Chinese Pineapple Chicken

Well, first things first, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!  I hope ya'll had a good time and made sure to eat your collard greens, black eyed peas and cornbread.  I made, probably the best batch of my collard green soup ever, while visiting my friend, Greg, in North Carolina, where they still have Harris Teeter or as my grandmother used to call it "Teeters".

 

Meanwhile back at home, I've not been to the grocery store since before Christmas and I wanted to cook tonight, so I rummaged thru my recipes and pantry and came up with Chinese Pineapple Chicken.  I've been wanting to make this for awhile because I love Chinese food, but the only Chinese restaurant I'll eat at here in Montgomery is Ming's Garden, but they don't deliver and it's kinda far away.  So if I could make some good-ass Chinese food at home - all problems solved.  Plus I know exactly what goes into it!

Let's get started, shall we?  Ok, so I was kind of a nerd and prepped all my ingredients this time using the new prep cups my aunt gave me for Christmas.  I was waiting on the brown rice to cook, so I figured why not?  No one in their right mind would normally do this.

 First, cut four chicken breasts into medium-sized chunks/

[ASIDE: Now this is where I would like to say, thoroughly read your recipe when you decide to make it because I didn't read it this morning and was quite surprised to find out it required 2 hours of marinating.  To the average person, this would pose a problem, but to those of us lucky enough to have a FoodSaver®  we don't need no stinkin' 2 hours.]

Anyway, the point is:  Mix your soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and eggs together, pour into a large bowl and add your chicken chunks . Cover and let marinate in fridge for 2 hours or an hour if you've got the marinating container for your FoodSaver®.

After the chicken's marinated, add flour and cornstarch to the chicken to create a thick batter.

[NOTE: If you've got a container with a lid, I would transfer the chicken and marinade into that before adding the flour and cornstarch since shaking the mixture is a great way to evenly distribute the batter over the chicken.]  

See?

Next, heat oil in large frying pan or wok on medium high heat. Add chicken and fry until browned, turning when necessary. Be patient frying the chicken chunks, frying them too quickly will make them ugly and have dark brown burned spots on them. 

Also, monitor your oil temperature, adding oil if necessary and adjusting the heat if the chicken seems to be cooking too fast or slow.  Frying can be tricky, so take your time.

I did my frying in 6 small batches since I didn't have enough oil to use my huge Calphalon pan.  [Remember the whole "haven't been to the grocery store in a month" thing.]  Once each batch is done, transfer it to either a paper towel-lined cookie sheet or a cooling rack on top of a paper towel-lined cookie sheet.  A slotted metal spoon or tongs are perfect for removing the chicken from the oil.

While your chicken is cooking, move onto the yummy pineapple sauce. 

In a medium saucepan, combine pineapple chunks and pineapple juice. Bring to a boil then add your brown sugar and soy sauce, and let simmer for 7 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and water into a paste.

Stir the paste into the boiling sauce, turn heat to low and let simmer, stirring occasionally until thick enough to coat a spoon.

Finally, pour chicken pieces and sauce into a large bowl and mix until thoroughly coated.

I chose to serve mine over a bed of brown rice because it's yummy and good for me!  Now, unfortunately, I am kind of congested today and haven't really tasted anything all day, BUT what I could taste was awesome!  And I'm totally eating leftovers all week long! :)

Enjoy!!

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Chinese Pineapple Chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken and Marinade:

4 chicken breasts

4 Tbsp. soy sauce

2 tsp. sesame oil

2 eggs

1/2 tsp pepper

6 Tbsp flour

6 Tbsp cornstarch

corn or canola oil for frying

Sauce:

2 cups pineapple chunks

2 cups pineapple juice

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp cornstarch + 2 Tbsp water

2 Tbsp soy sauce

Instructions: 

Cut four chicken breasts into medium-sized chunks.

Mix your soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and eggs together, pour into a large bowl and add your chicken chunks . Cover and let marinate in fridge for 2 hours or an hour if you've got the marinating container for your FoodSaver®.

Add flour and cornstarch to chicken to create a thick batter. 

Heat oil in large frying pan on medium high heat. 

Add chicken in small batches and fry until it is browned, turning when necessary. 

Once each batch is done, transfer it to either straight onto a paper towel-lined cookie sheet or a cooling rack on top of a paper towel-lined cookie sheet.  *TIP: A slotted metal spoon or tongs are perfect for removing the chicken from the oil.

