Penne w/ Roasted Tomatoes, Chicken & Mushrooms

We always appreciate the one-dish-wonder type of dinner — a meal that incorporates all the basics (protein, vegetable and starch or carb) into a single recipe.  Such meals are especially useful during particularly stressful and/or busy times, such as when one is settling in at a brand new job in a new city and state, preparing to move to said new location, and selling a house and many of its contents in the old job’s location.  Or maybe that’s just us.  Wait, that actually IS us, right now.  Hectic as things may be, all is going well and we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Amidst the chaos, it’s usually a lot easier to run out for a quick dinner at a restaurant or, even easier, order dinner delivered rather than cook.  But taking the time and making the effort to prepare a home-cooked meal is something we’re trying to make a conscious choice to do more often during these transitional times, as one kitchen gets packed up and the other is currently very sparsely outfitted.  For us, cooking and enjoying a meal together is what helps make a house feel like home, no matter the zip code (or fact that we may have to eat dinner sitting in patio chairs with paper plates on our laps.)  This recipe is a good reminder to slow down, spend some quality time in the kitchen, and enjoy the smells of roasting tomatoes and sauteeing mushrooms, onions and garlic.  Layering in some chicken, feta and parmesan cheeses and pasta adds comfort-food heartiness to the dish.  Finish with a little wilted spinach for color and nutritional value, and you’ve got a delicious and healthy meal that not only represents the major food groups in one pot, but also defines the “home” in “homemade.”
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Karen’s Stew

We’ve never met Karen, but she is a friend of my aunt and uncle, by way of Albuquerque.  And we’ve always heard really good things about this easy and delicious stew recipe she made up using ground turkey, chicken breasts, green chili salsa and white beans.  My aunt and uncle made it for my parents, who liked it so much that they make their own version all the time (omitting the chicken breasts for more of a chili texture than stew.)  My parents have raved about this dish often enough that we finally had to try it for ourselves, and it will become a regular in our recipe rotation as well.  This chili / stew is healthy comfort food that is also light enough to serve during the heat of summer (especially garnished with fresh avocado and a squeeze of lime) and could not be much easier to make.  We adapted the recipe a bit (of course we did), but will continue to foster the shout-out to the Karen who created the original recipe by continuing to call it “Karen’s Stew,”  even though our version is a little different and is really more of a chili than a stew.  It’s the right thing to do.

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Chicken w/ Wild Mushrooms

What is it about poultry and mushrooms that makes them pair so well with each other?  We’re not sure, but we certainly seem to enjoy the pairing a lot, considering how many recipes we’ve posted featuring these ingredients in the same dish (including turkey pot pie, chicken cacciatoreturkey and mushroom risotto, and turkey tetrazzini, to name a few.)  Although we may disagree with Ina Garten’s statement that “[c]hicken and mushrooms can be boring,” we’re glad she came up with this decidedly-not-boring recipe that brings out the best of these 2 ingredients together.  The dish creates its own sauce — flavored with garlic, thyme, sherry, white wine, chicken stock and a bit of butter — that cooks in the same pot and transforms chicken and mushrooms into perfectly delicious BFFs (Best Food Friends.)

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BBQ Chicken

Barbecued chicken is one of those classic summer dishes that conjures images of picnic-table-meals with cold potato and macaroni side salads and thick watermelon slices for dessert.  Bonus points if you are lucky to live somewhere with easy access to fresh, picked-that-morning corn on the cob.  Dan grew up in one of those places and fondly remembers corn on the cob and BBQ chicken dinners from childhood summers, not necessarily because of the chicken itself, but because his dad did the barbecuing while he and his brothers got up to whatever summer shenanigans 3 boys within a couple years of each other’s ages are wont to do.  Although his family’s version of BBQ chicken is not one he’s ever made as an adult (boiled until fully cooked — took no chances on raw poultry in those days! — then dipped in BBQ sauce diluted with a little beer and grilled over direct heat until the sauce began to burn caramelize), the memories of summers as a kid are happy and good.  And now, with this recipe for “foolproof barbecued chicken” from Cook’s Illustrated, he can reminisce on those days while also enjoying flavorful, perfectly-cooked, juicy chicken grilled with a homemade BBQ sauce that has just the right tangy / spicy / sweet ratio.  If only we had some farm-fresh, Pennsylvania corn to go with it!

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Unfried Chicken

It’s no secret that we love fried chicken (and who doesn’t??), but it’s certainly not the most healthy thing to eat (which is probably why it’s so delicious!)  In addition to being decadently unhealthy, our favorite fried chicken recipe involves quite a bit more time and effort than the average weeknight meal, further distinguishing it as a special-occasion-only dish in our repertoire.  So when we came across this recipe by Chef Art Smith that promised “a healthy spin on a classic dish,” and discovered that it also seemed pretty easy to make, we couldn’t wait to try it.  We adapted the recipe by using chicken tenders instead of chicken breasts, and next time might cut down the spice amounts a little, but otherwise we really enjoyed it and loved how much more healthy it is than the traditional version of fried chicken.  (Bonus — while doing research for this post, I found another Chef Smith recipe for unfried chicken that appears to be even more healthy — it replaces the buttermilk with Greek yogurt and uses multi-grain cereal instead of panko.)  Traditional fried chicken will always be our favorite, but until someone declares the third Tuesday of each month to be a holiday or otherwise noteworthy occasion, unfried chicken will be our regular go-to when we’re craving that crispy outside, moist and flavorful inside, poultry goodness.

