Mesquite Grilled Vaquero Fajitas

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1 Pkg Beef Skirt Steaks
1 Pkg Chicken Breasts
1 Bottle Italian Dressing
Fajita Seasoning
Salt & Pepper
Minced Garlic
Onion Powder
Juice from 3 Limes
1/4 C Tequila
Sliced Onion
Sliced Bell Pepper

Season the steaks and breasts with salt, pepper, fajita seasoning, and onion powder.  Place them in a bag and add the dressing, garlic, lime juice, and tequila. Place meat in the fridge to marinate at least overnight.  Note, you can marinate then freeze them for later if required.  When ready to cook, light the grill and cook over some hot coals until done.

Heat some oil in a skillet and saute the onions and bell pepper until they are tender.

The chicken can be sliced into strips.  When you slice the steak slice it across the grain (perpendicular to the direction of the grain) and at a diagonal angle (meaning your knife will be at a 45 deg angle from the top of the cutting board).  This will ensure that when you bit into the fajita taco you can easily bit off a tender piece and not end up pulling the entire slice of meat out of the taco.  If you are unsure at how to slice it don't over-think it and instead try a few different directions until you end up with a slice that is very easy to bite off and chew.

For fajita tacos, serve with warm tortillas (low carb), sour cream, grilled onion/bell pepper, guacamole, shredded cheese, and salsa.

Thai Chicken Curry Soup

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There isn't much I like more than some Thai curry poured over some rice. Since I can't have the rice, I made this easy curry soup and was impressed with the results.

2 Cans Coconut Milk

2 Cans Chicken Stock

1 tsp minced ginger

1 Tbsp Red Curry Paste

1 Pkg (5-8) Chicken Thighs

1 Red & Yellow Bell Pepper

1 Onion

1 Can Bamboo Shoots drained

1 Zucchini

6 Limes

Cilantro

Fish Sauce

Sriracha Sauce

In a pot add the coconut milk and chicken stock and heat to a simmer.  Add the ginger and curry paste.  Slice the chicken, onion, bell pepper and zucchini into strips (I usually shoot for 2" long x 1/2" wide or less). Add the chicken slowly to the pot and let simmer for a few minutes.  Then add all the vegetables and simmer until they are the desired tenderness.  Reduce heat to low and add 2 Tbsp of fish sauce, 1 tsp Sriracha, and the juice from 1 lime.  Cut the remaining limes into wedges and serve the soup with lime, cilantro, fish sauce, & sriracha for garnish.

Homemade Chicken Bean Soup

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1 Whole Chicken
4 Stalks Celery
1 Onion
Salt, Pepper, Garlic, Bay Leaves
1/2 Link of Smoked Sausage
1 Package Frozen Butter Beans or Kidney Beans
1 Can Diced Tomatoes
1 Can Ranch Style Pinto Beans

Cover chicken with water.  Cut celery stalks in half and cut onion in quarters and add to pot.  Season with salt pepper, garlic and 2 small bay leaves.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 30minutes to 1 hour.  Remove chicken from pot and let cool.

De-bone the chicken and cut into bite sized pieces.  Remove celery and onions and chop into bite size pieces.  Slice sausage into small slices.  Add everything to broth.  Add beans and tomatoes and bring soup to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Top with grated cheese and serve.

Fool Proof Blackened Chicken Breast

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One of the staples of a low carb diet is grilled chicken breast.  Needless to say, I have cooked many chicken breasts and through lots of trial and error (I have eaten my fair share of dry and tastless chicken breast), I finally have developed a fool proof recipe that will end up with a juicy and tasty chicken breast every time.

The #1 key ingredient is a good cast iron pan.  Nothing will retain heat and get the type of char/blackening like a good ole' cast iron skillet.  Besides, you can pick one up for less than $20 at Academy.  *Note-You MUST follow proper cast iron care.  I will post some care instructions and tips for cast iron soon.

4 to 6 Skinless Boneless Chicken Breasts
2 Tbsp Oil (Not Olive Oil, I recommend Canola or other high flash point oil)
Seasonings:
Salt, Black Pepper, Fajita Seasoning, Red Pepper, Garlic Powder, Paprika

Warning:  Alert anyone else in the house that you are about to blacken chicken, and in our case I usually put the dogs outside too.  I think I have created a new behavior in them, as soon as they smell smoke in the kitchen, they dart for the back door and beg to go out, because they know that fire alarms are soon to come.  You are trying to blacken the outside of the chicken so there will be some smoke.  By following this technique, you should minimize the smoke and avoid the fire alarms going off.  Turn on the oven vent fan, turn on an overhead fan or box fan in the kitchen for air circulation, and open a window if the weather is nice.  This will help circulate any smoke that you make pretty quickly.


