May 26 2010

Chicken Piccata

My BFF Paul cruised into town from the bay area with a cookbook and recipe in hand. Love that!

I’ve seen other Cook’s Illustrated books, but not this particular cookbook. I love that there is a story that goes along with each recipe. It tells you how the final recipe came about. Here’s a small excerpt from the Chicken Piccata recipe that we made. 

“Most of the recipes we uncovered in our research called  for 1 to 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. All of our tasters agreed that these sauces weren’t lemony enough. We found that 1/4 cup delivered a nice lemon punch.”

Paul and I had a lot of fun creating our meal together. Back in college our meals consisted of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Taco Bell, Slurpees and Top Ramen… we’d add veggies to the Top Ramen if we were feeling gourmet.

Chicken Piccata Ingredients: 

2 Large Lemons
6 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts (We only used 4)
Salt and Ground Pepper to Taste
1/2 Cup Unbleached Flour
4 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil (We used EVOO)
1 Small Shallot – Minced (We used a medium to large sized one)
1 Cup Low Sodium Chicken Broth
2 Tablespoons Small Capers (Rinsed)
3 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Softened
2 Tablespoons Minced Fresh Parsley Leaves

The first step is to adjust the oven rack to the lower middle position – then set a large plate/dish on the rack and heat the oven to 200 degrees.

The next step is to prep the lemon. Cut the first lemon in 1/2 (pole to pole) – trim the ends from one half and cut crosswise into slices.

Next you need to juice the remaining lemon half and the second lemon to obtain 1/4 cup of lemon juice. This is where a hand juicer/squeezer/reamer would have helped. Um… we used our hands, a spoon, serving spoon handle, fork and just about everything else on the kitchen counter.

Mental note: Still need a real strainer.

Step 3 – Prepping the chicken…

The recipe doesn’t call for pounding the chicken (This is not a euphemism) our breasts were thick (can’t stop laughing…) and we thought they would cook more evenly.

I thought for sure I had a mallet or meat tenderizer – not so much. We once again, improvised…

Add a second layer of parchment  and let the Pound… Pound… Rolling begin…

Sprinkle both sides of the chicken breasts generously with salt and pepper, then coat with flour and shake off excess.

Heat 2 Tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Lay 2 chicken breasts in the skillet. Sauté until browned on both sides. Add the two breasts to the heated plate/dish in the oven. Add more oil to the skillet if needed, and repeat the process with the remaining 2 breasts. Note: If you have a gigantic pan/skillet, you can cook all 4 at once. They still need to go into the oven while you make the sauce. (To keep them cozy)

Add the minced shallot to the now-empty skillet and return the skillet to medium heat. Sauté until fragrant – a minute or two. Add the broth and lemon slices, increase the heat to high, and scrape the pan bottom with a wooden spoon to loosen the browned bits. Simmer until the sauce reduces.

Add the reserved lemon juice and capers and simmer until the sauce reduces again. 

Remove the pan from the heat and swirl in the 3 tablespoons unsalted butter until it melts and thickens the sauce.  Stir in the parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve immediately.

We sautéed baby spinach, garlic, sea salt and evoo as a bed for the chicken. 

I can’t even explain how fabulous the kitchen smelled. This dish was awesome! I will definitely be making it again. I’ve also decided that I now need an assistance – hah!

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May 25 2010

Cashew Crusted Chicken Strips

I took Higgy out for his morning backyard time and noticed something floating in the pool…

It was a bee hitching a ride across the shallow end. Is it weird that I immediately started thinking of the German honey I had and what I could make that would include using it as an ingredient? Probably should have been more concerned about saving Mr. Bee.

I had purchased two trays of chicken breasts  for the weekend BBQ and didn’t end up cooking everything. I saved 3 breasts to cook another way. I’ve been wanting to incorporate nuts into a coating, but wasn’t really sure what kind. I’ve seen so many recipes for baked “fried” chicken. My SIL brought a can of cashews to the weekend BBQ, so I wanted to use up the last of those. I’ve seen recipes that used pistachios and walnuts, so I looked online and took things from each recipe that I thought would work well together.

Ingredients for Cashew Crusted Chicken Strips w/Honey Mustard Sauce:

For the Chicken Strips:
3 Chicken Breasts (I cut each breast into 4 pieces)
1/2 Cup Cashews (lightly salted)
1/2 Cup Panko Bread Crumbs
1/8 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper – I used an extra dash
1 Large Egg White
1 Heaping Tablespoon Dijon Mustard
2 Tablespoons Loosely Packed Parsley
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Cooking Spray (I used olive oil spray)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the panko, cashews, cayenne, parsley and salt and pepper in a bowl. This photo is missing the parsley. The one with came out too blurry.

I used my chopper instead of breaking out the food processor to chop up the cashews – it worked great! I ended up putting the dry ingredients in a glass pie dish for the coating process.

