Diablo Chicken!

This is a recipe we cooked in college. It was in a cookbook that belonged to one of my roommates. But it lives on on a food-stained index card. This is a super easy way to make a chicken breast a little more exciting.
I never wrote down how many chicken breasts this amount of coating is supposed to cover but I use it for 2 breasts. First, pound the chicken breasts to even thickness to allow for more consistent cooking.
In one bowl mix 3T dijon mustard with 3T oil, I use olive oil. Mix in 1/4C finely chopped scallions and 1/2t thyme. You could use dried or fresh thyme depending on what you have available.
In another bowl mix 1C bread crumbs (you can start with less than a cup and see if you need the whole cup) with 1/4t cayenne.
Dip the chicken breasts in the bowl of wet ingredients and then in the dry. Place the chicken breasts on a greased pan or baking dish. I lightly spray the top with some oil.
Bake the chicken at 475 for 12-14 minutes depending on the thickness of the breasts.

I served these with some rice and a salad with walnuts, blue cheese, apples, and chilled roasted beets.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Homemade chicken noodle soup. Cold weather and sniffly noses inspire it. Grandmothers make it. Or at least my grandmothers both did. Eight years ago or so, I realized it was time I learned how to make it myself and so I called my grandmother. She explained the following method to me, which I have yet to perfect. But it's a good start!

The basic method is to use the vegetables and chicken to make the broth and then add new vegetables for the soup. The first round of vegetables turn over all their flavor to the broth and so it is necessary to add more that can retain their flavor for the soup.

Use a whole chicken. Rinse the chicken in cold water and place it in a stock pot. Cover the chicken with cold water. Add any combination of the following: celery, carrots, onions, parsnips, parsley, thyme. Any other root vegetables and fresh herbs are good too. My grandmother never roasted the vegetables first, and I haven't tried it yet, but roasted vegetables make a more intense broth. Bring the broth to a boil and then allow it to simmer over low heat for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

When the chicken looks done pull it out. You can let the broth continue to simmer with the vegetables, but you don't want the chicken to completely boil away. Allow the chicken to cool so it is comfortable to touch. Pull all the meat off the bones. Throw away the bones and the skin.

If the broth isn't to your taste yet, raise the heat and let it cook down and the flavor will intensify (you can do this for as little as 15 minutes and as long as half a day). When it is to your liking, strain the vegetables out. If the broth is too fatty looking to you, allow it to cool and you can easily skim the fat off the top.

Return the broth to the stock pot and add new vegetables (celery, carrots, parsnips) and herbs (parsley, thyme) and salt and pepper to taste. Allow these vegetables to simmer to a level of doneness you like. I like the vegetables to retain enough texture to be chewed rather than mushed in the mouth.

Meanwhile, boil water to cook your pasta or rice. You can cook the grain in the soup; however, you'll lose some broth. I prefer to cook the pasta separately and then add it to the soup. This time I used orzo, but I also like to use egg noodles.

When the vegetables are cooked to your liking, add the chicken meat (shredded or diced to sizes appealing to you) and the pasta. Allow the chicken meat to warm all the way through. Eat with fresh rolls and butter.

Tabouli

Last night we had a mostly chilled summer dinner of grilled chicken sandwiches, grilled squash and tabouli. First, for the tabouli. I almost followed the recipe on the bag of bulgur wheat but minus the fresh mint. If I had planted the mint that I bought weeks ago, we may have had enough to add the fresh mint. Instead, I left the mint to fend for itself in its little plastic tub. I went looking for it and realized it must have gotten so dry that it was light enough to get blown right off the back deck. Ooops. Now it is happily in the ground but I had to use dried mint in the tabouli!

1/2C dry bulgur wheat

1/4C chopped parsley

1/4C chopped fresh mint (I used about 1T dried)

1 small cucumber, chopped (I used a platinum cuke from the farmers market)

1 tomato, chopped

1/4C green onions, chopped

1/3C lemon juice

2-3T olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Following the directions on the bag, I rinsed the bulgur in a strainer, set the strainer in a bowl, and covered the bulgur with boiling water. I let this sit while I chopped all the ingredients. With everything but the bulgur in a bowl, I stirred it up. I drained the bulgur, rinsed it with cold water, pressed the water out through the strainer, and fluffed the bulgur. I stirred in the bulgur and chilled the tabouli for a couple hours.

The chicken for the sandwiches was cooked on the grill and sliced up. On slices of a baguette we had chicken, lettuce, tomato, fresh mozzarella, and pesto. We used a batch of garlic scape and walnut pesto. On the side we also had grilled squash including a zucchini, a yellow squash, and several very sweet and tasty patty pan squash. All the squash came in our farm share this week.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Often when I get up in the morning, my husband has already left for work and he’s left the TV on the Weather Channel. I grab a cup of coffee and my laptop and sit on the couch for a few minutes until I catch the Local on the 8’s. Then I usually flip the channel to BBC America and leave the news on in the background while I am getting ready to go to school. Well, leaving BBC America on in the morning has created a little Gordon Ramsay obsession for me. You see, Kitchen Nightmares comes on at 8 am and so I sometimes watch about half the show while I am eating breakfast before I catch the bus. In any case, I managed to watch a few episodes of the f word as well, though I think Kitchen Nightmares is my fave! This led me to visit Channel 4s food page and I found this Chicken Tikka recipe.

In 2T oil I cooked 1 onion halved and sliced thinly for about 3 minutes. Then I added 2 green serrano peppers (deseeded and chopped), 3 cloves of garlic (pressed), and slightly more than an inch piece of ginger (grated).

I cooked this for 2-3 minutes. I added the chili powder (1/2t), tumeric (1t), garam masala (2t) and brown sugar (1T). I stirred this and let it cook for another couple of minutes until it was quite fragrant.This step really helps the aromatics of the spices come out so the deep flavor of the sauce can develop.

I then added tomato paste (1T) and diced tomatoes (1 14 oz can). (I really like the Muir Glen Fire Roasted tomatoes!) I let this simmer for 3-5 minutes and turned off the heat. This is a good stopping point if you want to leave the sauce to sit before you cook the meat.

I used 2 chicken breasts (the recipe calls for 4) and it was a good ratio of meat to sauce but then again, I love sauce!

I diced the chicken and put it in the empty (but not clean) pan with 1T additional oil. I let it get color on all sides but I didn’t cook it all the way through. I added the sauce back and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Next, I put the sauce in the food processor and blended it until smooth. I served this over basmati rice, with yogurt and cilantro. Yum!