Tagliatelle with Chicken

As we do every year, we look for a new dish ideas  that aren't just really good, but look really good on your plate for the holidays. If this is a holiday dish, you want to also make the Tomato sauce that is also here on the blog. This has been a big hit this year already and we are just getting started. We've made if for a few parties so far and we haven't had any leftovers yet!

Serves 4
8 oz tagliatelle. The green pasta works well with this dish for the holidays! You can buy a great spinach/garlic that was fabulous.
1 T olive oil
Salt
Tomato Sauce use 1 full recipe for 4
Basil leaves for garnish

Chicken Sauce
1/4 cup unsalted butter
14 oz. boned, skinned chicken breast (or thighs) sliced thin
3/4 cup blanched almonds
1\2 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1 1\4  cups heavy cream salt and pepper

1. Make the Tomato Sauce.

2. To make the chicken sauce, melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium heat and fry the chicken strips and almonds  for 5 to 6 minutes,  stirring frequently until the chicken is cooked through.

3. Meanwhile pour the cream into a small saucepan over low heat and bring to a boil. Simmer slowly for about 10 minutes until reduced by almost half.  Pour the cream over the chicken, add the parmesan and keep warm.

4. Cook the pasta, drain and keep warm.

5. To plate your dish, add the desired amount of pasta, spoon tomato sauce over the  pasta and then spoon the chicken and cream in the center. Garnish with basil and extra Parmesan if desired.
Serve immediately.

Trail Boss Chicken "aka" Chicken Pot Pie

For the 3rd  take "dish" day, we decided on the Chuck Wagon theme. So we all had to come up with dishes that might have been made back in the old west. What a hoot. In attendance was Blaze.Tess, Duke, Kitty, Slim, Dale, Rowdy and Annie!
This was a Blaze and Tess dish - Excellent if I say so myself!

1 1/2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1 cup red and/or green peppers cut into strips
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup corn (frozen is fine)
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper and paprika (each)
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup half and half (or cream)
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 T lemon juice
1 recipe sage biscuits (see below)

In a 10 inch oven going frying pan cook all the vegetables in 1 T butter until tender. Remove the vegetables from the pan. Melt the remaining butter, stir in flour and seasonings. Add chicken broth and milk; cook and stir until mixture boils and thickens. Stir in the chicken, vegetables and lemon juice.  Keep hot in the pan. Prepare biscuits as directed below and place wedges on hot chicken mixture.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35-45 minutes or until biscuits are done.

Sage biscuits
2 cups all purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 t rubbed dried sage
1/2 t cumin
6 T shortening
3/4 cup milk

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, sage and cumin and mix well. Cut in the shortening with a fork until crumbly. Add milk to moisten flour. Shape into a ball, turn out on a lightly floured surface. Roll or pat into an 8 inch circle. Cut into 8 wedges. Use as directed above.

Chicken Stock

Having a frozen supply of homemade chicken stock is the only way to roll over the winter. It adds flavor to just about everything and enhances every soup or dish that requires a chicken "broth". Chicken broth  is made from chicken meat - no extras. Chicken stock is made from bones that have simmered for hours along with some veggies and various herbs - to taste! If you simmered stock long enough it will become gelatinous.

On some of our other posts when chicken is involved (or turkey) we always say keep the bones and the skin.  This is why. You can't buy a better stock than what you can make in your kitchen for a fraction of the cost. Plus you know exactly what you're eating!


We had quite a bit saved up this time. So this made huge pot, probably more than likely you'll never have to do this. We had 1 turkey and 3 chickens worth of bones/skin. So based on what you have, you can adjust this as needed. But you really can't go wrong here..more is better! If you put in too much, well then it will just taste too good!

Based on a 44 quart pot - remember we had a ton of bones!
Chicken/turkey bones
14 huge carrots cut into 1/4's
1 1/2 heads of celery cut into 1/4's
2 large onions cut into 1/4's.
2 head of garlic peeled and lightly chopped
3 bay leaves
20 sprigs of fresh thyme
6 stems of fresh parsley
1/4 cup salt



Break all the bones in 1/2 because you want the marrow in your broth. Put everything in a large
stock pot, cover and bring to a boil. Once it begins to boil remove the lid and let is simmer for about 5 hours. We do this a few times a year but never this huge amount but you still want to cook it for a long time.

When its done, everything will be floating on the top and it will smell wonderful. Just remove everything and put through a find strainer. Put it back in the pot and let sit outside if its cold (covered) or in the refrigerator overnight. The next day  skim all the fat off the top and put it back on the stove and heat slightly just to be able to adjust your flavors if you need to.

We usually don't need to, but you can adjust to your liking. You could put in more herbs, salt etc and let it simmer even longer. Once you happy with the flavor, let it cool. We fill ice cube trays and when they are frozen just put them all in a big zip lock bags and back in the freezer. Then you can just use a cube or 2 as needed in sauces/soups etc.  Take the rest and just fill quart zip lock bags and freeze them.

We are forever making soup and we just take 2 bags and that is about 8 cups and make soup from that. Excellent for any soup that calls for chicken stock. You'll never go back to store bought after you try this!

We ended up with 11 1/2 quarts of stock.

Mediterranean Chicken with Fresh Herbs

So I need to tell you all that I was not planning on blogging this recipe so I did not take any pictures while I was making this dish. I promise to explain in detail so you can make this and have it turn out just like mine. As we dive into the season of holiday parties, I struggle with what to make that isn't filled with heavy sauces or have tons of fat.  I swear this dish is full of flavor and it really is healthy!
I used a grill pan for the chicken-if you don't have one then put it on your shopping list. I use mine all the time!

1-1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts cut in half or I used chicken tender pieces.
lots of fresh oregano, rosemary, thyme and flat leaf parsley chopped & mixed all together
kosher salt & fresh ground pepper or use your favorite seasoned salt
6 cloves of garlic minced and divided in half.
2 carrots shredded into long threads
1 lb. asparagus rinsed and ends trimmed off
8 small white potatoes cut in half
2 lemons cut in wedges (seeds removed)
1/4 cup olive oil (I used garlic infused)
1/2 c. pitted kalamata olives
cooking spray

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Place potatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt & pepper and herbs in a pan and toss until coated. Take one of the lemons that you cut up and squeeze the juice over the potatoes then toss the lemons into the pan. Roast for about 25 minutes or until the potatoes have a nice crust on them and are tender inside. Shake the pan a couple of times during the cooking time. In another roasting pan take asparagus tossed with olive oil & a bit of kosher salt and roast in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Cook the carrots in 1 cup of boiling water for about 5 minutes, drain & set aside.
Mix herbs with 3 cloves of minced garlic then rinse chicken & pat dry sprinkle with salt & pepper on both sides of the chicken. Sprinkle herb garlic/herb mixture on both sides of the chicken.
Spray grill pan with a non stick cooking spray and heat til the pan is really hot but not burning-the key here is you want the pan to sear the chicken and have grill marks. A cold pan just won't do it. Place the chicken in the pan and cook about 10 minutes on each side over medium heat (turn it down once the pan heated up). Squeeze the juice of 1 of the lemons over the chicken while it's cooking. Take the cooked chicken out of the pan and cover with foil to keep warm.

The plating:
Place a small mound of shredded carrot strips on a plate. place/prop 2 pieces of chicken on top of the carrots. Mound the potatoes and asparagus spears around the chicken. Sprinkle herbs sparingly around the plate add a piece of the roasted lemon and 3 kalamata olives. I then mixed a very simple

vinaigrette as a drizzle over the chicken.

This will make about 4 servings. Serve this dish with a green salad, crusty bread-enjoy!

Country Stuffing with mushroom giblet gravy for Thanksgiving

This is a Paula Deen recipe that we made in 2004 and have made it almost every Thanksgiving since. Its excellent. I don't have pictures to post but this year we having an old fashioned Thanksgiving where everyone will be involved in the cooking of every dish. It will be 100% hands on, if you want to eat! So pictures to come because we are making this dish!

2 loaves dry white bread
2 c cooked white rice
1 sleeve crushed saltines
1 lb bulk breakfast sausage
2 c chopped celery
1 large onion chopped
7 c chicken stock
1 T salt
15 twists fresh ground pepper
1 t dried sage leaves
1 T poultry seasoning
3 eggs beaten
2 T butter, melted

Mushroom giblet gravy - recipe to follow

Preheat the oven to 350. Crumble dry white bread into large bowl. Add the cooked rice and crushed saltines.

Cook the pork sausage in a large sauce pan until it starts to brown. Add celery and onion and saute until transparent, 5-10 minutes. Pour over the bread and rice mixture. Add stock and mix well. Add salt, pepper, sage and poultry seasoning.  Mix well. Add the beaten eggs and melted butter. Reserve 2 T of stuffing mixture for the mushroom giblet gravy.  Pour stuffing into a greased pan and bake until golden brown about 45 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Mushroom Giblet Gravy:

4 cups turkey or chicken stock
Giblets of 1 turkey
2 chicken bouillon cubes
2 T reserved stuffing mixture
3 T cornstarch
1/3 c cold water
2 pints button mushrooms, sliced
3 T butter
1 hard boiled egg sliced
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Bring stock and giblets to a boil. Add bouillon and reserved stuffing mixture. Make a slurry by mixing together the cornstarch and cold water. Add to the boiling stock. Cook 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, saute mushrooms until browned in the butter. Add mushrooms to the gravy with egg. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Chicken Tetrazzini

This is a great recipe for a holiday dinner. You can prepare it ahead of time and just pop it in the oven when you're ready. We've been making this for years and its always a crowd pleaser.

1 pkg (16 oz ) thin spaghetti
2 cans (8 oz) mushrooms, drained
1 2/ cup butter
5 c cooked chicken
2 cans (10 3/4 oz) cream of chicken soup
2 c sour cream
1 can (8 oz) water chestnuts, sliced and drained
Mozzarella cheese


Break the spaghetti into smaller pieces, cook and drain. Saute mushrooms in butter. Mix chicken with mushrooms and remaining ingredients (except the cheese). Turn into a greased 9 X 13 casserole and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 300 for 1 hour, or longer if prepared ahead and refrigerated.

Serves 10-12

You can also use turkey for this recipe.  This also freezes very well, so just cut it into portion size and put it in a baggie!

Super Easy Chicken Divan

So it's been a while since I've actually had a chance to post a recipe. I have been so crazy busy with just "stuff".  School is in full swing for me (my real job is hanging with a bunch of Middle Schoolers) and my daughter Kristina.  There are so many after school activites that many times dinner just gets in the way.  One thing that I constantly need to tell myself is that it's OK if I make something easy. This recipe is one that you can put together over the weekend, put it in the fridge until you want to pop it in the oven. Many times I boil a bunch of chicken breasts chop them up put them in a plastic bags and freeze it so you are always ready to make a dish like this.  While it's baking, put together a salad, make some rice and you are done! You can easily use low sodium soup, low fat cheese & mayonnaise if you want. I can tell you that it's a kid friendly favorite too!


4 to 6 chicken breasts (cooked, skinned & shredded)
16 oz. bag frozen broccoli cuts thawed (if I have fresh I just blanch and chop)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
3/4 t. curry powder
1 t. lemon juice
1 c. mayonnaise
1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 c. panko bread crumbs
2 T. chopped parsley

Place broccoli in the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish.

 Place the cooked chicken over the broccoli.

Mix together soup, mayonnaise, curry powder, lemon juice. Pour mixture over chicken. Sprinkle cheese on top. Mix parsley with panko bread crumbs and sprinkle on top of cheese.

 Bake uncovered 35 minutes at 350 oven.

Chicken Paprikas with Halushki - Tom's grandma's recipe

10/19/22 try this other way next time: roll the chicken in a flour/paprika mix and then brown. took a pic of the old cookbook in grandmas old recipe google photo album


Tom's grandma was born in Czechoslovakia and this was her recipe. Its probably been modernized by his mom and aunt's but its really good on  cold winter day! Good old comfort food.


1 whole skinless chicken cut up
4 T butter
2 cans chicken broth
1 cup water
16 oz sour cream
1 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
2 t paprika
1 t salt

*Annette said her family recipe was almost the same but her mom sautéed onion in the butter before the chicken. I love this..now I'm thinking maybe garlic too!

Brown the chicken in butter, sprinkle with paprika and salt. Add the broth and water. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for about 1 1/4 hours. While the chicken cooks, prepare the halushki.  Remove the chicken and and when its cool enough, debone it. You can cube it, shred it or leave it whole - whatever you prefer.  Add the sour cream to a bowl and slowly mix in the flour and 1 cup milk. When its all  mixed together, add it  to the chicken broth, a little at a time.. When it comes to a boil, add the chicken back to the pot.

To the make the Halushki. Fill a large stock pot with water and bring to a boil.

4 cups of flour
4 eggs
1 1/4 cup water
salt

Mix the ingredients together - it will be wet and gooey. Pour some or all of the mixture onto a dinner plate. You are going to make little dumplings with this mixture. So, take a knife and slide (about the size of a quarter) a portion of the mixture off the plate and into the boiling water. Once its all in the water, boil for 10 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water.

We like this so much, its doubled from the original recipe. So you can make this and just 1/2 all of the ingredients above.

To serve,  add some halushki to a bowl and ladle the chicken mixture on top.  If you have left overs,  don't save the halushki in the broth. Save them separately.

Chicken thighs with apple and pancetta

This recipe is from my friend Velia and was a dish we prepared at our 2006 Italian cooking tour, so I guess its Italian chicken! We made this at our last  "For the Love of the Dish Day"  9/24. This recipe is for 10 people just based on our dish day, so revise accordingly.

10 chicken thighs with skin
1/2 lb  pancetta or bacon
2 apples or pears, peeled, cored and sliced into 1/2" slices
red onion chopped
12 mushrooms sliced
6 sprigs rosemary chopped
25 sage leaves chopped
6-8 cloves of garlic minced
Pesto -see our recipe under condiments
Salt and pepper to taste

You will also need 10 sheets of parchment paper cut into 12" sheets

Preheat your oven to 400.

Combine the rosemary, garlic and sage (well chopped) add salt and pepper. The salt will help draw the moisture from the herbs.  Debone your chicken thigh and generously coat the skin side with the chopped herbs. Lay the chicken on the parchment in 1 corner, skin side down. Coat the inside with the herb mixture. Place 2 slices of pancetta on the chicken, add the red onion and mushrooms on half and the apple/pear on the other half.  Add a little pesto and fold the chicken being careful to keep everything inside. Roll tightly in parchment paper, folding the sides in as you roll. Place each piece in a baking dish, keeping in mind you want them all wedged together. Use a smaller dish if necessary. 

Bake at 400 for 1 hour.  Remove from the oven and remove the parchment paper. Add it little olive oil to a skillet and brown all sides of each piece. Slice and serve! 

Rotisserie Chicken flavored with herbs and mustard - Excellent blend of flavors

Tom and I just got a new grill with all the bells and whistles! We haven't had a rotisserie in years. We haven't even had a gas grill in 10 plus years - it was all about the weber I guess. Well all that changed now! It came out fabulous!!

Whole buffalo wings - our favorite so far!

Wings are the best part of the chicken for grilling because they have equal amounts of skin, bone and meat. The skin is the tastiest and the bones give it that extra meat flavor. We had to do some real shopping to find these whole wings. You need to shop for full fresh wings. I don't think you'll find the whole wings frozen. Or talk to your butcher. For some reason everyone wants to cut them in 2 pieces, but why? This is a wonderful recipe, simple and dishylisious.

16 whole chicken wings (3 1/2 lbs)

For the marinade and sauce:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
4 cloves of garlic minced
4 scallions, trimmed, white part minced, green parts finely chopped, for garnish
1 T peeled, minced fresh ginger  (or 1 t power ginger)
1 cup hot sauce of your choice (we like Franks original)
3 T lime  juice
1 t black pepper
course salt

For serving:
Gorgonzola Sauce
4 ribs of celery cut in thirds, cut crosswise into 3 inch sticks.




Rinse the chicken wings under cold water and pat dry. Skewer the wings on bamboo skewers, starting at an inch of so above the wing tip. Extend each wing straight, so that it runs the length of the skewer.
Arrange them them in a non reactive baking dish.

Prepare the marinade:

Melt 3 T butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

Add the garlic, scallion whites and ginger and cook until fragrant but not brown. About 3 minutes.

Add the remaining butter, hot sauce, lime juice, pepper and season to taste with salt.  Bring to a boil.

Remove from the heat and let this cool to room temperature.  Pour the mixture over the wings, turning the wings to coat evenly. Let marinade in the refrigerator, covered, for a hour. 

Set up the grill for direct grilling and preheat to medium. When ready to cook, drain the wings, reserve any marinade (scrape the excess marinade from the wings with a spatula) transfer the remaining marinade to a non reactive sauce pan and boil for 3 minutes.  Place the wings on the hot grate. Grill until crisp and golden brown on the outside and cook through, 8-12 minutes per side.

Transfer the wings to a platter and pour the boiled marinade over them. Sprinkle with scallion greens and serve at once, with the Gorgonzola sauce and celery sticks on the side.

Rubbed & Roasted Turkey Breast

I love turkey not just for Thanksgiving but any time of year. I usually grill it with some hickory chips in my smoker box, but this time I did roast it in the oven. This recipe goes well with the "Oven Roasted Sweet Potato Hash" that I have also posted.

1 turkey breast thawed about 5-6 lbs.
fresh herbs-thyme, rosemary-whatever you like
1 lemon cut in half
3 green onions
fresh garlic cloves

Rubbed & ready for a roasting....

Rub
¼ c. paprika

1T. brown sugar packed

1 T. sugar

2 t. kosher salt

1 t. celery salt

1 t. ground black pepper

1 t. cayenne pepper

1 t. dry mustard

1t. garlic powder

1 t. onion powder

1t. cumin

Put a fork in it-it's a done bird!



Mix it all up. Store it in a jar. You won’t

use it all for the turkey but it is really

good for ribs too!

For the turkey-loosen the skin carefully,. Lift up the skin & sprinkle a couple of spoons of the rub underneath and some fresh herbs too if you have them. I used thyme and rosemary. Slice up some garlic & tuck under the skin too. Flatten the skin down with your hand. Take some olive oil & rub all over the inside and then apply the rub to the top skin as well. and the Stuff the cavity with more garlic, the lemons(squeeze a bit) and green onions.  Place the turkey breast on an oiled rack & either grill (my first choice) or roast in the oven at 375 for about 20 minutes a pound. After it’s done let it rest for about 10-15 min before slicing.

The first slice-the skin was perfect and the meat was tender & juicy!