Vessy's day » chicken

Chicken chow mein

Vessy — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 14:25:02 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I absolutely love noodles, especially egg noodles. They are so easy and quick to prepare, plus, there is no boiling needed here. As for the taste, in my opinion, they are a bit lighter than classic pasta, like spaghetti. Don’t get me wrong, I love pasta /I can eat pasta all day long, every day /, but for me, pasta is usually a rich and heavy dish. When I make pasta I keep it simple in flavors, but sauces, as simple as they can be, often involve cream and lots of cheese.
When making egg noodles, you don’t need heavy sauces or cheese, all you need is good amount of veggies and good quality soy sauce (plus some other Asian sauces if you have on hands). A few days ago, I received (thank you, BioMarketBalev) a selection of Asian style organic products of the Clearspring brand, some of which I used in this recipe. Shiitake mushrooms were unbelievable delicious and I believe that the one thing you can not replace in this recipe are the shiitake – they give this amazing flavor to the meal. Believe me, it’s really good, so don’t skip them or use any other mushrooms!
I have a few extra gems left, like organic silky tofu, wakame, sushi supplies, so stay tuned for the upcoming recipes!
Anyway, back to this one….there are millions of flavors and recipes for chow mein. Often, I throw in whatever veggies I have left in the fridge, that’s the beauty of this dish. So, in case you have some other vegetables you want to add to the recipe, just feel free. As of preparation, most important thing to remember here is that egg noodles do not need boiling, you just have to cover them with hot water and let them sit for about 15 min and they are ready.

Ingredients:
30 grams (1 oz) dry shiitake mushrooms
130 grams (5 oz) dry egg noodles
For the chicken:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 chicken breast, boneless, skinless, chopped into small pieces
1 tablespoon soy sauce Shoyu
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
For the veggies:
5-6 spring onions, chopped
1 leek, chopped
2 tablespoons wild garlic, chopped (or regular, if you don’t have the green one)
50 grams (2 oz) raw mung bean sprouts
1 tablespoon soy sauce Shoyu
2 table spoons toasted sesame oil
1 tea spoon sesame seeds, roasted
Salt and pepper

Place shiitake mushrooms in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Let them sit for about 15 minutes or until soft. Drain and cut into small pieces. Discard any tough parts of the mushrooms. Set aside.
In another large bowl add noodles and cover with boiling water. Let them sit for about 15 minutes, then drain and wash with cold water to stop the cooking. Add a drop or two of sesame oil and stir. Set aside.
In the meantime prepare the chicken: In a large saucepan, heat a little bit of olive oil and add the chicken, cook until golden brown, then add a tablespoon of soy sauce and cook until soy sauce evaporates and chicken is a bit caramelized. Transfer chicken to a bowl, season with salt and pepper, drizzle a little bit of sesame oil and stir. Set aside.
In the same saucepan heat another tablespoon or two of olive oil and add shiitake, onions, leeks, garlic and bean sprouts. Cook for a few minutes, then add a tablespoon of soy sauce. Cook for another minute. Sprinkle some sesame oil, sesame seeds, season with salt and pepper and stir. Add chicken and noodles and give it a good stir to combine and noodles warm up.
Serve immediately.

Chicken & kale tortillas

Vessy — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 11:49:57 +0000

These super easy and quick tortillas are not only delicious, but also healthy and nutritious.
These are ready in under 30 minutes, if you are using store-bought tortillas.
I see nothing wrong in buying ready-made tortillas, in fact I usually keep one package in the fridge, just in case we are in need of a quick and casual meal.
The best thing about tortillas is that you can fill them up with anything you have in the fridge. This is a good way to use any left over meat and not-so-fresh veggies.
In this recipe, I used kale, peppers, leeks and onions, but you may add any other vegetable you like and have on hands.

Ingredients for the chicken:
500 grams (18 oz) skinless, boneless chicken breasts, chopped into small pieces
Juice from 1 orange
1 table spoons soy sauce
Salt & pepper to taste

For the vegetables:
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 leeks, chopped
3-4 spring onions, chopped
5 red peppers, chopped
2 green peppers, chopped
200 grams (7 oz) kale, chopped
3 tablespoons soy sauce
Salt & pepper

