Chicken with herb butter tomato pan sauce over polenta

Last week I whipped up a chicken dish with herb butter and tomato pan sauce and served it over polenta that I bought from my massive Trader Joe's run.

I would pass on the polenta next time, opting to serve this over rice, mashed potatoes (in the winter), or stone ground grits.
I used the rest of the shiitakes that I had from the ravioli dish I made, but you could omit them or add any other vegetable that would cook quickly in a pan sauce (peas, asparagus, mushrooms, snap peas, snow peas, zucchini, etc)  Adapted from Bon Appetit July 2011.
Here's what I used:
-2 TB unsalted butter, left out until it gets to room temperature
-2 TB Fresh parsley, but you could use thyme, tarragon, oregano, or marjoram if you have it
-1 large clove of garlic, minced
-1/2 tsp paprika
-2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
-Whatever vegetable  you want to use - I used 3/4 cup of shiitakes
-1/2 cup white wine
-one container of grape tomatoes
-I also had some green onions that I added, but you could use regular onions or omit.  

First, I mixed up the herb butter. I added 1 TB of fresh parsley, the paprika, a few dashes of dried oregano, the minced garlic, and some salt and freshly ground pepper. Mix it up until everything is incorporated:

Then I prepped the veggies by chopping the shiitakes, rinsing the tomatoes, chopping up the green onion, and putting the second TB of parsley aside.

Get a sauce pan heated and add half of the herb butter. Add the chicken to the pan and let it cook until done in the center, about 7-8 minutes on each side. When the pan looks like it is about to burn, add the white wine, scraping up all the drippings as you add it.  Add more wine as needed to allow the chicken to cook and not burn.

Once the chicken is cooked through, remove from the pan and tent with foil to keep warm.
Add the tomatoes to the pan and begin to cook, adding a bit of wine if needed and / or olive oil. Cook for a minute or two and then add the shiitakes or other vegetable. Cook for a few minutes and burst the tomatoes with your spoon once they start to shrivel. Once most of the tomatoes have burst, add the green onions and the final TB of herb butter and cook for one minute.If you are using regular onions instead of green onions, add them early with the tomatoes. They will take longer to cook than delicate green onions.

Meanwhile, I fried up the polenta, but as mentioned, I would probably sub out for rice, potatoes or grits. I was not too impressed with TJ's polenta (sorry, TJ's!)

Serve the chicken over the starch of your choice and top with the tomato pan sauce. Finish with the remaining TB of parsley.

The tomato pan sauce was delicious.  It really soaked up all those chicken flavors from the pan, and I loved the subtle wine flavor. Make sure you cook the tomatoes long enough for them to burst, as that's where all the flavor comes from! This was a very popular one with hubby, too.

Roasted Beet and Ricotta Salad with Panko Chicken

This was a more time consuming dish than I normally make... but I got out of the office early and felt like a nice dinner on the roofdeck so roasted beets it was!

2 bunches of baby beets - any color - I used red ones
2 scallions
1 1/2 TB red wine vinegar
1 1/2 TB olive oil
2 TB fresh mint
Fresh spinach
Ricotta Cheese
3 TB toasted slivered almonds
Boneless Skinless Chicken breast - I used one and halved it, since that's enough normally if I take the small half
Panko breadcrumbs
1 egg

First, preheat the oven to 400 degrees to get the beets going - chop off the tops and put them in a small baking dish with 1 cup of hot water.  Leave the skins on for now, they will come right off with a paper towel once the beets are roasted. Cover the dish with tin foil and cook for 45 minutes.

While that's going, you can toast the almonds, pine nuts, walnuts, whatever you have. I had slivered almonds so I toasted them in a pan over high heat. Have a dish ready - once they start toasting, they will brown up quickly!

Then I prepped the chicken to bread. I trimmed the chicken, coated it in egg and dipped it in panko.  I added the chicken to the oven when there were 20 min left on the beets. 

Then I prepped the salad.  Chop the two scallions and add to a large bowl. Add the chopped mint, red wine vinegar and olive oil. I also added some haricot verts because I had a few left over. Add the spinach and toss all together until everything is coated.

Once the beets and chicken are done, remove them from the oven and take the beets out of the water immediately so they can cool. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before you slice it. Use a paper towel to rub the beet skins off and dice the beets and add to the salad mixture.

Plate the salad and top with a generous spoonful of ricotta cheese. Add freshly ground pepper to the ricotta and top with the panko chicken, sliced on the diagonal.

9 from me, 7 from hubby.  I think it was a little too much salad for him.  (I even added a few baby red potatoes that I boiled.)  Next time, I might do the beets / ricotta idea with farro or barley with some chopped spinach incorporated.  Then it would be less salad and a little heartier for the hubs.

 

Spicy Orange Chicken Stir Fry

For my first blogging attempt, I adapted a recipe from the Bon Appetit June 2009 issue, Spicy Orange Chicken Stir-Fry. Normally I'd make brown rice, but I got home from work late and didn't feel like the wait (it takes twice as long to cook, but is twice as delicious, in my opinion.) So I got white jasmine rice on the stove ASAP-

Then I got to the main event:
1 1/2 lb chicken cutlets
one small red onion
Crushed red pepper
2 TBs vegetable oil
8 oz Sugar snap peas

3/4 c orange juice
3 TBs soy sauce
1 TB cornstarch
2 tsp finely grated orange peel (that sounded time consuming and I wasn't sure about the peel - I just used the zest of one orange)
Whisk the last four ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.  Set aside.

Chop the red onion - the recipe says thinly sliced, but I prefer diced onions than big onion pieces, so I dice.
Then prep the chicken - rinse and trim 1 1/2 lb chicken cutlets, cut crosswise into 1/2 inch strips. Make sure you pat the chicken very, very dry to that it will crisp up in the wok.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Heat the vegetable oil in a wok (preferably) or a non-stick skillet.  I used the wok our friends the Hartvickson's got us. I'm getting better using it, though it takes some practice.  You can see from the pic I still have a ways to go on the seasoning...

Once the oil is hot, add onion and a few dashes of crushed red pepper (to your taste.) Stir-fry for about 30 seconds and then add the chicken and continue to cook for 4-5 minutes until the onion is slightly crisp and the chicken is cooked through. Add the sugar snap peas and the juice mixture. Stir until sauce thickens and boils (about 2 more minutes.) Season to your liking and serve over the rice.

It was delicious! Nice orange flavor, crispy sugar snaps.  Tasty all around.
Next time I might add some slivered almonds, which I think would add a nice crunch.
Hubby gave it a 8.5 of 10. I gave it a 9 for being able to sit and eat 25 minutes after walking through the front door.