Everyday Style & Recipes. Est. 2010
Kalamaki (or Souvlaki) is a Greek food that can be made with chicken, beef or vegetables. The meat is marinated and grilled on a skewer. I marinated the chicken in lemon, yogurt and oregano for a few hours before grilling. It was a simple marinade of fresh ingredients that went really well with the flavors of the grilled chicken. Putting the chicken on a skewer is optional but it does end up being more fun to eat.
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Whenever I have leftovers I try to think of creative ways to use them. I had two chicken thighs from the Moroccan Chicken I made the other day and I decided to make a pulled chicken sandwich out of the leftovers. I recently made some Moroccan yogurt and dill dip and it seemed like it would go really well on a sandwich too. To give the sandwich some extra flavor I added some roasted red peppers which provided a nice pop of color as well. Overall the sandwich was a tasty way to use leftovers. The savory flavors of the chicken paired nicely with the roasted peppers and fresh yogurt dressing.
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This is one of those recipes I make every 2-3 weeks because I can’t stop making it. I actually get cravings for the preserved lemons that taste just like lemon candy. This recipe is so tasty due to all the layers of flavor that come from the curry spice blend, preserved lemon, and Harissa (a Moroccan red chili paste.) Since the chicken is marinated overnight and roasted in the oven for several hours the chicken always turns out tender and juicy. For side dishes, I like to pair the chicken with Moroccan roasted potatoes and curried orange couscous.
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It was a bit cold and rainy this past week and I wanted something warm and comforting for dinner. Since I had a whole chicken in my freezer, I thought making chicken noodle soup would be a great meal on these cold and damp Fall days. Making chicken noodle soup only requires humble ingredients and a simple cooking process, yet it yields such delicious flavors! You just can’t go wrong with home made chicken noodle soup. The one thing that was slightly disappointing was that I could not find Reames Egg noodles at my grocery store. Instead I opted for the curly egg noodles which were great but not as good as the thick, slightly doughy, egg noodles. It was not too much of a loss though since this soup turned out great anyways. I learned of a new trick to making chicken noodle soup which was adding a 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric to the broth. I really liked how it made the broth pop with color and the flavor of the turmeric was a nice addition to a traditional recipe.
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As soon as I made my first batch of spinach pesto I threw it on penne along with some spicy grilled chicken. The paprika rubbed chicken added a nice counterpoint to the creamy pesto sauce. Even though it was a simple spice rub (paprika and olive oil) it tasted great. Before grilling, I tenderized the chicken by pounding it thin. The pasta was flavorful and the warm colors of the chicken and green pasta were very pleasing to the eye as well! I topped the pasta with a little crumbled feta and walnuts.
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Butter chicken, or Murgh Makhani, is a popular Indian dish where chicken is marinated in a yogurt sauce and then cooked in a tomato curry sauce. Garam masala is used to season both sauces which gives them a delicious, aromatic flavor. The chicken was traditionally cooked in a tandoori oven but can be easily made in a regular oven too. Makhani, the tomato based sauce, is made by mixing tomato puree, butter, and cream to create a rich and creamy sauce. I also added almond butter to the yogurt marinade for another layer of creaminess. Cashew butter can also be used instead of almond butter. The recipe is easy to follow since the chicken marinates overnight and the tomato curry sauce is pretty straight forward. The only thing tricky was finding fenugreek and I could only find it at a spice store, not in a supermarket. I thought this dish turned out beautifully and I look forward to leftovers! Butter chicken can be served with naan, rice, and topped with cilantro or yogurt.
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Pho is a Vietnamese soup that can be made with beef or chicken. Pho, to the best of my knowledge has something of a cult following among foodies and I was excited to try it out for myself. Pho is popular because of the amazing stock that is used to make the soup. The stock is flavored with star anise, cloves, cinnamon, lemongrass and nutmeg.* A list of ingredients and garnishes can be found here. I have never tried beef pho and this is the first time I have ever had chicken pho. Even though I don’t have any prior experience for comparison I really enjoyed this dish and I can see why it is so popular. The broth is really clean and fragrant and the flavors of the garnishes mixed with the noodles and broth are so good. The ingredients are basic but when eaten all together the flavors are more amazing than the sum of its parts. The star of pho is the beef soup and if the chicken version is as good as this was, I look forward to making that one too!
*I used ground spices for my soup but with most pho recipes it will require whole spices (I would imagine some pho purists would think this to be sacrilege). I thought the ground spices were great–I just made sure to strain the broth twice to remove the spice particles to get a clearer and cleaner broth.
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Tamales are a Mexican food made of masa (corn flour) and stuffed with any number of fillings. Tamales are an old food, meaning that it was probably eaten by Aztecs and Mayans as early as 8000 BC. Making them is a pretty involved process and it requires some time to get everything prepared and cooked–about 3-4 hours. I had a lot of fun making these, and when I was forming the dough into the corn husk I could picture someone from a different time and background doing this very same activity (which was pretty cool). The tamales turned out really well. The dough had a nice fluffy texture and the filling had a spicy, savory flavor. The filling was a tex-mex style shredded chicken and sweet corn. I seasoned the dough with cumin, paprika, and cinnamon. The chile verde was tasty and pretty simple to make too. I topped the tamales with a little monterey jack cheese and sour cream.
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This is an all-purpose chicken filling that could be used in all kinds of mexican dishes. I used this as a filling for tamales but it would be great in tacos, burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas, etc. The shredded chicken is pretty simple to make and has a nice sweet and spicy flavor. I only added the corn for the tamales so that is an optional ingredient.
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Pad Thai is a dish made with stir-fried rice noodles with egg, a sauce, a protein like shrimp or chicken, and other extras like bean sprouts, and peanuts. I have had my eye on this little Thai market in the neighborhood and I went in today to see what I could find. I discovered that unlike Vons, the check out lady knew exactly where the Tamarind paste was. I could have substituted the harder to find ingredients (galangal, palm sugar, etc) for brown sugar and ginger but I decided not to. I’m happy with that decision because I can work with a new set of flavors now.
The Pad Thai turned out really nicely too. It wasn’t as rich or sweet as restaurant Pad Thai. It had a nice balance of sour, sweet, and spicy. I took note from other bloggers and prepped everything before cooking the noodles. I now understand how easy it would be to burn the noodles while you run around looking for an egg. This dish does take some work but is well worth the effort.
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