Lunch Box 9-23-13

My first grader's packed lunch.  Kids will eat real food if given the chance.

Wordless Week, Episode Six: Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo with Roasted Asparagus

Wordless Week, Episode One: Spice-Rubbed Chicken and Hominy Saute

A brief explanation:  I've been putting off blog updates due to a lot of different things interfering with both my creative jones and my free time.  The backlog has had the ironic consequence of making it even harder for me to sit down and be in the mood to blog.  So in order to get some of these dishes posted and take some of the pressure off, I'm doing a Wordless Week, as many other bloggers do Wordless Wednesday.

I'll post a pic or two of the dish and text of or a link to the recipe, if available.  Enjoy.

Episode One: Spice-Rubbed Chicken with Hominy Saute.  I served this Martha Stewart combination with some simple buttered noodles.

Spice Rubbed Chicken with Hominy Sauté

Serves 4

1 tbsp. paprika

½ tsp. ancho or chipotle chile powder

½ tsp. oregano

Coarse salt and ground pepper

8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 3 pounds total)

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

2 cans (14 oz. each) hominy, rinsed and drained

4 to 5 scallions, thinly sliced

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved

Preheat oven to 425º.  Combine paprika, chile powder, oregano, 1 tsp. salt, and ¼ tsp. pepper.  Place chicken on a rimmed baking sheet and rub with spice mixture.  Bake until 165º internally, about 20-25 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add hominy and scallions; season with salt and pepper.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until scallions are softened, 2-3 minutes.  Add tomatoes and cook until warmed through, 2-3 minutes.  Serve alongside chicken thighs.

Chicken Saltimbocca with roasted red potatoes and cucumber-tomato salad

Oh yeah. This is what I'm talkin' about...an easy-peasy dinner that looks awesome but is super simple to make and tastes delicious.

I had never tried Chicken Saltimbocca before seeing it featured on an episode of America's Test Kitchen. I snagged the recipe and have made it twice now. It's perfect for impressing company while not spending all night in the kitchen.

"Saltimbocca" apparently means "jumps in the mouth" in Italian, which is what the flavors of this dish are supposed to do. It's a simple combination of sage and prosciutto that I really like.


Chicken Saltimbocca
serves 4

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved horizontally into cutlets
1/4 cup all-purpose flour, seasoned generously with fresh black pepper
1/4 cup fresh sage leaves, chopped
4 thin slices prosciutto (not shaved, just thinly sliced)
Kosher salt
Extra-virgin olive oil

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and sprinkle on just a bit of kosher salt. Dredge the chicken in the peppered flour and shake off the excess. Lay the cutlets flat, divide the chopped sage between them (one side only), and press gently to adhere. Press a slice of prosciutto on top of each cutlet, over the sage.

Heat about 2 tbsp. of olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Place each cutlet in the pan gently, prosciutto-side down, and cook for about 3 minutes. Flip and cook through. Serve. (I wound up flipping a second time to get the cutlets cooked thoroughly and nicely browned.)


I served the chicken with some roasted red potatoes and an easy salad of summer's favorite veggies. I drizzled sliced tomatoes and cucumbers with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, sprinkled salt and pepper over them, and crumbled some feta cheese on top. So good!


The roasted red potatoes were super simple, too. I just scrubbed some small ones, cubed them (skins on, of course!), and tossed them in a roasting pan with a sliced shallot, olive oil, and garlic salt and pepper. I roasted them in my oven on the convection setting at 400º for about 20 minutes, give or take, until they were fragrant and starting to brown.

Delish!

Easy Chicken Caesar Wraps

These chicken Caesar wraps were my husband's idea for lunch one day, and I must say, I'm very happy with myself for the execution.

The foundation of the wrap was a mixture of lovely vegetables- Romaine lettuce, red onion (always the best choice for salads and sandwiches because of its sweetness), and home-grown yellow and red tomatoes.


Chicken cutlets were sprinkled with garlic salt and fresh pepper before being grilled until cooked through but still juicy, and then they were sliced thinly.


