Tag: chicken

Barefoot Contessa Recipe 50

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This recipe can be found in At Home, page 37

Well I finally made one — a sandwich!

I had been anxiously waiting to start the sandwich category for a little while, but it just never came to be. Until this past weekend. It had been a while since I made my last BC recipe — especially a savory one. But this weekend was a little busy for me and I didn’t want to spend a lot of time standing over the stove, in line at the grocery store, or baking something in the oven.

The solution? A sandwich. After glancing through the list of 28 sandwiches, a few jumped out at me. Such as the Croque Monsieur, Lobster BLTs, and Soft-Shell Crab Sandwiches. While these all sounded very tasty, and my mouth did start to water when reading about them in the cookbooks, I quickly realized that all these choices would involve at least one of the things I didn’t want to be doing that day.

So, I skipped them and settled on something that seemed easy enough. And I had just about everything on hand already. It was a win-win!

This chicken salad was pretty easy. But, I did make some modifications to it. First, I didn’t roast the chicken in the oven. I cooked the two breasts on the stove (I didn’t want to turn my oven on that day…too warm!). I also only made enough for two sandwiches, not the four that the recipe yields, so I made the adjustments to ingredients accordingly.

It doesn’t look like a lot of chicken, and to be honest, it wasn’t. But, it was the perfect amount to make my two sandwiches.

I added the tarragon, salt, pepper, celery, and mayonnaise just like Ina said. I also decided to include some red grapes that we had left in the fridge. There was only a large handful left and only a few that were still “edible.” So, I just used them up.

However, after combining everything, things looked a little loose. So, I popped it in the fridge for about a half hour before making the sandwich, just to firm things up and allow the flavors to marry. When I was ready to make the sandwich, I toasted some bread, slathered a thin layer of mayo on one slice, and piled about half of the chicken salad on top.

When I bit into it, I was pleasantly surprised. The addition of tarragon adds a hint of licorice-like flavor that I wasn’t really expecting. But, I did like it. Tarragon and poultry go well together, it seems. Many chefs (including Ina) use it when making roast chickens or turkeys. It’s definitely an herb I’ll have to keep in mind.

This chicken salad is a great quick meal that can be made in no time any night of the week. It also seems like it can be scaled up easily to serve a large group of people. While it didn’t blow me away, it did hit the spot, and it taught me to add tarragon to my chicken salad to liven things up a bit!

Barefoot Contessa Recipe 48 Chicken Piccata

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This recipe can be found in Barefoot Contessa At Home

Last week, dinner was a simple chicken dish. And I have to say, I think I like Ina’s recipe for Chicken Piccata better than any I’ve had at a restaurant before! The simplicity of this recipe makes it a stellar recipe for weeknights. But it’s also elegant enough to serve for a special occasion.

Chicken Piccata, in Ina’s version, is simply breaded chicken cutlets in a lemon sauce. I did make a few changes so the recipe would be healthier (and less messy) but I think the general idea still comes through.

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Barefoot Contessa Recipe #38 Chicken Thighs with Creamy Mustard Sauce

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This recipe can be found in Cook Like a Pro, pg. 91

I had off from work on Monday, so I was asked to make dinner. Of course, I obliged. Usually, when it’s my turn to make dinner, I get to decide the meal from scratch entirely. But not Monday. I already the main ingredients to work with: chicken thighs. So, naturally, I seized the opportunity to cross another Barefoot Contessa recipe off the list.

Using the Master Recipe Index, I quickly found a recipe that would work. It was even better because we had nearly everything to make it. I only had to purchase one ingredient. Score! The creamy mustard sauce recipe calls for two types of mustard. One of which is one my family doesn’t really use. The amount in the recipe was only a teaspoon, so I opted to leave out the whole grain mustard entirely. But, you wouldn’t know the difference anyway.

This recipe cooked up nice and quick and was packed with so much flavor thanks to the Grey Poupon dijon mustard. The sauce was creamy despite not having any dairy product. This meal serves a crowd and it will definitely be a crowd-pleaser!

Overall the cooking time was off from what the recipe said it would be. I’ve found this to be typical of Barefoot Contessa recipes. However, in this case, I think it was due to the fact that I had really GIANT chicken thighs to cook. I had to spread them over two pans! They were so large and there was so many!

But, I just adjusted the recipe to compensate for the large number of thighs and went with it! This dish has so many different flavors that it will leave you wanting to have seconds…maybe even thirds.

I made dessert, too! That was the original plan for Monday. Just make a dessert. I chose to do something I’d never done before and make meringue. Check back tomorrow to see how they turned out!

