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Finca Cielo Azul

Finca Cielo Azul

Tag Archives: chicken

Dinner!

31 Wednesday Oct 2018

Posted by Alex in cooking, Dinner, food, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

books, chef, chicken, cookbook, cooking, cooking recipes, costco, dinner, food, harissa, pasta, recipes, salad

I’ve never been a lover of cooking, I’ll start there.  My grandma cooked some great meals when I was little, but I never helped enough in the kitchen to actually learn what she was doing.  My mom is a cook of specialty dishes: she makes amazing tamales, potato salad for EVERY family function (the family is not usually happy if there’s no Achi potato salad at any given event, ha!), and amazing traditional Guatemalan dishes, like pepian.  But being just the two of us when I was little, I also wasn’t in the kitchen much for the day to day cooking.

When Jeff and I first moved in together to our little apartment in Irvine, I’d venture to say he was the main cook.  Or he’d make the main dish and I’d make the sides.

I’m not exactly sure when the shift happened, but I’d say it was after we had Jake – when going out to dinner became less and less of an option, haha.  And having to buckle down on finances.  When we moved into our Lake Forest apartment, we’d been living with Jeff’s parents for a couple years, and I got to observe my mother-in-law cooking some really great meals – when I wasn’t busy sleeping on the couch…

I think all of those things combined forced me to start cooking more at home.  I’m by no means a natural chef…I’m a cook-by-the-recipe “chef” (not sure you can call someone that follows a recipe a chef…but I’ll give myself that title for now).  I think I’m just recently getting comfortable enough to improvise here and there – but only in small ways.  Jeff and I joke around about me messing with recipes – my experiments rarely work for the best, haha.  But I’ve come up with some good recipes for veggies and such small plates.

Anywho, a little over a year ago I was at Costco waiting on a cake order, and I gravitated to the book section to kill some time (everyone gravitates to the book section, right?!), and found this cook book:

I’ll admit, I’ve become quite a skeptic of cook books because I end up buying them and then realizing I don’t like any of the recipes in them (we’re not adventurous eaters…).  [How am I a recipe chef without cookbooks?  Most of my tried and true recipes come from allrecipes.com, but I digress again.]  But I kept skimming this one and finding several recipes that caught my eye, and after a good five-minute hesitation I decided to buy it.

I’m not exaggerating: this book has changed our life, haha.  The harissa chicken recipe is seriously our favorite dinner, and it’s my go-to when I want to impress family/friends.  It’s also easy to double and make for larger crowds.  A couple things I’ve learned from making it several times:

  • I use skinless chicken thighs rather than skin on
  • I add lemon rind to the yogurt sauce (I did it by accident the first time, as the lemon rind is also used for something else, but now we love it)
  • I cut the harissa in half since it can be pretty spicy.  Trader Joe’s used to carry an amazing harissa sauce but has discontinued it (we were heartbroken).  We’ve found a different version at a local Persian store – it’s not the same but it will do.
  • Harissa sauce spoils quickly, so it was a bummer to buy a jar and have it mold in my refrigerator before I had a chance to make it again.  A coworker who I shared the recipe with came up with a brilliant idea that has worked great for me: freeze a couple tablespoons in snack-size ziplock bags and freeze!  I can take it out just before using and unfreeze pretty quickly.

I also love the pizza chicken recipe.  This one I’ve paired up with angel hair spaghetti and it goes great.  I also freeze extra sauce and use it for a second spaghetti night – it’s a perfect spaghetti sauce!

The other recipe I make regularly is the chicken salad – with crispy skin!  It’s such a light and refreshing meal, but I do cut the sauce out (I made it the first time and realized it’s just not our taste).

What are your favorite recipes or cook books?

Cooking: Pinterest Recipe Success!

07 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by Alex in cooking, food, recipes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

chicken, cooking, food, potatoes, recipes

Yesterday I decided to try a couple recipes from Pinterest (rather than my usual AllFoods.com), and I was pleasantly surprised!

I went with a Lime Cilantro Chicken, which turned out deeeeee-licious!

Quick-Lime-Cilantro-Chicken

I still can’t believe how happy I was with this, especially considering how easy it was.   I was a little weary of the cumin and chili powder, but the lime and cilantro are the flavors that really jump out once it’s all cooked.

For a side dish we made Crash Hot Potatoes.  Ours did not look nearly as beautiful as these (they cooked unevenly and did not squish quite this perfectly at all like this), but they were so, so good!  We used a seasoning called Herbs d’Provence, or something like that, which already has a mixture of great herbs and spices.

smashed potatoes

 

One thing to keep in mind is that these take a while.  You have to boil the potatoes first (which depending on how many you’re making and how much water you’re using, could take a while), and then you back them for an additional 25 minutes or so, so plan accordingly–we didn’t and we were starving by the time we ate.  Ha, maybe that’s why I thought everything was so good!

I’m pretty sure this chicken would go great with rice instead of potatoes, but we’d had rice the night before so I decided to switch it up.  Added a salad on the side, and ta-da, dinner is served!

 

 

Cooking Adventures: Chicken Enchiladas

06 Saturday Jul 2013

Posted by Alex in cooking, Dinner, food, recipes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

chicken, cooking, dinner, enchiladas, recipes

I’ve made this recipe several times with fabulous results, so I figured it was time I shared it!

