Curried Chicken Salad

If you haven't guessed yet, I've been eating a lot of chicken salad. It's quick, high protein, I can sneak a few veggies into every serving, and it's highly portable for the days I'm running around the city doing errands and going to appointments. One half-cup of chicken salad, a dozen (1/2 serving) baked lentil chips, and a small clementine orange and I'm full for hours. I like to lower the fat a little by halving the mayo in the recipe with fat free plain Greek yogurt, but if you don't have any handy you can always make it up by using a bit less of the reduced fat mayo or a fat free mayo instead. (I don't personally like fat free mayo, but if you like it, knock yourself out!) I added some raisins for sweetness and finely minced carrot for moisture and color. You could always add a few toasted slivered almonds for some healthy fats and a little crunch, but I didn't have any in the pantry this time.

Curried Chicken Salad

1 Large Carrot, chopped finely
8 oz. Chicken Breast (cooked), chopped in small pieces (skin and fat removed)
1 Large Scallion/Green Onion, sliced thinly
2 T. Reduced Fat Mayo
2 T. Fat Free Plain Greek Yogurt
1-3 T. Curry Powder (sweet curry powder, not hot)
1/2 C. Sultanas or Raisins
Salt to taste

If you have a food processor, combine chunks of carrot and process until mostly chopped, add chicken and process further until both are to your desired consistency. If you don't have a food processor, proceed as detailed above (carrot chopped finely and chicken into small pieces.) Combine chicken-carrot mixture with all remaining ingredients in a large bowl and mix until completely combined. Adjust salt and curry powder to your taste. Refrigerate until serving.

Makes 4 servings.

Approximate Nutrition: Calories 171.4, Total Fat 4.1 g, Cholesterol 37.6 mg, Sodium 681.4 mg , Total Carbs 19.8 g, Dietary Fiber 2.4 g, Protein 15.3 g.

The Best Roast Chicken

My wife absolutely adores roasted chicken. I like it, too, but she likes it even more than I do. There was a stretch last year when I was making one a week (usually on Sundays - how very 1950s of me!) I haven't made it since surgery but after a trial run eating some roasted chicken breast last week, I think this is a practice that may have to be reestablished. I found the roasted meat to be much more tender, moist, and flavorful than other ways of cooking chicken and it went down very well, without any discomfort or "sticking."

This recipe is based on one by Ina Gartner, though I'm way less fussy in my preparations. I strongly recommend the lemons and thyme for the fresh flavor they lend to the dish, but if you don't have any handy don't worry, this is still very yummy.

The Best Roast Chicken

5-6 lb. Roaster Chicken, giblets removed
2 T. Butter, melted
Carrots, Turnips, Parsnips, and Onions, cut into 2-3" pieces (enough to fill the bottom of your baking dish)
2 heads Garlic
6 sprigs Fresh Thyme
2 Lemons, halved
Olive Oil Spray (I use regular olive oil in one of these)
2 t. Garlic Powder
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425F.

Fill your baking dish with the chopped veggies. Slice the garlic heads in two along their equator, so all the cloves have been halved and nestle them in among the veggies. Add 4 sprigs of fresh thyme. Spray everything lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper (about 1.5-2 t. for a 9"x11"x3" baking dish full of veggies.) Toss to coat.

Use kitchen shears to remove any excess fat or skin from chicken, but leave the skin over the breast and thighs/legs intact. Place the chicken on top of the chopped veggies and tuck the tips of the wings under so they don't burn. Pat dry as much as possible with paper towels. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the remaining 2 sprigs thyme and both lemons. Don't worry if the lemons are coming out the end, just mash them in the best way you can. Brush the cold chicken with the warm melted butter all over top, ends, and sides. The butter will congeal on the cold chicken, but this is what you want. Sprinkle the chicken lightly all over with garlic powder, salt, and fresh cracked black pepper. Place in preheated oven and roast 1.5-2 hours, or until an instant read thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh reads 170F. Remove from oven, tent loosely in foil, and allow to rest 20 minutes before carving. When serving, squeeze the roasted garlic out of their skins and mix into the veggies. Squeeze the juice of the roasted lemons over servings of the chicken.

