lemon chicken

i have a recipe for katie couric's lemon chicken cut out of an old issue of good housekeeping.
on it's own, it's an okay recipe but i find it a bit bland. i use it as a base, but change the recipe a lot. i forgot too that it calls for wayyyyy too much liquid so less is more - or do like i did and wait for it to reduce.
the results are good though

the recipe as i alter it...
2lbs of chicken breast cut into strips about 1 inch thick
3tbsp butter and about the same of olive oil
1/4c potato starch (or other heavier gluten free flour
3c chicken broth (should cut this down in half next time
1/2c lemon juice
4tbsp corn starch
3tbsp turbinado (sugar)
1tbsp garlic powder
sriracha sauce to taste

dredge chicken in flour and in wok with the butter and olive oil until cooked (i do it in two batches)
remove chicken
add all the other ingredients in wok, including leftover flour from dredging and whisk that and the cornstarch
put chicken back in with all of the liquid and simmer on low until sauce reduces and thickens

serve over rice.

this is pretty good and a bit more of an asian twist. it's not sugary sweet like takeout, more mellow, but in the past i have made it more takeout-ish by jacking up the sugar, more cornstarch and adding soy sauce and a bit of rice vinegar. decent. not stellar but good, especially over a fragrant rice like jasmine.

simple oven chicken with mushroom sauce

the sauce is optional. i wanted mushroom flavour and had no mushrooms...but did have mushroom soup. this is an easy oven-baked chicken (but i bet it will work in the crockpot - i'll try it sometime)

ingredients
2lbs chicken breast
1/3c parmesan cheese
1/2c mayonnaise
1c bread crumbs (i used whole grain bread
1/2tsp minced garlic
- blend mayo with garlic on a plate (easier for dipping
- parm and bread together on a plate
- 2lb of chicken breast should be 5-6 large pieces.
- coat chicken in mayo/garlic mix
- then dip chicken in bread crumbs and parm mix (to do gluten free for me i didn't have gluten free bread on hand so i did a cornmeal/parm blend)

- into a greased baking dish in a 425 oven for 30 minutes.
for the sauce...
1 can cream of mushroom condensed soup
3tbsp parmesan cheese
1/4c water
1tsp minced garlic
1tbsp wine (i used the end of an old bottle of red
- in a saucepan until warmed and blended

...pour sauce over chicken when ready to serve.

coconut/tomato curry with rice

as it is a bit of a tour of asia this week - i covered more ground by blending flavours of 2 countries - india and indonesia. i love curries, and coconut milk and tomatoes and i always think of tomato/curry blend as indian and tomato/coconut milk as more indonesian.

so after lemongrass...bring on the curry!
most surprising about this recipe was how much my 3.5yr old and 1 yr old loved this! seriously shocked and delighted  by my little foodies.

ingredients

2-2.5lbs chicken breast in small cubes
2.5tbsp curry powder
1 small onion chopped
2 tbsp garlic powder
...these first ingredients get tossed in the skillet first...mixed around until all is well cooked
then add all of this in (you'll need a big skillet! i use my big iron-cast one)

1 can coconut milk
1 can diced tomatoes (i used hunts garlic and olive
1.25c tomato sauce (i used hunts herb and garlic
4 tbsp sugar (i used turbinado
2 tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
---simmer on low for about 30-40min

rice
i use beef stock instead of water as that is what i had on hand
add last of tomato sauce (about 2 tbsp worth

this was all so good - sigh - if i had naan bread i would have weathered the heartburn i get from wheat gluten to sop up the sauce...so instead i ate too much rice but - mmmm - i think i may even try this in the slow cooker.

the boys enjoying curry and rice!

chicken and tortellini in a carbonara sauce

i took the inspiration from this recipe.
i used the leftover chicken breast from the slow cooker in this one.
i skipped the heavy cream and basil and added a few tablespoons of pesto instead.

this turned out great. really tasty and super easy to make.

chicken and black bean enchiladas

this recipe made tonnes of leftovers that i was able to freeze and use another day.

i used this recipe
http://themealplanner.blogspot.com/2008/10/creamy-chicken-black-bean-enchiladas.html

and made the following modifications...i put about a 1.5lbs of chicken breast in the slow cooker with one cup of chicken stock and then did 2hrs on high, 2hrs on low. chicken was of course beautifully moist and pulled the chicken with 2 forks - that shredded chicken was perfect for enchiladas!

plus, the bonus is the extra chicken i packaged and used for another recipe later that week...chicken and tortellini.

baked wings and potato skins

chicken wings were on special and the game was on
so wings and skins it was
i don't often make chicken wings and i made modifications to the following recipes...

baked chicken wings - i added honey as the sauce didn't have enough flavour as posted in the recipe. these were okay/good, but i would have also used less flour than called for.

potato skins - these were time consuming but tasty. the only modifications i made was using one of the shredded cheese blends (kraft nacho cheese mix), and turkey bacon. my 3 year old liked these too.

what did i do with the extra potato? i saved it for the next day and made asian style potato pancakes.