Chicken stuffed with Mozzarella & Roasted Red Pepper

There is nothing like the comfort food of stuffed chicken and this dinner was no exception.  The extra cheese topped the roasters and I served a little roasted pepper bruschetta on the side.

For the Chicken:

Chicken breast, with a pocket cut into the side of it

2 or 3 slices of Serrano ham, you can also use Prosciutto or a stretched rasher

Slice of roasted red pepper

Couple of slices of mozzarella

For the Potatoes:

Baby new potatoes

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Cubes of mozzarella

Olive oil

For the Roasted Pepper Bruschetta

An orange, red and yellow pepper, halved

Couple of shallots, finely chopped

Garlic clove, crushed

Fresh thyme, leaves picked from stalk

Sea salt & black pepper

Olive oil

Cut a pocket into the chicken and carefully slide the red pepper slice into it and then squash in the cheese.  Season the breast with black pepper, no salt needed as the ham will be salty. Wrap tightly in the Serrano ham and set aside until ready to cook.

To get your peppers roasted, halve them and place under a very hot grill or directly onto the gas flame. Let the skin get completely blackened and put into a plastic bag to steam away until cool. Once cool, remove the black skin. Do not do this under a running tap as you'll lose the roasted flavour.  Chop into thin slices, keep the slice for the chicken aside and place the rest into an ovenproof dish.  Add the chopped shallots, garlic, seasoning, thyme and a teaspoon of olive to the peppers and stir to combine.  Set aside until really to heat.

Slice your potatoes lengthwise and rinse off to remove the starch on them.  Make sure they are completely dry before you add them to the roasting pan. I used low-fat spray oil, spray a layer on the pan then add the slices of potatoes giving them another spray and season generously.  Place in a preheated oven at 180C/fan 160C, they'll take 35-40mins to roast.  Turn them over every ten mins or so to ensure even cooking.

After the potatoes have been in the oven for 10mins then place the chicken in the oven uncovered to cook.  If the chicken looks like its burning then you can cover it with foil but not too tightly as you want to retain the crispy nature of the ham.  The chicken will take 25-30mins to cook it all depends on much they are stuffed.

Ten minutes before the end of the cooking time, top each potato with a cube of mozzarella and return to the oven.  You can also top the chicken with some mozzarella as well if you want.  At this stage you add the pepper bruschetta to the oven to let it heat through.  Its probably best if you can rest the chicken out of the oven for 5mins covered.  When ready to eat, pour over whatever juices have come from the chicken over it for some extra juiciness.

Spicy Noodle Soup

Last weekend when I was doing a bit of study I got an awful craving for something hot and spicy. I couldn't get warm so thought a bit of chilli heat might do the trick.  This was literally a 5-minute wonder.

1 nest medium egg noodles, broken up

Chicken stock, made with cube or if you're fantastic your own homemade
2 scallions, including the green tops, chopped roughly
Small clove of garlic, finely crushed
Quarter of a Red or yellow pepper, sliced finely
Pinch of chilli flakes
Teaspoon of Thai red curry paste
Handful of peas



Gently fry off the scallions and garlic until soft for a minute or so.  Then add the hot chicken stock and let it come to the boil.  Once boiling throw in the rest of the ingredients, reduce to a simmer and allow to bubble gently for 4mins. Slurp immediately.  You could also add shredded cooked chicken or prawns to this for a more substantial meal.

French-Style Chicken with Peas & Bacon

I took this recipe from the BBC Good Food site French Style Chicken at BBCGoodFood.Com

I'd never cooked Little Gem before and it was a revelation! It stayed nice and crunchy and added a nice green texture to the dish.  I served it with plain boiled rice which absorbed all the lovely juices.

French-Style Chicken with Peas and Bacon

Serves 4

6 rashers smoked streaky bacon, chopped

8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 bunch spring onions, roughly chopped

300ml hot chicken stock

250g frozen peas

1 Little Gem lettuce , roughly shredded

2 tbsp crème fraîche

In a large frying pan, dry-fry the bacon over a medium heat for 3 mins until the fat is released and the bacon is golden. Transfer the bacon to a small bowl, leaving the fat in the pan. Add the chicken and brown for 4 mins each side.

