Healthy Chicken Fried Rice

I follow Chef Marcus Samuelsson on Twitter and he tweeted this recipe for a healthy chicken fried rice.  The end product is really really good, but I think the stir fry times are off and unless you have a really really large wok or skillet it's difficult to stir fry it all together.
Next time I will stir fry the peppers and snow peas for 5 minutes, remove from them from the wok, follow with chicken, cabbage and peas, for an addtional 3-5 minutes, remove from wok and then I will stir fry the rice alone for a minute or so then I will add everything back into the wok along with final ingredients and finish it off that way.
I would also recommend using chicken thighs instead of chicken breast because it will retain it's moisture and will add more flavor.  Also, not sure what the author meant by long green peppers, so I used a poblano and several jalapenos, and for the extra fine green beans I used snow peas that I julienned. This recipe is definitely a much healthier version of many of the fried rice recipes that I've tried and it really tastes delicious.  Definitely Good Eats.

Baked Buffalo Wings & Crispy Baked Frites

Friday nites after working all week are usually take out nite, but tonight I decided to do some baked buffalo wings and crispy baked frites (french fries).  Very simple, fairly healthy and tasty.  Start by preheating your oven to 425.  Take 2 sheet trays and lay a sheet of parchment paper over each for easy clean up.  What you'll need to make this Friday nite feast: 10 chicken wings, rinsed and drained and trimmed up.  The wing has three sections, the tip, mid section and drummette.  Lose the tip just by using a sharp chef knife to cut it off and then discard it.  Then you'll need to cut thru the joint of the drummette and mid wing section. Season them with salt and pepper and toss them with 1 tbs of olive oil, and place them on one of the sheet trays and set aside.  For the frites, you'll need 3 medium size russet potatoes peeled, sliced into 1/4" length pieces.  Soak the potatoes in cold water for about 30 minutes and rinse them.  After rinsing them, you'll need to pat them dry with some paper towels.  These steps help to remove some of the starch, which really helps crisping the frites while they bake.  You can season them with whatever you like.  I mixed 1 tsp hot hungarian paprika, 1/2 tsp granulated garlic and 1 tsp sea salt and 1/2 tsp pepper into a bowl with 1 tbs of olive oil.  I then tossed the potatoes in the mixture.  I placed the potatoes evenly on the sheet tray not touching each other.  Place both the sheet trays (frites and wings in your preheated oven and let them bake for about about 40 minutes.  Remove the trays from the oven.  For the buffalo sauce, you can make your own, but I really like Franks Buffalo Wing Sauce.  It's really hot and as good as any sauce that I've made from scratch.  Toss the wings in the sauce and set aside a little extra for dipping.  That's it!  Fresh, tasty, healthy and simple for a Friday nite or any nite of the week.  Enjoy!!

Herb Chicken & Sausage with Basil Couscous

Tonight I was inspired by Chef Giada DeLaurentiis not because it's her recipe, but because she is so beautiful and  I love to watch her cook.  So tonight we took boneless, skinless chicken thighs that had been marinated all day with fresh herb sprigs, garlic from the garden and some dry white wine.  The herbs I used were fresh rosemary, thyme, basil, and oregano.  I crushed 3 garlic cloves too.  I added the chicken, herbs, wine and garlic to large zip lock and let them marinate for about 6 hours in the frig.   You could marinate overnite too if you have more time.  What  you will  need for the dish:  marinated chicken thighs, 3 italian sausages casing removed and broken into bite size pieces,  3/4 C dry white wine, 2 tbsp duck fat (you could use EVOO too, but I've had this duck fat in frig for awhile, so I wanted to try it),  4 cloves garlic minced, fresh asparagus ( I only had 5 left from a bunch, so I cut them into 1/2" pieces, 5 mushrooms sliced, 1/2 C heavy cream, 1 C fresh spinach chopped, 3 sprigs of fresh thyme, 2 sprigs of oregano.  For the couscous, just follow the directions on the box, I added 1 tbsp EVOO and 10 leaves of chopped basil to the finished product.  I also cooked my couscous in chicken stock and I used the butter which is optional.  Now that we have our mise en place together lets cook.  I took a large skillet and added the duck fat and heated over high heat for 5 minutes.  I added chicken thighs and seared both sides for 2 minutes (be careful, the duck fat really pops and splatters),  I then added the sausage and let that go for additional 2-3 minutes, stirring periodically to brown all sides of the sausage.   I added the wine and let the pan deglaze and reduced the heat to med.  I added the asparagus, mushrooms, garlic to the skillet and mixed everything in.  I cooked this for about 3-5 minutes and then added the heavy cream and the spinach and continued to cook for another 2-3 minutes.  I then added the herb sprigs (which you will remove from the dish before serving).  I reduced to heat to med low and let this simmer for an additional 2-3 minutes.  I removed from the heat, covered the dish and let it rest until I served it over my basil couscous.  Not sure if the duck fat added anything special, but this dish was really really yummy, so give it a try and let me know what you think. Bon Appetito!!

