Chicken with lemon cream sauce and Mushroom risotto

Today's post is a two for one special! 

First off lets start with some Chicken with lemon cream sauce, here is what you are gonna need

• Chicken - either 4 boneless breasts or thighs...your choice
• Salt and pepper
• Chicken stock - 1 cup
• Lemon juice - 2 tablespoons
• Minced garlic - 1 tablespoon
• Red pepper flakes - this depends on how spicy you like your food
• Olive oil - 1 tablespoon
• Shallots - one large or two small, about 1/3 of a cup diced
• Salted butter - 2 tablespoons
• Heavy cream - 1/4 cup
• Fresh flat leaf parsley - 2 tablespoons chopped

Here is how you are going to put it all together!

1. Preheat your oven to 375 and make sure you have a rake in the middle
2. The Chicken, if it is thicker than a half inch, cover it with plastic and pound it down with either a mallet or the bottom of a heavy pan like the one you are gonna be using in a little bit.  then season both sides with some salt and pepper
3. Combine the stock, lemon juice, garlic and pepper flakes in a dish
4. Take a large skillet and put it on medium-high heat and add your oil
5. Brown your chicken about 2-3 minutes on each side, then remove the chicken to a plate and lower heat to medium
6. Toss the shallots and the dish of stock/juice/garlic/flakes to the pan
7. Use a wire whisk to scrape up any of the fond (brown bits on bottom of pan) 
8. Increase the heat to medium-high and let it reduce down about 1/3..it should take like 10 or 15 minutes depending on your stove
9. Once reduced take pan off the heat and toss in the butter to melt..whisk it around and add the cream and whisk a little more so everything is combined.
10. Put the pan back on the heat and put the chicken in and cover with sauce, you can either spoon it over or do it the easy way and put the chicken in and then flip it over.
11. Turn off the heat and put the pan in the oven for about 7 minutes, just need to make sure its cooked through
12. Remove pan from oven, let the chicken rest for a few minutes before cutting and serving, this is when you want to top it will the sauce and some of that parsley you chopped up earlier.

Here comes part 2...the mushroom risotto!

For this dish i used my Fagor Multi-Cooker, if you have an Instant-Pot you'll be set..if not just make risotto the old fashioned way.

Get this stuff ready

• Olive oil - 2 tablespoons
• Shallots - one medium diced, about a quarter cup
• Mushrooms - cut up, how much depends on how much you like them
• Arborio rice - 1 cup
• Chicken stock - 2 cups
• White wine - 1/4 cup
• Parmesan cheese - 1/4 cup grated, use fresh if you can
• Parsley - 1 tablespoon, should have some left from the previous dish

The simple 3 step process is...

1. Turn the cooker to saute mode, add the oil and saute the shallots, mushrooms and the rice for about 5 minutes - turn off the saute mode
2. Add the stock and the wine, lock the lid in pressure mode and press the risotto button and set for 7 minutes
3. Turn the pressure valve to steam to do the quick release method and remove the lid.  stir in the cheese and the parsley and serve it up

Chicken and Pasta in Tomato Butter Sauce

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, thin sliced
• salt and pepper
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 15oz can of diced tomatoes, undrained
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• one handful chopped fresh basil
• ¼ cup salted butter
• 8 ounces spaghetti

1. Boil Pasta according to package directions.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat
3. sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper on both sides
4. Add chicken and cook for 2-3 minutes per side until cooked throughout
5. Place cooked chicken and set on a plate
6. Remove skillet from heat for a minute, then add the tomatoes and simmer until slightly thickened
7. Add garlic and butter to tomato sauce, after butter has melted add chicken to warm up in the sauce
8. Stir in basil
9. Serve over prepared pasta

Pizza Muffins

Football season is almost over...but not before the biggest game of the year the Super Bowl.  Regardless of who is playing everyone seems to still tune in at least for the commercials.  So if you are still needing an idea for a party snack go ahead and give these pizza muffins a try.

