Baked Chicken Legs with Indian Spices

Chicken can get- let's face it- rather boring.  It's also economical, healthy, and versatile, so it makes sense to make it a weeknight staple.  Which results in lots of people very tired of eating plain old boring chicken.

That's where this recipe comes in.  When I saw the chicken legs in the store's natural section, I couldn't resist buying them.  So much more exciting than the tenderloin pieces I had in mind!  Something about chicken legs just seems festive to me... maybe because they are reminiscent of hit wings or the legs off of the turkey at holidays... I don't know.  They do have more fat than a lot of other pieces of chicken, but if you take off the skin, it's not too bad.  I do keep the skin on for baking, as it makes it bake more tastily and is there for the people who want it.

And this recipe is VERY easy and relatively quick.  You can change up the spice mixture to anything that complements the rest of your dinner.  I went with this because I was serving it alongside an eggplant curry.  You can also cut the recipe in half- I always make extra so I don't have to cook dinner the next night, and also have leftovers for lunch.

What you need:

3.5 pounds chicken legs (two 1.75 pound packets)
1.5-2 teaspoons salt
2-3 teaspoons garam masala
1 teaspoon ginger
0.5 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
1.5 teaspoons onion powder
1.5 teaspoons cumin
1-2 tablespoons brown sugar (I used the Truvia Brown Sugar Blend to cut down on sugar)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.  Mix together all of the spices.  Rub spice mixture on each chicken leg, making sure to go under the skin as well (especially if you aren't going to eat the skin!).  Place on a baking sheet, making sure that the legs are not touching each other.  Bake for about 35-40 minutes, turning halfway through.  They should be a nice dark brown and juices should run clear.

Enjoy!

Braised Chicken Thighs with Apples and Cumin

This is a pretty quick recipe braising recipe and all stove-top.  You could certainly finish in the oven if you are using a Dutch oven, but I don't have one here, so I went stove-top all the way.  Still delicious.

If you want to perfect your braising method, take a look at this link to Bon Appetit.  It's basically a list of rules that should be followed for anything that you want to braise.  I didn't really follow their rules too well, but I'm sure if you took the time to, you'd really have a prize-worthy dish.  My recipe simplifies braising for the perfect stress-free weeknight dinner.

I made this to accompany leftover vegetables from the night before.  (and then I didn't finish this post yesterday... so we just had the now leftover chicken tonight and it was even better!  I love making plenty for leftovers. :-))

What you need:

1 1/2 boneless and skinless chicken thighs, extra fat trimmed (if you have bone-in, up the cooking time)
2 teaspoons coconut oil or olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
2-3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 medium onion, cut into small pieces
2 small/medium apples, cut into chunks (core removed, of course.  but I left the skin on)
dash of cayenne
2-3 teaspoons (or more) cumin
salt and black pepper to taste (I don't think I ended up adding any salt-the chicken broth was enough)


Heat oil on medium-high in a large pot or high-walled saucepan.  Place chicken thighs evenly in pan, so that they all have a full side on the bottom (if there is not enough room, do batches).  Let sear for 3-5 minutes and flip.  Sear on that side for another 3-5 minutes.  The chicken should get a nice deep brown on it.

At this point, you can do this more properly and remove the chicken from the pan- I didn't do this.  Either way, next, add your apples and onion.  Saute for 4-6 minutes to achieve a little browning.  Add a splash or two of the vinegar if things are sticking too much at any point.  Add your chicken back in if you removed it.  Add the rest of the vinegar and add the chicken broth.  Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and let simmer for 20 minutes.  I left my lid just a TINY bit cracked to let steam out.  Remove the lid and let the sauce cook down a little more for about 5 minutes.  Add the cumin, cayenne, and black pepper (and salt if it needs it).

This would probably be fitting to serve over rice or quinoa if you want. We had it as is though.

Enjoy!

Thai Curry Chicken with Butternut Squash

This is an easy recipe to put together on a weeknight... especially since I used a store-bought jar of Thai Red Curry Sauce from Trader Joe's.  You can sub in a different sauce if you want, or play around with making your own- coconut milk and a lot of curry powder would probably do the trick.

Lately, I've been making a lot of chicken in the oven while I do some sort of vegetable on the stove. Super easy, and you don't have to monitor two frying pans at once. A two and a half pound bag of chicken tenderloins lasts us for three or four dinners, and I just make new vegetables to go with the leftovers to mix it up.

