Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

Winner winner! :) We all loved this! My 6 year old rarely will eat chicken, but she asked for seconds of this!

Recipe is from Life in the Lofthouse

INGREDIENTS

The chicken coating:

• 2 boneless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tbsp olive oil

The sweet and sour sauce:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 tbs ketchup
• 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• salt, to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. preheat  oven  to 325 degrees. 
2. Cut chicken into cubes.
3. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs.  
4. Heat oil in a large skillet and cook your chicken until browned but not cooked through. 
5. Place the chicken in a baking dish. 
6. Mix all of your sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and then pour evenly over the chicken. 
7. Bake for one hour, turning the chicken every 15 minutes.

Cilantro Lime Chicken in the Slow Cooker

Another new family favorite :) This one is from October Morning

I stayed pretty close to the original recipe. This is great served over rice, couscous, wrapped in tortilla, with tortilla chips, or just as it :)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 chicken breasts, diced
• 2 cups frozen corn
• 1.5 cups black beans (I cook dried black beans and freeze them in can-sized portions)
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
• juice from 1 or more limes, to taste
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp cumin
• salt and pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix all ingredients in a slow cooker.
2. Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours.

Whole Chicken in the Slow Cooker

A whole chicken is much cheaper to purchase and can last you up to 3 meals! Sometimes I'll roast them in the oven, but this way is just as easy (easier?), and makes melt-in-your-mouth chicken :) Not to mention you can actually leave the house while it's cooking! ;)

Tonight we'll have roasted chicken with green beans and mashed potatoes. Tomorrow will be shredded chicken enchiladas using the rest of the meat. I plan on making homemade chicken stock with the carcase. 

INGREDIENTS

• Whole chicken, insides discarded.
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tsp garlic powder

DIRECTIONS

1. Rinse chicken and pat dry.
2. Place chicken in slow cooker.
3. Mix the remaining ingredients together in a bowl, then pour over chicken.
4. Cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4 hours.

Hawaiian BBQ Chicken in the Slow Cooker

This recipe was goooood and so easy! I can't remember where I originally saw the recipe, but it was not my original idea. I must have seen it on a blog or on Pinterest and I went back to find it but couldn't. The recipe was so simple that I did my best to recall and I think it turned out pretty good :)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 chicken breasts, diced
• 1 28oz can diced pineapple, with the juice
• 1/2 bottle of BBQ sauce
• Jasmine rice

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix the chicken, pineapple with juice, and BBQ sauce in the slow cooker.
2. Cook on low for 6-7 hours (I think my chicken was still a little frozen in the center. I cooked this for 7.5 hours and that was just right).
3. Serve over rice, using extra liquid as sauce.

Jamaican Chicken Curry

Recipe adapted from Everyday Food.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 chicken breasts
• salt, to taste
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 cup baby carrots
• 1 can (13.5 oz) lite coconut milk
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 5 small potatoes, cubed

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large Dutch oven, heat oil and add chopped onions, cooking until softened.
2. Add salt and spices and mix well.
3. Add chicken and brown on both sides.
4. Add coconut milk, carrots, peas and potatoes. Mix well.
5. Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

Would be great served with rice on the side, omit potatoes from recipe.

White bean stew

This stew started out as a vegetarian stew, but then I decided to add chicken. It could be made either way! I served this with homemade French bread.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 large (28oz) can of diced tomatoes, with liquid
• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1.5 cups elbow or other small pasta, uncooked
• 2 cups precooked white Northern beans
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
• 3 cups vegetable or chicken stock

DIRECTIONS

1. Into a large pot, pour the diced tomatoes with liquid, vegetable stock, seasonings.
2. Bring to a boil, then add the chicken and simmer for about 15 mins.
3. Add frozen peas and bring back to a boil.
4. Add pasta and cook according to package directions.
5. Once everything is cooked, remove chicken and dice. Put chicken back into stew.
6. Mix baby spinach and white beans (mine were still warm from precooking in the slow cooker. If they're cold, you'll want to add them in and cook a little longer, until warmed through) into hot stew.
7. Enjoy with fresh bread!

Lemon Chicken and Rice Soup

This ended up being perfect on a snowy day! I served it with homemade French Bread (following the recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. Love this book! I never knew bread was so easy to make!)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 chicken breasts
• 8 cups water with bouillon or chicken stock
• 4 large carrots, diced
• 1 large red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 large onion, diced
• 6 tbsp butter, separated
• 1 cup rice, uncooked
• 1 lemon, divided
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 3 tbsp flour

DIRECTIONS

1. Pour the 8 cups of water w/ bouillon (or chicken stock) in a large pot and bring to a boil.
2. Add chicken, bay leaves, oregano and garlic.
3. Boil for 20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
4. Meanwhile, make rice according to package directions. Add juice from 1/2 lemon to water. My rice took 20 minutes to cook, so this worked out perfectly.
5. While the rice and the chicken are cooking, dice up the veggies.
6. Melt 3 tbsp butter in a skillet and throw in the diced veggies (carrots, bell pepper and onion). Add 1/2 a lemon, sliced thinly (seeds removed), and cook for about 15 minutes or until softened. Remove lemon and discard.
7. When the chicken is ready, let it cool a little and then dice it up.
8. Put chicken and vegetables to the side.
9. Melt 3 tbsp butter in the skillet, then add 3 tbsp flour and mix well until thickened to make a roux.
10. Add roux to broth, then add in the chicken, veggies and rice.
11. Warm up (if no longer warm) and serve right away with some fresh bread. Yum!

