Cooking On the Side » Chicken

Chicken, Caramelized Onion and Mango Quesadillas

Kathy Strahs — Fri, 04 May 2012 04:45:10 +0000

Yesterday, for me, was one of those “and this too shall pass” kind of days. You know the ones where every last thing seems to go wrong – spills, leaks, costly repairs, overcharges, email snafus, you name it.

I’m turning the page on yesterday – today is a new day and we’re going to start fresh. To send some positivity out into the universe, I want to share a little anecdote from my high school days. It has absolutely nothing to do with these Chicken, Caramelized Onion and Mango Quesadillas that we had for dinner over the weekend…except to say that, like this story, the bright colors and flavors in these fantastic quesadillas remind me that there are lots of little “good things” we encounter every day. We just have to open our eyes to notice them.
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About Cooking On the Side...

It’s the recipe collection I didn’t even realize I had – the one derived from the side of a bag of fresh vegetables, a box of sugar, a jar of mayonnaise. Cooking On the Side – as in on the side of food packaging – is all about “revealing” these on-the-package recipes, with photos of how they actually turn out, cooking notes and more descriptive directions than package space usually allows for. -- Kathy

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Maple-Pecan Crusted Chicken

Kathy Strahs — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 04:22:16 +0000

Just hearing the words “maple-pecan crusted” I’m already interested. I’m thinking about something a little sweet, a little nutty, definitely crunchy – a foray into a satisfying bite. Even though I’m not usually a big fan of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, the promise of this coating – made even crunchier with panko bread crumbs – convinced me to give Maple-Pecan Crusted Chicken a try.

I have a love/hate relationship with boneless, skinless chicken breasts. On the one hand, they’re so easy – they cook fast and it’s lean protein. I can easily chop them up for my kids without having to navigate around bones. But they can turn out dry so easily (in restaurants they almost always seem to be inedibly dry) and they’re often just so blah, flavor-wise. I much prefer a juicier bone-in, skin-on chicken breast or, better yet, thighs.

That said, I’m still open to trying recipes involving boneless, skinless chicken breasts if there’s a flavorful marinade, goodies like prosciutto and cheese stuffed inside, or (as in the case of today’s recipe) there’s a great crust. This chicken turned out to be terrific – crunchy and gently sweet on the outside, moist on the inside. As you can probably tell from the photos, these pieces were on the huge side, so my trusty meat thermometer once again came in handy to ensure I cooked the chicken to the right temperature (but not a degree more!). The only small addition I made to the recipe, which I found on the back of a box of Progresso panko bread crumbs, was to season the chicken before applying the coating.

That’s it – start to finish in under 30 minutes, perfect for a weeknight dinner. While the chicken was baking, I pulled together some Vanilla Glazed Baby Carrots and Lemon Jasmine Rice with Peas and Mint (I’ll be sharing that recipe soon!) to serve on the side.

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Chicken Tomato Saute + Nonstick Skillet Giveaway!

Kathy Strahs — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:49:40 +0000

There are only 2 teaspoons of olive oil in this entire heart healthy Chicken Tomato Sauté dish – I was amazed! Most recipes usually call for 2 tablespoons of oil, but when you’re using a nonstick pan you scarcely need any at all. I often forget this about my nonstick pans. I usually just glug in a tablespoon or two regardless of the type of pan I’m using (I blame too much cooking TV!).

The folks from Teflon sent me a Farberware Restaurant Pro 12-Inch Skillet to try out (they’re also giving one away to one lucky reader – find out how to enter at the end of this post!) in honor of February’s Heart Health Month campaign. If it looks like there’s a ton of food in that skillet in the photo it’s because there is. This is a wide, deep pan with sloped sides – almost like a wok – and it easily accommodated all of the lean chicken breast and fresh vegetables I chopped to prepare this dish. And, as you might expect, everything slid out easily when it came time to serve.

