Chicken with Apples and Thyme

Behold the lowly chicken breast: boring and bland, but generally cheap to purchase.  Pros and cons, people, pros and cons.  However, the very best thing about them is that they’re basically a blank canvas just waiting to be converted into edible art, and cooking is really the only art form I know anything about!  Convenient for this blog, yes? 

So let’s say you grabbed some of said chicken breasts at your local grocery store, but you have no idea what to do next.  There they are, sitting on your counter, just waiting for inspiration to hit.  Hey, here’s a thought…bear with me for this one…

Do you like apples?  How do you like THESE apples with your chicken?!  Sorry, I couldn’t resist a good movie line.

Anyways, I’ve talked in the past about how apples are great with pork.  Did you know they are also just as great with chicken?  And your kids probably didn’t eat the ones you bought last week anyway, so use them for this recipe instead.  Go get ‘em out of your fruit bowl.  Hopefully, they’re not too wrinkly yet.

Chop them up into thin wedges.  Grab an onion and chop that up as well since you’re in a chopping frame of mind.

Heat up a few drizzles of olive oil in a saucepan on medium heat.  Salt and pepper your chicken and get to sizzling!

Brown them on either side for around 8 minutes and then remove them from the pan.  Add your onions to the pan and cook them for another 8 minutes until they soften.  Then, add a cup of chicken broth.

The apples (that have been patiently waiting all this time) can now be added to the pan to cook in the yummy oniony chickeny broth for a few minutes to help them soften.  Ah what the heck, let's throw in a 1/4 cup of white wine as well before adding our chicken back into the mix.

Sprinkle the whole darn thing with some fresh thyme.  It adds a pop of both flavor and color to this lovely, simple dish.  Let it all cook on a simmer for ten minutes to make sure the chicken is cooked through.  Raw chicken is NOT your friend.  

Plate yourself a piece of chicken with plenty of sauce and apples.  Feel free to serve over rice or noodles, but I opted for a salad side.

Meat and fruit can be the best of pals under certain circumstances.  This is definitely one of them.

Try it.  You'll like it.

-Sam

Chicken with Apples and Thyme

(Serves 2)

1 medium onion

1 medium apple

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 tbsp. olive oil

salt

pepper

1 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup white wine

1/2 tsp fresh thyme

Chop an apple and an onion into thin slices.  Salt and pepper the chicken.  In a saucepan, heat the olive oil on medium heat and brown the chicken on both sides for about 8 minutes.  Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.

Add the onion to the pan and saute for 8 minutes until softened.  Add the chicken broth, apple slices, wine, and thyme and simmer for 10 more minutes, until chicken is cooked through.  Serve hot.

Bacon Wrapped BBQ Pork Chops

I get excited when pork loins go on sale at the grocery store.  Perhaps unnaturally excited, but hey, who's watching?  ;)  Anyways, I find that the store generally has them in 4-6 lbs increments which, for a family of 4, is too much for us to eat for a single meal.  I usually cut them in half and end up roasting part and turning the other part into pork chops.  I've posted a couple recipes for the whole darn thing on this blog, but I've been lax with chop recipes.  I've got a good one I think you're gonna dig.  Crazy enough, it's only got 4 ingredients.  Go ahead and preheat your oven to 400.

First, we're going to cut our half of the pork loin (roughly 2-3 lbs) into chops about an inch thick. Kinda like this:

Now, for the fun part....would you like some more pork with your pork?  It's bacon so yes, yes you do.  Duh.  We're going to wrap a strip of bacon around the edge of each chop.  Yea, I said it!  Things are getting CRAZY in this kitchen!!  Secure it with a toothpick so it stays on there.

Dang.  Just look at that.  Carnivore dream.  Let's get these suckers sizzling!  Grab yourself an ovenproof skillet with higher sides and set it over medium high heat.  Prop up the chops so the bacon can get a good sear and rotate them every few minutes using tongs.  We want that bacon to be browned up a bit on all sides.  

