Chicken with Wild Rice and Grapes

Tonight we had Chicken with Dijon Vin Blanc Sauce, which I have blogged about twice now. It is just so good! So since I made a repeat tonight, I decided to blog about a recipe that I did last week that I hadn't gotten around to posting yet. This Chicken with Wild Rice and Grapes recipe came out of the latest issue of Real Simple (fantastic magazine!). As I mentioned last week, I'm going to still do some Pampered Chef recipes but also check out recipes from other sources as well! This one was definitely worth it!

This recipe was so tasty! All of the flavors paired together perfectly. I didn't check the nutritional information for this recipe until after I had bought all of the ingredients, and I was a little surprised at how may calories was in one serving. Definitely more that what we normally have at dinner. BUT, one serving size was so much food!! A serving size included two chicken thighs (plus the rice, grapes and green beans), but we were both full after only one chicken thigh each. The fact that it used thighs probably made the calories add up also. You could cut some calories out by taking the skin off the chicken thigh, or even by substituting the thighs with some boneless, skinless chicken breasts. It would still be just as delicious! The wild rice also had a lot of sodium in it, but you could definitely get by without adding the whole packet of seasoning that came with the box of wild rice. Or just use brown rice instead!

Everything was really easy to put together! I didn't run into any major disasters and as I said already, there was a lot of flavor in the dish! I thought that the grapes added a nice touch. So, not the most healthy dish, but a yummy treat when you want to splurge a little!

Chicken with Wild Rice and Grapes

Real Simple 

Published by Real Simple, Oct 2011 issue

Hands-on time: 20 minutes  Total time: 40 minutes  Yield: 4 servings

1 cup wild rice blend

2 tsp olive oil

8 chicken thighs (about 3 lbs)

Kosher salt and black pepper

2 cups red seedless grapes

1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves

1 lb green beans, trimmed

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1. Heat oven to 425°F. Cook the rice according to the package directions.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper. In 2 batches, cook the chicken, skin-side down, until golden, 5 to 6 minutes, then transfer to a rimmed baking sheet. Place skin-side up and roast until cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes.

3. Add the grapes and thyme to the drippings in the skillet and cook, tossing occasionally, until the grapes begin to burst, 5 to 7 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, fill a large pot with 1 inch of water and fit with a steamer basket; bring the water to a boil. Place the green beans in the basket, cover, and steam until tender, 5 to 7 minutes; toss with the butter. Serve with the chicken, rice, and grapes.

Chicken Mole Pizza

I know what you're thinking. "Hey, that's neither chicken nor pizza!" You're right! This is actually what we had for dinner tonight - salmon stuffed with crab meat with a side of brown rice. I wish I could take credit for this, but Food Lion had this crab-stuffed salmon already nicely packaged up for me so that all I had to do was stick it in the oven! Quite delicious!

Here is the Chicken Mole Pizza:

I had my first Pampered Chef party this past Sunday! That was so much fun! We had a great turn out, and Stephanie (www.pamperedchef.biz/sbissette) made the Chicken Mole Pizza. This recipe features the new Pampered Chef Mole Rub, which is made up of coffee, cocoa and citrus - smells great and adds a nice, unique kick to whatever you use it with! 

As Stephanie demonstrated at the show, this recipe is really easy to make, and everyone agreed that it had a great flavor to it and turned out really tasty! We cooked two chicken breasts in the microwave and baked the pizza crust beforehand. I couldn't find the 11oz package of thin crust pizza crust, so I got a 13.8oz package of refrigerated pizza crust and it worked out just fine!

After a few chops and dices, just mix everything together, spread it on top of the pizza and you're good to go! One thing I liked about this recipe is that it has you mix the tomato sauce in with all of the other ingredients, rather than spread it on top of the dough first and then add the toppings. I think mixing it in with everything else gives a nice distribution of the sauce. We only put avocados on half of the pizza and let everyone sprinkle their own cilantro on their slices if they wanted it, since those are two ingredients that not everyone is crazy about. 

The pizza was a hit! A great idea of something to have if you have a group over at your house. I'll definitely be making it again!

Chicken Mole Pizza

Yield: 12 servings

2 cups corn chips

1 pkg (11 oz) refrigerated thin crust pizza crust

1 small onion

1-2 limes

1 can (8 oz) unsalted tomato sauce

3 tbsp Mole Rub

2 cups diced cooked chicken breasts

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 avocado

2 plum tomatoes (optional) 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C). Place corn chips into large resealable plastic bag; press to crush chips. Lightly brush Large Bar Pan with vegetable oil using Chef's Silicone Basting Brush. Unroll dough onto bottom of pan, gently stretching and pressing dough to cover bottom. Sprinkle crushed chips evenly over dough; press to adhere. Bake 8–10 minutes or until crust is light golden brown.

