Culinary Adventure - Lemon Chicken Piccata

Hi everyone!

We meet again, and this time it's with my favorite meat: chicken! (As if you didn't already know.) 

I personally found this recipe to be even more fantastic than I ever could have imagined it! The taste was incredible and I found myself being swept away by this flavorful dish. I would highly recommend this dish to anyone who likes chicken! And, as a bonus, it relatively easy to make!! 

I decided to serve this dish with some mashed potatoes. (I have included a recipe to some slow-cooker mashed potatoes that I greatly enjoy.) This chicken came out one of the most amazing tastes I have ever tasted! It is super hard to explain in writing, so I think you are just going to have to it on your own. :) 

As far as recipe changes, the only major modification I had was to not include the capers. I personally don't enjoy their taste at all, but if you do, then by all means throw some in. Also, thanks to a little misreading by my husband ;), we used all the butter in the beginning to fry the chicken instead of only using half at the beginning and half in the sauce at the end. Either way, I think this recipe would turn out great! Also, we used dried parsley for the garnishing, but that was primarily because we had a hard time finding fresh parsley.

Chicken Recipe: http://www.jocooks.com/main-courses/poultry-main-courses/lemon-chicken-piccata/

Mashed Potatoes: http://lecremedelacrumb.com/2014/10/slow-cooker-mashed-potatoes.html

Til' the next culinary adventure! 

Emma K.

Culinary Adventure - Spicy Sausage Pasta

Hi again!

Guess what!? -- It's not a chicken recipe!

This recipe was a change change of pace for us. It gave me a new pasta that I loved and gave my husband an excuse to eat some smoked sausage, which he loves. Great win-win recipe! Its called Spicy Sausage Pasta and it is AMAZING! If you like a little spice and enjoy some smoked sausage, then this is the recipe for you. 

As I said, this recipe was AMAZING! The mixture of flavors was incredible. Overall, one of my new favorite pasta recipes. 

Some of the things I changed in this recipe were to not include the onion, as I'm not a huge onion fan, and I added just a few pinches of red pepper flakes for taste. The only type of onion I enjoy is green onions. So, I did use the scallions suggested for garnish. Another change I did, but in the larger scheme of things it really doesn't matter how you do it, was that I cooked the pasta in the cream and broth mix separately, then added it, and the Ro-Tel, to the sausage skillet. I drained the Ro-Tel this time, but I think it would have been more flavorful if I kept the liquid. To make this recipe slightly healthier, instead of using heavy cream, I used a substitute -- 1 cup of skim milk and 2 tablespoons of corn starch.

For next time, I would like to brown my sausage pieces a little more before mixing all the ingredients and I will likely not drain the Ro-Tel. This is certainly going to be a repeat recipe! 

Recipe: http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/dinner/spicy-sausage-pasta.html#_a5y_p=1482881

Til' the next adventure! 

Emma K.

Culinary Adventure - Southwest Chicken Bake

Hi all!

It's been awhile since I have last posted, graduate school seems to be overtaking my life! But, since cooking and baking help me to reduce stress, I still make some time to do the things I love. This recipe proved to be quite interesting and I have a few new things I would like to try on my next go-around with it. It's called Southwest Chicken Bake, and for all intensive purposes, I'm going to say it was a chicken casserole. 

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this recipe. However, I used pre-made salsa on this round and the flavor got a little lost in the sour cream. Next time, I plan on using the salsa recipe that is included in the link below. I think that it will give it a better taste. Another change I plan on doing is using shredded chicken, rather than diced chicken. I personally dislike eating chunks of meat, I would rather it be shredded, especially in a casserole (but that might just be me).

One issue I ran into with this recipe was that it came out a little runny. I believe that partly resulted from the picante style salsa I used. In addition, excess oil and chicken liquid probably didn't help either. There was just too much chicken for my little fryer, and so I didn't get crispy chicken at all. Rather, it was very moist (really, too moist for my taste). By using shredded chicken that I prepare in the crockpot during the day, I hope to reduce the runny nature of the final dish.

Recipe: http://www.thirtyhandmadedays.com/2014/05/southwest-chicken-bake/#_a5y_p=1788672

Til' next time! 

Emma K.