Chicken with Polenta and Prosciutto

Anytime we get any kind of “good news” J always wants to celebrate, which is good, I think you should celebrate even the little successes, but that always means going out to dinner.  When our cause for celebration can be as small as getting a pat on the back at work from your boss or receiving the quarterly dividend check, it might sometimes just be an excuse to be out of the house.  And when we get on a going out to eat kick where we eat out more than we eat in, like we have been lately, I have to eventually say no.  So I made this for dinner one night to celebrate J’s progress on his PhD and then had to give myself a pat on the back for the meal and made myself dessert ;-)

6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 tbs chopped fresh sage
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp olive oil
½ cup dry white wine
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
2 cups water
1 cup diced, seeded, and peeled tomato
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 very thin slices prosciutto cut into thin strips

Sprinkle the chicken with sage, 1/8 tsp salt and pepper.  Place flour in a shallow dish and dredge the chicken in the flour.  Heat the oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Arrange the chicken in the skillet and cook for 4 minutes on each side to brown the flour.  Add wine, cover, and lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes to cook the chicken through.  If towards the end of the 20 minutes the wine has nearly boiled off, add a little bit more to make sure you have a little bit of a sauce.

Meanwhile while the chicken is cooking, place the cornmeal in a small skillet over medium high and add the water in small additions.  Stir the mixture to get the cornmeal to absorb the water then add more water, repeating until all of the water is absorbed.  Season with salt to taste then remove from heat and let stand about 5 minutes.

After the chicken is cooked through, remove it from the pan.  Add the diced tomatoes and cook for ~5 minutes.  Stir in the juice and prosciutto and cook ~1 minute.

Spoon the polenta onto a plate and top with 2 chicken thighs and sauce.

Makes 3 servings

If you were making polenta as a side I would definitely not do it this way, it was definitely lacking in flavor.  But to be eaten with the chicken and sauce all together it was probably better than a polenta with a lot of flavor as it was probably more the texture that was needed than another flavorful component.

Whenever we start going out to eat frequently I get lazy and forget that I can make meals that are just as good or better than where we would go on a weeknight and I can find things that don’t take hours to make.  In my opinion, the key to an impressive meal is using high quality ingredients and fresh herbs.  That doesn’t have to take hours or use up your daily calorie allotment.

Cayenne Rubbed Chicken with Avocado Salsa

Lately I’ve been watching Martha Stewart’s cooking school on tv when I’m super bored and there’s nothing else on.  Most of her recipes that I’ve tried have just been ok but they always sound so good and she makes cooking look so easy.  So I found another one of her recipes this week that I thought looked really good and wanted to try.  I won’t say I was disappointed because it was good, and it was actually better the next day, but it just wasn’t quite as good as I was hoping, which seems to be the norm with her recipes I’ve tried.
 
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
~2 tbs olive oil
¾ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
1 small avocado
½ red onion
Juice from ½ of a lime
Salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 425 F.
Drizzle about 1 tbs olive oil over the chicken breasts, getting oil on both sides.  In a small bowl mix the seasonings then rub onto both sides of each piece of chicken.

Heat 1-2 turns of olive oil in a large oven safe skillet to medium high heat, you want to just coat the bottom of the skillet so that you aren’t frying the chicken but you also aren’t blackening the seasoning.  Once the skillet is hot, arrange the chicken in the skillet and cook on each side for about 10 minutes.  Put the skillet in the oven and cook for 3-5 minutes to finish cooking the chicken.  If not, the inside might still be raw and if you cook the chicken in the skillet for too much longer you may end up blackening the outside.

Dice the red onion and season with salt and lime juice.  Just before serving stir in diced avocado.  Season the salsa to taste with salt and lime and serve over the chicken breasts.

This was really pretty easy and though I didn’t think it had a ton of flavor, or heat, I still enjoyed it and will probably make it again but it won’t be on my go-to list.

Spice Rubbed Lamb

Since we haven’t been able to take a vacation for over a year, for Labor Day I decided to plan a “staycation” since we weren’t able to take off any more than the 3 day weekend.  So we pretended like we were in a new city on vacation for 3 days, and as such we ate at some really nice restaurants, and ate a lot.  It seems that once I start eating out and eating unhealthy foods, I crave unhealthy foods so cooking dinner never sounds appetizing.  But, I did force myself to cook one meal this week and I was glad I did because it turned out really well.

½ tsp black pepper
1 tbs curry powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
2 steaks of leg of lamb
Olive oil

Heat a cast iron skillet with 1 turn of olive oil to medium-high heat.  Drizzle olive oil over both sides of the lamb.  Mix the seasonings in a small bowl then sprinkle the seasoning mixture on both sides of the lamb and rub it in with your hands.  Once the skillet is hot, cook the lamb one at a time for 3-4 minutes on each side for medium rare to medium.  Serves 4.

That’s it, tell me you can make something simpler and as tasty as that and I might have to call you a liar.
I served this with roasted potatoes and grilled zucchini and couldn’t have been more pleased with myself.  It really doesn’t take much to make a nice meal that doesn’t take hours to prepare and isn’t a million calories.