Sweet Orange Chicken with Wild Rice and Baked Garlic

This recipe is funny because I was looking for some pineapple to marinate my chicken in (I was loosely planning to make teriyaki sauce) and all I had was orange juice, which sounded interesting.... next thing I know I made a pretty delicious meal.  To make teriyaki sauce I mix equal parts soy sauce, pineapple juice, and mirin with a few spoonfuls of brown sugar and a lot of garlic.  So for this recipe I substituted the pineapple juice for orange juice (I added extra orange juice), and I like it better!  Much better!  Here is the recipe. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Sweet Orange Chicken with Wild Rice and Baked Garlic
Serves 3-4

6-8 chicken thighs
1-2 cups uncooked wild rice
2 baby oranges
3-4 heads of garlic for baking (1 for each person you are serving, assuming they like garlic)
 
Sweet Orange Marinade:
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4-1/2 cup mirin
2 TBS brown sugar
6+ cloves of garlic, pressed

Follow directions on wild rice and begin cooking it, It will take roughly 45 minutes to cook.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix all of the marinade ingredients thoroughly with a fork.  Add chicken to marinade, flipping chicken to make sure you have both sides covered in the sauce.  I like to cook it with the bumpy side up, as the smooth side tends to dry out faster.

Place chicken in oven. You can cover the chicken with aluminum foil if you like.  It will make it more tender, but it will also cook faster.  Cooking time will depending on the size of your chicken thighs (hehe) and the amount of marinade you have.  Assume it will take at least 20 minutes, and check every 5 minutes after that.

Cook the whole garlic heads at the same time you cook the chicken, although the garlic will probably be done sooner than the chicken.  Place garlic in a pie dish and cover it with olive oil.  Cook for 20-30 minutes.

Serve chicken on a bed of wild rice topped with chopped baby oranges.  Give each guest a baked garlic and green salad. 

Velbekomme!

Pan Cooked Chicken Breasts with Lemon Pepper, Fennel and Caramelized Onions

OK, I admit it, I have been to Trader Joes a lot lately. A lot for me anyway. With some frozen chicken breast and some very exciting lemon pepper I came up with this dish, a nice and easy one pan-only kind of meal. I served it with feta cheese polenta. Big hit with the kids, although take it easy on the lemon pepper for them! Lesson learned :)

Pan Cooked Chicken Breasts with Lemon Pepper, Fennel, and Caramelized Onions

4 fresh or frozen chicken breasts, I got mine frozen from Trader Joes
1 onion
1 TBS butter
handful of fresh fennel
lemon pepper to taste

Begin by heating a cast iron pan on medium. When the pan has warmed add a dollup of butter and long slices of onion. Cook for a few minutes then add chicken, stir, cover for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes turn the chicken, and cover for another 5 minutes. Depending on the size of the chicken you may need to cook it for more or less time. Several minutes before it's done add a handful of fresh fennel and grind some lemon pepper over the chicken. Cover and cook until fennel is wilted and chicken is done.

Best served with feta polenta.

A Splash of Pinot Noir

The magnificent four: chicken thighs fried in butter, garlic, fresh thyme and steamed with a splash of Pinot Noir. 

Garlic, Thyme, and Wine Infused Chicken
serves 4
1 package of chicken thighs
3 TBS butter
3-4 cloves of garlic
6 fresh and tender sprigs of thyme
salt and pepper
splash of pinot noir

Heat a cast iron pan on medium, add 3 TBS butter, tip pan to spread the butter evenly.  Add crushed garlic and thyme sprigs.  Stir for up to a minute, being careful not to burn the garlic.  Add chicken thighs, fry for a couple of minutes, making sure to flip the thighs.  Salt and pepper to your taste.  Add a splash of Pinot Noir, flip thighs again and cover with a lid, turning the heat down slightly.  The thighs cook pretty quickly so keep an eye on them.  I think they took about 10 minutes to cook once I put the Pinot Noir in the pan.  Turn the thighs periodically as they cook. 

I made this dinner because I knew it would be delicious and quick.  I had just finished working at 7 PM, the kids were still up and hungry.  Dinner was ready within the half hour.  I served it with the always kid friendly noodles and my favorite sit fried broccoli in olive oil.  The chicken and broccoli would also be great with rice or polenta.  Have you ever used Braggs Liquid Aminos?  It is basically a soy sauce.  Add a bit of it to your noodles, chicken and broccoli.