I don’t use nonstick pans for everything – when I want to get a good sear on meat or I need to transfer a skillet from the stovetop to the oven at high heat I’ll go with cast iron or stainless steel – but they’re very much a part of my everyday cooking. And from now on I’ll be going a little easier on the oil when I use them! Read on for the recipe for today’s Chicken Tomato Sauté plus enter to win a Farberware Restaurant Pro 12-Inch Skillet of your own! [THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED]

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Chicken and Rice Chile Verde

Kathy Strahs — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 04:44:37 +0000

If this dish looks vaguely familiar to you it’s because I previously shared a rather similar recipe, for Honey Lemon Chicken, earlier this year. So I hesitated for a moment to post this Chicken and Rice Chile Verde. But, you know, I don’t think you ever can really have too many good one-pot, one-hour chicken and rice recipes…especially when they taste as homey and comforting as these two do.

Things have been a bit sniffly around our house for the past few days (which, as many of you know, happens about every six weeks or so when you live amongst toddlers). Gone are the days when I could call in sick, keep the jammies on all day and catch up on the DVR while I waited out a cold. I’ve got to keep this ship (aka, my household) moving forward. So I power through it, and cook extra-comforting food.

This is definitely one of those dishes that taste even better when you reheat it after a few days. The green chile flavor has had a chance to really seep into the rice and the chicken. The rice becomes almost creamy, like a risotto. It’s not a spicy dish but there is a gentle heat that runs through it. It takes just about an hour start to finish so I actually made it at lunchtime this week, but you can be sure it’s already been added to my weeknight dinner rotation.

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Mexican Chicken Sopes

Kathy Strahs — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 04:02:52 +0000

I hadn’t heard of sopes until a friend of mine brought over some that her mother, who is from Mexico, had made. This was back in my single days – which seem like forever ago, although we’re only talking circa 2003 – when I had my own one-bedroom apartment in one of those ’50s-era buildings in West Hollywood. On Sunday nights, I’d have a small group of girls over for cosmos and watching Sex and the City. We devoured this homemade snack.

Sopes, it turned out, were these little golden-fried masa discs with raised sides to cradle fillings like refried beans, cheese, lettuce and salsa. When you bite into them, the edges are light and crispy while the center of the sope is softer. It tastes much like an extra-thick corn tortilla, which it essentially is – formidable enough to support all the goodies inside. I was excited to recently find a recipe for sopes on the side of a package of masa harina (the main ingredient). I’d been wanting for years to try these again!

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Chicken Curry

Kathy Strahs — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 04:29:56 +0000

It was about time we switched things up at lunch. On most days, my kids get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a quesadilla for lunch. They like it and I can pull it together and get it onto their Dora the Explorer sectioned plates before a meltdown erupts (that’s mainly my 20-month-old little guy – he doesn’t like to wait).

This Chicken Curry recipe, from a can of coconut milk, has been staring at me from the recipe clipboard I recently installed inside my pantry door. In particular, I was drawn to the words “30 minutes total time” at the top. It was going to be dinner one night this week but then I had a light bulb moment: why not make it for lunch instead? Chicken, vegetables and rice in a flavorful broth…that’s something my kids will definitely eat.

This turned out to be an excellent excuse to break from our PB&J and quesadilla lunch rut. It’s a mild-flavored curry, with gentle warmth but not overwhelming heat (of course, you have control over the spice level). Not only did I actually manage to prepare it in about thirty minutes, but I also was able to photograph it within a timeframe acceptable to him-of-little-patience.

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Honey Lemon Chicken

Kathy Strahs — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 05:28:34 +0000

We have what I consider to be a great system in our house. I create the week’s menu, buy the food and cook the meals…my husband does the dishes. It works out most of the time except for my occasional penchant for using nearly every dish in the kitchen to prepare a meal. As I eagerly describe the fabulous roast chicken with sautéed Swiss Chard and homemade rolls I’m planning to make on a Sunday afternoon, all my husband hears is “skillet, knives, cutting board, roasting pan [baked on juices!], bowls, measuring cups, measuring spoons, baking sheet…”

When I find a good one-pot dish it makes both of us happy. I found this Honey Lemon Chicken recipe on a bag of sushi-style rice. The chicken, rice and vegetables all simmer in a braising liquid of honey, lemon, soy sauce and chicken broth in the same pot. Not only did this save me from dirtying too many dishes, it also saved on time – I had dinner on the table in about 45 minutes. Most importantly, the sweet and savory flavors were wonderful. What’s more comforting than chicken and rice?

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Crispy Baked Chicken

Kathy Strahs — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:00:49 +0000

“Want French toast!”

