Day 7: Un-fried Chicken with Mock Caeser Salad

A bit delayed writing up this recipe experience, since I whisked (kitchen vocabulary) myself down to Yuma for the wonderful 80th birthday bash for Bonnie Sue. She weathered the surprise very well.  We finally (after the 2nd surprise, which was the appearance of one of her grand-daughters) showed mercy and declared to her that she could relax, we had no more surprises planned.  We did manage to have the Mango Parfait (Day 1) for dessert one evening, and it was a smash hit.

So now, Un-fried Chicken.  I planned and prepared for this recipe poorly, but it was worth the three trips to the grocery store.The un-fried chicken was quite tasty and had a kick supplied by Old Bay and Creole seasoning, as well as cayenne pepper.  I used small pieces of chicken, chicken-nugget size, instead of the large pieces called for in the recipe. And I used chicken thighs, instead of breasts, because that is what we like at our house.  The small pieces of chicken decreased the cooking time by a good 40 minutes, so I would do the nugget-size again, when I repeat this recipe.

Chicken nugget breading was a tad dry, so I made a cocktail sauce out of ketchup, lemon juice, and horseradish, and that did the trick for dipping.  I think a Ranch or Blue Cheese dressing would work fine, as well.

The Mock Caesar salad had a fresh, clean, taste - it let the flavor of the Romaine lettuce come through. Fairly simple with Romaine lettuce, Parmesan (and more Parmesan), black pepper, and tomatoes and a dressing of soy sauce, lemon juice, and garlic. Ah yes, looking at my notes I see I did add a bit of olive oil to the dressing. 

A baguette bread would have topped off the meal perfectly, but that would have required yet one more trip to the grocery store.

Un-Fried Chicken  p. 39 of "In the Kitchen with Rosie"
Light vegetable oil cooking spray
6 chicken drumsticks, skin removed(I skipped the drumsticks)
3 whole chicken breasts, halved and skin removed (I cut my chicken into nugget-sized pieces, and used about 2 whole chicken breasts- worth of chicken)
3 1/2 C ice water
1 C plain nonfat yogurt (low-fat yogurt)

For the breading:
1 C dried Italian bread crumbs
1 T Old Bay seasoning
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t Creole seasoning
1/8 t freshly ground black pepper
Dash cayenne pepper
1/2 t dried thyme
1/2 t dried basil
1/2 t dried oregano

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Coat a baking sheet with 3 sprays of the vegetable oil.
Put the chicken in a large bowl with the ice water.  Put the yogurt into a medium bowl.  Set both bowls aside.
Toss all the breading ingredients into a large, tightly-sealing plastic bag.  Seal and shake well to mix.
Remove  2 pieces of chicken from the ice water (I worked with 6-8 of the nugget size at one time).  Roll each piece in the yogurt.  Put the chicken into the plastic bag, reseal, and shake to coat thoroughly.  Transfer the breaded chicken to the prepared baking sheet.  Repeat the process untill all 12 pieces are breaded.  Spray the chicken lightly with the vegetable oil.
Place the baking sheet on the bottom shelf of the overn and bake for 1 hour, turning the pieces every 20 minutes to allow even browning.
 Serve hot or at room temperature.

Mock Caesar  Salad p. 33 of "In the Kitchen with Rosie"
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1/4 C reduced-sodium soy sauce (just used soy-sauce)
1.4 /c freshly squeezed lelmon juice
3 C chopped Belgian endive (4 heads) (I skipped the endive)
6 C torn Romaince lettuce (2 heads)  (1 large head seemed plenty)
1/8 t freshly cracked black pepper
1 T freshly grated Parmesan cheese (Definitely more of the Parmesan than 1 T) 
1 1/3 C chopped tomato or 1 large tomato

Put the garlic, soy sauce, and lemon juice in a salad bowl and whixh thoroughtly.  Add the endive and Romaine lettuce.  Toss to coat.  Sprinkle the black peepper and Parmesan cheese on top.
Garnish with the chopped tomato.   

Day 8. Curried Chicken Salad

Since I had some raw chicken left-over from the previous day's cooking, I thought I would try the Curried Chicken Salad. When Rosie calls this a lively salad, she is spot-on; it is chock full of fresh fruit and vegetables - peas, carrots, red cabbage, apples, celery, scallions, raisens, and tomatoes. I served it on slices of  Rustic Bread from Albertsons, but would probably try Rosie's suggestion next time of serving in a pita pocket. It was a filling dinner for two.

I wasn't quite satisfied with the curry sauce, but not sure what it needed.  Maybe a dab of chutney?

In talking with my sister, she reminded me that she made this for me one time.  I remember I loved it.  Food is so much tastier when someone else prepares it especially for you.

An observation of our family and I wonder if it is universal. I thought about it when I left the half an apple out on the counter.  An apple (or carrot, or orange, or name another fruit or vegetable) can sit on the counter for days.  Wash it and slice it, and the apple is gone in minutes.  A carrot can sit in the vegetable bin till it turns to rubber.  Wash it, scrape it, and slice it, put it on a plate on the counter.  It's gone. 


Curried Chicken Salad    p.34 of  "In the Kitchen with Rosie "
1 1/2 C cubed cooked chicken breast
1/4 C frozen peas, thawed
1/4 C scraped and shredded carrot
1/8 t celery seed
1 T golden raisins (definitely want 2 T)
f1 C shreddedred cabbage
]1/4 C chopped green apple
1/4 C chopped scallion
1/4 C chopped celery

Dressing
1 C plain nonfat yogurt (yes, I used yogurt WITH fat)
1 T nonfat mayonnaise (ditto)
3 t curry powder
3 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 T Dijon-style mustard
2 T minced shallot

4 large red cabbage leaves
4 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 T chopped fresh parsley

Combine the chicken, peas, carrot, celery seed, raisins, shredded cabbage, apple, scallions, and celery in a salad bowl.  
Put all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whixk to blend.
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour (maybe longer.  The leftover salad was even better the next day)
Place a cabbage leaf, curved side down, on each salad plate.  Mound salad into the leaves and garnish with the cherry tomatoes and parsley .
  

Day 6. Ind. Pizza: Other two variations

The next two variations of the individual pizzas were not momentous, and I would repeat those recipes only if the needed ingredients were all I had in my kitchen.  The first variation called for pesto, Rosie's pizza sauce, spinach leaves, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, black olives, and Parmesan.  In spite of substituting feta for the Parmesan and using Chef Rosie's pungent tomato sauce, the pizza was just okay - not exceptional. Ten points for healthy but 6 out of 10 for flavor.

The other variation- with goat cheese, basil, artichoke, onion, and tomato - was bland.  The ingredients reminded me a bit of the appetizer Rose Magnuson made, after her trip to Turkey, when she tried to recreate one of the fabulous meals during her trip.  But Rose M. used a Babboli pizza crust, loaded with flavors, and jack cheese, sliced artichoke hearts, bell peppers, black olives, and feta cheese. I loved it. For some reason, the "In the Kitchen with Rosie"'s version lacked flavor, even after rubbing garlic and olive oil on the crust - which I tried on my second round of  this pizza. I give this variation of Rosie Daley's pizza a 5 out of 10.

I added a bit of cornmeal to the pizza dough and did love the addition for the flavor boost it gave the crust.  And now I must go have a very large piece of apple pie; a large piece because pie = dinner tonight.  Made with lots of shortening, the Rose Magnuson Way.