Beer Battered Cluckers and Sweet Tater fries with a Salad

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts cut into even thick strips
2 and 1/4 Cups of Landshark Lager (this is what I had, chill beers
2 Cups All purpose flour sifted
3.5 Tbsp Badia Sazon Tropical
1.5 Tbsp garlic powder
1/2 Tbsp black pepper
2 Tbsp sriracha sauce
2 Eggs
2 Large Peeled sweet potatoes
Canola Oil
Sea Salt

Step 1:
Sift flour into mixing bowl, add spices, and mix well. Add beer slowly while whisking. Add eggs and whisk until batter is uniform. Place in the frig for an hour to cool and let it thicken.

Step 2:
Cut chicken into even strips, bowl for 3-4 minutes, remove from heat and place in cold water. Take out batter and have another bowl of just flour. Take one strip at a time and coat it with a thin layer of flour, dip it in the batter making sure to cover the strip all the way, remove and place in flour again. Set in hot oil and fry until golden brown. Temp chicken to make sure it is done 170 F.

Step 3:
Cut the sweet potato into large chunks, place in boiling water for about 4 minutes, drain and drop into cold water, slice into thin strips, fry in hot oil until golden. Be careful to not burn these they do not cook like regular potatoes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve up with some ranch or any other sauce you like for chicken strips. We made a simple salad to go with! Enjoy!

Pizza Egg Roll Night with Salad

Ingredients:

Egg Roll wrappers
Pepperoni
Red bell pepper
Sweet onion
Fresh Whole Milk Mozzarella cheese sliced into thin strips
Bertolli vodka sauce
Baby bella mushroom

Step 1:
Dice up bell pepper, 1 medium size sweet onion dice, 1-2 cups diced babby bellas. Add pepperoni, mix well, and saute on high heat for about 3-4 minutes. Place in strainer to get rid of excess liquid and grease from the pepperoni and let cool. Layout thawed egg roll wrappers on a dry surface, add cheese, a hint of vodka sauce spread very thin, and sauted mix. Wrap tight using water or egg for the edges to hold the wrapper from opening up. Place in hot canola oil and fry until golden brown on all sides. If you wrapped these right the cheese will not come out.

Step 2:
Serve up with your favorite salad, in this case we did a simple carrot, cheese, lettuce, crouton, and spicy ranch dressing.

Logan's Magnificent

So one of my best friend inspired this dish. He gave me the ingredients he wanted and I worked it.

Ingredients:
Rolls, I used left over sandwich rolls cut into half
EVOO
Litehouse Italian Freeze Dried Seasoning
Rosemary
Black Pepper
6 cloves diced garlic
1 Large package fresh green beans, cleaned and ends cut
1 Large Sweet onion 1/2 diced, 1/2 sliced thin
10 Roma Tomatoes diced
Fresh Sweet Basil
3 Tbsp Unsalted butter
1lb package whole wheat linguine
2 medium sized packages of baby bella mushrooms, 1 package left whole, the other diced up
1.5 cup Freshly grated Asiago Cheese
1 cup Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1.5 cup Freshly grated Romano cheese
1 qt container lite cream
White wine, something with flavor and a bit of bite, but a little sweet
5-6 medium sized chicken breasts cut into small chunks
Sea Salt

Step 1: Bruschetta time!
Dice up 5 Roma's, add a bit of EVOO, pinch of salt, pinch of black pepper, chopped fresh basil, about 1/2 cup sweet onion, about 1 tsp Litehouse seasoning about 1/4 cup white wine. Mix well and let sit in the frig for about an hour, let the flavors mix, marinate and boom you got some fresh awesome Bruschetta.

Step 2: Pollo!
Take your chicken slap it some EVOO with the diced package of mushroom (save a small handfull for later), a small hand full of sweet onion,a pinch of sea salt, and 3 cloves diced garlic. Saute on high heat for about 7-8 minutes, add about 3 cups white wine, saute on high heat for about another 10 minutes or until the chicken starts to golden. Take off heat and let sit.

