Chicken and Biscuits

     Chicken and biscuits isn’t really a summer dish but this recipe makes it easy because the chicken part is made in the crock pot. The biscuits are a dry mix that you just add water to and put in the oven for about ten minutes. The most time consuming part of this meal is making mashed potatoes but they are optional. I made them since Matt was coming over and needed more than just chicken gravy and biscuits for three people. Unfortunately, I forgot to buy sour cream so the potatoes didn’t come out as good as they usually do. Here are the ingredients for an easy meal that cooks while you are busy:

2 large chicken breasts

2 tablespoons butter

2 10.5oz cans cream of chicken soup

1 14.4 oz can chicken broth

1 large onion finely chopped

½ bag frozen mixed vegetables

1 packet Bisquick biscuit mix (I use cheddar biscuits)

½ cup water

     Plug in the crock pot and set the temperature on low. Everything will be done cooking long before the 8 – 10 hours that the low setting is for but because of the cream soup, you don’t want it to burn. Chop the butter into a few small pieces and scatter it in the bottom of the pot. Place both chicken breasts on top of the butter, side by side. Evenly top the chicken with the vegetables and onion. Pour in both cans of cream of chicken and spread evenly over the vegetables leaving room around the edges of the pot. Finally, pour the entire can of chicken broth over the contents of the pot making sure to get some to the bottom around the chicken. Let this cook for at least 4 hours but no more than 8. Just before serving you may notice the mixture looking kind of watery, don’t panic. Using tongs or forks shred the chicken thoroughly in the pot. While you do this, everything will mix around and thicken up. Following the directions on the biscuit mix, bake these in the oven and place one or two on each plate and top with the mixture from the crock pot. If you make mashed potatoes, put them on the plate and top with the mixture as well.

     Like I said before, the potatoes didn’t come out great but with the chicken mixture poured all over them I didn’t really notice. If you look at them recipe again you will notice that there are no spices or seasonings used. Despite the lack of those there was a lot of flavor from the chicken and the soup. The cheddar biscuits were a great vehicle to thicken up this dish as the chicken gravy soaked right into them. This dish would be perfect during a cold winter night but it was good on a humid one too.

Rating: Yummy – Potatoes didn’t work out but everything else did

Delaware

Normally this blog is for food I make but I decided to share what others made for us while we were on vacation. The sandwiches are reviewed on the Syracuse Sandwich blog. So here are some pictures of the food we enjoyed in Delaware:

Grilled Ham Cheese and Tomato at Robin Hood's

Seafood Scampi at Irish Eyes

Shepherd's Pie at Irish Eyes

Doughnuts at The Fractured Prune

Onion Rings at Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats

Asparagus Peppers and Chicken Pizza at Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats

Vegetable Omelet at Sunrise Restaurant

Eastern Omelet at Sunrise Restaurant

Pretzel Sticks at The Greene Turtle

Chick N Ranch at The Greene Turtle

The Chesapeake Chicken at The Greene Turtle

Taco Salad at Dos Locos

Spicy Pork Burrito at Dos Locos

French Toast at The Penguin Diner

Breakfast Burrito at The Penguin Diner

Corn Flake Chicken Tenders & Seasoned Potato Wedges

     I had the idea of serving Matt a dish that my mom used to make when we were kids paired with a recipe I made for football one Sunday afternoon. Baked Corn Flake crusted chicken tenders and baked potato wedges are a healthy alternative to heavily breaded and fried tenders and French fries. I remember eating the chicken tenders with a side of honey and bbq sauce for dipping. They were crunchy and had a sweet taste from the cereal while still being tender. The potato wedges were a huge hit when I made them for the guests I had over for football. Paprika, chili powder, onion powder, and garlic powder mixed with olive oil spice up russet potato wedges that gives them a kick once baked. I hoped that the combination of the two would make a great meal. Here are the recipes:

Potato Wedges

3 Russet potatoes cut into wedges

1 ½ teaspoons chili powder

1 ½ teaspoons onion powder

1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder

1 ½ teaspoons paprika

3 tablespoons olive oil

Olive oil for drizzling

Corn Flake Crusted Chicken Tenders

2 lbs. Chicken tenderloins or Chicken breast cut into strips

4 cups crushed Corn Flakes

1 tablespoon season salt

½ cup flour

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

2 eggs

1 tablespoon water or milk

Olive oil for drizzling

     Pre heat your oven to 400 degrees and start working on the potatoes. I leave the skin on the potato when I cut it into wedges. Once you have cut the potatoes up, put them in a large mix bowl and set aside. Combine the spices and the olive in a small bowl and mix thoroughly. Pour this mixture over the potatoes and stir the potatoes around until they are coated on all sides. Drizzle olive oil on a large baking sheet and spread the potatoes evenly on top. Put the potatoes in the oven for about 25 – 35 minutes depending on how thick you cut the potatoes, flipping once. Immediately get started on the chicken so both will be done around the same time. Combine all of the dry ingredients in a deep mixing bowl then eat the eggs and water (or milk) in a small bowl. Dip a few tenders at a time in the egg wash and then roll them in the dry ingredients until fully coated. Place these on a plate with a paper towel on it until you have coated all of the tenders you will be cooking. Drizzle olive oil on a large baking sheet and place the tenders on the sheet about an inch apart. Put the chicken in the oven for about 20 minutes, flipping once.

     When the potatoes can be pierced easily with a fork, they are done. The chicken however is tricky because each piece won’t be the same size. I cut the thickest piece to make sure there is no pink left. The potatoes were thick and tender with the consistency of steak fries. The spices added a kick but could be adjusted if you like it more or less spicy. The chicken didn’t get crunchy enough like I wanted and I think I know why. The pieces I cut were thicker than when my mom made them so there was more juice which soaked the cornflakes, not allowing them to stay crunchy. The chicken was tender and cooked perfectly in my opinion. I think I will change the size of the chicken slices next time and change the steps during the breading process.

Rating: Fair - These recipes need some work but definitely worth another try.

Lemon Pepper Chicken

     Marinating meats or vegetables is a great way to help keep them moist while cooking. There are hundreds upon thousands of marinade recipes that you can buy in stores but when making them at home possibilities are endless. Christine and I are fans of lemon pepper seasoning so for dinner last night I decided to make up a basic marinade to include some lemon pepper seasoning we recently purchased. Most marinades use oil, vinegar, seasoning, and a small amount of water. Using my knowledge of marinades and the help of the internet to confirm, I came up with this recipe:

¼ cup vegetable oil

¼ cup water

2 tablespoons white vinegar

2 tablespoons Jane’s Krazy Mixed-Up Lemon Pepper Seasoning

     I marinated one large chicken breast, which weighed in at just under a pound, for about 10 hours. The longer you leave the ingredient in the marinade the more tender it will become. This is true with marinades that do not contain citrus or any other highly acidic ingredient. A quick tip when it comes to using citrus in a marinade, do NOT marinate for more that an hour. Citrus begins to cook whatever you are marinating in it, so when using a citrus based marinade only use it to brush on while you cook. This marinade doesn’t contain citrus; so feel free to leave whatever you’re marinating for as long as you would like, within reason.

     Heat up a pan with a tablespoon or two of olive oil over a medium heat. Just before adding the chicken breast, I cut mine in half lengthwise because it was so thick. This ensured that it would cook quicker and more evenly. Let the chicken cook for about 5 – 6 minutes or until golden brown and then turn it over and continue to cook for the same amount of time. Meanwhile, I used a box of broccoli rice Rice-A-Roni for a side. Following the directions on the box, I browned the rice in a tablespoon of butter then added 2 cups of water and the seasoning packet. Once this comes to a boil, turn down the heat and cover with a tight fitting lid. This will simmer for about 20 minutes at which time I turned off the heat, uncovered, and fluffed after about 3 minutes. Since there was broccoli in the rice we omitted an extra vegetable and just had the chicken with it.

     The rice was as good as Rice-A-Roni can be, there isn’t a lot you can do to improve it so I won’t comment further. The chicken came out moist much like the kabobs did the night before. If you are a beginner in the kitchen, using marinades will help you get through your meals by reducing your chances of over cooking your main ingredient. The lemon part of the lemon pepper marinade was lacking, so we sprinkled a little extra seasoning on the chicken and that seemed to do the trick. Olive oil could replace the vegetable oil next time to give some sweetness to a very peppery dish. I wouldn’t add more seasoning because there was more than enough pepper that came through, perhaps adding some lemon juice during the cooking process would give us the lemony flavor we were looking for.

