Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Mexican-Style Pasta With Chicken and Peppers
A delicious, easy and healthy meal, you're going to love it!
Ingredients
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 minced garlic cloves
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoons sugar
4 plum tomatoes, well drained or 6 whole canned tomatoes, well drained
3 scallions
1 large green bell pepper
3/4 lb vermicelli or other thin pasta (I used bowtie pasta)
1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 (4 ounce) can chopped mild green chilies, drained
1/4 teaspoon salt (omit if using regular chicken broth)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
* I added red pepper flakes to taste, stirred in a 1/2 cup light sour cream just before removing from heat and then topped with some shreaded pepper-jack cheese to individual servings.
Directions
1 In a medium saucepan, bring the chicken broth, garlic, cumin and chili powder to a boil over medium-high heat.
2 Meanwhile, coarsely chop the tomatoes, scallions and bell pepper. Break the vermicelli into 2-inch pieces.
3 Add the chicken to the boiling broth, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove the chicken and set it aside to cool slightly.
4 In a large nonstick skillet, warm the oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the vermicelli and cook, stirring, until the vermicelli is lightly browned, about 2 minutes. (I omitted this step; I began to cook the pasta, then finished cooking in broth mixture with veges.
5 Add the broth mixture, tomatoes, scallions, bell pepper, green chilies and salt, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is cooked, about 7 minutes.
6 Meanwhile, shred the chicken. Mince the cilantro (if using).
7 Stir the shredded chicken and cilantro into the pasta mixture and serve hot.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Chicken Piccata
Ingredients
- 2 large lemons
- 1 1/2 lbs chicken cutlets or turkey cutlets or veal cutlets
- salt
- fresh ground pepper
- 1/2 cup flour
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large shallot, minced (or 1 tsp minced garlic)
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons drained small capers
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
Directions
1
Halve one lemon lengthwise and slice one half crosswise into 1/8-1/4 inch thick slices.2
Juice the remaining 1 1/2 lemons to obtain 1/4 cup juice.3
Salt & pepper each cutlet generously and coat each with flour.4
Heat a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat until hot, add 2 tbsp oil, saute half of the cutlets until medium brown (2 minutes per side).5
Transfer cutlets to warm plate.6
Add remaining oil and repeat with remaining cutlets.7
Add shallot or garlic to pan over medium heat -- saute until fragrant (30 seconds).8
Add stock and lemon slices, increase heat to high and deglaze pan; simmer until liquid reduces to about 1/3 cup.9
Add lemon juice and capers and simmer until sauce reduces again to 1/3 cup.10
Remove pan from heat, swirl in butter until it melts and thickens sauce; swirl in parsley.11
Spoon sauce over chicken and serve immediately.
I made this yesterday and I served it with mashed potatoes and asparagus. It was DELICIOUS! It was really easy to make too. Not really low fat though, sorry.
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