Chicken, Mio amore!

Italian Baked Chicken

Marinara

1 TBSP olive oil
1/4 onion finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp dried basil
1 bay leaf
5 TBSP tomato sauce
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp dried oregano
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
3/4 can rotel (diced tomatoes)
pinch salt
(p.s. if you're short on time, just use canned marinara)

Chicken

4 chicken breasts
1/2 cup parmesan
1 cup italian style bread crumbs (or regular bread crumbs with italian seasoning mixed in)
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs beaten
1 to 1 and 1/2 TBSP olive oil

Marinara:  Saute onion and garlic in olive oile.  Add tomatoes and remaining ingredients.  Stir for 2 minutes.  Remove bay leaf.  Put half of sauce on the bottom of a  buttered baking dish and set remaining half aside.

Chicken:  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine bread crumbs and cheese.  Dip each chicken breast in flour, then eggs, then bread crumb/cheese mix.  In a large pan, heat olive oil.  Saute chicken on medium high heat for about 2 minutes per side.  Move chicken to baking dish and top with remaining sauce.  Sprinkle with Parmesan.  Bake for 30-35 minutes.  (I pounded out my chicken until they were uniform and a little bit thinner.  Thirty minutes was plenty after tenderizing.)

You can see why I had to flatten some of the cluckers.  They weren't very uniform.

There wasn't very much to coat the bottom of the pan but you don't really need a ton.

The dredging trifecta

Color me flavor locked!  Don't they look yum already!?!

Before baking

After baking

GET...IN...MY....BELLAY!!!

Couscous Stuffed Chicken with Curry and Dijon Glaze

HEY HEY HEY!!!  Happy weekend everyone!  I decided to make one last recipe for the week after all and..oh...my...lord!  I am so glad I did.  This turned out verra verra nice.  I was pleasantly surprised.  There are plenty alterations you could make to this so don't be skerred.  That's what EBKS is all about after all!  We're here to clean out cupboards people!! Waste not...well...just waste not ok?!?

Cous Cous 

• 1/4 cup uncooked couscous
• 3 TBSP tomato, diced
• 1/2 cup chicken broth, low sodium
• 1 Jalapeno, diced
• 1/2 cup canned green peas
• dash salt
• dash pepper
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1/2 garlic clove

Coat skillet with cooking spray and saute jalapeno and tomato until slightly brown.  In a small sauce pan, bring chicken broth to a boil.  Add couscous, jalapeno, tomato, and remaining ingredients to pan.  Remove from heat.  Cover with lid.  After several minutes, fluff with fork and let sit while preparing chicken.

Chicken with Curry and Dijon Glaze

• 2 (6 oz) Chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup Honey
• 1/4 cup Dijon
• 1/3 TBSP dried curry
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1/4 TBSP olive oil 

Heat oven to 400 degrees. 
Glaze:  Mix honey, Dijon, curry, black pepper and red pepper in a small dish and set aside. 
Place chicken breasts between two sheets of wax paper. Pound to 1/4 inch thickness.  With a basting brush put a light layer of glaze on the inside of the chicken breasts.  Put a layer of couscous mixture on top of the glaze and roll into croissant shape, using toothpicks to secure chicken.  Lightly glaze tops of chicken.  Heat olive oil over medium high heat in oven safe skillet.  Add chicken to skillet and let cook for approximately six minutes.  Remove toothpicks and gently turn chicken to other side.  Lightly baste tops of chicken and cook in oven for 5-8 minutes, or until cooked through.

Whatever would I have done if I hadn't picked up tomatoes and jalapenos at the farmer's market last Saturday?!

Glaze

Cooked couscous - pre fluffing ;-)

Chicken wrapped in wax paper or a dead body...hard to tell in this house

Glaze me glaze me!!  I swear it's good...you can't use too much of it if the mix is right

Peas peas try the peas!  They made this a very pretty finished product. (and they were tasty too of course)

Wrap me, glaze me, cook me up!  whoa!  um..sorry...got a little carried away

6 minutes on medium high.  Don't flip...you'll burn your toothpicks and make a mess

Smack it up, flip it, RUB IT DOWN...oh nooooooo :)  (gotta love the early 90s)

Careful with your pans here ladies and gents.  Not all pans are oven safe, k? k!

Can I eat them both because seriously, it's been about an hour and it STILL looks good.

See!  I told you!!  Look at those peas!  They look like pieces of asparagus or something. 

This is the picture where I cut you off.  They're gonna make sweet sweet chicken love in my belly.  Can't you tell by the vignette that's been created.  When the mood hits your eye like a big pizza pie...that's....NOM NOM NOM!

Hindsight is 20/20:

• Chicken turned out perfect so don't mess with the cooking times too much
• You can, as always, omit the jalapeno if you want
• Olives and feta would also be good mixed in the couscous...I just didn't have any
• You can play with the portions on the glaze as long as the proportions are fairly uniform
• This was very tasty and would be nice with a side of green beans.  I didn't feel like I needed another veggie since I added peas to the couscous.  A salad with olives and feta would also be yummy.

