Fun with Friends

 

I'm posting a recipe for a great Spanish chicken salad and an easy Moroccan chicken. I 'm also posting the pictures from playgroup this last week and a few other cute pics  and a video of or the long-distance relatives and friends out there. I don't have any pictures from our little weekend without the kiddos, but it was great. We saw Wicked (FANTASTIC!!) went to the Houston Museum of Fine Art (only because Jon was forced to via his art appreciation prof.) and generally enjoyed ourselves. Thanks to Gramma Whipple and Pam for babysitting for us. Anyway, click the link for the photos.... 

 

Okay so for both of these recipes you can do one of three things for the chicken 1) buy a whole chicken and boil/roast it until done and then cool and de-bone 2)buy a rotisserie chicken and take the meat off of it which is what I do because a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken costs the same as a whole raw chicken and is less work 3) grill/boil/roast boneless skinless chicken breasts-but you should note that it won't have as much flavor. Whatever way you choose to get your allotted amount of cooked chicken is fine. It usually ends up being 3-4 cups worth of cooked chicken depending on the size of the bird

Quick Moroccan Chicken

Moroccan Chicken is usually time consuming and can include some ingredients that may be hard to come by. This recipe which I adapted from Cooks Illustrated May/June 2006 gives you the same flavors with less work and less cost. It's best served over whole wheat couscous.

Meat from 1 chicken or 4 large cooked chicken breasts

1 T olive oil
½ tsp each sweet paprika, ground cumin, cayenne, ground ginger, ground coriander, ground cinnamon,
1 tsp minced garlic
1 large onion, diced
Zest of ½ lemon
4 large carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, diced
2 c chicken broth
1 T honey
1 c cracked green olives pitted and halved (optional)
1 handful chopped fresh cilantro
3 T lemon juice
Heat oil in large pot and add spices, garlic, onion, and lemon zest and sauté until fragrant (about 1 min). Add carrots, celery, chicken broth, chicken, honey and cook until carrots are fork tender. Add olives, cilantro and lemon juice and cook 1 min. Serve over whole wheat couscous

Spanish Chicken Salad-adapted from Cooks Illustrated May/June 2006
½ c extra virgin olive oil
3 T balsamic vinegar
10 oz roasted red peppers (about 1 1/3 c)
½ tsp minced garlic
¼ c diced onion
3 T fresh parsley
2 celery ribs
Meat from 1 chicken or 4 large cooked chicken breasts
Kosher salt and pepper
½ c sliced almonds
½ c roughly chopped petite pitted green olives
Put olive oil, vinegar, peppers, garlic, onion, parsley and celery in a food processor and blend until smooth. Mix pepper mixture with chicken and pop in the fridge for 1 hour. Salt and pepper to taste and serve over romaine lettuce and top with almonds and olives.