Category Archives: Poultry

Main Dish, Poultry, Recipes

Chicken Kohlrabi Curry Is A Spicy Blend of Flavor

Curry is another one of those great foods that I love. When I think of curry, I generally picture the thick Indian style dish that is like a wonderfully flavorful stew. Indian or Thai food at a restaurant is just too high in carbs to enjoy other than on a special occasion – and being fully prepared to see some weight gain from this indulgence.

So I was very excited to come up with this low carb alternative. Over the years, my stomach has taken offense to the very spicy versions, so this might seem a little tame to you. Add more of the curry powder or chile powder to bring the taste to your preferred level. I often find that the cubed blocks of curry are more flavorful and stronger than the powder is, so the next time I try it, I will use some of that.

Spicy Chicken Kohlrabi Curry

2 cups Kohlrabi, diced (about 2)
1 cup Turnips, diced (1 medium)
1/2 cup Onions, raw, chopped
1 cup Broccoli, frozen or partly cooked, chopped
1 cup Green Beans
1/2 cup Kohlrabi leaves, chopped
2 Chicken Breasts (1 full breast), cubed
1 tablespoon Ginger & Garlic Paste
1 cup diced Tomatoes, canned with juice
1/4 cup sweet Peppers, chopped
1.5 tablespoons Curry powder
1/2 tablespoon Red Chile Powder

Put kohlrabi and turnips in a microwave safe bowl and cook for about 5 minutes until they are just tender. Or put in boiling water and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes until they are fork tender. Drain.

In a deep skillet, heat oil a few minutes over medium heat Add ginger-garlic paste and onions and cook until the onions begin to turn translucent. Remove onions to a bowl. Add chicken to the skillet with a tablespoon oil and cook until chicken turns white. Add broccoli, beans, onions and spices to the chicken. Stir until vegetables are cooked, adding a little water if it gets too dry. Then add tomatoes, kohlrabi and turnips. Cook over low heat to blend the flavors, about 10 minutes. Add kohlrobi greens and stir in, let cook until they just go limp.

Serve with a green salad.

Makes 6 servings

Nutrition Info: Calories: 93.6 Net Carbs: 6.9 g Protein: 9.7 g

Note: You can use all kohlrabi if you don’t like turnips.

TIP: You can make your own ginger-garlic paste by combining equal amounts of peeled fresh ginger and peeled garlic cloves in a food processor. Add a little olive oil or coconut oil to make a smooth paste. Store in a jar in the refrigerator or freeze in small packets for future use. You could also freeze in tablespoon batches in an ice cube tray, then put the cubes in a plastic freezer bag.

Posted on 2/4/2013

Main Dish, Mexican/Spanish Recipes, Poultry, Recipes

Rene’s Chicken Chile Rellano Casserole

First Published on my LiveJournal blog on July 13, 2012

Maybe a bit oddly, this 4th of July I went for some comfort food from my formative years. Not your ordinary comfort food, but the kind of food that I relate to home and family. In this case, it is a Mexican dish, with my own twist, that brings back many fond memories from my childhood. I was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, and Mexican food was as common as steak and potatoes in my family. (Both of my mother’s parents had been Texas ranchers.) At least once a month, and often more than that, the whole family would go out to dinner at one of the local Mexican restaurants. My grandfather’s favorite dish, and the one he ordered all the time, was chile rellanos. I didn’t develop a taste for them until I was in my teen years, but the memories of my grandfather are always associated with this dish. And that, to me, is comfort food.

This recipe is my one I have developed over the years and can be made with Anaheim chiles, fresh or canned. Keep in mind the bulk of the hot spice is in the seeds and discard them if you want the flavor without the burn. If you use fresh, you will need to roast or blister the peppers and peel them. I add chicken or turkey to the stuffing then bake them in a casserole rather than frying them. They can be made without the meat, if you prefer a meatless dish.

Rene’s Chicken Chile Rellano Casserole

1 – 16 oz can Fire-Roasted Whole Green Chiles (approx. 8)
1 cup Fire-roasted Diced Tomatoes, Mexican style or add onions and peppers, if desired
8 ounces Chicken Breast, diced or shredded
8 sliced sticks of Sharp Cheddar Cheese, about ½” x ½ inch and long enough to fill the chile
4 oz Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup Shredded Mexican Four Cheese blend or Cheddar and Jack Cheese
4 Eggs
1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1/4 cup Water
1/4 cup Sweet Peppers, sliced (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Split the chiles open and stuff each with chicken and 1 tablespoon of cheese.

