Bal's No-Butter Chicken AND a Giveaway

There is a small group of my baking and blogging buddies that enjoys Indian food, and every so often we're all able to make the same recipe on the same day. Given our different time zones, it rarely works out that we all make it at the same time, but we take turns picking the recipe and it's fun to compare notes. Kayte (of Grandma's Kitchen Table) and Margaret (of Tea & Scones and more importantly my 24/7 Words With Friends friend) make up the core team when we cook Indian, but they were able to recruit a few new participants, ladies we know well from their blogs and Twitter: Peggy (of Pantry Revisited),  Abby (of Stir It! Scrape It! Mix It! Bake It!) and Katie (of Making Michael Pollan Proud).

Last week was my turn to pick and I went to a fabulous new book I have, Everyday Indian by Bal Arneson. She has a show, Spice Goddess, on Cooking Channel and her enthusiasm is infectious, plus I think she's absolutely adorable. She tells stories about growing up in her village and learning how to cook from her mother and I find myself mesmerized.

Butter chicken is a classic Indian recipe, but Bal has lightened it up by using yogurt in place of the cream and oil in place of the butter. Since I'm in California, the other ladies had already made this and raved about it by the time I got home and started cooking. A recurring theme was how easy it was, which is hard to believe since most of the Indian dishes we've cooked start with measuring 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoons of endless spices. The prep on this one was easy, quick, and it was ready fast. The house smelled amazing (as long as you don't mind your house smelling like a curry, and we don't), but the real test was tasting. It was sooo delicious. I served it on plain basmati rice and it was fantastic, as were the leftovers. I'm definitely making this one again. If you'd like to give it a try, you can find the recipe here.

The reason I wanted to pick a recipe out of Bal's book is because I accidentally purchased it twice, so I have an extra copy to give away. To enter, just leave a comment on this post telling me what interests you about Indian cooking, and if you have a favorite Indian dish let me know that, too. The deadline to enter is Monday, July 18th at 9 PM Pacific time. I'll pick the winner using the random number generator. Good luck!

UPDATE:
We have a winner! My friend the random number generator at Random.org chose comment number 10.

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:10Powered byRANDOM.ORG

Number 10 is Margaret of Tea and Scones. Congrats, Margaret!

Bouchon Roast Chicken

I did it. I made the Bouchon recipe for roasted chicken. I think there should be an Olympic gold medal or Congressional Medal of Honor for this recipe.

I've had the Bouchon cookbook for at least five years, but I never dared to attempt the chicken that gets so much praise. Those who have mastered it acknowledge it is a lot of work, but when I glanced at the recipe, I thought "no big deal."

Yeah, right. I completely glossed over the brine, which has to be heated and then cooled before the chicken goes in. I didn't anticipate a recent freeze would impact the thyme supply in my area (true), and I didn't realize I don't own butcher's twine.

I started with a halal chicken (one which is raised humanely and butchered in accordance with Islamic law), which I rinsed and dried. I had made the brine before leaving for work, and I came home at lunch to stick the bird in the brine. The brine, with its assortment of thyme, parsley, rosemary, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves, lemon and salt, smelled absolutely fabulous. Even with no prior brining experience, I knew from the smell of the brine that the chicken would be delicious.

When I came home from work, I read the recipe ten times, and searched for a trussing video on YouTube. I found one with none other than Thomas Keller making the Bouchon roast chicken. Except in this video, the chicken roasts on a bed of root vegetables. Great idea. Next time.

Just one problem. No twine and I wasn't about to run to Williams-Sonoma at 7 PM when I still had a chicken to cook. So I improvised--I tied strips of cheesecloth together and used that instead of the twine.

