Recipe: Chicken Tikka Masala - Lightened Up

Some of you may have noticed that Kate and I regularly cook and review a lot of Mexican, Italian and American cuisine. For some reason, Indian food has not made it in the regular rotation yet. It's not a "go-to" option for me when I'm deciding where to go out to eat or what to cook. On the rare occasion that I do get Indian food, I always order the chicken tikka masala and I loooove it. I'm not sure why I don't get it more often!

While perusing on Pinterest recently, I found a recipe for a lightened up version of chicken tikka masala from the blog Skinnytaste and decided to give it a try. As I mentioned, I don't have a lot of experience cooking Indian food, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was very pleasantly surprised! It was fantastic and was really low fat. I will definitely be making this again!

Ingredients:
2 tsp canola oil
1 small onion, minced (I did not use this)
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes
4 oz. fat free plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup 1% milk
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric (optional - I skipped this)
1/2 tbsp chili powder
Salt
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
4 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped (more or less to taste)

Start out by heating the oil in a large skillet. If you like onions (gross! jk), add those and cook until about golden. Next add the ginger and stir together with the onions for a couple minutes. Add the garlic and let that cook for another minute. Add the cumin, garam masala (which I couldn't find at my Kroger's - had to go to Fresh Market), turmeric, chili powder and salt. This will cook for about 2 minutes. Next stir in the tomatoes, yogurt and milk and let it simmer on low for about 10 minutes. The sauce will have thickened at this point. Add the chicken and let it simmer for 10 - 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Now it's ready to serve! I served it on top of brown rice and put quite a bit of the fresh cilantro on top. I absolutely love cilantro, so you may not want that much if you're not a big fan. Feel free to add veggies to it as well! You could even make it a vegetarian dish with all veggies.

Enjoy!!

~Kris

Recipe: Chicken Gyros

I have always really enjoyed Mediterrean food, but besides store-bought hummus, it's not usually something I make at home. Recently, I decided to try my hand at making chicken gyros, and it was a success! I looked up a few different recipes and came up with one that was pretty healthy and delicious!

Ingredients (Servings: 2)
For tzatziki sauce:
2-3 oz. Greek yogurt, plain (a little less than half of a standard 6 oz Chobani yogurt container)
1/8 cup cucumber, very finely diced 
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp dill
1 tsp oregano
Salt and pepper
Fresh lemon juice (from about a quarter of a lemon)
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil 
For chicken:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp Greek yogurt, plain
Fresh lemon juice (from about a half of a lemon)
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp dill
Salt and pepper
For assembling:
2 pitas (I used whole wheat)
Feta cheese
Kalamata Olives, chopped
Tomatoes, diced (I prefer roma)

I know this seems like a lot of ingredients, but a lot of them are spices and vinegars that you probably already have on hand. I actually only had to buy a couple things to make these.

To start, mix together all the ingredients for the chicken marinade. Once combined, add the chicken to the bowl and make sure each piece is completely coated. Cover and refrigerate it for 30 - 60 minutes.

Once that is complete, assemble the tzatziki sauce by mixing together all the ingredients in a bowl. It helps if you can let this sit in the refrigerator for a little bit while the flavors marry. My tzatziki sauce was actually better the second day because the flavors had melded together more.

When the chicken is finished marinading, transfer it to a skillet over medium heat. While the chicken is cooking, toast the whole wheat pitas just so they're slightly crispy and warm. I put mine in the toaster oven for a few minutes. Once the chicken is cooked through, place half the chicken on to each pita. Top with feta cheese, kalamata olives, the tzatziki sauce, and diced tomatoes. I served it with a delicious Greek salad with similar toppings as the gyro.  

Here is the final plate....good for you and delicious! Enjoy!

~ Kris

Recipe: Garlic Balsamic Chicken

I haven't tried many new recipes lately, but I really try to make at least one new thing a week--it's been a couple weeks since I have though.  It's so much easier to fall back on some of the same recipes that you know how to do every week.  Well, this week I looked in my fridge and saw I had some chicken breasts, so I decided to look for a recipe using that.  On allrecipes.com I came across a recipe that sounded easy and didn't take a whole lot of ingredients (pretty much my criteria for almost any new recipe I try).   This was a recipe for Garlic Balsamic Chicken:

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 pound mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. olive oil
6 cloves garlic
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1 tbsp. butter

I sliced whole white mushrooms before hand.  You can buy them pre-sliced, but these were on sale.

Directions:

1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.  Rinse the mushrooms and pat dry.  Season the flour with salt and pepper and dredge the chicken breasts in the flour mixture.

Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat and saute until it is nicely brown on one side (about 3 minutes).

