Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast

Since my quest for no carbo breakfast, I have been planning and preparing my breakfast myself. Many times, I baked my food the day before, kept some in the freezer and request my helper to heat it up for my breakfast for the next few days.

One of the reason I have decided to go carbo free breakfast (on weekdays usually) was due to a talk I attended when I was at Amity Wellness. Since that time, I have try to prepare carbo-less breakfast when I go to work. There are of course cheat days and exception days. But it will revert back to carb-less days once I go back to my routine.

Not having carbos in my breakfast means I have to be creative in what I eat. I'm always on the quest to search for recipes which are easy and can be frozen. This recipe - Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast is healthy and easy to prepare. I took this with kale in the morning.

Recipe for Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast, adapted from That Low Carb Life.
(Makes 2 large chicken breast)

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 tsp Smoked paprika
1 tsp Sea salt
1 tsp Garlic powder
1 tsp Onion flakes
80g Cream cheese, softened
¼ cup grated Parmesan (I omitted this)
2 tbsp Dijon Mustard
1 Cup chopped fresh Spinach
1 tsp Garlic powder
½ tsp Chilli powder 
¼ tsp Sea salt
¼ tsp Ground pepper

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170C. 
2. Place the chicken breasts on a cutting board and drizzle with olive. 
3. Add the paprika, salt, garlic powder, and onion flakes to a small bowl and stir to combine. Sprinkle evenly over both sides of the chicken.
4. Use a sharp knife to cut a pocket into the side of each chicken breast. Set chicken aside.
5. Add cream cheese, mustard, spinach, garlic, chilli powder, salt and pepper to a small mixing bowl and stir well to combine.
6. Spoon the spinach mixture into each chicken breast evenly.
7. Place the chicken breasts in a baking tray. 

8. Bake, uncovered, for 22-25 mins or until chicken is cooked through.
9. Serve with salad.

Jaime Oliver's Roast Chicken

It had been a while since my baking friends and I had a gathering. I suggested to come to my house this time for our gathering since I had moved to a new place last year. It was a simple gathering with potluck where they cook and bake very delicious food. We had curry devil, scotch eggs, chutney, mango cake and sakura panna cotta. I also made lemongrass drink and a salad. They were all yummy homemade goodies. And of course, we also had some store bought food too! With these group of baking and cooking experts, I decided baking a roast chicken might suit their taste. So I made Jamie Oliver's Roast Chicken with roast vegetables. I was glad they like it! The roast chicken was soft and tender and flavourful. The roast vegetables were crisp but soft. This is truly one easy and impressive dish to whip up for a function!

Recipe for Roast Chicken with roast vegetables, adapted from Jamie Oliver.

Ingredients:
1 large fresh Chicken 
2 medium onions 
2 carrots 
1 bulb garlic 
1 lemon 
1 bunch of fresh Rosemary herbs
Olive oil
Sea salt
Black pepper
Paprika

2 large Sweet Potatoes, cut randomly
3 Potatoes, cut in wedges
2 Zucchini
1 packet Cherry tomatoes 

Method:
1. Remove the chicken from the fridge 30 minutes before you want to cook it, to let it come up to room temperature.
2. Preheat the oven to 220°C.
3. Wash and roughly chop the vegetables.Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled.
4. Pile all the veg, garlic and herbs into the middle of a large roasting tray and drizzle with oil.

5. Drizzle the chicken with oil and season well with sea salt, black pepper and paprika, then rub all over the bird. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables.
6. Carefully prick the lemon all over, using the tip of a sharp knife. Put the lemon inside the chicken’s cavity, with the bunch of herbs.

7. Place the tray in the oven, then turn the heat down immediately to 200°C and cook for 45mins.
8. Add in the vegetables after 45mins of cooking. The vegetables would have been mixed with olive oil, black pepper, salt and paprika.
9.  Continue cooking for another 45mins.
10. When the chicken is cooked, take the tray out of the oven and transfer the chicken to a board to rest for 15 minutes or so. 
11. To carve your chicken, carefully cut down between the leg and the breast. Cut through the joint and pull the leg off.
12. Repeat on the other side, then cut each leg between the thigh and the drumstick.
13. Finally, arrange the chicken and the vegetable on a plate and serve.

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

On my previous post, I made soup with chicken nuggets. Here, I'll be sharing on how good and easy the chicken nuggets are! I didn't realise chicken nuggets can be so easy and good making it myself. I would try not to buy ready ones in future! 

