Spicy Chicken Rigatoni and Oven Roasted Garlic Brussel Sprouts

Tonight, I was under a big time crunch. I ran out of lab early to come back and cook an ambitious dinner - spicy chicken rigatoni and oven roasted garlic brussel sprouts. Mostly because I already took the chicken out of the freezer to thaw in the morning, and I bought brussel sprouts last week and I really didn't want them to go bad. I usually deal with frozen vegetables, since they don't go bad on me as quickly and are relatively inexpensive.

Things went downhill from the start. To my surprise, we ran out of crushed red pepper flakes in my apartment, and so I tried to substitute with chili powder. While it does add a slight kick to the chicken, adding the chili powder to the hot oil with salt, pepper and garlic like it instructs to do so with the crushed red pepper flakes was a seriously poor idea. I don't quite know what happened, but it smelled pretty terrible, and at this point I honestly couldn't tell if it was from the chili powder in the skillet or the brussel sprouts roasting in the oven. But it smelled like melting plastic with a hint of spice. It was gross and gave me a headache. But I went on and cooked the chicken in the oil anyways since I was in a rush. Also bad idea. The chicken adopted the weird burnt chili powder taste and I had to add a lot of cheese to the sauce to balance out the flavors. Also, the alfredo sauce that I bought at the supermarket was COMPLETE GARBAGE. Gross. Do not buy the Ragu alfredo sauce, I guarantee you will immediately regret it. Not worth the maybe 75 cents I saved. Made my sauce taste very....off. A heavy dose of parmesan cheese helped thicken the sauce and mask the fake cheesy taste of the alfredo sauce. I substituted cut green beans for the peas that are called for in the actual recipe, since I personally think peas are disgusting. In the end, the sauce came together, and if you ignored the peculiarity of the chicken, the pasta wasn't half bad. I really like that it was rigatoni, the large tubes of pasta carried the sauce well.

I'll be honest. I have no experience with brussel sprouts. A friend made them for me once, and I discovered they weren't half as bad as their reputation. Soon after, I found a recipe and I decided what the hell, I need some more vegetables in my life. I halved the little ones, quartered the big ones and threw them into the biggest pan we owned (which sadly is a 9x9) with some olive oil, a LOT of garlic and some water, like the recipe instructs. Turns out, I added maybe just a little too much garlic, because at the end of the day, the brussel sprouts tasted like leafy, slightly bitter garlic things. I usually say, you can never have too much garlic, but believe me, it was too much. 5 cloves of garlic is just way too much, I'd suggest limiting it to 3. And I think I overcooked my brussel sprouts too because they were pretty soft and mushy, not the most pleasant texture, but some were crunchier than others.

All in all, I think I survived today. I didn't think I would have time to make dinner at all, and I managed to make both dishes, with prep time, in just under an hour. I would definitely like to try the spicy chicken rigatoni recipe again, this time with quality alfredo sauce and crushed red pepper flakes because I think it has the potential to be an awesome pasta dish. The brussel sprouts on the other hand, that I could maybe live without for now.

Mustard-Herb Crusted Panko Chicken with Basil Parmesan Orzo

I owed my friend a home-cooked meal, so we looked through a couple of recipes and ended up making panko crusted chicken with a side of basil parmesan orzo. I went grocery shopping right before Blizzard Nemo, so supplies were thin and I managed to snag the only pack of chicken breasts left within the entire supermarket. Unfortunately, I was now saddled with $17 worth of chicken. The breasts were huge, so we only used two and cut each in half and it was more than plenty for the two of us. I also greatly underestimated how much orzo one box makes - hint: it's a lot. So even though only the two of us ate it, this will most likely serve four.

I pretty much made the chicken to the letter, only substituting dried herbs, since the supermarket was a mad house and there were no herbs left :( The orzo was a different story. Neither of us had a lot of experience making orzo, so we pretty much messed up the entire recipe. Here's what we did (though I would advise you to never follow it):

Ingredients
1 box orzo
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons dried basil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Cook orzo as directed on the box. Strain, and then add the chicken stock. The orzo will still absorb all the liquid. Add the parmesan, basil, salt and pepper and mix until creamy. Bam.

We were left with slightly awkward tasting orzo with an odd texture. You couldn't really taste the basil, and the orzo was still on the drier side so the cheese made it drier, rather than creamier. It was also pretty bland, adding the chicken stock after cooking the orzo, instead of cooking the orzo in the chicken stock. I will definitely have to make this recipe again and see if I can make a better version. Maybe follow the recipe or something.

Spaghetti with Chicken and Corn in a Cream Sauce

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, things have been busy and I swear I've been cooking, it's just the blogging part that's slowing me down. I'll add the posts from the last two weeks later since I still need to upload those photos. I surprised myself tonight by throwing together a couple of ingredients I had lying around to make a pretty yummy pasta dinner! This recipe is all me!

