Too-New-For-A-Name Chicken Dish

Directions:

1. Take 2-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts.
2. Clean 'em, pat ‘em dry, lay ‘em on a piece of wax paper, placing another piece of wax paper over the top.
3. Beat the crud out of them with a mallet to flatten them out and make them thin enough to roll.
4. Let them rest while you whip out a bowl. Add to it 4-6 ounces skim or fat-free ricotta cheese, 4-6 ounces  mozzarella cheese, fresh chopped garlic (to taste), diced up red  onions (really small sliced). 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (an excellent omega fatty acid!), salt and pepper (to taste).
5. Then you’ve got some options what else too add.  You can do just cheese, or add some fresh spinach or mushrooms or both.
6. When you’ve got your mixture together, put about 2 ounces of the mixture on the center of one breast, role it up fairly tightly and stick it with a baking stick.
7. You can then over the top with a favor sauce...any kind will taste good...I use my pizza sauce recipe or a can of mushroom soup.
8. Back uncovered for 35-35 minutes at 350 degrees F.

     Comments:  Feeds you for three days or a family of 4-6!

                                     Submitted by:  Te3k

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Chicken Salad

Directions:

1. Lightly fry or sauté boneless chicken breasts in olive oil or canola - or you may broil them.  Once cooled to a little higher than body temperature, cut into short strips or chunks and toss into the following waiting mixture.
2. Baby spinach, diced or sliced sweet Vidalia onion, garlic croutons, black pepper, parmesan or Romano, and a fat-free Caesar dressing.

     Comments:  Feel free to improvise other toss-ins, such as olives, peppers, grape tomatoes, or what-have-you. I like mine rather simple.  It’s also good with a mix of romaine and baby spinach. I haven't tried a touch of radicchio with either or both yet, but plan to do so this weekend.  A fat-free creamy Italian Caesar or garlic Caesar works just as well for the dressing.

 Submitted by:  Tauf

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Chicken Saltimbocca

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless chicken breasts, pounded to a uniform thickness
• 4 thin slices of Italian Prosciutto ham
• 15 to 25 fresh sage leaves, chopped finely
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter (optional, but I like it)

For Sauce:

• 1 or 2 tablespoons chopped shallots
• 1/4 cup Sauvignon Blanc (or other dry white wine)
• 2 tablespoon softened butter

Directions:

1. Prepare the chicken breast for cooking:  After pounding the chicken breasts, sprinkle them on both sides with the chopped fresh sage. Pat the sage on so that it adheres. Then wrap each chicken breast in a slice of prosciutto.
2. Sauté the chicken breasts:  Over medium or slightly higher heat, heat the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter in a sauté pan. Sauté the chicken breasts about 3 minutes each side, until  the chicken is cooked all the way through, but still juicy -- no overcooked  rubbery chicken, please. Remove the chicken breast to a warm serving platter.
3. Prepare the sauce:  Add the chopped shallots to the sauté pan (there should be enough oil left in the pan, if not add a tiny bit of butter or olive oil). Sauté the shallots for 30 seconds until they are translucent. Do not brown them. Add the quarter cup of wine to the frying pan to deglaze (i.e., dissolve all those wonderfully flavorful brown bits in the bottom of the frying pan). Reduce the wine to about a quarter of the volume.  During this time, some juices will probably be released from the chicken breasts resting on the platter. Add these juices to the pan. Turn off the heat. Swirl in the softened butter until completely mixed.  Pour this sauce over the chicken breasts and serve.

     Comments:  Use real Italian prosciutto. I've tried this with US and Canadian products.  They just are not the same. There is a saltier bite to real Italian prosciutto that the domestic products don't have.  Use fresh sage. Don't substitute dried sage. Don't ask me what the conversion factor would be for fresh to dried. Homey don't play that.
     You’ll notice I didn't add salt and pepper to the recipe. This is a personal preference. If you want, lightly salt and pepper the chicken breasts at the time you apply the sage. The reason I do not add salt is because I cook using typical American butter, which already has salt in it. The Prosciutto is also very salty. Adding salt to this recipe just makes it too much for me.
     Hopefully, you know how to sauté a boneless chicken breast without turning it dry and rubbery. If not, then please learn. It takes a little practice, but it is worth it. The chicken should be cooked through, having just lost its pinkness. It should be juicy.
     The sauce is a typical deglazing sauce. It is meant to complement the meat. It is not a gravy. You can omit the butter for the sauce, but the flavor will be a little more acidic, which will be fine on the chicken, but a bit harsh on its own.

