Honey Glazed Roasted Chicken

18 Jan

Although this Chicken dish takes a little more than 2 hours from prep to serve, you will be surprised with how good and moist it turns out.  Since I got the whole chicken on sale at $.99/lb, this dish was actually less than $10 to make and enjoy.

Tips:

  1. Season under the skin.
  2. To truss chicken, put legs together, one over the other, and with a cooking twine, bind them together.  Tuck the wings underneath the breast and use toothpicks to hold them in place.
  3. Checking the chicken’s internal temperature is a better way to check for doneness rather than doing it by time.  Sometimes you just never know if your chicken is completely thawed out when you cook it.
  4. Cooking it breast side down first allows it to cook the same time as the rest of the chicken therefore avoiding the breast meat to dry up while the rest of the chicken is still cooking.  Use a roasting pan with a V-rack to cook the chicken on.
  5. The glazing is done towards the end so as not to burn it on the chicken.  Don’t forget to glaze underneat the chicken as well.
  6. Do not discard drippings if you want to make gravy.

Prep and Cook Time: approximately 2 hours

Serves:  4-6

Ingredients:

  • 1 whole chicken (about 3-4 lbs, giblets discarded)
  • 2 tablespoons sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 tablespoon paprika
  • 1/2 tablespoon ground pepper
  • 1 cup low or no sodium chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons water
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon corn starch

Directions:

  1. Arrange oven rack to lower middle portion.  Pre-heat oven to 350°F.  Thoroughly rinse chicken and dry with paper towel.  In a small bowl, combine sea salt, garlic powder, paprika and pepper.  Loosen the skin from the meat and season generously underneath the skin and over the skin with the dry rub.  Truss chicken and arrange on a V-rack roasting pan breast side down.  Cook for 45 minutes.
  2. After 45 minutes, remove rack from oven.  With a tong inserted in the cavity, flip bird breast side up.  Add chicken broth and 1/2 cup water at the bottom of the pan.  Return to oven and cook for 50 minutes to 1 hour.
  3. While chicken is cooking, make glaze by combining honey and vinegar in a small sauce pan over low heat.  Bring to a simmer.  Dissolve corn starch with water then whisk in to honey until glaze thickens up.  Remove from heat.
  4. With an instant read thermometer, check chicken for doneness.  It is done when the thickest part of the thigh’s temperature reaches 165°F – 170°F.  Brush half of the glaze all over chicken and return to oven for 10 minutes.
  5. Remove from oven and set on a cutting board.  Cut the twine and remove any toothpicks used.  Brush remaining glaze all over and tent cover with aluminum foil for 10-15 minutes before slicing up to serve.

To make gravy:

Loosen and remove brown bits with a wooden spoon from the bottom of roasting pan.   Transfer to a cup or bowl and skim off the fat with a spoon. Drippings should come to at least 1 1/2 cups.  In a medium sauce pan, create a roux by melting 2 tablespoons of butter then adding 2 tablespoons of flour over low heat.  Slowly whisk in drippings and simmer for 5 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.  Serve with chicken.

Enjoy!

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Asian Pork Chops

12 Jan

A flavorful and easy slow cooker recipe for Pork Chops.  This is perfect with steamed rice.  Don’t forget to put some of the sauce on your rice because it is tasty.

Tips:

  1. Do not overcook the pork or it will be dry.
  2. Poke holes on the meat so that sauce can get through it for flavor.
  3. When buying pork chops, select the ones that has a lot of darker color.  That is the juicy and tender when cooked.

Ingredients:

  • 6-8 bone in pork chops
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1/3 cup ketchup
  • 1/4 cup white vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:

  1. Rinse pork chops and dry thoroughly with paper towels.  Using a fork, poke holes on them.
  2. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.  Whisk to create sauce.  Dip each of the chops in the sauce then transfer to slow cooker.  Pour sauce on top of chops, cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours or on high for 2 – 2.5 hours.

Enjoy!

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BEEF & SALSA STEW

5 Jan

An easy and hearty slow cooker recipe perfect for Sunday dinner or a chilly evening.

Tips:

  1. Choose salsa that’s chunky like Pace.
  2. Don’t get fancy on the salsa, the simpler the better.
  3. You can add your favorite stew vegetables such as carrots, potatoes and celery to this recipe.

Serves up to 6

Ingredients:

  • 2  – 2 1/2 pounds boneless chuck roast, cut in 1  1/2 inch chunks
  • salt
  • pepper
  • 2 tablespoons cooking oil
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 16oz jar chunky salsa
  • 1 packet onion soup mix

Directions:

  1. Season beef with salt and pepper.  Heat oil in skillet and brown all sides.  Transfer to slow cooker.
  2. De-glaze skillet by slowly pouring water and scraping brown bits with a wooden spoon.  Add onion soup mix.  Pour onto beef.  Add salsa and toss so that beef is completely coated.  Cook on low for 5-6 hours.  Serve while still warm.

