Chicken Romano w/ Lemon Butter Sauce.

 

Operation ‘eat more veggies’ failed miserably and majorly today. I roasted some brussel sprouts and zucchini with salt, pepper, olive oil and my new $459 balsamic. It smelled great last night. For lunch, ehhh…not so much. I had 1-2 bites and gave up. It tasted ok, but it tasted like vegetables! Blah! I don’t want vegetables to taste like vegetables. I want them to taste like treats.

 

Guess I gotta suck it up, eh?

 

 

Movin’ on….

 

 

 

This chicken romano is SO good, even I ate some. This post may be a bit short because I am feeling slightly under the weather. Boo.

 

 

 

 

Make sure you tenderize BOTH sides of the chicken breast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The trio. Dip the chicken in flour, egg, and romano cheese.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dredge through the flour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dip in the egg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roll through the cheese. Yum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Throw it in a pan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until it looks like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time for the sauce. This sauce literally melts in your mouth! It makes your mouth feel good, if that makes any sense.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Melted butter & lemon juice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ahhh – go ahead and just throw the entire lemon in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I added this wine because it was open.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then added it to my mouth. Cavities smavities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some dried parsley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I prefer dried better than fresh IN the sauce, but garnish it with a bit of fresh when finished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is heavenly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pour that entire thing on top of the chicken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cover & bake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It comes out so tender and cheesy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lemons really might be the best part. They are warm and juicy and not very sour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I served it with pasta for my hubby.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And had a few bites of my own straight from the skillet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicken Romano w/ Lemon Butter Sauce

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup flour

3 eggs

3/4 cups romano cheese

3/4 chicken stock

1/2 stick butter

1 whole lemon

1/3 cup white wine

1/2 tablespoon dried parsley

 

 

 

Preheat oven to 350. Add olive oil to skillet on medium heat.

 

Tenderize chicken, then dredge through flour, egg and cheese. Place in skillet and brown on both sides. Once brown, turn off heat.

 

Melt butter in a small sauce pan. Add lemon juice and chopped up lemons. Try to discard all seeds. Add white wine and parsley. Let come to a boil. then pour entire mix into chicken skillet. Add chicken stock to skillet.

 

Cover and bake for about 20 minutes at 350. Serve with pasta or rice.

 

 

Let me know if you give it a try. 🙂

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Hungry Angry Husband.

 

My husband likes to eat. ALOT.

 

And when he doesn’t get to eat, he gets very angry. His face should seriously be in the dictionary right next to ‘hangry,’ if it ever makes it into the dictionary.

 

 

 

Not only does he like to eat, but he likes to eat lots of meat. Chicken, steak, pork – you name it. Dare I ever make a dish without meat!

 

 

I think he believes that if he doesn’t get 76234 grams of protein in per day, he may lose all 170 solid pounds of muscle that he currently owns. He is a hottie.

 

 

Ususally, hungry-angry-husband hits at very inconvienent times. Like on an hour drive to my grandparents house. Or during church, where, let’s face it, he really doesn’t want to be in the first place. Or at the grocery store, while shopping for clothes, or during a 2 hour meeting. At least his co-workers can deal with him there.

 

The best was when we went to register for wedding gifts. Oh, my. We went to one of the ‘nicer’ malls about an hour away. We I figured that we’d have more of a selection and I didn’t really want to register for things I had never seen before.

 

So picture this – one hour drive there, in which a protein bar (or 3) has been consumed. We begin registering for china or crystal or something he knows we will never use, and he is as antsy as can be. Shocked? I know.

 

He begs, ‘Can we please go eat??’

 

We had registered for literally 7 minutes. I find the sales associate and give her back the gun to use on my husband  scan the items. We find a restaurant, which ends up having a fairly long wait, and he devours his food.

 

 

I spend the 4 minutes it took him to scarf down his meal staring at my plain, gross salad, because somewhere in the back of my foolish mind I thought it would be a great idea to do a fitness competition while wedding planning. Brilliant.

 

 

I also decide at this time that I would call my grandmother – no, not Mother Lovett – I needed someone who could actually SEE and HEAR – but my other grandmother, who lived only 5 minutes away. I knew this would just be something she would LOVE. And she did. And for the rest of my life I will always remember how much fun we had registering for my gifts – her and I.

 

 

Because about 5 minutes after we met her, hungry, angry, husband decides he needs a bottle of water. I’m not sure where he got it, but I think he drove to a fresh spring and bottled it himself because it took him that long.

 

 

He came back and excitedly handled the shatter-free glasses I registered for and scanned some inappropriate items as well. But 5 minutes later, hungry-angry-husband reared it’s ugly beautiful head again and he was off to get some ice cream.

 

He doesn’t even like sweets, so this is where I became suspicious. As often as I deal with him being hungry and angry, I think he was just trying to pull the wool over my eyes so he didn’t have to register. Why wouldn’t he want to register for such nice gifts in our wonderful home?

 

 

Lesson learned – make sure my future daughter registers for her wedding gifts with ME, not her own hungry, angry husband.

 

 

 

Below has been my go-to meal the past few weeks for my hungry, angry husband. It was born one afternoon when he was picking some things up at the store and sending me text messages about how hungry he was.

