Chicken Caesar Zucchini Boats

Last week there was a knock on my door and there stood my neighbor with the dreaded neighbor gift of zucchini in her hands.  Except that I don't dread a gift of zucchini at all since I have discovered zucchini boats!  I love them.  They are a quick and easy supper and so delicious.   You can use several smaller zucchinis or like in this instance, it was one large zucchini that could feed 3 or 4 people depending on appetites.  I cut this particular zucchini in half both lengthwise and right before serving cut it in half widthwise making 4 average sized servings. 

I have made several different kinds of zucchini boats over the last couple of years, including this one which was amazing.  This time I wanted to use what I had on hand which was extra Caesar Salad dressing from an Italian takeout we had.  But after much googling and searching I couldn't find a recipe, so I made one up and it turned out delicious!  So delicious, in fact, that we dug into it before I thought to take a picture.  But  I'm sharing the recipe with you all regardless for when and if you all get the zucchini gift and want something to do with it other than zucchini loaves.  

SUE'S CAESAR SALAD ZUCCHINI BOATS

serves 4

- 1 large zucchini or 2 med zucchinis 

 - 3 large chicken breasts 

- 2 cups fresh spinach, chopped 

- 1 Tbsp lemon juice 

- Caesar salad dressing  

- 2/3 cup croutons  food processed or crushed to crumbs 

   (I used caesar salad croutons but you can also use panko or regular bread crumbs)

- 1/3 cup + 2 TBSP finely grated parmesan cheese  

Place chicken breast in a saute pan with water to cover, a couple shakes of salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Bring to a gentle boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25 - 30 minutes until cooked through and tender.  Remove to cutting board and shred with two forks.  

While chicken is cooking, wash zucchini and cut in half length wise.  Deseed by running a spoon down the center removing seeds.  Make sure you have enough of a pocket to hold your filling but don't remove so much zucchini that there is no structure to your "boat".   

Place zucchini on baking tray and drizzle with a touch of olive oil. Bake at 400*F  until it has some give when sides are squeezed in. For my large zucchini, it took about  25 minutes.  You don't want it to be mushy and with no structure.  It needs to be tender but strong enough to hold the filling without collapsing. The small zucchinis will only take about  15 minutes. When done drain any water out of the baked boats. 

Change oven setting to broil and move oven racks higher if need be.

 Place chicken in bowl.  Add chopped spinach, 2 tbsp parmesan, lemon juice and enough salad dressing to taste. We tend to like it nice and creamy so used approximately 1/4  cup or more dressing. Start with a few tablespoons and adjust to your tastes.  Fill zucchini boats with mixture, dividing evenly.

Mix crumbs with 1/3 c parmesan. Sprinkle evenly over boats. Put under the broiler in oven and broil until crumb topping is slightly browned. Watch carefully as it turns quickly.   Remove and let sit for a couple of minutes.  

If your zucchini was on the larger size, cut in half width wise to make 4 normal sized servings.  

Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti Squash ~ recipe

During this time of staying at home and not eating out, I was getting hard pressed not to be bored and unmotivated in the cooking department.  I will just come out and say, I miss eating out or bringing in takeout on a Friday night.  It was a real break for me from having to come up with what to cook every single day.  Mind you with not cooking and food prepping for dayhome that pressure has reduced somewhat...but I still miss eating out and trying new things.  Anyway, I tried a few new to me recipes that I enjoyed and this is one of them.  Hubby and I are trying to cut back on our carb intake a bit so this was perfect.  And it was a huge hit.

BUFFALO CHICKEN SPAGHETTI SQUASH
(adapted from With Peanut Butter on Top)
serves 4


-5-6 frozen chicken breasts
-salt & pepper to taste
-garlic powder and onion powder to taste

-1 medium spaghetti size squash (length of a dinner plate) or 2 smaller size squash.
-1/2 cup shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese
-2 - 4 harvarti or provolone cheese slices, or 1 cup more of the shredded cheese of choice
-1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot sauce (or similar cayenne sauce)
-1/4 cup cream cheese, room temperature
-1/2 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
-1 Tbsp olive oil
-1/2 bell pepper (I used orange), diced
-1/2 medium onion, diced
-1 large clove (or 2 smaller cloves) fresh garlic, minced or crushed

-green onions, sliced
-1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
-ranch or blue cheese salad dressing (optional)

Spray crockpot with a small amount of cooking spray or olive oil.  Sprinkle frozen chicken breasts with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder to taste.  Place in crockpot and cook on high for 3 1/2 - 4 hours.  When done cooking shred with a fork and set aside.