We had been on the hunt for a good quality creamy Caesar dressing for salads, and boy howdy, did we find one! Brianna's Home Style Asiago Caesar Dressing is the bomb. It's made in Texas, but I forgive them for that. ;) I chose it because it won a Chef's Best Award, which is a sign of a good product in the food world.


You could use pita or other flatbread for this wrap, but I chose to use my favorite tortillas, La Banderita. They're delicious and soft, and the soft taco size is perfect for this and other uses.


I piled the sliced chicken and veggies on each tortilla and gave them a generous drizzle of the Caesar dressing before rolling up. Super simple, healthy-ish, and so delicious!

Day Twenty-Four: Arroz Con Pollo

Day 24 of Operation: Expand Horizons is another recipe by America's Test Kitchen, Latino Style Chicken and Rice, aka Arroz Con Pollo (registration required).

I've eaten Arroz Con Pollo before, as prepared by my amiga puertorriqueña Becky, but I've never cooked it myself. This version is simple, if a little time-consuming. My husband thought it lacked a certain something (maybe spiciness?). However, it was good, and certainly deserved a try.

Day Twenty: Chicken Salad Sandwich

Day twenty of Operation: Expand Horizons was an original mash-up recipe using leftover green chile mayo from the burgers and fries posting a couple of days ago.

I poached a medium-sized chicken breast in water seasoned with some kosher salt, black pepper, dried parsley, and dried chives. Poaching, if you're unfamiliar, is gentle simmering in water and seasonings, usually herbs or other aromatics like onion and garlic. It infuses flavor without causing the tough texture usually imparted by boiling the meat.

I removed the chicken from the cooking water and let it cool briefly before chopping. I also chopped up 1/4 of a Gala apple and two green onions. I mixed the chicken, apple, onion, and a large pinch of slivered blanched almonds with the remaining green chile mayo, seasoned it with salt and pepper, and piled it onto some homemade multi-grain bread with a piece of romaine lettuce.

Delicious!

Day Twelve: Pad Thai and Potstickers

Day twelve of Operation: Expand Horizons offered some Asian fare from the minions at Martha Stewart's Everyday Food- Vegetable Pad Thai from May 2010 and Pork and Chive Potstickers from October 2009. I stir-fried some mung bean sprouts as a side dish.

The pad Thai recipe was simple and did not require any hard-to-find ingredients, but as is often the case with recipes from Everyday Food, it tasted quite bland. I wound up adding some Asian chili garlic sauce I had in the fridge to kick it up a notch. Also, the rice noodles I used were not adequately cooked by the soak-and-stir-fry routine of this recipe. I added some additional water and microwaved the serving bowl full of noodles for a minute.

The recipe gives a suggestion to add some thinly sliced chicken breast or peeled shrimp to the skillet before adding the noodles and sauce. Because my husband gets cross-eyed if a dish lacks meat, I sliced up one small breast, salted and peppered it, and cooked it through after sautéing the garlic and onion and before doing the rest.

The pork and chive potstickers were good in flavor, but I have a small disagreement with the way they were cooked. I've made potstickers before from an Alton Brown recipe, and they were awesome. Alton's method is to sauté the dumplings on one side in a very small amount of oil until browned and stuck to the pan (hence the name "potstickers"), then adding a small amount of water and clamping on the lid until the water steams them through and unsticks them from the skillet. They came out nicely browned on one side, and tender and puckered on the other.

Martha's recipe calls for boiling the dumplings first, fishing them out with a slotted spoon, and then cooking them in a small amount of vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet. I'm not sure who forgot over there at Everyday Food, but you can't very well put a wet dumpling into hot oil without having issues. Even with a nonstick skillet, the dumplings did not brown nicely and came out misshapen.

They tasted pretty good, however, and although the dipping sauce is somewhat vinegary (another Everyday Food issue- they have a hard-on for vinegar), it was a good match for the dumplings.

You can get the potstickers recipe at the link above. Because the pad Thai recipe is not yet available online, here it is.

