Orange Bourbon Chicken

This past weekend I had the pleasure of preparing a nice meal for a wedding reception that was held at Iowa Wesleyan. They had some nice hors d'oeuvres to keep their guests busy and then we served dinner when the bride and groom arrived. The hors d'ouevres were simple yet some what elegant . I carved a couple of watermelon swans to make a nice fresh fruit display, and we piped out some garlic flavored cream cheese on a cracker and garnished it with some fine diced tomato and fresh basil. It was really quite tasty. Add a simple fresh vegetable tray with some dip and you have a nice beginning to  give your guests something to do while they wait for the wedding party. The dinner was also very simple but yet a very pretty dish and loaded with flavor. They brought me a recipe and I tried not to deviate from it but I usually find this a very difficult thing to do. How about a list of ingredients to get us started.

Chicken tenders                                                  1 pound
Butter, melted                                                     1/4 cup
Sea salt                                                               1/4 tsp
Black pepper, fresh ground                                  to taste
Garlic powder                                                      1 tsp
OJ concentrate                                                     6 ounce can
Bourbon                                                               1/4 cup
Sliced Almonds, toasted                                        1/4 cup
Fresh parsley, chopped                                          1 Tbsp

First rinse the chicken with cold water and season with the sea salt, black pepper and garlic powder. In a skillet with medium heat melt the butter and add the chicken. Brown the chicken lightly on both sides and then add the OJ concentrate. Reduce the heat and let this simmer for about 10 minutes, remove the chicken and keep it warm on a platter. Allow OJ to thicken a little more and then add the bourbon, now if you want to show off you can flame the booze if you like but stay back if you do because alcohol burns hot. Allow to cook for a few minutes to cook out the booze, check the seasoning and adjust to your liking. To serve family style pour the sauce over the chicken on your platter and garnish with the toasted almonds and fresh parsley. Serve this with some rice and a nice green vegetable and you have a very pretty and pleasing plate. For the wedding we served it with white rice as requested but I would suggest a brown rice or maybe a nice mixed grain pilaf. Either way I'm sure this is one you will enjoy!!!

I love the brick wall background!!!

Chicken Fajita Flat Bread Wrap

Here's another outlet for some leftover chicken breast. I love chicken, there are just so many things to do with it. For this recipe you can use some left over chicken or you can start with fresh, either way take your chicken and cut it in strips. I think the general package size at the store is about a pound and a half. So lets work with that for chicken. Lets see what else we might need.

Chicken Breast, raw cut in strips                                        1-1/2 pounds
Red Bell Pepper, cut in strips                                             1 large
Green Bell Pepper, cut in strips                                          1 large
Yellow onion, cut in strips                                                  1 medium
Cajun Spice                                                                       to taste
Salad oil, for cooking                                                         about 1 ounce
Whole Wheat Flat Bread                                                    package of 6
Spring Mix Lettuce                                                             1 package
Colby Jack Cheese, shredded                                             about 10 ounces
Tomato, diced                                                                    1 large
Your favorite Ranch dressing

In a skillet with medium heat add the oil and chicken, season generously with Cajun spice, when the chicken is about 1/2 cooked add the peppers and onions and stir. Cooked until chicken is fully cooked and vegetables are hot and yet still a little crisp. Set up your flat bread and on each one place 2-3 ounces of cooked fajita mixture, 1-1/2 ounces cheese, about an ounce of  lettuce, a nice amount of diced tomatoes,  Ranch dressing and maybe some salsa as desired. Cut in 1/2 on the bias and serve it up. Add your favorite chips, fresh fruit, green salad or maybe even a pasta salad and you have a nice light summer meal. Enjoy!!!

