That’s a Fancy Looking Chicken…

I have to admit I am late to the party on frozen chicken. Weird. I know. My husband recently introduced me to these giant bags of frozen boneless breasts and I have to say, they are really a lifesaver! They’re cheap and provide a large quantity of individual breasts and they can stay in your freezer pretty much forever. I’ve also learned that you can get thighs, drumsticks, and other bone in cuts too!

Okay, that’s enough of my frozen chicken epiphany. Because they are so convenient, these bags have now made chicken breasts a staple of my weekly dinner menu. After having fried them, steamed them, wrapped them in bacon, made stir fry and lettuce wraps, I was running out of ideas. I was also too lazy to go to the store one day, so I came up with the following super easy, super versatile, and dare I say, pretty fancy looking recipe.

So I had the chicken breasts, red onions, and Israeli couscous. I also had (and still have) more zucchini than I know what to do with, so those are the basic ingredients I used for this version. You can substitute with chicken thighs, sweet onions, butternut squash, pumpkin, mushrooms, or even asparagus, broccoli or cauliflower. Really, whatever you have on hand should work!

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced into 1-inch chunks
1 red onion, coarsely chopped
1 large zucchini, diced into 1-inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 sachet Lipton Onion Soup
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
Juice of 2 limes or lemons
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
Salt and Black Pepper to taste

1 cup cooked Israeli couscous, prepared according to package directions.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine all ingredients except the couscous in a 9×13 glass baking pan. Make sure chicken and vegetables are well coated with seasonings and olive oil.
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Remove from oven and combine with the cooked couscous in a large bowl. Check for seasoning and adjust if necessary and serve.

Serves 4.

 

Lamb and more lamb

I love lamb. Lamb roast, lamb chops, lamb stew, lamb ragu…I could keep going for a while. I think it is a really underutilized protein for home cooks, but I’m not exactly sure why. I mean, it cooks just like beef and is often more tender than many beef cuts. And it’s not necessarily any more expensive than beef. Today I give you two levels of lamb that are sure to impress!

Basic Lamb Chops:

6 double or single cut lamb chops
3 sprigs rosemary
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Preheat your broiler or grill.
Let the chops sit on your counter for about 20 minutes.
If using the broiler, arrange the chops on your oiled broiler pan and lightly salt and pepper each one.
Remove the leaves (needles?) from your rosemary sprigs and place a few on the meat side of each chop.
Lightly drizzle each chop with olive oil.
Place in the oven and let them broil for about 10 minutes for medium-rare. Let them rest for about another 10 minutes and serve.

If you are grilling the chops, 5 minutes on each side on a hot grill should suffice for a nice, medium-rare chop.

As you can see, this takes little to no effort and will look really fancy when you serve them. I like to pair them with the potato gratin from a few posts ago or just a nice salad.
Be careful with the broiler. Don’t wander too far away as they will cook very quickly, especially if you are using the single cut chops. Peek through your oven window after the first 5 minute of broiling to make sure they are not burning, as they will cook through extremely fast.

Butterflied Lamb Roast:

1 3-4 lb lamb leg roast, boneless

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

3 cloves minced garlic
3 sprigs rosemary

Olive oil

Special tools: Butcher’s twine, roasting pan.

When you buy the leg roast, ask the butcher to butterfly it for you. Or, if you are feeling adventurous, you can do it yourself. Tutorial here. It’s for a pork roast, but it will work with any roast.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine the salt, pepper, and dried herbs and spices. Stir them together to combine. Set aside.

In a food processor, process the fresh garlic and rosemary with a pinch of salt, until the garlic forms a paste. The rosemary will pretty much retain its shape, so don’t worry about that.

Unroll your butterflied roast and spread the garlic and rosemary paste on the top side.

Roll the roast, with the paste inside, and tie with the twine.

Spread the dried herb and spice mixture on a large, clean cutting board and roll the tied roast through it. The mixture should stick to the meat and coat it.

Place the the roast in your roasting pan and roast in the oven for about an hour and 20 minutes. If you have a larger roast, calculate about 2o minutes per pound for medium rare.

Let the roast rest for 15 minutes before carving and serving.

 

 

 

Salads: Not just lettuce and tomatoes anymore!

The idea of living in a home without air conditioning is a completely alien concept to those of us from South Florida. When I first got to Washington, I thought “wow, these people are savages!” But, as it turns out, all summers are not Miami summers. That being said, I’ve definitely been trying to use my oven and stove for the least amount of time possible. Salads have become a mainstay in my dinner menus since they require little to no stove time. Here’s a new one I’ve been working on the past few weeks. It looks fancy, tastes delicious, and you can pretty much use any grain to veggie combination you like.

Couscous Salad:

1 cup cooked couscous, cold
1 cucumber, diced
1 2 large tomatoes, chopped
1/2 red onion, minced
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 small can sliced black olives
1 tablespoon white or apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
5 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and stir.

You can do this with any grain you like. I like to use farro, barley, and quinoa as well. You can also add feta cheese to add some richness.

Enjoy!

Fun with a spiralizer and an all-purpose tomato sauce

 

So my aunt recently gifted me a spiralizer. This thing is awesome. It slices your vegetables into a noodle shape, making for a wonderful guilt-free version of “pasta” out of zucchini, carrots, squash, and potatoes. You can also use it on cucumbers and other fruit and vegetables for a mighty fancy looking salad.

I recently made a zucchini “pasta” with my version of a pomodoro sauce that both husband and I agreed that we did not miss the real thing. For my vegan/vegeterian friends, the recipe can be easily adapted and you won’t miss out on flavor. Well, I might. I like bacon. And cheese. The sauce yields enough that you can freeze the leftovers or repurpose the next day. Here’s part 1 of how I made two meals out of sauce, zucchini, and some frozen chicken breasts.

Pomodoro Sauce:

1 large carrot
5 cloves garlic
1 large stalk celery
1 medium onion
1 tsp chopped fresh basil, plus more for serving
1 28oz can diced tomatoes (I prefer San Marzano)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
Pinch of red pepper flakes
2 strips bacon
1 1-inch piece parmesan cheese rind
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated parmesan for serving

Using a food processor, finely mince the carrot, onion and celery. Then mince the garlic separately. I like to do each one separately as the carrots require a lot more processing.

Render the 2 strips of bacon in a medium, heavy pot over medium-high heat. Once the bacon is rendered, remove the strips from the pot and set aside. You can have them as a snack while you’re cooking.

Add the garlic to the hot, rendered bacon fat and saute for about 1 minute. Add the onion, celery, carrot,  and Italian seasoning. Stir to combine, reduce the heat to medium and allow to cook until the vegetables soften.

Add the tomato paste, canned tomatoes, cheese rind, red pepper flakes and 1 tsp of the fresh basil. Stir. Add salt and black pepper to taste.

Simmer for 45min to 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add a drizzle of olive oil before serving.

To make this a vegan recipe, just omit the cheese rind and bacon. Use olive oil instead of the bacon fat.

I had some fresh tomatoes on hand as well, so I chopped them and added to the sauce for texture.

Some Whole Foods will sell you a package of Parmesan cheese rinds. They are an amazing addition to soups and sauces. I just keep the rinds of the wedges of Parmesan in a Ziploc as I finish each wedge, so I always have them on hand. 

If you find that the sauce is too acidic, you can stir in a tiny bit of sugar to tone it down. 

Zucchini Pasta:

4 large zucchini, peeled
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Spiralize the peeled zucchini

Heat the olive oil in a large pan.

Add the zucchini and saute until soft, about 5 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper.

See my next post for what I did with the leftovers!