Rating: Yummy - The marinade needs some work but I'll keep trying.

Chicken and Vegetable Kabobs

     When we do get a nice day in Syracuse, a rarity I know, I like to bust out my charcoal grill. I believe that everything tastes better grilled, but it has to be charcoal not propane. Propane is good but doesn’t give you the same flavor that charcoal does. Kabobs are a quick thing to make using a grill. While the coals heat up, you can get all the prep work done. I marinated two chicken breasts all day in state fair speedie sauce. I cut up the chicken into bite size pieces which made about four skewers worth. For vegetables I cut up three peppers, one yellow, one red, and one orange. In addition to the peppers we added baby bella mushrooms that came pre cut and I chopped a sweet Vidalia onion as well. We were able to make five skewers of vegetables with two of them having no mushrooms on them because Matt was coming over.

     Once the coals were glowing red, Matt dumped them into the grill. Before putting the vegetable skewers on the grill, I brushed them with the speedie sauce that I left in the bottle. To prevent sticking, I sprayed the grate with some non-stick butter spray. Be very careful if you do this after you put the grate over the coals because the spray is flammable and flares will shoot up when you spray. Using a small circular grill is tough when making kabobs because the heat usually gets centralized so you may have to move the kabobs around as you cook them in ensure the chicken cooks through and the vegetables get softened. I ran into this problem but using my trusty Ov-Glove, I was able to move the kabobs all around without burning my fingers. While the chicken and vegetables cooked, I brushed them with speedie sauce occasionally to keep them from burning. Cooking times are going to be different depending on the amount of coals you use, the meat you are cooking, and how much space you have on the grill.

     We all enjoyed the flavoring that the speedie sauce gave the vegetables and chicken. The chicken was moist yet had a bit of a crunch on the outside which was a nice change in texture. The mushrooms practically fell apart upon removing them from the skewers and were my favorite ingredient. The peppers softened some but still had a crunch to them. Charring on the onions gave them a smoky flavor that went well with the sweetness that they give off. Sweet ingredients like the peppers and the onion benefit greatly from being grilled because the charred flavor gives them extra flavor and texture. As a side we had white rice, which Christine suggested as a lighter component to a very seasoned dish. This was a great choice, Christine and Matt had butter on theirs while I had soy sauce. Overall, a good meal that I will definitely make again as long as the weather allows it.

Rating: Yummy - This was one of the quickest meals I've made thus far.

Chicken Stir Fry 2.0

     Getting home by 6pm at the absolute earliest really puts a strain on what I can make for dinner if I want to be done eating before 7pm. Stir fry is a quick and easy dinner idea that I have made before so a lot of this post will repeat my prior attempt. I made a few changes that I had hoped would be for the better but not all of them ended up not turning out the way I wanted them to. I began as I did before by boiling some jasmine rice and dropped the heat to a simmer while the chicken and vegetables cooked. I only seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper this time and left out the five spice.

     I let the chicken sit a while, while I started on the vegetables. I tried a different mix of frozen stir fry vegetables this time and liked this one better. Asian stir fry is the name of the mix and it contains water chestnuts, baby corn, snap peas, red peppers, and mushrooms. I sautéed the vegetables in a tablespoon of olive oil until they were heated through. Next, I added the chicken in with the vegetables and cooked it until it was no longer pink. I also bought a different sauce to go with the chicken and vegetables since I know Christine doesn’t really care for the traditional stir fry sauce. We agreed upon a Caribbean style sweet and tangy sauce which sounded good. Upon opening the bottle, it seemed a bit watery and not as syrupy as the previous sauce. I added it to the chicken-vegetable mixture and allowed the sauce to reduce to see if I could get a better consistency.

