Category — Chicken Recipes

So we’ve talked about snacks and we’ve talked about vegetables and we’ve talked about all sorts of things, but I think it’s time we talked about dinner again.  Don’t you?  Actually, I usually try to stay away from giving you guys dinner recipes, because it dawned on me a while back: you probably don’t really need dinner recipes.  If you’re like me, you struggle with ”What else should I make?” rather than “What should I make?”  It’s happened to me many, many times:  I put together a great chicken dish, it’s all done, hot, yummy, and ready, and I’m popping a can of green beans open and nuking them while I set the table because I have no idea what else to make.  That’s why I do my Saturday Sides feature.  It’s why I give you snackies, and bread, and appetizers.  These are the things that continue to baffle us in the kitchen.  And I will continue to give you those recipes.

Still, every once in a while, I make something for dinner and I think “Wow, I gotta tell my readers about this.  This is knock-your-socks-off good!”  Welp, today’s recipe is just that way.  Not only is it unreal how fantastic this tastes, but it makes you look like you’re a kitchen genius when you make it since it looks even more wonderful than it tastes.  The best news of all is, this recipe is easy.  No flambeing, no sautéing, no shimy-shaying.  Heck I went to culinary school and I still prefer to skip the shimy-shay. 

Announcing TKD

So if you’re like me and you’re hoping for something hefty for Mother’s Day (which is in 18.5 days, but who’s counting) use this recipe to continue your quest toward becoming a Kitchen Diva.  I don’t know about you, but I’m really looking forward to restocking my supply of handmade Mother’s Day cards and gifts. (I keep every single one!  They’re so cool.)  I bet Kitchen Divas get the best Mother’s Day presents.  I think I shall start a club and call it the “TKD”, short for The Kitchen Divas.  From here on out, you can look for the TKD stamp of approval on recipes for your family.  Recipes that will raise your dinner exit poll rating.

When I pick a “TKD” recipe I’ll have four basic questions:

Two yes questions:  1.  Does it taste good enough that most* of my family will eat it?  2.  Does it look good?

Two no questions:  1.  Is it hard to make?  2.  Is it horribly bad for me (or my family) i.e., will it raise my cholesterol by more than 10 points in one sitting?

*Yes, I said most.  There’s five of us, and if four people will eat it - then it’s a winner.

So, for today’s recipe let’s see how it measures up.

Pecan Crusted Chicken Skewers

Does it taste good enough that most of my family will eat it?  Oh heck yeah.  Only my non-meat eater won’t eat this, and sometimes she’s even willing to pick the pecans off thereby transferring some chicken residue into her body.

Does is look good?  Yes.  Yup.  ZOMG yes.  These have a very high presentation appeal, which means “I’d even make these for company they look so good!”

Is it hard to make?  No, not too bad.  A few extra steps for the pecan crust and you gotta make some gravy, but it’s completely doable in an hour or less.

Is it horribly bad for me (or my family)?  Well, it’s not fried and it is chicken, so that’s good.  But it is covered in pecans and you dip it in gravy.  It could be a little better for you, but since it’s oven baked and not red meat it works for me.

Looks like this one is a winner.  So, on to the recipe.

Pecan Crusted Chicken Skewers
Adapted from Taste of the South

8 (6 inch) bamboo skewers
4 boneless, skinless chikcen breasts, cut into half
Salt and Pepper (to taste)
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup finely chopped toasted pecans
Country Gravy

Cut each breast into half vertically.  Insert Skewer through the length of each piece of chicken and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Set aside.

In a shallow bowl, or pan, stir eggs and milk, mixing well.  Place flour on a large plate and pecans on another large plate.  Dredge each chicken skewer in flour, then roll in egg, then roll in the pecans.

Place each skewer on a greased baking pan.

Bake at 400F degrees for about 30 minutes, or until cooked through.

Serve with country gravy.

For the gravy:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups milk
fresh cracked black pepper (about 1 teaspoon worked for me)
salt to taste (about 1/2 teaspoon)

In a medium sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat.

Add flour, stirring well.
Cook until flour turns golden brown, then add milk and pepper.  Stir well to avoid lumps.

Lower heat and cook for 5 to 10 minutes.  Season with salt and keep warm.

For more information on making gravy you can find a cooking lesson here.

