Tikka masala

I started with a recipe from Epicurious but as usual didn't have the ingredients. So I made something that could have easily turned out to be cream of tomato soup.

It plated beautifully.

Step one:

Prep chicken. 

I used a 2 1/2 pound family pack of chicken breasts, beat with the bottom of a Le Creuset saucepan.

I poked holes in them with a fork and marinated them in a sauce of approximately:

- 1/2 cup plain low fat yogurt

-  1 tablespoon oil

- garlic powder, about 1 tablespoon

- juice of one lemon

In a saucepan I sautéed:

- one tablespoon dehydrated garlic

- one tablespoon butter

- two tablespoons paprika 

- two teaspoons cumin

- one teaspoon cardamom

- one-half teaspoon nutmeg

- one pinch hot Indian paprika

- one tablespoon diced candied ginger

- black pepper 

I added:

- about one cup water

- about one cup half and half

- about one-half cup tomato sauce

I let that boil and reduced to a simmer while I cooked and diced the chicken.

Then I added three colors of peppers, cauliflower and peas to the sauce.

When that warmed I added it to the skillet:

It was very mild. I could have doubled the spices I think. But delightful on this cold day.

Somali style stew with chicken on the side

I wanted a Somali style stew and thought I could toss something in the crock pot to cook for the day. And I thought I'd use chicken thighs, even though they aren't common in Somali cuisine.

But all I had were drumsticks.

For the stew (toss in crockpot):

- one cup white/great northern beans (no salt)

- one can garbanzo beans, rinsed

- about 1.5 cups frozen butternut squash

- about 2/3 cup frozen zucchini

- one cup homemade chicken stock (no salt)

- one cup water

- paprika

- garlic powder

- black pepper

- 1 teaspoon fresh chopped chives

- 3 whole cloves

- cumin

- a pinch cinnamon

I think.

Now the drumsticks:

I marinated six drumsticks in spiced apple cider, smearing them with a small amount of orange marmalade and sprinkling them with a 1/2 teaspoon or so (each) of brown sugar. Left them in the fridge all afternoon.

Cooked them for 20 minutes at 350, basted thoroughly with the juice from the pan and then increased temp to 425 for an additional 45 minutes.

Chicken and Brussel sprout sandwich

I made a dozen or so chicken breasts I bought on clearance yesterday at Target. I baked them in the oven in homemade chicken stock and water.

So for lunch I sliced up two hunks of chicken and sautéed them quickly in extra virgin olive oil and ras el hanout. I sliced about 20 leftover Brussel sprouts in half and tossed them in too.

I made mine into a sandwich with jalapeño mozzarella cheese.

Chicken with vodka sauce

Tonight is my last night home. I cheated.

Got chicken breasts on clearance at Target, had husband get vodka sauce from George's Pizzeria and I added frozen spinach and broccoli. I'm serving over rice cooked in my homemade chicken stock.

Somali style chicken and eggs

I came across suqaar with eggs and loolah on a somali cooking blog this morning and couldn't let it go.

Except suqaar= beef cubes.

So I used chicken.

And I didn't have the right spices.

But not following directions is a specialty of mine.

I started by chopping three chicken breasts and browning them. Then I added a couple tablespoons oil with parsley, garlic powder, cumin and paprika. 

Next I separated peeled plum tomatoes from a can with my fingers. Four. Poured in some extra juice. When that cooked, I added the eggs.

Chicken and spinach pasta

A quick lighter version of Alfredo florentine, with chicken served over little chicken-shaped noodles.

The sauce:

- 4 tablespoons butter

- 1 cup homemade chicken stock

- 1 cup skim milk

- garlic powder to taste

- paprika to taste

- about 2 cups chopped spinach

Combine all the ingredients but the spinach and bring to a slow boil so it can thicken. Once it starts to thicken, add the spinach. Mix sauce into noodles.

Cook chicken strips as designed with additional garlic powder and paprika. I arranged mine in a circular formation  around the pasta.

I then sprinkled shredded Parmesan on the pasta.

Easy Buffalo Chicken Salad

This is great on a sandwich (as pictured) or on a big bed of lettuce as an actual salad.

This is a bit of a cheater recipe as I stated with Market Pantry chunk chicken breast in a can.

Ingredients:

* one can Market Pantry chicken breast, which I rinsed.

* I think it was one tablespoon Frank's Red Hot fiery buffalo wing sauce

* two tablespoons Bolthouse Farms blue cheese yogurt salad dressing (I love this stuff. Tastes great, and 35 calories per 2 tablespoons-- I splurged on the first bottle $3.99 at Target, but now it's on sale 2/$6)

* half a small red apple, peeled into ribbons

* somewhere around 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

I break my chicken into tiny mixes and mix it all up.

