Category Archives: Poultry

Apricot Chicken Curry

When I was juuuust about to turn 5 years old, I tasted chicken curry for the first time ever. My birthday party with my friends was coming up in the next week or so. After I took my first moutful and almost exploded in excitement I exclaimed, “I am definetely having this at my birthday party!” When my parents told me that my friends might not like it I yelled, “WHAT?! How could they not like this?!” And so began my love of Indian food.

This is not that same chicken curry and I will admit that it is not even as good as that chicken curry but it’s so so good none the less! There were a ton of apricots sitting around about to go bad and I wanted to do something with them. After a quick google search with the expectations that I’d find some type of dessert to inspire a recipe, I discovered that so many people were making curry with apricots! What?! How did I miss out on this trend?!

So I made my own.

And I have a little secret. The secret pertains to soup too.

It tastes better after a few days in the fridge.

Shhhh.

Anyways, you will need:

  • 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 7 skinless chicken thighs
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon grated ginger
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon saffron powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 400 mL (14 oz can or so) coconut milk
  • 11 apricots, pitted and diced
  • 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, minced plus more for garnish (which is essential by the way)
  • Salt and pepper to season

Now do this:Serve with rice and have the same epiphany as I did when I was about to turn five!

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Coq Au Vin

Coq au vin was one of the very first recipes I learned when I began to take interest in French cuisine a few years ago. This is by far one of the best chicken recipes I have ever tasted!

The original coq au vin is made with an entire frying chicken, deboned…but because I am not yet skilled at cutting an entire chicken I just bought chicken thighs, as I have been doing since I started making this recipe and it turns out delicious as well. I do suggest using the whole chicken if you are cooking for more people.

Of course being a classic French dish, it has many different variations. This one is the only one I have tried and it is scrumptious!

Another great thing about this recipe is how you probably have the ingredients at home already!

You will need:

  • 2 tablespoons of butter
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • 4 skinless chicken thighs (I buy them with skin and remove it myself for more flavour)
  • 2 large cloves of garlic, pressed or pureed
  • 1 large tomato, diced
  • 1 bay leaf
  • A few sprigs of thyme (bundled together for easy removal)
  • 2 cups red wine
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 2 tablespoons of butter
  • 2 tablespoons of flour

Now do this:

Et voila! It may not look like the prettiest meal in the world but when you taste it you may just jump for joy!

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Chicken With Easy Cheesy “Alfredo” Sauce

 

Whenever I want to eat a nice big plate of fettuccine alfredo but don’t want to go through the motions of making the sauce, I make this sauce instead. It provides me with just the same amount of satisfaction, with a slightly different taste but it’s not too far off. I make this sauce because it’s super easy. These are ingredients I always have on hand. You can even omit the yogurt and cream and instead just add around 3/4 cup of milk with the cream cheese and a little salt for seasoning. Simmer that for a little longer for a similar result.

This time I thought I’d switch things up and instead of putting it over pasta, I used it as a delicious sauce to pour over some chicken breasts that were in my fridge needing to be cooked.

Enjoy!

You will need:

  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • 2 chicken breasts
  • 2 tablespoons of butter
  • 2 minced shallots
  • 2 minced gloves of garlic
  • 1/4 cup cream cheese
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  • 2 tablespoons of heavy cream

Now do this:

I served the chicken with spicey baked zucchini. This recipe will come later on in the week.

For now, enjoy the chicken!

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Honey Glazed Red Wine Chicken With Spinach

Mmmmm…I made this chicken on Saturday on a whim. After a minute or so in to making it (i.e. taking the chicken out of the fridge and scouring through the cupboard to see what ingredients I had) I knew exactly where this recipe was going and what I wanted to make of it.

Red wine and honey. Can you think of two better ingredients? While when cooked with chicken they become divine. The chicken is not sweet but surprisingly savoury. I really do not like sweet flavoured savoury food (like fruit on pizza or in salads).  The honey just adds for a nice caramelization on the chicken. And the spinach is so light next to the heavier meat so it’s perfect together. We ate it with some baguette for lunch!

You will need:

  • 2 chicken breasts
  • 3 teaspoons of paprika
  • 2 tablespoons of butter
  • 2 teaspoons of honey
  • 75mL or approx. 1/4 cup of red wine
  • 2 diced shallots (or green onions)
  • 6 very loose cups of washed spinach

Now do this:

Et voila! Enjoy!

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Healing Chicken Soup

As Lille has gotten very cold over the past couple of weeks, Mr. Max has also gotten a little cold over the past few days.

Yummy Laura to the rescue!!

I whipped up the most scrumptious chicken soup with loads of cold-fighting ingredients, not to mention some other super ingredients that should get him up and running (not his nose, though!) in no time.