Slow Cooked Chives and Rosemary Chicken in Red Wine

(Scroll down for Liver Sauteed in Olive Oil with Bay Leaves and Garlic Recipe)
There is something especially lovely about the smell of wine cooking.  I planned to use a white wine for this recipe, but due to my general laziness and a need to get the chicken in the oven before it was too late in the afternoon I opted for a nice red wine I had in the house.  Cooking a whole chicken in a clay pot takes at least 2 hours.  Depending on its size it can take 2-4 hours.  I usually like to give it 2.5 to 3 hours.  To get back to the wine, I was very pleasantly surprised by the results of the red wine and chicken in the clay pot.  It was wonderful!  This may be my favorite chicken-in-a-clay-pot recipe yet. The recipe is easy and has a minimum of ingredients (which I am very fond of) and uses in season  chives.

Cornish Game Hens in Tomato Bay Leaf Sauce

Two Cornish game hens fit easily in my clay pot.  I served them with purple potatoes, salad and fragrant quinoa cooked with mint leaves.  The tomato sauce was made with canned whole tomatoes crushed by hand with whole garlic cloves, bay leaves, and white wine.  Be sure to pour yourself a glass or two while you cook.  The sauce, pre-chicken is pictured below.  The hens are also great served with baked polenta.

After you have washed and dried the hens place them in the sauce covering them with the tomatoes and bay leaves, as pictured below.

I then placed the potatoes on the top, covered the clay pot and cooked the hens for about 2 hours. 

Above, hens pictured after cooking. 

Easy Balsamic Marinated Chicken or Salmon

This is one of my current favorite marinades for chicken, and I only just came up with it because it was so excellent on salmon.  In short, here is the recipe:

Balsamic Marinade for Chicken or Fish

3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup canola or olive oil
1/4 cup honey
1 small head of garlic or 4-8 cloves, whole
(makes enough marinade for 6 thighs or 2-3 large split chicken breasts or 2 pounds of salmon, or the equivalent)

Whisk first 3 ingredients together in a baking dish, until thoroughly mixed.  Marinate fish or chicken for 20-30 minutes before putting in preheated 350 F Bake oven.  Fish takes less time to marinate than chicken.  Cook until done to your liking.  Will depend on size and type of meat or fish and the cut. 

Excellent served with any kind of rice, asparagus, stir-fried kale, or green salad.

Fennel and Chopped Garlic Clay Pot Chicken

 My favorite way to cook chicken is in a clay pot.  The clay pot makes the chicken very tender and circulates the garlic and fennel flavors for hours making the chicken taste very flavorful.  I have included the recipe and this particular one happens to be my family's current favorite.

If you don't have a clay pot, check them out here. I got mine at our local thrift store at a small fraction of the price.

Soak your clay pot in water for 5-10 minutes before cooking in it.  Dry and oil the inside of the pot with canola oil or butter so that the chicken and vegetables will not stick to it.

 Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
handful fresh fennel, chopped
5-8 cloves of garlic
tsp salt
tsp pepper
optional TBS of each: fresh thyme and oregano
2 potatoes
2 beets, large

Preheat oven to 350F.

To prepare the herbs, dice a large handful of fennel and place in a bowl.  Peel 5-8 cloves of garlic.  Place the garlic, fennel, salt and pepper (and optional de-stemmed thyme and oregano) under the skin of the chicken.  I put the chicken breasts up in the pot and stuff the herbs and garlic under the skin on the breasts.  If it seems like a lot of fennel and garlic, that is good! 

place the two beets and potatoes on top of the chicken so that the lid still fits tighly over it all.  Cook for 2+ hours.  I recommend 2-3 hours, as the clay pot holds in the moisture and that extra time just makes the chicken more tender.

Serve with a green salad, rice, and good friends!

There are actually a few books you can buy about clay pot cooking, here is one.