I wish I could give credit to wherever I got it from, but I forget.  I’m pretty sure it was on allrecipes.com.  I also have no pictures because it’s a bit of a hectic and messy process, so the thought of taking pictures while I’m making these just never really crosses my mind.

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 breast halves*
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 1/2 pint of sour cream (aka, 1 cup)
  • 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (more is always better in the cheese department, if you ask me)
  • 1 tbl. dried parsley
  • 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
  • 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce (or smaller can of tomato paste)
  • 1 tbl. chili powder
  • 1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper
  • 1 clove minced garlic (I use the pre-minced garlic, works like a charm)
  • Corn tortillas (original recipe calls for flour tortillas, I always use corn)
  • 1 (19 oz or larger) can taco sauce.  I use Las Palmas, medium spicy (we used spicy ones, and they were pretty spicy, even for Jeff).  I would get a larger can if you really like your enchiladas drenched in sauce.  This is barely enough to cover them evenly.

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. In medium, non-stick skillet, over medium heat, cook chicken until no longer pink and juice runs clear.  Drain, cube, and return to skillet.  *I always use leftover chicken from a previous meal, such as chicken soup or a rotisserie chicken.  I think this works great and gives the chicken a much better flavor, although the amount of enchiladas will vary depending on how much chicken is left over.
  3. Throw in a little bit of olive oil with the chicken, toss in the onion, bell peppers and garlic, and let that cook on low heat until the bell peppers start softening up a bit.  I used to just toss everything in together, but noticed that the bell peppers were always a little too hard, so I started doing this first and it works great–peppers come out soft and delicious!
  4. Add sour cream, cheddar cheese, parsley, oregano and pepper.  Heat until the cheese melts; stir in salt, sauce, chili, and pepper.  It starts smelling delicious right about now.  Turn off heat.
  5. Warm up tortillas so they don’t fall apart or crack when you roll them.  I do this by tossing them in the microwave for a few seconds.
  6. Get a large dinner dish and pour some of the enchilada sauce on it, just enough so you can dip your tortillas in before adding chicken mixture.  Also pour some enchilada sauce on the bottom of your baking dish for a little extra flavor.
  7. Dip tortilla in sauce, covering both sides, then spoon even amounts of mixture on tortilla, roll, and arrange on 9×13 inch baking dish.  I usually end up using one 9×13 dish and then an 8×8 or 9×9 for a few extra enchiladas (they make amazing leftovers!).
  8. Cover all your enchiladas with taco sauce (otherwise they might get a little crusty in the oven), then cover with the remaining cheddar cheese.
  9. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes.

When using leftover chicken, this usually turns out 18-20 enchiladas.

Buen provecho!

Cooking Adventures: Creamy Garlic Penne Pasta (with chicken and spinach!)

28 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by Alex in cooking, Dinner, food

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

chicken, cooking, dinner, leftovers, pasta, spinach

So last night I tried this recipe, and it was DELICIOUS!

I’ve made alfredo/cream sauce pasta before, and my main complaint was that it didn’t taste like much–just bland.  This actually had a really good flavor, but it might also have to do with the fact that i added a couple things to it:

  • I used the leftover chicken from Monday’s dinner, and threw it into the sauce once that was boiling
  • I bought some fresh spinach and threw that in as well.  NOTE: spinach is such a sneaky vegetable!  I always think I have too much so I err on the side of caution of not cooking too much, even though I KNOW it’s never enough because it cooks down like crazy!  So, go crazy with the spinach ;)

Also, I made the whole box of penne pasta but only had enough sauce for about half of it, so next time I plan on doubling the sauce so there’s enough for leftovers–there wasn’t a single bite left of the pasta I mixed in with the sauce (I take that as a good sign).

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but once I got things started, it all moved along pretty quickly and I had no time to snap photos.  Good thing is: it’s fast and easy to prepare!

Jeff put some sourdough in the oven with garlic and butter, and I made a quick garden salad to go along with it.  It was perfect.

Buen provecho!

Cooking adventures! Chicken with lemon-garlic green beans

26 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by Alex in cooking, eating, food, recipes

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

chicken, cooking recipes, dinner

In an effort to change our menu up a bit, I looked through my Pinterest cooking ideas board last night to come up with something different.

We decided on a simple chicken with lemon-garlic green beans.  You can find the recipe here.

Here are some pictures from my cooking adventure:

Coating green beans in olive oil and garlic

Coating green beans in olive oil and garlic

photo 2

Could probably have used a few more slices for this picture :)

photo 3

Looks super fancy, doesn’t it?!

photo 4

Forgot to take a picture before I put it in the oven, but here it is going in!

And of course, I didn’t take a picture of the final project because I got carried away serving it up to be eaten, haha.

My tips:

  • Make more of the coating if you’re using gigantic chicken breasts like I did—my end product wasn’t as covered in it as the picture in the actual posting.
  • The potatoes cooked perfectly, but the green beans were still a little hard.  If I make this again, I will steam them separately for a bit before throwing them into the baking dish.
  • The green beans were also a little toooooo lemony, so although it looks nice, I would forego the lemon slices on the bottom.

Other than that, it was delicious and pretty easy!  Fixed a tomato, avocado and onion salad to go along with it, and voila, dinner served!

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