Chicken Parmigiana

Hello there! I'm back. I have a whole load of recipes that I need to get posted, but I've had a serious lack of motivation. I spent over a week of not cooking, so now I need to get back in the groove of cooking and start posting.

Chicken parmigiana is one of my favorite Italian dishes. I'm not a fan of spaghetti but add some breaded, cheesy chicken then it is one of the best meals! This was one of those recipes that I sat down to the computer at 5:30 trying to come up with a meal and I had all the ingredients in the house. The original recipe calls for making your own sauce which I'm sure is delicious, but I had a jar of marinara sauce in the cupboard so I adapted.

This was by far the best chicken parmigiana I've ever made. We won't even consider the frozen, breaded chicken patties I used when my husband and I were both in school and working full-time. Ah I shudder to think I ever considered that dinner!

Chicken Parmigiana
adapted from The Pioneer Woman

4 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, Trimmed And Pounded Flat
1/2 cup All-purpose Flour
Salt And Pepper, to taste
1/2 cup Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Butter
1/2 Medium Onion, Chopped
1 clove chopped garlic
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 pound Thin Linguine

Preparation Instructions

Mix flour, salt, and pepper together on a large plate.
Dredge flattened chicken breasts in flour mixture. Set aside.

At this time, you can start a pot of water for your pasta. Cook linguine until al dente.

Heat olive oil and butter together in a large skillet over medium heat. When butter is melted and oil/butter mixture is hot, fry chicken breasts until nice and golden brown on each side, about 2 to 3 minutes per side.
Remove chicken breasts from the skillet and keep warm.

Without cleaning skillet, add onions and garlic and gently stir for 2 minutes. Pour in jar of spaghetti sauce let simmer for 10 minutes.

Carefully lay chicken breasts on top of the sauce and completely cover them in grated Parmesan. Place lid on skillet and reduce heat to low. Allow to simmer until cheese is melted and chicken is thoroughly heated. Add more cheese to taste.

Place cooked noodles on a plate and cover with sauce. Place chicken breast on top and sprinkle with more parsley. Serve immediately.

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

Wow it's really been a long time. Longer than I happy with! Here is a winning recipe to make up for it though :) Honey and lime have got to be my new favorite flavor combination! And I'm sure a lot of you have tried some variation of these delicious enchiladas. If you haven't... they are divine and you should! I adapted this recipe from one of my favorite go to recipe sites Mel's Kitchen Cafe. I left out the heavy cream to keep these enchiladas on the lighter side of the calorie spectrum. Enjoy!


Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas
adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

6 tablespoons honey
5 tablespoons lime juice (1 large lime)
1 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 pound chicken, cooked and shredded
8-10 flour tortillas
8-10 oz pepper jack cheese, shredded
24 0z jarred salsa verde (I used La Victoria)


Directions:
Mix together the honey, lime juice, chili and garlic powder. Pour over the shredded chicken and marinate for at least 1-2 hours longer if you can. When the chicken has marinated add chicken and cheese to the tortillas {save some cheese to sprinkle on top}and place in a greased 9 x 13in pan. Pour salsa verde over enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 degree for 25 minutes.

Delicious!

Chicken Taco Soup

We love this soup. We made this awhile ago and I literally ate taco soup every meal for about 4 days. I got this recipe from my neighbor Ruth Boulton. She brought us this as a meal after I had my baby this past January. I had to have the recipe. The best part is you probably already have most of the ingredients in your pantry right now!



Chicken Taco Soup
From Ruth Boulton

1 can diced tomatoes with juice
1 can corn with juice
1 can kidney beans with juice
1 can black beans with juice
2 cans cream of potato soup
3 chicken bouillon cubes
2-3 cups water
1/2 - 1 package reduced sodium taco seasoning
4 chicken breasts cooked and shredded

Directions:
Cook and shred chicken breasts. Add all ingredients in to a crock pot. Cook on high for 3 hours. Serve. If desired top with cheese, Fritos, and sour cream.

Serves 4-6

Notes: This can taste pretty salty with all of the ingredients especially if you add cheese and chips. Go for the reduced sodium items. Check labels and make sure your canned items don't have any unnecessary sodium added.

Acorn Squash Peach Baked Chicken

Technically it's still summer, but Autumn is just around the corner and I'm getting so excited. Today was the first day it felt like it's cooling down, however looking at the weather forecast it's going to be back in the 80s soon enough. I'm not complaining, but I would like to be able to go to the park without sweating.

More proof that Autumn is coming are the squashes and gourds that are filling the bins at the grocery store. I picked up an acorn squash with no plans for it, but after watching a recent documentary, Forks Over Knives, I'm really trying to focus on more vegetables and fruits in our diet. We do pretty good, but there is always room for improvement.

I'm so happy I stumbled across this recipe. It was really good. I didn't have chicken thighs or legs, like the recipe called for, but I'm sure it would taste even better if I had. Or even a whole chicken. Once again it has rosemary. I promise I use other seasonings. This meal was so good my 2 year old ate it all up.

