Mustard chicken

This recipe was inspired by flipping through a book in Chapters. I work with in a minutes walk from a Starbucks contained in a Chapters book store. I am a frequent visitor to the Starbucks for coffee and sometimes I walk through the rest of the store and check out the merchandise.  Last week I picked up an interesting looking cook book, I am afraid I have no recollection of which book, but it was french food.  I saw a picture of this dish and thought it looked good and so read the ingredients and directions.

As I made this a few days later and had only read the ingredients and directions once this is my interpretation of what I remembered.

Feeds 6

12 chicken pieces I used 6 whole legs cut in half
1/4 cup of grainy Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup of white wine
1/2 cup of chicken stock
1 onion chopped
1 large garlic clove sliced
1 sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf

Put the chicken in a bowl and add the mustard salt and pepper.

Mix together and let it sit for about an hour at room temperature.  Then add the oil to a heavy frying pan and brown the chicken.

Easy roast chicken with carrots and potatoes

I guess it is no secret I love roast chicken, I love the smell of it cooking, I love crispy chicken skin and I love the versatility of it.  Chicken goes with so many flavours and is a staple in just about every culture in the world. Sunday night I was feeling like roast chicken and decided to do another riff on the chicken legs cooked on a bed of vegetables.

I kept this very simple letting the taste of the wonderful free range chicken shine through. There was 4 for dinner that evening, so I used four whole chicken legs cut in half and a whole de boned breast.  I was hoping to have a couple of pieces left over for lunch, but I was sadly disappointed.

To feed 4

2 pieces of cut up chicken per person (maybe extra if they are hungry)
1 medium potato per person cut into chunks
1 carrot per person sliced thickly
1/2 small onion per person or 2 green onions per person chopped
2 cloves of garlic sliced for 4 people
Sprig of rosemary
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Place the potatoes, carrots, onion and garlic in the bottom of a roasting tin. Drizzle with olive oil salt and pepper and toss together.

Roasted chicken with fennel and pasta

This is a dish that I made while up at Whistler to feed the returning skiers. I wanted to make something that did not require me do a lot of cooking near serving time, using few dishes and I was presented with a lovely free range chicken as my main ingredient. For the most part I was trying to use what I found in the fridge, which was fairly well stocked.

To feed 4

1 whole chicken cut up or equivalent in pieces
1 fennel bulb sliced
1 onion chopped
4 cloves of garlic peeled and sliced
2 cups of grape tomatoes or you could use large ones sliced
1 cup of pitted olives.
3 table spoons of olive oil
4 cups of dried penne pasta
1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
1 bucket of baby arugula
juice of 1 lemon

Put the fennel onion and garlic in large shallow roasting tin.  Place the chicken pieces on top and scatter over the tomatoes and olives, then drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive and salt and pepper.

Place in a 400 oven for about 45 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and crispy golden.

Chicken breast with yogurt and potatoes

It is January, and that means only one thing new years resolutions.  I, like the vast majority of the western world, every year resolves to get in to shape and lose weight.  This year I have an added resolve to lose 17lbs by June 27 when I retire, I want to look good at my retirement party and I want to be in good shape to enjoy a long healthy retirement.  I publicly declaring this to make me accountable. So the first thing to do is start tracking everything you eat, stepping up the activity and cooking lighter.

Boneless skinless chicken breasts are one of the best choices when cooking light, but they can be so dry and tasteless, so my challenge is find ways to make them moist and tasty with out adding too much fat.  For Christmas this year my Father bought me a mandolin, something I have been wanting for a while and this was the first time using this to slice my potatoes, and it was great, quick and easy to clean up.

I sliced them fairly thin so that they would cook quicker.

Feeds two

2 medium to small potatoes sliced fairly thin
1/2 tablespoon of olive oil
2 chicken breast
1/2 cup of low fat plain Greek yogurt
1 clove of garlic grated or put through a garlic press
1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese

Toss the potato slices in the olive oil and salt and pepper and place in the bottom of small roasting tin.

Indian spiced marinated roasted chicken

I was having some long time friends over for dinner on Saturday.  It was a good job that they were good friends as we were redoing our main floor bathroom. On Saturday morning, not only was the bathroom gutted and empty the entire main floor was covered in a thick layer of drywall dust and littered with plumbing supplies and tools.  Amazingly with a lot of help from friends and family by 6:00 the worst of the dust was gone as were all the plumbing supplies and we had a working bathroom!

This is a recipe that I have done many times, it is easy can be done ahead and is incredibly tasty.
I was cooking for 12, but I will give the ingredients for 6, but having a little left over chicken is never a bad thing. I used chicken thighs as they are my favourite part of the chicken, but you could use 6 breasts or even a whole chicken cut up.

