Chicken Jumbalaya

This week’s new recipe was chicken jumbalaya. Brian’s dad was visiting this weekend and I thought this would be a good dinner for Sunday. Brian and I had soccer so we didn’t end up trying it until Monday. I was a little nervous about serving it without trying it first, but I was reassured that it was tasty.

This was a pretty simple and easy recipe and it used the crockpot. I actually made quite a few modifications to the recipe which isn’t something I usually do the first time making something.

The recipe called for frozen onions and peppers and that’s not really my thing. I prefer fresh, and I didn’t think this should affect the recipe too much. Also the recipe called for diced tomatoes with jalapenos. Instead I used Rotel tomatoes with green chilis. I chopped up the onion and bell peppers and into the crockpot they went. Then I added the canned tomatoes, turkey sausage (which was already cooked), raw chicken and water. The recipe I was following also said to add the seasoning from the jumbalaya rice package. Well the rice that I got didn’t have the seasoning packaged separately from the rice so it didn’t go in yet. This cooked up in the crockpot while I was sleeping (definitely lazy cooking!) which was about 3 hours on high. Then I added the packaged rice (and seasoning). At this point I was worried that there wasn’t enough rice. I used about 20 ounces of canned tomatoes and the recipe only called for 14 ounces. After I got the rice in the pot, it just seemed that there wasn’t enough so I added about ¼ cup of plain brown rice too. Then I let it cook for another 45-50 minutes on high.

Well, there is a lot of rice now. I think there would have been plenty without that extra amount so I probably won’t do that next time.

Here’s what it looked like stewing in the crock pot.

Here’s the recipe (modified):
Servings: 6
1 medium to large white onion – chopped (larger pieces)
2 bell peppers – chopped (larger pieces) I used green and orange for the colors
2 - 10.5 oz cans Rotel tomatoes with green chili, undrained
2 cups water
8 oz turkey sausage, cubed
8 oz chicken breast, sliced
1 – 8oz packaged jumbalaya rice

Add onion, peppers, canned tomatoes to crockpot. Add water. Add sausage and chicken. (If your rice has the seasoning separate, add it now). Cover and cook on high for 2.5-3 hours or low for 5-6 hours. Then add rice, cover and cook on high for another 45 minutes or until liquid is soaked up and rice is tender.

Hash Browns

Even though this isn’t the most exciting side to make, I’m pretty excited about my recent effort to make hash browns.

I have to start with the first time I ever tried to make hash browns. I didn’t bother with a recipe or anything. I mean it’s just hash browns…how hard can those be? Well they aren’t hard, but you do have to know the method. My mistake was stirring the potatoes. I didn’t know better and I thought this is how I’d get them all cooked. Not successful. Later I found out that there is no stirring required. Just get the potatoes in there, let the bottom brown up, flip and let the other side brown up.

Fast forward to this past weekend…

I’m also pretty excited about this cooking event because I used the shredder plate on my food processor for the first time. I always knew that it was capable of shredding, but I didn’t really understand how it would work. Saturday morning I had 5 potatoes cleaned up and ready to shred. At this point I was still skeptical of the food processor shredding ability so I got out the hand shredder. After I finished potato #2 I decided to get daring. The old fashioned way was taking a long time and my hands were already tired! Well the food processor was amazing. I just had to cut the potatoes in half length-wise and drop them in the little chute. They shredded up nicely. It does leave a thin slice of potato (very potato chip like), but that’s ok. And 5 medium sized potatoes shredded ended up being a lot of potato (2 plates of hash browns worth!).

This time I consulted a cookbook just to get a reality check on what to do, basically heat level and time. It said medium heat about 10 minutes per side. To grease the skillet (large skillet), I used a little bit of EVOO and butter (about ½ tbsp). I had a large skillet, but I still only got about half of the potatoes in there. I salted and peppered the top side on the first batch, but not the second batch. I’m not sure it made a difference even though I thought I used a lot of seasoning. After a few minutes I decided to cover the skillet…I was a little worried about all of those potatoes getting cooked up. After about 10 minutes I looked underneath as best I could to make sure the bottom was browned up. It was time to flip them.

Here comes the tricky part. I decided to try a trick I recently say Rachael Ray do (I can’t even remember what she was cooking though). I got a plate that was about as big as the skillet and I flipped the hash browns onto the plate. I added a little more EVOO and then I slid the hash browns back in the skillet to let the other side brown up. I was worried about burning myself or that the hash browns would stick or not flip over right, but it turned out beautifully. I used my left hand to tilt the plate up as I was turning the skillet upside down in the right hand. It worked pretty well. I put the skillet back on the stove and let the hash browns slide back into the skillet which also worked fairly easy. If you are nervous about this trick (which I’m sure can be applied to many other things), I recommend practicing with a smaller skillet. My plate was just smaller than the skillet. Ideally the plate will be slightly larger. Then you can put the plate upside down over the skillet. Place one hand on the bottom of the plate and flip the skillet while the plate is in contact with skillet. Or you can always just put the potatoes in half the skillet, then flip it over to the other side.

