Chicken Breasts w/ Penne & Garlic & Herb Tomato Sauce

Happy weekend everyone!

We'll be headed to Lexington, KY this evening to take part in a Kentucky Food Blogger event hosted by Kate from Simply Nutritious by Kate.  She just moved in to an awesome studio kitchen where she teaches a variety of health-focused classes.  I'm definitely excited to check it out and see what she's whipped up for us!

Anyway, this is one of those simple and delicious dinners.  You can choose to get canned diced tomatoes if you'd like, but if you want to put a little extra love into it, I highly suggest getting some vine-ripened tomatoes, peeling, seeding, and cutting them.  It really isn't THAT much more time-consuming.  =)

Ingredients:

Tomato Sauce:

1 small onion, small diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons flour
6-8 vine-ripened tomatoes, peeled, seeded, & roughly chopped (juice reserved)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cloves of garlic, mashed
cheesecloth sachet filled with parsley stems, bay leaf, and black peppercorns
pinch of fennel seeds
pinch of saffron
pinch of ground coriander
zest from 1 orange
salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons tomato paste

Penne Pasta

2 chicken breasts, skin on
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

The longer your tomato sauce sits on the stove, the more flavor that will develop.  However, it only needs about 30 minutes to be finished, so don't fret that you don't have time =)

In a medium stockpot, cook the onions and olive oil under medium low heat until the onions are translucent, about 8-10 minutes.

Stir in the flour and cook for about 2-3 minutes, until a slight roux is formed.

Add in the tomatoes, tomato juice, sugar, garlic, sachet, fennel, saffron, coriander, and orange zest.  Cover the pot and raise the heat to medium.  Cook for about 10 minutes to the tomatoes will release more of their liquid.  Remove lid and let simmer for at least 30 more minutes, adding water if sauce becomes to thick or risks burning.  Stir in tomato paste for deeper color and let simmer for about 2-3 minutes.  Remove herb sachet and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add penne and cook until al dente.  Drain, reserving about 1 cup of the pasta water.

Heat a large oven-proof skillet under medium high heat and melt butter.  Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper on both sides.  Add chicken, skin-side down to pan and cook until skin is golden brown, about 4-5 minutes.  Turn chicken over and transfer pan to oven to finish cooking, about 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of your chicken breasts.  Let chicken rest for about 5 minutes before slicing.

Add pasta to tomato sauce, adding additional pasta water, if necessary.  Toss until pasta is well-coated.  Place a decent amount of pasta on plate and top with sliced chicken and garnish with chopped parsley.

A little effort goes a long way.  This tomato sauce has floral and citrus notes that compares to no other.  Andy said it was one of the best pasta sauces he's ever had.  Score!  Hope you guys try this soon =)  Have a great weekend!

Roasted Chicken Breasts w/ Broccoli and Pan Reduction

We've finally reached Friday!

How was everyone's?  Ours has been pretty boring.  Work and school.  Work and school.  I had yesterday and today off of work so we've been keeping pretty busy.  We ended up carving our pumpkins last night - I did a Grim Reaper and it was AWESOME!  Don't know what we'll end up doing tonight, but I wouldn't complain if we just snuggled up on the couch and watched a Netflix movie! 

Anyway, this is another simple meal!  And it's healthy, to boot!  Sauces can be as complex or as simple as you make them.  This dish utilizes the simplest of all sauces.  A pan reduction.  That's basically taking the little bits left over in a pan (fond) from sauteing a piece of meat and deglazing the pan with liquid.  In our case, wine and chicken stock.  Then reducing that liquid until it's thick, and then we mount it with butter to get a sheen and added flavor.  Easy enough, right?! Right.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Redux:

2 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup carrot, diced
1/4 cup celery, diced
1/2 cup white wine
2 parsley stems
1 bay leaf
pinch of dried thyme
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 cup broccoli crowns, blanched
toasted sliced almonds, for garnish
salt and pepper, to taste

First, we'll fortify our chicken stock.  You don't necessarily have to do this, but I feel it adds more flavor to those store-bought chicken stocks that always seem so bland.

In a large saucepan, combine the chicken stock, onion, carrot, celery, white wine, parsley stems, bay leaf, and thyme.  Simmer for about 30 minutes, then strain, discarding the solids.  Don't worry about seasoning it with salt and pepper, because we'll do that after it's reduced.  If you do it now, you'll end up intensifying the salt flavor when you reduce it and it'll end up being overkill in the end.

Heat the oil in a large saute pan under medium high heat.  Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper.  Add to pan and cook until golden brown on both sides and white throughout.  Transfer to a plate, cover, and let rest while you make your sauce.