In a medium saucepan, combine the pineapple and pineapple juice. Bring to a boil, add brown sugar and soy sauce, and simmer for 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix the cornstarch and water into a paste.

Stir the paste into the boiling sauce, turn heat to low and let simmer, stirring occasionally until thick enough to coat a spoon. 

Pour chicken pieces and sauce into a large bowl and mix until thoroughly coated.

Serve on a bed of white or brown rice.

Spicy Chipotle Meatballs

I made these meatballs a couple of weeks ago and just now got to posting about them. Trust me, these suckers are definitely SPICY! But so good!

These meatballs are a slight adaptation of the recipe on Simply Recipes.com.

First, preheat the oven to 450º.

I chopped the uncooked bacon and 1 garlic clove and then combined them in a large bowl.

Using my small chopper, I combined the eggs*, bread crumbs and 1 teaspoon salt. Add this to the bacon and garlic.


*side note about my eggs this recipe. My friend and co-worker, Summer has 3 chickens in her back yard and she brought me 6 of their eggs! I used three of them because they are kind of small. If you're using XL eggs from the store, just use two. It's the first time I've ever cooked with "farm-fresh" eggs before! So cool!!

Finally, add the meat and using your hands, mix all the ingredients well.

Now, with wet hands, form meat into about 15 plum-size balls and place them in a greased baking dish.

Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.


While the meatballs are baking, use this time to combine the tomatoes, chipotles (remove all seeds first!), the adobe sauce from one can of the chipotles, oregano, the rest of the garlic (chopped) and ½ teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor. Process to a smooth purée.



When meatballs are done baking, drain the fat from baking dish.


Now, combine the tomato mixture with your favorite tomato sauce (homemade or otherwise). And pour the sauce on top, covering the meatballs evenly.



Bake until sauce has thickened, about 15 or 20 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking a second time, go ahead and start your pasta, whatever kind you like. I used no-yolk whole wheat eggs noodles, which are always awesome. Just follow the directions on the package.

Spoon 2 meatballs and sauce over each serving of pasta and enjoy!


Feel free to garnish with freshly-grated Parmesan!

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Spicy Chipotle Meatballs
makes approximately 15 meatballs

Ingredients:
3 slices bacon chopped into 1-inch pieces
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 large eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Salt
1 ¼ pounds ground meat (feel free to use beef, pork, veal, any combination of those three, or even turkey)
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1 or 2 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, stemmed, seeded and sauce reserved
1 teaspoon dried oregano
24 oz. of your favorite tomato sauce
1 lb. pasta (whatever kind you desire)


Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 450º.

Chop bacon and 1 garlic clove, combine in a large bowl.

Combine eggs, bread crumbs and 1 teaspoon salt. Add to bacon and garlic. Add meat.

Using your hands, mix all the ingredients together well.

With wet hands, form meat into about 15 plum-size balls and place them in a greased baking dish.

Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking, use this time to combine the tomatoes, chipotles (remove all seeds first!), the adobe sauce from one can of the chipotles, oregano, the rest of the garlic (chopped) and ½ teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor. Process to a smooth purée.

When meatballs are ready and drain the fat from baking dish.

Incorporate the tomato mixture with tomato sauce (homemade or otherwise). Pour the sauce on top, covering meatballs evenly.

Bake until sauce has thickened, 15 to 20 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking again, start water boiling for your pasta and follow directions on package.

Once the meatballs and sauce are finished baking, spoon 2 meatballs and sauce over each serving of pasta and ENJOY!

Chicken Mushroom (and Spinach) Lasagna

I've been meaning to make this for awhile and I finally got around to it this weekend.

The recipe doesn't call for spinach, but I had some left over from a previous recipe and I didn't want it to go to waste, so I snapped the little stems off and added it to the mushrooms.

This recipe is one of the best things I've cooked in awhile, by FAR! I HIGHLY recommend this one!

INGREDIENTS:
1 10 oz. package of baby 'bellos or white mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 a bag of baby spinach (pinch off the stems)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 1/4 cups of roasted chicken*
2 1/2 cups of skim milk**
1 cup of half & half
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons thyme leaves
3/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
9 no-boil egg lasagna noodles***
1 1/2 cups coarsely grated Gruyère

*Regarding the roasted chicken, you could easily pick up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and use that - or you can do what I did and make your own 'quick' roasted chicken at home. (see recipe below)

**The original recipe calls for 3 1/2 cups of whole milk. I don't drink whole milk and so all I had was skim milk and some left over half & half for another precious recipe. So I split it up. Just use whatever milk you happen to have on hand. Yes, it may effect the richness of your sauce, but that really isn't a huge problem with this recipe. (The wine gives it such a good kick that you won't notice.)