And the recipe…this is about half of what I did. I had to make 2 batches though.

Servings – 2ish
2-3 medium potatoes, cleaned
½ tbsp butter
½ tbsp EVOO (divided)
Salt and pepper to taste

Shred potatoes. Add salt and pepper. Heat butter and some EVOO (just drizzle) in large skillet over medium heat. After butter is melted, add potatoes. The thicker the layer the less crispy the hash browns will be. Cook about 8-10 minutes (covered) until bottom is browned. (I just poked around the outside to see). Flip and add more EVOO to skillet. Cook until bottom side is browned about 8-10 minutes.

If you like to get daring with your hash browns, I recommend adding chopped onions, garlic, maybe some peppers.

Things to look forward to.

In my first blog I said I had 3 pictures.  Wrong.  I only had 2.  So I won't be posting again until I cook something.  No fears though, the plan is to make Chicken Jumbalaya on Sunday.

I also have a new quest for myself.  Last night at a delicious restaurant (BJ's) I had the Santa Fe Salad.  It's one of my favorite meals so I'm going to try to reproduce it, probably not as a salad though.  The main challenges will be figuring out the dressing (I'm guessing sour cream and salsa) and how to blacken chicken.  Maybe we can learn together!

Panko Crusted Chicken with Tomato Sauce

Today’s creation is Panko Crusted Chicken with a tomato sauce. I found this recipe because I want to use up the panko crumbs I have left over after I tried to make salmon cakes (disaster!). Panko crumbs are basically bread crumbs…I think they are usually used in seafood – like the breaded shrimp I believe is with panko crumbs.

I should have known that I was not going to nail this recipe the first time I tried it. I always burn breaded chicken. For some reason I just haven’t gotten the hang of it. So here’s how the evening went…

Since I was trying something new I read through the entire recipe, and then I got out my ingredients. I like to be extra ready the first time I try something because I just never know how it’s going to turn out. In order to bread something, you generally coat it in flour and then egg (the egg sticks to the flour - without the flour, the egg would slide off the raw chicken). Then comes the crumbs. For this recipe the crumbs were mixed with seasoning and parmesan cheese. This recipe is a little messy and dirties a lot of dishes (one for the flour, one for the crumbs, one for the egg) which is something that turns me off of a meal but this one is good enough to at least try again. I preheated the oil in the skillet while I was getting everything ready (maybe that made the oil too hot?).

While I was burning the chicken I was getting the sauce ready. This was completely new to me and I have to say it was amazing. The recipe calls for cherry tomatoes and basil and garlic. The tomatoes basically stew in the saucepan and then they burst from the heat! They become incredibly soft. I usually don’t use fresh herbs even when the recipe calls for it. I substitute with dried. Fresh herbs can be pricey, and I can never use an entire package before it goes bad (add a papertowel to the package to help them last longer). For the basil though I went with the fresh kind and I was extremely happy I did. I think basil is sort of licorice-ishy. It was fantastic with the tomatoes.

The tomato sauce tops the chicken (ideally chicken which is not charred). I then sprinkled the combo with fresh parmesan. I believe this recipe to be a slightly healthier version of chicken parmesan. It was pretty tasty even though the breading was burnt. The chicken stayed moist and the tomato sauce was extra yummy. Next time I make this (planning to in a couple weeks) I’m planning on using less heat than what the recipe calls for. I have a gas stove which I think tends to be hotter than electric ones. I’m also thinking that I will pound the chicken breast slightly or maybe even use tenders. Hopefully that will help prevent burning!

And here’s the recipe: http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=3313

Since this is a Rachael Ray recipe, I’m just copying the link. Not sure how reproduction rules work in this case, but I like to avoid legal trouble.

Peanut Butter Chicken and Fried Rice Recipe

My first meal is Peanut Butter Chicken and Fried Rice. This is probably my favorite meal. It’s pretty simple and it’s delicious. I mean you can’t go wrong with peanut butter. I have made this dish a handful of times so I’m really getting the hang of it. Here’s how I do it.

First I cook the rice according to the package directions. I always use brown rice since that’s supposed to be healthier. The rice needs to cool before you actually make fried rice with it so this is more like the preparation stage (if you’re cramped on time just use the refrigerator to help cool it down). I like to incorporate tofu into this dish. I like to eat tofu on a regular basis just for the health benefits. This is one of the easiest dishes to add it to I think. So after I get the rice started, I drain and dry the tofu. I use half a package for the 2 of us.

