Chicken Teriyaki Dinner

When we were growing up in northern California, my parents had a very diverse circle of friends.

My family and our family friends would gather nearly every weekend for picnics or dinners and everyone would cook something different from their culture or background to share. Recipes would be traded like they were gold. I still have a few of the recipes my mom collected over the years, written in her handwriting on now-yellowed lined index cards.

One of my childhood favorites was Chicken Teriyaki. Harry was Japanese, single and my dad's co-worker. He grew up eating beef or chicken teriyaki made by his traditional Japanese mother. When Harry brought chicken teriyaki to one of our gatherings, my mother quickly asked him for the recipe. My mom made it many, many times over the years and never changed a smidgen of any ingredient.

But, you know me. I just can't leave well enough alone. I have tweaked Harry's mother's recipe quite a bit over the years, adding ginger, beer and sesame oil for a more dimensional flavor, but every time I eat this it reminds me of those wonderful meals with friends.

The other night, our meal consisted of Chicken Teriyaki, Baked Brown Rice (the recipe I got from Mel @ My Kitchen Cafe) and a salad made with romaine lettuce and thinly shaved carrots topped with a Japanese-style Ginger Salad Dressing.

PRINT THE RECIPE: Chicken Teriyaki
Chicken Teriyaki

2 to 3 lbs. chicken pieces (I like boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but you can use any combination of chicken pieces)

Marinade:

• 1 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1 cup beer
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
• 1 tablespoon finely minced green onion
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Add all of the marinade ingredients to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer very gently for about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the marinade to cool to room temperature.

Place the chicken pieces in a large zip-lock type plastic bag. Pour the teriyaki marinade over the chicken. Seal the bag and refrigerate for at least one hour. The flavor is best when the chicken is marinated for several hours or overnight.

Heat your barbecue grill to a medium heat. When grill is hot, place the chicken pieces on the grill all at once, close the lid and cook on one side for 10 minutes, then turn over and cook for another 10 minutes. The chicken is done when it has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Remove the chicken from the grill to a platter and cover with foil allow to rest for about 10 minutes.

Note: If you plan on using a portion of your marinade for a glaze or sauce, measure about 1-1/2 cups of the marinade into a small pan. Discard remaining marinade. Bring the marinade to a boil and simmer for at least 5 minutes to kill any bacteria. To thicken the sauce for a glaze, mix 1-1/2 tablespoons corn starch with 1-1/2 tablespoons cool water and add to simmering marinade and continue to cook until the sauce has thickened.


PRINT THE RECIPE: Baked Brown Rice
Baked Brown Rice
Adapted from Mel @ My Kitchen Cafe

Mel's recipe called for low-sodium chicken broth and added a little salt. I just used regular chicken broth and omitted the salt.

• 1-1/2 cups brown rice
• 2-1/2 cups chicken broth

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the brown rice and chicken broth in a 3-quart casserole dish and cover with tight fitting lid or aluminum foil.

Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes before removing lid or foil and fluffing with a fork.



I love this salad dressing. It reminds me of the Sushi Club in Reno, Nevada, an all-you-can-eat sushi place where everything is made to order. For $20 a person, you get miso soup, a salad with this dressing and you can order as much sushi as you can eat from the menu. Unfortunately, they don't give out the recipe for their salad dressing, but I think I got it right.

PRINT THE RECIPE: Japanese Style Ginger Salad Dressing

Japanese-Style Ginger Salad Dressing

• 1/4 cup onion, finely minced
• 1/2 cup roasted peanut oil
• 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons finely grated ginger root
• 2 tablespoons finely minced celery
• 2 tablespoons catsup
• 4 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons white granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/4 cup light mayonnaise (I always use light mayo, but you can use full fat)

Put all the ingredients together in a blender and blend on high until all of the ingredients are pureed, about 30 to 40 seconds.

Chicken with Cider and Bacon Sauce

I haven't posted in quite awhile. I'm just overwhelmed by the holidays, the remodel, four blogs, blah, blah, blah.

We are back from our Thanksgiving trip and my Christmas shopping is in full swing. My Christmas baking, however, has yet to begin. I have to get busy if I am going to ship some goodies off to my son, Mike, and his family.