Serving suggestions:

     Serve this with the Sauvignon Blanc you used for the sauce. The best SB is one that is dry, grassy and minerally,like a good Sancerre. An “oaky” SB is okay, too, if it has enough of the grassy/herbal SB character.  The grassiness goes wonderfully with the ebullience of the fresh sage.
     Fresh sautéed spinach is a very nice accompaniment.

                                     Submitted by:  Savedsinner

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Chicken Penne

Ingredients:

• 1-2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (depending on amount you want to make), cut into small chunks
• 1-2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1-2 diced green onions
• 1 quart of mushrooms, your favorite variety
• 1/2-1 cup white wine/white cooking wine
• 1-3 tablespoon(s) heavy cream, to taste
• 1-2 diced tomatoes or 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
• Italian seasonings of choice-- I prefer garlic, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and a pinch of salt and black pepper

Directions:

1. Heat a skillet with the olive oil on high heat until the oil is hot.
2. Sauté the chicken breasts in the olive oil until the chicken breasts are golden brown on the outside, but not necessarily cooked through.
3. Put the chicken aside.
4. Sauté the onions and mushrooms together until the mushrooms are cooked through. You might want to add some seasonings to the  mushroom/onion mixture at this point
5. Leaving the mushrooms and onions in the skillet, add the white wine and simmer for 5 minutes or so.  Add the tomatoes. Simmer. Add the cream, the chicken you set aside earlier, and any seasonings you'd like. Simmer the sauce until it has thickened. 

Dumplings:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 3/4 to 1 cup cold water

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients
2. add oil and mix well.
3. Once chicken has been added to pot, add enough water, a bit at a time, until the dough is wet but not runny. 
4. Use a soup spoon to drop egg-sized dumplings into the stew.
5. Cover tightly and boil GENTLY for 20 minutes, without lifting lid. After 20 minutes, remove from heat and let sit 5 minutes before removing lid. Dumplings should be fluffy.

Directions:

1. Finely chop up all of the herbs, and mix it with the room temp butter and lemon peel.
2. Keep it in the fridge.  I like to use this for a bunch of different things.  It's great to rub under the skin of hens before roasting them.

Mushroom Confit

• Tons of 'shrooms (I think button and crimini work best)
• Lots of light oil (such as canola)
• Herbs (fresh or dried rosemary, thyme, bay leaves)
• Few cloves of garlic
• Whole peppercorns

Directions:

1. Throw all of the 'shrooms in a strainer and heavily salt all of them. Let them sit for a couple of hours until they give off all of their liquid.
2. Shake or wipe all of the salt off and throw them in a baking dish.
3. Cover the mushrooms with the oil, add the rest of the ingredients, and bake at 300 for 1 1/2 hours.
4. Drain the mushrooms when you're done.

     Comments:   These mushrooms are so good -- SO good!  I use them in a lot of dishes (pasta, wild rice, with steaks, etc.)  TIP:  Make sure you strain the leftover oil through a cheese cloth and keep it for future use. It has a great, intense mushroom flavor.

Risotto

• A couple of diced shallots
• 1 head of roasted garlic
• 1 good-sized handful of risotto per person
• Some white wine to cook (suitable for cooking)
• Lots of boiling chicken stock
• Mushroom confit

     Chicken (here's where I cheat:   I used to roast a chicken for this meal, but I was pressed for time and bought one of those hot rotisserie chickens from the grocery one time.  It worked perfectly! Just bone it and keep the meat moist in some of the chix stock)

Gorgonzola cheese

Herbed butter

1. Lightly sauté the shallots in some olive oil in a heavy pot.  
2. When they start to get translucent, add the dried risotto to the pot and lightly, lightly toast it up.
3. Before it starts to brown, pour in enough white wine to cover the risotto, and let it cook off.
4. After the wine has evaporated, slowly start adding the boiling chix stock a little at a time, re-adding when it's almost gone and stirring almost constantly.  From the time the wine evaporates, until you're done adding stock, only twenty minutes should have passed.
5. About 18 minutes into cooking the risotto, add the cut-up chicken, the mushrooms, and the roasted garlic.
6. When the risotto is al dente (still a little firm to the bite) turn off the heat, throw in a small handful of gorgonzola cheese, and stir it up.
7. Then add a few pats of the herbed butter, stir it up, cover it, and let it set for about five minutes.

