Rosemary Roasted Chicken & Winter Vegetables

This is pure comfort food. It warms you thoroughly on a cold winter's night and makes enough to feed at least 6 hungry people.

The chicken is juicy and perfectly seasoned. The roasted vegetables are buttery and tender and compliment the chicken nicely. The sweet potatoes add a delicious touch of sweetness and the rosemary's fragrance perfumes the whole dish. This is a satisfying meal that will be enjoyed often.

This easy meal is inspired by our EASY JUICY ROAST CHICKEN recipe also on this blog.



One Dish Roast Chicken & Vegetables:

Serves 6

4 large organic chicken breasts, brined and cut into large chunks
2 T. deodorized coconut oil for oiling the baking pan
1 onion, cubed
10 to 12 organic carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
3 large organic russet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into chunks
1 to 2 large organic sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into chunks
4 large garlic cloves, peeled and mashed with 1/2 t. sea salt
1/2 cup melted organic butter or ghee
1 t. seasoned salt
1/2 t. fresh ground black pepper
1/2 t. onion powder
1 t, dried rosemary, crumbled
Sweet paprika, to sprinkle on top as a garnish


Method:

Thaw and brine skinless, boneless chicken breasts in water that has 2 T. sea salt dissolved into it. Let the meat soak completely covered in the brine 30 to 45 minutes. Rinse and cut meat into about 2-inch x 2-inch chunks. Set aside.

Oil an extra large casserole dish with deodorized coconut oil (otherwise you will taste coconut).

Wash and prepare the raw vegetables and place in the oiled baking dish.

Place the raw chunks of chicken on top of the raw vegetables. Sprinkle the meat with the seasoned salt and onion powder. toss the meat to coat with the seasonings evenly.

Sprinkle pepper and rosemary over everything in the baking dish.

Mash the garlic with the salt.

Melt the butter, then add the mashed garlic. Pour the garlic butter over top and toss everything together well to evenly coat.

Sprinkle with paprika and dot with more butter, if desired.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees F, for 60 minutes.

Uncover, toss, and bake an additional 15 minutes at 400 degrees F.

Serve hot with a fresh green salad and fruit on the side. Have seasoned salt at the table too.


Note: For a dairy-free version, replace the butter with a total of 1/4 c. deodorized coconut oil.

Enjoy, 

Leila.

Classic Potato Salad - Flavorful and Sugar-Free

Classic Potato Salad

This classic potato salad is easy to make and very flavorful. The hot potatoes first soak up a seasoned brine so that they absorb nice flavor, and then after they have cooled down a while, the other ingredients are added.

This is one of our families favorite potato salads. It keeps very well for a few days in the refrigerator and it is a classic for summer outings and B-B-Q's.



Classic Potato Salad Recipe:

4 pounds boiling potatoes (like Yukon Golds, long whites, round Maine, red new potatoes)
1/2 c. raw apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup xylitol (or sugar)
1 T. BioSalt or sea salt
1 t. dry mustard powder, optional
1 c. minced white onion
2 c. diced celery
6 hard boiled eggs, chopped
2 c. Best foods or Hellman's mayonnaise
1 t. fresh ground black pepper
1 c. diced dill pickles or sweet hot pickles, optional
Additional BioSalt or sea salt, to taste


Method:

Scrub the potatoes and place in a large pot of cold water.

Bring the potatoes up to a gentle simmer and simmer 15 to 25 minutes, just until firm-tender.

Drain and let cool slightly.

Make the vinegar brine by mixing the vinegar, sweetener, salt, and mustard powder in a small sauce pan. Gently heat to dissolve the sugar. Taste your brine and adjust to your liking. Set aside.

When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel the potatoes, if desired (the peels are usually bitter), cut into 1" pieces and place in a medium-large bowl. Add the onions to the bowl.

Pour the vinegar brine over the hot potatoes and onions, and gently toss to coat the potatoes.

Let the potato mixture cool to room temperature. Or chill for a while.

Add the celery, eggs, mayonnaise and pickles (if using) and stir gently.

Serve immediately at room temperature or chill until serving time.









Enjoy, 

Leila.

Authentic New York Deli-Style Potato Salad - Made Healthier and Brined for best flavor 24 hours

New York Deli Potato Salad.

Try this delicious flavor-packed potato salad for your next get together. People love it.

This type of potato salad is found in Queens, New York, Long Island, and in some Jewish or Italian delis. You don't really see it elsewhere.

Have you ever made a brined potato salad? Iv'e been doing it now for over 20 years and I keep coming back for more. The flavors deeply penetrate the potatoes when prepared this way and the result is a creamy dynamic potato salad with out having to use tons of mayo. Don't get me wrong, we love mayo around here.

It takes a couple of days to make this salad but it is well worth the effort. It continues to taste better each day too. Make sure you do not over cook the potatoes. Chilled potatoes that sill have a bite to them are perfect.

Did you know that cold potatoes contain resistant starch in them?

Do you know why that is a great thing?

Simply put, resistant starch resists being digested, resists breaking down into sugars in the body, and resists adding pounds to your body. Resistant starch is good starch.

Hot potatoes do not have this benefit. Pasta, by the way, is shown to have more resistant starch in it than hot pasta. I feel better about eating cold potatoes over cold pasta, however. Pasta is still generally white flour and/or starch and doesn't have the best nutritional value.

This recipe easily doubles.


