TURKEY POT PIE

I know that most of you probably have some turkey left over from the holidays. Our house is no exception. We enjoyed the roasted bird on thanksgiving, had the hot turkey sandwiches later on that week and also enjoyed some midnight raids to the fridge for a snack on those drumsticks.But thankfully, we are now going to put the bird to rest with some turkey pot pie.

This recipe is not only great with leftover turkey but also chicken.It is healthy, easy, a real autumn comfort meal and also quite tasty.

1 recipe for your favourite pastry dough

2 med. onions chopped

2 stalks celery chopped

2 carrots peeled and sliced

2-3 potatoes diced and boile2T. vegetable oil 2 tsp. thyme 3T. parsley chopped

1tsp. oregano

1 cup chicken broth

1 cup milk

( i also had some Chardonnay wine left over which I added for an extra flavour boost)

1/4-1/3 cup flour Depending if you added any extra liquid like the wine)

1 can of peas, or what ever vegetable you have left over and you think will make a nice addition to your pot pie.

Pre heat oven to 425F. In a large pot heat your oil and saute your onions, celery thyme, oregano,and carrots until tender. Stir in your flour and continue to cook constantly stirring over low heat. Add your stock and milk. Bring to a boil and continue stirring until mixture thickens. Add turkey, vegetables and pre-boiled potatoes. Season with salt , pepper, and parsley. Roll out pastry dough and cover whatever vessel you have used for your turkey mixture. Either individual servings or 1 large pie plate or casserole. Bake in pre heated oven for 15. minutes lower heat to 350 and continue baking until tops are golden , about another 20-30 minutes.

MARSALA CHICKEN

Our favorite Italian Restaurant on Preston Street serves a mouth watering Veal Marsala accompanied with beautiful buttery capellini, however, the young men in our house don't eat red meat and veal is most definitely out of the question. Personally, on a certain level I admire and even agree with their views on the use of veal, but from a culinary side, milk feed veal is a lovely meat and as I'm writing this post the veal scallopini I had  2 weeks ago, is still a vivid, delicious, memory.
That being said, in preparing meals , one can almost always substitute any meat for another without loosing the main components in a recipe. In this case it was the Marsala Sauce.
One day, I would just love to learn how to make all those delicious sauces that I have had in some of my favorite French Restaurants...but today's post is Italian, and while we are substituting chicken for veal, I wish you can have a taste of this sauce as it is just heavenly, (if I may say so myself).
It is a fool proof recipe that lends itself easily to pasta (like linguine) or even a lovely mashed potato like my boys like to have it.

Marsala-which comes from the island of Sicily- is a fortified wine, meaning it is infused with spirits. It has a rich, smoky flavor. I used Marsal. You could also use dry sherry.
The entire meal took 35 minutes, another great substitute is to use skinless, boneless, chicken thighs as they are more tender and tastier that chicken breasts, the choice is yours.

CHICKEN MARSALA
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. dried marjoram, crushed
1/8 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms ( you could use drained canned mushrooms)
1/4 cup sliced green onion
3 T butter/margarine
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup dry Marsala or dry sherry
Hot cooked pasta, such as capellini or linguine(optional)

1.In a shallow bowl, stir together flour, marjoram,salt, and pepper. Place each chicken piece between two pieces of plastic wrap. Using the flat side of a meat mallet, pound chicken lightly to about 1/4 inch thick. Remove plastic wrap. Lightly coat chicken pieces on both sides with the flour mixture, shake off excess.

2.Ina large skillet, cook mushrooms and green onion in 1 tablespoon of hot butter over medium-high heat for 4-6 minutes or until tender, remove from skillet. In the same skillet, cook chicken in remaining 2 tablespoons hot butter for the same time turning once.

3.Remove skillet from heat. Return mushrooms and green onion to skillet. Carefully add broth and Marsala to skillet. Bring mixture to boiling, reduce heat, simmer, uncovered for 2 more minutes stirring occasionally. Season sauce to taste with additional salt and pepper.  To serve , spoon mushroom mixture over chicken.

Tequila Lime BBQ Chicken & Pesto Gnocchi

Ron was playing nursemaid, and chief chef, while I was suffering major pain with my sinus infection. Meals were simple, but oh so good. Every now and then, I would tell him to remember to take some pictures. The results were not were glamorous, but what it lacked in visual presentation, it made up in flavour. Ron also took the trouble to make home made gnocchi, you have just got to love the guy.

