Chicken Parm Skillet

Since having two babies to take care of, I’m loving meals that are good tasting, fresh ingredients, easy to cook and clean up. Once I saw this chicken parm skillet meal I knew I had to make it.  I have to admit at first I was super intimated to cook on my  cast iron skillet, but we are becoming better friends.  The key is to cook low and slow on it. You could use any skillet for this meal, you don’t need to have a cast iron skillet. This recipe made a ton, so we had leftovers for a few days and it was just as good!

Ingredients:

1 28 ounce can of tomatoes, either peeled or diced

1 tablespoon of olive oil

6 garlic cloves, mashed

1/4 teaspoon of oregano

1/8 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups of water

1 1/2 cups of chicken broth

12 ounce of pasta, your choice

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella

2 chicken breast, cooked and cut into small pieces

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 475 degrees.
2. Using a food processor, grind the tomatoes until they are ground.
3. Heat your skillet pan for a few minutes, then add the oil, garlic, oregano, red paper flakes and a few shakes of the salt shaker. Cook until fragrant, about one minute. Stir in the tomatoes , water, 1 cup of the broth and the pasta. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes or until pasta is soft.
4. Stir in 3/4 cup of the parmesan, a shake of the pepper, and the chicken. Stir in the remaining 1/2 cup of broth.  Transfer to a baking dish, or if using a cast iron skillet, you can put this right into the oven, sprinkle with the remaining cheeses, bake 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly!

Adapted from See Aimee Cook

Enjoy!

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Chicken with Creamy Chive Sauce

This recipe has been floating around in the food blog world for quite some time and I keep seeing it appear on different blogs, so I decided I would try to make this since everyone seems to rave about it! It was a great dish, full of creamy yummy sauce on top of your chicken. It’s a dish you’d expect to be crazy in calories, but it actually isn’t, if you make it the right way!

Ingredients:

2 boneless chicken breast

1/2  teaspoon of salt

1/8 cup of flour, plus 1 tablespoon divided

1/2 teaspoons of EVOO

1 onion, diced

1/4 cup dry white wine

7 ounces of chicken broth

1/3 cup reduced sour cream

1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard

1/4 cup of chopped chives

Directions:

1. Season both sides of the chicken with salt. Place 1/8 cup of flour in a shallow baking dish and dredge the chicken it. Throw out remaining flour.
2. Heat the 1/4 of the EVOO in a skillet.  Add the chicken and cook until it’s cooked through. About 10 minutes. Transfer to a plate and keep warm.
3. Heat reaming EVOO in the skillet, add onions and cook until golden, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add remaining flour, stir to coat. Add wine, broth and the remaining salt, bring to boil, stir often.
4. Return chicken to the pan, reduce heat to a simmer and cooked till heated through. Stir in sour cream and Dijon mustard until smooth. Turn the chicken to coat it with sauce, stir in chives and serve!

Enjoy!

 

Adapted from Gourmet: Day to Day

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Chicken Chimichangas

Chicken Chimichangas are one of my favorite’s that I order from our local Mexican restaurant. They are so flavorful and I love the mixture of cheese and chicken. I came across a recipe, which I heavily adapted to fit my food allergy, and also the recipe I found was more a crock pot meal, I made it into non crock pot meal. It was a much lighter version of what you would get in a traditional mexican restaurant. It was pretty good!

Ingredients:

2 boneless chicken breast

4 ounces green chilies

1 teaspoon of cumin

1 teaspoon of onion powder

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

4 tortilla shells

1 cup shredded Mexican cheese

8 ounces salsa verde

1 cup sour cream

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Bring a medium saucepan to a boil, place in chicken breast and boil for about 10 minutes. Once done and cooked through, shred the chicken.
3. Add the cumin, onion powder, garlic, and the chiles to the shredded chicken. Mix well.
4. Add the cheese, mixing well again.
5. Spray a large baking dish with cooking spray.
6. Fill each tortilla with the chicken mixture, roll the tortilla up, tucking in the ends, and place seam side down, repeat for next three tortillas. Spray the tops and sides of the filled tortillas with cooking spray. Bake for 20 minutes.
7. In a small saucepan, combine the salsa verde and sour cream.  Mix well and cook over medium heat until warmed.
8. Serve the chimichanges with the salsa verde mixture over top.

Enjoy!

Adapted from The Cookaholic Wife

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Foodbuzz Tastemakers:Marzetti Simply Dressed

Marzetti is known for their amazing products, from salad dressings, slaw dressings, dips, croutons,  and glazes. They have tons and tons of products. Their new line of products is called Marzetti Simply Dressed.  There are ten different flavors, strawberry poppy seed, ginger sesame, champagne salad dressing, greek feta, blue cheese, caesar, coleslaw, pomegranate, ranch and balsamic salad dressing.