Vegetable Pad Thai

Adapted from Everyday Food Magazine, May 2010

Serves 4

8 oz. dried, wide, and flat rice noodles

2 tbsp. dark brown sugar

2 tbsp. fresh lime juice, plus wedges for serving

3 tbsp. soy sauce

2 tsp. vegetable oil

3 scallions (We call 'em "green onions" here in Oklahoma.), white and green parts separated and thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, minced (I laugh at recipes calling for 1 garlic clove. I used two.)

2 large eggs (optional), lightly beaten (Eggs in Asian food gross me out. I omitted.)

1/2 c. fresh cilantro (My plants are currently going to seed, so I didn't have any.)

1/4 c. chopped roasted, salted peanuts (Baby Chef is allergic, so I omitted.)

Soak rice noodles according to package instructions. Drain. (Mine needed a bit more than soaking. Maybe a soak in hot water instead of cold would do it.)

In a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar, lime juice, and soy sauce. Set aside.

In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium high. Add scallion whites and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add eggs (if using) and cook, scraping skillet with a rubber spatula, until eggs are almost set, about 30 seconds. Transfer egg mixture to a plate.

(This is where I added the sliced seasoned chicken breast and cooked it.)

Add noodles and soy sauce mixture to skillet; cook, tossing constantly, until noodles are soft and coated with sauce, about 1 minute. Add egg mixture and toss to coat, breaking eggs up gently. Serve noodles with lime wedges, topped with cilantro and peanuts.

Day Eleven: Pineapple-Stuffed Jerk Chicken with Pineapple Rice

Day eleven of Operation: Expand Horizons was a pair of Martha Stewart recipes-Everyday Food's Pineapple-Stuffed Jerk Chicken, from June 2008, andPineapple Rice, from July/August 2007. I had made the rice before and liked it. I thought it would pair well with the new chicken recipe.

The chicken wasn't our favorite, but it was fun to try something different. There was something about the jerk seasoning we didn't like- probably the allspice. However, I may use the same idea of pineapple stuffing in chicken for another meal, using a honey-soy glaze instead. The pineapple rice recipe is paired with pork kebabs that use this flavor combination, and they are great.

I served fresh green beans on the side. Baby Chef was quite helpful during prep time. She snapped all of the beans by herself!

Day Four: Chicken Cutlets with Asparagus, Capers, and Shallots

Day four of Operation: Expand Horizons was a marginal success. I liked it; my husband called it "edible." Bon Appétit's Chicken Cutlets with Asparagus, Capers, and Shallots may not make it into our regular dinner rotation, but he tried something new and I'm OK with that.

Before plating the food, I wasn't sure how it was going to taste, but I knew that it sure looked pretty.

My normal method of cooking asparagus is steaming, so the broiled kind was new for me and I really liked it. The stalks were not tough at all. The shallots were really good with the chicken, and I was surprised at how mellow the flavor of the fennel seed became during cooking. I'm not normally a big fan of fennel seed or any licorice-type flavors, but it was quite good.

The mustard and caper sauce was really tangy and vinegary, too much so for my husband. I added a teaspoon of sugar and it was better. I knew he might not like it, so I served the sauce on the side.

The sauce called for fresh tarragon, which I have never used and could not find in the grocery store. Not knowing what tarragon tasted like, I took a guess based on the other ingredients and substituted fresh thyme from my garden. It seemed to work.

My oven rack was in the middle position, so broiling time was longer than indicated by the recipe, but that was better for me in that it reduced the chance that the shallots would burn while the chicken stayed raw on the inside.

I made some plain buttered egg noodles to go on the side.

Greek style chicken legs

Greek and Middle Eastern cuisines are among my favorites, right behind Mexican. There are a lot of similarities in the foods of Greece, Iran, Israel, Iraq, and the rest of the Mideast. The things I like best include hummus, tabbouleh, pita, gyros, and shish tawook.

