Bacon Wrapped Rosemary Chicken

Hello, everybody!! Mary Jane here. I really struggled with what to call this dish. Was it Rosemary Chicken and Bacon over Pasta? Was it Bacon and Chicken with Rosemary? Was it Rosemary Pasta with Bacon and Chicken and Lemon??

 

In the end, I just threw some words up there. You get the general idea, which is that it's DELICIOUS. This is one of my favorite summertime dishes and we bring it to cook outs regularly.

 So, it's not hard to make but it does have quite a few steps.

1. Cut a chicken breast into strips. Season (we used a lemon pepper sprinkle.)
2. Wrap with bacon
3. Cook on a foil covered baking sheet at 400F until the bacon is crispy and the chicken is done- about twenty minutes. (I like my bacon crispy.)
4. While the bacon and chicken are cooking, boil the pasta.
5.Take a few sprigs of fresh rosemary and heat in a small pan with a few tbs of butter. Don't let it brown too much, just a little. Let it warm in the butter util fragrant.
6. Remove the bacon from the oven and set on paper towels to drain.
7. Toss the pasta with the rosemary butter. Add a few sprinkles of lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste. (I added about 1/4 tsp of pepper to ours because I like the lemon pepper combo.)

8. Place the bacon and chicken on the pasta. Add lemon slices and sprigs of rosemary. Enjoy!!

That's all for now!

Creamy Tarragon Chicken Soup

Hello, everybody! I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving full of friends and family and love.  I have a delicious fall recipe for you.  But first, I have to share some pics of what we've been doing. Or who we've been watching. Because these cats.... I'm telling you, they are turning me into a crazy cat lady!

So, this is our big dude cat. His original name was "Lady" but he turned out to be a boy so the kids named him Koshka ('cat' in Russian). He's still Lady to me. 

He's a giant but he sleeps like this.

I mean... come ON. 

I can't resist rubbing his belly when I see him. Of course he responds with a big ol' stretttttttch.

So, that's his main sleeping pose, and now he has both kittens sleeping the same way! I'm dying of the cute.

 

The only thing cuter than the cats are my kids. Here's one waiting for his Cub Scouts "rocket" to take off. I love the excitement on his face!

Now that we've covered cute cats and cute kids, on to the recipe. 

 This soup calls for cream or half and half. I love those 50% rebate stickers when a product will expire in a few days. HAHAHAHAHA, I have six hungry kids. We can use that up in an hour, no problem!

Ingredients: (I'm listing the original amounts, not the amounts I use since I usually triple a recipe)
1 lb cooked and chopped chicken
1 cup flour
5 cups chicken broth
2 cups cream
1 cup chopped carrots
8 oz frozen peas
1/2 chopped onion
3 tsp chopped garlic
1/2 tsp pepper
1 bay leaf
2 TBS fresh tarragon
pinch of thyme
                                               
Here's the chicken.
                                           
Sautee the onions and carrots in 1 TBS of oil for a few minutes. Add the garlic and stir.  Add one cup of the chicken broth, bring to a boil. Make sure the carrots are completely cooked because there's not a lot of cooking time after the broth is added. Remove from heat.
                         
I really like this bouillon seasoning. No MSG, which is a huge plus!
                                     
Of course we're making a giant batch so I had to use a big mixing bowl-- and I still love my birthday gift from a friend! Pioneer Woman Cooks stuff is so pretty!

 So, step 2. Add the cream to the flour, tarragon, thyme, and pepper. Whisk together.
                                           
 Add the flour mixture to the vegetables and broth. Stir together. It should be very thick. Stir constantly over medium heat until the flour mixture starts to turn darker, like a roux.

 Add the chicken. Now add the broth one cup at a time, mixing thoroughly so the roux is completely combined. When the broth is mixed completely, add the cream or half and half, and the bay leaf.
                                         
At the very last, add a package of frozen peas and bring to a simmer. Depending on how thick you like your cream soups, you can let it reduce a little or you can dig in!

