Spiced Chicken

It’s Memorial Day, and what do you do on Memorial Day? You grill out, of course! I had a chicken marinade recipe I wanted to post at the start of May, but I misplaced the ingredients. Then, I left the country for a few weeks, (teaser: eastern European recipes will be posted here soon), so here is my much delayed return to the blog. Glad to be back! Happy Memorial Day and start to the summer!

I completely improvised this one, so I do not have exact ingredient amounts. Here’s exactly what I did, though.

Ingredients: 
Olive oil
3 Chicken Breasts
1 shake of minced garlic (per side per chicken breast)
2 shakes of salt (per side per chicken breast)
2 grinds of ground pepper (per side per chicken breast)
5-6 shakes of dried oregano (per side per chicken breast)
3 shakes of dried basil (per side per chicken breast)
2 shakes of dried red pepper flakes (per side per chicken breast)

This one’s pretty self explanatory from the above list. Coat chicken breasts in olive oil, and then spice as directed above. Grilling 6-8 minutes per side would probably be the easiest directions here and would probably seal in the juices perfectly, but I started cooking and realized I needed to delay dinner; ergo, with the ever adapting dinner plan, I ended up baking this chicken at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. It turned out deliciously. I added on rolls, pasta, and mixed veggies.

Happy cooking!

-KSP


(Click here for printable recipe)

Skillet Spaghetti

I wanted to find a spaghetti recipe to spice up my normal tomato sauce and noodles. I was browsing through recipes online and came across this one that peaked my interest. It is very simple to make, but incorporates gooey cheese and plenty of sauce into the noodles. You cook the noodles in a "skillet" instead of in a saucepan full of water, which is perfect for those of you who have problems getting the noodles just right. And, it leaves plenty of room to give you the opportunity to spice it up even further by adding additional herbs, different types of cheese, etc.

28 oz Jar Spaghetti Sauce
1-1/2 c Water
12 oz Spaghetti pasta, broken in half
1/2 c Shredded mozzarella
1/2 c Parmesan

In 12" skillet, I combined the spaghetti sauce and water and stir. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Then add the spaghetti and stir well, making sure spaghetti is "under" the sauce, completely covered in it. If necessary you can add a bit more water, which I've found myself needing to do. Or, you can add more tomato sauce. Then you bring to a boil again, cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Stirring frequently. You may add more water or tomato sauce if the mixture appears too dry. Cook until spaghetti is al dente and top with cheese.

(Click here for printable recipe)

Armbruster Strawberry Chicken Salad

So, I was stunned to find out that not everyone likes fruit in their Salad. How can this be? Fruit livens up salads in so many ways; it provides sweetness, coolness, and freshness to a salad. So, whoever doesn't like fruit in their salad is missing out on some awesome salads. And, this is one of them.
This salad has been around my family for many years, and I don't know where my mom got the recipe. I highly doubt she got it from the Internet, so it was probably from a magazine. But, it is a very delicious salad, and easy to make. Feel free to serve it with some crusty French Bread.
I'm only going to give you the portions for a serving of one person.

2 Chicken Breast diced
1/3 cup Flour
Salt & Pepper
1 tbsp Oil
1 Head of Romaine Lettuce

1 Bag of Cole Slaw Mix or Shredded Red Cabbage
1/4 cup Red Onion chopped (as finely as you want)
1/2 can of Crispy Chow Mein noodles ( or sprinkle as much as you want)
1/4 cup Slivered Almonds (or sprinkle as much as you want)
2 cups Sliced Strawberries
Armbruster Honey-Sesame Dressing maybe about 1/2 the bottle (you used to be able to get this dressing at Ukrops, but I'm not sure if Martin's is carrying it. However, my mom said you can get it at Ellwoods)

First slice up your chicken breast into small cubes and toss in a bag of about 1/3 cup of flour, a little salt, and a little black pepper. Then saute in a saute pan dashed with some oil until chicken is done. Place on a paper towel and let cool for a bit.

Toss lettuce, chopped onions, strawberries, chow mein noodles, and slivered almonds. Pour in the dressing to your liking and toss chicken into salad. Make sure salad is evenly covered in the dressing. Enjoy.

If you can't find the Armbruster Honey-Sesame Dressing then use this homemade version:

Mix:
1/2 c. sugar
1 1/3 Tbs dry mustard
1 1/3 tsp paprika
1 1/3 tsp celery seed
1/8 tsp salt

Blend in:
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cider vinegar
1 Tbs lemon juice
1/4 Tbs minced onion
3/4 cup wesson oil
3/4 Tbs sesame oil

Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl, and then beat in the liquid mixture in a slow steady stream using a wire whisk. Keep beating until the mixture is thick. Enjoy!

(Click here for printable recipe)

Marinated Chicken Breast

During warm weather season I'm all about cooking on the grill. Whether I'm grilling zucchini, corn, chicken, pork, or squash it's all so good and so easy. So, to keep things from getting too monotonous I try to find different kinds of marinade recipes. I can't remember where I found this particular recipe (probably somewhere on the Internet) but I can tell you it is very easy and very delicious. I don't modify this recipe much although I always use White Wine Vinegar and plenty of seasoning including; rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, and crumbled bay leaves. I hope you like it.

1 to 2 tbsp vinegar; like red wine, balsamic, or white wine
2 to 3 tbsp herb; like thyme, oregano, rosemary, or crumbled bay leaf
1 to 2 tbsp dijon mustard
1 to 2 tsp garlic or onion powder
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
kosher salt
ground pepper

Combine all ingredients and pour over chicken in a ziplock bag.
Marinate up to an hour or longer.

(Click here for printable recipe)

Mexican-style Chicken

Just in time for Cinco de Mayo! I’ve been eating low fat and healthy for almost three months now and the one thing I desperately miss is Mexican food. I think I’ve found the perfect solution. Or maybe I’ve been so deprived that I could eat a Chihuahua chimichanga and it’d still taste good. I made a “light” (sort of) version of this recipe, but you can use the real stuff and I’m sure it’d be even better. It makes a lot, so you may want to cut the ingredients in half if you don’t want a ton of leftovers.

2 10 ¾-oz cans condensed cream of chicken soup
1 10-oz can diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained
¾ chopped green sweet pepper
½ cup chopped onion
1 ½ teaspoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon black pepper
12 6- or 7-inch corn tortillas, cut into thin, bite-size strips
3 cups cubed cooked chicken (about 1 lb. boneless chicken breasts )
1 8-oz pkag (2 cups) shredded cheddar cheese

Mix the soup, tomatoes with chiles, sweet pepper, onion, chili powder and black pepper. Now you have have to layer it all together. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the tortilla strips over the bottom of an ungreased 13x9x2-inch baking dish. Layer half of the cooked chicken over tortilla strips; thena about half of the soup mixture on top. Sprinkle half of the cheese (cheese makes everything better) and another 1/3 of the tortilla strips over the soup mixture. Layer with the rest of the chicken, soup mixture and tortilla strips.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until bubbly around the edges. Add the rest of the cheese once you take it out. The recipe says to let it stand for 10 minutes, but I can never wait.

The next day I heated up a portion and rolled it into an extra corn tortilla for a type of enchilada. Delicioso!

(Click here for printable recipe)