Honey Ginger (Lemon) Chicken

"WHAT!?", you ask, "Another new blog post? Does this make three in the same week? After months without one?!"

"Yes, Dear follower. It is true."

Last night, after nearly choosing to order pizza, I regained control of the need to eat everything in the house before we go to San Diego next Tuesday impulse and made a delicious, and huge, fall dinner.

On the menu:
Homemade "harvest grain" bread (see crusty boule recipe on this blog)
Roased Local Carrots and Local Celeriac with Maple Syrup (below)
Garlic Mashed Local Red and White Potatoes
Spicy, Garlicky Local Collards (below)
Honey Ginger (lemon) Chicken Breasts with Preserved Lemons (below)

The Recipes: 

Honey Ginger (lemon) Chicken Breasts (adapted from this recipe from Simply Recipes)


Marinade

• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp sherry
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon peppercorns, ground

Chicken

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 Tbsp Olive oil
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced
• Salt and pepper
• 1 Tbsp Sugar, to sprinkle

1 Preheat oven to 390°F. Warm the honey, stir in the sherry, ginger and pepper. Place marinade and chicken in a ziplock bag, coat chicken with marinade. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

2 Heat olive oil in a large frying pan at medium high heat. Sear the chicken until golden.

3 Place lemon slices in a roasting pan. Lay the chicken pieces on top. Brush with the marinade. Season generously with salt and pepper. Place in the oven and bake until done, approximately 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Sprinkle sugar on top of chicken breasts and broil for 5 minutes, until sugar is carmalized. Remove and let rest for 10 minutes before serving. Pour drippings from pan over chicken breasts. Serve with some of the lemons and preserved lemons.

Roasted Carrots and Celeriac (Recipe adapted from Notes from a Maine Kitchen (2011) Kathy Gunst)

Carrots, Peeled and ends removed
Celeriac, Peeled and cut into rods
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
maple syrup

Arrange carrots and celeriac rods on baking sheet. Drizzle oil over vegetables, season, and toss.
Roast at 400 for 15 minutes. Toss
Roast another 10 minutes. Drizzle maple syrup over vegetables. toss
Roast another 5-10 minutes.

Spicy and Garlicy Collards (Recipe completely made up)

Collards, washed and roughly chopped (remove tough stems through leaves)
2 tbs. bacon grease, butter, or olive oil
2 cloves garlic, grated
2 tbsp. red pepper flakes
1 tbsp. grated ginger
1/2 C. white wine
salt and pepper

Add fat (grease, butter, or oil) to large saute pan. Heat to medium high. Add collards and cook, stirring, 5 minutes. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, ginger, and wine. Cook for 5-10 minutes, until wine evaporates or reduces. Season. Remove from pan into serving bowl using tongs, slotted spoon, or fork (to leave any extra wine in the pan).

Rustic Garlic Chicken

I could make up excuses for why I haven't posted in almost 2 months or I could dive right into this week's recipe!

Rustic Garlic Chicken (also available at http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/rustic-garlic-chicken)

1. 2 tablespoons cooking oil
2. 1 chicken (about 3 to 3 1/2 pounds), cut into 8 pieces (I bought a pre cut-up chicken)
3. 1 teaspoon salt
4. 1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
5. 3 heads garlic, cloves separated
6. 2 tablespoons flour
7. 1 cup dry white wine
8. 1 cup canned low-sodium chicken broth or homemade stock
9. 2 tablespoons butter
10. 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley 
11. 1 lemon, juiced and zested

1. Heat the oven to 400°. In a Dutch oven, heat the oil over moderately high heat. Sprinkle the chicken pieces with 1 teaspoon of the salt and the pepper. Cook the chicken until well browned, turning, about 8 minutes in all, and remove from the pot (WATCH OUT! The oil will splatter!). Reduce the heat to moderate, add the garlic, and sauté until it is starting to soften, about 3 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the garlic and stir until combined. Return the chicken to the pot, cover, and bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until the internal temperature is 165.
2. Remove the pot from the oven and place it on a burner. Remove the chicken pieces from the pot and set aside. Over moderately high heat, whisk in the wine and simmer for 1 minute. Whisk in the broth and a little salt and simmer until starting to thicken, about 3 minutes. Turn the heat off, whisk in the butter, lemon juice and zest, and pour the sauce over the chicken. Sprinkle with the parsley. 

