Another Dish With Pasta and Chicken

You may have notice an overabundance of pasta with chicken recipes here at Cooking in Bush Alaska.  You may have also noticed an overabundance of Pioneer Woman recipes.  That's because I love pasta.  And chicken.  And Pioneer Woman.

This dish is yet another pasta with chicken dish.  And it comes from Pioneer Woman.  But it's good.  Worth trying.  Really.

My version has a few key differences from Pioneer Woman's.  I'm not cooking enough to feed four punks and a hungry cowboy.  It's just me and my hungry schoolteacher (our punk isn't ready for table food yet).  Also, I don't have a dutch oven YET, so I had to bake the chicken and tomatoes in a separate dish instead of putting everything straight into the oven.






Start with a little olive oil and butter in a pan.  (I took a picture of butter, but it was a really bad picture.  I decided to spare our dear readers.  You're welcome.)





I like to use chicken thighs for this dish.  Salt and pepper them, and brown them on each side.





I usually wimp out when it comes to browning things because I get scared that they're going to burn.  I actually did a pretty good job this time.






Remove the chicken.  Use some wine to get all of the yummy bits off the bottom of the pan.





Add some diced tomatoes...





Whatever herbs you have on hand.  (I happened to have fresh basil because the basil plants on my aerogarden were going nuts...)





And whole cloves of garlic, and bring to a boil.





Pour the tomatoes and garlic mixture over the chicken.  Cover and bake for about forty-five minutes.





Serve over pasta and covered in cheese.

Chicken Alfredo

It was a typical bush cooking dilemma.  The idea of everything bored me, and I felt like I had no options.  Inspired by our endless supply of spaghetti noodles, I googled "alfredo" and "recipe," and went to the first result.

The recipe started with melting a cube of butter in a saucepan.  I was probably looking for baby board books on e-bay doing something important, so I didn't get to take a picture of the melting butter.  My apologies.





I used evaporated milk in place of cream.





The butter and evaporated milk are simmered together.






Steve and I always pick up a few wedges of different cheese during our annual shopping trip.  This was the closest thing I had to fresh parmesan.






Stir the cheese into the milk and butter along with some crushed garlic.





The cheese melts and makes a luscious sauce.





Gently cook strips of chicken in some olive oil.





Assemble over a bed of pasta.

An easy, quick recipe that was infinitely better than dinner out of a box.

Adam's Teriyaki Chicken

The credit for this recipe goes to Steve's cousin Adam.  The recipe is famous in the family, and just about everybody makes it.









Here are the ingredients for the marinade.  Measurements given at the end of the post.









Mix all of the ingredients together and pour into a ziploc bag with slices of chicken (I like thighs best, but this time I used chicken breast).  Marinate overnight.  You can get away with marinating for just a couple of hours if you need to..







Heat sesame oil in a skillet on medium heat and cook some onions until they start to get soft.







Add the chicken to the hot skillet.  (I toss the marinade in the skillet with the chicken and onions.  Some people prefer to drain the marinade and make a fresh batch for the sauce.  Do whatever makes you happy).  Look how dark the chicken looks.  It's soaked up all of the teriyaki goodness.  Yummy!  Cook until the chicken is halfway done.


(If you want the sauce to be thick, now is a good time to add some extra corn starch.  Consider mixing it with some of the teriyaki liquid before adding it to the skillet.)









This is my own addition to the recipe.  Baby bok choy.  I get it sometimes in my Full Circle Farm box.  











Roughly tear the baby bok choy and add it to the skillet.  Cover the skillet, but leave it on the burner.  This lets the bok choy steam and the chicken finish cooking. 









Everything is done when the chicken is no longer pink in the middle.  Serve over rice.


Adam's Teriyaki Chicken


1-1/2 lbs chicken, cut into thin pieces
3/4 cup Water 
1/2 cup soy sauce 
1 cup brown sugar

1/8 tsp ground ginger
1 Tbsp cornstarch
2 cloves of garlic, minced or grated
1 Tbsp sesame oil.


onion
baby bok choy
sesame oil


Mix the water, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, cornstarch, garlic, and sesame oil together and pour into a ziploc bag with slices of chicken.  Marinate overnight (or at least 2-3 hours).  


