Creamy Chicken with Spinach

Sometimes I get so tired, I just want to lie my head down and cry on things. There's nothing really to cry about. I'm just so so tired. Today was one of those days.

Because in this house, there are two busy seasons. One is pre-Christmas. And one is coming up--that end of school crush of finale. I feel it. I'm trying to prepare for it, but just not succeeding.

Because of this we've been making lots of quick, easy dinners. This is one. But it stands out because instead of being, say, scrambled eggs, it's a delectable, restaurant quality dish that has meat and vegetables. And cream. Because some nights you need cream.

Eat it over rice or pasta or potatoes. Of just spoon it out of the pan if that's your way. I won't judge you.

Creamy Chicken with Spinach
adapted from The Recipe Critic
Prep and cook time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4-6
Cost: $6.00
chicken: 4.00, cream: 1.00, tomato sauce: .15, Parmesan cheese: .50, spinach: .25. other stuff: .10

4-6 small chicken breasts
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 C heavy cream
1/4-1/2 C tomato sauce (smooth)
1 tsp garlic powder (or a fat clove)
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
1/2 C Parmesan cheese
1-2 C spinach, chopped

Heat olive oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven. Sprinkle with salt. Cook until browned on both sides and cooked through.

Remove from pan and add cream, tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder. Whisk together. Add in Parmesan cheese and whisk until it's melted and thickened.

Add chicken back to the pan. Simmer gently for a few minutes.

Add spinach and cook until wilted.

Serve over pasta, rice, potatoes, or whatever.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Chicken and Potatoes with Creamy Garlic Parmesan Sauce

So crock pot meals are great when you're busy and all, but I realize that in order to make a crock pot meal, you have to think about it in the morning (or at least by early lunch). What's that all about, right? So for those of you who get to 4:00 o'clock and start thinking, "My tummy just growled, which means--wait--a meal-time is approaching; I have literally not thought about it until this moment, and soon my children will begin eating each other," then this meal is for you.

This meal is awesome because all the stuff goes into one pan and then that pan goes into the oven and then you can resume reading your book or breaking up fights over Candy Land or telling Tommy to stop licking the baby--whatever is your past time of choice. And then you'll get the pan out of the oven and, guess what? Dinner will be done. There will be meat, and potatoes, and healthy leafy greens, and a delicious sauce to pour over it all. Congratulations! You're a rock star and nobody had to smash a guitar or eat the baby.

Chicken and Potatoes with Creamy Garlic Parmesan Sauce
adapted from here
Serves 6
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Cost: $8.35 ($1.55/serving)
chicken: $5.00, spinach: .60, potatoes: 1.00, butter: .65, chicken broth: .10, half and half: .15, Parmesan: .50, seasonings: .35

4-6 chicken breasts, depending on how well-endowed your chicken was (or bone-in skin-on thighs if dark meat is your thing)
salt and pepper
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
3 Tbsp butter, melted
3 C spinach, roughly chopped
2 Tbsp parsley, chopped
1 lb potatoes, diced into centimeter-sized cubes (peeled or not)

For the garlic Parmesan cream sauce:

1/4 C butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp flour
1 C chicken broth
1 tsp dried thyme (twice as much if using fresh)
1/2 tsp dried basil (twice as much if using fresh)
1/2 C half and half (or 1/4 C milk and 1/4 C cream)
1/2 C grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Season chicken with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. If you're feeling fancy, you can then melt 2 Tbsp butter in a skillet and sear the chicken on both sides. But if you're pressed for time, or can't bear thinking of dirtying that skillet, just skip this step and put the seasoned chicken in a 9x13 inch pan.

Now add the chopped spinach and pour the remaining butter over all of this. (If you already got out the skillet, you can cook the spinach in the butter in the skillet and then put it in the pan, but again this step is skip-able for the lazy at heart).

Chop your potatoes and put them in the pan with the chicken and spinach and butter.

To make the garlic Parmesan sauce:

Heat butter in a pot over medium heat. Add garlic cloves and cook until fragrant (30 seconds or so). Add flour and whisk until smooth. Let it cook about a minute. Add chicken broth, thyme, basil--whisking as you add them.  Add half and half and Parmesan, whisking away and let it cook for another minute or two until it is slightly thickened.

Pour this over the chicken, spinach, and potatoes.

Put in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes (longer if your chicken breasts are big or your potato cubes are big).

Take it out and serve.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Creamy Dijon Chicken

Recently at a party, a friend commented that she had been checking my blog and that I hadn't had many recipes up lately. It was a fair critique. I have been uber busy the last two weeks and have spent this week whipping up such fabulous dinners as: Eggs.

But. That doesn't mean that I don't have a few recipes I've been meaning to post for ages and just haven't gotten to (see the busyness excuse; also the laziness one--oh, whoops, forgot to mention that one). So, my friend, here you go and enjoy. This is a simple, but very satisfying creamy chicken that'll get dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes. For the low-fat option--oh wait, never mind. (And truly I should have added some parsley to the top of this for color, don't you think.)

