Spice Island Chicken Legs

What is up with all this crazy heat?? Yes, I know it's Texas and that heat and droughts are too be expected, but not in April!!!! The wildfires have been really bad and we have had some hazy days from the smoke. So basically it has been hot enough where you don't want to heat up your house with the oven and yucky outside so you don't want to spend long periods out there at the grill.

One evening I decided to get all the food that was going to need grilling that week and go ahead and do it all at once. The microwave's 50% power setting was going to be my friend. I threw on a California Thai Sirloin, Lemon Grass Grilled Beef and these tasty Spice Island Chicken Legs along with a ton of veggies.

The Spice Island chicken kind of goes with our tour around the world. The flavors of this dish are popular in St Martin. It is slowly cooked over low grill  and served over curried rice. The smells make me think of beaches and fruity drinks out of a coconut.


A flavorful marinade was made of soy sauce, rum, and spices. The chicken took a nice soak overnight.



A few of the chicken legs got a spicy habanero addition.




The skin got a bit charred, but the meat was so tender and juicy, it just enhanced the flavors. This one is definietly worth a try and has a lot of potential as a batch party dish. I think next time I might go with chicken thighs though.



Spice Island Chicken

1 cup Soy Sauce
1/2 cup dark rum
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 vegetable oil
2 tablespoons thyme leaves
1 tablespoon minced ginger
6 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
Juice of 1 lime
8 to 10 chicken thighs or drumsticks.


Mix up all of the ingredients and let the chicke soak for at least a couple of hours. Cook over indirect heat or a low flame for 45 minutes, turning every 15. Serve with curried rice and grilled vegetables.


Check out other awesome meals like this at Wanderfood Wednesday or

Kids Can Cook Good Stuff- Chicken Parmesan

This was a great and fun recipe for my daughter to try out. She is getting more and more confident in the kitchen. Soon my dreams of relaxing and sipping mojitos while the kids cook dinner will become a reality! Ok maybe not, but this Chicken Parmesan recipe taught Ashley several new techniques: breading, searing and baking.


First she started by rolling the chicken in seasoned flour,



Then beaten eggs,



 and a mix of panko and parmesan.





She set them on a cooling rack inside a cookie sheet.



The chicken was browned on each side in 3 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of butter for 3 minutes on each side.



The chicken was topped with parmesan cheese,



and mozzarella cheese.




Each chicken breast was covered with marinara sauce before being put in the oven to bake at 350 for 20 minutes.


Here is dad helping her spread the marinar over each of the chicken breasts.



Dad wants every drop of marinara on the chicken.





Don't they look amazing?!?!?!


We took them out of the pan and let them rest while we made the rest of dinner.





Ashley did a fantastic job!!!!



Check out other yummy posts at Tuesday's At The Table

Swanky Chicken Rundown with Pumpkin Rice

Looks good doesn't it?  That's what I thought when I saw it in a Eat Caribbean cookbook that my friend Leslea let me borrow.  A recipe with swanky in the name has to be good. The cookbook suggested pairing the Swanky Chicken Rundown with pumpkin rice, but didn't actually provide the recipe. The recipe I found used butternut squash instead of pumpkin. Apparently that is a bit more authentic.I am not really sure about that and to be honest it was actually a bit bland. I think my fear of over spicing backfired on me.

Saveur Pumpkin Rice Recipe


For the chicken, I started with the rundown sauce. First diced scotch bonnet peppers were simmered in coconut milk until the mixture reduced by half. Make sure to wear gloves or you will end up in pain like I did!

The chicken was seared and cooked in a very hot pan.

The reduced sauce was poured over the chicken.

Yummy!!

It was pretty tasty, but a bit milder than I expected. Next time I am really going to spice up the sauce. OH and maybe serve it with a fruity drink and lots of rum? That sounds like a great idea!!

Peanut Lime Chicken

This is going to be the newest addition to my batch party selections!!! Lime, Peanut, how can you go wrong???





