Indian Food: Best Butter Chicken

Best Butter Chicken  Special Type of Food: Indian, chosen by Jordan

My husband loves Indian food. I suspect that was a strong factor in his choosing to go to India on an MBA school trip a few years ago. He has made some amazing Indian food at home so it's a little intimidating for me. I found this recipe for Butter Chicken aka Tikka Masala. It turned out delicious. This was one of the best things I made and opened me up to making more Indian food.



When I told my husband I made the recipe for the challenge he said, "Oh. I thought you made it for me because you know I love Indian food," HA! Well since then I've made a lot more.

Indian: Chicken Korma

I wanted to recreate my Indian restaurant experience at home, so I found a recipe for the dish I had: Chicken Korma. This particular recipe requires a bit of work and ingredient coordination—and salt, since the recipe doesn't call for any—but it's very tasty. (You may want to increase the spices or heat; we omitted all heat from ours.)

I wish you had smell-o-vision right now. The wok has the spices below (1 tsp each) plus an onion, 3 cloves of garlic and 2 bay leaves in oil. (The blender has 1/2 c half and half, 1/2 c plain yogurt and 1/3 c cashews soaked in 1/3 c boiling water.)

Add three chicken breasts, cubed, to the wok and cook for five minutes. Add 1 c chicken broth and 1/4 c tomato sauce. Simmer 15 minutes. Add blender mixture and simmer 15 minutes more.

Add a slurry of 1 tsp cornstarch + 1 tsp water and cook to desired thickness.

Serve over rice!

Is this Pin a Win?- Sweet and Spicy Roasted Chicken Legs

We are going to start a recurring featuring named:

Last week I was scrolling through Pinterest and my husband passed by behind me and was excited to try a recipe by one of my friends' pins for sweet and spicy roasted chicken legs.

 On Monday I made them for dinner and they only turned out okay. I triple checked the recipe but my legs just didn't end up as seasoned as hers look. 

Some points about the recipe:

• Getting skin off chicken legs is extremely frustrating. It is slippery and germy and really hard!
• When I put this in my 9x13 it was way too big. It would have been much better in a 8x8 or 9x9
• I think they should have been marinated longer and cooked at a higher temperature because they dried out but still weren't done cooking so I had to add an extra 10 minutes to the cooking time and the outsides dried out a bit. 
• They probably would be really good grilled as well

I'm not sure why mine doesn't look like hers...at all, when I followed the recipe the recipe so closely. They were disappointing and I think I would find a different recipe to try maybe combining with/tweaking this one.

Have you tried any Pins lately?

Have a great weekend! Are going to be watching?

Crock Pot White Chili

I was at a church activity with Brooke the first time I ever tried white chili. I LOVED it. While I was visiting Jaime in October we attempted to make some. It was more soup than it was chili. Since it snowed several inches recently I put white chili on our weekly meal plan. I looked at many recipes and kind of merged some together. It still was on the soupy side but it was thicker. So I guess next time I make it I will achieve a thicker chili!

Ingredients:
1 lb Chicken (I prefer breast, it shreds very easy)
1 can of chicken broth
1 can of Great Northern Beans (drained)
1 or 2 cans of green chilies (with or without tomato, whatever you like!)
1 cup sour cream
1 medium onion, diced
2 or 3 garlic cloves (I like mine minced)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt
Pepper
Oregano

Place the chicken (raw) in the bottom of the crock pot. Add the onion, beans, chilies, and garlic. Then add the spices. Call it wayward if you so desire but I eyeball spices all the time so do what you want! Except the cayenne pepper...that's hot and I don't do hot so that one I measured. It gave it the perfect amount of kick for me. My husband on the other hand probably would've liked it far more spicy! Let that cook on high for 3-4 hours. At around 2 1/2 hours shred or cube your chicken. It should either be cooked or almost all the way cooked by then. At 3 hours add the sour cream. If you want it thicker I saw some suggestions to put whipping cream in it. I didn't have any on hand so though. Serve once heated through. Garnish with green onion if desired. Serve it with some corn bread to make it a truly homemade meal!

