Tag Archives: chicken

Chicken Française (lemon chicken)

lunch, supper 3 Comments

This recipe originally came from here, but has lived in a binder in my kitchen for years now. This is good chicken. Man catching chicken even. It’s crispy and juicy and lemony and fabulous. I gave this recipe to my sister a few years back and she’s married now. SEE?? Try this:

Chicken Française (lemon chicken)

Ingredients

  • 1-2 pounds boneless chicken breast halves or thin chicken cutlets
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp plus 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp plus 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice plus 1 whole lemon, thinly sliced

Instructions

  1. If using chicken breasts, pound to 1/4 inch thickness between two sheets of plastic wrap (I hate pounding chicken so I use the thin cutlets)
  2. Combine flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in a shallow dish, and dredge chicken, patting to evenly coat with flour mix; set aside
  3. Beat eggs in another dish and set aside
  4. Heat oil in heavy skillet (preferably cast iron, of course) over medium heat until hot but not yet smoking
  5. Working in batches, dip floured chicken into eggs, making sure chicken is well coated, then let excess drip back into bowl; carefully ease chicken into hot oil and cook, turning once, till both sides are golden brown and chicken is cooked through — this will take about three minutes a side or so
  6. When cooked, transfer chicken to paper towel lined plate and tent with foil or put in the oven set at its lowest setting (i.e. a very slow oven — does anyone still say that?)
  7. After all chicken is fried and set to keep warm, pour oil out of skillet (I use an old coffee can for the oil), then set the pan over low heat and melt the butter in the skillet
  8. When butter is melted and stops foaming add wine, chicken broth and lemon juice. Crank the heat up a bit and boil, uncovered, stirring to release all the yummy brown bits that are stuck to the bottom of your pan. Season with remaining salt and pepper (1/4 tsp. of each)
  9. Remove paper towels from chicken plate, then spoon sauce over chicken; top with sliced lemon and serve

Creamy crockpot chicken

lunch, supper 5 Comments

You know what I hate? When a recipe tastes SO GOOD but photographs SO POORLY. Le sigh.

Shall I just spare you the picture? Because really, it doesn’t do it justice. Just try this (it’s so crazy easy — you just have to try) and then come back and tell me what you thought.

Creamy crockpot chicken

Ingredients

  • What you need:
  • A slow cooker
  • 1 can of corn
  • 1 can of black beans
  • 1 jar of salsa
  • 1 block of cream cheese
  • frozen chicken breasts — I used 2 but you could do up to 4 or 5 without adjusting ingredients and be fine

Instructions

  1. Put chicken breasts, corn (drained), beans (drained and rinsed) and salsa into the slow cooker and stir it up a bit
  2. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or until chicken is cooked through
  3. Add in block of cream cheese and cook another 30 minutes
  4. Stir up mix to make the whole thing creamy, then serve chicken and sauce together

Do you see how easy that is? And that you must try it? Please do. Make it, eat it, love it, and agree with me that a picture of it is no indication of its actual greatness.

Lissa’s baked jambalaya

soup, supper 16 Comments

Oh I wish I could make this look as good as it tasted!

My fabulous friend Lissa makes this so often that she doesn’t even look at the recipe anymore. That’s the sign of a good supper! She told me how to make it while The Kiddo and I were visiting last fall, and I can’t believe it took me this long to make it. It is absolutely phenomenal, really. You must make this as soon as possible.

Lissa’s baked jambalaya

Ingredients

  • 1 stick butter, melted
  • 1 lb. smoked sausage, sliced
  • 1 can Rotel
  • 1 can french onion soup
  • 1 can beef consomme
  • 2 lbs. uncooked chicken, turkey or peeled shrimp
  • 1 bunch green onions, chopped
  • 2 cups uncooked rice
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 14 ounces (or 1 can) chicken broth
  • I also added some chopped dehydrated red peppers out of the freezer from last summer’s garden

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F
  2. Mix all ingredients and bake in buttered casserole, covered tightly (I did a tight cover of foil then a lid on top of that) for one hour; stir and cover, then bake 30 minutes more or until rice is done

It’s only one step. Don’t you love that? This expands a lot as the rice cooks and soaks up the chicken broth so allow yourself plenty of room in the casserole dish (I totally pushed my luck there; overflow crisis narrowly averted).

I served this with shredded cheese, hot sauce and cornbread. It went fast. 🙂

Chicken & dumplings

lunch, soup, supper 8 Comments

Another classic Southern comfort food dish. Ahh…. so fabulous.

