Chicken Recipes, Please?

Well, it’s finally beginning to look a little bit like spring in southern Minnesota. The snow is gone and the temperature is a “balmy” 52 degrees! The people who live in the northern part of the state won’t be able to say this for a few more weeks, but we lucky folks in Minnesota’s “tropical zone” are happy to be getting outdoors after a particularly long winter season. Heck, after four months in the deep freeze, a week of sunshine and fifty- degree temperatures will seem like a summer with a thousand Julys.

Anyway, a few days ago, I pulled the grill out from its place of hibernation in the garage and had my first “cookout,” as we like to call it around here. Of course, the meal featured a chicken recipe. For my first outdoor grilling venture of the season, I prepared, “Lime Grilled Chicken with Mango Salsa”  from a recipe I found in the Chicken Recipes Collection on RecipeTips.com. It was an easy-to-make dish, and it was absolutely delicious. The grilled chicken was moist and tender after being marinated in the simple mixture of orange juice and lime juice (I doubled the amount of limeade called for in the recipe), and the salsa for this recipe had just the right amount of heat, which complemented the sweetness of the mango and orange flavors and the tartness of the lime. There’s nothing like homemade salsa to liven up any dish. I know I’ll be making this often during the summer. Enjoy!

Here’s a tasty chicken recipe that I found on BetterRecipes.com. It’s called “Chicken Wellington,” which, from the name, I thought would be an English dish. The chicken pieces are wrapped in puff pastry similar to the English recipe, “Beef Wellington,” but the dish was actually much more Mediterranean in flavor. Prior to wrapping the boneless chicken breasts halves with the puff pastry dough, the chicken (which is sautéed first but not cooked through) is topped with an olive tapenade made with olives, capers, garlic, artichokes, and cream cheese. The dish is baked in the oven until the puff pastry is golden brown. This is a rich, very flavorful, and easy-to-make chicken recipe that I thought was quite irresistible.

Beer can chicken recipes have been around for years. For my first attempt, I prepared it according to the instructions on RecipeTips.com (except I roasted it in the oven at 350ºF rather than cooking it on the grill as they suggested—the temperature outside, hovering just above freezing, wasn’t exactly ideal grilling weather). The idea is to use a can of beer to help support the chicken vertically as it roasts. The can of beer is popped open so that some of the beer evaporates during the roasting time, adding flavor and moistness to the meat.

Beer Can Chicken

This cooking technique makes me laugh. Whenever I look at this picture, I find humor in it. I mean, the sight of a headless chicken sitting upright on a can of beer strikes me as being funny, but then, it doesn’t take much to get me going.

In spite of the humorous aspects of this cooking technique, I was quite pleased with the results of this easy to prepare recipe. Indeed, the chicken was moist and tender, and Recipe Tips’ suggestion to use a simple barbecue rub and to place herbs and lemon under the skin, made the chicken quite tasty. I also stuffed an onion in the neck cavity to prevent moisture from escaping, and most important of all, I used two cans of beer for this recipe: one for the chicken and one for myself.

As I have said before, recipes don’t have to be sophisticated or difficult to prepare in order to be good. This one is so easy, and the results are fantastic! Use the link, Beer Can Chicken, to get this recipe and the cooking instructions.

I found this terrific chicken recipe on RecipeSource.com. It was posted by somebody who provided slight variations to a recipe he or she obtained from other sources. Grapes are such a good complement to the flavor of chicken, and the use of them in this recipe really makes the dish distinctive, providing wonderful flavor and aroma. The original recipe calls for chicken breasts to be used, but I used a whole cut-up chicken, as recommended by whoever posted this recipe, and it turned out excellent. Also, there was a recommendation to omit the cream sauce, as called for in the recipe, because it smothered the beautiful color of the chicken; however, I still prepared the sauce and simply served it in a gravy boat so that it could be used if desired. (The sauce is very tasty, and as long as you have the pan drippings, it is a shame not to take advantage of them.) Click this link, “Great Grape Chicken,” to get this delicious recipe.

I hope you enjoy it!

Here’s one of my own recipes—a tasty chicken salad recipe for all of you who want something a bit different than the ordinary chicken, celery, and mayo varieties. I usually serve this on leaf lettuce or fresh spinach accompanied by crusty bread. I’ve even had it as a sandwich; however, because of the chunks of pineapple and large pieces of chicken, it is a bit unwieldy and tends to spill out of the sandwich. I hope you like it!

This recipe provides 4 to 6 servings.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chicken meat, chopped—freshly cooked or leftover chicken is best, but canned chicken (2 cans) or prepackaged frozen cubed chicken can be used.
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 apple, chopped (You can remove the skin if you want to, but I leave it on because it adds texture and color.)
• 1-15 oz. can, pineapple chunks, drained—reserve the juice!
• 1 package (8 oz.) light cream cheese (Use the “unlight” stuff if you want to—great taste, more calories.)
• 4 heaping tablespoons light mayonnaise (Again, use the real thing if you want to. Also, an accurate measure is not critical. I suppose if I were to measure it more precisely, it would be close to a half-cup. Of course, this depends on your conception of “heaping.” I just dig into the jar and pull out as much as will stay on the tablespoon without falling off.)
• 1/3 cup slivered almonds (Use more or less according to preference. I tend to like more: The extra crunch rattles my brain and keeps me focused.)
• 1 teaspoon curry powder (If you’re adventurous, add a bit more.)
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper (more or less to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1–2 dashes salt (I usually don’t add any salt until I’m ready to eat.)