Even with the video, my trussing leaves a lot to be desired. My chicken was listing to one side, and that didn't change after I put it in the pan and into the oven. Keller gives a lot of pointers about roasting the perfect chicken. The chicken should be at room temperature (for more even cooking), sprinkled with lots of kosher salt for even browning, and baked in a hot skillet. After heating the skillet on the cooktop, add a tablespoon of canola oil and let that get hot, then carefully place the chicken in the pan and move to your preheated oven. The chicken roasts at high heat for about 40 minutes. When you remove it from the oven, you baste it all over with the pan juices (to which you've added chopped fresh thyme). Then let it cool until you can eat it without burning off the roof of your mouth.

The chicken turned out to be mindblowingly good. Maybe the best chicken I've ever had. It was so good that I ate the drumsticks and wings for dinner. Standing over the pan. With the skin. I never eat dark meat, or skin, or over the pan. THAT'S how good it was. The breast was even better, moist, tender, melt in your mouth good.

Perhaps it was foolish of me to start my brining and roasting experience with the most revered roast chicken recipe, but my thinking was two-fold. If anyone can teach me how to make a great chicken, it's Thomas Keller. And my blogging friends Kayte and Nancy dreamed up a chef of the month theme for our Twitter avatars, and Kayte chose Thomas Keller for January. We'll all try to cook some dishes from the chef for that month and use one of the photos as our Twitter avatars. Right now, my avatar is Ad Hoc at Home chocolate chip cookies, but this beautiful (to me) roast chicken will have his turn soon. If you'd like the complete recipe (including the brine, which many recipes omit), you can find it here.

New Group: My Kitchen, My World Goes to India

This post is evidence that it is possible for one's arm to be twisted remotely. I absolutely, positively had no intention of joining anther cooking or baking group (well, I'm waiting for one to become official, but other than that). But my blogging and Twitter friend Kayte invited me to cook along with her on two Indian recipes she was making for My Kitchen, My World. We LOVE Indian food, so I gladly joined her for making hara shorva (a green soup) and chicken in a red pepper sauce. Both recipes can be found in Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking.


The soup starts with a base of potatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, peas, chile and spices which is cooked and then pureed in the blender before being finished with cream. It was very easy and delicious. You can find the recipe here.


The chicken and red peppers uses a cooked pureed spice and vegetable mixture like many curries do, to which cubed chicken is added (along with some water) and then simmered until the chicken is done. It was delicious and could easily take a place in the rotation here. Check out the recipe here.


My Kitchen, My World has a monthly recipe assignment based on a country selected by the month's host (this time, our host was another Twitter buddy, Margaret of Tea & Scones). Honestly, I don't think any other cuisine could have gotten me to join another group!

CEiMB - Chicken Paella

This will be a short post. My Twitter buddy Margaret of Tea & Scones chose this recipe for Craving Ellie in My Belly. I made this paella for dinner tonight. The recipe calls for sausage, which I omitted, and chicken thighs, which I substituted for with chicken breasts. Early feedback on this one indicated the flavor needed help, so I added smoked Spanish paprika in addition to doubling the garlic. I should have added more paprika as the flavor was still very muted. But it was quick and easy and that's always appreciated.

If you'd like the recipe, you'll find it in Ellie Krieger's book So Easy. And make sure you visit the other Craving Ellie in my Belly cooks. You'll find them here.

Barefoot Bloggers - Caesar Club Sandwich

Karen of Shortbread selected this Ina Garten recipe for Barefoot Bloggers, and initially it gave me flashbacks to my ciabatta fail last summer. So I resolved to make focaccia to serve this sandwich on so as to avoid another ciabatta disappointment.

In making the focaccia, I realized that the process for making ciabatta is remarkably similar, and it gave me the confidence to try ciabatta again. And I did, and told the story here. Conquering this delicious loaf was so satisfying.

It also put me behind on making this sandwich, but it was worth waiting for! I pan sauteed my chicken breasts and finished them in the oven, letting them sit for 10 minutes before slicing. The dressing was a snap to make in the food processor, and we liked it so much that I drizzled a little extra on the arugula.

It was soooo yummy! I'll be making this one again...and you should to. You can find the recipe here.

