Cooking with Kids: Honey's Chicken Salad

There are certain things that remind me of summer, and chicken salad is one of those things. It's hot outside, you're spending time by the pool, at the park, or at the beach. You open up the cooler and pull out ice cold chicken salad. Yes time. 

I might be a chicken salad snob. I usually don't like grocery store chicken salad. There's always something wrong. I have certain chicken salad rules that put me in the position of making my own or eating my moms. Chicken salad must:

1. have something crunchy in it. Celery or onion or pickle. It can't all be mush.

2. have something sweet in it. Grapes, dried fruit, apple, etc. 

3. can't be too creamy. It's like too much dressing on a salad. All you taste is dressing. Gross. 

4. none of the above apply to a shredded chicken salad. Those are a category all their own. I recommend the chicken salad from Brown Bag Deli or Nielsons Deli for examples. 

This one is going to be short and sweet. We have a sick 10 month old in the house who happens to also be getting in three top teeth and this mom needs some sleep. If you prep the chopping, etc. this is a great recipe to make with a helper. Essentially it's a lot of dumping things into bowls followed by stirring. Kids get that kind of stuff. 

Honey's Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

8-10 pickled okra, sliced

1/2 a small onion, finely chopped (about half a cup)

2 large stalks of celery, finely chopped (about half a cup)

1 cup of red grapes, cut in half (I used a cup and a half because I like the sweet)

1 apple, cut into small pieces

1/4 C chopped walnuts

1 whole chicken (I just pick up a rotisserie chicken)

1/2 C full fat mayo

1/2 C regular sour cream

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

Chicken Salad is great because you can make it into exactly what you want it to be. If you like more grapes, put more grapes in. If you want it saltier, put in more pickles or okra, or whatever. Make it once to see what the flavors are like and then adjust accordingly. What I love about Honey's Chicken Salad is the light curry flavor in the dressing. Next time I might add more Curry Powder to bring it out. 

 So here's what you do... take your chicken and shred/chop it. I hate having a chicken salad with huge bites of chicken. So I do a combo shred and chop. It makes it so that with each bite of chicken you have room for the other ingredients to sneak in. 

After you have taken your chicken apart, chop, slice and cut everything else and throw it in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix your sour cream, mayo, curry, and garlic. The sour cream really cuts the richness of the mayo. I might try this again with some greek yogurt taking the place of a portion of mayo, but today I was a traditionalist. Once you have the dressing mixed and it tastes the way you want, dump it into the bowl of ingredients and stir. 

Stir and taste and stir and taste, etc. Adjust the flavors you feel are lacking. Chop more of this, add a pinch of that, do what makes it taste best to you. It's your chicken salad after all! It won't last long. This is a great one!

If you want a bonus, take the chicken carcass and drop it in a pot. Fill with water and boil to make homemade chicken stock to freeze for rice, pasta, soups, beans, or other recipes. Our little rotisserie carcass was not thrown out. If you want to cut the fat from your chicken stock, put the cooled stock in the fridge overnight and spoon the fat off of the top the next morning before putting it away.

** Not So Sweet May Update - it seems like lots of other people are giving up sugar recently. I'm a trend setter. This is the halfway point. And not to be undone, it is also nation cookie day. Jerks. Here is where I am:

It is getting easier. I am happy to say that. I am getting used to turning to fruit instead of junk sweets.

My energy is the biggest tell. It used to be so hard to get out of bed. Now, even if I have a horrible night's sleep, I can get up more easily and get my day going. This is huge. 

Again with the not as bloated, but I have also lost two real pounds. Not water weight or fluctuation, real pounds. 

So we are going along. The smoothies are what has made this doable for me. They are sweet and I sometimes imagine they are milkshakes. I will keep them forever and always. It is giving me a daily dose of fruits and veggies that I wasn't getting before. 

Hope y'all are seeing some positive differences. It's so hard. 16 more days!