We spent our Thanksgiving at Mike's and I hate to admit it, but I voluntarily stuffed myself over the Thanksgiving holiday and the days beyond and I started my feeding frenzy in the San Francisco bay area where our son lives.

Our first night, we enjoyed authentic (oh, thank you, God!) Mexican food at a little out of the way place tucked in the corner of a strip mall. I relished every single bite of my Carne Asada tacos. They were just like the "street tacos" we used to get in Tijuana, Mexico. Our obligatory chips were served with two kinds of salsa: a traditional salsa made with fresh ingredients (tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, garlic, lime juice and cilantro) and another salsa, made with roasted tomatoes, onions and peppers, that was to die for and one I will definitely attempt to duplicate in the future.

Thanksgiving Day my son, Mike, roasted the holiday turkey on his grill after he coated the skin with a chive and herb butter. Turkey is sometimes tricky to cook correctly because it tends to dry out very quickly if over cooked even a little. This turkey was perfectly moist and juicy, and it was served with all the traditional trimmings.

The following night Mike and Kathy treated us to a wonderful meal at a local Vietnamese restaurant, where I had Pho Bo, a Vietnamese beef noodle soup. Light, but filling.

Our final day in the bay area, we all spent the entire afternoon at the beach at Half Moon Bay, then enjoyed a late lunch at a small beachside cafe while sitting on an outside deck enjoying the beautiful sunny weather.

Then we were off to Fresno, in central California, where I was born and called home for most of my childhood, and more food. Steaks, truffled mashed potatoes, fresh steamed asparagus, sauteed spinach with roasted pine nuts and shaved parmesan for one meal; ham, sweet potatoes and a delicious pomegranate coleslaw for another.

When we finally arrived home last week, I was ready for some lighter food and found this really nice recipe for boneless, skinless chicken breasts on the Cooking Light website. No cream. No butter. Very little bacon, just enough for flavor. Cooked according to their recipe, only 269 calories per serving.

I read a few of the recipe reviews and made some changes to the original recipe accordingly, more specifically I used apple juice instead of apple cider only because that is all I had in the pantry; added a little wine to provide some richness to the sauce and also added some cornstarch to thicken it. We really liked this dish.

I served it with steamed broccoli and plain long grain rice.

Chicken with Cider and Bacon Sauce
adapted from CookingLight.com using my changes and additions

• 4 (6 oz. each) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 bacon slices, diced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup onion, finely minced
• 1 cup unsweetened apple cider (I used apple juice)
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch

Place each chicken breast half in a large zip-lock bag and pound to about 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick using a meat mallet. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper and set aside.

In a large non-stick skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until crisp and remove it from the pan, leaving the bacon drippings. Add the chicken to the bacon drippings and cook on each side until done (about 3 or 4 minutes each side). Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.

Add the olive oil to the skillet, then add the onion and cook until tender and translucent. Deglaze the pan by adding the white wine, stirring well and scraping the bottom and sides of the pan to loosen all of the browned bits. Add the cider to the wine in the skillet and bring to a boil. Cook until the mixture is reduced to about 3/4 of a cup (about 5 minutes).

Add the cornstarch to the chicken broth and stir well with a small whisk or fork until cornstarch is completely incorporated. Add the mixture to the skillet and bring to a boil and cook until slightly thickened.

Stir the bacon into the sauce. Add the chicken pieces to the sauce and cook until heated all the way through.

Serve the sauce over the chicken with rice or potatoes and enjoy!

Chicken Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken) & Naan Bread

The movie, Julie & Julia, is coming out on DVD in December. I can hardly wait to buy it. Oh, I've already seen it in the theater, but I loved it and I could watch the movie over and over again.

As a young wife and mother, I watched Julia Child's television show, The French Chef, on PBS. She was inspiring to those of us who were merely "home cooks," but desired to prepare wonderful foods that didn't contain canned soup, noodles and oil packed tuna.

Then in the 80's I became mesmerized by the Italian cuisine presented by Lidia Bastianich. Before Lidia, my grandest achievement was mere spaghetti sauce. Until then, I had no idea Italians prepared so much seafood! Who knew (hellloooo, Italy = peninsula = surrounded on three sides by water = DUH!)