Barefoot Bloggers - Individual Meat Loaves and CEiMB - Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo

My blogging/tweeting friend and all-around favorite Indianan Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table chose this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe, Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo. That Kayte chose this recipe didn't surprise me at all since I bet she's made it more than Ellie Krieger herself. She's tweeted many times that she's made it again, and her gang of guys has again demolished it in record time. Many of my Twitter friends have been turned on to this soup based on Kayte's recommendation. So when I saw this was her pick, I couldn't wait to make it.

Things have been rather busy of late, so I oven roasted the chicken breasts the day before I made the soup, and threw together the soup one morning before leaving for work. It's that easy to put this one together, and if you didn't have time to cook your own chicken, you'd get great results from using a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. I had everything I needed to make this one in my pantry (broadly defined to include the refrigerator and freezer), except for the orzo. Since it was Kayte (one of my favorite people), I made a special trip to the store for orzo. But this would be just as good if you used shells or orecchiette, or ditalini, or broken angel hair. I also used homemade chicken stock from the freezer, which would prove to be an aesthetic faux pas.

Ellie's recipe calls for four whole eggs in this soup, and I initially thought it would have chunks of cooked egg floating in the broth, which was a textural turn off for me, and why I never made this soup after Kayte raved about it. But no, you whisk the four beaten eggs with some heated chicken broth, and add this mixture to the soup. It made a creamy soup without the addition of cream. It's these little tricks that make me love Ellie's food.

Even though the recipe didn't call for it, I added the zest of the lemon before juicing it, because more lemon is always better. My only disappointment was my soup ended up looking like a bowl of mud since my homemade stock gave it a brownish tint. But it was the most delicious bowl of mud I've ever had and I'll definitely be making this one again. Thanks, Kayte, for turning me on to this soup!

If you'd like the recipe, you can find it in The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger, or Kayte has it here. And if you're not already visiting her regularly, you need to. She posts delicious recipes and updates on what's going on with her guys. Her son's swim team just won the Indiana State swimming and diving championship. 

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Now, this week's Barefoot Bloggers pick.

Meatloaf.

The name doesn't exactly scream "delicious" to me. I would have skipped it but I skipped the second recipe last month (Shrimp Scampi) because I'm allergic to shellfish. So I resolved to make the meatloaf, even if meatloaf is something I don't enjoy. Maybe it's that it's made with beef, and my love of beef ends with the cheeseburger.

So I made my individual meat loaves with ground turkey, and I halved the recipe, because a 10-11 ounce portion per person seemed a little excessive to me. I intended to make them in a muffin tin, but I found a mini loaf pan in my drawer that I'd never used. Perfect!

The most complicated part of this recipe was chopping the onions, which is to say it was super easy. I put it together and baked the little guys off before I went to work. Be careful to combine your ingredients very gently or your meatloaf will be dense. I didn't even pat them into shape, instead, I spooned the ingredients into the tins and smoothed the top a little before putting on the ketchup. Next time I'll try them with barbeque sauce or even May Ploy sauce (sweet chili sauce). I get mine at Safeway, but you can order online. Here's one link.

They reached 160 degrees in 25 minutes in my oven but yours may vary. After they cooled, I popped each in its own Ziploc bag and stuck them in the freezer. We're going to have some nice tasty dinners thanks to this easy, delicious recipe.

Many thanks to Tonya of What's On My Plate for hosting this week. She picked a real winner! If you'd like Ina's recipe, you can find it here. Here is my variation:

Individual Meat Loaves - adapted from Ina Garten

Printable Recipe

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced or put through a garlic press
3/4 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon kosher salt
ground pepper to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons tomato paste
1 1/4 pounds lean (not extra lean!) ground turkey
1/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 - 1/2 cup ketchup, barbecue sauce or May Ploy, to taste

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions, thyme, salt and pepper and saute for 2 minutes. Add garlic and saute until the onions are soft and lightly browned, about 8 minutes.

