Chicken Scarpello

I decided to get into trying a new recipe if possible weekly .  This is Chicken  Scarpello. Sweet and spicy peppers and onions nestled with chicken in a light sauce.

The recipe called for chicken and sausage but tonight I opted for all chicken.  I never use chicken thighs and today’s I used my regular boneless chicken breast’s.  I would use bone- in chicken breasts when I make it again.  The sweet peppers really added to bring sweet  and bite together. I highly recommend this brand.

I followed the recipe almost to the tee but limited sausage and wine.  

The below recipe is as follows:

• 2 1/2 pounds (1.15 kg) bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (6 to 8 thighs)

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) vegetable oil


***I didn’t use sausage

• 3 to 4 links sweet or hot Italian sausage (about 1 1/2 pounds; 700 g)

• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced (about 6 ounces; 170 g)

• 1 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced (about 6 ounces; 170 g)

***

• 2 tablespoons finely minced fresh sage leaves (about 1/4 ounce; 8 g)I used 1/2 tsp.dried)

• 6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

• 8 hot or sweet pickled cherry peppers, thinly sliced, along with 1/4 cup (60 ml) pickling liquid from the jar

• 1 cup (240 ml) dry white wine

• 1 cup (240 ml) homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock

I did not use sugar. (My peppers were plenty sweet and spicy ).

• 2 tablespoons (28 g) sugar

Adjust oven rack to center position and preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). 

Season chicken generously with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a 4- to 5-quart straight-sided sauté pan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add chicken, skin side down, and cook, without moving, until well browned and crisp, about 8 minutes total, lowering heat if pan starts to smoke excessively.

 Flip chicken and brown lightly on second side, about 3 minutes. Transfer chicken to a large plate and set aside.

Return pan to heat, add onion and bell pepper, and cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits with a wooden spoon, until softened and starting to brown, about 4 minutes. Add sage  and garlic, stir to combine, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute

Add pickled cherry peppers and their liquid, stirring and scraping up browned bits from bottom of pan with a wooden spoon. Add wine and cook until liquid is reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add chicken stock and sugar, and stir to combine. Return sausage to pan, toss to combine, then return chicken pieces to pan skin side up, nestling them down among sauce, vegetables, and sausage.

Transfer to oven and cook until chicken is crisp and tender, about 30 minutes. Serve immediately, spooning sauce, vegetables, and sausage around chicken pieces.

Serve with couscous or rice.

Carrot cake

Hi, I haven’t made a carrot cake in years. 

 Back in the day when food processors were not known of; I used to grate my carrots but with modern inventions today I used my food processor and it worked out great!  No tedious grating Or I remember you could use jars of baby food labeled carrots, this shows you how old I am. Can you believe?

The original recipe is below.  I used my new round deep cake pan I bought recently. Baking time was similar to as below. I baked approximately 40 minutes. Use a cake tester to make sure center comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Note: I cut sugar to 1 cup and oil to 3/4 cup

knowing that my cream cheese icing would make up

For the sugar.

I added chopped pecans on top!

It’s delicious!

Original:

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 
• 1 cup vegetable oil 
• 3 eggs 
• 2 cups Gold Medal™ All Purpose Flour 
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 3 cups shredded carrots (5 medium) 
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts 

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened 
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened 
• 2 to 3 teaspoons milk 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 4 cups powdered sugar 
• Nutmeg, if desired

• Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom and sides of one 13x9-inch pan or two 8-inch or 9-inch round pans with shortening; lightly flour. In large bowl, beat granulated sugar, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed about 30 seconds or until blended. Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, 1 teaspoon vanilla and the salt; beat on low speed 1 minute. Stir in carrots and nuts. Pour into pan(s).
• Step 

  2
  Bake 13x9-inch pan 40 to 45 minutes, round pans 30 to 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool rectangle in pan on cooling rack. Cool rounds 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
• Step 

  3
  In medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, milk and vanilla with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, on low speed until smooth and spreadable. Frost 13x9-inch cake or fill and frost round layers with frosting. Sprinkle nutmeg on frosted cake, if desired. Store in refrigerator.

Betty Crocker

Lemon Garlic shrimp orzo

I added my touch to this recipe and we really enjoyed it. 

****I substituted frozen cooked and thawed shrimp ,thin cooked green beans because I didn’t have fresh spinach.

I  added  dried basil and parsley as well. About 1/2 tsp. each.  Taste test for salt. I felt it needed more.

I felt it needed some zing so I sprinkled red pepper flakes on top! 

Enjoy!

Recipe below as written without my adjustments.

• 2 teaspoons olive oil

• 5 cloves garlic, minced

• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

• 1 1/3 cups orzo pasta

• 3 cups chicken bone broth

• 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 8 ounces raw tiger shrimp, peeled and deveined, or more to taste

• handful of spinach, cut into thin strips

• zest of 1 lemon

• lemon juice, to taste

  Parmesan cheese to taste

  
  

  Heat olive oil in a deep skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and Italian seasoning; sauté just until fragrant, 30 to 60 seconds.

  
  

  Add orzo and stir to toast lightly, about 30 seconds. Pour in broth, add salt and pepper, and bring to a gentle boil.

Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the orzo is nearly tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, 7 to 9 minutes.

Nestle shrimp into the orzo. Scatter spinach over the top. Add lemon zest and lemon juice. Cover and cook shrimp just until pink and opaque, turning once, 2 to 3 minutes per side.( my shrimp were cooked so I nestled them in the center and then covered the pot.

Turn off heat. Stir in Parmesan cheese. Adjust seasoning to taste.

****Personal note when I make this again I will add butter to the olive oil to sauté garlic.  Everything seems to taste better with a little butter…

Allrecipes

Monday chicken

I was intrigued by this allrecipes recipe so I made some changes//additions after reading the reviews.

Hubby and I thoroughly enjoyed it especially with my changes.  I think it would have been on the bland side had I not done so.

In this recipe I only used 2 chicken breasts halves which I cut lengthwise.  Pictures show how I cut and then placed them.

NOTE:I seasoned the chicken with a reasonable amount of salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika. 

I also used cream of chicken soup.

I did add the broccoli frozen as suggested as well as shredded sharp cheddar cheese to the top of the casserole.

****In the soup mixture I added the sour cream ,about 1/2 cup milk and also some additional garlic powder and 1-tablespoonful **Dijon mustard instead of horseradish. Mix well.

Original recipe:

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

• 1 (14 ounce) bag frozen broccoli florets

• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed golden mushroom soup

• ⅓ cup sour cream

• 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish

  Sharp cheddar cheese (optional)

  
  

  
  

Gather all ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Spread the broccoli evenly in the bottom of the baking dish. Place chicken breasts over the broccoli as well as soup mixture..

 Bake 1 hour uncovered.

Even though I only used 2 chicken breast’s halves I followed the rest of the amounts about the same.

****My recipe was baked in 50 minutes.

Enjoy!

 Allrecipes