Chicken Basics: Thai Coconut Curry Soup

First, let me say this: I don't like coconut. However, I do like coconut milk in this soup. Without it's presence, this is a spicy monster of a soup. So don't discount this recipe just because of it's name. It's really good, especially when you come home with a cold in the winter...or in my case, the middle of summer!

Thai Coconut Curry Soup

Ingredients:

• Leftover chicken and rice, from Chicken Basics recipe
• 1 1/2 cups or 1 can chicken broth
• 1/3 can cocanut milk or cream (cream is thicker, milk has less fat. You pick your fav!)
• One large or two small sliced carrots, cut into small pieces
• 2 tsp garlic
• 1 tsp garlic-pepper sauce (found in the Asian section of the market)
• 1/2 cup sliced red, orange or yellow peppers
• Either 1 tbsp fish sauce or 1 tsp soy sauce (fish sauce lends a better taste to the overall soup)
• Lime juice
• Frozen cilantro cube or 1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

1. In a saucepan, mix together chicken broth, garlic, garlic-pepper sauce and fish or soy sauce. Set to boiling on stovetop.  Add enough garlic-pepper sauce that the broth is just too spicy to tolerate. The coconut milk will tone it down considerably in step five.
2. Clean and chop carrots; add to pot.

3. Chop chicken breast and add to pot.

4. Mix in the leftover brown rice.
5. Add in the cilantro cube, coconut milk/cream and sliced red peppers.
6. Stir to combine.  Taste broth at this point to check for spice level. If it's too hot for you, add a bit more cocanut milk, chicken broth or rice to take the heat off.
7. Just before serving, add a squirt of lime juice and Sriacha hot sauce (if you like it REALLY spicy--like I do!)
8. Eat!

This soup cures sinus congestion better than any medication I've ever tried. And with all the carrots, peppers and garlic, it's a nice dose of vitamins too! We eat this several times a month every winter, just for the warming properties the spices give it. Yum.

Chicken Basics: Chicken Burritos

This recipe can be made with either re-fried or black beans. I prefer the re-fried beans that come with green chilies in them, but often find the black beans are quicker to deal with (less sticky, you know?). Either way, this is a yummy quick and easy recipe that makes TWO good sized burritos! So eat a salad on the side and take the other for lunch tomorrow. (Hey, that's two meals for one! It doesn't get better than that!)

Chicken Burritos Recipe

Ingredients:

• Leftover chicken and rice, from Chicken Basics recipe
• 1/4 can or 1/3 cup either black or re-fried beans
• two 10" tortillas (these freeze well, if you can't get through a bag before they go bad)
• 2-4 tbsp of favorite salsa
• 1/4 cup of shredded cheese (Mexican blend or cheddar work best)
• Chopped lettuce for salad (I like romaine)

1.  Open your chosen beans and warm 1/4 can or 1/3 cup. If using black, mix with rice. For re-fried, spread down the middle of the tortilla. 
2. Dice chicken breast.

3. Mix diced chicken, rice, salsa, cheese in a bowl and microwave until the cheese is melted. Stir filling to combine.

4. Spread filling onto tortillas and top with your favorite burrito fillings. (think olives, avocado, guacamole, mmmm)

See my post on how to fold a burrito here, if it's confusing!
5. Add salad to plate and eat!

Chicken Basics: Oriental Stir-Fry

Oriental Stir-Fry Recipe

Ingredients:

• Leftover chicken and rice, from Chicken Basics recipe
• Fresh or frozen Broccoli, 1 cup (you can also use an asian vegetable medly, but I like just plain broccoli)
• 1 tbsp Soy sauce
• 2 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1tbsp chopped ginger (again, from a jar is fine here)
• 1 tbsp olive oil

1. Pull out the leftover chicken and rice.
2. Pull out chicken to slice and place rice on plate.
3. Warm rice in mircowave.
4. Place frying pan or wok on stove over high heat and add 1tbsp olive oil.
5. Slice the chicken breast into strips and add to pan.
6. Add in fresh or frozen broccoli, soy sauce, garlic and ginger.
7. Saute over high heat, stirring constantly until broccoli is cooked to desired tenderness. Usually about five minutes, or so.
8. Pull out warm rice from mircowave, pour chicken and broccoli over the top and eat!

 HINT--for a change in flavor, you can also add bottled teriyaki sauce or black bean sauce instead of the soy sauce, garlic and ginger. Choose your favorite!

Chicken Basics: Cilantro-Lime Chicken

Cilantro-Lime Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

• Leftover chicken and rice, from Chicken Basics recipe
• 2tbsp butter (or olive oil if you're worried about cholesterol)
• 1/3 cup black beans (those ones in the freezer? Yeah, pull 'em out!)
•  Either 2-3 limes to juice or one bottle of lime juice
• 2 tsp chopped cilantro (fresh or frozen--NOT dried)
• sugar to taste (different people like different levels of bite from the lime juice...and not all limes are equally sweet, so taste the sauce as you go and add sugar if it needs it)
• fresh tomato and/or avocado

1. If beans are frozen, pop into microwave to thaw.
2. In a glass measuring cup, combine 2 tsp butter (or olive oil) with 1/4 lime juice and 2 cubes of frozen cilantro.

3. Mix beans with rice on plate.

4. Melt sauce in microwave, stirring upon removal until somewhat incorporated

5. Pour over cold chicken and rice. Try to pour a little at a time to cover every bite with yumminess! 

6. Warm sauce covered chicken and rice while you slice a tomato and/or avocado for sides.

Sadly, today I didn't have any avocado to add to the picture. I ate it all in guacamole last night!

Again, it's a good carb, good protein and with tomato and/or avocado, some veggie goodness too!  I like a salad with a lime vinaigrette on the side of mine, but that's probably because I don't like raw tomato. But avocado is KILLER with this sauce on it! Try some!

