LEMON CREAM CHICKEN

When I first started blogging it was about home renovations that were forced on us when we bought some investment property.  Soon after though I realized that my favorite blogs to read and the women I met were those of the foodie genre.  Since then I have made more recipes from the scraps of paper I collected over the years.  Some were real duds, but some shone brightly.

Tonight the Lemon Cream Chicken shined the brightest of all recent recipes I've tried. So, I'm going to share it with you and hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

LEMON CREAM CHICKEN
1/3 cup WONDRA flour
salt and pepper to taste
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves**
3 tablespoons butter
1 KNORR chicken homestyle stock tub
3/4 cup hot water
1 cup whipping cream
Juice of 1 large lemon
1/4 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

• Wash and dry chicken pieces.
• Generously salt and pepper each side.
• Dredge in the flour, pressing to coat well.
• In a large skillet, melt butter.
• Add chicken pieces and brown on each side.  Remove chicken and keep warm.
• Add KNORR stock and hot water, whisking into drippings until well blended.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat and simmer about 10 minutes until reduced by half.
• Whisk in the lemon juice and whipping cream until well blended.  
• Reduce heat and add mushrooms cooking about 5 minutes until mushrooms are tender.
• Simmer to desired consistency.
• Pour over chicken and mashed potatoes.

**I use thinly sliced chicken steaks which are basically chicken breasts that are sliced at least once and many times 3 times.  This helps for portion control and works wonders!  Since my last surgery and for medical reasons I'm supposed to eat less each meal and eat more meals.  This it happens allows me to try even more recipes as long as I adjust them to feed 2.

Grilled Pineapple Chicken

This month, my assignment for Secret Recipe Club was:

Close to Home.

Maria has lots of great-sounding recipes, but it's summer and it's hot and I wanted to cook something on the grill.  So I made my choice:  her Grilled Pineapple Chicken Kabob Foil Packets.  While the name is a mouthful, the recipe is pretty darn good.  Easy to put together, I had just about everything in my kitchen to whip these up.  We make Campfire Potatoes a lot, but I don't remember doing any packets with meat in them, not sure why.

I packaged mine up ahead of time, then tossed them on the grill just before dinner. 

My husband didn't make it home for dinner, so I had two younger taste-testers.  My oldest boy liked it and ate his whole dinner.  I should have made rice to go with these!  My youngest said he didn't like the chicken, but he did eat a couple bites.

These would be very good with rice, and I think next time I'll cook them just a bit less.  I used my own peach jam from last summer, and I decided to coat the chicken with the preserve mixture first, instead of piling it on with the vegetables.  It worked great.

Before grilling, 1 serving

Grilled Pineapple Chicken Foil Packs
Adapted from Close to Home 
Makes 4 servings
 
1/3 cup pineapple, peach or apricot preserves (I used my own peach jam)
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (I used a pinch)
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2-inch cubes (1 lb)
1 medium red bell pepper, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes (I used 2 yellow peppers I had)
1 cup pineapple chunks
1 red onion, cut in 1 inch cubes (I only used 1/2 an onion)
salt, to taste

Heat grill on medium heat.  In small bowl, stir together pineapple preserves, brown sugar, soy sauce and crushed red pepper.  Add chicken breast chunks and toss until coated.

Cut 8 (12×12-inch) sheets of heavy-duty foil. Divide coated chicken, bell peppers, pineapple chunks and onion evenly among foil sheets. Sprinkle each lightly with salt. Seal edges tightly, folding and rolling in toward the center three or four times.  Seal opposite sides, then fold edges in on last two sides and roll in a similar fashion, taking care not to package the food too snugly but sealing edges carefully so juices don't leak out when flipped.

Reduce grill to low.  Place packets on grill over low heat. Cover grill; cook 6 minutes. Using tongs, carefully turn packets over, taking care not to puncture foil. Cook 10 to 12 minutes longer or until chicken is no longer pink in center and vegetables are crisp-tender.

***If you're looking for a fun new food blog event, look no further!  Taste & Create is a fabulous monthly blog event in which participants are randomly paired off to choose and prepare a dish from their partner's blog. 

 If you'd like to join us, please email me at 
cowgirlmin07 [at] gmail [dot] com for more information!  

We'd love to have you.***

Olive and Eggplant Spread

Olive and Eggplant Spread

Serves 8

2 eggplants, each 1 to 1.5 pounds, washed and dried

½ cup olive oil, divided

¾ cup pitted Kalamata or other brine-cured black olives, pitted

2 to 3 tablespoons drained capers, rinsed

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Halve eggplants lengthwise. Then score flesh ½-inch deep in a crosshatch pattern.

2. Rub eggplant halves all over with ¼ cup olive oil. Place cut sides down on a baking sheet.

3. Bake on the middle rack of a 375°F. oven until flesh is browned and very tender, about 1 hour. Let cool slightly.

4. Scoop flesh from eggplant into a large food processor; discard skin.

5. Into food processor, also add olives, capers, remaining ¼ cup olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste.

6. Process until mixture is smooth.

7. Transfer to a bowl and serve at room temperature with Pita Toasts, baguette slices, or water crackers.

NOTE: From the Gourmet Cookbook, which says, “This is very similar to the Provencal olive condiment known as tapenade, but it’s beefed up with eggplant, which gives it a more luxurious texture and, not incidentally, makes it less expensive to prepare.

Original recipe called for extra-virgin olive oil, but I used regular olive oil, and I thought the spread turned out deliciously.

The spread can be made up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated, covered. Bring to room temperature before serving.

BBQ HERBED CHICKEN

It was another scorcher here today of 112 degrees and monsoony humid so we stayed inside and painted the bathroom and a bedroom.  I'm exhausted though so decided to make this simple recipe for the grill.  It was made even simpler by having the lime juice in the freezer.  I buy the fruit and then squeeze it all at once making it into cubes for future recipes. And then even simpler yet by converting the fresh herbs into dry measurements and using a mortar & pestle to revive them.  This was a substitute for tonight, but I highly recommend using the fresh when you can.

HERBED BBQ CHICKEN
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup lime juice
2 tablespoons fresh chopped basil
2 tablespoons fresh chopped oregano
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon lemon pepper
4 chicken thighs, about 1 pound*
4 chicken drumsticks, about 1 pound*

• In a small food processor mix together everything except the chicken.
• Wash and dry the chicken pieces.
• Pour herb mixture into a large ziploc bag and add chicken pieces.  Marinate chciken for 30 minutes to 24 hours.

• Heat grill and spray with PAM for grilling especially if using skin free pieces.
• Place chicken pieces on grill, reserving the marinade.
• Cook on one side and then turning to other side.  Time will vary drastically based on type of chicken pieces you are using.

• Pour reserved marinade into a small saucepan.
• Bring to a boil over a medium-high heat and then remove from heat.
• Brush over chicken pieces.

*I use whatever I have on hand - breasts, tenders, etc....