Ginger Garlic Chicken & Noodles

This dish has a lot of potential, and it could've been really awesome had I done a few things differently.  So this is how you should do it... take 3 boneless skinless chicken breast and cut them into small bite size pieces and coat them lightly in a mixture of cornstarch and Kosher Salt.  Heat about 1/4 C canola oil over high heat in a large skillet.  Add your chicken to the hot oil and brown.  While chicken is cooking get your noodles going.  I used linguini.  Be sure to add salt to your boiling water.  Cook noodles according to directions.  Remove the chicken from the pan and add your garlic and ginger and saute over med heat until the oil infuses the garlic and ginger (about 3-5 minutes), add your chicken back into the skillet and add 3/4  C  chicken stock and let the dish simmer for about 10 minutes.  Drain cooked noodles and reserves about 1/2 C of the pasta water.  Take 10 leaves of fresh basil and tear by hand and added to noodles and add about 3 tbs of thai garlic chili oil to the pasta and fold it in.  Add a little of the pasta water, just to keep the noodles loose.  Serve the noodles in a bowl with the chicken over top and drizzle about 1 tsp of soy sauce over top.  That's it.  FYI- be sure to get your skillet very hot before you add the chicken otherwise the chicken will get a slimy coating on it from the corn starch.  This slimey coating will overtake the dish and that's not Good Eats.

Chicken with Mixed Veggies and Kluski Noodles

Tonight was about using whatever I had in the refrigerator and pantry, so I came up with this dish that was good for a first timer.  First thing, I got my Kluski Noodles going-it usually takes them about 20 minutes to cook.  I chopped up 5 cloves of garlic, and one jalapeno and I sauted those in a very large skillet with 1tbs of EVOO over med heat for 1-2 minutes. I had 2 different types of mixed veggies in the freezer and I added those to the skillet and let those saute for about 5 minutes.  While the veggies cooked, I took some leftover chicken thighs and drumsticks, removed the skin and bone and chopped the chicken into very small pieces.  I added the chicken to the veggie mix.  To the skillet I added 1/4 C unsalted Chicken Stock, 1/4 C heavy cream and 1/4 C low fat sour cream.  I stirred it and brought it to a boil and then reduced it and let it simmer.  While it simmered I added 1tsp marjoram, 1tsp oregano, 1tsp of red pepper flakes, 1/2 tsp thyme and a 1 tsp of onion powder to the skillet and mixed it in and continued to let it simmer.  As it was simmering it was getting really thick, so I added about 1/4 C of skim milk.  When the noodles finished cooking I added them to the skillet with the chicken and veggies.  I also added about 1/3 C of the noodle water to the skillet just to keep the dish loose.  The end product was like a chicken stew and it was good, but it would be better with fresh vegetables and the addition of white wine to the sauce would've been nice.  From start to finish this dish took less than 30 minutes, so if you don't have a lot of time give it a try and let me know how it turned out.

