Shrimp Scampi

Shrimp scampi is one of the easiest and quickest meals you can prepare, but it still looks and tastes like you spent a long time on it. You don't even have to go by a true recipe, just add in what you like as long as you keep the basics the same. It is also fairly inexpensive as long as you don't have to buy enough shrimp to feed an army. I like to add red pepper flakes to mine because I like the heat. You can also add fresh Italian parsley to give the dish a nice color. If you do not have vermouth handy, you can use white wine, or if you prefer not to cook with alcohol, you can sub chicken or seafood broth.

Ingredients 

I use 31-40 count shrimp and cut them in half with kitchen shears so the shrimp goes farther and you have nice bite size pieces. 

Shrimps!

Melt 2tbsp butter on med-hi heat then add your shrimp. Cook for a minute, then add your diced garlic, a pinch of salt and pepper, and stir. After another minute add your sauce of 1/2 cup vermouth, the lemon juice & zest of one lemon (feel free to add a second lemon if you prefer your scampi more lemony) and red pepper flakes. It is easy to overcook shrimp, but you can tell they are done by their color. They should be bright pink.

Shrimp and sauce is done!

Add sauce & shrimp to pasta. Stir & serve! 

Time to eat!

Shrimp Scampi


2 tbsp butter
Salt
Pepper
1/2 pound raw deveined shrimp
2 cloves garlic diced
Red pepper flakes to taste
1/2 cup dry white vermouth
Juice & zest of 1 lemon
1/2 lb pasta


Cook pasta according to package directions. 


Add butter to your skillet on med-hi heat and let it melt. When butter is melted add your shrimp. Let them cook for a minute then add diced garlic and stir. After another minute add vermouth and lemon juice/zest. Shrimp is done when they are a bright pink color. Serve over pasta.


This took about 30 minutes to prepare and made 2 servings. A nice crusty bread would go great with this. 

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Chicken Parmesan with Sauce & Breadcrumbs

I was channeling my inner Giada on Friday and decided to make homemade chicken parm covered in homemade breadcrumbs and served with homemade pasta. Unfortunately, I was unable to take photos of the pasta in the making as you need both hands and sometimes a third when making it, so I will have to post about that some other time when I have a cameraman. 

To make the sauce...

Use any canned tomato you have in the house, whole, diced, peeled. Sometimes I throw my whole tomato's in the food processor, other times I crush it with my hands (be careful, they splatter). Add 2-3 cloves of garlic per can. Sometimes I add finely diced onion, sometimes I cut an onion in half leaving it whole and just let it cook with the sauce and pull it out at the end. I always add a sprinkle of sugar to get rid of the acidity in the tomato. You can add tomato paste if you like to thicken the sauce up, you can add fresh grated parmigiana cheese if you like either at the end or the beginning. I generally always add a palm full of oregano to the pot and rub it together in my hands as it falls into the pot. This 'wakes up' the oregano. If you like heat, you can add red pepper flakes. I also add fresh basil at the end before serving. Bring the sauce to a boil and let it simmer 20 minutes, or up to an hour if you have the time. I don't see a huge difference in taste regarding the time the sauce simmers. 

Diced garlic

The sauce

To make the breadcrumbs... 


Cut up whatever bread you have lying around that is about to go bad into cubes, bake the cubes in the oven on 350 until they are brown and crunchy (about 20 minutes). Add the cubes to a food processor and process into small crumbs. If you want Italian breadcrumbs, you can add dried parsley, basil, oregano or any other season you like. You can freeze this in a zip-lock bag up to about 3 months.

Browned bread cubes

Going into the processor

For the Parm, get a skillet hot with EVOO. Dip your pounded thin so they are even chicken breasts into the flour, then egg wash, then breadcrumbs and repeat once and place in the skillet. 

Cook for about 5 minutes per side. You do not want to overcook them and dry them out since they will be going into the oven.

Turn once they are nice and crispy. 