-RT

Cooking with Kiddos - Chicken Tamale Casserole

Did you know that weight patterns and food attitudes are very difficult to alter after age 11? And by "very difficult" I mean nearly impossible. It's the difference between knowing what is healthier, but still turning to the foods you grew up with. Emotional food ties. A tough nut to crack. 

One thing I am trying to do with my kids to create a healthy relationship with food is getting them in the kitchen helping as early as possible. It started with non cooking tasks like handing out the silverware from the dishwasher and just watching. That led to stirring and whisking and dumping and holding pans still. Recently L has been very eager to help more, which I love. I just have to get used to not caring about things looking too pretty. 

We are having casserole season at our house. Lots and lots of babies being born, lots of baking being done. This is one of my favorite recipes that we recently adapted to make it more organic & real food friendly. You can link to the original Chicken Tamale Casserole from Cooking Light Magazine HERE.  Below is a breakdown of the original recipe and what we did differently. Either option is easy to make with a little helper and tastes great. 

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup (4 ounces) preshredded 4-cheese Mexican blend cheese, divided (We use organic cheese)
1/3 cup fat-free milk (We use organic milk)
1/4 cup egg substitute (I don't believe in egg substitute. One scrambled egg = 1/4C)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn (I couldn't find organic cream style corn. Here is an easy way to make your own. One recipe = one can)
1 (8.5-ounce) box corn muffin mix (if you want organic you can find it at whole foods)
1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
Cooking spray (I rub the pan with an empty butter wrapper)
1 (10-ounce) can red enchilada sauce (there are a few organic options, but you can also make your own. This is a little more complicated at home)
2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (two breasts will do it and shredding is a great job for kids too!)
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream (fat free just means more chemicals and sugar. I use full fat)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400°.

2. Combine 1/4 cup cheese and next 7 ingredients (through chiles) in a large bowl, stirring just until moist. 

L was great at this. I took the ingredients out and put them into measured cups and bowls and she poured them all into the big bowl for mixing.

This is what all of that mishmash looks like.

 3. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

4. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until set. Pierce entire surface liberally with a fork. L was great at this step, too. Pour enchilada sauce over top. We did this one together. 

After 15 mins in the oven

 5. Top with chicken (another great kid job!) sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup cheese. (and she loved this step, too)  Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Cut into 8 pieces; top each serving with 1 tablespoon sour cream.

The finished bowl

 I also think this tastes wonderful with fresh avocado. It's very easy and very delicious. When we know Landon will be eating it we eliminate the red pepper because she sometimes will complain that the corn part is "spicy". I put spicy in quotations because she says this even when things are not spicy by definition. It means there is something extra flavorful about it. That's a good thing, right? 

The roasted cabbage rounds and roasted artichokes posted on the istagram account got a lot of great feedback. I'll post those SUPER easy recipes later this week. We are definitely finding that roasting is a very easy way to cook very delicious things. 

- RT

Cooking Light: Coconut-Curry Chicken Soup & Acceptance

Someone might have asked me yesterday "so... are you cooking this week?" and the answer is "yes, BUT..." Today, for instance, I made oatmeal, then a bowl of cereal. For lunch I picked up some chicken salad from Brown Bag Deli to eat with Sliced Apples. I also picked up a couple of chocolate chip cookies.... Later I made a pot of Annie's Organic Mac & Cheese for myself Landon and cooked a filet of salmon for her to eat tomorrow and Friday. Then I stopped cooking. Dinner... the meal that "morning" sickness is made of. Lucky for me, S got home and made chicken thighs with sauteed kale. I'm about to probably eat some over an hour later. Feeling sick during dinner cooking time is really putting a damper on the healthy cooking portion of this blog. Then when I do attempt to cook, I'm not doing the best documenting job. Here is a great example... while making one of my all time favorite cooking light recipes (and definitely the one that I have made the most) I look back to find.... 3 pictures of the entire cooking session. This post is about accepting the things I cannot change. I've just got to use what I have at the moment. Please enjoy.

