My version of Insalata Florentine

A few weeks ago, Jason's step mom and her two crazy friends came to Nashville for a visit. Let me just say that these ladies meant business......drinking, shopping, drinking, eating, drinking, flirting with men half their age (not Jason's step mom of course, just her friends), oh and more drinking.

On their way up to Nashville, they needed to stop and get a drink....I mean some lunch. They stopped and Macaroni Grill, a place we haven't been in years. They brought back their leftovers for us and I sampled a wonderful chicken/pasta/salad dish. It was really an odd combination of flavors and textures. I easily found the recipe online. The tricky part was figuring out how to make this "Jason friendly."


I left out most of the good stuff like olives and capers and kept the dish pretty simple. It is really good though and pretty easy, so I think this one might be going in our summer rotation. See what you think and know that this is one of those dishes that you could add almost anything to and it would be delicious (i.e. roasted red peppers, olives, capers, nuts, shavings of Parmesan, etc).


Kyle's Insalata Florentine

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Orzo pasta, cooked according to package directions

1 roasted chicken from Krogers, cut up into chunks

1/2 bag of Italian Mix bag salad (this mix has mostly radicchio, romaine)

1/2 cup - 3/4 cup of vinaigrette dressing -- use whatever you have on hand. I used O'Charley's Balsamic Vinaigrette and it was awesome!!!

Salt & Pepper

Directions:

1. Cook Orzo pasta (8-10 minutes in boiling water, stirring occasionally)

2. Cut up chicken into bite size pieces

3. Layer chicken and greens in a large bowl

4. Drain pasta and pour hot pasta over chicken and greens

5. Pour dressing over everything and toss well

6. Let chill in the fridge for at least an hour before serving. This is the type of dish though that tastes better the next day.

Cornish Hens

I don't cook Cornish Hens very often. They're not hard to cook but they are a little messy to eat. I decided to try them again this week (and since Publix had them on sale). Of course, you can use any good chicken recipe on these and they will turn out fine. Tonight, I decided to use shallots, butter, and orange to flavor these hens and they turned out great.

Here's what they looked like before they went into the oven......poor things.


This is what they looked like on the plate.....looks delicious right? (unless you don't eat meat)

Easy Orange Cornish Hens:
2 Cornish Hens

1 orange -- you'll need the zest and the juice

2 shallots, chopped

3/4 stick of butter

Salt & Pepper

Directions:
1. Allow butter to soften to room temperature.

2. Mix butter, chopped shallots, and orange zest.

3. Rub butter mixture under the skin of the hens, all over the outside and inside the cavity.

4. Squeeze orange juice over the hens and season with salt & pepper.

5. Cook on a baking sheet for 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees.....until the juices run clear.

Thai Chicken & Rice

We love Thai food and this is one of my easiest Thai dishes. It isn't authentic.....I mean, you won't find this in any Thai restaurant (at least not a reputable one). It's my version of Thai Chicken & Rice. This is really better if you let it sit in the fridge so that the flavors can meld together. I try to make this the day before we eat it or at least the morning of.

At the bottom of this post, I have pictures of the Thai products I find at my grocery store. If you've never tried Thai food before, this is a nice introduction. You will get a real feel for the flavors of Thai food without it being too spicy or weird.

Thai Chicken & Rice:
1 lb chicken tenderloins, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 cans lite coconut milk
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1-2 Tablespoons red curry paste (depending on how hot you like things)
1 box coconut rice
***If you have veggies and you want to add them, do it. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. Tonight, I didn't really have anything in the fridge, however onions, carrots, zucchini, or peppers are all great additions to this dish.

Directions:
1. Pour olive oil in a skillet and let it get hot.
2. Add curry paste and cook until you can smell the paste. This sounds weird but is actually says to do this on the bottle. It will smell spicy and good.
3. Add one can of coconut milk and cook over low heat until the curry paste has dissolved into the milk. Do not let milk come to a boil.
4. Add chicken to the milk mixture and add until done.
5. In another pot, bring 1 can of coconut milk to a boil.
6. Add contents of rice box, stir and remove from heat.
7. Once the rice has cooled and the chicken/curry mixture has cooled, combine the two in your skillet and place in the fridge.
8. When you are ready to serve, simply stick in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

I use Thai Kitchen brand coconut rice and red curry paste.....here's a picture of what they look like. If you can't find this exact brand, use whatever you can find.

