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    Showing posts with label chicken. Show all posts
    Showing posts with label chicken. Show all posts

  1. Buffalo Chicken Pizza

    Thursday, March 14, 2013

    in 

    I'm a huge fan of Buffalo Chicken Pizza. It all started when I went to Houghton College. I worked in the downstairs cafe/snack shop that served wraps, hamburgers, fries, chicken wings, pizza, milkshakes and a few other unhealthy college staples. While the food was not all that fresh and pretty much everything came frozen or jarred, it did start my buffalo chicken pizza obsession. When I first heard about it I thought that it was super gross, until I tried it. Where had been this deliciousness been all my life?! 

    Since I worked in the snack shop, I could customize anything I made for myself to the way I liked it. So now that I'm living in my own home with a family and I have all the ingredients to make it all from scratch it's just that more delicious. 

    Ever since I found a bread machine at a yard sale for $5, I've been using it to make my pizza dough. But I'll be putting in my recipe to make it by hand, which is slightly different, because I know that not everyone has a bread machine - and this is how I used to make my pizza dough before.


    Buffalo Chicken Pizza

    Pizza Dough (makes 2 medium round crusts)
    - 3 1/2 cups flour
    - 1 1/2 cups warm water
    - 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
    - 2 tsp salt
    - 1 tsp sugar
    - 2 TB oil

    Toppings
    - one chicken breast
    - salt and pepper
    - mozzerella and parmesan cheese
    - Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Sauce
    - Blue Cheese dressing, preferably with chunks


    Pizza Dough
    Combine yeast, warm water and sugar in a bowl and wait for yeast to activate, roughly 10 minutes.
    Add in oil, salt, and flour (cup by cup) while mixing with a mixer with a dough hook attachment. 
    When the dough becomes thick enough, knead by hand for at least 5 minutes (can also be done with a dough hook). 
    Let it rise in an oiled bowl covered with a dishcloth for 1 1/2 hours.
    It's now ready to shape and make into pizzas.

    Pizza Assembly and toppings
    Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
    While the dough is rising, you can make the chicken and buffalo sauce.
    To make the chicken, simply season with salt and pepper, cut into bite sized pieces and cook in a skillet until done. Set aside.
    Make the buffalo sauce by combining the blue cheese dressing and Frank's Buffalo sauce in a 2:1 ratio (I like mine pretty spicy, feel free to add more or less blue cheese dressing to either tone it down or increase spiciness.) 
    Shape half of the pizza dough into a circle or square (depending on your preference or shape of your pan), and prick the dough with the tines of a fork to keep it from puffing too much. Leave about a inch around the edge of the dough for the crust. Dust the pan with a thin layer of cornmeal to keep the dough from sticking to  it and put the dough in the oven for 5 -10 minutes until mostly cooked though but not browned.
    Once the dough has been pre-baked, take it out and re-prick the dough with a fork. Top with the buffalo sauce, cooked chicken and mozzarella cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown.
    Top the finished pizza with Parmesan cheese if you wish. Let cool for about 10 minutes before cutting into slices.

    Enjoy!


    Posted by Katrina at 5:47 PM | Labels: , , , | 0 comments | |

  2. Easy Roast Chicken with Accordion Potatoes

    Friday, February 15, 2013

     

    I didn't follow a recipe for these, I just used my favorite ingredients for roast chicken and roast potatoes. It's a very easy recipe because you put it all together in the oven to cook and all you have to do is wait until it's done.

    Easy Roast Chicken with Accordion Potatoes
    serves 2-4

    - two skin-on chicken leg quarters (thigh and leg attached together)
    - four to five small/medium sized baking potatoes (like Idaho or Russet)
    - one lemon
    - several sprigs fresh rosemary
    - three TB butter
    - olive oil
    - salt and pepper

    --

    To prepare the chicken, season liberally with salt and pepper and place in a foil lined baking dish.
    In between the skin and flesh of the chicken, stick a sprig of rosemary and a slice of lemon.

    To cut the potatoes into accordions, place each potato in between two chopsticks on the cutting board - so that when you slice down you don't go all the way through the potato. (It's harder than you'd think to do without the chopsticks!) Cut the slices about 1/4 inch thick each. 

    Roughly chop up the remaining sprigs of rosemary and place in a microwavable bowl with the butter. Melt the butter with the rosemary in the microwave. Spoon the rosemary-butter into each of the slices of the potatoes. Place the potatoes alongside the chicken in the pan.

    Slice up the rest of the lemon and place the slices in between the potatoes and chicken.
    Roast in the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 mins. or until the chicken and potatoes are done.


    Enjoy!

    Posted by Katrina at 10:16 AM | Labels: , , , , , , , , | 2 comments | |

  3. Khmer Chicken Curry

    Monday, December 10, 2012


    Most people who know me know that I grew up in Cambodia. I lived there for seven years with my family, all of middle school and high school. We moved there for my dad's job, he became the Southeast Asia Director for World Relief - an organization he'd already been working for in Chicago. The rest of my family is still over there now, although my sister has graduated from high school and is getting ready to go on a missions trip and my brother is in high school. Makes me feel so old. He was three years old when we moved! 

    Anyway, I spent those seven years eating jasmine rice basically everyday. This curry is a very common dish made in Cambodia and I adapted the recipe from a cookbook my mom gave me from a restaurant over there. The recipe in the book calls for you to make your own chili paste - but I can't get all those ingredients here in Chicago, so I used a pre-made chili paste. The paste I bought was from Thailand and they have much spicier food over there, so I had to add in extra coconut milk to balance out the spiciness  I do love spicy food though, so it wasn't a big deal to me. The flavors were the same and it made me homesick for Cambodia.



    Khmer Chicken Curry
    adapted from the Best of Friends (The Restaurant) cookbook

    - chili paste, 4 oz.
    - two cans unsweetened coconut milk
    - two tablespoons fish sauce
    - one pound chicken breast, cubed
    - two medium potatoes, cubed
    - chicken stock, if needed
    - one tablespoon sugar
    - one tablespoon curry powder
    - one medium onion, sliced
    - one cup green beans, cut in half
    - salt to taste
    - cilantro for garnish



    Bring one can of the coconut milk to a boil in a saucepan and reduce until most of the liquid is gone - more than half reduced down. 
    Add in the chili paste and cook until fragrant. Add in the fish sauce.



    Mix well and add the chicken. Stir well again. Add the potatoes and the other can of coconut milk and if needed, chicken stock to cover the potatoes and chicken.



    Cover and and simmer for about 15 minutes.
    Add in the sugar, curry powder, onion, beans and salt and simmer for 15 more minutes.

    Serve with jasmine rice or crusty french bread, or both!



    You can either serve the curry to the side of the rice, or on top of it, as I did here. 
    Enjoy!

    Posted by Katrina at 11:49 PM | Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , | 0 comments | |