Stock photo from recipes.com

I first spotted this recipe in 2008 and was a little hesitant. The ingredient list was long, which for me can equal dollar signs. At certain times in the month this is not a good thing. Since then I have built up a killer spice collection so it's a cinch to throw this one together. 

Coconut-Curry Chicken Soup

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups water
3 cups fresh spinach leaves
1/2 pound snow peas, trimmed and cut in half crosswise
1 (5 3/4-ounce) package pad thai noodles (wide rice stick noodles)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/4 cup thinly sliced shallots
2 teaspoons red curry paste
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 (13.5-ounce) can light coconut milk
2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (about 1 pound) $
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 small hot red chiles, seeded and chopped, or 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
7 lime wedges 

PREPARATION:
1. Bring 4 cups water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add spinach and peas to pan; cook for 30 seconds. Remove vegetables from pan with a slotted spoon; place in a large bowl. Add noodles to pan; cook 3 minutes. Drain; add noodles to spinach mixture in bowl.

2. Heat canola oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and the next 5 ingredients (through garlic) to pan; sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add chicken broth to pan, and bring to a boil. Add coconut milk to pan; reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add chicken, onions, sugar, and fish sauce to pan; cook for 2 minutes. Pour chicken mixture over noodle mixture in bowl. Stir in cilantro and chiles. Serve with lime wedges.

Recipe by: Tina Washburn, San Diego, California, Cooking Light
DECEMBER 2008

Side note: not all of these ingredients are available at your neighborhood store. HEB is pretty reliable with most of them (if you are in TX) and if you have a Central Market, I would head there instead. Whole foods will definitely have everything on hand for maybe a little more $$. I can't compare Trader Joe's since I think ours is a mini version. 

In the picture below I have completed step 1 and you can see the snow pea, spinach, and noodle mixture in the bowl on the left. I had just added the coconut milk and was doing the 5 minute simmer. 

This cook top is the bane of my cooking life.

 Here is where I veer off of the recipe path... usually (as in the photo above) I am cooking the second half in a larger pot. At some point instead of pouring the larger pot over the spinach, snow peas and noodles, I put the noodle mix back into the larger pot with step two ingredients in it and then complete with the cilantro and chiles. This is what my finished product looks like:

Oh, and hey S's legs in the background.... I'm really losing my edge here... acceptance.

 And finally, presented to you atop L's placemat and a 99cent special plastic target cutting board... the final portion to be served with lime wedges.

I really never dreamed I would be a person who cooks Thai at home. Whatever that means. But this soup is just TO DIE FOR. It has so much flavor and is only 315 calories per serving. I'll include the nutritional info a the bottom. Getting the ingredients together and all the steps right the very first time can be a little daunting, but once you get the hang of it this is so easy to make (especially compared to soups and stews that take HOURS) and again, I just want to stress the flavor is OUT OF THIS WORLD. The lime juice also helps this soup transition to warmer temps so you can eat it longer than just a couple months of the year (for anyone else living along the southern Gulf Coast). 

While I am accepting the lackluster performance above, and overjoyed by the circumstances that have caused it, I am striving to get better. I happened to do some amazing documenting of Christmas sweets cooking, but I'm saving that one for another edition of fattening Friday. Until then, let's accept one another and get cooking in the kitchen no matter how you have to do it. Sitting on a stool stirring soup anyone? yes please. 

-RT

Nutritional Info:

Amount per serving

• Calories: 315
• Calories from fat: 22%
• Fat: 7.8g
• Saturated fat: 3.7g
• Monounsaturated fat: 2.2g
• Polyunsaturated fat: 1.3g
• Protein: 29.3g
• Carbohydrate: 30.9g
• Fiber: 2.4g
• Cholesterol: 62mg
• Iron: 3.2mg
• Sodium: 841mg
• Calcium: 78mg 

Easy and Indecent Beer Can Chicken

We're going to make this quick and dirty. Tonight it's time to molest some chickens. Don't worry, they want it this way, and so do you. There are many variations on "Beer Can Chicken." Some do it in the oven, some on the grill, and some in so many different ways it makes your head want to spin. Most use beer, others use salad dressing, and still others use a can of baked beans that they then pair with the chicken after cooking. Whatever you choose, this is a pretty basic and fool proof way to cook chicken. If you are a girl still waiting to approach the grill, this is a great starting point. ANYONE can do this. If you can't, email me so I can laugh help you. In real life, you can do this. If you need some help with something TELL ME.