If you're not familiar with shish tawook, find a good Middle Eastern restaurant and fix that. It's delicious- chunks of marinated and grilled chicken shmeared with a thick garlicky paste, usually served over rice or in a pita. You definitely won't be getting kissed for about two days after you eat it, but it's SO worth the breath. (Seriously- garlic will come not only from your mouth, but from your stomach and from your pores.)

Greek flavors are easily accomplished without a recipe. One of my favorites is a simple combo of garlic, oregano, and olive oil. I made some grilled chicken legs recently with these- just sprinkle the legs with garlic granules, dried oregano, kosher salt, and fresh pepper and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Refrigerate for at least an hour before grilling.

I often use garlic granules when grilling chicken or beef. It won't burn like fresh garlic will, and the taste stays a truer raw garlic flavor instead of the sweeter taste of cooked, which is not my favorite.

To accompany the chicken legs, I steam-microwaved a mixture of fresh veggies- bell pepper, onion, broccoli, asparagus, snap peas, and mushrooms. The trick to doing this is to microwave in stages. Tougher veggies like the broccoli and onions go in first; tender types like the bell pepper and mushrooms go in afterward so they don't overcook. My fancy microwave has a "Fresh Vegetables" button that makes it simple. You choose 1-3 cups and the timing is usually perfect.

I also made some white rice with slivered white onion added in at the last minute of cooking to keep a crisp, fresh oniony flavor that works well with the grilled chicken.

All in all, this is a quick, easy dinner that's full of flavor but not full of fat.

Chicken Tikka Masala

We like to eat Indian food at a local restaurant that serves a lunch buffet daily. The only problem is that the restaurant is way across town, and dinner is quite expensive. So, we both get the occasional unsatisfied craving for Chicken Tikka Masala and naan bread.

I'd tried a couple of different techniques before- one out of a packet, one a regular recipe- and both tasted like crap. I hated throwing that food away- rice, chicken, sauce, etc. It irritates me when a meal does not come out. But, I find I can generally trust America's Test Kitchen's recipe integrity, found their version, and threw caution to the wind.

This came out pretty good, even if a little un-photogenic. We have a canister of Rajah brand garam masala that proved a good balance, not overly cinnamon-y like some we've smelled/tasted.

I was unable to find the called-for serrano chile at my grocery store (they seem to have a problem with the lowly serrano, and never stock it for some reason), so I left it out, again somewhat concerned that it'd be too spicy for the bebeh girl. You never know with Indian food.

It did wind up needing just a skosh more of something spicy, but was generally tasty and consistent with what we've eaten at the buffet.

Let me know if you want the recipe. I'm not gonna type it out until then, because that's how I roll. Don't judge me.

I wished we'd had some naan, but no dice, so I settled for some leftover regular flatbread. I made a batch of hummus to go with, which came out OK but a little too garlicky. Yeah, yeah, I know it's not Indian food, but it's close enough for government work. Again with the judgment! Jesus!

Chicken Pasta Pomodoro

This meal was an attempt to recreate one of the few frozen entrees that is worth buying- Chicken Pasta Pomodoro by Kashi. My husband often comes home hungry from late night hockey games. I'm not always up to making him a meal at 1 a.m., so we compromised with a few frozen dinners. Having a particularly picky meat-n-taters type of husband, I was surprised when he actually enjoyed this relatively healthy one and asked me to buy him some more. I decided later to try to recreate the dish for the three of us.

Kashi has their own 7-grain penne pasta that I can't buy so I substituted whole wheat, which we've never eaten before. It was actually good, and we eat a lot of traditional pasta. Aside from that, I used the ingredients list as my guide, in addition to the obvious things that it contained, like chicken, zucchini, yellow squash, and red bell pepper. I added bits of sundried tomato and artichoke hearts.

It tasted pretty good, all in all. The only thing it required after serving was a dash or two of hot sauce for zing. I also had to feed it to a two year old, so I had not added any red pepper flakes like I would have if it was just us adults.

The one caveat to this dish: it did NOT taste very good the next day. I don't know if it was the pasta or what, but it was gluey and bland.

I'll probably make some adjustments to the recipe before posting it.