New York Deli-Style Potato Salad Recipe:

3 to 3 1/2 pounds organic young new potatoes
1/2 cup finely minced onion, to taste
1/2 cup purified water
1/2 cup  white wine vinegar (healthier than plain white vinegar)
1/2 cup sugar (or xylitol, for a sugar-free version)
2 T. light olive oil (better than the usual canola oil)
1 T. sea salt or BioSalt
1 t. white pepper powder
1 t. dry mustard powder, optional
2 T. finely minced fresh parsley, or more to taste
1/2 to 1 cup Thick, high quality mayonnaise, to taste (Real Foods or Hellman's)
2 T minced red pimentos, optional
1 c. finely minced celery, optional


Method:

Day One:

Place cleaned potatoes into a large pot and cover with water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a gentle simmer and cook just until a fork pierces a potato with little resistance. They should not be cooked until completely soft or you will have mushy potato salad.

Remove potatoes from stove, drain and cool in an ice bath. chill in the refrigerator until completely cold. It's easy to do this 2 days before you want to serve the salad.

Day Two:

Once potatoes are cold, halve and then slice into desired size. You can leave the skins on (I do) or rub them off.

Place the potatoes into a bowl and add the finely minced onion.

Make the hot brine by putting the water, sugar, vinegar, salt, white pepper, and mustard powder into a sauce pan and bringing to a boil, stirring just until dissolved. Remove from heat. Add the oil and taste your brine. It should have balanced flavors of sweet, savory, sour, with a pleasant heat from the white pepper and mustard powder.

Pour the hot brine over the potatoes and onions in the bowl. Toss gently to coat. Seal air-tight and chill 24 hours. I like to stir a couple times during this period.

Day Three:

The brine will be absorbed by the potatoes. If there is excess brine, drain it off. Add the minced parsley and mayonnaise to taste.

You may optionally add 2 T. minced pimentos for color and 1 cup finely minced celery for added texture.

Enjoy,

Leila.

Super delicious marinated B-B-Q lamb chops - Greek style

Easy Greek B-B-Q Lamb

This recipe is so simple to prepare and so tasty! The marinade compliments lamb perfectly. This is another of my mother's delicious recipes and I think you will love it as I do.

I prefer domestic lamb over imported lamb, by the way. I have some good friends who have lambing operations in Utah. I think the flavor of their lamb is better, plus I like supporting local businesses, don't you?


GREEK B-B-Q Lamb Recipe:

8 Lamb chops

Marinade:

1/4 c. Olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
2 to 4 Garlic cloves, crushed well
1 t. Dried oregano, crushed
1 t. Sea salt
1/2 t. Fresh ground black pepper
1/4 c. Water


Method:

Mix the marinade ingredients together and set aside.
Place 8 lamb chops in a heavy-duty Zip-Lock bag.
Pour the marinade over the lamb chops. Let the air out of the bag and seal.
Let marinate in your refrigerator 12 to 24 hours. Flip the bag over a couple times to evenly marinate.
Drain and grill  or broil the lamb to your liking.


Enjoy,

Leila

On-The-Go Grilled Chicken Strips

On-The-Go Grilled Chicken Strips 

I have wanted the convenience of pre-sliced char-broiled chicken breasts in my freezer, at my beck and call...for topping salads, adding to wraps, soups, sandwiches, whatever...

So Yesterday I lightly brined a large bag of thawed chicken breasts (I counted 17 breasts), in a large stock pot with some herbs and spices. I let it brine 24 hours, but you could brine the chicken for less time if you wanted. The brining is very easy to do, and it infuses the meat with flavor and keeps the meat tender and moist.

I then poached the chicken in the brining liquid until it was a little over half-way cooked through. Then we got our outdoor grill fired up and finished them off there, to create that nice grilled flavor. I first poached the chicken so that we didn't have to stand outside in the cold for a long time (it is January after all). You can skip the poaching step if you want to stand outside and tend the grill for a longer time.

I let the grilled chicken cool and then sliced it up and portioned the slices into quart-sized freezer storage bags. I Popped the bags in the freezer and they are ready to go at a moments notice.


ON-THE-GO JUICY GRILLED CHICKEN Recipe:

1 large bag of frozen chicken breasts (about 16 breasts)
2 T. sea salt
2 large garlic cloves, smashed
1 t. Italian seasoning (or other seasoning of choice)
1/2 t. onion powder
2 c. hot water
water to cover the chicken

Method:

Rinse the thawed chicken and place in a large stock pot.
Fill the pot with water, to just cover the chicken
Smash the garlic cloves with the salt in a mortar and pestle. (the salt helps with the garlic smashing).
In 2 cups hot water, add the Italian seasoning, onion powder, and smashed garlic-salt mixture.
Stir to completely dissolve the salt. Add the salt water (brine) to the chicken in the pot.
Refrigerate, letting the chicken marinate in the brine for up to 24 hours, (alternately you can marinate the chicken in zip-lock bags)

The next day:
Bring the pot of chicken to a gentle boil over medium-high heat.
Once it starts to boil, turn the heat down to medium-low, so that it is barely simmering.
Simmer about 10 minutes, then check the chicken for done-ness (is that a word?).
You want the chicken to be a little over half-way done.Remove chicken from the pot carefully.
place partway cooked chicken on a preheated outdoor grill.
Grill until cooked through, turning so that both sides have nice grill marks.
Cut into thin slices as soon as the chicken is cool enough to handle.
Portion meat into quart-sized freezer bags and freeze for future use.


Shortcut:
You can just brine the chicken for 1 to 2 hours by doubling the salt in the brine and diluting with less water. Before poaching the chicken, rinse the meat and poach in clean water. You may add more spices to the cooking water if desired. Then proceed as above.


Note: Use Gluten-Free seasonings and onion salt if that is a concern for you.

Chicken in the seasoned brine

Grilling the partially poached chicken

Don't let the chicken dry out while grilling

The grilled chicken is cooling before being sliced

The moist, sliced chicken

Packaged for the freezer

Enjoy!

Leila