Chicken Tenders (Take 2)

Somethings taste better reheated after sitting in the refrigerator overnight (chili, lasagna, etc.) but who would have thought that chicken tenders also fit into that category. On Sunday night I caught an episode of Ham on the Street on Food Network. The subject of this episode was guilty pleasures. Among the deep fried brownie (and everything else you can think of) and the twinkie tiramisu type dish, the host showed off a recipe for healthier chicken tenders.

They looked good on the tv and seemed really simple so I gave them a try. The secret to making them healthier than normal chicken tenders was that these are not fried. Instead you are to dip the chicken strips into a spiced light mayo and then into panko bread crumbs (panko are the type used for tempura, also known as Japanese bread crumbs). You then bake the strips at 350C until done.

When first baked the tenders had great flavor and were fully cooked (but not dry inside) but they were not that crunchy. They just didn't get all that browned on the outside. I was afraid to leave them in the oven longer because I didn't want them to dry out. So I ate a few that night and put the rest in the refrigerator.

Then last night, I cranked up the toaster oven to about 400 C and laid the chicken tenders out on the mini baking sheet. I baked them in the toaster over for about 15 minutes. At this point they were getting browned and crispy. What was great was that they still had the same flavor as the night before and were still moist inside. I think dipping the strips in the mayo helped them stay moist.

The recipe that was shown on the show used curry powder, salt, and pepper for the spices in the mayo. I used worchester sauce, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. I think the spices are really where you can get creative and try different combinations. If you don't go overboard with any one spice, you should get tastey chicken tenders when you are done.

Trader Joe's Cranberry Almond Stuffed Chicken Breast

I took the easy way out last night and made this for dinner. Both the chicken breast and the green beans came out of the freezer. I picked up the stuffed chicken breast a few weeks ago at Trader Joe's for $2.99. If I had tried to make this from scratch I probably could have made it for less, but since I'm just cooking for myself, this is easier and more economical. The chicken with the stuffing is vacuum sealed then frozen so it looks like it would keep for a while in the freezer.

Once thawed, I cooked the chicken in the toaster oven for about 45 minutes. I used a digital thermometer to make sure that the internal temperature was over 165 F before taking it out. The package says that the chicken should only take about 25 minutes in an oven, so I think the extra time was a result of using the toaster oven and that the inside of the stuffing probably wasn't fully thawed. The green beans went directly from a box in the freezer to a bowl in the microwave. 5 minutes later, they were done.

I was a bit worried about how the chicken would turn out since I had to cook it longer than the package said, but it was still very moist. The stuffing had great flavor and was seasoned very well.

For its simplicity alone I would buy another of these stuffed chicken breasts. It had great flavor, is actually not that bad for you, and was easy to prepare. If you're out at Trader Joe's, give it a try sometime (but you might want to let it thaw in the fridge for a day, instead of doing the one hour quick thaw that is suggested on the package).

Chicken-Avocado Salad Pita

So here's another short and simple meal. It took less than 5 minutes from start to finish.

I wanted a way to get some high protein and healthy fats into a quick and easy sandwich and this is what I came up with. For this particular batch I used "chicken in a can" (which isn't all that bad) and some fresh avocado. To be honest, the avocado could be a little fresher (it was still pretty firm) but it worked. I mixed up the chicken and avocado with some mayonnaise and some salt and pepper and put it all in a pita.

That sandwich tasted pretty good but I thought that I could probably make it better. For the second try I used grilled chicken breast which I cut up into small chunks and a fresher avocado. I also put some fresh spinach on the sandwich. This was a major improvement (but it does take extra time to cook the chicken, unless you have leftovers which you can use). Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the second batch.

I recommend everyone to try this even if they think that they don't like avocado. I used to think that I hated avocado but I recently realized that I hated bad guacamole, not avocado. So, just give it a try!

Birthday Party = Lots of Food

Saturday, April 1st, was my 25th birthday and my uncle's 55th. To celebrate I invited the whole family up to my house. The plan for the party was a casual get together with lots of good food and good drinks. I think I succeeded.



The food plan was to have a wide variety of appetizers. There were simple snacks like chips and vegetables (with homemade dips) and then slightly more elaborate hot foods. The vegetables were all purchased fresh from the West Side Market on Friday morning and I washed, cut, blanched (the ones that required it), and arranged them all. The hot foods consisted of skewered chicken (with either a Thai peanut sauce or an Italian basalmic sauce), mini hamburgers, sausage cheese balls, savory parmesan bites, and mini-new potato bites. A few of the foods have links to the Kraft Foods website where I got a lot of my inspiration. The plan for the vegie tray was in my America's Test Kitchen cookbook (which is highly recommended!) and the skewered chicken and mini-burgers were my own creations.



Everyone really liked the mini-burgers and they were the first food to run out. To make the burgers I used an 80/20 beef to which I added some French onion soup mix and some bacon fat (the bacon was required for the potato bites and bacon fat adds a lot of flavor so I figured why not splurge). I cooked the small burgers on the griddle until they were mostly done then placed each patty on a brown-and-serve roll that had been cut in half and topped with colby cheese. The burgers were then tossed into the oven to finish cooking and let the buns brown up. The end result was some really tasty little burgers.



The chicken was fairly simple too. I cut up breast meat into strips and marinated them in either the peanut sauce or the balsamic sauce. The peanut sauce had peanut butter, peanut oil, water, ginger, sesame seeds, soy sauce, and a few other spices. The balsamic sauce was a combination of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, water, salt, pepper, rosemary, and spices. Both batches of chicken marinated overnight. In an ideal case I would have grilled the chicken but since I was making a lot and didn't have the time to stand by the grill I baked the skewered chicken. Everyone seemed to really enjoy these too.



