Cilantro Chicken

I put this dish on the menu because my cilantro plant had been thriving. Notice I said "had been thriving." When I went outside to clip some cilantro, I realized my once thriving plant was barely clinging to life. I managed to snip enough cilantro to make this dish, but I think my cilantro plant has finally succumbed to the extreme heat we've been dealing with. And that's a shame because this dinner was fantastic. I can't wait to make it again, even if I have to buy cilantro from the grocery store. (My herb garden is on hold until the weather turns slightly cooler.)

My version of the recipe is below. I did not serve it over cabbage. Instead I threw in some steamed broccoli when I added the soy sauce mixture. I also left out the peanuts, and I don't think I was missing anything.

Cilantro Chicken
8 ounces skinless, boneless chicken-breast halves, cut into 1-inch strips
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Steamed broccoli, optional
3/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
cooked brown rice, if desired

1. In a medium nonstick skillet, cook chicken in oil over medium-high heat 3 to 4 minutes, or until chicken is tender and no longer pink.
2. Mix together soy sauce, vinegar and red pepper flakes. Add to skillet with broccoli, if using. Cook and stir 1 minute more.
3. Remove from heat. Stir in cilantro. Serve over rice if desired.

Chipotle Pork--2 Ways

I used to shun recipes that had chipotle peppers in them, thinking they were too spicy for my tastebuds. Then one day I broke down and bought a can of chipotles in adobo sauce. I was hooked. I loved the smoky flavor. Yes, they can pack a punch. Make sure you remove the seeds when you use them. Since one can contains way more peppers than I would use in one recipe, I freeze the remaining peppers and sauce in ice cube trays, pop out when frozen and store them in a Ziploc. Then I can just defrost what I need. I had bookmarked two recipes that would help me use up my stock of chipotle peppers. Both were excellent, and I can't decide which one I like better. I used boneless pork loin chops, but I'm sure they would be good with chicken as well.


Orange and Chipotle Pork Kabobs
1/2 C orange juice
1 T light brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 chipotle peppers in adobo, seeds removed, peppers minced
1 T vegetable oil
2 boneless pork loin chops, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 onion, cut into chunks
1 orange, cut into wedges


1. Mix together orange juice, sugar, garlic, peppers, and oil in a ziploc bag. Add pork to bag and turn so meat is fully coated in marinade. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.
2. Heat grill to medium. Remove pork from marinade. Discard marinade. Thread pork, onions and oranges onto skewers. Cook kabobs, turning often, 10-12 minutes or until pork is fully cooked.

The second recipe came from Prevention magazine. The online version is slightly different from the print version I followed. The recipe with my changes is below.

Mexican Pork Tenderloin
1/2 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 chipotle peppers in adobo, finely chopped and seeds removed
3 TBLSP cider vinegar
2 TBLSP lime juice
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp canola oil
1 tsp chopped fresh oregano
2 boneless pork loin chops
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1. In a dry skillet, cook the onion and garlic over medium-high heat for 7 minutes. Puree in a food processor with the chile peppers, vinegar, lime juice, sugar, oil, and oregano. Reserve half of the mixture and place in a separate container from the pork. Place the pork in a shallow dish and cover with the remaining mixture. Cover and marinate overnight.
2. Preheat grill to high heat. In a small bowl, combine cumin and pepper.
3. Remove pork from marinade; discard marinade. Rub pork with cumin mixture.
4. Grill pork for 10 minutes over high heat. Lower heat to medium. Baste pork with reserved pepper and onion mixture. Grill pork for 10 more minutes over medium heat, or until cooked through. Serve.

I served this with the side dish from Prevention magazine too: Grilled Corn with Lime and Red Pepper. Even though I used frozen corn on the cob (no idea why that was in my freezer!), it was still really good.
Grilled Corn with Lime and Red Pepper
2 ears of corn on the cob, husked
olive oil spray
red pepper
salt
lime, cut in quarters

1. Bring large pot of water to a boil and preheat grill to medium high.
2. Boil corn 5 minutes and remove to plate. Coat lightly with olive oil spray and grill 10 minutes, turning every 2 minutes.
3. Combine salt and pepper in small bowl. When corn is done, rub each ear with lime wedge and sprinkle with salt and pepper mixture.

Summertime Grilled Chicken

There is a little elf at work who keeps bringing in bags and bags of mangos and leaving them in the lunch room for everyone to help themselves to. I am forever grateful to this person, because without their generosity, I never would have been introduced to the wonders of mango salsa. First, I made grilled pork chops with mango salsa. Then I made grilled fish with mango salsa. Tonight, I made my favorite protein--chicken--with mango salsa. I marinated the chicken in a combination of citrus juices and various spices. While the chicken was delicious on its own, the mango salsa really made it special. This was a perfect summertime dinner.

Citrus Chicken Breasts
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/2 TBLSP brown sugar
1 TBLSP canola oil
1 TBLSP lime juice
1/8 cup orange juice
2 chicken breasts

1. Combine all ingredients in a plastic bag or glass bowl. Coat chicken with mixture. Marinate in refrigerator for 30 minutes to 2 hours.
2. Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Remove chicken from marinade, discard marinade. Grill chicken, turning often, for 12-15 minutes until cooked through. Serve chicken with mango salsa.

