Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Tea and Honey Marinated Chicken Breasts

May 11, 2014 by Mary 24 Comments

The Calmer Sutra Peppermyntle Tea and Ginger Infused Honey from Australia, which were in the spring box of MARY’s secret ingredients are, of course, divine as a cup of tea with honey. Lovely before going to bed at night, the peppermint is a digestive aid as is the ginger in their ginger infused honey. Add the lemon kick from the myrtle and you’ve got a flavor explosion in your cup. I LOVE the ginger honey! The ginger adds a kick of heat perfectly combined with the sweet honey, the combo is quite nice! (Please remember to refrigerate your honey after you’ve opened it.) With the myrtle being indigenous to Australia, a little research came up with a lot of dessert recipes for this herb. So of course I could have followed in that direction which would also work well with the honey, but I chose to go the savory way instead with this Tea and Honey Marinated Chicken Breasts recipe.

This is my first time marinating with tea and this resulting dish was just delicious! Besides the chicken being juicy, tender and subtly flavored, the browning was beautiful and I do believe that was because of the tea and honey!

Here’s the recipe:

TEA AND HONEY MARINATED CHICKEN BREASTS – serves 4

3/4 cup of water
1 tbs. Calmer Sutra Peppermyntle Tea
4 scallions, white and pale green only, chopped
3 tbs. canola oil, divided
Zest of one lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbs. low salt soy sauce
1 tbs. Calmer Sutra Ginger Infused Honey
1 tbs. chopped fresh ginger root
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Heat the water over high heat to a simmer. Pour over the tea leaves and steep for 5 minutes. Strain the tea mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, and discard the tea leaves. Add the scallions, 2 tbs. canola oil, lemon zest and juice, soy sauce, honey, ginger and garlic. Stir to combine and place over a bowl of ice water to cool. Make 4 to 5 diagonal cuts 1/4” deep across each chicken breast half. Pour marinade into a zip lock bag, add chicken and massage the chicken with the sauce, turning occasionally and refrigerate overnight.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.

Remove the breasts from the marinade and pat dry. Place the marinade in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer. Add the chicken to the skillet without crowding and cook until browned, 3 – 4 minutes.

Turn the breast and continue cooking until the juices run clear when pierced with a knife, an additional 3 to 4 minutes. Set aside on a platter to rest for 5 minutes. Serve the chicken topped with the sauce.

I served this with fluffy Jasmine rice, topped with the sauce and a side of the Eggplant Tomato Yum.

Eggplant Tomato Layered YUM! with Greek Oregano

May 9, 2014 by Mary 8 Comments

There is oregano and then there’s Greek OREGANO! The oregano in our spring box from Harmonian, straight from Greece, is so fragrant, so flavorful and unlike any store bought oregano you’ll find in grocery stores here. Now of course you can use this just like you would use oregano in any recipe, but I have 2 suggestions for it here, one with a nod to Greece using lemon, as my memories of Greece and Greek food always include lemon. The main recipe, Eggplant Tomato Layered Yum! is a go-to meal for us on our meatless nights. I have another version posted before, but since I have noticed that this is an often searched-for recipe, I thought I’d spice up your repertoire and add this version as well!

EGGPLANT TOMATO LAYERED YUM! with GREEK OREGANO – serves 6

4 small Italian eggplants, trimmed and cut into 1/4” slices
5 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 bunch of scallions (with large bulbs if you can find) or 2 large shallots, thinly sliced
2 tsp. Harmonium Greek oregano
1/2 of a ball of mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
8 slices of provolone cheese, torn to fit
6 plum tomatoes, cored and cut into 1/4”slices
Salt
Pepper
1 cup panko bread crumbs
2 tbs. olive oil
2 tbs. grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1 tbs. chopped chives

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Slick a 15” x10” glass Pyrex pan with olive oil. Lay eggplant slices to cover the bottom. Sprinkle on sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Spread out garlic and sliced scallions or shallots to cover. Then sprinkle on the Greek oregano and take a moment to breathe in the wonderful aroma. Lay on top any leftover extra eggplant slices. Swirl a little bit of olive oil all over the top.