Grape Nuts Chicken

As I left for work today, now remember I headed in for day seven of seven at six thirty this morning, my daughter asked me if she could have her new BFF over for dinner.

New BFF. New this week. Have I mentioned that this middle school thing is hitting ME hard? Apparently, this school year's original BFF has moved to another social group.

It's amazing how the social behavior of tween and teen girls doesn't end in PTSD. I think I might me having a few flashbacks just seeing what my daughter is starting to go through.

So, I raided the meats on clearance. Four pounds of ground beef, on sale this week, discounted for quick sale, AND I had a cartwheel. I think each pound ended up being about $2.50. Then I hit the chicken. Two family packs of chicken breasts (2 pounds each), with discount price and cartwheel, equalled about $6 each. I also got a small pack of Bare chicken breasts. $3. That was what we had tonight.

So, the friend thing wasn't definite. I put all my superstitious traditions into effect. I wore ratty sweatpants, didn't clean and didn't make extra food.

The friend accepted the invite.

This recipe feeds three, but I made it work for four. I just trimmed a "finger" off each breast after cooking and kept that for my serving.

I used to have a promotional Kraft cookbook and in it was a Grape Nut chicken. I looked online and found a salty/crispy version. But I didn't quite like the idea of adding salt as my salt content has been ridiculous lately... So I made my own variation. 

Preheat oven to 425.

The ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts

• mayonnaise 

• Dijon mustard

• blackstrap molasses

• grape nuts cereal

• ginger

I lightly oiled the bottom of my dish with extra virgin olive oil.

I mixed about a tablespoon each of the mustard and mayo. I added about 1 1/2 teaspoons blackstrap molasses and mixed into a sauce.

I brushed both sides of the chicken very heartily and placed them in the dish.

I sprinkled with ginger.

I then coated the top with grape nuts.

Bake for 35 minutes. Let stand 5-10 minutes as you nag your daughter to come set the table.

It was so delicious & juicy. I'm sad I didn't make more. And it's rich in iron and protein.

I ate mine with leftovers of last night's stew.

Chicken Rice Egg Drop Soup

It's miserably cold and I found myself lamenting that we couldn't make soup. And then I realized the idiocy of that, because I dropped all my frozen chicken drumstick stash into the crock pot Sunday to feed the family and make homemade stock.

So I've had chicken stock bubbling away for two days.

I asked the child if she wanted to make Daddy soup. She said sure. We had leftover rice from a Chinese take-out order and the leftover drumstick meat, so we started with that, in the strained homemade stock, for the base.

I asked her what kind of soup she wanted and she said Chinese. We cane up with the following ingredients:

- peas

- corn

- sesame seeds

- a few drops sesame oil

- teaspoon low sodium soy sauce

- 1/2 teaspoon ginger

- 1 teaspoon sugar

- 2 teaspoons garlic powder

- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 

We got it crazy and bubbling and then drizzled an egg into it.

Honey Drumsticks

My daughter loves dark meat. My husband and I don't. Here's our frozen drumstick in the crockpot concoction of the day:

- six frozen drumsticks 

- warm water (about 1/4 cup) mixed with about 1-2 tablespoons honey

- about 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

Then coat the top of the chicken with

- about 2 teaspoons paprika 

- about 2 teaspoons parsley

- about 1/2 teaspoon ras el hanout

- about 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

- about 1-2 tablespoons honey

As it appeared done, we turned the heat down and added frozen kale, butternut squash and carrots while rice cooked in the steamer. 

40 minutes later:

Very nice.

Fried Chicken

So, I had a cold this weekend while daughter had serious gastro-intestinal distress. I went to work Monday and survived an eight hour December shift. Came home way sicker than I was previously. Guess I overdid it.

I had the worst craving for boxed mac and cheese. Daughter had a school fundraiser and I purchased the "holiday toy cheesy mac" because her public school demanded I buy pasta or opt for a $20 buy-out. I won't rant here. But simply put, I would rather know what that money is for. I was told field trip. But then tell me my kid needs to sell pasta or pay for their own field trip ticket later. Not just tell me to hand over $20.

I made "fried chicken." Now this is a variant of my mother-in-law's chicken. I had three chicken breasts in the freezer reaching their expiration. I thawed them, slapped them in my cast iron skillet with a slight greasing of oil and baked them at 350 for 20 minutes.

I then retrieved them and sliced each breast into four fingers. They were very juicy at this point so I probably could have skipped egg to bread them. I didn't. I slopped them through the egg, dipped them in my breadcrumb mix, and return them to the skillet with maybe three tablespoons oil. I turned them every three minutes or so.