Grilled Chicken Drumsticks and Smallwoods

Tonight I was tired and I wanted something that required little effort, little mess and clean up, and I didn't want to sacrifice taste, so we grilled up some drumsticks and made a Smallwood.  I started by preheating my gas grill,  the 3 left burners on med and the 2 right on low.  I would've used my charcoal grill, but I was out of charcoal, and like I said I was tired.  You know when I was a kid I hated the dark meat of chicken, but now it's my favorite.  I love thighs and drumsticks they just cook up so juicy and flavorful.  Don't get me wrong I do like a good breast, but it has to have the skin on and bone in. So I pulled my drumsticks from the frig, a stick of unsalted butter and my veggies for my Smallwood.  I melted 4 tbs of butter in the microwave.  I rinsed and dried my drumsticks, placed them in a large bowl, poured 1/2 the butter over them and sprinkled them with S & P and then I just worked it all into the flesh.  I sat those aside and started chopping up the veg for the Smallwood.  If you don't know what a Smallwood is, it's just your favorite veggies roasted in a foil pack with butter or oil and your favorite seasonings.  I learned this little trick on a rustic camping trick.  You know when your camping primitively, which I seldom do now, everything tastes great.  Especially over an open fire.  Camping for me today consists of setting up camp in Hocking Hills and using my Coleman Stove, Coleman Grill and just about Coleman everything.  We save the campfire for smores. I failed to mention that we sleep in the trailer that we haul our ATV's in with a queen size blow up mattress, fans and heaters and electric.  I have to say it's pretty cushy.  We just lack running water and a toilet, but who needs a toilet when you have the woods and a shovel.  Right?  OK, back to the Smallwood- tonight I had on hand garlic, poblano, red and jalapeno peppers, asparagus, zucchini, yellow squash and red skin potatoes.  I chopped the veggies and quartered the potatoes and left the garlic cloves whole (they roast up so nicely).  I placed in a bowl and remaining butter and some cajun spices mixed it all up and just placed in a foil packet.  I placed the Smallwood on the low heated burner side and the chicken drumsticks on the medium side.  I grilled it all for about 25-30 minutes, turning the chicken occasionally and basting it with the butter that was leftover in the bowl. Always check your chicken with a thermometer, there's nothing worse then serving up bloody chicken. I also shook the Smallwood occasionally, so that everything inside cooked evenly. That's pretty much it and look how it turned out.  Looks good doesn't it?  Well it's not difficult so give it a try.  Bon Appetit!

Grilled Curried Chicken Thighs w/ Curried Couscous

Hey Folks! Wow my last food post was awhile ago. Been very busy w/ my family. My dad was placed in hospice care, which has been very stressful, yet it has also been a blessing. Hospice is a wonderful thing and they are taking great care of my dad. This experience has really brought the family together and it's just been really good all around.  I've cooked a few unusual dishes for my dad and I think he's been pleasantly surprised.  I made low sodium dishes for him and found that the dishes still were really tasty minus the salt.  Mrs Dash has become a good friend lately.  I'm working on a low sodium pizza, he's really been craving it.  Anyone out there have a yummy low sodium pizza recipe that you would like to share?  Did you know that the average slice of pizza with Mozzarella cheese has about 4000 mg of sodium?  OMG!!!  I also read that we should only consume about 1500 mg of sodium per day.  Read the labels on your prepackage food, loaded with salt!!!

Anyway, back to the food- tonight I took 4 bone in, skin on, chicken thighs, rinsed and dried them. I set those aside and I heated the grill, 1 side on high and one side on low. I prepared a rub of 1.5 tbsp hot curry powder, 1 tsp hot paprika, 1 tsp cumin, a dash of cinnamon and 2 tsp of Mrs Dash (we are cutting back on our Sodium). I placed the spice mix in a large bowl and laid the thighs in the bowl and just rubbed the spices all over the meat.  I then took 2 tbsp unsalted melted butter and poured that over thighs and massaged the mixture onto the thighs.  Once the grill was preheated I placed the thighs skin side down on the high heated side of grill. I let those brown and let the skin crisp up, then I turned them and let the other side brown as well. After about 3 minutes I moved them to the low side and continued to grill for 12-15 minutes turning occasionally until they reached a temp of 166.