I can't really give you nutrition on this one cuz there are too many variables (if you eat the skin or discard it, how many veggies you eat, if you consume the pan juices, what part of the meat you have - thigh vs. breast, etc.) I can tell you that 3 oz. of the breast of this chicken and about 1/3 C. of the roasted veggies went down like a dream, tasted divine, and filled me up.

Reliable Chicken Salad

I heard from a friend this past Friday that the local grocery store runs a special on their precooked rotisserie chickens each Friday, marking them all down to $5. I had my wife go get one because it seemed like too good of a deal to pass up on, particularly on a weekend when I knew i wouldn't feel like cooking. But my intentions for a quick meal were thwarted on Friday night when we splurged on alare lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant and again on Saturday when I was in the mood for tofu and my wife wanted a bean & cheese burrito. And so that lovely rorisserie chicken just sat in the fridge looking tasty and forlorn until this evening when I realized that I could make chicken salad. Duh!

While I'm always game for new flavors and unique combinations, when I want something reliably tasty, I default to the Simple Is Better philosophy. This chicken salad falls into that category, with only 5 ingredients. I ran it through my mini food processor to get an almost baby food consistency (regular cooked chicken is still too tough for me to digest), but you don't really have to make it that way.

Reliable Chicken Salad

12 oz. Cooked Chicken, defatted and deboned
2 Large Carrots, chopped
2 Celery Stalks, chopped
1/2 t. Onion Powder
5 T. Low Fat Mayonnaise
Salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and process to your desired consistency. Spoon into a storage container and give it a good stir to ensure that all the mayo and onion powder is evenly distributed.

Makes 4 servings

Nutrition (from sparkrecipes.com recipe calculator): Calories 180.2, Total Fat 7.3 g, Cholesterol 58.8 mg, Sodium 290.4 mg, Total Carbs 7.5 g, Dietary Fiber 1.6 g, Protein: 20.2 g.

I've taken to using canning jars for storage containers. I have loads of them in the house and they're convenient.

White Bean Chicken Chili

With a big nor'easter rolling into the neighborhood, I thought today would be a good day for something hot, filling, and flavorful. I adapted this recipe from one by Ellie Krieger at Food Network. I've changed a few things to align with the ingredients I had available and to reduce the carbohydrate content. The original recipe called for poblanos, but my local Shaw's stinks and they only had cubanelles. It also called for hominy and celery, but I just removed them from the recipe because of the carbs and the stringyness of the celery (not great for stomachs recovering from surgery.)

The result is a flavorful, aromatic, chili that's high on satisfaction. Even with the lightly thickened chicken broth, this is more of a stew than a soup in consistency, and there's plenty to chew on with the beans, chicken, and veggies. The cubanelles did what I believe the poblanos were supposed to do: Add a lot of flavor and just a hint of heat. I took Ms. Krieger's suggestion and served it with a couple tablspoons of plain fat free GReek yogurt and I was impressed by the flavor similarity to the less-nutritious sour cream. If you want to lower the fat a little further, I suggest you use ground turkey, as in the original recipe, but I find ground turkey a bit gamey for my taste.

White Bean Chicken Chili

1 T. Olive Oil
1 Medium onion, diced
2 Cubanelle peppers, seeded and diced
3 Cloves Garlic, minced
1.5 t. Cumin
3/4 t. Coriander
1/4 t. Cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1 t. Oregano
1 lb. Ground Chicken (or turkey, I prefer chicken)
4 C. Reduced Fat, Reduced Sodium Chicken Broth
2 20 oz. Cans Canellini Beans
S&P to taste
4 T. Cilantro, minced

In a large pan, cook cubanelle peppers and onion until soft. Add garlic, cumin, coriander, and cayenne and cook an additional minute. Add ground chicken and cook through before adding oregano, chicken broth, and half to two-thirds of the beans. In a small bowl, mash the rest of the beans with a fork. Add the mashed beans to the pan, cover, and cook on medium-low for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste and additional cayenne, if desired. Serve with a sprinkling of minced cilantro.

Yield: 6 servings of 1.5 C. each

According to the recipe caculator at sparkrecipes.com, the stats on this round out as follows: Calories 270, Total Fat 10.2 g, Cholesterol 86.7 mg, Sodium 554.4 mg, Total Carbs 23.9 g, Dietary Fiber 6.2 g, Protein 22.3 g.

