Caprese Pasta Salad with Chicken

Here's another one that I made MONTHS ago, and am just now getting around to sharing.

I pulled out this recipe in mid-May for my then-boyfriend (now-fiance!) on his birthday. I swear, he could eat this every day of the week, and twice on Sunday. I would like to pretend that I waited to post it until tomatoes were in season, but to be perfectly honest, I've just been too caught up in the excitement of getting engaged to worry about blogging. Regardless, I'm posting this at precisely the right time of year for you to try it yourselves :-)

My fiance prefers it straight out of the fridge -- the colder, the better. Personally, I prefer it at room temperature, but it's yummy no matter what. With so much fresh basil, mozzerella, and tomatoes, how can you go wrong, right?




Caprese Pasta Salad with Chicken
(adapted from The Cooking Photographer, who got the idea here and added a vinagrette from here)

Lemon Vinaigrette:

2 teaspoons finely grated lemons zest
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
¼ cup lightly packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
2 garlic cloves, chopped
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more if needed to wet pasta

Blend the lemon zest and juice, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper in a blender. With the machine running gradually blend in the oil. Season the vinaigrette to taste with more salt and pepper.

Pasta:1 pound pasta (whatever fun shape you like)

2 skinless boneless chicken breast halves (about 9 ounces total)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 pound diced ripe tomatoes
16 ounce tub fresh mozzarella pearls, drained
Lemon vinaigrette
Lots of fresh basil, chopped (I don't think it's possible to use too much)
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat 1 tablespoon oil reserved from tomatoes in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to skillet and sauté until cooked through, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to plate and cool; do not clean skillet. Cut chicken into 1/2-inch pieces.

Cook the pasta according to the directions, drain, and rinse with cold water. Move the pasta to a large serving bowl and toss together with the rest of the ingredients.

Rigatoni with Chicken Sausage, Tomatoes and Cream

Trader Joe's sells a Sicilian chicken sausage that in the words of Mary Poppins, is practically perfect in every way. I try to keep some in the freezer at all times for a quick weeknight meal. My go-to preparation is to sautee it with some onions and red peppers, mix in a jar of spaghetti sauce, doctor it with whatever herbs I'm in the mood for, and voila' -- dinner!

 Every once in awhile, however, I get bored with that old standby, and decide to branch out. Enter my good friend, the Epicurious app. A quick search yielded this 4-fork, blue-ribbon recipe, which I can now add to the weeknight rotation. It's simple. It uses ingredients I tend to have on hand. And it's absolutely delicious.

For my first attempt, I made as written, heavy cream and all. Next time, I'll try lightening it up with some haf-and-half. I have a feeling it will be just as good.

Rigatoni with Chicken Sausage, Tomatoes, and Cream

(adapted slightly from Epicurous)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound Italian chicken sausage, casings removed
• 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes with added puree
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1 pound rigatoni (or your favorite pasta)
• 1/2 cup (packed) chopped fresh basil
• Freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage and crushed red pepper. Sauté until sausage is no longer pink, breaking up with back of fork, about 5 minutes. Add onion and garlic; sauté until onion is tender and sausage is browned, about 3 minutes longer. Add tomatoes and cream. Reduce heat to low and simmer until sausage mixture thickens, about 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid. Return pasta to same pot. Add sausage mixture and toss over medium-low heat until sauce coats pasta, adding reserved cooking liquid by 1/4 cupfuls if mixture is dry. Transfer pasta to serving dish. Sprinkle with basil. Serve, passing cheese separately.

Chicken Marsala Risotto

It seems to me that risotto gets a bad rap. Before I ever tried my hand at it, I lived under the assumption (perpetuated by the various home chefs I've met) that risotto is pain in the you-know-what. Now, I hardly consider myself an expert in the kitchen, but I just don't see what all the fuss is about. Sure, you can't just leave it on the stove while you play "Words With Friends" (or whatever your distraction of choice), but it seems pretty fool-proofed to me.

I have a number of go-to risotto recipes, but I do think this is my favorite. I've had it shelved for awhile, as my significant other declared our home a mushroom-free zone for a month or so to test a hypothesis that he is allergic to the little buggers. Given that I LOVE mushrooms, I've never been so happy for a theory to be proven wrong!  To celebrate, I whipped up this dish, compliments of one of my favorite blogs, Pink Parsley.

