Chicken Pot Pie may be a great new dish, or another creative way to use up leftover chicken meat.

In my case, it was  the latter, since I had some leftover chicken meat from our Roasted Chicken dinner.

I am a very frugal person, and do not throw away food I already paid for, plus spent time preparing, so I create new meals out of leftovers.

Poultry is one of my favorite meats to cook with, so you will be seeing many more of my favorite chicken recipes.

I made my own pie crust for this recipe, but you may also use a ready made pie crust ( one  15 oz. package of the refrigerated pie crust).

Ingredients for Pie Crust:

• 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup Crisco vegetable shortening
• 1/3 cup butter, cold, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
• 1/4 tsp.  salt
• 6 Tbs. cold water ( 1/3 cup)

Directions for Pie Crust:

1. Place the flour on a work surface.
2. Add shortening, butter, and salt.
3. Using a pastry blender (cutter), cut in the cold butter and shortening into the flour, until it resembles peas size pebble mixture.
4. Gradually add cold water, and continue cutting it in with the pastry blender (or you can pulse it in a food processor, until ball of dough forms).  I also kneaded it for a minute, to get a ball of dough.
5. Do not overwork the dough, or it will get tough.
6. Divide dough into two balls (2/3 – for the bottom crust,  and 1/3 – for the topping)
7. Place in a zip-lock plastic bag, and place it in the freezer for about 15 minutes, while you are preparing the filling.

Ingredients for Filling:

• 2 -3 cups of cooked chicken meat, cubed
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3 clove garlic, chopped (click here to check out my favorite garlic chopper)
• 3 Tbs. all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 1/2 cup chicken broth ( fresh, canned, or made 0ut of chicken bullion and water)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, or milk
• 16 oz of frozen peas and carrots ( I also used 1/2 cup of frozen corn)
• 1/2 tsp.  salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. paprika
• 1 Tbs. fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
• 1 egg yolk (for egg wash)
• 1 Tbs. water (f0r egg wash)

Directions for Filling:

1. Saute the chopped onions  in butter, for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
2. Add the chopped garlic, and saute for 1 minute longer.
3. Mix in the flour and thyme.
4. Cook for 1 minute.
5. Whisk in the cream/milk, and cook for 2 minutes, continuously stirring to make a smooth paste, as it will thicken.
6. Remove from heat, and mix in the chicken, frozen vegetables, salt and pepper.
7. Remove the pie crust dough from the freezer.
8. Lightly sprinkle work surface with flour, and roll out the larger piece of dough, to form a circle, at least 1 inch larger than the pie dish (11 inches in diameter).
9. Place the pie crust dough into an ungreased pie pan and press it down lightly to fit.
10. Trim off any dough hanging over the pie pan.
11. Pour in the filling.
12. Set aside.
13. Take the smaller dough ball,  roll it out on a lightly floured work surface to 1/8 inch thickness.
14. Cut into 1/2 inch wide strips, using a pizza cutter.
15. Lift gently each strip, twist it and lay it, one by one, on top of the filling.



16. Repeat the process again, by laying these twists across the top of the previous layer, and shown above, forming  a lattice design.  Use any remaining pieces, twisting, and laying them around the rim of the pie pan.



17. Prepare egg wash by beating the egg yolk and water.  Using a pastry brush, brush the egg wash over the pastry twists.
18. Preheat oven to 400 degrees  Fahrenheit.
19. Place the pie plate on a baking sheet (to catch any run off sauce), and bake for  about45 minutes, until the crust is golden, and the filling is bubbly.  If the crust is browning too fast, you may lay a piece of foil paper over it.
20. Remove from the oven.
21. Cool for at least 15 minutes, before serving, to let the filling settle, and firm up.
22. Cool completely, if storing in the refrigerator for later use.

Enjoy!

This Chicken Paprikash recipe has been tucked away in my “recipes to try” file for some time now.  So when I came across it today, I knew it was time to  give it a try.

I was a very lucky recipient of this recipe,  several years back, from a very sweet Ukrainian grandma, who’s granddaughter was in a youth group, which  I was heading at that time.  We were discussing special times grandparents share with their grandchildren, and this young lady was very proud of her grandma, teaching her how to cook, and Chicken Paprikash was one of her favorites.

I had fun reminiscing today, and at the same time the dish turned out to be very tasty, indeed.

If you like the taste of caramelized onions, or French Onion Soup, you will absolutely love this Ukrainian Chicken Paprikash.

I am definitely adding it to my collection of “favorite recipes”, to prepare again for my family and friends.

Quick, easy, and delicious.