2. Meanwhile, coarsely chop onion using Food Chopper. Juice limes to measure 1 tbsp (15 mL). In Classic Batter Bowl, combine lime juice, tomato sauce and rub using Small Mix ‘N Scraper®. Add onion and chicken; mix well.

3. Remove pan from oven to Stackable Cooling Rack. Top crust evenly with chicken mixture and cheese. Bake 8–10 minutes or until crust is deep golden brown and cheese is melted. Remove pan from oven to cooling rack.

4.  Meanwhile, dice avocado using Utility Knife. Seed and dice tomatoes; chop cilantro, if using. Top pizza evenly with avocado. Sprinkle tomatoes and cilantro over pizza, if desired. Cut pizza into 24 pieces with Pizza Cutter; serve using Mini-Serving Spatula.

Caribbean Tuna Cakes

This is the picture in the cookbook of what tonight's recipe was supposed to look like:

And this is a picture of what it looked like for me:

Yeah, I need to work on my tuna cake making skills...

I'm really not sure what I did wrong. I only did one thing differently than what the recipe said, but I really thought that what I did differently wouldn't make that much of a difference. The recipe calls for the use of panko bread crumbs, which according to the cookbook, are Japanese bread crumbs that contribute a delicate crunch in pan-fried foods. Well, I forgot to get panko bread crumbs. I thought to myself, "SURELY, I can just use regular bread crumbs." For some reason, that did not work.

I put all of the ingredients together, including my one cup of regular bread crumbs, but I could not get everything to stick together! I tried so hard to pack the mixture together into the little cakes, but it just would not pack together! I got them sort of packed into little patties, and then dredged them in some flour (since I didn't have the panko bread crumbs for that stage of the recipe), but they were barely holding together as I put them in the pan. Then when I tried to flip them, well, just forget it! It didn't work. They were all breaking apart, so I finally said, screw it. All of the patties were breaking apart, so I just dumped the rest of the tuna mixture into the pan and mixed it all around, heating it through. 

I felt like the sketchy cafeteria lady slapping a spoonful of mystery tuna mush on the plates.

BUT, good news is that it still tasted good! The Jamaican Jerk really gave it a nice kick. I don't have the special Pampered Chef Jamaican Jerk Rub, so I just got some Jamaican Jerk spice from the grocery store. Adding that spice to both the tuna cakes (mush) and dressing was really good!

Good thing I wasn't trying to impress anyone with presentation tonight! My husband said that it still tasted great, which in the end I suppose taste is more important than how it looks! Oh, and also, the cookbook says that it only takes 20 minutes from beginning to end. That is a lie. It took me way longer! If anyone tries this recipe and has success, then please let me know what you did to make it work!!!

Caribbean Tuna Cakes

Pampered Chef 29 Minutes to Dinner, Volume 2

Published by The Pampered Chef, Ltd. in 2009.

Total time: 20 minutes  Yield: 4 servings

Dressing and Salad

1/2 cup mayonnaise

4 tsp lime juice

1 tsp Jamaican Jerk Rub

1 bag (6.5 oz) butter lettuce mix (2 1/2 cups)

Tuna Cakes

1 small red onion

1 small green bell pepper

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 1/3 cups panko bread crumbs, divided

2 tbsp Jamaican Jerk Rub

1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed

2 cans (6 oz) chunk light tuna in water, drained

2 tbsp vegetable oil, divided

1. Combine mayonnaise, lime juice and rub in Small Batter Bowl; set aside. For tuna cakes, finely chop onion and bell pepper with Food Chopper. Combine mayonnaise, 1 cup of the bread crumbs and rub in Classic Batter Bowl. Add onion, bell pepper, beans and tuna; mix well. Place remaining bread crumbs in Coating Tray. Using Large Scoop, scoop one heaping scoop of the tuna mixture, packing firmly. Add cake to tray; gently flatten with back of scoop to 3/4-in. thickness. Turn cake over to coat lightly with bread crumbs. Repeat with remaining tuna mixture for a total of 12 cakes.

2. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in (10-in.) Skillet over medium heat 2-3 minutes or until shimmering. Add half of the cakes; cook 2-3 minutes or until golden brown, turning once. Heat remaining oil in Skillet 30-45 seconds or until shimmering. Repeat with remaining cakes.