Slow-Cooked Tex-Mex Chicken and Beans Stew

Recipe inspired from Everyday Food online

Ingredients

• 1 cup dried pinto beans, rinsed
• 1 jar (11 ounces) mild or medium salsa (1 1/2 cups)
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 large chicken breasts
• salt, to taste
• 1/2 large red onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper (ribs and seeds removed), chopped
• 1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream, for serving
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp basil

Directions

1. In a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker, stir together beans, salsa, flour, and 1 cup water. 
2. Season chicken with salt, garlic and basil, then arrange on top of bean mixture. 
3. Scatter onion and bell pepper on top of chicken.
4. Cover and cook on low heat for 8 hours. (Do not open lid or stir.)
5. Shred chicken into large pieces and return to stew. 
6. Serve topped with sour cream.

I forgot to start this early enough, so in place of the beans, I decided to serve this over couscous.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

Mostly from scratch, this chicken pot pie is easy to make and tastes great!
Recipe inspired from AllRecipes.com

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed
• 1 cup sliced carrots, chopped
• 1 cup frozen green peas
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 4 small/medium potatoes, chopped
  
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 chopped onion
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano
• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 2/3 cup milk
  
• 1 roll of refrigerated crescent roll, broken up

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, peas, potatoes and celery. 
3. Add water to cover and boil for 15 minutes
4. Meanwhile, in a saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. 
5. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and oregano. 
6. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. 
7. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.
8. Place the chicken mixture in bottom of greased baking dish. 
9. Pour hot liquid mixture over. 
10. Top with roll dough, broken up into "crumbles".
11. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.

Braised Chicken with Butternut Squash and Cranberries

Some things are worth the wait....

Original recipe is from Everyday Food, October 2011 issue.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 large butternut squash, peeled, halved, seeded and cubed into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 4 chicken breasts
• salt, to taste
• 1 red onion, sliced into 1/2-inch wedges
• 1 tsp sage powder
• 4 tsp flour
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large Dutch oven, heat 1 tbsp oil over medium-high heat.
2. Cook chicken until brown on the outside, about 5-10 mins. Season with salt.
3. Transfer chicken to plate.
4. Add 1 tbsp oil, squash and onions to pot and cook about 5 minutes.
5. Add sage, flour, coriander, and nutmeg and cook, stirring, about 2 mins.
6. Add broth and cook, stirring and scraping up any browned bits, about 1 minute.
7. Nestle chicken in squash mixture, add cranberries, and bring to a boil.
8. Reduce heat, partially cover, and simmer until chicken is cooked through and squash is tender, about 25 minutes.
9. Serve with rice, or side of choice.

Tandoori Chicken Breasts on Flatbread

Loved this!! It was perfect for a warm almost-Summer day :)

INGREDIENTS

• 1/3 cup flour
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 large chicken breasts, either pounded thin or sliced in half
• 1 cucumber, diced
• baby carrots, diced
• yellow bell pepper, diced
• 3 Flax Seed Flat breads, or pitas
• 1 tbsp olive oil

INGREDIENTS for SAUCE

• 1 cup Strawberry or Plain Greek Yogurt
• 1 tsp minced garlic (or garlic powder)
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix flour, curry powder and salt in a bowl. 
2. Dip chicken into mixture until coated evenly on all sides.
3. Warm olive oil in a medium pan and cook chicken over Medium heat, 10 minutes on each side or until chicken is cooked through.
4. Meanwhile, mix all ingredients for the sauce together.
5. When chicken is cooked through, slice width-wise.
6. Place chicken on top of flat bread. Top with diced veggies and sauce.

Honey-Lime Chicken Enchiladas

Some of my favorite recipes seem to come from blogger Good Thymes and Good Food. This one is no exception. :) Delicious! Original recipe linked above.

INGREDIENTS

• 6 tbsp. honey
• 5 tbsp. lime juice, from 2-3 limes
• 1 tbsp. chili powder
• 1/2 tbsp. cumin
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (I like to cook mine in the crock pot in chicken broth).
• 6 whole wheat and flax tortillas
• 1 cup shredded cheese (I used Cheddar because that's what I had. Monterrey Jack is suggested)
• 16 oz. red enchilada sauce

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix the first 5 ingredients together.
3. Mix in the shredded chicken.
4. Pour a little of the enchilada sauce in the bottom of a 9x9 baking dish, to cover evenly.
5. Roll chicken and some shredded cheese in each tortilla and place seam-side down in the dish.
6. Pour the remainder of the enchilada sauce over the enchiladas.
7. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of cheese on top.
8. Cover with foil and cook for 20 mins. Uncover and cook for an additional 10 mins, or until top is crispy.