While my chicken was grilling I prepared my couscous. I placed 1 c of low sodium chicken broth, 2 tsp hot curry, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp hot paprika and 1/2 c frozen peas in a med pot, brought it to a boil and then added 3/4 c of couscous. I stirred in the couscous and covered the pot, removed the pot from heat and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Afterwards I fluffed the couscous with a fork and I served it with the thighs with a garnish of cilantro and cucumbers. I love this combination of flavors and textures: spicy, cool, crunch and chewy. Try it and let me know your thoughts. Good Eats!

Tex Mex Tuesday

I know i've done this before, but it's so yummy and easy you need to try it. I started out with 1.5 lbs of organic chicken tenders that I marinated in Goya Mojo marinade sauce for about 1 hour. This stuff is so good and so economical, so why bother making it myself? While my chix marinated I made my  bean & corn salsa. This salsa is so great because you can really add whatever you like or what you have in the frig or pantry- green pepper, yellow pepper, tomatoes, your favorite beans.  My salsa is made with: 1 can of black beans rinsed and drained, 1 c of frozen corn, 1/2 red onion small diced, 1/2 red pepper small diced, 1 jalapeño chopped, 1 handful cilantro chopped, juice of 1 lime, 1 tbs cumin, 1 tsp hot hungarian paprika and kosher salt to taste. Just mix all this together in a med size bowl and let the flavors mesh together. At this point oil the grates of your grill and heat 1 side on low and the other side on high. After your grill is heated place your chicken tenders on the high side for about 2 minutes, turn and grill for an additional 2 minutes, always keeping grill top open. Then move the tenders to the low side and continue to grill with lid closed about 2 more minutes or until the temp reaches about 166 degrees F. Chicken tenders cook very quickly, so it's best not to leave them. Remove from heat and sprinkle chicken with quesadilla cheese found in your grocers packaged cheese section in the dairy aisle. Serve the chicken with brown rice, black bean & corn salsa with avocado, sour cream and tortilla chips. Try this, it's really yummy and easy. Doesn't it look tasty? Good Eats.

Chang's Spicy Chicken w/ Broccoli & Brown Rice

I went to PF Chang's recently for our 9 yr wedding anniversary and I tried the Chang's Chicken. It's similar to General Tso's Chicken, but lighter. The crust is very light, more like it's been seared quickly in hot oil. Anyway, I liked it, so I googled "Chang's Chicken and I found this recipe on Epicurious. This recipe could use some modifications.  Next time I will will only add1 tbs chili sauce, 3/4 C pineapple juice, less sugar and less vinegar. I doubled the recipe and it was pretty intense. The chili sauce and vinegar were a bit much and it was little sweeter than what I had at the restaurant. We served it over brown rice, like in the restaurant, but we added steamed broccoli to it as well.  I will make this dish again, but will modify for my taste. Try it and let me know what you think.

Dirty P's Garlic-Ginger Chicken Thighs & Sesame Noodles

Tonight I made 2 dishes from the Food Network.  The chicken thighs are a Guy Fieri recipe, which is very easy.   The thighs grilled up with a crispy outside and were very moist and juicy inside.  The flavor had a nice mellow, slightly sweet and salty taste.  Really yummy and very easy, the hardest part is that you need to marinate them, and I chose to marinate them overnight.   I recommend this recipe and I will definitely make it again.  Since the thighs had an asian flair, I decided to serve them with a Rachael Ray Sesame Noodle Recipe.  I chose to use linguini pasta and I doubled the recipe, since it calls for 1 serving.  I really like this dish.  It was SOoooo easy and really yummy.  It too had a mellow flavor, not over the top peanut buttery or sesami-ish.  I will definitely make this one again, it really only takes about 8 minutes to make it.  I would suggest that you try them both together or alone.  BTW, hubby is recovering well from the fall,  he has a broken rib and he's very sore and bruised, but TG he will be OK.  Anyway, give these dishes a try they are Very Good Eats!