I learned to make this dish when I was just out of college and had a job that was more handling customers than washing diapers. For the record, I’ll take Cheerios over conference calls any day. 😉  This was one of those “oh I use some of this and a little of that and sometimes those — should I write this down?” sort of things, so I’m doing my best to turn it into an actual recipe.

Chicken & dumplings

Ingredients

  • 4 chicken breasts or one roasted rotisserie chicken
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup butter, cold
  • Chicken broth — about 2 quarts
  • 2 Tbsp. or so cornstarch
  • Salt, pepper, onion powder

Instructions

The chicken
    1. Either boil or slow cook the chicken breasts, saving the water it was cooked in, or (time saver alert!) buy a lovely already-roasted rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. Viola, my Grandma would wittily say, you’re halfway there. With either method, wait till the chicken is cooled and chop it into chunks; set aside for now.
The dumplings
    1. While the pot of broth is heating up, cut the butter into the flour like you’re making biscuits using either a pastry blender, a fork, or a few pulses of the food processor. Now sprinkle in some salt and pour in chicken broth, a little at a time, till the dough holds together enough to be able to roll it out — this will take somewhere around a cup or cup and a half, but it’s not a science. When the dough holds together, roll it out very thin and cut into strips about an inch wide, and two inches long. A pizza cutter is great for this! These, obviously, do not have to be anywhere near perfect.
    2. Returning to your chicken broth: get a big pot of chicken it simmering — either the water you reserved from cooking the chicken breasts, or some homemade you might have in the freezer. If you’re using quarts of chicken broth, pour in one full quart plus whatever is left after making your dumplings. Bottom line: you want plenty in there so the dumplings have room to cook.
    3. After the broth has come to a nice simmer, start carefully dropping in the dumplings; they’ll all sink to the bottom at first and that’s fine. Let them simmer gently for about half an hour, swirling the pot around every so often. You don’t want to do too much stirring because the dumplings are delicate as they’re cooking and you don’t want to make them all into a giant ball of mush; some gentle moving around with a wooden spoon is fine.
Thickening time!
    1. Whisk about 2 Tbsp. of cornstarch into 1/4 cup of cold water till it’s all dissolved and there are no lumps. Pour this mixture into the pot of dumplings and stir gently, then add in your chopped chicken.
Seasoning
  1. Sprinkle in some salt, some pepper and some onion powder, bring the whole mess back up to a simmer, then reduce heat so it’s just below simmer. Let it cook another half hour or so to give the cornstarch time to work its magic and thicken things up and for all the flavors to get to know each other properly.

Now serve! This is crazy good with green beans (cooked with bacon fat, duh) or just on its own. It also freezes like a dream so I make a giant pot once a month or so and freeze quart size bags of it.

Beer can chicken

lunch, supper 4 Comments

I picture it something like this:

A kitchen…

Folks preparing a cold chicken for frying…

“Hey Vern! Watch this!”

Friends collapse in hearty guffaws

… crickets …

“Hey, what if….?”

And there you have it. Just like that, beer can chicken was born.

This chicken is so good and so easy! All the crispy goodness of fried chicken without the added fat or highly flammable liquids. And it’s so low maintenance that it’s great for serving a crowd — no standing over a hot stove required. What’s not to love?

The pan itself we’ve had so long that I don’t even remember where I picked it up, but you can get a really basic model for about ten bucks. All it really needs to do is help the beer can, and therefore the chicken, stay upright on the grill. You can do it just on a beer can without a pan, but it’s pretty tippy that way.

So beyond the pan all you really need is:

  • A chicken (duh)
  • A can of beer
  • Spray cooking oil
  • Whatever spices strike your fancy at the moment
  1. Start by opening the beer and drinking about 1/3 of it. I know, I know, but these are the sacrifices we make for cooking
  2. Using a church key, make a few more holes in the top of the can (like you’re opening canned milk) and dump in some spices; we use Char Broil It as raved about mentioned here along with some salt and pepper
  3. Now place the can in the pan (this feels like Green Eggs and Ham); put the chicken over the can, then spray the chicken with Pam. Got that?
  4. Now pat your spice mix of choice onto the chicken. Don’t be shy — get plenty on there
  5. Put the whole thing on the grill or in an oven — either way at about 350F
  6. Roast for about 30-45 minutes, or until internal temp is 180F

That’s it, people! A whole chicken done! This is great with roasted broccoli and some fresh bread. Enjoy!