Lighter Jambalaya

It's the new year and time to get back on track. Lee whipped up a little comfort food to warm our bones as the Polar Vortex was on it's way out.  

Part of this year’s  blog is going to be focused on healthier foods and our spin on making dishes healthier.  

We're cutting back on our sodium, so premade jambalaya seasoning was out for sure. Lee used a variety of the seasonings we had on hand to make it delicious!  It still has quite a bit of sodium, mostly because of the Old Bay Seasoning.   

To lighten it up a little further, Lee used brown rice for a healthier option along with the use of fresh vegetables and quality meats with no filler.  It's a meaty dish for sure, but if you stick to the serving size of 1 cup of rice and 1 cup of Jambalaya it’s still really filling.  

Ingredients:

Instant Brown Rice

1 can Tomato Sauce

3 cups Chicken Stock

3 tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning

5 tablespoons Paprika

1 tablespoon Thyme

a pinch of Salt (I used Spanish Infused Sea Salt)

1 Red Onion (Chopped)

1 bunch of Scallions (Chopped)

2 Jalapenos (Chopped)

3 cloves of Garlic (Chopped)

2 Tomatoes (Diced)

1 bag Jumbo Raw Peeled and Deveined Shrimp

1 pack Chorizo Sausage (Diced)

1 pack Andouille Sausage (Diced)

1 pack Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs (Cut into small pieces) 

1 small Lean Pork Roast (Cut into small pieces)

3 tablespoon Olive Oil

Spicy Pad Thai

Ok folks, he's trying to kill me.   I'm hanging out while he's cooking and my eyes start watering, I start sneezing, I'm having hayfever in a snowstorm! It turns out Lee over did it on the Srichacha sauce. For those of you unacquainted with Srichacha, it's a hot Thai pepper sauce.  It makes a great, burn the front of your mouth only fire and is actually really good.  That said, make this recipe carefully!
Actually, once it hit the table, it was pretty good!  The peanuts that were mixed in with the chicken and rice noodles helped to mellow out the heat a little, my face was only a 2 alarm fire, much better than the 4 alarm I had anticipated.
For me, the star of this plate was the side dish.  Those tomatos and cucumbers were my life savers! When the heat got to be too much, I'd switch over to those cool cucumbers or lush tomatos and enjoy a second of peace before diving back into the heat!  Check that out too: http://leecooks.blogspot.com/2012/02/miso-sesame-cucumber-and-tomato-salad.html

Island Chicken Sandwiches

One of the things we're really trying to cut back on is our sodium intake.  Salt, bacon, any kind of processed food, we love them all.  So when we were talking about making chicken marinaded in teriyaki sauce, we figured we could cut out a lot of the sodium in the sauce if we made it ourselves.  It's not sodium free, but a step in the right direction.
We also got the mini sammi buns, they're about half the size of a regular burger bun.  We had been on a roll with them a year ago when we were eating a lot of salmon burgers (oh we have to post that one sometime too!) but we thought they'd be the perfect complement to this dish.

Chili Lime Oven Roasted Wings

We had quite the Super Bowl at our house, Lee missed half the game cooking!   This is probably the healthiest out of the bunch we'll be posting over the next few days.  

We wanted to some wings that weren't fried, and these were AWESOME! They were just as crispy as if they were fried and I didn't feel half as guilty chowing down on these.  And look, there's green stuff on them too, that has to be extra points right there!  

Now, the dog and I were pretty scared for a while because these puppies (or chickies?) smoked up the house like crazy, thank goodness it was in the 50's here because we had all the doors and windows open to air it out!   It was all worth it though. 

And if the name has you worried, these aren't hot at all, our 6 year old nephew who doesn't like spice at all loved them too! 

Chicken Enchiladas

We really like watching the Soup on E!  My favorite segment is Chat Soup, the tagline for the segment is “So Meaty!”   That’s exactly how you can describe today’s dish. 

I know, enchiladas with Lee can be scary… how spicy will they be?  Today’s aren’t so bad.  A mild sauce was used and the gentle smokiness of the chipotle peppers in the adobo sauce made for a gentle heat that was pretty enjoyable. 

These were stuffed full of tasty chicken and topped with a couple of kinds of cheeses.  The tortillas heat up just enough to give a great crunch.  You’re going to love these!

Chicken Paninis and Pimento Pickles

Our Saturday ritual is to get up early and hit the grocery store before everyone else is out and about.  Then we’ll come home, have lunch or breakfast (whichever is more time appropriate) and take on the day.  

Today we got a much later start than usual and ended up at the store during BUSY time!  Not the best way to start the day.  

