Recipe of the Week: Garlic Lime Seasoning for Chicken & Pork

I picked up on this wonderful dish through a post at Dave’s Garden, when a Texas member shared her recipe for Garlic Lime Chicken. It is absolutely fabulous as-is, and I’ve found it also translates to boneless pork cutlets (tenderloin medallions cook quickly and work great.)


I ventured out one step further with the seasonings, and used them as a rub for a pork loin, which I roasted in my beloved Lodge dutch oven, and then used the drippings to create a reduction sauce similar to the original recipe. In a word: Yummy. You could probably use it as a rub on a roasted chicken as well – it’s a terrific and easy blend of spices to whip up.

Marylyn’s Garlic Lime Chicken 

Ingredients
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder (I use a generous dollop of fresh minced garlic instead)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon thyme

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chicken broth
4 tablespoons lime juice

Directions:
In a bowl, mix together the first seven ingredients.  Sprinkle mixture on both sides of chicken breasts (you may want to pound them to a 1/2-inch thickness first.)

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat; add butter and olive oil, when butter has melted and begins to froth, add chicken breasts, leaving room to move them around the pan (you may have to cook them in batches, depending on the size of the pan and the breasts.)  Saute until golden brown (about five minutes), turn and saute another 5 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in the thickest part.

Remove chicken to a plate and keep warm.  Add chicken broth and lime juice to pan, scraping up the brown bits off the bottom into the sauce.  Keep stirring/whisking until sauce has reduced slightly.  Add chicken back to pan to thoroughly coat, then serve.  It’s excellent with a rice pilaf or saffron rice, as well as with mashed potatoes.

For the loin roast, I used sea salt (cut the salt in half if you do!) and rubbed the dry ingredients over the washed-and-patted-dry roast in the pan.  Cover and bake at 350 until it reaches an internal temperature of 150; then remove the roast and allow it to stand for a few minutes before slicing. In the meantime, add a tablespoon of butter plus the chicken broth and lime juice to deglaze the pot, simmer until reduced.  Pour the reduced sauce over the loin slices just before serving.

Happy eating!

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Clean Desk Mission: Day 21

I’m probably going to jinx myself here (it is Friday the 13th after all), but the clean desk thing seems to be getting easier over time.  I discovered one of my biggest sources of desk-clogging detritus is the mail.  So if I sort through it immediately and ruthlessly, and deal with the one or two pieces that are keepers, it’s pretty easy.  (Yeah, I know, that’s no big revelation; organization experts have been saying that for years.  Sometimes you gotta discover things for yourself.)

What else takes over and clogs my desk?

UFOs.

That’s right. UFOs.  Unidentified Found Objects.  You know, little bits and pieces of things that no one knows where they came from, where they go, what they belong to, or what to do with them.

What do you do with those things?  Give them to mom.  She’ll know.  She knows everything. She knows where the extra jar of mayonnaise is (pantry, third shelf, to the left.)  She knows if your blue tshirt got washed this week.  (Yes; it’s folded and stacked with your shorts.)  And she knows what every particle in this house IS and what it belongs to.

I submit to you a piece of evidence.  This little doohickey has been lying on my desk for a week now.  I have no idea what it is, besides the obvious – it’s a plastic button from something. We own nothing this shade of green; at least nothing that I am aware of.  It appeared on my desk one day; unclaimed, here it sets. No one knows what it is, where it came from, or who put it here.

I would dust for fingerprints, but I’ve handled it, so the crime scene has been contaminated.  It’s safe as long as it remains solitary, but if it is joined by any other trinket, they will begin to multiply, and then overnight my desk will have a half-dozen baby doodads scattered around.  But as sure as I throw it away, someone will ask me if I’ve seen a little green plastic button.

Last night we had Chicken Cordon Bleu. I had chicken thighs on the menu, but a) I could not find the recipe I planned to use and b) I had lots of breasts and no thighs on hand.  Of course I test drove some of my new pans.  I was a little nervous about the chicken, but I heated and oiled the saute pan just like the cooking video said…and it worked – the chicken did not stick and the brown bits came up as soon as I hit them with chicken stock.  Having a 3-quart saucepan to boil pasta is simply marvelous.  I have no idea how I got by without it for so many years.

I would have to say the chicken recipe fell a little short of my expectations:  the sauce was too thick and the chicken got dried out after the recommended 25 minutes in the oven.  Live and learn:  next time we’ll make more sauce (using a creamier, melt-ier cheese in the sauce, saving the Gruyere to lay on top of the ham) and stick the whole thing under the broiler just long enough to brown and bubble the sauce and cheese.

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Recipe of the Week: Chicken Teriyaki

Back in Oklahoma, a neighbor fixed something she called “teriyaki chicken” and invited us over for dinner.  I was instantly hooked on the flavor.  Sure, you can buy a bottle of pre-made teriyaki, but making your own is easy, and you can control the ingredients (and sodium content!) and the ratio of sweet to tangy. It is one of my children’s most-requested foods; they call it “Terry’s chicken.”

According to some sources, “yaki” (Japanese) refers to the method of cooking  – grilling or broiling – while “teri” refers to the glaze.  However, it is not an authentic Japanese dish, but most likely developed as Japanese immigrants settled in Hawaii.  My recipe is an adaptation of Joy of Cooking’s marinade.