Step 3: Stewed Tomato Sauce
Take your remaining 5 Roma's and diced them up, place them in a pan with a tad bit of EVOO, a small hand full of diced mushroom, about 1-2 Tbsp Litehouse seasoning, the rest of the diced garlic cloves, a pinch of salt, a pinch of black pepper, and add about 2 cups white wine. Stew until tomatoes have completely cooked and are now a chunky sauce. Let cool and set to the side.

Step 4: Cream Sauce
Take your lite cream and place into a decent size sauce pan, add stewed tomatoes, cheeses, about 1 cup white wine, and let simmer on medium heat stirring frequently. As the cream heats up make sure you stir the cheese around well so that it will melt evenly through the sauce. Do not cook the cream on too high heat or it will burn. Let this simmer until the cheeses have melted completely. Add sauted chicken and simmer for another 5 minutes or so. If the sauce does not thicken up wisk the sauce vigorously and add cheese if necessary. If you let the sauce reduce and simmer properly the sauce will thicken. Remove from heat and let cool a bit. Salt and pepper to taste.

Step 5:
Saute green beans with some sweet onion slices, black pepper, salt, and butter.

Step 6: The bread and pasta
While letting the cream sauce simmer the noodles should have been cooked. Drain, rinse and add to cream sauce. At this time also spread EVOO with a hint of Rosemary on the bread halves, toast, and spread Bruschetta. Make a side salad however you like but it should compliment the dish. Plate up and enjoy!

Amazing Bourbon Chicken

Ingredients:
Medium Size Bottle of Bourbon
Chicken breast
3-4 diced garlic cloves
2 Tbsp freshly grated ginger
2 Tbsp mild red pepper flake
2 Red Bell Peppers
2 hand fulls of diced shiitake mushrooms
1/2 sweet onion diced
Broccoli or other veggies
Jasmine Rice
Huy Fong Sriracha sauce
Pure Cane Sugar
EVOO

Step 1:
Cut chicken into small thin pieces. Place in hot olive oil with garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes and saute on high heat for about 3 minutes. Add the bell pepper, onion, and mushroom, saute on high heat for another 3 minutes. Add about 3 cups of bourbon, reduce to medium high heat. Light the bourbon on fire with an extended lighter. Do not be afraid there will be flames just make sure there is nothing around the stove. After the flames die out reduce the liquid until it starts to turn a darker brown color about 10-15 minutes after flames die. Add enough sugar to get rid of any bitter taste from the bourbon. You will be left with about 2 inches of liquid at this point. Take off the stove and let cool.

Step 2:
Place the rest of the bourbon in a sauce pan, grate some ginger into the liquid, set to boil, add the hot sauce to taste and again light the bourbon. Wait till the flames die, add sugar to taste, a tad bit of corn starch, reduce until thickened, set to the side.

Step 3:
Make sure to cook your rice while you are doing the above steps. Get a rice cooker if you do not already have one with a steamer basket. This will make life much easier when cooking. Place the rice in cooker, set whatever veggies you want in the steamer basket, cover with lid, and now you have rice and steamed veggies. This also helps to retain essential vitamins and minerals that may drop down into the rice as the veggies steam.

Step 4:
Plate up, poor the extra bourbon sauce over the chicken and rice.

Enjoy!

Beef and Broccoli the Healthy Way

So I love to take recipes we all know and make it healthier. Most of us have no clue what real Chinese beef and broccoli should taste like as we are are so used to the americanized version which is also not that good for you.

All ingredients are approximate as I do not follow exact recipes. I cook to taste so if the recipe needs something I add more if needed.

Ingredients:
1.5 lb paper thin sliced grass fed sirloin steak
2 Tbsp freshly grated ginger
2 cups diced shitake mushrooms
4-5 cloves diced garlic
1 diced sweet onion
Fresh or frozen broccoli florets or Gai Lan (chinese broccoli)
Fresh green beans
Sesame seed
Black pepper
1 Tbsp Peanut oil
Olive Oil
2-3 cups Jasmine Rice
1/2-1 cup Reduced Sodium Soy Sauce
4 Tbsp Oyster Sauce

Step 1:
Place beef in a bowl with sesame oil, garlic, soy sauce, oyster sauce, mushroom, and ginger. Mix well and let sit for 1 hour. Remove beef from marinade and place in hot olive oil. Let the meat cook in the hot oil for about 1 minute, put the rest of the marinade in the pan, and reduce for another 10 minutes. Do not use corn starch or flower to thicken as this should be a thin sauce. Turn off the heat place broccoli in and mix around well. Cover with lid and let sit for another 10-12 minutes. The broccoli will steam but not over cook.

