Tangerine-Maple Glazed Chicken Drumsticks

I haven't felt too good the last few days, so I've been at home with a little extra time to watch the Food Network than normal. I usually cook solely out of Ellie Krieger's cookbook, The Food You Crave, and occasionally I cook out of Cooking Light, but I try my best to stay clear of Paula and other chefs who cook with a lot of fat.

This time I was watching Boy Meets Grill with Bobby Flay. I couldn't help but drool over this Tangerine-Maple Glazed Drumsticks & Thighs recipe. He also made a french potato salad that I'm going to try this weekend, but last night I was craving some good grilled food.

I actually never, never buy chicken with the bone in and skin on. Major no-no for healthy eating, however, I haven't been feeling well, and comforting, real flavorful food sounded good.

I was surprised to find I only needed to buy a few things at the store for this recipe. Let me warn you, this recipe is off the hook!! Kyle was raving when he got home about the smell of the house and the flavor of the chicken.

The trick to this recipe is to cook the chicken on the grill on a low temperature for a long period of time, like 25 to 30 minutes. The skin is brushed with canola oil and it gets nice and crunchy. About 5 minutes before they are done, you brush with the tangerine-maple glaze.. mmmm.

Ok, so here is the recipe, you have to try this!

Tangerine-Maple Glazed Chicken Drumsticks & Thighs
Bobby Flay

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons canola oil
1 small red onion, coarsely chopped
1 quart tangerine juice or orange-tangerine juice, not from concentrate
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tangerine or orange zested
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
8 chicken drumsticks (I only cooked drumsticks)
8 chicken thighs
Salt
2 green onions, sliced for garnish
Grilled oranges or tangerinces, for garnish

Directions:

Heat the grill to medium high.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a medium saucepan over high heat, add the onion and cook until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the juice and thyme, bring to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened and reduced to approximately 1/2 cup, 20 to 25 minutes.

Strain the mixture into a bowl and whisk in the syrup, soy sauce, and black pepper and let cool to room temperature. Can be made 2 days in advance and brought to room temperature before using.

Brush chicken on both sides with remaining oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill until golden brown on both sides and just cooked through. Begin brushing with the glaze during the last 5 minutes of grilling. Remove to a platter and sprinkle with the green onion. Garnish with the grilled citrus.

To find the complete online recipe, click here.

Try this!

CEiMB: Chicken Chop Suey

My grandma could always get us to her for dinner by promising to make this dish. My version incorporates more fresh vegetables than she used and gets its crunchy topping from the baked wonton skins instead of canned fried noodles. The result is a sumptuous stir-fry of chicken, meaty mushrooms, and tender cabbage melded together in a thickened, mildly flavored sauce that would make Grandma proud. This recipe is a great way to use leftover rotisserie chicken or turkey.

Chicken Chop Suey was the Ellie Krieger recipe chosen this week by The Healthy Hostess in the Craving Ellie in My Belly group.



Don't you love my picture of the dish?! Ha. I'm not kidding when I say I really need to figure out how to take photos during the winter. By the time this was ready for dinner on Monday night it was dark outside. I then packed it for lunch on Tuesday and I was so not going to take a camera phone photo of the dish in my Glad tupperware dish!

So, please be satisfied with this shot of my cookbook. I think the best option for me is to start making the food after church on Sundays for an early dinner.

I really did enjoy this dish. I made quite a few substiutions and I have some recommendations. Here are the substitutions I made:

• Beef stock for chicken stock (this was an accident! I totally grabbed the wrong can)
• White button mushrooms for the shitake (still tasted great)
• Water instead of the dry sherry (for the thickener)
• Peanuts instead of wonton chips (I was too lazy to find the wonton papers and knew I wouldn't have the time to bake)

Some recommendations:

• Don't use beef stock-ha!
• Add salt.. I know everything is low-sodium, but Ellie wasn't lying when she said it was a mildly flavored sauce. I recommend adding some salt.
• Add more scallions and garlic to enhance the flavor
• Add something to kick up the heat-if I were making this at home again, I would add red pepper flakes. When I was at work on Tuesday I added some red chili sauce and that added the perfect spicy touch - mmmm.

I hope everyone else enjoyed this recipe and I'm excited to see what you all thought and how you changed it.
Cheers

Sweet and Spicy Peanut Soup

This soup has exotic African origins but the ingredients are all comfortably familiar; chances are you already have everything on hand you need to make it. Its sweetness, from sweet potato and carrot, is heightened with honey and balanced with the clarity of ginger and hot pepper. Peanut butter brings it all together and makes it extra rich and satisfying. And don't forget the fresh scallions. Much more than a pretty garnish, they add an essential zingy freshness and crunch.

This last week I made Ellie Krieger's Sweet and Spicy Peanut Soup (recipe is on page 77). It's officially fall and I wanted to make some sort of soup I could bring for lunch. I've made Ellie's Curried Butternut Squash Soup in the past and was quite pleased with the thickness of pureed vegetables in my soup. It makes it hearty and I love that.

This soup is super good for you. One serving, about a cup and half, rolls in around 295 calories, 6.5 grams of fat, 56 grams of carbs, and 12 grams of protein. It has an excellent source (at least 20% of your Daily Recommended Value) of calcium, fiber, folate, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, niacin, phosphorus, potassium, protein, thiamin, vitamin a, vitamin b6, vitamin c, and vitamin e.

Don't be scared off by the peanut butter, honey, and vegetables. They surprisingly work well together.


I really need to figure out how to take photos in the winter or else this is going to be a long winter...