Whisk together the eggs, cream cheese, and cream with 1/4 cup water in a bowl, add salt and pepper, a bit of garlic powder and 1/4 teaspoon of red chile powder (if desired). Pour the mixture over the chiles and cheese. Top with sliced sweet peppers and remaining cheese.

Bake in the preheated oven until set, about 40 minutes. Remove casserole and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.


While the casserole continues to set, heat diced tomatoes in a saucepan. Add chopped onions and peppers, if desired. To serve, carefully cut along the chiles to try to remove them as a whole chile rather than just cutting the dish into squares.

Each serving is one chile topped with diced tomatoes.
About 270 calories and 5 net carbs per serving.

 

Main Dish, Mexican/Spanish Recipes, Poultry, Recipes

Muy Delicioso – Enchiladas con Pollo y Calabaza

That’s Enchiladas with Chicken and Butternut Squash, for those who don’t speak any Spanish. But it is appropriate as we are approaching Cinco de Mayo and all the Mexican celebrations coming up. I love Mexican food, grew up eating it, so it’s a part of my Tex-Mex culture. My Spanish, on the other hand, is limited in spite of growing up on the border. But when it comes to food, I am pretty fluent.

This is a non-traditional dish made even more so by being made low carb. I got the original base recipe from AllRecipes.com, which was posted by Elizabeth there, but I made a few changes and it doesn’t look much like the original any more. It is delicious and flavorful with the added flavors of butternut squash, spinach and chipotle salsa. It is not good for either phase I or II of Atkins, but it is worth the slight indulgence.

Enchiladas with Chicken and Butternut Squash

8 low carb Flour Tortillas, 7″ (La Tortilla and Mama Lupe’s are 3 net carbs per tortilla)
1/2 unpeeled Butternut Squash, seeded (1 cup)
2 Chicken half breasts, boneless
1/4 cup Water
1 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 clove Garlic, minced
1/4 Onion, chopped
1 cup fresh Spinach, packed
1 cup red Enchilada Sauce
1/2 cup Chipotle Salsa
3/4 cup Mexican 4 Cheese mix
2 tablespoons chopped Cilantro leaves, for garnish (optional)
1/4 cup Sour Cream, for topping (optional)

A few ingredients: Butternut squash, spinach, olives, onions and garlic.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Put butternut squash half in a baking dish, pour in water and spray top with butter cooking spray. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes to roast. Take out and let cool enough to handle, then peel and dice the flesh. It will make about one cup. Place into a mixing bowl and set aside.

Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and broil or grill the chicken until it is just done, but still juicy. Let cool and cut into cubes or shreds. Add to the butternut squash.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the garlic and onion; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the spinach and olives, then stir-cook until the spinach wilts. Fold the spinach mixture into the diced butternut squash.

Put enchilada sauce into a small pan, add 1/4 cup chipotle salsa and stir- cook with a wooden spoon until it thickens enough to coat the spoon.

Heat a tortilla over an a gas flame to soften it. If you don’t have a gas stove, use a griddle on the burner to heat the tortilla. Place the tortilla on a plate, spread about 1 tablespoon of enchilada sauce over it. Spoon in 1/8th of the filling (about 1/4 cup), about 1 tablespoon of cheese and roll the tortilla. Secure with a toothpick if you need to and place seam side down in a baking dish. Repeat with each of the tortillas.

Pour the remainder of the enchilada sauce over the top and sprinkle the rest of the cheese over it.

Bake in the preheated oven until hot, about 10 minutes. Garnish each enchilada with chopped cilantro leaves and a dollop of sour cream to serve.

Makes 8 enchiladas

Nutrition per enchilada
Calories: 155.7 Fat: 8 g Net Carbs: 8.25 g Protein: 10.7g

Posted on 5/2/2013

Main Dish, Poultry, Recipes

BBQ Chicken Pie

This is a recipe that I found from another low carb dieter that I adapted to my ingredients and style. It builds on the Impossible Pie recipe from Bisquick. But with Bisquick, the carbs are too high to add to my menu, so I adapted it to use CarbQuick. (You can probably use any low carb flour in it. You may need to add 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder.) This basic recipe for a quick pie crust is used to make many “impossible” pies, so I will post it separately also for a reference when making these types of pies.