Clay Pot Baked Chicken with Apples, Sage and Chives

I have several posts that have recipes for baking chicken in a clay pot. I have listed them below the pictures. In this particular recipe, dice culinary sage and sprinkle it over the top of the chicken 1/2 hour before it is done cooking. You can also add the apples at this time as they cook quite quickly in the clay pot. Serve with fresh raw chives chopped and added as a garnish. The total cooking time for a whole chicken is usually about 1 1/2- 2 hours (depending on the size of the chicken), although you can cook it for longer and still have tender meat.

Stella poses with the food

Herbed Clay Pot Chicken with Apples and Baby Potatoes Recipe:

http://notesfromtheislandblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/herbed-clay-pot-chicken-with-apples-and.html

Garlic Herbed Chicken in a Clay Pot & Spinach-Parmesan Salad Recipe:

http://notesfromtheislandblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/garlic-herbed-chicken-in-clay-pot.html

Helping the Hurt Chicken Heal: Some advice for treating injured animals

We currently have a hurt chicken on the farm. The hen has an eye damaged by I-don't know-what. Her eye is swollen and she is lethargic. She had stopped eating and drinking by herself so I placed her in a box in a private part of the barn with a heat lamp. I soaked her food in water and milk and fed her by sticking her beak into the water/food just enough to get her to respond. Check out the video to see how she is eating by herself now. The wound has a long way to go to heal though.

Growing up on a farm as a child I saw a lot of animals die. I began to try to help every one of them get better, as much as I could. I fed a mangled rooster and dressed his wounds everyday until he recovered from a gruesome cock fight. Little bunnies, birds, and mice rescued from the cats were released into the field, or buried under picked flowers and handmade crosses. To name just a few . . . I have learned a lot over the years and there are some must-dos in dealing with hurt animals (always check with your vet).

What do you do with a hurt animal? Here are some important things:

1. LOCATION: place the animal in a safe, quiet, and warm spot; a box works well. We often put chickens and other farm animals in the barn.

2. HEAT: keep the animal warm, as it may not be able to regulate it's temperature adequately. This is especially true if the animal isn't eating much or at all. Bring the animal into your home in a quiet, warm place. Or use a heat lamp in an outbuilding or barn. With a heat lamp err on the side of caution: you do not want to over-heat the animal.

3. WATER: must have! If animal doesn't drink on its own, use a bottle, syringe, or other implement to get water down the animal's throat. If the animal is in urgent need for sustenance (starvation/lack of food or water for prolonged time) feed the animal milk, honey-water, or soaked food/grain/feed, depending on the animal. Feed water to animal that is not drinking on its own as frequently as every hour during the day until you see improvement.

4. FOOD: See #3, you may need to soak the animals food in water and/or puree it to get it in the animal. Sometimes simplifying the food in the beginning is important. A starving kitten had kitten formula with extra water until she recovered. So no solids until the animal can eat them by itself.

5. WOUND TREATMENT: you may need a veterinarian for deep and/or large wounds, broken bones, internal injuries, and more. You can use raw honey to treat superficial wounds, it is antibiotic and very healing. Check with your veterinarian for more options.




VIDEO: Rose the Hen drinks her food while healing from a hurt eye

Balsamic Spinach, Noodle, and Chicken Salad: Spring Recipe that Kids Love!

Chances are, if it has noodles, my kids will like to eat it. In an effort to incorporate healthy vegetables I combined spinach, carrots, celery, artichoke hearts and baked chicken with long spaghetti-style noodles, which you can chop into shorter pieces (makes the salad easier to toss). For vegetarians, substitute a good vegi-burger with the chicken, or marinate bite-size tofu in balsamic vinegar overnight (or for 2+ hours). I use my favorite balsamic homemade dressing with the salad. This meal satisfies all appetites as it combines a great protein source (chicken or tofu), carbs, and a great vegetable mix. I love making a salad as a dinner's main course, and this one is excellent. Even 1-year old Stella enjoyed the noodles and chicken, which we chopped small for her.

RECIPE: Balsamic Spinach, noodle, and Chicken (or Vegetarian) Salad, for a family or dinner party of 4-ish:

Pre-Preparation:
1. Use already baked chicken the equivalent of 2-4 chicken breasts, but any chicken will do, cut into bite-size pieces.
Or, for Vegetarians: marinate bite size (small squares) tofu in a pan of equal parts balsamic vinegar & olive oil, rolling the tofu in the marinate to cover all parts. I use the plain white firm tofu, for this recipe use a whole package.
2. Precook spaghetti noodles (a day or several hours ahead of time, you can even make them the day before for a different meal and use the leftovers for this recipe) . You can cut the noodles into smaller lengths if you desire, although we kept ours whole.

