Blackened Chicken Philly Subs

Every once in a while I decide to try to recreate a menu item from a favorite restaurant. This came about one night while the hubby was out of town, and being too lazy to run out to grab a meal, I found a spare piece of chicken in the fridge that needed to be used. I decided to try to recreate a blackened chicken sub I quite enjoyed at a local Italian restaurant, but it seemed to morph into a chicken philly sub along the way. Hence, the Blackened Chicken Philly Sub.

So, here's how it goes:

1. Brush chicken breasts (I used bone-in split breasts with the skin on for this go-round, just because the bone and skin combine to provide much more flavor than skinless chicken breasts; you can always remove the skin before serving) with canola oil and season with salt, pepper and Cajun seasoning, making sure to season the outside of the skin as well as under the skin.

2. Heat a nonstick skillet on medium-high heat; add the chicken and sear on both sides for approximately 12 minutes each side. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 440 degrees F. Once the chicken has been pan-seared, move to an oven-safe dish and bake for 15 minutes. (I originally thought searing on a high heat in a pan and then transferring the chicken to an oven set on a lower temperature yielded juicier results, but I swear the chicken came out juicier after baking on a higher heat).

3. While the chicken is baking, thinly slice a green pepper and white onion; saute in one tablespoon of canola oil on medium heat until softened.

4. When the chicken and veggies are done, place them to the side to let the juices set in the chicken. Meanwhile, brush sliced hoagie rolls with canola oil and brown on the heated skillet used for the veggies.

5. Now here's the key to a juicy sub: once the rolls are browned, remove and brush with mayonnaise (yeah, of course the secret involves mayo). Slice the chicken, place on one side of the roll, and top with the veggies and shredded mozzarella cheese.

6. Serve with baked fries.

Grilled Chicken Thighs with White Barbecue Sauce

And here I am playing catch-up again. Most likely this will be the last post this week, because we are hella busy (and because my birthday is coming up, and I have requested pizza from a local restaurant, so there goes a few nights off from cooking). So first up: Grilled Chicken Thighs with White Barbecue Sauce. From what I recall, the only tweak I would make next time around is to sear the chicken thighs (a process that seals in the juices) and grill them a little longer. The key is to marinate the chicken in the dry rub for at least four hours as instructed.

If you've never tried white barbecue sauce, it's a great break from the norm, with mayonnaise used here as the base instead of ketchup. I subbed out the white wine vinegar for the standard white distilled vinegar, and it worked just as well.

Sides included "heavenly" cornbread and pasta salad.

Steak and Fries

I'm just going to go ahead and warn you that, no, the pictures of steak below are not the most appetizing. But how do you capture on a digital camera something so perfect as a medium rare steak?! I tried, I failed, but you'll just have to deal with it.

I've done the steak and fries post before, but I mainly wanted to include this new post because of the fabulous new way I've discovered to make baked fries. I've become very spoiled by baked fries, and the fast food kind are just soggy, limp versions of what a potato really could be. I'm going to go step-by-step on this one:

1. Preheat the oven to 440 degrees F. Cut three Yukon gold potatoes into 2-inch wedges. Drop the wedges into a large bowl filled with iced water; let sit for about five minutes (this just pulled the sugars out of the potatoes; if you skip this test, you may end up with unevenly baked fries).
2. Drain the potato wedges and blot dry with a paper towel (this ensures a crispy outside and a perfectly cooked inside during the baking process).
3. In a small saucepan, heat 2 Tbsp. canola oil over medium heat. Add 4 minced garlic cloves and heat for 1 minute (any longer and you run the risk of burnt garlic). Pour the oil through a small sieve over the dried potato wedges; set the garlic aside.
4. Sprinkle the wedges with salt, pepper, and cayenne (if you want a little heat) and toss until evenly coated with spices and the garlic-infused oil.
5. Evenly spread the wedges onto a greased baking sheet; bake for 24 minutes, flipping halfway through cooking time.
6. When the potatoes are baked, sprinkle with a little more salt if needed and add the reserved garlic bits.

The hubby was in charge of the steak, which was just seasoned with some steak seasoning and placed on a heated grill pan until medium rare.