1 cup of yogurt
1 teaspoon of garam masala
1 teaspoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon of turmeric
one clove of garlic grated or through a garlic press
1" of fresh ginger grated
1/2 teaspoon of salt
12 chicken thighs

Chicken cacciatora

I believe I got my love of food from my father, though he never really cooked, getting good food was always important.  Today he sends me recipes that he sees on the Internet that he thinks I will be interested in.  I take this as a request for me to cook it for him, and so being the dutiful daughter I made the chicken cacciatora recipe from The Guardian newspaper that he had emailed me recently. Though of course I changed it a little, I just can't help myself, I get that from my mother!

2 tbsp olive oil
4 chicken legs, divided into thighs and drumsticks (skin removed if desired)
1/2 heads of garlic, cloves cut in half
1 small onion chopped
Small bunch of rosemary
1 carrot, peeled and diced
Half a glass of white wine
250ml decent chicken stock
1/2 quart home canned tomatoes or small can of chopped tomatoes

Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based casserole dish over a medium-high heat. Fry the chicken in batches until golden brown on all sides.

Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. Fry the garlic, onion, rosemary and carrot, with a little more oil if necessary, for a few minutes until slightly golden.

Chicken with white wine, olive and caper sauce

A couple of weeks ago when I went to Ruby lake resort I had tuna with a wonderful olive caper sauce on it. I thought at the time that this would be a good sauce for chicken breasts, which need a little kick to pump up their flavour.  After sailing on Sunday afternoon, I made this for 5 sitting out  on our deck, but in fact it would not be a stretch to make this for just one as well.

For 4 people

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 cup of pitted green olives
1 large garlic clove
1/4 cup of capers
1/2 cup of white wine.
handful of parsley

Bash the chicken breasts with a rolling pin to even out the thickness.  This really helps them to cook evenly, if you leave them with a thicker end I find that the thinner end dries out before the thicker end is cooked through.  Add the olive oil in a large frying pan, then add the chicken breasts.

While the chicken is cooking add everything except the white wine into a mini chopper.

If you don't have one (you really should think about getting one) then chop everything together on a large board or use a mezza luna.

A day of sailing and spit roast chicken

The July long weekend was spectacular this year almost too hot and sunny the entire weekend, so we jumped at an opportunity to go sailing with some friend on the Sunshine Coast. On Saturday when we were in a race the winds died to almost nothing and though a pleasant day, not a great sailing day.  On Sunday however we found some strong winds, that provided some amazing sailing.

Before we went out sailing however I made a marinade for a whole chicken in anticipation of a spit roast chicken for dinner. I used the same technique that I have been using for chicken lately of combining some tomatoes, onions, herbs and spices in a small food processor to make something that is somewhere between a rub and a marinade. This time I wanted to bring some of those Caribbean jerk flavours in to the mix

handful of cilantro
dozen grape tomatoes
1 red hot pepper
2 garlic cloves
1/2 red onion
1 teaspoon of allspice
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of salt
good grind of black pepper
1 tablespoon of honey

combine all the ingredients in a mini food processer.

Chop to a pulp

Spread this evenly over the whole chicken (or chicken pieces)

Place in the fridge and go sailing and swimming.

Barbecued chicken thighs.

I felt like some barbecued chicken on Saturday night so I made a quick marinade for some chicken thighs.  I used what I had on hand and I was pleased with the results. There were only going to be 4 of us, but at the last minute it morphed into 6, so we had to stretch the meat a little.

Feeds 4 comfortably, 6 in a pinch

8 chicken thighs
1 hot pepper
handful of cilantro
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon of honey
6 cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon of chipotle chilli powder
salt and pepper

Add all the ingredients to a food processor, a mini one is best, and wizz until it has created a marinade.  I did everything except the tomatoes first and then added them.

Pour over the chicken.

Butterflied roast chicken over sausage stuffing

Looking for inspiration for dinner at Pender Harbour, Connie and I went to The Oak Tree Market our go to place for meat when we at Maderia Park.  They usually have a good choice of very good quality meats and home made sausage. This day it was a free range chicken that called out along with some Tuscany turkey sausage.

Roast chicken is one of the ulitmate comfort foods for me with crisp slightly salty skin and a flavourful stuffing.  I have taken to butterflying chicken to roast a fair bit recently. It makes it cook quicker and by opening it out and placing on top of a stuffing of some kind it means that all the cooking juices soak in to whatever it is topping.

Stuffing

4 slices of bread cubed

1/2 red onion chopped

sprig of fresh sage 

3 sticks of celery chopped 

1lb of good sausage meat.

Combine all the stuffing ingredients in a bowl.

Mix thoroughly, the hands are really best for this and place in to a roasting tin, piling it up so that it is about the same size as the chicken that is to be placed on top.

