Pomegranate Cashew Chicken

I combined two recipes last night to make a fantastic dish. As always, my measurements are not exact and entirely substitutable...ie: various types of chicken, loose on the liquid measurements, add more or less nuts....etc....

Brown eight bone in chicken thighs in a pan and remove to a large baking dish. (I did these four at a time.) Saute one onion in pan and brown 1 cup of cashews. Add 3/4 cup pomegranate juice and 3/4 cup chicken broth. Let it cook down. Add a dash of cinnamon and a tablespoon of blackstrap molasses. Top the chicken thighs with this mixture, cover and cook 'until done.' (I cooked it for approximately 40 minutes at 350 F. Chicken thighs do not get 'over done' as chicken breasts do. )



Serve this on top of brown rice. I also made 'fake mashed potatoes' made from cauliflower instead of potatoes.

My new favorite kitchen tool; Chicken nuggets

I bought a needle meat tenderizer in order to make Alton Brown's Swiss Steak. I already blogged that here. It was quite expensive ($30 at Bed Bath and Beyond locally) so I decided to try it out elsewhere on other recipes and I LOVE it. I have used it on chicken thighs several times to make both fried and baked chicken nuggets. For both recipes, I go over the meat vertically and horizontally on both sides and then slice it into strips. It truly makes the nuggets very tender. I think part of the reason Andrew has balked at my nuggets in the past is the 'string' factor of the chicken. This all but eliminates that.

My sissy is going to send me the recipe directly for the baked nuggets that she makes because I thought mine were a bit crunchy but both Andrew and Marked liked them. I mix dijon mustard, honey and rice milk in one dish and gf flour, seasonings and cornmeal in the other. (I mix a blend of flours from gf Christmas cookies and keep it in my freezer.) I take the tenderized strips and put them first in the wet then dry and finally on a baking rack over a cookie sheet. Cook at 375F for 10-20 minutes depending on the size of the strips. You can also do full chicken breasts or thighs instead of the strips. Of course I know this is a loose recipe- one reason I will probably never write a cookbook! This would be a great RCR (regulatory) activity for you to do with your child if you don't mind their hands in raw chicken. (You could also use forks or tongs.) You obviously don't NEED the tool to do the RCR as you can just pre-cut the strips without them being tenderized. By the way- the tenderizer is VERY VERY sharp. Please do NOT use this with kids. I had thoughts of this being a great sensory exercise for Andrew in that he could slam on the tenderizer without touching the meat and get some great proprioceptive input but decided against it because any curious kiddo will certainly get hurt.


For those that might like a further lesson in the science of meat tenderizing you can click here.

Cranberry Chicken

This recipe is based off of "Cranberry Chicken" on page 25 of Once a Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg. I don't use the book for the purpose intended...just for the great food! I also often make a double batch of something and keep it in the freezer for a day when I don't feel like cooking.

Take 6-8 pieces of chicken. You can use anything with or without bone and with or without skin. My favorite for this recipe is bone IN skinless chicken thighs that you can find at many places now. Thighs just have more flavor than breasts and are less apt to dry out.

Make a cranberry sauce with fresh cranberries, some water and some cranberry juice concentrate. Just put it in a saucepan until the berries pop. Guess at the amounts...as Emeril likes to say, "It ain't rocket science." When the sauce is done add in a couple of handfuls of "Just Crunchy Onions. These take the place of that nasty dried onion soup mix and I find them at Whole Foods. Add salt and pepper.

Put chicken pieces in baking pan and pour sauce over the top. Bake at 350 degrees F until done. Bone in chicken thighs take about 30 minutes. I often use a probe thermometer to keep track of things.

Enjoy!

Yummy Stir Fry

Yum!!!! I searched the world over for a stir fry sauce that tasted great but had no soy! I do believe I have found one. I saute any favorite vegetable with some chicken (or not) in sesame oil. The sesame oil gives great flavor especially when you are not using soy, a typically key ingredient for stir fry recipes. At almost the end of the cooking add some chopped garlic taking care not to burn it. Then add...the sauce which can be doubled and is not exact science. It is primarily DH and I eating this dish so you may find that you want to make more sauce because you have more vegetables and meat to cover.

The Sauce:
1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 TB brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice (I use the plastic lemon juice on this one.)
1 TBS rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch.

Mix above well and pour over sauce. It will thicken quickly. I also have in my 'notes' that you can include 1/2 tsp ginger in the sauce. DH can't stand ginger, so I leave that out! I serve this on top of brown rice. If I have leftover rice, I add it after I add the sauce and sometimes add some additional chicken broth to soften up the rice. I have also added sliced almonds or even some sesame seeds. The possibilities are endless. This is so good!

c 2008

Chicken Nuggets...Veggie Disguise

A friend recommended the book Deceptively Delicious. You basically steam a bunch of veggies, puree them and then sneak them in your kids' food! I tried to sample this technique with some Lays potato chip crusted chicken nuggets!! Here are the steps I did:

1) Cut boneless chicken into strips or chunks. (I prefer thighs vs. breasts and you can find the boneless ones at many stores including Costco.)

