting chicken breast. I found this easy looking recipe and went for it. OMG, best chicken ever! I cannot express just how much I love this roasted chicken. It is perfection.

A few years ago I wouldn't have touched a brussel sprout. No way, no how. All of that changed when I tried the brussel sprouts at Beaver's back in Houston. That was also the night I tried turnips for the first time but I will save those for another post. I prepared brussel sprouts that next week and they were a huge hit! Now they are firmly in the rotation and if we go too long without having them Peter will kindly let me know.

I like to buy the pre-trimmed brussel sprouts in a bag but you can certainly purchase them on the stem.

I will blog about the macaroni and cheese later...I need to tinker with the recipe.

Roasted Chicken
2 skin-on chicken breasts
1 head garlic, unpeeled
2 sprigs rosemary
2 slices crusty bread
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons water
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in an oven-proof skillet. Once again, I like cast iron but any oven-proof skillet will do. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, cook skin down for fives minutes or until browned. Flip chicken, top with the garlic and 2 sprigs of rosemary. Transfer to oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, until moist. Remove from oven and let chicken rest on a cutting board.

Add the white wine vinegar to skillet and scrape the brown bits. Add the water and simmer for 2 minutes.

Place the bread on a platter and top with the chicken. Pour the white wine sauce over the chicken and bread.

Brussel Sprouts
1 bag brussel sprouts, rinsed and trimmed
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
black pepper

Bring three cups of water to a boil. Add the brussel sprouts and boil on high for 8 minutes. Remove and drain. After cooling, cut each brussel sprout in half.

In a large saute pan add the olive oil and garlic over medium heat. When you start to smell the garlic (before it browns, about 1 minute) add the halved brussel sprouts. Saute in pan until the brussel sprouts begin to brown. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm.

Goat Cheese and Sun Dried Tomato Chicken

This is another oldie but goodie. I love goat cheese in just about everything so it's no surprise that we end up eating this a lot. The first time I made this I used sun dried tomatoes packed in olive oil but I think it works better with the sun dried tomatoes in a bag. I would love to link the Whole Foods 365 Brand sun dried tomatoes but the web Gods won't let me. Boo.



Goat Cheese and Sun Dried Tomato Stuffed Chicken
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin
1 small log goat cheese, softened
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lay chicken on a greased baking sheet. Drizzle 1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil on chicken. Smear 1/3 log of goat cheese and 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes. Roll chicken and secure using cooking twine at either end and in the middle.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until chicken reaches 160 degrees. Remove cooking twine and serve warm.

Parmesan Chicken and Spicy Vegetables

I adapted this easy chicken recipe from So Tasty, So Yummy a few weeks ago when I needed a quick dinner idea. This was a big hit and is now one of my go-to favorites. I changed it up a little bit because I didn't have any parsley and I was out of bread crumbs. The first time I toasted a small piece of rye bread and smashed it to make the crumbs. This time I used a piece of crusty sourdough from Whole Foods. P let me know that the crumbs were better this time so I guess I will be using sourdough from now on!

The spicy vegetables are super easy and one my favorite side dishes but I love anything with a little kick! I prefer buying frozen broccoli (I don't know why, it just feels right) but fresh will obviously work too.

Baked Parmesan Chicken
2 chicken breasts, pounded thin
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon butter, melted
4 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss chicken and milk in bowl to coat. Add remaining ingredients to a plastic bag, toss chicken with the breadcrumb mixture. In a lightly greased baking dish, lay out the two chicken breasts, pressing any additional breadcrumb mixture on top. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

Spicy Vegetables
1 cup broccoli (frozen)
1 small red bell pepper, sliced
1 cup whole baby bella mushrooms
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil

In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the broccoli. Saute until no longer frozen then add the bell peppers and red pepper flakes. Add the sesame oil. Saute vegetables until fragrant but not limp.

Avocado Quesadillas

If P doesn't talk during dinner then I know the food must be good. He never utters a word when I serve these.  He enjoys them that much.

My husband loves avocados and I do not. I made the mistake of preparing these just the one time and the boy was hooked. Now I am stuck making this super yummy dish that he LOVES and I tolerate. I do like quesadillas in general (cheese, yes!) so I don't include the avocado mixture on mine.

My original idea did not call for chicken but after P was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, I had to add the chicken in order to fulfill his protein requirement.


Avocado Quesadillas
1 firm, ripe large avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced
1 medium tomato, diced, seeds removed
1 medium red onion, diced
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup shredded cheddar and monterey jack cheese
4 whole wheat tortillas, taco size
2 medium skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup salt free fajita seasoning
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup olive oil

In a medium bowl mix the avocado, tomato, red onion and lime juice. Set aside.
Drizzle one side of each tortilla with vegetable oil. Place on a baking sheet and then under the broiler until golden brown. Remove, turn over, sprinkle the shredded cheddar cheese evenly on each tortilla and place back under the broiler. Remove when the cheese has completely melted. Set aside.

                                                  

In a small bowl coat the chicken with the fajita seasoning. You can do this hours in advance if desired but it's not necessary.

Coat a non-stick skillet with olive oil over medium heat. Place the chicken in the skillet, turning once until completely cooked. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let sit for about five minutes. Then use a fork to shred the chicken.

Assemble the quesadillas- one tortilla cheese side up, two generous scoopfuls of the avocado mixture, a handful of shredded chicken and another tortilla cheese side down.