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Skillet Baked Ziti w/ Turkey Sausage

Until now, we didn’t have a signature or go-to recipe for baked ziti, and didn’t really eat it all that often.  But we like that it has similar components as one of the all-time most comforting of comfort foods — lasagne — with red sauce, cheese and pasta; but without the time and effort commitment of its layered comfort cousin.  We recently picked up a copy of one of Cook’s Illustrated’s special-issue magazines “Skillet Dinners,” and were pleased to find a recipe for baked ziti among its pages of one-pot wonders.  We also appreciate that the dish is easy enough to make on a week night, with simple ingredients:  a 28 ounce can of whole, peeled tomatoes; a pound of Italian sausage;  5-6 cloves of minced garlic; 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes; 3 cups water; 3 3/4 cups ziti or penne pasta; 1/2 cup heavy cream; 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese; 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (or 2 tablespoons dried basil) and 1 cup shredded whole-milk mozzarella cheese.  We used Italian turkey sausage instead of the pork variety and loved that the resulting dish still had all of the comfort, but less of the calories and fat.

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Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic

Actually, we should probably call this dish “chicken with 20 cloves of garlic,” since we used chicken thighs instead of a whole chicken and cut the recipe in half.  Either way, it’s a lot of garlic.  But don’t worry — you won’t need to make a dessert out of gum, breath mints and mouthwash after eating it — the garlic becomes sweet and much less pungent when you cook it for a long time.  Although it takes time to make (browning time for the chicken and the garlic, then about 30 minutes simmer time for both, plus several minutes to finish the creamy sauce), this dish is well worth the effort.  The sweet garlic adds flavor to both the chicken and the rich sauce, which elevates this dish to the level of dinner party fare.  And it provides a built-in party trick when your guests are shocked by how much garlic they’re eating, without any overwhelming garlicky flavor (or post-dinner garlic breath.)

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Turkey Burgers

We’ve always been interested in finding more healthy versions of favorite foods, but when it comes to burgers, we seldom encounter any better-for-you substitute that packs the same satisfying flavor and texture punch as the real thing.  Shrimp burgers were interesting and tasty, but lacked any beefy flavor.  Our one and only homemade veggie burger experiment was an epic fail that ended as garbage with a side order of pizza delivery.  Enter the turkey burger.  We adapted this recipe by adding a little ricotta cheese (to help keep the turkey from drying out) and omitting the egg and breadcrumbs (to keep the burgers from tasting like meatloaf patties.)  The combination of Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, onion powder, garlic powder and cayenne pepper gave the burgers a nice, meaty flavor that makes you forget you’re eating healthy turkey.  While there can be no true replacement for the genuinely beefy, red-meat variety of burger, this turkey version has a lot less calories and fat (and therefore, less guilt), and we’re happy to make and eat them instead of beef burgers now and then.

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Slow-Cooker Chicken Provencal

On a recent cold day, we consulted what has become our crock-pot “bible” — America’s Test Kitchen’s “Slow Cooker Revolution” — for yet another delicious, set-it-and-forget-it, slow-cooked dish.  We’re slowly (pun intended) working our way through the book, and pretty much everything we’ve tried has been good, if not great.  The pork and ramen soup is a definite keeper, as is the recipe for smothered pork chops.  And we can’t forget (or stop craving) the chicken and dirty rice.  Now we can add the chicken provençal recipe to our list of favorites from this book.  It doesn’t get much more flavorful than bone-in chicken thighs, cooked all day over low heat in a braise made with tomatoes, onions, garlic, oregano, white wine and bay leaves, then finished with freshly chopped olives, parsley and a drizzle of really good olive oil.  Tastes like something you would enjoy after a long day of touring the French countryside.

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Smoked Turkey & Lentil Soup

If you have any leftover Christmas turkey — especially if it happens to be smoked turkey, and especially if you have the carcass and bones — we highly recommend that you make stock, then use the stock to make soup.  The smoky (almost ham-like) flavor of the turkey pairs particularly well with the earthy flavor of lentils in this soup.  Although they are not difficult to make, the stock and soup do take some time.  But a pot of stock simmering on your stove for several hours is definitely not a bad thing.  It makes your whole kitchen smell delicious, and there is no better base for soup than homemade stock.  Plus, you have the added satisfaction of knowing you squeezed every bit of smoky goodness out of your turkey, rather than just throwing the bones away.  And if you don’t feel like making soup, you can portion out the stock into 1 and/or 2 cup quantities to freeze for later use.  Homemade stock makes a surprisingly huge difference in the final flavor of almost any recipe calling for at least a cup of stock.   (Just keep in mind that stock made from smoked turkey (as opposed to chicken or regular turkey) has a pretty pronounced smoky flavor that might not be welcome in certain dishes requiring chicken stock.)  If you have the bird and the time, make homemade stock, is what we are saying.

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