For serving:
6 large tortillas
Mozzarella cheese, shredded

Combine chicken, orange juice and soy sauce in a large bowl and set aside until you chop up the vegetables.
Chop up the veggies. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet. Add veggies and cook until all of the water they release evaporates, and they are tender, but still fresh looking. Add soy sauce and cook for another minute. Soy sauce will quickly evaporate and what’s left will begin to caramelize. Stir veggies to coat with the caramelized soy sauce and remove from heat. Transfer to a bowl and set aside, keep warm.
In the meantime heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a small skillet and add the chicken, together with half of the marinade. Season with salt and pepper, and cook until all juices evaporate and chicken bites begin to brown. Remove from pan and set aside, keep warm.
Brush skillet that you used for cooking the veggies, with olive oil and start warming up tortillas, one by one, cooking them both sides.
The moment you remove one tortilla from the skillet and add another, sprinkle a little bit of shredded mozzarella cheese over the hot tortilla. Then sprinkle a little bit of the chicken and veggies and wrap up.
Repeat with all tortillas.

Chicken Saltimbocca

Vessy — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 19:46:17 +0000

Traditional Italian meal saltimbocca is made with veal and prosciutto, marinated in wine. It is super delicious and quick to prepare.
I propose another version of the famous saltimbocca - with chicken, wrapped in prosciutto, covered in melting mozzarella cheese.
The best thing about this recipe is that you will never taste moister and softer chicken ever, and the secret is in the prosciutto, it prevents the chicken from drying out while cooking.

Ingredients:
Chicken breasts, boneless, cut into thin slices
A couple of sage leafs
A few table spoons flour
Prosciutto, thinly sliced
Mozzarella cheese, sliced
A few table spoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan.
Sprinkle the chicken pieces evenly with salt and pepper.
Place a sage leaf on each piece of chicken, then wrap the chicken tightly with the prosciutto slices – one prochutto slice per chicken piece.
Place the flour in a small bowl and dip each chicken piece in the flour then add to the skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side or until done. If the chicken slices are thin enough then they will be cooked quickly. Remove the chicken slices from the pan and place them on a baking sheet.
Place a piece of mozzarella cheese on every chicken piece and bake in the oven at 180C until the cheese melts.
Serve warm with buttery pasta or risotto.

Creamy chicken soup

Vessy — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 12:52:25 +0000

Lately we have been ignoring the old fashon soup meal at Vessy’s kitchen.

There are so many interesting international meals I could cook and taste, that I rarely think of a good simple soup for dinner.

Nevertheless, chicken soup is one of my favorite meals, and it brings back memories of childhood, winter games, Christmas time and the warmth of my family home – my forthress.

In my soup I mixed sweet carrots, potatoes, chicken meat, cream and fresh thyme.

Do not hesitate to add your favorite vegetables to the recipe, skip the cream if you would prefer, or add more if you would like it creamier.

Ingredients:
6 chicken drumsticks
3-4 potatoes, cut into small pieces
5-6 medium carrots, cut into small pieces
1 onion, cut into small pieces
5-6 garlic cloves, cut into small pieces
300 grams sour cream
3-4 table spoons olice oil
2 tea spoons fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
1 tea spoon chili powder
3 table spoons parsley, cut into small pieces

Boil the chicken drumsticks in a large saucepan with salted water until they are cooked all the way through.
Transfer the boiling water from the chicken in a large bowl. Unbone the chicken drumsticks.
In the same saucepan, heat the olive oil.
Add the onions and garlic and cook for a few minutes.
Add the potatoes and carrots and cook for 8-10 minutes, while stirring frequently.
Add salt, pepper, chili and thyme.
Add the saved water and continue cooking the vegetables for another 20-30 minutes until they are wll done!
Turn off the heat.

Add the sour cream, and using a hand blender, blend the soup until your favorite texture – more or less.
Add the chicken pieces and parsley and mix well.

Serve hot!

Chicken empanadas

Vessy — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 12:47:33 +0000

Empanadas are little treats, which could be filled with pretty much anything you want or have in the fridge. Empanadas are perfect for a party or picnic and the best part is that they could be prepared ahead of time (up to a month), frozen, and on the day you need them, just be baked or fried.

My empanadas are filled with sweet chicken, mozzarella cheese and cherry tomatoes.

I find this combination perfect, as it is light, but still very rich in taste.
If you have followed most of my posts, you would know that I fry food very rarely, and again preparing these empanadas, I preferred to bake them, instead of fry. As a person who would bake “french fries”, I have to say that most of the time the result from a baked dish is much more successful than from a fried one. But of course, when baking, it is important to know the ingredients you bake and their texture. After all, we all prefer to eat healthy, but the meal needs to be delicious as well.
That is why when baking chicken meat, I make sure to use thigh fillet, I add more butter and spices so, the meat is not dry and tasteless. In today’s recipe I added juicy cherry tomatoes and soft mozzarella cheese, which I believe completed the dish perfectly.

