Chicken Cordon 'Azzurro'

I remember reading a cook book my mom had gotten in the mail.  She got 2, a blue one that was French and a red one that was Italian.  These were the only ones she owned but never used.  I remember looking through those books over and over.  In the French cookbook there was a recipe for chicken cordon bleu.  I remember thinking - yum that looks SO good...maybe that is where my cooking bug came from???  Well, years later I made it..but used provolone cheese since I am not a fan of swiss. It's easy and very tasty!  I served it with 2 of my favorite weeknight shortcuts - Uncle Ben's Rice and Steamed Broccoli with some olive oil and lemon drizzled on top (forgot the brand - but the one you steam in the bag). 

• 4 Thin Sliced Chicken Cutlets
• 8 pieces of ham
• 8 pieces of provolone cheese
• Seasoned breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• Salt 
• Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Butter
• Toothpicks

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Pound your chicken cutlets to make them a little thinner
3. Season the cutlets with a little salt and pepper
4. Add 2 slices of ham, then 2 slices of cheese on top of each cutlet
5. Roll the cutlet - if one end is more narrow, start with that end first
6. Secure the roll with toothpicks - I usually use 4 (try to use the same amount for each roll - so you know how many toothpicks you have to pull out!)
7. Continue with the remaining cutlets
8. In a small bowl beat one egg
9. Dip each roll in the beaten egg and then roll it in the seasoned breadcrumbs
10. In a large heated saute pan, add olive oil
11. Once the oil is nice & hot - add the chicken
12. Brown each side - then remove from heat, you will continue to cook in the oven
13. Place all 4 rolls in an oven safe dish and cook in the oven for about 25 minutes 

Chicken Challenge! Creamy Dijon Chicken

I had participated in Lisa's Chicken Cooking Challenge from Lisa's Cooking Adventures a few weeks ago.  I made Coconut Chicken Fingers which were AMAZING! Lisa was still looking for some guest bloggers to make some more of the chicken recipes featured in the Cooking Light article.  I took a look and found a recipe for Creamy Dijon Chicken.  It seemed easy enough and a quick mid-week meal.  I have to say it was easy and tasty.  I served it to my husband , my brother, his wife and my kids. There were no complaints..but no WOW's either. The cream sauce is very light which was good..but I think I would have liked it more if it was a little thicker...but I guess it wouldn't be light then. I would probably make this again, but tweak it a bit adding a few more spices and maybe a little more cream.

Here is the link to the Cooking Light article with recipe.

• 4 Skinless, boneless chicken breasts (I use Perdue thin-sliced chicken breast)
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1/4 tsp. Pepper
• 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• 3 Tbsp. Chopped shallots
• 1/2 cup lower sodium, fat free chicken broth (I made my own using a bouillon cube)
• 1 Rosemary spring (I used 1 tsp. dried rosemary)
• 3 Tbsp. Whipping cream
• 2 tsp. Dijon mustard

1. Place chicken breast halves between 2 sheets of plastic wrap; pound to 1/2-inch thickness (I had thin sliced so skipped this step)
2. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper
3. Heat large skillet over medium-high heat
4. Add olive oil to pan
5. Add chicken; saute 3 minutes on each side or until done
6. Transfer to serving platter
7. Add shallots to pan; saute for 2 minutes
8. Stir in chicken broth and rosemary spring
9. Bring to boil
10. Cook 2 minutes
11. Stir in whipping cream; cook 2 minutes
12. Remove from heat, and discard rosemary
13. Stir in Dijon mustard
14. Spoon over chicken

I didn't get a great picture of the chicken (It actually didn't really look like much) but...you can see it in the upper right hand corner.  I served it with glazed carrots, my simple risotto & nonna's seasoned bread)

Recipe Challenge! Parmesan Crusted Chicken

I am taking part in a few cooking 'challenges' one of them was for a quick weeknight dinner idea.  I got to submit my own recipe for the challenge.  I submitted my stuffed pork chops.  For this challenge I got Parmesan Crusted Chicken. When I saw the recipe I thought, wow this looks EASY! Which of course is perfect for a weeknight.  I will say I was a little leery of the mayo/cheese spread that was put on the chicken - but in the end you wouldn't even know that there was mayo in it.  Very tasty, the chicken was juicy and the Parmesan crust was delicious.  My kids and I had it for lunch along with an arugula salad.