Salmon Sandwich with Lemon-Tarragon Slaw

Hey, look at me updating two days in a row! So first up is a Salmon Sandwich with Lemon-Tarragon Slaw. Yes, I know the recipe title in the link says arctic char, but really? That's pretty difficult to find in a Kroger. Salmon is the logical substitute here, and it was delicious. The only tweak I made was the addition of Cajun seasoning, because blackened salmon is pretty much the only way I can get the hubby to eat that particular fish.

The slaw was the perfect acidic complement to the fish. It's not your usual sweeter slaw, which I usually prefer, but this version works very well.

Sides here included grilled asparagus (just trim the ends of fresh asparagus, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper; grill for about 8-9 minutes total on medium heat and finish off with some fresh lemon juice) and a pasta salad, both of which, combined with the sandwich, screamed spring on the plate.

The pasta salad is one of my favorite go-to recipes to herald in spring. It's an extraordinarily simple salad and can last in the fridge for about a week (it will probably take you that long to eat it all if you don't plan on bringing it to a potluck or picnic). All that's needed is 1 pound of pasta cooked to the specifications on the box (I prefer fettucini, but spaghetti works as well) and drained and rinsed with cold water, 2 tomatoes chopped, 1 cucumber chopped, 1/2 red onion chopped, a bottle of Italian dressing, and salad seasoning. I normally just throw in the drained and cooled pasta and veggies then add dressing and seasoning as needed, tasting along the way.

Pizza Pizza

That whole updating regularly thing isn't working out so well, and after being on skates for 4.5 hours today, I have just enough energy for this one post. So you'll have to wait for a catch-up tomorrow. Tonight's menu was as simple as simple gets: pizza and salad. I've tried homemade pizzas before (okay, more like homemade pizza sauce on a store-bought crust because whenever I see the word "yeast" used in a recipe, my brain shuts down, either from fear of making dough or from a fear of knowing that, if I could make the dough, we would gain 100 pounds from eating bread, doughnuts, etc., so I just choose to act like I can't make dough from scratch), and this sauce I pulled from Cooking Light has been the best so far. It wasn't quite as thick as I prefer, so I may experiment with the texture the next time I try this, but the recipe overall was simple and full of flavor. Because I'm such a food dork, I had actually heard of the San Marzano tomatoes specified in the recipe as being the more superior of the canned tomatoes. And I have to say, they were right about that. It's just a lighter, almost sweet version of the regular canned tomato, and the salt ratio was much easier to control. If you can find the San Marzanos in your Italian section of the grocery store, go for it.

Because of that aforementioned phobia of making dough from scratch, I'm always a little weary of trying out the store-bought brands of pizza crust. We've tried the Pillsbury refrigerated crust, but it always ended up a little soggy in the middle and didn't really hold up to the toppings (and it did NOT reheat well if any leftovers remained). This time around, we tried a Boboli crust (usually hanging out in the Italian aisle). This was crunchier and held up well to the sauce, so this will probably be our go-to crust unless something better comes along. I just spread the homemade pizza sauce on the crust, leaving about a 1/2-inch border, and topped with thinly sliced fresh mozzarella (another ingredient that shouldn't be overlooked; if you reach for that pre-shredded pizza blend in the cheese aisle, you'll be doing yourself a huge disservice--go with the fresh, which may cost more, but the taste and texture far exceeds the bagged "cheese"). This was supposed to be a traditional pizza Margherita, usually a red-white-and-green pizza comprising pizza sauce, mozzarella and fresh basil, but I'm admittedly not the biggest fan of fresh basil. So I just sprinkled on some dried basil before popping the pizza into the oven on 450 degrees F and baking for 8 minutes.

The side was just a basic salad with chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots.

Now, for dessert....I really can't rave about this recipe enough. I'm a big, big fan of salty-but-sweet desserts, and this hits the spot every time. It's a Strawberry Pretzel Salad, and really, I just followed the linked recipe step-by-step. I did allow the pretzel crust (really the genius part of this recipe) to cool before topping with the cream cheese mixture. I let those two layers chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes to allow it to set, then I made the Jell-O mixture and popped it into the fridge for about 5-7 minutes just to get it set a bit before pouring on top of the cream cheese mixture. Within about 2 hours, the dessert had set enough to be consumed. Yeah, it all sounds very white trash-y (for some reason, Jell-O in a dessert seems to have that stigma), but I find it to be a...well, a delightful dessert.