How did I get on the subject of Julia Child...oh, yeah, I boned three chicken thighs for the Chicken Makhani and I considered it practice for the duck I am going to bone sometime in the near future.

Yes, I am one of the many suckers who, after watching Julie & Julia, immediately purchased both volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by, who else, Julia Child. Why did I do that? First, I didn't have either of those books and second, ... okay, I'll tell the truth...I was envious and challenged by the scene in the movie where the young character, Julie Powell, learns to bone a whole duck from Julia's first cookbook. If Julie Powell, a 20-something young wife, non-cook and blogger, can learn to bone a duck, then so can I. There I said it.

So, I bought the cookbooks and I bought a really good boning knife. There's the knife sitting innocently next to the chicken thighs that I boned only moments before taking this photo...

I purchased the boning knife from Cooking.com the first part of October and it has been sitting proudly on my magnetic knife rack since I opened the box, dipped it in hot soapy water, ran the dish cloth along the blade to clean it and deftly slit open the tip of my middle finger. After I finally stopped the bleeding (and subsequent whining), I dried the knife...very, very carefully...and placed it safely on the rack, where it sat until I got brave enough to actually try to use it. This time, I watched where I put my fingers.

But, I digress. This post is about Chicken Makhani and Naan Bread.

I don't know why it's called Indian Butter Chicken because there isn't a lot of butter in the sauce ~ only 2 tablespoons ~ but it is delicious, although difficult to describe. It tastes a little like curry, but not so much. It uses some of the same ingredients in curry, but not all. The ground coriander seed and garam masala (which I purchased at my local Kroger) add a wonderful flavor dimension. The roasted peanut oil smells like roasted peanuts and adds a wonderful nutty flavor to the dish. Unfortunately, the oil is difficult to find. I used to be able to buy Loriva Roasted Peanut Oil at Fresh Market in Little Rock, but they no longer carry it. I now purchase the oil online wherever I can find it.

The Naan Bread is a bit like a pita bread, only a little more dense and traditionally eaten with Indian curries. It's used as a spoon of sorts to scoop up and eat the curry and rice.


Chicken Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken)
by Terri Powers for Terri's Table

For the sauce:

• 1 tablespoon roasted peanut oil
• 1 shallot, finely minced
• 1/4 of a medium sized white onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
• 1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced, then mashed
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste, plus enough water to make one cup
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch black pepper

For the chicken:

• 1 tablespoon roasted peanut oil
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander

Heat 1 tablespoon roasted peanut oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Saute shallot and onion until soft and translucent.

Stir in butter, lemon juice, grated ginger, mashed garlic, the 2 teaspoons of garam masala, chili powder, cumin, coriander and bay leaf. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

Add the tomato paste/water mixture, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in half-and-half and yogurt. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Season with salt pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Cook chicken until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat, and season with the other 2 teaspoons of garam masala and 2 teaspoons of ground coriander. Stir in the sauce that you have set aside and simmer until liquid has reduced and slightly thickened, and chicken is no longer pink.

Serve over plain or Basmati rice.

PRINT THE RECIPE



Naan Bread
by Terri Powers for Terri's Table

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 pinch baking powder
• 1 tablespoon dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons plain yogurt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon oil (vegetable or olive oil)
• salt to taste
• melted butter to baste

There are two methods for baking the dough: The oven method, using a baking stone, and the stove top method using a non-stick frying pan or griddle. Instructions for both methods are included.

To prepare the dough:

In a mixing bowl add the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix well. Add the oil and yogurt and mix well.

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let it sit for 2 minutes, then stir to completely combine. Mix the yeast water into the flour mixture and knead well. (Make it a bread dough consistency and just a little bit sticky - not too dry, add more water if needed and not too wet, add a little more flour if needed - it won't ruin the naan as long as it is given at least 3 to 4 hours to rise). Let the dough sit, covered with a towel, for 3 to 4 hours.

If you are going to bake the naan using the oven method (with a baking stone), turn on the oven to broil and let it heat (with the stone in oven) while you begin preparing your dough.

After the rising time, knead the dough again for a minute or two. Pat the dough into a circle and cut into 6 parts. Coat the palms of your hands lightly with flour and roll each of the 6 pieces of the dough into a ball.

