Tag: chicken

Spice-Crusted Chicken

There is no one on this earth that cannot make this recipe. It’s that easy. Well maybe not no one – you’ve got to have an oven, chicken, and a few basic spices. If you’ve got that, and you’ve never cooked anything other than eggs in your life, you can do this.

This has to be my #1 go-to recipe for a quick weekday dinner. It’s got tons of flavor with minimal effort, and it pleases even the most discriminating palette. I like to make this recipe when I’m cooking dinner for our local Bikur Cholim because I’m pretty sure anyone who will eat chicken will eat it.

What makes this chicken so good? Well for one, it’s baked in it’s skin, keeping the chicken nice and moist. Baking it on a high temperature (400 degrees), with the help of some olive oil, makes the skin super crispy, and all those spices get toasted to perfection.

Here’s the best part. If you’re on one of those low-carb or no-sugar diets like atkins or south beach, you can make yourself a super flavorful dinner without store-bought BBQ sauce that is so full of carbs. If you are watching your fat intake as well, don’t eat the skin, but feel free to scrape off the yummy spices and spread it on your chicken. If dieting is not on your agenda, go ahead and sop up all the drippings from the bottom of the pan, they are seriously delicious!

Quick & Easy Chicken

1 package chicken, quartered
garlic powder
onion powder
paprika
salt
black pepper
extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Clean chickens (do not remove the skin) and pat dry. Sprinkle generously with spices (but go light on the pepper). Drizzle with olive oil. Bake, uncovered, for one hour.

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BBQ Pulled Chicken Sammies


I am sure that I speak collectively (at least for the ashkenazic population) when I say that I cannot look at another potato for a long time! Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore spuds, and all their different methods of preparation…mashed, baked, fried, sliced, diced and boiled. I’ll eat a potato any way, shy of raw. But me and Mr. Potato need a break. I’ve got to show some attention to my long lost friend Mr. Bread :) We’ve been estranged for some time now and I’ve definitely missed its crunchy and chewy qualities. What better way to get reacquainted with bread then in this delicious, and easy pulled chicken sandwich! In my post for pulled beef sandwiches, I mentioned how much I loved pulled-anything. Throw it on some bread and it’s absolute perfection!

Now that I’ve covered both pulled beef and pulled chicken sandwiches, besides for the other white meat that kosher people (like myself) don’t eat, what other type of pulled sandwiches can you come up with?

BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

1 pkg boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2-1 jar bbq sauce (I like the Bone Suckin’ Sauce brand)
crusty rolls
avocado, sliced
tomatoes, sliced
sauteed onions, optional
coleslaw, optional

Method:

Put chicken in a pot and cover with water. Bring water to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Remove from pot and cool (discard water). Using two forks, pull the chicken apart. Return to pot and add bbq sauce (start off with about 1/2 of the jar, add more if necessary). Serve warm on crusty rolls topped with avocado, tomato, sauteed onions and/or coleslaw.

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Sesame Linguini with Marinated Chicken Breast

After having a baby recently, I was lucky enough to have some friends and family send me over dinner for the first two weeks. Needless to say, I felt really pampered to have hot and delicious food delivered to my door each day! Making dinner for a kimpeturin is such a wonderful mitzvah, one which I enjoy doing myself, and I encourage others to do as well. My friend Dina sent over a variation of this dish and it was a huge hit. Here is my adaptation:

Sesame Linguini with Marinated Chicken Breast:

For the pasta:

1 box linguini
1 onion, cut into half circles
1 zucchini, cut into half circles
1 container mushrooms, sliced
1 head baby bok choy
1/2 cup dark soy sauce
1/2 cup toasted sesame oil
1/2 cup sugar
3 scallions, for garnish
sesame seeds, toasted, for garnish

Method:

Prepare linguini according to package directions. Saute onion until translucent and add zucchini, bok choy, and mushrooms. Continue to saute until zucchini is tender-crisp. Add vegetables to pasta. Combine the soy sauce, sesame oil and sugar and pour over pasta.

For the chicken:

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
4-5 boneless chicken breast

Method:

Mix soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and sugar. Pour into a ziploc bag to which chicken has been added. Marinate for 2-3 hours (or minimum 1 hour). Remove from marinade (you can discard it) and pan-fry the chicken over medium heat, using sesame oil to coat the pan. Cool and slice over pasta.