Recipe for Chicken Nuggets, adapted from Food Network.
(Serves 6 persons as appetiser)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Plain flour (Can reduce to 1/3 cup)
1 tsp Ground garlic
Fine salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Paprika
1 packet chicken fillets (approx. 250g, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces)
1 cup homemade breadcrumbs (refer to below recipe)
1 large Egg (I used 2 eggs)
1 cup Vegetable oil 

Method:

1. Place the flour and the spices in a bowl.
2. Put the chicken pieces in and toss to coat all. Set aside to rest.

3. Place the breadcrumbs on a plate and set aside.  
4. Whisk the egg in a medium bowl. 
5. Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat.
6. Remove a piece of chicken from the flour, dip in the egg mixture, then the breadcrumbs, gently pressing the crumbs into the chicken and place in the oil to fry till brown.

7. Use a tong to transfer the chicken nuggets to a paper-towel-lined plate. 
8. Salt, if desired, while hot and serve.


Recipe for Homemade Breadcrumbs

Use stale bread, or I used  bread from my bread bowls.
5 slices of stale bread, if using it.

1. Bake in 140C fan oven for 10mins till browned.
2. Cool it.

3. Blend them in a blender till fine.

4. Use as desired.

Jaime's Special Chicken Stew

Usually during the National Day, we will celebrate my dad's birthday. His actual day is the day after. This year, I invited them to my place for dinner. I thought the easiest was to prepare a one-pot food. So I decided to make Jaime's Special Chicken Stew. I made several changes to the recipe as I do not have some of the ingredients available.

Recipe for Chicken Stew, adapted from Jaime Oliver.
(Makes for 12-14 persons)

Ingredients:
salt
freshly ground black pepper
20 Drumsticks
1 packet Fresh thyme, leaves picked, stalks kept
4 tbsp Wholegrain mustard
4 heaped tbsp Plain flour
extra virgin olive oil
1 large White onion, peeled and chopped wedges
2 cloves Garlic, peeled and whole
2 Yellow Zucchini 
5 large Potatoes, cut into quarters
3 Carrot, cut
2 good knobs Butter
1 can (Tiger) Beer
750g Chicken stock (3 whole chicken bones boiled with water and some salt to get chicken stock)

Method:

1. Season your drumsticks inside and out and stuff each of them with the thyme leaves. Using your forefinger, carefully part the skin from the drumstick and smear wholegrain mustard into the flesh. Rub the flour all over the chickens so they are covered in a thin layer. Keep any flour that falls off. Keep in the chiller for at least four hours. 

2. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. In a pan, fry your drumsticks in olive oil on all sides on low heat until browned (but not totally cooked). Remove them and place in a baking tray or baking pot. 

3. With the remaining oil, fry off the onion and garlic in the pan. Add the butter and spare flour and continue to fry for about 4 minutes, scraping off any goodness that is on the bottom of the pan. Add your beer, potatoes, zucchini and carrots and let it simmer for about 10mins. Now pour in your stock. Mix well.

4. Pour into the baking tray or pan, add in more thyme leaves stalk, then cover it. Cook for an hour. At the last 10mins, remove the foil or the cover, and let it continue. (I cooked mine in a baking tray and in cast iron pot)

5. Serve the chicken with rice or with artisan bread.

And not forgetting, I made a birthday cake for my dad too!

Chicken Pie

This post is sponsored by Liv butter. Try Liv today!

I like to eat chicken pies. However, to make a good wholesome pie, it takes too much time to bake for myself. My children are temperamental, sometimes they eat a lot, sometimes they don't like. It's so difficult to please them. Anyway, when I invited my parents and sister with her family for dinner, I decided to make just chicken pies. Initially, I wanted to order pizza home delivery. However, on second thoughts, I decided to bake instead, since I have the time to do so. I've made many chicken pies over the years. Usually, they are made by estimation. However, I decided to include recipe in this post. The pie crust which I used - The Pie and Pastry Bible was really flaky and crispy. (I used the leftover dough to make egg tarts). It was so good my dad decided to bring back some after the dinner. I made two trays, just enough for 11 persons.

Recipe for Chicken Pies

(Makes 2 large trays)

Ingredients:

Basic Flaky Pie Crust, adapted from The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Berandaum

(Makes a 9" deep dish, or 12-14" free from tart)
(Make 2 recipes for the chicken fillings below)

128g LIV Salted butter (if use unsalted, add 1/4tsp salt), cold & cubed
214g Plain flour
7g Distilled vinegar (or cider vinegar)
52-66g Ice water
1/8tsp Baking powder (optional. I didn't add this)

Method:

1. Place flour, salt and optional baking powder in a medium bowl, and whisk to combine.
2. Add butter and use a pastry cutter to to mix them  until resembles coarse meal.
3. Add the vinegar, followed by some ice water. Mix well with spatula. Then gently use your fingertips to mix them together. Add more water if necessary. Do not add all the water at once. I used only 50g ice water.
4. Refrigerate for at least 45mins, preferably overnight.