2) Dust the pieces in gfcf flour of any kind. I keep a blend of flours in my freezer taken from Big Batch Cookies.

3) Dip the floured chicken pieces in a vegetable puree. I used spinach puree. The final product will show this color. Maybe try these out for St. Paddy's Day.

4) Roll the nuggets in crushed Lays chips. I made several batches. In some I used just hand crushed Lays. This is what the final product picture is below. In others I ground up the Lays in the blender. This is the picture below in the pan. I think the blender actually works better for a more cohesive final product.

5) Fry them in liberal oil in preferably a cast iron pan. QVC has some descent priced enameled cast iron. Many of the 'treated' cast irons that are on the market are cheap but treated with soy oil which is a no no for us. I did this on the stove over medium heat.





Below is the final product. Yes Andrew DID eat them; however the room was dark and I fed them to him while he was on the computer. Yes I'm bad. The next day I put them on a plate and he balked at them. I informed them that he had eaten them the day before and they had Lays chips as the coating. That sold him. Still I do not see him eating these daily. I find them exceptionally yummy but not fat free LOL! They say that if you fry things in hot enough oil and do it correctly that it is almost the same as baked. Whoever 'they' are.....i think I'll believe them on this one because they are too good to pass up.

Chicken Thighs with Pomegranate Molasses

Tonight I made Chicken Thighs with Pomegranate Molasses on Gluten Free Girl's Blog. I actually followed the recipe in the book which calls for twice (8 chicken thighs) the ingredients as on the blog recipe. I am glad I did because it was very good and I will enjoy the leftovers. Mark even praised it and about 90% of the time he gets out the BBQ sauce for any chicken. A few comments should you decide to make:

It could easily be made with boneless skinless thighs. I personally have grown tired of boneless skinless breasts. The thighs are harder to overcook. I think the skin gives it flavor when you brown it, but Mark didn't like to pick the skin off.

I don't love garlic- so I halved the amount and it was very good.

Mark did think that the nuts were superfluous. I loved them. Easy fix: serve them on the side.

I found the pomegranate molasses at Whole Foods in the baking aisle.

Not sure on the side dishes for this main dish. Any thoughts???

Cranberry Slow Cooker Chicken

I hope I write this out correctly- but if not, it won't matter because slow cooker recipes are so forgiving. It is an from a diabetic slow cooker cookbook (with Amy modifications.)

Put 4-6 bone in chicken thighs in the crockpot. Skin on or off.... honestly any type of poultry would work out just fine.- bone or not.

mix:
-1/2 cup cranberry juice (I just put about 2 TBS of frozen concentrate in a measuring cup and added hot water to 1/2 cup.)
-2 TBS Dijon mustard
-dash (or to taste) of cayenne pepper
-salt and pepper

pour on chicken.

The originally recipe called for chopped onion. I substituted dried onion. NOT soup mix!!! (That stuff is nasty for you!)

Put on high for 2 1/2 - 3 hours or low for 5 to 6 hours. Pull chicken out and cover with foil to keep warm.

Mix 2 Tbs cornstarch and 2 Tbs cold water. Add to liquid in the crockpot and turn on high for 15 minutes until thickened. You could also just put the thin liquid over the chicken and that would be fine.

I served this with broccoli cooked in the microwave.

Chicken Rice Soup

just threw this together...

cook 4 chicken thighs (boneless skinless) in the oven with some salt and pepper- 350F approx 20 minutes

saute 1/2 onion, a handful of cut baby carrots, a clove or two of garlic.
add 3-4 cups chicken broth
add cut up cooked chicken
add frozen broccoli
add favorite chicken seasoning. I use Mickey T's Chicken Rub but any chicken seasoning would do.

Heat or let it sit awhile.
Cook up some frozen rice (Trader Joes has this) and then toss it in.
Hubby adds some Franks Hot Sauce...

Very easy. Of course you can do any veggies! Very soothing....

Coconut Crockpot Chicken

I got this recipe Sylvia's Crockpot Chicken. I did not add the cumin as I do not like it. I also used regular caned organic tomatoes and added 1/2 diced onion, a handful of dried basil and a diced red pepper. The side dish---mashed potatoes: I added some of the cooking liquid to the mashed potatoes...it was SO good! FYI: you find the light coconut milk by the Asian cooking section usually at the grocery. Trader Joes also has it. Mark gave it 2 thumbs up...and he never gives a false compliment. And...it's GFCF.

Coconut Chicken
8-10 chicken legs, skin removed
1 - 15 oz can diced tomatoes with basil and onion or about 1/2 quart home canned tomatoes
1 - 15 oz can lite coconut milk, not the sweetened kind.
1 Tbsp cumin

Combine all in a large crock pot. Cook on HIGH for 4-6 hours or on LOW for 8 hours. Serve over mashed potatoes or rice with a green salad.