Coq Au Vin

SUNDAY, AUGUST 22ND, 2010

5 stars (out of 5 - delicious and pretty stress-free!)

I wanted to try out the new slow-cooker cookbook that I just received from MM, and this recipe stood out. I decided to make it Sunday morning, as it needed to cook for 7-8 hours. I think I might have attempted a recipe similar to this before (the smell reminded me of something)... so hopefully it turns out! I am also really into trying to find a great slow-cooker recipe that I could serve to guests with confidence. This recipe was from the Company's Coming Most Loved Slow Cooker Creations book; I really like their recipes, as they are usually pretty simple and almost always turn out well (unlike some other companies, I think Company's Coming actually tests their recipes out! Imagine that).

Ingredients:

6 slices of bacon, diced
1/4 cup (60 mL) flour
1/4 tsp. (1 mL) paprika
6 chicken thighs (bonelss, skinless)*
1 pack (up to 4 cups) white mushrooms, halved
1 cup (250 mL) chopped onion
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup (125 mL) dry red wine
1/2 cup (125 mL) prepared chicken broth
1/2 tsp (2 mL) dry thyme

{*Note. The original recipe calls for 12 chicken thighs. I did two, but I think I would comfortably do up to six. Any more than that, I am not sure how I would fit them into the slow-cooker!}.

My new cookbook stand:

1. First I cooked the bacon on medium heat, until it was crisp. I then removed the bacon and diced it up.

2. While it was cooking, I added the flour and the paprika to a Ziploc bag, and added the chicken to coat it.

3. After the bacon was removed from the pan, I added the chicken, using the bacon drippings as oil. I cooked it for about 8 minutes, just so that it was brown on all sides.

4. As the chicken cooked, I prepared the other ingredients, by chopping up the onion, and slicing the mushrooms in half.

5. When the chicken was ready, I removed it from the pan and placed it in the slow-cooker.

6. I then added the mushrooms, onion, and garlic to the same frying pan, and sautéed for about 2 minutes.

7. Once the onions had softened, I added the mushroom soup, chicken broth, wine, and thyme to the pan, and brought it to a boil.

8. Once it was boiling, I poured it over the chicken, covered the slow-cooker, and placed it on "Low" for 7-8 hours (or on "High" for 3.5-4 hours).

Final Product:

Overall, this was a delicious meal, and SB loved it. It took a bit of time to prepare before throwing into the slow-cooker, but was well worth it. I look forward to serving it to guests - I especially love doing slow-cooker meals when having people over because it means I don't have to cook and visit at the same time (I am so bad at doing this!) and the house smells so great. One note: I would combine the cream of mushroom soup and the wine/broth together prior to adding it to the pan. It took a while to get the lumps out, and my frying pan isn't so deep, so I spilled a lot in the process. Other from that, this recipe is pretty straight forward, and easy to do.

Tomato Chicken Casserole

TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010

4 stars (out of 5 - simple, stress-free, and pretty darn good!)

I hadn't cooked a new meal in a while (and had been, quite frankly, a bit lazy), and SB asked me what was going on.... I didn't know! I guess I have been a bit busy and stressed, but I decided to make sure that I made time to cook some new meals, as I know how much satisfaction I get out of it. This was my first attempt in a while, but an easy one. It's one of those "canned soup" recipes... but I refuse to feel bad about them - they always turn out well. This was no exception - the meat was moist and well-cooked, and (most importantly) it was stress-free.

Ingredients:

Meat:

Bone-in chicken (skinned)*
Garlic powder
Salt Pepper

Mix:

1 can (284mL) tomato soup
1 can (284mL) cream of mushroom soup
1 medium tomato, coarsely chopped
1 bunch green onion (or chives), chopped finely
1 v. small onion, chopped finely

{*Note. I used about 1 lb. or less of chicken... basically, do whatever you want up to 3 lbs (original recipe) because I had a lot of extra sauce. I think my basic guideline would be to have as much chicken as I could line my casserole dish with.}

1. {Preheat oven to 350F}. First, I placed the chicken in a 3qt (3L) casserole dish.