Creamy Dijon Chicken
adapted from The Hobo Kitchen
Serves 4
Prep and cook time: 30 minutes
Cost: $6.80 ($1.70/serving)
chicken: 5.00, cream: 1.50, mustards: .20, lemon juice: .05, other stuff: .05

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts
olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1 1/2 C cream
2 tsp Dijon mustard (or whatever else kind of mustard you like)
1 tsp whole grain mustard (I think I subbed in cheap mustard here)
dash onion powder
1 Tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
dash chili flakes or a spring of parsley if you don't want your meal pale like mine is

Heat oil in a skillet. Add chicken breast and cook, browning on either side and cooking until center is no longer pink.

Remove chicken from pan. Cook garlic for a quick minute. (If you feel so inspired, you may also cook up some leeks or shallots). Add cream, mustard, and a dash of onion powder (if you didn't add leeks or shallots). Whisk and allow to simmer for 5-8 minutes until it has reduced just a bit.

While this happens, shred or cube your chicken.

Add lemon juice. Add shredded chicken back. Add salt, pepper, and possibly chili flakes to taste.

Simmer for several minutes.

Serve over rice. Or spoon from pan to mouth. Whatever floats your boat. Maybe garnish with parsley or at least serve a colorful vegetable.

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Chicken de la Gaynor

(another night-time picture--please forgive)

Gloria Gaynor (as in "I Will Survive") has just released a new book that is a compilation of essays of people who have survived various struggles. I happen to have written one of those essays. My essay is about seeing my mother a few months before she died of a brain tumor.

So if you're looking for an inspirational read, check it out. It's called We Will Survive. You can find it here.

The publicist for Ms. Gaynor's book asked the contributors if they had any blogs, etc. where they could promote the book. I'd be happy to, I said, but I just have a food blog. Well, lo and behold Gloria Gaynor eats; she even cooks. They sent me this recipe for me to include in the blog. I thought that was pretty cool.

The even better thing was that the recipe was yummy and easy. It can be made whole food style or pantry staples style. It can be made in the oven or in the crock pot. It is very adaptable, as I learned by having not quite the right ingredients for one thing and accidentally forgetting to add something else (that's how dinner rolls around here).

It's a perfect little recipe for putting dinner on the table through the craziness that can be December.

Chicken de la Gaynor
from Gloria Gaynor
serves 6
prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30-40 minutes
Cost: $5.90
chicken: 4.00, cream of chicken soup: .50, mushrooms: .60, sour cream: .50, other: .30

2 lb chicken (Gloria recommends wings; I only had breasts, so that's what I used)
10 oz cream of chicken soup (I made my own chicken white sauce)
3 oz can sliced mushrooms, drained (I had regular mushrooms, which I cooked in a bit of butter)
8 oz sour cream (okay--I managed to get that one right)
1/4 C whole milk
1/4 C cooking sherry (forgot; it was still delicious)

I cut my large chicken breasts into strips. You can just leave it at that and throw them in the oven with salt and pepper, but I like to brown mine in some olive oil or butter first. To do this: Heat olive oil in skillet, add breasts (with salt and pepper), and cook the breasts until they're browned. They don't need to be cooked through. They're going in the oven. (Note: You can totally skip all this browning and throw them in the oven, but I like to do this with chicken breasts because I think it adds more flavor).

Heat oven to 425. Throw breasts in the oven (you know in a pan and stuff).

While the chicken bakes, you're going to pour cream of chicken soup and sour cream in a pan and heat it. Then you'll add the milk, sherry, and mushrooms. When the chicken is just barely cooked through (20-40 minutes depending on how big your chunks of chicken are--I always just cut into the fattest one to check it). Pour soup mixture over chicken, return to oven, and cook fifteen more minutes.

We served it over rice with broccoli on the side and it was delicious. We ate all the chicken and the next day I just had sauce and mushrooms over rice, which was also delicious.

Potential adaptations:

Crock Pot: I have not done this, but I am 99.9% sure it will work. Just throw everything in the crock. Eight hours on low; 4 on high. Done.

Homemade: You'll notice above that I was missing several canned ingredients. It wasn't a problem. For the cream of chicken soup, I made a simple white sauce. Here's how: Melt 2 Tbsp butter. Whisk in 2 Tbsp flour. Cook one minute. Whisk in 1 C milk and 1 tsp chicken granules (one cube bullion). Stir until it just starts to boil and thicken.
-For the mushrooms, just slice and cook in butter until they're lightly browned.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Butter Chicken

Let me tell you a funny thing about my husband. He doesn't like Indian food or Chinese food. Okay, that's not the funny thing. What's funny is that what he really doesn't like is food that is called Indian food or Chinese food. So if I say, "Hey I'm making this Indian dish tonight" I get that look--maybe you know the one--that look that says, "Really, woman, cause I don't remember that as part of our wedding vows." However, if I flop open a bag of chicken and add some tomato sauce, spices, a little cream, and serve it on rice, well then we're cool. "What's this," he might ask. And I say (trying to avoid eye contact), "Oh, it's just this little dish called, um, tomato-y chicken creamy stuff." And then he's like, "Okay." And then sometimes he's like, "It's a little spicy." But he just keeps eating. This is my life people. Lucky for me, butter chicken is actually called "butter chicken" (at least on all the Indian menus I've seen). I mean, how inocuous is that.