Grilled Chicken Thighs Cacciatore w/ Super Smashed Garlic Potatoes

This is a Rachael Ray 30 minute meal, Chicken Thigh Cacciatore.  It took me about 45 minutes to do it, and well worth it.  I thought it was yummy and had alot of complex flavors.

 I loved how the grilled chicken thighs turned out and the marinade...awesome.  I would do definitely make this one again.  Will even like it, especially the potatoes, but said they needed more butter, and I said, "Hello!!! This is not a Paula Deen dish.  Anyway, give it try and let me know what you think.  Good Eats!

40 Clove Garlic Chicken

40 Clove Garlic Chicken with Green Beans & Mashed Tators

My Immersion Blender

I found this recipe "40 Clove Garlic Chicken" on The Stinking Rose Restaurant website.  OMG!  You have to try it, it's the best chicken I  have ever, ever had.  You might think the garlic would be overpowering, but it's not.  The garlic sauce is so mellow, Will said it was so good that he could take a bath in it.  Kudos to The Stinking Rose for sharing such an awesome recipe.  This recipe is definitely on my "A" list.  Give it try, trust me, you won't be disappointed.  BTW, instead of putting the sauce in the blender after it reduced, I just used the immersion blender.  It did the job with less clean up.

Roasted Chicken & Potatoes with Steamed Green Beans

This dish is semi-homemade and semi-healthy.  I'm sorry to say that I steamed my green beans in 2 tbs of bacon fat and 1/4 C chicken broth w/ some S&P for about 25 minutes (that's where the semi-healthy comes in).  FYI,  Unless I'm using green beans in a salad or asian dish, I typically will cook them to the very, very tender stage ( not baby food).  I haven't brined chicken before, so I brined my bone in chicken breast for a day (see previous post for brining).  Not sure I'm totally sold on the brining poultry and roasting, because the chicken had an interesting texture that I didn't hate, but didn't love either.  BTW, I always use organic, free range chicken, so that's not a factor.  Began by preheating my oven to 425 on bake convection mode.  I took 1/2 C panko, 1/2 C italian bread crumbs, 1 pkg of french onion soup dry mix, 8 baby yukon gold potatoes quartered, EVOO, 2 bone in chicken breasts that had been brined. I mixed the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.  I took my potatoes and drizzled them with EVOO and then placed them in the dry mixed and coated the potatoes.  I removed them and placed them on a cooling rack that I placed on a sheet pan (I covered the sheet pan with parchment paper for easy clean up).  I  then drizzled EVOO all over the chicken and placed the breasts in the dry mix and coated them and placed on same cooling rack with potatoes. I put all in the oven and I let them roast for about 30 minutes. After 30 mins I removed from oven and let the food rest for about 5 minutes. At this point my beans are finished steaming and I sprinkled some bacon pieces on top.  That's it.  I personally didn't like the onion soup mix on the chicken, it gave it a sweet flavor, but Will really like it.  I thought that the it worked great on the potatoes.  I love the potatoes and green beans as is, but next time the chicken will done differently.  Do you have any recommendations for the chicken?  Would love to hear from you.

Grillin' and Chillin'