The simply dressed line is made with a minimal number of all natural ingredients, such as extra virgin olive oil, canola oil, sea salt and doesn’t contain any preservatives, trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, MSG or artificial flavors or colors. Finding one that you like should be easy with its ten different flavors.

This post is part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program with Marzetti Simply Dressed.

I tried out the Champagne Salad Dressing. I decided to use it by marinating some chicken tenderloins in it for about for hours. The flavor was great! With the different spices it has in it, it’s full of flavor. I’m super excited to try it on a salad dressing!

Ingredients:

5 to 6 chicken tenderloins

1 bottle of Simply Dressed Champagne Salad Dressing

Directions:

1. Place chicken tenderloins in a gallon sized ziploc bag and pour as much as you want of the dressing over them and marinate for about 4 hours.
2. Heat up a grill pan and cook the tenderloins for about 10 minutes or till completely done.

Enjoy!

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Crock Pot Thursday-Salsa Chicken Bowls

Yesterday was rainy, cold and just not a nice day, so spending extra time cuddling with Kiley on the couch, was nice as this meal was able to simmer all day in the crock pot. If you remember almost 2 years ago, I made this Salsa Chicken, you could easily follow this same recipe, or use the one I just made last night. Both are full of flavor and have just enough kick for me. Chris added some hot sauce we picked up in St. Lucia to his, but I really don’t think the dish needs any more flavor! I’ll apologize for the picture, I had to take with my I-phone because my SD card was missing, but now it’s found, I left in my computer! Duh, pregnancy brain =)

Ingredients:

4-5 Chicken Breast  Tenderloins

1 can of salsa verde

1 cup of salsa

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons onion powder

2 teaspoons of garlic powder

1/2 cup of water

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 cup of  cooked brown rice

Shredded lettuce

Chopped tomatoes

Sour Cream

Mexican Shredded Cheese

Directions:

1. In a crock pot, add chicken, salsa verde, salsa, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, 1/2 cup of water and salt & pepper. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. After chicken is done cooking, use a fork to shred it, place back in crock pot and keep it on warm.
2. Before serving, chop lettuce and tomatoes.  Place rice on the bottom of the bowl, add chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and sour cream to bowls.

Enjoy!

Adapted from the wonderful Joelen at What’s Cooking Chicago 

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Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas

My husband is from Buffalo, born, raised and bred, so when I see anything “Buffalo” in any recipe title, I usually make it no matter what it is. When I think of enchiladas though, I never thought about using a buffalo wing sauce instead of the traditional chicken mixture/sauce. I was super interested to try this and when I told my husband what I was making for dinner he automatically said “Yum.” See, it doesn’t matter what it is, but if has Buffalo in the recipe he is all about it with no further questions. Typically he ask a few questions, like what is in the recipe, how do you make it, etc.

Let me tell you, this recipe didn’t disappoint at all.  It was amazing! So juicy, flavorful, just yummy!

Ingredients:

4 tortillas

3 chicken thighs, skinned and de-boned

1 cup red enchilada sauce

1/3 cup Frank’s Red Hot

1/2 cup Mexican blended cheese

3 ounces gorgonzola cheese

Directions:

1. Boil chicken thighs for about 10 minutes, till they are cooked through. Drain water, place in food processor and just pulsate for a second or two, so you have shredded pieces and not mush.
2. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with non stick cooking spray.  Pre-heat oven to 375.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together hot sauce an enchilada sauce.  Add the shredded chicken and 1/2 cup of cheese in another bowl, mix until it’s incorporated well. Pour in about 1/2 cup of the sauce mixture.
4. Pour a small amount of the sauce mixture into the bottom of the baking dish. Take each tortilla fill it up with a few tablespoons of the chicken mixture, roll it up in the baking dish, making sure seam side is down. Once you have all the tortillas filled, drizzle the rest of the sauce mixture on top of them and sprinkle some of the leftover cheese on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
5. As soon as you take them out of the oven, add the crumbled gorgonzola cheese to the top and serve

Enjoy!

Adapated from Prevention RD.

