Chicken and Asparagus in Pesto Cream Sauce

Ever since I learned how to make a chicken breast into a chicken cutlet or paillard, I’ve been thinking about ways to make another recipe.  Today’s version  uses asparagus, cream and pesto. It’s scrumptious I tell ya, truly scrumptious!

I have to confess, I am violating major foodie rules by using fat free 1/2 and 1/2, but it was sooooo good and I am so trying to lose another 10 pounds on top of the 14 I’ve already lost, so, it was a small sacrifice.

First, and you don’t have to do this part, but it sure makes your cooking time short.  Pound out one chicken breast per person after butterflying it.  For a tutorial on how to do this, click here.

Heat up one tablespoon of olive oil in a nice size skillet, and place your chicken cutlets to where they don’t touch.

Okay, so mine are touching somewhat, but do as I say and not as I do K?

If you haven’t figured out by  now, cooking is not so much a science as just fly by the seat of your pants in my case.

Cook these on medium-high for about 3 minutes per side. If you’re cooking them whole, you would cook them more like 7-10 minutes per side probably, depending on the thickness.

Flip them over after a few minutes.

Cook them an additional 3 minutes on the 2nd side.  While that’s cooking, chop up your asparagus.  Cut off the tough ends.  If you’re not sure where to cut, snap off one stalk towards the end of the stalk. Wherever it snaps easily toward the end is a good guide for you. I just cut the rest of them off with a knife at the same place.  Then chop the rest into bite-size pieces.

Remove your chicken to a platter.

Scoop up your  chopped asparagus and toss it into your pan.

If it’s dry, add a little more olive oil.  Stir it around and go ahead and scrape and loosen up the brown bits on the bottom.  This will make your sauce even more wonderful in just a minute.

Stir your asparagus around and let it cook for about 3-4 minutes.  Then add 1/2 cup of cream.  I’ve already confessed that I used fat free half-and- half.  If you’re living with Christmas guilt like me, please do so!  If you’re one of those people blessed with a high metabolism, then go ahead and use heavy cream.

Did I mention I hate you?

Not really.

Also stir in 1/2 cup prepared pesto.  I have about 10 of these containers sitting around still in my freezer.  You can use your favorite store-bought version, however.

Stir these two lovely ingredients around, scraping more of the browned chicken bits off the bottom of the pan.

If you’re a pesto fan like me, and you stop and taste the sauce at this point, you’re like…going to do a backflip in giddy happiness.  This is SO …

Delectable is a good word.

Take your tongs and return your chicken cutlets to this sea of yumminess.

Spoon some sauce and asparagus all over the top.

Turn a serving onto a plate and savor the creamy yumminess of the flavors.  The crispness of the asparagus mixed in with the savory sauce is heaven.

Love, love loveeeeee this!

You will too!

Katie’s Printable Recipe – Chicken Cutlets with Asparagus and Pesto Cream Sauce

Cooking with Love,

~Katie

Mussels in White Wine Garlic Sauce – Mr. Wonderful’s Favorite Meal for Two

This is something I did the other night.  Mr. Wonderful was working late.  I didn’t know what to fix him.  The kids were gone.  What resulted has had him talking ever since.

I had a bag of frozen mussels in the freezer left over from our Crab Boil for Chris’ birthday.

I started with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter.  Put them in a pot and let the butter melt and the olive oil heat up.  Swirled the pot around a bit and let them get nice and cozy together.

Chopped up one-half a large onion pretty fine.  Also chopped up 3 cloves of garlic – again pretty fine.

Tossed them into the pot with the olive oil and butter.

Cook them low -you don’t want them to brown, just get nice and transluscent and soft.

Add one cup of white wine.

I also added 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme.

Then I mixed all of this together and dumped in a pound of mussels.  I buy them frozen at Wal-Mart.  It’s what we have to do in the southwest.  Please don’t judge us non-oceanic people.  But we have incredible beef out here.

