Grapefruit Chicken
I’ve heard of orange chicken, lemon chicken, even lime chicken, but I can’t say I’ve ever thought about using chicken and grapefruit in a dish. I happened to have both on hand so I figured what the hell. I have to say I was very pleased with the results of Grapefruit Chicken.
The sweet-tart flavors of the grapefruit really went well with the chicken. I used half of the grapefruit juice I was able to get as a marinade and the other half in the dish and as a reduction to go over the chicken once done.
Ingredients:
- 2 grapefruits
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 2 TBSP brown sugar
The Grapefruit Reduction
- 1 TBSP honey
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 425F.
- Juice one grapefruit into a large bowl.
- For the second grapefruit, cut it into sections making sure to cut off any of the pith (white stuff). Place the segments in a medium saute pan.
- To the juice, add the brown sugar and honey. Whisk to combine all. Pour half the mixture into the saute pan. Bring to a simmer and cook until slightly thickened.
An overhead view of Grapefruit Chicken
- With the remaining half of juice mixture, add the olive oil, salt and pepper. Whisk to combine. Then place chicken in marinade and coat well. Cover and let marinate for 25 to 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, oil a baking pan and place in chicken breasts. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until chicken temperature reads 185F on a meat thermometer.
- Serve chicken breasts over rice, finishing with the grapefruit wedges and reduction sauce.
Tip: If you want a nice browning, after 15-20 minutes, turn on the broiler and leave breasts under the broiler for 5 minutes. But make sure the internal temperature is still 185F before removing from the oven.
This dish has me seriously reconsidering my stance on grapefruits. I might not be able to eat them alone, but I now know I can work with them.
Tags: Chicken, Chicken Recipe, Citrus, Dinner, Grapefruit, Recipe
Sloppy Joe Banh Mi
I wish I could claim this sandwich invention as my own, but I have to give credit where credit is due. And all the credit in the world goes to Tracey Bloom for this delicious creation.
This is such a great twist on an American favorite and a Vietnamese favorite. I may have to try and convince a local Vietnamese eatery to put this on the menu.
Ingredients:
For Sloppy Joe portion
- 2 lbs. ground beef
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1 TBSP rice wine vinegar
- 1 TBSP Worcestershire
- 1 TBSP dijon mustard
- 1 TBSP brown sugar
- 1 TBSP Sriracha
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
For Banh Mi Garnishes
- Pickled onions (1 cup onions, 1 cup water, 1 cup red vinegar, 1 cup sugar or honey)
- 1 fresh jalapeño, sliced thin
- 1 daikon or radish, sliced thin
- 1 cucumber, julienned
- 1 carrot, julienned
- 1 bunch of cilantro
Chef Tracey Bloom
- In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, saute ground beef and onions.
- When ground beef is about half-cooked, add the rest of the Sloppy Joe ingredients and let simmer for 15 minutes.
- Spoon Sloppy Joe mixture into French bread (or another bread) and garnish with remaining fresh ingredients.
You may recognize Tracey from season 7 of Bravo’s Top Chef. Tracey lives in Atlanta, but I was lucky enough to get to know her at last year’s ACS Hope Gala where she made an awesome shrimp ceviche on a fried plaintain chip. She’ll be back again this year so email me if you’re interested in tickets.
If you want to read more recipes and food tips from Tracey, be sure and check out her articles on NorthFulton.com here. And if you have questions for her, leave them in the comments section and I will get her to answer them.
Tags: American, Banh Mi, Recipe, Sandwich, Sloppy Joe, Top Chef, Tracey Bloom, Vietnamese
Wasabi Salmon with Bok Choy, Purple Cabbage and Oyster Mushrooms
Salmon is one of my favorite fishes. For this recipe, I wanted to make something healthy and this recipe definitely fits that bill.
I highly recommend using wild-caught Pacific salmon. Beware of Atlantic salmon — it’s most likely farmed-raised.
Ingredients:
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 450F and heat a large baking sheet for 15 minutes.
Wasabi Mayo
- In a small bowl, mix mayo and wasabi paste then stir in half of ginger and half of garlic. Set aside.
- Season salmon with salt and pepper.
- Place bok choy, purple cabbage and oyster mushrooms in a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and add remaining ginger and garlic. Toss to coat then season with salt and pepper.
