Tag Archives: chicken

Chicken Thighs – yet another….

21 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by in chicken, Dinner, Uncategorized, Vegetables

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Ok so I must ‘fess up.  We eat a lot of chicken thighs in the MWCED household.  Preferably boneless and skinless, though sometimes a bit of bone and skin is ok.   The problem with skinless is that you just don’t get that lovely colouring – but better that than far too many calories I figure.   You can see what I mean with the picture from last night’s dinner.  The meal was very  yummy,  but doesn’t win any prizes for looks.   Still,  if you want a tasty, quick and flavoursome dinner, this is one to keep going back to.   Surprisingly there is no garlic in this recipe, yowser, what was I thinking!

As for the veges,  I felt like potatoes.  And we had some beans – a bit different from courgettes 100 ways – due to them being in season and in our garden.    We also have a lovely crop of tomatoes and just happened to have these wee ones – which went great with the beans.

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Here we go:

INGREDIENTS – for 2 to 4 (depends how hungry you are)

  • 3 slices bacon, chopped into smallish pieces
  • ½ cup flour
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 teaspoon mixed fresh herbs from the garden (I used oregano, thyme and parsley) – or use dried (but only about 1 teaspoon if dried)
  • 4 chicken thighs – one each was enough for us, but if you are hungry and there are four people then perhaps use 2 thighs each
  • 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
  • one onion, finely sliced (shallots would work nicely here if you have them, sigh, I didn’t)
  • ½ cup dry white wine – well I use whatever happens to be open – usually in our household it is Chardonnay
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • chopped parsley

 

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat a large frying pan over medium high heat. Fry the bacon for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving the hot bacon grease in the pan (turn down the heat while prepping the chicken).   You might need to help the bacon along with a little of the olive oil.
  2. Mix the flour with salt and pepper and the herbs. Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour mixture and transfer to the hot pan. (Add olive oil if needed). Pan-fry the chicken for a few minutes on each side, until golden brown (but not cooked through). Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside on plate.
  3. Add the onions to the pan with the rest of the olive oil. Saute for 5-10 minutes, until softened and fragrant and golden brown. Add the wine slowly, stirring to get all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken stock and let everything cook until it reduces slightly, about 5-10 minutes.
  4. Add the chicken and bacon back to the pan and then transfer to an oven proof dish and bake for 40 minutes, basting the chicken every 10 minutes or so with the pan sauce.. Skim the oil off the top of the sauce if you want.   You could also serve with bread to soak up all those juices.

 

 

vegetables

Use enough potatoes for the number of people. Mine happened to be quite large so I cut into smaller pieces. Boil until just tender.   Then put onto an oven tray with some olive oil, salt and a little pepper.   Cook in oven with chicken until done. Add a bit of butter to top of potatoes and cook under the grill until browned and crisped.

Meanwhile put green beans into boiling water for a few minutes. Take off heat and strain. Add beans back to hot pot with baby tomatoes. Add a teaspoon of pesto – add pot lid and let heat from pot/beans warm through tomatoes.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Walnut Cannelloni – the short-ish way

30 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by in chicken, Pasta

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From time to time I want some tasty food,  but just don’t feel like expending the energy to put all the ingredients together.  At times like that I think a few shortcuts are acceptable.  In this recipe the shortcuts are the sauces.   Substitute with your favourites – and of course, you can always cook them from scratch (which I often do).  The pasta I already had in the freezer from an earlier time when I had made cannelloni – phew that was lucky.

We have a lot of walnuts which need using – so I spent a little time in the afternoon shelling a bowl full.  We both love using walnuts in our cooking.  When I made the filling I could have gobbled it all up without any further cooking – it smelt SO good.  But I held back.  Difficult though.

