An Epicurean Expert with Chicken

I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day weekend for those in the US. Long weekends are fun aren't they? You live it up all the days or in my case, veg out and spend time with good company. It was a good weekend excuse to take advantage of the grill before the weather starts to become cooler. I didn't get to use ol' Georgie as much this summer. I wish I did more.  But I was not going to let this weekend deter me from it. So grill I did.

A little over a week ago I received a package. The wonderful folks over at Girard's Dressing were kind enough to send me one of their Epicurean Expert Kit.  As you may remember I've had the opportunity to try out a few of their dressings before. And I enjoyed them quite a bit. You can read about them HERE. The Epicurean Expert. Kind of sounds like I'm part of a club. :-D

In the kit:
Cotton Twill Full-Length Embroidered Apron with Pockets
Eco-Friendly Bamboo Wooden Utensil Kit
100% Cotton Tote Bag
Stainless Steel Soap
Stainless Steel Recipe Card Holder
Girard's Salad dressing Recipe Booklet.

Sample dresssings:
Light Champagne
Olde Venice Italian
White Balsamic Vinaigrette
Greek Feta Vinaigrette

sporting the apron

I'm still kind of figuring out how you use the steel soap.  Didn't even know such a thing existed. I was happy to see the bamboo utensils in there because that means I don't have to use my barbecue tongs anymore to mix my salads. I'll definitely be putting to good use the recipe holder. That way I won't be ruining my recipe cards.

Since this past weekend was Labor Day in the US, it was a perfect time to crack open the dressings. I originally was going to make the recipe below earlier in the week, but my plans got thrown out of whack.  I used the White Balsamic Vinaigrette as a marinade to some chicken tenders and boneless thighs. You wouldn't necessarily think to use a vinaigrette or dressing as such, but you'd be surprised it's very useful than just coating pieces of leafy greens. It brings a nice flavor to your choice of meat without the hassle of taking a bunch of ingredients from the pantry. Just pop the bottle open, pour over and marinate.

The vinaigrette has a nice citrus hint to it and gives the chicken a lovely subtle flavor into the juices. It was delicious! Grilled to a tender and juicy consistency. I had also made a little bit of salad (romaine, avocado, orange cherry tomatoes, and bell pepper) and used the Light Champagne, which is a light version of their regular Champagne dressing. It also has a nice light flavor. It paired really well with the White Balsamic marinated chicken. Combine the two together you've got yourself a lovely chicken salad. It's definitely a method worth trying. 

Special thanks again to the folks at Girard's Salad Dressing



Disclaimer: I received these products to review for free. 

White Balsamic Grilled Chicken
1/2 lb Chicken Tenders
1/2 lb Boneless Chicken Thai
1 c Girard's White Balsamic Vinaigrette
salt and pepper

Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper.

In a deep enough dish, place chicken pieces and pour over the White Balsamic Vinaigrette. Coat all sides of the raw meat and let it marinate in the dressing for at least half an hour to two hours.

Prepare your grill. When your grill is ready, cook the chicken tenders both side 3-5 minutes on each side until full cooked through. For the chicken thigh, grill them for 5-8 minutes on each side until full cooked through.

Let the cooked pieces rest on a plate for 2-3 minutes to let the juices redistribute.

Leftover Chicken Salad with Honey-Dijon Dressing

I was wandering around Whole Foods trying to think what I can make for dinner. I had plans to make something with tofu for the weekend when I remember I had a head of lettuce in the veggie compartment as well as a tomato giving me those sad puppy dog eyes saying "eat me." An old fashioned salad just didn't seem too appetizing to me at the time, so I bought myself some pre-sliced white mushrooms, from the hot foods section I got one large cajun roasted chicken breast and one whole roasted yellow bell pepper.

When I got home I just prepared everything. removed the skin from the chicken and shredded it. . Chopped up a tomato, the lettuce, the bell pepper and some of the mushroom. Added some pineapple tidbits. And tossed it all together.  Another way, I'd like to call this is the leftover chicken salad because you can use up any leftovers you may have sitting in the fridge.  Of course, you don't have to follow exactly what I have here. make it your own and jazz it up. I paired with a honey-dijon dressing with a hint of soy sauce and olive oil. It was filling in a good way.

