Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Grilled Chicken Pineapple Sliders

Another recipe brought to you by allrecipes.com. These are pretty great. I mean, grilled pineapple is great with pretty much any grilled sandwich.

Ingredients
1 lemon, juice
1 lime, juiced
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
salt and black pepper to taste
3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut in half
6 pineapple rings
2 Tbsp teriyaki sauce
6 Hawaiian bread rolls - split and toasted
6 lettuce leaves - rinsed and dried
6 red onion slices

Directions:

1. Whisk together the lemon juice, lime juice, cider vinegar, salt and pepper in a large glass or ceramic bowl. Add the chicken and toss to evenly coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and marinate in the regrigerator for 1 hour.
2. Preheat an outdoor grill for med-high heat, and lightly oil the grate.
3. Remove the chicken from the marinade, and shake off excess. Discard the remaining marinade. Grill the chicken for 5-7 minutes each side, or until juices run clear when chicken is pierced with a fork. Grill pineapple for 2-3 minutes per side, or until heated through and grill marks appear.
4. Spread 1 tsp teriyaki sauce on the bottom half of a toasted roll; next add a lettuce leaf, a piece of chicken, a pineapple ring and an onion slice. Replace the top of roll and repeat with the remaining rolls.


==Andersen Girlie's Tips==

-It doesn't actually matter what kind of bowl you use.
- When you cut the chicken, lay it on your (non-wood) cutting board. Cut it in half, vertically. Now, since you have a thin piece and a big chunky piece, stand the chicken up on it's cut side, carefully use a knife to cut it  down the middle. This way, you can probably feed more people.
-For a less onion-y taste you can also grill the onions while grilling the pineapple.
-Grill the pineapple (and onions) during the last couple minutes of cooking the chicken. You don't have to, but grilling the pineapple (and onions) brings out a sweeter flavor, and cuts some of the citrus from the pineapple (and some of the 'bite' of the onion)
-If you don't have boneless, skinless chicken, that's ok. Do everything the same, but before serving it, shred the chicken into chunky pieces. Throw out the bone and skins. Then in the bowl with your chicken, this is where you can add the teriyaki instead of putting it on the bun. It'll either taste exactly the same, or really close. As long as you have the flavor you want, that's all that matters.
-It doesn't actually matter how you stack your sandwich. However, you want to stack your ingredients so that the base flavor is on the bottom, and other ingredients add to the flavor as you eat.
         For example:

These are how I layered my sandwich, whether chicken is a whole piece or shredded.
top bun
lettuce
teriyaki sauce
[grilled] onion
[shredded] chicken
grilled pineapple ring
mayo
bottom bun


See? Doesn't that look sooo freaking delicious? I thought so.
    

Cheesy Nacho Bake

Brought to you by Kraftfoods.com.

These are pretty great and very easy to make.

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1/4 cup water
1 pkg (1 1/4 oz) taco seasoning mix
3/4 cup Sour Cream, divided
6 oz tortilla chips (7 cups)
1 1/2 cups Shredded Mild Cheddar Cheese
1 green onion, sliced

Directions:
HEAT oven to 350dF
BROWN meat in large skillet; drain. Return meat to skillet. Add tomatoes, water and seasoning mix; stir. Cook 10 min., stirring occasionally. Stir in 1/4 cup sour cream.
PLACE half the chips in 13x9in baking dish; cover with layers of half each of the meat mixture and cheese. Repeat layers.
BAKE 20 min. or until heated through. Top with onion and remaining sour cream.

==Andersen Girlie's Cooking Tips==

-You can also make this on a baking sheet, but only one layer.
-You don't have to have the green onions.
-You don't have to have the sour cream either, it just adds better flavor.
-You can substitute the cheddar cheese with different kinds of cheese. For example, I'm sure Pepper Jack would taste great and it would add a little spice.
-If you don't have taco seasoning but you do have black pepper, chili powder, garlic powder and ground cumin, then use that instead. Just make sure you taste every time you add more seasoning to it. Don't add too much pepper, it will probably over power the mexican flavor you are looking for.


==Kraft's Cooking Tips==

Serving Suggestion:
Serve with a crisp mixed green salad

Substitute:
Omit water. Substitute 2 1/4 cups chopped cooked chicken for the browned ground beef.

Variation:
Prepare as directed, using Reduced Fat or Light Sour Cream and 2%Milk Shredded Cheddar Cheese.





Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Fast French Baguettes

I follow a couple of different food blogs. They are mostly based on bread. This one, girlversusdough.com, is fantastic. She not only make a bunch of different breads, but she takes awesome pictures of her process. It's amazing.
So, here is to her. This is her recipe of French Baguettes.
Yields: Two foot-long baguettes
Ingredients:
1 cup water
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
3 to 3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose or bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
Directions:
In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk yeast into 1 cup water and let sit 5 minutes. Add 3 cups flour and salt and mix, using paddle attachment, until just combined. Switch to dough hook (or remove dough from bowl and knead by hand) and knead on medium speed for about 5 minutes (10 minutes if kneading by hand), until dough is smooth and elastic. Shape dough into ball and place in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
Punch down risen dough and divide in two pieces. Roll each piece into a foot-long rope and place side by side, about 3-4 inches apart, on a pizza stone or baking sheet lined with lightly floured parchment paper. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Once oven is preheated and dough has risen slightly (about 20-30 minutes), remove plastic wrap and slash each baguette a couple times using a very sharp knife. Place baguettes in oven, reduce heat to 375 degrees F and bake until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. The bread should read about 210 degrees F with a thermometer when done. Remove from oven, spritz with water and allow to cool on cooling rack.

Fantastic Focaccia Bread

So, for the past week, I've been on a bread-baking kick. It's alot of work but as long as the bread tastes good, I guess I'm ok with it. Well, I got this recipe from allrecipes.com. It's pretty amazing.

This bread is usually flavored with rosemary or some kind of herb(s). So, I was reading one of the reviews for one of the Focaccia (foh-kah-chuh) bread recipes I was looking at and it said to try Mozzarella Cheese. Deal. Great idea. So, what I did, since this is an italian bread, is brush/drizzle Olive Oil on it and added a sprinkling of italian seasoning, garlic powder, and top with the Mozzarella Cheese.

Also, when kneading the dough, make sure it's not too dry, leaving it quite airy-like and a little sticky, but not enough that it'll stick to your hands when trying to shape it into a ball before letting it rise the 1st time.
When you shape the bread into the rectangle, just shape it in your pan with your hands. Make sure it's an even and flat surface, around 1/2 inch thick. It doesn't have to be perfectly rectangle just an even, flat surface. Before covering the bread to let it rise the 2nd time, (what I did was) poke it with your fingers. You can do the same thing after it rises, a few pokes here and there, but if you want the bread to be as thick as it rises, then don't poke it as much. This is when you would add the seasoning.


Ingredients

  • 1/2 teaspoon honey
  • 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
  • 2/3 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, dissolve honey and yeast in warm water (110 degrees F). Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
  2. Add 1 cup flour, salt, and 3 tablespoons olive oil to the yeast mixture. Stir until combined and then work in the last cup of flour. Knead the dough until smooth, elastic, and soft, about 7 minutes. Add only enough flour to keep the dough from being sticky. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
  3. Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out the dough into a rectangle, about 1/2 inch thick. Place in greased 9x13 inch pan or baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
  4. Poke dimples in the bread and drizzle 1 tablespoon of the olive oil on top. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

==Andersen Girlie's Tip==

To make this bread a pizza:
       After adding the Olive Oil, add Mozzarella Cheese and any other toppings that you want for a pizza. If you used a liberal ammount of cheese and liberal amounts of other toppings, you may want to add 5-10 minutes because of the weight of the toppings.
          (If the pizza is still a little dough-y after actually taking a bite, No Problem. just put it back into the oven for another 5-10 mins but this shouldnt be necessary.)
    After the pizza is done, or while it's cooking (the last 2 minutes) heat up your favorite Marinara (Spaghetti Sauce) and use it as a dip for the pizza. 

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Grilled Cheese

So, I know I get bored of regular old cheddar cheese in my Grilled Cheese. One day, I decided to use some white cheeses. The first non-Cheddar cheese Grilled Cheese I remember making had 3 different kinds of cheese slices. Provolone, Meunster and Mozzerella. Delicious!! I even kicked it up a notch and dipped it in Marinara/Spaghetti Sauce. EVEN BETTER!!

To get that perfect crunch on My Grilled Cheese, I get a pastry brush and lightly paint Olive Oil/Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I also have an over-the-stove griddle that covers 2 burners (not necessary but very effective.) Before I add the cheese, I put the Cheese-side of the bread down first to toast it and start melting the cheese a little faster. After about 2-3 minutes, or whenever you are ready, flip the slice of bread so that now the oil-side is cooking. Layer your cheeses so that every inch can be covered...or close to it. If you have room in your pan, do the same to the 2nd slice of bread that you did to the 1st. Then, when you are ready to flip, just flip it. If the cheese is melted to the 1st slice and not the 2nd, but the 1st is the golden color you like, then carefully flip it, using the spatula to pick up the sandwich and your free hand to hold the sandwich together so it won't fall apart as you are flipping it.

Eat the Grilled Cheese alone, or for some extra flavor, warm up some marinara.