Using a rolling pin, roll the balls of dough into round shapes about 8 inches across.

For the oven method: Put each uncooked naan on the stone and let it cook for about 3 minutes or until done. It should be puffed up or have a puffy surface.

For the stovetop method (this is the method I used): Heat a non-stick frying pan and place each naan in the pan one at a time. Cook for about 2 minutes on one side. Turn it over and bake the other side for 30 or 45 seconds.

As you remove each naan from the heat, brush with melted butter immediately.

PRINT THE RECIPE

Shellfish and Chicken Paella with Lemon Aioli

No cute quotes. No clever quips. There is no point trying to upstage this dish. Doesn't it look delicious? It was.

Like many of you, we are fans of a few shows on the Food Network. We TIVO Throwdown with Bobby Flay, Iron Chef and, every year, The Next Food Network Star. This year we watched and were rooting for Aaron McCargo's win. And, of course, I love Giada DeLaurentis.

The recipe for this Paella is an adaptation of Bobby Flay's recipe from Throwdown. You can find the original recipe here.

Now for the disclaimer. I live in Arkansas. I have never met an Arkansan fish monger (I don't think they exist here) and, according to a conversation I inadvertently overheard a couple of weeks ago, the barely-out-of-his-teens "butcher" at my local grocery store couldn't tell a customer what tilapia tasted like because he'd only ever eaten catfish. So, when the original recipe called for fresh baby octopus and squid... well, you know, it just wasn't going to happen. But, my husband, Tom, being the ever so positive thinker that he is, drove to Little Rock and the Fresh Market there came through once again and Tom was able to get fresh clams and mussels and two frozen rock lobster tails. Score !! We had a half of a tube of chorizo in the freezer. The chorizo sausage was not the smoked and cooked kind, but rather the raw sausage you get in a tube in the sausage section at Wal*Mart. That's okay, though, the flavor is there. Oh, and we just thawed out some frozen peas.

Bobby Flay's recipe serves 8, but that is way too much for the two of us. Tom scaled down the recipe to just 4 servings.

Let me note here that I really did not care for the Aioli with this dish. I would have been just as happy with a few sprinkles of fresh lemon juice.



Shellfish and Chicken Paella with Lemon Aioli
by Tom Powers
adapted from Bobby Flay's recipe on the Food Network


For the Paella:

• 2 roma tomatoes, halved lengthwise
  
• 1 tablespoon honey
  
• 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
  
• salt and fresh ground pepper
  
• 5 cups chicken stock, divided
  
• large pinch of saffron
  
• 6 littleneck clams, scrubbed
  
• 4 chicken drumsticks or 2 thighs, bones removed and meat cut into about 3-inch pieces
  
• 1/4 pound (or 1/2 of a tube) of chorizo sausage
  
• 1/4 large onion, chopped
  
• 1 cup Arborio rice
  
• 6 mussels, debearded and scrubbed
  
• 10 large shrimp, peeled and deveined, with tail on
  
• 3/4 cup fresh or frozen peas
  
• 2 cooked small rock lobster tails, leave the tails in the shell and split in half lengthwise
  
• fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped, for garnish
  

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place the tomatoes in a small baking dish and drizzle with honey, 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and salt and pepper, and roast until soft. Set aside.

Bring the chicken stock to a simmer in a saucepan and add a large pinch of saffron.

Into another saucepan put about 1/2 cup of the seasoned chicken stock, add the clams and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook just until the clams open. Remove the clams from the liquid and set aside, reserving the liquid in the saucepan.

Heat the remaining olive oil in a very large skillet or paella pan over medium high heat. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and add to the heated pan. Cook until browned on all sides. Remove the chicken pieces to a plate. Add the chorizo, onion and garlic and saute until the chorizo is cooked through and the onions are translucent.

To the chicken juices in the frying pan, add the rice, about 3-3/4 cups of the chicken stock, the reserved clam liquid and bring to a simmer. Nestle the chicken in the rice and let cook, uncovered, until the rice is quite al dente, about 15 minutes to 20 minutes. Adjust the heat as necessary to maintain a gentle simmer (the rice on the bottom of the pan should form a dark brown crispy crust by the end of the cooking time. If the stock is disappearing too quickly, just add a bit more of the remaining of the remaining chicken stock.

