Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Chicken Tonight

Kids Summer Chicken Meal Tips
Getting kids to eat a healthy meal without turning your kitchen into a sweltering sweat box isn’t hard. Save time by making large batches of boneless, skinless chicken and cutting up summer fruits and vegetables.

Chicken Salad with Asian Pear
Pecan-crusted chicken, Asian pear, strawberry slices and other fruits make this chicken salad a delicious summer treat, perfect for potlucks and picnics.

Sesame-Ginger Chicken Salad
Keep your cool on a hot summer day with a delicious salad made with oven-roasted chicken breast, ready-to-eat mixed-green salad, tomatoes, candied ginger, sesame vinaigrette and seasoned mayonnaise. The crisp iceberg, romaine and butter-crunch lettuce, baby spinach and Swiss chard quench thirst and cool your body while the sesame and ginger soothe your stomach.

Tahiti Sunrise Chicken Salad
Pineapple, chicken and cilantro combine in a piquant dish that will wake your taste buds. The bell peppers supply vitamin A and C while the red onion and chive flowers strengthen your immune system. With red and black pepper opening your airways to increase your oxygen flow to the brain, you are ready to tackle anything the day has in store.

Tortilla Soup
If you like nachos, you will love this hearty, southwestern soup. The crunchy tortilla strips and lime-kissed avocado provide the perfect accompaniment to fresh chicken and diced tomatoes. When you want a midwinter change of pace, this soup brings you the flavors of Old Mexico.

Fried Chicken Livers
Although many people avoid eating organ meats, chicken livers provide almost 26 grams of protein per 100-gram serving. They also provide significant amounts of iron, phosphorus, potassium, niacin, pantothenic acid, folate, choline, betaine, B-12, and more than 14,000 IU of vitamin A, according to the USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. Their creamy inside texture and crunchy exterior make them a true indulgence, despite their high cholesterol content.

Roast Chicken with Jambalaya Stuffing
Give roast chicken a Cajun twist using jambalaya made with fresh bell peppers, onions and garlic, cayenne pepper sauce, zucchini and yellow summer squash. This chicken travels well in a casserole carrier if you want to take it to a potluck. Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Orange O'Brien-Stuffed Roast Chicken
Walmart had whole chickens on sale for 69 cents a pound today, so I got one. I used a $10 Walmart gift card that I earned through MyPoints to buy it, so the chicken, vegetable oil, cocoa powder and cola I bought today were essentially free. I didn't have any stuffing mix or rice, so I decided to create something new. The result was this beautiful chicken, stuffed with orange-infused O'Brien potatoes.

Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
Cheesy chicken broccoli rice is a potluck classic that you can take anywhere. This heart-healthy chicken dish is ready in 30 minutes. Serve with fresh spinach or kale, halved grape tomatoes and red and green pepper strips for an even more festive dish.

Creamy Chicken Rice Bake
One of the most comforting casseroles — creamy chicken rice bake — goes from counter to oven to table in under 45 minutes when you keep diced or shredded chicken on hand. Sherry and chicken broth add flavor to a basmati and wild rice mixture that will please your palate any time. Take this casserole to any picnic or potluck and watch it disappear.

Chicken and Brown Rice with Mango-ginger Salsa
Bring the Caribbean into your kitchen with this one-pot chicken and brown rice meal topped with fresh mango salsa. Raw mango provides 25 percent of your day’s vitamin A and 76 percent of your daily vitamin C per 1-cup serving, making it an effective mid-day pick-me-up. One serving of raw mango provides folate, choline, calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. Mango salsa make a delicious base for lassi drinks. Just add it to one pint of plain or vanilla yogurt and two cups of ice in a blender.

Healthy Chicken Casserole
While chicken is a healthy meat, most chicken casserole recipes feature too much salt, add carbohydrates without any increase in vitamin and mineral content, and result in a dish that does the body more harm than good. This dish is high in vitamins C and A, manganese and potassium.
Serves 10
Serving size 3/4 cup
121 calories per serving
Glycemic index 7
Anti-inflammatory +85

In a large, high-sided casserole dish, mix sliced potatoes, chicken, apricots, black pepper, oregano and no-salt chicken stock. Substituting rosemary or cilantro for oregano changes the vitamin and mineral percentages, but does not decrease the anti-inflammatory property of the dish or increase its glycemic index per serving. Cover with foil and bake in oven at 375 degrees F for 45 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Omit the oregano in the casserole if you are going to use fresh cilantro in the pineapple-pepper relish.

In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup crushed raw pineapple with juice, 1 small chopped red bell pepper, 1 oz. chopped scallions and 4 cloves minced raw garlic. Toss well to make a relish. Serve pineapple-pepper relish raw over chicken casserole. The raw relish retains all the essential vitamins and minerals while adding a sweet and sour kick to the dish.

2 cups homemade chicken stock, no salt
1 cup chopped or diced, roasted chicken breast
2 large red potatoes, sliced, with peels
1 cup dried apricots
1 Tbsp black pepper
1 tsp oregano, dried
1 cup raw pineapple, crushed
1 small bell pepper, chopped
1 oz scallions, small, chopped
4 cloves raw, minced garlic
Optional: 1 tsp. lemon or lime juice
1/4 cup fresh, chopped cilantro

Cashew Chicken
Quick and healthy semi-homemade meals give you more time to spend enjoying life. Substitute extra-firm tofu chunks for the chicken and it becomes a vegan treat. Use fresh, local, organically-grown vegetables. This dish travels well if you want to take it to a potluck.

Yellow-Pepper Chicken Leg Quarters with Carrots and Potatoes
Lock flavor into chicken leg quarters. Diced Hungarian waxed yellow peppers, thin-sliced Vidalia onions, chopped celery, minced garlic and fresh-ground black pepper blended into a lime, orange juice, soy sauce and Louisiana hot sauce marinade soak into tender baby carrots and buttery Yukon Gold potato wedges. Top the vegetables with marinated chicken and let the juices drip down while they cook.

How (Not) to Make Beer Can Chicken
Beer can chicken is an interesting idea, but it takes a little extra preparation to make it work over an open camp fire. In theory, the beer can heats the chicken from the inside out, while the beer steams and marinates the meat, resulting in tender, moist chicken.

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