***I didn't use the "no-boil" noodles because I already had a new package of whole wheat lasagna noodles. Also I recently bought a Pasta Boat and it makes cooking pasta SO easy. And I cooked the noodles slightly less than al dente, since they're going in the oven anyway.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Roasted Chicken Breasts

Preheat oven to 400° with rack in middle.
Brush the chicken with EVOO on both sides Sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper. Place them on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.



Chicken Mushroom (and Spinach) Lasagna

Preheat oven to 425° with rack in middle.

Cook mushrooms, spinach, garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in olive oil and add 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are softened, about 5 minutes.



Add wine and simmer briskly 2 minutes.


Transfer mushroom mixture to a large bowl and stir in chicken.


Bring milk to barely a simmer in a medium saucepan.

In a different pan, Melt remaining 4 tablespoons butter medium-low heat. Add flour and cook roux, whisking constantly, 3 minutes.


Add hot milk in a slow stream, whisking constantly. Add thyme, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from heat and reserve 1 cup sauce. Stir Parmesan into sauce remaining in pan, then stir into mushroom filling.


Pour half of reserved plain sauce into baking pan, spreading evenly to coat bottom.


Add 3 lasagna noodles, overlapping slightly, and one third of mushroom filling, spreading evenly, then sprinkle one fourth of Gruyère over top. Repeat 2 times.



Top with remaining 3 lasagna noodles and remaining plain sauce, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with remaining Gruyère.


Cover with foil, tenting slightly to prevent foil from touching top of lasagna but sealing all around edge, and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake until cheese is golden, about 15 minutes more.

Fresh out of the oven!

Let lasagna stand at least 10 minutes before serving.

Again, I can't stress just HOW good this non-traditional lasagna is! Don't be put off by the roux - it only takes a few minutes.

Enjoy!

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Chicken Mushroom (and Spinach) Lasagna

INGREDIENTS:
1 10 oz. package of baby 'bellos or white mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 a bag of baby spinach (pinch off the stems) *optional
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 1/4 cups of roasted chicken
2 1/2 cups of skim milk
1 cup of half & half
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons thyme leaves
3/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
9 no-boil egg lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cups coarsely grated Gruyère

Preheat oven to 425° with rack in middle.

Cook mushrooms, spinach, garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in olive oil and add 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are softened, about 5 minutes.

Add wine and simmer briskly 2 minutes.

Transfer mushroom mixture to a large bowl and stir in chicken.

Bring milk to barely a simmer in a medium saucepan.

In a different pan, Melt remaining 4 tablespoons butter medium-low heat. Add flour and cook roux, whisking constantly, 3 minutes.

Add hot milk in a slow stream, whisking constantly. Add thyme, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from heat and reserve 1 cup sauce. Stir Parmesan into sauce remaining in pan, then stir into mushroom filling.

Pour half of reserved plain sauce into baking pan, spreading evenly to coat bottom.

Add 3 lasagna noodles, overlapping slightly, and one third of mushroom filling, spreading evenly, then sprinkle one fourth of Gruyère over top. Repeat 2 times.

Top with remaining 3 lasagna noodles and remaining plain sauce, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with remaining Gruyère.

Cover with foil, tenting slightly to prevent foil from touching top of lasagna but sealing all around edge, and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake until cheese is golden, about 15 minutes more.

Let lasagna stand at least 10 minutes before serving.

Chicken and Dressing

Yeah yeah yeah - I know I'm not exactly on-the-ball with the whole posting thing, but shush because here comes a good'un!

There's a country cookin' restaurant here in town and every once in awhile they have chicken and dressing. I attempted to make it once using my homemade dressing recipe and while it came out very tasty, it wasn't what I was looking for. So i scoured the internet for a few suggestions and Viola! Sarah's Chicken and Dressing was born.

I wasn't under the impression that this was a "southern thing", but apparently it is. I don't care if your southern or not - try this any time of the year because it is yummers!