Luckily, we were able to keep motivated by remembering what would be waiting for us when we got home.  We picked up a rotisserie chicken and Lee made it into a delicious Panini.  

Kicked Up Chicken and Dumplings

When Lee told me he was making chicken and dumplings, I threw a bit of a fit.  I've never been a big chicken soup fan, and for some reason in my head dumplings are the same thing as biscuits and gravy which I really do hate.  

Luckily, Lee proved me wrong with this amazing version. 

Perfect broth, perfect dumplings, perfect chicken. 

After last week’s beer brined chicken, he’s obsessed so we picked up a whole cut up fryer at the store and he prepared that recipe.  Then he added just a little spice to the dumplings.  By the way, if the dumplings were called really thick noodles, I probably wouldn’t have had any problem at all. 

The Remake of Fried Chicken Dinner

I realized I hit the husband lottery the first night I came home from work to find dinner making its way on to the table.  Tonight I opened the door and knew that something tasty was just about ready.  Score one for perfect timing!  
Tonight, we give you THREE recipes for the price of one, together they make a happy dinner for four (or in our case, a happy dinner for two plus tomorrow’s lunch!) 

The Colonel has nothing on this fried chicken dinner!

The chicken was a perfect balance of moist and crispy.  I’m a big fan of the potatoes, I’ve been pretty happy about all the paprika lately and I love a non-fried fry.  And the green beans are an old stand-by that Lee makes a lot- let’s face it, everything is better with bacon and we’ve had quite a bacon shortage lately- it’s been a week since our last post containing Lee’s mistress food.  


So here’s everything you need for tonight’s super easy dinner. 


Crispy Butter Garlic Chicken
4 Chicken breast 
½ cup flour
2 cups milk
3 cups crushed cornflakes
3 tablespoon butter
2 cloves garlic (Minced)
Oil for frying 

1. In a shallow pan, heat about an inch or two of oil to 325.
2. Take chicken breast and cut in half to butterfly and make thinner.  Dredge in flour and shake off, then dredge in milk and place in cornflakes until coated. 
3. Once oil is hot fry chicken until crisp and cooked through, about 8 minutes on each side.
4. Drain and let cool while you put your butter and garlic in another saucepan to melt on medium heat.  Once melted, spoon the butter garlic sauce over plated chicken.

Nutrition Facts for Chicken
Calories 557   Calories from Fat 157
Total Fat 17.4g
Saturated Fat 7.6g
Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 172mg
Sodium 392mg
Total Carbohydrates 36.8g
Dietary Fiber 1.0g
Sugars 8.5g
Protein 60.7g
Vitamin A 19% • Vitamin C 8%
Calcium 19% • Iron 48%

Spiced Oven Fries
4 potatoes (cut into wedges)
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoon onion powder
3 tablespoon oil 

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. In a Ziploc bag, combine all ingredients and shake to coat potatoes.
3. Pour into an ovenproof dish and bake for about 40 minutes turning halfway through cooking.

Nutrition Facts for Potatoes
Calories 338  Calories from Fat 29
Total Fat 3.2g
Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 1192mg
Total Carbohydrates 72.1g
Dietary Fiber 12.2g
Sugars 6.1g
Protein 8.1g
Vitamin A 37% • Vitamin C 145%
Calcium 6% • Iron 21%


Green Beans with Bacon
1 lb of fresh green beans (Trimmed)
2 slices of bacon (Diced) 
1 teaspoon minced onion
Salt and pepper

1. In a large sauté pan fry bacon until slightly crisp but still pliable.
2. Remove bacon and sauté green beans in bacon fat for 10 minutes on medium high heat.  
3. Add minced onions, salt, pepper, and a splash of water.  Cover to steam for about 12 minutes.  

Nutrition Facts for Green Beans
Calories 174  Calories from Fat 74
Total Fat 8.2g
Saturated Fat 2.7g
Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 21mg
Sodium 453mg
Total Carbohydrates 16.6g
Dietary Fiber 7.7g
Sugars 3.2g
Protein 11.2g
Vitamin A 31% • Vitamin C 62%
Calcium 9% • Iron 15%


What's your go to weeknight dinner? 

Miso Ginger Glazed Chicken Thighs

Tonight’s dinner had us seeking out an ingredient we never had before- Miso Paste.  While we have a pretty awesome Mexican selection at our local Shop N Save, the Asian section leaves us with just the basics. 

So we headed over to Olive to China Town Market.  Olive Boulevard in University City is full of a lot of ethnic food grocery stores and restaurants.  Just about all of them fall in that, “are you sure we’re supposed to be HERE?” category. 

