Sun dried Tomato Artichoke Caper Chicken

So if you're looking for a blah chicken recipe, this ain't it.

We had a friend come into town for the night last night and I wanted to cook up something truly spectacular to make up for the fact that I still can't remember what the bleu cheese recipe that I've been meaning to whip up is. So I searched around on all recipes and found a good starting point and then I embellished.

It wasn't necessarily that I meant to embellish. It was more that I just wasn't paying attention to directions (I rarely do) and ended up just winging it.

Man. It turned out.

I would have taken a picture but that would have entailed using my hands for something other than shoving food into my mouth, and that wouldn't have been polite to my dinner guests.

So here's how it all started......

I grabbed two bowls from the cabinet and cracked an egg into one and dropped some flour, basil, oregano, sea salt and then pepper into the other.

Then I breaded up the chicken. I've heard people say the best way to do that is to just use one hand for the egg part and then one hand for the flour part so that you don't mix the two. That doesn't make sense to me because it seems so much easier to just stick a fork into my breasts and plop them into the egg and then the flour. Easy Peasy.

Then I took those boobs and plopped them into a frying pan. I started off just using Pam but then decided against it and so I dumped a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the pan and sauteed them.



Once the chicken breasts were done cooking, I dumped some chicken broth in (literally... I rarely measure), squeezed 1 lemon into the pan also and turned up the stove to get a nice boil going.





At this point I had a knock out-drag down fight with Colton over the other lemon. I won. And by winning, I mean that I didn't end up with lemon squeezed all over my kitchen or nice living room couch. 1 small step for mothers everywhere.

I let the chicken soak in the lemon/broth mixture for about a minute completely by accident because I wasn't thinking clearly. I was supposed to take them out first, but I actually think that by letting them cook for a little while in that juice it really locked in a lot of great flavor and moisture. It's a mistake that I'll make again!!

After about a minute, I took the chicken out of the pot and set it aside. This gave me time to have a couple sips of my beer and strain all of the lemon seeds out of my broth. Then I dropped in a can of drained un-marinated artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes and a lot of capers.

I kept that mixture boiling to cook down some of the liquid and started another pot to cook up some campanelle pasta (my all time favorite pasta) because at this point, I realized that this would make an amazing pasta sauce. And as a carb addict, I just can't say no to pasta. It's just not humanely possible. I can quit smoking, but I can not quit carbs. Not even going to try. (This might hinder my size 2 hopes for my Miami trip in May...maybe)

It was at this point that I realized I hadn't put any fresh garlic into my pasta. And considering I had just purchased a 5 gallon bag of garlic (m'kay, maybe not really 5 gallons, but large regardless) to cook with that was just unacceptable. So I smooshed all the fixin's of my sauce over to one side of the frying pan to make some room for some quick garlic. I read on Pioneer Woman that the best way to get a garlic clove out of it's shell is to smash it under some canned goods and I couldn't agree more.

The garlic went right into that empty corner of the pan and cooked up for about a minute and then I mixed it up with the rest of the dish.

Voila. Mix it all together with the pasta. Serve it up with a nice Caesar Salad on the side and some fresh Parmesan cheese and just enjoy.

This is going to be a regular dish in our family because it was fun to make and tasted amazing. I love that there was 1 pan to clean up and then the pasta pot. Super easy. But honestly, one of my favorite things about this dish was that it was super easy to make and it's the type of dish that you can make while you're chasing a child in circles around your house trying to take back a lemon and you don't have to worry about it. I love meals that don't require constant attention.