Here is the recipe I was given:

• 1/2 cup Hellmann's Mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup Grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1-1/4 lbs.) - I used Perdue Thin Sliced
• 4 tsp. Italian seasoned dry bread crumbs

1.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Combine Mayonnaise with cheese in a medium bowl
3. Arrange chicken on baking pan
4. Evenly top with mayonnaise mixture
5. Sprinkle with bread crumbs
6. Bake 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through

The only thing I did different was to season the chicken with salt & pepper before adding the mayonnaise mixture.  But I will tell you these are REALLY good and will definitely find their spot on my dinner rotation.  I work so this is the perfect go to dinner!

Nonna's Chicken Soup

My mom's chicken soup is the best...hands down!  But...it takes a while...like a few hours.  I can't tell you what warm memories this chicken soup brings back.  My mom has one of those huge white enamel stock pots and would make enough to freeze for future use. I've only made her chicken soup one time before and as with almost everything my mom makes - I still can't make it quite like hers. But this time..I got it!

Again, a few steps and some time involved here...but as with good home-cooking, the result is fabulous!

1 Whole Chicken
1 Large tomato or 2 smaller tomato's, cut in half
2 celery stalks, sliced in thirds
2 whole carrots, cleaned and sliced in half
1 medium onion, quartered
1/4 lemon
Parsley
1 Chicken Bouillon Cube
Bay Leaf
Salt
Pepper

Chicken Preparation

• Trim excess fat from chicken (usually trim near the open cavity)
• If your chicken has the innards in the cavity - remove them
• In a bowl, rinse your chicken off
• Now, my mom will usually let it sit in little water with lemon in it - she has this thing about lemon removing the 'poultry' taste from it...she does this regardless of how she cooks her chicken it always gets a 'lemon' bath prior to cooking
• Rinse of your chicken, sprinkle with salt and pepper and put it in a stock pot
• Cover chicken entirely with water and add about 2 cups more
• Soup should remain on medium low heat - AT ALL TIMES
• Do not add anything to your pot at this time - just the chicken
• Simmer your chicken, you will start to notice a foam collecting at the top, my mother called this 'scumazza' or foam

• You will periodically skim this off - whatever this is, you don't want it in your soup
• Once you notice almost no more 'scumazza' you can start adding your vegetables

Soup Preparation

• Add all remaining ingredients to the pot including a little extra salt and pepper
• Simmer for at least an hour, closer to 2 would be ideal!! 
• This is what your pot should look like:

• The chicken should be coming off the bone at this point
• You can now start to remove any floating pieces of skin plus the skin that is on the chicken will come off very easy at this point - it's not that bad, really it isn't  :-)

Serving Your Soup

• Place a colander over a separate stove top pan on medium heat
• Add your chicken broth into the pan, the colander will catch all the vegetables
• Add enough broth to serve you, your family, your friends, etc
• When broth comes to a boil, add your pasta - ditalini, broken spaghetti, orzo, etc..
• My mom served the chicken and vegetables in a separate bowl along side with the soup - this way you could add however much chicken and/or vegetables you wanted to into your soup

I hope I didn't make this more involved than it really is..because although it may seem like it's complicated - it's not.  If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll be happy to help!

I served this another one of my mom's other favorites - her seasoned bread which I will write about later!

Cousin Joey's Chicken Francaise

Cousin Joey is my Zia (aunt) Dina's son.  Zia Dina is an AMAZING cook!  She makes pasta from scratch, makes homemade pizza dough that is phenomenal. So the fact that Joey loves to cook doesn't surprise us - the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  Joey has a signature dish...his Chicken Francaise.  This is a staple during a family get together.  The challenge with this recipe is that we have no exact measurements.  This is the case with almost all our recipes.  We cook to taste.  He gave me a list of ingredients and directions (a bit time consuming, but the pay off is HUGE) and I took a stab at the measurements.  Well, I have to say my version was a BIG hit.  I served 2 pounds of chicken to 3 guests and there was nothing left.  Without further ado...the recipe:

• 2lbs of Chicken breast or thin sliced chicken breast
• 2 eggs
• 2 Cup Seasoned breadcrumbs*
• 1/4 Cup Parmesan cheese
• 3-4 Garlic cloves
• 1 Chicken flavored bouillon cube
• 1 Lemon - cut in half
• Butter
• White wine
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• 5 quart saute pan