Lay on the mozzarella,

then cover with the Provolone, tearing slices to make a nice even covering. Spread out tomatoes on the top. Lightly salt and pepper the tomatoes.

In a small bowl, mix together with a fork, the panko, olive oil, Pecorino Romano, chives and salt and pepper to taste.

Spread crumb mixture on top. Bake in the oven, uncovered, for 35 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes before cutting up to serve.

Cut into 6 rectangles and serve on top of whole wheat pasta for a delicious vegetarian meal!!

For this delicious LEMON OREGANO ROAST CHICKEN, refer to this recipe, but instead of shoving garlic and thyme sprigs under the skin, cover lemon slices with oregano and slide underneath the skin, oregano side down.

Use 2 slices for each breast and one slice for each back side of the thighs. Also use the parmesan cheese rinds in the cavity and you’ll have a delicious roast chicken!

I served this on top of fusilli with sautéed broccoli rabe.

Chicken Breasts Roasted on Tomatoes and Fennel

January 10, 2014 by Mary 14 Comments

Having to cook extremely low fat for my youngest son has forced me to get super creative on how to make tasty dishes that won’t stick to the pan. This dish I made recently, turned out so delicious that I will make it again and again, even if he can start eating regular amounts of fat. It’s Chicken Breasts Roasted on Tomatoes and Fennel. It’s very low fat and really yummy and so fresh tasting! If you count on the bright flavors of your ingredients, roast at a high temperature to bring out their best, you won’t need a lot of oil or butter.

In contrast to this dinner, I want to tell you about a conversation I had with another fellow shopper in Fairway last weekend. We were both at the cheese counter and she was ahead of me being waited on. They didn’t have exactly what she asked for, so she said to the cheesemonger, “Okay just pick out 3 cheeses for me for my cheese course. I’m having a dinner party and doing a whole French thing.”

Naturally my ears perked up and I said, “Sounds nice! What are you making?”

She excitedly recited her whole menu. She said she was starting with a Garlic Cream Soup, then the main course would be a Dijon Mustard Tarragon Chicken with a Cream Sauce, mashed potatoes with Gruyere cheese, the braised leek recipe from Julia Child (tons of butter) and then the cheese course. I don’t know all of the cheeses she got but the last one that was handed over to her was a half of a wheel of triple cream brie.

I was good. I didn’t go into lecture mode. I nodded my head and said, “Wow”.

She said, “ Yeah, it’s hardy. It’s cold outside.”

Hardy?? I say it’s hearty and that it’s so bad for your heart!

When I told my husband the story while driving home, he asked if she was serving Lipitor for dessert. Or perhaps it was a dinner that included her 87 year-old aunt with a heart problem who she could do without?

I mean really, first off, to me, this dinner sounds so unappealing. Way too rich. Not to mention, colorless. Although a special-dinner-party-cheese overload never hurt anyone on occasion, if this is an habitual way of cooking and eating, that’s a health problem. I can’t fault this woman for cooking a homemade meal, and with love, it sounded like, for her friends, but I wanted to say to her, it could still be an amazing meal without cheese, cream or butter in every course. It really can.

This recipe here uses just a little peanut oil and a little olive oil, which are both low in saturated fat and high in a “good” fat, monounsaturated, which helps to lower cholesterol. With the Dijon mustard and moisture from the vegetables, you’ll be surprised at just how delicious it tastes without a drop of cream in sight!

So eat healthy. Feel great and be happy. Make this tasty dish with LOVE and you won’t miss a bite of butter or cream.

CHICKEN BREASTS ROASTED ON TOMATOES AND FENNEL – serves 5

5 boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of all fat
Peanut oil
1 rounded tbs. Dijon mustard
1 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. thyme leaves
2 tsp. chopped sage leaves
Salt to taste
Fresh cracked pepper to taste
1 large plum tomato – sliced into 5 slices
1/2 of a large fennel bulb, sliced into 5 slices
Chopped parsley for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Lightly slick a rimmed baking sheet with a little peanut oil. Whisk the olive oil and mustard together and stir in the fresh herbs.

On the baking sheet, lay out one tomato slice and one fennel slice together in five pairs to form a base for each chicken breast.