Look, this idiot did it. you can too!

For the purposes of this blog, let's just consider me a Beer Can Chicken traditionalist. I set out to do my Beer Can Chicken on the grill using actual beer. Call me crazy, but I like to master the basics before branching out and ruining dinner (again). They do make a stand for the chicken that you can buy, but I like to live dangerously and the chicken with the can stuck up it's rear actually creates a nice little tripod.

Here I am... I had a whole fryer that I picked up from the farmer's market. Since these chickens are not pumped full of hormones and other crazies, they are a nice small size that is easy for two people to split for dinner. Meet my chicken. We'll call her Sharon. I have no idea why.

I was kind of surprised to find that Sharon did not have her organs in a neat little bag inside of her belly. I was also surprised to find that cluck still had her neck. At least they took the head. It's the little things. Really. 

Next I found a beer in a can. It was kind of hard. I never realized how many bottles we have. Pop the top and drink (or if you want to be totally chaste about it, throw out) half of the beer. 

Hello Beer.

Pick up ole Sharon (the chicken) and rinse her off in some water in the sink, patting her dry. Then pick out your favorite dry rub. I like Uncle Chris' Gourmet Steak Seasoning. On everything. Especially steak and chicken.

After rubbing the chicken you are going to prepare to shove the beer can where the sun don't shine. Take a deep breath and tell the chicken to spread 'em. 

"You might feel a slight pinch"

See what I said about a natural tripod? Who needs a stand, really?

I had my grill heating up on high heat. When I brought the chicken out I turned off one of the burners and kept the rest running medium high, somewhere around 350 to 400 degrees. It is best to cook the chicken with indirect heat, so you don't want to have it directly over the fire or burners. I have a gas grill, and on any grill really you need to make sure the chicken set up on the beer can will fit with the grill top closed. You might have to remove a rack. In a charcoal grill you will need to make sure the coals are positioned so that you can have the chicken on indirect heat. 

 

I settled Sharon in and closed the top. About thirty minutes later... it started to rain. I called S to see if it was possible to grill in the rain. Apparently it is frowned upon. Quick as lightening I preheated the oven to 400 degrees and got ready to make a switch. After thirty minutes on the grill, Sharon was looking pretty chill.

Word

Using some tongs and an oven mitt, I transferred Sharon to a baking sheet and brought her inside to move into the oven. 

Totally relaxed in the oven.

After 30 additional minutes in the oven, I took the chicken out to cool. We were about to eat it, so it loses it's catchy name. I should have called it "Dinner." 

I really like how the chicken looks like it's sitting on a stool relaxing.

We removed the can and threw it away. That can is nasty. You don't want to keep it. This is why I don't understand the baked beans version of Beer Can Chicken. Once you remove the can, the chicken looks really violated. It's ok, you are about to carve it into pieces. It will get better. 

Violation

And finally, your chicken is cooked.

This one was amazing. I don't know if it was a size bonus or what, it makes me hungry for it all over again. Another cooking trick you can do with this (if you like BBQ chicken) is basting it with your favorite sauce or marinade the last ten minutes of cooking. Of course, that works much better on the grill than in the oven. S does this a lot for foolproof BBQ Chicken. I think it's less messy overall and less expensive. Most of the time buying a whole fryer (or Broiler or Roaster... aka a whole chicken) is less expensive or the same cost as buying three breasts. And who doesn't love drumsticks? Tell me. I'm going to get them! 

Basic cooking for the beer can chicken is 1 hour on the grill on indirect heat with the coals or other burners burning on high heat to maintain 350 - 400 degrees. I'm not sure the exact science of doing it in the oven, I kind of winged it. But if you can't do a grill, the oven seemed just as easy. I'm sure you could google an easy Beer Can Chicken in the Oven recipe. 

