September 17, 2016 | Posted in:

BBQ chicken pizza

pizza_1

pizza_3
Prep Time: 10 min.
Total Time: 1 hour, 30 min.

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

1 pkg (8g) active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1 tsp sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing

Pizza Toppings

½ cup pizza sauce
¼ cup BBQ sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ cup sliced red onion
1 cup shredded, cooked, deli chicken
¼ cup chopped cilantro

Directions

1. In a large bowl combine water with yeast and sugar. Let sit until bubbly, about 10 min. Add flour, salt and olive oil. Mix until mixture comes together to form a dough. Knead for 10 min., until dough is smooth and elastic. Use extra flour for dusting if the dough is sticky. Place dough in a clean, greased bowl and cover with a damp tea towel to double in size, about 1 hour.

2. Roll out dough into a large rectangle, until ½-inch thick. Heat BBQ to medium heat. Before grilling pizza, have all of the ingredients prepped and ready to go on a large baking sheet next to the BBQ. Brush top of dough with olive oil. Place on hot grill, olive oil side down. Cook, 2-3 min., until just cooked. Flip dough and quickly add sauce and toppings. Close the lid and let pizza grill for 3-5 min., until cheese has melted and dough is cooked through. If dough smells like it’s scorching or burning on the grill, move it to a cooler spot on the grill to continue cooking. Let cool slightly before slicing and serving.

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July 18, 2016 | Posted in:

Best BBQ Chicken

BBQ Chicken_1

BBQ Chicken_3
Prep Time: 5 mins.
Total Time: 40 mins.

Ingredients:

4 chicken drumsticks, bone-in, skin-on
4 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on
2 chicken breast, bone-in, skin-on, cut in half
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup BBQ sauce

Preparation Instructions:

1. In a large bowl toss chicken pieces with olive oil and a good seasoning of salt and pepper.
2. Preheat grill to medium heat. Once grill is hot, place chicken pieces on grill. Turn chicken pieces every few minutes for about 15-20 minutes.
3. After 20 minutes, start basting chicken pieces with BBQ sauce.
4. Continue cooking chicken for an additional 10 minutes, turning and basting with sauce often. Cook until chicken is no longer pink in the middle and the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165F. Let chicken rest for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with grilled vegetables.

Tips for the best BBQ chicken

• Make your own homemade BBQ sauce. You can mix up the flavor, spices and fresh herbs.
• Always season your chicken pieces well with salt and pepper or use a spice rub.
• Preheat your BBQ well before placing chicken on the grill.
• Always cook chicken until it’s almost cooked through before adding BBQ sauce. The sugar in the BBQ sauce will caramelize and burn if you put it on too soon.

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| Posted in:

BBQ chicken

BBQ Chicken_1

BBQ Chicken_3
Prep Time: 5 mins.
Total Time: 40 mins.

Ingredients:

4 chicken drumsticks, bone-in, skin-on
4 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on
2 chicken breast, bone-in, skin-on, cut in half
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup BBQ sauce

Preparation Instructions:

1. In a large bowl toss chicken pieces with olive oil and a good seasoning of salt and pepper.
2. Preheat grill to medium heat. Once grill is hot, place chicken pieces on grill. Turn chicken pieces every few minutes for about 15-20 minutes.
3. After 20 minutes, start basting chicken pieces with BBQ sauce.
4. Continue cooking chicken for an additional 10 minutes, turning and basting with sauce often. Cook until chicken is no longer pink in the middle and the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165F. Let chicken rest for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with grilled vegetables.

Tips for the best BBQ chicken

• Make your own homemade BBQ sauce. You can mix up the flavor, spices and fresh herbs.
• Always season your chicken pieces well with salt and pepper or use a spice rub.
• Preheat your BBQ well before placing chicken on the grill.
• Always cook chicken until it’s almost cooked through before adding BBQ sauce. The sugar in the BBQ sauce will caramelize and burn if you put it on too soon.