When the chicken is done cooking in the skillet, add it to a baking pan. Layer the bottom of the baking pan with a little sauce, then add the chicken, add 2-3 slices of mozzarella cheese to each chicken piece and top with another layer of sauce. Cook this in the oven on 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Chicken before the oven

You may want to let this cool for a minute or two once you pull it out of the oven so you don't burn your mouth on the cheese. 

Chicken after the oven

My pasta cut and ready for boiling water. 

If you like, you can serve this with bread. If you are not a meat eater, you can make eggplant instead of chicken and add shrimp or crab meat to either the chicken or the eggplant. 

Pasta Sauce:


The myths of having to cook sauce all day are broken. For my sauce I don't have a *true* recipe, you can use any canned tomato you have in the house, whole, diced, peeled. Sometimes I throw my whole tomato's in the food processor, other times I crush it with my hands (be careful, they splatter). Add 2-3 cloves of garlic per can. Sometimes I add finely diced onion, sometimes I cut an onion in half leaving it whole and just let it cook with the sauce and pull it out at the end. I always add a sprinkle of sugar to get rid of the acidity in the tomato. You can add tomato paste if you like to thicken the sauce up, you can add parmigiana cheese if you like either at the end or the beginning. I generally always add a palm full of oregano to the pot and rub it together in my hands as it falls into the pot to wake it up. If you like heat, you can add red pepper flakes. I also add fresh basil at the end before serving. Bring the sauce to a boil and let it simmer 20 minutes, or up to an hour if you have the time. I don't see a huge difference in taste regarding the time the sauce simmers. 


Bread Crumbs:


Cut up whatever bread you have lying around that is about to go bad into cubes, bake the cubes in the oven on 350 until they are brown and crunchy (about 20 minutes). Add the cubes to a food processor and process unto small crumbs. If you want Italian breadcrumbs, you can add dried parsley, basil, oregano or any other season you like. You can freeze this in a zip-lock bag up to about 3 months.


Chicken Parmesan: 


4 Chicken breasts pounded and flattened to make uniform in size
Breadcrumbs (about 2 cups)
2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup flour
Pasta Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese 


Get a skillet drizzled with EVOO hot. Dip the chicken into the flour, then egg wash, then breadcrumbs and repeat once and place in hot skillet. Cook chicken about 5 minutes per side. When the chicken is done cooking in the skillet, add it to a baking pan. Layer the bottom of the baking pan with a little sauce, then add the chicken, add 2-3 slices of mozzarella cheese to each chicken piece and top with another layer of sauce. Cook this in the oven on 350 degrees for 25 minutes.


Serve with pasta if desired. Pin It

Blueberry Popovers

Generally on Saturday or Sunday morning I get up feeling crafty and want to try some new pastry type breakfast. This is probably because I am famished due to sleeping in. This past weekend I decided to tackle popovers and since I opened the fridge and blueberries were staring me in the face, I decided to let them swim in the batter. These are super easy, but make you look like you did something super hard. I am not sure what would happen to this mixture if you decided to put it in muffin pans versus a popover pan, but if you don't have a popover pan, I would suggest getting one because popovers are fun and cute and I like watching them come alive in the oven.

Add 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup flour, 1 tbsp melted butter, a pinch of salt, a sprinkle of cinnamon and a sprinkle of vanilla to your mixer. If you like, you can use a hand mixer or if you have a large measuring bowl, mix your ingredients right into it because it will be easier to transfer the mix to your popover pan. Do not over-mix your ingredients, a few lumps are perfectly acceptable. The more you mix, the less they will pop. The mixture will be quite liquidy so be careful not to add more flour. 

Ingredients! 

If you choose to add blueberries or anything else to your popovers, add them in equal amounts to each cup. I chose to use 4 blueberries per popover. Fill the cups 2/3 of the way full into a greased, buttered, or Pam'd popover pan. While you are mixing your ingredients together, put your oven on 450 degrees. When the pan is ready, go ahead and put it in the oven even if it is has not yet pre-heated. After 15 minutes, lower your temperature to 350 degrees and cook for another 15 minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR!!! This will let the air into the oven and deflate the popovers. If you feel that you must look at them (like me) turn on the oven light and take a quick peek. 

