Happy Weekly Food Fun to You!

It was a chicken filled week for us.  Which isn’t and issue, since we all like chicken.  I am trying to find new ways to cook it and happy for a new recipe and an enhanced recipe.

Stuffed Chicken Breast.  We order the chicken breast from Alison’s Pantry, our local representative is Amy, she is so nice and helpful.  I am thankful we live in her area and she knocked on our door a little over a year ago to introduce herself as a local rep and tell me about this company.  If you are local in Cedar City check out her Facebook page here. It is bulk food orders, you make an order once a month and get the shipment a few weeks later.  It has saved us a good amount of grocery money buying in bulk for the basics we use all of the time.

As for the chicken breasts most of our packages tend to include several huge pieces as you can see in the picture of them in a dinner plate.  This makes them really good to pound down and flatten so they can be stuffed and rolled.

I pound out the chicken into a thin layer cut into smaller pieces if I need to so they will cook evenly.  I would like to say I have the proper equipment for this…although I do not.  I put the chicken in a ziplock back and use a rubber mallet, not the best plan, but it works, that is all I need.   My new enhancement to this recipe was to marinate the chicken pieces for about 30 minutes in plain yogurt, garlic, oregano, pepper, cumin and lemon juice.  Once marinated take the chicken out and discard the marinade.  I layer the chicken with pepperoni, a little bit of mozzarella cheese and roll them up.  I use a skewer to hold them together then sear on each side.  Put the chicken on a plate, deglaze the pan with a cup or two of chicken stock, added about a cup of plain yogurt, added the chicken back into the skillet and put into a 350 degree oven until cooked. The yogurt chicken stock in the pan made for a really good gravy for the potatoes.

Smoked Chicken – I really enjoy the Electric Smoker – (My Amazon Associates Link) my mom got me for Christmas.  I use it all year, sun or snow.  The food always turns out really good, loaded with flavor and easy clean up.  I have been using apple chips, this year will be my second year of fun with it and I am going to get some other types of chips and see what they add to the flavor.

I stuffed under the skin of the chicken with a mixture of butter, garlic, lemon zest and poultry seasoning.  I stuffed the inside with onion, oregano, sage, thyme.  The outside I rubbed with salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder, smoked paprika and poultry seasoning.  I put about a cup of water in the bottom of the smoker, the wood chip holders were filled with apple wood chips.  It cooked at 250 degrees for about 4 hours.  The drippings made a tasty gravy, crunchy seasoned skin and moist tender smokey meat.

Chicken Paprika – recipe here.  This was my new find.  I didn’t have sweet paprika, I just had a bottle just saying paprika and a bottle of smoked paprika.  I mixed the two in the recipe since I wasn’t sure how they would make the dish taste.  I have never cooked anything with paprika being the main seasoning, so my best way to describe it with the paprika I used is a mild flavor, not one thing jumping out, just an overall good flavor.

Asparagus – My prize for the week!

My plants are on their second and third year.  This is my first year of any amount I could actually harvest.  It isn’t much, although waiting this long for a harvest it is huge.  The flavor was different than the store bought, it had a sweetness to it.  I lightly steamed it and put salted butter on it and my son and I enjoyed the little bit of it we had.  Completely worth the wait.  Although I think I need an acre of this it is so good.

Enjoy the fun of food, new adventures and old ones.  Make it tasty.