Pork Tacos with Radish-Avocado Salsa

I think one of the funnest dinners to cook is a Mexican-inspired dish. I love all of the individual pieces to it and serving up something of a food assembly line. This time around, I decided to try out a shredded pork entree for a change. Now, you can use the pork recipe from the following link, but I had the time to drop a pork tenderloin in a crock pot, so I went that route. I just picked up a 1.5 pound pork tenderloin, placed it in a crock pot with one cup of water, one chopped yellow onion, and four cloves of chopped garlic and let it go on low for about six hours. After six hours, I added one packet of taco seasoning to the crock pot and continued to cook on low for another hour. At this point, the pork should literally melt apart and will need little work to shred.

In the meantime, I used this recipe to make the radish-avocado salsa. I don't normally like radishes, but this was a refreshing take on the normal tomato-based salsa. It was equally great served with tortilla chips or as a topper for the pork tacos.

I pulled all of this together with warmed tortillas, chopped cherry tomatoes, lettuce, a habanero salsa (in addition to the radish-avocado salsa), and hot sauce. Sides included red rice and refried beans (I put most of the work into the homemade salsa and the entree rather than in the sides).

Chicken with Lemon and Olives

While I was out to derby practice last week, the hubby whipped up this Chicken with Lemon and Olives recipe. I can't add much input to this, because other than pull out the marinade ingredients for him to use, I was out of the house for this one. But the results were delicious when I was finally able to enjoy dinner that night. We didn't get any pictures of this one, so you'll just have to enjoy the photo on the Cooking Light link.  We just served this up with some jasmine rice (just follow the directions on the package). Yep, that's it for this one.

Shrimp Po'Boys

Yes, I'm way behind again in posts, quit yelling at me. I keep thinking uploading these cooking sessions in batches after a week is more efficient, but it's really not. It's just a cop-out because, really, roller derby takes a lot out of a girl. All I can do is promise to try harder to post more frequently.

So, first up for tonight: shrimp po'boys, chicken wings, and baked fries. I've already covered the chicken wings before, and they were just as tasty this time around. The problem is, I've started a (for lack of a better word) quest to find the perfect hot sauce. Tabasco and Texas Pete, while great flavors, just don't provide the heat I want now. So, for this time around, I did a half-and-half mix of Texas Pete and Yucatan habanero hot sauce (which, to my taste buds, is just a touch hotter than Tabasco; still not quite what I'm looking for, but a good start nonetheless). Again, heat is so subjective, it's really up to you how hot you want your wings (or any food, for that matter). Per usual chicken wing "protocol," just serve with your favorite dipping sauce, some carrots and celery.

I've also covered the baked fries multiple times; this particular night, I used salt, pepper and Old Bay seasoning for a little kick.

On to the shrimp po'boys...one of the great things I find about shrimp is that it is relatively hard to screw it up. I just seasoned some fresh white shrimp (NOT the pre-cooked stuff) with salt, pepper and a little Cajun seasoning (yeah, I know, probably backwards to use Old Bay on the fries instead of the shrimp, but that's just me, being a little rebel). I sauteed the shrimp on medium-high in about 1 Tbsp. of canola oil until a coral color. In the meantime, I used some leftover chicken wings sauce and mixed it with some mayo to taste. I spread the mayo on a toasted hoagie roll, topped with thinly sliced red onions, tomatoes and lettuce and served it up with the fries. Simple, but full of flavor.

To wash it all down, I've become a fan of sangria. There are a variety of sangria recipes you can find across the Internet, but I chose a Bobby Flay recipe for a rose sangria. You can search for white or red sangria recipes, but I like the semisweet taste of white zinfandel for this (even though I think it tastes like shit on its own, it makes for a great base for sangria). It's really quite simple, and something that is quickly become a weekend indulgence: grab a bottle (or two) of white zinfandel and chill. In the meantime, make a simple syrup (yeah, it really is simple: just bring equal parts water and sugar to a boil until sugar dissolves; remove from heat and let cool; I use one cup sugar to one cup water for this recipe). Thinly slice a green apple and orange. Pour the chilled zinfandel in a pitcher, add the sliced apples/oranges, drop in a pint of fresh blackberries or raspberries, and pour in the cooled simple syrup. Chill; just before serving, add some ice cubes to a wine glass, top with the sangria and add club soda or 7-Up and enjoy!