Directions:

• In a medium-size bowl, soften the cream cheese and add the mayo. Mix well.
• Add the pineapple juice, curry powder, black pepper, garlic powder, and salt. Mix well.
• Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning if necessary. It is best to adjust the flavor of the sauce before it is combined with the other ingredients.
• In a large bowl, combine the chicken, celery, apple, pineapple, and almonds. Add the sauce from the other bowl and mix well.
• Serve the chicken salad on a bed of greens.
• Note: It is best to refrigerate the salad for a few hours, or overnight, to enhance the flavor.

Optional Ingredients: Use walnuts instead of almonds. Add whole grapes and/or diced carrots. Or, simply clean out the refrigerator and dump it in.

A friend recommended this delicious chicken dip that she found on the Recipe Tips Website, which, by the way, is one of my favorite food sites. (I learned how to cook by following the detailed instructions in their “Tips and Advice” section—practically an online cooking school.) I told her that I had already seen the recipe, but with my reluctance to use canned soups in cooking, I was hesitant to try it. (See 3/6/08, “Shortcut Chicken Cordon Bleu,” for another canned soup recipe.) Anyway, based on her recommendation and my faith in Recipe Tips, I tried the “Chicken Noodle Dip” recipe, and I was pleasantly surprised. It really is one of the most delicious dips I’ve ever tasted. There are only five ingredients, but the combination is perfect. I served it at a winter party and my guests wiped it out. I used those baked chips shaped like a scoop and everyone simply spooned the mixture into them for a warm bite-size hors d’ oeuvre. “Chicken Noodle Dip” may not be sophisticated, but it is irresistibly good, which in my opinion, is what counts the most. Enjoy!

One day, when I was still quite new to cooking, I prepared a chicken recipe called “Honey Butter Orange Chicken” for a small gathering of friends. While we enjoyed cocktails, everyone commented on the mouth-watering aroma wafting from the kitchen, which helped to alleviate some of my fear of serving an untried recipe to my guests.

When it was time to serve the highly anticipated dish, I opened the oven door and was very pleased with the result, believing that our tastes buds would, indeed, justify the unanimous favorable opinion of our noses. There was, however, one problem: Some of the escaping juices from the chicken and the dabs of butter that melted, had raised the level of the hot, gooey sauce in the baking dish to near brimful. When I pulled the dish from the oven, I dumped at least half of the sticky mixture onto the hot oven door where it sizzled and made a nice baked-on mess. This mishap was followed by one of the chicken breasts slipping out of the dish, plopping onto the oven door, then, of course, coming to rest on the floor. Being a believer of the “five second rule,” I thought, what the heck, so I grabbed the wayward chicken with my left hand and threw it onto the counter, making sure that it would be the piece that I would serve to myself. Of course, while I was retrieving the blasted chicken from the floor, still holding the dish with my right hand, I dumped more of the sauce—this time, onto the floor and onto the tip of my shoe.

After treating the second degree burns on my hands, I had one of those rare moments that we all have from time to time when anger defeats logic. I opened the back door and threw the whole works out into the snow bank, hoping that it would melt its way to the bottom, concealing all evidence of its existence until spring.

Feeling pleased about my moment of insanity, I went back to the kitchen, hosed it down quickly; then I returned to my guests and announced, “There’s been a slight change in the dinner menu: Pizza is on the way.”

Moral: Don’t attempt to pull a hot chicken dish from the oven after downing two martinis big enough to bathe in.

I found this delicious chicken recipe on the “All Recipes” Web site. It is quite easy to prepare and has very few ingredients, but it is so tasty. I love curry flavoring, so when I came across this recipe, I was anxious to give it a try. I was very pleased, so I highly recommend it. Follow this link, “Curried Honey Mustard Chicken” to get the recipe and see if you agree that it is terrific!

This is another of the excellent chicken recipes I’ve found on the Recipe Zaar Website. The mixture of flavors—pineapple, lemon, garlic, mustard, and rosemary—made this one really quite tasty. This is a great way to prepare chicken with a tropical flair. Here is the link: “Lemon-Pineapple Baked Chicken.”

My first posting about a food memory is, of course, associated with a chicken recipe. As children, my brother and sister and I were always treated to our favorite foods at dinner time (or, supper, as we called it). Mom would fix anything we wanted, within reason of course—she wasn’t about to serve an entire plateful of cookies or candy. Most often, I chose chicken casserole. (Like most good Minnesotans, we called it “chicken hot dish,” don’t cha know, but I thought it would be less confusing to call it a “casserole” for the benefit of all of you who are not familiar with our odd colloquialisms.)

Mom’s chicken casserole was the best! She would roast a whole chicken and then remove the meat from the bones—no canned chicken swimming in salt-laden water or prepackaged frozen stuff for her. She used big egg noodles, and the cream sauce she made was out of this world—it wasn’t just a can of cream of chicken soup. And, just for me, she would top the whole thing with a generous portion of crushed potato chips, which she hated to do because she said that potato chips ruined it, but after all, it was my birthday.