Pineapple Curry

I see that some die-hard out there has been looking at this blog and maybe hoping for a new recipe.  So here's a good one:

PINEAPPLE CURRY

1 Tbsp. cooking oil
1 1/2 Tbsp. red curry paste
3/4 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut in about 1/4-inch slices
1/2 small onion, peeled and sliced from "pole to pole" [that's how cooking people say it; slice from root-end to top—or the other way around :-)]
1 small red bell pepper, sliced
1 can (13.5 oz.) coconut milk
1/2 - 1 Tbsp. fish sauce
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 can sliced bamboo shoots, drained
2 Tbsp. pineapple juice
1 1/2 Tbsp. flour
salt to taste
1/2 can (a 20 oz. can) pineapple chunks, drained [use this juice for your 2 Tbsp.—above]
kaffir lime leaves, shredded [I've not found any of these yet, but the recipe is good without them]
fresh basil leaves (optional)

1. Heat oil in a large frying pan or wok.
2. Saute the curry paste until foamy.
3. Add the chicken and brown in the curry paste.
4. Stir in the onions and peppers and saute for 2 minutes.
5. Add coconut milk, fish sauce, sugar and bamboo shoots; cook until the vegetables are tender-crisp.
6. In a small bowl, mix the pineapple juice and flour together to make a thin paste.  Add to the pan and stir to thicken the sauce.
7. Add salt to taste.
8. Stir in the pineapple and lime leaves and/or basil leaves.  Cook until pineapple is heated through.
9. Serve hot over rice. [I like Jasmine rice.]

This would look really cool served in pineapple boats! (Which would be awesome for a dinner date, but would make a HUGE meal for each person.)

• Slice a pineapple in half lengthwise, splitting the leaves as well so there are some attached to each half. 
• Scoop out the pineapple with a sturdy spoon leaving a 1/2-inch shell. 
• Set the pineapple aside to use another time (freezing it for pineapple smoothies come to mind).
• Place the pineapple shells hollow-side-down to drain while the rice and curry are cooking.
• When the food is all cooked, place each pineapple shell on a plate (hollow-side-up this time!). 
• Scoop some rice into each shell, then top with the pineapple curry.
• Garnish the plate with edible flowers or those little paper umbrellas or something.

Nice!

  

Sticky Chicken (sauce)

Put this sauce on your cooked—breaded, or not—chicken.  Do not cook raw chicken in the sauce; put the sauce on the already cooked chicken and let it cook for another 10 minutes or so.

STICKY CHICKEN SAUCE

1/3 cup Frank's Red Hot Wings Buffalo-style sauce (yes, use this exact sauce)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 Tbsp. water

1.  Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and heat to dissolve sugar and combine thoroughly.
2.  Pour sauce over cooked chicken and bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.

Easy yum!

Chicken Supreme

This is the "honey-mustard" chicken that Boom—or was it Brian?—so astutely recognized as a curry recipe. Good stuff!

CHICKEN SUPREME

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup mustard
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. curry powder
3 lb. chicken pieces (I prefer skinless)
1.  Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2.  Mix together the butter, mustard, honey, salt and curry powder in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish.
3.  Place the chicken pieces in the mixture, turning to coat.
4.  Bake, uncovered, for 45 to 60 minutes, basting with sauce frequently, and turning over once after 30 minutes.

Or you can grill the chicken instead of baking, but then you won't have the extra sauce to put on top when you serve it. It's good either way.

I like it served with rice. :-)

Better Than Fried Chicken

OK. I have to admit that I am on a healthy, light-cooking kick. This is nothing new; I've been doing this kind of thing for years. But, aside from that, deep-frying anything is a big, total pain—especially chicken (which never seems to get cooked all the way through). And this is a really good recipe. I'm sure it would work beautifully with fish, too.

Use four split chicken breasts, or a whole, cut up chicken. If the breasts are big I will often cut them in half. Absolutely use the Panko crumbs—they give it a nicer texture than regular, fine bread-crumbs. [You can find them in the bulk-bins at WinCo. I've also seen them in boxes in the Asian food aisle at other stores.]

