Chicken Cacciatore!

Chicken Cacciatore

By Jennifer Baca

Prep time: 5 minutes.

Cook time: 20-25 minutes.

Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Chicken breast halves

3 slices prosciutto

1 clove garlic

1 green bell pepper

1/2 white onion

2 medium tomatoes

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

4 oz. spaghetti/pasta of your choice

3 tbsp Pinot Grigio

1 tsp of rosemary

1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning

I'd never made chicken cacciatore. I'd never even ordered it off of a menu. But I found myself going to Google Recipes typing in "chicken" and looking for something I could make, checking for things I have or don't have, and saw a cacciatore recipe. It looked good, but perhaps a little plain, and the author seemed in the early stages of learning to cook so basic critical paths weren't in place. There was another one in the search results page that included prosciutto, which I happened to have a bit left of with no idea what to do with it. However, that one had lots of "Americanized" concepts, and prepackaged ingredients like canned items and spices I'd rather have fresh, and I didn't much trust the author of the recipe. So I decided I'd take a big risk and create my own recipe, using theirs as guidelines.

I have to take a moment and talk about this prosciutto. We get it at the co-op, and this same brand is what we get for bacon. It's fantastic. Mild, and so perfectly cut. You can see the package through the few slices that I had left. We like putting it on pizza, when we make one from home. So good with some fresh peppers and tomatoes, so I knew it'd be good in this dish!

Directions:

First, I sliced up the chicken and cooked it on the grill top.

While it was cooking, I sliced a bell pepper and diced up a clove of garlic, and "voluntold" my husband to slice up half of an onion and skin and chop 2 tomatoes for me :) He was happy to, he likes helping me with prep, as long as he doesn't see when I make all the flavors come together. He leaves the kitchen for that. He says it'd be like seeing the magician stuff the doves up his sleeves.

I sauteed the onions, bell pepper, and garlic together in EVOO, and when they were soft and browned a bit I put them into a bowl to stay warm. I left some of the garlic in the pan so it'll flavor the sauce.

Then my husband reminded me that I'm supposed to have a pot going for pasta! Whoops! Thanks sweetie! While that was going, I turned off the grill and covered the chicken while it still had some signs of being just barely underdone so that it wouldn't dry out while I finished everything up, to compensate for the fact that I really probably shouldn't have started with chicken. Or, I could have done my chopping prep in advance and already had pasta ready.

In the pan that I'd fried the veggies in, I added the prosciutto, the tomatoes, the pinot grigio (Fetzer is fantastic as a cooking wine), about a teaspoon of rosemary, and Italian Seasoning to taste. I probably threw in a dash of pepper or cumin, too, that'd be typical of me. But I didn't note it.

I cooked it all together on medium low, enough that it simmers but doesn't reach a boiling point. I stopped for a moment to drain the noodles, turned around, and my sauce looked like a dried out marinara! I panicked a little. This is supposed to be a juicy sauce! So I added some of the juice we'd saved that came out of the tomatoes during chopping and another tbsp of wine, and it livened it right back up!

Then it was time to serve it all together! It was so freaking good. The meat was tender, the sauce was a fantastic complement to the veggies and for it feeling so sinful, it was really not unhealthy.

Yield: 2 servings

Calories per serving: 378

Carbohydrates per serving: 35

Fat per serving: 10

Protein per serving: 36
WW+ Points: 9

If you try it, I hope you love it!

Mother's Day Dinner - Lobster Colorado!

This is another one of those dishes that seems very unhealthy and really isn't so bad.

It was Mother's Day and what I wanted was to cook something wonderful. I had no idea what I wanted. A couple days before, for my birthday/Mother's Day dinner with my mom, I'd made my alfredo with crab instead of shrimp. It was REALLY good. So this had to top that.

The grocery store had lobster tails on sale, so I looked up lobster recipes. I found Lobster Colorado. I promptly sent out the husband with a list of ingredients. He's gotten much better at shopping for food!
He brought me back the lobster tails, the last pair of fillets the store had, some red potatoes, asparagus, and spinach.

I started by getting the meat out of the lobster tails. I should have had my husband record a video of it because I looked hilarious trying to figure out how to do this as I've never cooked lobster before, but I managed it! I got all of the meat out clean. I chopped it into bite-sized pieces.

Then to the fillets. I patted them down with basic salt and ground peppercorn. I found myself slicing the bacon in half down the middle because it was way too wide for the short filets. I wrapped the bacon around the fillets and secured them with toothpicks. I also chopped up the potatoes and sprinkled them with salt and pepper.

They went into the oven on Broil for about 8 minutes each side.

While they were cooking, I melted half a stick of butter in a pan with some garlic and paprika (and in the mean time chopped and cleaned some asparagus spears and spinach leaves). Once the butter was melted, lobster went in.

While the lobster was cooking and fillets were broiling, I put the spinach and asparagus in a saucepan to slowly "steam".

Then it was time to take the fillets out! I took the potatoes off of the pan and put them into a covered bowl to keep warm.Then comes the fun part - putting the lobster on top of the steaks and back into the oven with it! So many times, the lobster fell off before we could get it in the oven.

At this point, take the other half of the stick of butter and add it to the pan you cooked the lobster in. I cooked it at just about medium heat until it started getting a brown color to it. As far as time goes, it turns brown just as the lobster in the oven starts browning on top.

Then it's time to serve up! Pour some of the butter sauce over the lobster & fillets, and I also poured a bit over the veggies and potatoes because it was Mother's Day and I was going to enjoy it!

Health Stuff:
Calories: 495, Fat: 29, Carbs: 19, Protein: 39.
WWPP: 13

Totally worth the indulgence if you ask me!