Chicken Fricasse

Chicken Fricasse
1/2 cup butter
2 medium onions, small diced
3 medium carrots, small diced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 cup leftover cooked potatoes (mashed or small cubes)
liquid from 1 can of peas
3 chicken breast, cooked and cubed
1 can peas
butter, as needed
milk, as needed
salt and pepper, to taste

 Heat the butter in a large frying pan or pot over medium heat.
Add the onion and carrot, reduce heat and sweat until vegetables are tender.
Stir in the flour to coat.

Pour in the milk and stir until thickened.
Stir in the pea liquid.

Allow stew to simmer and reduce.
Add in the chicken, heat through, then stir in the peas.
Adjust consistency and richness with additional butter and milk.
Season to taste.

Best served as vol-au-vent. See tomorrow's post. 

Chicken Breast with Cheddar Cheese Sauce

Chicken Breast with Cheddar Cheese Sauce
1/4 cup butter
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, cubed
salt, pepper, and dry mustard powder, to taste
cooked chicken breast (1-2)

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour until combined. Stir in the cheese, allowing it to melt. Season to taste. If desired, this sauce can be thinned out with a little milk or cream, which I would recommend adding before the cheese if possible. Spoon over chicken breast before reheating to retain moisture, or add halfway through the cooking time. 

This is a super fast cheddar cheese sauce - sort of like one that would be used to create a macaroni and cheese casserole, only thicker. The butter provides a lot of moisture for the chicken so it does not dry out, and the cheese creates a flavorful topping. Multiply the sauce as needed for more chicken breasts.

Chicken Cordon Bleu En Croûte

Chicken Cordon Bleu seems to be one of those dishes, like crème brûlée or foie gras (which is literally just duck fat), that just sounds so fancy and restaurant-quality. Really, it's just the classical French name, but names do sell, and these items are associated as high class. They are not necessarily difficult to make, but they can be nailed or not so great. Everyone seems to know chicken cordon bleu involves chicken with ham and Swiss cheese, but not many are really aware of the origin of the name. Well, most of these French terms cannot be taken literally, and cordon bleu just refers to meat wrapped around cheese. So you could have steak cordon bleu or pork cordon bleu, but chicken is by far the most common.
Add another French term - en croûte - to the mix, and it sounds even fancier, when really I am simply baking the chicken, ham, and cheese in a pastry crust. 

I have had chicken cordon bleu a few times, but this was my first time making it. Here is my recipe for chicken cordon bleu en croûte. 

Chicken Cordon Bleu En Croûte
oil
boneless, skinless chicken breasts
thin ham slices, diced
Swiss cheese, grated
2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter or hard margarine, cold
1 cup milk

Trim off any pieces of fat from the chicken. Slice each piece in half horizontally almost all the way through and open like a book. Pound until very thin and flattened, but not paper thin.
Heat a little oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Place about two to three teaspoons ham and a good heaping two tablespoons cheese on one end of each chicken breast. Press down to compress. Gently roll up chicken breast. You may secure with toothpicks if needed.
Sear the chicken breasts for a few minutes on all sides until golden.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375◦F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Prepare the crust by mixing the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Mix in the milk, dough will be soft. Knead lightly until dough comes together. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle about one centimeter thick. Cut into squares or rectangles just large enough to wrap around the chicken breasts.

Place a chicken breast in a crust square and pull the sides up, overlapping on top. Biscuits can then be brushed with milk, egg wash, or a little melted butter if desired. Place on prepared baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked thorough. Be sure to remove toothpicks before serving/eating. 

One word of advice: CHEESE! Do NOT skimp on the cheese! You want the cheese oozing out of the chicken - that is the beauty of the dish. If you think there is too much cheese, you are probably wrong, as long as you can still roll up the chicken around it. A little ham goes a long way but you need a lot of cheese.