BBQ Chicken Flat Bread

So I roasted a whole chicken and we only ate about half of it. What to do with the rest?........There are plenty of things we can make with left over chicken, the possibilities could go on forever but tonight we are going to focus on just one. BBQ Chicken Flat Bread. I found a nice flat bread made with stone ground whole wheat. The brand is Flat Out and you can usually find these by the deli at the grocery store. They are oblong and are about 10 x 8 inches. You can also use Pita bread for this recipe. The first thing to do is to strip all the chicken off the bones of your roasted chicken and chop it up some. I ended up with about a quart of chicken meat, to this I added about 1-1/2 cups of BBQ sauce, some fresh ground black pepper, a little garlic powder, 1/4 cup of honey and 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Put all this in a sauce pan and get it hot. While its getting hot preheat your oven to 400 degrees. I decided that we would have some sweet potato fries to go along with our flat bread. For this I used  about a pound of  fresh sweet potato, peeled it and cut fry size strips. Toss the sweet potato with  enough Olive oil to coat them well, season with a little sea salt, black pepper and garlic powder, I also added some Cajun spice just to give it a little kick. Lay the sweet potato fries out flat on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for about 30 -40 minutes. I found if you turn them at 20 minutes you will get better results and they will cook more even. Back to the flat bread.....Spread a generous amount of BBQ chicken evenly over the flat bread and top with a nice amount of shredded Colby Jack cheese. You can use a little cheese or a lot  depending on your own taste and really you can use what ever kind of cheese that you may prefer. Swiss, Mozzarella, Pepper Jack, sharp or mild Cheddar all work very well with this. Another option is to use BBQ pork or beef  instead of chicken, it just depends on what you are hungry for. Any way once you get the flat bread topped pop it in the oven for 10 -12 minutes. The cheese should be bubbly and starting to brown a little. Bring it out and cut in wedges or strips or squares, what ever you may prefer and eat it like you would a pizza. Add a green salad, maybe some sweet potato fries and you have a well balanced meal. Enjoy!!!

Camping Out

A week or so ago I had the pleasure of camping with the youth group. Although we didn't have great attendance it seemed that everyone had a good time. Of course if your camping at some point in time you will need to eat. For our dinner on Friday evening we decided that we would have some Cajun chicken breast, fresh grilled corn on the cob and some potatoes in foil. It's all pretty simple stuff and we cooked it all on the fire, something I haven't done for a very long time. The chicken I seasoned up with my homemade Cajun spice and we covered a grate from Seth's small grill with foil, propped it up over some good coals with a couple of  large logs and it cooked up real nice. I would say it probably took about 30 minutes. Before we started the chicken I cut up about 8 Idaho potatoes split them into 2 foil packages seasoned with a little salt, black pepper and plenty of garlic powder. Also you need to add about 3 or 4 tablespoons of butter to each foil package, wrap it all up good and put those potatoes right in the hot coals. These took probably 45 minutes and I moved them around some to help them cook evenly. Just push on the foil package and if it is soft the potatoes are done. I had planned on putting some onions in with them but found that no one else really had any interest in them so I left them out. If you like onions toss some in there it really adds a lot of flavor. The corn we cooked in one of those grills that they have up on a post. We built a fire in it let it build up some good coals, covered the grate with foil and covered the corn with more foil. It seemed to be cooking kind of slow so when the chicken came off the fire the corn got moved and soon was finished. Now I'm not sure, either every one was pretty hungry or the food was pretty good, either way there really wasn't much left over and everyone seemed to be full or at least close because it wasn't long before it was time for s'mores. Now James made what he called a Boy Scout S'more. He had at least 6 marshmallows, a full bar of chocolate and 2 full graham crackers. It looks awesome and I can't believe he ate the whole thing. We had a good time, ate well and I thought it would be nice to share with you our experience of cooking on the open fire. If  you are doing some camping you might try some of this out. Enjoy!!!

Grilled Bratwurst

Brats on the grill is like a staple of summer meals. You have to have those brats, it's just one of those things. I like to par-cook my brats first by placing them in a pot of cold water and bringing it up to a boil. Once it boils turn it off and the brats are ready to hit the grill. You may have noticed in the picture another type of sausage on my platter. Well if you are trying to avoid all the fat and calories of a bratwurst here is a good alternative. Hillshire Farms makes a Turkey Cheddar Sausage that is really pretty tasty, has only 6 grams of  fat and 120 calories. It grills up great and I have made it my alternative to the bratwurst. Of course others in the household don't need to worry about that stuff as much so they get the real thing. Anyway today with our brats we are having grilled sweet and Idaho potatoes. I slice them about a 1/2 inch thick the long way, toss them with a little Olive oil, pepper, garlic powder and some Cajun spice. Try to put the sweet potatoes in a cooler spot on the grill as they will burn easy, otherwise I start the potatoes before the brats as they will take just a little bit longer. Also I made a foil boat, chopped some onions and tossed them with a little Olive oil, the same seasonings and put them on the grill in a hot spot at the same time. You will need to give them an occasional stir. They cooked up real nice and turned a nice golden color. Add a bowl of Sweet Bavarian Kraut and all your favorite condiments and you have a great summertime meal. Enjoy!!!

