Category Archives: Mains

Grilling Mode – An Iron Chef Lunch

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Before I say anything else, I want to emphatically thank Iron Chefs Bobby Flay and Cat Cora for their recipes for this lunch. If you try either one of these recipes, you’ll see why and want to send them thank you cards yourself. Oh. My…..

I’m not usually a big fan of grilled food, much to the chagrin of fabulous Hubby, but. BUT! Bobby Flay’s Grilled Chicken Breasts with Orange, Maple and Black Pepper Glaze served with Cat Cora’s Grilled Asparagus with Citrus and Caper Aîoli ….well, there’s no way I can’t love grilling now. In fact, I want to grill everything after trying these. These two recipes, along with some grilled Italian garlic bread, have converted me. This lunch was nothing short of perfection. It really was the most delicious thing I ever took off a grill.

Please forgive me for the lack of step-by-step photos for these two dishes. Honestly, I was having so much fun preparing them that I flat out forgot to take them! Some blogger I am, right? Anyway….so….today I’ll simply share the recipes with you, having full confidence in your ability to make these dishes without those step-by-step photos. :)

Let’s start with that chicken!

Grilled Chicken Breasts with Orange, Maple and Black Pepper Glaze

This recipe is adapted from one in Bobby Flay’s Grill It! Cookbook, but you can also view it at The Food Network site, where he uses chicken thighs and drumsticks instead (which we will try next time!) Also, we used orange zest and orange juice rather than tangerine. (Couldn’t find the tangerine-orange juice!)

Ingredients:

  • 5 tablespoons canola oil
  • 1 small red onion, coarsely chopped
  • 1 quart orange juice, not from concentrate
  • 4 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 1 orange, zested
  • 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
  • 4 boneless chicken breasts (8 oz)
  • Salt
  • 2 green onions, thinly sliced, for garnish

Directions:

Heat the grill to medium-high.

For the glaze:

  • Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a medium saucepan over high heat, add the onion and cook until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the juice and thyme, bring to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened and reduced to approximately 1/2 cup, about 20-30 minutes.
  • Strain the mixture into a bowl and whisk in the syrup, soy sauce and black pepper and let cool to room temperature. Can be made 2 days in advance and brought to room temperature before using.

For the chicken:

  • Brush chicken on both sides with the remaining oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill until golden brown on both sides and just cooked through. Begin brushing with the glaze during the last 5 minutes of grilling. Remove to a platter and sprinkle with the green onion. Tent with foil and let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with grilled citrus if you’d like.

On to the grilled asparagus!

I’ve never tried a Cat Cora recipe before, but when I saw this one in this month’s issue of Coastal Living I was all over it. As some of you know, I adore asparagus, and now that it’s in season, it tastes better than ever. And the aïoli compliments the flavor SO well. To be honest, after I initially made the aïoli, I didn’t like it. It was much to bitter for me at that point. But, after the flavors had time to meld, and I poured it over the warm asparagus, I just loved it. Hubby thinks it might be the best thing that ever happened to him.

Cat Cora’s Grilled Asparagus with Citrus and Caper Aïoli Recipe

Adapted from a recipe in the May, 2012 issue of Coastal Living Magazine

For the aïoli (make this first):

Ingredients:

  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 large garlic clove, pressed
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 2 1/4 cups olive oil
  • 1 jalapeño or other hot chile pepper, stem removed
  • 1 teaspoon capers
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

  1. Combine first 3 ingredients in a food processor or blender, and process until well blended. With processor on, slowly pour in oil and process until smooth.
  2. Add jalapeño, capers, kosher salt and pepper, pulsing until well mixed. If aïoli is too thick, stir in a little bit of water at a time until it reaches desired consistency.

For the grilled asparagus:

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 pounds large asparagus stalks, trimmed
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

  1. Preheat grill to medium-high heat (350° to 400°).
  2. Snap off and discard tough ends of asparagus. Cook asparagus in boiling salted water 2 to 3 minutes or until crisp-tender; drain. Plunge asparagus into an ice water bath to stop the cooking process; drain.
  3. Brush asparagus with olive oil, and sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper. Grill 2 minutes on each side; let cool. Top with Citrus-and-Caper Aïoli.

The perfect lunch? Dinner? Both :) If you try either one of these, let me know what you think. I hope you love it as much as we did!

I love eating like this. I could do it every day. This recipe goes in the arsenal for sure, especially for one of those hot July days when I don’t want to heat up the house by running the oven. In fact, I have a lot of recipes flagged in Bobby Flay’s Grill It! for that exact purpose. I like to be prepared that way :)

What’s your favorite grill recipe? Link me!

Greek-Style Turkey Meatloaf

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Today was the first day in many, many months that I haven’t felt like cooking. It might have something to do with the fact that it was 76 degrees here today. With clear blue skies. In southern Wisconsin. On March 14. Yeah, VERY unusual.

But, out of sheer love for my fabulous Hubby who likes to eat every day,  I cooked this Greek-Style Turkey Meatloaf anyway. It was a hit. It took very little time to prepare, too. It’s totally worth giving up a little time for, even on a beautiful day like this one. (Meatloaves are SO not photogenic, are they?)

This one starts off by chopping 2 cloves of garlic, a small red onion and 2 large stalks of celery. It’s really important to chop all of these as small as possible.