Tender chunks of chicken breasts or thighs were marinated in an awesome sauce of lime, peanut, soy and red pepper. The marinade was mixed in a bowl and then poured into a freezer bag.




Add the chicken to the bag, seal and freeze.




When it time to cook- thaw the bag completely and thread the chicken chunks on skewers.  Cook for 5 minutes on each side. The end result is tender zesty chicken with a slight hint of heat.  I served this over rice with a side of grilled vegetables.

Peanut Lime Chicken

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup peanut oil
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 minced garlic cloves
1 chili pepper
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken thighs or breasts, cubed

Mix all of the ingredients  together and put in a freezer bag. Seal and freeze.

Thaw completely, thread onto skewers and grill for 5-7 minutes per side.

Why Does Fat Taste So Darn Good?

A few weeks ago I decided to feed my cookbook addiction and purchased a new favorite. I was at Half Price Books and the temptation was too great. This new favorite is called " You've Got It Made" by Diane Phillips.


Every recipe that I have tried from this book has been great, but they all have a ton of  butter and heavy cream in them, so how could the not be wonderful? Why is fat so damn tasty? Of course, if it wasn't we would all be skinny with low cholesterol.

So far one of my favorites from this book has been the Tarragon Chicken Bake. It has everything you could ask for; pasta, sauteed chicken, and a tarragon cream sauce. Hello?? What could be wrong with it???

This amazing recipe is wonderful, but don't blame me when you get put on Crestor. :)

For this recipe you are going to need a ton of sliced mushrooms

And a pound of cooked egg noodles

First chicken is sprinkled with salt and pepper and browned in a skillet. Once each side is browned, remove the chicken to a plate and let it cool.




Add garlic and shallots to the pan and saute until softened. Then add the ton of mushrooms.




After the mushrooms start to color a bit sprinkle them with flour and cook for 3 minutes.





Add chicken broth, then mustard, cream,and tarragon and simmer for 5 minutes.  Let the sauce cool.





Put the noodles in a 9*13 pan, lay on the chicken and top with the sauce. There is an optional topping of buttered breadcrumbs  oil and tarragon that can be sprinkled across the top. This final touch really brings out the tarragon flavor and send this over the edge. YUM!


Check out other posts like this one at Wanderfood Wednesday and Welcome Wednesday bloghops.

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Clean Eatings Last Chance- Slow Cooked Chicken Barley Stew

This is my third recipe to try from Clean Eating and I was not holding out much  hope. The other recipes had been rather bland, but I was willing give it another try.  This time I went with Slow Cooker Chicken Barley Stew.

I started by putting garlic, cilantro, thyme, basil, dill and bay leaf in the crock pot. 

Then I added in the chicken broth

And then the barley and black eyed peas.

Then I peeled a few potatoes

And added those in with the onions, carrots, and chicken

I left for several hours and it made this nice looking pot of stew.  It smelled great at first, but as the day wore on I think i got tired of smelling it.

It looked good, but now comes the big test, the taste test. I served up a bowl for my oldest first. She is usually the easiest to please.


She liked so I pushed along and dished some up for the rest of family. The kids liked it. The husband liked it. Me, well I though it was bland again. This meal is supposed to hold up well in the freezer, so I packaged up what was left and will try it again in a couple weeks. Maybe it will be better then? I am starting to think that the clean eating diet works because no one really enjoys the food. ;P

Another one for the Freezer:Pepper Lime Chicken

Wednesday was a weird night for dinner for us. At about 5 o'clock, my kids decided that they wanted to make green eggs and ham.  We head read the book the night before and I guess it just struck them that we needed to try it out. Plus its hard to resist innocent faces standing there asking if they can make green eggs and ham, so they did.

Aren't they cute on the Cars and Princess plates?