Adding blueberries

Serve piping hot. I added homemade peach jelly to mine. They are light and dense on the inside and crunchy on the outside. 

Hot out of the oven!

Top of the muffin to you! 

My recipe makes three popovers, so if you want to feed more people, or have seconds, thirds, or fourths, you may want to double or even triple this.

Blueberry Popovers (you can omit the fruit, or add a different kind, or add Gruyère cheese, or bacon, or chocolate chips, or sugar, or leave them plain. The canvas is yours! 


1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
1 tbsp melted butter
Pinch of salt
A sprinkle of cinnamon (I don't measure this, but I would estimate this is probably about a teaspoon full)
Vanilla extract (this is something else that I do not measure, but this is probably about 1/2 teaspoon full)


If you choose to leave your popovers plain, you may also want to omit the cinnamon and vanilla.Pin It

Buffalo Chicken Burritos

I found this recipe on another blog and I was really excited to try it because I thought it was a good way of tricking my husband into slowly liking Mexican food. There are no Mexican spices in this recipe, but I thought getting him to eat out of a tortilla was going to be a challenge, but it wasn't and with one bite, he was pleasantly surprised. 

The ingredients!

I put a drizzle of EVOO in my skillet and used my micro-plane grater to grate in two cloves of garlic. I cut the chicken into small cubes and put them in a zip-lock bag with a couple of spoonfuls of flour and a couple of shakes of the box of corn starch. I closed the bag and shook everything together. I put the chicken into the skillet on medium (5) heat and stirred it around until there was no pink in the middle of the chicken. I added fresh corn off the cob to the skillet with the chicken once the chicken was almost done. If you are cutting corn off the cob, place the smaller end down into a bowl to cut the kernels towards the bowl so they do not shoot out all over your kitchen floor.

Chicken cut up into cubes with flour and cornstarch.

While the chicken was cooking, I cut up an avocado and one wedge of romaine lettuce. When the chicken was finished, I put two large spoonfuls of Texas Pete's buffalo chicken sauce in a bowl with the chicken and corn and mixed it all in together. 

My favorite part of the day, time to eat!

I made my burritos with lettuce, avocado, chicken, fresh corn, and a drizzle of ranch dressing. 

I wrapped mine up as a burrito, but you could also do a taco with a hard or soft shell.

I think next time I may omit the ranch, cut up a tomato, add sour cream, maybe black beans, possibly a hard boiled egg, and definitely cheese. I think this would also be good with pork or shrimp.


The original blog posting of this recipe can be found on... 

http://www.mrsregueiro.com/2011/09/buffalo-chicken-tacos.html

Ingredients:
1 pound chicken breasts, skinless, boneless, cut into 1 inch pieces
⅓ cup flour
3 tablespoon cornstarch
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
⅓ cup buffalo wing sauce (Frank’s Buffalo Wing) , plus extra for garnishment
1 Tablespoon olive oil
10 6-inch yellow corn tortillas
Toppings:
Shredded butter Lettuce
Diced onions mixed with cilantro
Avocado slices
Ranch dressing
Green onions, sliced thinly

Preparation:
Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

In a large bowl, combine cornstarch, flour, cayenne, and garlic powder. Season the chicken pieces with pepper, then dredge in the flour mixture.

Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the Dutch oven and once it gets hot, add chicken and cook on both sides – about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Once the chicken is done, set it aside in a bowl and toss with ⅓ cup buffalo wing sauce.

Assemble 10 tacos, dividing the toppings evenly among each taco. 

Yield: 5 servings, 2 tacos each.