While the chicken is cooking, cut the stem end off of a medium sized spaghetti squash leaving the squash end intact so that when you eventually fill it it won't run out.  Now cut the squash in half length wise.  Scoop out the seeds an membranes.  I discarded this but you could wash the seeds and roast the later if you like.  You can place upside down on a baking sheet to which a few tablespoons of water has been added and roast at 400*F for 45 - 55 mins. 

Or    bake each half in the microwave covered with a kitchen towel until tender approximately 15 minutes.

While the squash is cooling place oil, bell pepper, onion and garlic in fry pan and cook until softened.  Mix together with chicken, 1/2 c shredded cheese, Red Hot sauce, cream cheese & sour cream. 

Turn on the oven broiler and move oven rack close to the broiler.  When squash is cool enough to handle gently scrape the flesh into "spaghetti strings" removing about half out of each "boat".  Add to chicken mixture and stir gently to avoid breaking the strings.   Fill each squash boat evenly with the chicken mixture.  Top with the harvati or provolone slices or more shredded cheese.  Place under broiler until hot & bubbly, and cheese starts to brown.

While that is happening chop green onions and spinach.  Once the cheese is melted and browning, remove from oven.  Drizzle with more Frank's Red Hot Sauce to taste and ranch dressing.  Top with onions and spinach. 

Cut each boat in half if you used a medium squash and serve with a cold salad or veggies and dip.  (If you used a smaller squash each person can have a half). 

Chicken Santa Fe

I'm joining in with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom today sharing recipes.  She has inspired me by starting to do the Slow Cooking Thursday posts once again, we call them crockpots here.  I know fall is technically the time to pull out the crockpot but mine really does get use all year.  I don't know where I found the original recipe for Santa Fe Chicken.  It seems I've had it forever but it's a family favorite.  I've tweaked it to our tastes and that is how the recipe is written today.  It is easily doubled or halved.   It's important to follow the stated cooking times on this.  Cooking it all day will cause the chicken to turn out tough.

CROCKPOT SANTA FE CHICKEN

-4 - 6 boneless chicken breasts
-salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
-cajun or creole seasoning, to taste (optional)
-1 large can black beans, rinsed and drained
-1 can whole kernel corn, rinsed and drained, OR 1 cup frozen corn, thawed
-1 cup thick and chunky salsa
-1/2 block cream cheese (4 oz.)
-cooked rice or tortilla chips or tortilla shells or taco shell bowls (various simple methods for making those here)

Mix together beans, corn and half of the salsa.  Season chicken with salt, pepper, garlic powder and cajun seasoning to taste.  Place on top of bean mixture in crockpot.  Top with remaining salsa.

Cover and cook on High for 2 1/2 - 3 hours until chicken is cooked through.  Remove chicken from crock, let rest a few minutes and then cut into bite sized chunks or shred.   (Shredding is nice if used as a filling for the soft tortilla shells).  Place back in crockpot.

Cut cream cheese into cubes.  Place in crockpot and turn again to high and heat until cheese melts and stirs in smoothly.

Serve with your choice of the above sides.  May be topped with shredded cheddar cheese if desired.

Honey Spiced Chicken

Diggng through the freezer yesterday, hoping I could find something easy and quick that I could make, I came across a package of chicken thighs.  Being a chicken fan from way back, I thought that would fit the bill.  But what to do that I haven't done a bazillion times before?  So I turned to an old church cookbook and came across this recipe I've never tried, probably because of the mustard component in it.  I'm not too big a fan of the mustard and chicken together.  However, I was running out of time, the recipe looked easy and I had all the ingredients.  Done deal:  Honey Spiced Chicken it was.  Well shock of shocks, it was one of the best chicken dinners I've had!  Totally delicious.  And really the mustard was not a prominent flavor.  Amazingly, neither was the curry.  They all blended together into a winning taste concoction.   Definitely now a family favorite recipe!  Those old church cookbooks are a treasure trove!