Sweet and Sour Sauced Chicken Breasts

This is a chicken dish my mother made for supper the other night, to change it up from the typical bread-crumb coated chicken. There are many different sweet and sour sauce recipes out there, and this was a new one for our family. I liked it, it was more on the sweet and not so much on the tangy side. The sauce seemed to be thick to begin with, however when poured over the chicken and baked, the sauce thinned out significantly, and became more like a chicken basting liquid to cook in. This made the chicken incredibly moist and flavorful, the downside was there was no thick sauce on the chicken or extra to pour over pasta or rice. Therefore my recommendation for next time would be to cook the chicken first, then drain it, as it is likely the fat or water from the chicken is what diluted the sauce. Then, when the chicken is nearly completed baking, pour the sauce over and bake to heat it. Or, cook the chicken in half the amount of sauce so it is moist and injects into the chicken, but save some sauce to heat and serve with the chicken on the side. 


Sweet and Sour Sauced Chicken Breasts
1 cup water
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 Tablespoons ketchup
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 Tablespoons water

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, stir together the water, sugar, vinegar, ketchup, and soy sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water until smooth. Whisk into remaining ingredients. Bring it to a boil, boiling and stirring until thickened. This can now be poured over chicken as desired, or served as is. It would be great for other meats to, or as a simple sweet and sour sauce for pasta, rice, or dipping. 

Adapted from Company's Coming "Main Courses". 

Chicken With Pineapple Sauce

This was the second, perfected trial for Mom's pineapple chicken recipe, which may become a new family favorite. The first attempt at this recipe was featured on March 20th. A few tweaks were made, and we now have a yummy new chicken recipe. My mother doubled the amount of chicken (because she wanted to make more), but kept the sauce ingredients the same, as we found it was too sweet last time. She did however increase the amount of soya sauce in order to further counter the overwhelming sweetness, which was evident by the change in sauce color. She also used fresh chicken breasts, and cooked them and diced them the day before, but was sure not to overcook them and to cool them properly. One problem we still seem to have is the viscosity of the sauce. She tried to make it thicker this time by stirring in some cornstarch and boiling it, but it didn't seem to work. Maybe there was not enough cornstarch or maybe the mixture was not boiled long enough. Then she transferred the sauce to a slow cooker and added the chicken, then heated the chicken in the sauce, and kept it warm until it was time to eat. This did not help thicken the sauce either. So this dish was best served with a slotted spoon, but the chicken still absorbs enough of the sauce to be moist, flavorful, and sweet. The only problem now is a lot of leftover liquid. It is tasty over rice, I suppose!

Chicken Pizza

Homemade pizza at our house is a popular choice for supper. We usually make two large pizzas, and often make one white and one whole wheat. We have an awesome recipe for pizza crust, that is easy and seems to never fail. It makes a nice, thick rising crust. Our toppings are often the same, we use tomato sauce, diced onion, sliced mushrooms, pizza meats such as pepperoni, salami, and ham, mozzarella cheese, and whatever other vegetables we have on hand. This time we also had some leftover cooked sliced chicken on hand. I really like chicken on pizza. Roasted chicken pieces, especially chicken breast, has a nice taste and texture that pairs really well with the tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese on the pizza soft crust. It is a great way to use up leftovers, and sliced chicken is a healthier alternative to the usual salty, fatty, processed pizza meats that are often found on pizzas. Other meats can work well too, such as pulled pork, ground beef, and even fish. You can basically use whatever toppings you like on a pizza and make it personally yours. Pictured here are three slices of the whole wheat chicken pizza we had with diced onion, sliced mushrooms, and chopped green pepper as well. The two corner pieces show off the lovely risen crust, but the middle piece gets you extra toppings. Both are great!

Grilled Chicken

Here is the tender and juicy grilled chicken my father recently grilled on the barbecue. He baked the boneless skinless chicken breasts in the oven for about 30 minutes at 350◦F before finishing them off on the grill. All he did was brush them with a little barbecue sauce, and that was all they needed! They turned out quite moist and tender and had a great flavor, I like them done this way more so than when we simply bake them, but of course that isn't really practical in the wintertime. Chicken is such a versatile dish that goes with just about anything, and it is often a popular choice that many people enjoy. I am looking forward to more barbecues this season!