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Lamb Chops

After four fabulous days with my best friend visiting me, I wanted to make something a little on the healthier side because we ate out all weekend. I really love lamb chops. They are delicious, but a bit on the pricey side so we don't have them too terribly often. For $13 I got three small chops which fed one each for my husband and I and he had one for lunch the next day. However, if we had been starving, we would have walked away hungry unless you load up on the sides. I don't have a true lamb chop recipe that I use so I just improvise when I make them. I decided to cook mine in a skillet drizzled with olive oil, but you could also put them in the oven or on a grill.

My cut of meat

I decided to season my chops on both sides with a dash of Kosher salt, cracked pepper, paprika, basil, and oregano.

My spices

Seasoned chops awaiting their oil bath

I left my heat on 5 because these chops were on the thicker side so they take longer to cook and you don't want your outsides to burn while waiting for your insides to brown. I put a lid on mine for half of the cooking process and turned them about every 5 minutes.

You will want to make sure the sides get cooked so stand each end up and rotate them until they brown.

The finished chop! Looking at this photo makes me wish I would have 'accidentally forgotten' to give this to my husband for his lunch! 

I cooked my lamb slightly rarer than I normally do and they were delicious and juicy. There was a slight hint of pink on the inside, but not much. They were in the skillet for about 30 minutes total. You could always add a pesto with this, or a balsamic reduction sauce, I think even BBQ would be good. If you have never had lamb, it is hard to describe the taste, however, chances are if you like beef, you will also like lamb.

I served the chops with the salad I introduced you to in my Tagliata with Arugula-Herb Sauce post. All that's in it is romaine lettuce, an apple cut up into squares (I like one apple per heart of romaine, you can also sub another fruit), craisins, and pistachios. I have also used walnuts and pecans in this salad and they are equally delicious. It is also good with feta cheese crumbles and bacon.

Thanks for reading and Enjoy!!Pin It

Chicken with Sun Dried Tomato-Basil Sauce

I figured I would get chicken night over with early this week and since my best friend since 7th grade is coming for a visit tomorrow, I won't have to eat any more chicken until next week!! This one wasn't half bad. I decided to bread the chicken with panko bread crumbs to give it a nice crunchy texture and I always use the thin breast strips. Technically, you should put your chicken into a ziplock bag and pound it out to flatten it so that it cooks evenly, but I was lazy and didn't do it. 

The ingredients waiting to magically turn into dinner.

I put some EVOO in my skillet and set the heat to 8. I put an egg and a dash of milk (you can also use water) in a bowl and whisked them together to combine, then let the chicken sit together with the egg/milk mixture until my oil was hot. When the oil was ready, I made sure the chicken was covered with the egg/milk mixture and then dredged them into the panko bread crumbs, then set them into the skillet. You could also use plain bread crumbs or Italian bread crumbs. I just like the crunchiness of the panko. You could also make your own bread crumbs if you have bread in the house that's about to go bad by cutting or tearing it into crouton size pieces, brush melted butter on the top of them if you like (you could also add dried basil or oregano to this or any other spice you like) and bake them at 350 in the oven until crusty (about 10-15 minutes). Then pop them over into the food processor to process them into little bread crumb bits. They will keep in the freezer for several months. 

Chicken dipped in egg/milk wash and dredged in panko cooking on hi heat in EVOO

For the sauce, I used the same skillet that my chicken cooked in but turned down the heat to 4. No sense in dirtying up another pan, but if you like washing dishes, you can also make this in a saucepan. While the chicken is cooking, cut up half of an onion, a shallot, and mince your 2 cloves of garlic with a micro-plane grater. *The next time I make this, I will leave out the onion. I like a little bit of shallot in my sauce, but just not real crazy about the onion flavor or texture.* Add the 1 1/2 tbsp butter (I made it an even 2) and let it melt, then add the onion (if you are using it), the shallot, and the garlic. Let them cook about 2 minutes then throw in the sun dried tomatoes. I already had a can of sun dried tomatoes in oil so I drained them and ran a little water over them so they didn't make the sauce greasy. Let that cook for about a minute then grab a whisk and add in the flour. I didn't measure this out, but used two heaping spoonfuls. Whisk this around a minute.

