Quick and easy chicken recipies, please!

Cafe Society
21

The preferred version of chicken breasts at Chez Nava: breaded chicken breasts.

You need a pan, two flat dishes, another plate; chicken breasts, salt, egg, bread/cookie crumbs, oil/fat/butter (henceforth abbreviated “oil”).

Place the crumbs on one dish, close to the cooking range. Place the other dish a bit further and whisk one egg on it, as if you were going to make an omelette. Put the chicken further out.

Salt the chicken. It goes to the egg, one side then the other. Then to the crumbs, one side then the other, and leave it on a pile on the side of the crumbs dish.

This step is optional, only if you have leftover egg: warm up just a bit of oil in the pan and make an omelette, which goes to the final plate.

Then add more oil. If you have wooden toothpicks, add a couple to the pan (they help pick up the crumbs that flake off the chicken). To verify that the oil is hot, take a piece of chicken and touch the oil with it: if this has little noticeable effect on the oil, it’s still cold. Once it’s hot, fry the chicken and add it to that final plate.

The same process can be applied to white fish fillets (cod, for example). Both the chicken and the fish travel well when they’re like this, too.
The Mumpers Recipes blog has some easy recipes too, including my own version of chicken and rice (any recipe I’ve contributed is silly easy). I’d link it but it’s… you guessed it, blocked at work.

22

Easy Spanish Chicken

8 chicken legs/thighs
about 6 garlic cloves
1 or 2 red onions chopped into quarters
smoked paprika
olive oil
can of chickpeas (drained)
can of tomatoes

Put the chicken in a roasting dish. Sprinkle the paprika to taste. Add some olive oil and stir it around to evenly coat the chicken. Add the garlic cloves and chopped red onion. Roast for 30 mins.

Add the drained chickpeas and tomatoes. Stir around a bit. Roast for another 15 mins.

23

A couple additional comments to my Chicken Tacos (post #14, above):

You can make up a whole mess of the chicken, bag it in meal-sized portions, and freeze it - It will keep for a couple months in the freezer, if you package it carefully.

The taco chicken makes good quesadilla and burrito filling as well as taco meat. Another way to use it as a filling: Get crescent rolls - the kind you find in a tube - and use the taco meat as the filling in chicken pastry puffs: Lay-out the crescent roll triangle on the baking sheet, add a small amount of chesse, then a spoonful of the taco meat. Fold the three corners to the center, making sure the corners cling together - You don’t need to fully cover the filling. Bake acording to the package directions. Makes a nice flaky meat pastry.

24

This is a link to my absolute fav chicken breast recipe.

It is quick, easy and looks fantastic on a plate.

25

I just posted this recently, but here it is again. It looks long, but is really not complicated, and the flavor is great.

Korean Chicken Tacos
Adapted from Hankook Taqueria, Atlanta
Time: 30 minutes, plus 2 to 4 hours’ marinating

For marinating chicken:
1/4 cup Korean red pepper paste (gochujang, available in Korean markets) : or any decent red pepper paste, hot or mild
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken

For the vinaigrette:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoons sesame oil
1 1/2 teaspoons hot red-pepper flakes

To serve:
3 leaves green leaf lettuce, shredded
1 cup shredded green Napa cabbage or other cabbage
1/2 cup diced Vidalia or other sweet onion
1/4 cup sliced scallions
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
6 burrito-size or 12 taco-size flour tortillas
1/4 cup Monterey Jack cheese
6 lime wedges, for garnish.

  1. For marinating chicken: In a bowl (or sealable plastic bag) combine red pepper paste, vinegar, sugar and sesame oil. Add chicken and mix again. Cover (or seal) and refrigerate 2 to 4 hours.
  2. For the vinaigrette: In a small mixing bowl, combine soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and pepper flakes. Whisk until well blended.
  3. Prepare a grill or heat a large skillet. Grill or sauté chicken until golden brown on all sides and opaque in center; be careful not to overcook. Remove from heat and cut into 3/4-inch dice.
  4. In a large mixing bowl, combine lettuce, cabbage, onion, scallions and cilantro. Toss with 2 tablespoons vinaigrette, or to taste. Place a tortilla on each of 6 serving plates. Place an equal portion of chicken on each tortilla, and top with a portion of salad. Sprinkle with cheese, garnish plate with a lime wedge.
    Yield: 6 servings.
26

For chicken, just remember that most chicken dishes need some Scarborough Fair seasonings…parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. You can leave out the parsley if you don’t care for it. But the other three herbs really do help a chicken dish. So does onion. I find that a little rosemary goes a long, long way, and if I use too much, the chicken tastes like I marinated it in Pine Sol. Black pepper is a trigger for me, but most people do like some pepper on their chicken, too. So just play around with seasonings for a bit, adding a bit each time, until you figure out what you and Mrs. Wheelz like. There’s nothing wrong with just seasoning the chicken and throwing it in a George Foreman grill (or clone) as an everyday meal.

