Chicken with Lemon Butter Sauce

This dish is really buttery, lemony, and garlicy. Are those even words? All I know is my sous chef made this and it was delicious. The chicken was moist and crispy and the sauce was decadent. This dish was obviously pre Weight Watchers. Ha!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
4 chicken breast

1c flour

1 c Panko bread crumbs

1 egg

Preparation:
Dredge chicken in flour and then coat in egg mixture. Next cover in Panko bread crumbs. Fry in a skillet on medium heat with lots of butter (About 1/4 cup) After chicken is cooked (about 10 minutes each side) remove and set aside. In the same skillet reduce heat and combine rest of butter, lemon juice, salt, garlic, pepper, and paprika. Pour butter sauce over chicken. Serve!

Chipotle Chicken Tacos

I love coming home to a dinner that I didn't prepare. My sous chef whipped up these yummy chicken tacos. They were spicy and delicious - now you go try!

Ingredients
1 onion, sliced
1 tablespoon EVOO
2 14 1/2 ounce cans diced tomatoes with chiles
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 chipotle in adobo sauce, chopped, plus 1 tsp adobo
3 cups shredded cooked chicken
12 6 inch corn tortillas

For the Salsa:

1 c diced tomato

1/4 c red onion

1/4 c diced cilantro

1 lime, juiced

1/2 poblano pepper (fire roasted on the stove)

salt and pepper

Make it:
In skillet, cook onion in EVOO over medium-high, 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, garlic, chipotle and adobo; cook 10 minutes. Heat chicken in sauce; season. Serve with salsa. I garnished mine with a bit of queso fresco and creme freche also.

Vegetarian Chili

Came home from a long day of traveling to my wonderful sous chef and a bowl of warm chili. This was tasty - not too spicy either.


Ingredients
1 package Morning Star crumbles
1/2 can tomato paste (or 1 small can)

1 can tomato sauce (plain or spanish style)

1/2 Italian pepper (diced)

1/2 can kidney beans (or 1 small can)

1/2 can black beans (or 1 small can)
1/2 large onion, diced
1 garlic clove, diced

1 tbsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp paprika

1/2 bottled beer

1 tbsp butter

salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Sauteed onion and garlic and peppers in butter for 5 minutes or until onion is cooked. Add crumbles. Then add beans and sauce and add herbs. Cook for 10 minutes. Slowly add beer. Pour some in every 5 minutes until done. Let simmer on low for an hour. (Note: my sous chef used the small Goya cans and he simmered his for 3 hours). Serve with sour cream.

Guacamole - Curtis Style

That's my little tortilla chip drowning in a huge bowl of my sous chef's guacamole. Man, is it good. Want to know how to make it? It's pretty traditional with only 2 secret ingredients that I shall now expose to you:

You need:
2 Avocados, pitted and smashed
1 small red onion finely diced
1 plum tomato finely diced
1 jalepano, deseeded and finely diced
1/4 c cilantro, say it with me - finely diced
1 tbsp brown sugar (secret!)
1 tbsp hot chili oil (secret!)
Tortilla chips (any kind)

You do:
Do a sweet mashup of all the ingredients (I mean, except the chips). Let it chill for about 30 minutes before serving if you can. It tastes better that way IMO.

Huevos Rancheros

Curtis made dinner more than once last week. Here was his other creation: Huevos Rancheros. The label is tagged as breakfast because this is usually what I would order somewhere for brunch, but because it IS my favorite brunch food I thought it would be okay to have for dinner.

Okay - so what are we working with here? Well, first Curtis fried up a few strips of bacon (go figure?!) and then he used that bacon fat to fry some tortilla shells. We also chopped up chorizo, and layered that on top of a bed of refried beans and black beans. A little shredded cheese, hot sauce and cilantro to top it off. Two perfectly cooked over easy eggs sit on the side. YUM! Note: We made this with leftovers from "nacho night". Can you tell?

Nacho, nacho MAN!

That heaping pile of nachos, my friend, is what Curtis and I had for dinner one night last week. (Yes, I know. Not very healthy.) Curtis gets all the credit for this dinner.

Let me tell you what's on this: tortilla chips, refried beans, black beans, chopped chorizo, Mexican blend shredded cheese, salsa, chipotle hot sauce, green chilies, sour cream, the kitchen sink.

Lemon Ginger Chicken

This recipe actually came from Cooking Light magazine. Curtis did a great job making it though.