Rosemary Roast Chicken

Today we are going to roast a whole chicken out on the charcoal grill. For this I bought a fryer that weighs about 5-1/2 pounds. Lets get the grill ready. We want to use indirect heat to roast the chicken so what you need to do is line the outside wall of your round Weber grill with the charcoal. Stack them on top of each other all the way around the grill until the charcoal is just below the level where the grate sits that you cook on. Today I used about 100 charcoal briquettes. Soak them good with some lighter fluid and fire those babies up. While the charcoal is getting ready we will prepare the chicken for the grill. First you need to make a foil boat to cook the chicken on. It should about 10 x 12 inches so double up the foil and make it a little larger as you will need to fold up the edges a couple of times to hold in the juices. Place your foil boat on a pan for support and once the chicken is ready you can slide it off right onto the grill. Next lets give the chicken a good bath rinsing it very well with cold water and place it back side down on the foil boat. Fold the wing tips back under the chicken so it looks like the chicken has its hands behind its head.  For seasoning I clipped some fresh Rosemary and Chives, rinsed them and gave them a little chop. I would guess about a 1/4 cup of each. Sprinkle the herbs over the entire chicken, season generously with fresh ground black pepper, garlic powder and some Cajun spice. Off to the grill we go. Slide the foil boat off the pan on to the center of the grill, place the lid on and let it cook.The chicken is going to take about 2 hours and should reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees. I usually check the thigh with a meat thermometer, be sure not to be touching the bone. You can also check the breast sticking the thermometer in close to but not touching the bone. The breast has a tendency to get done a little earlier than the thigh so I check the thigh. Tonight we are going to have a nice green salad and some fresh grilled corn on the cob to go along with our chicken. Two hours have passed and the chicken is done. Chicken is another one of those things when roasted whole it needs a little time to rest before you start cutting it up. Slide the foil boat off the grill and back on to the pan, take it inside and lay a piece of foil over it loosely. Grab your corn and head back to the grill, knock that charcoal down and spread it out, place the corn on the grill and put the lid back on. Give it a few minutes and turn the corn being careful to get some nice color and not to burn. The corn should take 10 minutes or so. When you have some nice color and it seems tender pull the corn and take it in. Try a little chopped cilantro and a squeeze of  lime on your corn in addition to the butter and salt and pepper you normally use. It really gives it some nice flavor. Well the corn is done, the chicken is ready and the salad is in the bowl....lets eat. Enjoy!!!

Baked Tilapia & Shrimp

They say that seafood helps your brain or that it is brain food. Well if that is the case then today we are going to get smart. There are many different ways to cook Tilapia  and we will explore some of those as time goes by but today we are going to keep it very simple and bake our fish and shrimp. Now if you are in an area where you can get fresh fish that's great, do it, but I'm here in Iowa and most everything you come across is going to be frozen. Now I can get some fresh stuff through work but I'm at home and I would never be able to use up the amounts that I would have to buy. So we have some frozen Tilapia  and some small shrimp that are frozen. You can put this in the refrigerator the day before and let it thaw or you can put it in a bowl and run some cold water on it for about 20 minutes and it should be thawed for you. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with some pan spray and lay out the fish and shrimp. Season the fish and shrimp with some fresh ground black pepper and some garlic powder and a little sea salt if you like. Cut a lemon into some wedges and give a good squeeze on to the seafood. A little fresh dill will be good and today I am going to save it for after the fish is cooked. Chop it kind of coarse and toss it on the fish when you are ready to eat. Bake the fish and shrimp for about 10 minutes, the fish should start to flake and the shrimp will be firm. Plate it up with some brown rice and a nice colorful vegetable and you have a wonderful, healthy and nutritious meal. And you know they say fish is BRAIN FOOD. Enjoy!!!