Well after my 2 youngest had their green eggs, I had to feed the rest of us. We went with the Pepper Lime Chicken. This is another recipe like the Apple "Dump" Chicken that I am testing out for batch parties and it really was a great freezer recipe. I took it out of the freezer thawed it and decided to pan sear and then bake for 25 minutes at 350. It was so tender and the flavor was great. It really wasn't as peppery as I had expected and the taste was great. This is is a really easy dish that I am betting will be a hit!

Pepper-lime "DUMP" Chicken

1/2 Teaspoon Lime Peel

2 Cloves Garlic -- minced

1/4 cup Lime Juice

1 Teaspoon Pepper

1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil

1 Teaspoon Basil

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1 1/2 Pounds Chicken Pieces

For immediate cooking: Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Place all ingredients into a

large baking dish, turn chicken to coat. Bake until chicken juices run

clear (45-60 minutes for chicken pieces, or 20-30 minutes for chicken

breasts).

For freezing: Place all ingredients into a 1 Gallon freezer bag. Lay flat

in freezer.

To thaw and cook: Take the bag out of the freezer the night before, make

sure the baggie is completely closed. Place the Bag on a shelf furthest

from the freezer (It works best if the bag is laying flat, although this

may not be the best option with a side-by-side fridge/freezer). Preheat the

oven to 350 F. Empty the contents of the bag into a large baking dish and

bake until the juices run clear (45-60 minutes for chicken pieces, or 20-30

minutes for chicken breasts).

Delicious Leftovers - Chicken with Poblano Cream Sauce

There was a recipe that I was just dying to make that I saw in Fine Cooking magazine, so I decided that New Year's Eve was the perfect time. The recipe was this one for Crab Empanadas with Grilled Corn Salsa and did not turn out as well as I had hoped. The phyllo dough for the empanadas was a mess, but the grilled corn salsa and poblano cream sauce were A-mazing! There was a ton of this leftover so I decided to use it with chicken.

First I took boneless skinless chicken breasts and seasoned with salt, pepper and coriander. The chicken was then seared on both sides. I poured about a half a cup of leftover champagne in the pan, put on the lid and baked in the oven at 350 for 25 minutes.

It turned out to be an excellent use of the leftovers. The sauce was delicious and every bit was gobbled up.

Chicken with Poblano Cream Sauce

4 chicken breasts
salt and pepper
ground coriander
1/2 cup champagne


For the grilled corn salsa:

6 medium ears corn
3 Tbs. fresh lime juice (from 1 medium lime)
2 Tbs. sunflower or vegetable oil
2 Tbs. thinly sliced chives
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the poblano cream sauce:
3 medium poblano peppers
1 cup heavy cream
1 Tbs. sunflower or vegetable oil
1/2 cup small-diced white onion
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt

Chicken Stuffed with whatever- because yummy food inside yummy food is good.

Christmas Eve was a little different for us this year. Usually we have a house full of out of town family for dinner and the menu is planned out weeks in advance. This year it was just my family of five and found myself not even thinking about dinner until 4 o'clock that afternoon.

After scrounging around in the fridge, I managed to come up with some ingredients that I thought would be excellent together:

Sun dried tomato and mozzarella Laughing Cow spreadable cheese
A partial wedge of Smoked Gouda
a handful of baby spinach leaves
a tube of crescent rolls
3 chicken breasts

First, I cut a pocket in the chicken and spread the Laughing Cow cheese.

Then I added several slices of the Smoked Gouda to the pocket and seasoned the outside with freshly ground salt and pepper.

I seared the chicken in a hot pan.

This is when I realized that I had forgotten the spinach so I quickly stuffed it in.

After the chicken breasts were browned on each side, I rolled them in a rectangle of the crescent roll dough and baked them for 25 minutes.

The finished product looked good, tasted great and everyone loved it!

This was really simple and used up several ingredients from my fridge. I would definitely have to say that stuffing yummy food inside other yummy food is always good, especially when you wrap it in dough. next time, I think I need to figure out how to add bacon!

Chicken Breast- صدور الدجاج