Poached Chicken and Spring Onion Salad

With Summer ending I'm in a mad rush to make all the 'Summer' dishes before we just don't feel like eating salads and cold shakes in the middle of a cool day. Today we went out for lunch and I had Beef Bourguignon with Parmesan Mash and sautaed Red Cabbage. Totally hit the spot. But today is overcast and cool. Last Friday wasn't. It was a lovely warm day. So I made salad.

A few months ago I'd never poached chicken, but now having done it a few times I can see how wonderful and easy it is. And so healthy! This recipe is lovely and light, including poached spring onions (in stock before poaching the chicken), celery that's thinly peeled with a vegetable peeler, butter lettuce (I didn't have any and used Iceberg instead. Had a lovely crunch that the salad might have otherwise missed), poached chicken and a lovely light citirusy lemon infused oil dressing.

In all honesty, I stuffed the dressing having made it first and set aside as the recipe suggests then just before serving I thought I'd heat it through again so it's nice and warm and absorbs into the chicken. Bad move. Burnt the lemon rind and I had to 'wash' it off the chicken in the warm stock. Oh well. I improvised and made a lemon juice and olive oil whisked dressing which worked just as well.

As we were having this dish for dinner I added a poached egg to the top to make it a little more filling. This is HUGE for me as I don't generally eat eggs on their own at all. But I felt it needed a little more and the egg worked really nicely. Not that I'm converted to eating crap loads of eggs now. Just one a blue moon I can probably handle.

Was a lovely light meal and would make a fantastic entree! 

Chicken Sandwich with Rocket Mayonnaise

Who doesn't love a good sandwich?

Well, me actually. But that's because I eat a Gluten Free diet and finding decent bread for a sandwich is pretty damn hard. But thankfully, Coles have a new Gluten Free range and I've been enjoying a few more sandwiches lately.

So I thought I'd try this one out.

Its a simple recipe. Using ready made whole egg mayo. Which I cheated and bought from the store. Which I later discovered has gluten in it. Go me.

This recipe just involves cooking chicken breast with some seasoning then enjoying them in a sandwich with the yummy rocket mayo - which is made by processing mayo, rocket, lemon juice and S&P. Not really much of a recipe, but still, it's in the book so I had to make it.

And enjoyed it. Bonus!

Crispy Southern Fried Chicken

Living out in the middle of nowhere, there's not a lot of option to get take-away food.

Next best option? Make it yourself!

Taking these out of the oven after they'd finished cooking, if you closed your eyes it smelled like KFC. Without the greasy aftertaste. Yes, they are initially fried to get the crispy texture to the coating, but then completely cooked in the oven.

I loved using buttermilk with them and think it made a big difference to how light they tasted. If I'd just used regular milk, I can understand that they'd feel a lot 'heavier'. I've never used Onion or Celery Salt in cooking before either. Might have to start experimenting....

I made burgers from this meal and they were awesome! Just with toasted bread, a little salad, mayo and the coated chicken = win!

Chicken and Haloumi Skewers

This recipe is actually titled 'Chicken, Haloumi and Preserved Lemon skewers', but good luck finding preserved lemon in Dysart!

I love the dishes you can start preparing earlier than dinner time. Makes life a little easier with two kids. I started marinating the chicken and Haloumi in the lemon juice and oil mixture about an hour before cooking time, then off to bath the ratbag.

I only recently discovered Haloumi when I attended a cooking workshop held here by the winners of the first series of My Kitchen Rules. They cooked these awesome Lamb and Haloumi skewers. Then you couldn't buy Haloumi here for the next month with all the people trying it out for themselves. I saw it in IGA last week so was excited to try cooking a cheese that won't melt for myself.

Hubby started eating the dinner that night and was wondering why the chicken was squeaky before I explained it was actually cheese he was eating!

The skewers were really nice. The chicken made tender from its lemon juice bath. We ate them with quinoa for a nice healthy dinner. They were easy to prepare and will probably be made again for our next BBQ.

No photo, sorry. Completely forgot. How about you go buy the book and make some for yourself. :)

Lemon and Garlic Chicken

As it's getting colder it's nice to cook a whole roast and warm the house up with the heat of the oven. As we've all been sick lately I wanted something with lots of healthy garlic and was glad to find a whole roast chicken recipe.

But, this chicken is cooked in stock and wine on the stove top, not in the oven. But, oh well. It'll still taste great.

After stuffing it with fresh lemon, I rubbed the skin with some oil and seasonings. I browned some eschalots and garlic in the bottom of my cast iron pan then removed them and dropped in the chicken, breast down so the skin would start to crisp up. But, I didn't put enough oil in the bottom and all that happened was the skin sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Bugger.

After 5 minutes I turned it, pouring more oil in and browned the bottom of the chook. Another 5 min later and I re-added the garlic and eschalots with some stock and Riesling. Wait, no, I didn't have any Riesling, so I used a wine I have sitting on the bench waiting for me to be not-pregnant so I could drink it. I did the next best thing and cooked with it instead.

Now, the recipe states to simmer it covered for 30 min, then for another 30 min uncovered. I did this, but found that I was always basting the chicken in the stock and wine as I was scared the breast would dry out being out of the liquid. I suppose if the skin hadn't burnt off I wouldn't have worried about it as much, but I did this every 5 minutes.

Pulling the chicken out at the end the beautiful aroma of lemon greets me. I carve it up and we ate it with some polenta and my home grown cherry tomatoes. I loved the subtle hint of lemon through the chicken meat. I squeezed the cooked garlic out of their skins and stirred it through my polenta. Great!

While it didn't cure our colds, it filled our hungry tummies!

Garlic Chicken

I love Garlic. Almost as much as I love Creamed Rice. But Garlic would be my top savoury love. I always use heaps in my cooking (probably why I don't get sick often) and could always use more. I grew up with my Dad eating pickled Garlic, straight from the jar. My poor Mum. I love Garlic a LOT, but not that much.

Pretty close though.

There are quite a few Garlic Chicken variation recipes in Seasons. I am so excited at this. I go through episodes where I just crave garlic, so I just had to try this one out.

Oh wow. It's so simple. Cut up Chicken - check. Cut up some Parsley - check. Crushed Garlic - chec....wait. No. I don't have a garlic crusher.

And I refuse to buy one. I don't mind that chefs use it, I completely understand the easiness of having a garlic crusher and if I'd never had one before, I'd go out and buy one. But I have. All I can say is, it's all well and good for a chef to use a garlic crusher. They don't have to clean the damn thing.

So I finely cut up my garlic instead.

Cook the chicken - check. Add the garlic and parsley - check. Breathe in deeeeeep and absorb the aroma garlic creates in my tiny little kitchen - check! Again, this recipe suggest serving it simply, but again I'm having it for dinner and need my veggies. So I chop up some Leek and Zucchini and after removing the Chicken from the pan, I quickly fry off the veggies in the remaining garlic fumes, with a little splash of Lemon Juice to help get all the yummy garlic flavour off the bottom of the pan. I eat it with the veggies and some polenta. No, I didn't serve it. Hubby was at footy training, so I just ate (inhaled) it myself.

And enjoyed every Garlicy minute of it. Definitely a recipe I will be making again. And again. And again......


And again!