Category Archives: Meaty Meals

The Relationship Saver Chicken Burger

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Auntie Stacey’s Relationship Saver Chicken Burger:
2 Skinless, boneless Chicken Breasts (sliced in half lengthwise to make 4 fillets)
1 – 1.5 C reserved Pickle Juice brine (straight from the jar)
6-8 large White Mushrooms (washed and sliced up)
2 whole slices of Red Onion (about 1/4″ thick, cut to half moons)
4 slices of Bacon (cut in half to make 8 pieces)
Jalapeno Lime Aioli
4 soft, crusty baker’s Buns
1/2 C shredded cheese (Monterey Jack is a great choice for this burger)

While bringing your meat up to room temperature, let is soak in a bowl filled with enough pickle juice to barely cover it. Let that stand on the counter for up to 30 minutes before you grill it.

In the meantime, heat a pan on the stove while you wash and slice up the mushrooms, and cut the onion slices. When the pan is hot enough, add about 1 teaspoon of oil and let that heat up before you fry your bacon slices. When they’re done, transfer them to a plate with paper towel to drain off the fat. Clean your pan and then toss in your mushrooms and onions together to saute and get a lovely brown colour to them.

Heat up your grilling pan or contact grill appliance. When it’s hot enough, add your chicken to cook for about five minutes. The meat should be thin enough after slicing in half that it won’t take much longer to cook it through. While waiting, remove the mushrooms and onion from the heat; set aside. Cut up the buns and shred your cheese.

After the chicken is done cooking, assemble your burgers and prepare to feast as you pound your hand on the table in ecstasy!

My husband likes to look around the table, toward the kitchen, toward me, and then pick up his plate to look under it, pick up the condiments to look under those, etc., and then look at me with puppy dog eyes as he asks where his second burger the very second the last bite of his first chicken burger hits his stomach.

Yup… They’re that good.

You’re welcome. 🙂

Auntie Stacey’s Butter Chicken

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ButterChicken-PanOne of my favourite uses for boneless chicken is Butter Chicken. If done right, this dish can satisfy, comfort, inspire, delight and sting. It’s magical. Truly.

The secret to a dish like this is making it spicy and creamy enough to stand up to the fragrant nutty smelling jasmine rice it’s going to sit upon. When butter chicken and jasmine rice meet, my body and soul are nourished in a way I can’t quite describe.

It’s…

Magical.

So, for people who have never tried butter chicken (criminal!!), this is my version. Give it a go! 🙂

Auntie Stacey’s Butter Chicken: (Yields 8-10 servings)

JASMINE RICE:
1/2 C (per person) Jasmine Rice
1/2 C Water (per portion per person)
1/4 C Water (additional)

Place the jasmine rice in your cooking pot and run water over top up to three times to remove as much of the starch as possible (optional – sometimes I don’t even bother because I like starchy rice). With your hand, swish the rice around till the water goes cloudy, then drain it. Repeat this step two more times  before measuring out your cooking water.

With the rice and cooking water in the pot, heat the pot till the water starts to gently boil. At that point, drop the heat down to the lowest setting, lid the rice pot and set the timer for 15 minutes.

After the timer goes off, lift the lid and place a small wash cloth the opening of the pot and then replace the lid before moving the rice off the burner. Set the timer for a final five minutes. The cloth is used to absorb most of the remaining moisture so the rice doesn’t remain mushy, but rather finishes in an almost dry and fluffy state.

If the rice finishes before the butter chicken is made, it can stay in the pot off the burner till it’s needed for plating.

BUTTER CHICKEN:
20 oz Boneless Chicken
6 C Water
2 Tbsp Chicken Stock Powder

Dissolve the chicken stock powder in hot water in a large pot on the stove. Add the chicken when the water comes to a boil. Cook the chicken until it reaches a temperature of 160 degrees. Remove the meat and set aside to cool until the meat no longer lets off a visible steam so you can cube it into bite sizes or pull it apart by hand or in a large mixer using the paddle attachment. (The chicken can be made up to two days prior if timing is too tight to make it all in on go.)

1 Tbsp Butter
1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1/4 C Yellow Onion, fine diced

Heat up your pan, and when hot, add the oil. Heat the butter until it foams up and then add the oil and heat through until a drop of water crackles when it hits the fats. Add the onion and saute until it becomes translucent.

Note: I don’t like the stench of garlic on our breath, but if you like it, feel free to add some in the pan when you cook your onions. I would think one minced clove would do the trick.

