Oven Roasted Split Chicken with Vegetables

All kinds of chicken cuts were on sale at our local grocery store last week. I managed to pick up 6 pieces of split chicken (3 whole chicken in total) for less than $5!!! Mind you, they were not tiny. Those are regular sized (I would even dare say that they rather large) chickens. I wanted to make something simple and quick for dinner, so I just roasted one chicken (2 pieces of split) with some vegetables. It turned out to be really good. Here's the recipe.

Start off by cleaning the chicken under cool water and pat it dry with a some kitchen towels. Then, spray on some cooking oil onto the chicken and rub on your favorite chicken marinade. No prize for guessing what I used. Yes, of course I used Chef Paul Prudhomme's Magic Poultry Marinade :P Once you have seasoned the chicken on both sides, place it onto a deep baking dish. You can see from the picture that I placed the chicken on a rack that I set up inside the baking dish. This is to allow all the fat to drain to the bottom of the pan, so that the chicken doesn't sit in fat, while cooking. If you do not have a rack, you can just place it inside a deep baking dish. It might be a little bit more greasy but it still works.
Set the chicken aside. Now it's time to work on the vegetables. Peel and cut up one large sweet potato into small chunks. Depending on the size of your sweet potato, you might need two.
Then, place it into a big bowl together with some red potatoes (also cut into small chunks) and some fresh mushrooms (half them if they are too big). You can also add in some carrot if you like.
Next, pour in some balsamic vinaigrette followed by some lemon juice. Mix it all in with all the vegetables. You do not need a lot, just enough to coat the vegetables.
Once you have mixed the dressing with the vegetables, sprinkle in some dried thyme and rosemary followed by some freshly cracked black pepper. Give the vegetables another good stir and it's done.
Arrange the vegetables around the sides of the chicken. Then pop it into a preheated 400F oven for about 40 minutes.
After about 40 minutes, take out the chicken from the oven. Baste it with some melted butter. This will help to brown the chicken nicely as well as help make the skin crispy. Return the chicken into the oven for another 20 minutes or so and it should be done! Allow the chicken to rest for about 5-10 minutes before serving. I just love this recipe. It's so easy to make! Just prepare everything in one dish and pop it all into the oven. You should try it out, it's yummy!

Baked Wild Salmon with Plum Tomatoes

Fresh wild salmon fillets were on sale at our local grocery store few of weeks ago, so we decided to buy a couple of lbs. The fillets were really fresh and nice, not to mention, huge too. One fillet could be made into three portions. I searched the net for some salmon recipes and found this lovely recipe from Food Network's Giada De Laurentiis's website. I just love Giada's Italian recipes. They are always so simple to make, yet so yummy to eat. Here's how you make Baked Salmon with Plum Tomatoes, Giada style. Check it out.
Start off by flipping the salmon fillet over on it's back. Then, drizzle some olive oil on the salmon fillet. Next, crack on some black pepper followed by some sea salt. Giada cut her salmon fillets to individual serving sizes but I decided to bake my whole.
Then, slowly lift the salmon fillet and place it on some aluminium foil, marinated side down. You can pre spray the aluminium foil with some non stick cooking oil if you like. This will help prevent the salmon from sticking to the foil when it's in the oven. Once you have done that, set the salmon aside.

Now it's time to prep the plum tomatoes. Clean a few plum tomatoes under cool running water. Using a sharp knife, cut the plum tomatoes into small bite sized chunks.

Once you have chopped up all the tomatoes, place them in a small bowl. Marinate the tomatoes with some freshly cracked black pepper, dried oregano, dried thyme and a tiny bit of sea salt. If you have fresh herbs, you could use fresh herbs too. Then, add in about two tablespoons of lemon juice and mix everything together. Your plum tomatoes topping is done! Wasn't that easy?

Now, gently scoop the tomatoes and place them on top of the salmon fillet. This can be a little bit tricky, cos the tomatoes tend to slide down from the salmon. It just requires a little balancing act :P Make sure that you also pour whatever that's left of the lemon juice from the bowl onto the salmon.

Next, seal the aluminium foil tightly on all three edges. It should look like a little pouch once you are done. Remember to poke some holes at the top before popping it into the oven. This is to allow the steam to escape while cooking. Then, pop it into a 400F preheated oven for about 25 - 30 minutes (until the salmon is cooked through).

There you go. It's done! Doesn't it look yummy? Not only does it look yummy, it taste really awesome too. Just be careful when you peel open the foil. The sudden gush of steam might scald you if you are not careful. This portion is enough for 3-4 servings. After allowing it to 'rest' for a few minutes, gently cut the salmon into individual portions and serve. I served this up with a side of stir fried spinach with garlic and some brown rice. Yummy yummy stuff!

Chicken & Brown Rice Pilaf

I found this recipe behind a box of Minute Instant Whole Grain Brown Rice and decided to try it out. It looked simple enough and I was pretty happy with the outcome. Not only was it really simple and fast to make, it turned out to be really yummy too. So, I figured that I should share this recipe with all of you.
Start off by cutting up about 1 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breast into large cubes. I marinated them with some Chef Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic Seasoning (boy, I love this stuff!) and allowed it to sit in the fridge for a couple of hours. Of course you could marinade the chicken breast with pretty much any marinade that you like. Even some basic salt and pepper will do. Once your chicken is fully marinated, heat some oil in a large skillet. Then, add your chicken breast and allow it to cook for about 4 mins on each side (or until cooked through). Remove chicken breast pieces from the skillet and set aside.
Using the same skillet, add in 1 can (10.5 oz) of low fat chicken broth and 1/2 cup of water. Mix it together and bring it to a rapid boil.