Vegetables:
6-8 cups of baby spinach washed and spinned in salad spinner
2 carrots, scrubbed and cut into small thin strips
2 celery, cut like the carrots
1/2 can of artichoke hearts, cut into bite size pieces

Mix the chicken, noodles, and vegetables in a nice big wooden bowl, toss with balsamic dressing, see recipe below. Start with less dressing (1-2 TBS) and add as needed. Because there is no lettuce, you can have this salad the next day and it will not be soggy. Yay!

Sweet Balsamic Dressing: this recipe makes enough for a long-term supply, for us it would last about a month. get the best quality balsamic vinegar you can afford (checkout: http://www.balsamicvinegar.com/uk/storia.asp) and mix:

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
sugar to taste, I would use about 1 TBS for this amount.

Stir ingredients vigorously, or as I do it: put all ingredients in a salad dressing bottle with a sturdy lid and shake until sugar, oil and balsamic vinegar are mixed. You will need to shake or stir the dressing before you use it. It does not need to be refrigerated as vinegar keeps it fresh. If it is refrigerated the olive oil will harden, bummer.

Herbed Clay Pot Chicken with Apples and Baby Potatoes

The apples, potatoes and herbs in this recipe add a unique and very October taste to the chicken. If you cook the chicken for more than 2 hours your apples will be mush, but the flavor is wonderful. If you prefer to actually eat the apples too, not just use them as flavoring, add them 45 minutes before taking the chicken out of the oven.

For the herbs I used garlic (pressed), diced rosemary, and fresh thyme. For one chicken you will need about 5 garlic cloves, 1-2 TBS diced rosemary, and 2 TBS fresh thyme (take leaves off the sticks). The herbs may be stuffed under the skin (on the breasts) and be sure to save a little to sprinkle on top of the skin.

Above: Here is the chicken, apples, potatoes, and herbs. Use some olive oil to rub the clay pot with prior to placing chicken in as it will prevent the skin sticking to the sides, which is rather hard to remove! Cook the chicken, depending on size and oven temperature: 1-4 hours. Be sure to check the chicken to make sure it is cooked thoroughly. The clay pot method of cooking ensures that the chicken will be very tender.

Teriyaki Chicken with Pineapple, Stir Fried Broccoli, and Jasmine Rice

Making Teriyaki Chicken is a great way to turn normal ol' chicken into a tasty treat. I really enjoy making it for food trains because you can prepare the chicken the day before then cook it right before you bring it over to them. I usually pair it with a stir fry of vegetables and rice, that way you can mix the whole thing together and pour some of the extra sauce over the top. Here are the steps: The Marinade, The Vegetables & The Rice. See? Nice and simple. Double the recipe for a food train or if you want lots of leftovers! Serves 4-5

The Marinade:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup mirin (sweet rice cooking wine) or sake
2 TBS brown sugar
4 large garlic cloves (through a garlic press)
---1 package of chicken thighs, or about 6-8 thighs
---1 medium can of pineapples (small pieces) add these just before baking the chicken

Mix all ingredients of the marinade (minus the chicken) together and pour into a large baking pan (large enough to hold all the chicken). Add the chicken and turn it over so both sides have come into contact with the marinade. Cover and marinate overnight or for a minimum of 2-4 hours. It is best somewhere around 6-8 hours. Turn the chicken at some point so that both sides marinate.

Teriyaki Sauce to Serve the Chicken, rice and stir fry with:
* Take out about 1-2 cups marinade before cooking. Place in a small saucepan and before serving the chicken, cook at a low boil for 5-10 minutes. You can serve this as the teriyaki sauce at the dinner.

Keep in mind that the chicken will take somewhere around 1 hour +/- to cook. After you put it in the oven at 350 F bake & add the pineapple, start cutting vegetables for the stir fry.
The Vegetables:
2 large heads of broccoli
2 large carrots
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 large onion
1-2 TBS olive oil

Cut all the vegetables to stir-fry size, about the width of your finger or so. You can be creative with the cutting, but keep in mind that you want everything to cook at about the same rate, or else keep in mind that you will need to add ingredients in order of speed of cooking. In this recipe I like to cook all the ingredients at the same time. Heat the stove top on medium, when heated for a minute or so (at least on an old stove like I have!) add the olive oil and then the vegetables. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are firm, but cooked through.