Dough:
350 grams plain flour
200 ml water
10 grams dry yeast
2 tea spoons salt
60 ml vegetable oil
1 large egg (lightly beaten)

1 large egg yolk

Sift the flour into a big bowl and make a well in the middle.
In a small bowl, mix the water, salt and yeast.
Add the water and yeast to the flour, as you stir constantly with your fingers or a spoon. Add the egg and olive oil and continue to stir.
Flour your counter or large wooden cutting board and knead the dough for 5-10 minutes.

If you have a food processor, you may use it to knead the dough, with the dough attachment.

Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30-60 minutes at room temperature.

Ingredients for the stuffing – keep in mind that the ingredients in this recipe depend mostly on you – if you want to add more chicken or more mozzarella, so adjust them to your taste and the size and quantity of empanadas you are preparing:

Chicken (minced or cut into small pieces) – 400 grams
Cherry tomatoes (cut in half) – about 20 tomatoes

Mozzarella (shredded or cut into small pieces) – about 200 grams

1 red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

100 grams ketchup

1 tea spoon chili flakes
1 tea spoon dry basil

1 tea spoon dry marjoram

4 table spoons olive oil/butter

Salt and pepper

In a large skillet heat the olive oil. Add the garlic and onion and cook for a few minutes until lightly crisp. Add the meat and cook for a couple of minutes (it should turns white as it cooks).

Add the ketchup, basil, marjoram and chili. Cook another few minutes until the sauce starts to thicken. Add salt and pepper and turn off your stove.

To assemble the empanadas:

You have many choices at this point. You can make small calzone empanadas, small open empanadas or just one big. I decided to prepare small closed empanadas, and just for fun I left two of the empanadas open.

So, sprinkle a little bit of flour on your counter.

If you prepare the empanadas in one big pie dish, just take 2/3 of the dough for the base and save 1/3 of the dough to close the dish on top.

If you make small empanadas, just divide your dough in two, this way it will be easier to work with it.

Roll the first half of the dough as thin as you desire. I preferred to roll my dough as thinner as possible, because I want to have more of the filling instead of baked bread.

Cut circles or rectangles (depending on your dish shape) out of the rolled dough and spread them on the bottom of your dish/ramekins. Make sure to spray your dish/es with olive oil before you add the dough to avoid sticking. Other option is to place baking paper on the bottom of every dish.

On the base of dough, add one layer of the chicken filling, then add a couple of cherry tomatoes and finish with mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle some basil on top and you are ready to cover the filling with the top layer of the dough.

Roll the rest of the dough and cut small circles/rectangles to cover the empanadas.

Place the dough on top of the filling. Using your fingers, piece together the bottom and top layers of dough.

Using a fork, make a couple of small holes in the top layer of dough, so that while baking, all hot air exits.

Beat the egg yolk with a little bit of water in a small bowl and paint all tops of the empanadas.

Bake about 30 minutes for small empanadas (180 C/350 F) or 40 minutes for a bigger dish.

Healthy baked cornflakes chicken bites

Vessy — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 12:26:06 +0000

One of my favorite dinners – it is quick, delicious and definitely more healthy than all those greasy chicken fingers you could order in a fast food restaurant or buy frozen.

If haven’t tried baked chicken bites, I suggest you to do it sooner – you will not regret it. The only advise I have for you, is to use boneless meat from chicken thigh – this is softer, moister and much more delicious than the chicken fillet (breast). If baked, the chicken breast will become very dry and it will definitely not be the meal you imagined. If deep fried, like regular chicken fingers, then you will not have a problem to use chicken breast. However in this case I want to show you how to minimize the fat as much as possible. So, it is important to use good quality red chicken meat.

Ingredients:
500 grams (18 oz) chicken meat, chopped into small bites (preferable to use boneless meat from thigh)
200 grams (7 oz) cornflakes
1 egg
100 ml. milk
3-4 table spoons olive oil
Salt, pepper and chilli flakes (by taste)
Preheat your oven to 170C.

Place the egg and milk in a large bowl. Add the chicken bites, season with salt, pepper and chili flakes.
Place the cornflakes in another bowl.
Take one bite from the chicken and dip it in the cornflakes.
Place on a large baking sheet, lined with baking paper.

Repеat the same with all of the chicken, then spray with a little bit of olive oil.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Serve with delicious chilli-mayo.