Chicken Teriyaki

Ingredients
1 cup soy (lite or regular)
1/2 cup oil
2-3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 teaspoons diced garlic (or 3 cloves, minced)
1 teaspoon dried ginger or 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger root
1/2 teaspoon dried onion powder or 1/4 cup fresh onion, diced small
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
6-8 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Directions:
Rinse and pat dry breasts and place in large zip-lock bag or glass pan deep enough to hold them and the marinade.

Whisk the marinade ingredients together.  You can heat on the stove or in the microwave to melt the brown sugar, but I rarely take that added step.  Pour marinade over breasts and turn to coat.  Allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes, or several hours or overnight.  The longer it marinates, the more intense the flavor, but even just 30 minutes of marinating on the kitchen counter while the grill heats up will still yield good results if you’re pressed for time.

Remove from marinade and grill over medium-high heat.  For large, thick chicken breasts, I grill for approximately 15 minutes, turning after 5 minutes, again at the 10 minute mark, then at least once or twice more, just until juices run clear.  (I’m not a fan of overcooked chicken, so I tend to pull mine off the grill sooner than later.)  The cooked breasts can be sliced and served over a garden salad for a light dinner or lunch.

Note:  You can also use this marinade on chicken thighs, a whole cut-up chicken, or steaks (it’s a great way to tenderize and season some less-than-perfect cuts of meat.)  I don’t recommend freezing the uncooked meat in the marinade – I tried it once and the results were too salty.

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Divine divan?

I haven’t had Chicken Divan in years. In fact, the first time I had it was probably the first, last and only time. My brief introduction to this dish is due to some good friends from our days in Tulsa who moved away about the same time we did. As I search for different recipes to put on my weekly menu, for some reason Nancy’s chicken divan came to mind, along with a happy memory of her great hostess skills.

So we’re giving it a shot today. Being a part-time etymology geek, it also made me wonder why it was thusly named, and so I went hunting for clues. Apparently the dish got its name from a New York City restaurant of the mid-1950s; the Divan Parisien Restaurant. (And it’s pronounced dee-VAHN, in case anyone else was wondering.) The Paula Deen version is the “easy” version, relying on a cream soup base, but other versions are truer to its French aspirations, and use a white sauce with flour, butter, chicken broth, milk and sherry, with heavy cream whipped and gently folded in just before pouring over the chicken and broccoli. (Sounds…well….divine, doesn’t it?)

In other news, my new square Fiesta dinner and salad plates are on their way. I hope they arrive in time to use them on Friday night, when I’m hosting a little post-birthday soiree for my husband and his sister, whose birthdays are one year and two days apart. (Still don’t know how their mama did it, but my hat is off to her. Maybe the desserts should include HER favorite birthday cake, too?)

Today our 3rd graders finished our six-month study of the book of Acts, which we celebrated with milk, juice and Krispy Kreme donuts, then an Olympic-style rubber duck “marathon” where the kids teamed up to answer Acts trivia questions in order to move their ducks ahead. Every year, I am amazed and humbled by how much these kids learn and remember from week to week.

Since our “wrap party” coincided with the closing of the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, I gave each of them an Olympic-style medal, which they were proudly sporting during worship. (Another reason I love, love, LOVE teaching 3rd graders: the blissful lack of jaded cynicism that will afflict them soon enough. Plus, they’re still shorter than me.) I owe a big debt of thanks to my two wonderful co-teachers, and so their families will be coming over for a meal in a couple weeks. Hopefully by then our weather will be showing signs of spring, because this extra-long winter is starting to wear on us all.

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Is it paste? (Or is it sourdough starter?)

Now I know why some kids eat paste. Flour + water + time = fermenting sourdough starter. AKA paste. Good news: it is bubbling along much better since I got it thicker and “feeding” it a couple times a day instead of just once a day.

Last night we tried a chicken cordon bleu casserole. I know, I know…the words “Cordon Bleu” and “casserole” never belong in the same sentence, let alone the same recipe.

But I don’t have a pounding mallet and I didn’t have any easy way to flatten the breasts for the classic dish, so I thought I’d give a casserole version a shot.

The idea has potential, but needs some serious modifications: the breasts may be better served by sauteeing for a few minutes to reduce the cooking time and wateriness; bread crumbs (not stuffing mix – it really overpowered the flavors); and a decent white sauce (sans cream-of-anything soup.) And a bit of Dijon mustard in the sauce. We’re going to try it again one of these days with those changes and see what happens. I also fixed Spanish green beans. The beans were okay, but it’s probably better with more tender snap beans, not Italian-style cut beans, and ideally made with fresh beans and tomatoes, instead of frozen and canned respectively. Read: it was not the best meal I ever fixed. Live and learn.

Next week’s menu will have even more chicken dishes – chicken marsala and the old standby hot chicken salad for a make-ahead company’s coming dish for next Sunday night.

Alas, my dreams of bagging square Fiesta plates at a deep discount were dashed when I discovered Belk only carries the 3-piece place settings, not open stock. I don’t need the mugs or bowls (cute as they may be) and I *do* need salad or lunch-size plates. The hunt continues…

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