Stuff It!

Tonight, I made a chicken recipe that Jason actually gave me. He used to make this chicken all the time once he graduated from college. I'll give it to him....it's really good and pretty easy. It's too cold outside to grill, so I cooked this chicken in my iron skillet. It turned out great, but it's still a little better on the grill.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts -- flattened out

4 slices bacon

4 slices white cheddar or any white cheese that you enjoy

12 jalapeno pepper rings, chopped

Salt & Pepper

Butter

Directions:

1. Place chicken breasts in a large ziploc bag and beat with a rolling pin until flattened.

2. Place chopped peppers and cheese inside each chicken breast.

3. Roll each chicken breast up and surround with a piece of bacon.

4. Secure each chicken breast with one or two toothpicks.

5. Season with salt & pepper.

6. Grill or cook in an iron skillet for about 20-25 minutes or until the chicken juices run clear.

Chicken & Dressing Casserole

Tonight, I felt like making comfort food (I know, I know, most of our meals are comfort food). Jason is sick, so I wanted to make something special....not just chicken noodle soup, yuck! I found this recipe a few years back and decided it was time to break it out again. This chicken and dressing casserole has a few steps to it, but if you stay organized, it really isn't so bad. Once you taste it, I think you'll realize that it's worth the trouble.

Chicken & Dressing Casserole:
2 lbs of chicken -- I used boneless, skinless, chicken breasts that I cut into chunks
1/2 cup mayo
1 small onion, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
4 eggs
1 stick butter, melted
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 package Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix (I used the herb flavor)
1 cup milk
1 can cream of chicken soup
3 mixing bowls (trust me)

Directions:
1. Boil chicken in salted water until fully cooked
2. Combine cooled chicken, mayo, chopped onion and set aside
3. Combine 2 eggs, melted butter, chicken broth and stuffing and set aside
4. In a small bowl, beat 2 eggs and add milk
5. Spray large casserole dish with cooking spray
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
7. In bottom of dish, spread half of the stuffing mixture
8. Add all of the chicken mixture
9. Add remaining stuffing over the top of the chicken
10. Pour the egg and milk mixture over the top of the stuffing
11. Pour one can of cream of chicken soup over the whole thing (this will look gross)
12. Bake for 45 minutes


Here is a picture of your mixing bowls. You'll have one for the stuffing mixture (your biggest one), one for the chicken mixture, and one bowl for the egg and milk mixture.





Here what the dish looks like before you stick it in the oven. Not to pretty, huh? It actually looks gross with all of that cream of chicken soup on top, but the finished product is wonderful!

Here the finished product.....ok, maybe it doesn't look that much better. The soup on top sort of forms a gravy. That plus the eggs and milk that you poured over this help keep this from drying out. Every bite is moist and delicious.

I served this with green beans and the leftover pretzel salad from the night before (see yesterday's post). This really made me ready for Thanksgiving!!

Poppy Seed Chicken

Tonight, I made a dish that my mom used to make all the time....Poppy Seed Chicken. This is one of those chicken casseroles that is a staple if you grow up in Alabama. This is real comfort food, but I added a chopped green onion, which my mom never did. I love the flavor of green onions and I like the color and taste that the bring to dishes.

Poppy Seed Chicken:
2-3 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, cooked
1 cup sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 green onion, chopped
1 tube Ritz crackers
1/4 cup butter, melted
1-2 Tablespoons poppy seeds
Minute Rice

Directions:
1. Boil chicken in water and cute into cubes
2. Grease a 9x13 baking dish and line with cubed chicken
3. Sprinkle chopped green onion over the top of the chicken
4. Mix sour cream and soup together
5. Pour over chicken
6. In a sandwich bag, crush crackers and add poppy seeds and butter
7. Pour cracker mixture over chicken
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

***Serve over rice

Grilled Perfection

Tonight, I grilled chicken. After countless Food Network episodes on grilling, I've finally learned my lesson -- don't keep flipping your chicken. Did that come out wrong? You know what I mean. All the chefs say to grill your chicken for 7 minutes or so and then flip once and cook for another 7 minutes.....that way, you always get crispy skin and that dark color that makes it look so good.

