Have You Ever Tried Canned Chicken?

Back when the Covid-19 pandemic started, I laid in a lot of supplies.  Gradually, though, I’ve been using them up in my daily cooking.  Only one item I bought gave me pause—the 12.5-ounce cans of cooked chicken breasts.  I noticed them at my big box store because they were sitting alone on a shelf that had been stripped of everything else.

Try Chicken Tikka for Dinner!

 Chicken Tikka – serves 4 

2-3 boneless chicken breasts (1 1/2 – 2 pounds)
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika 

Remove any fat from the chicken breasts and cut them into 1-inch cubes.  Set aside. 

Combine yogurt, oil, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, chili powder, cumin and paprika in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.  Add the chicken cubes and mix again so that they are covered with the yogurt mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 12 hours. 

Pre-heat the oven to 545 degrees.  Cover a baking sheet with a silicone mat or foil.  Place the chicken cubes on skewers and the skewers onto the baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the chicken is fully cooked.  Check to make sure it’s white in the middle, not pink.  If it’s pink, bake for several more minutes.  Serve immediately.

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Try This Classic: Hungarian Goulash

 

 If I had more time, I’d make Julia Child’s Coq au Vin (Casserole of Chicken in Red Wine) recipe once a week.  I have successfully recreated her Cheese Souffle—a dish I was terrified to cook for guests because at the time I was a newbie in the kitchen and worried it wouldn’t rise.  I also treasure her Beef Bourguignon (Beef Stewed in Red Wine) recipe, and there’s no fear factor involved—just lots of steps and waiting around.

Desperate for a Simple Dinner?

Some nights I simply can’t stand the idea of making dinner yet again.  What could I possibly prepare that I’d want to eat?  How about Crab Cakes?  Not the normal fare in mid-November, but this isn’t a normal November. 

Homemade Pizza Saves the Day

 

I used to make pizza for 5 every Saturday night because that’s what everyone wanted.  Then half the family got old enough to drive and preferred to hang out with friends.  So I stopped making it since just 2 of us were eating it.

Flash forward a few years.

My Secret Ingredients When Making a Fish Sandwich

I fell in love with cod a few decades ago when I ordered fish & chips at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in London.  We were not a fish-eating family, except for pickled herring, a refrigerator staple with a very pronounced taste.

Kalamata Olives to the Rescue

 

Back when I was a teenager, I spent a summer in Greece as part of the American Field Service program.  I discovered such foods as Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie), goats’ milk, fresh figs, phyllo dough and baklava and came home 10 pounds heavier.

Dinner from the Deli Counter

 

Ham BBQ sandwiches have long been a family favorite, but I seldom make them.  I’m not sure why.  They are a direct link to my own childhood, when my mother would occasionally take my brother and me out to lunch at Isaly’s, an East Coast family restaurant/delicatessen chain that served Chipped Ham Sandwiches.  At the end of the meal she would buy a pound of paper-thin slices of ham to take home.

Lamb Can Be a Satisfying Comfort Food

When I think back on my favorite childhood foods, I think of lamb chops.  We didn’t have them very often, probably because they were expensive.  But they were easy to cook—just stick them under the broiler for a few minutes per side and serve.  The only problem I could see was how small they were.  We needed several side dishes to fill out the meal.

In the years since then, I’ve eaten lamb chops a few times,

Combining Two Pasta Shapes in One Dish

I thought last night’s dinner for eight would be easy to put together.  I had a one-pound box of rotini, a curly pasta that would cook up nicely and go well with marinara sauce.  The table was set, and the water was boiling.  That’s when I picked up the rotini and noticed that the box was half-empty.

Avoiding Grocery Shopping!

“Do I have to go to the grocery today?” my inner voice whined.  “What could I make for dinner if I don’t go?”

I opened the freezer door and spotted the bag of tilapia filets.

Need an Emergency Meal?

When I used to be away from the kitchen on assignment or working into the dinner hour, I could count on Bart to get food on the table.  It was always the same meal—Spaghetti with Clam Sauce—and it was a choice the whole family liked.

These days I work more from home and thus dinner is not a crisis meal. But it’s still satisfying to serve something guaranteed to be liked.

My emergency meal at the moment

Welcome to the World of Canned Chicken

Back when the Covid-19 pandemic started, I laid in a lot of supplies.  Gradually, though, I’ve been using them up in my daily cooking.  Only one item I bought gave me pause—the 12.5-ounce cans of cooked chicken breasts.  I noticed them at my big box store because they were sitting alone on a shelf that had been stripped of everything else.

I Need Something New for Dinner

As the chief cook in our house, I usually make the executive decision as to what’s for dinner.  It used to be easier.  When our children were small, they ate what was put in front of them, with just a few exceptions.  

A Teenager Improves My Recipe

I have several food-savvy friends whom I consult when I have cooking questions.  But until recently none of them were younger than 45.  Then Jake, my 19-year-old grandson, decided he wanted to learn to cook.  He retrieved our second cookbook (“Help! My Apartment Has a Dining Room”) from his mother’s cookbook shelf and flipped through it until he found Chicken Sultana, a recipe that looked appealing.

Mom’s Version of Fish and Chips

Even before I moved to London, I knew about a popular English dish called fish and chips.  But I had never seen it, let alone tasted it.  In England we tended to hang out with other Americans, and they were constantly preoccupied with locating as many American foods and restaurant chains as possible. 

We were more adventurous.

Question for Mom

Roasted Rockfish

One reason that I don’t cook fish very often is that I never know when it’s done.  Can you give me some advice? –William T.

Unlike meat, which becomes firm when it is fully cooked, fish will flake when it’s ready to eat. Flaking means that when you insert a fork into it, a fully cooked piece of fish will separate into thin sections called flakes.  If it does not separate into flakes, it needs more cooking.  Test it again after another 1-2 minutes.  You don’t want to overcook fish because it will become dry and unappetizing. 

The Many Uses of Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

My first encounter with crushed red pepper flakes occurred in conjunction with my first slice of pizza.  It happened one fateful evening, probably after a high school football game. I wondered why this new hole-in-the-wall restaurant in my Pennsylvania hometown had such a strange smell.  Only later did I recognize it as the smell of hot Parmesan cheese.

By then I was a regular customer

Now Versus Then

When I look at what I eat now, as opposed to what I ate a decade ago, I am surprised by how adventurous I have become.  What happened to me?

Raiding-Your-Vegetable-Bin Stir-Fry

Yesterday was a super-busy day, and by 5 pm I still hadn’t figured out what we would be having for dinner.  I thought about the package of chicken tenders in the freezer.  Boring!  Then I looked in the vegetable bin and saw bok choy, onions, mushrooms, an orange bell pepper and garlic.  What more did I need?