OMG!!!  Tonight I was inspired by this crazy salad (which isn't a salad at all) that I had at the Acapulco Mexican Restaurant down the road.  Anyway, the salad consists of grilled peppers and onions, beef, chicken and shrimp.  I took it up an notch and added some chorizo sausage that I grilled too.  I think the picture explains it all.  Absolute yumminess.  Anyway, this is how I did it.  I took 1lb of chicken tenderloins, 1/2 lb beef sirloin steak, cut into thin strips, 6 large shrimp, 1 chorizo sausage, and 1 red pepper, 1 grn bell pepper, 1 jalapeno and 1 red onion and just cut them into large pieces.  I found this awesome marinade in the mexican section of the market, it's made by Goya.  Anyway, I placed each protein into separate large plastic bags and the veggies into a plastic bag and just evenly poured the marinade into each of the 5 bags.  I also liberally sprinkled cumin into each bag and I let them marinade for about 1 hour in the refrigerator.  In the meantime I turned my gas grill to low and let it heat up.  I placed my grill pan on the grill and I let that heat up as well.  I started grillin the veggies and the chorizo sausage first since they take a while to cook through.  As those were grillin I placed my chicken tenderloins on the grill, honestly they only took about 10 minutes took cook through.  I removed the chicken and then placed the beef on the grill and those only took about 5 minutes to cook thru and removed them.  I then added the shrimp and grilled them about 2 minutes on each side.  At this point my veggies and chorizo where cooked thru.  I cut my chorizo into slices and had everything on a sheet tray and we could pick what we wanted.  While everything was grillin I cooked up some basmati rice in chicken stock and tsp of turmeric and cooked up some of my pinto beans that I had frozen.  This was so much fun to do and everything tasted great.  I will definitely do this again.  You should try it, it's so easy.  I think the key is too keep your grill on low heat, so you don't overcook the protein.  Awesome Eats!!!

Moo Goo Gai Pan

I like this dish because the flavors are simple and it falls in the line of a comfort food "chinese style". The sauce is thick and yummy and compliment the chicken and mushrooms so well.  You will need: 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into thin strips that you marinade in: 2 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs dry sherry, a few drops of sesame oil and 1 tbs cornstarch. Be sure to mix the ingredients for the marinade in order and add your chicken, set aside for about 15 minutes.

 Meanwhile, for your veggies you will need 8 oz pkg button mushrooms sliced, 1 small can of bamboo shoots and sliced water chestnuts rinsed and drained, 1 small head of bok choy using only the green part thinly sliced, 1 tbs minced ginger, 1 garlic clove minced.

For the sauce you will need: 3/4 C chicken stock, 2 tbs oyster sauce ( found in the Asian section of your market), 1 tsp sugar, 1 tbs cornstarch- mix together & set aside.

You will also need 3 tbs of canola oil for the stir fry.

 Heat large skillet or wok over medium heat  and add 2 tablespoons oil. Add the chicken and stir-fry until it changes color and is nearly cooked through. Remove and set aside.

Add 1 tablespoon oil back to skillet or wok and add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry briefly. Add the mushrooms and bok choy and stir-fry for about 5-7 minutes until mushrooms are cooked through, then add bamboo shoots, and water chestnuts. Stir-fry briefly. Give the sauce a quick restir, then make a well in the middle of the skillet or wok and add sauce. Cook, stirring, until the sauce is thickened.
Return chicken to wok. Mix together and serve hot over rice. Bon Appetit!

Thai Chicken Curry and Veggies

Yes, we've done curry chicken before, but this one is a little bit different.  You gotta try it!  It's easy and so yummy!  Here's what you need: 2 tbs Oil, 1 tsp of Five-Spice Powder (this is an asian spice, fully loaded with flavor.  You might be able to purchase at the market, but you'll probably have to go to a Whole Foods, natural food store or an asian market), 5 cloves mince garlic, 1 tbs minced ginger, 1/2 tsp cayenne, 1 tbs soy sauce, 1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into 1" pieces, 1 C chicken broth, 3 tsp curry powder, 1 14 oz can of lite coconut milk - not cream of coconut (found in the asian section of your market), 2 tbs rice wine vinegar, 1 bag of frozen stir fry veggies.  You will want to serve this over basmati rice and indian naan bread.


Here's how to do it: Heat your oil in a large skillet or wok over medium heat until hot.  Stir in five-spice, garlic, ginger, cayenne and soy sauce.  Blend well.  Add chicken and coat thoroughly with spice mix and cook for about 5-8 minutes.  Add the chicken broth, rice wine vinegar and coconut milk; bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally and scraping sides.  Add your veggies, bring to boil and cook an additional 3 minutes.  Serve over basmati rice and if you can find some naan bread it's awesome to dip into the sauce.  Good Eats!!