 

I knew it was about to start. I knew if he made it home before food was on the table, the kitchen would be a danger zone, appearing as though a tornado had ripped through. And in the tornado would not only be food, but miscellaneous items thrown, kicked, and broken in the passion of hunger.

 

I needed to take charge.

 

 

So here is the hungry, angry husband sandwhich. Only takes about 10 minutes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hungry, Angry Husband Go-To Meal

2 thin-sliced boneless, skinless chicken breasts

seasoned salt

1 whole wheat bun

a few sliced red onions

1/2 oz pepper jack cheese

a dollop of bbq sauce

a dollop of low-fat ranch dressing

 

 

Season the chicken breasts with seasoned salt and either grill or pan-fry in non-stick spray. Make sure the chicken breasts are thinly sliced so they only take a few minutes to cook. About 5-6 I’d say. Toast the whole wheat bun.

 

Layer onions and cheese between 2 chicken breasts and place on whole wheat bun. Top with bbq sauce and ranch.

 

 

 Feed to you own hungry, angry husband.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And don’t attempt to get a picture. There is no time for such a ridiculous thing.

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Chicken Marsala Sans Mushrooms.

 

 

My mom made this Chicken Marsala probably once a week as I was growing up, and it is so delicious that I just had to share. Traditionally it is served with mushrooms, but if you’ve been reading along you will remember my dad doesn’t eat mushrooms (they are not a food, they are a fungus), so this Chicken Marsala came freshly plated on Monday or Tuesday evenings sans mushrooms.

 

 

It never came on Thursdays because that was pasta night. And as far as I know, still is pasta night at their house. I never participated because I am not a huge pasta (or tomato sauce) fan. I prefer to get my lycopene in other forms – like Bloody Mary’s.

 

 

 

For once in my life I followed her recipe exactly.

 

 

That is, until I remembered a Chicken Marsala dish that I had one night in college at a tiny restaurant on Mount Washington. I don’t remember the name, but I remember the food. So I had to add my personal touch to the dish.

 

 

 

Begin with chicken TENDERS. Tenders people – not breasts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For some reason I find this raw meat a bit more offensive than my previous post.

 

 

 

 

I love this meat tenderizer. It is from Pampered Chef and I received it as a wedding shower gift. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please go order one of these now. It tenderizes meat like nothing I’ve ever seen. And no, Rachael Ray – smacking the meat with a frying pan does NOT tenderize the meat, at least not in my experience. Not like this guy.

 

 

 

 

The key is to tenderize BOTH sides. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So hit it once, then flip each piece over and hit ’em again. They get very, very thin.

 

 

 

 

 

I created a mixture of flour, salt, pepper and my boyfriend, smoked paprika.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The smoked paprika was my addition to the recipe, but it didn’t add as much smokiness as I anticipated.

 

 

 

 

I added 3 whole garlic cloves to my skillet, along with about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I  probably would have minced the cloves, but per my mom’s suggestion I added them whole. I am so glad I did.

 

 

 

 

Dredge both sides of the chicken tenders in the flour mixture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You want to add a thick coat of flour so some residual flour stays in the pan – it helps to thicken the sauce later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saute for about 2-3 minutes on each side, just to brown the chicken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then remove and let drain on a paper towel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To make the sauce, I add Marsala wine and some chicken stock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, a few additional teaspoons of flour may be needed to thicken the sauce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a side note, check out that garlic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 What a beauty! Not as yummy as these, though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Additions of the Marsala and chicken stock, and my favorite ingredient…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cinnamon! A few years back I had this dish and it had a hint of cinnamon in it. It was amazing. Amazing enough for me to still taste it.

 

 

 

Let the sauce come to a boil so it can thicken a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Then begin layering the chicken back in the skillet.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After baking for about an hour, it comes out so tender and juicy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I lived at home, the hour that the chicken was baking was the longest. hour. ever.

 

The house smelled so good and I was always starving as usual. I wish time went that slowly as we got older, don’t you?

 

 

 

 

 

I’m sure that mushrooms would be a delicious addition, but I just can’t imagine the dish with them. Possibly because this is a comfort dish for me? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I must say I am suprised that I have never added mushrooms, since I carmelizes a plethora of them every week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicken Marsala Sans Mushrooms

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken tenders

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 garlic cloves, whole

3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup Marsala wine

1 cup chicken stock

 

 

Preheat oven to 350.

Pound chicken tenders on both sides to tenderize. Heat skillet on medium heat and add 3 tablespoons olive oil and 3 garlic cloves. 

Mix flour, salt, pepper and smoked paprika together. Dredge chicken through flour mixture, coating both sides. Add chicken to skillet and brown for 2-3 minutes on each side. Do not cook through. Remove chicken and let drain on a paper towel.  You may need to do this in batches if your skillet is not very large.

After the last batch of chicken has been removed, turn up the heat to medium-high and add Marsala, chicken stock and cinnamon. Let come to a boil. You may also need to add a few teaspoons of flour to thicken the mixture – it is your preference.

Add chicken back in skillet and cover. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes.

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

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