Creamy Chicken and Asparagus

You will absolutely love the creamy goodness!

Last Friday Mark and I decided to skip what we had planned for dinner and go out.  We have lived here since 1995 and we had never been to the Village Steakhouse.  We heard good things about them and decided it was time to give it a try. We were less than impressed.  So this Friday, we stuck to our planned menu for dinner and we were thrilled with the results!

This particular meal is a twist on Chicken Piccata.  The major difference is cutting way back on the lemon and adding cream.  The sauce becomes this rich, creamy, buttery sensation.  This dish takes about 35 minutes from start to finish.  Enjoy!


Asparagus is one of our favorite vegetables and it is extremely good for you.

Heat the olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter together as you dredge your chicken in flour.

Brown your flattened chicken for 3 to 4 minutes on each side


When you add the wine to the pan you used to brown the chicken, make sure you scrape the bottom of the pan to get all the flavor created while you were browning the chicken.  Reduce the wine by half (cook out half of the liquid).



Once the wine is reduced, add the chicken stock, lemon juice, capers and sun dried tomatoes and reduce by half again and add the remaining butter.

Add the cream and return the chicken to the pan.  Simmer for a few minutes (3 or 4 max).

Add the asparagus during the last minute of cooking.

 Serve over pasta.  You will love this dish!!!!!!!!!

Ingredients
 

• 4 Tbsp butter, divided 
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil 
• 2 cups chicken stock 
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2/3 cup white wine, chilled  (not a sweet wine)
• 2 Tbsp capers, drained
• 2 Tbsp sundried tomatoes, rinsed and chopped
• 1 bunch asparagus (approximately 1/2 pound)
• 1/2 Tbsp butter
• 1 1/2  cup heavy cream
• flour 
• salt & fresh cracked black pepper to taste
• pasta

Directions

For the asparagus, you need to remove any part of the stalk that is not tender.  To do this, hold an end of the asparagus in each hand and bend.  The asparagus will naturally snap in the perfect spot to make sure what you are preparing is tender and delicious. For this dish we want the asparagus in bite sized pieces so cut each stalk into 3/4 to 1 inch pieces.  Rinse the asparagus and set it to the side.

Slice each chicken breasts into 3 to 4 pieces (you could use tenders if you would like).  Pound chicken pieces between plastic wrap until it is about 1/4 inch in thickness. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the flattened chicken.   Dredge the chicken pieces lightly in flour and shake off the excess.  Heat the 2 Tbsp olive oil and 2 Tbsp butter to a pan. Once the oil and butter are hot and sizzling, add in a few of your prepared chicken pieces.  Saute the chicken on med-high heat for about 4 minutes on each side until light brown. Having pounded the chicken, it will cook really quickly. The pounding will also make sure your chicken is very tender. Remove the browned chicken.  Continue until all chicken has been browned.

Start heating your water for the pasta. When water comes to a boil, add pasta and cook according to package directions, about 10 - 11 min.

In a separate skillet add 1/2 tablespoon of butter and heat on medium until melted.  Add the asparagus and cook for about 3 minutes.  Do not over cook the asparagus as you want it to still be crisp in the final dish.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

On med-high heat, add the white wine to the pan that the chicken was cooked in and reduce to half.  Make sure you scrape up all the goodness (browned bits stuck to the bottom) to incorporate all the flavors into the sauce.  Add the chicken stock, lemon juice, capers, and sun dried tomatoes.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the sauce by half again.  Add the remaining cold butter and the heavy cream.  Add chicken back to the sauce and allow to simmer for a few minutes. In the last minute of simmering add the asparagus.  Plate the chicken over your drained pasta.

Fried Rice

I mentioned on the Krapow post that we often make extra rice and will then have Fried Rice within in the next day or two.  Fried Rice is another dish that is quick and easy for work nights and makes an excellent lunch to take to work.  We will usually serve this with a simple salad so we are getting our veggies.  

Start by scrambling 2 eggs

Many people will tell you that soy sauce is soy sauce, but I would not agree with that. There may be little difference between the different brands, but there are different types of soy sauces.  If you remember the Krapow recipe, there were two different soy sauces used.  The black soy sauce has a slightly sweet flavor.  The Tamari soy sauce is a dark soy which means it has a richer more robust flavor.