Back to food. It feels so good. Go cook your chicken!

-RT

The Easy Bake Oven is Heating Up

I just had to search "vintage easy bake oven" to find the one I had. Effffff.

 L recently received a play kitchen and she is LOVING it. It reminds me about how much I loved my Easy Bake Oven and my most treasured play iron and ironing board. Yes, that's right... I used to pretend iron. I'm not sure what insights that provides into my psyche, but I loved it. A lot. So there you go. Apparently some babies like to cook and clean.

While ironing is cool, chess, apparently, is not.

RT's First Ironing Board. I don't own one now, so this would be my last one as well.

 Now I have a real life oven and I made a pledge to get to know my oven better this winter. Even though it's eighty something degrees today, I am prepping for having a warm oven making my kitchen nice and toasty in the cooler months. I stumbled upon a simple roasted chicken and vegetables recipe on a blog (Life as Ashlet) I found through the Writer's Workshop. On Saturday I was wandering through the Urban Harvest Farmer's Market and picked up a frozen whole chicken and some root veggies to take home. 

Our week got a little topsy turvey, and I forgot the take the chicken out of the freezer, but we already had some boneless, skinless chicken thighs in the fridge for L. So I got home yesterday, hung out with L, sent her to bed and got to chopping.

Chicken, Sweet Potatoes, Onions, Celery, Garlic, Carrots, and EV Olive Oil. That's it.

 Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Take your chicken out to bring it to room temperature and clean your veggies and then chop them into uniform - "ish" pieces.

Combine all of your veggies and season with salt & pepper. You can also add in rosemary or parsley or whatever floats your boat. 

 I took out the thighs and placed them on top of the veggies, then sprinkled them with salt and fresh cracked pepper.

 

Then I popped it in the oven for 45 minutes. The magic of this is that the cooking juices from the chicken drip down into the vegetables and give it fabulous flavor and juicy chicken cooking goodness. That's a thing. Promise. Forty five minutes later, the chicken looks like this:

And then also like this:

Let it sit for ten minutes for all of the juicy juices to do their thang. The blog suggested the following veggies as options for roasting: pearl onions, butternut squash, brussels sprouts, fingerling potatoes, asparagus, green beans, or turnips.

So I know I throw around the word "easy" a lot. Because of this issue, and this recipe, I now need to find a word for something that is easier than easy. The Internet gave me some suggestions and I have chosen the word "effortless" to describe this. Seriously.... wash, chop, combine, sprinkle, top, sprinkle, place, bake, remove, set. Those are the steps you take and you not only have a complete dinner of chicken, starches, and veggies, you also have a world of leftovers. Landon loved this. It reminded me of chicken soup, but in a pan. This is definitely an effortless (see what I did there?) and tasty meal that you could do once a week and recreate in different ways. I'm already looking forward to trying this out again with a whole butchered chicken and some different vegetables. 

Increase the Ov Love in your life. Get after it!

-RT

Can You Boil Water??

Great! Good job. That means you are well armed for winter cooking. A lot of cooking intimidation comes from not knowing how easy it really is to make something delicious and healthy. My favorite things to eat in the wintertime are made in pots on the stove. Basically, you are boiling water and just throwing things in the pot. Today I'm going to talk about HEALTHY comfort food. Food that makes you feel warm and full, but is great for you and the whole family will love it. One of my personal favorites: Chicken, Rice & Vegetable Soup. 

My cooking adventures began with a last minute decision to try out the new Trader Joe's. I have heard ALL about Trader Joe's from my friends on both coasts, but I forgot that the new Houston location had opened until my Aunt was talking about it on Saturday. I will definitely go back, but I feel that it is a store that is best taken advantage of with a game plan. I had no idea what I was walking into. BUT I have good first impressions. They really do have amazing prices, especially on their organic produce and their flash frozen fish. Cons: I like having a butcher and a seafood monger. Call me old fashioned, I like to interact with people at the store. The staff was super friendly, and the people shopping there were as well, despite the fact that it was SO crowded and everyone was kind of stalled by people just coming in to visit and not shop. I digress... 

