Chicken Clarinda (gluten free, dairy free option)

Chicken Clarinda

Elegant can be simple; flavourful can be fast and easy. Imagine pasta tossed with tender chicken in olive oil, garlic, and fresh kale. Don't just sit there.... you can have this dish ready from idea-to-plate in fifteen minutes!

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 bunch kale
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp chopped garlic (fresh or jarred)
1/4 tsp basil
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
1/2 pound dry pasta, or gluten free pasta, of your choice

Cut the soft kale leaves off the spine and finely chop. In a sauté pan, mix the chopped kale, lemon juice, chopped garlic and salt. Cover the dish and turn the heat on "low."

Get the water started to boil the pasta.  Chop the chicken, and add it to the kale mixture. As it is cooking, toss the chicken and kale with tongs. It should cook pretty quickly at medium heat.

Cook you pasta of choice as soon as the water boils. (Angel Hair Pasta is the fastest, with four minutes' cooking time, so be sure that the chicken is done before putting it in the water.) With tongs, take the pasta straight from the water to the sauté pan and toss it with the kale, chicken and oil.

Serve immediately, optionally garnishing with parmesan cheese.


I shared this recipe with Foodie Friends Friday,  Tasty Tuesdays,  Gluten Free Wednesdays, Full Plate Thursdays,  Thriving on Thursdays,  Foodie Friday and Empty Your Archives (pasta collection)


www.stealthymom.com

Curried Chicken (crock pot, gluten free)

Chicken Vindaloo

We used to use Patak's curry pastes. They are easy and flavourful and come in a range of spiciness from mild to mind-blowing. The Mild Curry Paste contains 910mg sodium per two tablespoons, however, and the first ingredient listed is canola oil. Canola oil, then salt.... We can do better. Learning to blend the spices that could be commonly found in a small town grocery store, and then to adapt them to the palates of our little kids took a few tries.

You will find this recipe for curried chicken to be quick and easy. Just pop everything into the crock pot and come back in a few hours to discover an aromatic pot of tender chicken and potatoes in a smooth, barely spicy sauce. (You can easily crank up the heat if you like.)

Baked Chicken with Garlic Potatoes (gluten free)

Baked Chicken with Garlic Potatoes 

Traditionally seasoned chicken baked over chunky-cut potatoes. The chicken becomes perfectly tender with a crispy skin. Drippings brown the potatoes underneath, elevating them from a basic staple to restaurant-worthy. No one needs to know you can prep this one-dish wonder in minutes.

2 lbs (about 4 pieces) organic chicken thighs
5 medium potatoes
1/4 cup parmesan cheese (optional)
1 tsp garlic powder
parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme*

Raspberry Chicken (gluten free, low sodium)

Raspberry Chicken

Tender, baked chicken with a sweet and sour sauce. There are no artificial colours or flavours, just the hint of tangy raspberry with every bite. A bit of melted mozzarella enhances the dish, but is totally optional.

Fiesta Chicken (gluten free, low sodium)

Fiesta Chicken

One-pot meals are great, but one-baking-dish meals are even better. This meal took about ten minutes' of prep time, and an hour and a half of baking. I popped it in the oven and walked away...  When I came back, there were golden potatoes nestled in under tender chicken, and the whole thing was covered in roasted bell peppers.

Chicken Garbanzo Bake (gluten free, low sodium)

Chicken Garbanzo Bake

G-man helped make lunch today: Chicken Garbanzo Bake. He stirred up the sauce, tasting how tart tomatoes with a touch of sweet molasses combine perfectly. I held my breath as he sampled the plain garbanzos.

[I had made the mistake a few months ago of calling them "chick peas," and he had decided he did not like peas any more. Chick peas are peas, right? They taste more like a peanut. Technically, they are legumes like peas, but so are peanuts. He was not convinced. We looked at one up close. See how they are round, yellow, and have tiny little beaks? They look like chicks. They aren't really peas... Peas are green. Our three year-old just stared as I tried to win him over with logic.]

Roasted Chicken with Mushroom Sauce (low sodium)

Roasted Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

Yes, it is possible to make an easy, savory mushroom dish without canned soup. I must admit that I clung to cream soup like a safe, dependable teddy bear. Switching to low-sodium cooking saw me giving every can in the pantry to a food drive and starting from scratch.

Today's dish is just as easy as the old stand-by, yet more flavourful and low in sodium. Tender, roasted chicken smothered in a fresh mushroom gravy. Sop up the extra gravy with mashed potatoes and toast. Yummy!

