Rogan Josh – the fast and easy way

Sometimes you just find a step saver product that makes things easy and tastes great too. I found that for a Rogan Josh dish and that great product is shown in the picture below with chicken breast cut into bite size pieces.

To prepare the meal you cut 1 pound of chicken breasts into bite size pieces, brown the chicken, simmer the chicken in the sauce for 15 minutes. Not much too it. Of course you should serve this on a bed of white rice (not that minute kind).

To step things up a bit I did brown the chicken in a cast iron skillet with olive oil not that I would do it any different.

Cut the chicken, brown the chicken, simmer the chicken in the sauce.

Simmer time

Time to eat!

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BBQ Chicken Onion Bacon Pizza

This pizza is so good you will have to make it again and will not be able to stop at eating two pieces. I mean this is REALLY GOOD! I would not change a thing.

If you try this let me know what you think. This was a huge hit in my house. Plus it was a great use of leftovers.

Ingredients – for a 12 inch pizza

• Pizza dough – homemade or store bought. I went with homemade using my bread machine to kick things off
• 5 small BBQ Chicken thighs – cooked and chopped. I used my leftovers that I cooked on the gill. I grilled them four minutes per side, brushed with BBQ sauce on each side cooking an additional 30 seconds each side
• 1/4 cup – Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce – enough to just coat the pizza
• 1 Onion sliced into rings then sliced in half
• 3 slices of cooked bacon – chopped
• 1 cup of grated white cheeses blend – just enough to coat the top of the pizza
• Dash of Oregano to garnish

Your onions should look like this.

Everything but the cheese.

Build it and they will eat it!

1. Prepare pizza dough
2. Preheat oven to 450 F
3. Caramelize the onion
4. Top the pizza dough with BBQ sauce (see picture below)
5. Top the pizza with the onion, chicken, bacon and cheeses
6. Bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese in golden brown
7. Let cool for 5 minutes before slicing
8. See if you can only eat two pieces!

Top with BBQ sauce

I have BBQ sauce, I have chicken, I have onion, I have bacon.

I am cheesy and ready to be baked!

Waiting to be sliced

still waiting to be sliced

Chicken Asparagus Bacon Crunchy Wrap

Crunchy and tasty

One recent late night this recipe came to me. I am not sure why it came to me but it does not matter now I just had to give it a try.  It turned out just as I expected it to and that would be a crunchy not overpowering taste but satisfying to the taste buds.

Ingredients – for 6 wraps

• 2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
• 6 Asparagus – uncooked and be sure to cut off about a 1/2 unch from the bottom of the spear
• 1/2 Cup Parmesan cheese – shredded
• 3 Bacon slices cooked – slice the bacon length wise
• 6 Flour tortillas
• 1/4 cup of vegetable oil
• a few tablespoons of finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons  – Balsamic vinegar

Top it, Wrap it, Cook it

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Cook chicken in a skillet heated to medium high for about 4 minutes per side – you might want to add a dash of salt to each piece of chicken
3. Cut the Chicken into strips then cook an additional minute or two turning to brown all sides
4. Add oil to a plate or other shallow dish
5. Heat stack of tortillas in the microwave for about 45 seconds
6. Using tongs pick up one tortilla at a time and coat both side with oil. Allow oil to drip from the tortilla
7. Place tortilla on a flat surface then add  shredded Parmesan cheese, bacon and finally chicken.
8. Just roll this thing up and place it seem side down on a baking sheet. Repeat until done.
9. Bake in oven for about 20 minutes until the tortillas are hard and a bit brown
10. Plate a serving topping with a splash of  Balsamic vinegar and a dash of grated Parmesan cheese
11. Eat!

Just before we wrap

I added a side of Broccoli florets that had a splash of  Balsamic vinegar, splash olive oil, salt and pepper. I put this in a shallow baking dish adding it to the oven with the wraps.

Before the cook

Skillet to oven Cordon Bleu and Blue

The one on the left has Blue cheese dressing the one on the right has Swiss cheese.

I was so impressed with tamaraleigh recipe that I had to try it the next day but I did not have the same ingredients so I improvised. I also wanted to experiment a bit and have a least one topped with Blue Cheeses dressing. I am glad I did! This is a tasty meal and actually it turned out much better then I expected! This is a keeper!