Here's the simple Breakdown, I promise it's super easy:

Sun dried Tomato Artichoke Caper Chicken
-1 egg
-flour
-basil
-oregano
-sea salt
-pepper
-chicken breasts
-chicken broth
-fresh lemon
-can of artichoke hearts
-sun dried tomato (the ones that are in liquid, not the dried ones)
-fresh garlic clove
-chicken broth
-capers

1. Crack egg into a bowl and beat
2. Mix enough flour to coat your chicken with a couple of shakes of sea salt, pepper, basil, oregano in another bowl.
3. Heat up your frying pan and start dippin the chicken boobs.
4. Once the chicken is seared on one side, flip over and sear the other side.
5. Add in enough olive oil to slightly coat the bottom of the pan and cook chicken until done.
6. Pour chicken broth into pan until chicken is 1/2 covered, squeeze a lemon in on top and turn up to medium high heat. Let chicken soak while it starts to boil.
7. Set chicken aside and add artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes and capers into frying pan. Let the liquid reduce by half.
8. Start boiling the water for your pasta in a pasta pot. Once you have a nice rolling boil, add your pasta in. Cook desired length.
9. Once liquid is reduced, push artichoke, sun dried tomatoes and capers over to one side and throw some fresh garlic to cook in the sauce for about a minute. This gets rid of the strong raw garlic flavor. Once the garlic looks browned, mix sauce all together.
10. Serve it.... Eat it and Weep baby... Eat it and weep.



And I have to say Thank You to my amazing friend Kat for doing the dishes!!!

A Little Slice of Heaven...

Tomorrow night is our birthday. My husband and I have the same birthday, only I am very quick to point out that he is two whole years older. That is 730 days for anyone who has a calculator nearby or who speaks math (which I most certainly do not).

So tomorrow night we're having a small gathering of friends at the house, Saturday is our family birthday party, Sunday is Superbowl. And for a football obsessed husband that's kind of a big day. Having a birthday so close to the Super-fantastic-Bowl means that every couple of years I have the joy, no, the ultimate rapture of having to share my birthday with a football. Aren't I just the luckiest?? Really..

But thank goodness, this year is not one of those years.

So since tonight was the night that I get to celebrate my (okay, our... it's a little bit of a fight around here about who's birthday it is) birthday, I stopped off on the way home from work and picked up a bottle of champagne (which my my mind is only known as cham=pag=ne. Classy is how I roll) and came home to my darling husband and children.

And started cooking.

Man, do I love a good meal. Not sure how I'm going to become a size two in time for a work trip to Miami (because I'm convinced they don't let you leave the airport in Miami unless you're a size 2 ;) ) with the way that I cook. But I just can't help myself. I love to cook.

Tonight it was a cheap "gourmet" meal that knocked our socks off.


Roasted Garlic Scallop Campanelle Alfredo

I started with some garlic cloves I had in the fridge and put them on a cutting board and smashed them with a can. Not just get out some aggression, but because that is the easiest, fastest way to get that amazing garlic clove out of it's shell.

Then I sauteed said heavenly garlic up in some (light) margarine.

Once it was making me want to find a loaf of bread and just start dipping, I restrained myself and instead tossed in the defrosted scallops. Stirring them around in that glorious garlic and melted butter mixture so they were fully coated.

While the scallops cooked, I started boiling the water and then tossed in the pasta. I love funky pasta, it's the New Yorker in me I can't help it, and when I saw Campanelle pasta on sale for $1.50 yesterday I obviously grabbed some.

After the Garlic coated Bay Scallops were ready, I threw some low-fat Alfredo sauce in on low heat. I threw in some basil, oregano and garlic salt. And let's not forget the frozen chopped spinach. Bless my beating heart. I swoon at spinach. I was a little nervous about throwing that in with while frozen, lest it become a little watery... but it was perfection.

I stock up on bread at Walmart whenever I'm there since it might be the most amazing bread ever for $1.50 a loaf.It freezes beautifully and defrosts in just a minute without tasting like it was ever frozen. I cut that up, threw some butter, garlic, oregano and basil on it and tossed it in the oven. After a couple of minutes, I added some mozzarella cheese. Aaaand since I already had it out and was standing over the oven with it, I threw some into my sauce. Just for good measure... Not because I'm addicted to cheese.

Voila.

The most amazing dinner for ridiculously cheap. Put on some opera while you cook, a glass of red wine (preferably a Cab Merlot mix) in your hand and it's perfection.

And Happy Birthday to us.