Enjoy!

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Apricot Glazed Meatballs

27 Nov

Here is a slow cooker appetizer using frozen meatballs and apricot preserve. 

Tips:

  1. You can use apricot jelly if you can’t find preserves.
  2. Substitute Turkey meatballs if you like but decrease the cooking time by 30 minutes so as not to dry the turkey.
  3. No need to thaw the meatballs when cooking this dish.

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cup apricot preserve
  • 1 14oz can diced tomatoes, drained
  • 1 packet onion soup mix
  • 3 pounds frozen meatballs

Directions:

Combine preserve, tomatoes and onion soup mix in a large bowl.  Toss in meatballs and stir making sure they are coated with apricot glaze.  Transfer to slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours.  Serve.

Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Mousse

17 Nov

Quick!  Easy! Delicious!

Tips:

  1. It’s best to wait until the pudding mixture thickens before folding in the rest  of the ingredients.
  2. If using a hand mixer, use the lowest setting possible.

Recipe Source:  Military Wives Club Recipe Book

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

  •  1 1/2 cup cold fat free milk
  • 1 package (1 ounce) sugar-free instant butterscotch pudding mix
  • 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1 cup fat-free whipped topping, divided

Directions:

In a large bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix for 2 minutes, let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set. Combine the pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger and all-spice; fold into pudding. Fold in 1/2 cup whipped topping.

Transfer to individual serving dishes. Refrigerate until serving, garnish with remaining whipped topping.

Enjoy!

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Pumpkin and Shrimp Salad Spread on Crackers

9 Nov

This one was made with toasted Pumpkin seeds

A quick and easy appetizer perfect for the holiday.

Tips:

  1. If you can’t readily find pine nuts, use toasted pumpkin seeds.
  2. Take the goat cheese out from the refrigerator an hour before to get it to room temperature.  Having it at room temperature  makes it easier to melt into the pumpkin pureé.
  3. For a fancier presentation, you can use sliced French Baguette.  Brush each side with olive oil then broil each side for 2 minutes on low.  It’s a Bruschetta!
  4. Another fancier presentation is to use an individual larger shrimp for topping.

Makes at least 40 appetizers

Prep & cook time: 30 minutes

 Ingredients:

  • 1 cup canned Pumpkin pureé
  • ½ cup goat cheese at room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • Salt
  • 1 ½ cups thawed and cooked salad shrimp
  • 1 cup Arugula or Spring Mix salad
  • ¼ cup pine nuts
  • ½ red onion, diced
  • ¼ cup plain vinaigrette dressing
  • Ground pepper
  • 40-50 Ritz crackers

 Directions: 

  1. In a bowl, combine pumpkin puree, goat cheese, honey and lemon juice.  Stir with whisk until cheese has melted with the rest of the ingredients.  Add salt for taste. 
  2. In a separate bowl, combine shrimp, greens, pine nuts, onion, dressing and pinch of ground pepper.  Spread pumpkin mixture on one side of crackers.  Top each with the shrimp mix.  Serve.

Enjoy!

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Sausage and Pepper Quesadillas

2 Nov

Sausage and pepper quesadillas

A quick and easy appetizer especially for the holidays.

Tips:

  1. A yellow or orange bell pepper compliments the flavor of the Italian sausage.
  2. You can use a flat griddle to cook the quesadilla if you don’t have a skillet large enough to cook the quesadilla on.
  3. Make sure the sausage mix has cooled down a little bit before adding to the cheese and tortilla so that it doesn’t create steam and produce a soggy tortilla.
  4. The more burnt marks you want on the tortilla, the longer you cook it on the skillet but make sure you cook on low heat so that it doesn’t burn quick

Makes up 32 slices

Prep & cook time: 30 minutes

 Ingredients:

  • ½ pound loose Italian sausage (removed from casing)
  • 1 yellow or orange bell pepper, diced
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 3 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
  • 8 soft taco tortillas
  • Cooking spray

All the good stuff layered...

Directions:

In a skillet, cook sausage, pepper and onion until sausage is brown.  Transfer to a plate, divide into four even portions and let it cool.  Once sausage mixture has cooled down, about 10 minutes, spray skillet with cooking spray and put over medium-low heat setting on your stove.  Prepare quesadilla by putting a layer of cheese on top of tortilla, add a portion of the sausage mixture, another layer of cheese then top with another tortilla.  Lay flat on the warm skillet and warm each side for 2-3 minutes (depending on how crispy you want the tortilla).  Slice into 8 portions.  Repeat process with remaining ingredients.  Serve while still warm with Salsa and/or Guacamole.

Enjoy!

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