Food is Love Made Edible

Food is Love Made Edible

Vegetables

20 Poultry

The Simplest Roasted Chicken Breast and Brussels Sprouts

My wife LOVES heavily roasted, nearly charred, Brussels sprouts!  When I say she loves them I mean she loves them I mean that wherever we go out to eat if she sees them on the menu she’s ordering them for us to snack on.  So when she walked in the house as I was first making these Brussels sprouts and she smelled them roasting in the oven she got really excited.

In the past six months or so I have become enamored with one pan/pot dishes; for multiple reasons.  The first of those being that you just use less dishes when you do all your cooking in one pan.  So really I’m helping save the planet when I cook everything in one pan and don’t have to add on extra dishes to wash.  The second reason for me liking to cook everything in one dish is that it allows the flavor aspects of all the ingredients to meld together in the cooking process.

One of the reason why the Brussels sprouts are so lightly seasoned in this recipe is that the fat from the chicken collects in the pan and almost fries the Brussesls sprouts.  And it just makes them taste so good!

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The Simplest Roasted Chicken Breast and Brussels Sprouts

Prep

Cook

Total

Yield 3 servings

Ingredients

Chicken

  • 3 split chicken breasts (A pack at the grocery store will typically have 3)
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, minced
  • 4 springs fresh thyme, leaves removed
  • 1 sprig fresh sage, minced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp fresh cracked black pepper
  • 2 tsp kosher salt

Brussels Sprouts

  • 1 pound Brussels sprouts
  • 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
  • 1 tsp salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
  2. Mix together olive oil, rosemary, thyme, sage, and garlic for the chicken the chicken and set aside.
  3. Cut the bottom stem off of the Brussels sprouts and split them in half.
  4. Toss the Brussels sprouts in the balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper.
  5. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper and place on a large baking pan skin side up.  Pour herb and garlic mixture over the top of the chicken breast.
  6. Pour the Brussels sprouts around the chicken and place the pan into the oven.
  7. The chicken and Brussels sprouts are done when the skin of the chicken is nice and golden brown and the Brussels sprouts are a good crispy dark brown, about 40 minutes.
  8. It's really just that east.  Now enjoy!

Courses Main

As always thank you for taking a few moments from your day to read over this and I hope that you are able to try this recipe sometime and that you enjoy it.  Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.

Have a blessed day,

Benjamin

4 Vegetables

Mushrooms with Coppa Ham and Sage over Parmesan Polenta

Even when I try and make vegetarian dishes they often end up having meat in them.  Over the past couple years I have been expanding my diet; mushrooms being one of the things that I’ve recently started eating more of.  I’ve found of one of the best ways to try new foods is to pare them with things that you are comfortable with; for example ham and polenta being two things that I use very often.  You could of course make this recipe without using the ham, but where’s the joy in that?

In my time learning different ways to prepare mushrooms I have learned that flavor of shiitake mushrooms (which I normally use) really comes from what you season them with.  In this recipe the coppa enhances the meaty flavors of the mushrooms while the sage really brings out the mushroom’s earthy notes.  By no means am I a mushroom expert at all, but hey it’s my blog so I’ll give my opinion haha.

Doing some research on whether or not you can eat the stems of shiitakes I came across one blog that mentioned used them in stock, soups, etc.  That led me to adding the stems from the mushrooms to the water and chicken stock that the polenta was going to be cooked in.  Not sure if they really brought much flavor in their own right to the polenta, but hey what could it hurt?

This recipe was definitely a learning experience for me.  Both continuing to learn about mushrooms and about new ways to bring flavor to a pretty bland ingredient like polenta.  The bowl you see in the picture below was empty within minutes… So you can expect to see more mushrooms in the future.

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Mushrooms with Coppa Ham and Sage over Parmesan Polenta

Prep

Cook

Total

Yield 2 servings

Ingredients

Mushrooms

  • 8 oz. shiitake mushrooms, halved and stems removed
  • 2 oz. coppa ham, sliced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 bulb shallot, minced
  • 1/4 cup chicken stock
  • Sprig of fresh sage
  • Sprig of fresh rosemary
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • Salt & pepper

Polenta

  • 1 cup polenta
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • Mushroom stems
  • 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • Black pepper

Instructions

  1. Once you have all of your ingredients prepped add the water and chicken stock to a small pot.  Add the mushrooms stems to the pot and place the pot over high heat.
  2. Add the coppa ham to a pan over medium high heat and cook until the ham starts to crisp up.  Once the coppa is done remove it from the pan and set aside.
  3. By now the water for the polenta should be boiling.  Remove the mushrooms stems pot of water and chicken stock and stir in polenta.  Lower heat to low and cover.
  4. Lower heat to medium and add the butter to the pan.
  5. Add mushrooms to pan and cook for 4-5 minutes; stirring occasionally.  Remove mushrooms from the pans and set aside with the coppa.
  6. Add shallot and garlic to the pan and brown for 2-3 minutes.  Add chicken stock, rosemary, and sage to the pan and reduce heat to low.
  7. Once the polenta has finished cooking (15-20 minutes) stir in the butter, garlic, black pepper, and parmesan cheese to the polenta.
  8. Remove the sprigs of rosemary and sage from the pan and increase heat to medium.  Add mushrooms, coppa, and a bit of chopped sage to the pan to incorporate all the ingredients together.
  9. To serve spoon polenta into a bowl and top with mushrooms.

Courses Main

As always thank you for taking a few moments from your day to read over this and I hope that you are able to try this recipe sometime and that you enjoy it.  Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.

Have a blessed day,

Benjamin

9 Vegetables

Asparagus Soup

For the majority of people who are reading this and do not know me personally; know that this recipe is out of my normal repertoire.  My usual meal centers around some sort of protein.  Whether that be a nice steak, some nice plump shrimp, etc.  This asparagus soup recipe is definitely not that.  It’s a much lighter, and I suppose healthier, recipe that I am sure vegans AND the rest of us will all enjoy.

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4 Vegetables

Duck Fat Fried Baby Potatoes

Where this recipe came from I really have no idea.  Like many Sunday afternoons after Mass I am walking through Whole Foods doing my grocery shopping; and on one particular Sunday I happened to see a jar of duck fat.  From that I began to think of what could I cook with duck fat and my mind went to a bag of baby potatoes I bought for another meal but didn’t end up using.

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0 Vegetables

Garlic & Herb Asparagus

I sure do love me some asparagus.  It’s such an easy and quick vegetable to cook I make it quite often as a side for dinner; and you can as well.  Scratch the typical broccoli or baked potato or rice that you would normally have along with your steak or chicken or such and try asparagus instead.

Like any vegetable you get what you pay for when it comes to quality.  I always go with organically grown asparagus myself.  I don’t know if they’re better than conventionally grown asparagus or not, but they are what I prefer.  The more important thing I have found though is to make sure that you get some nice thick asparagus.  I try to find asparagus that are about the thickness of my pinky.  They cook better and don’t become as flimsy when you’re working them in the pan.

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0 Poultry

Mustard and Herb Chicken & Brussels Sprouts

What’s the best thing about this recipe you ask?  The whole meal is cooked is in one pan and it’s quite simple.

So I have a confession to make, I’m 26 and the first time I have ever eaten a Brussels sprout was last year. I don’t know whether I should be ashamed or proud, but I know for a fact I like them now. The cartoon cliche of a kid sneaking their Brussels sprouts to their dog never happened during my childhood because my mom never made them and there was no dog.  The inkling to try them came one day last year while I was walking through the farmers’ market and saw them on sale.  So I thought to myself,  why not give them a shot?

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