First things first - we need a whole cooked chicken. Now, feel free to use a rotisserie chicken for this, but the ones at my local store are greasy and yucky, so i opted to boil a whole fryer. I believe it was approx. 4 lbs. Plus this way, I get to use my grandmother's cast iron pot! (If you decide to use a rotisserie chicken, you'll need to pick up a couple cans of chicken broth.)


Place the chicken into the pot along with a coarsely chopped onion, 3 celery stalks and some carrots. You can use 2 or 3 regular-sized carrots instead, but I had the baby carrots on hand. (The chicken ought to come with a bag of goodies including the neck, liver, etc... I placed them around the chicken with the vegetables so they'll add to the flavor.) Also add a tablespoon of white pepper.

Now cover the whole thing with water, cover your pot and bring to a boil. Once it's boiling, turn the heat down to a gentle boil and cook for 90 minutes. If it starts to boil over or isn't boiling enough, make sure to adjust the heat accordingly.

Once the chicken is done, it should look a little something like this:


Use a baster to remove 4 cups of the broth because we will be using it for the dressing. As for the veggies and chicken parts, do with them as you please. Personally, I gave the cats some of the liver and stuff and the rest went into the garbage (I hate cooked carrots!).

While the chicken is cooking, use this time to make your cornbread. I picked up 2 packages of Martha White Buttermilk Cornbread Mix. Its easy and good, but if you prefer to make your cornbread from scratch - knock yourself out! Follow the directions on the package of cornbread and then add chopped onion and celery.



Mix all this up good and then transfer to a pan. I'm using my great- grandmother's cast iron pan, but if you don't have any cast iron, a normal pan will do fine. (PS: if you are in the market for cast iron, I wouldn't buy it new. Try and find pieces at a flea market or thrift shop. The older, the better because it's seasoned and worn in.)

Bake the cornbread according to the directions on the package and then let cool briefly. Once the cornbread is done, remove it from the pan and put into a large bowl. Don't worry if it breaks and crumbles or whatever because we're going to be smushing it all up in a second anyway.

After putting the cornbread into the bowl, add 3 slices of torn-up white bread and the 4 cups of chicken broth from the chicken. Mush the whole mixture up with a fork or potato masher.


To this mixture, you'll add the chicken, which I've already deboned and pulled apart by hand.


Now mix in 3 eggs, sage, poultry seasoning and salt & pepper, ending up with this lovely concoction:


Preheat the oven to 350ºF and spray a large casserole dish with cooking spray. Transfer the dressing and chicken into the dish and pop that bad boy into the oven for 50 minutes.


The finished product will look pretty much exactly like this when you remove it from the oven. The top doesn't really brown so much as "harden" to more of a light crust. It gives a little resistance when biting into it and its lovely!

Serve with cranberry sauce and you're good to go! Enjoy!

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Chicken and Dressing

1 boiled chicken (save the broth)
1 tbsp white pepper (for the chicken)
2 packages of cornbread mix
5 eggs (2 for cornbread and 3 for dressing)
3 slices of white bread
3 unpeeled carrots (for the chicken)
2 onions (1 whole and 1 chopped)
6 stalks of celery (2 whole and 4 chopped)
3 tbsp sage
2 tbsp Poultry seasoning*
Salt and pepper to taste

*before BUYING poultry seasoning, check to see if you have all the makings for it instead and
make your own by combining equal amounts of the following dried herbs: rosemary, oregano, sage, ginger, marjoram, thyme.

Boiled chicken:
Place chicken in a large pot with onion, carrots, celery and white pepper; add water to cover.

Cover pot and bring to a boil; reduce heat to a gentle boil and cook for about 90 minutes, or until chicken meat is falling off of the bone.

Remove chicken, let cool and shred or chop the meat.

Dressing:
Prepare cornbread according to package instructions.

To uncooked cornbread, add chopped onion and chopped celery.

Cook according to cornbread mix instructions.

In large mixing bowl, add cornbread, white bread, and 4 cups of chicken broth. Mix with a potato masher.

Add deboned chicken to the mixture and stir.

Add 3 eggs, sage, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper.

Pour mixture in a large casserole dish sprayed with non-stick spray.

Cook at 350ºF for approximately 50 minutes.

Shrimp Fra Diavolo

So I'm trying to be more healthy these days by eating more veggies and cooking healthier stuff and ya'll are just going to have to learn to live with it. :)

I was standing in the checkout line of my Wal-Mart (HEY! I live in a small town; it's pretty much all I've got.) when I picked up a Cooking Light Magazine and started flipping through it. I ended up buying it because they had some good lookin' recipes in there. And this week's post is one of those good-lookin' recipes.

