Favorite Ingredient Friday ~ Chicken Fried Chicken with Peppered Gravy

hosted by Overwhelmed with Joy

Chicken Fried Chicken

2 large boneless chicken breasts
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2-4 tablespoons butter(enough to keep chicken from burning~add as necessary)

Rinse and pat dry the chicken breasts. In a shallow glass pan, pour buttermilk over chicken 1-2 hours prior to cooking. Make sure to coat chicken well and turn at least once during soaking. Drain, but do NOT rinse the buttermilk off.

In a medium sized fry pan melt the butter over medium heat. As butter melts and begins to very slightly sizzle prepare breasts.

In a small ziploc bag mix together the flour, salt and pepper. One at a time, put each chicken breast in bag and coat well with flour mix and then into sizzling butter. Cook on one side until edges begin to bleed and then turn. About 6 minutes each side depending on plumpness. Keep chicken warm.

Peppered Gravy

3 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons Wondra flour
1 1/4 cups whole milk
3/4 cup whipping cream
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Black pepper + (to taste)

Melt butter into bottom of pan you just cooked the chicken in. Scrape up any of the chicken pieces and mix into new butter. Add flour slowly, stirring until absorbed by butter and golden brown. Slowly add first the milk and then the cream. Stir constantly until thickens. If necessary sprinkle in more Wondra until desired thickness is reached. Serve over chicken and mashed potatoes.

Chicken Marsala

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded 1/4 inch thick
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small white onion
  
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup Marsala wine
• 1/4 cup sweet cooking sherry

With a mortar and pestle grind the oregano. Sift together the flour, salt, pepper and oregano. Coat the chicken pieces well.

In a heavy skillet, heat oil and butter. Slice onion into rings and separate. When oil and butter is hot saute' onions until just carmelized. Set aside and place chicken breasts in skillet and brown on both sides about 6 minutes per side over medium heat. Remove and set aside.

To the skillet, add the wine, lemon juice and sherry. Stir, reduce heat, and cook for about 10 minutes until the sauce is partially reduced and begins to thicken. Return chicken breasts to the skillet. Spoon sauce over the chicken. Cover and cook over low heat for about 5-10 minutes or until chicken is done.

Hubby doesn't care for cooked mushrooms, but you hardly miss them. If you want to add the mushrooms back in, slice 1 cup mushrooms and add at the same time as the wine and sherry.

Super Bowl Hot Wings & Nacho Buffalo Bleu Cheese Dip

It doesn't matter who you were rooting for, you CAN'T, I repeat CAN'T watch the SUPER BOWL unless you have hot wings and buffalo cheese dip!

Personally I'm so glad the Giants won. What more could you ask for but to have back to back years with boy next door American quarterbacks (brothers no less). These two give the whole sports image icon a super boost. I'd rather have my kids looking up to either Eli or Payton Manning over say Michael Vick. It just oozes, American flag, fireworks, Chevy, hot dogs and apple pie. Oh and mom was there too!

8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup bleu cheese dressing **
1/2 cup Frank's hot sauce
1 can Rotel Original tomatoes & chiles (drained)
1/2 cup bleu cheese crumbles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat cream cheese in mixing bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds to soften it. Whisk in the bleu cheese dressing, hot sauce, tomatoes and bleu cheese crumbles until smooth. Pour into a 9 inch stoneware casserole. Bake 20-30 minutes or until cooked through. Serve immediately with Hot wings. **

**See recipes on side bar

~*~Chicken Cacciatore~*~

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
4 tablespoons light olive oil
4 tablespoons butter
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 teaspoons minced jar garlic
1 cup white Zinfandel wine
1 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons Classico spicy tomato pesto*
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon marjoram

*if this is not available use 1 can Contadina Italian tomato paste

Dissolve the tomato paste into the wine and chicken broth. Sift together the flour, salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken breasts in the flour mixture. Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet over a medium-high heat. Brown chicken, turning regularly until browned on both sides, for 5-10 minutes. Add the onion and garlic while browning the chicken. Add the remaining ingredients. Simmer, stirring occasionally until chicken is cooked through and sauce is thickened. Serve over prepared pasta**.

**I prepare the pasta in chicken broth for added flavor.

~*~Sweet & Sour Carmelized Chicken~*~

I couldn't decide which one, so I did 2 this week.
Favorite Ingredient Friday hosted by Overwhelmed with Joy.

This is such an easy and quick meal to make, but it looks & tastes like you worked all afternoon.

Ingredients:
4 boneless chicken breasts
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup chicken broth
3 Tablespoons of flour
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (bottle works if that's what you have)
2 tablespoons rice wine balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
olive oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon cornstarch

Between 2 sheets of wax paper flatten chicken breasts if they are too thick. If they are too thick they will take longer to cook. If you prefer scallopini style you'll need to decrease cooking time slightly.

Whisk together the egg and cornstarch. Soak chicken breasts in mixture for an hour before cooking. This mixture seals in the moistness and keeps the chicken juicy throughout.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a oven proof fry pan (or you will need to transfer to a baking dish) coat he bottom of the pan with olive oil. When the oil is hot, brown both sides of the chicken breasts including all the sides. Add onions about midway and brown them too. You want all the little browned bits on the bottom of the pan.

When breasts are browned, put the pan in the oven for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to 300 degrees. In the mean time, whisk together the hot water, bullion, flour, lemon juice, vinegar, salt and pepper. Pour liquid mixture over the chicken and cover tightly with foil.

Return it to the oven for additional 10 minutes (5 minutes if doing a scallopini thickness, 15 if they are really thick. Sauce will be thick. During this last ten minutes I steamed the broccoli and turned the left over mashed potatoes from the pot roast into twice baked potato bowls.

I have used breast tenders in a pinch and they work well, but they cook faster so keep an eye on them.

Alternative to brining

So, I was checking out my favorite food sites this morning and ran across an opposition (maybe it was an aversion, but they're tackling it and overcoming it) to brining this morning over at Smitten Kitchen. So I offered up my recipe as an alternative to brine, I have used an egg white whisked together with a teaspoon of cornstarch. I also add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and white pepper which tends to bring out the flavor. Coat chicken for 30-60 minutes before you are going to prepare it. DO NOT wash it off before cooking. You will have some of the plumpest juiciest chicken ever.