Middle Eastern Chicken Kebabs

A little bit of planning for this one; as need to marinate for at least 8 hours. onceuponachef.com Jenn specifies chicken thighs instead of breasts; as lemon juice makes breasts tough... I stuck to the recipe, but did firm up to skewers in a 375-degree oven for 6 minutes. Makes easier handling to place on the grill.

Ingredients:

• 1 small plain Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoon paprika 
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• zest from one lemon
• 2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 5 minced garlic cloves
• 2 1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs ( cut for skewers)

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients except chicken in a bowl.

Thread chicken on skewers. You will need 6-8 skewers.

Line a large baking pan with foil and parchment paper and place skewers on top. Spoon marinate all over meat, coating well. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375-degree and bake for 6 minutes.

Finish skewers on the grill over medium-high heat. Be sure to brush the grate with oil to prevent sticking. Grill until golden brown, turning occasionally. About 10 minutes.

Oven Fried Parmesan Chicken

I tweaked this recipe a little. thespruceeats.com This comes together fairly quickly. I cut my chicken breasts in half lengthwise and then pounded with a meat mallet to make chicken cutlets. Hot marinara sauce and fresh Burrata was the icing on the cake. Having made ahead; I reheated the cutlets just to get the chill off in the microwave and then finished off with the burrata on top under the broiler. Heat the marinara sauce and serve over penne or egg noodles.

Ingredients:

• 4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts ( cut in half and pounded with meat mallet)
• 1/2 cup butter (melted)
• 2 cloves minced garlic, minced
• 1 cup fine dry breadcrumbs ( I used Ian's gluten-free panko)
• 2/3 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• favorite Marinara sauce ( I like Rao from Costco)
• fresh Buratta 
• fresh chopped parsley

Heat oven to 375-degrees. Line a large baking sheet with foil. I used a wire rack which I sprayed with oil. You can also place on parchment paper.

Place melted butter in shallow pan ( I used a glass pie pan).

Combine the breadcrumbs, Parmesan, garlic, salt and pepper. Place in a shallow pan.

Dip the prepared chicken cutlets in melted butter and fresh garlic and then coat with breadcrumb mixture. Place on wire rack.

Bake the chicken for 25-35 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 165-degrees.

Serve with marinara, Burrata, fresh parsley and pasta of choice.

Soft Breadsticks

kingarthurflour.com First pass, mine looked like the pic! There are 2 options: one is to remove from oven and brush with butter (really soft breadsticks); cut along score line or once cool enough to handle; cut bread along score lines with a bread knife, place bread sticks back on the baking pan on edge and bake an additional 5 minutes (for soft breadsticks) or 10 minutes ( stiffer breadsticks). I choose the really soft and plan on reheating the breadsticks on edge for the additional 5 minutes at 375-degrees. These are super easy and hope fam likes them!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
• 3 tablespoons olive oil plus 2 tablespoons to prepare baking pan plus some to drizzle on before baking
• 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast ( purchased at Moxie Bakery)
• 4 teaspoons Italian seasoning of choice ( I used 1 teaspoon oregano, 1 teaspoon dried basil, 2 teaspoons granulated garlic (set 1/2 teaspoon or so aside to sprinkle on top before baking)

Directions:

Prepare a large cookie sheet by lining with a sheet of parchment paper. Drizzle 2 tablespoons on top of parchment paper. Spread around with a marinate brush.

Combine all the ingredients in mixer bowl; setting aside 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of seasoning of choice. Beat on high speed for 1 minute.

Scoop sticky batter into prepared pan, spreading nearly to edges. Oiling your fingers helps with the job.

Using a rolling pizza cutter or knife score the dough in 1-inch wide cross strips. Cut strips made down the middle.

Cover the pan and rise at room temperature for 1 hour, till dough is puffy.

Preheat oven to 375-degrees.

Drizzle a little more olive oil on top and remaining seasoning of choice.

Bake bread for 25 minutes until light golden brown.

Remove from oven and carefully lift onto wire rack. Proceed as recommended above, depending on softness you desire.

Serve with olive oil for dipping or marinara sauce.

Hearth Bread

This recipe makes two loaves. I started out halving the recipe; just to make sure it turned out ok. happily mine looked just like this picture! You can chose to shape the loaves in longer, thinner French style loaves (which I did) or oval Italian ones. I sliced, buttered and sprinkled garlic granules on the pieces and froze in individual servings; ready to heat up. I used my upright mixer's bread hook, but you can check out kingarthurflour.com if you wish to knead by hand. Recipe varies a bit for using mixer.  I also skipped the returning to turned off oven once cooked. Do not like extra crusty bread.  Regret halving the recipe... This bread reminds me of a similar bread I made regularly with my Florida friend, Joanne. We were making yeast bread in our 20's! Such nerds!

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4  teaspoon instant yeast or 1 package dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
• 5 1/2 - 6 cups flour ( I ended up using 5 1/2 cups)

Directions:

Place all the ingredients in the mixer bowl using the 5 1/2 cups flour. 

Knead the dough at low-medium speed using the dough hook for 10 minutes total time. Dough will be smooth and barely sticking to bottom and sides of bowl.

Place dough in a lightly greased bowl large enough for the dough to double. Cover with plastic wrap until dough doubles; about 1 hour.

Gently deflate the dough, cut in half and shape as desired. Place on parchment lined baking sheet.

Cover with a greased plastic wrap and rise 45 minutes or until noticeably puffy. 

Towards end of rising time preheat oven to 425-degrees.

Brush the loaves generously with lukewarm water and lightly slash the tops of the loaves 3 or more times diagonally. Place pan in the middle rack of oven.

Bake for 35-40 minutes. (I checked at 30 minutes and it was done).

Cool on wire rack. 

Freezes well.

Famous Blueberry Muffins

This recipe goes back to the 1990's; famous at Jordan's department store. Jordan's was absorbed by Macy's and now 2020 Macy's could easily disappear. Just a bit of historic trivia. I had frozen blueberries on hand, but fresh is recommended. If you do use frozen; do not crush the 1/2 cup. Rinse several times before using and pat dry with a paper towel. Do not skip sprinkling the sugar on top before baking. Take "lightly greased" not lightly; mine stuck to pan a bit. May use paper liners next time.

Ingredients:

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature ( I soften in the wrapping in the microwave, watch closely)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 1/2 cup blueberries (see above)
• 1/4 cup sugar, for topping

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375-degrees and grease a 12-cup muffin tin; or line the tin with papers and grease the papers.

In an upright mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until well-combined.

Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the sides and bottom of bowl and beating well after each addition.

Beat in the baking powder, salt and vanilla.

Add the flour alternating with the milk, beating gently just to combine.

Mash 1/2 cup of blueberries (only if use fresh). Add the mashed and whole berries, stirring just to combine and distribute.

Scoop batter by heaping 1/4 cupful into prepared muffin pan.

Sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar atop each muffin.

Bake muffins for 25-30 minutes, until light golden brown on top and tested in middle with toothpick until comes out clean.

Remove from oven and loosen their edges from pan and after 10 minutes transfer to wire racks to cool.