Add the mussels, shrimp, and peas. Cook, covered, for about 5 minutes until the shrimp are pin and the mussels open. Add the lobster, clams and roasted tomatoes, cover and cook for about 5 more minutes. At this point, you should be able to see liquid bubbling gently; it will settle when you turn off the heat.

Sprinkle with the parsley and lemon aioli and serve in the pan.

Lemon Aioli:

• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
  
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
  
• 2 egg yolks
  
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
  
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  
• 3/4 cup olive oil
  
• fresh ground white pepper
  

Place the garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt, egg yolks, lemon juice and zest in a blender and process until smooth. Slowly, while the blender is running, add the oil, in a small steady stream until thickened. Season with salt and white pepper, to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Welcome to the Church of the Holy Cabbage. Lettuce pray. ~ Author Unknown

I love cabbage. I love it in coleslaw. I love it in soups, especially Minnestrone. I love stuffed cabbage leaves. I love sweet and sour red cabbage. Most people don't think of serving it as side vegetable, but I love cabbage just sautéed with a little salt and pepper. So obviously when I come across a new recipe that incorporates cabbage, you get my attention.

A couple of weeks ago, I was wandering around the internet looking for some inspiration and I found this dish at Melissa's Magic in the Kitchen, which she adapted from Allrecipes.

Like Melissa, I made several changes to the recipe to make it more suited to my tastes. I went to one of my favorite cookbooks, Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen, to get the flavor I wanted and I incorporated the spices for Chef Paul's Red Beans and Rice into this recipe. The recipe below incorporates my changes.

This recipe is hearty, flavorful, simple to prepare and makes A LOT !! Tom and I each had seconds and we still vacuum sealed and froze enough for two more dinners.

Cabbage Jambalaya
by Terri Powers for Terri's Table
adapted from Melissa's Magic in the Kitchen

1 pound ground beef
1 pound kielbasa, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium head green cabbage, chopped
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes, drained well (I used diced tomatoes)
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup uncooked long grain white rice
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon Emeril's Essence seasoning (or other Cajun-syle seasoning)
2 bay leaves
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons pepper

To prepare this dish, use a large stock pot, dutch oven or other large pot with tight fitting lid.


Put the olive oil in the pot over medium high heat. Add the onion, celery and carrots and cook until the onion is slightly cooked. Add the garlic and cook for one minute more. Add the ground beef and cook until the beef is evenly brown, breaking it up into small pieces with the spoon as it cooks. Add the kielbasa slices, cabbage, tomatoes, chicken stock, rice and all the herbs and spices and stir well.


Bring contents to a boil and reduce the heat to low for a slow simmer. Cover the pot and cook for 35 to 40 minutes, or until rice is done. Adjust the seasoning if desired and serve.

I Miss REAL Mexican Food

I was born and raised in California and I love REAL Mexican food.

Tom and I lived in San Diego County before moving to Arkansas 14 years ago. It was a tremendous culture shock. I remember the first time I bought a can of artichoke hearts and the grocery clerk nearly gagged because she thought they were hearts from an animal! Or the time I bought a bunch of cilantro and the grocery clerk couldn't spell or pronounce it so she just charged me for "parsley." And, even just recently a grocery clerk had to ask me what that odd looking root was... it was ginger.

We still don't go out to eat Mexican food because there isn't any. It is all Tex-Mex. After eating Fish Tacos at Roberto’s in Encinitas, Chili Rellenos at Anita's in Oceanside, street tacos in Tijuana, ceviche in Ensanada and Camerones al Ajillo (garlic shrimp) Rosarito Beach, I just don't have a taste for Tex-Mex, particularly Arkansas-style.

After we moved here, I wasn't able to find all the ingredients to cook the dishes I used to until just recently when one of our grocery stores started carrying some of the items I had been accustom to buying in California, thanks to the recent influx of Latinos to this part of the country. So when I saw Valli’s (More Than Burnt Toast) recipe for Tortilla Crusted Chicken Rellenos with Cilantro Sauce, I had to try it.

Tom and I went shopping yesterday afternoon, and wouldn't you know it, Kroger did not have poblano peppers. So off to Walmart (UGGG! Hate Walmart) we go, where we scored on the peppers. I love poblano peppers! My son, Chris, makes the most awesome Roasted Cream of Poblano Soup.... but, another time for that.