OVEN-FRIED CHICKEN

1 whole chicken [see note, above]
3 large egg whites
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/4 tsp. garlic
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
6 oz. panko bread crumbs
2 oz. dry wheat bread crumbs
a dash or two of Season-All (optional)
2 1/2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425.
Place a wire rack on top of a baking sheet and spray it with cooking spray.
Mix the egg whites, Dijon mustard, thyme, garlic and cayenne pepper together in a shallow bowl.
Mix the panko crumbs, wheat bread crumbs, Season-All and vegetable oil together in a shallow dish.With your left hand, dip a chicken piece into the egg mixture.
With your right hand, dip the eggy chicken piece into the crumbs, pressing to make sure they stick.
Put the piece on the prepared rack, and repeat the process with the rest of the chicken pieces.
Spray the tops of the chicken pieces with cooking spray.
Bake until golden-brown and the meat is no longer pink, about 50-60 minutes.
Serve immediately.

Garlic Chicken and Parslied Potatoes

Last night was our ward's Relief Society birthday social. The menu was fantastic, and received rave reviews.

The Garlic Chicken was excellent! A dish of tender chicken breasts, subtly seasoned with herbs, and served with a sauce that’s a garlic-lover’s dream. This recipe will fill your home—and maybe your neighbor’s—with an irresistible aroma. As a matter of fact, a friend came over to my house yesterday the afternoon to deliver some potatoes for the dinner, and she said as soon as she opened her car door she could smell the good things cooking inside the house.

Don't let the amount of garlic deter you. This dish really is superb! [If you don't believe me, you can ask Marian. ;-) ]

CHICKEN WITH GARLIC SAUCE

2 Tbsp. flour
1 1/2 tsp. sage
1 1/2 tsp. rosemary
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
4 (6-oz.) boneless chicken breasts
3 Tbsp. olive oil
20 garlic cloves, cut in half lengthwise
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 white onion, chopped
1/4 cup white wine
1 1/4 cups chicken broth
1 Tbsp. soft butter mixed with 1 Tbsp. flour
3 Tbsp. Italian parsley (optional—for garnish)

Preheat oven to 325°. Combine flour, sage, rosemary, salt and pepper on a plate. Dredge the chicken breasts in the flour mixture, shaking off the excess flour. Heat 2 Tbsp. of the olive oil in a large sauté pan set on medium-high heat until sizzling, about 2 minutes. Add the chicken breasts to the pan and cook for 4 minutes on each side. Transfer to a baking dish.
Add the remaining olive oil to the sauté pan and heat over medium-high heat until sizzling, about 1 minute. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes and onion and cook until the onion softens and the garlic begins to brown, about 3 minutes. Pour the wine into the saute pan and cook until reduced by half. Add the chicken stock and boil until reduced by half, about 7-8 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and add the butter-flour mixture, stirring until it has melted completely. Return the pan to the heat and boil for a minute, until the sauce thickens.
Spoon sauce over chicken breasts, and bake for 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Serve chicken topped with sauce and garnish with Italian parsley.

And the perfect compliment to this savory chicken dish is the subtle flavor of Parslied Potatoes. These yummy potatoes take less than an hour to make, from start to finish, and they go good with just about anything!

PARSLIED POTATOES

3 lbs. small red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into about 1-inch cubes (think potato salad)
5 chicken bouillon cubes
1/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp. salt
black pepper, freshly ground
dash paprika (optional)
1/4 to 1/3 cup chopped parsley

Absolutely dice the potatoes before you cook them! (This way the skins won't shred off while you are trying to chop them up.)
Put the potato cubes into a large pot; put in the bouillon cubes and add water to cover it all (about 7 cups water). Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are fork-tender. [Check them after 10 minutes, and then about every 5 minutes or so after that until they are done.] Scoop out 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid; set it aside.
Drain the potatoes in a colander. Put the butter, reserved cooking liquid, salt, dash pepper and paprika into the cooking pot. Stir until the butter is melted, then return the potatoes to the pot. Add the parsley and toss gently until potatoes are covered with the other ingredients.
Serve and enjoy . . . with anything!