Next is the chicken. I cut the raw chicken (2 breasts) into cubes so that it cooks faster.  My standard method for cooking chicken is pan-cooking. I drizzle the pan with extra virgin olive oil and heat it to medium. Then I add the chicken, let it brown on one side, flip and let the other side brown. Usually a few minutes on each side. At this point I add chicken broth to the pan and cover and let the chicken cook the rest of the way (I also add the tofu here too). I turn down the heat just a little too, but keep the broth simmering. Since we are smothering our chicken in peanut butter it doesn’t matter too much how it gets cooked.

While the chicken is cooking away I start on the sauce. In a small sauce pan I melt butter and peanut butter and add a little oil (I use extra virgin olive oil most of the time). I don’t usually measure things anymore; it’s usually not necessary. But roughly it’s a tablespoon of butter, tablespoon of EVOO, and 1.5 – 2 tablespoons of peanut butter. I just stir this all together after the peanut butter softens up enough. I keep the heat very low as well.

Now it’s time to get back to the rice. I use a large skillet and heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add some garlic and onion to this (I’ve used anything from red to yellow to green). Sometimes I save some of the tofu and add it to the rice. If I did, this is the point to add the tofu. Now beat 1 or 2 eggs (1 is usually plenty for 2 rice servings) and mix the egg with the rice until the rice looks evenly coated. By this time the garlic and onion should be browning up. Add the rice to the hot skillet and stir as needed. After it looks like the egg has fried up, add teriyaki sauce (soy sauce would also work). I use about 5 shakes of the bottle. Enough to turn the rice darker, but don’t soak the rice. Keep stirring, but it only takes a few more minutes for the rice to be complete.

By this time the chicken is cooked so I add it (and the tofu) to the peanut butter sauce that is melted. I cover all the chicken and tofu. Then I pile the rice on a plate and top with the chicken! Delicious. Here’s the finished product! And after the picture is full recipe.

Peanut Butter Chicken and Fried Rice – 2 servings
Peanut Butter Sauce
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp oil
In small saucepan melt ingredients together over low heat. Stir to combine.

Chicken
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
2 chicken breast, cubed
Half package extra firm tofu, cubed

Drizzle EVOO in skillet. Brown chicken 3 minutes on each side over medium heat. Add tofu. Add chicken broth. Reduce heat slight, but still allow broth to simmer. Cover. Cook until done. (Add more broth if all broth boils off but the chicken isn’t done). Stir the chicken and tofu into the warm peanut butter sauce to cover completely.

Fried Rice
Cooked rice (cook according to package directions) and allow to cool
1 clove of garlic, diced
½ tbsp EVOO
½ onion, diced
1 egg, beaten
½ cup teriyaki sauce
Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onion and allow to brown. (If using green onion, add when the rice is added). Mix the beaten egg with the rice to cover the rice. Add the rice to a hot skillet. Allow the egg to fry on the rice – stir as needed (few minutes). Add teriyaki and stir to coat.

Top the chicken onto the rice and serve!

New Look New Subject!

My dear blog I have abandoned you.  For awhile I've been thinking of posting about my new hobby - cooking.  Since it's a new subject, I decided the blog should have a new look!

I guess since it's technically the first post of the new blog I'll start with background.  (Oh don't worry, I'm sure I'll be compelled to add stories about the puppies every once in awhile).

When I was in school, cooking consisted of spaghetti.  Actually this was the first meal I made for Brian.  He claims to have liked it, but I now know that Brian does not like spaghetti.  I guess back then his taste buds were clouded since he had a crush on the chef.  When I started cooking for both Brian and myself, the meals were generally easy ones: hot dogs, veggie burgers, pasta, etc.  Thanks to Rachael Ray I have matured in the kitchen.  I think RR was a good way to learn cooking because her meals seem repeatable.  The main advantage is that she cooks them in 30 minutes!  After a few years of watching her show and getting a cook book or two, I'm pretty comfortable in the kitchen now.

So my current idea is to blog about my newest culinary achievements.  My goal is to try 1 new recipe a week.  I'm pretty good at meeting this unless soccer gets in the way.  I've started taking pictures of the dinners too so I already have a few meals to catch up on.  Those will be the first blog posts.

Here's what you can look forward to...
-Panko Crusted Chicken (RR recipe)
-Peanut Butter Chicken (Krista original)
-I know there was one more, but I can't remember it now...

By the way, I use chicken in about 93% of my meals.  Every once in awhile a meal will be meatless (I have to sneak these past Brian), and sometimes I use beef.  Chicken just seems the easiest to me.