The onion, garlic, shallot, and sun dried tomatoes cooking

Whisk in the heavy cream and chicken broth. I added these in together because I mixed up my Better than Boulon chicken broth with my cream in the same measuring glass. Can you tell I am not a fan of washing dishes? Keep whisking this together for about three minutes. The sauce will start to thicken up courtesy of the flour. My sauce got a little too thick so I added about 1/2 cup (a little at a time) of the starchy pasta water to loosen it up a bit.

Add fresh basil once the sauce is at your desired thickness. Fresh herbs should be added at the end of the cooking process and dried herbs should be added at the beginning. I have a basil plant and recommend you get one too if you use basil even at least once a week. They are low maintenance. Mine likes about 4-5 hours of direct sunlight and about two cups of water a day. For me, the one time cost of $3 to buy the plant beats the weekly $1.50 in the grocery store.

I served my chicken and sauce over penne pasta. I think a squirt of fresh lemon juice or even a little lemon zest added to the sauce would give it a nice refreshing flavor and compliment the basil nicely. 

This meal took about 30-40 minutes to prepare. It was filling, but if you would like a little more food, a side salad would be nice or some warm bread. It was quite good and I will certainly be making it again. It would also be a good meatless dish. The sun dried tomatoes give it a hearty feel. Bon appetit! 

This original recipe was found on http://www.gabbiskitchen.com/chicken-with-sun-dried-tomato-basil-sauce.html

Serves: 2-3
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: Chicken: 10 minutes
Cook time: Sauce: 10 minutes
Cook time: Spaghetti: 10 minutes

6 boneless, skinless chicken tenders, thawed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Fresh ground pepper, to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup onions, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 shallot, minced
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped (in package, NOT oil packed)
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1 1/2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup regular cream
1/4 16 ounce package whole wheat spaghetti, uncooked

Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat.  Add chicken & grind fresh pepper on each side. Cover & cook until done, about 5 minutes on each side. (When done, chicken will have NO pink on the inside.)  Remove from heat and set aside, keeping covered.
In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, & shallots, cooking 1-2 minutes, just until soft.  Add sun dried tomatoes; stir. With a whisk in hand,  add flour & stir.  Slowly pour in chicken broth, whisking constantly to remove any lumps.  Add cream, still whisking.  Whisk that sucker to death! (just kidding).  Continue whisking for 3-4 minutes or until sauce begins to thicken.  Take off heat and let sit; it will continue to thicken, feel free to stir every so often as you cook the spaghetti:
Cook spaghetti according to package directions.  It is done when it is soft, but still has a bite; al dente please.

Add fresh basil to sun dried tomato sauce and give it a good stir.

Place spaghetti noodles on serving plates, placing chicken directly on top of noodles.  Spoon as much sauce as you would like over chicken & noodles; enjoy!  

Tips: 
*You could also grill the chicken; that would be super yummy in this dish.  Make slight changes and brush the olive oil over each chicken tender before grilling on foil.  Grill on medium-low heat until done.
*Goes great with cooked asparagus & crusty bread.

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Linguine with Chickpeas & Arugula

Well I have to apologize because I completely screwed this recipe up by forgetting to take photos as I was cooking it. It was extremely easy and I was extremely hungry so all I could think about was the eating of the meal and not the preparation of the meal. It took about 20 minutes to prepare but I was moving at warp speeds around my kitchen because I wanted it in my belly. I got this recipe from the Rachel Ray magazine. It was perfect because it gave me an opportunity to use the remaining arugula from the other nights Tagliata with Arugula-Herb Sauce. I hate to waste good ingredients. 

