Grilled Chicken and Crazy Rice – Part 2

You received the recipe for Crazy Rice yesterday, now here’s Part 2!  The Grilled Chicken recipe also comes from My Italian Grandmother and is originally called Grilled Lemon Chicken.  I did not experience the true lemon flavor as much as I did the herbs because I forgot to zest the lemon… so if you want it really lemony, make sure you zest!  This chicken is easy to prep and grill in a grill pan, although it does need to marinate for about one hour.

The only problem I ran into was with my herb application.  I’ve been using these herb blends, which are like herb paste in a tube.  See:

The herb blends are super flavorful and quick, but when grilling the chicken, the excess burned very easily.  There was still plenty of flavor on the grilled chicken, but I had to pick off a lot of burnt herbs as I cooked.  Not the most appetizing looking stuff.

Grilled Chicken

[only slightly adapted from My Italian Grandmother]

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 chicken tenderloins (or chicken cutlets)
• 1/2 lemon, zested and juiced
• small clove of minced garlic
• 1/8 c. parsley blend paste
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning blend paste
• 1/2 tsp. Mrs. Dash Table Blend
• salt and pepper

Cook

1. Combine lemon juice and zes, garlic, parsley, olive oil, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper in a bowl.
2. Add chicken and coat each piece well.
3. Let marinate for one hour.
4. Heat grill pan and drizzle with oil or cooking spray.
5. Cook chicken on both sides until cooked through.
6. Chicken can be served whole or chunked and added to the Crazy Rice.

Grilled Chicken with Crazy Rice – Part 1

Um, this dish is good.  REALLY good.  Trust me.  I would never lie to you.

I recently came across another new blog called My Italian Grandmother.  Here’s how the blogger, Michele, describes her content:

“This blog is a tribute to my Italian Grandmother Emilia who everyone called Nanny…whether she was theirs or not. Nanny passed away at the age of 98. This is my attempt to keep her memory alive, through stories, recipes and photos. She certainly passed along her love of cooking to me and I will share recipes and stories (inspired by her and others) with you here.”

I love the concept and I’ve bookmarked several recipes from her blog.   The other night I had the opportunity to try one out. As the weather gets warmer (or flipping hot if you are not used to SC heat), I am drawn to dishes with lots of fresh veggies.  This one really caught my eye and it turned out absolutely delicious.

In Part 1 I’ll tell you how to make this Crazy Rice which you could pair with many other things.  The way that WH and I eat, it could be it’s own meal.

Michele’s original recipe calls for brown rice, but I used white as it’s what we typically have on hand.  Michele’s recipe is also made to serve probably 4 to 6, but I halved everything.  The basic gist is chopping up lots of fresh veggies, including Campari tomatoes (which are SO GOOD.  First time eating this specific tomato and it’s the best I’ve ever had!).  Anyway, you chop them up and saute/cook veggies then add wine and reduce.  Stir in the cooked rice and you’re ready to go!

Crazy Rice

[only slightly adapted from My Italian Grandmother]

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 boil-n-bag rice (or whatever rice)
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 zucchini, chopped
• 4 to 5 small Campari tomatoes, chopped
• 1/8 c. diced red bell pepper
• splash of dry white wine
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1/8 c. parsley herb blend (from a tube)

Cook

1. Cook rice according to package directions.
2. Heat oil in skillet and saute onions, peppers, and garlic in oil.
3. Once soft, add zucchini and cook for about 2 minutes.
4. Add tomoatoes and cook down, about 2 minutes.
5. Add wine and reduce.
6. Season with salt, pepper, and parsley.
7. Add cooked rice and toss with vegetable mixture.
8. Note: If you use a fair amount of oil in the beginning and/or wine and/or tomatoes, it should not be dry.  If it is, Michele suggests adding more oil.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where I’ll share my version of the chicken recipe!

Important Updates

I’ve had a good run of posts for the past several days and I’m happy about that!  There are a couple more to come this week, but as you will notice, there have been no Tour posts.

I’m not abandoning it at all, but the past month has been very busy for WH and I.  As I mentioned, we have bought a house and it’s moving a long fine, but it does take up some time.  We are planning/shopping for some renovation projects, shopping for a new washer/dryer, preparing for home repairs and keeping the termites from eating our house!

As if our life isn’t hectic enough, we adopted a dog!  We’re really excited about this, but of course this means a lot more of my time and attention being devoted to something other than my blog (the horror!).  As you know, we have a cat and we want to make sure they are introduced properly and get comfortable with each other and that the dog feels safe and secure while both WH and I go to work each day.  We’ll be picking up our new pet later this afternoon and I can’t wait to post pictures!

On a side note, I am having to take a break from Barefoot Bloggers recipes as well.  I’ll try to pick up in May again as well (if they don’t kick me out!).

I hope to pick up the Tour again in May, but Closing on the House may get in the way of that.  I’ll keep you informed.  In the meantime, I’ll continue with my normal recipe posts as I have time.  Thanks for following!

Roasted Potato Wedges

The final part of my multi-dish meal: potato wedges.  This one comes from Pioneer Woman.  Roasted Potato Wedges is probably the only recipe of PW’s I’ve made because she does things that I think are kind of complicated.  I’m just not up to par with her yet!  But this one I could totally make.

Clearly from the pictures, I cooked mine a little too long.  So go look at PW’s pictures instead because they are beautiful.

Since you can basically make these babies anyway you’d like, I sprinkled with minced garlic and paprika then topped with chopped rosemary when done.

beautiful

I loved them even with their little over-cooked edges.  Delish.

Garlic Green Beans – Tour Recipe BONUS!

Another dish from Loves To Eat, our very first Tour Stop!

I love garlic and I love green beans  so the moment I saw these green beans posted on Karen’s blog I knew I had to try them.  I finally got a chance the other night when I made my fabulous multi-dish meal!

A very simple recipe adapted from Martha Stewart, just trim green beans and boil with salt and pepper for 2 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in pan and saute slices of garlic for 30 seconds.

Add green beans and saute another 3 minutes. Serve warm.