Chicken Cacciatore

I don't really know what the "classic" version of chicken cacciatore is. All I know is that this takes less than 20 minutes to put together, it tastes good, and it makes for some good leftovers. Shout out to my momma who used to make this when I was a kid!

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (use dark meat if you prefer, just bake a bit longer)
1 yellow onion, halved and sliced
2 bell peppers (any color), sliced
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
at least 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1- 28oz can of crushed tomatoes in puree
1/2 a can of tomato paste
Any fresh or dried Italian-ish herbs 1-2 tsp. (herbs de provence, basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, "italian seasoning")
Salt and pepper
Crushed red pepper

Preheat oven to 375.  Place onions in the bottom of a casserole dish, then layer the chicken (season with salt and pepper), bell peppers and garlic, and mushrooms.  In a bowl, mix together the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, herbs, a couple pinches of salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper (as much or as little as you like).  Pour the tomato mixture over the chicken and veggies, and bake for about an hour. I kinda mixed everything around and flipped the chicken after about 40 minutes. My oven tends to be on the cool side, so it takes me about 1hr 15 minutes.

No pics, again. Sorry!

Some Good Stuff

A couple of good articles I've come across lately.....

Five "Bad" Foods That Are Actually Good For You

Paleo Baby

A couple of good recipes to share....

Ropa Viejo is a Cuban beef stew with red peppers, onions, and green olives. This version literally takes 10 minutes to put together, and a you just let it go on the stove for a couple of hours. I eat this over mashed rutabagas while my housemates enjoy it over rice.

Taco Chicken Wings The genius of this recipe is the idea of dipping these oven broiled hot wings in guacamole. I'm all for any excuse to eat guacamole, and this is one of the more delicious vehicles I've come across. I've also used the spice mix as a rub for ribs!

Crab Stuffed Salmon We made this a couple weeks ago as a birthday dinner for Dato's mom. I was expecting it to be delicious... but it was even better. This was not a cheap meal, but cheaper than going out to dinner. I think it was about $90 total to feed 6 people.

If anyone has any links to articles, website recommendations, or recipes they would like to share.... please post to comments!

BLT Chicken Salad

This is one of my best ideas, if I do say so myself. I just finished eating about 15 minutes ago and I was so excited, I had to post it right away. Now, I don't condone wrapping burgers in lettuce because they are too darn juicy, but lettuce is a great vehicle for tuna/chicken/egg salad, etc. I like the hydroponic butter lettuce because it lasts a long time in the fridge.

1 lb cooked chicken breast

5 slices cooked bacon

1/2-1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1/4 cup almond mayo or other homemade mayo, thinned out

Avocado slices

Butter lettuce leaves
Salt and pepper

Cut the chicken and the bacon into bite size pieces. I like my pieces of bacon to be about twice the size of the chicken. Combine chicken and bacon in a large bowl with tomatoes. Thin out mayo with 2 T of water, or your fat of choice (I used warm bacon fat! But that's just me...) and add to chicken. Mix well, add salt and pepper to taste- I found it didn't really need much salt because of all the bacon (and bacon fat). Serve it in butter lettuce leaves with a couple of slices of avocado on top, and eat it like a taco!

If you don't want to make the mayo, you could probably substitute a vinaigrette made from Dijon mustard, lemon juice or red wine vinegar, and olive oil. I also think this would be wonderful with hardboiled eggs instead of chicken.

Chicken Saltimbocca

I have made many different variations of this dish, and when I did a quick Google search to see what the classic version was, it seems that all you really need for a dish to be called saltimbocca is chicken (or veal), sage, and prosciutto. You can make this as simple or as complicated as you'd like. Here's what I did earlier this week:

3 chicken breasts, cut into thirds, pounded to about 1/4 inch thick

1 package of proscuttio (8 slices?), cut in half

1 large shallot, sliced

2 cloves of garlic

~1 tsp dried sage, or 1 fresh leaf for each piece of chicken

8oz mushrooms (optional), sliced

2 T capers (optional)

1/3 c chicken stock

juice of 1 lemon

salt and pepper

Slice the chicken breasts in thirds on a diagonal, basically making the pieces as evenly sized as possible. Take a ziploc freezer bag and drip a few drops of water in it- this will keep the chicken from sticking to the bag as you pound it. Put one piece of chicken in the bag at a time and do not seal. I use a heavy pan to evenly and gradually pound the chicken until it is ~ 1/4 inch thick.

After all the chicken is pounded, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and sage. Sage is a pretty strong herb, so use as much or as little as you like. If you are using fresh sage, just place one leaf on each piece of chicken, and then a piece of prosciutto on top. Otherwise, just put a piece of prosciutto on top of each piece.

Once all the chicken is prepped, heat a very large skillet over medium-high heat with whatever fat you want to cook with. I used olive oil. Once the pan gets really hot place a few pieces of chicken in the pan prosciutto side down. It is very important that the pan is very hot so the prosciutto will sear onto the chicken. Don't move the chicken for a couple of minutes, then flip and sear on the other side for about 2 minutes. The chicken is thin, so it should cook pretty quickly. You will have to do this in batches, I did 3 pieces of chicken at a time.

When all the chicken is cooked and removed to a plate, add more oil if needed, and throw in the shallots and garlic. Sautee for about 30 seconds, then add the mushrooms. We got some oyster mushrooms from an asian market (only $3 for 8 0z instead of at least double that price at a grocery store), but you could use whatever you'd like- white button, cremini. Cook until soft then, with the pan still very hot, pour in the chicken broth to get all the delicious bits off the bottom of the pan. Let the liquid come up to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. It will start to thicken up. Add a squeeze of lemon right at the end, and the capers. At this point you can serve the sauce right over the chicken, or add the chicken back into the pan to reheat.

Thai chicken soup

Before November, this would've been a recipe for Thai chicken noodle soup. So I took out the noodles and added some zucchini and everything worked out just fine. You can make this soup in no time, and it's even better the next day after the flavors have really had a chance to hang out.

2 Anaheim peppers

1 jalapeño

3 cloves garlic, sliced, chopped, minced.... whatever you prefer

1 yellow onion, cut in half and sliced into half moons

6-8 cups REDUCED SODIUM chicken broth

1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces

1 carrot, grated

1 zucchini (I'll tell you about this in a minute!)

3 T cilantro, chopped

1 bunch of basil, chopped

juice of 2 limes

Heat your preferred cooking fat in a big pot over med-high heat. Coconut oil would be DELICIOUS here and I can't believe I didn't think of it until now after I've already cooked the soup. Anywho....

Sautee the onions, peppers, and garlic with a couple pinches of salt until they start to soften. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Once it boils add the chicken and bring to a boil again. Reduce heat and simmer for ~7 mins, until chicken is cooked through. Add the carrots and zucchini. I decided to turn my zucchini into noodles to replace the rice noodles I used to use. Just take a veggie peeler and run along the zucchini lengthwise, and repeat. This worked wonderfully. Finally, add cilantro, basil, and lime juice and turn off the heat. Taste and add salt as needed.

I like it very spicy and the one jalapeño tonight just didn't cut it for me. I would probably throw a Serrano in there next time. I imagine this would be great with shrimp instead of chicken as well.