Easy Balsamic Roasted Chicken

Balsamic Roasted Chicken

Need something that is easy? Try this Italian dish tonight. ;-)

*Note Prep: It takes 15 minutes to combine your first six ingredients; then just leave the chicken in the marinade for 2 hours. Cooking time is 1 hour. Only about 15 minutes of actual work. ;-)

Ingredients:
1/3C balsamic vinegar ( I use Colavita brand for cooking)
3 Tbls dijon mustard (I use MaiLLe brand)
3 Tbls fresh lemon juice (I used all the juice from one juicy lemon)
3 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
3 Tbls olive oil (I use Colavita brand for cooking)
Salt and freshly ground blk pepper
4 Lbs chicken, cut into pieces (I used legs and thighs, but any kind is fine)
3/4 C low sodium chicken broth
2 tea lemon zest (good idea to zest your lemon of all it's peel before you get it's juice)
1 1/2 Tbls chopped fresh parsley leaves (I used flat this time, bc my garden was out of curly)

Directions:

1.       Combine first six ingredients into a gallon sized zip-lock bag.

2.       Cut up chicken into pieces if you are using a whole chicken, or if the leg is attached to the thigh, like mine were.

3.       Add chicken to bag and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to one day.

4.       Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Remove chicken from the bag and dump out the bag, arranging the chicken pieces on a large baking dish that is stove-top usable too.

5.       Roast chicken for one hour; check to see that it is cooked through.

6.       Transfer the chicken pieces w tongs onto the serving platter.

7.       Place the baking pan on a stove top burner. Stir the chicken broth into the pan drippings w a wooden spoon, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom or side of the pan and mixing them w the broth and pan drippings.

8.       Cook down until the mixture reduces in size. I poured the obvious grease off the top before using it as gravy. I use a grease separator too.

9.       Drizzle the gravy over the chicken. Sprinkle the lemon zest and parsley over the chicken.

10.   Serve.

Balsamic Roasted Chicken, Easy and Yum!

What we had for St. Patty's Day

Happy Green Day, St. Patrick's Day comes just once a year, so why not make it a fun holiday? ;-) In case your kids want to know, here's a link describing what it's all about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick%27s_Day

 Around here, we like the breaks of fun holidays throughout the year and won't miss an opportunity to celebrate. A few friends wanted to know how I cooked our corned beef this year, so here goes...

This is the finished cut up corned beef.

The first step that I took was to desalt the corned beef. I put the beef into a large pot of water with three cut up potatoes and brought it to a boil. Then I strained the meat and potatoes from the water in a colander, tossing the salt filled potatoes and started the same process again. I did this three times. Then, I let the meat soak in a mixture of water and one can of 7 Up.

Ingredients:

3 lbs of corned beef (found in a package)

17 whole cloves

2/4 Cup hot sweet honey mustard or sweet honey mustard w hot sauce or cayenne pepper. (Divide mustard into two 1/4 cup portions).

2 heaping Tbsp's of brown sugar

Brown Soda Bread is what I serve with this meal. You can make it homemade (ask me for the recipe if you want it) or ask for it at your bakery section. ;-)

Cabbage, onions, garlic (optional), potatoes, carrots and etc. ;-)

Instructions for cabbage:

To make your boiled cabbage, just simply cut up your veggies and add enough chicken broth to cover them, bring to a boil and simmer them until tender. During cooking, add garlic (optional), salt and pepper to taste.

*Note: do this when the meat has only 30 min's left to cook. ;-)

This year I took pictures of a new method of sauteing them and I did not like it nearly as well as this much easier way. It was many more steps and just not as good. If anyone wants that recipe just ask because I did snap a few images of the process. ;-)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Take the corned beef from pkg and discard the liquid it came in. (Save the spice packet for another meal, bc you will not need it for this recipe).

Lay corned beef, fat side up, on a folded heavy duty aluminum foil piece. Poke your whole cloves into the meat covering it evenly spaced.

3.Mix together your honey mustard and hot sauce if you did not purchase the hot honey mustard:

4. Spread the top of meat with the honey mustard mixture. (Remember you are only using half of your mustard for this first coat).