 Ta-Dah! So fragrant and creamy! This recipe was from a neighbor and making it reminded me that I needed to send her a card thanking her for all the great recipes she taught me before they moved away. YUM!!

Also, Advent is starting and we made our wreath. So exciting!  We've been practicing our Christmas carols so we can put on a concert for the nursing homes near us (which will be much easier now that we have TWO guitar players and a pianist). May everyone have a blessed beginning of the Christmas season!

Chicken Roulade

Hi, everybody! I have an interesting recipe for you. This is something I've eaten many times, even watched someone prepare twice, yet had never cooked it myself. Chicken roulade! It's always been one of my favorite dishes but I knew how much work there was to prepare it. Also, I couldn't remember the exact steps. So, when I saw this video being passed around on facebook, I thought, "NOW is the time." The video (if you don't want to click the link) is of Jacques Pepin deboning a chicken. It's actually pretty entertaining... and not just for his lovely accent.

 So, first ingredient is one whole chicken. We usually buy our fryers from a local farm but our freezer was all out of fryers and I wanted to make this for guests that night so... to the store I went! (This cost about $6, no kidding. The free range fryers are about $10 each, but it's worth it to know they're cruelty free. This one... not so much. Still tasted delicious, though!)

 So, per the video, I chopped off the wings at the join.

 Pull back the skin until the two bones are showing. I think we missed a photo here, but the next step is to pull back and remove the smaller bone.


Then peel the flesh down until the meat is at the end of the joint. Then cut at that joint. Pepin calls this the "lollipop" and he says it in his cute little French way. My children were calling this the loh-lee-pope all afternoon. Here, they are, raw. After this, you can roll them in egg and bread crumbs and fry. I did that while the roulade was cooking.

 Now, reached to the front of the chicken and find the wishbone. Usually, commercially produced fryers have the wishbone broken during processing so we were surprised to see this one intact. Bonus! My littlest were excited to see who got the wish.

 Unfortunately, neither one of them did. I think the bone was too fresh and bendy.

 Slice the chicken down the back.
                                 
Gently peel back the skin...

 ... until you see the "oysters". (See, I'm pointing them out. )

 The chicken breasts are exposed there. Remove them from the rib cage, which is pretty simple. Lay the chicken breast on a flat surface and hold down the white tendon with a rag or your thumb. Take a sharp knife and separate the breast from the tendon. This keeps the chicken filet from having that tough and chewy part when you cook it. Discard the white tendon (looks like a ribbon, but somehow I didn't get a picture.)
Now, hold the rib cage firmly and pull until it releases from the flesh. I don't know if Jacques is stronger than I am, or if the commercial chickens are less happy to give up their bones because I was sweating. But, eventually, the rib cage was removed.

 Now, back to the chicken legs. We were working with the wings before, remember? We're going to get all the bones out. Use the handle of the knife and break the bone right at the joint. You can easily remove the bone from the other side now and there's only the joint left without breaking the skin.

 Random photo of innards. I cooked them and the dog was very happy.

 Now, we have a chicken coat, no bones, no innards. All meat and skin.

 You can wrap it up like this, tie with ribbon, and cook it like this.

I made some stuffing out of a box. I know, not fancy, but i reallllly love stuffing from a box. I don't know why. I think it's because it reminds me of feasts at my neighbor's house when I was little. My friend Barbara always made stuffing from a box and to me, it tastes like "happy days"!

 

While the stuffing was cooking, I rolled the low-lee-popes in eggs and bread crumbs and fried them. Hmmmmm.

 This is the finished product. Everyone looked at it and decided they would take a pass. Again, the dog was thrilled.

 When the stuffing was done, I chopped up some spicy kielbasa, peeled a head of garlic, and stuffed it in the center of the chicken.

 Now, pull the skin tight and make sure the stuffing is falling out. (Hello, Virginia's tummy! Get ready! Something tasty is coming!)