3. Toss lettuce with 2 tbsp of the dressing. Serve cakes with salad; drizzle with remaining dressing.

BBQ Roasted Chicken with Parmesan Potatoes

I have decided to change my blog a little bit! Although I absolutely LOVE Pampered Chef and all of their recipes I have tried so far, I'm not going to limit myself only to Pampered Chef now. I am still going to do at least one Pampered Chef recipe each week, but if I see a recipe somewhere else that looks good, then I'm going to check it out!

I got this recipe from the Kraft website, and it was very yummy! It was really easy to make and had a lot of flavor to it. There isn't much prep work to do, but the bake time is a little lengthy, so make sure you have enough time to spare when you do this recipe. 

I cooked everything for the exact amount of time that the recipe called for, and the chicken turned out SO juicy and tender! I think the potatoes could have stayed in the oven just a little bit longer, but they still turned out tasty! Definitely try this one out!

BBQ Roasted Chicken with Parmesan Potatoes

Prep time: 10 minutes  Total time: 55 minutes  Yield: 4 servings

1 lb. small red potatoes (about 8), quartered

1/4 Kraft Italian Vinaigrette Dressing made with Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1-1/2 tsp. chili powder, divided

4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 lb.)

1/4 cup Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce

2 tbsp. Kraft Grated Parmesan Cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. Toss potatoes with dressing in 13x9-inch nonstick pan; sprinkle with 1/2 tsp chili powder. Bake 25 minutes.

3. Stir potatoes; push to sides of pan. Place chicken in single layer in center of pan; sprinkle with remaining chili powder. Drizzle with barbecue sauce.

4. Bake 20 minutes or until chicken is done (165°F) and potatoes are tender. Transfer chicken to platter. Stir potatoes to evenly coat with pan drippings. Spoon around chicken on platter; top with Parmesan.

Maple-Bourbon Glazed Salmon

If you don't try any other recipe that I post in this blog, then at least try this one!! The flavor in this dish was absolutely amazing. My husband and I both took our first bites at the same time, and we both looked at each other with this "holy crap this is delicious" look on our faces. The flavor of the glaze combined with the seasoning and the salmon itself was quite incredible. 

One thing I really loved about this recipe is that you got two different waves of flavor with each bite. At first, you get the sweet flavor of the glaze, but then right at the end and the aftertaste you get the peppercorn and garlic flavor from the seasoning on the fish. The two flavors individually and combined was quite fantastic!

A few notes from the cookbook - 1) For the best consistency and flavor to the glaze, be sure to use pure maple syrup, rather than maple-flavored pancake syrup (I used pancake syrup and it was terrific!), 2) Whole-grain Dijon mustard is also known as country or county-style Dijon mustard. it contains whole mustard seeds, giving the glaze a rustic look. Regular Dijon mustard can be substituted for the whole-grain, if desired (I used regular Dijon mustard), and 3) To prevent burning the glaze, brush it over the salmon during the last minute of cooking.

I ended up cooking my salmon in the oven instead of using the Grill Pan (mostly because I don't have a grill pan). It turned out great in the oven, and I know it would also be delicious on an actual grill or if you used a Grill Pan. For the oven, I preheated the oven to 350° and let the salmon bake for 10-12 minutes (skin side down), brushing the glaze over the salmon during the last minute of cooking. There is very little you have to do for this recipe. All I had to do was throw the first few ingredients together and let that heat up in the microwave while the salmon was in the oven. So simple! You don't HAVE to use the bourbon in the glaze, but it did give the glaze a nice little kick to it. :-)

I'm not much of a writer, so I don't know of any words that could perfectly describe how delicious this recipe was. You just have to try it for yourself!!!

Maple-Bourbon Glazed Salmon

Pampered Chef 29 Minutes to Dinner, Volume 2

Published by The Pampered Chef, Ltd. in 2009.

Total time: 28 minutes  Yield: 4 servings

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/4 cider vinegar

2 tbsp whole-grain Dijon mustard

2 garlic cloves, pressed

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

1 tbsp bourbon

4 skinless salmon fillets (4 oz each)

1 tbsp Crushed Peppercorn and Garlic Rub

1. Combine syrup, vinegar, mustard, pressed garlic, salt and black pepper in Classic Batter Bowl. Microwave on high 6-8 minutes or until reduced by half. Cool slightly; add bourbon and set aside.

2. Heat Grill Pan over medium heat 5 minutes. Season salmon with rub. Lightly spray pan with nonstick cooking spray; add salmon top side down. Cook 10-12 minutes or until salmon flakes easily with a fork, turning once. Brush salmon with glaze during last minute of cooking using Chef's Silicone Basting Brush. Pour any remaining glaze over salmon before removing from pan.