I had leftover cooked butternut squash from last week when I made Coconut Curry Butternut Squash Soup.  Some of it got used up over the weekend when I made some nachos and added chunks of cooked squash to them (give it a try!), but I still had a over a quarter of my large squash.  And I had this jar of sauce that I bought on a whim sometime earlier.

So I went with it.  You could leave out the butternut squash if you want, but it really added to the dish.  In fact, next time I'll be adding more.  Because I had a lot of chicken, I added a few spices.  But if you had less chicken, there'd be no need and you could just stick with the jar of sauce.  You could also jazz it up with some onion, fresh ginger, and/or jalapenos if you have the time or inclination.

What you need:

2 1/2 pounds of chicken tenderloins
I (11 ounce) jar of Thai Red Curry Sauce
1-2 teaspoons curry powder
1-2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
~2 cups cubed cooked butternut squash (or more, but that's all I had on hand.  Next time I'll be adding more)

Heat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.  Mix everything but the squash together in a 13 x 9 inch baking pan or casserole dish.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Add squash and mix it in.  Bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through (internal temp registers 165 F if you use a thermometer).  Or cut into a couple and make sure the juices run clear.  Enjoy!

Broiled Chicken Tenderloins with Indian Spices

This is an incredibly easy and quick recipe that is a perfect method for cooking chicken tenderloins.  You can vary the spice mixture however you want so that it fits with whatever else you're cooking.  This is a fairly large recipe, which means you can use the leftovers for lunches, because they'd be perfect for topping a salad or putting in a wrap.

What You Need:

Spice Mix: 

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

2-3 teaspoons cumin

2-3 teaspoons garlic powder

2-3 teaspoons garam masala or curry powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 1/2 pounds chicken tenderloins

Olive oil spray

Mix together spices.  Place tenderloin pieces in a large bowl.  Rub all over chicken tenderloin pieces. Cover.  Let sit in refrigerator for 2 hours if possible.  Take out of the fridge 20 minutes before cooking.  Preheat oven to broil on high.  Lightly spray a large sheet pan or two smaller baking pans with olive oil.  Arrange chicken on pan(s) so that the pieces are barely touching each other.  Broil for 5-6 minutes and then flip to opposite side.  Broil for another 5 minutes, or until cooked through.

Serve with tzatziki sauce if desired.

Simple Chicken and Vegetable Stew (CrockPot Recipe)

This is SO quick and easy to make.  Well, quick if you don't count the 4-5 hours it takes in the CrockPot.  But, it's only 10 minutes of prep to start and maybe another 5 minutes near the end.  And it's tasty- reminds me of chicken and dumplings, minus any actual dumplings (though you could add some in if you wanted).  I usually brown the meat I am using when I do things in my CrockPot (to add flavor), but today I didn't feel like it.  In fact, I didn't even feel like taking the chicken out to thaw early enough.  So I put it in completely frozen and obviously un-browned.  And, yep, it's still delicious in the end, and WAY less work.  You could even put everything in the pot the night before and refrigerate it until morning and let it cook while you are at work, or running errands, or whatever.

What you need:

11/2-2 pounds chicken tenderloins, frozen or thawed (just cook a little less if yours are thawed)
1 medium onion, chopped into rough chunks
2 stalks of celery, chopped
8 ounces cremini or button mushrooms, either sliced in half or quartered
1 medium yellow summer squash, cut into 1 inch slices and quartered
1 (13 ounce) can of 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons dried parsley
2 teaspoons dried oregano


Place chicken in the crockpot first.  Top with the onion and celery, then the mushrooms, and finally the squash.  Pour the cream of mushroom soup, the worcestershire sauce, and a 1/2 cup of water over the top.  Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours.  Remove cover and add the cherry tomatoes.  Scoop out a couple tablespoons of the broth and place in a small dish.  Stir the cornstarch into this and keep stirring (or whisking) until smooth.  Add back into the crockpot.  Add the garlic powder, pepper, parsley, and oregano.  Keep cooking on high for 20 minutes uncovered to let it thicken a bit.  And done!

Try serving it by itself, with croutons, or over rice. Enjoy!

Mediterranean Chicken and Roasted Vegetable Salad

Lately I've been on a serious roasted vegetable kick.  So this recipe is pretty similar to others I have posted recently, but has the significant addition of chicken.  No need for any sides other than maybe a little bread (though I did make a naan bread pizza with anchovies, fresh tomato, olives, and feta to accompany this for Rob).