This is actually a lovely recipe from a Canadian chef named Rob Rainford. He is the Grill man on the Canadian Food network Channel. This recipe, is actually a great one to make in the summertime when your BBQ is all fired up, but Ron brought a little sunshine into a dismal winter day by changing a few ingredients, and just grilling them on the Foreman Grill/ The original recipe is called Tangerine Tequila Chicken Breasts and can be found at http://www.foodtv.ca/. Ron substituted limes for the tangerine and used chicken legs and thighs. I'll post the original recipe. On a personal note this recipe almost reminded me of my good friend Lynne's Bajan Chicken recipe that she made for me a year ago when I was undergoing radiation. I'll have to get her to pass along a family recipe and post it sometime soon as it was absolutely delicious!

8 chicken breasts skeined and de- boned ( Ron used legs and thighs)

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1tsp dried chili peppers

zest and juice of 6 tangerines (Ron used limes)

3 T tequila

1 T fresh lime juice (Ron omitted this)

1/2 cup peanut or veg. oil

1T fresh mint leaves chopped 1/4 tsp. of salt.

In a med bowl wisk all ingredients.

Reserve 1/4 cup of marinade for basting.

Wash and pat dry chicken.

Place everything in a zip lock bag including pierced chicken and marinade for 3-6 hours.

Grill on our door or indoor grill basting as you go along.

CHICKEN BARLEY STEW

Well kids , summer has finally arrived to Ottawa, the weather has been downright balmy and yes I should be blogging about a beautiful summer salad or cold gazpacho,but hubby was in the mood for a comfy cozy stew/soup. As luck would have it I just came across just the thing in the Clean Eating magazine, a new take on the standard beef barley soup. The bonus to this recipe is that you make it in the crock pot the night before and voila supper is ready for the next day.
We woke up this morning to the wonderful fragrance of this hearty stew/ soup and had to fight down the urge to have it for breakfast, so we did the next best thing and had it for lunch.

Chicken Barley Stew

32 oz. low fat/ sodium chicken broth

1 T.minced garlic

1 tsp. garlic sea salt

1/2 T. thyme

1/2 T. basil

1/2 T. cilantro

1/2 T dill

2 bay leaves

1/2 T. freshly ground pepper

1 lb. cubed boneless, skinless chicken breast (uncooked)

1/2 cup uncooked black -eyed peas, rinsed

1/2 c. barley

1 medium sweet onion, cubed

3 large carrots cleaned and cut into 1/2 inch slices( I cubed them)

3 potatoes cleaned and cubed

8 T. low fat sour cream (optional)

Fill a slow cooker with broth, 8 oz water. garlic, herbs, and pepper. add chicken, peas and barley, then layer the onion,potatoes and carrots over top. liquid should just cover the vegetables. Do not stir.

Allow to simmer overnight. or at least 4-6 hours. Remove bay leaves before serving. Spoon one cup into each bowl and garnish with sour cream if desired. (230 cal. without sour cream)

CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

I just love the way the kitchen smells when I am poaching something. All warm , fragrant with a hint of spice. Such was the case today. I was poaching the chicken for the chicken enchiladas and truly the house smelt heavenly. Isn't it amazing how some smells trigger certain emotions.There are probably many different ways of preparing enchiladas, all of them equally correct, but today's version is actually a Rachel Ray recipe that can be easily found on the food network or here:
www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachel-ray/chicken-enchiladas-recipe/index.html/

Now for the confession, I had chicken breasts in the freezer, but when I went downstairs to the freezer to get them ,I found a package of turkey breasts that I had purchased a while ago. Costco sells everything in bulk and this was obviosly a left-over package that needed to be used up, before the chicken breasts. I made a quick decision to substitute them and use them up.Talking about using up things left over, enchiladas is a good way to use those left over tortillas from past fajitas and left-oversandwich wraps. As a result the enchiladas were made with spinach, tomato and regular tortillas and it didn't matter! If anything it added to the flavour.




Another short cut that I did was that I skipped making the sauce that Rachel Ray's recipe included and just used up the opened jar of left over salsa. That's the beauty of this recipe you can use up some of those things that just hang around forever in the fridge. I also didn't bother shredding the Monterey Cheese, but just layered the slices over the enchiladas and broiled under the broiler for about 6 minutes to get them nice and golden and bubbly.


A lovely Cesar salad accompanied this dish and even that was a quick job. I made the dressing all in the blender. If Ron had been home he would have rubbed the salad bowl with the garlic, beaten the egg yolk in the bowl, lovingly chopped the anchovies, added the lemon juice and Parmesan cheese and then ever so slowly drizzled in the olive oil and then whisked it all to a creamy perfection... not me I just threw everything in the blender and then at the end added the oil in a steady stream and adjusted the seasoning and my dressing I bet was just as good as Ron's. Anyways the entire meal was delicious even if I say so myself!