A more robust flavor in the Tamari soy could allow you to use less

From start to finish the fried rice takes less than 20 minutes.  

Chop and saute 2 onions and 2 teaspoons of garlic

The time you spend sauteing the onions is what is most time consuming.  You want them to begin getting soft and turning translucent.

Add your cold rice to the sauteed onions.  The rice being cold is important.

This recipe will work best in a wok, but can be done in a regular skillet.  You want the heat to be very high and will need to work quickly to make sure nothing burns.

Fry the rice and add some soy sauce, salt and pepper.

You control the amount of salt, pepper and soy sauce you add.  Determine the amount that works best for you!

Add the egg back to the pan and stir well.  

2 Onions chopped

2 teaspoons garlic minced

2 cups rice chilled

2 eggs scrambled

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

2-4 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Salt and pepper to taste

Scramble the eggs in a small amount of the sesame oil and remove from the pan. Add the rest of the oil and saute the onions.  When the onions are starting to turn translucent, add the rice and stir to ensure all of the rice gets hot. Add the soy sauce and continue stirring.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Right before removing the wok from the heat, add the sesame seeds, and stir well.  

 

Krapow (Spicy Basil Chicken)

What a beautiful dish!

We, both my husband and I, enjoy flavorful food and we have found few dishes to be as full of flavor as the Thai dishes we have sampled.  Thai food is generally spicy, but when you make it at home, you can control how spicy the dish is.  This dish is perfect for a weeknight.  It is quick, easy and will reheat well for my lunch the next day. 

Slice you chicken breast about 1/4 of an inch thick 

Slice your onions very thin.  The thinner you cut everything, the more quickly it will cook.

Bell peppers, if you want more color, you can use red and/or yellow.  It does not change the flavor.

The one thing I like most about this dish is that it is one that Mark, my husband, prepares (as much as I love to cook, I love not cooking on occasion too!).  We try to include this dish in the menu when I will be working late or we know he will be the first one home.  If I am home, we will work together in the kitchen.  I will usually do all the chopping while he does the measuring and cooking.  We like to make extra rice and have fried rice sometime in the next couple of days.

Serrano peppers are quite hot and you should be careful of how much you add.  

For this recipe we are using Thai Basil.  We plant the Thai basil in early spring and will use this basil in all of our recipes during the spring, summer and fall.  If you plant herbs, Thai Basil is more resilient than sweet basil, has more robust licorice tones and has the added benefit of pretty purple flowers.

Chop the basil, but not real small; cutting it will help release the flavor. 

This dish will cook quickly, so it is best to have all your prep work done before you start cooking.  Once you begin cooking, it will be ready in less than 10 minutes.  Total prep time will vary, but if you are used to working in the kitchen, you should be able to have the prep done in 15-20 minutes at the most.  If you have never had Thai cuisine, this is a great way to try it!

Krapow (Spicy Basil Chicken)

·         2 cups cooked jasmine rice

·         4 tablespoons of toasted sesame oil

·         4 cloves of garlic minced

·         2 chicken breast - sliced thin

·         1 onion - sliced thin

·         1 Green Bell Pepper - sliced thin

·         8 tablespoons of oyster sauce

·         4 tablespoons of Tamari soy sauce

·         2 teaspoons of black soy sauce

·         2/3 cup of water

·         1 - 2 cups of fresh basil

·         3 fresh serrano peppers sliced (the more Serrano peppers you add, the hotter the dish will be, you can all less)

·         3 teaspoons of Sambal Oelek (Ground Fresh Chili Paste) this is also spicy, if you have a low tolerance level for spicy, leave this out)

Turn on the stove to the medium heat

• Heat the oil

• When the oil is hot add the garlic

• When the garlic is soft (don’t let it burn) add the chicken

• Stir the chicken until it is cooked

• Add the onion

• Add all the sauces (oyster sauce, soy sauce and black soy sauce) and stir it together

• Add water and stir for about 2 minutes.

• Add the chili peppers and basil, stir it couple of time and it’s done

Braised Brussel Sprouts

During the week, when we are working we are always looking for quick dinners.  Something good, but that does not require a great deal of work.  I am sure you find the same to be true.  I have finally admitted that the most important thing is to have a plan.  It usually takes us much longer to decide what to fix for dinner than it does to fix it.  An added benefit is that we are saving a little money on the grocery shopping.  By knowing what we will be having for dinner each week we can shop smarter and we experience less waste.

