Recipes Category

Popular and Delicious Baked Chicken Recipes

September 17th, 2010

With health and diet consciousness at an all time high, more and more families are learning that baking chicken is not only healthier; it can also be tasty and delicious. Baking requires less fat than frying, and produces fewer toxic by-products such as smoke. Baked meats also retain more juice, making the dish more succulent and moist.

Top Baked Chicken Recipes

Baked Pineapple Chicken

1 can pineapple chunks (20oz)
1 Garlic clove, crushed
2 Tsp. Cornstarch
2 Tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 Tsp. Dijon mustard
1 Tsp. Rosemary, crushed
6 Chicken breasts, halved with bones removed
1 Lemon, half-dozen slices

Drain pineapple chunks, save juice. Mix all ingredients; (excluding chicken and lemon) add pineapple juice. Place chicken breasts in shallow baking pan with skin side up. Broil until brown. Stir sauce and pour over chicken. Bake at 400F and set your timer for 30 minutes. Take pineapple and lemon and arrange around chicken. Spoon sauce over all, bake an additional 5-10 minutes.

If you are still learning how to bake chicken, then this simple recipe will be a great start to your collection. It’s easy to do and guarantees a juicy and healthy meal when you’re done.

Baked Chicken Salad (Serves 10)

2 cups cubed chicken
2 cups celery, sliced
1 (10 ounces) package frozen green peas
1/2 cup slivered almonds
2 tablespoons green pepper
1 tablespoon grated onion
2 tablespoons diced pimento
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 cup grated American cheese

Combine all ingredients thoroughly. Spoon into buttered 2 qt. casserole dish. Sprinkle with cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Oven Baked Chicken Wings

10–12 chicken wings
3 tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Wash and clean chicken wings. Cut wings into portions through the joints. Combine ingredients in a bowl. Add wings and coat. Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or overnight, stirring occasionally. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cover a baking dish with aluminum foil. Drizzle it with some olive oil. Spread wings over the base, brush liberally with marinade. Bake 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. Turn wings after 20 minutes.

Italian Chicken

2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp pepper

Mix in shallow dish. Add 4 pieces of chicken, coat well. Cover and refrigerate for 8-12 hours, remember to turn it over occasionally. Pre-heat oven to 450F. Line baking sheet with foil, and put chicken on. Reduce heat to 325F. Bake 35-45 minutes.

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Decorating Sugar Cookies with Powdered Sugar Icing

September 16th, 2010

Sugar cookies are fun to make and they taste delicious. You can make them in any shape that you can think of with the help of a cookie cutter. One of the best parts of making sugar cookies is the ability to decorate them. You can put different colors, sprinkles, or designs all over your cookie to make it look as fantastic as it tastes. The decorating of sugar cookies can be as easy or as difficult as you would like it to be. Today, we are going to look at how to make your own icing for sugar cookies. Look here if you are in search of a sugar cookie recipe before you get started on the icing.

Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe

The first thing to do when baking anything is gather all your ingredients to make sure you have everything you need before you get started. The recipe for sugar cookie icing requires the following materials:

• 1 Cup Confectioners’ Sugar
• 2 Teaspoons Milk
• 2 Teaspoons Light Corn Syrup
• ¼ Teaspoon Almond Extract
• Desired Food Coloring

The first step is to combine and stir, in a small bowl, the confectioners’ sugar, and milk until it is smooth, with no lumps. You will then beat in the corn syrup and almond extract until the icing is smooth and glossy. If it is too thick, add more corn syrup. Next, divide into separate bowls, and add food coloring to each bowl to make the desired color. You are ready to decorate. You can either dip or paint the cookies. This recipe will cover 1 dozen (12) cookies. This should take a total of approximately 15 minutes to complete.

Frosting versus Icing

One thing to remember when decorating cookies is that frosting is not the same as icing. Frosting is a thicker substance that will remain soft to the touch and can hold different shapes. Icing on the other hand, is a thinner, liquid substance that will harden so that the coating is smooth across the cookie. Icing is used on sugar cookies when you are looking for a more professional result. Both will have a fabulous result.

Applying Icing to Cookie

Icing can be more difficult to work with than frosting, depending on personal experience. Icing should always be piped onto a cookie. If you apply it with a knife, it is likely to run off. Once the icing is applied, make sure you add your sprinkles or desired accessories before it hardens. This process works great for everything from Christmas cookies to Valentines Day treats.