Chicken and Waffles Recipe

A few weeks ago my husband texted me, suggesting fried chicken and waffles for dinner. I was game. I was in charge of the waffles and he picked up the chicken. Afterwards, he did a little poking around and found a recipe for the 11 original herbs and spices of KFC's fried chicken and we tried it out. We came very, very close to KFC's original recipe:

The Colonel's Fried Chicken 
Adapted from Chicken Recipe Secret.com


Ingredients:

Breading Ingredients

2 cups of white flour
1/3 tablespoon of salt
2 tablespoon of garlic salt
4 tablespoon of paprika
1/2 tablespoon of thyme
1/2 tablespoon of basil
1/3 tablespoon of oregano
1 tablespoon of celery salt
1 tablespoon of black pepper
1 tablespoon of dry mustard
1 tablespoon of ground ginger
2 tablespoon of MSG (The name brand is Accent)
2 eggs
3 cups of milk
4lbs of bone-in chicken, which skins on (like breasts, thighs, drumsticks)
Oil to fry in

Directions:


1. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a shallow bowl. This is your breading. Mix the milk and eggs together in another deeper bowl. Wash and pat dry your chicken. Put your chicken in the egg and milk mixture and let sit for 15 minutes, making sure the mixture completely covers the chicken.

 

2. While the chicken is in the egg and milk mixture, heat up the oil to 375 degrees. We have a deep fryer  which is safer to use when frying things. Once the oil has heated up, dredge the chicken in the breading mixture. Then place in fryer for approximately 10 minutes.

Remove the pieces an allow do cool for about 5 minutes. Enjoy.

Fluffy Waffles from Scratch
Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook


Ingredients:

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 ¾ cups milk

½ cup cooking oil or ½ cup melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture.

2. In another bowl, beat the eggs, slightly; stir in the milk, oil and the vanilla.

3 .Add the egg mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir until just moistened (the batter should still be slightly lumpy).

4. Pour 1 to 1 1/4 cups batter onto the grids of a preheated, lightly greased waffle iron . Close the lid quickly and do not open until done.

5. When done lift the waffles of the iron with a fork.

6. Repeat the procedure with the remaining batter.

Serve chicken and waffles together, and don't forget the syrup---something I didn't know!

What do you think of this unlikely duo? Is chicken and waffles something you dare or leave to the crazies?

Pasties

I'm not big on sharing recipes. I don't know I guess because I'm more of a visual learner but I made something last night that was made from leftovers, was simple, easy, and delicious I just felt I needed to share.

Chicken/Beef/Turkey/Pork/Veggie 

Pasties

These are basically hot pockets plus tons of tasty and healthy points. The crust of these is amazing! It was so flaky. So basically you need to make the crust and then you need a filling. You can make any filling. I made mine with leftover chicken from a different recipe.

source

Crust: source
4 cups sifted flour
2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups shortening
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. cold water.

Mix flour and salt in bowl and cut in shortening. Add water and mix. Divide into 7-9 portions and roll each into 6 inch circles. Fill with filling and fold in half. Moisten edges and press with  fork. Prick middle to alleviate steam. Back for 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees.

Filling:
Cream of chicken/mushroom or gravy
1/4 cup milk
1 cup onions (I used french fried because they were leftover)
Mixed vegetables
Meat (I used leftover chicken)

Mix together in a bowl.

I just want to add one thing about flour. I was reading this article about chocolate chip cookies and she was talking about the difference in measuring flour. (See The Problem with Flour) Because of this my husband got me a scale for Christmas. I found that I was putting an ounce (6 ounces instead of 5 ounces per cup) extra per cup into the mix! That means I had almost a whole extra cup! Just be careful with your flour. 

Pesto Pasta with Chicken

A little while ago, the mom and I decided to make dinner together. I made pesto pasta with chicken and she'll show you tomorrow what she made. It's super easy to make.
Ingredients:
2 cups basil leaves (packed)
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup pine nuts (set aside some to add into pasta.)
2/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1-2 chicken breast
1 package noodles (whatever kind you want!)

Cook chicken and pasta separately. While the chicken and pasta cook, it's a pretty good time to make the sauce. It's easy to do this in a food processor. Combine basil leaves, garlic, and 1/4 cup of the nuts until coarsely chopped. Next, add the olive oil. Add the parmesan cheese. Blend until smooth(ish). If it's just not getting as smooth as you want, add more olive oil until desired consistency. I liked shredded parmesan cheese better than grated just for texture. Grated will be more smooth in the pesto.

After the chicken is cooked, add 1/4 cup of the pesto sauce into a skillet pan with the chicken. Cook for 2 minutes. Combine pasta, chicken and pesto sauce. Then, enjoy!

I added sun dried tomatoes to the sauce. It added a delicious touch!
Here's a tip, a quick and easy way to get the skin off a garlic clove is to place it under the side of the blade of a knife...and hit the other side of the blade with your palm. Don't show mercy, hit it good! The skin should come off very easily after that!