Push the chicken to one side of the pan and tip in the garlic and spring onions, cooking for about 30 secs, just until the spring onion stalks are bright green. Pour in the chicken stock, return the bacon to the pan, cover and simmer for 15 mins.

Increase heat under the pan. Tip the peas and lettuce into the sauce and cook for 4 mins, covered, until the peas are tender and the lettuce has just wilted. Check chicken is cooked through. Stir in the crème fraîche just before serving.

Nigel Slater's Chicken with Mustard & Crème Fraîche

I can't take any credit for the creation of my dinner last night. It was all down to Nigel Slater's column in the Guardian.  There was some software downtime at work so there was nothing to do only trawl through t'internet for inspiration, luckily this is what I found:

 Nigel Slater's Chicken with Mustard & Creme Fraiche

Serves 4

4 chicken thighs
250ml crème fraîche
2-3 heaped tbsp grain mustard
2 garlic cloves, crushed
150g pancetta or bacon in the piece
3 or 4 small sprigs thyme

Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Put the chicken thighs in an ovenproof dish. Put the creme fraiche in a mixing bowl with the mustard, crushed garlic, a little salt and black pepper. Pull the thyme leaves from their stalks and add them to the creme fraiche.

Cut the pancetta into short, thick strips then fry in a non-stick pan until the fat is golden. Mix with the sauce then spoon over the chicken. Bake for 35 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the chicken skin is nicely coloured.

It tasted delicious, lovely and lusciously creamy. To cut down on the fat and calories, I used chicken breast, low-fat crème fraîche and low-fat smoked bacon medallions.  Using chicken breast also means reducing the cooking time to approximately 20mins or less depending on how you chop the chicken. I served it with garlicky mushrooms and roasted new baby potatoes.

Buffet Pictures

I didn't manage to get photos of all the food at the buffet but I did manage to get pix of the main courses I prepared. They give you an idea of quantity of food that was available.

The Boxes of Makhani & Spanish stew

The Chicken Makhani

The Spanish Chicken Stew

Chicken Pitta Pockets

Yesterday was yet another spice day. Chicken breasts were defrosted and a marinade had to be created.  I sliced the chicken breasts into strips and mixed it into the following:

2tbsps olive oil
Half tsp each of chilli powder, paprika, sriracha sauce and dried parsley
A finely chopped shallot
Big pinch of ground coriander
Finely sliced fresh chilli


Give it all a good stir before you add the chicken to it.

We got these chillies in Aldi on Saturday. Don't they look funky? The big red one is allegedly a habanero but it tasted like a mix between a red bell pepper and a tomato. So then I cut the black one to taste it and it was extremely mild too. Now when I say 'to taste it', I mean that I cut some and gave it to Mr. Chops to taste, I aint that brave!! So seeds and all went into the marinade. If you're the kind of person who likes colours, you'll get a kick out of seeing a black chilli in the mix.

This is what the mix looked like with the raw chicken added.

I made Sriracha mayo sauce, label under Chilli Mayonaisse. I also stir-fried some slices of red & yellow peppers and red onion to stuff into the pockets.

Let's be honest with each other ok? I forgot to take pictures of the cooked meal cos I was so hungry and well my brain is totally controlled by my stomach at times. Ok not at times, at all times! It was a very tasty dinner and exceptionally healthy too and that is always a good thing.

Spaghetti with Chicken & Mushrooms and Garlic Pitta

I was hungry hungry hungry tonight, therefore, dinner had to be cooked the minute I got in the door from work. Chicken breasts are great because they're pretty low in fat and they cook so quickly when chopped up or flattened. Recipe as follows:

1 Chicken breast, sliced finely

5 or 6 mushrooms, thickly sliced

Quarter of red onion, sliced

Large clove garlic, crushed, half for pitta

Spaghetti
Oval pitta bread
Salt & pepper
Grating of parmesan cheese

For the pitta bread, mix a couple tablespoons of butter with half the crushed garlic clove, salt and pepper and a pinch of dried parsely. While you are doing this lightly toast the pitta bread. It should still be soft so be careful to have the toaster on a low setting. While its still hot cut a slit in the top and put in the garlic butter, pushing it right down to the bottom so the entire interior is all garlicky and buttery.