There was a wide variety of drinks for the party but the one that stood out the most was a new rum by Bacardi. It called Ciclon and is infused with Agave Tequila and Lime. When I saw it at the store it looked interesting so I picked up the bottle. And as it turns out, it tastes really good. I thought it was best mixed with a lemon lime soda but my dad preferred it as a shot. He was encouraging others to give it a try too.

And I almost forgot to mention the cake. As I continue to master my skills at cake baking I made this cake. The whole cake was iced in buttercream icing and then I colored a bit of the icing blue for decoration. The border around the cake came out looking nice but my hand writing with icing needs major work. One evening I should put together a small batch of icing and just practice writing. But, back to the cake; the cake is half chocolate and half vanilla and was filled with vanilla pudding (the cooked variety, not instant). The pan I used was an 11x14" pan which I think is a half-sheet size. Everyone enjoyed it and many went back for seconds (or thirds).

By the end of the evening very little food (and Ciclon) remained. There was one piece of the parmesan bites and some vegetables left as well as some cake. I was wore out, but it was worth it. I think everyone had a fun time and that was my goal.

Chicken and Spinach Lasagna

It was a pretty hectic weekend so I didn't get a chance to go to the grocery store until Monday night. While shopping I was also thinking about what would be good for dinner and I got a craving for lasagna. So along with my other groceries, I picked up some noodles and cheese (ricotta and shredded cheeses) and I assumed that I had all the other necessary ingredients at home. When I got home I realized that I the only meat I had was frozen chicken tenders (I thought that I had some ground beef or turkey or something) and I also saw that there was a bag of spinach in the bottom of the refrigerator so I decided to go with it and make Chicken/Spinach Lasagna.

I began by wilting the spinach in a frying pan. Once that was taken care of, I cut up the chicken tenders and cooked those in the same pan with a little oil until the chicken was starting to brown. In the meantime I started hard cooking a couple eggs. When the chicken was done I added a jar of vodka sauce (its basically a marinara with cream), some canned crushed tomatoes, and the spinach back into the pan and let everything warm the whole way though. I also added a raw egg to the ricotta cheese.

Since the lasagna noodles were the "no-boil" type, I was now ready to go to assemble the dish. I layered the sauce, noodles, ricotta, chopped egg, and cheeses about 3 times until I reached the top of the baking dish. I then topped it all with some more cheese and covered the dish with foil and put it in the over. It baked for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees and it was smelling really tastey. I then removed the foil and turned on the broiler to get the cheese to brown quickly. It only took a couple minutes under the broiler to get nice and brown.

And that was it. Its been really good. I made this lasagna Monday night and it has been lunch and dinner since then. Since I'm the only one eating it, I think it will last until tomorrow night. One of the best things about the leftovers is that it seems to taste even better each day since all the flavors have time to meld together. Yum!

Popcorn Chicken Bites

I've been wanting to make these for a while now. I saw Rachel Ray make them on her 30 Minute Meals show and I thought I should give them a try. Who would have thought that you can make popcorn chicken bites with just chicken and instant pancake mix. Yes, you read correctly, the only ingredients were chicken and pancake mix (oh, and some water). I'm not a fan of the "just add water" mixes since the pancakes are typically really bland; however, this is a great use for the instant batter.

Like I said earlier, its just two ingredients. First heat your oil (you want a decent sized pan so the chicken has room to cook). Then you mix the pancake powder with water (a little less than you would with pancakes since you want the batter sort of thick) in a bowl and cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. Toss the chicken in the batter and coat it evenly. Then in small batches fry the chicken bites. They take a few minutes to cook.

To complete the meal I paired the chicken bites with some curly fries. It isn't the healthiest of meals, but it was tasty (and simple!). Mine was about a 15 minute meal! Yum!

Chicken Tenders

I get an email about once a week from Kraft where they give a few recipes and advertise one of their products. In this week's email the main recipe was chicken tenders with Shake and Bake. The recipe was simple and the chicken tenders looked mighty tasty. I already had the chicken but no Shake and Bake mix; so in my avoidance of going to the grocery store twice in one week and my desire to make things homemade whenever I can, I made my own Shake and Bake coating mix.

I looked up the ingredients of Shake and Bake on the Kraft website and saw that is was basically just flour and spices. I took it a step further and used dried bread and seasons that I made into a semi-powder in the food processor. I have a little 1 cup processor that worked great for this. To get the dried bread I put a few slices of bread into the toaster oven for about 45 minutes at 200 degrees. The spices I used were pepper, garlic salt, onion powder, and paprika.

And just like Shake and Bake all that I needed to do was put the chicken strips in a bag with the coating mix and shake. I baked the tenders for about 30 minutes in the toaster oven set at 350 degrees. The chicken tenders came out perfectly. The seasonings blended together really well and the coating stuck to the chicken (past attempts to bread chicken had resulted in a pile of breading and a bare chicken piece).

Although there is no picture, I also made some Mrs. T's mini-perogies to go with my meal. Instead of pan frying them after boiling, I too put them in the toaster oven. I gave them a quick spray with non-stick cooking spray and then seasoned them with a little salt and pepper. The baked perogies had the crispness of pan frying but without the extra butter and oil.

Both of these are recipes I will use again. The homemade coating mix was so easy to do and much cheaper than any store bought mix. Plus this way I was able to adjust the spices to my liking. I am already thinking about altering the spices to include more italian seasonings and using it for a chicken parmesan meal. I'll be sure to post the results.