Salt and pepper each breast to taste and brush the herbed mustard mixture on both sides and place on top of the pairs of tomatoes and fennel. Roast on the top shelf in the oven for 15 – 17 minutes until just cooked through.

Garnish with chopped parsley. I didn’t do this but it would have been prettier if I did.

Enjoy good clean cooking!

Your Thanksgiving Celebration

November 30, 2013 by Mary 16 Comments

I hope your Thanksgiving celebration was filled with LOVE and a smashing success! We all have so much to be thankful for. Please tell me what was your favorite part or dish.

We were lucky enough to have both of our boys home and got to have both girlfriends with us too. It is so about being together, cooking together and even cleaning up together. I come from a very large family – six kids – and when my parents were still alive and we all came home (to St. Louis) with our spouses or mates, it was absolute mayhem – all in a good way. Everyone was doing something from building a fire, to arguing about the music being played, to making a new cocktail for everyone, to complaining that someone doesn’t do any work but just supervises, to figuring out where to put all the food and wine, and I remember my mother just shaking her head and trying to continue to move through everyone to do her cooking. Although we have only two boys, we created the same thing! At one point on Thursday, I looked at my husband, right before dinner and I was like, OMG, we created a mini version of my family all over again. It’s a good thing but it really made me laugh – it can even happen with just two kids!

My turkey was too big – 19.5 lbs. I had asked our farmer for a 16 – 17 lb. bird but somehow he had something larger in mind and just those 2 – 3 extra pounds made a difference. I have no doubt we will eat all the leftovers but when it’s that big, the legs are really tough on these free range birds. The thigh dark meat was delicious but the legs, not so much. It looked gorgeous! And some of the outer white meat was a wee bit dry in order to cook the whole thing through. So I think the 17 lb. mark is the max. If you need more, buy two smaller birds.

For those of you who purchased my e-cookbook and made some or all of the recipes, I hope you found it helpful. Please send me any comments to make it even better for next year.

My birthday was Tuesday and my younger son and his girlfriend were at our house upstate, greeting us when we arrived with appetizers and dinner prepared. I told you I was lucky and had a lot to be thankful for! For appetizers, we had local gouda cheese cubes with olives, radishes and cherry tomatoes. Dinner was braised chicken legs, with tomatoes, onions, garlic and olives served with a crusty baguette to mop up all of the delicious sauce, and some roasted zucchini. They were so sweet and you have no idea how special it was to arrive to a warm glowing, terrific smelling house with dinner all ready! And it was really yummy!

Tonight, all four of them are cooking up my “real birthday feast. “ They won’t tell me what they’re doing and I was told to vacate the premises. They have plied me with some hot rum apple punch and I am out in my art studio staying out of the way. They say it will be a complete meal with appetizers, dinner, dessert and even entertainment! Stay tuned and I will let you know what happens.

I hope you all continue your celebrations and have a great rest of the weekend!

Chicken Breasts with Carrots and Leeks

September 18, 2013 by Mary Frances 21 Comments

This is one of my all time favorite recipes. It is a great go-to weeknight meal as it is quick, easy and delicious. It is even relatively low fat! The chicken always comes out perfectly done, moist and yummy, and it presents itself as much more gourmet than the time it takes to make. You can also vary the vegetables and herbs or add garlic or lemon. It is fancy enough for a company dinner and super easy on you!

Although my photos show 4 breasts, the recipe is for 2. Or make extras for another meal.

CHICKEN BREASTS WITH CARROTS AND LEEKS – serves 2

2 chicken breast halves, bone in, skin on, washed and patted dry
Salt
Pepper
1 tsp. olive oil – yes only 1 tsp. is needed
1 carrot – peeled and sliced into very thin julienned strips
1 leek – white part only, cleaned and sliced into thin julienned strips
6 thyme sprigs
2 tbs. dry white wine or dry vermouth
2 tbs. chicken stock
1 tsp. unsalted butter (optional)
2 tsp. chopped parsley for garnish

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Trim any extra fat off from the chicken breasts, discard, and salt and pepper both sides.