 Bake at 350F for about an hour, depending on the size of your chicken. It cooks faster because there are no bones, but if you stuff it with something raw, like sausage or anything with raw egg, you'll want to sue a meat thermometer. I didn't have twine so as it was cooking the skin started to pull back. I kept basting it to keep it moist, but I knew it wouldn't be a perfect circle like it would have been if I tied it closed like Jacques does.

 Here's a shot of the sliced roulade. It's really one of the most delicious dishes and I was glad I made it. I think if I deboned chickens more often, the first part would go a lot faster, but this time it took about 30 minutes prep (which may have included a few trips back to review the video). Restaurant roulade is much tidier, and usually has a lovely "jellyroll" appearance but I was happy with how this turned out. Bonus- my house smelled amazing!

Sliced Fuji apples and orange sections were the perfect accompaniment (although a friend of mine promises that baby spinach salad and blue cheese dressing is the best pairing).
 So, I hope you enjoyed this little foray into deboning a chicken. Next week, maybe we'll debone something else!
Until next time!

Chicken Potato Gnocchi

Hi everybody! I have a delicious recipe passed to me by my sweet friend of the German apple cake fame. (Or the ludefisk fame, if we want to be more recent.) 

I'll be spending the weekend all twitterpated in anticipation of seeing Stephen Amell at a private party on Saturday. (If you don't know who he is, here's a link to the promo for Arrow, season 3, they've already wrapped but still has a few episodes to air.) The party should have some yummy food, great wine, and a special screening. I'm really new to Tv watching in general and script writing in particular so it's going to be interesting to meet people in person that I've only known on twitter or tumblr. It's my first screening type shindig so I'm curious to see what goes down. 

So, to celebrate (and because she knows I'll be trying on my entire closet instead of cooking ) Stacey made potato chicken gnocchi dish and sent me all the pics. BEST FRIEND EVER. Warm, filling, and nourishing.

So, I'm turning the cafe over to Stacey!

 This was my first time cooking potato chicken gnocchi. This week felt like a good time to try out a new recipe. Let's get started:

2 pounds chicken breasts after cooking, cut into about 2 inch cubes

2-3 cans of chicken broth

1/3 cup butter, divided

baby carrots diced or 3 carrots shredded

3 celery stalks finely chopped

1 Tablespoon Olive oil

1-2 teaspoons parsley

1-2 teaspoons thyme

1 Tablespoon ground pepper

1-2 Teaspoon salt

1-2 small sweet onions finely chopped ( I used 1 big one it was plenty)

1-2 garlic cloves ( or about 2 teaspoons garlic salt, and adjust the salt above)

1/3 cup flour

1/2 chopped spinach leaves

1 package-16 ounces- of potato gnocchi

 Start by browning chicken in 3 tablespoons (unsalted is ok) butter. Remove and keep warm.

In another pot, saute the onion, carrot, celery whisk in flour and garlic (I didn't have garlic on hand so I used garlic salt) and remaining butter.

 Gradually stir in the heavy whipping cream, chicken broth, thyme, parsley, olive oil, and pepper.

Bring to just a boil. Stir Constantly

Reduce heat; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. If too thick add another can of chicken broth.

   

Add the entire package of gnocchi and finally the spinach; cook for about 3 minutes or until spinach is wilted. Add the chicken. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until heated through do not boil!

  Serve with your favorite toast and espresso. I also have to say I made about 3 quarts and it was all gone the second day. Hope you enjoy!

 Thanks for sharing, Stacey! Happy weekend, everybody!

 

Easy Honey Mustard Chicken

Hello, everybody! Maybe everyone knows a honey mustard recipe but I've never known how easy this is. I've done the cheater recipes that have a sweet and sour flavor, but never a honey mustard recipe. I tried this back in August, so the veggies are looking pretty delicious right now!

 1/2 cup dijon mustard
1/2 cup honey
1 tbs lemon juice
salt to taste

(Some add mayo but I wanted a thinner sauce for the chicken, rather than a dip type sauce, so I skipped the mayo.)
                                 
