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

Tacos

I don't know what got into me, but I decided to make tacos.
I made the homemade tortillas this afternoon and found this site:
http://www.mex-recipes.com/tacorecipes.html

QUOTED FROM THE SITE:
Ground beef
(I prefer ground chuck)
Salt
Chili powder
Paprika
Cumin
Garlic powder or 2 cloves
Bell pepper
Onion

Instructions for taco recipe:

Let's take 2 pounds of ground beef in 2 quart sauce pan add 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of chili power, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder or 2 chopped garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 2 tablespoons of paprika. Enough water to cover meat.

Bring to a boil. Simmer over medium low heat about an hour. I will check in about 15 minutes take a potato masher break up the meat a little don't want it to cook up in lumps.

Repeat this process 2 or 3 more times. Also make sure we don't run dry of water. Add water if needed. Hour over already!

OK, add 1/2 medium chopped onion, 1/2 medium chopped bell pepper, continue cooking 20 or 30 more minutes.

MY VARIATIONS:
I used 1/2 ground beef from a local farm and 1/2 black beans (the ones I made in the crock pot over the weekend.)
I omitted onion, and used one green pepper from my garden.
I turned up the heat a little on the stove, not the taco meat, because I didn't start early enough.

And I'm using my Le Creuset skillet instead of a saucepan.

Chicken, shrimp and broccoli

Today, forgetting I still have half a broccoli cheese pot pie in the fridge, I embarked on chicken and broccoli for lunch.

So, I preheated the oven to 350 and set the Le Creuset skillet on the front burner on low with 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon butter, and 1 teaspoon four color peppercorn.

I took two slightly thawed chicken breasts and about two cups shrimp and dropped them in the skillet. I sprinkled garlic powder and paprika (lightly) on everything. Ten minutes each side, but about halfway I did turn the heat up to almost medium.

I added as much broccoli as I could get in the skillet (fresh) and then added one cup chicken broth. and one more teaspoon butter distributed in chunks. I also got out two cups of wegmans thai vegetable stock. I thawed both of these broths in the microwave must still had an icy chunk for each so I set one on top of each chicken breast thinking it could baste as it melts.

Into the oven it goes. Husband home for lunch in 45 minutes.

*This is the last of our shrimp.*

Another crustless quiche

I had some milk product, some eggs and some cauliflower that needed using up, so I made a crustless quiche.

So:

• 5 large eggs
• 1 cup fresh half and half
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1/2 head cauliflower
• 3 strips morningstar vegetarian bacon
• 1.5 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
  
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• about 2 ounces cheddar cheese

Beat the eggs and the milk products with the parsley. Preheat oven to 425. Heavily butter a deep-dish pie pan. In a skillet, combine oil, bacon, cauliflower and herbs/spices and cook briefly until they smell good.

Add to bottom of pie dish. Add cheddar, in crumbles. Pour egg mixture over top. Place in oven for 20 minutes, reduce heat to 300 and cook at least another half an hour until eggs set and toothpick in center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes.

Chicken à la diable with Asparagus

I made Chicken à la diable for lunch to use the four chicken breasts I thawed for last night's dinner. Click on the chicken link below to see the recipe. I more or less followed it today, except I added some Indian Chili Powder into the bread crumbs for kick. I used the last of my homemade breadcrumbs and had to add some storebought to make it work.

The asparagus. Well, I meant to glaze it with olive oil and bake with the chicken. Except the olive oil came out too fast so it may be heavier than I wanted. I sprinkled library with garlic pepper, my four-color peppercorns and some sprinkle parmesan.

Paprika Chicken

Remember the Chicken with Fruit from last week? Well, here's another from the same cookbook, The Big Book of Casseroles.  I noticed this recipe while searching for the "chicken with fruit" one.

Chicken Paprika

From the book: "In this classic Hungarian dish, the flavors mingle as the chicken bakes with the onion, bell peppers and broth. Sour cream is added at the end of the cooking time, creating a pretty, creamy pink sauce. Serve with spaetzle or rice."

1/4 cup flour  

1 teaspoon salt  

1 chicken cut into serving pieces (3 to 3.5 pounds)  

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons vegetable oil  

1 cup chopped yellow onion  

1/2 cup green bell pepper chopped

1 tablespoon paprika (preferably Hungarian)  

Fresh ground pepper to taste  

1.5 cups low sodium chicken broth

1 cup light sour cream  

1. Preheat oven to 350. On a sheet of wax paper, combine flour and salt. Toss chicken pieces to coat and reserve flour.

2. In a Dutch Oven, over medium high heat, melt butter and oil. Brown chicken, five to ten minutes on each side. Remove to a plate.

3. Reduce temperature to medium. Add onions and bell pepper, and sauté until tender. And pepper, paprika and remaining flour and stir until bubbly. And stock and stir until thickened.

4. Return chicken to dutch oven and cover and bake about 50 minutes until chicken is no longer pink. Stir in sour cream and bake uncovered about ten more minutes.

Now my version:

Angel's Paprika Chicken Tenders with Broccoli

1/4 cup flour (plus one tablespoon)  

1 teaspoon fresh ground sea

 salt  

1 teaspoon fresh ground multi-colored peppercorns  

1.25 pounds chicken tenders, sliced in half  

1 tablespoon butter

1.5 tablespoons olive oil  

1 tablespoon paprika  

1 dash Hungarian hot paprika  

One large head broccoli, chopped

2 cups white wine, chicken and herb culinary broth  

Sour cream

1. Dredge chicken in flour, pepper and salt mixture. Cook in skillet until brown as described above. Misread directions.... 

2. Add a few splashes of broth to skillet and add paprika. Yes, I left the chicken in, not noticing the part about removing it. Add remaining brown, stir. Add one tablespoon flour and stir while mixture heats. When flour lumps disappear, add broccoli. Stir.

3. Transfer mix to baking dish and plan to follow original directions from here...