Also, I’ve become quite a fan of ground turkey. Turkey patties are actually pretty tasty, if you season them with poultry seasoning and just grill them in a bit of oil or butter. They are NOT beef patties, but they are tasty. Also, I’ve had some pretty good results with turkey meatloaf. I panfry some diced onions, celery, and bell pepper, remove from skillet and let cool. Then I mix it with the turkey, some breadcrumbs, and poultry seasoning and seasoned salt, and maybe some milk. Form into a loaf and throw it into an oven until there’s no pink left. You can bake some potatoes at the same time, or make mashed potatoes with gravy.

Let me say this…Better than Bullion brand flavor bases are the best. You might want to pick up a jar of chicken flavor base. Remember to put it in the fridge after opening. This stuff is great for adding some flavor to a sauce or stock, and if you want to make gravy but don’t have enough drippings and stock, use it.

27

Mmm…these are all great herbs with chicken, but the chicken sequence I described above uses none of them, in an effort to let the chicken really speak its mind. And there are plenty of dishes from Asia that use chicken but none of these herbs. I thik that if you use them, you end up with a western European flavor, which is freakin’ delicious, but is just one way of prepping them.

Sorry if that’s a nitpick!

28

My take on chicken tikka:

Mix the following in a bowl:
Enough Greek-style (thick, unsweetened) yoghurt to thickly coat the chicken. I’m going for about a cup and a half in this recipe, which should be enough for 2 to 3 chicken breasts, depending on size.
A table spoon of ground cumin.
A table spoon of garam masala (if you don’t have it, use a mixture of ground coriander seeds, cumin, tumeric and cinnamon).
As much chilli powder and ground black pepper as you like/can stand.
A little salt
Some chopped mint or cilantro (optional, but I like them).

Cut the chicken in large-ish bits; roughly three bites worth - large enough to handle, anyway.
Add the chicken to the marinade, mix well and leave in the fridge.

Do whatever you want to do for an hour.

Heat the oven broiler/grill at about 200C/390F. Cover a baking sheet with tin foil. Lay out the chicken on the sheet - make sure the chicken pieces are spaced apart; you want to grill the chicken, not boil it. Keep the remaining marinade.

Place the baking sheet in the highest position in the oven.

When the chicken turns brown, turn the pieces and spoon the remaining marinade over them. Return to the oven until the other side is brown too. This should take about 20 ~ 30 minutes.

Goes well with rice and vegetable curries, or with some dipping sauce (I like mango chutney) and a salad, or as tikka masala; tomato + yoghurt/cream and spices sauce.

29

Very easy:

Vegetables, cut up chicken, A1 sauce, aluminum foil.

Lay vegeables on a sheet of aluminum foil (heavy duty or double it). Spatter with sauce, put a chicken breast or leg on top, more sauce if you like, fold over the foil and seal it. Place on bottom rack of hot oven or on a hot grill. Let cook 30-45 minutes depending on volume of package. Add other seasonings that you like.

Pretty easy:

Curry powder or spices, cut up chicken, onion, broth

2 tbsps light oil in a pot. Add 4 tbsps curry powder or whole curry spices. Stir and cook over medium heat until lightly browned, or whole spices are crackling. Turn up the heat a little and brown pieces of chicken in the mix along with some onion. Add 1/2 cup broth, or just some water, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour.

Too easy:

My mother’s recipe for chicken that made me learn how to cook:

Put cut up frozen chicken pieces on backing pan in morning. Salt and pepper. Put in oven on time bake. Serve to your children at dinnertime. Years later ask why they don’t call.

30

I just made this last night for the first time, loosely based on a dish my sister told me about, but it was WONDERFUL and pretty easy, so I’ll share:

2 chicken breasts
1 eggplant
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp pesto sauce
1/2c shredded mozarella
Salt and pepper to taste (I used garlic salt. I know, I know.)

Before you begin, preheat your oven to 350.

  1. Dice 2 chicken breasts and 1 eggplant into medium sized cubes (like a stack of 3-4 nickels)
  2. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a pan
  3. Sautee the chicken breast until mostly cooked
  4. Add 1 tbsp of Pesto sauce and the eggplant to the pan
  5. Sautee until eggplant is thoroughly cooked (should become translucent in appearance)
  6. Dump eggplant and chicken into a baking dish, toss with 1 tbsp pesto sauce
  7. Sprinkle mozarella over the top and bake for about 10 mins (just to melt the cheese)

We served it with a side of roasted asparagus and whole grain baguette. It was terrific!

31

The recipe I thought of when I read the OP was Chicken Escondido

My husband and I really like it. My favorite salsa verde so far is Trader Joe’s. Some that are likely more “authentic” are too hot for me.

32

I made tandoori chicken a few times using a dry spice mix. (The one I used was Sharwood’s brand, but Penzey’s has one as well, or you can also make your own.) Mix the spice mix with yogurt and lemon juice and marinate the chicken pieces (I used skinless chicken legs) for a few hours or overnight. Then lay the pieces on a pan and roast them at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, turning them over two or three times.

It’s easy enough that I couldn’t screw it up.

33

Check out Lipton’s Recipe Secrets. They’re quick and easy. I like the Lemon Chicken recipe using the Savory Herb with Garlic mix, although I leave out the flour and lemon.