Can I just stop for a minute and tell you… when we do a crab boil, I don’t really care for mussels.  In this recipe, I actually like them….it’s all in the sauce I think.

Stir the mussels into the sauce and pop the lid on.

Cook for about 8-10 minutes on medium-low heat.  Any mussel that doesn’t open, you want to throw away.  They’re bad I tell ya…BAD! Toss em!

While that’s cooking, take a loaf of your favorite crusty bread and put it into the oven to warm.  I put mine right on the oven rack at 350º for about 8 minutes.  It’s perfect.

Now take your mussel pot and pour the whole mess, broth and all into a bowl.

Take your crusty bread and slice it.  Place it around the outside of the bowl.

You could serve this with a salad and it’s a nice light meal for two.

Or serve it as an appetizer.

Either way, I know it makes Mr. Wonderful happy.

If it makes him happy, I’m happy.

And I kind of like it myself.

Katie’s Printable Recipe – Mussels in White Wine Garlic Sauce

Cooking with Love,

~Katie

The Easiest Brisket Ever

I’m almost embarrassed to post this recipe.

It’s so easy.  It’s so “don’t even think about it”.

But it’s soooooo, so good.

Christmas with the kids just begs for something special.

Enter the brisket.

Fourteen pounds of pure animal red meat.

Fourteen pounds of goodness, if cooked properly.

Here’s how you do it…so simple, so scrumptious.  You’ll never be afraid of this beast again.

Did I mention that when I moved from Michigan to Oklahoma, I’d never heard of brisket?

Tis true.

Okay, so take your brisket.  Do this in one of those huge throw-away-pans or in a roasting pan lined with one of those plastic meat cooking bags for no mess and easy clean-up!

I’m cooking a humongous one, so here’s the recipe I use.  Half this if you’re cooking a smaller version.  This is also fantastic over a large pork shoulder. Sometimes I find those for .89/pound.  You can feed a large army with a 15 pound pork shoulder cooked this way.  My friend Beth showed me this recipe!

You ready for the vast list of ingredients?

Here they are.

Yep.  A 13 pound brisket, two cans of Coca Cola and one bottle of Head Country Barbeque Sauce.

Woops!  I forgot – salt and pepper.  So I guess that makes four.

Seriously, that’s it.

Pour both over the brisket in a deep pan.

Tent it with foil and bake at 300 degrees for about 6-7 hours.

When it comes out, trim off the fat, and pull it apart with 2 big forks.

Not the best picture.  I was trying to get 10 dishes on the table for Christmas dinner and just snapped a quick pic with no lighting.

This is a fabulous man pleaser for any testosterone filled guy in your house.

And the women kind of enjoyed it too.

Serve it with a bowl of your favorite warmed BBQ sauce. In fact, go ahead, drizzle some overtop.

Cook this for your New Year football watching party.  You can serve it with buns too for fantastic BBQ sandwiches!

It’d also be a great Superbowl star for your menu!

Katie’s Printable Recipe – The Easiest Brisket Ever

Cooking with Love,

~Katie

Chicken Paillards (Cutlets) with Mushroom Cream Sauce

Hallelujah!

I finally made something out of a Martha Stewart Living magazine!

Chicken Paillards.

What the heck are paillards?  A fancy name, that’s what.  Martha at her finest.  French names and all.

Paillards are simply a cut of meat, pounded thin so that it cooks in a flash.  It’s really not that hard to do.  I strayed from Martha’s recipe quite a bit, but the paillard bit inspired me.

I just got one of these, so this recipe tempted me.

Meat flattener on one side, tenderizer on the other, you just unscrew the wheel at the bottom and surprise! A two-in-one tool!

So let’s make paillards children, shall we?

Take a chicken breast.  You’ll note that the chicken breast has one kind of straight side and one weird looking side.

Get your sharpest knife for this one friends.  You’re going to start slicing about halfway down on the chicken from the weird side.  Slice horizontally through the chicken, but not the whole way!