Without pictures:

Pecan Crusted Chicken Skewers
Adapted from Taste of the South

8 (6 inch) bamboo skewers
4 boneless, skinless chikcen breasts, cut into half
Salt and Pepper (to taste)
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup finely chopped toasted pecans
Country Gravy

Cut each breast into half vertically.  Insert Skewer through the length of each piece of chicken and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Set aside.
In a shallow bowl, or pan, stir eggs and milk, mixing well.  Place flour on a large plate and pecans on another large plate.
Dredge each chicken skewer in flour, then roll in egg, then roll in the pecans.
Place each skewer on a greased baking pan.
Bake at 400F degrees for about 30 minutes, or until cooked through.
Serve with country gravy.

For the gravy:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups milk
fresh cracked black pepper (about 1 teaspoon worked for me)
salt to taste (about 1/2 teaspoon)

In a medium suace pan, melt butter over medium heat.
Add flour, stirring well.
Cook until flour turns golden brown, then add milk and pepper.  Stir well to avoid lumps.
Lower heat and cook for 5 to 10 minutes.  Season with salt and keep warm.

Remember when I waxed poetic about The Olive Garden’s Venetian Apricot Chicken?  I know I remember because, well, Apricot Chicken has become one of my favorites.  I can’t seem to get enough.  Especially when I cover it in Roma tomatoes and . . . oh goodness.  Hang on.  O.k., I’m back, I had to just run in the kitchen and whip up a batch.  Not really.  I’m just kidding.  I don’t have time for that right now, silly.

Speaking of not having time . . . a few days back I was in a time crunch; I needed dinner at the normal time and I knew we were going to fly in the door about 15 minutes before that and needed to leave again 12.2 minutes after dinner was on the table.  Don’t ya just love life in the fast lane?  Sounds like a crockpot kind of day to me. 

Thanks to my latest obsession with Apricot Chicken, I decided to get adventurous and try to make it in the crockpot.  There’s always peanut butter if it doesn’t turn out (apologies to my homies with nut allergies).  Plus, I had this super sad looking basil in the fridge and it really needed to be used up, because in a matter of hours it was going to be beyond use.  And that would be a shame! 

It took a little switching it up to make the recipe work, but the results were amazing.  And, at the risk of boring the crapola out of you all with the same recipe, I’m posting it here since this version is a lot more user friendly.

I will admit, I overcooked it.  My crockpot doesn’t cook super hot, but my Mother-In-Law’s crockpot apparently does, and I was using her crockpot since I confiscated it (it’s got a nifty lid with a strap thingy-ma-jigger and I really needed that strap).  I left the chicken on low for 7 hours, in a very hot crockpot, and it easily would have been ready in 5 hours.  It was still very tasty, but you’ll want to watch your time for optimus turnus-outis.  (That’s Angie-speak for “don’t let it burn or it might taste bad.”)

I served it along side some pasta tossed with pesto and some garlic bread.  Holy Chickens!  Good stuff!!

Crockpot Apricot Chicken

2 pounds boneless chicken breast, frozen
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons fresh basil, cut into small pieces
1 cup apricot preserves
1 cup water
2 teaspoons chicken base or bouillon

12 ounces (about 3 large) roma tomatoes, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon italian seasoning

Place chicken breasts into crockpot.
Combine garlic powder, salt, and black pepper and sprinkle over the top of the chicken.

In a small bowl, combine basil, apricot preserves, water, and chicken base and pour over the chicken.

Arrange tomatoes over the top of the chicken, sprinkle chopped garlic over the tomatoes, and sprinkle salt, pepper, garlic powder, and italian seasoning over the tomatoes.

Cook on low heat 5-7 hours, or until chicken is done.

 Crockpot Apricot Chicken

2 pounds boneless chicken breast, frozen
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons fresh basil, cut into small pieces
1 cup apricot preserves
1 cup water
2 teaspoons chicken base or bouillon

12 ounces (about 3 large) roma tomatoes, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon italian seasoning

Place chicken breasts into crockpot.
Combine garlic powder, salt, and black pepper and sprinkle over the top of the chicken.
In a small bowl, combine basil, apricot preserves, water, and chicken base and pour over the chicken.
Arrange tomatoes over the top of the chicken, sprinkle chopped garlic over the tomatoes, and sprinkle salt, pepper, garlic powder, and italian seasoning over the tomatoes.
Cook on low heat 5-7 hours, or until chicken is done.

On Easter this year we had turkey and ham. Lucky us! Of course, this is way too much food for 7 adults and 4 picky kids, but that didn’t stop me from roasting an 18 pound bird. Can you say “leftovers?” Well, that’s not such a bad thing, I suppose.