Serves 2-3

Leftover Chicken Salad with Honey-Dijon dressing

1 c cooked shredded chicken (breast) - from roasted, fried or baked - no skin
1 small head lettuce - rough chopped
1 medium tomato - deseeded chopped
1 small yellow bell pepper - deseeded, stemed, rough chopped
1 c pineapple tidbits
1 c  white muchroom - rough chopped
1/2 c firm tofu - cubed - optional

Honey Dijon Dressing
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp soy sauce


Combine ingrediets for the dressing together. Blend thoroughly. Set aside.

For the optional tofu, heat a small skillet with a little olive oil. Pan sear the tofu pieces until they have lightly browned.

Mix together all the salad ingredients. Drizzle the dressing and toss thoroughly to distribute evenly.

Cobb Salad with Balsamic Dijon Dressing

In 1937, Brown Derby owner Robert H. Cobb went into the restaurant's kitchen to fix a late-night snack for Sid Grauman, operator of Grauman's Chinese Theater. He browsed the refrigerator for ingredients, and chopped them up finely. Thanks for wikipedia for that last bit of info. You can read more on it here. Cobb salad was a mish mosh of iceberg lettuce, tomato, bacon, chicken breast, hard-boiled egg, avocado, and roquefort cheese.

But I didn't have all those ingredients on hand. I did have the lettuce and tomato. I had used my last avocado in the grilled cheese. I did have the last three slices of honey baked ham that I needed to eat up and some shredded mozzarella. Oh, not to forget the two persimmons sitting patiently in my fridge for the past couple of weeks. I'm sorry I had neglected them for so long. Hard boiled egg is pretty easy to make. So I chopped away and tossed everything together. To give this salad some taste, I made a simple balsamic vinegar and dijon mustard dressing. A good combo I might add. It was filling, but at just the right amount.

Serves 2 -3

Cobb Salad with Balsamic Dijon Dressing

1 head of lettuce - choped
1 tomato - deseeded and chopped
2 ripe persimmons - chopped
3/4 c chopped ham
3 hard boiled eggs - chopped
2 c croutons
1/4 c shredded cheese - your choice

Balsamic Dijon Dressing
2 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 1/2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 large garlic clove - finely chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
a pinch of salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients for the dressing together until well blended. Set aside.

Toss to lettuce, tomato, ham, persimmon drizzle in the dressing and mix well.

Divide them into 2 or 3 salad bowls. Top each with the shredded cheese, egg and croutons.

Caesar Salad

After eating all that food for the past couple weeks, I felt it was right to make myself a nice refreshing salad to balance out all the hefty delicious leftovers. I made one of my favorite salads ever. The caesar salad. It's not named after Julius Caesar, but for Caesar Cardini. A restauranteur living in San Diego. So it seems that this salad had its origins in good ol' Southern California. Also anchovies were never in the original recipe. As I've seen many recipes "claiming" to be the original. Those were just recent adaptations. So for you non anchovy lovers out there, here's a recipe that would more likely float your boat. You can view the rest this salad history via its Wikipedia page here.

There's a variety of ways to make the dressing and this salad if you look around the interweb. Some use anchovies, some use eggs, some use mayo. This is my version of doing it. Garlic, worchestshire sauce, parmesan, lemon juice, olive oil.  Simple basic ingredients I'm sure you'd have in your own pantry. I used to make it with a food processor, but you can also make the dressing using a mortar and pestle.

Makes 3/4 cup

Caesar Salad

Mixed Greens or 2 romaine hearts - washed and chopped
1/2 lbs cherry or grape tomatoes - sliced
1 ripe avocado - diced
mushrooms - your choice - sliced
shredded chicken or tuna - optional
courtons - optional

Dressing
2 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 tsp worchestershire saice
juice of one lemon
1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
1/2 c grated parmesan cheese (plus extra for topping on salad)
pepper to season

For food processor:
Chop the garlic, then add in the remaining ingredients. Pulse mixing after each one. Do this until a creamy consistency. Season with a little pepper. 

For mortar and pestle:
mash the garlic and mix in the extra virgin olive oil, worchestershire sauce and lemon juice. Then mash in the grated parmesan until a creamy consistency. Season with a little pepper.

Putting it all together:
Combine the ingredients of the salad together and drizzle the dressing over. Toss thoroughly.