Blackened Skillet Chicken Fresh Out of the Oven.



1.  Preheat oven to 350°F.  Coat the chicken with the seasonings on both sides (go easy on the paprika, this aids the blackening but also smokes up alot).  You can flatten the chicken breasts out a little if you would like, but I found that this recipe even works really well without all the hassle of pounding the chicken thin.

2.  Place your cast iron skillet on the stovetop and turn on high.  Put the oil in the skillet and let it get searing hot. By getting the skillet hot you should be able to speed up the blackening process to reduce the smoke problem a bit. You can toss in a drop of water to test the skillet, it should sizzle, dance around like crazy, and evaporate rapidly.  Carefully place the chicken breasts in the hot skillet and cook 1 to 2 minutes, or until you have a good blackened crust.  Flip and repeat.  The chicken will not be cooked all the way through and will be raw in the center.  We are ONLY trying to get a blackened crust on the outside of the chicken, you do NOT want to cook it all the way through on the stovetop.

3.  Now take the skillet off of the burner and put it in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.  The reasons for doing this is because if you were to leave it on the stove top to cook all the way through you would end up with a dry piece of chicken.  Also, I have found that using the oven cuts down on the amount of smoke that you will get in the house.

Blackened Chicken with Creamed Spinach and Steamed Broccolli

This chicken is versatile.  You can top it with a sauce, cut it up and put it on a salad, chop it and put it in a casserole, cook it with some onion and bell pepper to make fajitas, ect.  I would welcome any new suggestions to re-invent the left over blackened chicken.

Turkish Chicken Kebobs

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I bought this amazing blend of Turkish seasonings at a little spice/herb shop in Pikes Market when we were visiting Seattle.  I have not been able to use it so I developed this recipe so I could use the seasonings.  Sounds weird, but if you could smell these seasonings you would understand. 

If you have a chance to go to a specialty herb shop I recommend it.  Wait a minute, I know what your're thinking, not the kind of specialty herb shop where the owner is a weird guy wearing a rastafarian hat, I mean cooking herbs, geeezzzz.  They generally have every kind of herb and spice you can imagine and they will grind it fresh for you.  Even though they can cost more per pound, you save quite a bit of money, because you can buy just what you need instead of having to purchase several large bottles of herbs that will just sit in your cabinet.

1 pkg chicken breasts (5 to 6)
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 green bell pepper
1 orange/yellow bell pepper
1 large onion
2 tomatoes
6 skewers

Cut chicken breasts into 1.5" cubes.  Place in a bowl and toss chicken with lemon juice.  Place in the fridge.

Next make the sauce:
1 cup greek yogurt
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tsp mint sauce
1 tsp chopped garlic
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp turkish seasoning

Mix all ingredients in a bowl.  Pull the chicken out of the fridge and drain any juices off.  Pour 1/2 of the sauce over the chicken and toss to coat.  Return the chicken and remaining sauce to the fridge.

Cut bell peppers and onion into 1.5" squares.  Slice tomatoes into 4 wedges.  Get a baking pan that you can use to set the skewers across.  Season the tomato wedges with a little salt, pepper, and turkish seasonings and set in the bottom of the pan.  Set oven to broil.

Pull chicken out and build your skewers.  Onion, chicken, green bell pepper, onion, chicken orange bell pepper, ect.  Hang all the skewers across the pan.  Take the turkish seasoning and lightly dust the skewers on all sides.  Place in the oven and broil for 5 minutes then rotate skewers and broil for 5 more minutes.  Reduce heat to 400F and bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until chicken is done.

Chicken Cordon Bleu w/Parmasean Sauce

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Well, we have gotten really tired of the same old grilled chicken breast, so I tried to do something more exciting with chicken today.  This recipe is actually pretty simple and tastes amazing.  I served it up with some cheesy cauliflower and some sugar snap peas.

Chicken
4 large chicken breasts
4 slices of low carb ham (no sugar)
1 cup of shredded sharp cheddar
Salt, pepper, garlic powder, fajita seasoning
12 toothpicks

Parmasean Sauce (for topping)
1 Tbsp full fat low carb yogurt
1 Tbsp sour cream
1 Tbsp grated parmasean cheese
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degF. Place chicken in a ziplock bag and seal.  Flatten to 1/4" thick with a kitchen hammer or just a large can of food. Remove from bag and season both sides.  Place slice of ham and some cheese covering half of each breast.  Fold chicken over and pin together with three toothpicks.  Top with a spoonful of the parmasean sauce and spread over top of chicken.  Place on greased baking sheet and bake for 30 to 45 min or until chicken is cooked completely.  Time will vary based on chicken size.

Approx. 2 to 3 Carbs per chicken breast.