Chicken Fillings

(Up to your preference)

400g Chicken fillet, cut into cubes

150g Button mushrooms, sliced

250g Mixed vegetables

5 medium sized Potatoes, cubed

1 large Onions, sliced (I forgot to add this!)

3 tbsp Olive oil

3 cloves Garlic, coarsely chopped

2 sprigs Fresh rosemary, chopped

1 can Prego cream sauce of your preference 

Some black pepper

Some sea salt

Method:

1. Heat up a large wok.
2. Add olive oil, followed by garlic after the oil is hot.
3. When the garlic is fragrant, add in onion first. When it's caramelised, add in the chicken fillet. Stir fried it till half cooked, then add in potatoes.
4. Followed by mixed vegetables and mushrooms. Add in rosemary, salt and black pepper.
5. Let it cook for a while and add in Prego sauce. (I also added some chicken stock. However, it will make the mixture too wet. You may omit this.)
6. Simmer for another 3-4mins, turn the heat off.

Assembly:

1 pack of Puff Pastry (10 pcs)

8 Hard-boiled eggs, quartered

150g Mozzarella cheese, shredded

1. Remove the crust dough from the fridge at least 30mins earlier.
2. Roll it out on a silicon mat and fit it into the prepared pan.
3. Press down the dough gently and release the trapped air.
4. Topped up with the cooked chicken fillings.
5. Arrange the hard boiled eggs on top.

6. Followed by sprinkle some shredded mozzarella cheese.
7. Finally, place a few pieces of the puff pastry to cover the top.

8. Bake it in a preheated oven of 200C for 40mins, or until the crust turns brown. (As I was using glassware, it takes long. If using metal pans, 30mins at 200C should suffice.)

9. Serve and enjoy!

Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Bread

Roasted Garlic & Rosemary Loaf
When Laureen said it's very very good, I really believe it had to be very very good! Bake with one of my two favourite ingredients - garlic and rosemary, it definitely cannot go wrong! I've never explored roasted garlics before. All I had tried was just sauteed garlic or fried garlic as garnish. Roasted garlic? It is truly heaven sent!

I've been baking sweet buns since the day I found the perfect recipe for it! So it's time to cut down on sugars...I just couldn't wait to try the Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Bread when I saw it! Now, it says two heads of garlic...hmm, what does two heads means? Two small  cloves? Or two big garlic cloves? Ah...luckily I still have sanity check. Looking at the ingredients of using 560g of flour, how would two small cloves provide enough taste? So I decided to use two large garlic cloves, unpeeled. Through that, I've learnt two new things - heads of garlic, and roasting garlic.

I'm a lover for herbs, especially rosemary. I like to buy them too! However, because I know I don't usually use them up fast enough, I will just keep them in the freezer. And I'm happy to just do that so that I can have fresh herbs as and when I want. Well, it might not be as good as freshly plucked ones, but who can tell the difference? :p

You can find the original recipe at Eat and Be Happy. For me, I used a mixture of wholemeal wheat flour, bread flour and plain flour. It turned out to be perfect. I like wholemeal wheat flour in my breads, it made me feel less guilty when eating them! And yes, the recipe really made a HUGE enormous loaf! I will make it into two loaves the next time I baked. It's a rustic dense soft loaf!

*~*.................................................................*~*

Roasted Chicken & Wrap
If you asked me, I have no inspirations lately. However, my love for eating never dies. So what happens when my inspirations are out? Well, just check out other bloggers' and follow them. That was what happened on Friday when I made the Crispy Roast Chicken from Happy Home Baking. Thanks to her detailed explanation, I was able to make wonderfully roasted herbed chicken. Since I used rosemary in my rustic bread bake above, I decided to use fresh thyme for the chicken instead. It turned out to be truly good.

Instead of having roast chicken with the usual rice, I decided to have it with wholemeal tortilla wraps (as suggested by HHB too!) As I've not tried making tortillas, I decided to buy them instead. Just in case it didn't turn out good. Slice out the chicken pieces, place them on the wrap with lettuce, cheese and button mushrooms, then wrapped them up... Hmm, you'll have a wonderfully satisfied healthy meal! Enjoy!

Chicken Shepherd's Pie

My helper went for her off day on Sunday. So I had to prepare lunch for the children since we were not going to my parents-in-law house. I decided to make shepherd's pie for them. I've not tried this before, however, I figured it won't be too difficult. I searched on the web and found a rather simple recipe from Exclusively Food. I didn't followed it exactly. I used chicken instead of beef. I thought it was very much like making spagetti. I want to emphasize again, one thing about cooking is, you can add or omit ingredients to your likings or availability. It's that versatile!

