Tag: Italian

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Chicken Alfredo

Lynnae

One of my very favorite food blogs is Our Best Bites.  They have some amazing recipes.   For this meal, I use their Guiltless Alfredo Sauce.  It’s fast, easy, low fat, and full of flavor.  Win, win, win, win.

First, I marinade 2-3 chicken breasts in equal parts of balsamic vinegar, lime juice, and 3 cloves of minced garlic for about 4 hours.

Then, I prepare a rub that I put on:

Rub:
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp parsley

I put the rub on both sides of the chicken breasts and grill them for 7-10 minutes per side.

I the mean time, I boil some fettuccine noodles in salt and a small amount of oil, and make the Alfredo sauce.

When everything is done, I slice the chicken into small strips and serve it on top of the noodles and Alfredo sauce.  Good stuff!

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Deep Dish Pizza & Pizza Sauce

Lynnae

Thursdays are pizza night, and again, I like to mix it up with a variety of pizzas.  This week is a deep dish.

Coat the bottom of a deep dish baker stone with olive oil and then place your crust in the pan.  You made need to let it relax for a minute before it will stay in place, depending on what pizza crust recipe you use.  I used a frozen ball from the more complex recipe that I sat in the fridge the night before and then let raise all day. 

Bake at 425 for 8-10 minutes until lightly done.  Remove and add pizza sauce, cheese, and your favorite pizza toppings. We love pepperoni, bacon, ham, mushrooms, black olive, fresh tomatoes, pineapple, or sausage.  We also really like slices of Johnsonville Garlic and Irish Sausage on top.  They are delicious!  Bake at 425 for an additional 30-35 minutes.

Here is the recipe I use for my pizza sauce:

Pizza Sauce

8 oz tomato sauce
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tbsp dried parsley
1/2 tbsp dried basil

Mix together.

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UPDATED: Pizza Crust

Lynnae

UPDATED

I have two recipes for pizza crust.  This first one is easy to mix up on demand, and doesn’t take a lot of prep work.  Here is my simple pizza crust recipe:

Pizza Crust

 1 c. water
2-3 c. flour, divided
1 tbsp yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Mix 1 cup of flour along with all the other ingredients in the mixer using the paddle attachment.  Change to the dough attachment on the mixer and add flour until the dough looses most of it’s stickiness, but is still soft and pliable.  This is enough dough for 1 large pizza.

The second recipe is a more complicated sour dough recipe, but well worth the effort.  Along with the discovery of King Arthur Flour, came this recipe for pizza crust, all from my husband’s attending (boss) last month, Dr. Kenneth Kernen.  My husband is the one who makes the dough, and then we freeze 3-4 balls for the next time.  This recipe is in weight, NOT in volume.  For your convenience, we have converted this to volume measurements in parenthesis, but we HIGHLY recommend weighing the flour.  Dr. Kernen said the reason is that it’s much more accurate and consistent, since the ingredients tend to be inconsistent in how tightly they’re packed.

Also of note, the bread flour/cake flour combo in here is important to get the consistency right, and King Arthur flour is the way to go.   King Arthur also has a sour dough starter if you don’t have one or can’t get a hold of one.  We also recommend Saf-instant yeast.

Sour Dough Pizza Crust

100 ml water (1/2 c.)
1 1/2 tsp yeast
15 ml honey (1 tbsp)
1/4 c. sour dough starter
700 ml cold water (about 3 cups)
35 gm salt (2 tbsp)
45 gm extra virgin olive oil (1/4 c.)
1000 gm bread flour (approx 6 3/4 c. scooped and leveled)
250 gm cake flour (approx 1 3/4 c. scooped and leveled)

In a mixing bowl, mix the 100 ml water, yeast, and honey together.  Then add the sour dough starter, cold water, salt, olive oil, and flour to the mixer with the dough hook attachment.  Knead for 10-15 minutes.  The dough will be pretty sticky and wet.  Transfer to an oiled bowl and cover.  Let it sit or proof at least 24 hrs, but longer is better (2-4 days).  It develops the flavor.   This recipe will make 4-5 pizza crusts.

NOTE:  This recipe also makes GREAT fry bread (scones, elephant ears, or whatever you want to call them).  We just made a sandwich from a left over piece of fry bread and it was OH SO GOOD!