Open up the chicken and place on top.  smear with a little olive oil and a good sprinkle of salt.  Then tuck some fresh rosemary in and around the chicken.

Chicken and rice

This is a dish that we had in Amazon down in Ecuador last fall, it is simple down home food and I am sure that there are versions of this all over the world.  You could use almost any vegetables and some beans could also have been added for more protein. I used the vegetables that I had on hand, but actually in a pinch you could use frozen mixed vegetables, but then you would have to add them at the end. It is really a one dish meal, and we just had a green salad to complete the meal.

This fed 5 for dinner plus two lunches during the week.

4 whole chicken legs
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 yellow onion chopped
2 cups of rice
5 carrots chopped
5 ribs of celery chopped
1 can of corn
Small bunch of chopped parsley
1 cup of frozen peas

In a large pot place the chicken legs 2 carrots, 2 ribs of celery and 1/2 onion roughly chopped. Cover with water and add the bay leaves and salt and pepper.

Simmer for 1/2 an hour and then turn off the heat and leave to sit for 1/2 an hour with the lid on.

The chicken should be falling off the bone, and you have a delicious rich chicken stock.  Remove the chicken and vegetables and simmer the stock until you have 4 cups.  Discard the vegetables and shred the chicken and set aside Refrigerate if you are not going to make the dish right away.

Rosemary, lemon, garlic barbecued chicken

It is only the end of March, but we are enjoying summer like weather and it is a 4 day weekend, it does not get much better than that.  Friends had just arrived home from a trip to Rome and we invited them over for kind of Italian meal on the deck.

I had some chicken legs in my freezer from Hopcott's and as it was such a beautiful day, I decided to break out the barbecue for the first time in 2013.  This I am afraid required quite a bit of cleaning as there had been critters under that cover!

Feeds 6

6 chicken legs cut in half
1 lemon cut in half
4 cloves of garlic sliced very thinly
2 sprigs of Rosemary with the leaves pulled off
4 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper

Place the chicken in a container to marinate and squeeze the juice out of one half of the lemon and cut the remaining half in to small pieces.  Add the lemon juice, lemon pieces and the remaining ingredients and marinate the chicken.

Chicken braised with tomatillo

It was Saturday evening, mid winter and nothing much on except cooking dinner for some good neighbours who were busy renovating their house.  They had spent the day preparing and painting their living and dining room and needed a good meal and a glass of wine as a reward.  I was feeling like Mexican flavours and I had seen some fresh looking tomatillo's at the local IGA, and so this dish was born.

This fed four with no left overs :(

4 whole chicken legs cut in half
1 small onion chopped
1 clove of garlic sliced
1 tablespoon of cumin
 About two cups of chopped tomatillos

Brown the chicken legs in a large skillet, Place them skin side down so that they will render their own fat to cook in and there is no need to add any olive oil.  When they are just browned remove from the skillet and add the onion, garlic and tomatillos

Crockpot South West chicken soup

This is another of my low calorie but tasty meals that I can make ahead for lunch at work or dinner at home.  I got this idea from  this recipe for slow cooker chicken tortilla soup.  But I did not have any corn tortilla's to fry and as always I changed it little to match what I had on hand.

This made enough for 4.

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 15oz can sweet whole corn kernels, drained
• 15oz can diced tomatoes, drained or I used my home canned tomato puree
• 5 cups of chicken stock
• one medium onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon of cumin
• 2 cloves garlic thinly sliced
• 1 tsp chipotle chili powder
• 1 tablespoon of regular chili powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Juice of one lime
• Handfull of cilantro chopped
• Shredded cheese for serving.

To your slow cooker add first 10 ingredients.

Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. Remove chicken breasts.

Tray baked chicken with orange and olives

Friday night I was going to a party planning dinner, we are planning a reunion for the group that went to Ecuador with us in the fall.  We were getting to together to plan the menu and games etc for the party, but dinner had to be provided as it was straight after work.  I offered to bring the ingredients for the main course, as I am trying to keep my diet low fat and as healthy as possible, so I chose boneless skinless chicken breasts as my protein.  This is not my favourite cut of chicken as they can be dry and do not have as much flavour as the dark meat, especially with the skin on, but definitely lean.

Rather blurry picture of finished dish

I was going to fall back on my old standby lemon roast chicken but I really wanted to try something new. So I went down to Granville Island and picked up the chicken breasts and some beautiful sun dried Moroccan olives and threw this together.

Feeds 6
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (or skin on chicken pieces would be wonderful)
Grated rind of 2 oranges
Juice of one orange
1 red onion chopped
1/2 cup of pitted olives any kind would do, but these Moroccan olives were wonderful
Cut up potatoes I used about 18 fingerling potatoes cut in pieces but any small potato would do
Handful of fresh tarragon chopped
3 tablespoons of olive oil.