My breadcrumb mix:

- homemade crumbs from any remotely "bread" product

-commercial Italian breadcrumbs because I didn't have enough in the freezer

- one to two tablespoons paprika

- about 1.5 teaspoons mesquite dry rub

Individualized chicken wraps

We have plain chicken left from last night's casserole so I made wraps:

For Me

Chicken, romaine, home canned cranberry relish and mandarin oranges

For my husband

Chicken, romaine, Parmesan and salsa verde

My Crazy Chicken Spinach Potato Chip Casserole

I hope this works.

I made a chicken rice potato chip casserole. But not the standard kind with cream of chicken soup.

I cooked three chicken breasts (but only ended up using two). Meanwhile my daughter made a sauce of the following:

- one cup homemade chicken stock

- 1/3 cup mayo

- 1/2 cup soy milk

We added spices:

- parsley

- Himalayan pink salt 

- black pepper

- garlic

- mustard

- ras el hanout

- nutmeg

- cheddar cheese dip mix (about 2-3 tablespoons)

We mixed into the sauce:

- 2 cups raw spinach

- 1 cup northern beans

We placed one cup cooked rice on the bottom of the casserole dish. We layered sauce/mix onto the rice, put in the chicken chucks, and then sprinkled a touch of Parmesan and mozzerella cheese on it. We put the rest of the sauce/mix on top, added more cheese and topped the whole mess with crushed potato chips. 

I put it in the oven, uncovered, at 325 for 30 minutes...

It's a tad bland. I need to jazz up the spice blend more.

Harissa chick pea stew and rice

I had to make a whole chicken last week and chicken bone stock to make room in my freezer. 

To use up some of the new chicken stock so it would fit in the freezer I made rice with chicken stock and parsley mixed 50/50 with the water.

To use up the chicken and this pile of tomatoes someone gave us from their garden, I made this stew:

- 2 cups homemade chicken stock (to use up my old stock)

- 1 cup diced chicken

- about 30 ounces chick peas

- about 4 cups diced tomato

- 1/2 cup zesty sprouts

- 1 package saffron road harissa simmer sauce

- about 2 cups vegetables (in my case broccoli, carrot and cauliflower)

- 1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper

- 1 tablespoon ground cumin

- water

In the crockpot on high.

Maraq (Somali style chicken stew)

I wanted something African last night and around here, the options are rather limited. We do have an Ethiopian restaurant in Allentown and my request to visit it for dinner baffled my husband.

We were too hungry after a long day. It was farther than he really wanted to go. I don't really like Ethiopian food.

He's right. I'm not fond of Ethiopian food. I don't dislike it, but it doesn't interest me like other cuisines. I realized this while dining on Ethiopian in Djibouti and grappling with what to do since my right hand was broken leaving me no choice but to eat with my left.

In Yemen, they gave me a plastic spoon. I have never been so happy to see a plastic spoon.

Today, I am hoping to avoid yesterday's drama (and there was plenty. The ten-year-old stomped off to her room and refused to come down. I was screaming. Husband was trying to make dinner and used my secret stash of spicy vegetarian "buffalo wings" that I got on clearance at Target.).

I researched Somali stews on the internet and found something for chicken... Because A. I don't have a goat and B. Chicken thighs work well in the crock pot.

I decided on Maraq. My variation of course. Because I never have the required ingredients. Yet, that never stops me. 

This is what I threw into the crockpot at 8 a.m. I started it on high but may adjust it later. I also hope to stop at the store and buy green pepper. Because the recipe asked for that and I think it will be needed.

In the crockpot:

- 1 1/2 cups homemade chicken stock, on the bottom of the crock, plus an additional 1/2 cup on top of the chicken before putting the lid on. I freeze my chicken stock in 1/2 cup discs (Noosa yogurt containers) and drop them into the crock pot like that.

- garlic. I didn't have fresh cloves so I sprinkled in hearty amounts of garlic powder and added a touch of garlic pepper. I also sprinkled garlic pepper on the chicken before adding the lid to the crock pot.

- cumin. Recipe called for two tablespoons. I apparently only have one. Just found cumin. Bought some at Indian grocer. Perhaps more than a tablespoon added. For a total of about 2.5 tablespoons.

- tomato purée. The recipe called for some high amount of tomato paste and 2 fresh tomatoes. I thought I had tomato paste. I don't. I had a 28 ounce can of tomato purée. Which since the original recipe was stove top and mine is crock pot, I hope the additional liquid will burn off. When I opened the can, I was shocked to see *how much* 28 ounces of tomato purée is. A lot. I did not add tomatoes. My family is not overly find of them, so I may or may not add them later in the day.