     The sauce never tightened up and I didn’t want to over cook the chicken so I had to go with what I had. Like before I laid some rice on each plate as a base and placed the chicken and vegetables on top. The chicken, vegetables, and rice were all cooked fine but the taste just wasn’t there. Leaving out the five spice took away the ginger flavor that was masked by the stir fry sauce last time. I still think the chicken needs something more but haven’t found what that is yet. The sauce that we went with was kind of bland and not saucy enough for my taste. I guess I’m used to the heavy sauces often found in Chinese cooking.

Rating: Fair – Some changes worked but others didn't.

Chicken Stir Fry

     Not being able to get out of work on time doesn't allow me much time too cook if I want to eat at a reasonable time. This was the story tonight but I had planned ahead by picking out something I knew I could make quickly. I love Chinese food but it is very bad for you so I made this healthier Chinese dish. As soon as I got home I put some jasmine rice in a one and one half cups of water and brought that to a soft boil. While that began to heat up, I cut up a large chicken breast and seasoned it with salt, pepper, and five spice. In a large skillet I began to heat up stir fry oil on a medium heat.
    Once the rice began to boil, I covered it and dropped the heat to low. After about five minutes I added the seasoned chicken to the oil and stirred frequently until cooked through. Wegmans has a variety of frozen vegetable mixes used for stir frying. I went with the Hong Kong mix which contains broccoli, water chestnuts, mushrooms, and snap peas. Add these to the pan with the chicken along with about one third cup stir fry sauce. The Asian section of the grocery store has a pretty good selection of sauces that you can use depending on your taste. I lowered the heat down to keep everything warm while I waited for the rice to be done.
    When the has absorbed all the water, turn the heat off and let rest for about five minutes and then fluff with a fork. I spooned some out to make a base on the plate and then poured some of the stir fry mixture on top. I bought some soy sauce to go on the rice because the sauce doesn't saturate the rice very well.
Rating: Yummy - With so many choices of sauces, meats, and vegetables you can let your imagination run wild.

Chicken Scampi

Click Here For The Recipe

     I love Italian food and dishes that are quick to make and this recipe for chicken scampi was the perfect fit early last week before the late nights that were to come later last week. Many of you have probably heard of shrimp scampi and this is essentially the same thing only using chicken instead. I liked that I could cook everything in one pan.
     I used about half as much butter as this recipe calls for just to make it a bit healthier. I did however use almost double the amount of olive oil because I like the sweet taste it gives food when you sauté things in it. Other than those two changes, I followed the rest of the recipe as written. Using fresh herbs would kick this dish up to the next level but I only had dried, so I used those. Some users suggested using a half of a cup of white wine before letting the chicken simmer. Once the chicken is done simmering, I tossed it in some cooked angel hair pasta. As a final touch I added diced Roma tomatoes and Parmesan cheese.
     Christine and I both liked this but agreed that it was missing something. We would eat it again without making any changes, but what is the fun in that? I think adding the wine and using fresh herbs would be a great way to make this dish when I make it again.
Rating: Yummy - I may tweak this recipe a bit but I will make this again.

Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

Click Here For The Recipe

     A co-worker brought in this soup from Steak & Sundae in Syracuse for me to try and I really enjoyed it. So I decided to see if I could find a recipe for it so I could try it at home. Avegolemono is the greek name for this soup. If you type that into any search engine you'll find a slew of recipes to try. Allrecipes had a few and this one had a favorable amount of reviews.

     I started out by sauteing the onion with two cloves of garlic on a low heat until the onions were soft. Next I added the lemon juice, celery, white pepper, and 48oz of broth, which is only 6 cups of broth opposed to the 8 cups the recipe called for. This made for a thicker consistency almost like a chowder. If you like your soup to have more of a liquid broth just add the extra two cups. I ommited the carrots and used two chicken boullion cubes instead of the soup base because that's what I had on hand. Instead of using precooked chicken, I cut up two chicken breasts into thin slices and added them to the pot so the juices from the chicken would blend into the soup. I brought this all to a boil all while stirring occasionally. Once it began to boil I decided to add 1 cup of uncooked jasmine rice per other users suggestions. I allowed this to simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes before adding the roux(butter and flour). Once I added the roux the soup really started to thicken up, so this is another time where you could make the soup thinner by using less. Again I let it simmer but only for about 10 minutes this time. While the soup simmered and its aroma began to fill the kitchen, I started on the egg yolks. Once I whisked the yolks, I slowly stirred them into the pot a little at a time. I gave them time to cook through and spooned a quick taste or two just to make sure the rice had cooked. I was impressed but what would Christine's reaction be? This is how the conversation went:

Christine: "Is this the lemon soup you were going to make?"

