Moroccan Chicken

I found a recipe for Moroccan Chicken Kabobs tonight and modified it a bit. It was AMAZING. So good!

I didn't feel like firing up the actual grill or skewering the kabobs - so I just seasoned the meat and grilled it on the George Foreman. Super simple and, again, so good!

The recipe is here.

I didn't have cardamom - so I left it out. Also, I'm not a fan of peppers - so I didn't have any of those.

Here is my skewer-less, table top grill version of the prep and cooking :) I used two chicken breasts cut into chunks with the amount of spices listed - I don't know what that is as far as the weight of the chicken - but it was a good , spicy, flavorful, coating on the chicken. :)


The pretty spices all in a bowl. Love the colors!



Mix, and then dump into a big ziplock bag.



Cut a red onion up into some big chunks and dump those into a different ziplock bag. (If you like peppers - they do everything the onion does in the recipe)


Add small pieces of chicken to the bag with the spices. Add salt, pepper, and olive oil to the bag with onions. Shake shake shake. Dump both bags onto a pre-heated Grill. The chicken should be a nice orange/brownish color with all the spices.


Let it cook until the chicken is done and the onions are tender - took about 15 minutes.



This was very spicy and flavorful. I made some rice pilaf to go with it. I was going to do fruit salad as well as something cool and sweet to go with the hot and spicy but I ran out of time to cut up the fruit and didn't want to wait to eat the chicken - the smell was enticing!

Chicken and Rice - Cheap and Easy!

This is a recipe I kind of made up the other week. I was originally planning on making a chicken casserole dish - but one of my kids is lactose intolerant and I didn't feel like making two dishes in order to have a dairy-free one - so I just made this. My grandmother made an amazing chicken and rice dish - I have no idea how she made hers, but this one turned out pretty well! It got rave reviews from my critics anyway ;-).


4 lbs. chicken thighs
4 cups white rice
8 cups chicken broth
2 tbs olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs red pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cheddar Cheese
Italian Bread Crumbs
2 cups prepared chicken gravy (package or your own recipe)

servings: 12

Boil chicken thighs until done, shred

Meanwhile, Cook rice in chicken broth.

In a saute pan - heat olive oil, onion, and garlic.

Mix onion/garlic mixture, chicken, rice, red peper, salt, and pepper together.

Serve with cheese, breadcrumbs, and gravy as topping choices.



*You can boil the chicken thighs ahead of time and then reheat the shredded chicken in the olive oil along with the onions and garlic. I actually think it tastes a little better this way.

Another Winning Recipe!

My heart, it goes all a flutter when I hear those four words, "This is really good!"

Months and months ago I purchased Family Feasts for $75 a Week and I finally got around to trying out one of the recipes. It's called "Mexican Bowtie Pasta" or something or other in the cookbook - but it's a pet peeve of mine to put the name of a country in a dish when it's not actually from that country. Adding salsa does not Mexican it make. So I called it something like "Spicy pasta with Chicken" or something on the menu I post in the kitchen. I know, I'm creative.

The recipe calls from cream cheese and milk - and I made half of it that way and it was REALLY GOOD (but I love creamy sauces)- - but the version that got the most rave reviews from the kids was the lactose-free version I made - so - I'm going to share my modified version with you all. This should serve about 6

2 lbs chicken thighs, cooked and shredded.
1 lb bowtie pasta, cooked and drained.
2 TBS olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup salsa
1 can rotell tomatoes with green chili


In a saucepan add about 2 tbs olive oil and stir in chicken (until chicken is heated if it's been cooled.) Add 2 cloves crushed garlic, stir. Sprinkle in flour, stir.

Add chicken broth and salsa, bring to a boil stirring often. You can add the rotell here or save it for a topping later depending on the taste buds of your family. I saved it to be added at the table. Cook until heated through - about 10 minutes. (You can add more broth if it looks too thick, boil longer to reduce if it's overly soupy - though mine was soupy and still good on the pasta!)

Serve over pasta.

Greek Penne and Chicken

In an effort to find something different to make for dinner tonight I went to allrecipes.com and clicked on their "quick and easy" link and then took the first recipe from there. Greek Penne and Chicken. I modified it a bit for us - but it was quite yummy.

I did the recipe x4 (which means i had two huge pots of boiling pasta and two skillets with browning chicken all going at the same time - a bit crowded on the stove top - and one of the eyes doesn't heat as well as the others so I was switching the two chicken pans back and forth trying to get everything cooked. Fun times. Fun times. I would've stopped to take a picture of this except that I was busy shuffling pans)

I left out the artichoke hearts - simply because artichoke hearts look funny to me.

Instead of mixing the chicken and pasta together I kept it seperate and I also bought some pita bread so people could choose to have their chicken with pita or pasta.

I also kept a portion of the dish cheese-free for my lactose intolerant diners.

I thought it was good (I had it with pita). I didn't get rave reviews - but the plates were clean at the end of dinner and a number of them got seconds. Even the cheese-free portion went over well.

I think in a normal size family it would be a quick and easy dinner - - around here nothing is quick and easy cooking for 12 though so I can't really comment on that.

Herbed Chicken-en-Croute

I had an extra sheet of puff pastry left over from making the baked brie so I went hunting for a recipe on puffpastry.com (yes, there IS such a thing!) and found one for which I had all the ingredients.

Here's what you do!

Thaw a sheet of puff pastry.

Season halves of a chicken breast with pepper and fry in a bit of olive oil until brown. Put that in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. Preheat an oven to 400 degrees.

Now, take your thawed puff pastry and roll it out to a 14" square and then cut that into four smaller squares. In the center of each square, spread about 2 TBS of a flavored spreadable cheese and top with a sprinkle of parsley. (I used garlic and herb flavored cheese) Put one of the chicken pieces on top of that. Brush the edge of the pasty with a mixture of egg and water and fold up and over the chicken.

Place seam side down on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy the amazingness! (Those are DIFFERENT silicone baking mats if you're wondering..)

(Ok, so it's actually called "Herbed Chicken In Pastry" - - but "en Croute" sounds so much better!)

Cranberry Season

I got this recipe off a message board I visit and it is SO GOOD. I love cranberries. (Not cranberries shaped like the inside of a can mind you. Whole fresh cranberries.)

This is Ruby Chicken.

Put about 1/3 cup flour and 1tsp kosher salt in a Ziploc bag. Throw in two breasts of chicken (I used a few tenderloins instead as that's what I had) Shake shake shake. Coat chicken. In a skillet melt a couple tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Then put in the chicken and let it brown on both sides.



Meanwhile - in a small saucepan. Put 1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, 1/3 cup of white sugar, 1/2 cup orange juice, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg to taste, and 2 Tbs chopped onion.



Bring to a boil over medium heat.



Pour boiling cranberry mixture over browned chicken.


Cover and reduce to simmer. Cook for approximately 25 minute or until chicken is done.




Serve and enjoy!




I made this two nights in a row it was so good!