- spices: pepper, paprika, lots of parsley and a pinch of chili powder. Recipe asked for cilantro. Don't have any. May add coriander. Yes, need to do that. Nope. Don't have that. Thought I did. 

- squash. Recipe called for butternut but I had this hacking huge yellow squash from the farmer's market.

- baby carrots. About a pound. Husband chopped them. I wouldn't have. The squash depleted my desire to chop.

- I stirred all this and plopped a frozen pile of about 2 pounds chicken thighs (skinless) on top. I seasoned with garlic pepper (as mentioned above) and placed a disc of chicken stock on top (also as mentioned earlier).

- After talking to my husband, we have decided to add a can of chick peas (in part because I had this incredible tomato based chick pea stew at Camp Mosey Wood this summer and this looks similar). So chick peas. Two 15.5 ounce cans. Drained.

Verdict: this was incredibly delightful

Child's chicken marinade

My ten-year-old daughter is marinating drumsticks for dinner. 

She has selected for her sauce:

- 1 part extra virgin olive oil

- 1 part balsamic vinaigrette 

- 1 part maple syrup

For her spices:

- generous amounts of parsley

- curry

- paprika

- ras el hanout

- ginger

Will let you know how it turns out.

Verdict: cooked at 375 for an hour, then broiled on high for five minutes.

Delectable.

Monday odds and ends

We ate a lot of holiday leftovers and fresh cantaloupe this weekend. Today I made dinner in the morning, since I work 1-close. I packed my family's portion into the fridge and ate mine for lunch.

Chicken with parsley, garlic pepper and lemon butter sauce, white rice and steamed asparagus.

My daughter and I had cantaloupe for pre-breakfast and went for a one mile walk. Upon our return, we had home canned apple butter, made from local apples last autumn, and cottage cheese.

I made her my version of her school's nacho fun lunch for her meal because she's claiming she's not hungry and her grandparents are on their way.

I think she's holding out for her share of the chicken.

Restaurant style tortilla chips, salsa verde and Parmesan. She loved it.

Pineapple Crock Pot Chicken

** This is an experiment based on recommendations from my almost ten-year-old **

In the crockpot on high about 6 hours:

- frozen chicken thighs (about 2 pounds)

- 16 ounces sweet and sour sauce

- 20 ounces crushed pineapple

- about 1/2 cup strong homemade chicken stock

- 1/2 cup water

- about 2-3 tablespoons ras el hanout

(I don't like this sweet and sour sauce. The ras el hanout is an attempt to make the flavor less sweet.)

- 2-3 tablespoons garlic pepper

When I got home from work, I added about 2 cups water and another 1/2 cup chicken stock. 

It was good. Definitely sweet, but not syrupy. Different.

Archer Farms stuffed chicken breast

Tonight my daughter and I went to see an elementary school production of 101 Dalmations. The afternoon was delightful. The performance made me laugh and cry, especially as it brought back memories of my days as a beat reporter in Phillipsburg. 

Last night in Target, I found bacon wrapped Archer Farms chicken breasts stuffed with cream cheese and jalapeño on clearance for $3 off the regular price of $8.31 for two breasts. With my employee and RedCard discounts that brought the price to about $4.50. 

Now, I'm cheap so I sliced those breasts after cooking them and split them three ways.

Since we had the play, we tossed brown rice in the steamer and cooked that and some peas in homemade chicken stock (from my freezer).

We served with Les Abeilles white wine.

I was very pleased.

Kedjenou

I can get adventurous in my cuisine. I recently added a character who is French of Ivory Coast origins to my fictional universe and thought to give Ivory Coast cuisine a try.

Kedjenou is a chicken vegetable stew.

I found many recipes, all similar, like this one: http://africanbites.com/?p=1560

But of course, following a recipe is not my way so this is what I did based on what I had in hand:

In my crockpot, on high

- two cloves garlic thinly sliced

- a dollop of extra virgin olive oil

- generous amounts of paprika (2 tablespoons?)

- about 2 teaspoons ginger 

- 3 small tomatoes diced

- about 1/2 cup sliced jalapeños

- about 3/4 cup black olives

Stir that nicely so it blends and gets aromatic.

To that base I added my vegetables

- about 8 ounces carrots

- one crown broccoli chopped into bite size florets

Stir to coat.

Plop 2 frozen chicken thighs on top of that. 

Sprinkle with more paprika and ginger. I covered and plan to cook on high for seven hours. I don't intend to stir or disturb it so the chicken juices infuse into the vegetables and make a stew.

It looks and smells good. Hubby says he added about six hours of water...

Individual plates with rice:

The verdict:

I think it's nicely seasoned and just spicy enough. The child isn't complaining that it's too spicy. Very yummy and comforting for a winter night.