Ingredients:

• 6 chicken-breast halves, skinless and boneless
• 6 large onions, sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup butter (see TIP below)
• 3 Tbs. sweet paprika powder
• 1 cup rose wine (or half and half, white and red)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp. granular sugar
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Lightly pound the chicken breasts with a meat mallet, to slightly flatten it, and break up the fibers.

2.   In a large skillet, sauté onions in 1/2 cup of butter, until transparent.

3.  Add garlic and paprika.

4.  Saute another minute.

5.  Stir in the salt, pepper, and the wine.

6.  Push the onions to the side of the pan, and place the chicken breasts in the pan.

7.  Cover chicken with sautéed onions, and cook about 10 minutes on one side.

8.  Roll off the onions, turn over the chicken, cover with onions again, and cook for another 10 minutes.

9.  Remove the chicken from the pan, and arrange it in a serving platter, cover, and set aside

10.  Add the sour cream into the onion mixture, and stir until fully incorporated. Mix in the sugar.

11.  Pour the onion sauce over the chicken.

12.  Serve hot, with pasta, or rice.

Enjoy!

(Also great for reheating.)

TIP: To lower the total calories in this dish, you may use oil instead of butter, light or fat free sour cream, or Greek

Yogurt.

Roasted whole chicken for a family meal, is one of my favorite recipes.  It is perfect for anyone  who likes to have a home cooked meal without too much fuss, and still having leftovers for couple more meals.  A dream come true for all!

When I roast a whole chicken, I also like to add lots of carrot chunks into the roasting pan, as these turn out very tasty, and become my side veggies.

I also make baked potatoes, to utilize the cooking time and the oven heat.

If you have a large enough oven, you can even place a 9 X 9 inch pan of brownies, during the last 25 minutes of cooking time, and get your dessert done at the same time as the rest of the meal.  Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

Also, once you set it all up and  place it  in the oven, you have at least 1 1/2 hours of free time to set your table, watch TV, or just sit down with a glass of wine and enjoy the aroma of the cooking food, filling up your kitchen.

Serves 4-8.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken for roasting (Perdue Oven Roaster , about 6 lbs, is my favorite)
• 4 carrots, cut to chunks
• 2 celery sticks, cut to chunks (I trim the bottom off the celery bunch, then cut off another 4 inches, separate, rinse under running water)
• 1 onion, quartered
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 cups water
• salt, pepper, and garlic powder
• 4-8 Russet Potatoes, for baking (optional) see directions below

Directions:

1. Remove the chicken from the plastic wrap, and discard the wrap.
2. Remove the giblets from the chicken’s cavity (these are separately wrapped in a bag and stored inside the chicken torso)
3. If you plan to use the giblets (usually the heart, stomach, liver and neck), open the bag and remove its contents, or just discard them, if you do not wish to use them.
4. I remove the skin from the neck, and discard it.  Rinse the heart and stomach, and place it all in the roasting pan with the chicken.
5. Do not include the liver, as it will give the roasting juices a bitter taste.  You can use the liver to make chicken liver pate, if you like.  I only do this if the liver looks really fresh.
6. Check the whole chicken for any remaining feathers, and remove.  I also trim off the flabby skin around the back opening of the chicken cavity, and the tail bone, and discard it all.
7. Rinse the whole chicken inside, and out, under running water.
8. Drain out any remaining water from the chicken cavity.
9. Season the whole chicken, inside and outside , with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
10. Pour 2 cups of water into a roasting pan.
11. Place the neck in the middle of the roasting pan.
12. Place the chicken on the top of the neck (this will prevent the chicken from sticking to the pan).
13. Place inside the chicken: one bay leaf, one chunk of onion, a couple of celery chunks.
14. Place the remaining bay leaves, garlic cloves,celery, carrot and onion chunks all around the outside of the chicken.
15. Cover with a lid, or heavy duty aluminum foil.
16. Preheat the over to 350 F degrees.
17. Place the roasting pan on the middle rack.
18. Set the oven timer for 1 1/2 hours.
19. Uncover the chicken for the last 15 minutes of roasting, baste with the pan juices, and let it crisp up, and brown lightly.
20. When the chicken breast temperature is at 160-165, your chicken is done.
21. Remove from the oven and let it rest for at least 10 minutes before carving and serving.
22. Remove the bay leaves and the celery chunks and discard.
23. The roasted garlic may be used for making garlic bread.
24. Remove the roasted carrots and arrange few on your serving platter with the cut up chicken (follow same carving instructions as for roasted turkey).
25. Remove the rest of the carrots into a serving dish, and serve as a side veggie.

