Bacon & Black Truffle Chicken in White Wine Sauce

When was the last time you had chicken that was out-of-this-world?  Can't recall?  Ya, me either.  It's a staple in our house, but frankly--just a placeholder between the red meat days and pizza night.  It never really steals the show--or makes me excited.  It just sort-of...exists.

Until this week.  I was a woman on a mission to make something yummy with chicken--and armed with my new found freedom of leaving work at 4p.m.--this lady had some time on her hands to get creative in the kitchen.  What I arrived at was a chicken dinner that I'm drooling over--and can't wait to make again.  Seriously, its that good.  Then again...it has bacon, and black truffle oil in it...so you can't really go wrong.

Bacon & Black Truffle Chicken in White Wine Sauce

Ingredients:
4 slices bacon (thicker the better here!)
1/2 cup AP flour
2 tsp. herbs de provence
2 lbs chicken thighs w/o skin (or with, if you're inclined--or breasts)
2 Tbs. EVOO
2 Tbs. Black truffle oil
2 shallots, sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup hot water mixed with 1 Tbs + 1tsp Better Than Bouillon Chicken
Fresh parsley, finely minced

Instructions:

You really ought to prep your chicken for this before you start cooking--otherwise you'll dance a bit like I did as I was working this recipe out.  Think ahead--it'll save you time.  To prep chicken: mix flour and herbs de provence in bowl--and add a pinch of sea salt and pepper if you'd like.  Pat the chicken dry and coat with the flour mixture.  Set aside on a plate.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Heat a large oven-proof skillet (or dutch oven, which I use) over medium heat.  Cut bacon into small pieces and fry, stirring occasionally.  Remove bacon from heat with a slotted spoon-and keep in small bowl.  Keep the bacon fat in the skillet and add the chicken thighs--cooking on each side until brown, but not cooked through.  During your first turn, add the black truffle oil to the pan.  Once both sides are browned, remove f
rom pan and set aside.  Add shallots and sauté until they are tender and slightly browned.  Add wine, slowly, using a spoon to release any bits from the bottom of the pan.  Add the chicken stock and bouillon to the pan, and let simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the chicken and bacon back to the pan and put in oven, covered, for an additional 40 minutes.  You'll want to bast this every 15 minutes or so!

Remove from oven and serve with the pan-gravy over the chicken, and topped with parsley!  If you have a lot of oil in the sauce, skim it off before serving (I didn't, no skin on...)

I assure you, this goes brilliantly with brussel sprouts or potatoes...and is a new fan favorite in my house!

Tortilla Pizza Poppers

Happy 4th of July!  It's bazillion degrees out and the Thompsons are enjoying a day of rest and relaxation.  We tried to hold off on the grub-eating until the BBQ hour--but holding out all day is hard--we were STARVING.  We wanted something tasty and easy--enter, Tortilla Pizza Poppers.

They were the perfect hold-us-over until grill time; and with such success on this little idea; they'll certainly make their way into a party menu soon! 

Tortilla Pizza Poppers

Tortilla Pizza Poppers

Ingredients:

Soft tortilla (or burrito) shells

Pepperoni 

Pizza/Pasta sauce

Mozzarella cheese 

Fresh basil-finely chopped

Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Using a regular-size muffin pan, lightly coat it with nonstick spray. You're going to stuff the tortilla shells into these--so you want them to slide out easily.  Lay the tortilla shell on the counter--using a large cup/bowl (with the lip a little larger than the size of the muffin tin hole) and use it to cut out circles.  I found just laying it on top the shell, applying pressure, and rocking it back and forth a few times worked.  I managed 2 circles per tortilla shell.

Once you have the tortilla shells cut, place them in the muffin tins--one per hole.  Put about 1-2 Tbs. of pasta sauce in each muffin slot.  (I use one, this depends on your taste!)  Layer 1-2 pepperoni's per muffin, and top with cheese, finely chopped fresh basil and salt/pepper. 

Place in oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes--or until cheese is melted, slightly golden and edges are starting to crisp/brown.

Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes.  Gently slide out with spoon--and enjoy! 

The Boss loved these, as did I--and they've held us over until the grill heats up.  YA!

Balsamic Dijon Salmon En Papillote

Remember when I said my favorite things to cook cycle?  Well, right now, my cooking radar has landed directly on salmon.

Can I just tell you how much I love salmon?!

Since I'm a big fan of the easy, breezy, Thursday cooking-I turned to En Papillote, which is about the easiest way you could cook, and fancy-which makes it doubly cool.

Armed with my salmon (and my husbands swai) I mixed up the following glaze, en-papilloted our fish in individual papillotes, set them in the oven, and 30 minutes later, voila!  Dinner is served.  Mighty darn tasty too.

Balsamic Dijon Salmon En Papillote

Ingredients:
2 filets of fish, approx. 6 oz each (I used salmon and swai, but you can substitute just about any fish.)
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 Tbs dijon mustard
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar.

Directions:

Set oven to 350.  In small bowl, whisk soy sauce, dijon mustard and balsamic together.  Lay out parchment paper, set one piece of fish in the center, drizzle 1/2 of mixture over fish.  "Wrap" the fish (click here for demonstration).  Set fish on baking sheet and spray with cooking spray, as not to burn the paper.  Cook for approximately 20 minutes-or until fish is done.  You'll know its done when it flakes away easy with a fork.

Serve along side your favorite rice dish!

Linguini Bolognese

There's an epic debate that takes place in our house each and every time we want to make spaghetti:  thick or thin sauce.

I am of the belief that it doesn't always need to be this thick, chunky sauce that's heavy.  Occasionally, I enjoy a lighter sauce that's not-so-heavy and lets the pasta shine through. Mike, on the other hand, wants his spaghetti served with sauce and meatballs each and every time.  He'd also be happy with canned Ragu sauce.  (which I banned from our house entirely)

Since we always seem to have this debate, tonight I decided to ditch the spaghetti noodles all together and use linguini--because if we use a different noodle, we can't have the debate, right?  It's inherently NOT spaghetti and I can do as I please.

I've been watching a TON of travel shows lately, mostly because they talk about traditional cuisine--which I find inspiration from.  Last week, I saw a show on Italy and it showcased traditional sauces from various regions and I decided to use that as my starting point.  I was interesting to see that the traditional ragu  actually uses milk--so I figured I'd give it a shot.  Surprisingly, it was fantastic.  

This meal came together really quickly, so it's certainly going to be a mid-week work-in.

Linguini Bolognese

Ingredients:

3/4 lb ground beef
1/2 package linguini noodles, cooked al-dente. (reserve 1/2 cup pasta water)
4 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 white onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 can whole tomatoes (28 oz)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp nutmeg
1-2 tsp fresh thyme
1 tsp fresh parsley
1/2 cup milk

Directions:

In a medium pan, melt butter and olive oil.  Add onions and cloves.  Cook until translucent.  Add ground beef and cook until no longer pink.  DO NOT DRAIN.  (Odd, I know, but trust me on this one!) Add tomatoes, crushing with the back of your spoon.  Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, thyme, parsley and milk.  Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until sauce is thickened.

Once sauce is done, gradually add sauce to pasta and mix.  Add in a bit of the past water--the starches will help the noodles marry with the sauce and it thicken up.  There's no real science to how much you add back in, just eyeball it--and add based on your desired consistency.


Now, Mike still likes his sauce thick, with meatballs...so that's how we'll do spaghetti.  When I'm in need of a different version, we'll just call it linguini bolognese.