5. Add the brown sugar on top of the mustard.

6. Make a type of basket with the bottom foil:

The ends of the foil are simply folded toward the middle on each end.

Then just fold that piece down to seal the top side, making a rectangular bowl for the juice to rest in.

7.Take a second piece of foil and make a top lid to your foil bowl (no need to fold it in half making a double layer like the bottom one).

View of side of your rectangular foil bowl with lid:

8. Make sure you have a puff, you don't want the foil touching the top of your meat, or you will loose it's very yummy topping.

9. Now place this foil package into a shallow roasting pan, without a lid and bake for 2 hours.

10. Your timer rings, take out meat and separate your top from your bottom by preying up on one end. Be careful of the burning steam!

11. Spread your reserved honey on top of beef and broil it for 3 minutes. Do not leave, watch it carefully, because it could burn fast. You want a golden browned look.

Browned.

12. Meat before cut after tearing off foil.Let it rest 5-10 minutes. Then cut across the grain of the meat into 1/2 thick slices, cutting diagonal would have been preferred (Patrick cut it "acrossed" before I noticed; he did, however cut across the grain the meat).

13. Let your guests or family know to not eat the cloves; they can remove them prior to taking a bite. I like to leave them in because they decorate the meat nicely. ;-)

    Enjoy! ;-)     Not sure why                                                   these above photos look so bad (kinda green, or something). I just clicked in a hurry, as we were about to eat. ;0)

Beer:

Of course we had to put green food coloring into our beer. ;-D

Dessert:

To finish off the green theme, make yummy green velvet Woopie Pies! Just Red Velvet cake mix with green food paste added and icing in between (you can also use ice cream, or white custard; you can make the stuffing green as well).

Make green cake pops, Cake balls, or you can name them cakesicles! Starbucks has recently made these little tasty fellas the current rave. The thing is, they are so easy to make! Simply take a cake (out of a box mix, or your favorite recipe) tear it into small bits, add some icing and make little balls that fit into the palm of your hand. Poke sticks into them (I like the rounded ones. One long one can be cut into two. Or have them look like little truffles (like in picture below). Then dip them into icing! You can also sprinkle them with whatever you like: colored sugars, sprinkles, coconut, nuts, etc. Place on wax paper. They only look like they are hard to make!

Here are some great ideas of desserts using green tea. I will be looking into making some of these ideas myself:
http://cookingwithjapanesegreentea.blogspot.com/2011/03/matcha-tea-mousse-pies-and-japan-in-our.html

Tonight's Dinner: Low carb, low fat, no sugar... Chicken Lettuce Wraps & Springtime Lemon salad.

Tonight I wanted to make something really easy, due to it being a school night and I started dinner later than usual. A friend had just requested a low carb recipe, so my mind was in that zone when I created tonight's dinner. You can use any recipe you have for tacos, or meals that you need to lay on pasta, rice, or potatoes, just eliminate the carb by replacing them with a lettuce leaf or a bed of field greens. Arugula is a personal favorite of mine; I just love the peppery flavor this green lettuce provides! Tonight, I just used Bibb lettuce because it makes a nice cup, kinda like a healthier taco shell. ;-)Walla, instant low carb meal! Hee...

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients:

Pam (olive oil)

1 Lb. ground chicken

Fresh Ground blk pepper to taste, about ¼ tea.

Salt to taste, about 1/8 tea.

1 C. vertically sliced red onion

Artichoke heart out of an artichoke. Or, buy jarred or canned (about ½ C.) 

Cut off bottom; Boil artichoke on stove (bottom in water --until done; about 20-25 min's):

 Cut up core of artichoke:

1/3 C. large cherry tomatoes or small tomatoes cut in half.

1 Tbl fresh oregano torn off stems.

1 Tbl fresh flat leaf parsley torn off stems.

10 garlic stuffed grn olives cut into about 4 slices. 

3 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded in bag if kids are eating; for adults you may want to cube fresh mozzarella cheese.

Squeeze juice out of one large juicy lemon.

Bibb lettuce leaves from one bunch.

Instructions:

1. Heat a large nonstick skillet; coat pan w Pam cooking spray. Add Onion and next 5 ingredients (through olives); cook about 3 min’s.

