Margherita Chicken Salad 25 September 2009
Posted by heidikins in Appetizer, Poultry, Quick and Easy Meals, Side Dish.1 comment so far
The invention of this dish goes back to my craving for Margherita pizza and my absolute lack of desire to make the dough. That being said, I feel like this is one dish I will be whipping up for a quick dinner over and over again, it was delicious! This recipe is enough to use as a main dish for a quick dinner, although it would be a lovely side-dish for any Italian or garden meal.
Sweet Potato Mishmash with Balsamic Glaze 17 July 2009
Posted by heidikins in Poultry, Quick and Easy Meals, Side Dish.add a comment
I’m not quite sure where I initially found this recipe, I think it came from a magazine. Very vague, I realize. I had it written on a piece of lined paper floating around my “Recipes To Try” pile, and I wish I had tried this sooner. I don’t typically love sweet potatoes, but I love balsamic vinegar and any dish with a healthy dose of balsamic is good enough for me. The vinegar cuts the sweetness of the potatoes a bit, which I liked. The red onion tones down the balsamic a bit, which is also nice. The original recipe called for smoked tofu, but I’m not really a tofu-kind of girl, so I used chicken instead. I also added quite a bit more spice than the original recipe, including a bit of Emeril’s Essence–which is one of my favorite seasonings and will make just about anything taste better.
Rosemary Chicken and Breadsticks 9 January 2009
Posted by heidikins in Bread & Rolls, Pasta, Poultry.1 comment so far
Rosemary Chicken, one of my favorite dishes of all time. This was my first time creating it on my own, and I had quite a few changes to the original recipe. Plus, I have been having cravings for breadsticks for ages. Mmmmmmm, so delicious.
I think I could have doubled the sauce and added some kind of tangy cheese to better the sauce…definitely something to tinker with.
Also, the breadsticks didn’t really rise as well as I thought they would and were a bit chewy, but I think that might have something to do with the yeast that had been sitting in the freezer for a year, and the coldness of my house. Like always, the recipe is after the break.
Chicken Tortilla Soup 16 November 2008
Posted by heidikins in Favorites, Mexican, Poultry, Quick and Easy Meals, Soup.add a comment
The cafe on the ground floor of my work building serves Chicken Tortilla soup every Thursday. It is very saucy, has an overabundance of taco seasoning (which I don’t particularly like) and absolutely no chicken. The last few weeks I’ve been craving some real tortilla soup, with chicken and crunchy strips and a spoonful of sour cream. I googled a few different recipes, but none particularly struck my fancy. I decided to play with a taco soup recipe that I knew I loved and see what happened.
This is perhaps the tastiest chicken soup I have ever had, ohmygoodness, it was heaven! And incredibly easy! With the run to the grocery store, the chopping and cooking and making it up as I went along, this meal was ready in under an hour.
Garlic-Lime Chicken with Cafe Rio’s Cilantro Rice 19 September 2008
Posted by heidikins in Poultry, Side Dish.add a comment
(This post originally published here as part of the Whip It Up challenge)
You know you are a real Utahan when you crave Cafe Rio fortnightly and will stop at (nearly) nothing to fulfill your craving. Out-of-staters, Cafe Rio is perhaps the best Nouveau Mexican restaurant in the history of Americanized Mexican food. Sort of along the lines of Chipotle, but Cafe Rio burritos are FAR superior and they also have these a-MAY-zing salads that I–and a lot of other “natives”–fantasize about quite regularly. I will be making a few other Cafe Rio recipes (Pork Barbacoa, Creamy Tomatillo-Ranch Dressing) over the next week or two, but I thought I’d start out on the easy-side with their Cilantro Rice. And because I cannot subsist on rice alone, I dug up a garlic-lime-cilantro vinaigrette to slather over a little grilled chicken.
This recipe makes about 6 cups of absolutely delectable, flavorful rice that would go with just about any grilled, Mexi-dish. If you have Real Kitchen Skillz–which I do not–I’m sure you can cut this down to a more manageable batch size. However, as far as I’m concerned, extra rice will motivate me to set aside 18 hours of crock-pot time for the famed Pork Barbacoa, which will be photographed and shared, I promise. The garlic-lime vinaigrette on the chicken is a cinch to make and gives the chicken a tangy hint of citrus combined with the oniony flavors of the cilantro. It takes 3 minutes to put together and can keep in the fridge for a couple of days. I brushed my chicken with a little olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper and a bit of cumin. All-in-all, this Whip It Up experiment is perhaps the best full-meal I’ve cooked in weeks.
The recipies will be after the break; here’s the nitty gritties:
- Total Prep-Time: About 10 minutes, although a food processor would cut down your chopping time significantly. The rice takes about 30 minutes to cook, which is plenty of time to get your Grill on for the chicken, or white fish, if that’s what you prefer.
- Was the recipe easy to follow: Yes. Both require a bit of chopping and then dump everything together to combine.
- Are the ingredients easy to find: Yes. I did need to make a special trip to the grocery store for cilantro, but I had everything else in my fridge.
- Do you need special equipment: No, but again, a food processor would make things easier.
- Does the end result taste delicious: Yes, it was delish! And I will enjoy it for lunch the rest of the week. (6 cups of cooked rice will go a very long way.)
- Would I make it again: Absolutely.