14 oz Tomato Puree (Passata Sauce)
1/2 C Diced Tomatoes (or stewed from a jar)
1/2 Tsp Black Pepper, freshly cracked
1/2 Tsp Sea Salt
1 Bay Leaf

Add these five ingredients to the pan and heat through while you mix all of the dry spices together in a small bowl. After that, start pulling the chicken apart in to bite size chunks.

1/2 Tsp Cayenne Pepper (or more if you really like heat)
1/2 Tsp Ground Coriander (or dried basil if coriander isn’t on hand)
1 Tsp Cumin
1 1/2 – 2 Tsp Garam Masala
1/4 Tsp Cardamom (found in Indian grocery stores)

Add the chicken to the pan and heat that up in the tomato sauce and then add the spices. After you add the spices, stir really well the evenly distribute the flavours.

1/2 C Thick Yogurt (or full fat sour cream)

Stir in the dairy to the pan to turn the tomato sauce into a creamy base that coats all of the chicken. Keep stirring until it’s combined fully. At this point, taste the sauce before you can finish the dish with a bit of salt (if needed). Now is the time for the final taste tweaks!

Add some freshly parsley or cilantro leaves to give the final sauce and chicken another flavour, colour, and texture.

Plate your jasmine rice into large shallow dishes (something with a small wall would be fine), and top the rice with one or two heaping scoops of your butter chicken. Serve this with toasted flat or naan breads in case it’s too spicy for some.

Alt Plating Ideas: Steamed cauliflower for the warm naan, dry parsley for the cilantro (since only half of any given population like this herb), and mashed potatoes for the rice.

Auntie Stacey’s Fish al Fresho

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Fish Al Fresco Lunch
Auntie Stacey’s Fish Al Fresho

This is a lovely, light tasty lunch I often made at work for the husband and me using leftover cooked fish fillets. The salad is made in the morning and is left it in its marinade to rest in the fridge for 3+ hours.

The marinade is simple:
one glug of white vinegar
two glugs of olive oil
S&P
fresh parsley

Add to this vegetable medley:
diced white onion
red pepper
diced tomato
diced cucumber

Cover and chill until time to serve with the fish.

That’s it, that’s all. Not much magic to make it, but people will think there is when they taste it. It looks so pretty, no?

Auntie Stacey’s Baked Stuffed Fish

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Recently we went to Red Lobster for dinner, and I rediscovered my love of their baked stuffed sole. It’s amazing in its simplicity and its overall presentation. The dish itself is nothing more than two small fillets stacked upon each other with a filling layer between them – much like a sandwich. It’s a baked dish that’s topped with smoked paprika near the end of the bake cycle, and topped with lovely white wine sauce plated.

Stuffed Baked FishAuntie Stacey’s Baked Stuffed Fish served with banged-up roasted potatoes

I’ve ordered this dish a couple of times before when dining at Red Lobster now. I always remember it being so tasty, and this time round was no exception. I have now taken to making it at home on random Sundays. It makes for a lovely lunch or dinner meal. I highly recommend trying this dish. It’s a winner, even to those who aren’t big on fish, for several reasons.

1. It’s versatile in terms of the the kind of whitefish you use. Any whitefish will do, really. I use whatever we have on hand, and it’s never guaranteed to be the same two times in a row.

2. The filling can be made up of anything you have on hand or dream up – the choice is yours how fancy or how simple you make it.

3. The sauce can be a lovely white sauce, salsa, vegetable ragout, or nothing at all – your choice. Go nuts. 🙂

The version I normally make uses haddock fillets with a lovely ricotta filling topped with some fettuccine sauce over top, but this last one I didn’t bother with the sauce. I wanted a light lunch to carry me over the afternoon to dinner a few hours later.

Filling for 2 – 4 servings.

Auntie Stacey’s Baked Stuffed Fish:
1/2 C ricotta (low fat will work well)
S&P to taste
1/8 C diced red peppers
2 tsp fresh lime juice
1/4 C chopped parsley

This knock-off version of the Red Lobster’s Broccoli Stuffed Sole from AllRecipes.com uses ingredients like rice and broccoli which is perfectly in line with Red Losbster’s ingredient list, but again I used what I have on hand, and the last time I made this I didn’t feel like making rice and I was also out of broccoli, so I went the rustic route.

It was delicious. And very filling. The whitefish fillets I buy tend to be very long, so I could have easily cut the final fish in half and fed four instead of two. This is a fantastic recipe to add to your weekly repertoire. You can easily make it up the night before or in the morning, and pop it in the oven when you get home from work the next night. Give it a go!