2. Pour out mixture in a bowl (set aside). Use skillet to cook ground chicken, salt and pepper chicken while in skillet.

3. Cook chicken until no pink is seen and it is crumbled; stirring around often.

4. Add bowl mixture to chicken and heat through (warm up the veggies).

5. Stir in cheese and add lemon juice.

6. Spoon ¼ C. chicken mixture into each of two lettuce leaves.

I just love light springtime salads and this one I literally just threw together; it's so easy! I will try to come up with measurements because I literally just made it up as I went along while posting a picture on FB, chatting with my husband, and tasting my friend’s homemade wine, lol. ;-)

Lemon and Cucumber Springtime Salad

Ingredients:

Garden cucumbers washed and cut lengthwise with a veggie peeler, cheese cutter, or sharp knife into very thin strips. (This will act as your pasta).

1 handful each of Green beans and Sugar snap peas, (about 1/2 C. of each).
Steam for 1 min and 45 sec in microwave.

Place in ice bath imediately to stop cooking.

1 Mango, cut into strips.
Just fyi when deciding whether to use a mango: They get all the sweet flavour from their carbohydrate content. There are many varieties of mangoes, and most of them have a high carbohydrate content. Since the carbohydrates are fruit based, its healthy complex carbohydrates- sucrose (as opposed to simple carbohydrates). Per 100 gms of mangos, there are about 14 gms of carbohydrates. There is almost no fat or protein content in mango. It provides you with more than your daily requirement of Vitamin A and Vitamin C. It also contains fiber, magnesium, iron and antioxidants. So, as you can see mango is overall a nutritious fruit, and like most fruits is low fat and cholesterol free!

The glycemic index of mango ranges between 41-60, so its low. So, mango does not have any significant effect in increase blood sugar levels, so it does not promote fat storage. Due to the medium glycemic index, mangoes are okay for diabetics.

1 Avocado, cut into strips.
In regard to deciding about an avocado: Carb-conscious dieters know that carbohydrates in the form of fiber are not counted as “Net Carbs” – the carbs that interfere with weight control. Half of a Haas avocado has 6 grams of Total Carbohydrate, but the 4.2 grams of fiber brings the Net Carbs down to just 1.7 grams. There are also 1.8 grams of protein, 153 calories and 15 grams of “good” fats. Plus, you’ll gain significant amounts of folate, vitamin A, vitamin E (more than any other fruit), potassium, iron, magnesium, copper, vitamin B6, and riboflavin.

Micro planed /grated lemon peel from one large lemon

Juice of the lemon.

Fresh coarsely ground blk pepper to taste.

Drizzle olive oil around on salad, about 3 circles around, maybe about 2 Tbl's.

Balsamic vinegar, two splashes, maybe about 1 Tbl.

Freshly sliced mint (optional, I did not add tonight, but thought of it... it had become dark outside-- I had already sent my husband out to get the oregano and parsley for the chicken dish, and did not want him to have to venture out again).

Assembly:

1. Place thinly sliced cucumbers into bowl.

2. Add Green beans, Sweet sugar snap peas, Mango, Avocado, and mint (if you use it).

Salad before dressing is added:

3. Drizzle oil on Salad.

4. Squeeze juice over salad, careful to catch seeds.

5. Ground blk pepper over salad, stir ingredients.

6. Drizzle balsamic vinegar over dish.

7. Sprinkle with lemon peel.

 Enjoy ;-)

How To Make the Perfect Pulled Pork

"Anything worth doing, is worth doing slowly." Mae West. I love it! ;-D

Pulled pork. YummY!

We have a small smoker that we mostly smoke salmon, chicken and ribs in.

My neighbor, however, has a huge, large (did I say big?)... Smoker. He makes the most moist, tender and flavorful pork butts!

It looks something like this:

I haven't a picture of the one he actually has.

I came across this article and it is thorough in everthing you would want to know about smoking.

It includes rubs, and even the "why" behind the reason lean meat just does not work in this slow cooking process. ;-)

If you want to have a barbe' soon, check it out. Your friends and family will be amazed!

