Southern "Fried" Chicken (Without the Frying)

Tonight I got good reviews on a "fried" chicken recipe that I made at home.  Here's a secret, it wasn't really fried.  In fact, it was kind of healthy.  I built the recipe from one in my Weight Watchers Cookbook.  A few substitutions seemed to make this dish tastier than when I made it in the past, so I am archiving it here, for future dinners.  Sorry, no pictures; it is in our bellies, now.

Southern Oven "Fried" Chicken

1/2 Cup of Skim Milk
1 tsp Vinegar
3-4 drops of Franks Red Hot Sauce
1/2 cup of Total Cereal
1 TBSP Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Graham Cracker
3 TBSP All Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Freshly Ground Pepper
1 1/2 to 2 Pounds of Skinless Chicken Breast, sliced into chicken finger sized pieces
4 tsp vegetable oil
Olive Oil Spray

Combine the Milk and Vinegar in a large shallow bowl.  Add the Red Hot Sauce and set aside. Do this before anything else so the Milk Mixture has time to curdle.


Preheat oven to 400°F.  Spray a large baking sheet with Olive Oil Spray.

Measure 1/2 Total Cereal; then crush it down.
Mix the crushed Total Flakes with the Parmesan Cheese and add Graham Cracker, crushing with a fork to make sure all the lumps are crushed out.  Add the flour, salt, and pepper.  Mix well. 

Dip the Chicken into the Milk Mixture, then dredge through the Crumb Mixture coating each piece well.
Place the coated chicken onto the baking sheet.

Drizzle the 4 tsp of Vegetable Oil onto each piece of chicken.  This will help crisp the chicken up in the oven.
Bake for 30 minutes; turn the chicken over and bake for 10-15 minutes more.

This recipe will serve 4 and is around 5 to 6 WW Points per serving.  

Sausage Wrapped in Blini

Last night our meal was not your typical American family dinner. Something old world took over in me and I created a savory feast.

It all started at the Costco, where an assertive sample supplier foisted her sausages on my darling brood-lings. This persuasive dealer was more convincing than a bad witch with a poison apple. After an extra sample for each of the kids and a sample for Friend of Food and Me, I caved into the succulence and the pressure and bought the Amylu Smoked Chicken Gouda and Apple stuffed Sausages.

When I thought about preparing the sausages for dinner, my spirit reached back to my Russian and German roots. Something inside of me craved a thin pancake and the flavor of onions. I found a Sweet Blini recipe in my Gourmet Today cookbook which I adapted for this meal. I improvised the Onion Vegetable Topping, using a family spinach puff recipe for inspiration.  Below is a picture of my cooktop in action, simmering the sausages, cooking the crepes, cooling the vegetable topping muffins, fresh out of the 350 degree oven.

It all came together like a symphony. I got rave reviews from my family; my kids even requesting this meal again for tonight. I assure my Brood-lings, “we will have this dinner again my sweets, just let me write this blog post before I forget the recipe.”

Sausages

Cook per package directions.

Blini

1 tsp Active Dry Yeast

2 TBSP plus 1 tsp Sugar

1/4 Cup Warm Water

1 Cup All Purpose Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Cup Milk

3 Large Eggs

1/2 Stick (4TBSP) Unsalted Butter, Melted and Cooled

Stir together yeast, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and warm water in a small bowl and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

Transfer yeast mixture into a blender, add flour, salt, milk, and remaining 2 Tablespoons of sugar and blend until combined.

Pour into a bowl and cover with a kitchen towel.

Let stand in a warm place until almost doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Return mixture to blender and add eggs and butter.  Blend until smooth.

Spray a small skillet with spray oil or Pam and heat over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking.

Lift the skillet off the heat and pour in about 1/3 cup of batter (I used a small ladle for this) tilting and rotating the pan until the batter coats the bottom of the pan.  Return skillet to heat and cook crepe until undersides and edges are just set and golden, about 1 1/2 minutes.  Check with a heatproof rubber spatula to see if it is ready to flip.  Carefully flip crepe and cook about 1 minute more.  Transfer crepe onto a plate.  Spray pan again and make the next crepe.  When each is done, stack it on the plate on top of the last crepe.

Onion-Vegetable Topping

1 Onion

1 Stalk Celery

2 Carrots

1 Cup Fresh Broccoli

1 Egg

1/3 Cup Seasoned Breadcrumbs

1 tsp Salt

Dash of Pepper

Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees.