2. Next, I sprinkled with salt, pepper, and a good coating of garlic powder.

3. I then mixed the tomato soup and mushroom soup in a medium bowl...

4. ... and added the tomato and 2 types of onions...

5. ... and stirred well.

6. I poured the mixture over the chicken, and placed it in the oven, covered, at 350F for about 2 hours (flexible - no stress!).

New oven!

Look at how my casserole dish now fits in!

7. I served it with rice, but mashed potatoes also worked well. After the photo, I added a side of green beans (and a salad in a separate plate).

Overall, this was a super good, super easy recipe, and I was glad I tried it (despite my reservations about using the soup mixtures). SB really liked it, and the meat was super tender. I guess it can't really be considered anything close to a gourmet dish, but I would serve it to some of my good friends I was trying to make a good meal for (and at the same time being able to socialize!) ;)

Marinated Balsamic-Dijon Chicken (Disaster!)

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26TH, 2009

1 star (out of 5 - SB's rating: oopsies!)
3 stars (out of 5 - LX's rating)

I decided to try this recipe because the ingredients looked good (and simple!), and I loved the idea of the 24h marinating. Yummy! However, I was incredibly disappointed with the outcome. I made a note at the bottom for suggestions to improve this, but basically the sauce turned out to be extremely strong, and the chicken extremely overcooked. One good thing about this recipe was that I learned that another advantage of being a vegetarian was that simulated meat is way less prone to overcooking. Sorry SB!

Ingredients*:

Chicken pieces (thighs or breasts)*
Onions, sliced (~1 onion per piece of chicken)
~1/2 cup balsamic vinegar**
~1/3 cup dijon mustard**
Seasoning, as you prefer (I added Herbes de Provence, Laurel leaf, crushed red pepper flakes, salt and pepper)
1.5-2 tsp lemon juice concentrate
3/4 cup wine**

{*Note. Please read through blog before attempting this recipe! There were some problems, as you will see.... I would first start with chicken thighs, as they will withstand longer cooking times. **The marinate is good with the vinegar and mustard, although I ended up almost doubling the amounts just to be able to cover the chicken. More importantly, there needs to be another liquid besides the wine in the sauce, otherwise it is extremely acidic. On this note, the white wine was something I was forced to do, mid-cooking, as the sauce without it was more like a paste. Suggestions, please!}.

1. First, I sliced the onion (keeping the pieces quite large).

2. I then spread the chicken out in a pan for marinating.

Chick'n version for me and LX:

3. To make the marinate, I simply mixed the balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, and lemon juice together...

4. ... until creamy and smooth.

5. I then added the dried herbs to the chicken, which included Herbes de Provence, Laurel leaf, and crushed red peppers (add the spices you prefer).

6. I then topped each dish (one chicken, one Chick'n) with the onions...

7. ... and poured over the marinate, mixing it to make sure everything was coated. I then placed it in the fridge, covered, for 24 hours.

Chicken:

Chick'n:

8. The next day, I baked the chicken (saving most of the marinate in the dish) in the oven at 400Funtil it was cooked and set it aside. The recipe said to bake it for 35-45 minutes (!!) but I took it out after about 20-25 minutes.

9. I added the onions to the frying pan, which the recipe assured me would create it's own liquid (so not to add water). At first it was good:

10. However, as they softened, it was clear that this was not going to suffice as a sauce:

11. I decided to add some white wine to the mixture, which looked good. I added the chicken to "simmer", like the recipe said, for 25 minutes (I cut this down to 10-15 minutes). Big mistake!

12. And served over basmati rice...

13. ...with a side of baked asparagus.