Start by making the roasted veggies (these could even be made the day before and then stored in the fridge):

What you need:

A couple pounds of eggplant (maybe two medium- I used a variety of baby ones and part of a big one, because that's what I had), cut into 1-inch thick rounds
1/2 pound carrots or baby carrots- carrots should be cut into 1/8 inch slices and baby carrots cut in half if they are fat ones
1-2 red peppers, kept whole
1 medium onion, chopped roughly
1 pound cremini mushrooms, cleaned and kept whole

Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Spray two 13 x 9 pans with olive oil (or if you only have one, you can do this in batches, which is what I actually did).  Spread the eggplant and carrots across one pan, and the onion, red pepper, and mushrooms on the other.  Spray everything with olive oil and then season with salt and pepper.

Roast the eggplant pan for an hour and the other pan for 30 minutes.  If done, the vegetables should be soft and slightly browned.  Let cool and chop everything into bite sized pieces (make sure to remove the skin and seeds from the red pepper).  Place everything in a bowl.

For the rest of the salad:

1/2 pound- 1 pound cooked chicken, depending on how protein heavy you want it to be (see note below for cooking tips/ ideas)
1 cup sliced and quartered cucumber
1-2 cups cherry tomatoes, quartered
2 tablespoons capers
1/4 chopped Greek or Kalamata olives
1/2-1 cup chopped artichoke hearts (use the marinated ones if you don't mind the extra oil, or just the ones in brine, which is what I did)
4 anchovies, finely chopped
3-5 pickled jalapenos, chopped
1-2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon olive oil
Black pepper, garlic powder, oregano, basil, and salt to taste (I probably used about 2 teaspoons each black pepper, oregano, and basil.  A ton of garlic powder, and a just a bit of salt, because my chicken was already seasoned, as were the veggies from the oven)

Optional (I would have added all of these, but circumstances on Saba prevented me from doing so):
1 head of roasted garlic, with the garlic squeezed out
Fresh Basil leaves
Fresh arugula (add this at the very end)

Mix everything together, refrigerate for an hour or a few, and serve on a bed of lettuce.  Sprinkle a little feta cheese on top if ya like.  Enjoy!


*Making the chicken:

You can simply boil the chicken, use meat from a rotisserie chicken (though not if you live on Saba), use leftover grilled, or saute some up like I did.  I used boneless chicken tenderloins and cooked them whole, because they are small enough that this works.  If I use breasts, I cut them up first.  Just heat your pan, add a good spray of olive oil, and add the chicken after it heats a bit.  Add a bit of salt right from the get go, because this helps the meat cook.  I also seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, poultry seasoning, and za'atar ( a Middle East spice mixture that I thought would work well with the rest of the salad).  When the chicken was almost done, I added a splash of white wine and lemon juice, turned down the heat to low, and covered it for the last couple minutes.  Once it's cooked, let it cool and cut into bite-sized pieces.

Pumpkin Coconut (and lots of veggies) Chicken Curry

I just finished eating this, and am trying to do this post as soon as possible to try to get things accurate.  Even so, this post is going to be a lot of estimation and open to a lot of personal interpretation.  Also, I'm still sweating from eating it, so if you don't like spicy, you'll want to cut the heat.

What you need:

1 pound of chicken cutlets of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil spray
Splash of white wine
1 large onion
2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
3 tablespoons minced garlic
1/2- 2/3 cup roughly chopped Fresno peppers or jalapeno peppers (reduce this or use milder peppers to cut back on the heat)
1-2 teaspoons soy sauce or Ketjap Manis
2 tablespoons red curry paste
1 medium eggplant, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1 inch chunks
3/4 cup to 1 cup cooked pumpkin (I used canned because that's what I had)
1/2-1 cup coconut milk
1 can chicken broth (or equivalent water and chicken bouillon)
1 can diced or stewed tomatoes


Start by cutting the chicken into 1 and a half inch chunks.  Toss in a bowl with salt, pepper, and garlic powder (I used about a teaspoon of salt, a couple teaspoons of pepper, and a couple teaspoons garlic powder).  Heat a large pot greased with the olive oil spray on high.  Throw chicken in the pan and sear, stirring every couple of minutes to make sure all sides are browned.  Toss a splash of wine in the pan to loosen up the browned stuff at the bottom of the pot.  Dump chicken into a bowl (it does not need to be cooked through at this point, just browned).  Place pot back on stove, grease again, and add the onion, ginger, garlic, hot peppers, eggplant, soy sauce, and curry paste.  Saute until slightly browned and slightly softened, then add the bell pepper and the chicken.  After a couple minutes, add the coconut milk, pumpkin, chicken broth, and tomatoes.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

After tasting, if you think it needs something more, try fish sauce, more soy sauce or Ketjap Manis, or some Sambal Badjak (type of chili-based sauce used in Indonesian cooking).