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Philly Cheese Steak Sloppy Joes

Nothing compares to a Philly Cheesesteak, nothing at all. And being from the area I can tell you that first hand.   There’s nothing tastier then that greasy meat with some sautéed onions and all that whiz. Don’t forget it’s wit whiz, no other way!  But, really we can’t always eat the real thing because it’s just not healthy. So it’s fun to create your own cheese steaks at home.  When I saw this recipe on Lemons & Love , I bookmarked it right away and knew I had to make it. It was so simple and easy to create!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup steak sauce
1 cup beef stock
Salt and black pepper
4 sub rolls
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup milk
4 slices of provolone

Directions:

1. Pre-heat boiler. In a large skillet over medium high heat with some olive oil, brown the ground beef about 6-7 minutes. Stir in the steak sauce and beef stock, add salt and pepper, cook for an additional 2 minutes.
2. One meat mixture is done cooking, place a scoopful of the meat mixture in the sub rolls and put a slice of provolone cheese on top of meat and place under broiler until melted.

Enjoy!

Adapted from on Lemons & Love , originally from Rachel Ray

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Panko Crusted Chicken with Soy Sauce Glaze

I love bread, anything breaded that is. But breading on anything typically isn’t very calorie friendly.  So when I saw this recipe was using panko bread crumbs as a breading I got excited, because panko is semi-healthier! I love meals that are super easy to prepare and have a fast cooking time. Kiley is SUPER mobile these days so the less time I have to cook the better off we all are. I mean yesterday she ended up sitting on the dishwasher.  The soy sauce glazes is very flavorful, so I suggest only putting a little on the chicken.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 boneless chicken breast, cut into strips

1/2 cup of flour

2 eggs beaten

2 cups of panko bread crumbs

Salt and Pepper

Olive Oil

For the glaze:

2 tablespoons of cornstarch

1 tablespoon of water

1/2 cup of reduced sodium soy sauce

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder

Directions:

1. In three separate bowls, place flour, egg and panko in each bowl. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a skillet pan.
2. Dredge each of the chicken strips, first in flour, then egg then panko, covering well. Place chicken into skillet and cook about 5 minutes on each side. Make sure it’s evenly browned on each side.
3. Combine all glaze ingredients into saucepan over medium heat.  Simmer until sauce bubbles. If you want a thicker sauce add more cornstarch, if you want a thinner sauce add some water(not much).
4. Drizzle sauce lightly over chicken strips.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Sweet Beginnings.

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Mushroom Chicken Parmesan Marsala

Mushrooms, Chicken, Marsala and cheese, yum! What more can you ask for! Really! Such a great easy meal to pull together when you are looking for that pasta, lots of flavor meal. You need to love the Marsala flavor to really enjoy this dish. If if you didn’t you could tone it down a bit by just adding less Marsala.

Ingredients:

2 boneless chicken breasts, flatten out a bit

1 cup Marsala wine

1/2 cup of Italian seasoned bread crumbs

Flour (enough for dredging)

1 egg

1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

3 tablespoons heavy cream

1 tablespoon butter

1 and 1/2 tablespoons flour (for the roux)

1/4 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoons chopped onion

2 tablespoons EVOO

1/2 pound of your choice of mushrooms

Pasta of your choice

Directions:

1.  Over medium heat, heat the EVOO. Add the minced garlic, onion and mushrooms. Dredge the  chicken into the flour, egg, and breadcrumbs and add to pan. Cook for 8  minutes each side, sprinkling the garlic powder and garlic salt on each side when cooking.
2.  When chicken is fully  cooked, remove from heat and set aside. In the same pan, melt the butter. Add the tablespoons on flour to form a roux. When roux has formed, add the Marsala wine and whisk until blended.
3.  Add the heavy cream and 3 tablespoons of grated Parmesan and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and place chicken breast into the sauce. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.
4. Serve chicken with pasta and top with remaining Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Adapted from Kut’s Kitchen.

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Chicken Mole

Two things. I love Mexican food and I love chocolate. Who would think to mix them together and make an awesome dish?  Well someone did! This dish has a spicy yet very light spicy taste to it.  It’s the perfect change to enchildia’s.I served this with a side of white rice and some tortillas! Perfect to wrap together!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

1 small onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tablespoon of cocoa powder

1/4 tablespoon of cinnamon

1/4 tablespoon of red pepper flakes

1/8 teaspoon of black pepper

1 cup crushed tomatoes

1 cup of chicken broth

1/8 teaspoon of salt

1 slice of bread, cut into small pieces

2 boneless chicken breast, cubed

Directions:

1. In a pan over medium high heat, combine the oil, garlic, cocoa powder, cinnamon, red pepper flakes, and black pepper. Saute for 2 minutes.
2. Add tomatoes, broth, salt and bread and bring to a simmer. Add the chicken and return to a simmer.
3. Cover the pan and cook for 12 to 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Enjoy!

Adapted from Womans Day,  from Rick Bayless.

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