First, you want to start a pot of boiling water for your pasta (Do not add the salt until the water boils. It will ruin the bottom of your pan). The recipe calls for whole grain linguine, but I used regular spaghetti noodles, you can use what you like. While the water is preparing to boil, chop up a red bell pepper. If you don't like the red, you can use whichever color you prefer. After that is chopped, mince up 2-3 cloves of garlic, zest two lemons, and rinse your chick peas in a strainer to get the can liquid off of them. You will not need the actual lemon for this recipe so you could make some lemonade or tea if you like. Heat 2 tbsp of butter (you need 5 tbsp total for this recipe) in a large pan (you want large because two cups of the pasta water is going to go in it) and add the bell pepper and garlic. Cook it until it is tender, about 5 minutes on high heat. As you are doing this, cook your pasta. You want to cook it about 5 minutes less than the package directions specify so it will be cooking roughly for 5 minutes. Add two cups of the pasta water along with the pasta noodles into the pan of bell pepper and garlic. Add the lemon zest, a tsp of crushed red pepper flakes, (less if you are not a fan of heat or more if you are) a dash of salt, (not too much because you are adding parmesan cheese later) and the chick peas. Cook this about 5 more minutes on high heat (for me, the heat was on was 8). The pasta will continue to cook in the reserved pasta water.

This is the chick pea can I used. They can generally be found in the pea aisle. If you are not familiar with chick peas, they taste similar to a lima bean, but have a tougher texture. They are very good and a nice compliment to the pasta.

Remove the pan from the heat and grate in your parmesan cheese (this is totally your call, for me, the more cheese the better. I added about 1/2 cup, the recipe says 3 oz.) and the remaining 3 tbsp of butter. I also like to use my microplane grater for the cheese and I had to wash it anyway because I zested the lemons with it. Add the arugula and toss everything together. The arugula will wilt and the butter and cheese will melt. The mixture will also thicken up nicely. It is not a runny sauce pasta.

Time to eat!

I thought this was very delicious. I had a glass (okay two glasses, but who's counting) of red wine with it.

Ingredients

TipIf you don't like the peppery taste of arugula, use baby spinach instead.

• 1 box  (13.25 ox.) whole grain linguine
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 can  (15.5 oz.) chickpeas, rinsed
• 2 lemons, zested
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• Salt
• 3 ounces grated parmesan
• 8 ounces arugula (about 5 cups), trimmed and sliced into ribbons

Directions

1. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the linguine for 5 minutes less than package directions specify. Drain, reserving 2 cups cooking water.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 2 tbsp. butter over medium-low heat. Add the bell pepper and garlic and cook until tender, about 7 minutes. Add the parcooked pasta, reserved cooking water, the chickpeas, lemon zest, crushed red pepper and 1 tsp. salt. Cook until the pasta is al dente, about 5 minutes.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cheese and remaining 3 tbsp. butter. Stir in the arugula and toss to wilt.

http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipe/linguine-with-chickpeas-arugula/

Enjoy!!!

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Chicken Marsala

For tonight's entree I decided to go with Chicken Marsala. Let me preface this by saying, I DO NOT like chicken. I know, everyone thinks that makes me a big weirdo but the bird tastes disgusting to me. I also do not like mushrooms. Right about now you are probably thinking why is this crazy lady making Chicken Marsala. The answer is because my husband really likes it and I make him at least one chicken meal a week. If I can disguise the taste of the chicken with a sauce, I can generally get through the meal. It also helps if the chicken is breaded or fried. I went against my better judgement and did not bread this chicken, just floured it. When I have made this dish in the past, I left out the butter because my husband does not like knowing things like butter or heavy cream or cheese is in his food because that stuff is not healthy. I am all about taste, not so much what is good for you. Sometimes you just have to find your inner Paula Deen and butter it up! I decided to use Emeril's recipe because you can never go wrong with a NOLA cook. The whole thing took about 30 minutes.

I buy the thin cut chicken pieces, but you want your chicken to be uniform in thickness so that it cooks evenly. Put it in a Ziploc bag and pound it with the flat side of a meat tenderizer. You do not want to tenderize it, just flatten it out.