Step one in my Chicken, Rice and Vegetable Soup starts the night before. I picked up a big, fat organic boiler to... well to boil. Here is some very important advice if you ever cook with a whole chicken or turkey or any sort of fowl... there is usually a package stuffed inside with the neck and  some organs (liver almost always, heart sometimes). Listen up: TAKE THIS OUT BEFORE YOU COOK THE CHICKEN. 

Ma Trader Joe's Chicken.. Great price for an organic chicken that is this big.

Reach up in that chicken and pull out that packet o' neck and such.

 I took my chicken and rinsed it under some water. Chicken skin really weirds me out for some reason. Just wanted to throw that in there. Then put your chicken in a tall pot and cover it with water. 

Chicken funeral

I figure you know what boiling water looks like. I brought the water to boil and then kept it on somewhat of a low rolling boil, mostly covered, for about 45 minutes. Then I turned off the stove, closed the lid on the top and let the pot come to room temp. THEN I put the whole pot in the refrigerator and didn't look at it again until this morning. This is a weird step, but it helps make this soup much more healthy. You could easily buy a package of chicken breasts and some boxed chicken broth and make a really great soup, but nothing tastes like the broth that comes from boiling a whole chicken. You just have to take an extra step. The next day when you remove your pot from the fridge, a nice layer of fat will have floated to the top and solidified. Get out a skimming spoon and remove it. Toss it out. You won't miss it. Get ready.... this is my Oprah Wagon of Fat moment.

Solid Fat

Once you see this, you won't want to eat it. Especially once you see it in person.

So after I skimmed the fat I removed the chicken and put it on a plate (to be molested at a later date.) When you do this your broth drops down to an alarming level, but don't sweat it. You are about to add TONS of things to the pot, and you won't know if you need add water until you are done adding everything back in. I put the pot with the broth on the stove and turned the heat on medium. Then I got to chopping.

About 3 cups of celery and 3 cups of carrots.

Three zucchini

One VERY large yellow onion. If you have small or medium onions use two.

The carrots went in first, then the celery. I added a couple of teaspoons of Better Than Bouillon for some added flavor and then added in the onion (cut into large chunks) and a cup and a half to two cups of brown and wild rice. I had some leftover so I just dumped the rest in.

Great find courtesy of Mama RT.

While all of that was cooking on a nice low boil with the top of the pot partially covered to keep all of that delicious broth from cooking off, I started my least favorite task.... chicken mutilation. Chicken skin is just.... gross. Unless it's fried, then it's completely fine. Even better than fine. But we are being healthy here, so it has to go. I didn't shred the chicken, because I like getting a good bite of chicken in my soup. I just took it all off of the bone and made sure it was in manageable pieces. I got elbow deep in chicken goo, but I made it through. 

Some chicken goo got on my iphone lens so we've got fuzzy chicken pieces.

Veggies and rice living a happy life.

 I had the veggies and rice on the same low boil for about 30 - 40 minutes and then added the chicken back in and let it boil 10 more minutes. Then I took out a scoop and made sure the veggies were tender and the rice was cooked (they were and it was) then covered the pot and turned the heat off. I don't salt my chicken soup while it cooks just because sometimes I don't want the extra salt and I don't miss it. With something like this people can always salt their bowls to their taste. Easy.  

It was a big hit with Landon, who loved the carrots most of all, but ate all of the veggies and the rice. Right now she is only eating chicken when it's part of Brown Bag Deli chicken salad. I take what I can get. Here is a finished bowl... the one I had for dinner tonight:

MmmmmMMMmmmMMmmmm

Here is the great part: it's filling, it's warm, it tastes amazing and it's just chicken, fresh veggies, brown and wild rice, and a couple of scoops of bouillon. You can add whatever veggies you want. Sometimes I love to take out the zucchini and throw in some broccoli for a little crunch. It's also very easy. If you boil the chicken the night before (so you can scoop off the yucky wagon of fat) all you do the day of is chop, add, molest a chicken, and heat for 45 ish minutes. Really you are just boiling water and taking things in and out. YOU can do this. I know you. It is so possible. 