For the BBQ filling, I took the best part of the recipe and added my favorites to it and used a Honey BBQ Sauce from Walden Farms that is — believe it or not — 0 calories and 0 carbs. Fantastic! And it tastes good. While it is a little runnier than I would like my BBQ sauce to be, it does the job and brings a lot of flavor.

For those who don’t care about the carbs or the calories in this, use Bisquick instead of CarbQuick and your favorite BBQ sauce.

This is like an upside down pizza with the crust on the top.

Quick Pie Crust:
3/4 cup CarbQuick
2 Eggs
1/4 cup Buttermilk

Filling:
1 1/2 cups cooked Chicken Thighs or Chicken Breast
1/2 small Onion
1 tablespoon minced Garlic
3/4 cup Cheddar/Jack cheese, grated
1/4 cup sweet Peppers, thinly sliced
1/4 cup Mushrooms (optional)
3/4 cup sliced fresh Zucchini

Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease or spray pie plate with cooking spray and set aside. Melt butter in a sauce pan and saute sliced zucchini until lightly browned. Remove and arrange in the pie plate to make an even layer. Saute onions, peppers, mushrooms and garlic in skillet until just tender. Add chicken and BBQ sauce and mix well. Spread the chicken mixture evenly over the zucchini. Divide the shredded cheese and sprinkle half over the chicken mix.

Pie plate with the zucchini layer and filling mixture before adding cheese.

In a small bowl combine the Carbquick, eggs, buttermilk and water and mix well. Add 1 tablespoon of BBQ sauce if you would like to add a little more spice to the crust. Pour mix over the top of the pie.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The crust may shift to the bottom of the pan while cooking.

Sprinkle the reserved cheese over the top of the pie and return to the oven for about 5 to 8 minutes to allow it to melt. You could also put thin slices of cheddar cheese on top instead of the grated cheese before serving, if you would like.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Info per serving: Calories: 180 Net Carbs: 3.6g Protein: 19.6g
POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 11/8/2012 2:43 PM

Italian Inspired Recipes, Main Dish, Poultry, Recipes

Chicken with Tomatoes and Zucchini

My challenge this week was to use up the tomatoes my friends left behind when they headed off to France on holiday and to work on their house there. These were vine-ripened tomatoes and the skins were already starting to shrivel, so I wanted to do something to remove the skins and cook them into a tomato-based dish.  I had chicken thighs on hand, so it was a logical step to make a chicken with tomatoes dish. This takes a little time to cook, but the actual process is pretty easy.

While a base of pasta would be lovely, it’s simply too high carb’d so I would suggest you use spaghetti squash or shredded cabbage, lightly steamed or raw, as the base to put this on. I just ate it as is with a side salad.

1/2 cup Mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves Garlic
4 large Chicken Thighs, bone and skin removed
2 tablespoons Butter
2 tsp Italian Seasoning
1 cup Zucchini, sliced
1/4 cup Sweet Peppers,sliced
1 1/2 cups Red Ripe Tomatoes  or 1 1/2 cup canned stewed tomatoes
1/4 cup Onions, chopped
1/4 cup chicken stock or cooking wine

Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the tomatoes. Let them boil for about 5 minutes, then run cold water over them and drain. Let them cool until easy to hold, then use a sharp knife to cut the skin around the stem end and peel the skin off. It should slide off easily. Cut the tomatoes into pieces over a bowl so you can any juice that runs out as you cut them.

In a large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon butter and brown the chicken thighs on both sides. Remove to paper towel on a plate. Add garlic, additional butter, peppers and onions to the skillet and sauté until the onion is tender. Add the mushrooms, tomatoes, zucchini and seasonings to the pan and stir together over medium heat. Add 1/4 cup of cooking wine if you would like or add 1/4 cup chicken stock for extra flavor. Stir the mixture together well, then arrange the chicken pieces in the pan. Lower heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes, checking a couple of times to be sure there is liquid in the pan. Then stir the mixture around, add any liquid if it is getting low and turn the chicken pieces over, covering them with the tomato sauce. Cook another 15 to 20 minutes.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Info:
Calories: 163 Fat: 8.7 g Net Carbs: 5.1 g Protein: 14.8 g