Chicken Spaghtetti with Tomato Sauce

For whatever reason, I decided tonight that I wanted spaghetti with chicken in it instead of ground beef. Don't ask me why. Maybe it's because I've been on a chicken kick. Kickin chicken. IDK.

Tonight's latest victims on The Cooking Dead:

Those are really black olives in that pepper jar. Why you have to buy them in a can I'll never know.

I guess I'll give you an ingredients list. This was pretty off the cuff:

• 1/2 lb of chicken breast 
• 1/3 lb of whole wheat spaghetti
• 2/3 of a jar of Ragu chunky
• 1/4 of a yellow onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• A handful of olives (I raided the fridge for anything else I could throw in)
• Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp olive oil

Gotta start by getting the frying pan hot with the olive oil and the Ragu chunky simmering.

I chopped up the chicken, onion, garlic, and black olives. I know I look like I'm being sanitary but let's be serious. Everything's about to get cooked in the skillet.

Saute the garlic for a minute or so. Add the onions and let them get translucent, probably 3 or 4 minutos. Pause The Walking Dead because you want to make sure you see the last episode in full before the mid-season premier.

Resume cooking. Throw in the chicken and let it brown.

Oh yeah, if you happened to have a pot of water boiling, now would be the time to throw in the whole wheat spaghetti. Sorry, I forgot to give you a picture and remind you to have boiling water ready. My bad. Next comes the sauce modification...

We're about to make this Ragu Chunky into Ragu Obese. Now let that simmer a few minutes while the spaghetti is cooking.

You know what, tomorrow is a holiday and I don't have to work. Why not.

Well $hit. I forgot to set the timer on the spaghetti. Guess that's what I get for not including that reminder. Gonna have to taste test on one minute intervals until we are AL-DENT-AY...

And I mean "AYYY" like the Fonz.

Commence plate preparation:

The finished product. Not Pictured: Walkers taking a bite out of the mid-season premier's first victims on the Tele that is just outside of frame.

Mom's Baked Chicken and Rice

So these days when you ask your Mother to send you a recipe, this is how you get it:

The standard picture text message of a 20 year old, faded notebook of recipes with her barely legible scribbles. I'm just glad I can make out most of it.

Rice w Chicken
Melt 1 stick butter in 9x13 pan
Add 1 box Uncle Ben's rice & 1 Cup minute Rice (no idea why we need to mix and match but OKAY)
Add 1 can French Onion & 1 Can Beef Consomme Soup or Beef Broth
Can of mushrooms if prefer
Add only 1 can water. Top with Chicken and bake 1 hr @ 350 degrees.

Boom. Now for this one, I don't have all the ingredients on hand. I'm not going to the store either, so I'm going to make due with what I got, which means one substitution (packet of onion soup instead of a can of the Campbell's french onion) and just going without mushrooms. Which sucks cuz I like mushrooms. Also I guess I have neither of those kinds of rice, but I have a random container of rice next to the stove and some kind of boil bag jasmine rice. Lets keep to the spirit of the recipe and mix 'em up and see what happens. Oh yeah, I'm assuming this is for a full package of chicken, which is a couple pounds, but I'm only using it with one large breast chopped in half.

The cast:

Start with melting the butter in the pan. I'm going with a short bus pan since I'm not doing a whole package of chicken. I tossed in the beef consomme soup too, no rhyme or reason. We're doing this on the fly here.

I was using the microwave to melt the butter. I bumped the pan pulling it out and liquid splashed everywhere and I made a mess. Maybe I shouldn't have added the beef consomme just yet.

Throw in the packet of onion soup mix and an empty can's worth of water to count for the can of french onion soup that I didn't have. This isn't really halving the recipe, but I'm going to leave out the additional can of water the recipe calls for. I am probably going to have too much liquid but we'll see how much the rice soaks up. I can always pour off the excess.

Add in the rice, I don't need it in the boil bag, so I went ahead and cut it open and bombs away.

Place chicken on top, throw in the oven at 350 degrees and find something to do for an hour.

So much for excess, that cooked up perfectly!

KC Masterpiece Southern Style BBQ Chicken

Serves: 4
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
1 whole Chicken, cut-up
1/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar
2 large cloves Garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Onion Powder
1 teaspoon Beau Monde seasoning
2 teaspoons dry Chicken Rub
1/2 cup + 2 teaspoons KC Masterpiece Southern Style BBQ Sauce

Directions:
1. Preheat gas grill to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Rinse whole chicken with cool water and pat dry. Cut into pieces.
3. In small bowl, combine dark brown sugar, garlic, onion powder, Beau Monde seasoning, dry chicken rub, and 2 teaspoons KC Masterpiece Southern Style BBQ Sauce.
4. Gently massage rub onto chicken pieces.
5. Place on grill and cook for 25 minutes, turning chicken pieces half-way through cooking.
6. Brush chicken pieces with remaining 1/2-cup of BBQ Sauce during final 5 minutes of cooking.
7. Remove from grill and serve immediately.

http://www.thecheapgourmet.com/2011/09/kc-masterpiece-southern-style-bbq-chicken.html

Broccoli and Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients
Cooking spray
2 cups chopped onion $
1 cup presliced mushrooms $
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons butter $
1.1 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1/4 cup)
4 cups 1% low-fat milk $
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
4 ounces uncooked vermicelli, broken into 2-inch pieces
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded light processed cheese (such as Velveeta Light) $
4 cups (1-inch) cubed cooked chicken breast $
3 cups small broccoli florets (8 ounces) $
1 cup half-and-half $
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion, mushrooms, and garlic to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until liquid evaporates, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium; add butter to mushroom mixture, stirring until butter melts. Sprinkle mushroom mixture with flour; cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Gradually add milk and broth, stirring constantly with a whisk; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook 10 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring constantly. Add pasta to pan; cook 10 minutes. Add cheese to pan, and stir until cheese melts. Add chicken and remaining ingredients to pan; cook 5 minutes or until broccoli is tender and soup is thoroughly heated.
Holly Kapherr, Cooking Light
MARCH 2009

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/broccoli-chicken-noodle-soup-10000001880025/

Baked Chicken Marsala

Marsala is Italy's most famous version of fortified wine and it makes an outstanding sweet sauce when used in this easy baked chicken Marsala recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. chicken breasts
• 3/4 cup crushed Italian flavored croutons
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms (baby portabella is a favorite)
• 1 crushed garlic clove
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup Marsala Wine

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 40 minutes
• Total Time: 55 minutes

Preparation

Put thawed chicken breasts in a large ziploc bag and pound chicken into thinner portions with a mallet or rolling pin. Next, crush the croutons in another ziploc bag until they are fairly fine. Melt a half cup of butter in a saucepan with the crushed garlic clove. Then, dredge the chicken through the butter and place in the ziploc bag with the crushed croutons to thoroughly coat the chicken. Place the crouton crusted chicken into a shallow baking dish. Melt a little more butter and add a touch of olive oil to saute the mushrooms and add the sherry once the mushrooms get soft. Let it all simmer for another minute or so. Pour the sauteed mushroom mixture over the coated chicken breasts. Add salt and pepper and a dash of paprika if you like, and then bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Top with fresh parsley.


Source: http://wine.about.com/od/howwineismade/r/Chickenmarsala.htm