We walked into China Town Market and I was totally feeling that way. First, almost all of the packaging for all the items was written in Chinese characters.  There were some things that were pretty obvious what they were (hey, there’s some rice!) but just about everything else looked a little out of our league.  After wandering through a few of the aisles we realized we were going to need some help.  We asked about the miso paste and were directed to it, only to find out a.) miso means soybean (ohhhhh) and b.) there’s a red kind and a white kind.  According to Wikipedia, the red kind is a little stronger tasting.  We picked the red kind.  The recipe actually called for shiso miso paste, and I’m still not sure if we got the right stuff. 

After finding some miso paste, we found ourselves in the candy/ chip aisle and it took all of my might to get us out of there without buying cod jerky (just let that sink in a minute…) and wintermelon candy.

It turned out pretty good.  It had the taste of one of those tasty chicken dishes on the Chinese buffet, but a lot healthier.  I felt pretty good about eating it. 

Little red chili flakes give the chicken some flavor but don't go overboard. 

Moist and Crispy Beer-Brined Chicken

First of all, let me start out by saying that I think we bought a genetically altered chicken. Schnucks had bone in chicken breasts on a crazy good sale and we bought a pack… little did we know that it was the breast of a life size Foghorn Leghorn.  

Absurdly large chicken breast...

Now, on to this recipe. 

When I was growing up, chicken was a staple.  Soy sauce also was a staple used to moisten up chicken that had gotten a little too dry.  Lee still gives me really weird looks when I pull out the shaker when we’re not having Chinese food.  Old habits are hard to break, I guess.  Chicken, while popular and pretty common, is harder to cook right than most people guess.  But once you have tender, juicy chicken, there isn’t much going back. 

This recipe will get you chicken that’s moist, juicy, tender and down-right delicious.  The brine penetrates the meat all the way to the bone and the rub yields a crust with a hint of paprika that for some reason tastes just like home. 

There is a down side to this recipe and that is that you REALLY have to plan ahead, it takes a good 24 hours to do it right, but most of that is the chicken sitting around doing it’s thing without you. Make sure to put in the time with this one, the brine is what makes it so juicy and the drying is what gives you a really crispy crust.   

Chicken with zucchini, squash and potato...yum!

Beer-Brined Chicken

Inspired by Betty Crocker

Makes 6 servings

Brine and Chicken

2 cups water

1/4 cup kosher (coarse) salt

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 cans or bottles (12 oz each) beer or nonalcoholic beer, chilled (we used Heineken because that’s what we had laying around)

3 lbs bone in chicken breasts

Rub

3 teaspoons paprika

1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1. Line 2-quart bowl or saucepan with 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag. Add water, kosher salt and brown sugar; stir until salt and sugar are dissolved. Stir in beer. Add chicken. Tightly seal bag; refrigerate 10 hours.
2. Line 13x9-inch pan with foil. Remove chicken from brine; rinse thoroughly under cool running water and pat really dry with paper towels. Discard brine. Place chicken, skin side up, in pan. Refrigerate uncovered 8 hours to dry chicken skin. Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix all rub ingredients except oil; set aside.
3. Heat oven to 375°F. Brush oil over chicken. Sprinkle with seasoning mixture; rub into chicken skin. Bake 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes or until juice of chicken is clear. when thickest piece is cut to bone. Let stand 15 minutes for easiest carving.

Calories 280  (Calories from Fat 160),

Total Fat 18g

Saturated Fat 4 1/2g

Trans Fat 0g

Cholesterol 85mg

Sodium 720mg

Total Carbohydrate 0g

Dietary Fiber 0g

Sugars 0g

Protein 27g

Vitamin A 15.00%  Vitamin C 0.00%

Calcium 0.00%  Iron 8.00%

New Year's Feast- Hot Wings!

Hot wings are one of our favorite thing to have on an appetizer buffet.  You can eat them with your hands and while they’re messy, they’re so delicious! 
For last night’s feast, we used Syberg’s Wing Sauce.  Syberg’s is a St. Louis restaurant famous for their wings, but with this recipe, you’ll be even more famous for yours!   In true St. Louis fashion, it's got a little sweetness to the sauce, but use enough and you'll be running for your glass of milk! 

Hot Wings... mmmmmmmmm.....

Hot Wings
makes enough for 12 servings


5 – 6 lbs of Chicken wings
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning
1 teaspoon Seasoning salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 bottle of Vegetable Oil
1 cup flour
1 jar of favorite Hot or Wing Sauce