Week One - Italian Style Chicken Meatballs

I made it through the first week! After a ridiculous amount of fluids, I saw the surgeon and nutritionist this morning and was cleared to begin solid foods again! Woo! My first "meal" was an ounce of low fat sharp cheddar cheese (natch, cheese obsessed as I am.) This evening, however, I'm finally venturing back into the kitchen for something other than popsicles! To celebrate, I've written a new recipe for Italian style chicken meatballs. I did my best to give them loads of flavor without adding loads of fat and carbs and I think I (mostly) succeeded.

Italian Style Chicken Meatballs

• 1 lb. Ground Chicken
• 1 Egg
• .25 C. (scant) Italian Bread Crumbs, plus a little for sprinkling
• 1 t. Basil, crushed
• 2 t. Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb
• 1/3 C. Grated Parmeggiano Cheese
• .25 t. Salt
• Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine everything except the olive oil in a large bowl, using a fork to ensure even mixing. On a baking sheet lined with no-stick foil, portion out the ground meat mixture with a 1" scoop. Sprinkle the tops of each meatball with a tiny bit of bread crumbs and spray lightly with olive oil.

Bake until the interior of the meatballs measure 165F (about 8-10 minutes.) Remove from oven and allow to rest 2-3 minutes. Serve with your favorite marinara sauce and pasta.

Yield: approx. 30 meatballs

According to sparkrecipes.com, the nutritional values (per meatball and not including sauce) is: Calories 36.1, Total Fat 2.0 g, Cholesterol 19.2 mg, Sodium 84.8 mg, Total Carbs 1.1 g, Dietary Fiber 0.1 g, Protein 3.4 g.



Tom Kar Comfort

Whenever I get sick or feel like hell, the only thing I want to eat is Tom Kar (aka Tom Kha Gai) soup. It's a light, fragrant, chicken soup flavored with lemon grass, Kaffir lime leaves, coconut milk, cilantro, and galangal. The local Thai restaurant serves it with chunks of mushrooms, chicken breast, and scallions but it's mostly the flavorful broth that I loooove. It's just the perfect comfort food...warm, fragrant, redolent with the scent of lime leaves and cilantro. Mmm...

Before I get to the recipe, a few words about lime leaves and galangal. Lime leaves (sometimes called "Kaffir" limes leaves) are tough, shiny leaves possessing an immense burst of citrus scent and flavor. The flavor really cannot be substituted, so it's definitely worth the effort to find some. If none of the grocers in your area carry them, you can buy them online here. They freeze beautifully, too. Galangal root can usually be found cleaned, sliced, and frozen at an international grocery store. It's a rhizome, like ginger, but with a very different flavor that combines notes of bitter, sour, and spicy and does not have as sharp a bite as ginger. If you manage to find it in its fresh form, prepare it for use in recipes the same way you would with ginger - scrape off the tender peel and slice, mince, or grate.

Tom Kha Gai (Thai Chicken Soup)

• 4 C. Low Fat, Low Sodium Chicken Broth
• 1 Stalk Lemon Grass
• 2-4 Lime Leaves, torn in pieces
• 1" Chunk Galangal Root, sliced thinly
• 2-5 Red Thai Chiles, sliced in half and seeded
• 8 oz. Chicken Breast (boneless/skinless), cubed in bite-sized pieces
• 0.5 C. Dried Shiitake Mushrooms
• 0.75-1 C. Coconut Milk
• 4 T. Fish Sauce (optional)
• 3 T. Minced Cilantro
• 2 t. Fresh Lime Juice

Place dried mushrooms in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow mushrooms to steep for about 10 minutes and then drain, discarding the water. While the mushrooms are soaking, cut lemon grass stalk into 4 even pieces and, using a studded meat tenderizing mallet (or the back of a heavy knife), beat the heck out of it. You really want to bruise it up and tenderize the tough stalk to release the flavor.

In a medium pan, combine chicken broth, lemon grass, lime leaves, fish sauce, and galangal root. Bring to a gentle boil over medium-high heat. Add chicken, drained mushrooms, and chiles and simmer until chicken is cooked through. Reduce heat to low, add coconut milk, season with salt to taste, and allow it to heat up. Turn off heat and add fresh cilantro and lime juice and serve immediately.