Then, add in about 2 cups of instant brown rice followed by 1 cup of diced green and red peppers as well as 1 cup of diced onions.

Next, add in about 2 cups of fresh mushrooms that has been cut into cubes. Mix everything together and allow it to cook for a bit.

After allowing it to cook for a few minutes, add in the cooked chicken breast that we browned a little earlier. Cover the skillet and allow it to cook for another 5 minutes or so.

After 5 minutes, stir everything together and allow it to sit for an additional 5 minutes. There you go! A nice large skillet filled with yummy chicken and brown rice pilaf. It's just so easy and quick to make. The best part is, everything is cooked in ONE pan, so I only have to worry about washing up one pan after our meal. How nice is that? :D

Pan Fried Balsamic Chicken Breast

Since I had the Balsamic Chicken Breast at Farm 2 Bistro last month, I have been searching for a good Balsamic Chicken Breast recipe. At last, I think I found it! The original recipe is actually for oven roasted whole chicken but I changed it up a little and it worked out great! I was really happy with how it turned out. I'm proud to say that this recipe is definitely a keeper.
First things first. We need to make the marinade. It's a pretty simple marinade actually. Start off by adding 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to 1/4 cups of Balsamic Vinaigrette. Then, add in 2 tablespoons of mustard followed by 2 chopped up cloves of garlic. Add in some freshly cracked black pepper and mix everything up. Voila! The marinade is done.
Next, chop up about 1 and a half lbs of chicken breast into small pieces.

Place the chicken pieces into a zip loc bag and pour in the marinade. Allow it to marinade for at least 4 hours. It is best to let it sit in the fridge and marinade overnight. I allowed my chicken breast to marinade over 24 hours. The bag on the left is the before and the one on the right is after 24 hours. You can definitely see the difference.

Spray on some non stick cooking oil into a frying pan. Pour in the chicken breast from the zip loc bag. Put it on high until the starts to get bubbly. Then, turn it on simmer and allow it to cook and for the sauce to reduce.

After about 20 minutes on simmer, your Balsamic Chicken Breast is ready to be served. Just make sure that the chicken is cooked by checking to see if the juices run clear. Let me tell you something. The smell of this dish while cooking is just amazing. Kevin could even smell it from the living room. So so so good! It's really simple to make but super yummy to eat! I served it up with some of the Caprese Salad that I made earlier on.

Simple Chicken Cordon Bleu

I tried making a simplified version of the Chicken Cordon Bleu yesterday for dinner and it turned great! Chicken Cordon Bleu is basically chicken breast, rolled up together with ham & cheese, and then fried. I decided not to fry the chicken but baked it instead (I usually prefer to bake instead of fry). It turned out pretty good too. It's really simple. Here's how you make it.

First, you would need to butterfly some skinless chicken breast. Then, sprinkle on some salt and black pepper, just a little pinch.

Next, lay a piece of ham on one side of the chicken. If the ham doesn't fit that well, you can just cut it to shape.

Then, sprinkle on some cheese. The original recipe calls for swiss cheese but I used some shredded mozzarella instead. It's equally as good.

Cover the cheese with another piece of ham.

There are two ways to go about the next step. You can either just cover the chicken breast over the ham or you can roll it up. I would suggest rolling it up if you are planning to fry the chicken but if you are baking it, just flip over the side that doesn't have any filling and cover.

Next, dip the chicken breast in some egg. This is to make sure the breadcrumbs stick to the chicken.

Stuff in whatever ham that is sticking out from the chicken breast and coat the whole chicken breast evenly with seasoned breadcrumbs. You can use Italian breadcrumbs or like me, Shake n Bake :D

Once you have coated the chicken breast, place it in a greased baking pan.

Use some toothpicks to hold down the chicken, so that it doesn't open up during cooking. Then, pop it in a 425F oven for about 35 minutes. Once that is done, just remove it from the oven and it's ready to be served! I served the chicken breast up with some steamed broccoli and cheesy rice. Very simple to make and taste mmm mmm mmmm good! :D

Grilled Ham & Cheese Wrap

Since I'm the only person eating lunch at home, I would not usually make anything elaborate. My lunch would either be leftovers from yesterdays dinner or something simple and easy to make, like a sandwich, instant noodles or a wrap. Today, I made one of my all time favorites, Grilled Ham & Cheese Wrap. Let me share this simple recipe with you.

First, spread some Miracle Whip on a tortilla. Today, I used a regular tortilla but sometimes I would change it up by using Wheat, Spinach or other types of tortilla.

Then, place a few slices of cheese on top of the Miracle Whip. I used Provolone but you can basically use any type of cheese that melts well (Swiss, Mozzarella...ect).

Next, place a few slices of deli meat on the cheese. I used Virginia Ham but again, it's totally up to you. You can use roast beef, corned beef, turkey, roast chicken, pepperoni...it's entirely up to you.

Place a couple more slices of cheese on top of the deli meat.

Now it's time to roll up the tortilla. All you need to do is roll it up half way, tuck in the side and continue rolling. Then, place it on a George Foreman grill that has already been heated.

Allow it to grill for a couple of minutes (until you can see the grill lines).

Once it's nice and grilled, remove it from the grill and cut it into half.

There you go! A yummy lunch all ready in less than 15 minutes! You can serve it up with some chips, a side salad or even a fruit salad. Today, I had my Grilled Ham & Cheese Wrap with a large handful of Lays Original Potato Chips and a tall glass of Coke. Mmmm mmmm mmmm =)