Remove pan from heat and add Worcestershire, chicken broth and tomato paste. Mix to combine and set aside to cool.

Place ground turkey in a medium bowl and break into chunks with a spoon. Add cooled onion mixture, bread crumbs and egg and mix gently. Don't try to completely mix in the ingredients, you want this to be very loose and soft. Transfer to jumbo muffin tins or mini loaf pans. Depending on the size of your pans, you should get 6-8 mini meat loaves.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until an instant read thermometer inserted in the middle of a meatloaf registers 160 degrees. Serve immediately, or cool slightly before wrapping and refrigerating or freezing.

CEiMB - Curried Chicken Salad

What's that you say? It's Thursday? Already??

That means it's time for Craving Ellie in My Belly. And this week's pick, hosted by Sarah of the eponymous Sarah's Kitchen Adventures, is Curried Chicken Salad. I LLOOOOVVEE curried anything. In fact, my default tuna salad is curried. I am a huge fan of the curried chicken salad at Whole Foods, so I was eager to make this one.

Ellie's chicken salad begins with poaching the chicken, but I roasted mine instead. Once the chicken was cooked, the work was 3/4 done. After mixing fat free Greek yogurt with mayonnaise, adding curry powder, toasted sliced almonds, and a chopped apple, I gave it a stir. Since it's been a little chilly here, I couldn't get excited about serving this as a salad, so I served it on toast. It was so creamy and delicious. I finished it off last night, and was sorry indeed that it was gone.

If you'd like to see the recipe as Ellie intended it, you can find it here. Here is my take on the recipe:

Curried Chicken Salad - 4 servings

1 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cooled
1/4 sliced almonds, lightly toasted
1/2 cup fat free Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder (more or less, to taste)
1 small apple, cored and chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup arugula, washed and dried
8 slices whole wheat bread

Chop chicken into bite-sized pieces and place in a medium bowl. Add the chopped apple and almonds and stir to combine. In a small bowl, thoroughly combine the yogurt, mayonnaise and curry powder. Pour over the chicken mixture and fold together to combine.

Toast bread, if desired. Divide the chicken salad over 4 slices of bread, top with the arugula and the rest of the bread.

CEiMB - Emerald Stir Fry with Chicken

Just the other day, I was yearning for a cookbook with easy, healthy, tasty recipes. Something fast I could throw together for dinner and not feel guilty for having a cookie afterward. Then I remembered Ellie Krieger's new cookbook So Easy and this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly pick, Emerald Stir Fry with Beef. Allysa at Allysa's Two Bites chose this one for us, and it was a great pick. I subbed chicken since I'm not a big beef fan, and used sugar snap peas and green beans instead of asparagus even though we love asparagus, but it isn't in season yet. I also subbed orange juice for the wine.

Make sure you transfer any leftovers from the pan immediately so the carry over cooking doesn't over cook your stir fry.

If you'd like the recipe, you can find it here. Thanks for hosting this week, Allysa!

CEiMB and Barefoot Bloggers - Chicken and Pizza, But Not Together (but it would totally work!)

These two recipes, chosen for Craving Ellie in My Belly and Barefoot Bloggers, had the misfortune of being chosen while I was a little under the weather. So neither looks as great or will have the write up it deserves.

First up is Ina's Indonesian Ginger Chicken, chosen by Todd of A Cooking Dad. I looked at this recipe and thought "teriyaki." But it is so not in the same zip code as teriyaki chicken. Using fresh grated ginger, garlic, soy sauce and honey, you marinate the chicken overnight and bake it in the same pan. It makes a fabulous pan sauce and moist, delicious chicken. I chose to use boneless skinless breasts as that was what I had in the freezer so it looks a little uninspiring in the photos, but this had tons of taste. Even though I had made half the recipe, it made a ton, and since I wasn't keen on solid food at the time, I used a lot of it in a pot of chicken vegetable soup--and what great flavor it gave to the soup. This was another Ina recipe that was easy and surprisingly delicious. Todd's chicken looks glorious so make sure you visit him to see how well his turned out.