The only major change I made was the addition of chicken, 'cause at my house, dinner just isn't dinner without a little meat.

Chicken Marsala Risotto
(adapted fom Pink Parsley)

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
• 3/4 cup Arborio rice
• 1 cup Marsala wine, divided
• 3-4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups mushrooms, sliced (cremini are recommended, but I used baby bella with good results)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus a little more to sprink on top
• 2 Tablespoons fresh basil, minced, plus a little more to sprinkle on top
• kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Season chicken cubes with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, and sautee the chicken until no longer pink in the middle. Remove from heat, and tent with foil to keep warm.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat until foaming subsides. Add shallots and saute until soft, 2-3 minutes. Add garlic, tomato paste, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper and stir to combine. Cook until fragrant, 1 minute.

Meanwhile, heat the chicken stock in a medium saucepan until simmering.

Add the Arborio rice and toast until opaque around the edges, 3-5 minutes. Add 3/4 cup of the Marsala wine and cook, stirring often, until absorbed, 5 minutes or so.

Stir in 1 cup of the chicken broth, and stir occasionally until almost absorbed, 8-12 minutes. Working 1 ladle of broth at at time, continue to add broth, stirring constantly. Add the next ladle when the broth is almost completely absorbed.

After you have been cooking the risotto for 10 minutes, stir in the mushrooms. Continue to cook risotto, stirring constantly, until it is al dente, for a total of 20-25 minutes.

Remove from heat, and stir in the chicken cubes, the remaining 1/4 cup of Marsala wine, Parmesan cheese, basil, and remaining butter. Add salt and pepper if necessary and season to taste.

Serve immediately, with a little extra basil and parmesan on top (if desired).

Pasta with Chicken, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Gorgonzola, and Pine Nuts

At my house, this is what we call "Vintage Smokey." It is, after all, the first meal that I cooked for my boyfriend after we met. And nearly 4 years later, it remains his single most frequent request.

It's another goodie from Epicurious. But at this point, I don't rely very heavily on the recipe. I know I add more of just about everything. More cheese. More prociutto. More sun-dried tomatoes. Who needs measuring cups, right? I just eye-ball it.

As for pasta, the recipe calls for shells or gnocchi, but really, you can use whatever you want. These pictures depict a version using orechiette, which in my opinion, is basically just a more sophisticated version of shells.

The only other change I make is to cut the chicken before I cook it. I am under the illusion that it shortens cooking time, though to be honest, I've never checked.

Pasta with Chicken, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Gorgonzola, and Pine Nuts
(adapted from Epicurious)

• 1/2 to 1 cup chopped drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (2 tablespoons oil reserved)
• 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 9 ounces total)
• 1 pound gnocchi pasta or medium shell pasta
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/3(-ish) cup canned low-salt chicken broth
• 1/3(-ish) cup dry white wine
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (about 2 ounces)
• 1/4 to1/2 cup chopped prosciutto
• 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

Heat 1 tablespoon oil reserved from tomatoes in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to skillet and sauté until cooked through, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to plate and cool; do not clean skillet.

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain pasta; transfer to large bowl.

Meanwhile, heat remaining 1 tablespoon tomato oil in same skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic; sauté until tender, about 1 minute. Add sun-dried tomatoes, chicken, basil, broth, cheese and prosciutto to skillet and bring to boil.

Add sauce to pasta and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Top with pine nuts and serve.

Chicken with Mustard Cream Sauce

I love me a good pan sauce. Especially one with not one, but two types of mustard. And brandy. And cream.

Need I say more?

This dish is going in the rotation immediately. It's easy. It uses ingredients I tend to have on hand. And it makes GREAT leftovers. My co-workers are jealous.