Ina Garten Recipe #31 – Perfect Roast Chicken

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This recipe is from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, page 130.

It’s been a minute since I’ve made an Ina Garten recipe, hasn’t it?

In fact, I think this is the first recipe I made of hers in the month of February. Guess I won’t be matching or beating last month’s total of 8 recipes!

Anyway, I decided to make an Ina classic this time. In fact, I think many fans of her show would argue that this is one of her signature dishes. Roast Chicken!!

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Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken

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This weekend ended up being a bit busier than I expected. Instead of cooking on Friday, I chose to make dinner on Saturday. I once again I chose to use items in the pantry and give the wallet a little reprieve from the Ina Garten recipes. But, do not worry! An Ina recipe review will be posted on the blog later in the week!

This is a Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe that I’ve been making for a few years now. It’s also really easy since it uses store-bought ingredients. It stems from when I was in college and didn’t have the time or the patience to make everything myself. Plus, grocery stores have come a long way when it comes to the international food aisle. There are now some great options in there!

The recipe is below and I hope you’ll give it a try!

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Recipe #28 Lemon Chicken Breasts

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This recipe can be found in Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That? on page 120.

Last Friday, I took over the dinner duty, as usual. This week I made a lovely chicken dish and a side of vegetables to go along with it.

The main course was Lemon Chicken Breasts. While the recipe calls for boneless chicken breasts with the skin on, I wasn’t able to find that. So I just used the more-common boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The breasts did not develop a beautiful golden-brown color on top like the recipe photograph shows, but they were still tasty nonetheless.

The recipe is heavy on the lemon. Lemon juice and zest is used in the sauce that the breasts bake in, but I don’t feel the use of lemon was overpowering. It adds a wonderful, fresh, citrusy flavor the dish. This was perfect for a cold winter’s night since I often find myself longing for the warmer days of summer.

This dish is easy enough to make for a weeknight since it can be completed in around 40 minutes from start to finish. Although, I do feel that letting the chicken rest after taking it out of the oven is essential to prevent the meat from being too dry. But that aside, this is a fast and easy weeknight dinner, which is unusual for Ina. Long time readers of this blog will recall that I have found some of her recipes time-consuming.

The vegetable dish I served with this will be reviewed tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

You can see from the photo above that the vegetable dish was a broccoli one. I wasn’t able to take a separate photograph.

Recipe #23 Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

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This recipe appears in Modern Comfort Food, page 114.

The first recipe back from my short Ina Garten hiatus was a total hit! Which, to be honest, surprised me since my parents do not typically have the taste buds for Mexican food. However, I think it went over so well because these enchiladas are loaded with cheesy goodness and I left out practically all of the heat.

Making these enchiladas was a challenge! Well, parts of it was challenging anyway. For the most part the recipe was straight forward and enjoyable. The problems arose when it became time to actually stuff the enchiladas and roll them. That part was tricky and turned messy — both my kitchen counter and the attractiveness of the dish. The good news is since they bake in the oven and are covered in sauce and cheese, no really noticed how sloppy they looked.

Seeing that this recipe appears in Ina’s latest book, Modern Comfort Food, it lives up to being a classic comfort food recipe. It is also one that I plan to make again in the future, but with some modifications. Instead of chicken I may use tofu or a meat replacement. I may even use vegetables entirely instead. Anything with cheddar and goat cheese has to be good, right?

Even the photo above couldn’t save the dish from looking messy. Well, it probably could have, but these enchiladas were so yummy that I almost forgot to snap a photo for the blog!

Recipe #17 Homemade Chicken Stock

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While I used the recipe out of Make it Ahead, this recipe is included in ALL of Ina’s cookbooks. It is the same recipe, regardless of which cookbook you use. Also, since it is repeated in each book, it will only be counted as one recipe. For more information on how I determined the number of recipes I will be making for this project, please see my first couple of posts. These can be found using the Archive feature on the homepage.

I finally did it!

I made Ina’s Homemade Chicken Stock recipe! This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a few years and I finally had a chance to do it. I will say, that buying stock at the store is so much easier….and worth it! But, I’m still glad I had this experience. Now, I just need to use it all up within in the next six months!

I have a few photos that document the process that I will post below. But first, my review.

For the most part of making this recipe, things are easy. No peeling vegetables, no chopping or dicing. Just slice things in half and toss into the pot. Then bring it to a boil and simmer for four hours. However, it did take over over an hour to come to a boil even on high heat!

The real work starts AFTER the simmering. It’s when you have to strain everything. First I took a slotted remove to remove some of the larger pieces and that worked okay. I transferred everything into a stainless steel bowl and as it got full, I dumped it into a new garbage bag. That was tricky….and messy.