There are different icings to make and they vary by personal preference. Royal icing is an excellent choice but dries harder than the Powdered Sugar Icing that we just discussed. Whatever you decide, have fun and play around with color combinations.

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Amaretti With Apricot Jam Recipe

September 3rd, 2010

Amaretti almond-flavored biscuits are typical Italian recipe and fall into the category of macaroons. The word actually comes from Italian as a reference to crushed almonds (ammaccare can be loosely translated with to crush). The name in Italian, on the other hand means “little bitter things (amaro is the word for bitter), with a reference to the bitter taste of almonds.
Although almonds are mandatory in the recipe, other ingredients can be added to give different flavours. In this case, we used apricot jam.

Ingredients:
500gr (1.1 lb) sugar
200gr (7 oz) sweet almonds
100gr (3½ oz) bitter almonds
4 egg yolks
1tsp of pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp of apricot jam

Directions:
Soak the almonds in plenty of boiling water until they’re softer. Preheat the oven at 100ºC (212ºF). Peel them and bake toast them for 10 minutes in the oven. Once they’re done, grind them.
While the almonds are in the oven, whip the whites until firm, then add the sugar, vanilla and the almonds and mix all well together.
If the mix looks too soft, add a little sugar, or whip an extra egg white if it’s too dry.
One you think it has the right texture, preheat the oven at 150 ºC (302 ºF), line a baking tray with oven paper, take half tablespoon and form some small balls with using the palm of your hands. Lay the amaretti on the baking tray and bake until golden. Once they are at room temperature, spread some apricot jam on the bottom and join them in twos.

If you are into Italian cuisine you probably already know the famous tiramisu dessert, and you also probably already know that savoiardi biscuits are one of the main ingredients (if you don’t know tiramisu, savoiardi have a texture similar to ladyfingers). What you probablu don’t know is that there delicious Italia macaroons can be a great substitute for savoiardi. Here you have a recipe for amaretto tiramisu (with a nice twist).

If you are an unrepentant no-cooking-just-eating type of person, then a chocolate fountain is what you need: melt (the chocolate), fill (the fountain) and dip (whatever edible you can find).

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Red Cooking in Chinese Cuisine

July 31st, 2010

Red cooking is very popular in China and many dishes are already a favorite when it comes to ordering Chinese food. The likes of delicious shrimp recipes, sweet and sour pork and egg fried rice have become regular dishes in the West. The popularity of red cooking is probably due to the unique qualities of soya sauce, and its happy adaptability to almost any form of food, whether meat, fish, shrimps and seafood or fowl. Soya sauce is probably the one single item which above all distinguishes Chinese cooking from western cooking. A mixture of soya sauce, with a sprinkling of sugar, some dry sherry, salt, MSG, chopped ginger, garlic and onion is a basic addition to many dishes, and makes almost any kind of meat tasty and appetizing. The same applies to vegetables. It is fair to say that a great many western stews would be immeasurably improved by the addition of this basic soya herbal sauce.

A jelly can be made by simmering meat or poultry with the skin and bones in the mixture. This then becomes a sort of master sauce in jelly form which has an even stronger flavor than the basic mixture and is especially good for quick frying vegetables. In red cooking, the meat or poultry is first quick-fried and then simmered in broth or water along with soya sauce and other constituents of the soya herbal sauce (including one or two pieces of star anise and a sprinkling of cinnamon to give the dish added character).

Tender cuts of meat or young poultry only take thirty to forty minutes, but tougher meat or old birds need longer to be cooked to perfection. Since long, slow cooking in soya sauce does not change the character of a dish, red cooking is ideal for such cuts as shin of beef, pork knuckle, or pork trotters, and makes a rich and succulent dish. Cuts of this kind will require as much as one and a half to two and a half hours slow simmering. The Chinese are extremely fond of the savory meat jelly, rendered down by long, slow cooking of the skin and fat: pork, with the skin attached, is often cooked in this manner.

The character and quality of most Chinese dishes have to be considered in relation to rice or steamed buns. The red cooked dishes, which are usually served with lots of gravy, are especially popular – rice soaked in gravy is quite as tasty, and more filling than the meat itself!

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