Crispy Balsamic Baked Chicken Breasts

I just made this and it was so easy and yummy. It's probably similar to shake-and-bake, but I imagine it's better for you. Plus, we love any and all recipes containing balsamic vinegar.

*1/3 cup breadcrumbs (use Italian flavored or regular and add some Italian seasoning)
*1/2 tsp dry parsley flakes
*1/2 tsp garlic powder
*1/4 tsp garlic salt
*1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
*2 tsp balsamic vinegar
*2 egg whites
*2 boneless chicken breasts

1. Put bread crumbs, parsley, garlic powder, garlic salt, and cheese in medium bowl and mix.
2. Whisk together vinegar and egg whites in smaller bowl.
3. Dip chicken in vinegar mixture then dry mixture.
4. Place on Pam-sprayed rack placed on foil-lined cookie sheet (I used my metal cookie rack for this and it worked well).
5. Spray the top of the chicken breasts with cooking spray (I forgot this step and it still worked).
6. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.
7. Bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes, until fork tender and the juices run clear.

Easy Chicken

Need an idea for chicken?

Take four chicken breasts, and butterfly them. (Or use chicken tenderloins). Cook in a fry pan with a little olive oil, turning them as needed and season with garlic & onion powder, some tumeric and paprika. When the chicken is almost done, top each piece with a heaping spoonful of mango or peach salsa, (your favorite brand). Add some fresh chopped tomatoes if you have them. Top with some grated mozzarella cheese, and place in 500º oven until cheese is melted. Serve on a bed of fresh, steamed spinach. Make sure to drizzle all the sauce from the pan over chicken when you serve it. Yum!

Fiesta Chicken

Here is a yummy crock-pot recipe using ingredients that you probably have in your pantry/fridge right now!

6 frozen boneless, skinless chicken thighs

2 cups salsa (I use Costco Mango salsa!)

1 can Cheddar Cheese soup

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed.

1 can white (Northern) beans, drained

2 pkts. Sazon Goya seasoning mix

(You might have a box of this if you have tried the Beans and Rice recipe.)

Place chicken thighs in crock pot, season generously with onion powder and garlic powder. Now add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine. Cook on high for about 4-5 hours, or until your chicken is cooked through. Add 1 can of corn, drained- cook on low till chicken is fork-tender. Shred the chicken with two forks. Before serving, stir in 6 oz. cream cheese, (melt it a little in the microwave first.)

Serve over hot rice, top with grated cheddar cheese. You can also add chopped fresh tomatoes and avocados. Yum!

"Incredible Oven Fried Chicken"

Who doesn't like fried chicken?

Here is another great recipe from recipezaar.com. This is some really finger lickin' good chicken with a fried coating made in your oven (no standing and frying over hot, stinky oil!)

Mark's words in between mouthfuls were: "you should keep this recipe- it's good." So there you have a ringing endorsement from the man himself. Also, it passed the picky kid test with Simon yelling "chicka! chicka!"

I would say it's a little labor-intensive, by my standards, but just looking at this photo makes me want to fix it again! So here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 
  
• Marinade:
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 10-12 chicken pieces
• 
  
• Coating:
• 1 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs
• 1/3 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons thyme
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup melted butter

Directions

1. 1

   Whisk buttermilk, oil, hot pepper sauce, mustard, garlic, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl.

2. 2

   Add the onion and then the chicken turning to coat each piece with the marinade.

3. 3

   Cover; chill at least three hours or up to one day turning the chicken occasionally.

4. 4

   Combine breadcrumbs, cheese, flour, thyme, paprika, cayenne and 1 tsp salt in a large baking dish.

5. 5

   Remove the chicken from the marinade and roll in the breadcrumb mixture.

6. 6

   Set chicken on a rack to dry for about 30 minutes.

7. 7

   Preheat oven to 400F degrees.

8. 8

   Place chicken in large baking dish, and pour butter over each piece of chicken.

9. 9

   Bake until crisp and brown, approximately 50 minutes or until juices are no longer pink and run clear.

Just a few notes:

I never follow a recipe exactly as stated, so I changed a few things. I eliminated the drying time after you coat it- 'cause it was late and we were hungry! I also did not add hot pepper sauce, or thyme. I was out, but I think you can play with the seasonings in the coating a little. I used onion powder, not chopped onions in the marinade, and also added garlic and onion powder to the bread crumb mixture. ( I ran out of coating for 5 drumsticks and 5 thighs, so use 2 cups bread crumbs, I say.) Also, be smarter than me and COAT YOUR PAN WITH FOIL before you bake. Unless you want to spend a fun evening scraping burnt, greasy chicken bits off your pan. I would like to try this with skinless chicken next time, I think the butter might be enough to form a crust on the chicken. Anyway, it would be great with coleslaw or potato salad for a family dinner. Yum yum!

