Chicken Toastadas

Last week, I made a roasted chicken and needed a way to use up the leftovers. I first made chicken stock from the bones, but then I came across this recipe for a Mexican inspired dish. The recipe used a homemade roasted tomato chile de Arbol salsa, and since I'm a sucker for good Mexican food, I thought I would give it a shot. The salsa ended up tasting slightly smokey (from charring tomatoes in the oven) and a little spicy from the dried chile de Arbol peppers. My leftover roasted chicken stewed in this silky smooth salsa and was layered over toastada shells, homemade fried beans, cojita cheese, sliced radishes, and sour cream.

LESSON LEARNED: You could take this recipe and modify it to include as many pre-made (salsa, refried beans) or homemade ingredients as you want.

Recipe for Chicken Toastadas

Chicken Cutlets with Orange & Arugula

I absolutely LOVE using this three step breading method to make crispy & crunchy pan-fried chicken. First, you dredge pieces of chicken in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Next, the chicken is given a quick bath in beaten egg. Finally, the chicken is dipped in a bread crumb mixture flavored with whatever seasoning you choose. In this dish, it was grated Parmesan cheese, chopped parsley, and orange zest. To cook the chicken, you heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a shallow pan and cook until lightly browned and cooked through. It's as simple as that!

I served the chicken along side a salad of baby arugula, sweet oranges, and chopped orange heirloom tomatoes. The salad was simply dressed with a little olive oil and salt. If you ate a piece of the crunchy chicken with the sweet and peppery salad, it was the perfect bite!

LESSON LEARNED: Cook the chicken in batches and keep the cooked pieces warm and crispy in a low oven.

Recipe for Chicken Cutlets with Orange & Arugula

Citrus Noodle Stir-Fry

Looking for a quick weeknight meal? This noodle stir fry dish is sweet, spicy, and chock full of vegetables and chicken. I used red bell pepper, snow peas, edamame, and scallions, but you can change up the vegetables depending on what you are in the mood for or what's in season. The yummy sauce is a mixture of orange marmalade, chicken stock, soy sauce, and hot sauce. This meal was ready in under half and hour and gobbled up even faster in our house!

LESSON LEARNED: The recipe I used called for whole wheat noodles. Even though I'm usually not a fan of whole wheat pasta, I really liked the nuttiness and texture they added to the stir-fry.

Recipe for Citrus Noodle Stir-Fry

Cheddar Cheese Chicken Pot Pies

Whenever it rains I feel like comfort food. I think it's because makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside whenever it's cold and damp outside. Last week, it was cold outside and I was in the mood for this chicken pot pie: especially after I thought about the delicious lobster pot pie I made last month. :)

I made individual pot pies because I feel that this achieves the right crust to filling ratio (being food nerds, my husband and I have frequent conversations about the correct ratio of ingredients in many dishes I make!). Instead of using a plain pie crust recipe, I decided to add in a good amount of shredded cheddar cheese. This was definitely a great decision! While these guys were in the oven, the whole house smelled like cheddar cheese crackers. Seriously! I used up some cooked chicken from a roasted chicken along with my homemade chicken stock and some leftover veggies from the refrigerator. This is the way I like to use leftovers! DELICIOUS!

LESSON LEARNED: When adding cheddar cheese to the pie crust, mix it after the dough is formed. If you mix it in before the water, it makes the cheese stick together and not distribute evenly throughout the dough.

Recipe for Cheddar Cheese Pot Pies

Italian Sweet-and-Sour Chicken

OK, I have a confession to make. Some times I try new recipes and they don't turn out. As I've been cooking more and more, it's easier to look at a recipe and have an idea if the flavor work together or if it will be something I'll like to eat. Last week, I pulled a few recipes some higher-end cooking magazines that feature recipes from famous chefs. I had some success, but I also had a couple failed dishes. At one point in the week, I threw away two dinners in a row and we ate grilled cheese for dinner. I didn't burn the dinner, under cook it, or drop it on the floor. I just didn't like the way it tasted (my husband also agreed with me so at least it wasn't just me!).

This recipe was one of the successes of the week. I didn't have much faith given my previous experience last week, but I thought I would give it a shot. Surprisingly, it tasted REALLY, REALLY good. The chicken was super juicy from cooking it in a mixture of red wine, vinegar, and freshly squeezed orange juice. It was sweet, yet tangy and was perfect with the veggies that were braised in the same liquid.

LESSON LEARNED: Don't be discouraged when recipes don't turn out the way you expect them to.

Recipe for Italian Sweet-and-Sour Chicken

Coconutty Chicken with Spinach & Pasta

When I first mentioned to my husband that I was making a coconutty chicken dish, he was not very excited. He absolutely hates coconut. It's one of the foods that he won't even try to eat, so consequently, I don't make very many sweet or savory dishes with coconut. So, needless to say, I wasn't expecting very great reviews of this dish. I was SHOCKED when my husband ate two helpings of this dinner!