Overall, this was another lesson for me to try out recipes before attempting them for the first time with guests. This recipe smelled delicious as it was cooking, and I loved the 24 hour marinating. However, the overall flavour was SOOOOO strong. The kind that burns the back of your throat. I was so disappointed because of all the work I put into it, and because it smelled soo good. I did add the white wine to increase the liquid in the sauce, but I think it was too strong and only added to the acidity of this dish. LX really liked it, but told me that she really likes tart things (and was probably being nice!), but SB didn't eat much of it and neither did I. In addition, the chicken was cooked WAY too long. It wasn't so much a problem for the Chick'n, but for the real meat, SB told me it was pretty bad. Oopsies.

Anyways, if anyone has any suggestions about how to improve this recipe (both the sauce and how to cook the chicken), please let me know! I think there is potential here, but I am too inexperienced to think of anything else besides the wine!

Chicken Scallopine

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19TH, 2009

4 stars (out of 5 - even though I had some problems: see modifications to make this even better)

I ran across another delicious looking recipe on the PW's website for chicken scallopine. It looked simple enough, so I tried it out for the first time when PTL came over for dinner. The original recipe can be found here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/03/chicken-scallopine/. In the end, this recipe was very good and SB even rated it highly. However, I must say to proceed with caution, as I had quite a bit of difficulty with it (curdled a bit, runny), with the sauce ultimately being saved by PTL.

Ingredients:

1 package linguine
4 whole Boneless, Skinless, Trimmed Chicken Breasts
Salt and pepper
Flour (approx. 3 tbsp)
2 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp butter
1-2 packages of white mushrooms, thinly sliced*
1 cup dry white wine
1 lemon
½ cups half & half* (see note)
1 tsp (heaping) capers
Fresh parley, chopped
Fresh Parmesan cheese, grated

{*Note. I used 4 chicken cutlets, plus one Chick'n breast, and it was enough sauce. The original recipe calls for heavy cream; I tried to be a bit more healthy and use Half & Half, and it was not worth it (see below). I strongly recommend using the heavy cream instead, otherwise the sauce was runny and I needed to add some butter to thicken it. Finally, I used only 1 package of white mushrooms, but the sauce could have ultimately used more. I would add an additional 1/2 package if I was making this again}.

1. Before I started anything, I first cut up the white mushrooms into thin slices.

2. I then prepared the parsley, so that I could just throw it in when everything was ready.

3. I then prepared the chicken: First, I put a generous portion of salt and pepper on each side...

4. ... and dredged each side in flour. This way, I felt that everything was in place for me to start cooking.

5. I then started the water for the pasta, and cooked according to the package. While this was cooking, I prepared the rest of the meal:

6. First, I heated the butter and oil in a frying pan. When it was hot, I added the chicken. You want a nice golden brown colour on the outside. When done, I set these aside.

7. Added the mushrooms to the pan...

8. ... and then immediately added the wine and the lemon juice from 1/2-1 lemon. I cooked this vigorously until it reduced. Apparently in 1 minute, but mine took much longer.

9. At this point, I ran into a bit of trouble. Here, you are to reduce the heat and add the cream. I don't know if it was the half and half I used or what, but mine curdled a bit. In the end, it was fine, but about here I started to panic and not feel so happy. At this point, you also want to make sure it is salty enough, and add some more pepper.

10. Eventually, PTL and myself fixed this by adding more butter to thicken (healthy!) and letting it reduce on it's own. We then added it to the pasta and stirred in the parsley.

11. Finally, the chicken was placed on the plate, and the pasta + sauce heaped over top, and sprinkled with lots of Parmesan cheese.

My Chick'n Version:

In the end, it was actually pretty delicious which makes me want to make a second attempt in the future. SB particularly liked the chicken and the way it was cooked. I probably wouldn't try this out when company is coming over... at least not until I figure out what went wrong. Next time, I will use heavy cream and see if it's better. I will post any updates on here. I would say that overall I wouldn't afraid to try this recipe with the heavy cream, even if I did have some difficulty: despite the problems I encountered, it ended up being a pretty delicious meal!