Grease a muffin pan.

Use a  Food Processor with a grating blade to grate all of the ingredients together.

Unplug and Stir Contents as you go to make sure everything is mixed thouroughly.

If you do not have a food processor, you can grate the vegetables by hand, beat the egg seperately, and mix in a bowl.

Divide the mixture evenly into muffin cups.

Cook at 350 degrees for 25-30 Minutes.

Combination

 

Lay a Blini on a plate.  Scoop one vegetable muffin onto the crepe and squash down.  Place a sausage on the vegetable layer.  Wrap Blini around Sausage.

Addendum*
I made this recipe again today.  This time I used 2/3 Cup of Breadcrumbs in the veggie topping mix instead of 1/3 cup.  It set up well in the muffin cups and were able to be a side dish on their own.  I would use less salt in this version.  The seasonings in the breadcrumbs are plenty.

Easy, Inexpensive, Low Point, Low Calorie, Healthy Meal

The slow cooked Chicken and Salsa recipe worked, I think...

I made a classic slow cook mistake, associated with my particular crockpot. I will try and upload a picture later, but if you look below in the last post, you may notice that the knob on my slow cooker is missing. We are still able to use the cooker, but the controls don't quite match up with the text on the pot. The dish looked great at the end of the day, however instead of switching it to warm while I waited for my husband to come home, I switched it to high by accident. An hour later, when I checked on it, the food was dried out and overcooked. The dish was still edible, but not as good as it might have been. As easy as it was, I will surely make it again and do better next time.

Here is the whole recipe as I made it:

Cut up some chicken,
put it in the slow cook pot
Cover with salsa (I used a fresh made type)
Add 3 cloves of peeled garlic
Cut up a yellow pepper and add it to the cooker
Stir.

Cook all day on low.

Serve over rice.

The Verdict: Very Easy, Low Calorie, Healthy Slow Cook Meal Number Three

It worked! Sure, it could have been better with more effort, but this dish worked as it was. There was approval every member of the family. What was it? Easy Slow Cooker Chicken Enchiladas.

Here is the recipe. Cut up about a pound of chicken. Put it in the slow cooker. Cover with enchilada sauce. Cook all day on low. When you are ready to eat, wrap some of the mixture in a tortilla. Cover with more of the mixture. That's it!

Here is the enchilada sauce I used. I got it at Costco, three for $5.39, I used one which is $1.79.

I got the chicken at Costco, too. 12 breasts for about $19, I used 2 which cost about $3.17.

The Tortillas I used were La Tortilla Factory Low Carb, High Fiber Tortillas 16 for $5.69 of which we used 6, which is $2.13

$7.09 cents for dinner for a family of 4. We even had a bit left over.

We did add rice and a couple of garlic cloves to our meal which may have added a dollar to the entire cost. This meal could have cost even less if I wasn't also watching my calories. Those La Tortilla Factory Tortillas are comparatively costly. Also, I used chicken breasts, when dark meat would have worked just as well and probably would have tasted better. It was another choice made for the calorie output.

Here is some nutritional information for this recipe as served(4 servings total):

Chicken breast 120 calories, 3 Weight Watchers Points

Enchilada Sauce 48 calories, 1 Weight Watchers Point

La Tortilla Factory Low Carb High Fiber Tortillas, 80 calories, 1 Weight Watchers Point (split 1 and 1/2 per person = 120 cals, 1.5 points)

288 calories per serving

5.5 Weight Watchers Points per serving

The verdict stands! Dinner for less than $2 a person, for less than 300 calories, for less than 6 Weight Watchers Points, for less than 10 minutes prep time, what more could a working Mother of Twins want? ...Maybe someone to clean up, this enchilada sauce is messy! Thank goodness for Husband of Food.

Very Easy, Low Calorie, Healthy Slow Cook Meals

Is this too good to be true? I learned of a couple of very easy slow cooker meals this weekend that seem unbelievable.

The first one. Are you ready? Get your crock pot out.
Add chicken and salsa.
If you're feeling adventurous, add some veggies to the pot.
Cook all day (on low).

That's it. Does it work? People swear by it. Someone said they learned about it from Ellen. That Ellen... she makes everything easy.

The second one.
Put chicken in the slow cooker and add Trader Joes Indian Simmer Sauce.
Cook all day.

Again, that's it. I can't wait to try this one.

The third one... well, I'm making it tonight.
We'll see how it comes out and then I'll give you the recipe.