As soon as we started cleaning up, I plopped the turkey carcass in a huge pot of boiling water and I added a pared carrot, some onions (with skins), celery, thyme, and peppercorns. I let that cook for several hours and made one heck of a stock. I cannot tell you how much better this tastes than anything you’ll buy at the store. It’s a little work, and you gotta have a big ol’ stock pot, and someplace to store the stock when you’re done… but if you have the option you really need to make some. No need for me to tell you how to do it, since these directions are very well done.

Since I have all this stock and leftover turkey to use up, I decided to dig out an old recipe I have titled “Chicken and Noodles.” Now, these noodles remind me a lot of dumplings, but they are cut like noodles - and call them whatever you want, they are beyond tasty. These are a little work, maybe a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10, but completely worth the effort.

There are a lot of pictures here, so as you won’t be intimidated by the dough; mixing it, rolling it out, flipping it, and cutting it. I promise you can do it!!

If you don’t have a pastry board or a large cutting board, you can use your kitchen counter. Just make sure it’s super clean and sprinkle flour directly on the counter. You also can make these without a rolling pin. A large cup or glass works; again, just sprinkle it with flour.

If you mix up the dough and it’s not sticky and is super easy to roll out - and you’re thinking “Cool! I didn’t even need to add that much flour to roll this out!” that’s great, but you need to add extra flour anyhow. Sprinkle the flour on like it tells you to in the directions. The flour is what thickens the stock, so you need at least an extra half of a cup added through sprinkling it over the dough or turkey.

Chicken and Noodles

14 cups chicken or turkey stock (that works out to about eight 14.5 ounce cans of stock)
1 1/2 pounds of shredded chicken or turkey
6 egg whites
1 egg yolk
3-4 cups flour, divided
3 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup milk

In a large stock pot bring stock to a boil.

While stock is coming to a boil, mix 3 cups of flour, egg whites, egg yolk, salt, and milk.

Add flour (if needed) until you get firm ball.

Place dough ball on a floured pastry board. Flatten the ball and flip the circle over. Flour the dough, flatten, and flip it over again. Keep flipping dough until it is fairly thin. When the dough has been flipped several times you can roll out the dough with a rolling pin until you have the thickness you desire (I recommend 1/8-inch).

Generously sprinkle the dough with flour and roll it up like a newspaper roll.

Cut the roll, in strips, to thickness desired (I like about 1/4 inch).

Unroll the strips, and cut them into shorter pieces, if desired.

Place the noodles in a bowl and add another sprinkle of flour. Try to use at least a total of 1/2 cup of flour when rolling out the noodles.

Carefully add noodles to the boiling stock and stir gently to seperate the noodles.  (Yes, I did say to be careful because I burnt the you-know-what out of my fingers doing this).

Add the shredded meat and stir to mix.  If you need to add a little more flour you can sprinkle over the meat, like I have done here.

Return to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and stir often.  Season with salt and black pepper. 

See my new baby sized pepper grinder?  I thought it was so cool looking, I just had to have it.  Turns out, baby sized pepper grinders look great, but don’t work great.  Well, at least I was able to warn you.  I guess that’s the silver lining, right?

Simmer for an hour, or longer if desired.  Stock will thicken as it cooks.  I like to serve mine over mashed potatoes!  Now, quit licking your screen and go make your own!

Without the pictures:

Chicken and Noodles

14 cups chicken or turkey stock  (that works out to about eight 14.5 ounce cans of stock)
1 1/2 pounds of shredded chicken or turkey
6  egg whites
1  egg yolk
3-4 cups flour, divided
3 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup milk

In a large stock pot bring stock to a boil.
While stock is coming to a boil, mix 3 cups of flour, egg whites, egg yolk, salt, and milk. 
Add flour (if needed) until you get firm ball.
Place dough ball on a floured pastry board. Flatten the ball flip the circle over.  Flour the dough, flatten, and flip it over again.  Keep flipping dough until it is fairly thin.  When the dough has been flipped several times you can roll out the dough with a rolling pin until you have the thickness you desire (I recommend 1/8-inch).
Generously sprinkle the dough with flour and roll it up like a newspaper roll.
Cut the roll, in strips, to thickness desired (I like about 1/4 inch).
Unroll the strips, and cut them into shorter pieces, if desired.
Place the noodles in a bowl and add another sprinkle of flour.  Try to use at least a total of 1/2 cup of flour when rolling out the noodles.
Carefully add noodles to the boiling stock and stir gently to seperate the noodles.
Add the shredded meat and stir to mix.
Return to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and stir often.  Season with salt and pepper.
Simmer for an hour, or longer if desired.  Stock will thicken as it cooks.