Showing posts with label main course. Show all posts
Showing posts with label main course. Show all posts

Friday, March 28, 2014

Heavenly Pot Pie

I can't even tell you how good this was ... Delicious, sooooo yummy. It was easy to make and felt healthy. But most of all it was a meal that we could all enjoy together. With Finn's allergies we've learned to adjust recipes but I personally have been missing crusts, toppings and biscuits. Not that they feature so often on our table, but still ...

Plus, for years I have been wanting to find the perfect Chicken pot Pie recipe and this is definitely it. It is going in our forever pile of stuff to make over and over again.

Of course it helps that there are sweet potatoes in the crust ... Finn loves them. Hmmm, I wonder who he got that gene from {wink}


Chicken Pot Pie with Sweet Potato 'Crust'
adapted from Perrys Plate

I've adjusted the quantities ... this makes enough filling for 3 pies, but topping for one. Eat one pie immediately, the other two go in the freezer. Thaw completely, add topping and bake up for a heavenly and quick pot pie dinner.



INGREDIENTS

For the filling:
4 Tablespoons olive oil
4 leeks, white and light green parts only, sliced
6 heaping Tablespoons rice flour
4 large or 6 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 red pepper, diced
1-1/2 Cup peas (I used frozen)
Juice from baking chicken ... This time I had ½ cup
4 cups water
2 no-sodium vegetable cubes
Meat from a roasted chicken, pulled and lightly chopped up
2 teaspoon dried thyme
freshly ground black pepper

For the topping:
3/4 cup almond meal
1/2 cup Rice flour
Scant Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons cup solid coconut oil
1 egg - I used flax seed as a replacement
3/4 cup cooked, mashed sweet potatoes, chilled .. Honestly, the first time I made this it was hot from oven but it didn't seem to make a difference. Next time I'll remember to throw it in the oven when I roast the chicken.


DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

To make the filling:
Heat oil in an oven-safe deep saute pan over medium heat. Add the leek, carrots, red pepper and peas. Add broth (from chicken), water, vegetable cube and thyme plus salt and pepper to taste. Simmer about 10 minutes until vegetables begin to soften. Whisk in rice flour and stir until thickened. Add chicken and stir to combine. Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm while you make the topping.

To make the topping:
Combine the almond flour, baking powder, and salt in a food processor. Pulse to blend. Add the coconut oil in pieces, pulsing until the mixture is crumbly. Add the eggs (or presoaked flax seeds) and sweet potato and pulse until the mixture resembles a very soft dough.

Spoon and/or spread the dough on top of the chicken filling. Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until the biscuits begin to brown and are cooked through. If the tops begin to get dark quickly, place a sheet of aluminum foil over the top while it finishes baking.

Remove from oven and let it stand for a few minutes before serving.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Chicken with Lovage & Lemon

Easy Peasy Chicken Dinner with an added twist of LOVAGE. Love-what? If you've never heard of this herb, run over here to our Sweet Harvest blog and read a bit more. I've had Lovage in the garden for quite a few years but have only just fallen *in love* with it. I hope you do too!

Anyhoo .. this dinner .. it really was a quicky. Thrown together and into the oven to roast away while we did other Saturday things.

Chicken with Lemon & Lovage

I used chicken thighs & legs. They were on sale. They were cheap. It meant less prep for me.

One for each person. We're two but I threw in a third in case Axel was extra hungry. 

Slice a couple of lemons and stuffed one slice and a couple of lovage leaves under the skin of the thigh.

In the middle of the pan I layed down a bed of lovage leaves and put my chicken on top. 

In a bowl I put the chopped lovage stem, a huge chopped onion (or two or three if they're smaller), a teaspoon of dried basil and the zest of about an onion. Sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground pepper and drizzle generously with good olive oil. Toss well and divide between the two ends of the pans.

Cut up a few potatoes, toss in oil, salt and pepper and lay on top of the onions.

Baked Lemon & Lovage Chicken

Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 395F / 200C for about a half hour. Remove foil and bake for at least another half hour. Honestly ours could have roasted a bit longer. It was good and we were hungry but another 15 minutes or so would have meant those potatoes and chicken skin would be nice and crispy.

Turns out we the third let put it in a salad the next day - delish!


Thursday, March 24, 2011

Chicken Cauliflower Curry


We're still working on the bathroom redecoration that turned into renovation *and* my oven quit working on Tuesday so dinner needed to be something quick and on the stove top.  Easy answer:  Chicken Cauliflower Curry.  I originally found this recipe in one of the South Beach books but have simplified it and made it even yummier so that it's turned into one of our absolute favorite meals.

