Grilled Chipotle Lime Chicken

Ingredients: Servings: 4-6 Units: US | Metric 2 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, about 6 1 chipotle chile in adobo, minced 1/2 teaspoon adobo sauce, from the canned peppers 1/4 cup lime juice 1 garlic clove, minced 1/4 cup olive oil 2 tablespoons honey Directions: Preheat grill to moderate heat for gas or medium indirect heat for charcoal and AWAY from fire, lightly oil or spray COOL cooking rack for easy cleaning. Mix minced pepper, adobo, lime juice,garlic, oil and pour half into resealable bag. DO NOT add the honey. That comes later. Reserve the rest for basting. Season chicken with salt and pepper- sometimes we use season salt or lemon pepper for a twist. Add chicken to bag and allow to marinate for 15 minutes. No need to refrigerate for this short time. Remove chicken from marinade and place on preheated grill. Discard USED marinade. Grill chicken about 4-5 minutes then flip over and cook another 4-5 minutes. Now add the honey to RESERVED marinade and baste chicken. Immediately flip chicken and baste the unbasted side. Grill until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Remove from grill and pour any remaining RESERVED sauce on top. I served it with Spanish rice and retried beans.

Lemon Roasted Herb Shrimp

Lemon Roasted Herb Shrimp

Ingredients
1/3 cup olive oil
1 lemon, zested then half cut into thin slices and other half into wedges
3-4 fresh thyme sprigs, leaves removed
sea or kosher salt and fresh black pepper
spaghetti/pasta, couscous or rice for serving
2 tablespoons butter
1 pound fresh shrimp, medium-sized, deveined with tails off
5 cloves garlic, minced
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In an 8x8 glass baking pan combine olive oil, lemon zest and thyme. Olive oil should liberally cover the bottom of the pan, if it doesn't drizzle in a little more. Season with salt and pepper. Bake in oven for 10-12 minutes, checking every few minutes, if it looks like it is getting too brown remove and proceed to next step. Meanwhile cook pasta, drain and toss with a pat of butter or olive oil.
Remove pan from oven, add butter and move it around a little to melt, add shrimp, garlic and the thin sliced lemons (don't squeeze them), toss to coat with oil mixture. Bake for 8-10 more minutes or until shrimp turn pink and just start to curl, check often. Serve over pasta, couscous or rice tossed with additional extra-virgin olive oil and fresh-squeezed lemon with additional lemon wedges for serving.

Greek Potatoes

I made these to go with the Greek Salsa Chicken in my previous post.

Ingredients:
8 large potatoes, peeled, cut into large wedges (about 6-7 wedges per potato)
4 garlic cloves, minced (more garlic is a good thing, less garlic is a no-no for this recipe)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oregano (get the Mediterranean, it's the best!)
1-1 1/2 lemon, juice of
sea salt
fresh coarse ground black pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 440°F A reviewer has suggested spraying the baking pan with Pam - that sounds like a great idea!
Put all the ingredients into a baking pan large enough to hold them.
Season generously with sea salt and black pepper.
The garlic will drop into the water/oil solution but its flavor will permeate the potatoes, and this way, it won't burn.
Bake for 40 minutes.
When a nice golden-brown crust has formed on the potatoes, give them a stir to bring the white underside up, season lightly with a bit more sea salt and pepper and just a light sprinkling of oregano.
Add 1/2 cup more water if pan appears to be getting dry, and pop back into oven to brown other side of potatoes.
This will take about another 40 minutes.
Do not be afraid of overcooking the potatoes- they will be delicious.

Greek Salsa Chicken

For the Salsa:

4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
1 cup halved grape or cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon freshly chopped oregano
For the Chicken:

6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (7 ounces each)
pepper to taste
kosher salt to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 lemons, cut into wedges
Directions:

Preheat oven to 450°.
In a large bowl, combine feta, tomatoes, olives, parsley, lemon juice, 1/4 cup olive oil and oregano. Cover and chill in refrigerator.
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large roasting pan over medium-high heat. Season chicken with kosher salt and pepper. Sear chicken, about 1-2 minutes each side; remove from heat.
Squeeze lemon wedges over chicken to coat. Place the squeezed lemon wedges around the chicken breasts. Roast until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 160°, about 25-30 minutes. Transfer chicken and lemons to a large platter. Top with salsa.

Roasted Tomatoes with Shrimp and Feta

This was VERY good!!! I served it over angel hair pasta.

Ingredients
5 large tomatoes, cut into eighths
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
kosher salt and black pepper
1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup Feta, crumbled
crusty bread, for serving
Directions
Heat oven to 450° F. Place the tomatoes in a large baking dish and spoon the olive oil and garlic over them.
Sprinkle with ¾ teaspoon each salt and pepper and toss. Roast on top rack of oven for 20 minutes.
Remove baking dish from oven and stir in the shrimp, parsley, and lemon juice. Sprinkle with the Feta.
Return the dish to oven until the shrimp are cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm with the bread.

Sweet and Sour Chicken and Fried Rice

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

The chicken coating:

3-4 boneless chicken breasts
salt + pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup canola oil

The sweet and sour sauce:

3/4 cup sugar
4 tbs ketchup
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp garlic salt

       Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees. Rinse your chicken breasts in water and then cut into cubes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs.  Heat your 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet and cook your chicken until browned but not cooked through. Place the chicken in a 9x13 greased baking dish. Mix all of your sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and then pour evenly over the chicken. Bake for one hour and during the baking process you will need to turn the chicken every 15 minutes.


Fried Rice                                                                                             

3 cups cooked white rice (day old or leftover rice works best!)
3 tbs sesame oil
1 cup frozen peas and carrots (thawed)
1 small onion, chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 cup soy sauce


      On medium high heat, heat the oil in a large skillet or wok.  Add the peas/carrots mix, onion and garlic. Stir fry until tender. Lower the heat to medium low and push the mixture off to one side, then pour your eggs on the other side of skillet and stir fry until scrambled. Now add the rice and soy sauce and blend all together well. Stir fry until thoroughly heated!