Chicken Marsala

Chicken marsala is actually easier than I thought it would be. Somehow I was thinking it would be a lot of steps. I’m not sure why. I guess since it is kind of a “restaurant food” to me I thought it would be more involved. This would be a great Christmas Eve meal or holiday dinner party meal. Early December is a great time to give a new item a dry-run if you want practice. It is honestly easier than it seems. Check it out at the bottom. It’s super cheap to make too.

The Three Bite Rule - Chicken Marsala
I served it over some egg noodles and it was a super easy dinner plus, the sauce was really great even as leftovers.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts (or chicken tenders)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper
2 tbs vegetable oil
2 slices of prosciutto, chopped
4 tbs butter
8 oz. mushrooms, halved, quartered, or sliced (I used button, but baby portabella would be good too)
2 tbs garlic, chopped
1 cup Marsala wine
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 pound wide egg noodles

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300-degrees.
Lay the chicken on plastic wrap with another piece of plastic wrap on top. Pound the chicken out with a meat mallet (or a heavy skillet, can of soup, or something equally heavy) until even in thickness.
Mix flour, garlic powder, salt, and pepper in a flat dish with sides, like a baking dish or flat bowl.
Heat a large pan to medium-hich heat with the vegetable oil.
Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture on both sides and shake off the excess.
Pan fry the chicken for about 5 minutes per side, in batches if it doesn’t all fit in the pan. Or use a meat thermometer to get the chicken to about 160 degrees (it will cook a bit more later so it will get to 165 by the end).
The Three Bite Rule - Chicken Marsala
Remove the cooked chicken and set inside the oven to keep warm.
Boil water for pasta if serving over egg noodles.
In the same pan, without the chicken, reduce the heat to medium and cook the prosciutto for about 2 minutes.
Add in the butter and button mushrooms, cooking for about 5 minutes until the liquid has reduced.
Pour in the marsala wine, 2 tbs butter, garlic and chicken broth. Let the wine cook the alcohol out for about 5 minutes at a low boil.
The Three Bite Rule - Chicken Marsala
Add the egg noodles into the boiling water pot.
Add the chicken back into the pan and cook for another 3 minutes, flipping once.
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Serve over egg noodles & enjoy!
The Three Bite Rule - Chicken Marsala

I really love the wine and garlicky flavors in this. It is a light but flavorful sauce and it is a great variation to some of my recent dinners.

I forgot prosciutto but it makes it even better. It’s super cheap to get just a few slices at the deli counter if you don’t mind waiting for it. I usually am not using a whole package whenever I add it to something so I’ve frozen a few slices for occasions such as this where it’ll be cooked. I forgot to check for some this time. Oops.

This would be a nice dinner for guests. You could have the chopping and the chicken cooked in advance then just the sauce would need to come together.

Cost breakdown:

chicken: 3-4 breast pieces $2.99
mushrooms: $2.00
2 slices prosciutto: $3.00
marsala wine: grocery stores here have it without alcohol for $3.00 per bottle or it’s closer to $7 at liquor stores.
garlic: $0.25
egg noodles: $0.75
total: $11.99 for 4 servings, or $2.99 per person. Take that restaurants!

BBQ Chicken Bubble Up Pizza

This is one of the easiest pizza I’ve ever made. I love how this is kind of like regular pizza but kind of assembled like a casserole. Don’t get turned off by the term casserole. This is doughy BBQ chicken pizza and it is delightful.

The alternative “crust” is super simple and should not be overlooked.
The Three Bite Rule - BBQ Chicken Biscuit Pizza

Ingredients:

1 can refrigerated biscuits
1-2 chicken breasts
1 cup BBQ sauce
½ red onion
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and heat a large skillet over medium heat.
Cut chicken into chunks and cook in the pan with half of the BBQ sauce. Turn over to cook for about 7 minutes. The chicken needs to cook most of the way through (it will cook more in the oven).
The Three Bite Rule - BBQ Chicken Biscuit Pizza
Open the biscuits and cut them in quarters, tossing them with 1 tbs of the remaining BBQ sauce.
Drop them into a 9×9 or 9×12 baking dish that has been sprayed with nonstick spray.
The Three Bite Rule - BBQ Chicken Biscuit Pizza
Sprinkle on half the cheese, the onions, the chicken, and BBQ sauce.
The Three Bite Rule - BBQ Chicken Biscuit Pizza
Bake 25 minutes.
Top with remaining cheese and bake for another 10 minutes.
The Three Bite Rule - BBQ Chicken Biscuit Pizza

I loved this. It was simple and most of the prep time is oven-baking-time. I would customize this pizza a million ways. It would be easy to make a few different ones at the same time or even just half and half in the pan. Or in individualized dishes. How fun!

I think making it with BBQ chicken, and without any marinara, this becomes more borderline casserole. The biscuits were a soft and doughy base ideal for any pizza under the sun.
The Three Bite Rule - BBQ Chicken Biscuit Pizza

Want more easy alternatives to using dough for the crust? Here’s a Greek pizza on pita bread, or French bread pizza, or pizza dip, or on Indian naan.

I’ve been whipping up BBQ pizza forever. It was the first meal I cooked for Mr. J, way back, pre-blogging days. Speaking of Mr. J… We are celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary! I feel like we justttt got married. For our honeymoon we went to Spain & Italy. We went to Portland, ME for our 1st anniversary(seen here & here) with another celebration a bit after the actual date in New Orleans & through the Caribbean. This year’s trip is a big one! Just wait till I’m back & ready to blog it!