Chicken Basics: Mexican Chicken!

Mexican Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

• Leftover chicken and rice, from Chicken Basics recipe
• 1 can black beans*
• 1/4 cup frozen corn*
• 1/2 cup your favorite salsa
• Sprinkling of shredded cheese (Mexican blend or Cheddar work best)

*You can also buy a pre-mixed frozen version of corn, beans and peppers in the veggie freezer section, if you prefer to keep it easy. Some stores carry it, others don't. If using this, you need 1/2 cup.

1. Open and drain a can of black beans. Divide into quarters and freeze the extra three servings. This is where those tiny 2 oz. Gladware containers come in handy! 

2. Mix the first quarter with your favorite salsa, corn and rice.

3.  Add a tablespoon or two of salsa, to your desired level of heat, and mix. Place beans and rice onto plate and add chicken.
4. Spoon salsa over the chicken breast and top with shredded Mexican cheese.

5. Warm in microwave until cheese melts and enjoy!

HINT-- try keeping your shredded cheese in the freezer! It stays good for months there, rather than weeks in the fridge.  So if that block of cheese in the fridge is looking a little sad, shred it up! Why let it go bad when you can freeze it instead? Saves time and money! Just like IQF chicken breasts, cheese happily thaws while it melts...no need to wait.

Chicken Basics: With Garlic Green Beans

Day one is really, really easy. You're going to eat chicken and rice with green beans on the side. Add in a side salad-from-a-bag and you have 2-3 veggie servings (depending on how much salad you eat!), one good carb and one lean protein for less than 8 minutes in the kitchen. I can do it in five, but I figured you might need time to double check the recipe, which would take an extra minute or two!


Garlic Green Beans

Ingredients:

• Frozen green beans (I buy mine from Trader Joe's. A big bag is $2 and I've yet to find better green beans...not even fresh taste as good!)
• Chopped garlic (from a jar is fine, but you can dice a clove if you prefer)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place a small non-stick pan over medium-high heat. An omelet pan is good, if you're making one serving.
2. Dribble a teaspoon of olive oil into the pan and let it heat a bit
3. Place chicken and rice onto plate and microwave until warm.
4. Toss in some green beans, about a cup of frozen beans per person.

5. Add a teaspoon to a tablespoon of fresh chopped garlic-from a jar is fine here! One teaspoon for light garlic flavor, a tablespoon for heavy garlic flavor...that;s yours, Mike!

6. Saute, stirring often until beans are soft and the end of a bean or two show a hint of brown.

7. Add to your plate off microwaved chicken and rice and eat.

That's it! A yummy side dish ready to go. You can also try adding bacon to it, if you're feeling naughty!

Chicken Basics Starter Recipe

This next series of posts is being written primarily for my friend Mike, though anyone who's cooking meals for one will find them useful.  We've been friends since our freshman year of college, but he lives a few hours away so we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like. On a rare visit last Saturday, he was complaining about how hard it is to eat well when you're only cooking for one. I was really surprised that after almost fifteen years of friendship, I'd never shown him my easy method for making a basic recipe and changing it up every night to make a new taste sensation! Now that I'm married, this isn't much of an issue anymore (my husband Scott can eat), but I spent many years doing this as a single person. Once you have a basic dish, it's easy to change seasonings without having to cook a completely new meal from scratch every night after work. Especially- when-all-you-want-to-do-is-collapse-and-watch-TV. This method cuts down on dishes, but still means you can choose your desired meal every night while eating well and cheaply! Which is even more important in today's economy than it was when I did it all those years ago.

Today's post is a how-to for the basic chicken recipe. Then every day this week I'll post a new mix-up for the basic recipe.  When I was single, I'd make Chicken and Rice Basics once a week, then make up a Basic Ground Beef Recipe while the Chicken Basics cooked in the oven. I'll post the Ground Beef Starter Recipe once I've finished with the Chicken Basics variations. By mixing and matching, you can eat a week of dinners alternating the chicken and beef Basics...without ever realizing you're eating leftovers!

Chicken and Rice Basics Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 lb chicken breast, boneless and skinless (four pieces if using IQF* chicken breasts)
• 1 cup brown rice (it's better for you and tastes good cooked in broth! no cardboard here, I promise! )
• 2 cans chicken broth, or 2 cups water and bouillon  (I use Better Than Bouillon concentrate)
• salt, pepper, granulated or fresh garlic

*IQF=individually quick frozen. These are found in the freezer section and are often cheaper than fresh. They also make cooking for one person MUCH easier as you can pull out only as much as you need.

1. In a 9x13 baking dish, spread rice evenly into bottom of pan.

2.  Evenly space chicken breasts on top of rice.  (Yes, my chicken is still frozen. So what? It thaws while it cooks in the oven.)

3. If using fresh garlic, chop into fine pieces and mix into chicken broth before pouring broth over the rice. If using granulated garlic, sprinkle over top of chicken breasts to taste. 

4. Add salt and pepper before covering pan with aluminum foil and bake 1 hour at 350 or until rice absorbs all liquid.

5.  When no liquid remains in bottom of pan, remove foil to brown breasts and bake 5-10 minutes more.

6.  Set aside to cool. Once cool, separate chicken and rice evenly into 4 containers.

I use Gladware entree sized containers; they're just the right size for a one person meal.  Freeze whatever you won’t use in the next week or so. Safe storage times in fridge will vary from fridge to fridge and climate to climate. If you're in doubt, freeze it. Just toss it in the fridge before you leave in the morning to it can thaw out and be ready for dinner that night.

Check back tomorrow for the perfect veggie side dish to go with chicken and rice: Garlic Green Beans!