Chicken and Broccoli Pie

To celebrate Pi Day yesterday, we had pie for dinner. Chicken and Broccoli pie actually. It was quick, easy, and tasty. It is similar in texture to a quiche, but less eggy. The pie is composed of broccoli florets, chopped onion, chopped cooked chicken, milk, eggs, flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, and grated cheese. That's it - pretty simple! Of course this is just a basic recipe, and the ingredients could be varied in many ways. 

I found the recipe idea online, but I changed it around quite a bit. 

Here is what I did:

I mixed chopped onion, broccoli florets, grated mozzarella cheese, and chopped cooked chicken in the bottom of a round casserole dish. Then I poured a biscuit mixture composed of flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, and milk over this mixture. I covered and baked it at 350◦F for about 40 minutes, sprinkled with some more cheese and baked uncovered for another 5 minutes. This is quite a forgiving dish, as the original recipe called for baking it in a glass pie plate at 400◦F, and contained frozen broccoli and premade biscuit mix. I didn't have any dishes that were ovenproof up to that high of a temperature, so I just baked it at a lower temperature for a longer time. I used fresh broccoli, and made my own biscuit mix. I also used mozzarella cheese instead of the recommended cheddar. All of this worked out really well. I also did the bulk of the work in advance - I mixed the broccoli, onion, and cheese in the bottom of the casserole dish, and whipped up the mixture to pour over top, and placed both in the fridge. Since I didn't have any precooked chicken, I put some breasts in the oven, cut them up, and added them to the bottom of the casserole dish when they were cooked. I poured the biscuit mix over and baked. This dish can be whipped up quickly, or made ahead in advance. Leftovers of this dish also keep well.

Breaded Chicken Breasts

Breaded Chicken Breasts: A simple, quick, easy, and relatively safe option for supper. They go well with a variety of different side dishes, almost anything goes. Serve them with any kind of vegetables, and pasta, rice, potatoes, or simply bread. Breaded chicken breasts can be baked, pan-fried, deep-fried, sauteed, or broiled. Simply choose the cooking techniques that suits the amount of time you have and the other dishes you are preparing. For a dish this simple, there are actually a surprisingly high number of different recipes for the coating. How many layers should it have? What is the best type of breadcrumbs to use? What else should I add? The way we do our chicken breasts is fairly simple: dip them in a little beaten egg, and roll them in seasoned, dry breadcrumbs. Place them in a casserole dish and bake. That's it! No extra spices, coatings, or preparation techniques.

Common Dredges (the "glue" for the coating) are: egg, water, milk, buttermilk, ketchup, mustard, sauces.
Common Coatings: flour, breadcrumbs, Panko, cracker crumbs, cereal crumbs, chip crumbs.
Common Seasonings (to add to the dredge or the coating): salt, pepper, paprika, garlic, chili powder, basil, chives, mustard, vinegar.Common Toppings: tomato sauce, cheese, ratatouille, salsa.

Some people swear by the three-coating technique ;flour, then egg, the breadcrumbs. We have tried this and found that yes, it does produce a crispier coating, but the coating does not stick to the chicken as well. Some people say to spray the chicken with cooking spray or drizzle with melted butter for a crispier coating, but this does not improve the crispness significantly and increases the fat content in a relatively nutritious dish.

Cheese & Broccoli Topped Chicken

Today I am posting a savoury dish instead od the usual sweet stuff. I got this recipe from a magazine I picked up at a local grocery store. It is quick to prepare and easy to do. I did a few things different than listed in the recipe, so I will post the recipe with the changes I have made.

Cheese & Broccoli Topped Chicken
2 cups small, fresh broccoli florets
1 medium onion, chopped
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (mozzarella would probably be nice too)
1/4 cup mayonnaise-style dressing
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, butterflyed

Preheat oven to 375◦F. Line a baking sheet with foil. In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients except for the chicken. Place the chicken on the baking sheet. Top each breast with an equal portion of the above mixture. Bake until the internal temperature reaches 165◦F (about 15-30 minutes, depending on thickness).
I doubled this recipe to get eight servings.

“Cheese & Broccoli Topped Chicken.” http://www.compliments.ca/en/Recipes/Recipe.aspx?ID=12246. Compliments, n.d. Monday, August 15, 2011.