Cook the chicken tenders in the oven, covered with foil, until done through. I added a cup of chicken stock to the pan while cooking because I didn't want them to dry out.

Take the chicken from the oven, baste with the honey mustard sauce.

With the garden fresh veggies, it was a perfect summer meal!

Copycat Cracker Barrel Grilled Chicken

Hi everybody!  I have a tasty little recipe for summer! I found this recipe on this silly girl's life and it's delicious... but I adjusted it a little bit.

So, check out the original and then you can decide whether you want to go with mine or hers. (Don't worry. I won't get my feelings hurt!)

 1 lb chicken tenderloins
1/2 cup Italian dressing
1 tsp lime juice
3 tsp honey (originally 1 1/2 tsp)
2 tsp minced garlic (none in the original)
a splash of soy sauce

Ok, so I mixed it all together and gave it a taste. I know it's just a marinade but I thought it needed just a bit more honey. Then I thought.... it needs garlic. Maybe it would have been more awesome without, but I LOVE garlic.

 Ok, put in the chicken and let it marinade for an hour or two.

 Then, plop it all in a skillet and let it cook on high until almost all the sauce is gone and the chicken is cooked through. At this point I added 1 1/2 tsp of soy sauce and it started to smell really, really good.

 And now I make a confession. I've never been to Cracker Barrel.  We don't have them around here. So, really, this recipe should be called "Copycat Cracker Barrel Grilled Chicken Recipe By Someone Who Has Never Eaten There". Since I'd already fiddled with it, I decided to go all the way and start adding more things... like broccoli!

 While I was waiting for the broccoli to finish steaming, I was treated to a lively show by the construction crew. Pretty sure one of them is a pirate, but we won't tell the policeman pushing the red wheelbarrow with a giant pancake inside.

 

 And this little guy told me a long, long story about his racer man. I asked about the ninja mask and was corrected: that is his "bug wrap". You know, to keep out the bugs while he's zooming along. He also wants one for his birthday which is THIS WEEKEND. Can you believe it? My baby is FOUR. I don't think I'm ready for this. We've always been the house in the neighborhood that had a baby. Sort of a community service we provided friends and family. "Need baby snuggles? Come on over! Fresh baby always available!"  Oh well, I guess if they teen snark, preteen discipline issues and little boy lego stories, we're the place to go.

 Ok, so the chicken is out and placed on a bed of fluffy white rice. (Stop zooming in. So it's not exactly fluffy... More like sticky. Or clumpy. I still haven't mastered rice.)
                                      
Verdict? DELICIOUS! Hubby needed a bit of convincing since it wasn't burn-your-face-off hot. But he added a few red peppers and was perfectly happy.

I love summer. I get out all my little bottles and fill them with roses and lavender. 

                                          A close up of this vintage ink jar. Isn't it pretty?

 By the time you all are reading this, we'll be headed down to grab a spot at the local drive in. Not sure if anyone else has one of these, but I've got some great childhood (okay, and teen and adult) memories of our drive in. And now my kids love it, too. It costs our whole family about $20 to get in and besides the super fun atmosphere, there are tasty snacks like homemade pizza for the intermission. YUM.

 I pulled this picture from their facebook page. This is the way you watch a movie at the drive in. But we'll just bring the Tahoe and our lawn chairs. And some blankets and some candy. :)

 A nice shot of the sunset...

 One of their workers. It's a family business so the workers are from age 7 all the way to... well, we won't say.  :)

At the fiftieth anniversary, the had free admission for classic cars. That was a sight! Lots of Mustangs and 50's Fords.

Blue Sky Studio

We're going to see Rio2 and since I'm not really a movie person, I'm bringing my paper AA's of Persuasion, Captain Wentworth and Cracklin' Cornbread! It will be a working movie date, because that's how this mom of six rolls during the summer!

 Until next time, my friends!