So, Tom made the Chicken Rellenos, I made the Cilantro Sauce and the Rice. We both changed Valli's recipes a little (which I have noted), but dinner was absolutely delicious. When Tom was browning the chicken,the kitchen smelled wonderful from the cumin and crushed tortilla chips.

Tortilla Crusted Chicken Rellenos with Cilantro Sauce

For the Cilantro Sauce

2/3 cup dairy sour cream (I used "light" sour cream)
1/3 cup mayonnaise(instead of mayonnaise, I used about 1/2 cup of guacamole that was leftover from the night before ~ 3 mashed avocados, a teaspoon of minced garlic, 1/4 cup of salsa, 2 tablespoons grated onion, 2 teaspoons of minced jalapeno peppers, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, salt & pepper)
4 green onions, chopped finely, green tops included
1 small jalapeno, seeded and diced (we had one roasted poblano pepper leftover, so I used that instead)
3 Tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped

Mix all ingredients well, cover, refrigerate and serve with Chicken Rellenos.

For the Tortilla Crusted Chicken Rellenos

4 chicken breast halves
4 small poblano peppers
6 oz. Pepper Jack cheese, cut into strips 1-1/2 oz. each (we just used jack cheese)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup finely crushed tortillas chips (Tom used Mission pre-fried Red Tortillas, hence the bright colored crust)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
3 Tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

Roast whole poblano peppers over hot grill, under broiler or over gas flame of stove. Turn frequently to ensure even roasting and cook until skin is charred and blistering. Place roasted peppers in plastic bag to steam (we used a paper bag). When cool enough to handle, cut a vertical slit in peppers and remove seeds and stem ends. Remove skin by gently scraping with a knife. Rinse, pat dry with paper towels, and stuff each pepper with cheese stick. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375F. Place chicken breasts between sheets of plastic wrap and flatten with meat mallet to 1/4-inch thickness. Place cheese filled pepper in the center of each breast. Fold sides over and roll up, enclosing the pepper completely. Secure with wooden toothpicks. Place the buttermilk in a shallow bowl. Place crushed tortillas in a separate dish and add seasonings, stirring to blend. One by one, dip stuffed chicken in buttermilk and roll in tortilla mixture, pressing lightly to coat all sides. Set aside.

Place oil in large non-stick skillet and heat on medium heat. Place chicken in hot skillet and carefully saute about 3 to 5 minutes per side until lightly browned. Remove chicken to baking sheet coated with baking spray. Bake in preheated overn 20 - 25 minutes until chicken is done and temperature on meat thermometer is 160F.

To serve, remove toothpicks, placing on serving plate and serve with Cilantro Sauce.

Mexican Rice (or Sopa Seca De Arroz ~ Rice "Dry Soup)

I would never eat so-called "Mexican or Spanish Rice" because I just never liked it. It never seemed to have any flavor, except when I ate in at a restaurant in Mexico. When I was perusing this cookbook (first published in 1969 and my edition is from 1972), I found a recipe for Rice "Dry Soup." It was exactly what I was looking for. It is delicious, even by itself. We always have leftovers because there is only the two of us. Lucky for me because I love having it for lunch, warmed with a little cheddar cheese on top. Yum!!

I have added ingredients that I particularly like to the original recipe, but it is adapted from this book.

1-1/2 cups uncooked long grain rice
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can Rotel Tomatoes & Green Chilis, drained but liquid reserved
Liquid from Rotel, plus enough chicken broth to make 2 cups of liquid.
1 can of corn, drained
1/2 cup sliced pimiento-stuffed green olives (optional)
1/2 cup cilantro chopped
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, crushed

Brown rice lightly in oil. Add onion, garlic and Rotel tomatoes & chilis and cook for 2 or 3 minutes; add all of the remaining ingredients, including the chicken broth/Rotel liquid.

Cover and simmer on the top of the stove over low heat for about 20 minutes. Do not remove lid. Turn off the heat and allow to sit, covered, for 10 more minutes. Remove lid, pour into large bowl and mix gently. There should be no liquid remaining when the rice is done.

Makes 6 servings.