Step 2:
While marinading meat cook your rice so its ready to use when the meat is done.

Step 3:
Rinse your fresh green beans, place in some hot olive oil and saute with garlic/black pepper until slightly crunchy. Add sesame seed for the last few second of cooking.

Use the juices on the bottom of the pan with the meat to spread over the rice and beef for extra flavor

Enjoy!

Work in Progress the Best Pizza Eva!

So this is a work in progress as some things happened to the dish I did not think about before I put it together. When using tomatoes for a pizza do not cover them up with cheese first roast them before hand. I forgot to roast them before hand and I got a somewhat soggy crust due to the water content of the tomatoes leeching out while baking. Also the cheese can do this too so I would suggest baking it a little before covering it with the asiago. Also the way I used the pancheta made it a bit over powered, so next time not chunky, just thinly sliced in strips!

Recipe as I made it last night:
Ingredients:
1 container grape tomatoes, rinsed and cup into pieces
Pizza dough ( there is a simple recipe for this on here or you can get it premade at the store)
EVOO
1/4 lb pancheta diced
Chicken breast
About 3-4 cups of chopped portobello mushrooms (fresh please)
Litehouse freeze dried italian herb blend
1 diced sweet onion
3 cloves garlic diced
Sea Salt
Freshly shredded asiago cheese
Freshly mozzarella pulled apart into chunks
Alfredo Sauce

Step 1:
Let the dough come to room temp, stretch and toss, set on oiled pizza dish (use EVOO here)

Step 2:
Dice garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms, onion, pancheta, and cut thawed chicken into chunks. Place mushrooms, onion, garlic, with herbs/salt to taste and saute until done. Place tomatoes onto baking sheet with EVOO and roast until the skins wilt. Drain off excess moisture. Grade cheeses set aside.

Step 3:
Place pizza dough in a 425 degree preheated oven for about 3 minutes, let the dough harden up a bit, cover dough with a very thin layer of alfredo sauce. Add your toppings except the asiago cheese, bake for about 10 minutes, cover pizza with asiago cheese and finish baking until cheese is slightly golden. Deliciously amazing flavors. Eat up.

I will be perfecting this recipe so I will post the redo's when I get them done. Mess around with it too and let me know what you find out and think.

Crazy Good Quesadilla's with Rice

Ingredients:
1 lb sirloin steak sliced paper thin
3 cloves diced garlic
3 diced large tomatoes
1/2 whole jalapeno pepper diced
1 cup chopped cilantro
Black pepper
Sea salt
1 Red bell pepper
1 Yellow bell pepper
1/2 cup sweet snion
1/2 Tsp lime juice
About 1 Tbsp cumin this is approximate depending on the intensity of this spice you want
About 1/2 Tbsp Badia Sazon Tropical do not use too much it has salt in it already, your food will be very salty if you use alot.
2 cups black beans
Tortillas
Mexican blend shredded cheese
Butter
EVOO
1 can of diced tomato and green chile
White rice

Step 1:
Chop up all your veggies place in a mixing bowl, add beans, a pinch of salt, a couple pinches of black pepper, about 1 tsp lime juice, and mix it well. Let sit the longer the better the flavor. You now have a delicious pico de gallo.

Step 2:
Place steak in a thin layer of olive oil, add cumin to taste, and badia sazon tropical to taste, you do not need any salt herem and lastly garlic. Cook up until done and the meat is slightly browned.

Step 3:
Now to set the rice up for cooking. I use a rice cooker much easier this way. Follow directions on rice bag, add a the can of tomato and chile, cumin to taste, salt to taste, a little olive oil, let the cooker do its thing.