Me: "Yeah, why?"

Christine: "Oh because it looked like it was going to be bland since there isn't much color to it but the lemon gives it that zing and it goes well with the celery. Is it my favorite soup in the world? No, but..."

Me: "You'd eat it if I made it again."

Christine: "Right."

Rating: Yummy - I'll definately be making this again.

Chicken Enchiladas

Click Here For The Recipe

     On the weekend I like to make dishes that require a lot of time for preperation. I don't want to come home during the week after working all day and spend 30 minutes to an hour cutting vegetables or making three different sauces and then wait another 30 minutes to an hour until it's done cooking. 

     This recipe for enchiladas calls for cooked chicken but the time it takes to cook the chicken isn't included in the overall time. You could use a precooked chicken whether it be canned or a store bought rotisserie chicken. I decided to cut up a few chicken breast and season them with taco seasoning. I sauteed the chicken in some olive oil until cooked through and turned off the heat. While making the sauce I omitted the green chiles for the sake of our stomachs. We like our food spicy but our stomachs don't unfortunately. When it came time to add the cheese I decided to use mexican cheese blend instead of the cheddar called for in the recipe. Since I had the chicken in a pan already, I just poured 1/4 of the sauce into the pan with the chicken in it and mixed that together. Before putting the chicken and sauce mixture on the tortillas I decided to spread some refried bean on the torilla to make them hold together easier. I found this will be a step I will continue to use from now on, both because of the taste and the helpfulness. I spooned in the chicken mixture and rolled them up. I was generous with the amount of chicken I used in each enchilada so we ended up with five full ones instead of six. Christine poured the remaining sauce over the enchiladas and topped it with mexican cheese. As one last step I had bought some enchilada sauce so I poured about a half a can over the layer of cheese and sprinkled some cheese on top of the sauce before putting it in the oven.

     As you can see from the picture, they certainly looked great. But how did they taste? In one word: great. With some chopped tomato and a dollop of sour cream these were very tasty. We appreciated that they weren't spicy and they filled us up. I even had leftovers for lunch the next day.

Rating: Yummy - These are a nice change from having tacos.

White Cheese Chicken Lasagna with Spinach

     ***My first recipe review is from All Recipes as will most of the recipes that I will review. Some will come from cookbooks but for the most part I stick to that website since there are so many to pick from and the layout is great. You can create a profile for free and have a recipe box to save the recipes that you like.***

Click Here For The Recipe

     I was having my brother over for dinner a few Sundays ago and when I have guests over I like to make a casserole or a baked pasta so I'm not huddled over the stove making a mess everywhere instead of talking with my guests. I've never made lasagna before but I know from others that it's a pain in the butt because of both the layering and sauce making process. Since I wasn't making a big vat of red sauce it made this recipe a bit easier to make. The white sauce was easy to make in a large skillet but it must be atleast 13 inches in diameter otherwise I would suggest using a medium size pot. I followed the recipe for the sauce exactly as printed but when it came to the layering process I ran into a problem. I had forgotten to buy ricotta cheese and it is a staple in most lasagna recipes. I'm not a huge ricotta fan and was certainly not going to go back out to buy it. I needed something to keep the noodles moist so I remembered from a previous recipe that sour cream will work just as well. I followed the directions and began to layer the noodles and sauce while substituting sour cream where the ricotta would normally go. With fingers crossed, I put the lasagna into the oven hoping that all would turn out well. The result couldn't have been better, the noodles were nice and moist and it turned out so creamy. A side salad would have been a nice start to the meal but we decided to forgo that and just had the lasagna which was very filling. One thing I forgot to mention was that I used no boil lasagna noodles which probably made the layering process easier because they are rigid unlike regular noodles which are "floppy" once boiled.
Rating: Yummy - I almost prefered this to a traditional lasagna with red sauce.