There are 10,000 different marinades for grilled chicken, but tonight I kept it simple. One other important tip for grilling. You need to make sure and buy chicken that is on the bone and still has the skin on it. Even if you don't want to eat the skin, it helps lock in flavor and moistness...trust me on this one. For a long time I thought boneless, skinless chicken was healthier, and it is, but it gets dry so easily -- it's just not worth it!!

Simple Grilled Chicken:
4 chicken breasts (bone-in, skin-on)
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil
Rosemary -- lots of it

Directions:
1. Place chicken in a ziploc bag and drizzle with olive oil
2. Make sure every piece is completely covered
3. Throw in rosemary, salt, and pepper
4. Let sit for at least 30 minutes before grilling
5. See above for grilling instructions

Roast Chicken with Smothered Potatoes

Tonight, I cut up my first chicken. I always thought that cutting up a whole chicken was hard work, and it's tricky when you don't know what you're doing. Then I thought, if the Amish can do it, then so can I. You could buy a chicken that is already cut into pieces if you are in a hurry, but make sure that the chicken is on the bone and has the skin on it, or this recipe won't work.

According to the recipe, here's how to cut your chicken. We're basically just cutting it in half and leaving each breast & thigh attached. Find the backbone and cut alongside it with your knife. You'll see a little bone sticking out of the hole in the chicken (where the head used to be)....that's the bcckbone. Once you've cut along one side of the backbone, then cut along the other side and remove it completely. Next, remove the bag of giblets from inside the chicken. Now cut through the middle of the chicken making two big halves (see pictures below and you'll understand).

Roasted Chicken with Smothered Potatoes:
1 - 3lb frying chicken
3 Tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, chopped
8 new potatoes, quartered
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped (I used about 3 stalks)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Grease a 9x13 baking dish
3. Cut the chicken into two pieces
4. Place potates in the middle of the baking dish and surround with the onions
5. Salt and pepper potatoes and onions
6. Sprinkle garlic and rosemary over potatoes
7. Rub chicken halves with olive oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary
8. Flatten chicken over the top of the potatoes
9. Roast for 45-50 minutes or until the skin of the chicken is golden brown


Step 1:

Step 2:

Finished Product:

Chicken & Aspargus

Tonight, we had a wonderful chicken and asparagus recipe from Paula Deen. Jason loves her (see below). This meal is really good comfort food, but you don't have to feel guilty eating it because of the asparagus (that's how we justify it). Here's Jason, Judy, and Paula in Tunica last spring.

Chicken & Asparagus

4 boneless chicken breast halves

1 bunch of asparagus

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup of sour cream

Zest of half a lemon

1 teaspoon of lemon juice

1 cup of cheddar cheese

1. Brown the chicken in olive oil

2. Break the asparagus to tear off the tough end piece

3. Arrange asparagus in a greased 9x13 baking dish

4. In a separate bowl, combine sour cream, soup, lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt/pepper

5. Cut up chicken and place over asparagus

6. Top with soup mixture

7. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes

8. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and let sit for 5 minutes while cheese melts

We served this over rice.....for that, we just made minute rice. While the rice was cooling, we chopped up a few green onions in the rice and it tasted great. It also looks fancy when you have little bits of green on top of your food.

Why Salad?

This is what Jason said when I told him we were having a salad for dinner. He didn't want salad, but I felt like something easy, so this was it. Like many mom's out there, I wound up making something different for my little picky eater.....see below. This salad turned out really well, if I do say so myself. I know you probably don't write down recipes for salads, but this one was really good.



Simple Salad:

1 roasted chicken from the supermarket

1 Hass avocado, chopped

Goat Cheese crumbles

1 bag salad mix

Salt & Pepper

Honey Balsamic Vinagrette by T. Marzetti

This is what Jason had for dinner tonight. If you have a child, even a niece or nephew, this is probably something they would love to eat as well.....box macaroni and cheese, chicken tenders, and ketchup.

Rustic Green Curry

2 cups of rice
2 tablespoons green curry paste
1 can of lite coconut milk
1 lb. chicken cut into chunks
1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 yellow squash
1 bunch of basil

Any veggie combination will do for this recipe, it's up to you and your preferences.

1. Cook the rice according to package directions.
2. In another pot, bring the coconut milk and the curry paste to a slow boil, stirring until the curry paste is dissolved.
3. Add the diced chicken and vegetables.
4. Let simmer until chicken and vegetables are completely cooked.
5. Tear basil and add to curry mixture.
6. Serve over rice.