Sunday Sup: Yummy Chicken

November 19, 2017 ~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

Good Morning!

Last night I made the best chicken. I swear the hubs and the kiddo were ready to fight a light saber duel over the last piece. Guess I should have made more.

Make your rub –

2/3 tsp cumin, 2/3 tsp dried Chipotle chile powder, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 8 grinds of sea salt, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp oregano. Stir. Slowly add olive oil and stir until you have paste. We’re talking tablespoons of oil, not cups.

With your fingers rub the paste into both sides of your boneless, skinless chicken thighs. It should be a nice gentle coating. You should still be able to see the chicken. Think a starry night and the stars are your rub. This amount of rub covers both sides of 6 large thighs.

Grill the chicken, both sides 5-6 minutes each until beautiful grill marks appear and the meat is cooked.

I served mine chopped over rice, baja black beans, and salsa. Jalapeno jack cheese for the hubs and I, none for the kiddo.

I couldn’t get pictures once the fill-de-beasts tasted the meat, I was lucky to get any for my bowl. LOL

Sunday Sup: Another Delicious Mistake

October 8, 2017October 5, 2017 ~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

A couple of weeks back I made this recipe, lasagna stuffed chicken. So good. I had planned to make that again but when I opened the chicken it smelled…odd. Off. Like I might seriously regret cooking it. So I threw it out. Now what to make? Hubs will be home in 45 minutes, I have no defrosted meat and I need to make something to feed us all. Hence….

Italian Layer Pie

Rummaging in the freezer and cupboards I came up with a few things. A bag of gluten free chicken strips and a can of eggplant, onions, and tomatoes. Oh look, I have half a bag of quinoa pasta left. I can do this.

Cook your chicken strips first, so 425 for 20 minutes on the gf ones I had.

Boil the pasta. Drain the pasta.

Assemble in a pie dish or other casserole container:

Pasta on the bottom.

Then the can of eggplant, onions, and tomatoes.

Take the 1 cup ricotta, handful of mozzarella, and handful of parm you already mixed to put in the original chicken breast, and put that on top.

Next the chicken strips.

Then some marinara.

Top with more moz and parm.

Slide into the 425 oven for 10-15 minutes, til the cheese is brown and the whole dish is warmed through. You can use broil for a minute to get a good browning if you need it.

I bet this would be super tasty with meatballs. I just didn’t have any in my freezer. LOL

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Sunday Sup: Secretly Lazy Dinner

April 30, 2017April 12, 2017 ~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

You ever have one of those days? You are just wiped out. And you don’t really have a good justification for it, you just are. So you know you have to produce some kind of dinner, because you don’t have a reason not to. Smiles. Secret weapon time.

I’m going to show you the pic first this time. Because the presentation is half of getting away with this dish. IMG_20170409_180442

Doesn’t it look pretty? You’d never know I spent 9 minutes on this.

Whip a box of Beechers Brown rice and kale gratin out of the freezer. (Plan ahead people.) Pop that in the micro for it’s 6 minute run. Chop some left over chicken or if you are me, grab that bag of precooked sliced chicken you always have in your fridge (just in case) and chop some of that. Pull out your bag of real bacon bites (Costco is amazing) and a really good quality parm. I get mine from River Valley Cheese.

When the micro dings, you have to pull off the plastic wrap and put it back in for 90 seconds. This is the perfect time to add a bowl of the cut up chicken so it warms too.

Combine chicken, Beecher’s dish, bacon in nice dish. Top with freshly grated parm.

Sunday Sup: Chicken Cream Pasta

March 26, 2017March 18, 2017 ~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

I am not usually one for dishes this fussy but I have to admit the final taste was worth every minute. The basis for this dish comes from Jess over at HowSweetEats. You can check her version out here.

For this one, you need to prep ahead of time. The sauce is fussy. So chop 1 lb of asparagus into 1 inch pieces, no woody ends. Chop 1 lb of cooked chick breast into bites sized pieces. I used the pre cooked, pre sliced chicken that comes in handy one pound packages at the the store.

Start your water for your pasta.

Start a second small pot of water to boil. Add 2 egg yolks, 2 packages of creme fraiche (1.5 cups total), and 1 c parm cheese shredded, to a metal bowl. Place the bowl over the small pot of water and stir. You need to keep an eagle eye on this sauce, stir frequently, and NEVER let it bubble.

When the pasta water boils, toss yours in. I used a Quinoa and Brown Rice spiral noddle. You could use zoodles if so inclined or edamame pasta. I had neither on hand and so subbed this. I would pick a pasta that can actually absorb sauce though. Zoodles aren’t so good at that.