Directions for baked potatoes

1. Do not peel potatoes.
2. Wash potatoes well, under running water.
3. Rub potatoes with oil (vegetable, canola or olive)
4. Fully wrap in foil paper.
5. Place the wrapped potatoes in the oven,  on both sides by the roasting pan, at the same time as the chicken, if the potatoes are fairly large.
6. For smaller potatoes, put them in the oven for the last hour of chicken roasting time.
7. Carefully, using oven mitts, remove potatoes from the oven, leave them wrapped in foil, to keep them warm.

You may unwrap them before serving, but it is also fine to serve them wrapped, in a large serving bowl.

Enjoy.

TIP. I like to serve salt, butter and sour cream, on the side, to be used with the baked potatoes.

I also pour some of the pan juices over the cut up chicken, especially the breast meat, before serving.

I save the remaining pan juices and the chicken carcass, for making soup for the next meal, and the left over chicken meat may be used to make Chicken Salad, Chicken Tetrazzini,  Chicken Croquettes, Chicken Buffalo Dip, Chicken Casadia, etc.

Congratulations!

We successfully completed the Detox  Phase of the Fat Smash Diet.

Didn’t the 9 days just fly by?  Aren’t you feeling better already?  I sure am; it feels great!

Phase Two is much easier than Phase one, in regards to food selection.  Even though we still continue with all the foods from Phase One, we are making new additions.  This phase lets us get back to many of the foods we were missing during the past nine days.  It still is very important to eat 4-5 smaller meals per day, and healthful snacks in between.

We must remember NOT to skip meals, and stick to the eating schedule we have set up for ourselves in Phase One.  We must keep up the good work with physical activities, to keep on smashing the fat, and building good habits.

Here are the additional selections of daily servings:

MEATS:
(portions are 3-4 oz, which is equivalent to a deck of playing cards.  All these meats and fish are baked or broiled, NOT FRIED)

• Chicken without the skin
• Turkey  without skin
• Ground Beef:  EXTRA lean or ground sirloin
• Sirloin steak
• Lamb

SEAFOOD:

• Halibut, Tuna, Salmon, Snapper, Striped Bass, etc. – 3 oz. servings
• Shrimp – 4 large
• Mussels – 3 oz
• Oysters – 6-12
• Clams – 3

EGGS:

• 1 whole egg- scrambled, boiled, or poached

MILK and CHEESE:

• 2 1/2 cups of low-fat, skim, or soy milk
• 2 oz. of cheese (2 slices)
• ½ cup of cottage cheese

CEREALS:

• Any unsweetened cereals – 1 cup of cold, or ½ cup of hot
• Sweeteners:
• 4 tsp of granulated sugar (or sugar substitute)
• 1 Tbsp honey

DRINKS:

• Coffee – 1 10oz cup, and 3 cups or herbal tea, and 5 cups of Club soda or 2 cans of diet soda, and 1 cup of iced tea (sweetened only with 2 packets of sugar substitute, or Lemonade made with real lemons and 2 packets of sugar substitute or 2 tsp of granulated sugar.
• Unlimited flavored seltzer or tonic water
• Unlimited tap of bottled water

SNACKS:

• 2 graham crackers and 2 tsp. low-sugar jelly
• 2 Tbsp raisins and 10 peanuts
• 2 gingersnaps and ½ oz cheddar cheese
• 2 small chocolate chip cookies
• 15-20 fat free Tortilla chips
• 4 animal crackers and 1 small orange
• 2 rice cakes topped with 1 tsp. peanut butter
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 8 halves dried apricots and ½ cup skim milk
• 6 saltines-type crackers with 2 tsp. low-sugar jelly

EXCLUDED FOODS:

• White rice
• White Potatoes
• Bread/English muffins
• White pasta or whole wheat pasta
• White flour
• Pasties, donuts, Danish, cakes,cookies, brownies,
• Candy
• Ice Cream
• Potato chips, corn chips, tortilla chips, popcorn
• Chocolate
• Bacon
• Sausage
• Alcohol
• Fried foods
• Fast Foods
• Regular Soda
• Sweetened juices from a bottle or can
• Milkshakes
• Frappuccino
• Café latte or cappuccino

TIP: Don’t forget to do some physical activity after dinner.  Also, remember your food portion size:  less is more!

Whenever you weigh yourself, do it in the morning just before stepping into the shower.  You will love your scale.

If you would like to put together a meal that is easy to prepare, but looks complicated, you will love this recipe for Chicken Cordon Bleu.