CHICKEN ENCHILADAS
Filling
3C chicken broth
4 chicken breasts ( I used turkey)
1 bay leaf
2 springs fresh oregano (I only had dry)
1 small onion quartered

2T tomato paste (I used 3 because the turkey breast were so much larger than the chicken)

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. cumin

salt/pepper

SAUCE

2 c. tomato sauce

2 tsp hot cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. chili powder

21/2 cups shredded Monterey cheese

8 tortillas kept warm in oven while preparing the chicken.

Bring the broth to a boil and then add your chicken breasts. onion, bay leaf and oregano. Return to boil and then cover the dish and and reduce heat to a simmer and let the chicken poach for 10 minutes. Remove the chicken and with 2 forks shred the chicken add the tomato paste, 1/2 cup of the broth liquid and then mix and add the seasoning.

Prepare the sauce ( or just cheat and use your left over salsa sauce like I did) When sauce is ready add a little to a baking dish. Take your tortillas and fill each with the chicken filling and roll up placing them seam down in the baking dish. Spoon the rest of the mixture over the dish , cover with the cheese and bake under the broiler until cheese is melted, golden and bubbling.

AS mentioned this is my improvised version for the authentic Rachel Ray recipe go to the site listed above.

1

Chicken Braised with Apples and Cider

Our Ontario LCBO, puts out a quarterly Food and Drink magazine. It is a beautiful magazine that couples great food with accompanying drinks that not only compliment the food,but gives you the consumer, a fool proof method of purchasing something new , ( wine or spirits) and knowing it will go well with the food. Or forget the booze, ( but why would you!) and just enjoy the wonderful recipes that are offered in the magazine.
I had chicken breasts bone -in , defrosting in the fridge, and just happened to flip through the magazine when I came across this recipe and as luck would have it I had 6 Pink Lady apples in my fruit bowl. The recipe calls for a whole chicken and a casserole that fits the chicken snugly, to keep all the juices in. Here is the recipe as in the Autumn 2008 LCBO magazine.

SPICE MIXTURE
1 tsp. cracked fennel
1 tsp. cracked coriander
2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme (I had dried)
1 tsp. cracked black pepper

CHICKEN
1 4 lb. whole chicken
1 T. vegetable oil
2 T. butter
2 Pink Lady or Royal Gala apples peeled and diced
1 C apple cider
1T. cider vinegar
1/2 C whipping cream
1 T. lemon juice
2T. chopped chervil
Salt/pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 300 F

Combine fennel, coriander, thyme and black pepper. Reserve 1 tsp. spice mixture and season chicken all over , wit remaining mixture. ( I rubbed it into 4 chicken breasts)

Heat oil and butter in an oven proof casserole over medium-high heat. Brown chi ken until golden. Remove from heat and wipe the pan clean.

Add butter and apples to pan and saute for 2 minutes or until tinged with gold. Pour in the apple cider and cider vinegar and remaining spice mixture and bring to boil for 1 minute

Return chicken to casserole, cover and bake for 1 hour. Remove lid and bake another 15 minutes until juices run clear.

Remove chicken and apples. Add cream to sauce and bring to boil. Boil for about 2 minutes or until sauce thickens. Add lemon juices reserved apples and chervil and simmer for 1 more minute. Cut chicken (if you made a whole one) pour sauce over it and surround with apples.

Note. You might want to double the sauce as it was a huge hit!

CHICKEN BURGER

DID SOMEONE SAY BURGERS!!!!!

Nothing exotic or mysterious about a hamburger on the grill. Just mouthwatering delicious and ,"you can have it any way you want it." In our house we've made them all, beef, salmon, bison, turkey, chicken. Today's burger was a chicken burger with sweet corn and a greek salad. I prefer to buy chicken thighs and just grind up my own. I have also made them with chicken breasts, but found the cut too lean and the burgers just a tad too dry. My herb garden is doing great this time of year and I just love to go and snip a few herbs to pulse in with the chicken. Chives, tarragon,sage, and of course salt/pepper, no bbq sauce this time but a lovely refreshing topping that adds a great zing to the chicken burger.

Apple-Dill Dressing

300g whole milk yogourt

150g Creme fraiche

1T lemon juice

1T mustard

salt/pepper

1 apple cored, diced

120g red onion diced

1 bunch dill chopped


Mix the yogourt, creme fraiche , mustard and lemon juice.Generously salt and pepper the mixture.Chop and dice your apple and onion and add to your yogourt mixture. Chop the dill and incorporate to the sauce. Spoon sauce on top of your chicken burger, also great on a salmon or tuna burger.