Cooking on High: Artichoke Chicken

More than anything for this recipe I have photos. So take a photographic journey with me. 

For the side dish I made purple potatoes. They are very pretty but I didn't really notice any particular difference in flavor. They are all around fun and add some nice color to the plate. 

After a few minutes steaming to get them started, I pan fried them with some butter and garlic. 

This is a fairly simple chicken dish, you fry chicken in olive oil and then top it with this artichoke-cheese-stuff and finish it off under the broiler. 

The artichoke-cheese-stuff is a mixture of chopped artichoke hearts (I use the marinated in oil kind and chop them up with the Food Chopper), mayonnaise and Parmesan cheese. Now, if you know me, you know that I truly despise mayonnaise, I think it just tastes terrible and I don't like it at all. So I figured I've already ruined this stuff but I can always scrape it off later. 

How wrong I was! This was crazily delicious. Something happens during the broiling process that turns this weird looking stuff into the best thing that has happened to chicken since we figured out it tastes amazing fried. And everyone knows how delicious fried chicken is.

Frying the chicken in olive oil is easy. Flatten it to uniform thickness of about 1/2 inch with meat tenderizer (looks sort of like a mallet). 

Fry four minutes per side and it should be cooked through and still juicy and delicious. 

I seasoned with just salt and pepper to keep it simple since I was going to add the artichoke topping. 

Frying the second side and it already looks sooooo good! I love that nice crisp crust that you can only get from frying. I added a bit of rosemary at this point because rosemary is delicious and I can never let anything be. 

That's why I never do crock pot cooking, because I always want to mess with it: add stuff, stir, poke at it. It's also why I love 30-Minute recipes. 

I left the chicken in the pan and added the artichoke mixture to the top and spread it to cover the chicken. Then I put it under the broiler for about 5 minutes. This is a stainless steel pan so it's safe under the broiler. It gets VERY hot! I burned my finger taking it out of the oven. So be super careful and in addition to using a pot holder maybe use an oven mitt or something too. 

The finished product! It's stupidly delicious. I recommend this recipe to everyone! And I will definitely make it again. 

Ricotta Gnocchi

Last Monday we decided to go meatless for dinner. So I looked through my cookbook, "29 Minutes to Dinner Volume 2", and found the meatless section. After flipping past recipes for soup and tofu which I just did not feel like making, I found a recipe for "Ricotta Gnocchi". At first glance I was sure this recipe was far too fancy and difficult to make.

But it sounded so good and the picture was so tantalizing, I read the ingredients and there wasn't anything too fancy... then I read the instructions and I was amazed at how easy it was going to be to make this beautiful, fancy dish in just 23 minutes. I'm not kidding, it really took less than 30 minutes to make dinner!

So we set out for the grocery store for the two ingredients we did not have on hand: ricotta cheese and Parmesan cheese (block). That's it. Everything else I had on hand: flour, butter, olive oil, red pepper flakes, garlic and 1 egg. I left a couple things out, because that's how I roll. And I hate lemon as you may know, so I feel I had good reason. I picked up spinach because spinach is delicious and it sounded good.

Then Monday dinner time arrived. I began by preparing the simple dough in my batter bowl. I grated the parmesan, measured the ricotta and mixed them with the egg and flour. I used my Small Scoop to make the cutest little dough balls. I heated butter and olive oil in my non-stick pan and scooped the dough directly into the pan. I cooked each for two minutes and flipped them with my chef's tongs (coated in silicone to keep the pan safe) and cooked them another two minutes. As they cooked they flattened just a bit and looked kind of like small scallops when they were finished.

I removed them from the pan, added garlic and red pepper, and then tossed in a couple handfuls of fresh spinach leaves, just to coat and wilt a bit. I made a wilted spinach salad with our cheese gnocchi. Truth to tell, I had this ulterior motive since I purchased the spinach when we went out for cheese.

It was ridiculously delicious! My husband tried to confiscate mine and has requested this dish again and soon. I was so impressed with how simple and elegant this dish was and how quickly it came together.

Peanut Chicken with Firecracker Green Beans

I'm wandering around the kitchen, trying to decide what to make. I ask Shane, "What do you want to eat?" And he says, "Oooh make that spicy peanut-y chicken!" So I did.

This is VERY easy to make. You need a non-stick pan and a spatula (NOT a turner) that will not melt. And tongs that won't damage your non-stick pan. And measuring spoons. Yeah, that's it for hardware.

So we start by heating less than 1 T of sesame oil with more than 1 tsp of crushed red pepper in the non-stick pan. Add the chicken and cook on low-med for about 5 minutes before flipping, don't fiddle with it and don't poke it and don't flip it early, it ruins the process. (By the way don't use frozen chicken, that's just silly.)

After your chicken has cooked on the second side for another 5 minutes, remove it from the pan and put in as many green beans as you feel like eating and cook them for about 5-6 minutes. They will absorb the flavor of the sesame oil and the crushed red pepper. Very yummy!

Now remove them from the pan and we shall make the peanut sauce! This is a basic sauce, so you won't have to do anything special. In the pan add 2 T each of sugar, peanut butter, water, and soy sauce. 1 T of your choice of oil (I use olive) and 1 clove of garlic crushed. Stir all this as you cook it over medium heat. The peanut butter will melt and then you need to let it cook unstirred until it starts to bubble (NOT boil) the sauce will look dark brown and thick like molasses. Give it another stir and then remove from heat. Add the chicken back to the pan and use the sauce to coat both sides. This is when you use that spatula by the way.

I serve this chicken on toasted buns with lettuce. That's it. It is so flavorful and delicious that any extras would be a distraction rather than a lovely addition. Of course, I have my green beans on the side :D

I have also diced the chicken and stirred it into white rice with this sauce, but for some reason that really brings out more of the peanut flavor. If you love that, it's amazing, if you do not, then just don't do it.