Bourbon Chicken

I found this recipe on Recipezaar. It had almost 2000 votes of five stars, so I HAD to try it. I am glad I did because it is really easy and tasty.

35 min | 15 min prep

SERVES 4

* 2 lbs boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
* 1-2 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 garlic clove, crushed
* 1/4 teaspoon ginger
* 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (I left out--I don't like hot stuff)
* 1/4 cup apple juice (or orange juice)
* 1/3 cup light brown sugar (I used white sugar because they don't have brown sugar here)
* 2 tablespoons ketchup
* 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
* 1/2 cup water
* 1/3 cup soy sauce

1. Heat oil in a large skillet.
2. Add chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned.
3. Remove chicken.
4. Add remaining ingredients, heating over medium Heat until well mixed and dissolved.
5. Add chicken and bring to a hard boil.
6. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
7. Serve over hot rice.

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

As soon as fall hits, I want to have soup every night. This soup is one of my favorites. And the families favorite as well. As Tommy puts it "anything tastes better with a stick of butter in it" Enjoy this creamy fall favorite.

Chicken & Wild Rice Soup
4-6 T Butter
1 T Onion chopped
1 Chicken breast, cooked & cubed
1/2 C. Shredded carrots (I like them better in slices)
3 C. Chicken broth
2 C. Uncle Ben's Wild Rice, cooked
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 C. Flour
1 C. Half & Half
1 Small package sliced almonds

Combine onion and butter in a med-large pan and saute. Stir in flour and chicken broth. Bring mixture to a boil. While stirring boil for one minute. Add cooked rice, chicken, salt and carrots. Boil for five minutes. Remove from heat add half and half. Serve topped with sliced almonds.

Lime Chicken Fajitas!

Who doesn't like fajitas? These are so good, that the next night after we had them I said to Mark- is it wrong if we have fajitas again? and he said - no! I'll make them! 

Well, I wasn't going to argue with that!

 You will need:

4 boneless chicken thighs, sliced

1 lime

1 lg onion, sliced into large round slices

1 gr. pepper or red in slices

two cloves fresh garlic

olive oil

1 pkg. flour or corn fajita tortillas

Sour Cream

1 Avocado

Pico de Gallo (see below)

In a large frying pan  heat several Tbs. olive oil. Add 1 crushed garlic clove and the sliced onion. After a minute or two, add the peppers.

Add salt and pepper, fry till the onions and peppers are brown on the edges and carmelized.

Remove from pan. 

Add chicken and another Tbs. olive oil. Add the other clove of crushed garlic. Season with salt and pepper and juice of one lime. Fry until chicken slices are well-done and starting to get a little crispy and brown. (This is why you are using dark meat, not light, the meat will not dry out too much).

Toss with onions and peppers and spoon all into a serving dish. 

Heat your tortillas. Call everyone to the table, and serve with sour cream, a slice of avocado and Pico de Gallo. This is what mine looked like just before I gobbled it up!

Mmmmm it was good!

 

Pico de Gallo Recipe

I just started making this stuff and I could eat it everyday. So fresh and tasty!

1/2 lg onion, minced

1 Tomato

Tbs/ Lime or lemon juice

few Tbs. fresh cilantro (more is better!)

salt & pepper

Grilled Bruschetta Chicken

I got this recipe off of my friend Adele's recipe blog (including the great pictures).We had it for lunch today. Our friend Brandon came over and brought some authentic french bread with him and it was so tasty with the chicken and sauce.

1/4 cup Sun Dried Tomato Vinaigrette Dressing, divided (I actually used Italian Pesto Dressing, because I had it in the fridge...)4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 lb. chicken)1 tomato, finely chopped1/2 cup Mozzarella Cheese, shredded1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, or 1 tsp dried basil leaves Place large sheet of heavy duty foil over half of grill grate. Preheat grill to med. heat. Pour 2 Tbsp. dressing over chicken in resealable bag. Seal, turn bag over several times to coat chicken with dressing. Refrigerate 10 minutes to marinate. Grill chicken on uncovered side of grill 6 minutes. Meanwhile, combine tomatoes, cheese, basil and remaining 2 Tbsp. dressing. Turn chicken over onto the foil with cooked side up. Top evenly with tomato mixture. Close lid and grill an additional 8 min. or until chicken is cooked. Makes 4 servings.