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May 5, 2014 | Posted in:

Slow cooker Mexican pulled pork, or carnitas

This is a crowd-pleaser, and not just for cinco de mayo! I made it for my sisters birthday this past week-end and it was a big hit. The margarita’s helped….
pulledpork

Ingredients

1 pork shoulder – 5-6 lbs
1 onion, peeled
1 orange, washed, and quartered
1 lime, washed, halved
1 tblsp cumin
1 bay leaf
1 tsp peppercorns
3 cups water

Preparation Instructions

Place all ingredients in a slow cooked on high, or in a dutch oven, covered, at 325. Cook 4-5 hours, or until meat is tender and falls apart.
Pull meat apart with a fork, and add 1/2 cup cooking liquid and salt to taste.
Serve with corn or flour tortillas, and your fave toppings- guacamole, grated cheese, fresh salsa, coriander, sour cream and cholula hot sauce.
Black bean, corn and coriander salad makes a great side dish.

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April 9, 2014 | Posted in:

Coke Brisket

I’ve seen variations of this recipe in several people’s book, and have always been skeptical. If you’re up for something new, then like me, be ready to have your world rocked: Norene Gilletz’s recipe from Gourmania.com will make you a believer.
Coke Brisket

Ingredients

3 onions, sliced
4 1/2 to 5 lb. beef brisket, well-trimmed
4 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt & pepper, to taste
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tbsp. paprika
1/4 cup apricot jam
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 cup diet cola (use regular cola if you can’t find diet)

Preparation Instructions

1. Spray a large roasting pan with non-stick spray. Place onions in pan; place brisket on top of onions. Rub meat on all sides with garlic, seasonings, jam and lemon juice. Pour cola over and around brisket. Marinate for an hour at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator.

2. Preheat oven to 325°F. Cook covered. Allow 45 minutes per lb. as the cooking time, until meat is fork tender. Uncover meat for the last hour and baste it occasionally. Remove from oven and cool completely. Refrigerate overnight, if possible. Discard hardened fat which congeals on the surface. Slice brisket thinly across the grain, trimming away any fat. Reheat slices in the defatted pan juices.

Yield: 12 servings. Reheats and/or freezes well.

The recipe comes from Healthy Helpings by Norene Gilletz (formerly published as MealLeaniYumm!)

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March 4, 2014 | Posted in:

Coq-au-vin

This is one of those recipes that I often make, but never with an actual recipe! It’s a no-fail favorite with friends and family!

Ingredients

8 oz (1 package) sliced mushrooms- cremini works best!
50g pancetta- diced
10 pearl onions
1 tsp butter
1 tsp fresh thyme
2 tbsp butter
9 chicken thighs
1/4 cup flour
1 bottle red wine

Preparation Instructions

Melt 1 tsp butter in a heavy bottom pan. Brown mushrooms, pancetta and pearl onions. Remove from heat. Dredge chicken in flour. Brown in additional butter. Add fresh thyme. Return mushrooms, pancetta and onion to the pan. Add wine. Turn heat down and simmer 1 hour, or until chicken is cooked through and soft.

Although it’s not the traditional way to serve it, I love serving Coq-au-vin on cheesy egg noodles. I find Gruyere or Emmenthal cheese has the best flavor to accompany the sauce, but swiss cheese works just as well!

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February 12, 2014 | Posted in:

Garlic and chorizo shrimp

There’s definitely something decadent about shrimp – maybe it has to do with peeling the shells before popping them into one’s mouth and having to use your fingers as part of the eating experience. This recipe is so intensely flavored that it just seemed a natural choice for part 2 of our valentine’s day menu.
Chorizo shrimp

Ingredients

3 heads of garlic, peeled and chopped
1/2 chorizo sausage, thinly sliced
1 lb large shrimp, frozen, uncooked, with or without peel, thawed
2 tblsp olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 chopped flat leaf parsley
dash of tabasco
salt and pepper

Preparation Instructions

Heat oil in large frying pan. Add garlic and cook about 1minute, being careful not to burn it. Add chorizo sausage. Cook 2-3 minutes. Add shrimp and cooked until almost cooked- about 4-5 minutes. Add white wine, and continue cooking until the shrimp are cooked through. Add tabasco, salt and pepper and parsley.
Serve on top of creamy polenta for an especially decadent meal, or simply with baguette (and cold cutter) to soak the sauce.