Mango Salsa
1 mango, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1 TBLSP lime juice
1 TBLSP red wine vinegar
2 TBLSP olive oil
chopped, fresh cilantro
dash of hot pepper sauce

1. Mix all ingredients together. Cover and let stand for 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend.

Outback Bread

I haven't eaten at Outback since I was in college (i.e., many many years ago). I don't remember much about my meals there except for a dessert called the Chocolate Thunder from Down Under. That I have many fond memories of. So I can't explain why when I saw this recipe for a copycat version of Outback's Honey Wheat Bushman Bread my mouth started drooling.

I wish I could tell you that this is an exact clone of the bread served at Outback, but even after eating this, I still don't remember what they serve at Outback. I will tell you though that this bread was very, very good.

Honey Wheat Bushman Bread
I made a half batch of dough--leaving out the food coloring--which yielded two loaves of bread. I didn't mix up the honey butter that the original called for, but I would imagine that would be very good as well. The recipe with my changes is below.

5/8 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1-1/8 teaspoons yeast
1 cup bread flour
7/8 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tablespoon cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
cornmeal, for dusting

1. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and warm water; add the yeast and let this mixture sit until it is foamy.
2. While the yeast proofs, combine the bread and wheat flours, cocoa and salt in the bowl of a Kitchen Aid mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the butter and combine well. Add honey and mix together.
3. Add the yeast solution and stir until thoroughly combined.
4. Switch to dough hook and knead for 10 minutes. Roll the dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl, turning to coat all sides.
5. Cover bowl, put in a warm place and let rise for 90 minutes or until doubled in size.
6. Divide the dough into 2 equal portions and roll into a small loaf. Coat the dough with cornmeal. Put the shaped loaves on a baking sheet and cover to rise again, one hour or until doubled in size.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake the loaves for 35-40 minutes. Let cool for 10-15 minutes on a wire rack before serving warm with butter.

Back from the Dead

Wow, long time, no blog!

Commitments at work and home led me to push the blog to the back burner and before you knew it, almost 2 years had gone by with not a word from me. I thought about abandoning blogging completely, but I realized I liked blogging. I missed not having an outlet for my thoughts or a place to record my recipes and meals and the general minutiae of everyday life. I thought about starting a new blog, but I figured it was best to jump right back into blogging at this address. I didn't want to risk telling myself I would set up a new blog "someday" and then never get around to it. So, I'm back here for now. Hopefully, I'll stick around this time.

Crockpot Mexican Chicken

Since I had just made a fresh batch of tortillas, I needed something to stuff them with. This Mexican Chicken fit the bill. Of course, I did make a few changes. I substituted a sweet potato for the butternut squash and left out the rice. I served the chicken with the tortillas and corn on the cob.

Crockpot Mexican Chicken
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 medium green bell pepper, cut into 1- inch pieces
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (frozen is okay)
1 can (14.5 oz) stewed tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup salsa
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cumin

1. Place chicken in bottom of crockpot. Add sweet potato and green pepper.
2. Mix together tomatoes, salsa, cinnamon and cumin. Pour over everything in crockpot.
3. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-7. When chicken is done, use two forks to shred the chicken. Mix well.
4. Serve chicken in tortillas if desired.

Mexican Tortillas

Last month we took a fabulous vacation to the Cancun area of Mexico. We stayed at an all-inclusive, but we did venture off the resort one day to one of the new wonders of the world, Chichen Itza. It was an amazing experience, and something I highly recommend you see if you vacation in the area. Our tour included lunch at a local restaurant where I ate the best meal of my vacation. The food at the resort was good, but didn't seem very authentic. This meal on the other hand seemed like authentic Yucatan food. The servers brought around baskets of tortillas which tasted nothing like the packaged ones I buy in the store.

Those tortillas inspired me to try my hand at making my own from scratch. I've made these twice now, and they were unbelievably good both times. I don't know if I will ever buy tortillas again. I did make a few changes from the original recipe. I used less whole wheat flour and more bread flour only because I couldn't find any whole wheat bread flour in the stores. I also swapped out the shortening for oil. My dough was a little sticky, so I added more flour (which I didn't measure). I just eyeballed it until the dough came together in a ball. I used the Kitchenaid dough hook to mix and knead the dough. Also, one time I fried the tortillas in oil--not the healthiest option, I know--and we liked those slightly better. They were more flavorful of course, because they were more fattening! Now I just need to perfect my dough rolling technique. My tortillas were shaped more like footballs than circles.


Mexican Tortillas
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1-1/3 cup bread flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 TBL + 2 tsp canola oil
1/2 cup boiling water (might need to add a little more to get dough to come together)
flour for rolling


1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix together the flours and salt. Make a well in the center and add the oil and boiling water. Mix until all the liquid is evenly incorporated. Sprinkle with a bit of additional flour, and knead until the dough does not stick to your fingers. The dough should be smooth.
2. Make balls the size of golf balls, about 2 ounces each. Place them on a tray, and cover with a cloth. Let stand for at least 1 hour, or up to 8 hours.
3. Heat a griddle or large frying pan over high heat. On a lightly floured surface, roll out a tortilla to your preferred thinness. Fry one at a time. Place on the griddle for 10 seconds, as soon as you see a bubble on the top, flip the tortilla over. Let it cook for about 30 seconds, then flip and cook the other side for another 30 seconds. Roll out the next tortilla while you wait for that one to cook. Repeat until all of the balls have been cooked.