Him: "Whacha making?" 

Me: (able to maintain eye contact) "Oh, just some butter chicken." (innocent batting of the eyelashes)

Him: "Sounds good." 

Yeah. Because it is. Dang good. It's not too hard either. 

Butter Chicken

adapted from Mostly Food and Crafts

Serves 4

Prep time: 15-20 minutes

Cook time: 30-40 minutes

Cost: $4.70 (served with simple white rice and peas, this meal comes up to about $1.50-1.70/person, although portions are not teenager sized and prices are based off of Aldi.)

chicken: 3.00, butter: .30, onion: .15, tomato sauce: .75, yogurt: .20, all those crazy spices: .30

Note on marinade: I'm not a big marinator (not a word, I know). I usually just make the marinade right before and let it sit while I get the rice going. This might be even better if you marinate, but I never think about it far enough ahead. 

Note on sauce: You can use tomato sauce or tomato puree. If you use sauce, be sure to use less salt at first and then taste it and add more at the end if necessary. 

For the Marinade:

1/2 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp ginger powder

4 cloves minced garlic

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp lemon juice

3-4 medium chicken breasts, diced

For the Sauce:

5 Tbsp butter

1 medium onion, diced (or finely finely grated if you've got onion-haters among you)

15 oz tomato sauce

1/4 C plain yogurt

1 Tbsp garam masala

1 tsp salt

dash cayenne

Combine marinade ingredients and pour over diced chicken. Marinate if you actually thought about this more than two hours before dinner (and give yourself a pat on the back while you're at it). 

When you're ready to make this, heat a large skillet and dump the chicken and marinade into the pan. Cook chicken until browned, then remove it from the pan and set aside. 

Add butter to that same pan. Melt it and add onions. Cook until they're getting soft (five minutes). Add chicken, any accumulated juices, and the remaining ingredients (tomato sauce, yogurt, garam masala, salt, and cayenne). Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. It should thicken somewhat. If it doesn't, increase the heat at the end and let it boil for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently so it doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan. [Quick tip: If you're rushed for time, turn up the heat at the beginning to boiling, but stir it very frequently. You're dinner will be done in 10-15 minutes instead of 30, BUT you will have to give it your full attention instead of just letting it sit and simmer.]

Serve over rice. You can add cilantro to the top, which is really yummy. You can also add some peas at the end of cooking. This is very yummy too. 

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Crock Pot Creamy Chicken and Ranch Chili

This is what I like to think of as a true crock pot recipe--meaning that you take a bunch of things, dump them into a crock pot, and turn it on. It takes 5 minutes. I realize that there are other crock pot recipes where you cook things first or prepare things first and then leave it to slow cook in the crock pot. It's not that I hate these recipes. I even have one or two on this site. But for me the 5-minute crock pot recipe is what really made crock pot cooking great. It's what most of us think of when we think of crock pot cooking. Of course, it's partly also what's given crock pot cooking a bad name because often what you're dumping is a few cans of cream of whatever soup or maybe one of those packets of dried onion soup. Yeah--you know the recipes. They're not evil incarnate or anything, but they remind us of our grandmothers' cooking (for better or for worse). And yet. The new, young, trendy crockpot cooking often involves 15 steps and 25 minutes (or more) before anything actually makes it into the crock pot.

This recipe combines the best of all worlds--no cream of anything soup (and it can be made pretty whole-foodsy if you wish), but it's a five-minute time commitment.

This is also a chili for people who don't like chili. That's helpful in this house. It's creamy, chickeny, and the white beans are more mild tasting and less offensive to bean-haters than kidney, pinto, or black beans. Kip really liked it.

It's also delicious--possibly my new favorite chili.

Crock Pot Creamy Chicken and Ranch Chili
adapted from Rita's Recipes
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 6-8 hours
Cost: $5.50 for 6-8 servings
chicken: 1.50, tomatoes: 1.00, beans: .50, corn: .50, ranch powder: .50-1.00, cream cheese: 1.00

2 small breasts chicken (they can totally be frozen)
1 small can Rotel (or just a 15 oz can of diced tomatoes would work with juice)
1 15-oz can corn (with liquid)
1 15-oz can Great Northern white beans (drained and rinsed)
1 package Ranch dressing (or 3 Tbsp ranch powder or a homemade recipe like this one--just use the dry ingredients)
1 Tbsp cumin
1/4-1 tsp chili powder (we used 1/2 and that was plenty of heat for us)
1 tsp onion powder
1 8-oz package of cream cheese

Throw it all in the crock pot and cook on high for 6-8 hours. [Note: My crock pot is an older model (probably 11 years old) and my 'high' setting is not as high as many newer crock pots. If yours cooks hot, you might want to set it to low.]

This would be great served over rice or farrow, but we just ate it as a chili with cornbread.

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