You can use plain chicken breast, but I prefer a more flavored taste, so I marinate it for an hour, or overnight, in an Italian Salad Dressing.  For simplicity and ease, I also use Campbell’s Cream of Chicken or Cream of Mushroom soup, for the sauce.

4 servings.

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 4 slices of smoked ham(Ham of the Bone, or Smoked Virginia Ham, from the Deli)
• 4 slices of Swiss cheese
• 2 tsp of deli mustard
• Italian Salad Dressing
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder
• Flavored breadcrumbs
• Oil for frying
• 1 can of Cream of Chicken soup (or Cream of Mushrooms)
• ½ cup of heavy cream, or whole milk
• ¼ cup of white wine (optional)
• Italian seasoning
• 4 toothpicks, or string

Directions:

1. Trim off all fat from the chicken breast.
2. Spread the breasts on a cutting board, cover with clear plastic saran wrap, and pound with a meat mallet to a ¼ inch thickness. (I like to place the chicken with the clear membrane side down, to keep it intact during this process).
3. Place the chicken in a large enough container, and pour the Italian Dressing, or marinate, over it.
4. Move the chicken around, to coat all pieces evenly.
5. Cover and let marinate in the refrigerator for an hour, or overnight.
6. Lay each piece of marinated chicken on a work surface.
7. Place one piece of ham and one piece of cheese on top of each breast (you might fold the ham and cheese in half for a better fit).
8. Spread ¼ tsp of deli mustard over the ham/cheese slices.
9. Roll up from the widest end towards the opposite end.
10. Fasten with tooth pick, or a string.
11. Dredge the chicken in flour seasoned with garlic powder.
12. Beat one whole egg with a tablespoon of water, salt and pepper.
13. Dip the floured chicken in the egg, then coat with flavored breadcrumbs, set aside.
14. Heat the oil in a frying pan, place the chicken roll ups in the hot oil and fry to a golden color, turning gently.
15. In a casserole dish, pour 1/4 cup of water on the bottom, and arrange a single layer of the browned chicken rolls.
16. Remove the toothpicks, or cut off and remove string.
17. Mix the Cream of Chicken soup with the sweet cream (if you are using wine, add the wine, and mix well).
18. Pour the sauce over the chicken.
19. Sprinkle with pepper and Italian seasoning.
20. Cover the casserole dish tightly with aluminum foil.
21. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F, for 45 minutes.
22. Remove from the oven, let rest 10 minutes before serving.

Tip: I like to serve this chicken with garlic mashed potatoes, and cooked green vegetables.

If you love mushrooms, you can saute some mushrooms with onion and garlic, and place them on top of the chicken rolls before baking, or even just before serving.

This Chicken Croquettes ( Cutlets) recipe is a creative way of making a new meal out of leftover chicken,  or turkey meat.

When I roast a whole chicken for the two of us, I end up with three meals out of that one bird.

First night we have the roasted meat, next day I make Chicken Salad, or Chicken Pot Pie, out of half of the leftover meat.  On the third day I am still able to make these Chicken Croquettes (Cutlets), which I usually end up freezing, because who wants to eat chicken for three days straight.

I use the leftover bones (with some remnants of meat on them), plus the leftover juices in the roasting pan, and some vegetables, to prepare a great soup stock.  You can even freeze it for later use, or make it into a tomato, or vegetable soup.

This recipe makes 4-6 medium size croquettes.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chicken meat, or leftover turkey, cooked and cut up
• 1 medium onion, chopped and sautéed
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 4Tbs. canola oil
• 2 Tbs. of flour
• ¼ cup of water, or chicken broth
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbs. fresh parsley, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• Canola oil for frying

Directions:

1. Heat 2 Tbs. of canola oil in a saucepan.
2. Add chopped onions, shredded carrot, and chopped celery.
3. Sauté for 5 minutes.
4. Add minced garlic and sauté one more minute.
5. Remove vegetables from the pan and add to chopped up chicken.
6. Add 2 Tbs. canola oil to the sauce pan, heat again.
7. Add 2 Tbs. flour, and sauté, stirring constantly, until slightly golden.
8. Add ¼ cup of water, bring to boil, and continue to mix.
9. Add to chicken mixture.
10. Add chopped parsley, egg, salt and pepper to taste.
11. Mix well.
12. Form oblong croquettes.
13. Dip both sides in seasoned bread crumbs.
14. Let rest for a few minutes, until the oil is ready for frying.
15. Fry lightly 5 minutes per side.

Tip: I serve these croquettes with garlic and parsley mashed potatoes, home made gravy, and a fresh vegetable.

Great way to use up that leftover turkey meat from your Thanksgiving feast!!!!