Chicken and Veggies

ATTENTION!!!!  This is one of my favorite new recipes to date!!!

First, there’s bacon.

Then there is chicken cooked in bacon grease.

Plus fresh veggies.

HEAVEN.

Just the Two of Us is one of the best cookbook purchases I’ve ever made.  This dish was quick, easy and so delicious, I don’t have words to describe it.  WH wants it on the “rotation”.  I want it every night.  DONE.

Easy Chicken and Garden Veggies

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 2 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 chicken breasts (we used 1)
• 1/4 tsp. garlic salt (I have garlic powder and added some salt)
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 4 oz. fresh green beans, trimmed and left whole
• 1/2 medium yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 medium plum (Roma) tomato, cut lengthwise in half then sliced
• 1/4 c. Italian dressing (or balsamic vinaigrette)

Cook

1. Cook bacon in skillet over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring until crisp.
2. Remove bacon and keep warm.
3. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with garlic salt and pepper.
4. Place chicken in skillet and cook 3 to 5 minutes until browned on both sides.
5. Discard excess bacon grease.
6. Add water and green beans to skillet.
7. Cover and cook on medium-low heat for 8 minutes.
8. Stir in bell pepper.
9. Cover and cook 3 to 5 minutes, turning and stirring occasionally.
10. Cook until chicken is done.
11. Stir in tomato and dressing until heated through.
12. Top with bacon.
13. Serve with rice if you like.

Source [19]

Chicken and Pasta Primavera

I would pay for this dish in a restaurant.  It was sooooo delicious.  It is light and flavorful and easy.  And the portions turned out perfect — no leftovers!

I want to make this every night.  Seriously.  It’s that good.  Just make it and eat it and enjoy it.

Chicken and [Penne] Pasta Primavera

Serves 2!

Ingredients

• 1 c. uncooked [penne] pasta (I used corkscrews)
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces (I used 1 large breast)
• 1/2 c. sliced zucchini
• 1/2 c. sliced yellow squash
• 1/2 c. 2-inch pieces asparagus
• 1/4 c. Italian dressing
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil leaves (I used a basil “paste” from the store — worked fine)
• 3 Tbsp. shredded parm
• pepper

Cook

1. Cook and drain pasta as directed, without salt.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Cook chicken in oil about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Stir in zucchini, squash, and asparagus.
5. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until vegetables are crisp tender.
6. Stir pasta into chicken mixture.
7. Stir in dressing and basil.
8. Heat through.
9. Sprinkle with cheese and pepper.

Source [19]

Caesar Chicken with Orzo

Sorry I have been a little MIA lately — this house business took up a lot of my time and energy last week.  I’ve started making more repeat dinners and even doing things like hot dogs and mac and cheese from a box.  As much as I love cooking and making fresh dishes, it is nice to have a break every now and again.  Plus some of that stuff (herb&butter rice, baked beans from a can, frozen tater tots — yum!) really pulls at my heart and reminds me of some of the stuff I ate as a child.

cookin da orzo

I got back into my groove a bit though, when I bought those new cookbooks.  Here’s another recipe from Just the 2 of Us.  I liked this dish — it was quick and easy.  I’m not sure we really got the taste of Caesar dressing , but it was still tasty.  We chunked the chicken instead of keeping it whole because that’s how we roll.

My only issue is that a few of the directions were a little unclear.  The dish still came out fine, but I wasn’t sure what had been messed up.  Basically, after cooking the chicken and removing from the pan (steps 2 & 3), you add water and broth to cook the orzo (steps 4 – 7).  By the time 8 minutes had passed, most of the liquid was absorbed by the pasta.  So when I got to steps 10 & 11, there wasn’t any liquid to bring to a boil/simmer.  I added a couple more splashes of chicken broth, but it didn’t last very long.  Maybe my heat was too high or I shouldn’t have cooked the orzo so long.  Who knows.  At least it was still good.

yummy

Hope you enjoy!

Caesar Chicken with Orzo

Serves 2!