Lobster & Corn Chowder

I have never been much of a soup person, but oh my goodness this was good! Even though I'm not a big fan of soup, I couldn't take my eyes away from this recipe as I was flipping through my books, so I decided to give it a try. I sure am glad that I did!

I did end up altering the recipe slightly. (I feel like I do that a lot!) I went to Harris Teeter to get the lobster tail only to find out that one 4oz lobster tail was $9.99! Holy crap! I just couldn't bring myself to spend $20 on 8oz of meat, so I ended up getting one 4oz lobster tail and substituted the other 4oz of lobster meat with a can of Bumble Bee crab meat! A fantastic idea, if I do say so myself. The Bumble Bee crab meat was also on sale, so that also helped with making my decision on what to do. At the end of the recipe when I added the lobster to the rest of the soup, at that time I drained the can of crab meat and mixed that in with everything else. SO GOOD!

This was my first time cooking with lobster tail, so I had a little bit of trouble getting the meat out of the shell. My husband came to the rescue though! I had also never used leek before. It took me a few minutes to find it in the store, and I didn't realize until I was reading through the recipe that you only use the white and light green parts only. Good to know! I also got a can of corn kernels instead of getting an ear of corn and cutting the kernels off. The recipe is very easy to follow, but does take some time from start to finish. Totally worth the effort, but make sure you have some time to spare before you get started!

A few notes that the cookbook lists: 1) For best browning, allow the butter to foam up before adding the lobster and cook undisturbed for the first few minutes, and 2) To remove lobster meat from the shell, cut down center of top and bottom of lobster shell with Kitchen Shears; pull shell apart.

Again, I've never been much of a soup person, but this chowder had so much flavor to it - it was delicious! I think substituting half of the lobster tail meat with canned crab meat was a nice touch also! Enjoy!

Lobster & Corn Chowder

Pampered Chef Cooking for Two & More

Published by The Pampered Chef, Ltd. in 2006.

Prep time: 20 minutes  Total time: 45 minutes  Yield: 2 servings (about 3 cups)

1 8-ounce uncooked lobster tail (about 10 ounces in shell)

2 tbsp butter, divided

2 tbsp brandy, divided (optional)

1 small leek (white and light green parts only), thinly sliced

1 1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

2 bottles (8 ounces each) clam juice

2 tsp tomato paste

1/4 tsp salt

1 large red potato, cut into 1/2-in. pieces

1/2 cup fresh corn kernels

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Thyme sprigs (optional)

1. Remove lobster meat from shell; cut into 1-inch pieces. Melt 1 tbsp of the butter in (1.5-qt.) Saucepan over medium-high heat. Add lobster; cook 5-7 minutes or until edges of lobster begin to brown, stirring occasionally. Remove lobster from pan; set aside. If desired, add 1 tbsp of the brandy to pan (if not using brandy, use water); stir to loosen browned bits from bottom of pan using Silicone Sauce Whisk.

2. Melt remaining 1 tbsp butter in same Saucepan over medium heat. Add leek and thyme; cook and stir 1 minute or until slightly softened. Whisk in flour; cook 1 minute. Slowly whisk in clam juice, tomato paste and salt; bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium-low. Add potato; simmer, covered, 5 minutes. Stir in corn; cover and cook 10 minutes or until potato is tender.

3. Stir in cream; simmer gently just until heated through. Remove from heat; add lobster and remaining 1 tbsp brandy, if desired. Ladle soup into bowls; garnish with thyme springs, if desired.

Pork Medallions with Mushroom-Marsala Sauce

This recipe is a great inexpensive, tasty meal that doesn't take long to cook! I couldn't find any Marsala wine so I got a Merlot instead, so I guess it was technically a "Mushroom-Merlot Sauce"!

The recipe is very straightforward and easy to follow. Overall is was a pretty good dish. The best bites were the ones where I got pork, mushroom, onion and asparagus all together. If I got a bite of just pork in the sauce, then I personally thought it was a little bland. I think it would have helped to season the pork before I cooked it. 

Whenever I make mashed potatoes, I normally like to make fresh mashed potatoes from scratch, but I broke out the instant mashed potatoes tonight... not as good as from scratch but still a nice side to the pork!

Not my favorite recipe, but still good! As I said before, everything mixed together tasted really good but I think the pork would have been better if it had been seasoned before cooking. 