- Remove baking sheet from oven. Spread vegetables across one side and arrange salmon on the other.
- Roast, stirring vegetables occasionally, until salmon is cooked through — roughly 12 to 15 minutes.</li.
- Divide vegetables among plates, making a bed for the salmon fillets. Serve with wasabi mayo.
This is a healthy dish that’s full of flavor from ginger, garlic and wasabi. Salmon is very versatile so feel free to experiment with other vegetables and/or mushrooms.
However, I want to stress again just how important it is to by wild-caught salmon versus the farmed stuff. Enjoy!
Tags: Asian, Asian Recipe, Bok Choy, Cabbage, Mushrooms, Oyster Mushrooms, Pacific Salmon, Purple Cabbage, Recipe, Salmon
Chicken Taco Towers
While I won’t go as far as to say chicken tacos are boring, they just need a little extra pizazz. So I decided to mix it up by creating some vertical tacos or what I call Chicken Taco Towers.
The key to successful Chicken Taco Towers is a biscuit cutter or a round cuter of some sort. Not only will it be necessary to cut the tortillas uniformly, but it will help you stack things.
Ingredients:
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2 avocados, diced
- 1/2 red onion, finely diced
- 1 can black beans, drained and dried
- 4 tortillas, corn or flour
- 1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese and/or cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup shredded lettuce
- 1 tomato, diced
- 1 tsp chili powder
- Juice of 1 lime
- 3 TBSP olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Chicken Taco Tower Close-Up
- Using the biscuit cutter, cut circles into tortillas. (If you don’t want to discard the remnants, I would suggest cutting them into bite-sized pieces, sprinkling with salt and baking on baking sheet in an even layer at 400F to make some tortilla chips.)
- In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil and sauté chicken pieces, lime juice, chili powder, onion, salt and pepper. Continue cooking until all chicken pieces are cooked and/or register 185F on a meat thermometer.
- Once chicken is cooked and tortilla circles are ready, you can begin assembling the Chicken Taco Towers. Using the biscuit cutter and starting with a tortilla circle, layer beans, chicken, cheese, avocado, lettuce and tomato.
- Be sure to move the biscuit cutter up as you stack and press down the layers firmly before adding another one. I experimented and found the beans best on the bottom. Also, I highly recommend adding chicken with cheese for a melty effect. And, I would save the lettuce for last so it doesn’t get too compressed.
If this assembly is too fancy for you, there’s nothing wrong with making traditional chicken soft tacos. The flavor will be virtually the same. Honestly, I was testing out using my biscuit cutter for layering so I was exploring.
Chicken Taco Towers are just a new look for the tacos we’ve all come to love. And let’s face, some tacos can look pretty sloppy so at least give this method a try.
Tags: Chicken, Chicken Tacos, Food, Mexican, Mexican Food Recipe, Mexican Recipe, Recipe, Tacos
Pecan-Mushroom Terrine
Traditionally, a terrine is a loaf of meat and fat (similar to pâté) with more coarsely chopped ingredients. This recipe for Mushroom-Pecan Terrine takes out the meat and most of the fat to create a vegetarian alternative.
It’s perfect accompanying cheeses, crackers, fruits and other nuts. It’s also very simple to make.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 pound mushrooms (I used button)
- 4 TBSP olive oil
- 1 red onion, finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 cup dry sherry
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella
- 1 TBSP fresh thyme (about 10 sprigs), finely chopped
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cracked pepper
- 1 1/2 cup toasted pecans, chopped
- 4 eggs, beaten
Mushroom, Garlic and Red Onion Add Great Flavors to this Terrine
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Grease a small loaf pan, line it with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a skillet over medium heat, melt 2 TBSP butter.
- In two batches, pulse the mushrooms in a food processor until finely chopped (3 to 4 pulses). Be careful not to overprocess as mushrooms will turn to mush.
- In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent (about 8 minutes). Add the garlic and mushrooms and saute for 8 to 10 minutes.
- Stir in the sherry and continue cooking until most of the liquid has evaporated. Mix in the salt, pepper and thyme and set aside to cool.
- Transfer mushroom mixture to a large bowl and, once cooled, fold in pecans, eggs and cheese. Pour into the prepared loaf pan.
- Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until inserted knife comes out relatively clean. While it bakes, the eggs may cause it to rise, but it will settle while cooling.
- Cool in the pan then transfer (in the pan) to refrigerator. Remove when the terrine has completely cooled to prevent breaking and/or crumbling.
The Mushroom-Pecan Terrine packs a ton of flavor into a small loaf. In fact, you really won’t miss the meat at all.
Additionally, this terrine would probably work as a meatloaf alternative if you wanted to double the ingredients to create a larger loaf.
Tags: Meatless Dish, Mushrooms, Pate, Pecan, Terrine, Vegetarian, Vegetarian Recipe
Beet Brownies
I can’t say I’m a big fan of beets, but I usually try to make best of the ingredients I have on hand. So rather than centering a dish around the beets, I chose to integrate them in to Beet Brownies.
The chocolate masks the earthiness of the beets really well — so well, you don’t really taste them.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup beets, peeled and chopped
- 4 eggs
- 2 sticks (8 oz.) butter
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 1 TBSP vanilla extract
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350F.
Beet Brownie Batter
- In a small pot or saucepan, cover beets with water and cook over medium heat for 20-25 minutes. Drain, puree and set aside.
- In a skillet over medium heat, melt 2 TBSP butter.
- In a medium pot or saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Add sugars and stir until dissolved.
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs for 1-2 minutes. Add cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and vanilla extract and whisk to incorporate.
- Add pureed beats and butter-sugar mixture and mix all ingredients together. Add whole wheat flour and chocolate chips and stir until all ingredients are blended.
- Grease a 9×13 baking sheet and pour in batter. Bake 30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick pulls out relatively clean. Enjoy warm or let cool in the pan.
This recipe should yield at least a dozen medium-sized brownies. You can cut them into larger or smaller pieces based on how long you want them to last.
I recommend serving them with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Tags: Beets, Brownies, Chocolate, Dessert, Dessert Recipe, Recipe, Vegetarian
Cashew Chicken
Cashew Chicken is a dish that’s popular in most Chinese and/or Thai restaurants. It’s a versatile given the fact you can throw in the veggies of your choice as long as the chicken and cashews are a constant.
This recipe includes a sweet/spicy sauces to accompany the veggies, chicken and cashews. The best part is that it’s loaded with nutrient-rich veggies and protein-rich chicken.
Ingredients:
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (cut into bite-sized pieces)
- 1/2 red pepper
- 1/2 white onion
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 TBSP cornstarch (dissolved in 3 TBSP water)
- 2 TBSP vegetable oil
- 1 cup broccoli florets
- 4 green onions, cut into thirds
- 4 leaves of purple or green cabbage, chopped
- 1/2 cup cashews, dry roasted
- 1 cup shiitake mushrooms
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
Marinade:
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 2 TBSP soy sauce
- 1 TBSP water
Sauce:
- 3 TBSP dry white wine
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 2 TBSP soy sauce
- 1 tsp sriracha sauce
- 1 TBSP rice vinegar
- 2 TBSP fish sauce
- 2 TBSP brown sugar
Veggies for Cashew Chicken
- To make the marinade, dissolve 2 tsp of cornstarch in 2 TBSP of soy sauce and 1 TBSP of water in a medium-sized bowl. Add chicken pieces and stir to combine. Set aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
- Combine all sauce ingredients and whisk to mix to make the sauce.
- In a wok or large pan, saute the onion, garlic, red pepper, broccoli and green onion in oil over medium-high heat for about two minutes.
- Add the marinated chicken and mushrooms. Continue stir frying until chicken pieces are cooked (up to five minutes). If the wok becomes dry, add broth or white wine (1 TBSP at a time).
- Add the cabbage and continue stir frying another 2 minutes.
- Add the sauce and cashews to the wok then add the cornstarch powder dissolved in water and soy sauce. Continuing stirring until all ingredients are well combine and the sauce thickens.
- While cooking, taste test for salt and sweetness. If it’s too sour, add more sugar. If it’s not salty enough, add more fish sauce.
- Serve over rice or noodles.
If you don’t own a wok, I highly suggest investing in one. They’re perfect for stir-fry dishes such as Cashew Chicken. This recipe should suffice when you don’t have the time venture to your local Chinese or Thai restaurant.
