Baked Chicken Wings

Ingredients

• As many chicken wings as you need to eat (we usually make around 30-40); we prefer either drummettes only or buffalo style wings
• Salt & Pepper
  

Cashew Butter Sauce - made to taste and desired consistency (aka, Jon doesn't measure things)

• ~1/2 c cashew butter
• ~1/3 c coconut aminos
• ~1/3 c water
• Tabasco to taste

Buffalo Sauce

• ~1/3 c coconut oil
• ~1/2 c Franks Red Hot Sauce Original
  
• ~1 T garlic powder

I'll update the amounts if he ever decides to actually measure them.

Directions
Preheat oven to 375. Add salt and pepper on both sides of the wings and place in a foil-lined pan (pans, for us). If you have a convection oven, use it; it seems to help the wings get a little crispier. Bake wings for 20 min. If you're making plain wings, flip them and bake for another 20 min. If using a sauce, take the pan(s) out of the oven and baste the wings with sauce on the top side. Put back in oven for 10 min. Remove the wings and flip; baste the other side and put back in the oven for 10 min. Voila!

Chicken Pesto

Ingredients

• 2 lbs chicken thighs, cubed
• 3 c fresh basil
• 1 1/2 c pinenuts
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 c grated parmesan cheese (optional)
• 1 c olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Add all ingredients except the chicken to a blender or food processor. Blend until well-mixed. Saute chicken in a large skillet until cooked through. Add the pesto sauce, simmer for 5-10 min.

Supposedly, the pesto sauce freezes very well. We still need to test this. I say the parmesan is optional because we made this meal a lot during our first Paleo challenge, and it works fine without the cheese. This week will actually be the first time we make it with cheese.

Crockpot jambalaya

A fairly quick crockpot soup/stew, from the CFSCC blog...

1. Chop 1 large onion and 1 bell pepper, and saute them with 3 minced cloves of garlic. Put this mixture in your crockpot.
2. Brown 2 chicken breasts, chop into chomp-sized bits, and add to the pot.  You'll also need to cook and chop up some sausage to add--this time, I used half a bag of the loose sausage from our pig.  I think it was about 2 sausages worth. (This sausage is so salty that I didn't add any other salt to the recipe! You may need to if your sausage is more...sedate.)
3. Add 4 c chicken broth, a can of diced tomatoes (I drained some of the liquid), and a tablespoon or so of Cajun seasoning (cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika).
4. Cook this on low for 4 hours.
5. Finally, add 1 lb of cooked shrimp (I bought raw ones and sauteed them), 1 c of spinach, and 1 head's worth of cauliflower rice.  Cook it long enough for the spinach to be droopy and everything to be hot--I think I did another hour or so, but you could put it on high instead.

It came out good!  Again I think I skimped on the seasonings and I feel like it needs one more flavor... I'm not sure what.  I'm going to have to compare some other jambalaya recipes.  Also, next time I'll use chicken thighs instead of breasts since I think they'll dry out less in the crockpot.

Turned roasted chicken

This is my go-to roast chicken recipe.  The cooking method is from my Joy of Cooking, but the vegetables and herbs vary with what I have on hand.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken
• Aromatic vegetables
• Herbs
• Butter
• Salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees!
2. I prep the stuffing first, so I chop all my vegetables coarsely and toss them in a bowl with some of the herbs, salt, and pepper.  This time I used an onion, a carrot, and a stalk of celery, and three cloves of garlic that I smashed with the side of my knife.  For herbs I used dried basil, oregano, and thyme.
3. To prep the chicken, rinse it and pat it dry with paper towels (and take out the bag of organs, little plastic pop-up thermometer, etc).
4. Next, stuff the cavity of the chicken with the vegetable mix.  This time I tied the legs together with cotton twine to help hold it in better!
5. Liberally salt the chicken all over the outside.  Sprinkle it with pepper and your herbs too.  Finally, brush the chicken with 2-3 tablespoons of melted butter.
6. Set the chicken on its side (that is, with a leg up) in a v-shaped rack in a roasting pan or something that will catch drips.  This goes in the oven for 25 minutes for the first 4 pounds, plus 3 minutes per additional pound.  Then take the chicken out and turn it so the other leg is up, and put it back in for the same amount of time. Finally, turn it breast side up and finish cooking it--another 15-30 minutes, or until the thigh is 170-175 degrees.

Today I put a whole butternut squash in the oven with the chicken, just punctured in a few places to keep it from exploding.  It was good just mashed with a fork with a little olive oil, alongside the chicken!  Later we ended up roasting the extra vegetables that didn't fit along, with the vegetables from inside the chicken (doubtless contracting dire salmonella) and tossing them with some loose Italian sausage.  Also delicious!

Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu

Ingredients: 

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Ham
• Swiss cheese
• Olive Oil
• 1/2 cup shredded pecorino romano cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
• 4 tbsp butter
• 2 cups of milk
• and of course - salt, pepper and garlic

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Spread Olive Oil in a baking pan ( I used a 7X10 for 4 servings )
3. Pound the breasts so they are relatively flat and about 1/4 inch thick.
4. Place 1 in the pan
5. Layer a slice of ham and a slice of Swiss cheese onto the chicken breast.
6. Place another breast on top.
7. Make as many of these little breast sandwiches as you want.....
8. For the sauce:  Melt the butter in a 2 quart saucepan.  Add the milk, cheeses and seasonings.
9. When heated throughly, pour over the chicken.
10. Bake for 40 minutes.

I roasted some eggplant alongside in the oven --with Olive Oil, garlic, salt and pepper.

(posted by Erin for Mom!)

Chicken Fajita Salad

Chicken Fajita Salad

Just a quick lunch Wednesday morning, from The Paleo Solution, very colorful! Easy to make too, made it in the morning right before work.

2 tbsp olive oil

1 chicken breast

1/2 an onion

1/2 bell pepper

1 avocado

1 tomato (if you like them, I hate them. But I tried to eat it.)

Salad

Heat olive oil, throw in sliced onions, cook till soft. Add chicken, cut into strips. Season with oregano and cumin. Once chicken is browned, toss in sliced bell pepper to soften it a bit. Toss chicken/onion/pepper mixture over the salad, add sliced avocado and tomato.

Came out delicious and was very filling, will definitely make it again, minus the tomato. Overcooked the chicken a bit too.

Chicken Pizza

I was missing the taste of Pizza so I created this recipe. So many options with it!

The process is so simple..... Just pound boneless chicken breats flat and line them up on a cookie sheet prepped with a little olive oil.

Then - add the toppings you love on pizza.
Some of my favorites:

organic tomato sauce
sliced mushrooms
chopped eggplant
garlic ( of course!)
fresh baby spinach
Fresh mozarella and ricotta ( I *like* dairy)
Fresh parsley and basil

Bake it at 375 for 40 minutes

Yum!