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February 3, 2014 | Posted in:

Slow cooker chicken soup with garlic

There is a soup from the Provence, in the south of France, that is made by boiling garlic in chicken stock, and then serving the mashed garlic on a toast floating in the soup. It’s a traditional winter soup that I loved as a kid. I’ve adapted this to the North American chicken soup we all love, and thrown it all in the slow cooked for simplicity. I’m happy to report my kids love it too!
horizontal

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, breasts removed (I save them for another dish- they just don’t add much in the slow cooker)
2 small turnips, peeled and cut into large chunks
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 2″ cubes
1 large potato, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 small onion, peeled
1/2 head of garlic, cloves removed but not peeled
2 sprigs of fresh thyme, or 1 tsp ground
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp dill
2 whole cloves
(you can add 2 pieces of celery if you like- I actually don’t like the taste of celery!)
salt
8 slices of toasted baguette, or artisanal crackers
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Preparation Instructions

Place the chicken into a slow cooker. Add turnips, carrots, potatoes, onion, garlic, herbs and spices and 6 cups of cold water. Cook 6 hours on high. Let cool.
Take out the peppercorns, coriander and cloves from the soup. Remove the chicken, and pull the meat off of the carcass, the return the meat to the soup. Mash the garlic cloves, (you can just slip them out of the their skins and squash them with a spoon) and return to soup. Season with salt.
To serve, heat soup, and ladle into bowls. with meat and vegetables. Top each bowl with one slice of baguette, toasted with 2 tsp of parmesan cheese over top, or crackers, and cheese sprinkled on top.
Note: I add a squeeze of Sriracha to the soup too! But I like strong flavors!

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January 24, 2014 | Posted in:

Slow cooker Moroccan chicken stew

My french grandmother made the very best “couscous” in the world. She would work for days preparing everything, slowly steaming the semolina before rubbing it with butter between her fingers. I’m not sure she would approve of my slow cooker adaptation of her recipe! But why spent 10 hours doing something when you can get it done in 30 minutes with equally delicious results?!
Moroccan chicken stew

Ingredients

1 chicken, cut up into pieces, or two breasts, two legs, bone in
2 lamb shoulder chops
2 tblsp olive oil
1 leek, whites only, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 carrot, peeled cut into large chunks
2 turnips, peeled and cut into quarters
2 zucchini, cut into large chunks
1 1/2 cups of chicken broth
1 small can of chick peas
1 tblsp and 2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cloves
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation Instructions

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet. Brown chicken and lamb and then place in slow cooker.
In the same skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the leeks, garlic, carrots and turnips. Fry for about five minutes. Add spices, continue to cook while stirring 5 minutes.
Add broth, stir, and pour contents into slow cooker.
Set slow cooker on high for 4 hours. After 2 hours, open slow cooker and add zucchini and chick peas.

Serve on a bed of cousous (I prepare it by placing it in a shallow bowl and pouring hot water over top, letting it sit then fluffing it with a fork. A dash of with “Harrissa” spice (if you can find it, otherwise chili powder would work) on top is delicious!

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January 22, 2014 | Posted in:

Slow cooker beef shank pasta sauce

I added red wine and black olives to this stew-like pasta sauce to crank up the fullness of the flavor, but my kids loved it too!
Slow cooker tomato sauce

Ingredients

2 large beef or veal shanks
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup red wine
2 sprigs fresh thyme leaves, or 1/2 tsp dried
32 oz or 1 quart of canned crushed tomates (I used the home-made sauce I made this summer in this video!)
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation Instructions

Roughly chop the onion and garlic. Heat the oil in a heavy skillet. Brown the onion and garlic, about 3-5 minutes, until translucent. Add the shanks and brown on both sides (about 3 minutes a side). Add red wine and cook 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce and seasoning. Transfer to slow cooker. Cook on high heat for 6 hours. Remove the shanks and shred the meat. Return to sauce.
(I ended up refrigerating the sauce for a couple of days, and it only got more delicious!).

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