I try not to cook stuff with pasta too often because of the carbs, but whatever...this looked good, damnit!

As previously stated, I live in a small town, BUT we still have a fresh seafood place! So I went down there and picked up a pound of fresh, raw shrimp. Now I've been to some pretty good seafood markets and see people buy shrimp with the heads on...um yeah no. I will peel and devein shrimp all day long (and sometimes i feel like i have) but I will NOT remove heads. EW! GROSS! So get fresh HEADS-OFF shrimp unless you're weird and want to cut their little heads off.

Peeling the shrimp is the easy part, Deveining them can be kind of gross, but remember that little line of brown you're cutting out isn't really poop - its more like sand and dirt, but sometimes you run into some other nasty stuff. Just buck up! Be an adult and get over it. That's why the good Lord made soap and short term memories.

If you don't know HOW to peel and devein shrimp, here's a handy little video from epicurious.

When finished, they should look like this:

It's a good time to put on your pot of water to boil for the pasta because by the time its boiling, you'll be ready to cook the pasta.

Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large, non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil is heated up, roll it around the pan, covering the entire bottom.

Put the shrimp and 1 1/2 tsps of garlic in the pan and saute until the shrimp are done. They will start to curl up and will be the traditional "shrimpy" pink when they are done.



Now, remove them from the pan and place in a container to keep them warm until the sauce is done. I put them in the plastic dish with a lid and wrapped it in a towel.

Keep your pan hot while setting the shrimp aside because you're going to be adding another tbsp of olive oil and 3/4 of a cup of onions. (I recommend having the onions diced and measured out before starting the actual cooking process. There's no real "down" time in the recipe.) Saute the onions until they become soft and almost translucent.

Add to the pan, the last tbsp of garlic, the crushed red pepper, basil and oregano and STIR CONSTANTLY. It will burn quickly, if you don't. Cook for about a minute.



Next, add tomato paste and lemon juice, cooking for an additional minute or so. The whole mixture will start to brown a bit. (Feel free to add an extra tbsp of oil here, if you need to. I did. It seemed too "dry".)

Finally, add in crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and salt. Cook the whole sauce down until it starts to thicken, stirring frequently. This took about 5 -7 minutes and is a GREAT time to go ahead and put the linguine in the water that should be boiling by now.

The sauce should be the consistency of a thin paste, now. So go ahead and put the shrimp back in the pan.

Give the whole thing several good stirs to mix it all up and continue to cook it for about another 2 or 3 minutes. Just long enough to bring everything to the same temperature and mix the flavors well.

By now the pasta should be done, so drain it and put some on a plate or in a bowl because it's time to add the sauce and shrimp!!

VIOLA!


The only change or footnote I would add to this recipe the next time around is adding more shrimp. I love shrimp and I think it could have used a 1/2 pound+ more. I guess it depends on what size shrimp you're using though.

Anyhoo! Here are the nutritional facts on this little guy. As to what they consider a "serving size" I haven't a clue. ENJOY!!


Calories: 477
Fat: 10.7g (sat 1.4g,mono 5.3g,poly 1.7g)
Protein: 33g
Carbohydrate: 59.4g
Fiber: 5.4g
Cholesterol: 172mg
Iron: 5.4mg
Sodium: 552mg
Calcium: 121mg

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Shrimp Fra Diavolo

Ingredients:
1 lb. medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
8 oz. uncooked linguine
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 ½ tbsp minced garlic, divided
¾ cup diced onion
1 tsp crushed red pepper
½ tsp dried basil
½ tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp fresh, lemon juice
1 ¾ cup canned, crushed tomatoes
¼ tsp salt
1 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained

Instructions:
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Add 1 ½ teaspoons of garlic and the shrimp; sauté for 3 minutes or until shrimp are done.

Remove from pan; keep warm.

Add remaining 1 tbsp oil and onion to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until softened.

Stir in remaining 1 tbsp garlic, pepper, basil, and oregano; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Stir in tomato paste and lemon juice; cook 1 minute or until slightly darkened.

Stir in crushed tomatoes, salt, and diced tomatoes; cook 5 minutes or until thickened.

While the sauce cooks down, cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain; keep warm.

Return shrimp to pan; cook for 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Serve over pasta.