Honey pineapple chicken drumsticks

Ingredients:
8 chicken drumsticks (no skin)
One large can of pineapple chunks ( reserve the juice!)
1/3cup of honey
One bunch of scallions, finely chopped
One garlic clove, minced
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. In a long glass baking dish, put the drum sticks in a single layer. Pierce both sides several times with a fork. Lightly salt one side
3. Pour about half of the pineapple juice from the can, maybe 1/4 cup
4. Cook the drumsticks for 25 minutes
5. In a bowl, mix honey, rest of pineapple juice, scallions, garlic, and cayenne. Carefully spoon this mixture over the drumsticks and then put back in the oven for 15 minutes
6. Add pineapple chunks to dish, flip the drumsticks, and spoon sauce from dish over the chicken. Cook for another 10 minutes or until chicken is done.

Braised Chicken with oranges and olives

Ingredients:
8 chicken thigh pieces
Two large oranges
One small jar of green olives
Three stalks of scallions

In a skillet, pour a little oil and heat to medium-high heat. Brown both sides of the chicken, cooking for about five minutes. Preheat oven to 350F.
Then, in a small square glass dish, place the thre bunches of scallions, slicing the green leaves to spread them out. place the chicken thighs on top of the scallions. Then pour the juice from the two oranges (mine yielded about 3/4 cup of juice) and put some orange zest over the chicken. Top off the chicken dish with about a oxen green olives and some of the juice from the jar - about 1/8-1/4 cup.
Bake in the oven for 20 -30 minutes depending upon your desired level of doneness.

Itook this recipe from Martha Stewarts Food Magazine, but upped the juice and oliveness. I added a few pieces of orange zest and let me say, more is better!

Chicken Taco Fixing

The first in a series of taco fillings that I'll blog about now. I hosted taco-fiesta tonight - everything was delicious!

1 lb of chopped chicken breast. 1/2 inch cubes work well

1 cup of lemonade

2 tbsp of EVOO

juice from 1 lime

lime zest from that lime

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 bay leaf

1. put all the ingredients in your wok. medium high heat. 15-20 minutes until the chicken is done.

Pretty simple. The lime zest is my addition, but otherwise its basically this delicious recipe!

Chicken Mozzarella

I read what felt like a billion "easy chicken parmagian" recipes and finally made this version. It borrows from so many others, that I can't really cite a specific other recipe.

Ingredients
4 pieces of chicken (I took two .75 lb chicken breasts and cut them in half)
14 Ritz-like crackers (mine were the generic brand)
1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella
1/2 tbsp dried Italian Herb blend (its a grinder that has garlic, onion, parsley, black pepper, salt and maybe more)
1/2 tbsp dried Oregano
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup flour
Red Pasta sauce
Pasta of your choice


1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Take a baking dish and line it with aluminum foil. This trick cut my cleaning time substantially
3. Prepare three small bowls. Bowl A should have just the flour. Bowl B should have the beaten egg. Bowl C gets a bit more complicated - put the crackers in there, but crush them with your hands until they are pretty fine mush. Add the herbs - to be honest, I just kept pouring the herbs until it looked about right (my grandma's method of cooking which always infuriated me, but I now understand). Therefore, the 1/2 tbsp measurements are guestimates - if you want to add more, I say go for it. Then add 1/4 cup of Mozzarella (you'll need the rest at the end)
4. Now take the chicken dip it both sides in the flour bowl, then both sides in the egg bowl, then both sides in the cracker bowl, and then place it on the foil. Repeat for each piece. Whatever remains from the cracker dish, just put on top of the chicken pieces.
5. Bake for 20 minutes
6. As soon as you put the chicken in the oven, start the water boiling for pasta. Cook as directed. I was able to time this almost exactly so that the pasta and chicken finished at the same time.
7. When the chicken has cooked for 20 minutes, take a generous spoonful of the pasta sauce and place it on each chicken piece. Use the remaining 1/4 cup of mozzarella and evenly distribute it amongst the chicken pieces. Put them back in the oven for about 4 minutes.
8. After draining the pasta, coat with your red pasta sauce.

Serve pasta in a bowl with a piece of chicken. A caprese salad completes the meal nicely.

Balsamic Cashew Chicken

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts
1/4 cup of cashew halves
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
1 packet of Spicy brown mustard


1. Use cooking spray to lightly grease a big skillet. Over medium heat, par cook the chicken breasts for a few minutes on each side. (Watch for thickness, probably 5 minutes on each side).
2. Remove the chicken and put it aside in a covered plate
3. In the heated skillet, add the balsamic vinegar and cashew halves. wait for the vinegar to lightly simmer so that it dilutes itself some.
4. Add a packet of spicy brown mustard and mix.
5. return the chicken and finish cooking the chicken in the sauce.

delicious! I found this recipe in a low carb cook book, but have made a few minor modifications to simplify this. It might still be low carb, not sure. Either way, pretty tasty for minimal effort.