  

Once the bacon is browned, place the chops on a plate and pour off the excess bacon grease.  Don't wipe out the pan though...we're going to put the chops back in and brown them around 5 minutes on each side in that bit of delicious baconey goodness.  Meanwhile, whisk up 4 tbsp. of your favorite bbq sauce and 1/2 cup of beer.  Spoon the sauce over each chop making sure each is coated and pour the rest into the bottom of the pan.

Place the whole skillet in the oven and cook for 15 minutes.  Be careful removing it from the oven...occasionally, I forget the pan has just come out of the scorching hot oven and try to pick up the skillet by the handle.  That REALLY hurts.  Don't do it.  

Serve your chops hot with plenty of that tasty pan sauce.  This dish is a bit sweet, a bit savory, and a bit smokey...totally nom-nable!

Try it.  You'll like it.

-Sam

Bacon Wrapped BBQ Pork Chops

6 pork chops, 1in thick

6 strips bacon

4 tbsp, BBQ sauce

1/2 cup lager beer

Preheat oven to 400.  Wrap a strip of bacon around each pork chop, securing with a toothpick.  In a tall sided skillet, cook each chop, bacon side down rotating occasionally until bacon is browned.  Remove chops from pan and pour off excess bacon fat.

Place the chops back in the skillet and brown about 5 minutes on each side. In a bowl, whisk together the bbq sauce and the beer.  Spoon the sauce over each chop pouring the remainder into the bottom of the pan.  Place the whole skillet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.  

Remove skillet from the oven and serve chops hot with the pan sauce. 

Serves 4-6

           

Venison Stroganoff

My wife's brother loves to hunt, especially for deer.  He feeds his family with it all year and, when they come to visit, he always brings us pounds and pounds of delicious venison. While we do have some deer steaks and tenderloins in there, the freezer is mostly stuffed with ground deer meat. One can only have so many burgers or meatloaves or tacos, so now comes the task of trying to figure out something interesting to make with it all.

Looks pretty much like ground beef but has quadruple the flavor

I figured I could play around and come up with something tasty.  When I started cooking this, I had no idea how it would turn out.  I debated just calling it "deer stuff," but venison stroganoff sounds so much fancier, don't you think?  And, as we all know, I'm so fancy!

Before you completely write off this recipe because "deer meat is icky," hear me out!  Venison is actually quite good for you...much lower in fat than our traditional burger meat and very flavorful. Give it a chance and you really might be surprised at how fantastic it can be.  Let's get to work on something good!

I happen to have some onions and mushrooms in the fridge.  Those should blend in nicely with the meat!

I've got the meat sizzling away in another skillet.  I think I'll add a little olive oil to help it brown since it doesn't have much fat of it's own.  How 'bout a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce?  A couple sprigs of thyme?  Some rosemary?  Perhaps a bit of red wine?  And, shucks, let's go crazy with some beef broth!

Now that I've added my sauteed mushrooms and onions to the meat, this dish is really starting to come together!

As a final touch, I added a bit of cream to make this stroganoffy.  I made that word up.  Cute, huh?

I debated between serving this over egg noodles (like a traditional stroganoff) but ultimately decided to serve over rice instead to help soak up all the amazing gravy.  We were NOT disappointed.

I may have added a little Parmesan cheese to the cooked rice before dousing it with the deer....ok, ok, I definitely did.  I'm a parm-a-holic!  It really went well with my deer dish.

Try it.  You'll like it.

-Sam

Venison Stroganoff

1 lb. ground deer (or ground beef)
1 vidalia onion, chopped
1 lb. mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cups beef broth
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup red wine
2 sprigs thyme
1 tsp. rosemary
1/2 cup heavy cream
cooked rice
parmesan (optional)

Brown and then drain the deer meat in a large, deep skillet with 1 tbsp. olive oil.  In a separate skillet, brown the mushrooms and the onions with 1 tbsp. olive oil.  To the deer meat, add the broth, Worcestershire sauce, wine, thyme, and rosemary.  Bring to a simmer and then add the mushrooms and onions.

Remove from the heat and stir in 1 cup heavy cream.  Stir over cooked rice with parmesan.