Next up is this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly, chosen by Maria at Half Meatball Half Matzoh Ball Children, is Arugula, Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Pizzas. I was half dead when I made this recipe, coughing, etc. It was gross to me and I was doing it. As I mentioned above, food wasn't appealing to me (truthfully, it still isn't, though I hope my appetite will come back now that I've taken my last antibiotic), but for some strange reason I wanted to make this recipe. Maybe it was because Kayte was Tweeting about it. I had no red onions, my arugula was one day away from dead, and my goat cheese was one day past dead, but I made this anyway and subbed mozzarella and a yellow onion. And it came out great, was delicious, and was basically the only cooked food, other than that pot of chicken soup, that passed my lips in the last two weeks. Now THAT'S a ringing endorsement!

So there you have it, two great recipes, even if I am a day late posting!

CEiMB Rewind - Pulled Barbecue Chicken

Last week, the Craving Ellie in My Belly cooks each did their own thing. Our fearless leader is Sara of imafoodblog. Sara suggested we each make our own Ellie recipe and preferably serve it on Thanksgiving. I opted to do a rewind of a recipe I missed while on vacation earlier this year. Pamela of Cookies With Boys chose Ellie's pulled barbecue chicken. I made this the week of Thanksgiving, but served it in the busy days leading up to the holiday.

The barbecue sauce is what makes this dish. It was sooo good, and it gave us many healthy and delicious meals when things were pretty hairy around here. Thanks, Pamela, and I'm sorry it took me so long to make your pick!

Ina's Gruyere Cheese Souffle and Ellie's Easy Chicken Mushroom Quesadillas

This week, the Barefoot Bloggers are making Ina's blue cheese souffle, chosen by Summer of Sexy Apartment, and I owe her big time. This was my first time making a souffle. I messed it up every way I could, and it still turned out great:

1. I substituted gruyere for the blue cheese, adding about 1/3 more gruyere than the recipe called for.

2. I used 1% milk instead of whole milk.

3. I used pre-grated parmesan from Trader Joe's.

4. When I separated my eggs, a whisper of yolk got in the egg whites. They still whipped up fine.

5. I used large eggs instead of extra large, and used all the yolks and whites.

6. My attempt to draw a circle around the edge before baking was unsuccessful, but it still rose and the cracking didn't bother me.

I've heard before that souffles are not difficult, but I never believed it. Now that I've made Ina's, I'm a believer. The best part was the toasty crust, but it was all good. This was even terrific for breakfast the next day (the crust was less crusty, but no less delicious).

If you'd like to conquer your fear of souffles, you'll find the recipe here. Many thanks to Summer for picking this recipe, and to the commenters on the Musings on Barefoot Bloggers who suggested gruyere for those of us who weren't feeling the blue cheese.

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I always love the irony of Barefoot Bloggers posting on the same day as Craving Ellie in My Belly. I've never seen Ellie Krieger unwrap four sticks of butter on any of her shows. This week, Marthe of Culinary Delights chose our recipe, Easy Chicken Mushroom Quesadillas. This recipe came together so quickly, and the filling for the quesadillas was delicious. This was a fast and delicious weeknight meal. I only wish I'd had some guacamole to go along with it!

If you'd like to give these a try, you'll find the recipe here. Thanks, Marthe, for such a super pick!

CEiMB - Chicken Chop Suey

...overheard at a recent support group meeting....

Hi, I'm Leslie and I'm addicted to Panda Express orange chicken... "HI LESLIE!"

I wondered if it was normal for my heart to start beating faster when I go buy my lunch but maybe it's just the cholesterol narrowing my arteries. No matter how good my intentions are, I still end up going to Panda Express to get their orange chicken. I love the sweet crunchiness on the bed of white rice. Love it. A lot.