Smoker Method:
http://www.kitchendaily.com/2011/05/24/how-to-make-perfect-pulled-pork/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl5%7Csec1_lnk1%7C65208

If you do not have a smoker, do it the old fashioned way... the oven:

Easy Oven Method:

Six easy steps:
1. Rub pork with dry rub.
2. Refrigerate overnight.
3. Allow pork to rest at room temperature for one hour before cooking.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
5. Sear pork on all sides in hot pan with oil over high heat. I use an iron skillet.
6. Place in pan (like a roaster), cover with aluminum foil.
7. Bake for 4 hours.

There is no better food to take camping, or for summer fun. A great Father's Day meal too. ;-)

Corned Beef, Cabbage & Irish Bread for a Traditional St. Patrick's Day

Beef brisket makes corned beef by being salt and pickle cured. Beef brisket can come packed in a brine and with a small pickling spice packet. Remove the thick brine and rinse the brisket. A brisket can be used; however, if you use Corned beef, you will want to add a few extra steps. Corned beef is cured in a salt mixture, so it can be very salty. Bring the corned beef to a boil in plain water, discarding the water; you may want to do this 3 times before proceeding with the Guinness beer to cook it. Serve this dish with horseradish and Irish Soda Bread (*See recipe at the end).

Corned Beef, Cabbage & Irish Bread

Ingredients:

For the Corned Beef:

3 1/2 Lbs Uncooked brisket for corned beef

2 bottles Guinness beer (or any dark beer)

10 whole cloves

1/4 C hot sweet honey mustard

2 Tbl dark brown sugar

1 Tbl pickling spice in a cheeseclothe, end tied

1 onion

1 halved head garlic

2 Bay Leaves

For the Vegetables:1 head cabbage
4 Tbls cooking oil, bacon grease or lard
5 carrots, cut into thick sliced chunks
10 small red potatoes

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley at the end for color

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300F.

2.Prepare brisket by washing well as stated above; Insert the cloves into the top of the slab of beef, evenly spaced. Spread the top with the hot sweet honey mustard. Sprinkle 1 Tbls brown sugar over the top of meat.

3. In a large pot, whisk together the beer and the other Tbls brown sugar. Snuggle in the brisket, it should almost be completely covered by the beer. Add the pickling spice cheeseclothe bundle, onion and the garlic.

4. Bring to a simmer on the stovetop, uncovered is best so you can keep an eye on it. Boiled-over beer is no fun to clean.

5. Once it begins simmering, cover the pot and place in oven to roast for 4-6 hours, flipping meat once during halfway point. Remove from oven.

6. Spoon out 2 cups of the corned beef braising liquid to cook the cabbage.

7. While the meat is roasting, cut up the vegetables, cut the cabbage into 8 wedges.

8. In a separate large, wide pot, heat up the lard/bacon drippings/oil on medium-high heat. When hot, swirl the pan around to get the fat to evenly coat the pan.

9. Add the cabbage wedges, carrots and potatoes and cook until browned, about a 3-4 minutes. Turn to brown the other side. Take the cabbage out with tongs and set aside.

10. Pour in the reserved corned beef cooking liquid, bring to a simmer and cover the pot. Turn the heat to low and let cook for 5 minutes. Continue cooking all the vegetables, add the cabbage back in, another 10-15 minutes or cooked though (pierce with fork to check doneness). *Note the cabbage cooks quicker than the carrots and potatoes.

11. Slice up the corned beef against the grain and serve with the cabbage and vegetables. Garnish with a sprinkling of parsley. Pour a bit of the sauce over the corned beef just before serving. Serve the extra sauce on the side with the dish so more can be added, if desired.

Rustic Irish Soda Bread:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour & 2 Cups wheat flour (or you can just use 4 C's all purpose)
• 4 Tbl white sugar
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 Tbl baking powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/2 c margarine, softened
• 1 c buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c butter, melted
• 1/4 c buttermilk

 Directions:

1.     Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a large baking sheet.

2.     In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and margarine. Stir in 1 cup of buttermilk and egg. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead slightly. Form dough into a round and place on prepared baking sheet. In a small bowl, combine melted butter with 1/4 cup buttermilk; brush loaf with this mixture. Use a sharp knife to cut an 'X' into the top of the loaf.

3.     Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 30 to 50 minutes. You may continue to brush the loaf with the butter mixture while it bakes.