We served this dish when we had a guest over for dinner this weekend though the recipe could easily be adapted for just two people by just using a couple of breasts and maybe 1 or 1.5 heads of garlic. I chose to use a digital thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the chicken breast to determine when the meat was done. The garlic sauce that accompanied the chicken was amazing- make sure to serve mashed potatoes or rice with the dish to soak up some of the sauce! It is that good. 

We will be having this one again!!! Sorry there are no pictures- I'm not back in the groove yet! See you next week.

Roasted Garlic and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

This final chicken recipe was completely made up by me and turned out to be quite delicious (and pretty healthy, too) however, this blog post does not follow the normal format since I am not relating a recipe from an established source.

I knew the time had come to eat some of the frozen chicken out of the freezer but since it is getting too cold to grill outside I wanted to do something different with it. I had never made stuffed chicken breasts before but it was something I had looked into making multiple times. The recipe evolved a lot from what I first imagined to what I finally placed on the table so I am looking forward to playing around with the recipe some more at a later date.

ROASTED GARLIC

Full heads of garlic
olive oil
salt

I love roasted garlic and for some reason I was in the mood to roast some. I placed 7 garlic heads (with the tops chopped off) in a 8 X 8 glass baking dish and piled all of the chopped off tops in a pile in the middle. Then I, fairly generously, drizzled them with olive oil. I covered the pan with tin foil and placed it in a 350 degree oven. I started checking around 25 minutes later and removed most of the chopped off (smaller) pieces so they wouldn't burn. Around 35 minutes some of the smaller heads were done and removed but it took about 50 minutes for the larger heads. I allowed all of the heads of (now roasted) garlic to cool.

ROASTED GARLIC COMPOTE BUTTER (aka what to do with the rest of the roasted garlic)

2 heads roasted garlic
1 stick butter
salt

Squeeze the roasted garlic out of the papery heads and place in a mortar, sprinkle a little salt over the garlic. With a pestle mash the garlic. Add 1 stick of softened butter and mash again. (Add any other flavorings you want- I use a little chili powder, rosemary, etc.) Scoop out the mixture and place in the middle of a piece of parchment or waxed paper and roll into a long (tootsie roll looking) cylinder. Twist the ends. Refrigerate and use in a couple of days or freeze.

 Final Recipe:

Roasted Garlic Stuffed Chicken Breasts

2 chicken breasts (skinless, boneless)

2 heads of roasted garlic

2 tbs. chevre (creamy goat cheese)

2 tbs. (low-fat) cream cheese (softened)

1/4 lemon, zested

1/4 lemon juiced

toothpicks

2 tsp. dried sage

1/4 c. flour

salt

pepper

olive oil

Preheat oven to 350.

Start by slicing the chicken breasts horizontally, not all of the way through the back, so that you can lay the chicken breast open (like a book). Season. 

In a small bowl mix roasted garlic, chevre, cream cheese, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Stir until smoothish. Spread over opened chicken breasts and then close the chicken breasts and secure with toothpicks so that filling does not leak out. 

On a shallow pie plate mix flour, sage, salt and pepper. Dredge chicken breasts in flour. 

Heat oil in large fry pan over medium high heat. Brown all sides of each chicken breast and place into an oven safe dish and place in preheated oven. Remove when chicken reaches 165 degrees. 

When I first started imagining this recipe I was thinking about an appetizer recipe from this month's Real Simple magazine-- a goat cheese log rolled in cranberries and walnuts. In my initial plan I was going to make a cranberry sauce to go over the chicken and when I was actually making it decided not to do that so instead I included cranberries in the brussel sprout side dish. We also had Italian bread with the roasted garlic compote butter spread in the middle and then warmed in the oven.