Cooking On the Side » Main Dishes

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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Lemon Spaghetti

Kathy Strahs — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 04:57:18 +0000

Exhibit #5978b on why I’ve lived in suburbia for too long: I found it more than a little bit exciting that they recently redid our Target. New carts! Fresh groceries! (and the pièce de résistance) In-store Starbucks!

I pushed our cart up and down each aisle of the grocery section (which is a financially dangerous thing to do at Target) just to see what all they have now, hoping to find some potentially interesting on-the-package recipes to share here on this blog. I brought the cart to an abrupt halt when I saw Giada De Laurentiis‘ new line of pasta for Target. Hello, recipes!

Giada’s spaghetti was the first box I picked up and on the back was the recipe for Lemon Spaghetti that I’m sharing today. Spaghetti tossed in a light sauce of lemon, olive oil, parmigiano-reggiano and basil is absolutely as fresh-tasting as it sounds. The flavors really scream spring and summer lunch, but I love lemon so much that I wouldn’t dream of waiting till then to eat this. It is such a quintessential Giada recipe, with the bright flavors and simple ingredients. The whole family loved it!

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Tamales

Kathy Strahs — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 05:36:31 +0000

I hope I whet your appetite for Mexican food with last week’s sopes because I’m back this week with Tamales!

I caught the hint that tamales might be a tad labor intensive when three different people kind of sighed and waved their hand when I suggested I wanted to try making them. There’s a good reason families typically save these to make around special occasions, like Christmas. They take hours to make! But I’ll tell you what, when you’re spending half the day slow cooking meat, grinding chiles, mixing masa with your hands and wrapping and steaming little corn husk packages, you can’t help but pour a little love in there as well.

They were certainly the freshest tamales we’d ever had, as they came right from our own kitchen. I had concerns about simmering the pork (it didn’t dry out after all), the chile concoction (it adds deep, earthy flavor to the pork) and the lard (first time ever venturing to cook with it) but I gave the recipe a try anyway. My husband said these were the best tamales he’d ever tasted and I agreed.

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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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Japanese Pork Cutlets (Tonkatsu)

Kathy Strahs — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 05:52:44 +0000

It would happen every single weekend. I’d sit down to sketch out our family’s meals for the week…and drive myself crazy deciding what to make. Didn’t we just have that last week? What’s something good I can make in the slow cooker since I’m out all day Monday? That’s too many chicken dishes in a row, what’s good that’s vegetarian? It was taking almost as long to come up with the menu as it did to shop for the groceries.

I realized that my brain was overloaded with too many options. I was trying to choose from a field of all possible meal ideas in the world for what to make for dinner and was quickly getting overwhelmed. That’s when I realized I needed a shortlist of maybe just 20 or 30 go-to dishes, the ones our family has enjoyed the most. I took ten minutes one morning and brainstormed ideas in categories such as “Poultry”, “Pasta”, “Seafood” and “Slow Cooker”. Oh yes, this was an Excel exercise for sure (remember, I’m Type A). Now I just choose from the list…problem solved.

Of course, I still try out new recipes too. This Japanese Pork Cutlets recipe from the side of a bottle of tonkatsu sauce went straight onto the shortlist under “Pork” once we tried it this week. Anything with a crisp, golden panko crust usually gets my vote. The sweet and tangy katsu sauce is terrific with the savory pork. All I needed were some steamed rice and vegetables to get this new go-to meal on the table in less than 30 minutes.

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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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Balsamic Marinated Lamb Chops

Kathy Strahs — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 04:26:54 +0000

We walked into the restaurant for a good friend’s birthday dinner a few years back and right away we noticed there was something odd about this steakhouse. Smoke rising from steaks searing on an open grill was, of course, expected. But as we moved further into the dining room the smell of those steaks actually seemed to be emanating from rather close by…like they were being grilled right there in the dining room. Oh my goodness, by the restaurant patrons themselves!

If you haven’t been to one of those do-it-yourself grill places (there are a few here in San Diego), it can be a fun social experience with a group. Especially with a group of inexperienced grillers. At the time of this party, my husband and I were abysmally bad at grilling. I don’t think we even owned a barbecue at that point. We could execute a decent burger… beyond that was uncharted territory. Suffice it to say, we enjoyed a lot of side dishes at that party!

These days I’m proud to say I’m a confident griller. I fire up the barbecue nearly every weekend in the summer and lately I’ve been able to manage one weeknight grilled meal as well. Today’s Balsamic Marinated Lamb Chops are perfect for a weeknight. It takes just minutes to assemble the marinade, which is a fabulous combination of savory and tangy flavors. Let the lamb bathe in those flavors overnight, then just grill them off in under 15 minutes for dinner. Toss some asparagus in olive oil, salt and lemon pepper and roll them on the grates for a few minutes while the meat is resting and you’ve got a meal!

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