Before our weekly trip to the grocery store (another benefit - we rarely have those extra trips during the week now) we do a quick inventory of what we have on hand and begin planning the menu.  We only plan our evening meal and we try to have a couple things during the week that are good reheated so I can take lunch to work.  We also try to incorporate at least one new dish each week.  We are both (hubby and I) always looking for new recipes or ideas for new recipes.

Last night we had a pan seared flat iron steak.  Flat iron steaks are easy to prepare and in our experience require little additional work.  We simply sprinkle with the Weber steak and chop seasoning blend about 30 minutes prior to cooking.  You can grill it, but for those nights when you don’t have time to fire the grill, pan searing works out wonderfully for a flat iron steak.

We had found some beautiful fresh brussel sprouts when we shopped and we thought they would be perfect with the flat iron.  This recipe is incredibly simple and the results are stellar...a great way to explore whether or not you like brussel sprouts.  

 The onion and sprouts will brown or caramelize making the dish almost sweet.

Prepare you brussel sprouts by trimming the end and cutting them in half. 

Place the brussel sprouts in a colander and rinse thoroughly. 

Cut the bacon into pieces about a half an inch wide and brown it in a skillet you can later transfer to the oven. 

While the bacon is browning dice the onion. 

 When the bacon is nice and browned add the onion and brussel sprouts to the skillet, sauté for about 5 minutes (longer if your brussel sprouts are large).  Add your salt and pepper at this stage.

 Place the skillet in the oven for approximately 10 minutes (it could take longer if your brussel sprouts are large).

ENJOY!

Pan seared flat iron steak, braised brussel sprouts and parmesan potatoes. 

Place the skillet in the oven for approximately 10 minutes (it could take longer if your brussel sprouts are large).

ENJOY!

Braised Brussel Sprouts

1lb fresh brussel sprouts

4 strips bacon

1 medium onion

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 400. 

Prepare you brussel sprouts by trimming the end and cutting them in half. 

Place the brussel sprouts in a colander and rinse thoroughly. 

Cut the bacon into pieces about a half an inch wide and brown it in a skillet you can later transfer to the oven. 

While the bacon is browning dice the onion. 

When the bacon is nice and browned add the onion and brussel sprouts to the skillet, sauté for about 5 minutes (longer if your brussel sprouts are large).  Add your salt and pepper at this stage.

Place the skillet in the oven for approximately 10 minutes (it could take longer if your brussel sprouts are large).

ENJOY!

Pan Seared Halibut with Mango Salsa

So I know I should have taken advantage of being up early this morning and headed out to the farmers market.  I mean, it is September, how much longer will I have access to all the colorful fruits and veggies of summer?  Instead of heading down the road, I debated starting a blog and ultimately decided to go for it and set up this little gem. 

With the farmers market closed, hubby and I head to Raleigh for a little shopping excursion.  I had mentioned earlier today that I thought the menu for tonight said dine out, but hubby said he didn't recall us planning an evening out.  On the way to Raleigh, he begins talking about where we can eat...uh, no, it doesn't work that way.  We left the house to go shopping, not to go to dinner.  Why doesn't he understand that the jeans and t shirt I will wear to go shopping may not be what I would wear to dinner out?

Anyway, we decided go to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.  We do hesitate to drive all the way to Raleigh just for groceries, I mean Raleigh is an hour away after all.  But options are sometimes a little limited here, so we make the drive to a neighboring metropolis on occasion.  We don't really have a meal plan for the week, so we are just looking to see what appeals to us. We got lucky and found some beautiful halibut on sale and decided we would pan sear it and serve it with a mango salsa.

Mango Salsa

2 cups chopped pitted peeled mango

1 cup chopped bell pepper I use red to add more color to the dish

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1 fresh fresh jalapeno, seeded and diced

¼ cup fresh cilantro

2 tablespoons lime juice

4 teaspoons olive oil

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.  Can be made a day ahead of time (gives flavors time to blend).  

Cut the fish into serving size portions and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Heat oil in a skillet until the oil is just below the smoke point and add the fish. Turn the fish after a few minutes. 

When the fish is done serve it topped with some of the Mango Salsa.