Tag Archives: chicken recipes

Main Dish, Poultry, Recipes

An Old Favorite: Chicken Divan

This recipe has been around forever and often gets forgotten as new and exciting recipes come along.  But it is still one of the most delicious main course dinners I’ve encountered.   I took a basic recipe from an old cook book and made a few adjustments to make it low carb.  Hope you will give it a try soon.

Classic Chicken Divan

3 cups cooked fresh Broccoli spears
1 1/2 lbs sliced cooked chicken
3 tablespoons Butter
3 tablespoons Low Carb Flour*
1 cup Heavy Cream
1/2 cup Water
2 large Eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons cooking Sherry
Paprika

* I use CarbQuick for my flour.  Using 2 tablespoons of regular flour will add 100 calories and .3 g net carbs to each serving, so not a big issue.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Arrange broccoli in the bottom of a 2 quart shallow baking dish or 6 individual baking dishes. Place chicken slices over the broccoli and cover with foil. Bake for 20 minutes until hot.

Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat, then blend in flour. Cook and stir until smooth and bubbly, then remove from heat. Mix the cream and water together and gradually stir into the flour mixture. Return it to heat and bring to a boil. Gradually blend half the hot cream sauce into beaten eggs, then gradually add the mixture back to the hot sauce mixture. Stir in the sherry.

Arrange the broccoli and chicken on serving plates if they are in the baking dish. If in individual dishes, serve in the dish. Spoon sauce over the chicken and broccoli and sprinkle on a little paprika for color.

Makes 6 servings.

Nutrition Info per serving
Calories: 278 Fat: 24.4 g Net Carbs: 5.2 g Protein: 7.3 g

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, Recipes

Quick Fix Green Chile Chicken

Green Chile Chicken Skillet Casserole

Cinco de Mayo is just around the corner so it’s time to throw out a few recipes to help celebrate the day!  Since I am a product of the Southwest, I love this kind of food, but I admit, much of it has a Tex-Mex flavoring to it.  This recipe is one I’ve made for years and always relished.  It’s easy, takes about 30 to 40 minutes to prepare and tastes wonderful.

It only required a couple of changes to make it low carb’d and that was mostly to replace the rice with riced cauliflower.  Using pico de gallo that is already made from the grocery store and canned green chile enchilada sauce really speeds up the process but still delivers the wonderful flavors.  If you can’t find pico de gallo at your grocery store, it is easy to make with onions, tomatoes, jalapeno chiles and cilantro.  There are many on the internet, but you can try this one.

Green Chile Chicken Skillet Casserole

Chicken strips work very well with this dish.

6 oz – Chicken Breast
4 tablespoons Pico de Gallo
1/2 cup Green Chile Enchilada Sauce
2 tablespoons Chopped Green Chiles
1 teaspoon Better than Bullion chicken plus 1/2 cup water or 1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup Cauliflower, frozen, thawed and riced
1 cup Zucchini sliced or chopped
2 tablespoons Sour Cream,
1/4 cup Cheddar Cheese, shredded
1 tablespoon Olive Oil

If starting with fresh cauliflower, par boil for 3 minutes and drain. If using frozen cauliflower, thaw and cook in the microwave for 2 minutes or par boil for 2 minutes, then drain excess water off. Process in a food processor for a few seconds until it is riced. Or you can chop finely or grate.

Cut the chicken into bite sized cubes.

Heat oil in a medium skillet and add the pico de gallo. Saute about three minutes over medium heat. Move to one side and add the chicken to it. Cook until brown on both sides, then add chicken broth or bullion and water to the skillet along with the enchilada sauce. Stir in the chicken pieces and let come to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, then add the riced cauliflower and zucchini.

Cook for about 15 minutes until most of the liquid is reduced and zucchini is fork tender. Add the sour cream and cheese and stir in to mix well, cooking for about three minutes more to melt the cheese.
Serves 2 or 3 people, depending in how hungry you are.

Nutrition Info: 2 servings
Calories: 274 Fat: 13.8 g Net Carbs: 5.7 g Protein: 26.2 g

3 servings:
Calories: 183 Fat: 9.2 g Net Carbs: 3.8 g Protein: 17.5 g