Acorn Squash Peach Baked Chicken
adapted from Taste of Home

2 small acorn squash
2-4 minced garlic cloves
2 T olive oil
4 chicken drumsticks & 4 bone-in chicken thighs {or 2 chicken breast cut into smaller pieces}
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1 T rosemary
1 t Kosher salt
1 can sliced peaches in 100% juice, undrained

Cut squash in half lengthwise; discard seeds. Cut each half widthwise into 1/2 in slices; discard ends. Place slices in ungreased 13x9 baking dish. Rub garlic over squash and drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil. In a skillet, brown chicken in remaining oil. Arrange chicken over squash. Combine the brown sugar, rosemary and salt; sprinkle over chicken and squash. Bake, covered at 350 for 45 minutes. Pour peaches over chicken and squash. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes or until meat is cooked through.

Rosemary Citrus Chicken

I got this recipe from a recipe book my mother in law had. It's become one of our favorite meals. Growing up Sunday was always a nice, big meal. Since we are back in Virginia from our summer away I wanted to do a nice meal. I was able to pick up the chicken from the farmers market, for about the same price as the grocery store's organic chicken. I also picked up the rosemary at the farmer's market. This recipe calls for fresh rosemary and you must use fresh. I've never used otherwise, though I'm sure you can, but the flavor is more powerful with fresh. Typically I add red potatoes, but since we had friends over for dinner they brought the potatoes. This time I used homemade chicken broth using this method from the last time I made this recipe. It was delicious as always.
1 roasting chicken
salt and pepper
1 T whole fresh rosemary leaves
1 T finely chopped rosemary leaves
2 T olive oil
6 cloves garlic
1 lemon
1 orange
1 1/2 lbs red potatoes, cut up
1/2 bag carrots
2 c chicken broth

Preheat oven to 450. Season chicken cavity with salt and pepper. Cut lemon and orange in half. Set half of each aside for juicing later. Cut remaining orange and lemon in pieces. Loosely stuff cavity with cut up lemon, orange, whole rosemary leaves, 1 T olive oil, and 3 cloves garlic.

Squeeze juice from remaining orange and lemon into a small bowl. Add remaining 3 minced garlic cloves, 1 T olive oil, chopped rosemary, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Smear citrus mixture over the chicken. Place in roasting pan (I use a 9X13 glass dish) breast side up. Add the potatoes and carrots to pan. Season with salt and pepper then pour broth over them. Cover the pan with foil and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Uncover and cook for 15 more minutes.

Watch it get devoured.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Okay, Okay for my first post I know I'm not exactly adhering to our goal of mostly fresh... But I would like to think that this pizza is better for you than anything you might order in! Troy and I used to order pizza every Friday night because come Friday I was too burnt to out cook. That got expensive and overly greasy. Since my husband can't seem to go a whole week without eating his fave BBQ Chicken Pizza... I thought I'd try a hand at making my own. It was definitely easy and took me maybe all of 5 minutes?

*Notes: Sorry the measurements might be a bit off but it's pizza so you can honestly make it however you want! It's pretty hard to mess up! Also, I used green onions instead of red onions which are typically on BBQ Chicken Pizza. My husband doesn't like them but he doesn't mind green onions because they're more subtle. So if you like them I'd opt for the red onions! One more thing...this pizza doesn't make a whole lot especially if you have a husband like mine :) So if you are making this for more than 2-3 people I'd make a second pizza!

Ingredients:
1 Boboli 12in 100% Whole Wheat Thin Crust Pizza
1/2 cup (ish) of your favorite BBQ sauce (I used Famous Dave's)
1-2 cups shredded mozarella cheese depending on preference
2 cups shredded chicken
4 strips pre-cooked bacon cut in to pieces
3 green onions chopped (about a 1/2 cup)


Directions:
Preheat oven according to the directions on the Boboli package I believe it's about 450 degrees.

Spread BBQ sauce on pizza crust leaving a one inch border around the pizza. {Honestly, I just squirted the sauce directly on the crust until I got my desired amount. I estimated it was about a half cup. Do what suits you.}
Sprinkle on the cheese and then add chicken, bacon and green onions.

Bake 8-10 minutes. I put mine on parchment paper to make clean up a snap!

Chicken Posole

I love Mexican food. LOVE IT! The husband, not so much! But with following the Real Simple menu for a month we ate it. I really liked chicken posole. Definitely a meal for a cool day (which was not yesterday). I made some adaptions to the chicken. The recipe called for shredded rotisserie chicken, which would have been a lot easier, but my way was cheaper. I took about six chicken breasts and thawed them. Then seasoned with red pepper and oregano, wrapped in three different tin foil packets and baked at 450 for about 30 minutes. Then I used a fork to shred the chicken. Yum! Chicken posole has a nice spiciness to it and the lime added some good flavor.


1 T olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
Kosher salt
black pepper
32 oz chicken broth
1 can 28 oz diced tomatoes
1/4 crushed red pepper
2 cups shredded chicken
1 can hominy, rinsed (you can find hominy in the Mexican aisle and it comes in a 29 oz can, at least that's all I found, and I used the whole can)
1 lime, cut into wedges

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and 1/4 t of salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and beginning to brown, 10-12 minutes. Add the broth, tomatoes and pepper and bring to a boil. Stir in the chicken and hominy and simmer until heated through. Serve with lime. Serves 4.