Heat sesame oil in a skillet on medium heat and cook some onions until they start to get soft.  Add the chicken to the hot skillet.  Cook until the chicken is halfway done.  Roughly tear the baby bok choy and add it to the skillet.  Cover the skillet, and leave it on the burner.


Everything is done when the chicken is no longer pink in the middle.  Serve over rice.

Pesto

This is basil.  It came in my Full Circle Farm box.  I like to preserve the basil for use during the winter.  My favorite way to do that is by making pesto.  The internet is awash with recipes for pesto, and I thought I would add mine.  :)





You can make pesto from lots of things, but I always use pine nuts.





A healthy dose of garlic is always a good idea.





And you can never go wrong with olive oil.





Everything needs to get chopped and mixed together.  I use my food processor.





Process it until it's about this consistency.  Then taste it.  If it's kind of blah, add more garlic.  If it's kind of dry, add more olive oil.





The pesto freezes great in an ice cube tray.  The possibilities are endless from there (well, so I hear.  Steve and I are boring and always eat it in pasta).

Crockpot Honey Garlic Chicken

Alaska Airlines allows three checked bags when flying within the state of Alaska.  When flying from Anchorage, we always fill a few of those bags full of frozen meat.  This time Steve brought back some chicken thighs.  Perfect to try a new crockpot meal.



I removed the skin from the thighs, but I left the bones in.





I added a little garlic.  The doohickey was a gift from my mom.  It works wonderfully, although, it's a little hard to clean.

Soy sauce...

Dried basil...





Ketchup...





And honey.





Cook on low almost all day, and end up with yummy, barbecue-y chicken goodness

Simple Garlic Spaghetti

It was a Friday evening. I was tired. I was also hungry. I didn't want to resort to the Steve specialty (chili mac), so I went looking for a simple recipe. I found one for Garlic, Pepper, and Olive Oil Spaghetti.




Like most Italian recipes, this one began with a glug of olive oil in a frying fan. Looking good so far.





While the oil heated, I started a pot full of spaghetti (this fine brand of spaghetti brought to you by the Anchorage Bush Delivery Wal-Mart).






Also like good Italian recipes, this one called for a healthy dose of garlic. I added it to the hot oil.





The garlic started sizzling immediately. Unfortunately, at this exact moment I was unable to locate a clean spatula (DARNIT!), so I lamely shook the pan full of hot oil and frying garlic. As you can see, my shaking method resulted in clumps of garlic definitely not spread evenly through the oil.





My problems were complicated when I went to add the spiciness. The recipe called for a whole red chili. I had no fresh red chilies, so I had to use chili powder. I was trying to figure out how much chili powder equals one fresh chili. For once, switcheroo.com failed me, and I was forced to guess. Meanwhile, my garlic was continuing to char in the oil.





Hmmmm... Is this what the recipe meant when it said "gently cook?" I doubt it.





I added it to the spaghetti and tossed it around.





This is the final product, topped with parmesan and parsley.

Final verdict: good simple meal. Perfect in a hurry.

Garlic Cream Cheese Dip

Every once in a while, the store gets such delights as cream cheese.  Steve and I like to celebrate when this happens, and we usually make something yummy.

This dip is super easy. Steve and I like to eat it on baguette slices and wheat thins.




I started by heating a little more than a tablespoon of olive oil.





Then I remembered to pull the cream cheese out of the fridge. If I had been smart, I would have taken it out earlier to let it soften.





Then I added a teaspoon and a half of minced garlic and stirred it around for a while.





Last time I made this dip, I used a prepared roasted garlic spice mix. I wanted to use my fresher garlic, but I kind of wanted to replicate the spiciness of the prepared mix. I pulled the bottle down, read the ingredients, and threw some chili powder and onion salt. Then I added some more chili powder.





I poured the oil mix over the cream cheese. Then my jaw dropped at the lusciousness.





Remember how I forgot to take the cream cheese out to soften? Yeah. This is what happens if the cream cheese is hard and you try to stir in the garlic/spice/oil mixture. Sigh...





After sitting on the counter a while, the mixture was easier to stir and resulted in the above pictured creamy goodness.

Enjoy!