CHICKEN CAULIFLOWER CURRY  
(3 - 4 servings)

colourful spices in a french market1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion
2 chicken breasts
1 head of cauliflower
   salt and pepper
2 Tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon Garam Masala
1/2 teaspoon ground Cumin
1 can lowfat coconut milk

This is a quick and easy meal to prepare so I'm going to give you the instructions just as I make it.
  1. Warm olive oil in a large non-stick pan over medium-high heat (for me this setting is 7 out of 9).
  2. Meanwhile, chop the onion and add to pan.
  3. While the onion is turning translucent, cut the chicken into bite-size chunks.
  4. Salt and pepper the chicken and add to the pan.
  5. Toss the chicken around with the onion until it is sealed on all sides.
  6. While the chicken is sealing, I start chopping up the cauliflower (into the lid of my pan to save dishes) but don't forget to turn and stir the chicken every once in a while.
  7. Once the chicken is sealed on all sides, add the curry powder, garam masala (this adds a lovely all-spice kind of deepness to the flavor) and cumin (to give it a light and airy note) and stir the chicken around to coat.  
  8. Allow to the spices to lightly "toast" (about 30 seconds or so) and then add the coconut milk.
  9. Stir the coconut into the spices and allow to warm up and simmer for about 2-3 minutes.
  10. Add the cauliflower and cover ... normally I reduce the heat to medium and allow the cauliflower to steam over the sauce for about 20 minutes.  Tonight I forgot to reduce the heat and left it on medium-high, the cauliflower was done in 15 minutes and some of the sauce had lightly stuck to the bottom of the pan.  It was ok though, when I stirred the cauliflower under to coat it with the sauce I found the sauce had lightly browned giving it a nice golden color.

So it's 4:30, dinner is ready and I've just pulled it off the heat to wait until Axel gets home about 6-ish.  It will just take a few minutes to warm up and the "resting" time allows the flavors to fully penetrate.

Yummm, I can hardly wait ...

We generally eat it just as it is like a chunky stew but when we're being fancy I'll stir in a bit of unsweetened shredded coconut and / or toasted almonds and serve over rice.


Nutrition Facts
Then I got curious and decided to find out how good this is ... I knew it was good ... but WOW!  I entered all the ingredients into a Recipe Calculator and this is what it came up with.  I'm quite surprised. Bummer though that I used my last can of low-fat coconut milk tonight (using regular doubles the calories and does unthinkable things to the fat content) ... maybe we need to move up that trip to England (so far I haven't found low-fat in Belgium).

Per Serving (3)
  Calories139.7
  Total Fat2.1 g
     Saturated Fat0.4 g
     Polyunsaturated Fat0.6 g
     Monounsaturated Fat0.5 g
  Cholesterol27.5 mg
  Sodium53.6 mg
  Potassium394.0 mg
  Total Carbohydrate16.3 g
     Dietary Fiber10.6 g
     Sugars3.1 g
  Protein15.9 g

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

What's for Dinner?

It's a busy week.  The shop re-opened today (after a 5-week summer break) and my new studio is still knee deep while I try to re-organize.  Dinner planning / shopping / prepping this week needed to be simple and easy.

But first let me tell you about Green Goddess Salad Dressing ... in my blog reading I stumbled across Kayln's Kitchen. It looks like there might be some great recipes I can check out later ... but the one that struck me was this and I thought I've never heard of that - is it a generation thing? Yep ... it turns out I'm a tad too young to remember it in it's heyday - I'm not even sure if my older siblings know it ... but it doesn't matter.  I made it and loved it.  I did leave out the vinegar and will probably dial back the lemon juice just a tad but it was lovely and I'm sure it will feature often in our house


TUESDAY - meatloaf, green beans and bacon, fresh tomatoes and green goddess salad dressing (made for the first time yesterday and got "approved" from both of us :)

WEDNESDAY - ribs (pre-boiled and sitting in home-made marinade since Tuesday night) on the grill if it doesn't rain - under the broiler if it does, snap-peas and a small salad with more GG dressing.

THURSDAY - smoked salmon tagliatelle and the only zucchini we got from our garden this year ... the shop is open and when Axel gets home we need to zoom to Ikea so I needed a meal that could be ready in about 20 minutes or less when we get back because it will be nearly 8 by the time we're back

Friday - spinach pancakes if I'm pooped out from the week and putting Ikea furniture for the studio together or leek, pea and bacon risotto.

SATURDAY - manicotti (hopefully prepped and filled on Friday while I'm cooking the risotto)

SUNDAY - mushroom chicken casserole topped with cheese scones

MONDAY - risotto? (unless we have that on Friday, then probably spinach pancakes.  Or start all over with a fresh week plan if I have the car on Monday to do grocery shopping.)

You'll see that about half-way through the week I quit mentioning the veg but that will get filled in with whatever's fresh and available.  Plus regardless of the recipe I tend to pack tons of vegetables into everything I cook so even if it doesn't appear as a separate vegetable on the plate - there in there! - and I dare you to pick them out.

Recipes will surely be added to the cookbook ... but be sure to let me know if any tickle your fancy!


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