Keep stirring that sauce.

Put a skillet over medium heat. Add a good helping of butter, let it melt, throw in asparagus and chicken. Stir occasionally.

Keep stirring that sauce. As thing get warm and start to melt, stir constantly, whisk like mad. It is totally worth it. Pull the bowl from the under pot when it is all combined and a thick cheese sauce.

Drain your pasta. Add the asparagus, chicken, and cheese sauce to the pasta. Toss. Top with shredded parm. I have no pics of this. It got decimated in one night at my house. LOL.

Sunday Sup: Budha Bowl Reboot

March 5, 2017February 28, 2017 ~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

I fell down a Delish worm hole recently, watching videos for countless meals that I thought would be way better with a few tweaks towards Paleo. So I made some.

Budha Bowl Reboot (If you want the original Delish Budha Bowl it’s here.)

Preheat your oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Chop 2 medium sweet potatoes into small cubes. Dice one medium red onion. Throw both on the pan and coat with Olive Oil. I use one of those handy spray cans of olive oil. Add a grind or two of sea salt. Roast for 25-30 minutes. You want both soft and caramelized.

In the mean time….make your sauce.

2 tbsp peanut butter, you can use sun butter if you are anti peanut but I wouldn’t recommend almond butter, it gives a different flavor. 1 tbsp honey. 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar. 1 teaspoon minced garlic. 2 tbsp Tamari, gluten-free. Stir until well incorporated. Add 1-2 tbsp sesame oil, depending on how much you like the flavor and then balance with 1-2 tbsp olive oil. Total 3 tbsp oil. Whisk like mad until it emulsifies.

You could grill your own chicken breast. You could. But why bother when you can buy pre grilled sliced chicken. smiles. Chop that up.

I stirred my potatoes and onion a few times and added a bit more olive oil spray. In the last few minutes before they were done, I sautéed riced cauliflower in butter. The secret to getting a good rich flavor is lots of butter. Or ghee, fine, use ghee. But you need it to make the cauliflower not taste like cauliflower. I cook until it picks up a pinch of brown color. And buy the pre riced cauliflower, save yourself the effort and waste of food processing it. It doesn’t all rice when you do it that way and then after you have to wash the food processor.

Ready for assembly: riced cauliflower in the bottom, then chicken, fresh baby spinach, and sweet potato/onion on top. Drizzle the dressing over the whole mess and yum! img_20170226_172813

Sunday Sup: Stuffed Chicken

December 4, 2016November 24, 2016 ~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

I don’t know where I got the idea for this one. It was definitely one of those “what’s in the house?” moments. Where I throw various things together and hope it tastes good. What you never do that? Liar. LOL
Next week’s recipe will be another “What’s in the house?” recipe and it happens to make an excellent side dish for this one.

Stuffed Chicken wrapped in Bacon

Start the oven pre-heating to 425.

Mince a couple of shallots. Add them to some EVOO in a medium skillet over medium ish heat. Roughly chop some mushrooms, I like Crimini, add those to the pan as well. Stir occasionally.

Microwave half a bag of frozen chopped spinach, or a box one, until the frozen is mostly knocked off. Add to the shallots and mushrooms until the mixture gets wet and then dry again. Continue to stir occasionally.

In the mean time butterfly your chicken breasts, four of them. If you know how skip to the next item, if not read on. Lay the chicken breast on the cutting board flat side down. Grab the little flap and cut into it slowly from the inside out so that when you are done the flap is still attached to the breast but lays flat on the cutting board. Now you should have a big obvious mound. Cut from the middle out, dividing it in half so that when you are done, that piece is still connected but lays flat.

If the veggies aren’t dry yet, get down a baking dish, spray with oil, I like EVOO. Get out a package of bacon, open it, and loosen up the pieces.

Ok turn the heat off the veg. Add goat cheese to the pan, to your taste. I like it cheesy, so I add 5-6 ounces of goat cheese. Stir the cheese around until it melts slightly from the residual heat and you get a gooey mess. You don’t want it so melted it starts to separate or is hard to handle because next you’ll be putting it in those chicken breasts.

Get your assembly ready. Grab a chicken breast in one hand, put a spoonful of filling in the middle. Flop the chicken over on itself to make a chicken “taco.” Wrap the taco in two slices of bacon. Nestle it down into the pan. Sorry about the pic, I don’t have an assistant and somehow having only two hands wasn’t enough. LOL

Slide the pan into the oven for 35 minutes.

Then up it to broil, high, for five more minutes so your bacon gets crispy. Now I’m hungry again.