Spring Chicken!

I've had a love/hate relationship with chicken breasts. They made dinner easy, but they just didn't excite me. It seemed impossible to find juicy, fat chicken breasts that were full of flavor. But, I recently decided to only buy local and humanely-raised, antibiotic-free meat and poultry, and yes it costs a bit more, but wow, what a difference the quality makes! Not only are the chicken breasts about double the size of the usual grocery store brands, but they taste different, i.e., better. Even after 8 hours in the slow cooker and another few minutes on the stove, it's the juiciest, most delectable chicken I've ever eaten. Seriously.

If you aren't convinced, or just can't switch to locally-raised, antibiotic-free birds, this recipe still makes any kind of chicken breast sing (chicken thighs would work, too), and it's an easy, no-fuss dinner that tastes amazing. The slow cooker does most of the work -- you just have to reduce the sauce and maybe toast some sesame seeds for a few minutes on the stove if you feel like it. Add some broccoli and cooked brown rice (like this), and you can leave your Chinese takeout menu for another day. (Note: You should be able to find all of the ingredients at your grocery store.)

Slow-Cooker Hoisin Chicken

Ingredients:

1-2 TBS sesame oil

3-4 large raw, boneless, skinless chicken breasts

(if you're using the smaller grocery store kind, you can probably fit up to 6)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2/3 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup water
3 cloves minced garlic

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

2 TBS soy sauce

4 TBS hoisin sauce

Red pepper flakes (optional)

1 TBS corn starch

1 TBS cold water

2 cups broccoli florets

1 TBS toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Minimal MESS/ingredients/clean-up: Category 2

To Do:

• Lightly coat the bottom of your slow cooker with sesame oil.
• Place chicken breasts inside slow cooker, and try not to overlap too much. 
• In a medium bowl, combine the brown sugar, rice vinegar, the 1/4 cup of water, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and 2 TBS of the hoisin, then pour over the chicken breasts. Sprinkle with a pinch of red pepper flakes.
• Slow cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4 hours. 
• Remove chicken pieces (which will be falling apart) from slow cooker and set aside. 
• Strain out the sauce from the pot into a large skillet, over medium-high heat.
• Mix together the corn starch and the TBS of cold water until smooth, then gradually stir the mixture into the sauce until blended, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil for a 1-2 minutes until the liquid starts to thicken. 
• Still stirring, lower the heat and add in the rest of the hoisin and another pinch of red pepper flakes.
• Stir in the broccoli florets and the chicken and cover. Simmer until heated through and broccoli is tender, about 3-5 minutes. 

• Gently stir once more to combine sauce, chicken and broccoli, and adjust seasonings if necessary.
• Serve with brown rice or Asian noodles, and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Yum!

xoxo

Chicken image at top transferred from Flickr to Wikimedia Commons by User:MaybeMaybeMaybe

Easy Dinner: Pork Loin with Brown Rice and Veggies

I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate. --Julia Child

I don't know about you, but this summer has been crazy hectic.  Between personal obligations and work events we haven't had much down time.  Especially during the week.  So, when I knew Chris would be home in time for dinner, I popped a pork loin in the oven so we could have a nice meal together.  Forty minutes later, we did just that.

All you have to do is take a pork loin, brown it on all sides on the stove, and then pop in the oven for about 30 minutes at 375 degrees.  You can season it however you'd like, or buy one that's already seasoned. (I think Hormel makes some good ones.)  I had some blanched chopped onion and carrots in the freezer, so I thawed them and then tossed in the pan with the pork loin and they got all soft and sugary (yes, I removed the onions before serving).  

I mixed some BBQ sauce, soy sauce and garlic powder in a bowl and poured on top of the loin at the last 15 minutes of baking.  Meanwhile, I made some brown rice (love the frozen bags of it) and steamed some frozen mixed veggies.  Then, I tossed both in a bowl with 1-1TBS of dried herbs and 1 tsp. garlic powder, 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika and 1 TBS each of butter/olive oil.

When the pork was cooked through, I let it rest for a few minutes, put the rice and veggies on the plate and then topped with slices of meat.  Delish!

How easy is that?

xoxoxo

   

Italian Crusted Cod

I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate. --Julia Child

I don't often eat fish on Mondays. Maybe because it always seemed like a Friday thing -- at least growing up.  There would be a weekly fish fry on Fridays at the local restaurant and people would talk about "going out for fish on Friday." But, it was 80 degrees outside and I was thinking summer, ocean, seafood...I realized that I had some lovely, wild caught, Alaskan Cod fillets that would make a nice meal. 

I usually bake my fish with a sauce made of butter, lemon, capers, garlic, olives and tomatoes, but  I decided to mix it up a bit and try something new.

I preheated the oven to 425F degrees and then patted the fillets dry, seasoned them with a bit of salt and pepper and then coated them in a mixture of 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 2 TBS mayo, and 2TBS lemon juice and placed them on a greased cookie sheet.  Then, I mixed about 1 cup of bread crumbs, 2 TBS of corn meal, 2 TBS of grated Parmesan, and about 2 teaspoons each of oregano, basil, parsley and garlic powder, and a pinch of red pepper flakes.  I stirred in about 2 TBS of melted butter until the mixture was moist, then I covered each fillet with it.  I put in the oven to bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the fish flaked easily with a fork and was cooked all the way through.  The first 10 minutes, I covered with foil so the crumbs wouldn't brown too much, then I removed towards the end, so they could toast up a bit.

While the fish was cooking, I quickly cooked up some brown rice (I found a wonderful frozen bagged variety at my grocery store -- you just take it out of the freezer and pop it in the microwave, and 5 minutes later, lovely plain brown rice!) and then stirred in half a package of Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Boursin cheese, some Italian herbs, and a bit of salt/pepper, until it was creamy, then kept warm. To serve, I molded onto the plates in a small mound, but of course since I'm the Gourmess, it didn't quite keep its nice shape for very long. Oh well.

I also still have plenty of veggies around from my latest organic food box order, so I cut up some lovely organic carrots into thin slices and cooked them in about 1 TBS of butter until just tender. Then, I tossed in some beautiful organic broccoli florets, added some salt and pepper, and cooked for 3 minutes more on low, then removed the pan from the heat and covered it, where the broccoli would continue to cook/steam until serving.

It took only about 30 minutes from start to finish to make everything, and I served it with some homemade bread.  It was a delicious way to end a Monday.

Yum!

xoxoxo