Recipe for Chicken Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients for Meat fillings:
2 tbsp Olive oil
1 small Onion, peeled and diced
1 medium Carrot, peeled and diced
5 Garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
400g Chicken meat, diced
180g Prego Traditional Tomato sauce
30g Mixed vegetables
10 pcs Canned button mushrooms, quartered
1 tbsp Sweet Basil, chopped
Salt and pepper

Mashed Potato Topping:
990g Russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
30g Salted butter
70g Whole milk
100g Mozzarella cheese

Method:
1. Boil potatoes water until tender (about 20 minutes). While the potatoes are cooking, start preparing your other ingredients.
2. Heat oil in a medium size saucepan over medium heat.
3. Add garlic, onion to pan and cook for about 10 minutes.
4. Add carrots and mixed vegetables to cook until they have softened.
5. Add tomoto sauce and basil leaves to mix.
6. Add in chicken and saute. Cover and cook for about 10mins.
7. Turn off the heat.
8. Meanwhile, drain the cooked and soften potatoes.
9. Mash them in a bowl, then add butter and milk to mix.
10. Place the meat filling into an ovenproof dish.
11. Topped it with mashed potato. Use a fork to create patterns in the potato, then sprinkle potato with cheese.

12. Bake the pie in the preheat oven at 190C for about 20 minutes, or until sauce is bubbling and cheese is golden brown.
13. Serve hot.

Satay Chicken Skewers

I prepared satay chicken, not knowing that my girl's HFMD has worsen. Anyway, she didn't like it and didn't eat it. I grilled the satay chicken for dinner this evening. I also made pandan rice, which was much nicer than the previous time. My helper cooked other delicious dishes too.

Here's sharing how I made the satay chicken.

Recipe for Satay Chicken Skewers
Makes 12 skewers

Ingredients:
740g Chicken fillets, diced to about 1" each
1 tbsp Brandy
1.5 tbsp Curry powder
1.5 tbsp Turmeric powder
2 tsp Fine salt
1 tbsp Corn flour

Store-bought satay sauce

Method:
1. Marinate the chicken with the rest of the ingredients and refrigerate overnight (or at least 2-3hours).
2. In each skewer, poke through 6 pieces of marinated chicken fillets.
3. Heat up the griller. Brush with some oil.
4. Grill the chicken in two batches with medium heat. Turn over after about 5-7mins.
5. Served with rice and satay sauce.

I also went to buy some mung beans to make Tau Suan. I just felt like eating them, after seeing and hearing some of the bloggers making them, like Jess and Edith. As I haven't make them for so long, I soaked the mung beans for too long and the beans were too soft which just melt in the mouth. Not my ideal kind of desserts though. Simple foods like this, also required skills actually. However, when eaten with "you tiao", it did satisfy my cravings though.

Rosemary Chicken Frittata

"Frittata is an egg-based dish similar to an omelette or quiche, either simple or enriched with additional ingredients such as meats, cheeses, vegetables or pasta. It may be flavored with herbs." - Source Wikipedia.

I never knew there was such a thing as Frittata until I saw The Little Teochew posted up her Mini Veg Frittata. It looks really easy to prepare, delicious to eat and a full dish to please. Therefore, without hesitation, I decide to prepare this for our Saturday lunch. I found that such baking dishes are really versatile. Why did I say so? Because you add whatever you have in the fridge, or whatever you would like to have, change and tweak the ingredients to your liking. Furthermore, the taste won't be compromised (as long as you followed the fillings).

It was very well received by my family, especially my children as they are egg lovers. Here's the recipe on how I made them.

Recipe for Rosemary Chicken Frittata
(Makes approximately eight 3.5" x 3.5" tart dish)

Ingredients:
300g Chicken breast meat, diced
1 medium Carrot, diced
2 stalks of Celery, diced
10 French beans, diced
2 sprigs fresh Rosemary, chopped finely
Some soya sauce
Some olive oil
Dash of pepper
Some garlic

Fillings:
11 Eggs
220g Whipping Cream
1 packet (250g) Mozzarella Cheese
1 packet Yellow tomatoes, halved
Dash of pepper
Dash of rock salt

Method:
1. Marinate chicken with rosemary, olive oil and soya sauce.
2. Heat a saucepan. Add some olive oil, then add garlic and stir fried till fragrant.
3. Then add in all the vegetables, and cook till soft.
4. Add in the chicken and stir fried until about 3/4 cook. Off the heat.
5. Prepare the tart dish.
6. Scoop the cooked ingredients into the dish evenly.
7. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the cooked food.
8. Arrange tomatoes evenly on each of the dish.

9. Fill up the dish with the eggs, whipping cream, pepper and salt mixture.
10. Bake in a preheat oven of 190C for 20mins, or until browned.

11. Serve while hot.

Feel free to change the ingredients anyway you like, or add any other ingredients. I supposed the essential ingredients are pepper, salt, eggs and whipping cream.

Well, if you want to know where I got all these pretty little baking dishes, they were from Daiso. I love to use them as they were just enough for a serving each.