I used a second dish for the wet ingredients.

I separated the egg and then added the dijon mustard to the egg white and whisked things together.

One at a time, I  dipped the chicken strips into the egg white/dijon mixture, then into the cashew/panko mixture. I pressed firmly and made sure both sides were coated really well.

I got all 12 tenders arranged on the spray coated baking sheet and put them into the oven for 15 minutes. I then gave them a quick turn and put them back in for another 15 minutes. I wasn’t very happy with the color – they didn’t brown up as much as I would have liked. I used a new brand of panko – maybe that was it… who knows. I was very careful to not over bake the chicken – I wanted juicy tenders.

While the chicken was in the oven, I whipped up the “bee” inspired sauce.

Ingredients for Honey Mustard Sauce:
3 Tablespoons Honey
2 Tablespoons Dijon
2 Tablespoons Mayo

I kept tweaking it, so the measurements are close guesses.

The chicken strips tasted delicious! Dan’s comment – they are crunchy! He liked them better with BBQ sauce, but then again… he isn’t a huge honey mustard fan to begin with. I felt like the strips were flavorful enough that you didn’t even need a sauce. I plan on using the leftovers in lunch salads for the week. I will for sure be making these again – next time I might even try a different nut… because I’m crazy like that, hah!

In other news… Today Dan and I celebrate our Wedding Anniversary. It’s so hard to believe that it’s already been 6 years since our beautiful wedding in Maui.


We look so um… thin and young… 😉

The plan is to go out for a nice anniversary dinner. Cheers to my awesome hubby and the best 6 years of my life! Can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=252

May 23 2010

Family BBQ

Saturday was filled with lots of family. It’s not often that Dan’s family gets together. Everyone but us lives in the bay area and occasionally we celebrate Christmas and birthdays – but that’s about it. My sister-in-law and bro-in-law had their second baby on April 14th and are moving to Connecticut in June.  My mother in law’s birthday is right around the corner and it gave us the perfect opportunity to have a BBQ.

Dan has 2 sisters and 1 brother. His brother was unable to make the BBQ, but Dan’s parent’s brought his daughter, our niece, Georgia.

She was very happy to be holding her stuffed Toodee – Yo Gabba Gabba! doll. She was not very happy that she couldn’t spend the day in the swimming pool. (It was too cold for swimming)

My niece Freja became fast friends with Higgy. In fact, I think he’s still alseep from all of the activity yesterday.

While the other kids ran around the house chasing Higgy – Baby Odin slept in his carrier, Grandma and Mom’s arms.

It sure felt weird to have a baby and little kids in the house. We entertained them with coasters, entertainment center knobs, dog toys, pillows, mirrors and just about every non-kid friendly item in the house, hah!

Mental note: probably shouldn’t have sold all of the toys, character sippy cups, placemats, plates, etc. that I used to have for my niece Abby.

While everyone was entertaining the kids, I cooked up a storm. I whipped up my Grandpa’s famous BBQ sauce. There is no recipe, he just threw things together in a sauce pot that looked 100 years old. He used to bring everything to the outdoor kitchen/BBQ area and the smells were out of this world. He introduced me to liquid smoke – smoke in a bottle? Are you kidding me? I remember thinking as a kid – that was the coolest thing ever!

I got my onions, celery and oil ready in the pot. I added my rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper, worcestershire, ketchup, liquid smoke and a little water. The sauce was bubbling up a storm and the house smells reminded me of my Grandpa’s cookin’.

I got all of the chicken breasts on the grill and set the timer for 5 minutes. On my 5 minute check, I realized that the BBQ was no longer hot. Dan asked if we had enough propane – I assured him that we were fine. Whoops! Dan and his Dad headed to the gas station for propane and I freaked out because I had timed the mac-n-cheese just right. I knew I was going to need to add milk to get it creamy again. Bummer.

Crisis averted. The guys were quick in getting the propane and emergency apple juice for the kids – I got the chicken cooking again and everything turned out fabulous.

On the menu:
BBQ Chicken, Mac-n-Cheese (kid style – nothing fancy), baked beans, green salad and rolls.

I was juggling everything and didn’t have time for Foo style photos…

Mac-n-Cheese

My Mother in law loves anything Disney. She is from Southern California and she has a season pass to Disneyland. My SIL asked if I could get a German Chocolate Cake and do it up Disney style. I ordered the cake from the bakery, headed to Party City and holy kid zone – so much to choose from. I grabbed a couple of Mickey Mouse things and it turned out cute – she really liked it!

All in all, a great family get together. I was exhausted after a long day. I hit the tub for a relaxing soak around 7:30 and I was in bed by 8:30 :). The hostess with the mostess was one tired girl.

There was mention of using Skype for our families to stay more connected. I’m really looking forward to that.

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