You can reheat when the spaghetti is ready by placing it over the toaster while its switched on, the residual heat from the bottom will warm it through just keep an eye on it. This probably isn't a safe way to do it but I'm still here!!

While the spaghetti is cooking, fry the chicken in a little olive oil over a high heat, its nice if it's browned a little. Then add the mushrooms, onion and garlic and keep stirring. Throw in a few spoonfuls of pasta water and let it bubble vigorously until its almost gone. At this stage, grate in some parmesan, as little or as much as you want. The addition of the cheese with the cooking water kind of makes a creamy sauce. Once its cooked, add the spaghetti to the chicken give it a good stir and serve with the pitta bread. I dare you not to like it.

Busy Week

I've been living in a house of Spring cleaning this week, therefore, dinners were rushed affairs and no time to take any pictures. I had my Thursday weigh-in and unfortunately I didn't lose anything but the silver lining is I didn't gain either. Next week will be different and it turns out housework doesn't burn off as many calories as you'd think. 

Dinners were a quick affair. On Tuesday I had a Chilli Prawn Pasta, very quick stir-fry of prawns, chilli flakes, crushed garlic, chopped shallot and macaroni. Very nice too. Dinner was eaten after a gorgeous stroll down by the Shannon with Mr. Chops and Doggie Chops. The sun was shining and the doggie's face was a picture of happiness for such a long walk.

Wednesday was more pasta. Chopped chicken with onion, garlic, lashings of black pepper and plenty of parmesan all intermingled with pasta. Tasty and I was so hungry I hardly took a breath when I was eating it.

Today I could not get the idea of a steak out of my head so I decided to give my body what it wanted. I got a medium sized striploin from the butchers. I let it come up to room temp while I dry fried off some whole button mushrooms and small shallots. I also peeled a potato and finely sliced it, like a thickish version of shoestring chips and bunged them in the oven with a spritz of no-calorie spray oil for about 20mins until nice and crispy. Once cooked I heated a frying pan to searing hot, there was a little bit of smoke coming off the pan. I oil the steak not the pan and I seasoned it with freshly ground black pepper and sea salt. I fried the steak at the high heat for 2mins on each side. It depends on the thickness of the steak and my steak tonight was pretty thick. Once cooked it was still pink in the middle and lovely and juicy. My meat craving was satisfied and I now have a happy tummy! I'd normally have garlic butter with my steak but I sacrificed it to have more potato.

Spanish Chicken & Chorizo Stew

I normally serve it with roasted cubes of potatoes, very delish.

Its a simple dinner. Roughly chop up some chorizo and fry it off gently until it releases its oils, set aside. You sear off the chicken pieces, we used legs and thighs, dusted with flour and smoked paprika. Remove the skin. Then you add tinned tomatoes, chopped red chilli, sliced red & yellow pepper, sliced onion, garlic, good pinch of oregano, squeeze of tomato puree, pinch of sugar, good pinch of smoked Spanish paprika and plenty of seasoning. It should be a wet stew but thick if you follow me. Add the chorizo for the last half hour of cooking. It should take an hour in total to cook.

The chicken should be loose from the bone. The heat from the chilli should be a background hint and not blow your head off! Its the perfect dinner for a cold winter's night which as we all know at the moment is the only weather we're having.

Spicy Chicken With Pictures

I bet you didn't know you were waiting for the pictures but you were. It was a weekend repeat mid-week if ya get me. Mr. Chops was watching football and I was being bold watching Lost online. Yup, there's some mighty kind peeps out there keep me a day ahead of everyone else in Ireland!!!!! Anyway, himself did the chicken again as we liked it so much last time. So look for the recipe and these be the photos:   The marinated chicken, mmmm.