Asian Spinach Pasta Salad

Lemon Garlic Chicken in the Crock Pot

Easy, healthy, delicious :) The girls both actually ate the chicken!

INGREDIENTS

• chicken tenderloins
• 1 can low sodium chicken broth
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp Mrs. Dash (garlic and herb spices)
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp butter
• Serve w/ rice or noodles

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix all ingredients (minus rice or noodles) in a slow cooker.
2. Cook on low for 4-5 hours.
3. Serve over rice or noodles.

Hawaiian Braised Chicken with rice

A variation of my easy Hawaiian Chicken recipe :) Even better then the original!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 chicken breasts, sliced
•  1 can pineapple chunks, with juice
• 1/2 can light beer
• 2 tbs Mrs. Dash seasoning
• 1 tsp Cajun seasoning
• rice of choice
• olive oil

DIRECTIONS

1. In a Dutch Oven, heat up olive oil and brown chicken on both sides.
2. Add seasonings, pineapple with juice, and beer.
3. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to low/simmer.
4. Cook for 1 hour, stirring once.
5. Serve over rice.

beer-braised chicken with sweet potatoes

Original recipe from:
http://oishiifood.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/white-wine-braised-chicken-with-sweet-potatoes/

The original recipe calls for a dry white wine (white-wine braised chicken). Of course I didn't check in advance and when I was pulling my ingredients to make dinner, I realized all I had was sweet sparkling white wine. That won't work! So beer-braised it is :)

So glad I decided to make it despite the "wrong" ingredients. It turned out great!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup light beer
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 large leek, chopped
• 4 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1/2 cup pearl onions
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large bay leaf
• garlic powder, to taste
• ground coriander, to taste
• oregano, to taste
• salt, to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. heat olive oil over high heat in a Dutch oven.
2. add onions and chopped leek and cook until soft.
3. Add chicken and brown on both sides. 
4. Add seasonings and mix well.
5. Add beer, broth, bay leaf and sweet potatoes. 
6. Mix and cover. Turn heat to low and simmer for 45mins to an hour, until chicken is cooked through.
7. Serve with rice.

Cheddar Crusted Chicken

INGREDIENTS

• 2 chicken breasts
• about 1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 egg

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Ccoat chicken with egg.
3. In a large zip lock, mix bread cumbs and cheese. Toss in chicken, seal, and shake ;)
4. Place coated chicken in a greased oven safe pan. Top with the remainder of the crumbs & cheddar that didn't stick to the chicken.
5. Bake, uncovered, until chicken is cooked through, around 30 mins depending on the thickness of the chicken.

I served this with cheddar roasted cauliflower and apple sauce.

And P.S....to show you how easy this meal was to make, I did it with a wild preschooler dancing around the kitchen and a clingy/tired/teething 1yo strapped to my back in the Ergo :)

Baked Italian Chicken with Carrots and Potatoes

Inspired by... me ;)

I was short on time and my chicken wasn't totally dethawed. To speed up the process, I started by putting my 1/2 frozen chicken breasts in a covered skillet, with 1 tbsp olive oil, and cooked on medium heat for about 10 minutes.

Carrots and potatoes went into the steamer basket (stove top) for 15 mins to cut down on baking time as well.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1/2 medium onion, sliced
• 1 bunch carrots, peeled
• 3 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced
• olive oil
• 2 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp ground coriander

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix oregano, cumin and coriander together. Sprinkle 1/2 the mixture onto the chicken.
3. Over medium heat, cook seasoned chicken and onions in a tbsp of olive oil until almost fully done (don't overcook chicken or it will dry out in the oven. leave it slightly pink on the inside).
4. Meanwhile, steam carrots and onions.
5. Pour chicken and onions into a greased oven pan. Add olive oil if the bottom seems too dry.
6. Pour carrots and potatoes on top of chicken and sprinkle on the remainder of the seasoning mixture.
7. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

Recipe inspired from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• chicken tenderloins, cut to bite sized pieces
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 onion, finely diced
  1 cup diced baby carrots
  3/4 cup frozen peas
  1 cup chicken broth
• 1 packaged roll of refrigerated biscuit dough, torn into pieces

Directions

1. Place the chicken, butter, chicken broth, soup, carrots, peas, and onion in a slow cooker and mix.
2. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
   Place the torn biscuit dough in the slow cooker and cook an additional 30 minutes, until the dough is no longer raw in the center.

White Bean Chicken Chili in the Slow Cooker

Trying a different style chili today :)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 cup chopped kale
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cups Great Northern Beans, bagged, soaked overnight
• 1 can chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 cup half and half

DIRECTIONS

1. Before: Rinse and soak beans overnight (according to package directions).
2. Brown chicken and onions in olive oil.
3. Transfer to slow cooker.
4. Add beans, seasonings, kale, and chicken broth.
5. Cook on low for 4 hours.
6. Add half and half, cover, then continue cooking for an additional 30 minutes.
7. Enjoy on a cold day!