Salsa Part Two

So here is another recipe of salsa that I normally create to go with  my everyday use. Salsa has become one of those things that I like to keep around in our house. Sometimes, I like to use the salsa to be the sauce for chicken as in my previous blog post, Leftover Salsa with Chicken. I tend to always change it up depending who is planning to eat the salsa.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
8 - 10 roma tomatoes
1 large yellow onion
4 jalapeño peppers
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp mexican oregano
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 cup chicken stock (or broth)
1 small bunch of cilantro
juice of 2 limes 
1 6oz tomato sauce
additional chicken stock 
salt and pepper to taste

Dice the tomatoes in half. Include the seeds and pulp of the tomatoes as it will help with the salsa. With the roma tomatoes you don't necessarily need to cut off the tops of the tomatoes, but its up to you.

You have one option. Like the Poblano Salsa, you can have this roasted in the oven. You also have the option of sauteing the salsa ingredients. More often then not, I saute my ingredients especially if I don't have the time to deal with keeping an eye on roasting veggies.

 

Dice the onions and add them to the tomatoes.

Dice the bell pepper and jalapeño. Notice that I am not placing all of the seeds to the saute pan.

 

 

Add the spices to the sauteing mixture.

Add the cup of chicken stock and continue to sautee until the peppers are softened. While that is sauteing, also add the juice of 2 limes and cilantro. Take off the heat and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

 

Transfer the mixture to a blender. Add more chicken stock (at your discretion) and the tomato sauce to your mixture. Start to puree. Please keep in mind that I am blending a cooled salsa. You don't want to blend when its hot as it will splatter all over the place. You can if you choose to, but just be aware that you have to keep an eye on the blender.

 

Serve this with some tortilla chips or mix in to your favorite queso. This can refrigerate rather well for a good 2 weeks. My grandmother used to can her various salsa creations. Keep in mind that if you do that, then it would be hotter the longer you keep it canned. Hope you enjoy!

Leftover Roasted Chicken? How about making Gourmet Chicken Salad.

Sometimes its hard to come up with ideas for leftovers. Luckily, as I have posted on occasion,  I have produced a couple of ideas. As I had done in the previous post, I had created some Roast Chicken with all the fixins. I needed to use up the chicken and hence me coming up and developed this chicken salad recipe.

I personally don't like to have chicken salad AT ALL. I know. It's all about the mayonnaise. I REALLY don't like too much mayonnaise in my food. I don't things such as potato salad, macaroni salad or the like. The same goes with cold chicken. I just don't do it. Why then am I presenting this recipe? Well, MC LOVES chicken salad. I tried to come up with a solution to use up the chicken and I thought, "what the heck, why not,". I have been told that this was the best chicken salad that has ever been eaten. And luckily it wasn't only MC, but the parents and MawMaw (MC's grandmother). Well, I hope you try the recipe and see what you think.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb leftover roasted chicken meat
1 whole red onion, chopped
4 stalks of celery, chopped
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of fresh cracked pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 sprigs of dill
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
juice of half of a lemon
2 tbsp good mayonnaise
1 tbsp brown mustard (preferably dijon)
Coarsely chopped nuts (walnuts preferably)

Start by chopping up the chicken and place into a large bowl.

Chop up the veggies. If you don't have any red onion, you can easily use a yellow onion. This will make the chicken salad a little sweet, especially if you like to use vidalia onions. Also notice, I am finely dicing the veggies. I don't like to have too much crunch (personal preferences), but I sometimes have to make consolations for others. No? Add the veggies to the chicken and mix.

Mince the dill, rosemary and thyme. Place off to the side.

In a separate bowl, place the mayonnaise in the bowl.  Add the lemon, dijon mustard, spices and herbs. Mix all of the ingredients well and place off to the side.

 

Now since the mayonnaise is well mixed, you may add this to the chicken salad mixture. Mix well. Add the chopped nuts to the chicken salad. I am using walnuts since I find that it has a different texture than say pecans. You can serve this with crackers or on a sourdough bread.

 

We ended up having a bridal shower that we hosted along with some close friends. This was a great hit as most were just ranting and raving for the recipe. I was told this is sort of a Waldorf salad. I am not sure as I never had any before, but I just consider this a greatly appreciated Gourmet Chicken Salad.

Making some Roasted Chicken

Chicken. There are so many things that you can do with it. I know I have shown some dishes that highlight the use of this type of meat. We have been leaning more towards eating more poultry than the beef in recent weeks. So we ended up one weekend wanting to make some roasted chicken with veggies. Don't get me wrong, I do love me a hamburger or a nice slab of t-bone with all of the fixins.

Now Roasted Chicken sometimes can take a while, but if you prep ahead of time it can be rather quick and just pop it into the oven. I have done roasted chicken many ways (even using a beer can), but have opted to show you how I do just regular roast chicken in a regular baking pan. 

Keep in mind. This recipe is for one individual chicken. As usual, I make a double batch as I normally like to have leftovers or freeze some for another potential dish I might make at a later time.

Ingredients:

1 Chicken, between 12 - 16 lb
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp fresh ground pepper
2 tbsp fresh minced rosemary
1 tbsp fresh minced thyme
1 tbsp minced garlic 
4 celery stalks
4 large carrots
1 large yellow onion
1 tbsp poultry seasoning
2 cups white wine

Start by preheating your oven at 350. While the oven is preheating, clean out the chicken. As I have said in the past, its important to clean out any preservatives that may have been with the chicken.

Salt and pepper the inside of the chicken.  Sprinkle the poultry seasoning all inside and outside of the chicken. Chop up half of the herbs and do the same thing that you did with the poultry seasoning. With some of the leftover sprigs, place them in the cavity of the poultry.

 

 

 
Now start to chop up the vegetables. Coarsely chop the veggies. Start to place them into each of the chicken. Notice that I am using baby carrots. This is one less task that I have to do (chopping the carrots up).

 

Add the white wine around the chicken covering at least an inch of the dish. Make sure you place some of the wine in the cavity of the chicken. Pour the left over wine outside of the chicken. Yes, I am using one whole bottle of wine, but this is a small bottle AND I am doing this for 2 chickens.

Allow this to cook for about 2 - 3 hours covered with foil. After you have checked to see if the chicken is done, you might do this by seeing the tenderness of the chicken and veggies. If they are done, drain out some of the veggies and liquid.

 

Place the chicken back to the oven. This will make the skin be a little crisp (sometimes I might have to place the oven in broil to get that). If you choose to have it very crispy, use the broiler. Keep in mind you have to keep an eye on it as you don't want to have dry meat.

Notice that we are having the roasted chicken with wild rice and the vegetables that were cooked with the chicken. In another post, I will share how you can make some great Gourmet Chicken Salad with this Roasted Chicken.