Once the larger pieces were removed, I poured the contents of the pot over a fine mesh sieve over another stainless steel bowl. More mess was met! Once it was cool, I took a one-cup measure glass and scooped up stock and poured it into the containers. That wasn’t very messy, but a little time-consuming.

After letting the stock cool completely, I put some in the freezer and left some in the fridge for now. I did taste the finished stock and, surprisingly, it was pretty bland. I know can see why Ina adds a lot of salt and pepper to her recipes that call for stock.

While it was fun and and interesting experience, I don’t think I’ll be doing it again. It’s very costly and time-consuming. Not to mention the mess it makes! Maybe, in the future, I’ll cut the recipe in half and make less….that may make things somewhat more manageable.

Here are the pictures with captions.

The pot I cooked it in! It’s 20 Quarts!
The quartered onions that were used in the stock. I used three of the largest ones I could find.
The two chickens I used (almost 15 lbs. of meat!) and some of the vegetables. Just missing the turnips in this picture.
Added the 7 quarts of water, the herbs, and the whole head of garlic.
The stock simmering away. Sorry this photo orientation is not like the others!
Finally! The finished, strained, and packaged chicken stock!

I hope it turns out that this was worth the effort!

Recipe #14 Parmesan Chicken

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This recipe can be found in Family Style.

One of the recipes I made for Saturday dinner was parmesan chicken. But, I have a confession to make. I bought the wrong cheese! Instead, I bought a combination of grated Pecorino Romano NOT Parmesan. So, since I kind of messed up the title ingredient, by review won’t be too long.

This recipe is very simple to make since it is essentially fried chicken cutlets. However, the addition of cheese to the bread crumbs is what really sets it apart. And if I’m being honest, I think the Pecorino Romano cheese added even better flavor than the parmesan would have.

I also decided not to serve this recipe with the recommended salads greens and lemon vinaigrette. But, it is still worth trying. It’s a simple meal than can be any night of the week and can easily accommodate and please a large group of friends.

Did I make sides for this? Yes, yes I did! I made two basic recipes: mashed potatoes and a separate carrot dish. Those reviews are coming tomorrow!

Happy November, by the way!

Recipe #3 – French Chicken Pot Pie

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French Chicken Pot Pie from Make It Ahead

On Friday I decided to make another recipe from one of Ina’s cookbooks. The meal I made it for would be dinner so I paged my way through the “Dinner” sections of each of her eleven cookbooks until something caught my eye. I eventually found the French Chicken Pot Pie.

I went to the grocery store, found the leeks and mushrooms and opted for the a roll of the Pillsbury biscuit dough over the boxes of puff pastry as she suggested (I wanted to save a few bucks!), and I went home.

This was the first time that I can recall in which I cooked with leeks. And it was interesting. Every time I watch a chef on TV cook with leeks they say something like “You need to wash leeks really well because they are so sandy and dirty.” Remembering this, I was prepared for a mess of sand and dirt, but thankfully that wasn’t the case. These leeks were relatively clean and required only minimal additional cleaning.

The hardest part about this recipe was all the prep work. First you have to cook the chicken in the oven, then wait for it to cool to shred it by hand to get the pieces of chicken that will be “pie friendly.” Then you need to cut carrots, mushrooms, and the leeks into bite-sized pieces (half-inch dice). All of these cutting took some time and was probably the most time-consuming aspect of the recipe.

Finally, my mise en place was done and I was ready to cook. I followed the recipe diligently and when it came time to add the tarragon (after more knife work), the kitchen almost immediately smelled wonderful and I felt like I had just walked into a fancy-smanzy restaurant.

Ina’s original recipe calls to make individual portions of the pie in two-cup bowls that are oven-safe. While cute, it isn’t very practical. So I poured the mixture into a 13-by-9 baking dish and rolled the biscuit dough over it. I still brushed it with an egg wash and some salt and pepper, and it looked amazing!

While it baked, the house filled with wonderful smells of chicken, leeks, carrots, tarragon — and yes, Pillsbury biscuits.

Finally, the time came to eat the pie. I let it sit for a few minutes after removing it from the oven and it was worth it!

Upon having my first bite I immediately thought, “All the prep work was worth it!”

We had leftovers and I think the pie even tasted better the following day. Overall, it wasn’t all that much work (if you get over the chopping) and totally worth the effort!!

Sadly, the only photo I have of it is while the contents of the mixture was simmering on my stove, but the picture wouldn’t do it justice anyway. I highly recommend you try to this one for dinner soon.