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. 

An Asian Essential: Egg Drop Soup

This is my recipe for egg drop soup, distilled from about five or six sources. Everyone has their own way of making things, and of course this recipe is no different. Some people call for a pile of chopped vegetables for egg drop soup, others insist upon noodles, and still others say it's not egg drop if there are more than eggs in it. This recipe is simple, flavorful, fast and easy. I have received only raving compliments (no exaggeration) whenever I've made it. So here I'm sharing with you my special recipe for egg drop soup.

2 cups chicken broth
2 cups beef broth
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 T soy sauce
1/2 T sugar (or less)
ginger and white pepper to taste, I use a few dashes of each
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil (optional, but add it before the eggs if you use it)
4 green onions, sliced
1/4 cup water (optional)

Combine everything except the eggs and the onions in a medium to large sized sauce pan, bring the broth to a bowl and then reduce it to a simmer. In a bowl mix the eggs, you can use a fork or a whisk, I use a fork since a fork is required for the next part.

Stir the broth and remove the stirring-spoon so the broth continues to swirl, then slowly pour the eggs over the tines of a fork. When the broth stops moving, stop pouring and gently stir again - repeat until you run out of egg. (This will make the long thin strands of egg, if you like big clumps, slowly add all the egg into a still pot of broth, but not all in one spot, move the bowl as you pour so it isn't one giant piece of egg.) Immediately add the onion and simmer for about 2 minutes.

Do not boil the soup after you've added the eggs unless you like your egg pieces to be smaller than grains of rice.

Some people add noodles to egg drop soup, and you can if you like, I would use egg noodles or ramen if you think noodles are a good idea. I've also heard that white rice is good in egg drop soup, cooked first of course!

I say the last 1/4 cup of water is optional because of salt preference. Without it I think it is a little too salty, but then I don't care for salt, so your soup may not need it. The optional sesame oil adds a slight smoky flavor, it is good, but I only add it about half of the time. It is pretty strong, so you only need a small amount. (It's also good for making peanut chicken - I'll blog it eventually because it is so good and so spicy!)

Now you can prepare a simple but crowd pleasing soup. It is easy to make half the amount or double the amount. The measurements above serve 4-6 depending on bowl size. This is a great (light) meal on its own, or a great precursor to your main dish. Try pairing it with Chinese cabbage salad, fried rice, teriyaki chicken, or even sushi. Or you can do like I did on Wednesday and pair it with penne Alfredo and asparagus. It tastes so good, it can go with any type of food! :D

So let me know if you like it! And when you prepare it, give me a little credit, since I took the time to experiment for the last four years to make it perfect!

Warm Lemon Pepper Chicken Salad

I finally made my calendar recipe from March! I admit, that I didn't follow the directions, but I did use the same ingredients, except that I omitted the artichoke hearts, because I couldn't find any marinated artichoke hearts. I think I should have checked Meijer, but I didn't, so I didn't get them.

I started by making a layer of pea pods on the bottom of my saute pan, and I added less than 1/4 cup water, just enough to cover the bottom and get them wet. I don't like boiling vegetables unless they are potatoes, which are tubers and don't count. So I turned that on to cook off the water and steam the pea pods. In the mean time I took some potatoes that Shane had crinkle cut for me with the Ultimate Mandoline (that's what it's called, and it is pretty cool, so don't knock its name :D) and put them in my large Micro Cooker with 4 cups of water for 15 minutes (which turned out to be too long).

While the peas and potatoes were cooking I chopped 1/3 of one large green bell pepper and 1/3 of one huge red onion. The onion I added right to the peas, along with 1 clove garlic pressed and 1 T olive oil and half of 1 lemon freshly juiced (the water had cooked off by this point). I gave that a nice stir and drained the potatoes and chopped the breast from a rotisserie chicken (so yum!)

In my small size Batter Bowl, which is a large measuring cup that is big enough to mix and make and bake in, I whisked together just under 1/4 olive oil and the other half of that lemon. When it was done it looked sort of like whisked egg yolk, so that was cool and odd. I added some cracked black pepper and added that along with the potatoes to the peas and other things.

When I stirred that all together, the potatoes crumbled and became a mashed potato coating for the other food. Upon tasting this dish, I remembered that I hate lemons and everything that tastes like lemons... I think picture was so pretty I convinced myself that it wouldn't be that lemon-y. I was wrong, it was VERY lemony. I added a pile of salt and that helped (and if you know me you know I don't like salt either). If I make this dish again it is not going to involve lemons. I am considering an orange. And I could use rice or perhaps cook the potatoes less.