Try as I might, I could not hold the chicken breast, and the knife and the camera, so I couldn’t get the first shot of this.  This is what it looked like when I finished.

Once you can get it to open like a book, then you take your knife with soft, gentle strokes and slice any part that hasn’t opened fully. You should now have one bigger piece of chicken that is half its original thickness.

If you’ve done this, my darlings, you’ve just learned how to “butterfly”.

Take your butterflied open chicken breast and place it inside a gallon Ziploc bag. Do not seal the bag!If you do, you’ll trap air inside and you might pop the bag when you pound on it!

Take your meat flattener or pounder, or even a rolling pin.  Starting at the center of the chicken, pound and push outward toward all edges of the chicken.

Your chicken will almost double in size and be about one-fourth inch thick when you’re done.  Remove it from the bag.

Cut it in half with your sharp knife.

Sprinkle some salt and pepper on it.

Continue making more paillards.  Estimate one chicken breast or two paillard pieces per person.  Four if you’re a 16 year old boy who eats everything in sight.

I have teenage boy issues. Sorry.

Now, in a heavy skillet, heat up one tablespoon each of butter and olive oil.  Swirl it around and let it all melt together and get bubbly.

Take some tongs and put in your paillards.

This is going to go quick.  Only cook these babies for 2 minutes or until they’re nice and golden brown.

Then flip them.

Cook for another 2 minutes then remove to a plate or platter.

Keep going, making all of your palliards.  If you need, add more equal parts of butter and oil until you’re finished.

Chop up one shallot or about 2 tablespoons total.

Add it into the skillet along with 2 cups of sliced mushrooms.  I used cremini because they’re my favorite.

Stir and cook these around until the mushrooms are brown, around 3-4 minutes.  Then toss in 2 cloves of finely minced garlic.  When that garlic hits the pan, your kitchen is going to smell like pure heaven baby.

After a minute, stir in one tablespoon of spicy brown mustard.

And stir in 3/4 cup of heavy cream.

Stir this up and taste a bit with a spoon.  I found it needed no extra seasoning due to the salt and pepper from the chicken that was left in the pan.  Adjust according to your taste though.  Make sure you scraped any bits off the bottom of the pan that are leftover from the chicken, this is amazingly flavorful!

Add in one-half teaspoon dried thyme.

Stir it all up really well and let it bubble just a little and thicken up, around 2 minutes.

Spoon your sauce over your paillards.

I love you Martha.

Did I really just say that out loud?

This will be a regular at our house.

Fancy words or not.

It’s good.

Katie’s Printable Recipe – Chicken Paillards with Mushroom Cream Sauce

Cooking with Love,

~Katie

The Best Sandwich I’ve Ever Had

This is my favorite sandwich.

Ever.

I am not really a big sandwich person.  But offer me this one, and I’ll take it every time.

It’s the combination that does it.  This is how it’s assembled.

First, you have to have  bacon.  Because bacon is God’s food.  Two strips per sandwich.

Sliced grilled chicken. One grilled chicken breast will make two of these babies.  This is the perfect thing to make with leftover grilled chicken.

Two slices of soft wheat sandwich bread.  You are going to butter one side of it and grill it in a pan until golden brown and toasted.  This side of the bread will go inside of the sandwich, not outside.

The dressing.  Honey mustard. One tablespoon of mayo, 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey.  Mix well.

After you toast your bread, slather on some of your homemade honey mustard dressing.  Mind you to slather it on the toasted side.  The soft untoasted side will be what you bite into.

Break your bacon in half and layer it on the mustard.  Slice up your chicken and layer it on as well.

On the other side of your bread, layer some fresh sliced tomatoes (fresh grown in my backyard – Black Krims!), thinly sliced avocado, and some alfalfa sprouts.

That’s it.  And I’m telling you.  It’s my favorite sandwich in the world.

Try it and tell me if I’m wrong.

I dare you.

Cooking with Love,

~Katie