Step 4:
Take two tortillas brush butter on one side of both pieces. Place one tortilla on a cooking sheet, lather pico de gallo all over, add steak evenly, place cheese evenly. Put the other tortilla on top bake on 375 until golden brown. You will have to flip this dish while in the oven on order to get both sides cooked the way you want. I do not recommend using the broiler setting unless you plan on standing there watching it.

Serve up with sour cream, and the rice you made. Fantastic dinner!

Slow Cooked BBQ Chicken with Delightful Mac N Cheese

Ingredients:
Chicken breast
Honey sweet bbq sauce made with real sugar and molasses (this time I used store bought, but make sure its a cook brand, many brands usually use High Fructose Corn Syrup as a sweetener).
Frozen corn (unless you like canned)
Butter
Macaroni noodles
2.5 cups freshly grated Parmesan
2 cups sharp cheddar (make sure it is good quality or it can turn out gritty because of the anti caking agents they put in most already shredded cheeses)
Black pepper
Sea Salt
2 pints light cream

Step 1:
Cut chicken into chunks, place in crock pot with BBQ sauce of your choice. Let cook for 4-6 hours depending on the tenderness desired.

Step 2:
Boil and drain noodles, rinse and set to the side. In a sauce pan place cream, cheeses, a couple of pinches of black pepper, a pinch of sea salt. Let cook on medium until cheeses melt, stir often, do not burn the cream. Add noodles and let cool for about 5 minutes.

Step 3:
Place frozen corn in pan with a small amount of water in the bottom, add 1 Tbsp butter, a pinch of salt, cook until done.

Enjoy!

Nachos Revisited

Added some ingredients and took some out this time around

Ingredients:
Chicken Breast
Mild Banana Peppers
Bell Peppers Assorted Colors
Mexican blend shredded cheese
4 Tomatoes
Green Onion
Sour Cream
Diced olives
Diced Garlic
.5-1 Tbsp Cumin depending on intensity desired
.5-1 Tbsp Badia Sazon Tropical depending on intensity desired
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
EVOO First Press
Lime Juice
Cilantro
Tortilla Chips

Step 1:
Prep veggies, slice and dice how you like it does not matter. Dice tomato and place in bowl, add 1.5 Tsp lime juice, two hand fulls of cilantro, and green onions. Pinch of salt and black pepper. Let sit.

Step 2:
Boil chicken until slightly pink, drain, rinse off, and shred. Place in hot olive oil with spices and 3 cloves diced garlic. Toss around until meat is slightly browned.

Step 3:
Place tortilla chips on baking pans, place chicken on top spread evenly. Evenly cover with cheese. I do not like nachos to be too greasy so I use just enough to cheese when melted it covers with a thin layer. Add tomato mixture, bell peppers, olives, and banana peppers. Bake on 350 until cheese is melted all the way.

Sweet Thai Chili Meat Balls and Such

Ingredients:

2 lbs 90/10 lean ground beef
1 lb 80/20 ground beef
3 Eggs
3 Tbsp Dice Garlic
2 Tbsp Freshly Grated Ginger
1/4 cup Lower Sodium Soy Sauce
Sesame Seed
2-3 cups Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
1/4 cup Strawberry Jam
Egg Roll Wrappers
Napa Cabbage
Shredded Carrots
2-3 cups Jasmine Rice
Canola Oil

Step 1:
Set rice to cook while you are cooking everything else this will ensure it is done when the rest of the food is done.

Step 2:
Mix beef together well, add garlic, ginger, 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce, and eggs. Set aside a hand full of beef mixture for the egg rolls. Roll beef into small balls and place in baking dish set in oven on 350 until thoroughly done. Check periodically to make sure they do not burn. Place meatballs in sauce pan with sweet chili sauce, 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce, and jam. Let simmer for about 10 minutes. Be careful not to burn the sugars in the sauce.

Step 3:
Slice up cabbage and carrots set aside. Cook up hand full of beef you set aside and make sure you chop it up into small bits. Layout egg roll wrappers with cabbage, carrot, and beef, roll up and place in hot oil. Cook on all sides until golden.

Set meatballs on rice, sprinkle some sesame seeds on top, and egg rolls to the side. Enjoy!