Ingredients

• 20 oz of boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 1 cup of plain bread crumbs
• 1 teaspoon of Basal
• 1 teaspoon of Oregano
• 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt
• Sliced Swiss Cheese – enough to top chicken
• About a tablespoon of Blue Cheese dressing  – enough to top chicken
• Black Forest Ham thinly sliced – enough to top chicken
• Parsley – enough to pretty up your chicken
• Olive oil – enough to coat bottom of of oven proof skillet – I recommend cast iron!

The steps for building this meal are not difficult and don’t have to be to create a great tasting meal.

Steps to goodness! 

1. Move up the rack in your oven so when you put your skillet in the oven the top of the food will be about 5 or 6″ from the flame of the broiler. Turn on the broiler.
2. Add Bread Crumbs, Basal, Oregano and Salt to a zip top bag. Mix it up a bit.
3. Preheat your oven proof skillet to medium high heat with enough oil to just coat the bottom
4. Put a few pieces of chicken at a time into the bag and shake to coat chicken
5. Add chicken to the pan and cook 3-4 minutes on each side. Be sure not to burn the chicken it does have a breaded coating after all.
6. Top each piece of chicken with a slice of ham
7. Top each piece of chicken with either of the cheeses.
8. Put the skilet into oven for a few minutes. You are looking to brown the cheese and toast the ham a bit
9. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with Parsley
10. Serve and enjoy you will!

A different view but the same applies, the one on the left has Blue cheese dressing the one on the right has Swiss cheese.

Blackened Cajun Chicken Sandwich

Blackened Cajun Chicken Sandwich on fresh bread

A Blackened Cajun Chicken Sandwich is so tasty and when you place it on fresh bread it’s just that much better! To round out this meal add a side of home cooked potatoes and a side of veggies from the freezer and you will be set to stimulate those taste buds.

I had leftover homemade french bread from the day before but only had enough for one sandwich. So not to be selfish I made a new loaf but this time I went with a Honey Oatmeal Bread from my bread machine book cooking it completely in the bread machine. I just LOVE the smell of bread baking! It’s just so easy to make with a bread machine I am surprised more people don’t make it.

I just love the smell of bread!

When I first started thinking about Blackened Cajun Chicken I had no idea what spice combination I should use. I knew the basics which is most of the ingredients below with the exception of the Thyme Leaves which I found while researching Cajun spices. The blend below is what I came up with for the 20 oz of chicken thighs. The amount and taste was spot on! All you do is put all the spices into a small dish and blend well.

The spice of life

Blend me now!

Ingredients for the chicken:

• 20 oz of Chicken Tighs
• 1/4 tsp. Fresh ground Black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. Paprika
• 1/4 tsp. Cayenne
• 1/4 tsp. Garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. Onion powder
• 1/4 tsp. White pepper
• 1/4 tsp. Oregano
• 1/4 tsp. Thyme Leaves
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
• Topped with Olive Oil Mayo

Once the spices are blended well sprinkle both sides of the chicken well. In a cast iron skillet heated to a medium high heat cook the chicken for about 10 minutes flipping halfway through. Make sure there is no pink inside!

Spice me up!

Cook me til I am a little blacken.

All done now put me on some bread with mayo!

Once done put it on a piece of fresh bread with a bit of olive oil mayo.

On bread with oh so good olive oil mayo.

Chicken Parmesan Panini

Chicken Parmesan Panini oh so good.

I wanted a sandwich but not just any sandwich it had to be extra tasty. I had some leftovers from my Skillet Chicken Parmesan meal so what better to do then chop of the chicken and compress it into a sandwich. The problem is I did not have a Panini maker. So what to do, make something that creates the same results! With two hot pans and an oven I created my own. I wanted the lines on the sandwich so I pulled out my gill pan.

Check out those ridges!

I did not have another pan with ridges so I had to settle for my heavy cast iron skillet.

Heavy iron skillet to be heated.

In order to make the crispy compressed sandwich I heated the oven to 450 F and put the iron skillet in there to heat up as well. Next up build the sandwich. I started with homemade french bread buttering the outside to help it brown.

Butter me!

Of course you need more the just butter so I added the chopped chicken and provolone cheese.

Give me some chicken and cheese please.

It can’t be a Chicken Parmesan  Panini if it does not have spaghetti sauce.

Give me some sauce.

In order to help speed things up I put the sandwiches on the ridged pan then heated it for a few minutes.

Pre-heat me

Next up put the foil on top of the sandwiches to help keep the iron skillet clean then put this setup into the oven then top it all off with the heavy very hot iron skillet and bake for about 10 minutes until a crispy golden brown.

My tin foil hat

You can’t see this well but this in the ridged skillet, the sandwiches, foil then iron skillet.