Spaghetti with Chicken and Corn in Cream Sauce

Ingredients:
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 cloves minced garlic
1 chicken breast, cubed
1 bag frozen corn
half box spaghetti, cooked
handful of monterey jack
1/4 cup pecorino romano, grated
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp flour
1 tsp butter
salt and pepper
chili powder

1 tbsp canola oil

Directions:
1. In a large skillet, add the onion, garlic and oil and cook until the onion is soft and translucent (I ended up using only half an onion since I spilled half on the ground in the transfer.....I would recommend actually using the entire onion for some yummy goodness)
2. Season chicken with salt, pepper and chili powder and add to the skillet. Cook until the chicken is almost done, but not quite. I tested this just by poking the cubes of chicken with my fork.
3. In a separate pot, steam the frozen corn for about 4 minutes, or until just cooked. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. In a new small skillet, create a roux by combining the flower and butter on medium heat. Add the milk and stir until it thickens. Add both cheeses. I only added the amount above because it was all I had left. I would suggest adding more pecorino, like about 1 cup to make this more of a mac and cheese-like consistency.
5. Combine chicken, corn and sauce in the large skillet and stir to combine. Let simmer for 5 minutes. Add the spaghetti to the skillet and voila you're done!

This dish was thrown together on a whim, but it actually tastes pretty great! It's creamy, but not heavy and this recipe makes a lot! Serves 4

Baked Chicken Parmesan

I want to preface this post with a couple of things:
1. I am not a foodie. As a college student on a budget, I don't have the time, or the burning desire to make everything from scratch. I'll use canned tomato sauce instead of making my own, use premixed seasonings like garlic and herb seasoning because it's easier, faster and I honestly don't care enough to make my own.
2. As I said, I'm a college student on a budget, so a lot of my ingredients and substitutions are going to be because that's simply what was in my pantry or refrigerator that day, or was on sale at the supermarket that week. So by all means, if you have better ingredients, please use them! I'm sure it'll come out a lot better than my creations.
3. I'm not a good cook. Not terrible, but not great. I am definitely not pretending I know how to do anything in the kitchen, haha.
4. I suck at taking pictures of the food I make, help!

Okay, so last week, following in the Italian vein, I made chicken parmesan, adapted from the recipe found here.

I modified this recipe modified from an America's Test Kitchen recipe mostly because I used what I had instead of trekking out to the supermarket in the cold. Lazy, I know. Directions are as follows!

Ingredients:

- two boneless skinless chicken breasts

- 1 cup Progresso Garlic & Herb breadcrumbs

- 2 egg whites

- 1 teaspoon water

- 1/2 cup flour

- 2 teaspoons garlic salt

- 1 cup tomato sauce

- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella 

- salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Place chicken breasts on cutting board and cut the breast horizontally to create two thinner cutlets. Pushing down on the breast with your other hand (the one without the knife) tends to help evenly cut the meat in half.

2. Lay out 3 shallow bowls - here I just use plates. In the first, mix salt, pepper, garlic salt and flour. Mix well to make sure there aren't spots of salty regret. In the second, beat the two egg whites with 1 tsp water until it becomes homogeneous and frothy. Lastly, in the third, lay out a nice even layer of breadcrumbs.

3. Pat each chicken cutlet dry, then dip in flour, egg and breadcrumbs in that order. Make sure to shake off excess flour before dipping in the egg mixture to create a lighter crust. 

4. Place chicken onto a wire rack on top of a cookie sheet. Bake at 475ºF for 10 minutes. Then top each piece with a spoonful of tomato sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

5. Bake for another 5 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown. Serve on a bed of spaghetti if desired.

Pan Roasted Chicken with Lemon-Garlic Green Beans and Potatoes

I don't generally believe in New Years Resolutions. They seem like empty words half-heartedly enacted for about a month or so until forgotten. At least that's what it seems like to me. We shouldn't need New Years Resolutions as motivations to change our lives, but this year I decided to try it out and see what all the hype is about. My New Years Resolution for 2013 is to cook, make, bake, grill, and/or fry at least one new dish every single week. That makes for at least 52 new foods and recipes. It'll be an interesting year and I can't promise that everything will taste good, but I'm hoping it will at least be edible. Hence, My Almost Edible Year.

For my very first meal this year, I decided to make Pan Roasted Chicken with Lemon-Garlic Green Beans and Potatoes, served on a bed of parmesan couscous, a slightly modified version of the recipe found on Real Simple (http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/pan-roasted-chicken-lemon-garlic-green-beans-10000000780291/index.html) for me and my parents on my last day at home before returning to college.

My modified recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

Half a lemon

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup wine

3/4 pound trimmed green beans

3 russett potatoes, cubed

3 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)

1 box parmesan couscous

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. In a medium bowl, combine chicken, salt, 1 tsp pepper, and wine and toss to coat. Leave to marinate for at least an hour, and up to 24 hours. 

2. Set a small saucepan on the stove to boil. Add the green beans and a pinch of salt to the boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. Immediately remove and wash with cold water.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the olive oil, garlic, 1 tsp pepper, and the juice of half a lemon and whisk to combine. Add the potatoes and green beans to the olive oil mixture and toss to coat. Arrange the vegetables on the bottom of a large baking dish and bake at 375ºF for 15 minutes.

4. After 15 minutes, add the chicken to the top of the vegetables and pour the rest of the marinade over the chicken and vegetables. Roast for 45 minutes. Cook couscous as directed on the box and divide chicken and vegetables equally among 3 serving plates. Serve warm. 

I have to say it was a solid start for the new year! The chicken was moist and lemony, with a very mild and delicate flavor. The potatoes and green beans were soft, but still had bite to them and the couscous paired well with the lemon flavor. The most nerve-wracking part was staring at the chicken through the small oven window, wondering if it was leathery and dry or still raw in the middle. When we finally pulled it out, I had to cut a slice just to make sure it was done (you can see the cut on the first image of the chicken up close). One down, 51 more to go!