2. Add the garlic.  Turn the chicken breasts and scatter the mushrooms over them.  Continue frying, shaking the skillet and stirring the mushrooms.  Cook for about 3 minutes then add the vinegar, broth, bay leaf, and thyme.  Cover tightly and simmer over medium low heat for about 10 minutes, turning occasionally.

3. Transfer the chicken to a plate and cover with foil.  Set aside. Continue simmering the sauce, uncovered, over medium high heat for about 7 minutes.  Swirl in the butter or margarine and discard the bay leaf.  Pour mushroom mixture over the chicken and serve.

There were just a couple things that I did differently from this suggested directions.  I also had some green beans and snap peas on hand so I steamed them for about two minutes then threw them in with the mushrooms and chicken to simmer.  I also had some red onion, so I sliced that up and tossed it in when I threw in the mushrooms.  I didn't have a bay leaf, so I added a bit more thyme than was suggested.   I served this with rice, but you could also serve with noodles, baked potatoes, anything that sounds good to you!

Overall, I thought this turned out pretty good.  The chicken was tender and juicy with a tartness of the balsamic and a bit of sweetness from the garlic.  Ross thought this was pretty good as well; it wasn't our favorite meal ever, but not bad for a Monday night!
~Kate

Recipe: Chicken-Orzo Salad with Goat Cheese

I just tried a great new recipe that I had to share with you all! It's very simple, healthy and delicious! I found it in Cooking Light magazine. The recipe can be found online here, but I typed it all out for you below. 

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup uncooked orzo
3 cup chopped, cooked chicken breast
1 1/2 cup trimmed arugula
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped red onion (which I omit because I hate them)
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 tsp fresh oregano
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt & pepper
6 tbsp crumbled goat cheese

Start off by cooking your orzo pasta. If your chicken isn't already cooked, you'll want to do that while the pasta is cooking. Next, make sure all your veggies and herbs are washed and chopped as called for in the recipe. Once everything is prepped and ready to go, combine the pasta, chicken, and the next 6 ingredients (through oregano) in a large bowl and toss.
Combine your vinegar, salt and pepper in a bowl and whisk it together. Drizzle it over the top of your pasta mixture, toss and sprinkle with the goat cheese.

This is so delicious, simple and versatile. You could really add a lot of different veggies and herbs to this depending on what you have on hand. You may notice in the photos that I added spinach to mine instead of arugula. I know they taste completely different, but I didn't have arugula so I thought it was better than no leafy greens at all. One tip: next time, I would saute the peppers and tomatoes a little before adding them. That way they're not raw and not as crunchy. Other than that, it was great and perfect for leftovers throughout the week! Enjoy!

~ Kris

Recipe: Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2011 is to try at least one new recipe each week. It has actually been a lot of fun and makes me step outside my cooking comfort zone. I’ll be sure to blog about any of the good ones along the way, so stay tuned!

For Christmas, I conveniently got a subscription to Cooking Light magazine from my aunt, which has been great for my New Year’s resolution. I absolutely love this magazine and would definitely recommend getting a subscription to this magazine to anyone who likes to cook. It’s full of great recipes that are healthy, easy to make and delicious!

When I received my Jan/Feb issue, I knew I wanted to try the Chicken with Mushroom Sauce. It turned out really well and was incredibly easy, and the best part was that I already had most of the ingredients on hand. I only had to purchase the fresh thyme.

INGREDIENTS

4 (6 oz) boneless skinless chicken breast halves

2 tsp canola oil

½ tsp salt, divided

¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup chopped shallots

1 (8 oz) package presliced mushrooms (I used baby bellas)

2 minced garlic cloves

½ cup dry white wine

1 ½ tsp all-purpose flour

¾ cup fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp minced fresh thyme

1.      Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap, and pound to ½ inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet.

2.      Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add canola oil to pan; swirl to coat. Sprinkle chicken with ¼ tsp salt and pepper. Add chicken to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until done. Transfer chicken to serving platter; keep warm.

3.      Add shallots and mushrooms to pan; sauté for 4 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; sauté for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in wine, scraping pan to loosen brown bits; bring to a boil. Cook until liquid almost evaporates. Sprinkle mushroom mixture with remaining ¼ tsp salt and flour, cook 30 seconds, stirring frequently. Cook 2 minutes or until slightly thick. Remove pan from heat; add butter and thyme, stirring until butter melts. Serve with chicken. Yield: 4 servings (1 serving= 1 chicken breast half and 1/3 cup of sauce).

Sorry the picture isn't great!

If you like mushrooms, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by this recipe. And one serving is only 290 calories and 10.5g fat! Enjoy!  

~Kris