Ingredients

• 1 tsp. canola oil
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast (I used 1 large breast)
• 1 c. reduced sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 c. water
• 1/2 c. uncooked orzo
• 1/2 bag (1 lb. size) frozen broccoli florets (I used half a lb. of fresh florets and it worked fine)
• 1/2 medium red bell pepper, cut into strips
• 2 tsp. Caesar dressing
• pepper

Cook

1. In skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat.
2. Cook chicken in oil until brown on both sides.
3. Remove from skillet and keep warm.
4. Add broth and water to hot skillet.
5. Heat to boiling.
6. Stir in pasta and heat to boiling.
7. Cook uncovered for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Stir in broccoli, bell pepper and dressing.
9. Add chicken to pasta mixture and sprinkle with pepper.
10. Heat to boiling then reduce heat.
11. Simmer uncovered about 5 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender and chicken is cooked through.

Source [19]

Roasted Potato and Leek Salad

Not a Barefoot Contessa recipe 🙂

I chose this recipe from a magazine because I love potatoes and I love leeks.  There is also a French Vinaigrette to dress the salad which I really liked but WH did not care for much.  Overall it turned out pretty good, even though I had to re-do part of the recipe.

The instructions say to bake the potatoes and leeks together for 20 to 25 minutes, but within 4 or 5 minutes I could smell something burning and the leeks were definitely crispy.  I immediately picked the leeks out of the potatoes.  Luckily I had some leftover leeks and decided to season them and add them when there were about 8 minutes left on the potatoes so that they wouldn’t  burn. I’m not sure if it was my baking sheet, my oven, or what.  I’m glad I fixed the leeks though because it would not have been tasty.

I served the salad over baby spinach which was okay (the recipe calls for arugula which we don’t really like).  I think next time I would leave out the leafy bed altogether.  Recipes for the salad and the vinaigrette follow.

Roasted Potato and Leek Salad

Makes 2 to 3 servings (reduced from 8 to 10 servings so some of the measurements are weird, but you get the idea)

Ingredients

• 3/4 lb. red potatoes, quartered
• 1/4 bunch leeks, sliced (about 1/4 c.)
• 1/12 c. light olive oil
• 1/4 Tbsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper

Cook

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.
3. Place potatoes on baking sheet.
4. Add olive oil, salt, and pepper, tossing gently to coat.
5. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes.  Meanwhile, toss leeks with small amount of olive oil, salt, and pepper.
6. Add leeks to baking sheet with potatoes.
7. Bake for another 8 to 10 minutes or until potatoes are browned and tender.
8. Remove from oven, and let cool for 30 minutes.
9. Place potato mixture in a large bowl, and add French Vinaigrette (below), tossing gently to coat.

French Vinaigrette

Makes about 3/4 c.

Ingredients

• 1/6 c. white wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. minced shallot
• 1/2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 1/2 Tbsp. minced fresh tarragon
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 1/3 c. light olive oil

Cook

1. In the container of an electric blender, combine vinegar, shallot, mustard, tarragon, garlic, salt, and pepper.
2. Process until smooth.
3. With blender running, add oil in a slow, steady stream.

Source: [Sadly, I ripped this out of a magainze that doesn’t have a tag line at the bottom and I threw the magazine away and I don’t know what it was called.  If I figure it out, I will let you know.]

Parmesan Chicken

The March issue of Better Homes and Gardens has a section of Ina’s recipes.  A simple and flavorful dish is Parmesan Chicken.  I made it very quickly and without much difficulty.  So tasty!

I substituted chicken breasts with cutlets so that they were already thin.  I also reduced a recipe for 6 to 2 so when it calls for 2 large eggs, I used 2/3 of one egg (beat egg and measure out about 2.5 Tbsp.)

Parmesan Chicken

Makes 2

Ingredients:

• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breast cutlets
• 1/3 c. flour
• 1/3 tsp. salt
• 1/6 tsp. pepper
• 2/3 extra-large egg
• 1/3 c. seasoned dry bread crumbs
• 1/6 c. grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
• unsalted butter
• olive oil
• salad greens (I used baby spinach)
• Lemon Vinaigrette (recipe below)

Cook:

1. Combine the flour, salt, and pepper on a dinner plate.
2. On a second plate, beat the eggs with 1/3 Tbsp. of water.
3. On a third plate, combine the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.
4. Coat chicken breasts on both sides with flour mixture, then dip both sides into egg mixture and dredge both sides in bread crumb mixture, pressing lightly.
5. Heat 1/2 Tbsp. butter and 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil in a large saute pan and cook  chicken cutlets on medium-low heat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until cooked through.
6. Toss the salad greens with Lemon Vinaigrette.
7. Place a mound of salad on each chicken cutlet and serve with extra Parmesan.

Lemon Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

• 1/8 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper

Cook:

1. In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Source [BHG]