After I took my aggression out on the chicken, I made the essence from the recipe with a few variations. I spooned out about 3 spoonfuls of flour. dumped in roughly a tablespoon and a half of garlic powder, dried basil, dried oregano, salt, pepper, and paprika.

Add a tablespoon of butter with about two tablespoons of EVOO to your pan. I had my heat on 7. Let it get hot. You can stick the end of a wooden spoon into the oil and when the oil has little bubbles around the spoon handle, it is ready for the meat. Add in the chicken breasts. Your chicken will let you know when it is ready to be turned over. The ends will begin to get white around the edges. When this happens, give it a flip. You only want to cook each side around 3-4 minutes. It will completely cook through later with the sauce. You don't want to overcook it because it will dry out.

When the chicken is browned on both sides, remove it from the pan and add the mushrooms along with another teaspoon of butter. You can use what you like. I just grabbed a random mix from the store because it was $1.99. Cook for about 10 minutes, they will start to get brown and juicy.

When the mushrooms are done, it's time to feed them the wine!

I used sweet Marsala wine. You can keep it on the counter or in a cabinet. This wine lasts for a few months because it is fortified.

Add the Marsala wine to the mushrooms and let it reduce by half.

It is very important to let your sauces reduce. This makes the sauce thicken up. Otherwise you are stuck with a sauce you should drink with your dinner rather than serve over your dinner. For me, this is a good time to do the dishes that have accumulated in the sink, and tonight my husband brought home all of his lunch Tupperware he had at work so that kept me busy for the 10 minutes it took for the wine to reduce.

Once the wine has reduced by half, add a cup of chicken broth. 

Instead of chicken broth/stock, I like to use Better Than Bouillon which was introduced to me by my genius cooking class teacher. It comes in a ton of different flavors, chicken, beef, veggie, seafood, and if you find yourself cooking with chicken broth often and throwing most of it out like I do, this will save you money. It is concentrated so you only use 1 tsp per 8 oz. It will keep in the fridge for about a year.

Chicken broth added! Smelling so good!

After about 5 minutes it's time to add the chicken back to the pot to finish cooking. Don't forget to add the juice that the chicken gave off in the dish it was sitting in back to the pot also. Add the last 2 teaspoons of butter to this and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. I put the lid half-way over the top and lowered the heat to 4.

My husband really likes his Marsala sauce over pasta so I cooked some penne pasta for about 8-10 minutes, drained it, and stirred it into the pan. 

  

I have to say, I will absolutely make this again. It really was delicious. The sauce was amazing. Even the mushrooms were good with the chicken. My husband liked it so much he even took me to Dairy Queen for a blizzard!

Emeril's recipe is below and a link to the recipe on the Food Network website is below it. I hope you will try this! It is delicious and makes your kitchen smell heavenly. Thanks for stopping by to read my notes! Enjoy!!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon Essence, recipe follows
• 2 (6 to 8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in halves and pounded thin
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3 cups sliced mushrooms (cremini, oyster, shiitake)
• 3/4 cup Marsala
• 1 cup chicken stock
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Chopped chives, for garnish

Directions

In a shallow bowl or plate combine the flour and Essence and stir to combine thoroughly. Quickly dredge the chicken breast halves in the seasoned flour mixture, shaking to remove any excess flour.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until very hot but not smoking. Add 1 tablespoon of the butter and cook the chicken breasts until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Add 1 tablespoon of the remaining butter to the pan and add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms are golden brown around the edges and have given off their liquid. Add the Marsala wine and bring to a boil, scraping to remove any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. When the wine has reduced by half, add the chicken stock and cook for 3 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened slightly. Lower the heat to medium and return the chicken breasts to the pan and continue to cook until they are cooked through and the sauce has thickened, about 5 to 6 minutes. Swirl in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, add salt and pepper, to taste. Garnish with chopped chives and serve immediately.

Essence (Emeril's Creole Seasoning):

• 2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/chicken-marsala-recipe/index.html

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