4 organic chicken thighs*
8 oz sliced mushrooms
1/8 tsp pepper (1/4 tsp if your kids like some spice.)
1/8 tsp sage
1/8 tsp rosemary
1/8 tsp thyme
1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt or lite salt (optional)
1 cup water

1 tbsp corn starch (or other starch)

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Place the half of the mushrooms at the bottom of a pyrex baking dish and place the chicken on top. Sprinkle the pepper, sage, rosemary, thyme and salt onto the chicken and top with the other half of the mushrooms. Pour a cup of water into the bottom of the dish, being careful to not wash he seasonings off of the chicken.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, turning the chicken over half way through. (Add another 15 minutes if the chicken was frozen to start with.)

Approved by the Cadet!

Take the pan from the baking dish from the oven and gently place the chicken thighs in a separate dish.

Add starch to the liquid/mushroom mixture in the pan, and whisk until mixed. Place the dish into the microwave on high for a minute. Whisk, microwave another minute, then whisk again. Add the chicken back to the pan and coat each with the gravy.

Serve over mashed potatoes or rice.


*Many of the big-corporate-farm chicken comes with salt water in it. They call it "seasoning." (What for??) Organic chicken may cost more but is worth the premium to avoid silent additives. Thighs are easy to bone for the kids, cook evenly, and are the cheapest cut.


www.stealthymom.com   shared at the Living Well Blog Hop .

Homemade Barbecue Sauce (low sodium)

Chicken baked in Homemade BBQ Sauce

A great kitchen staple for quick meals and entertaining is barbecue sauce. At this very moment, someone is slow-cooking ribs in barbecue sauce in a crock pot, and someone else is preparing little smokies or meat balls for an office pot-luck.  Ready-made sauces from the store are so easy, but very high in sodium. Here is a recipe for a quick barbecue sauce to use for cooking meats and chicken.

(The pictured dish is chicken, covered in Homemade Barbecue Sauce then baked for 45 minutes at 350F. How simple can you get?)


For half a cup of sauce, stir together:

1 8 oz can unsalted tomato sauce or frozen homemade sauce
2 tbsp molasses
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar (optional)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp black pepper

For variety, try:

• 1/2 tsp sesame oil + 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp "curry powder"
• red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar in place of the white vinegar

www.stealthymom.com 

For more homemade versions of store-bought foods, visit Make Your Own Mondays.

Easy Chicken and Vegetable Pot Pie

Easy Chicken Pot Pie with Omega Crust

This afternoon I set off to do two things: to make a chicken pot pie for supper and to use a crust that contained no lard, shortening, or butter. Omega crust instead uses flaxseed meal and olive oil, considerably reducing saturated fat and cholesterol. The gluten-free version also uses olive oil. Both are G-man approved, too. Mission accomplished.

This recipe is easy but time consuming because you will need to bake the chicken first. Plan on needing two and a half hours before dinner. (It would be easy to say, "pop the chicken in the oven, and meanwhile prepare your pie crust..." but that is certainly not the reality in this house. Neither G-man nor the Cadet were born with pause buttons.) It does make great leftovers and can be a bake-ahead entree.

For a large (12" by 2" deep) pot pie, or two smaller pies:

4 chicken thighs
2 lb frozen, mixed vegetables
3 tbsp non-GMO corn or tapioca starch
1/2 tsp lite salt
seaonings (approximately 1/8 tsp each of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.)
1 cup water

1 Omega Crust recipe, or standard pie pastry or  Gluten-Free Crust.

In lidded casserole, bake chicken thighs for 45 minutes at 350F.

Dump the frozen mixed vegetables into a pot. Add starch and start to stir over low heat. Debone the chicken, and pour the contents of the casserole dish into the pot, including any juices at the bottom. Add a cup of water, and stir everything until the vegetables are hot. (Singing Scarborough Fair if you wish,) add the parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Pour the chicken and vegetable mixture into prepared pie crust. Top with the second crust, and seal the edges. Pierce the top of the crust several times with a butter knife to allow steam to escape.

Bake for 15 minutes at 450F, then turn the oven down to 350F. Bake another 15-20 minutes until the pie starts to bubble.

Allow the pie to rest at least 10-15 minutes before serving. Serves 8.




www.stealthymom.com

This recipe and others can be found at Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Fight Back Friday, the Weekend Whatever, Real Food Wednesday, and Gluten Free Wednesday.