Asian Chicken Stir-Fry

I'm sure you could add garden zucchinis to this one. It is a "throw-in-any-veggies-you'-ve-got" with an easy sauce. And, with it all done in one frying pan (and a rice cooker), it doesn't heat the kitchen too much on a hot summer night.

1 Tbls Vegetable Oil

1 Lb. Chicken Strips

1 can (10 3/4 oz) "Golden Mushroom Soup"

3 Tbls Soy Sauce

1 tsp Garlic Powder

1 bag frozen veggies

(or whatever: i.e. 1 cup broccoli, 1 fresh green pepper,

1 sliced/diced zucchini, 1 white onion)

4 Cups hot cooked Rice

Heat: Oil in Skillet

Brown: Chicken

Add: Soup, Soy Sauce, Garlic Powder

Heat to a Boil

Add: Veggies

Cook: until tender-crisp

Serve over Rice

Tin Foil Dinner

We love to go camping as a family and have made this recipe on two trips already this year. You don't have to go camping to enjoy it, though. You can make it in your oven and the clean-up is easy!

VEGGIE CHICKEN PACKET
2 Tbsp uncooked instant rice
1 bone-in chicken breast half
1/4 cup sliced carrot
2 onion slices, separated into rings
1/4 cup julienned green and sweet red pepper
1 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 to 3 tsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp butter

Place rice in the center of a piece of heavy-duty foil (about 14 in. square); top with chicken and vegetables. Combine the water, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce; pour over vegetables.

Dot with butter. Fold foil around the chicken and vegetables and seal tightly. Place in a baking pan. Bake at 350 for 65-75 minutes or until chicken juices run clear (more around 30 minutes for us in the fire, it will vary). Open foil carefully to allow steam to escape. Yield: 1 serving.

Yummy Kebabs

"I can't believe that I'm sharing a kebab with the most beautiful girl that I've ever seen with a kebab..." Extra Credit if you can name that tune!

I made these up a few weeks ago. They turned out really yummy.

3-4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 can pineapple chunks

1 package cherry or grape tomatoes, whole

2 large bell peppers, any color, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 medium onion, cut into wedges

1/2 bottle Russian salad dressing*

1/2 bottle Greek vinaigrette salad dressing*

Marinate everything together for three to four hours. Put on metal skewers (supposedly you can use bamboo skewers if you soak them in water beforehand. Mine always end up burning, anyway, so I invested in metal skewers) in an arrangement pleasing to the eye. Try to put tomatoes or peppers at the ends, as they'll grip the skewers the best and keep everything else from sliding off. This step actually ends up taking ten or fifteen minutes, so make sure to count on that in your prep time. Pour extra marinade over the skewers to make sure everything stays moist (I mean to do this before grilling, not during, since the marinade will probably have some salmonella). Grill skewers until the chicken is cooked.

*This is actually what I had lying around in my 'fridge. I'm sure other salad dressings would work, like Catalina and Italian or whatever. I do like the combination of an orange/red dressing and an oil-based dressing, though.

Crock Pot Chicken with Black Beans and Cream Cheese

4 hours | 3 min prep

SERVES 4

• 4-5 boneless chicken breasts (I had chicken tenders on-hand, so that is what I used)
• 1 (15 1/2 ounce) can black beans, drained
• 1 (15 ounce) can corn, drained
• 1 (15 ounce) jar salsa, any kind
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

1. Take 4-5 frozen, yes, frozen, boneless chicken breasts put into crock pot.
2. Add 1 can of black beans, 1 jar of salsa, 1 can of corn
3. Keep in crock pot on high for about 4-5 hours or until chicken is cooked.
4. Add 1 package of cream cheese (just throw it on top!) and let sit for about 1/2 hour.
5. I served it over rice with chappati. It was sooo good!

Parmesan Chicken

Okay, I'm gonna be brave and finally post! This is a way easy and quick recipe that the little ones can help with...and even eat! And that is the goal of every mother of a 2 year old isn't it? Braxton eats next to nothing and he ate all of his. Plus, he thoroughly enjoyed going to town on the Ritz crackers.