Ellie Krieger, The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life
Sweet and Spicy Peanut Soup (pg. 77)

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon canola oil
1 large onion, diced (about 2 cups)
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and diced (about 1 cup)
2 medium carrots, diced (about 1 cup)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced (about 1 teaspoon)
1 teaspoon peeled and grated fresh ginger
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed (2 cups)
6 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
One 14.5-ounce can of no-salt-added diced tomatoes, with their juices
2/3 cup creamy natural peanut butter
2 teaspoons honey
1/2 cup chopped scallion greens (about 3 scallions)

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and carrots and cook, stirring, until the vegetables soften, about 5 minutes. Add the cayenne, black pepper, garlic, and ginger and cook for 1 minute more. Sitr in the sweet potato, broth, and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

Puree the soup in the pot using an immersion blender or in a regular blender in two batches and return the soup to the pot. Add the peanut butter and honey and stir, over low heat, until the peanut butter melts. Server warm, garnished with the scallions.

Enjoy!

Searching...

It always amazes me what people search for on the internet. I myself have probably searched some pretty ridiculous things..

... so I thought it would be fun to do a post on the key words that other people searched that led them to my blog.

I've only see three things so far:

1. Caper & Fish (which led them to this post)
2. Butterscotch Biscotti Recipe (which led them here)

and my favorite... drum roll please....

....

....

....

3. Can you put shrimp cocktail tails in a garbage disposal? (which led them here)

HAHA.. made me laugh, and I had to share.

MSC: Banana-Pecan Cupcakes

The September Bonus Round recipe was the Banana-Pecan cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream Frosting on pg. 41 of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes cookbook.

I instantly knew I was going to make the bonus recipe this month because I love, love, love anything reminiscent of banana bread. The banana-pecan cupcakes are just that.. little pieces of banana-bread with a glorious tasting caramel buttercream frosting.

I actually made these early on a Friday morning, before work, at 4:30am. Call me crazy.. I know I am. I got up super early to make these because I wanted to bring them to my Aunt for her birthday and we were going to see her that very night.

This recipe took quite a while. Not sure how everyone else in the MSC club did, but it took me 2 - 2.5 hours to bake, cool, and frost.

After taking some photos in the morning sunrise, I hopped in the shower, got ready, and headed to work. I decided to bring a few to share the love, and share the love did I. Everyone enjoyed them, or at least said they did.

I will definitely make these again. The caramel buttercream was killer. The perfect touch.

Happy cupcake making!

Bacon Explosion

Sometime ago my husband discovered the Bacon Explosion recipe. I believe he heard it from a co-worker, but I can't remember. Regardless, this recipe is true to its name - bacon explosion. The recipe can be found here on BBQ Addicts website.

It's the ULTIMATE tailgating recipe, so my fellow CEiMBer's beware.. this thing is not in Ellie's healthy cookbook.

I believe it clocks in around 5000 calories and 500 grams of fat, but I can't remember, nor choose to.

1. Start with thick cut bacon and weave:

2. Spread 2 lbs. of Italian sausage on top of the weave:

3. Cook up some more bacon:

4. While cooking the additional bacon (did I mention you need about 1.5 packages of bacon?), add a generous amount of pork rub:

5. Smile at your wife while you're cooking the extra bacon ;)

6. Chop up the cooked bacon:

7. Add the cooked bacon to the top of the seasoned sausage:

8. Add some of your favorite BBQ sauce, like Sweet Baby Rays:

9. Roll up the sausage into a log and wrap with the bacon weave:

10. Add more seasoning to the bacon explosion:

11. Cook in a smoker for 4 hours until 165 degrees:

12. Slice and serve (usually on a dinner roll):

Mmmmm, if that doesn't give you a heart attack, I don't know what will...!

If you love to smoke food, or love tailgating, or simply just love a lot of meat.. you need to make this.

-Alyssa

CEiMB: Sweet & Spicy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe was hosted by Lethally Delicious. I cannot even tell you how much I love grilled cheese sandwiches!! As a kid, my mom always made these and served it along side a bowl of tomato soup. My favorite thing to do was dip the grilled cheese in the tomato soup --- mmmmm.

So, naturally, I was excited to see this recipe. A little more grown up, but still a grilled cheese. Ellie's recipe is pretty simple.

Grill onions until translucent, spread on one slice of whole wheat bread. Top with cheddar, pepperjack, and a slice or two of tomato and grill on medium-high heat for 4-5 minutes on each side.

I was a little rushed to find something to eat before the gym on Monday so I decided to make this recipe. I had onions in the freezer, but had no time to cook them, so I left them out. I also had tomatoes, but they were cherry tomatoes off the vine in the backyard and I was too pressed for time to go pick them, wash them, slice them, and add them to the sandwich.

So... I had a plain grilled cheese with just cheese. Two slices of whole wheat bread with shredded sharp cheddar and 1 oz. of pepperjack cheese. I grilled it to perfection on my George Foreman grill for 3 minutes, I think. I can't exactly remember how long I grilled it for because after I put it on the grill I ran upstairs and got ready for the gym, fed the dog, and then finally checked and it came out perfect - when does that happen? I usually end up burning everything when I turn my back and start doing something else. I won't even bring up the fact that I left the grill on high heat outside for over an hour last night while I caught up on Survivor and blogged about the recent UW win - go Dawgs!

Then on Wednesday night, I was able to make these again for Kyle and I. This time around I had tomatoes so I added them and it tasted great. I think the key is slicing them thin, that way they warm up between the melting cheese.

Click here to view the complete recipe. To check out what the other ladies thought in the CEiMB group, visit the blogroll. Thanks Lethally Delicious!

Cheers!