1. Rinse off your chicken breast 
2. If you are using thick chicken breast, you want to slice the chicken breast in half - but if you want to save yourself ALOT of time, buy the thin sliced!
3. Pound out the chicken breast so that its nice and thin, like a scallopini.  I cut them in half after this point, sometimes in thirds if its a really big piece
4. Once you've finished, place the chicken in a large bowl and add about 1/2 cup white wine - let this sit for at least a half hour
5. Now that your chicken is nice and drunk it's time to bread and fry
6. Layout your chicken on a large flat area lined with paper towels - you want to get rid of any excess moisture
7. While the chicken is laid it, sprinkle with salt and pepper
8. Beat two eggs in a medium bowl and add the chicken, make sure you evenly coat all the pieces - I just used my hand to work the egg through
9. In a shallow dish add your breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese. Now..here is another little twist - we use homemade breadcrumbs.  They are MUCH lighter than store bought and taste completely different. I'll write more about this later..but for now mix the breadcrumbs and cheese together.
10. Coat your saute pan with olive oil, once the oil is hot add your chicken about 4 pieces at a time - be careful not to overcrowd your pan
11. Lightly brown the chicken, about 2 minutes on each side (you will continue to cook the chicken later)
12. Once you are done cooking the chicken, cool and wipe down your pan
13. Return your pan to the stovetop and olive oil - enough to coat the bottom of the pan entirely
14. Add 4 Tbsp. of butter - yes, I know it's alot...but it's going to make your sauce so decadent
15. Smash your garlic using the flat side of a meat tenderizer or large knife - add this to your pan - INCLUDING the garlic skin (yes, I said to add the skin it takes any bitterness of the garlic away - at least that is what Zia says)
16. Once the garlic turns a light golden brown, add about 3/4 cup of wine, the bouillon cube and the juice of 1/2 lemon
17. Bring to a boil, add the chicken and 4 slices of lemon
18. Reduce the heat to medium low
19. Cook covered for 20 minutes, turning the chicken over after 10 minutes
20. When done, place the chicken on a serving platter, pouring the remaining sauce (including lemons & garlic) over the chicken

If you did this right, some of the chicken will have a nice little crust on it!  I know there are alot of steps here but that is partly my fault - I want to make it as detailed and as easy as possible.  I served this with my Simple Risotto and it was a hit!

*Now before I forget, I want to talk to you about breadcrumbs.  I will always have a container of seasoned breadcrumbs in my pantry....it's a staple.  But there is NOTHING, I repeat NOTHING like homemade breadcrumbs. Just take a look at the chicken in the above picture..you can just tell that it's delicate.

Homemade Breadcrumbs

You can do this one of two ways, you can make your way to your local bakery and purchase them there OR do it yourself.  If you use Italian bread at home save any of your leftovers.  My mom keeps leftover bread in the oven in one of those disposable aluminum trays.  Once you get enough to fill the tray it's time to take out your Cuisinart.  Add dried bread to the Cuisinart adding fresh parsley and grated Parmesan cheese.  I don't have measurements for this - you'll need to adjust the parsley and cheese to your taste.  Now chop.  Continue to chop until you get the consistency you like.  Viola, homemade breadcrumbs.  Since this has cheese in it, you will need to refrigerate it.

Coconut Chicken Fingers

I follow Lisa's Cooking Adventures on her blog .  She recently posted a challenge - She has 25 recipes from Cooking Light and was looking for people to pick a recipe, make it and give her a review.  I took a look at the recipes and decided on the Coconut Chicken Fingers.  I thought it was easy and something the kids would like.  I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised considering this is a 'light' recipe.

Here is the review I wrote up for Lisa's Blog:

I was excited to see a recipe for Coconut Chicken Fingers as part Lisa's Cooking Adventure's Challenge. I figured it was an easy dish that my kids would like. I have to say I was a little worried that the coconut would burn too fast - but that wasn't the case. I followed the recipe using Perdue Chicken Tenders, I omitted the red pepper since I was serving it to the kids and I used plain flour instead of rice flour. It was a BIG hit. We had them for lunch served with Kikkomann's Plum Sauce. If I wasn't serving them to the kids I would have added a little red pepper since I do think it needed that extra 'punch'. However - this was a very simple recipe to make and it got thumbs up from the family!


And not a moment longer...the recipe:

• 4 (6 ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1/2 inch-thick strips (I used Perdue Chicken Strips - saved a lot of time!)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground red pepper (omitted since I was feeding the kids)
• 1 cup rice flour (I used all purpose flour)
• 1 cup whole buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cup cup unsweetened flaked coconut
• 3 Tbsp. canola oil
• Sweet chili sauce (optional - I used Kikkomann Plum Sauce)

1. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper
2. Place flour in shallow dish
3. Combine buttermilk and egg in shallow dish, stirring well
4. Place coconut in shallow dish
5. Dredge chicken in flour, shake off excess
6. Dip chicken in egg mixture
7. Dredge in coconut
8. Heat large skillet over medium heat
9. Add oil to pan, swirl to coat
10. Add chicken to pan
11. Cook 6 minutes or until done, turning golden brown
12. Serve with chile sauce, if desired

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