Pork Medallions with Mushroom-Marsala Sauce

Pampered Chef 29 Minutes to Dinner, Volume 2 

Published by The Pampered Chef, Ltd. in 2009.

Total time: 19 minutes  Yield: 4 servings

1 tsp vegetable oil

1 1/4 lb pork tenderloin

8 oz asparagus spears, trimmed

1/2 small onion

16 oz sliced mixed mushrooms

2 garlic cloves, pressed

1 cup 33% reduced-sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup Marsala wine

3 tbsp cornstarch

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

2 tbsp butter

1/4 cup snipped fresh parsley

Hot mashed potatoes (optional)

1. Add oil to (10-in.) Skillet; heat over medium-high heat 1-3 minutes or until shimmering. Trim fat and silver skin from pork; slice into 1-in. medallions. Add pork to Skillet; cook 3-4 minutes or until browned, turning once. Remove pork from Skillet; set aside and keep warm.

2. Meanwhile, cut asparagus into 1-in. pieces and thinly slice onion using Santoku Knife. Reduce heat to medium; add asparagus, onion, mushrooms and pressed garlic to Skillet. Cook 4-5 minutes or until asparagus is crisp-tender. Combine broth, wine, cornstarch, salt and black pepper in Small Batter Bowl; whisk well. Add broth mixture and pork to Skillet; bring to a boil. Add butter; cook 1-2 minutes or until pork is heated through, stirring occasionally with Bamboo Spatula.

3. Snip Parsley using Kitchen Shears. Sprinkle parsley over pork mixture; serve with mashed potatoes, if desired.

Glazed Chicken with Apple Salad

Dear Readers,

I am so sorry that I have been MIA for the past week and a half! Things have been very busy and unfortunately I ended up slacking on the blog. :-( I should be back into my routine now though!

Tonight's recipe was so delicious! Here is a picture of my pretty julienne apple strips:

The cookbook describes how to julienne an apple: cut apple into quarters; set cut side down and cut out core at an angle. Thinly slice apple lengthwise; cut slices into thin strips.

This recipe had a great flavor to it! It was also very light - I felt satisfied afterward but I didn't feel stuffed. The combination of the cider vinegar, apply jelly and mayonnaise was delicious! It paired very well with the apple jelly, mustard and brown sugar glaze that went on the chicken. The cookbook also says that you can substitute the apply jelly with apricot jam if you'd like, which I imagine would be quite tasty as well. You can also substitute the stone-ground mustard with Dijon mustard. 

I forgot to get watercress at the store, but I had some baby spinach leaves in the fridge, so I used that instead. The spinach worked great! Everything paired together very well and was full of flavor!

If you do not have a Grill Pan, then you can cook the chicken however you'd like, in my opinion. I don't have a Grill Pan, so I cooked our chicken on our George Foreman Grill. I'm sure any cooking method would work for the chicken, as long as you brush the chicken with the glaze during the last minute of cooking. 

It says that this recipe only takes 26 minutes from beginning to end, but I'm going to go ahead and tell you that unless you as a master chef, then it will take you a little bit longer. Definitely worth it though! 

Glazed Chicken with Apple Salad

Pampered Chef 29 Minutes to Dinner

Published by The Pampered Chef, Ltd. in 2007.

Total time: 26 minutes  Yield: 4 servings

Dressing and Apple Salad

2 tbsp cider vinegar

2 tbsp apple jelly

1/3 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise

1 Granny Smith apple

1 red apple such as Jonathan, McIntosh or Gala

1/2 cup lightly packed watercress plus additional for serving

Chicken and Glaze

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (4-6 oz each)

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

2 tbsp apple jelly

1 tsp prepared stone-ground mustard

1 tbsp brown sugar

1. For dressing, mix together vinegar, jelly and mayonnaise in Measure, Mix & Pour; set aside. For salad, slice apples into julienne strips. Remove leaves from watercress stems (discard stems); coarsely chop watercress leaves. Combine apples and watercress in Classic Batter Bowl; set aside.

2. For chicken, heat Grill Pan over medium-high heat 5 minutes. Meanwhile, flatten chicken to an even thickness using Meat Tenderizer. Brush with oil and season with salt and black pepper. Cook chicken 4-6 minutes or until grill marks appear. Turn chicken over; cook 4-6 minutes or until center of chicken is no longer pink.

3. While chicken is cooking, prepare glaze. Combine jelly, mustard and brown sugar in Prep Bowl. Brush chicken with glaze during last minute of cooking.

4. To serve, arrange additional watercress on serving plates, if desired. Pour dressing over salad just before serving; toss to coat. Top watercress with salad and chicken.