Also, a side note, but I used salt and pepper cashews from Whole Foods to give my version a little extra kick. Though regular dry-roasted cashews should work just fine.
Tags: Cashew, Cashew Chicken, Chicken, Chinese Food, Recipe, Stir-Fry, Thai Food, Vegetables, Wok, Wok Recipe
King Cake French Toast Mix
King cake isn’t just a Mardi Gras dessert, it’s a Mardi Gras food group. To expand it to the brunch category, try this King Cake French Toast.
Dipping the king cake in the traditional French toast egg mix actually cuts some of the sweetness of regular king cake. Try it for breakfast or brunch this Carnival season.
Ingredients:
Directions:
King Cake French Toast
- In a large bowl, whisk eggs with milk, cinnamon, vanilla extract, brown sugar and salt.
- Dip two pieces of king cake in egg mixture and let the cake soak up some of the egg mixture (about 30 seconds). Turn over and let the opposite side soak.
- In a skillet over medium heat, melt 2 TBSP butter.
- Transfer two pieces of king cake to skillet and let cook for 3 to 5 minutes then flip and cook an additional 3 to 5 minutes or until both sides are browned.
- Repeat steps 2 through 4 then serve.
Most of the icing will melt and/or be absorbed into the cake itself, but this actually helps add some sweetness to the dish. Syrup shouldn’t be necessary.
And make sure that plastic baby isn’t in a piece before you throw it in the skillet. Happy Mardi Gras!
Tags: Breakfast, Brunch, French Toast, King Cake, Mardi Gras
Perfect Guacamole
Guacamole is one of my all-time favorite things to make. It’s simple, fresh and nutritious. Over time, I’ve perfected my recipe, that’s why I feel confident in calling it Perfect Guacamole.
I think it goes best with tortilla chips, but it also makes a great sandwich spread or topping for most dishes. The only way to eat guacamole is fresh, I don’t know how people do the bagged stuff. Be sure and save the pits and put them in the bowl with the guacamole — it helps the avocados maintain their color.
Ingredients:
- 4 ripe Hass avocados; peeled, halved and cored (save the pits)
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 jalapeño; cored, seeded and diced
- 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- 2 TBSP chili powder
- 1 TBSP cumin
- 1 TBSP sea salt
- 1 TBSP cracked black pepper
Avocados
- In a large bowl, season the avocados with salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, lime juice and olive oil.
- Using a potato masher or large fork, mash the avocado and seasonings.
- Add in onion, jalapeño and cilantro then stir to mix well.
- Serve or store. If storing, place the pits in the guacamole (to preserve color) and cover with plastic wrap.
This is virtually a fail-proof recipe — no cooking, not much measuring and not much hassle. So if you mess it up, I feel kind of sorry for you.
Beware: the bowl probably won’t last long so you may want to make more. Just multiply the ingredients appropriately. This recipe should be about right for four people.
Tags: Avocado, Game Day Recipe, Guacamole, Recipe, Side Dish, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian
Rainbow Frittata
So which came first? The Rainbow-Stuffed Chicken or the Rainbow-Stuffed Egg (Rainbow Frittata)? This isn’t a mind bender. The answer is the Rainbow-Stuffed Chicken.
I had leftover rainbow mix so I recycled it to make this equally delicious frittata in my handy dandy cast-iron skillet. If you don’t have a cast-iron skillet, you need to rush out and buy one ASAP.
Ingredients:
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400F. Place butter in skillet and place in oven.
- In a large bowl, whisk eggs with milk, salt and pepper. The add remaining ingredients to the bowl and lightly whisk to incorporate all ingredients.
- Once butter has melted in skillet, remove from the oven and move around melted butter to coat the skillet.
- Pour in egg mixture and place back in oven.
- Cook for 20-30 minutes or until center of the frittata is set.
- Let cool in skillet then invert onto serving plate. Slice and serve.
This is just another use for the rainbow mix that is so versatile and works well in many dishes.
The best part of this recipe is that it’s packed with nutrients from the veggies and protein from the eggs. So it make nearly the perfect breakfast and/or brunch dish, but it’s good during any meal time.
Tags: Breakfast, Brunch, Eggs, Frittata, Recipe, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Vegetarian Recipe
Po' Boy Livin' Rich 