Try as I might, I could not convince my two-and-a-half year old that the corn flake crumb-crusted baked chicken my husband and I were eating was not the Crispy French Toast we had the morning before. The chicken breast half on my daughter’s plate was cut up so it didn’t look anything like the crunchy, golden pieces she saw on our plate. As far as she could see, her father and I were enjoying more of that yummy donut-like French toast…and she wanted some.

Using my best toddler psychology, I asked my husband to put the other uncut half of her chicken breast on her plate. He got ready to cut it up but I stopped him. “Let her see it in a big piece with the crust on it,” I suggested. Sure enough, her big brown eyes lit up, she gripped the chicken breast and gleefully took bites. Then we cut it up for her and she willingly ate her “French toast”. Phew!

As I mentioned earlier this week, I had to overcome a bit of a personal bias against cereal-crusted foods in order to try this Crispy Baked Chicken recipe. I’m so glad I did as this was some terrific chicken. The aromas of the seasonings I mixed in with the corn flake crumbs taunted us for the full hour while the chicken was baking. A drizzle of melted butter on top made the crumbs extra crispy and savory. I wouldn’t have even know the crumbs were from corn flakes if it weren’t for the hint of sweetness that came through. This chicken will definitely be added to our dinner rotation.

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Garlic Lime Chicken Fajitas

Kathy Strahs — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 06:20:32 +0000

I wasn’t looking for any kind of packaged spice mix when I went grocery shopping for ingredients to make chicken fajitas. I usually prefer to just use what I have in my spice drawer at home (which is pretty robust, by the way – one day I’ll post about it!). But I noticed a McCormick display promoting a new product with unusual packaging (see left). It was called Recipe Inspirations and it had six little pre-measured seasoning compartments (let me stress that I’m not being paid in any way to blog about this product). Coincidentally, one of these packets was for a marinade for Garlic Lime Chicken Fajitas.

On the back of the packet they provide a little recipe card and – unlike most spice blends – they actually give you the measurements for each spice. I’m guessing their hope is that you’ll want to make the fajitas again, and next time you’ll buy full bottles of the seasonings. The former marketer in me finds that kind of brilliant.

I didn’t need to buy pre-measured spices, but since the packets only cost a little over a buck I figured I’d pick one up and give their fajitas recipe a try. It was tasty! Fajitas are kind of a go-to weeknight meal in our house, we have them pretty often. I’m a fan of citrus-marinated chicken, so the lime and orange juices in this recipe really worked for me. I normally would have made fajitas with fresh garlic and cilantro, but the dried seasoning approach wasn’t bad either. And it definitely was a timesaver.

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Quick Fiesta Chicken Soup

Kathy Strahs — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:44:04 +0000

I’ve done what I used to think was the impossible, a feat reserved for only the superhuman among us. With the exception of our regular Saturday night take0ut, as of tomorrow I will have cooked dinner at home every night for the past two weeks.

Between activities, errands, a second infant and witching hour (do all children receive the memo on this one during delivery??) I’d been cooking two to three nights a week at best. Meal planning never worked for me, as I struggled to decide what to make – just thinking through a menu takes a lot of time I usually don’t have. A few weeks ago I finally decided to try those weekly menus and shopping lists you see in some food and lifestyle magazines, like the Grocery Bag feature in Everyday Food and the Real Simple Recipe Shopping Lists. For once I’m glad to have the decisions made for me! I just buy all the ingredients and make all the dishes on the menu, even the ones I’m not sure I’ll totally like. The ingredients in both magazines’ menus are seasonal and take relatively little hands-on prep time; the Everyday Food ones, in particular, tend to be rather economical too. I save my “big fancy meals” and most baking for the weekend when I have more time and an extra set of hands (my husband’s) to watch the kids. I should have started this long ago.

In the spirit of getting mid-week dinner on the table, I wanted to share this incredibly quick, easy and tasty recipe for a Fiesta Chicken Soup that comes from a carton of chicken broth. I suppose it’s called “Fiesta” as it’s similar to a Mexican chicken tortilla soup, with the zing of lime juice in the broth along with the flavors of jalapeño, cilantro and avocado. The way I prepared this soup actually wasn’t so quick, as I made my own chicken stock and grilled some organic chicken. But for nearly as good results in under 20 minutes you could easily use a good quality ready-made stock and rotisserie chicken.

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