Note: Feel free to grill the chicken breasts. I, of course, was too lazy to shlep down my George Foreman, but if you have yours handy, I would recommend grilling over pan-frying (for health and taste!)

Garnish with sesame seeds and scallions.

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Lemon & Garlic Whole Roasted Chickens

I like chicken. Chicken is ok. Me, and chicken, are good. Am I head over heels for chicken? not really. In fact, whenever I am pregnant, I have an aversion to it and cannot eat it. But I make it all the time because it’s a good source of protein, and my husband and kids enjoy it. This roasted chicken recipe took my taste for chicken to a whole ‘nother level. Roasting the chicken whole, stuffed with lemons, garlic and thyme, gives the chicken an incredible flavor that is not too overpowering, it’s just right. The chicken comes out so incredibly moist, you will want to eat the whole thing in one sitting!

The recipe calls for 1 5-6 lb. bird, but since my butcher only had 3-3.5 pounders, I made 2, and filled each with half a lemon and half a head of garlic. If you can get a 6 lb. chicken, go ahead and fill each cavity with a whole head of garlic (cut in half), and one whole lemon (cut in half) and of course, a bunch of thyme.

This chicken is beautiful served at the Friday night meal, with some rice and veggies on the side.

Lemon & Garlic Roasted Whole Chickens
adapted from Barefoot Contessa

2 3-3.5 lb. roasting chickens
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large bunch fresh thyme
1 lemon, cut in half
1 head garlic, cut in half
2 tablespoon olive oil

Method:

Preheat oven to 425. Remove excess fat and feathers from the chickens. Clean well, rinsing inside and out. Pat dry. Season the cavity of the chicken with salt and pepper and stuff it with the thyme (you can reserve a little for garnish), lemon and garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string. Roast for 1 hour.

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Leftover Chicken Soup Pot Pie

I’ve got to hand this one over to my favorite Facebook page, “Whats for Supper” (introduced to me by my sister-in-law CR), which was started by two sisters, Chava and Naomie (from what I gather anyway). As the name suggests, each day, they post what they are making for supper, and invite all their followers to do the same. Naomie sometimes suggests interested cooking tips, and the health benefits of various foods. They’ve created a family atmosphere, a place to shmooze about more than just food!

Now back to the food. In one post, a little while back, they offered suggestions of what to do with leftover chicken soup. I always have leftover soup, and it kills me to throw it away! Only one of the recipes appealed to me, and that was chicken pot pie. The delicious, creamy comfort food that we all love (and you thought it couldn’t get any comfier than chicken soup) is surprisingly easy to make. Making chicken pot pie using leftover chicken soup seemed a bit “off” at first, but once I tried it, I couldn’t help but make it again the next week. And it just keeps getting better. If you don’t like the sound of it, you can go ahead and boil up some chicken and carrots from scratch.

If you have other vegetables in your soup, like celery, parsnips etc. feel free to add them. (Almost) anything goes!

Leftover Chicken Soup Pot Pie

1/4 cup olive oil
1 onion, diced small
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup flour
2 cups chicken stock (leftover from soup)
1/2 tsp dried thyme or rosemary
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
leftover chicken from chicken soup, cut into 1 inch dice
(or 2-3 pieces of cooked chicken)
leftover carrots from chicken soup
(or 1 large cooked carrots, diced)
1 potato, boiled and cut into a small dice
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1 sheet puff pastry or puff pastry squares for individual pies , thawed
1 egg, beaten

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Heat olive oil in a skillet and add onion, saute until translucent, add the garlic and saute until fragrant. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and continue to saute until the flour starts to take on some color. Add chicken stock and bring to a simmer, whisking as it cooks to incorporate the flour. Season with herbs, salt and pepper. Add chicken, carrots,  potato and peas and stir to incorporate. Pour into an pie dish (or individual dishes) and cover with puff pastry (stretch lightly if necessary). Seal well and place on a baking sheet. Brush the puff pastry with egg. Make a few slits in the pastry to allow steam to escape when baking. Bake until puffed and golden, about 30 minutes.

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