Coming up next . . . the fabulous dessert-bar recipes!

Crunch Salad

Our friend, Jill Rushton, brought this yummy salad to our Christmas party this year. It's really tasty, and way easy to make.

CRUNCH SALAD

1 pkg Rce-a-Roni fried rice
1 small green onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery, chopped
1 can sliced water chestnuts
1 can turkey or chicken, drained
enough mayonnaise to make moist
1 can rice noodles [These are in the oriental section of the grocery store. They are just chow mein noodles, but instead of the big ones that come in the bags, these noodles are smaller and come in a can.]

I think it would also be good with a handful of toasted, sliced almonds, and maybe a couple Tablespoons of finely diced red bell peppers.


Cook the Rice-a-Roni as directed on package. Toss rice with all remaining ingredients except for the noodles. Put in fridge to chill. Mix noodles in just before serving.

Oven "Fried" . . .

In keeping with my goal to drop 35 pounds (actually it's 30 now!) I have a tip for breaded, fried foods. You know, like onion rings or fried zucchini, or fried fish; the stuff that tastes sooooo good, and is soooooo fatty! I've tried breading and baking stuff before, only to get a soggy mess. But this really works and tastes great too. Although you may want to wait for cooler weather before you try it—you do need to use a very high temperature oven.

BREADED, "FRIED" . . . ANYTHING!

4 slices white bread, torn into 1-inch pieces*
1 Tbsp. butter, melted*
salt and pepper
1/4 cup flour*
2 large eggs*
1 Tbsp. light mayonnaise*
seasonings of choice, to taste
chicken or fish or zucchini or mushrooms or onion rings or . . .

*You may need more of these things, depending on how much "anything" you're cooking—this amount works for about four 4 to 5-ounce pieces of chicken.

Prepare ahead of time: Pulse bread, butter, salt and pepper in food processor to make medium crumbs. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees about 15 minutes, stirring twice during baking time. Crumbs should be brown and dry. Set aside until ready to use.

Prepare (slice, dice—whatever, and pat dry) your veggies, chicken or fish. [You can also do "fried" mozarella this way, but you have to freeze the cheese sticks first and then work fast when you're breading them. Also I don't know that this qualifies as a low-cal food. But it is healthier than plain old deep-fried mozarella!]

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Put the flour into a shallow bowl. In another shallow bowl, mix together the eggs, mayonnaise and your choice of seasonings. [I find that "Season-All" is great for this stuff.] Put the bread crumbs into another shallow bowl.
Spray a large cookie sheet with cooking spray. Dredge your fish, chicken or veggies in the flour. Dip the floury food into the egg mixture. Coat the eggy mess in bread crumbs, pressing crumbs onto the food, and then place on the prepared cookie sheet.

Turn oven heat down to 425 degrees. Place cookie sheet in oven. Bake fish about 20 to 25 minutes, turning once halfway through. Bake large chicken pieces about 40 minutes, turning a couple times during cooking. [Smaller, boneless chicken pieces will work better and don't have to cook as long.] Cook veggies about 10 to 15 minutes, turning over once.

Serve hot. Yummy!!

Chicken Supreme

When Michael, my oldest son, was eight years old he became very interested in cooking. Unfortunately that has waned a little, although he does make the best grilled-cheese sandwiches in the house. When he was eight we found this recipe in the Friend Magazine; Michael made it with minimal help from Mom. And everyone liked it! Yea!

CHICKEN SUPREME

3 lbs. chicken pieces
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup prepared mustard
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. curry powder

In a 9 x 13-inch baking pan, mix all ingredients except for the chicken. Add chicken pieces and turn to coat. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes, turning pieces and basting every 15 minutes.

This is also great cooked on the grill. Marinate it in the honey-mustard sauce for at least 30 minutes. Then cook it on the grill until done all the way through.

Supreme!