Oregano and Lime Roasted Chicken Breasts

This recipe is definitely going to be a keeper in our house: oregano and lime roasted chicken breasts.

A flavor-packed chicken, I didn't do much to up the ante on this one. As usual, I added more salt than what was called for in the recipe; I omitted the tequila as well (I've had a few bad run-ins with that vile substance, so I like to avoid anything that will trigger my gag reflex in food). I kind of failed to read this recipe ahead of time and ran out of time to refrigerate the chicken breasts with the oregano/lime mixture for four hours; it ended up being only one hour, and the recipe still turned out well, so I assume another three hours would have made it a true knock-out. It's important to choose bone-in chicken breasts with skin intact because that will help protect the lime mixture and (most importantly, at least from my perspective) prevent the minced garlic in the mixture from burning. Plus, bone-in and skin just add much more flavor to chicken, normally a pretty bland meat.

Sides included a warm potato salad and sliced sourdough bread from a local bakery. The potato salad was super simple and a lighter version of the mayo-laden original:
2 lb. red potatoes, scrubbed well and cut into 3/4" pieces (or you could use Yukon gold, which is just a staple in our pantry)
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar (I subbed in red wine vinegar since it was in the pantry; it was just as good)
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 small shallot, finely chopped
(Alternatives: the original, pulled from the latest Martha Stewart Living, includes 3 oz. crumbled goat cheese; however, I used a few dollops of olive oil mayo because I kinda forgot to grab the goat cheese on the trip to the grocery store; the original recipe also called for flat-leaf parsley, which [just being honest here] I think is one of the most worthless herbs to use in any recipe)

-Cover potatoes with water in a medium saucepan; season with salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer until tender, 10-12 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 Tbsp. cooking liquid (this will help thicken up the vinegar mixture a bit since it's full of the starches from the potatoes). Let potatoes cool for 5 minutes.
-Whisk together vinegar, mustard, and reserved cooking liquid. Add oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly until emulsified.
-Transfer potatoes to a bowl, and drizzle with vinaigrette. Gently stir in mayo (or goat cheese), celery, and shallot. Season with salt and pepper.

This weekend is kind of an easy one, so there should be plenty of cooking opportunities and up-to-date posts--stay tuned!

Catching Up/Fish Dinner

I realize that title does not sound appetizing at all, but it's the best I can do with what little brainpower I have left today. I'm doing some catching up again, so this is another back-to-back post. First up: crispy fish with lemon-dill sauce. Not many tweaks here--a little more salt than that listed in the recipe, and that's about it. I'm not a big fan of using cod when it comes to fish recipes (unless it's for use in a fish cake recipe) because it has a tendency to break and fall apart very easily. So, I subbed in flounder, and it worked perfectly. The lemon-dill sauce was light and turned out to be a great alternative to tartar sauce. I'm a big fan of panko breading now, and it will probably become a staple in our pantry because it's just a great crunch--much better than normal breadcrumbs.

Sides included cheesy mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. I'm not sure why I steered clear of making mashed potatoes for a while--it really could not be easier. My basic plan of attack is to dice (non-peeled or peeled, up to you) Yukon gold potatoes, boil in salted water on high heat until the potatoes break apart when pierced with a fork (about 25-30 minutes), drain, add salt and pepper to taste, mash, and add any dairy I can get my hands on (this recipe included a few tablespoons of butter, some milk, and a mix of sharp and mild cheddar cheeses). The grilled asparagus was just as simple. I've become a big fan of this veggie the past few weeks, but nothing has tasted better than just drizzling the trimmed asparagus with olive oil, seasoning with salt and pepper, and grilling on medium-high heat for about 4 minutes per side. I sprinkled a little freshly grated lemon peel over the asparagus, and voila.