So I was overjoyed to see that Ali at The Healthy Hostess picked this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe, chicken chop suey. Because I need to stop with the orange chicken. After all, the crunchiness? Because it's fried. The sweetness? Because it's got a ton of sugar. The white rice? Bad, bad, bad. So Ali's pick was right on time.

The recipe had a long list of ingredients, and seemed daunting. When I shopped for it, I forgot to get the shiitake mushrooms, so I went with some sliced cremini mushrooms I had in the fridge. I roasted some boneless skinless chicken breasts while I prepped the vegetables and did the stir frying. Since I made this before I left for work one morning, I didn't measure anything. And you know what? It turned out great. You know how I know? I plated some for the photo shoot (I make it sound so glamorous--I was holding the bowl up in front of the window with one hand and taking the picture with the other). I put the bowl down, thinking I should dump it in a container and take it to work for my lunch. Then I thought I should taste it so I could write the post. One bite..."Mmmm...this is good!" Take another bite (so I can write a good, informative post!) "Mmmmm, this is REALLY good!"

So I just ate it for breakfast.

If you'd like the recipe, you can find it here, or Ali will have it on her post. Thanks, Ali, for picking such a winner!

CEiMB Late Edition - Cobb Salad

Work has been insane these last two weeks. Thursday night I got home around 11, Friday night 9, and last night 8:30. Today I was able to work from home. That gave me the opportunity to enjoy this week's Ellie pick for dinner.

I planned to grill the chicken before watching the finale of Next Food Network Star (what did you think, did you want Melissa or Jeffrey to win?). Surprisingly, the grill was out of gas but I was too lazy to swap out the spare tank. So I whipped out my grill pan and made the chicken on the stove. Then it was a snap to put together the delicious dressing, chop the avocado and crumble the blue cheese. I skipped the ham (don't eat it) and the hard boiled eggs (not a fan).

This was a quick and easy salad, perfect for a weeknight dinner or impressive as a weekend picnic at the beach or park. For me, the dressing was the best part.

This wonderful salad was chosen for us by Gabi at The Feast Within. If you'd like to try this one out, you can find the recipe here.

CEiMB - Lobster, er, Chicken Roll

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly pick is compliments of Duffy at Lonely Sidecar. She is hands down one of my favorite bloggers. If she hadn't picked this week, I probably would have skipped since I'm allergic to shellfish and I've been down with the flu. But I decided to get creative and see what I could do with this recipe, while staying true to it so it was recognizable (unlike my usual Ellie recipe makeovers).

Just kidding. The closest this comes to Ellie's recipe is that I made a sandwich. A chicken sandwich, with capers and mustard mixed in. Served not on a roll but on a bagel.

It was a really tasty sandwich, until I noticed the texture of the chicken. See, it was left over from making stock, so it had boiled for 4 hours. Why was I surprised that it was mushy?

Sorry Duff, I wiffed on your pick. I wish I could have used lobster instead of mushy chicken. Maybe next time I'll try salmon.

If you'd like to check out the real recipe, you can find it here or here.

Time for a nap.

CEiMB - Balsamic Chicken with Baby Spinach and Cous Cous

Craving Ellie in My Belly is a group that is cooking from and blogging about The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger. Ellie's recipes are healthy and easy, and generally are winners at the dinner table. Last week, I got carried away with modifying the recipe, including leaving out the star ingredient. It worked out well, but I felt a little guilty.

This week was going to be different. I was going to make this dish (chosen by Marthe of Culinary Delights) without substitutions or omissions. I was excited about the recipe and couldn't imagine wanting to do anything different with it.

Then, I was taken hostage by aliens.

They liked their chicken breasts thick and juicy. They liked doubling some things, but not others. They were saucy, garlic loving aliens. They said they wouldn't hurt me if I followed their orders. This is what they made me cook:

They told me to start by heating a pan and adding some olive oil, followed by chicken breasts. Then they had me turn the chicken, and cook it on the other side. One of them stuck a probe in and it registered 160 degrees. So far so good. 