Deglaze the saute pan with your fortified stock, scraping up the little pieces stuck to the bottom.  Reduce by at least half, then mount with the butter.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

To plate, place about 1/2 cup of broccoli crowns in center of plate. Top with chicken breast (you can cut it in half like I did if your chicken breast is too big).  Drizzle sauce on top of chicken and around plate.  Voila!  Dinner time!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Hot Caprese Pasta

Yes, I know the title is hypocrisy. Caprese is supposed to be cold. But I wanted a hot dinner. And so I give you, HOT Caprese Pasta, inspired by a COLD Caprese Pasta found over at Framed.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
Juice from 1 lemon
1 garlic clove, minced
salt and fresh ground black pepper
4 medium sized tomatoes, diced
6 or 7 small balls of fresh mozzarella, diced
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, plus extra for garnish
1 lb. egg noodle pasta
5 or 6 fresh basil leaves, chopped

Combine everything but pasta and basil leaves in medium bowl. Mix to coat well. Set aside.

Cook pasta in a pot of boiling salt water until al dente, about 5 or 6 minutes. Time will vary depending on the type of pasta you use, so just watch it carefully.

Meanwhile, in a medium skillet over medium to high heat, add tomato mixture to skillet and saute down until kind of thick. The cheeses melted and created a thick tomato sauce that reminded Andy of "bruschetta".

When pasta is done, drain and add to tomato sauce. Stir in basil leaves.

Plate while it's hot and enjoy!

This was incredibly easy, and definitely tasty. It really is versatile. It could just as well be eaten as a cold pasta, as it was intended. Enjoy!

The Mother Loaf

Alright, so I've got to vent and so vent I shall. I hate Physics. I know my very existence is based on physics, but I hate it. I think it's pointless to know how one gets from point A to point B and how fast it takes me to get there. I don't care how heavy something is if it's on an incline. And I really hate right triangles right now. With that being said, I want to personally thank Physics and the fact that it almost completely ruined my Sunday evening. The only savior was some good comfort food... in the form of a loaf of meat. I give you - the Motherloaf. I know, stupid name... but oh was it delicious...


Ingredients:
Adapted from Bon Appetit Oct 2009 Issue -"Turkey Meatloaf w/ Mushrooms & Herbs"

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups bread crustless bread squares (I used half french baquette and half wheat sandwich bread)
1 cup chicken broth
8 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
1 large green pepper, chopped
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup shallots, minced
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 tablespoon thyme
2 teaspoons kosher salt
steak seasoning mix (you can make your own, or store brand, mine is equal parts red pepper flakes, season salt, and chili powder)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 lb. ground turkey breast
1 lb. ground chuck beef

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan and set aside.

Toss bread squares in chicken broth and let soak for about 10 minutes.

Add in everything else but the meat. Mix up real good.

Add in the meat and blend well. Mold into pan and bake for about an hour and 25 minutes. Let rest for about 15 minutes.

Slice and serve.

Now seriously, how easy is that! I love meatloaf. And this is no exception. I made a quick and easy gravy also by mixing some of the pan juices with some beef stock and reducing down. Add a little cornstarch and the mixture should thicken a bit if you like it that way! Enjoy!

Twice Baked Loaded Sweet Potatoes

I'm telling you, these past couple of weeks, with flu season and all, have made for some quite hellish days at work. I'm so stressed out from the pharmacy that after coming home from a late shift, I don't want to spend hours preparing a great meal. I can settle for a quick, mediocre one. And this was just the case the other night with these potatoes I found over at Mango & Tomato...

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes
2 medium sized chorizo pork sausages
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
6-8 fresh mozzarella balls
salt and pepper to taste

This is pretty much a no brainer recipe: just cook potatoes, fry filling, and bam, but I'll go into the details just in case...

Preheat oven to 475 degrees and bake potatoes for about 30-45 minutes, depending on the size of your potatoes. Mine were pretty hefty, so it took all of about 45 minutes to get them good and done.

While you're waiting for the potatoes, remove the chorizo from it's casing and fry in a skillet until browned. Then add your garbanzo beans and mix well. The chorizo gives the filling a pretty decent heat, but I found that I had to add a little bit of salt and pepper just to add a little more flavor.


When potatoes are finished, allow them to cool for about 10-15 minutes. Make a slit in the middle of each one and carefully remove the filling and add it to the sausage/garbanzo mixture.

Shred some fresh mozzarella into the mixture, as much as you'd like, and mix well. Then add the mixture into the potato skins. Top with bits of mozzarella (I did this in layers by putting some cheese on the bottom of the potato skins, then add some filling, then more cheese in the middle, and more filling, and then top with cheese, but I like mucho cheesy things so you don't have to do this). Bake the potatoes for about 5 minutes, until cheese is nice and melted and dig in!


This didn't take considerably long to make, especially since I made Andy start baking the potatoes a little before I left work so they would be done by the time I got home! Smart eh? Overall, it was okay... would have been great as a side dish of loaded mashed sweet potatoes, but it was quick, easy, and relieved a little bit of my stress so I can't complain! Enjoy!