All the ingredients - except for the flatbreads 

The chicken a-frying

The veg a-frying

Chicken and veg together at last

The Final Product on the Flatbread

So there you are, the pix to match the weekend's dish. Possibly tasted a bit better at the weekend but I put that down to having longer to marinade the chicken. Still, it was pretty delicious!! Oh by the way this is Exceptionally Healthy, and I put that in capitals for a reason!!!!!!!

Mr Chops' Spicy Chicken with Flatbread

Mr. Chops took over the cooking reins last night. The seeds of this dinner began with the find of the month in Aldi - Mediterranean flat breads. These breads make a delicious alternative to pitta breads and all they need is 40 0r 50 seconds in a warm oven. Anyway it was chicken breast for dinner and Mr. Chops decided that a little marination was in order. The following is his recipe:

Spicy Chicken and Veg - serves 2
2 Chicken breasts
Marinade made with some paprika, chilli powder, little bit of cumin, little bit of cayenne pepper, turmeric, chopped garlic and ginger, plenty of salt & pepper and a couple tbsp olive oil.

Mix the chicken with the marinade and give it all a good mix and let it sit in the fridge for around 4 hours.

In the meantime, slice a half each of an orange and yellow pepper and slice a red onion. Chop up a few leaves of iceberg lettuce finely and mix with a finely sliced small shallot as your garnish.

Chilli Mayonnaise
Mix a couple of tablespoons of mayo with crushed garlic, a little salt and a dollop of Sriracha sauce* and a dribble of Frank's Hot sauce. Just mix it all up and there you have it.

Method
Stir fry the chicken for approx 6 mins. Then remove it from the pan and stir fry the veg for a minute or two and add the chicken back in at the end. In the meantime, reheat the flatbread in the oven then assemble. Flatbread on the plate, smear on the chilli mayo, then the lettuce & shallot mix and top with the spicy chicken and veg and eat. No photo was too hungry to take the time.

*Sriracha sauce can be found at any Asian foodstore and is a really hot and spicy chilli sauce so if you like it very hot add more.

This week, we've been mostly eating nice dinners!

Its been a week of comfort food and grub hugs. Mr Chops was getting in on the cooking this week practically shoving me out of the kitchen so he could take over...so I let him. Thursday it was homemade burgers, mash and onion gravy. Friday, he did full chicken roast, yummy. Well it was the supreme of chicken with the usual extras of roasted potatoes, stuffing, gravy & veg. One of his favourite things to do in the kitchen is to joint a chicken so we got two decent dinners out of a small chicken that was on offer in the butchers the other evening. Tonight it was one of our fall-back favourites: Spanish style stew. My recipe but his execution! He served it with roasted cubes of potatoes, very delish.

Its a simple dinner. Roughly chop up some chorizo and fry it off gently until it releases its oils, set aside. You the sear off chicken pieces, we used legs and thighs, dusted with flour and smoked paprika. Remove the skin. Then you add tinned tomatoes, chopped red chilli, sliced red pepper, sliced onion, garlic, good pinch of oregano, squeeze of tomato puree, pinch of sugar, good pinch of smoked Spanish paprika and plenty of seasoning. It should be a wet stew but thick if you follow me. Add the chorizo for the last half hour of cooking. It should take an hour in total to cook. The chicken should be loose from the bone. The heat from the chilli should be a background hint and not blow your head off! Its the perfect dinner for a cold winter's night.

MR. CHOPS MAKES DINNER

It was a super soccer Sunday yesterday and poor me, I had a little bit of a cold so Mr. Chops stepped up to the cooker and said he'd take the dinner in hand. Lovely it was too. He actually made today's dinner as well which is sitting in a big pot on the cooker but more of that later.

Anyway, he made great use of some chicken breasts! He wrapped them in back bacon rashers with lashings of pepper. With the roasted breasts, which took just under 40mins at 170C fan, he served roast potatoes (par-boiled roosters just basted in olive oil, salt & pepper just under an hour to cook), peas and green beans and gravy. Now we cheated with the gravy it was made with Bisto but what's wrong with that? We like Bisto ok! This is what our gorgeous dinner looked like: