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Poultry

Entree/ Poultry

Crawfish Stuffed Chicken Thighs with Wild Rice

Crawfish and wild rice stuffed chicken thigh.

When visiting Missouri last winter my nephew, Todd, made these stuffed chicken thighs full of wild and long grain rice and crawfish. And after smoking on his Big Green Egg (and he has a really big one) smothered them with a creamy crawfish sauce.

Chicken thighs are my favorite cut of chicken. I prefer to buy it on the bone because there’s so much more flavor when they are cooked. This particular time though, I bought boneless and pounded out a little to make them large enough to hold all the filling I wanted to fill them with.

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Entree/ Poultry

Chicken Tetrazzini

Chicken Tetrazzini, Mema’s way.

Mema was my husband’s mother (and Mema to grandkids and great grandkids) and all of us always had our favorite things we wanted her to make for us for holidays/birthdays/special occasions.

As a kid, my husband would beg for his “own” date nut roll when his mom was making them to give to friends at Christmas. My kids always liked her chex mix and there were always cans of the mix ready when we went to visit.

I remember going to GA’s house for dinner one night when we were dating back in high school and his mother had made chicken chow mein and he kept saying you are really going to like this and I did and I still make it years later.

Other favorites were her pimento cheese, pecan rolls, white beans and cornbread. Everyone had their favorites and she would gladly make them for their special day. And, at Thanksgiving she always wanted the same thing – cranberry relish, cornbread dressing (of course cornbread), giblet gravy (who doesn’t like giblet gravy) and sweet potato casserole. My family now is divided on whether to put marshmallows on top of the sweet potatoes. I’m sure Mema used the marshmallows.

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Entree/ Poultry

Forbidden Bowl

Not forbidden anymore!

A few weeks ago I was in Austin staying with my daughter and we had lunch (and shopped) one day during her lunch break. There’s nothing more fun than lunching with a daughter (or son) and shopping.

We had lunch at the Flower Child Restaurant which is in the Domaine in Austin. They have quite a few locations in AZ, CA, GA, MD, NV, TX, and CO; so if there is one in your area you have to try this dish; you will love it.

FC makes everything from scratch and they cover most diets like paleo, vegetarian, vegan and can even do sugar-free. The Forbidden Rice bowl is one of the favorites on their menu and was a favorite of mine from the first bite. So after picking through the bowl and looking at the menu description I decided to make my own version. How hard could that be; all I had to do was come up with the red chili hoisin sauce which I managed pretty easy.

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Entree/ Poultry

Chicken Fried Rice with Vegetables

An easy dish to make with your leftovers.

Recently when our son Paul and his family were visiting we went to our favorite sushi restaurant and had dinner at the hibachi tables. Milo and Donovan (2 of our 6 grandsons) had never had rice thrown at their faces, watched a volcano of onion rings shoot flames out the top or see the chef twirl knives around.

It was a fun night and had me wanting to put fried rice on my menu for the week.

I guess my introduction into Chinese food would be eating chicken chow mein at my husbands house way back in our high school days. My mother never made anything Asian I can think of while we were growing up but she did love my mother-in-law’s chow mein. My sister and I both use to make a fried rice with crumbled bacon in it and it was/is quite good. This version has some vegetables and chicken and a few mushrooms thrown into the mix.

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Entree/ Poultry

Orange Chicken with Veggies

Beautiful chicken dish.

I love cooking and eating Asian foods and one of my New Year’s resolutions was to cook it more often.

My favorite dinner party would be to make my homemade egg rolls, maybe some type of dumping with dipping sauces for an appetizer and then a small bowl of my Egg Flower Soup, followed by some Teriyaki Flank Steak, Fried Rice (or lo mein) and a Bitter Greens Salad with Yuzu Dressing Oh, and of course to go with the main dish, my Shrimp Foo Yung.

I’ve never tried any Asian desserts I have liked that much. Almond cookies or ok but that’s not dessert. Maybe my Bananas in Creme Fraiche rolled in Coconut on top of some raspberry puree would make a tasty dessert and my Nutella Cherry Dumplings along side the banana rolls for a little added crunch.

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Entree/ Pork/ Poultry

Egg Roll in a Bowl

A lot less work than making egg rolls.

Still watching those hurricane (Harvey) rains come in and it’s still hot here in Texas, of course, and not that I look for easier things to make, but this is a super quick dish to throw together once you get everything chopped and if you have a mandolin it will save you so much time.

My twin sister and I have been making egg rolls for years. We make bunches of them and freeze so when we are ready to make some good Asian food, the egg rolls are awaiting in the freezer.

I saw a recipe on Pinterest for Crack Slaw or Egg roll in a Bowl and decided to make my own version similar to how we make our Best Egg Rolls. I can’t believe how much easier this is than the hours I have spent making egg rolls. Of course, there is nothing to put in the freezer after this meal; maybe just enough for leftovers the next day.

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Entree/ Poultry

Sichuan Red Chili Chicken

Some like it HOT!

Back in May we were in Austin to babysit the new grandson, Frankie and his brother, Thomas, while his parents went to a Derby party one night and a wedding the next night. It easy taking care of a two month old because he couldn’t crawl and get into stuff or get up and run all over the house with Gran tailing him to make sure he didn’t get hurt. All Frankie did was lay there and look cute while his big brother did all the other stuff.

One night we ordered Chinese and our SIL told us about one of his favorites from this restaurant which was fried chicken (a lot smaller than I made mine), breaded, fried and then covered with these fried hot pepper pieces. He warned us that it was almost 50/50 ratio of chicken vs hot peppers. The pepper wasn’t crushed red pepper but the whole dried peppers you buy in the produce section and then broken up into small chunks. At first we thought we were just eating chicken skin because the pieces were so tiny but soon realized that it was indeed chicken pieces with skin cut into tiny pieces maybe 1/2″ thin pieces and fried until crisp and then heaped high with hot peppers.

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Entree/ Poultry

Lemon Chicken with Red Pepper

Another chicken recipe!

How many more recipes can there possibly be for chicken? I would guess there are more ways to cook chicken than any other protein that we all eat.

We love lemon and chicken and to put these both together in a recipe inspired by Aspicyperspective.com made a delicious recipe after I tweaked it some. I wasn’t interested in doing her Paleo version so I used regular soy sauce and regular flour (although I did try some with the coconut flour). I also looked at some comments and decided to add in some five spice powder, and Szechuan peppercorns. I wanted the recipe to have more Asian flavors and those spices did the trick.

I also thought the chicken could use a little more color and I just happened to have a red bell pepper and after cutting it into slivers, gave it a quick fry after finishing up the chicken and to top with some crushed red pepper made this a delicious meal.

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Entree/ Poultry

Crispy Chicken Cutlets with Avocado

Let’s hear it for WHITE BREAD!

Recently I had to go on a low-fiber diet for two weeks. Ok, so all I had to do was think of all the things you should not eat like white bread, and white rice was at the top of my list of things that I can happily eat and not feel guilty about.

Peanut butter sandwich (yes) with white bread, bologna sandwich can’t be beat on white bread. How I love white rice; yes, we normally eat brown rice but I like the texture of white rice the best. I’ve got to hurry so I can squeeze in some good cucumber sandwiches on soft white bread before the clock runs out and we return to our somewhat healthy way of eating. The Panko crumbs and cornflakes in this recipe barely have any fiber in them so this was the perfect recipe to fill in one of my 14 days of low-fiber meals.

This was one of Southern Livings recipes in their April magazine I jazzed it up with some sliced avocado and also added some Italian seasoning to the crumb mixture. I think it was delicious and my husband did too; he thought it needed more cheese in the sauce, but you can decide for yourself if you want to add more.

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Appetizers/ Entree/ Poultry

Crispy Buffalo Wings with Two Sauces

Who doesn’t love chicken wings?

I love, love, love chicken wings. Put a bone in it and I like it. Pork chop bones; great to try and get all the meat off it, chicken necks (yes, fried chicken necks; that’s the best part of the chicken.), and those crispy little wings. My favorite part of the wing is actually the flat part and not the little drummy part.

Seems like years ago when people made buffalo wings they put a flour coating on them kind of like KFC and then I started seeing “naked” wings advertised. I don’t like the wings tossed with the sauce; too messy and sticky to eat. So, when we go to our favorite place, I ask for extra crispy wings with sauce on the side. One reason I ask for extra crispy besides that is the way I like them is that you are getting fresher wings and not something that’s been sitting back in the kitchen soaking up all that hot sauce.

I have a confession and this is hard to admit. I love celery with either blue cheese or ranch dressing but when I order it at our wing place, they give you a container of dressing and like 5 short pieces of celery. I eat as much celery with my wings as I do the wings. So now when I know we are going there, I take a bag of celery sticks (a lot), I order one dressing/celery and when I finish their celery, I take out my own and put on the plate. I know, that is pretty cheap of me but I’m not spending six bucks to get as much celery as I want. Ok, I guess I am cheap.

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Entree/ Poultry

Chicken Marbella

You will be smacking your lips by the time you get this in the refrigerator.

So, what are you feeding your family and friends during the holidays this year? Back when we were kids it seemed like we would have turkey and dressing for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, maybe throw in some ham and probably had the save side dishes. Over the years of being married (now 47) we started doing something beef — either prime rib, beef tenderloin and this year we are doing steak and I have ordered a “M” branding iron that we will use to brand each steak. I’m calling this our cowboy Christmas. We are renting a house over in Wimberly, TX and all three kids and spouses and 5 3/4 grandsons are all coming.

I’m trying to come up with some old fashioned games and plenty of Christmas crafts the kids can make for table decorations or place cards. Cowboy acrylic hat to use for chips and dip or ice buckets, bandanas for napkins and anything else I can come up to have a Texas themed “cowboy” Christmas. Our house (Wimberly) has a huge outdoor kitchen with even a pizza oven and a porch so long with rocking chairs to over look the hills of Wimberly.

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Entree/ Poultry

Honey Chicken Roman Style (Poulet Apicius)

Brings back memories of Arles.

“A surprising and unusual chicken dish that harks back to the flavors of the Romans. Honey, spices and fish sauce. This is a dish inspired by the writings of Apicius”–

That’s the way this dish was described to us by our cooking instructor in Arles, France. It’s been four years since we were in France and I recently found this recipe while doing a cleanout of our kitchen before having everything painted inside and out. While visiting France (especially Provence) we wanted to take a cooking class and we came across this class in Arles. The kitchen looked at least 200 years old and it was such a fun class and much more interesting that some of the ones I’ve taken in kitchens all decked out with Viking equipment and sterile surroundings. Our instructor couldn’t speak English and his assistant translated everything we were to do while shopping at the street market and preparing the lunch/dinner.

I was reading up on Roman food saw where the Romans loved fish sauce that they made and that they used a lot of seasoning in their foods because a lot of the time the food would have turned rancid from improper storage and to keep their guest from tasting this, covered it up with lots of different spices. They also had no forks and ate either with their fingers or using spoons and knives. So, if you feel the urge, just pick the chicken up with your fingers and enjoy.

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