 

It’s done!

All done!

Skillet Chicken Parmesan

Skillet Chicken Parmesan

I can not take full credit for this recipe as I somewhat followed the recipe from Betty Crocker. You can find the original recipe here: BettyCrocker.com: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/skillet-chicken-parmesan/fea4063a-e494-4d75-bf8e-e88393fbfe5e

Timing is everything and Betty Crocker was in the right place at the right time. I was looking, thinking and really wandering around for something I could cook with chicken thighs. I was not having much luck when all of a sudden an email from Betty Crocker arrives with recipes for chicken. Now this could be a very good marketing team as just minutes before I was logged into the website looking for chicken recipes.

Ingredients

• 20 oz of Chicken thighs
• 3/4 cup Original Bisquick® mix – which I just happen to have just that much left in the box.
• 1/2 teaspoon of Basal
• 1/2 teaspoon of Oregano
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese from the shaker container
• 1 large egg
• a couple of tables spoons of vegetable oil just enough to cover the bottom of the skillet
• Grated shredded cheeses – your choice
• Spaghetti sauce warmed. I warm mine in the microwave at 50% power until warm – I really enjoy Classico
• Penne pasta – cooked – just follow the package instructions

Building the meal is not complicated and only requires simple steps

1. Add the Bisquick, Basal, Oregano and Parmesan cheese to a pie tin blending well
2. In a bowl beat an egg
3. Grab your chicken one piece at a time with tongs coating the chicken with Bisquik blend then coat with the egg then back to the Bisquick blend
4. Heat a skillet to medium high with just enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. When the oil starts to shimmer it’s ready for the chicken.
5. Add the chicken with all pieces completely flat in the pan, no overlapping and cook for about 4-5 minutes turning once. Make sure you don’t burn the chicken so watch is closely.
6. Now is a good time to cook your pasta but look at the time required and put it at the correct step.
7. Put a cover on the pan and cook an additional 7 to 8 minutes turning only onetime. Again make sure you watch this carefully so it does not burn. As Betty said “Cook until juice of chicken is clear when center of thickest part is cut (170°F).” for your safety after all.
8. Remove all the chicken from skillet and let it reset on a plate while you put the pasta on the serving plate.
9. In this order put the pasta on each serving plate, top with spaghetti sauce, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese add the chicken then sprinkle with grated cheeses.
10. Serve and oh so enjoy!

The ingredients and setup ready to go with my “cheat sheet”

The chicken is all dressed and ready for some heat

First side down cooking to a golden brown

Side one golden brown while side two takes it’s turn

Ah! The goodness is now complete and ready to eat!

Chicken with Chick Peas and Spinach

I wanted something different and it had to include the ingredients Spinach and Chick peas as I had leftover homemade chick peas. This had to go with my main dish chicken. This is a simple recipe but  tasty and even healthy. Ingredient list for Spinach and Chick Peas:

• 1 pound of home made chick peas from the crock pot – cooked about 8 hours covered in water with a 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• yellow onion chopped
• 1 package of frozen chopped spinach cooked
• 1 small can of tomato sauce
• dash of salt
• dash of pepper
• dash of cumin
• fresh diced garlic
• Parmesan cheese for garnish

In a sauce pan caramelize the onion in olive oil. Add the chick peas, spinach and tomato sauce. Mix well and heat until hot. Add garlic.  Mix in spices a bit at a time tasting and adding more as needed. Don’t over do it on the spices. Now plate your creation topping with Parmesan cheese.

Caramelize the onion

Now for the main dish. Parmesan baked cubed chicken. 

Ingredient list:

• 1 pound of raw chicken breast
• small bowl of flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 cup of bread crumbs
• 1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 table spoons of melted butter

Preheat the oven to 450 F. First up in a small bowl is to blend well the eggs and milk to make an egg wash.  On a plate put the grated Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. Create your assembly line with the bowl of flour, egg wash, bread crumb blend and finally your baking dish. Now cube the chicken into bite size pieces.  once done cubing coat the chicken pieces with flour to dry. Be sure to remove as much flour as possible. Coat chicken with the egg wash then dive into the bread blend pushing hard to coat the chicken well. Place well coated chicken into your baking dish and top with the melted butter. Bake for about 25 minutes turning once. Be careful when turning as the coating comes of easy. I used a spatula. As for dips youcould use almost anything. I just went with a honey mustard blend with equal parts honey and yellow mustard.

Create your assembly line

Cube that chicken

Place well coated chicken in your baking dish