At the bottom of this post I am going to give you links to pages that explain the healing properties in the ingredients I use, just in case you are curious.

So what are these ingredients? They are well known among natural health freakazoids like myself: Ginger, cayenne pepper, and garlic.Other super ingredients I used in this soup are himalayan salt and coconut oil. These super foods combined with the completely nutrient-packed sweet poptatoes, red peppers, carrots and parsley make this soup the ultimate soup for winter cold season!

Let’s begin with the procedure, shall we?

You will need:4 peeled and diced carrots, 3 small peeled and diced sweet peppers, 1 diced red pepper, 4 sliced stalks of celery, 2 diced onions, 1 head of peeled garlic, 1 cup minced parsley, 1/2 of a whole medium sized roasted chicken with the meat pulled off the bones (discard the bones), ginger powder, cayenne pepper, coconut oil, olive oil, Himalayan salt and soup noodles (they are usually the small skinny kind).

Whew! Now breathe! I know that’s a lot of ingredients. But this next picture will take your mind off of that fact…This picture just made the recipe overwhelming, didn’t it?

I promise that the hardest part of this whole soup is preparing all of those veggies.

1) After everything is prepared, heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil along with 1 heaping tablespoon of coconut oil in a large, large saucepan!

2) Then add the onions, carrots, and celery and saute them for at least five minutes…

Now measure out 1 teaspoon of each the salt, ginger and cayenne. The soup will be spicy so I suggest adding less cayenne if you don’t want it too spicey. This is an essential ingredient though so absolutely do not omit it!

3) Now add this spice mix to the veggies and give everything a good stir…

4) Once that is stirred around you can add in the rest of the ingredients: The sweet potato, the chicken, red pepper, garlic, and parsely…

5) Now pour in 1.5 litres of water (6 cups) and cover the pot to bring the soup to a boil…

6) Once everything starts boiling, add in 1 cup of pasta…

7) Now turn down the temperature of the stove to “low” and simmer it for 3 hours, stirring once an hour or so.

Now the only thing left to do is enjoy!!

Healthy Ingredient Links:

Thanks for reading!

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:46]

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Turkey Breast Smothered In Onions With a Balsamic Glaze

Finally a new recipe! I had been experimenting with recipes the last couple of weeks and making the food when it was oh so dark outside. I have yet to learn how to take beautiful pictures of food without natural lighting. Alors, here is one of my latest creations! It’s a coated turkey breast lightly fried in butter and oil, covered with onions with a balsamic glaze poured on top and I’ve made it twice and almost cried in joy both times…

Without further ado, here, my friends, is the recipe:

Begin by prepping. Slice half of a spanish onion…

Set those aside for a minute while we coat these two turkey breasts (you can use chicken or anything else for that matter). Put 2 heaping tablespoons of flour on a plate…

Then add a heaping teaspoon of each paprika and cumin to the flour…

Mix those ingredients together and place the turkey breast on the flour to coat one side (make sure the whole thing is coated), then flip it over and coat the other side. Then shake the turkey breast to dust off the excess flour, then set that turkey breast aside. Whew!

Let’s get back to those onions! In a pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and then add the onions. Saute the onions in the oil until they are translucent. I find 3-5 minutes is usually a good amount of time…

Add 1 tablespoon of butter to the pan after the onions are ready (but keep the onions in the pan too)…

Now add the turkey breasts! They take about 2-3 minutes on each side but always check to make sure there is no pink in the middle. Keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t dry out as well. As soooon as the pink disappears, they are ready!

For the balsamic glaze, add 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar to a small saucepan…

Boil the vinegar until it reduces by about half, meaning that there should only be a couple of tablespoons in the saucepan when it’s ready. It takes 3-4 minutes and always keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t get too thick. Here is the finished product…It’s thick like syrup (it’s good on ice cream too, believe it or not!)

Now place a turkey breast on a plate, top it with some onions and pour a tablespoon or so of the balsamic glaze on top…

Et voila! A yummy dinner![amd-zlrecipe-recipe:43]

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Duck Breast With Lime and Honey (Filets de canard miel citron vert sur lit de courgettes)

I committed myself, before coming to France, that while I am here I will absolutely learn how to cook French food.

This mission started out great. I bought the Encyclopedie de la Gastronomie, then I made that Tarte au Maribelles, then I occassionally referred to it for some dough recipes and such. But yet have I dug into it and cooked some really awesome meals…until today!

I made duck. I do not have a step-by-step recipe photos because it was my first attempt and I wanted to concentrate…true story. It ended up turning out perfectly and now I am ready to tackle EVEN HARDER RECIPES..Ahhhhhhhh!!!

It was divine. It was divine. I cannot think of anything else to say about it. Oh ya, I am going to invite a million people over and make this duck because everyone needs to try it! That is how good this duck it.

