Culinary Clique.com » Tips and Tricks

What’s in Your Chicken?

Vickie — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 05:13:18 +0000

Salt is a preservative and a seasoning. I also use chicken broth in many recipes as well. That doesn’t mean I want my chicken pumped full of salt or broth, especially without me knowing it. There was an enlightening article in Cooking Light January/February 2011 about chicken being injected with salt water or chicken broth increasing the sodium to 330+ mg per 4 oz chicken breast. I made a bee line to my package of chicken breast that I bought from SAMS and it said each one had 370 mg/breast. The other mouth drop to this article was the packaging can still say “Natural or All Natural”. Again, very MISLEADING if you ask me. Be an informed consumer and know what you are buying! If I want that much salt, let me put it in!

Parmesan Chicken with (Optional) Creamy Sage Sauce

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup panko crumbs
1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon season salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 cup liquid butter (recipe: mix together 2 tablespoons room temp butter & 2 tablespoons canola oil)

(mix together the first 6 ingredients – cheese through pepper. Toss with garlic then add half of liquid butter and toss well until mixed well. Bread mixture should be moist but crumbly. Add remaining liquid butter if desire.)

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Spray baking pan with cooking spray then place thawed chicken breast in sprayed pan. Place parmesan bread mixture piled on 4 chicken breast. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until chicken reaches 165F.

Creamy Sage Sauce

1/2 cup white sauce (such as bechemel)
2 tablespoons no salt chicken broth
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons white wine
2 tablespoons liquid butter (optional & see recipe above)
1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage or 1 teaspoon fresh chopped sage
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Mix all ingredients together in a small sauce pan. Bring to a slow simmer at medium heat. Stir occasionally and heat until bubbly. Serve warm on the side with parmesan chicken.

Apple-a-Day

Vickie — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 05:10:42 +0000

Is it true what they say about an apple-a-day? Well I don’t know but when it comes to cooking, eating and baking, there is a difference. I came across this handy quick reference for apples on the Cooking Light site. It actually was in one of their magazine issues. So whether you want to make a pie, some apple butter (which I did and it was very good), dip in caramel, make sauce, bake in the oven with cinnamon, butter and brown sugar OR picking out an apple tree to plant….know your apples.

http://www.cookinglight.com/food/in-season/apple-types-recipes-00412000068665/page13.html

Try this really good apple butter recipe. I only made half the recipe and used granny smith apples so it would be a little tart and not real sweet.

A mixture of apple varieties, rather than just one type, will produce apple butter with rich, complex flavor in this slow cooker recipe. Good choices include Esopus Spitzenburg, Granny Smith, Jonathan, Northern Spy, Rome, Stayman, Winesap, and York. Enjoy the apple butter over toast or English muffins, or serve it with pork chops or chicken.

Yield: 4 cups (serving size: 1/4 cup)

Overnight Apple Butter

Ingredients

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup apple cider
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground mace
10 medium apples, peeled, cored, and cut into large chunks (about 2 1/2 pounds)

Preparation

Combine all ingredients in a 5-quart electric slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 10 hours or until apples are very tender.

Place a large fine-mesh sieve over a bowl; spoon one-third of apple mixture into sieve. Press mixture through sieve using the back of a spoon or ladle. Discard pulp. Repeat procedure with remaining apple mixture. Return apple mixture to slow cooker. Cook, uncovered, on high 1 1/2 hours or until mixture is thick, stirring occasionally. Spoon into a bowl; cover and chill up to a week.

Stovetop variation: Combine all ingredients in a Dutch oven. Cover and cook over medium-low heat 1 hour or until apples are very tender, stirring occasionally. Strain through a sieve as recipe instructs in Step 2. Return mixture to pan. Cook, uncovered, over medium-low heat 15 minutes or until thick, stirring frequently.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 132 (0.0% from fat)
Fat: 0.0g (sat 0.0g,mono 0.0g,poly 0.0g)
Protein: 0.1g
Carbohydrate: 35.3g
Fiber: 3.1g
Cholesterol: 0.0mg
Iron: 0.7mg
Sodium: 6mg
Calcium: 18mg

Domenica Marchetti, Cooking Light, OCTOBER 2004

Pumpkin

Vickie — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 03:59:55 +0000

I recently discovered that I could make a pumpkin pie as good as Mrs. Smith and not have to feel so guilty with each bite or pie I ate. What I also discovered is the I can make it from fresh from real pumpkin. This means I don’t have to start with canned pumpkin that has additives. It is so simple and makes the pumpkin taste great. It may be all in my head that it taste better but I know for a fact that it doesn’t end up around my belly.

First I started by shopping at my favorite farmers market for a pie pumpkin. Yes, it has to be a pie pumpkin.

Then I break off the stem (if it has one), cut it in half horizontally and clean out the insides by scraping it clean with a spoon.

Then place the pumpkin open side down on a jelly roll sheet (or a cookie sheet with sides). Bake the pumpkin for 1 hour at 350.

Remove from the oven and let cool.

Once the pumpkin is cool enough to handle, scrape out the inside flesh part with a spoon. It will be soft so it will come right out.

Use a permanent marker to write on 2 quart size freezer bags to label pumpkin. Place the bag over a large tumbler and flap the top edge of the bag over the lip of the cup. Spoon pumpkin from one of the halves in the bag. Repeat with the other bag and half of pumpkin.

Remove bag from tumbler, remove air and seal bag.

The fresh pumpkin is ready to freeze and one day become the best pumpkin pie ever.

Keep Ginger Root Fresh

Vickie — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:13:40 +0000

I love to cook with fresh ingredients when I can. Here is a tip I discovered while running my studio kitchen. Peel fresh ginger root with the round end of a spoon (keeps you from peeling off skin and works great). Then place the whole peeled ginger root in a plastic zip lock bag or glass jar and submerge it in vodka. I buy the cheapest vodka I can find. This will preserve the ginger. If you want to save time, mince the ginger in your food processor and then add vodka. With minced ginger just place measuring spoon in bag, squeeze out the vodka so excess will go back in the bag. Ginger will stay fresh for months.