One Pot Sensational Chicken Leah Recipe

Easy succulent dish creates a wonderful one pot wonder full of complex flavors which is surprising to your family and guests - they will think you have cooked for hours, when in fact - it took one hour just sitting there on the stove top! - You could do this in a crock pot as well after you brown your chicken. Serve over basmati rice, brown rice, with cous cous or pasta. Dish is full of lively colors and is a great party dish or pot luck dish since it easily impresses. The fruit and little amount of curry in this dish only adds to the delightfully full flavor this recipe provides.

Ingredients:

Whole chicken cut up into eight pieces.
Save giblets/neck to create own chicken stock to be used in dish.
1 cup green or red seedless grapes
3/4 cup raisins
1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes
1 onion chopped
1 cup mushrooms (I used baby bellas)
2 scallions minced
2 tablespoons parsley or cilantro minced - for garnish at end.
1 cup white wine
1+ cup of chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon good curry powder
2 tablespoons fresh minced rosemary
4-6 cloves pieces
1 tablespoon "better than bullion" paste - chicken flavor (optional)
several shakes of dried red chili flakes
salt and pepper
Deep heavy skillet with lid (I used my Le Crusette)
olive oil

Directions:

I tend to forget about this dish, but won't anymore! I first made this twist of a recipe then I created my own version several years ago when I had grapes that were looking a little past their prime along with grape tomatoes. This dish can easily be doubled and served at parties. The amount of curry used in this dish is so small, that it even passes mustard for those who do not like curry - you can barely tell it is in there - but the resulting flavors are way complex - you will think you ordered this at a restaurant.
A nice addition is adding toasted slivered or blanched almonds at the end along with the garnishes of parsley and cilantro.
****OK Here We Go!*****
Allow skillet to heat up.
Take cleaned chicken pieces, pat dry and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.
Add a little olive oil to skillet, then add one mashed clove of garlic.
Once garlic starts to brown - remove to prevent garlic from burning, but this infuses the olive oil with some of the garlic oils.
You could still minced up the browned garlic and add to dish when adding all the seasonings.
Place chicken pieces skin side down carefully into hot skillet.
You are only going to brown the skin, then flip to brown on the other side.
Once chicken has been browned slightly, remove from pan and set aside. You will finished cooking the chicken completely in a moment.
Add a little more olive oil if needed. Add onions to hot skillet saute for 3-5 minutes, then add mushrooms.
Add cumin, pepper, crushed red pepper, curry, cumin, cloves, rosemary, crushed garlic from before and minced remaining garlic, and lastly scallions. Stir and saute for 3 minutes.
Now add tomatoes, raisins, grapes and white wine to skillet. Stir bottom of pan to help remove any browned bits from the bottom of the pan to deglaze skillet and let cook for 2 minutes.
Now return chicken back to skillet and add chicken stock.
I added an additional tablespoon of "Better than Bullion" paste at this point.
Bring down heat to simmer and add lid.
Let simmer for one hour.
Enjoy smells in house while chicken dish is cooking!
Taste sauce, add salt if needed.
Chicken is incredibly tender and super moist and falls off the bone easily.
Sauce is amazing served over rice as pictured for my dinner the other night.
Add chopped parsley and/or cilantro right to skillet just before serving.
Add toasted optional almonds to plated food for extra flair.

Leahs Rice and Beans with Italian Sausage

I was low in funds, and looked through my cupboards and decided to try my hand at rice and beans. I looked at many recipes, and this is my own spicy version of what I came up with. This can easily be made in a slow cooker/crockpot as well. This made more than I expected, so halve the amount for a family of four. This quite frankly could have fed more than 8 people. Great to use as a hearty side dish too next to say some grilled chicken.

This is a super great dish to serve when you need your food to stretch, I must say. No wonder there are so many variations of this incredibly hearty and comforting dish!

Ingredients:

1 sweet green bell pepper - cut into 1inch chunks
1 jalapeño finely diced
1 large onion, diced
2 cans red kidney beans, rinsed of their canned juices
5 garlic gloves minced
1 Italian dry sausage such as soprasatta, skin removed, sliced thin and halved.
1-1/2 cup rice
3-1/2 cups water/chicken stock
2 tablespoons 'better than bullion-chicken flavored' is using water - which is what I did and prefer than using canned chicken stock.
fresh cracked pepper
olive oil

Directions:

In a large pot, pour enough olive oil to coat the bottom.
On medium heat, add diced onions and sliced sausages. Sautee till onions are wilted and starting to be translucent.
Add both peppers and garlic, let cook one minute.
Add beans and rice.
Add fresh cracked pepper, and additional spices you might like - such as cumin, old bay, hot sauce, etc.
Stir till all ingredients are combined.
Then add water/chicken stock/better than bullion - you might need to add additional water, since you want enough water to be at the same height as all the ingredients in your pot.
Cover with lid and put heat onto high.
Let come to a boil, then put down on lowest setting and cook for 25 minutes or until all water has evaporated.
Serve up with a sprinkling of freshly minced parsley and/or chives. I made an amazing twist of GroupRecipes.com's Foodie: Reciperules' cornbread (link provided) which I used fresh jalapeño versus the chilies and canned corn versus the cream corn as specified in her recipe. It was literally the best tasting corn bread I ever did make.
Photo shown is my dish served along with GR's own Recipesrules' Cornbread Mile High and Moist recipe that I made to go along with the dish: http://www.grouprecipes.com/61838/cornbread-mile-high-and-moist.html

One Pot Cilantro Chicken and Rice - Osh Po Lo

Also known as Osh Po Lo, we made this just last week and it was simply fantastic! My man turned me on once again! - Umm in the kitchen of course, he says the original version of the dish originates from Russia - but for now it's yet another original easy to make one-pot dish from us to you.

This is a twist of my "Basmati Rice Oh So Nice" recipe you have seen here. You can substitute the chicken for lamb, pork or beef even sausage! Enjoy!
Ingredients:

1-1/2 cup basmati rice
3 cups water (or make 1 cup of the three chicken broth)
3/4 pound of raw boneless breast of chicken, cut up into 1" sized bites
1 large onion - diced
1 cup carrots - shredded fresh carrots (roughly 4-5 carrots)
3 cloves garlic - minced
1 bunch of large cilantro - rinsed well
4-5 scallions minced
1 teaspoon cumin
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
****Equipment Needed:
One Pot with lid, 2 paper towels and hungry crowd

Directions:

In Pot, pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil and put heat under pan on medium.
Add diced onions and let sweat for at least 5 minutes.
Once onions are almost translucent, add chicken and with wood spatula (preferred) stir chicken around pot till almost cooked and no longer looking pink. Add the second tablespoon of olive oil if you have to.
Add garlic and cook for one minute more.
Add rice (no water yet) and all remaining seasons - leaving some of the scallions and chopped cilantro for plating.
Stir rice well into mixture making sure it is well coated with the olive oil and seasonings.
Cook for two minutes, stirring the whole time.
Next add your water and/or broth. Do not stir!
Let come to a boil, then turn down heat till on very low.
Place lid on top and set time for 10 minutes.
After ten minutes, with a spoon, gently push rice aside and check on water - has all water evaporated? - Then move onto next step. If not, let cook a few minutes moire, till all the water has evaporated.
OK, take those 2 paper towels folding them over in half and place on top of pot, just under lid. Put lid back on pot over paper towels.
This will allow any extra steam to be soaked up by the paper towels.
Let sit for five minutes and call troops to the table.
When ready, fluff mixture with fork.
When serving and plating add the additional cilantro and minced scallions on top of dish and serve. Enjoy with a side mixed green salad!

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