Shredded BBQ Chicken and Roasted Brussels Sprouts

 A tasty alternative to regular old BBQ.  Not that I have a problem with regular old BBQ....I just have had a LOT of pork lately :).  I know lots of peeps don't care for Brussels sprouts but these turned out really nice.  I think I will roast my sprouts from now on.  If you're luke warm on sprouts, add some "real" Parmesan for extra flavor and make sure not to forget the garlic.

I have NO complaints about how the chicken turned out.  The main course was to die for, seriously.  It was so yummy I almost don't want to brag about it because hubs will be pissed he was out of town.

Oh, I almost forgot...with every good meal comes a good cocktail:

Pretty, yes?

As always, check out the Hindsight is 20/20 paragraph at the end for some tweaks. 

 Roasted Brussels Sprouts

1/2 teaspoon Parmesan (I used fat free...shocking, I know)
1 clove Garlic
2 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Kosher Salt (please use Kosher or it will be TOO TOO salty!)
1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
Sprinkle of Dash old bay
Sprinkle of ground ginger -- I know that sounds strange but hear me out.  Brussels sprouts are known to be gastrointestinal er...challenges.  Ginger is known to help in digestion (as is hot sauce).   Trust me and sprinkle just a touch in the mix.  You'll thank me later :)

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees.  Cut off hard ends of Brussels sprouts.  Slice large sprouts lengthwise (the goal is to make all of the sprouts uniform so if some of them are small, don't cut them in half).  Toss sprouts with all ingredients.  Place the sprouts cut side down on a cookie sheet.  Cook for 20 minutes.  Turn off oven but LEAVE THE SPROUTS IN THE OVEN FOR ANOTHER 20 MINUTES.   This will ensure they're crispy on the outside but cooked all the way through.

This is at the 20 min mark.  The sprouts will be pretty crispy but don't be scared...leave them in there!

After another 20 min of sitting in the oven.  Parts will look burned but that's ok...it's like the Long John Silvers crispies...yum!

Shredded BBQ Chicken (Sandwiches if you wanna....)

• 3/4 cup chicken stock
• 3/4 bottle Mexican beer (drink the rest!  wahoo!)
• 3 pieces, 6 ounces each boneless, skinless chicken breast (sorry about the odd number but, once again, I'm flying solo and only want enough for one night of leftovers)
• 1 and 3/4  tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 Jalapenos (if you wanna) finely chopped
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, eyeball it
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce (Texas Pete, Tabasco, whatevs)
• 1 and 1/2  tablespoons Montreal Steak Seasoning
• 2 and 1/2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 1/2 can tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup of favorite BBQ sauce (I like Sweet Baby Ray's but I'm using the Mac's Speed shop BBQ sauce until it's all gone!!)
• Split buns or multi grain bagel thins if you're feeling healthy

Bring chicken stock and beer to a simmer in a small to medium skillet and slide in the chicken breast meat. Gently poach the chicken 10 minutes, turning once about after 5 minutes.  I used tongs to flip the chicken every so often. 

While chicken poaches, heat a second medium skillet over medium low heat.  Add extra-virgin olive oil and garlic and onion (and jalapenos if you used them) and gently saute until chicken is cooked.

Combine the Worcestershire, hot sauce, Montreal Steak Seasoning, brown sugar, BBQ sauce, and tomato sauce in a medium bowl and reserve.

When the chicken has cooked, add 2 ladles of the cooking liquid to the reserve bowl to combine with the sauces, spices, brown sugar and tomato paste.

Remove chicken, slice it, and transfer to the medium bowl. Using 2 forks, shred the chicken and combine put it in the bowl with spices/liquid. (I added just a wee chopped tomatoes but that's only because they were sitting there staring at me!)

Add the shredded chicken to the onions and garlic in the skillet and mix well.  Simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes, using extra cooking liquids to make your chicken as saucy as you like.

Serve with split rolls, toasted bread, or all by itself...however you like your BBQ.

Watch out for premature bubbling! ;-)  It looks like it's simmering because of the beer but wait until it's actually simmering to add the chicken.

It's not in the recipe but I added some bell peppers.  Those greens aren't ALL jalapenos....just to be clear :)

Saucy!

Cluck cluck cluck

Shredded chicken never looks very appetizing all by itself does it?

Starting to look better now!  Added about a half of a fresh tomato...just for grins.

This is about when I knew this recipe was gonna be MONEY!

Yum!  Makes me want to eat it all over again! 

HINDSIGHT IS 20/20:

• BBQ:  No real earth shakers here this time.  I really really really like the way this turned out.  That said, if you're looking for a more BBQ flavor, lighten up on the Montreal and KICK UP the BBQ sauce.  This was a pretty peppery BBQ sandwich and I attribute that almost entirely to the Montreal.  I thought it tasted fantastic though!  
• Sprouts:  Lighten up on the salt if you like your veggies fairly plain.  I liked the "doneness" but if you want yours a little less brown, I would recommend cooking the sprouts for 15 min and letting them sit in the oven for 15 minutes (vice 20 and 20).