They gave me a plate for the chicken, then handed me a huge pile of roughly chopped garlic. It must have been 6 or 7 cloves of garlic. I sautéed the garlic, then added a mountain of spinach; it looked like two bags worth. One of them poured a little water in so the spinach would wilt a little faster. I had to put the wilted spinach on another plate. 

Then they had me add about 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar to get the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. More water, and a whole can of diced tomatoes. I protested these recipe modifications, but they got very angry so I thought it was best to go along with what they wanted. They told me to reduce the tomato mixture until about half of the liquid evaporated.

Mysteriously, they opened the microwave and pulled out fully cooked cous cous! Before I knew it, they had plated the chicken and urged me to taste it. 

Wow! Those aliens know their stuff! The reduced balsamic vinegar added a sweetness that counteracted the garlic. This was a great plate of chicken. I looked up to ask them a question, but they were gone. Maybe they were off to another kitchen, maybe even yours, to show off another easy, tasty weeknight dinner. If they come to your home, don't be afraid, they won't harm you.

But they also won't help with the dishes.

Barefoot Bloggers - Chinese Chicken Salad

This week's Barefoot Blogger recipe was chosen by McKenzie at Kenzie's Kitchen. I LOVE Chinese chicken salad, but this one was definitely with an Ina twist. Instead of the chicken being served on a bed of Savoy cabbage, it was combined with asparagus and red bell pepper strips in a peanuty dressing.

I have been preoccupied of late with preparing for a small party I'm throwing this Saturday and so I missed Tuesdays with Dorie this week and Craving Ellie in My Belly last week. I'm throwing my new kitchen a party. So many of my friends and co-workers wanted to see it that it seemed like a fun idea.

With all my planning, I didn't plan to get a cold. Yes indeed. So all my food prep will involve wearing a mask and even more hand washing than normal.

But I digress. Given I'm busy and was just starting to get sick last night, I took a shortcut with this recipe. I bought a rotisserie chicken instead of roasting the breasts. I cut the oil in half, and added crushed red peppers. I cut out the salt entirely.

It was...OK. I hate saying that about an Ina recipe because every other one I've tried has been knock me over good. I think it needs more vinegar and ginger, or perhaps I shouldn't have reduced the oil so much. Sorry, McKenzie, it was a great pick but I think the peanut butter was a bit overwhelming, maybe because I used natural peanut butter.  

Check out what the other Barefoot Bloggers did here.

CEiMB - Chicken with Mango Barbeque Sauce

Somehow, my internal calendar broke down for this one. I was together enough to buy all the ingredients but I mysteriously forgot that I needed to cook them until I woke up this morning. Uh oh.

Fortunately, Ellie's recipe is pretty easy to put together, and I was able to make the mango barbeque sauce before work. After work, I opted for slicing the chicken breasts rather than pounding them. The grill is still buried behind construction materials in the garage, so these had to be sauteed in a pan and finished in the oven. Even so, this was easy and quick once the sauce was made. And good news: the sauce is even better if you make it in advance. I tasted it right after I made it and it was OK, but not thrilling. After it hung out in the fridge all day, it was delicious! I used less sauce for the marinade than Ellie called for, but only because I wanted more to put on the cooked chicken.

This yummy pick is courtesy of Aggie at Aggie's Kitchen. Thanks, Aggie! My only regret is I wish it was mango season, so the mango would contribute its exotic aroma and taste in a more impactful way. 

Check out what the other Craving Ellie in My Belly bloggers did here. And definitely check out the book The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger. It's chock full of yummy recipes that are healthy and delicious.

CEiMB - Greek-Style Stuffed Peppers

Craving Ellie in My Belly is headed to Greece this week! I've never been to Greece but this is a great way to experience some of the flavors without throwing down a wad of cash or eating my weight in baklava.

