Chicken and Blueberry Crunch

Remember that time I stopped blogging for like...3 years?

Woops.

Anyway, in that amount of time I had some major life changes!  I moved to a different country, got a new job, and stopped cooking as much as I used to.  I missed the blog though, so I want to keep up with it, maybe just more sporadically!  You missed me too, right? RIGHT???

For my glorious return, I decided to try and copy one of my favorite meals from a restaurant called iQ Food Co. that I frequent for lunch.  It actually turned out pretty well!   Here was the original version:  http://iqfoodco.com/menu/type/hotboxes/blueberry-crunch/

Ingredients you'll need (makes enough for 2 people):
- 1 chicken breast, pounded thin
- 1 cup of brown rice
- 1 apple
- about 6 mini carrots
- a handful of blueberries
- a handful of candied pecans, or sunflower seeds...or any type of nut really
- a 1/4 cup of feta cheese, crumbled
- salt and pepper

For the dressing:
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon of honey

I think that's it!

First things first, we'll need to bake some chicken.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees, and salt and pepper both sides of the chicken.  Line a shallow pan with parchment paper, and throw the chicken in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until the juices run clear.  Should be pretty quick if it was pounded thin.

While that's working away, you'll want to julienne the apples and carrots, and get the pecans, feta and blueberries ready to go.  Colorful, no?

You can also whip up the dressing.  Just whisk the honey, oil, balsamic and dijon mustard with a fork until completely combined.  Give it a taste, if it seems out of whack you can mess with the proportions a bit.  I like the dressing to be pretty strong since it's going to be what actually flavors your rice and chicken.  I also used ground mustard, but I think the regular Dijon would be better as far as texture goes.  You can't win them all.

You'll also want to get started on the brown rice!  Just follow the directions on the package, I was just using the minute rice so it took about 10 minutes for everything to be ready.  

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Ok!  Once the chicken is done, chop it up into bite sized chunks, like so....

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Perfect!  Now, putting everything together.  Put the rice on the bottom of a bowl, and place the chicken on top of the rice.  Laugh at Mac (the golden retriever in the pic below) and give him a piece of chicken because he's trained you well.

Now add all the fresh fruit and carrots, topping everything off with the feta and chopped up pecans!

Last, but certainly not least, drizzle everything with the balsamic dressing.

Voila!  I usually attack this by mixing everything up into one big mess so I get a bit of everything in each bite.  It's so crunchy and satisfying. The sweet and tangy dressing just makes it so delicious. Also everything is pretty basic so I feel pretty good about eating this kind of stuff :)

Enjoy!

Courtzilla

Dill Chicken Salad

Ok, when you think of the words "chicken salad" what do you think of? I think of crappy restaurant choices and disappointments. Depressing, I realize. THAT NEEDED TO CHANGE. Whenever I order chicken salad, I'm always thinking eh...it's ok. Unless I'm at Penn Station, but I'm fairly certain they put some sort of crack in their recipe.

Chicken salad is one of those classic lunch recipes that can be so individualized, that everyone has a "chicken salad, my way" recipe. Well, you do if you're me. And here's mine.

You'll need:
- A cut up whole chicken. I believe they're called "fryer chicken".
- 1/3 cup low fat mayo
- 1/3 cup light sour cream
- handful of fresh dill
- pinch 'o paprika
- juice from 1 lemon
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- salt and pepper
- 2-3 stalks of chopped up celery
- couple handfuls of halved grapes
- green onions if you've got any (oh wait, I didn't)

Ok! First - the chicken. The main component. The heart of the meal.

Rinse off the raw chicken, and place it in a pot of water. A BIG pot.

Put the pot on the stove, and bring to a boil. Once it hits the boil point for around 5 minutes, bring the heat down to a simmer. You'll want to let it sit and cook for about 40 minutes.


While the chicken is bubbling away in it's hot bath, I start the sauce! Basically, you'll want to combine your sour cream, mayo, salt, pepper, paprika, lemon juice, brown sugar, and whatever else floats your boat into a small bowl. Pretty sure I added some other stuff, but I'm so behind on posting I can't be bothered to remember.


Just mix that all together! You can also chop up your dill and add it to the sauce at this point.


Have you ever had fresh dill? It adds a distinctly pickle-y flavor, and I don't have to add weird pickle texture. It's the best compromise ever.

Okie dokie. When your chicken is done, take it outta the pot.



At this point you can do one of two things. I like my chicken salad chunky, so i rip the meat off the bone and chop it into cute chunks. Some people like their chicken salad all one texture - if that's your preference, go ahead and shred up all the chicken with two forks at this point.

Then, add the chicken to a bowl with your chopped up veggies, like so!



COLORS.

Guess what the last step is.

Dump in your sauce, and MIX!!



Yummo! Put it on a bun, or on some lettuce with some cute cherry tomatoes! Go crazy and TOAST the bun. I know, I know, I push you too far.



Hello, lover. Slash lunch for the next 4 days.

Enjoy!

<3 Courtzilla

Greek Style Chicken

Mediterranean foods are some of my absolute favorite flavors. The ingredients are so simple, but pack a great punch. It helps that the majority of them are fairly healthy for you too... so when I eat 2 pieces of chicken I don't feel THAT bad about it.