I invested in a Foreman Grill a while back and find myself using it at least once a week to cook chicken. I’m particularly fond of a Lemon-Garlic marinade with them.

34

Chicken katsu. Use thinnish breasts. Thoroughly dust them with flour, shake off the excess, then dredge though beaten egg, and then coat with panko (Japanese-style bread crumbs)-- I try to get as much to stick as possible. Pan-fry until golden brown. Eat with rice and “Bulldog Sauce” tonkatsu sauce or something like plum sauce.

Oyako-donburi. Cut up chicken into chunklets. Make a broth with some “Dashi” (get this at the Asian grocery-- a major brand comes in a jar with a red cap), shoyu, mirin, and sugar. Cut up an onion into extremely thin slices and simmer in the broth until translucent. Add the chicken and cook it up. When your rice is done cooking, toss a couple of beaten eggs over the top and let those set as long as you like. Serve on rice.

35

People, the OP stated that he was a beginner. Let’s keep that in mind.

So, I’m going to offer a very basic recipe. Put about half a cup of bottled Italian dressing into a zipseal bag. Put chicken pieces in bag. Or pork pieces, or beef pieces. Close bag, pressing out most of the air. Turn bag so that all parts of the meat are covered, let sit for 15 minutes (at room temperature), flip bag, let sit for 15 minutes more. Grill in skillet, or bake in oven, until the thermometer hits the “Poultry” mark.

The thermometer that I speak of is a meat thermometer. You put the pointy end into the thickest part of the meat, without touching bone. It will have readings in degrees, and also will have readings for pork, poultry, and various donenesses of beef. Most of these thermometers must be hand washed, but they’re easy to clean.

36

:slight_smile: Hi, Lynn! How you doin’?

Seriously, to amend my recipe, you don’t have to stick it in the fridge for 24 hours, 15-30 minutes will do just fine, as Lynn states.

I just got used to doing that as I’d make up several baggies on a Sunday for the rest of the week. But I have a rocking fridge that seems to keep food forever, it seems. YMMV.

purplehorseshoe: I haven’t noticed any problem with the marinades, even with the ones with high citric or vinegar content (Italian-style). I’ll make up a set of baggies on Sunday, and even on Friday they’re still good.

Cook 'em quick and they’re tender and juicy.

37

Gah. I completely overlooked that. Don’t know how.

I’ve always had problems with the meat coming out as mush if I marinate it for much longer than half an hour if it has any sort of acid in it, other than wine.

38

Definitely don’t use a candy thermometer. It will melt.

39

If you don’t mind using a ‘low-brow’ ingredient like cream-of-whatever soup, here are a couple:

Chicken and Dumplings
2 chicken breast halves, diced and seasoned (Lynn’s post about ‘Scarbrough Fair seasonings’ is on the money; Aldi sells an herb grinder in their spice aisle with “Country Herbs” which include pretty much all of this, and a little more; excellent on poultry or pork), salt and pepper
Oil for browning
1/2 bag frozen mixed veggies or frozen peas and carrots (depends on what you like)
Some sliced fresh or canned (drained) mushrooms if you like
1 can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup
1C chicken stock (stock in a box from the market is fine)
1C Bisquick or other ‘baking mix’
1/3C milk
Butter for top of dumplings

Season chicken while oil is heating in large, deep skillet. Brown until cooked through; add soup and stock, heat over medium until coming to a boil; add frozen veggies. Reduce heat and cook until veggies are as tender as you’d like.

While the ‘stew’ is cooking, mix together the Bisquick and milk. Drop by spoonfuls on top of nearly-boiling ‘stew’; cover skillet with lid (if you don’t have a lid that fits, a large plate may work, just be careful removing it) so dumplings can steam. When the dumplings are light, fluffy and not raw in middle, butter the tops of dumplings. Serve in bowls.

Alternately, you can use this exact recipe for chicken and biscuits, but you put the skillet in a 350 oven to bake the Bisquick instead of steaming for dumplings.

The nice thing about this dish is that it’s very flexible (as you become more accustomed to cooking, you can sautee onions, garlic, peppers, celery, etc. before you brown your chicken. You can add frozen diced onions or peppers (available in just about every supermarket, and super-quick-and-easy to use). You can tailor the vegetable content to suit your tastes. It’s also a complete meal in one skillet, served in a bowl!

There is nothing wrong, IMHO, in using creamed soups as a base for sauce, or using things like boxed stuffing. If, as you go along, you care enough to want to learn to make a white sauce, or cream sauce, or your own stuffing, or whatever, that’s completely up to you. In the meantime, you’re better off using these shortcuts to cook your own meals at home (from a nutrition and a budget standpoint) than doing carry-out and such just about every night.

40

Honestly, one of the best/quickest/easiest recipes I’ve ever found for boneless chicken breast was a corn flake/parmesan/garlic baked finger/breast recipe found on the side of a Kroger corn flake box. I don’t remember all of the specifics, but it was oven baked, and very tasty. Maybe it’s still printed on the box?