I swear to god they taste like chicken wings...

I love panko...
No... For real... I LOVE it. It is a go-to in my house because of its versatility. So today we were on a quest for something different than our normal panko/Italian bread crumb/Parmesan mixture for our nice and healthy chicken breast. Enter football. What is more classic than pizza and wings to watch football? Not much. SO together Andy and I came up with a way to prepare chicken breast... Instead of using flour and egg for a dredging mixture before rolling in crumbs, we made a hot sauce mixture instead!

Ingredients:
(Proportions are approximate and may be adjusted to accommodate desired level of heat)
- 2 boneless-skinless chicken breasts trimmed so the rib/fat remnants are gone
- Panko
- Butter
- Frank's Hot Sauce

1. Slice chicken into even strips, set aside.
2. Pre-heat a skillet with a few tablespoons of olive oil. ***It is important to keep a coating of olive oil in the pan at all times to make the crust crispy.
Melt 2Tbsp of Butter and add 1/2-3/4c of Frank's hot sauce. (I had to prepare this twice as butter cooled during cooking time)
3. Place panko into a wide bowl
4. Dredge chicken strips in the hot sauce mixture and then place into panko. Roll and press until strip is covered and place gently in the hot pan. Repeat until pan is full. By the time the pan is full, it should be time to start flipping unless your strips are very thick.
5. To keep chicken warm after flipping once and making sure chicken is cooked and crispy, I usually place it in the oven on the lowest setting just so it does not get cold as you cannot cook both breasts in the same pan at once.
VOILA
You have Buffalo Panko Crusted Chicken strips...
Make sure not to overcook or they get dry.

We chose to serve it with a salad, steamed broccoli, and some flavored rice. You can easily serve four people with this preparation. On our quest for a healthier lifestyle generally one chicken breast feeds two of us these days.

Yours Truly,
The football obsessed chick that hopes the Patriots don't win the Superbowl this year...

Part 2: Multi Purpose stuffing for Peppers and Lasagna

Who doesn't like Lasagna?
Well if you don't you are not American... Or Italian rather...
SO I made a little too much of my pepper filling and here it is a Thursday night. I had the great pleasure of leaving work a little bit early. I made myself a nice soup for lunch, then on my early evening fridge raid I discovered that I still had a considerable amount of cheesy goodness left and it was probably only a day away from its expiration.
LASAGNA! As Garfield would resound. That is what my brain said. But with no ground meats of any kind I was left to figure out what to do.
So, I thawed a chicken breast and went from there...
Ingredients:
- 1 chicken breast
- 1 crown of broccoli
- Pepper filling (See previous post)
- Lasagna noodles (I use whole wheat)
- Pasta sauce (I used Ragu Chunky Garden Combo, lots of veggies and no High Fructose Corn Syrup!)
- Mozzarella Cheese
- Onion
- Garlic

Preheat the oven to 350

Chop two cloves of garlic and about 1/2 of a small onion. Sweat briefly in a little olive oil in a skillet. Chop chicken into small pieces and sautee with onions and garlic. Add spices as your taste requires. I again add a little basil but not much more as the filling has a fair amount of flavor.

Take the broccoli crown and cut up and steam slightly. I prefer mine al dente, you can steam longer if you like it mushy. Add to cooked chicken on a low heat so the veggies pick up on some of that delicious onion and garlic flavor.

Boil lasagna noodles as described on the package. Make sure you salt the water so the noodles do not stick together. I like to use a "chicken fryer", a deep walled pan so that the noodles lay nice and flat. Drain and let cool for a minute.

This particular recipe works great for an 8x8 pan. Add a small amount of sauce to the bottom of the pan. Place 1 layer of noodles on top of it. Spread some of the cheese mixture (slightly heated so that it easily spreads). Spoon half of the chicken and broccoli mixture. Pour a small amount of sauce to cover the chicken and broccoli. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top. Place the next layer of noodles and repeat. Place a final layer of noodles on the top.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove the foil and sprinkle cheese over the top. Bake an additional fifteen minutes until cheese begins to brown.

Serve and enjoy!

PS ANY leftover sauce from the peppers or lasagna makes AWESOME dipping sauce for bread!!! It was mu leftover lunch on Tuesday at work... Two peppers and a big pile of sauce...
What can I say? I love to eat!

Part 1 of 2: Multi Purpose Filling!- Peppers and Lasagna

So on Sunday we had our friends Kenny and Laura over for dinner. My goal was to make a dinner that was slightly healthy and slightly sinful at the same time. The result? A marinated pork loin (pre-marinated) and stuffed hungarian hot peppers. Normally when I cook anything that my Mother has made for me before I call her "Hi mom, whats in the filling again? How long do I bake it? If I stand on my head and twirl in a circle will it cook faster?" But alas my mom was out of town so I had to prep my peppers myself and believe me it was a painful experience! I had pepper burns all over my hands and mouth. Silly me, I DID NOT WEAR GLOVES! They were marked hot and I got them from a store in the hispanic part of town so you would think I would remember that this is yes, surely a hot pepper...
Anyhow I wanted to share my "recipe". One of the problems is I tend to do dashes of random things. So, I will tell you about what I did, and season it a little more to your taste.
Approximate ingredients:
- Hungarian peppers
- 1 container of ricotta cheese (I use part skim) I believe if it about 12 ounces
- 1 container of soft spread cream cheese (I used the little plastic container so that I could use what I had in the fridge, you could surely use a brick too)
- Fresh garlic cloves
- 1 small white sweet onion
- Italian bread crumbs
- Oregano
- Basil
- Any other spice you prefer
- 1 can of pasta sauce (flavor of your choice)
- Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

The key to the mix is the consistency. You want to make a nice paste with everything. Add the ricotta to softened cream cheese and mix. You want to still be able to see the grains of ricotta but if you taste it, it should not be super predominant. Add Italian bread crumbs (pre seasoned!) I use between 1/2 and 1 cup depending on how wet the cheeses are. Mix it to be a nice paste that does not fall apart. Take the 3-4 cloves of fresh garlic and prepare as desired. I like to smash a large knife to break it and chop it. Alternatively mincing works very well. Mince the onion and add as well. Be careful not to add too much, or you will get mouthfuls. Sprinkle spices, I used cinnamon basil, oregano, a touch of thyme and tarragon. Just enough for light flavors. I prepare this before the peppers are cut so that the spices have a chance to start to give off their flavor.

BE CAREFUL! Wash your peppers. Cut the top off, slice in half, de-vein, and remove ALL of the seeds or you may have more heat. If you like the heat, feel free to leave some of the vein tissue in the peppers.

Stuff the peppers carefully, so that they do not break in the process. Lay them with the stuffed half facing up in a glass or ceramic baking dish. Peppers can be packed next to each other as they are still friends.

Pour the jar of sauce over the top of the peppers. Make sure you fill all of the holes between the peppers.

Sprinkle the cheese over the top.

At this point you can either bake right away or refrigerate so that you can bake it later. I prefer to let it sit so the dairy can break down some of the heat.

There are two settings you can cook at:
350 for 45 min
425 for 30-35 min

Make sure that you let it rest just a little bit so the cheese is not boiling hot.

As long as you have not blinded yourself with pepper you should be able to enjoy this with your guests. The perfect superbowl/tailgate kind of side dish.

Part two to follow in a few!