Honey Spiced Chicken

- 6-8 chicken thighs  (recipe originally called for 1 3lb. fryer, cut up)
-1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
-1/3 cup honey
-2 Tbsp. prepared mustard
-1 tsp. salt
-1 tsp. curry powder

Preheat oven to 350*F.   Cover a shallow baking sheet with foil.  Wash chicken pieces and pat dry.  Place on baking sheet.

Mix together the rest of the ingredients.  Baste chicken with sauce and bake for 60 - 70 minutes, basting every 15 minutes with more sauce making sure the last basting has at least 10 minutes to bake on the chicken.

*Note*:  Because the sauce has honey in it, any sauce that runs onto the foil might start to burn at some point.  When this started to happen, I just changed out the foil to a clean sheet.

**I also cut up potatoes, carrots and red peppers into bite size pieces in a baking dish sprinkled them with olive oil, seasoning salt, dehydrated onion and parsley and baked it along side the chicken for a super easy supper.   And because I covered the baking sheet with foil first, it was also super easy clean up!

Keeper Recipe ~ Crockpot Lemon Chicken

Hubby declared this the best chicken ever.  That I should mark this as Company Chicken.  And I should never lose this recipe.  He brought up the movie No Reservations (one of my favorite movies ever!) and the scene where the chef is at her psychiatrist"s office and she always brings him some concoction she's created.  She's verbally trying to figure out her life and he's not listening because he's too busy swooning over her food.The scene is at about the 18 second mark in the trailer.   Anyway, this was like that moment, he says.  So I figured I better post it before I lose it in the black hole of my recipe files.

I found it on Pinterest and it linked here.  I made a few changes because I didn't have exactly what it called for so I'm posting my adapted version here.

COMPANY CROCKPOT LEMON CHICKEN
via Pinterest link above

- 2 Tbsp. butter
-5 frozen chicken breasts
- generous amount of Italian seasoning (I used ClubHouse Italiano)
-Real Lemon

Place the butter in chunks in the bottom of the crockpot.  Lay chicken breasts still frozen over top.  Generously sprinkle the Italian seasoning over the chicken.  Drizzle Real Lemon juice over top of the chicken breasts.  Cook on high for 4 hours.

Notes:  You may use fresh chicken breast too but reduce cooking time by half hour.

That's it!  Easy Peasy for a dish of melt in your mouth full of flavor chicken.  Yum!

Keeper Recipe ~ Chicken with White Beans & Tomatoes

Quite a few of you requested that I share the recipe that I found to be a "keeper" from the ones that I tried last week.  This one was really delicious and simple.  And for once I made it exactly as the recipe stated except I used dried thyme instead of the fresh thyme sprigs it called for because my grocery store didn't have the fresh.  I really liked it as it was but per my family's request next time I make it I think I would cut the beans to one can and make a serving of brown rice seperately to go under it when served instead.  They missed the carb component, I guess, and when I think of it I think rice would be nice to carry all that delicious sauce.  They also requested boneless thighs but I'll have to ponder that one because once you remove the bones you remove some of the flavor.

CHICKEN WITH WHITE BEANS AND TOMATOES
Adapted from Real Simple. Link will take you to the original recipe.

-2   15oz. cans white kidney beans (cannellini beans), rinsed and drained
-1 pint (small carton) grape tomatoes
-1 teaspoon dried thyme (original recipe called for 4 fresh sprigs)
-4 sprigs fresh oregano, plus leaves for garnish
-2 large cloves garlic, pressed
-1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
-1/2 cup chicken broth +1 Tbsp. red or white wine vinegar (or 1/2 cup white wine)
-2 Tbsp. olive oil (I used extra virgin)
-coarse ground sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
-8 bone in, skin on chicken thighs

Heat oven to 425*F.  In a 9x13 glass baking dish, toss beans, tomatoes, thyme, oregano, garlic, red pepper, chicken broth, wine vinegar, 1 Tablespoon of the olive oil, approx 1/4 tsp ground salt and 1/4 tsp. ground pepper.

Rinse and pat chicken dry with a paper towel.  Place skin side up on the beans.  Rub the tops with remaining 1 Tablespoon olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  (I used the fresh ground sea salt and pepper again).

Put in oven and roast 35 - 45 minutes until the chicken is golden and cooked through.  Sprinkle with fresh oregano leaves to serve.