Heat oil in a non-stick, oven-proof skillet on medium-high to high heat. Place chicken breasts in, skin side down, and brown for 6 minutes. Turn breasts over and scatter the thyme, carrots and leeks all around and under the chicken. Especially make sure the thyme is under the breasts, otherwise it will just burn in the oven and not impart its flavor. Pour in the white wine and chicken broth and place the skillet in the oven for 18 minutes. Check with an instant read thermometer, it should read 155 – 160 degrees in the thickest part of the breast.

When done, remove the breasts to a platter to rest for 5 minutes. Boost the oven up to 425 degrees and put the skillet back in the oven with the vegetables and sauce. Make sure your carrots and leeks are tender. Remove skillet from the oven and swirl in the butter, if you are using. The butter makes the sauce richer, but it is not necessary if you are watching your waistline.

Place the vegetables on top of the chicken and drizzle the sauce over all. Garnish with the chopped parsley. Smile and serve with LOVE! It’s so pretty!

Since this is one of my absolutely favorite, no-fuss, gourmet-looking and gourmet-tasting chicken dinners, I’ve selected it to submit to the Delicious Chicken Recipe Contest at Plated.com.

Cooks’ secret sauces

August 6, 2013 by Mary Frances 20 Comments

Yesterday I had lunch with my friend Jill. Jill’s husband is Dominican and she talked about her big family dinner party she had on Saturday night for her in-laws and other relatives. She recently moved from a co-op to a house in NJ with two young kids, so this was a special dinner with both sides of the family in her new home. Her food was met with rave reviews!

Then she talked about her mother-in-law’s “special sauce.” She said they all have one in the Dominican Republic – the aunts – everyone – and they’re all a bit different. She does not know what’s in it – the fast talking Spanish makes it hard. But it seems like it’s vegetables and all goodness, and sounds like a lot of LOVE. Her husband brings home food from his mother’s house – simple things – like quinoa – but with the special sauce they are spectacular. I asked her if it was tomato based – no. Was it like a chimichurri – no. But her mother-in-law was so respectful of Jill, telling her son, oh well Jill certainly has her “own sauce” and she wouldn’t want to intrude. Larry laughed and said no, Jill doesn’t have a sauce. She said she tried to make one once and it was inedible. So she uses a great bottled sauce that her mother-in-law loved (thought it was her “special sauce”) on the grilled skirt steak she served.

Boy would I love to have that woman’s “special sauce” recipe or be a fly on her kitchen wall when she’s making it!

Meanwhile, last night, being tired and hungry, I used some “bottled sauces” and actually made a very good dinner. It didn’t look all so pretty, but it was darn tasty. I made the chicken and the squash all in the same baking pan, roasting all at once – easy! Providing you have the pesto sauce already made, you can honestly make this whole dinner in about 40 minutes. Really!! – no Rachel Ray joke.

CHICKEN BREASTS WITH GRAINY MUSTARD, JALAPENO & LIME – serves 3 – 4

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 tbs. grainy mustard
Salt
6 slices of fresh jalapeno pepper
6 slices of fresh lime
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Wash and pat dry the chicken, trimming off any fat. Slick a baking pan with a little olive oil. Place chicken breasts on the pan, and brush 1 tbs. of grainy mustard on the top of each. Lightly salt them and place 2 jalapeno slices on top of each. Then cover each jalapeno slice with a lime slice. Roast for 15 – 22 minutes, until the thickest part registers 155 – 160 degrees. Remove to a platter and let rest for 5 – 8 minutes. Lightly drizzle good quality extra virgin olive oil on top and serve.

SQUASH WITH TAMARIND CONCENTRATE – serves 4

2 squash – I zucchini and 1 yellow
4 tsp. tamarind concentrate
Salt
Olive oil

Wash and trim ends of squash. Cut lengthwise and score with crosshatching. Paint one tsp. of tamarind concentrate on each half and salt lightly. Roast at 475 degrees for 25 minutes or until crisp tender. Remove to a serving plate and lightly drizzle olive oil on top and serve.

I served with this with brown rice pasta topped with some pesto sauce I had taken out of the freezer yesterday along with some farmer’s market sunny gold tomatoes, sliced in half. It was yummy – a dinner my husband talked about again this morning!

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