What I Ate: Chicken ‘n Waffles

‘What I Ate’ is a series of posts for so-easy-this-doesn’t-need-a-recipe but I’m sharing with ya for the idea or inspiration.

The south has some pretty good food ideas. I mean biscuits/beignets/fried pickles/bbq are just so good. The list goes on. I like dinner to be varied so after my fun experiment with cinnamon roll waffles on the waffle iron I was thinking about more waffles that could be dinner.

I was going for simplicity here, but also think they could be amped up a bit. I used chicken fingers and only tweaked basic waffle batter by adding cornmeal and a touch of hot sauce.
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Ingredients:

4 chicken fingers
2 pre-made waffles or waffle batter ingredients below:
1 egg
¾ cup flour
¾ cup cornmeal
¾ cup milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbs hot sauce (optional)
1 cup arugula (optional)
1 small tomato, sliced (optional)
maple syrup

Directions:

Preheat oven to chicken finger cooking instructions (some are fully cooked, some are raw and need to reach an internal temperature)
Preheat waffle iron.
Mix waffle ingredients until combined.
Generously spray waffle iron.
When chicken is almost ready, cook the waffles in batches according to your iron’s size.
Top waffles with arugula, tomatoes, and drizzle with syrup.

I thought this was a fun dinner and totally out of the ordinary. I loved the freshness of the veggies on here with the salty chicken fingers and corny waffles and sticky sweet syrup. I didn’t want my dinner to be only brown/yellow in color.
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Next time I might add some whole corn into the waffles. Spinach or arugula would also be fun additions to the waffle itself.

Thai Chicken Wraps

Thai chicken wraps came to me out of nowhere. I thought of them back day when I was meal planning for a roasty-toasty week. Thank goodness it has cooled down a bit now.

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Ingredients:

2 small chicken breasts (or 1 large)
½ cup asian salad dressing (or equal soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil)
carrot slaw
1/2 english cucumber
2 wraps
1-2 cups arugula
peanut sauce

Directions:

Marinate the chicken overnight, or for at least 3 hours. Then grill chicken to cook through.
Toss the carrot slaw with some of the same marinade (not what the chicken was in).
Slice the cucumber into thin slices or thin wedges.
Slice the chicken into pieces.
Lay the wrap down and top with carrot slaw, arugula, chicken, and cucumber.
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Drizzle some peanut sauce on top and wrap up.
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Sorry for the gloppy looking sauce. I should have made that more even/pretty.

I liked these for a change in pace. I’m not sure how I’ll use the rest of the peanut sauce, since it isn’t one of my usual ingredients. Carrot slaw is also not one of my usual items but it was pretty good and probably an easier than usual way to get myself eating carrots. #notmyfav

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These would be a good variation if you were making a few different wraps. I think the peanut sauce made me feel like I had done something really different whereas it was just assembling the wraps with pre-made sauce. Maybe some sort of peanut-sauced pizza would be good for the rest?

Open Faced Greek Salad Pockets

It is Monday. Shall we detox on something healthy?

This meal was all over the place. I was thinking of making a Greek dip-ish. Then I was thinking Greek pizza-ish. I ended up with a sort of open-faced Greek “un”Wrap.
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Ingredients:

2 thin chicken breasts, marinated
2 wheat pita pockets
1 cup ricotta
2 thin chicken breasts, marinated in Greek/Italian dressing
2 cups of mixed greens/spinach/romaine
1 tomato
¼ cup red onion
½ cucumber
2 -3 tbs Italian Dressing/Greek Dressing/Olive Oil & Vinegar
2 tbs Creamy Greek dressing (optional)
½ cup feta cheese

Directions:

Grill the chicken.
Assemble the salad by mixing the lettuce greens, chopping the tomato, chopping the onion, chopping the cucumber.
Mix in salad dressing and feta.
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Heat a skillet over medium heat. It should be sized to fit the pita pocket.
Once hot, add 2 tbs olive oil to the pan then add the pitas one at a time, flipping once.
Spread half the ricotta onto each pita pocket.
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Top with salad mix, then feta.
Slice and top with grilled chicken.
Drizzle some additional dressing over the whole thing or the creamy Greek dressing.
greek_pizza_plate_590_390
I liked the crispness of the pita… toasting them up was in my best interest, since my pitas were not exactly fresh anymore. It was a great weird mix of not a salad, not a pizza. Not a pizza topped with salad. It was tricky to eat, but that’s a challenge I was happy to accept.

This is a refreshing summer meal. I love that is has some great flavors, freshness, and uses only a few ingredients. There is only a small amount of chicken in/on this. Once again, it was a good reminder that those super skinny breast pieces are useful when cut up or one normal size chicken breast would easily serve 2-3 people this way. I had some green onions hanging around so those went on top too.

I’ve proclaimed my love for ricotta, haven’t I? It is true. I love it. Ricotta on toast + avocado = delicious. I had leftover ricotta from making personalized Pizza Dip so I figured this was definitely a different use for it. Whipped feta would be great on this too.  These would be fun on little mini pitas for an appetizer. Pita bread is a great pizza crust. I need to do that again!