I'm pretty sure that it was the sauce that made this dinner EXTRAORDINARY. I would describe it as a creamy, Asian inspired sauce. It contains coconut milk, cider vinegar, and soy sauce with garlic and an earthy flavor from bay leaves. The chicken is cooked in the sauce, then broiled to give crisp the skin. The sauce is tossed with spinach and served along side orzo pasta.

 LESSON LEARNED: A sauce can make a typical chicken dish taste special.

Recipe for Coconutty Chicken with Spinach & Pasta

Chicken & Noodles

When the weather is cold, I feel like comfort food. One of my favorite comfort foods is chicken and noodles served over mashed potatoes. My family and I used to travel to Amish country in Indiana and one of the restaurants we always ate at featured chicken and noodles. This dish definitely reminds me of my trips to Amish country.

You begin by making homemade egg noodles. I love these noodles because they require very few ingredients and take just a few minutes of work. Even though I have a mixer with a dough hook I normally use for kneading, I prefer to knead these by hand. It's very therapeutic! After the dough is kneaded, it's rolled out thin, and cut into strips. You let the strips dry while you bring a pot of chicken stock to a boil. Next, you add the noodles, cooked chicken, and dried thyme. Everything is gently simmered for 15 minutes and you are ready to serve! I mashed up Yukon gold potatoes to serve with the chicken and noodles. YUM!

LESSON LEARNED: Homemade egg noodles are a snap to make!

Recipe for Chicken and Noodles

Orange Cashew Chicken

I love making my own Chinese takeout at home. It's such a fast dinner to whip up and, for the most part, tastes a lot better than ordering Chinese takeout. At the very least, it's fresher and piping hot when you want to eat it. One of my favorite dishes is Cashew Chicken.

This recipe mixes up a typical stir fry by adding orange marmalade & hot sauce in addition to onions, red peppers, bite size pieces of chicken, and cashews. The end product is half sweet and half spicy with the nutty, buttery flavor of cashews. This dinner disappeared fast in our house!

  LESSON LEARNED: I've found that a 3:1 ratio of vegetables to chicken works well. It makes the dish healthier by adding more veggies and you'll never miss the chicken - especially when you add cashews.

Recipe for Orange Cashew Chicken

White Pizza with Caramelized Onions & Chicken

I'm someone who loves to peruse recipes, make detail shopping lists, and go to the grocery store. I plan out five meals a week (plus an assortment of desserts!). By the time Friday comes around, I have usually made everything that I've planned for the week.

Last Friday, I didn't have anything planned for dinner, so I decided to make something out of what we had at the house. Here's what I came up with!

First, I've been wanting to try a new pizza dough recipe. I have a stand-by homemade pizza dough recipe, but I saw this recipe in a book and was very intrigued. In this recipe, you don't have to knead the dough and you simply mix it up in a bowl, cover it, let it rise, and store it in the refrigerator up to two weeks. It's super easy to make - especially if you normally don't make homemade dough! Next, I cooked an onion over low heat in a saute pan until it became brown and super-sweet. Then, I thinly sliced a cooked chicken breast I had leftover from the week. Finally, I made a simple parmesan cheese sauce by cooking together butter and flour, adding milk while whisking until thick, and gently stirring in grated parmesan cheese. DELICIOUS!

I probably should have waited a few more minutes until slicing, but it looked so good! Plus, my husband was in charge of putting the cheese on the pizza (he likes extra cheese), so it definitely looks like there's a ton of cheese in this picture. :)

LESSON LEARNED: This pizza dough recipe is super simple (really, it's about 2 minutes of hands-on time)!

Recipe for White Pizza with Caramelized Onions and Chicken

Chicken Parm-atouille

This dish is part chicken parmesan and part ratatouille. It's really the best of both worlds! I love it because it's chock full of vegetables. I used eggplant, yellow squash, onion, green pepper, garlic, and tomatoes.

Here's the steps to make this delicious meal. First, you saute all the aforementioned vegetables and place them in a baking dish. The vegetables are topped with thin slices of fresh mozzarella cheese. Next, one side of a chicken breast is dipped in a mixture of parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs, egg, and (yes!) breadcrumbs again. The chicken is then browned in a saute pan (that's easy...just wipe out the one you used for the vegetables!) and placed on top of the cheese. The whole dish is then baked in the oven until the chicken is completely cooked.

The end result is absolutely DELICIOUS! The chicken is super crunchy and sits on a bed of gooey cheese. For extra cheesiness, I topped each portion with a little more parmesan cheese. Because it was cooked on top of the vegetables, the chicken is incredibly moist and flavorful. The vegetables are the perfect accompaniment to the chicken. Especially when you get a forkful of chicken and veggies at the same time. :)

LESSON LEARNED: Dipping chicken in breadcrumbs twice resulted in a very crunchy breading!

Recipe for Chicken Parm-atouille