Then, we cook them in a medium skillet over medium heat in 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil for 5-7 minutes, or until they’ve cooked into nice little tender pieces.

Once the onion, garlic and celery are done on the stove, add them to a large bowl. Then, add 2 pounds of ground turkey, 1 large egg, 2 slices of white sandwich bread cut into small pieces, 1 1/4 teaspoons of salt and a half teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper.

Now, take off your rings and set them in a safe place, because you’re about to mix all that raw poultry together with the other ingredients with your hands. Do me a favor and wash your hands well and often during these few steps?  Ok, thanks… :)  Raw poultry can cause a whole bunch of health problems and I’d hate for that to happen to anyone.

It just takes a few seconds to mix everything up good.  When that’s done the next step is to chop up a 1/4 cup of fresh dill and add it to the turkey mix.

Oh, and may I suggest something before you chop your fresh dill on a beautiful 76 degree March day when you have all the windows open to let the warm breezes blow through the house? Shut the windows. It’s very light and runs away with even the slightest breeze. Trust me. :)

Ok, so you’ve added the 1/4 cup of dill to your turkey mix, now add a cup of crumbled feta and mix everything together again. Yes, with your hands.

Now it’s time to form your soon to be meatloaf into a 4″ x 10″ loaf on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Place it in a 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes…

….and done! Pretty simple stuff, right? Quick prep time too! A nice little bonus for a day as beautiful as this one.

I normally don’t eat meatloaf, but I can say I loved this one. It’s a nice, mild meatloaf with a wonderful smooth flavor. You taste just enough feta, just enough dill, just enough onion – Nothing overpowers anything else, and the turkey gives it all a light, almost sweet base of flavor. Hubby can’t wait to take meatloaf sandwiches to the office for lunch tomorrow, that he’ll no doubt eat outside in another 70+ degree March day….

Here’s the recipe:

Greek-Style Turkey Meatloaf

Adapted from a recipe in the April, 2012 issue of Everyday Food. The recipe is not available online anywhere, so I’ve included it here.

Ingredients:

  • 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 small red onion, diced small
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 2 large celery stalks, diced small
  • kosher salt and pepper
  • 2 pounds ground turkey (the original recipe calls for 1 pound each of dark meat ground turkey and white meat ground turkey, we used all white meat)
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 slices white sandwich bread cut into small pieces
  • 1 cup crumbled feta
  • 1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and celery and cook, stirring occasionally until vegetables are soft. About 7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large bowl, combine vegetables, turkey egg, bread, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Mix well with your hands until well-combined. Mix in feta and dill. Transfer to a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and form into a 4″ x 10″ loaf. Bake until cooked through, 45-55 minutes. Rotate sheet halfway through. Let rest 10 minutes before slicing.

To store leftovers, cover and refrigerate, up to 3 days.

How’s your week going? I hope it’s as beautiful where you are as it is here.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Mole

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This Chicken Mole (pronounced MOH-lay) from the December issue of Everyday Food has got to be the easiest dinner I’ve ever made that has this much flavor. Hubby absolutely loved this last night, and hauled a big serving of it to work for lunch today. I asked him if he wanted me to freeze the leftovers and he said, “it won’t last that long.” In our house that translates to success!

I didn’t find the recipe on the Everyday Food site yet, only in the magazine, but it’s included below with an option to print a PDF version.

There isn’t much of a story behind making this dish, because it was so easy. To start, put about 12 (4 pounds) boneless, skinless chicken thighs in your slow cooker and season with salt. Nope, you don’t have to cook it first, it’s gonna cook 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low, which is more than enough to cook your chicken.

Next, put every single other ingredient (except the cilantro) in your blender. Not the food processor like I did. I had no choice, one of my soups killed my blender a couple of weeks ago and I haven’t had a chance to replace it yet. I had a big mess during the puree part of this recipe, which is why there are no photos. :) Just use your blender to puree all of these wonderful ingredients: tomatoes, onion, dried ancho chiles, a large chipotle in adobo sauce, sliced almonds, raisins, bittersweet chocolate, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, ground cumin and cinnamon. Seriously, how can you go wrong with that collection of ingredients? Pour your puree over the chicken that’s waiting patiently in the slow cooker and your work here is done! Now it just needs to cook for 4 hours on high, or 8 hours on low. Serve it over your favorite rice with a sprinkling of fresh cilantro. It doesn’t get any easier than that, right?

Enjoy!

Slow-Cooker Chicken Mole Recipe

from Everyday Food, December 2011

Printer-friendly PDF version

Ingredients:

  • 4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 12)
  • course salt
  • 1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes
  • 1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
  • 2 dried ancho chiles, stemmed
  • 1 large chipotle chile in adobo sauce
  • 1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (1/2 cup)
  • 3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • fresh cilantro leaves for serving

Directions:

Season chicken thighs with salt and place in a 5-6 quart slow cooker. In a blender, puree tomatoes, onion, ancho & chipotle chiles, almonds, raisins, chocolate, garlic, oil, cumin and cinnamon until smooth. Add mixture to slow cooker and cover. Cook on high until chicken is tender, 4 hours (or 8 hours on low). Serve chicken with sauce topped with cilantro.