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INGREDIENTS

  • 500g chicken mince, or finely diced chicken breast or thigh
  • 2 shallots
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 cup chopped roasted walnuts
  • 2 teaspoons pesto
  • 3 cups baby spinach, washed
  • ¼ cup grated parmesan
  • 1 cup Passata
  • 325g jar Carbonara Sauce
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 8-12 fresh cannelloni or lasagne sheets

METHOD

STEP 1

Pulse ¾ cup walnuts with pesto (add a little oil if too dry). Chop shallots and garlic. Heat a pan with about 1 tablespoon olive oil and add shallots and garlic. When soft add chicken and cook until chicken is just cooked. Add the baby spinach and cook until spinach is wilted.   Take pan off the heat and let cool.   When cool combine chicken mixture with the pulsed walnuts and pesto. Add grated parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste.   Mixture should be slightly moist, but not runny.

STEP 2

Cover bottom of ovenproof dish with the passata. Dip a cannelloni sheet in hot water to soften and place on a flat surface. Spoon chicken filling along the longer pasta sheet edge and roll up to form a cylinder. Place in the dish, seam side down. Repeat to use all sheets.

STEP 3

Pour carbonara sauce over cannelloni, cover and bake at 180°C for 30 minutes.

Serve sprinkled with remaining walnuts and some chopped parsley.

Good with a fresh salad and some warm garlic bread.

Baked Greek Chicken Orzo

19 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in chicken, Dinner

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Been awhile since the last post – cold cold winter – makes me hide away and not want to do very much!   Feeling a little bad that I have neglected MWCED so here goes for the latest weekend dish.   It was a chilly day, I knew I wanted to make something warm and yummy,  but easy and relatively quick.   I found this recipe, on scrummylane.com and thought it was just the thing.     Because I am in boots and all kind of person,  I didn’t realise quite a few of the ingredients weren’t in the cupboard.  Oh well,  there’s a few subs and a well rugged up walk to the shops.  All in all it was just right – and will certainly make again.

IMG_1867Instructions:

  • olive oil for cooking
  • about 500 grams/17.5 ounces boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano – damn, no oregano, so I used dried basil instead
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 cup orzo (rice-shaped pasta) – Big Damn, about ¼ cup Orzo left in the house, so quick walk down to the shops and a packet of Risoni to the rescue
  • 1 teaspoon paprika – would you Believe It! A smidgin of paprika only (WHO does the chalkboard reminders around here !) – so best friend google to the rescue – and who ever knew that you could sub turmeric and cayenne – about 60/40.   Would like to try with paprika next time – but still a great result.
  • 1 teaspoon allspice – YAY – we DID have this
  • salt/pepper
  • 1½ cups passata (sieved tomatoes) mixed with 1 cup chicken stock. OK no Passata either. But a tin of chopped tomatoes so a quick whiz in the blender and I reckon it’s an ok sub

To serve

  • chopped parsley and hard white cheese (use Greek kefalotiri if you can find it but if not use any hard white cheese – I used English Cheshire! Feta is great, too!) – we only had Feta. Mr MWCED not a great fan of Feta so I put this in a small dish on the side

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F.
  2. Heat a little (about 2 tablespoons) olive oil in a heavy-bottomed oven-proof pot, then brown the chicken for about 2 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken from the pot onto a plate and set aside.
  3. Add the onion to the pot and stir for a few minutes until it softens. Add the garlic and stir for a minute or so longer, then add the oregano, cinnamon and orzo and stir again for a minute or so until the orzo is coated with the juices/oil.
  4. Take the pot off the heat and then put the chicken back into the pot, then quickly sprinkle with the paprika, allspice, salt and pepper. Finally, pour over the passata and stock and give the pot a good stir.
  5. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes. Check and stir the pot a couple of times during cooking to stop the orzo from sticking too much. If at any time the dish looks too dry, just add an extra splash of water.
  6. Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley and plenty of cheese to serve.

You could serve with a salad, but as it is winter here I would more likely do garlicky beans or some other greens, maybe braised brussel sprouts (recipe coming soon).   However for this serving I wanted to keep it really simple (because we had dessert later – a little speciality that Mr MWCED made earlier – a pear frangipane pie – ewww yes I am luckyyyyy)   so I liked the idea of just serving this with some really fresh home made bread.   I made a herb bread in the breadmaker (using pesto – thank you Alison Holst).   Perfect.

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