Anyways, this recipe is a rough translation from the Encyclopedie de la Gastronomie.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:36]

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Chicken Cordon Bleu For Beginners

Chicken Cordon Bleu. It was one of the first chicken recipes I learned as a young teenager and I was quite surprised to find that the French (where the recipe originated) make it much differently than I do. I’ve made the recipe even simpler than it already was so that you can make it every night of the week. And trust me please…it tastes great! Authentic Cordon Bleu? Maybe. maybe not, but I can definitely guarantee a taste fit for royalty!

Let’s begin!

You will need…

Ham (only one slice per two chicken breasts), swiss cheese and chicken breasts.

You will also need salt and butter.

Lay your chicken breast flat. The poultry lady at the market cut the breast very thin for me but if yours isn’t this thin just pound it down a little…

Now place 1/2 slice of ham in the middle of the breast on its widest part…

And do the same with a 1/2 of a slice of swiss cheese…

This is where my recipe differs from the one they eat in France. apparently (info. coming from my most handy French source) the cheese inside the one they make is really creamy.

Here is the part where I cheat, to save time. Roll the chicken up so that the ham and cheese are in the middle. Usually you would slice open the breast and stuff these ingredients inside. I’m impatient and like results now and rolling is pretty fast.

Now place these little guys on a baking sheet smooth side up, open ends down…

Smother then each with a teaspoon of butter and bake them for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F.

The butter thing is apparently another difference. Max was telling me that every Cordon Bleu he has had has been breaded.

When they come out sprinkle them with salt…

Et voila! Just drizzle them with the melted butter left on the baking sheet!

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:30]

 

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The Easiest Lunchtime Chicken

Is lunchtime one word or two words, lunch time? I think it looks better as one word but correct me if I’m wrong. I am way too lazy to go look it up.

Speaking of lazy. I will have full permission to call everyone lazy if you do not take the fifteen minutes to make this chicken at lunchtime. Stop buying those frozen meals because this takes just one ounce more effort by you. That would be two ounces. It takes one ounce of effort to prepare a frozen meal and 2 ounces of effort to prepare this. On the ounces of effort scale (to put this into perspective), turning on your computer and going to youtube takes 2 ounces of effort, looking up a word on the other hand takes 3 ounces. Ok, now you know.

The best part of the recipe, by far, well besides the cheese, is the fact that I use corn flakes! And you will see where I use them when you read through this post.

So no more excuses! You will make this chicken and no longer buy a frozen prepared lunch! Got it?!

Begin with this…

Add 1/2 cup or so (I rough measured it) into a bowl and crush it with your hands…

Now sprinkle it onto a plate…

On another plate, lightly whisk 1 egg…

Sprinkle some flour on another plate and mix in some salt to the flour…

Now coat a chicken breast (or any piece of the chicken you desire to eat) with the flour by placing the breast on the plate, flipping it over and then shaking it off…

Now coat that same breast with the egg using the method I explain above…

Now one more time, but this time…guess where!

In the corn flakes! That’s right, no rocket science here…

Happy chicken breast…

Now I added olive oil to a hot pan and then placed my chicken breasts in that pan to cook for 3-5 minutes on each side…

When you flip it over to the second side, add a half a slice of gouda…

When it is out of the pan, just spritz it with some lime juice…

Et voila! I served it with a French baguette and a tomato cucumber salad…

Enjoy!

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:14]

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Warm Cheesy Chicken Salad

 

Yum! It is not that plain kind of non-substantial salad. This salad is wary of even being called a  salad because it is so fit as a meal!

It was inspiration on the spot and I enjoyed every bite! It was so filling though so I would recommend it for two people, maybe with a fresh salad on the side. You can do a whole salad themed meal!

You will need:

Begin by dicing your potatoes…

Then boil them…

I am using a left-over thigh and leg from a store-bought roast chicken we had for dinner the other night. I pulled the meat off the bone…

Add the chicken to a mixing bowl…

Add a cup of whole grape tomatoes to the bowl…

Then add the drained potatoes and set it aside…

For the dressing, squeeze out half of a lemon…

Add about a tablespoon of mayo…

Add 1/2 teaspoon of so of herbes de provence (a delicious dried herb mix)…

I ommitted the salt and decided just to add pepper instead. It was salty enough! Then I stirred it up…

I added it to the chicken mixture and stirred it all up very well…

I grated 2 ounces of mozzarella cheese (and ate another 2 ounces while I was grating…it was good)…

The I put the salad on a plate and sprinkled the cheese over top…

I stuck it under the broiler for 2 minutes. And I watched it oh so closely so 1) the cheese wouldn’t urn and 2) the plate wouldn’t break under the heat.

Et voila! The most delicious cheesy warm chicken salad ever! I just loved biting into a tomato. They would just explode in my mouth!

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:7]

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