The Rice:
4 cups water
2 1/2 cups Jasmin rice
1 TBS olive oil/butter

You can start the rice just before you start cutting and washing the vegetables for the stir fry. When the water comes to a boil add the olive oil or butter and then the rice, stir and cover, reducing heat to a low simmer. Check rice occasionally after 15 minutes, but try to keep it covered as it will cook better with the steam.

Chicken Sausage and Pinto Bean Soup

Yes, we still need warm & hearty soups here in the pacific northwest!! Brrrrrrr, it has been wet-cold for the last week with pretty much non-stop rain. This is good soup to make when you want to surprise your friends with a dinner. The recipe makes a lot of soup and it is a lot of fun to share it . . .


The Vegetables:
2/3 medium sized butternut squash: pealed, seeded and chopped small
1 onion, chopped
6 carrots, chopped
7 stalks celery, chopped
2 cups of chard or spinach chopped into 1" squares or smaller

The Other Stuff:
sprig of: rosemary, thyme, parsley and 2 bay leaves
4 TBS soy sauce or tamari

The Protein:
3 cups dry pinto beans soaked 6-8 hours
4 chicken sausages (or more if you like)
1-2 whole chickens, leftover from a dinner (ie: most of the meat is gone and bones remain) to make soup stock. You can freeze these used bones and take them out for these occasions.

• Cook the chicken bones in a 6-quart pan with 5 quarts of water for 3-4+/- hours. The goal is flavor and nutrient rich soup stock. I put the soup pan on the stove top on a low simmer early in the day and just let it cook while I go about my day. Then around 4-5pm I start the rest of the soup.

• Add the soaked pinto beans and "other stuff" (rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, parsley) and cook for another hour.

• Make sure the pinto beans are soft, but still well-formed before adding the vegetables. Add the chopped vegetables, except for the onion and the chard/spinach.

• Cook the onion and sausages in a separate pan with some olive oil until the sausage is hard enough to cut into rounds. Make sure the pinto beans and vegetables are all soft (done) before you add the sausage to the soup. Cut sausage into rounds and add it and the onion to the soup.
  
• Turn off the heat and add tamari, and 10-15 minutes before serving add 2 cups of chard or spinach and sprinkle parsley over the top. The heat from the soup will cook/soften the greens, but they will also retain their brilliant color as long as they are not over-cooked.
  

Serve with baked polenta, or all by itself! This is a complete meal in one bowl.

Hearty Spinach & Two Lentil Soup

I baked chicken last night and I like to use the leftover bones to make soup the next day. So today I made lentil soup from the chicken stock I cooked up. I am calling it 'two' lentil soup because I love mixing the small pink lentils with the bigger brown ones. With all the good vegetables and protein-packed lentils in this soup, it is incredibly satisfying. I begin by cooking the bones in 2-4 quarts of water for 2 or more hours. Decide how much soup you want leftover and add the amount of water accordingly. I based the ingredient amounts off of using 3 quarts of water. The soup is a perfect balance between watery and thick, if you like it at either end of the spectrum, add more or less water (or beans!).

Strain the bones out of the soup water after a minimum of 2 hours on medium boil. Add these ingredients:

1 1/2 cup brown lentils
1 cup small pink lentils
2 sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves

Now chop up these ingredients and add them after the lentils have cooked for 15-20 minutes:

5 stalks of celery, chopped
5 carrots, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, put through a garlic press
1 onion chopped

Cook above ingredients until done to your liking, make sure the lentils are fully cooked! It takes about 1 hour to cook after you add the lentils). Now add these ingredients: (The spinach gets added to the soup after you have turned off the heat. By the time you serve the soup and eat it, the spinach will be soft and will also retain its spectacular color)

2 TBS tamari or soy sauce
2-4 cups spinach, chopped

You can serve this soup as the one and only dish or have some crusty bread on the side to dip into the lentils. If you have guests, make a salad too.