I got a break from the brutal winter weather we’ve been having in Minnesota this season when I was fortunate enough to be in Florida for a few days. It was amusing to listen to a few of the natives complaining that it’s been a hard winter in Florida, too; they’ve had several days when it didn’t even crack 70, and at night, it had gotten down in the 40s a few times. Wow! Can you imagine? Those poor folks; how do they manage under such conditions? When I informed them that back home, in the southern part of the state where I live, we’ve had several nights this season that have been 20 below zero or colder, they were simply astonished, unable to comprehend such an extreme. Of course, the folks in northern Minnesota think all of us in the southern part of the state are a bunch of sissies; the temperature “up north” averages at least twenty degrees colder than in Minnesota’s “tropical” zone. I told my friends in Florida that this time of year, if we’re lucky enough to have the temperature rise above freezing, it feels like a heat wave, so their severe “cold spell” of 68 degrees for an afternoon high felt downright hot to me.
Being in Florida also allowed me to enjoy chicken prepared with my favorite cooking method: grilling. What a treat to be able to grill outdoors under the warm sun and dine on the patio. The chicken dish I had for dinner on my last evening in Florida was one of my favorites: “Lime Grilled Chicken with Mango Salsa.” This was a recipe that I found on RecipeTips.com and wrote about on this blog last year. My Florida friends make it quite often.
Lime Grilled Chicken with Mango Salsa
The chicken pieces (boneless, skinless chicken breasts) are marinated in a combination of orange juice, limeade, and salt and pepper; then after a couple of hours of marinating time, the chicken is grilled. It couldn’t get much easier than that. When serving the chicken, it is simply topped with the homemade mango salsa, which is made with a combination of diced mango, diced red pepper, orange juice, lime juice, fresh basil, finely chopped jalapeno, and salt and pepper. This is an easy-to-make, flavorful dish that this time of year, really tastes like a bit of much needed summer, unless, of course, you happen to be among the lucky folks who live in places like Florida and have summer year round.
Winter is my favorite time of the year to enjoy a good chicken casserole, one that’s easy to make and delicious, pulled from the oven hot and bubbly, ready to enjoy. I usually like to make my mother’s recipe with the freshly roasted chicken, the wide egg noodles, and the crumbled potato chips on top, but I wanted to find one that was quicker to make, so as usual, I searched the Web and found one that looked good. “Easy Chicken Noodle Casserole,” featured on RecipeTips.com, is definitely easy to make and less time consuming, and it’s also quite tasty. It’s really nothing like my mother’s chicken casserole recipe, as it contains sour cream and mushrooms, and the topping incorporates bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. The recipe also calls for canned chicken, which is an ingredient that Mom never uses in her version; if it isn’t freshly roasted and pulled off the bone, she won’t use it. I must say that I was leery about using the canned chicken, but it was much better than I thought it would be. It certainly saved time not having to roast a whole chicken, allow it to cool, and then pull the meat from the bones.
I can honestly say that I prefer Mom’s chicken casserole recipe to any other version I’ve tried; nevertheless, this RecipeTips.com recipe was still quite good and is one that I’ll most likely make again. Go to the recipe and see what you think.
Lemon chicken has always been one of my favorites, but I don’t make it as often as I’d like—there are always so many other great chicken recipes to try. Well, the other night, I decided that it was a good time to serve it for dinner, because the weather was brutally cold and I needed something that would remind me of summer. And, lemon chicken definitely reminds me of summer—probably because most often, I make it on the grill and serve it outdoors on the patio, surrounded by friends on a warm, muggy evening in July. (Sounds like heaven right now; the temperature is minus 20! And, rather than being surrounded by friends, I’m surrounded by an electric blanket.) Anyway, I decided to search for a new oven-baked version of this tasty treat, and what I found was a recipe called, “Oven Fried Lemonade Chicken” on AllRecipes.com. Actually, according to the author of the recipe, “Debholdridge,” this dish is an adaptation of an old recipe found in TV Guide magazine several decades ago.
Ingredients List:
- 1 can (6 ounces) frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 6 skinless and boneless chicken breast halves
- 1 ½ cups cornflakes cereal
- 1 teaspoon dried crushed thyme
Directions:
- Pour the thawed lemonade concentrate, salt, and pepper into a resealable plastic bag.
- Add the chicken breasts and coat with the marinade. Squeeze out the excess air and seal the bag. Marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF (about 175ºC). Spray a baking sheet generously with cooking spray.
- Place the cornflakes in another resealable plastic bag and crush them into fine crumbs. Add the thyme and mix thoroughly.
- Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and shake off the excess; then discard the remaining marinade. Place the chicken pieces into the bag containing the cornflake crumb mixture and shake to coat the pieces well.
- Place the chicken breasts on the prepared baking sheet, making sure that they don’t touch. Spray each one lightly with cooking spray. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 45 minutes or until the juices run clear and the coating is brown and crunchy.
This was such a simple recipe to prepare, but it provides so much flavor and texture. I think it’s the most “lemony” lemon chicken I’ve ever had. The bold, tart flavor and the crunchy corn coating make this chicken recipe a real treat.
I found this recipe on the GroupRecipes.com site while searching for a good crock pot chicken dish—something I could throw together quickly in the morning and have ready for dinner when I was finished with work for the day. The recipe is called “Easy Slow Cooker Orange Chicken,” submitted by “Desireesweet,” who describes this dish as an “easy way to cook orange chicken while at work,” so it seemed to be an appropriate recipe to suit my needs. The word easy definitely belongs in the title, because the recipe was as simple as it could be to prepare.
Ingredients List:
- 8 small boneless and skinless chicken thighs
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1/3 cup orange marmalade
- 1/3 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh gingerroot
Directions:
- Toss the chicken with the flour in the slow cooker.
- Stir in the remaining ingredients; then cover the slow cooker with the lid.
- Cook the chicken on the low heat setting for 6 to 8 hours or on the high heat setting for 3 to 4 hours.
- Serve the orange chicken atop a bed of cooked rice.
I actually cooked the chicken for a little more than nine hours (on the low heat setting), because I was unable to return home from work until then, but it didn’t seem to make much difference. The extra cooking time might have made the meat fall apart a bit more readily, but it didn’t turn to mush or anything similar. This was a very tasty recipe that I will definitely make again.