These 6 simple ingredients are all you need:

• 1 can of Grand's southern style butter tasting biscuits (8 large biscuits per can)
• Olive oil - 2 Tbsp
• 1 1/4 cup shredded cheese (i used a mix of mozzarella and colby)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 
• 2 Tbsp italian seasoning
• 6 oz pepperoni (i used the mini's, if large cut them up first)

Here is how you throw them together

1. Open up the tube of biscuits and cut eat into 4 or 5 pieces and toss into a large bowl
2. Add Oil to the bowl and toss or stir to coat the biscuit pieces in oil
3. Toss in everything else, stir to combine
4. Grease a standard muffin pan and pack the mixture into the cups to fill to the top
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes
6. Let cool for 5 minutes and serve with pizza sauce for dipping

When I made this I ended up with 10 muffins, some were larger than others, so if you pack less in each cup you will end up with more.

Another tip...put a sheet pan under the muffin pan to catch any oil that might drip over the edge.

Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef

I've been breaking out my Lux Multi-Cooker more often these past few weeks, today I put it to use in slow cooker mode to make up some easy Mongolian Beef. 

I really like the multi-cooker because it has replaced my rice cooker, slow cooker and pressure cooker...i highly recommend getting a multi-cooker..be it a the Lux by Fagor or one of the very popular Instant Pots.

Here is the recipe for the Mongolian Beef

In your slow cooker add the following:

• 1 pound beef sliced across the grain (flank steak works well)
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp minced fresh ginger
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 3/4 cup beef stock
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 1 cup shredded carrots

set you slow cooker to low for 6 hours, or high for 4
when you have 15 minutes left mix 2 Tbsp corn starch with some water in a bowl and then pour it into the slow cooker and recover for the last 15 minutes

and that's it...like I said...super simple!

Serve with rice, sliced green onions and sesame seeds

Baked General Tso's Chicken

My favorite Chinese takeout dish is General Tso's chicken, now lets lighten it up a bit and switch from fried to baked.

Here are your ingredients:

• 1 pound boneless chicken (breast or thighs) cubed
• 1/4 cup AP flour
• 2 beaten eggs
• 2 cups cornflakes - crushed
• 3/4 cup chicken stock
• 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp hoisin sauce
• 3 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp siracha sauce
• 2 Tbsp corn starch
• 2 Tbsp water

Here is the process:

1. Preheat oven to 450
2. Put eggs, flour and cornflakes in separate bowls
3. dip chicken in eggs...then flour..then cornflakes, place on parchment lined sheet pan
4. Bake chicken for 13-15 minutes
5. Combine the following in a sauce pan: chicken stock, soy sauce, tomato paste, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar and sugar
6. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat
7. Mix corn starch and water in a small dish and whisk into the sauce pan
8. Cook for a minute to thicken sauce.
9. Put cooked chicken pieces into a large bowl and pour sauce over, toss to coat the chicken
10. Serve with steamed broccoli and rice.

Honey Soy Glaze

Here is a nice quick glaze for pork or chicken

• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 3 Tablespoons honey
• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 garlic clove

Mix all in a bowl and brush and its ready to brush onto your pork/chicken

Pane Bianco

I recently received an email from King Arthur Flour announcing their new monthly Bakealong Challenge series...so each month they release a new recipe and encourage everyone to try it out and post their results.  The first entry is Pane Bianco (italian for White Bread)...In place of the sun dried tomatoes i roasted some cherry tomatoes from the garden with a little balsamic vinegar and the rest follows the recipe as provided.  I do enjoy baking, and nothing makes the house smell better than bread in the oven...I made two loaves today...one was split between some neighbors and another went to my parents to go with a lasagna dinner.  I asked my little taste tester next door if he liked it and he said no..he loved it, so if it gets his stamp of approval you know it has to be good.

I look forward to what they have in store for next month.  http://www.kingarthurflour.com/bakealong/

4 types of cherry tomatoes with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper

All dough ingredients go into the mixer at the same time....

letting the gluten rest a bit before rolling it out.....

rolled out to the proper dimensions....

add the fillings....

roll, seal, slice, fold.....

and success!!!