From the website: Giving the chicken a double coat of flour mixture creates a golden crust (without the skin) when pan-fried. We use lemon rind instead of the lemon extract called for in the original. Carefully pour in the broth so you don't wet the crispy brown coating on the chicken. The broth mixture turns into a glazey sauce that can be served with the chicken.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 breast half, or 1 thigh plus 1 drumstick)

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
• 2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 bone-in chicken breast halves, skinned
• 2 bone-in chicken thighs, skinned
• 2 chicken drumsticks, skinned
• 4.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup peanut oil
• 1/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced

Preparation

1. Place rind, juice, and next 5 ingredients (through drumsticks) in a large zip-top plastic bag; seal and shake to coat. Marinate in refrigerator 1 hour, turning bag occasionally.

2. Sift together flour and next 3 ingredients (through red pepper). Place flour mixture in a large zip-top plastic bag. Remove chicken from marinade bag, reserving marinade. Sprinkle salt and black pepper evenly over chicken. Add chicken, one piece at a time, to flour mixture; seal bag and shake to coat chicken. Remove chicken from bag, shaking off excess flour mixture. Reserve remaining flour mixture. Place chicken on a wire rack; place rack in a jelly-roll pan. Cover and refrigerate 1 1/2 hours. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 350°.

4. Return chicken, one piece at a time, to flour mixture; seal bag and shake to coat chicken. Remove chicken from bag, shaking off excess flour mixture. Discard remaining flour mixture.

5. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan; cook 3 minutes or until golden, turning once. Arrange chicken in single layer in a shallow roasting pan. Combine broth and reserved marinade in a small bowl; carefully pour broth mixture into pan. Sprinkle chicken evenly with sugar, and top with lemon slices. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until golden and a thermometer registers 165°.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

375

Fat:

15.5g (sat 3.3g,mono 6.6g,poly 4.7g)

BBQ Ribs...falling off the bone!

Baby, I'm hungry - baby you hungry...

Falling off the bone!!!
Curtis's ribs were spicy and hot - I asked him what he put in the sauce and at first he said it was a secret. The ingredients I am aware of are: sriracha, chipotle, ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, chili powder, garlic powder, paprika, honey, Henderson's relish, salt and pepper.

PS - this video is amazing:

Biscuits and gravy - Curtis style

Gravy made from flour, milk, salt, pepper, cayenne and crumbled vegetarian sausage. Served over biscuits with a side of scrambled eggs.

Poutine!

I came home to discover Curtis making dinner tonight. He made homemade poutine. What is poutine you ask? It's french fries (these are homemade hand-cut by my honey) with gravy (also made from scratch) with crumbled bacon and mozzarella cheese. This is definitely up there on the calories.

It was so good the first time, let's do it again!

...Grill out, that is. We made burgers the other day. I know what you're thinking...what kind of hippy plate is this? Well...I'll tell ya...it's a healthy dinner, fool! I had this awesome thin wheat bread (100 calories for 2 slices) and carrots with roasted red pepper hummus (50 calories for 2 tbsp) and pickles (0 cal)...dude....pickles are by far my FAVE snack! Kosher Dill...REPRESENT!

Anyways...yummy and healthy...get up on it!

You don't pronounce the 'G'...

Curtis makes the BEST guacamole ever. This time he added a tiny hint of chipotle and it was awesome.

Yum.

Ny Strip. Trader Joe's style.

Baked chicken with sauteed spinach and yellow onion.

Curtis sneaking some guacamole.

Mmmmm.....guacamole.

My new hair. Not food related. I know.

Eat up!

Tacos el Pastor. Curtis made these spicy pork tacos and they were delish! He made them with fresh pineapple (grilled), fresh cilantro, cotija cheese and diced red onion.

Fried cabbage with yellow onion and pan fried tofu.

OMG -- So good!

Sometimes when Curtis makes dinner, he really hits it out of the park. Like this great creation. Pounded chicken breast, lightly fried with this spicy citrus sauce and the famous mango salsa.

I have been meaning to try doughnuts from this place for so long and I finally had one the other day. I opted for a plain glazed and I couldn't even finish it...the place? Donut Plant! The owner of Donut Plant beat Bobby Flay in a Food Network Throw Down and it's obvious why. Amaze!

Gettin' crazy with the cheese wizz...

Last weeks dinner adventures (that I just happened to remember to take a photo of). Curtis cooked one night, I cooked the other. He made this yummy grilled chicken salad with onions and bacon. Yummy!

I got this one from Food and Wine Magazine...kinda. The purple cabbage and linguine was a total F and W recipe. The grilled sausage was that of the organic chicken variety stuffed also with apricot and rosemary. Delish!