Chicken stuffed with Swiss and Ham

Its another day and the days are getting closer for some of my family coming in from out of town. MC came in and well, what to do for dinner? Well, I thought what about having something rather nice for MC? I though what about Stuffed Chicken? Chicken Cordon Bleu would be great, but I don't like bleu cheese. The nice thing though is that this can be made with swiss or mozzerella.

 For this recipe, I decided to add some smoked gouda and swiss. I have made this in the past with many other variation of cheeses or pork (proscuitto, cured ham, bacon, or other pork product).

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts
4 slices ham
4 slices of swiss
4 slices of smoked gouda
4 tbsp butter, melted
panko crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste

First, start by rinsing the chicken breast. You never know what germs or bacteria you might be getting from the store or the butcher. I always like to play it a little safe and not deal with anything that can cause some problems later on (if you catch my drift...).

Once rinsed, slice the chicken breast in half. Make sure that you slice it evenly, but making sure you do not cut it completely into to separate pieces. It should still be one piece. Once it is sliced open, beat the chicken with a mallet. This will assure that the meat is the same thickness

When working with the ham, place the ham slices one over the other. Place 2 slices of cheese (smoked gouda and swiss). Wrap the cheese with the ham as if you were making a burrito. Tuck in the sides first, then roll. The whole goal is that you don't want the cheese to seep out of the ham or chicken.

 

Place the ham wrapped cheese on the inside of the sliced chicken. Notice that chicken will be wrapping around the ham. If you find that it doesn't, this may be because you have not thinned out the chicken.

Once wrapped, place the chicken into the bowl of melted better, making sure that the chicken is covered in butter. Then place the chicken into a bowl of panko crumbs. Completely cover the chicken in panko. Place the chicken into a preheated oven at 350 degrees. Allow to cook for about 35 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked. (if electrical, may take a little longer)

Well I am going to eat this with a nice white wine butter cream sauce along with that orzo that I had a couple of days ago. Remember, it is great to have everything cooked ahead of time.

Recreating Orzo Medley

Its been a while since I have posted anything. With the holidays, I have been busy with getting ready for family coming in, various parties, shopping and well spending quality time with MC.

This recipe comes from my visiting one of my favorite little places, the Spaghetti Western. They have a great atmosphere and the food is rather quite good for a really good price. One of those things they tend to cook is this orzo medley. I have always wanted to get the recipe, but of course they aren't going to give it to me, so I am improvising. Once it was said and done, I was told by MC that is was better than what we have had at Spaghetti Western. Well, hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients:

1 package orzo

1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
1 red bell pepper
1 can chantrelle mushrooms (8 oz)
2 cups spinach
Salt and pepper to taste

First off, get a large pot with some water. I have also added one 16 oz box of chicken stock. Bring this to a boil. Add the tbsp minced garlic. Allow it to continue to boil.

 

Add the orzo to the boiling water. Allow it to cook for at least 5 to 10 minutes or until it is tender.

While that is cooking, start to dice the veggies.

  

Drain the pasta from the water. Add the butter, salt and pepper. Combine everything.

Add the veggies to the pasta. Combine the veggies and the olive oil.

 

 
I had this with some slow cooked brats that were cooked with onions and a dark beer. Very tasty!

Broccoli Beef

One of the types of cuisine that I really do appreciate is Chinese. I love to cook it since you can add so many great spices. The end result is something that is rather flavorful and yet complex since you have to add all those ingredients.

When making this dish, I prefer to use broccolini. Broccoli is ok, but the broccolini is great and the texture is more crisp.

Ingredients:

1 package thin milanesa (thin steak)
1 large onion
1 tbsp peanut oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp worcheshire
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp tumeric
broccolini

First stack the pieces of meat one on top of the other. I like to do that as it would make it easier to cut a multiple pieces of meat all at once. Cut them into strips.

Preheat your wok. If you don't have a wok, use your largest skillet pan. Add your peanut oil onto the pan. Make sure the oil covers the bottom of the pan.

Once the pan is hot enough, add the meat. Start to cook the meat.

 

As the meat continues to cook, start to cut onions. Add the onion to the cooking meat.

While the onion and meat is cooking, add the spices. Allow the meat and onions to mix well with the spices.

The last thing I add is the broccolini. I know, why would I do that? I personally like my broccoli crisp. If I add it early, the broccoli would be limp and not as crisp.

I made it with some jasmine rice and some Vietnamese egg roll that I had gotten from the Chinese farmers market.

A breakast here we go...

Yesterday, I had a great time at a party with some great people. Needless to say fun was had by all and ended up staying out late. Unfortunately, I get told that we were going to have visitors coming in for breakfast. Normally, I don't like to get things going in the kitchen after drinking the night before, but these are special guests to me. 

I ended up making omelets, cottage potatoes and crescent rolls. I just wanted to share how I make an omelet, so hope you enjoy the recipe.

Ingredients:

2 or 3 eggs
1 tbsp half and half
green onion
bacon
ham
salt and pepper to taste
shredded cheese

For the potatoes, I diced just some potatoes and onions. I cooked the potatoes and onion with a pat of butter and some bacon fat.

For the omelet, I started with cooking the bacon. I diced the bacon into bite sized bacon and place into the pan. Cook the bacon until its medium brown.

If you like mushrooms, cook some with a little butter. I don't like to add the stems as it would just be too "woodsy" when combining with eggs. So here I have some mushrooms being cooked on both sides.

 

When I finally start to get the omelet being made, I get all the ingredients together and ready. I ask everyone what they would like in their omelet. I have diced ham, bacon, green onion and the cooked mushrooms.

Well, we ended up chatting for a while. Then I started to make their omelets. Each gets their own ingredients. I add a pat of butter along with their ingredients. While that is cooking, whisk the eggs and half and half until somewhat frothy.

After you have reheated the ingredients, add the egg mixture. I always like to scrape the side and try to get the egg cooked. I have the oven on and place the pan into the oven to allow the omelet finish cooking. Add some cheese and flip closed.

 Again, I served this with the cottage potatoes and crescent rolls. Everyone enjoyed it!