Ali at The Healthy Hostess (check out her blog, you'll love it!) picked this recipe just for us, and I was excited because I still had some feta leftover after we made the baked shrimp with tomatoes a few weeks back. Feta isn't my favorite cheese but I'm trying to develop a liking for it. These peppers gave me another opportunity.

I'm not a beef lover. In fact, I ate no meat at all for over 20 years. It was just three years ago that I started eating chicken and turkey and beef every once in a while. So I decided to substitute ground turkey for the beef. Why is it that packages of ground turkey weigh exactly 1.25 pounds? I mean, most recipes call for a pound. I piled the extra ground turkey in the bowl and dumped in the other ingredients. The nagging voice in the back of my head was whispering "saute the onions, saute the onions..." but I ignored it, as I usually do. And I regretted it, as I usually do. 

I decided to go natural, and donned a pair of gloves and mixed the ingredients with my hands. I mixed them really, really well. Rookie mistake. Unless you like solid stuffing in your peppers. Yeah, me neither.

This recipe was pretty easy to put together. I added powdered garlic and smoked paprika for extra flavor and wish I had added more. The flavor was a little understated, but all in all it was good. If I make this recipe again, I think I'll move the flavors to Italy, using a little mozzarella cheese in place of the feta and using homemade tomato sauce instead of the canned tomatoes. Oh, and I'll be more careful about overmixing the meat. 

If you'd like the recipe, you'll find it here. And check out what the other CEiMB members did here. They're a great group who really inspire me.

Barefoot Bloggers - Chicken Picatta

This week's Barefoot Bloggers recipe is Chicken Picatta, chosen for us by Lindsey of Noodle Nights and Muffin Mornings. I was excited about this one as it is easy and inexpensive.

I did take a short cut. I bought sliced chicken breasts, so I didn't have to pound them. This is such an easy recipe that dinner was ready early...that never happens! I served it with brown rice and steamed broccoli. The pan sauce was delicious with the chicken (and the broccoli). The sauce tasted a little too lemony on its own, but with the chicken it was spot on flavor wise.

There are one or two things I will do differently next time. After sautéing, the chicken bakes on a sheet pan with parchment paper. That made the bottom of the chicken soggy. I think I'll bake it on a rack over the sheet pan so the bottom gets heat and stays crisp. I would also double the sauce since it was so good and such a natural to put over your veggies. I might also saute some spinach in that pan sauce and pour the whole thing over the chicken.

Give this one a try! It's awesome and easy, a perfect Tuesday night dinner.

You can find the recipe here. If you'd like to join us in cooking and blogging about Barefoot Contessa recipes, here's how you do it.

CEiMB - Sesame-Teriyaki Chicken Thighs

So, it occurred to me around 4:30 Weds. night that I really needed to get my act together and make this recipe. I mean, I needed something to break up the chocolate truffle blockade, and some light and tasty chicken is just the ticket.

It's raining like crazy in the Bay area, and thank God it is because we really need it. It made getting a parking space at Trader Joe's easier since anyone with half a brain decided to go straight home and eat food they already owned, even if it was cereal.

Not me. I was on the hunt for chicken thighs (I needed more than chicken for the recipe, but didn't realize it till I was home). They had them but they were boneless, which will do but aren't ideal. Cooking chicken on the bone gives a more flavorful result, and when we cut back on fats, building flavors is important.

The marinade is so ridiculously easy; really, the whole dish couldn't be easier. I let it marinade in the fridge while I made, yes, ANOTHER batch of Nutella truffles. I put it under the broiler and kept watch over it, turning after 7 minutes. It smelled fantastic and got a little black around the edges. I love eating the little overcooked edges of food so this was a treat!

I'm not a huge fan of chicken thighs in general but these were great. They were tender, moist and flavorful. I had added a little sesame oil to the marinade which gave them a subtle nutty flavor (good thing since I was out of sesame seeds!)

Craving Ellie in My Belly is a group of bloggers who cook a recipe from Ellie Krieger's book The Foods You Crave. I love cooking with this talented group; they always inspire me. Check on their chicken here.