Little J's Coleslaw

It wouldn't be summer without coleslaw. Am I right? Gotta balance things out a bit from all the grilled goodies I've had over the last month or so. Here's my version. It has a vague taste to the one you'd get from KFC. Another penny saver right here. No need to go out and buy coleslaw then I can make a HUGE batch just for around 5 bucks. Using fresh carrots and caggage from the farmer's market. I've already got the ingredients for the dressing. I'm sure most of you have them, too.

I let this sit for about a day in the fridge to let the dressing really marinate the cabbage. You don't want the cabbage taste when you bite into it. Two days would even be better.

I think I shall grill something now.




Little J's Coleslaw

4 carrots (shredded)
1 head cabbage (shredded)
2 small-medium red bell peppers (diced)

dressing:
4 1/2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
6 tbsp vegetable oil
3/4 c chopped sweet onion
1 c lite mayo
1/2 c sugar

In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, carrots and bell pepper.

In a separate bowl, combine all the dressing ingredients together. Mix well until all the sugar has dissolved. Then it over the cabbage and toss well. You want to evenly coat everything.

Then seal the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least a day or two.

Toss again to redistribute the juices and dressing before serving.

Little J's Potato Salad

Don't you just hate it when you accidentally click on "publish" rather than "save as draft" when working on a post. Then all of the sudden, the cursor goes wacko on you and randomly darts of in a weird direction. Ugh! Anyway, here's my potato salad I had mentioned with the Grilled Shrimp Skewers. I call this Little J's Potato Salad. Little J is a nickname I've had since high school and it's pretty much stuck with me ever since.

This is an adaptation from a recipe my mom had gotten from a friend. The original version had a strong vinegar taste to it that didn't suit too well with my palate. So I tweaked it and what you have here is a balance of flavors. Not overbearing, just right. I love this version. Whenever I can I try to make a batch of it. It's really good. Not like your usual potato salad, whatever that may be. The yellow color comes from the mustard in the recipe. With a touch of vinegar, some relish, onions, sugar and mayo. A nice subtle sweet flavor. Plus, a hefty dusting of paprika.

This will make you go back and get seconds.



Little J's Potato Salad

4-5 Large Russet Potatoes

1/3 c Sweet Onion (finely chopped)
1/3 c sweet relish
1 c mayo
1/2 c sugar
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 c Yellow Mustard
Paprika


Cut the potatoes into cubes. Size is to your choosing.

Bring a pot of water to a boil, season liberally with salt. Add in the potatoes and cook until tender. When a fork pierces through without any hesitation that means the potatoes are done.

Drain and let them cool.

In a bowl, combine onions, relish, mayo, sugar, vinegar and mustard. Combine well until the sugar has dissolved.

When the potatoes are cool enough, pour in the dressing and toss to combine. Use a two bowl method. By pouring the potatoes back and forth until everything is coated with the dressing.

When ready, sprinkle as much paprika as you'd like and enjoy.

Pomango Dressing

Last week, I received a case of pomegranate juice from the awesome people at POM Wonderful. I love pomegranates and its mild tart flavor. I've had this product before when I used to buy the huge bottles from Whole Foods. So when they contacted me, I immediately accepted. As soon as I received the case in the mail, I drank two of the bottles in two days. I had to control myself from drinking anymore because I have plans for this delicious juice.



In case you were wondering, the juice is also healthy for you. Full of anti-oxidants and full of vitamin C & E. It's also great for your cardiovascular system. Small food fact: Pomegranates are one of mankind's earliest cultivated fruits. So if it's been around this long, you know it got to be good. I remember making my own pom juice once. It a bit labor intensive with trying to get all the seedlings out from their shell. Luckily, I don't have to do that anymore.

Of course, the first thing I make with it is a salad dressing. A pomegranate and mango dressing. Since having those broiled baby back ribs filled me up the other day, I needed something relatively light to counter balance all that meaty goodness. A nice refreshing salad was in order. Besides, it was a hot day and I didn't feel like eating anything heavy.

It's not chunky as I made this in the food processor, so it had a smooth consistency to it. Not too fruity and a lovely tiny tang from some dijon mustard.

This makes roughly 1 1/2 c of dressing.



Pomango Dressing

1 ripe medium mango
6 Tbsp Pomegranate Juice (POM Wonderful)
3 Tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar
3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
salt
pepper

Note: You may use a food processor, blender, or an emersion blender

Mash the mango into an liquid state.

Blend in the pomegranate juice, vinegar, olive oil and dijon mustard until smooth. Season with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Add more, if needed.

Drizzle over your favorite mix of greens.