-RT

Recipe Review: Roasted Chicken Thighs with Mustard-Thyme Sauce

OH my Gravy. Or sauce, but WoW. This was a good one. Again, thank you Cooking Light for making recipes with gravy. Let's get started...

Fancy Photo Courtesy of Cooking Light

I didn't feel like skinning the chicken thighs and have yet to find bone in, skinless thighs at our HEB. Due to that, I picked up boneless, skinless thighs and will tell you how I edited the recipe to make up for the fact that the boneless meat would be more thin, therefore cooking faster. We roasted some new potatoes in the oven as well so we had a lot of oven time tied up.

Small red potatoes, salt, pepper, EV Olive Oil and sliced garlic

Chicken Thighs are being browned

Other side

Out of the oven

In the recipe it calls for you to brown the chicken thighs for 4 minutes per side. I just did 2.5 minutes per side with the boneless thighs. After that, we put them in a baking dish and instead of baking them at 425 for 16 minutes, I did them for 12 minutes. We pulled the thighs out and put them in the microwave to stay warm. We put the potatoes in the oven next and started working on the green beans and the gravy. 

I used the frozen haricots verts that were leftover from last week, defrosted them in the microwave for 3 - 4 minutes and dressed them with EV Olive Oil, a splash of White Wine Vinegar, a bit of honey, and a bit of rooster sauce. It was basically the same dressing I use on my salads, just on a smaller scale.

Frozen = Easier

Green beans ready while I mix up the flour and chicken stock.

We chopped the onions and thyme for the gravy/sauce and prepped the chicken stock & flour mixture. The pan had lots of stuck on bits and then, in a glorious bonus, we got to use the cooking juices from baking the thighs. This was all heading in a very good direction.

Sauce goes from here...

To here!! Gravy/Sauce is born.

The potatoes were ready to go just as we were finishing up the gravy. It didn't call for this, but we took the chicken thighs and put them in with the gravy and tossed them for a moment to both warm them up and also TO COAT THEM IN GRAVY. Here is what the final plate looked like:

I borrowed Landy's new place mat so I would know where my silverware went

Up close and personal and delicious. Every bit.

If you are from the South (especially the Louisiana area) then you know what it means when something is smothered. It is fabulous and not so healthy. These thighs tasted like they were SOUTHERN SMOTHERED DELISH. And they are from Cooking Light!!! You are saving calories and sodium and fat, but you are getting this amazing flavor. I really recommend this when you feel like eating something that tastes bad for you, but is actually good for you. You can also just cook it whenever you want because it is fantastic. Here is another on the side tip: The Gravy/Sauce tastes amazing on the potatoes. 

The full original recipe is below, or you can pull it up online here. This was great for the new bit of fall weather we got. We need to get back outside though. I miss by grill friend! What do you love to cook when the weather starts to cool down? 

Happy Gravy Day! 

-RT

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Mustard-Thyme Sauce
by Cooking Light

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 8 bone-in chicken thighs, skinned (about 2 1/2 pounds)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
• 1 cup no-salt-added chicken stock (such as Swanson), divided
• 4 teaspoons flour
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Sprinkle chicken with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add chicken to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. Remove chicken from pan; place in an 11 x 7–inch glass or ceramic baking dish. Bake at 425° for 16 minutes or until a thermometer registers 165°. Remove chicken from dish; reserve drippings.

3. Return skillet to medium-high heat. Add butter; swirl to coat. Add onion and thyme; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Combine 3 tablespoons stock and flour in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Add flour mixture, remaining stock, and reserved drippings to pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Bring to a boil, and cook for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Remove from heat, and add mustard, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, stirring with a whisk. Serve sauce with chicken.