I served it with couscous. This in and of itself is not newsworthy, as I serve just about everything with couscous, but it's used to great effect here. It really sops up the yummy sauce, and is not the least bit heavy. The cream takes care of that :-)

Chicken with Mustard Cream Sauce
(adapted VERY slightly from The Pioneer Woman Cooks)

• 4 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
  
  
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 3 whole Garlic Cloves, Minced
• 1 cup Brandy
• 1 Tablespoon (heaping) Dijon Mustard
• 1 Tablespoon (heaping) Grainy Mustard
• 1/4 cup Heavy Cream
• 1/4 cup Chicken Broth
• Salt And Pepper, to taste

Cut the chicken breasts in half lengthwise so that you have eight smaller, thinner chicken cutlets. Salt and pepper both sides.

Heat oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook cutlets on both sides until nice and golden brown and cooked through. Remove chicken from the skillet and keep on a plate. (No need to keep warm)

Reduce the heat to medium. Add the garlic to the pan and saute it for a minute, stirring to make sure it won't burn. Next pour in the brandy being careful if cooking over an open flame.

Then just let the booze bubble up and cook until it's reduced by half.

Throw in the mustards and stir to combine, then pour in the cream. Stir in chicken broth, adding more if the sauce seems too thick. Taste sauce and adjust whatever you think it needs. Add chicken breasts back to the pan, nestling them into the sauce. Allow sauce to cook for another few minutes, shaking the pan if needed to move things around.

Serve chicken with couscous, spooning the sauce over the top.

Creole-Style Shrimp, Chicken, and Sausage Gumbo

For the life of me, I don't know how I managed to get gumbo on the brain. It isn't Mardi Gras after all, and the weather really has been too warm to justify the need for a stick-to-your-ribs stew. All I know is that once the idea popped into my head, nothing but gumbo was going to satisfy my craving.

Feeling somewhat intimidated by Creole cooking -- and really not wanting my efforts to be in vain, I turned to a trusted cookbook: Soups, Stews, and Chilis from the Editors of Cook's Illustrated. I "borrowed" this book from a colleague about a year ago, for the specific purpose of making Chicken Mole, and well, I never gave it back. Not that my colleague is complaining. After all, he does get samples of anything I create as a result of his generous spirit.

Now, I want to copy the recipe. I really do. But given that Cook's Illustrated requires a paid subscription to view the recipe on their site, I have a feeling it's not exactly kosher to publish it for free here. Sooooo, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to give you the link for the real thing, which you can pay for if you like, ANd I'm going to direct you to another blog where I found a very similar recipe.

If you're wondering whether it's worth the effort to click on the above link, I can assure you that the answer is yes. This shrimp, sausage, and chicken gumbo is DELICIOUS, makes a ton, and although somewhat time-consuming, is quite simple to make. The CI technique for making the roux is particularly easy. You basically brown some flour in a Dutch oven on the stovetop, stir in some oil, put a lid on it, and stick it in the oven for 45 minutes. Just be careful upon removing the lid. I was hasty, and let me tell you, that stuff'll really clear your sinuses! Whew!

Sauteed Chicken with Tomatoes, Olives, and Feta

 

 Every once in awhile a recipe comes along that it so easy and so incredibly delicious that you simultaneously want to tell everyone you know about it AND keep it all to yourself. This is such a recipe. Perfect exactly as written (although it's also ok if you accidentally use 8 tablespoons instead of 8 teaspoons of oregano). Thank you, Epicurious.

Sauteed Chicken with Tomatoes, Olives, and Feta
from Epicurious

• 6 skinless boneless chicken breast halves, trimmed, pounded to 1/3-inch thickness
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 8 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
• 2 garlic cloves, pressed
• 30 pitted Kalamata olives, cut lengthwise into slivers
• 16 grape tomatoes, stemmed, quartered lengthwise
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Score top of chicken breasts with sharp knife; place in large glass baking dish. Whisk 1/2 cup oil, lemon juice, 6 teaspoons oregano, and garlic in small bowl to blend. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper. Chill 3 tablespoons dressing for tomatoes. Pour remaining dressing over chicken; turn chicken to coat. Cover; refrigerate at least 3 hours and up to 6 hours, turning occasionally.

Toss olives, tomatoes, feta, remaining 2 teaspoons oregano, and reserved dressing in medium bowl. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and sauté until cooked through, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to platter; season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon tomato mixture onto chicken.