2 c. crushed Ritz (about 1 package)
3 Tbsp grated parmesan
2 tsp garlic salt (we are not super garlicky people so I only put in 1 and it was plenty flavorful)
8 chicken breasts
1 c. plain yogurt
1/4 c. butter

Sauce
2 cans Cream of Chicken
1 c. sour cream

Mix the cracker crumbs, parmesan cheese, and garlic salt. Dip each piece of chicken in yogurt to coat it and then in the crumb mixture. Place in a greased baking dish, drizzle with melted butter, and bake in oven at 350 for around 45 minutes. For the sauce, just combine the soup and sour cream and heat up stirring frequently.

We are not super garlicky people so I put in a litttle over 1 tsp and it was plenty flavorful. I also forgot to take a picture before we dove in. We served over egg noodles.

Here comes the Curry Recipe!

The makings of the Massaman Curry Recipe:

Exotic ingredients: (left to right) Mae Ploy Curry paste, fish sauce, chili paste, cooking  Tamarind, palm sugar. *Not pictured, the can of coconut milk, you can get that at any supermarket.

This man loves his curry!

This is kind of an exotic dish, so not everyone is going to want to run out and make it, but I've since found that I'm not the only one with a deep devotion to Massaman curry. So if you've just got to have it, it's really not that hard to make. You just have to go out of your way to find the ingredients. I did a google search and found a Thai grocery store in Layton, called Thai Market at 1986 N Hill Field Rd. ( In the same complex as Blockbuster). They have everything you need in that category of exotic ingredients, if you are in that area. (Plus it's fun to wander through and look at the other interesting offerings, such as grass jelly. Yes,  ingredients: grass, cornstarch. Will let you know when I find the recipe that calls for that one. Oh and I got a bottle of this great Pad Thai sauce and some flat rice noodles, and fried up a batch of pad thai that was pretty good!)

You will need:

1 can coconut milk

1 lb. chicken thigh meat, cut into chunks

3-4 TBS. Massaman curry paste

3-4 TBS. peanuts, finely ground (throw in a few whole ones to if you like.)

1 large sweet potato or yam, peeled and cut into thin slices

1 onion, chopped. (or you can use 10 baby pearl onions)

few TBS. fish sauce

Slivered fresh hot thai chilis (here I deviated from the recipe and use thai chili garlic paste from Smith's, but you can get these at the Layton market).

Spoonful of Tamarind juice

Palm sugar (you can get this in a jar or in these little compressed half-tennis ball shapes).

Ok, the whole recipe is online here, but I will type it out the way I did it, in case the link expires or something.

First of all, put the can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight, to separate the cream. Then when you are ready to make the curry,  scoop most of the solid cream out of the can and heat on medium in a large saucepan. Add the curry paste and fry it up in the coconut oils to bring out the flavors. Smells great!  Now add the meat and fry it up for a few minutes. Now add the sweet potato, cut in thin slices so it will cook more quickly, and the onions. 

Add the ground peanuts and all the coconut milk.

Simmer on low med. heat till potatoes are tender.

Now season the curry.

 Add a few Tbs. of palm sugar and the fish sauce, tamarind and chili peppers or paste. 

Adjust the salty taste of the fish sauce, the sweet of the sugar and the sour of the Tamarind till you get a good flavor.(Helps  if you've had it before). Make it as hot/mild as you like by adjusting the peppers. Sometimes I add a dash of cinnamon at this point. Keep tasting till you're satisfied with the flavor. Now you're done! (Don't let your husband know how easy it was to make and let him be impressed with your amazing insight into ethnic cuisine.)

Best when served over a fragrant rice like Basmati or Jasmine. 

Mmmmm, enjoy your curry. And the best part is it didn't cost 10.95 a plate!

Chicken Continental

Well, I haven't figured out yet how to take pictures that make the food actually look yummy. I promise it is good, I am just not a food photographer. This recipe is versatile. This week we had it the first time on its own, then I cut up the leftovers and mixed it with some cooked pasta.

Chicken Continental

▪ 6 chicken breasts

▪ Flour

▪ Salt

▪ Pepper

Dip the chicken in water and dredge in flour, salt and pepper. Arrange in 9x13 casserole dish.

Sauce mix

▪ 3 Tbsp soy sauce

▪ 2 Tbsp minced onion

▪ 1/2 cup pineapple juice

▪ 1/4 tsp. ginger

▪ 1 stick margarine, melted

Mix all ingredients together and pour over chicken. Bake at 475° for 10 minutes uncovered. Cover and bake at 325° for 1 hour.