I served it over a bed of lettuce for me and rice for my boyfriend.  Topped it off with a cilantro-mint sauce I made.  Yum!

Greek-Style Chicken Wraps or Salad with Yogurt Tahini Sauce

YUMMM!  The yogurt-tahini sauce is what REALLY makes this.  It is so good.

The wrap version, pre-folding.

And in salad form.

Since the sauce is the big deal here, let's start with that.  Just mix the following ingredients together:

1.5 cups low-fat yogurt
2 tablespoons tahini
1 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoons black pepper (freshly ground is preferable)
1-2 tablespoons garlic powder (or less, if you're not a garlic fiend like me)
2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1/4 cup minced onion
juice of one lemon

Now, to make the wrap or salad:

Base: Wrap plus a little lettuce OR bed of lettuce

Toppings:
-Cooked Chicken ( I pan-fried some chicken tenderloins in a teeny bit of olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper.  You could also use some leftover chicken, grilled chicken, or whatever.  Or some cooked ground beef or lamb if you wanted)
-Sliced tomatoes, cucumber, olives, onion
-Feta Cheese

Layer your toppings on top of the wrap or bed of lettuce and then drizzle with the sauce.  Enjoy!

Peanut Pesto Chicken Salad

What you need:

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

1/2 cup EACH finely diced onion and celery

1/2-2/3 cup Peanut Pesto (see my previous post for this recipe)

1/3 cup olive oil mayonnaise (or try fat free or reduced fat)

1/3 cup chopped sundried tomatoes

Mix everything together.  Let sit for a few hours before serving.  Enjoy!

I stuffed this into pita pockets for my boyfriend, but it would also work well on top of a green salad if you want to go a bit lighter.

Simple Roast Chicken

Quick, easy, and delicious. 

What you need:
1 whole chicken, 5-8 pounds
Black Pepper, Garlic Powder, Fresh Rosemary, and Sage (Also salt if your chicken is not presalted- the ones I've been buying are)

Thaw the chicken completely and remove the bag of giblets.  Wash the chicken, pat dry, and place in a large roasting pan (if you have a rack, use this and your chicken will be crispy on all sides.  I don't have one, so the bottom doesn't crisp).  The chicken have its legs sticking in the air.  Season the skin with the spices, and, if you want, also season under the skin.  Throw a couple extra sprigs of rosemary in the pan.  You can also place the giblets in the pan- it will add flavor to the juice and you can eat them if you want to.

Heat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place chicken in the oven and roast for 1.5-2 hours, depending on the size.  Mine, which are around 7 pounds, take two hours.  The skin will be brown and crispy, and the internal temperature should be 175-180 degrees.  Remove from oven and let sit for 15 minutes before slicing.  Enjoy!

Note:  Keep the carcass to make some rich, homemade chicken stock.

Guava Chicken Curry

This was a bit of an experiment, so the ingredients are really just estimations, but anyone on Saba who finds themselves with a bunch of guavas, give this a try!

First, make the curry sauce:

Cut a few pounds of guava into quarters.  Puree half of these in the blender (you will need to add a little water to these to help them blend).  Put all of the guava into a large pot, add a couple cups of water, a few tablespoons of soy sauce, 1/4 cup curry powder, and a couple of hot peppers, cut into chunks.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer until sauce is thick and peppers are cooked.  Remove from heat and let cool a bit.   Then strain the sauce in a fine mesh strainer to eliminate most of the seeds.  Keep the big chunks of guava and pepper, but rinse to remove any guava seeds.  Put the chunks of guava and pepper into the strained sauce and add a cup of coconut milk.  The sauce is done!   This can be made ahead of time and refrigerated until you are ready to make the rest of the curry.

To make the rest:

Chop up some garlic, onion, bell peppers, mushrooms, and hot peppers.  Sautee in a large greased pot with a few tablespoons of curry powder and a couple teaspoons of fennel seeds.  Add one pound of chopped chicken breast.  Sautee until chicken is lightly browned, then add the guava sauce.  Let simmer on low for 45 minutes, adding water if it becomes too thick.  If it needs more seasoning, add garlic powder, black pepper, cumin, and coriander to taste.  Just before removing from the heat, throw in some chopped fresh basil and mint.

Serve over rice or a bed of lettuce.  Top with a sprinkle of goat cheese or feta cheese if desired.  Enjoy!