I was making this for the boys across the street, so I've got some limited pictures... but this recipe is so simple I don't see how that would hamper you at all.

You'll need:

- 4 chicken breasts
- 1/2 cup of olive oil
- juice from 1 lemon
- 2 tsp of minced garlic
- about a 1/2 tbsp of oregano (dried)
- 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar
- plenty of salt and pepper

Ok! Basically.... put ALL the ingredients in a zip lock bag, and mush it around so everything is coated in the marinade. Put it in the fridge for at least a half hour, so the chicken soaks up all the goodness. If you get some lemon seeds in there, it's not a big deal. You can pick them off when you're grilling the chicken.

You can also use this base marinade for some cut up potatoes. Makes for a great flavor when you roast them!


Please forgive my craptastic photography.

After you've let it marinade a bit... throw it on the grill! .... orrrrr grill pan! .... or saute pan!


Ok, so basically you just want to cook the chicken until it's no longer pink, and the juices run clear. I cooked it over a medium flame and it took about 7 - 8 minutes on each side, but this will vary depending on the plumpness of your chicken boob. If you want, before you put it in the marinade you can pound them flat to help even out the cooking time.

And... that's seriously it.


I served it with the green bean salad and some pesto cous cous, which is basically store bought cous cous and some stirred in basil pesto. It gave it a punch of flavor.

The chicken will have this really subtle lemon flavor, and the marinade keeps it juicy and delicious! It's a great easy summer meal for sure.

Enjoy!

<3 Courtzilla

Lazy Man's Chicken

You know when you get home from work, want a cooked meal, but you have about 4 ingredients and no time? That's where this dish comes in. It's totally a lazy weekday meal. Take a mediocre amount of planning, and some thievery, but we'll get to that in a second. It's....

BBQ Citrus Chicken.

This is seriously a great summer dish, and would be awesome on the grill. And... it's so simple!! Probably one of the simplest dishes in my head, but oh so good. I don't even remember where I got this... and I don't exactly take measurements. Onto the food!

You will need:
- some sort of citrus-y juice
- BBQ sauce
- whatever part of the chicken you heart best (i used chicken boob)
- salt, pepper
- a bit of oil for the pan/grill
- oranges (optional)

The thing that makes this dish great is that it's so easy, and yet the chicken comes out juicy and flavorful every time. The trick is in the marinade. It's all about marinade, baby.

To start, you'll need... this!


Start by putting the chicken in a ziplock bag. I used 2 chicken breasts so I can have leftovers for lunch.


Then, add about 1/2 - 1 cup of orange juice. Now, I didn't have any orange juice. So if you're like me, you'll steal your roommates orange pineapple juice. Stealing is good for the soul, and makes a hell of a marinade.


After that's done, put in around 1/2 - 1 cup of BBQ sauce.



Squish everything together, so that the chicken is evenly coated. Throw it in the fridge and forgeddabouddit. I would suggest at least an hour. What I did was put this all together the night before (takes about 4 minutes) and ate my cake and went to bed. When I got home from work today, these babies were defrosted, super flavorful, and ready to go on the grill.


So when you're ready to grill these, take them out of the bag and get rid of the marinade. You don't want to use it for basting or anything because it's got all the raw chicken juices in there. Yechhhh. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper on each side.

Now, at this point it's really cool if you don't live in a basement, and you have a grill. However, for us poor suckers who live in tiny basement apartments, I can't tell you how much I love my new grill pan (thanks mom)! It gets beautiful char marks on the food and almost makes me think I'm outside. If you have a grill pan (just a skillet would work fine too), pour just a bit of olive oil on it and spread it around. This will make the chicken not stick to the pan.


Throw those suckers on there and let 'em have it. My stove was on medium heat. They were probably on the grill about 5-6 minutes each side, since I'm paranoid about chicken not being fully cooked.

I didn't get a picture of it, but I basted each side with just the plain BBQ sauce, just for some more flavor. If you want to get really fancy schmancy you can cut up an orange and grill those too for presentation - the char of the grill will make all the natural sugars carmelize. However, being as the title of this post is lazy man's chicken, I decided to go with the spirit of the post and not do it.

One thing I did realize was that man cannot eat chicken alone. I made a quick salad! I used these ingredients, since I thought they would be nice with the pineapple-orange flavors of the chicken.


If you can't tell, that's grapes, romaine, pineapple chunks, blueberries, a golden delicious apple, and feta cheese. You can basically throw in any fruit you've got and it would be fine. This would be devine with strawberries, maybe with pecans or almonds for some crunch.

In a perfect world, I would have poppyseed dressing to throw on top of this. However, Courtzilla is not perfect, and I think I ate it all in a drunk stupor. So, I had to substitute with some raspberry pecan dressing, which was still scrumptious. I mean, just look at it.


Once your chicken is done, throw that on the side, and VOILA! Lazy man's dinner.



This is kind of a crappy shot, but I was too busy eating to get another one. I had some leftover corn bread that I had on the side with a bit of butter. It was delicious, and took about 15 minutes to throw together. How's that for a meal?

<3 Courtzilla