Cut the chicken breasts in to pieces.  I cut each one into about 4 large chunks. Then throw everything into a large shallow roasting tin.

Season with salt and pepper then toss everything with your hands and spread evenly over the dish.

Chicken lemon fennel tagine

Tagine is the name not only of a dish from Morocco it also the name of the cooking vessel that it is cooked in.  But you do not have to own a tagine to make a tagine.  I do actually have one, but I was cooking up in Whistler and surprisingly did not bring mine with me, so a cast iron pot worked just fine. My good friend Nancy had made and brought with her preserved lemons and ras el hanout. both essential ingredients for Moroccan food, obviously she came with a vision to be fulfilled.

You can buy ras el hanout, which is a mixture of spices.  I think that there are as many recipes for this spice mix as there are for garam masala.  I am not sure exactly what was in Nancy's mix but I found this recipe at moroccanfood.about.com and it contains all the spices that were in hers.


2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cardamon
2 teaspoons ground mace
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground anise seeds
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Or of course you could buy one pre made which would work just as well.

• 1 whole chicken cut up or equivalent in pieces
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 bulb of fennel
• 2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
• 1 preserved lemon, chopped or you could also use a fresh one.
• 1 cup of black and green olives, stoned
• handful of chopped cilantro
• 2 cups of chicken stock

Put your chicken pieces into a large bowl, massage them with the spice rub, cover and put into the fridge to marinate for a couple of hours or, even better, overnight.

When you're ready to cook, heat the olive oil in a tagine or casserole-type pan and fry the chicken pieces over a medium to high heat, skin side down first, for about 5 to 10 minutes until golden brown.

Avocado Chicken salad

Avocado seems to have taken over from the quinoa as the new super food. It is high in antioxidants, helps lower cholesterol and of course it tastes great.  Though anything that creamy tasting has to have fat in it,  half an avocado has the same grams of fat as one and half tablespoons of mayonnaise, most of it being unsaturated. I saw this idea somewhere, I would like to give the due credit, but I am afraid I do not know where it was that I saw it, but it was an idea I had to try.

I had a cooked chicken breast left over last week and it produced chicken salad for one sandwich and topping for a salad for a quick dinner as well.

1 large cooked chicken breast (or perhaps left over turkey)
1 avocado mushed
Juice of one lime
4 green onions chopped
2 tablespoons of cilantro chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Mush up the avocado until there are few lumps and then add the lime juice, green onions and cilantro.

Mix together and taste for salt and pepper, and then add the chopped chicken.

Coq au vin

Coq au vin is just the french way of saying chicken cooked in wine.  This is normally red wine, which gives a very dark rich casserole. It is not a difficult or complicated dish and should not be intimidating to make, but is well worth making for a warming winter or fall evening.

1 chicken cut up in to pieces or the equivelant in already cut up chicken
1/4 cup of salt pork or 4 rashers of bacon cut up ( I used pancetta)
1 tablespoon of flour
1/2 a bottle of red wine (something that you would drink but it does not have to be a great wine)
1 sprig of fresh thyme or teaspoon dried
1 bay leaf
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
1 cup of peeled pearl onions

Place the chicken in a frying pan skin side down and brown on both sides, there should be no need to add fat as the chicken skin will provide quite enough on its own.

Remove the chicken and place it in a large casserole dish, then in another frying pan or the cleaned out one already used fry the bacon pieces until crispy and drain on some kitchen paper. Reserve a little of the fat for later.

butterflied roast chicken with stuffing

It was Saturday night and 5:30 and Connie and I felt like roast chicken for dinner.  We did not want to eat too late and so I decided to butterfly the chicken before roasting to speed up the process.  This put us in mind of the time that at 5:00 we decided to make cassolet for dinner!  Traditionaly this is a dish that takes about 3 days, but undeterred we we made it and were eating cassolet before 8:00.  I am not really sure how, just put it down to the kitchen Gods and determination.

Butterflying a chicken is much easier than it sounds, but it does require a good pair of kitchen scissors see roast butterflied chicken and potatoes.

Apart from cooking quicker than an un-butterflied chicken, the other advantage is that if you lay the chicken on top of a suitable ingredient the juices from the chicken will be absorbed by it.  Last time I had roasted the chicken on top of potatoes.  This time I decided to make a quick stuffing from some bread that I had that was past it's best.

2 cups of bread roughly chopped
1/2 onion chopped
1 sprig of sage chopped
1 lemon
2 tablespoons of olive oil


In a bowl, I mixed together the cut up bread and onion chopped and a sprig of fresh sage finely chopped. I laid this in the roasting tin and topped it with half a lemon sliced.