Grilled Chicken Avocado Sammie

This is one of my favorite sanwiches. Chewy bread with a quick homemade sundried tomato pesto and fresh avocado really make this sandwich mouth watering. Add some mozzarella cheese and it's a little piece of heaven in your mouth.

I say grilled, but really it's more like pan fried chicken. It's too cold for me to grill, but this weekend it's supposed to finally warm up. I'm ready for spring. Better yet, give me low 80's with low humidity. If you can, grill the chicken. It makes it that much better.

I think the messier the sandwich the better it is. It always seems that way anyhow. On a napkin scale, I think it was a solid three. The ripe avocado has a tendency to slip out just as you are taking a bite. Of course you could always use a softer bread, but I really like the chewiness of this bread. A ciabatta would work really well.

I sliced the chicken thin or you can pound it out if you need to get rid of some aggression. Sprinkle with oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, rosemary, sage, salt and pepper. Cook on medium high heat until golden brown.

The pesto can't get much easier. Blend the sun-dried tomatoes with a few fresh basil leaves until pulverized in a blender, food chopper or bullet. I use my bullet almost every day. I love it for pestos, smoothies, grinding spices and even egg shells for the garden.

What I did:

Grill the chicken with the following spices:
Oregano
Onion Powder
Rosemary
Sage
Garlic Powder
Salt and Pepper

Blend about 5-6 oil packed sun-dried tomatoes with about three to four large fresh basil leaves until pulverized in a blender. (This is enough for one to two sandwiches depending on how thick you spread it on the bread.)

Spread the pesto on the bread, then the mozzarella (use the fresh if you can..it's so much better), chicken and about a half of an avocado.

Enjoy!

Cheater Halal Chicken

Update: I've been learning my camera and I think the pictures are turning out much better than the iphone pictures that I had been posting. 

Two years ago I had my first New York City Halal chicken cart meal. It was so good. The magic white sauce makes it delicious. Certainly not the typical meat and potatoes meal I grew up with. We rarely had any kind of ethnic meal, unless you count my favorite,  taco night. However, it didn't contain any Mexican spices whatsoever. Unfortunately here in South Jersey, there are very few restaurants that offer any kind of variety. It's mostly Italian and Chinese, although a few sushi places have popped up lately. Being I lived in Italy for three years, I'm not much of a fan of American Italian food.

I was trying to come up with something different for dinner, because let's face it, you wind up making the same meals over and over again. The halal chicken popped into my head, but every recipe called for marinating the chicken for 6-8 hours and slow cooking it for another 3-4. Well, I'm impatient and didn't want to wait until 3 am to eat dinner. I came up with a quick way to cook it and it turned out great. My boyfriend ate two platefuls and said this recipe was a keeper.

Since this was a new recipe, I measured everything. I want to make it again the exact same way. I sliced the chicken into 1/2 inch slices, because it cooks faster and gets coated with seasonings better. I used a rice cooker and added everything at once, but you can cook the rice on the stovetop as you normally would. 

Halal Chicken
Serves 2 - 3

Ingredients

Chicken
1 large chicken breast
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon curry
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 - 2 tablespoon olive oil

Rice
1 cup rice
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon butter

White Sauce
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1/4 teaspoon white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
pinch of freshly minced garlic

Salad
lettuce
tomatoes
cilantro

Make the sauce by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl. Refrigerate until you are ready to use. Follow the package for cooking the rice, but add the spices and butter. Slice the chicken breast into 1/2 inch slices. Sprinkle the seasoning mix on both sides and brown on medium heat in a skillet in a tablespoon of olive oil. While the chicken is cooking shred the lettuce, cut up the tomatoes and mince the cilantro for the salad. Once the chicken is cooked thoroughly, it's ready for plating. Rice on bottom, then chicken, then salad on the side or on top. It doesn't really matter since you're going to mix it all together anyway. Drizzle the sauce on top. Voila!

Enjoy!

Crock Pot Chicken Soup

Nothing warms your body on a cold winter's day more than a warm bowl of delicious soup. My boyfriend makes this soup in the crock pot, mostly. I love it with a piece of homemade bread and butter. When I was a kid my mom always made chicken in the crock pot. It's great for chicken salad, sandwiches and soup. He had never seen chicken done in the crock pot like this before, but now he's addicted.   I use split breasts. They give you a lot of flavor because of the bones and skin are still on them. This is really easy and you can do the whole thing in one pot. Plus it freezes well.

Ingredients

2 large chicken split breasts
1/2 sweet onion
2 ribs celery
3-4 potatoes
2 carrots
2 T fresh parsley
spices - thyme, rosemary, sage, marjoram, salt and pepper

Chop celery and onion in large pieces. Dice the potatoes and carrots. In the crock pot add chicken, enough water to cover it, celery, onion and spices. If you read this blog, you know I never measure, so it's probably about a 1/4 teaspoon of the dried spices and 2 tablespoons of fresh parsley. Turn the crock pot on low for 5-6 hours or high for about 3 hours. Once done, take out everything, but broth. Take the meat off the bone and set aside. Discard the veggies. Add diced potatoes and carrots and turn the crock pot on high. Cook until the veggies are tender. Add back the meat. Ladle into bowls.

Enjoy!

BBQ Chicken Cheddar Pizza

I make homemade pizza dough all the time. At least once a week. It's so easy and so cheap. It's great for lunch or dinner. I'll do a pizza dough post soon. I normally make the usual, margarita. But I had some rotisserie chicken left from lunch and I thought it would make a great bbq pizza. I was right. It was super easy and sooooo good. I love caramelized onions, but my boyfriend, not so much, so I just did half. Sorry for the crappy iphone pic.* I actually took it to send to a friend of mine, not thinking about posting it. This recipe is so good, I had to share.

I recently made this pizza again on my new pizza stone and desperately needed to to retake this picture. That iphone pic is just awful, but the pizza was just as delicious.

Ingredients

Pizza dough - homemade or store bought

Cooked chicken (I used leftover rotisserie)

BBQ sauce

Shredded cheddar cheese

Caramelized onions (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

If you want to add the caramelized onions, make those first by slowly browning some sliced onions in a little olive oil in a frying pan. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Roll out your pizza dough to desired thickness. (I prefer thin, my boyfriend prefers thick, I go somewhere in between.) Mix the chicken with the BBQ sauce in a bowl. How much should you use? It kind of depends on how much chicken you have and how much you want on your pizza. Use your judgment. You can always add more. Sprinkle the cheese on top and add the caramelized onions. Notice they are only on half. 

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes 

Enjoy!