     Comments:  Serve in a flat bowl topped with a little garnish if you like.  It's a bit of a pain, but so good.  Aside from the mushrooms cooking in the oven, the whole meal from start to finish should take less than an hour.  (You can make the 'shrooms a day ahead of time)

                                     Submitted by:  PMB_Ohio

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Chicken Picata

Ingredients:

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts butter-flied and pounded 1/4-1/2thin (I'll give the remaining ingredients for two people)
• Some seasoned flour for dredging
• Olive oil for cooking
• White wine for deglazing (maybe 1/2 cup or so)  
• 1/2 cup of chix stock
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup or so of capers  (I like the capers packed in salt.  Make sure to rinse them, though!)
• 2-3 tablespoons butter to “finish” the sauce

Directions:

1. Dredge the pounded chix through flour to coat, then shake off all of the excess flour.
2. Cook in a skillet for about 3 minutes per side or just enough to brown (do it in batches if you have to).
3. Pour out the excess oil if there is any, and deglaze the pan with the wine (you can skip the wine if there's some alcohol aversion).
4. After the wine has almost evaporated, add the chix stock, lemon juice, and capers. 
5. Simmer for 10 minutes.  
6. Add the chix to the sauce and cook for 5 minutes.
7. Turn off the heat, place the chix on a platter, and add the butter to the sauce in the pan.
8. Stir it up really good, and then pour the sauce over the plated chix.

     Comments:  I love serving this with roasted asparagus:  Coat some asparagus with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Roast at 350 for about 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the asparagus.  Best...asparagus...EVER!

    Note:  A good dose of garlic (teaspoon to a tablespoon)  The particular recipe I saw didn't include this either, and this  recipe was written by someone claiming to be Cajun. I was rather shocked and upset.  By the way, don't be using none of that powdered stuff.  That's nasty.  At the very least, use the diced, jarred garlic.

Seasonings:   

     Preferably cayenne and salt. Some Tony's (prepared Louisiana-style seasoning) works well, as that's pretty much all it is anyway.  Don't be shy!  Just don't drown your fricassee in cayenne. Too many people think that Cajun means peppery hot, and that's just not the case. If all you can taste is pepper, why put the trinity and other ingredients in it?

Submitted by:  Logus

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Chicken Fettuccine Mushroom Stroganoff

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped (I like to use Vidalia)
• 3 tablespoon butter
• 1 package sliced Portobello mushrooms (chopped into big chunks)
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 3 tablespoon flour
• Freshly ground pepper
• 8 ounces medium egg noodles, cooked
• 1 package bacon (I like to use hickory flavored)
• 1 package boneless, skinless chicken
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Directions:

1. Cut chicken into cubes/chunks and fry in skillet with oil until cooked through. Do not overcook. Set aside.
2. Fry bacon, drain and crumble. Set aside.
3. In large skillet over low heat, sauté onion in butter until soft. Raise heat to medium high, add mushrooms and continue to sauté until mushrooms begin to brown. Remove mushroom-and- onion mixture to bowl.
4. In same skillet, over high heat, add chicken broth to pan drippings, bring to a boil and reduce by 1/3. Lower heat to a simmer and return mushrooms to broth.
5. In a small bowl, combine sour cream and flour until smooth. Over very low heat, stir in sour cream mixture and continue stirring. Add cooked chicken and bacon. Continue stirring over low heat until sauce thickens. Allow mixture to warm through. Pepper and/or season to taste.
6. Pour mixture over cooked fettuccine. Enjoy!!

     Comments:  I make individual servings for the first night of preparation, then mix leftover noodles with mixture together and store in refrigerator in microwave-safe containers. A quick reheating and the dish is delicious as a leftover.
     Note: I originally found the start to this recipe on the back of a package of Portobello mushrooms. I added to it and modified it. The only source I have left for the mushroom company is www.mushroomrecipes.com )

 Submitted by:  Hardy Heaven