Poulet Dijonnaise

This is a fantastic recipe my mom has been making for years and I have always enjoyed it.  I love the richness of the flavour and how easy it is to prepare. It is wonderful because you can make full size portions or appetizer size portions.  This is a great one to make in advance to freeze in whatever portion size you need.  If you are going to freeze them, wrap them individually and freeze them before baking them in the phyllo dough. When you take it out of the freezer, reheat frozen at 425 for 25 minutes.
The recipe below is how to make it in an oven but I have also done this in a crockpot by putting the chicken, dijon, whipping cream, salt and pepper in.  I cooked it on high for about 4 hours and then pulled the chicken breasts apart with forks.

Poulet Dijonnaise

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts1/4 cup Dijon mustardpan juices from cooked chicken2 cups whipping cream salt and white pepper16 sheets of phyllo dough, defrosted1 cup butter1/2 cup dry bread crumbs

1. Season chicken breasts. Place in a baking dish and cover with foil. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-50 minutes (or until just cooked).  
2. Remove meat, cool, skin and cut into small pieces. 
3. Remove excess fat from pan juices, add mustard and deglaze over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. 
4. Gradually stir in light cream, salt and pepper. 
5. Lower heat and cook slowly until the liquid is reduce by one-quarter. 
6. Add chicken to sauce. Set aside and cool.  (I take out the phyllo pastry at this point)

Rectangular Single Servings

Butter one layer of phyllo, top with a second layer. Butter second layer. and sprinkle with a few bread crumbs. Place one-eighth of filling in rectangle about two inches from the narrow end of phyllo closest to you.  Fold two-inch end over the chicken filling. Smooth right and left-end edges down. Then fold left and right sides up to centre of the rectangle of filling. Butter the new unbuttered sides you have exposed. Sprinkle the same with bread crumbs.  Then finish rolling the individual serving up ensuring that the last edge is placed face down on the cooking sheet. Brush with butter. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 - 20 minutes.  

Triangles

Butter one sheet of phyllo and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Envision vertical lines at the 1/3 and 2/3 marks of a vertical sheet of phyllo.  Fold left third over the centre third, then fold the right third, over the centre. Place a spoon full of filling into the bottom corner of the new three-layer piece of phyllo.  Fold diagonally, triangle over triangle, as if folding a flag. Place seam side down (Cut off any extra left after the last fold)

Balsamic Dijon Chicken Marinade

Now that the days are getting longer, it is the perfect time to have a couple of friends over for a barbecue.  Tonight we had a great time with some friends and their kids.  I hope we can have many more nights like tonight this summer.  The kids were great, the company was great and the food turned out well.
I wanted a simple marinade to use on some chicken that would work well with grilled vegetables.  After looking at a couple of recipes I borrowed a couple of ideas and came up with a hybrid of a few. I marinated the chicken overnight and the flavours turned out wonderful.

2 chicken breasts
2 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/8 tsp ground black pepper

Spiced Apple Chicken

I do love cook books and fingering through them to find inspiration for meals but I two little ones demanding my attention so I am not able to do it as often as I'd like too.  I had some apples that I needed to use up and so I looked to Google to help me create the menu for tonight's meal.
This created a wonderful meal that didn't take hours to make and one that every one enjoyed.  When I use apples in recipes, I prefer to leave the skin on because of the nutritional benefits but if you are going for elegance, it may be better to peel them.  In the future I could see adding the seasonings in this recipe to bread crumbs to make a breaded chicken and serve the apples on top.
This is a flavourful dish that pairs well with pretty much any standard side dish.

Spiced Apple Chicken

2 apples (a sweeter variety is best)

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp cinnamon

3 tbsp olive oil, divided

3 tbsp butter, divided

1 1/8 tbsp Herbs de Provence

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 cup chicken stock

zest of one lemon

1. Core and chop the apple into thin pieces and toss in a bowl with the lemon juice and cinnamon.
2. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil and butter together in a skillet then add the apple mixture.  Stir occasionally until the apples are tender and then keep them warm for serving.
3. Place the chicken between plastic and tenderize it with a mallet or rolling pin until it is of uniform thickness (roughly 1/2 inch).
4. Mix 1 tbsp of the Herbs de Provence with the salt and pepper.  Sprinkle this mixture on both sides of the chicken breasts.
5. Add 1 tbsp of the butter and olive oil to the skillet over high heat.  Add half the chicken and cook it through.  Set it aside where it can stay warm.  Repeat with the remaining chicken.
6. Add the broth, zest, remain Herbs de Provence and any juice from the chicken to the pan.  Cook, stirring any brown bits from the side of the pan for about 3 minutes.
7. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve beside the apples.

Blackberry Chicken

I love looking to the world wide web for inspirations and ideas for meals, especially when I want to put ingredients together that are not typically paired together.  Our freezer is still full of berries from last summer that we would like to use up before the summer so I decided to hunt for a recipe.  I found a recipe on a great blog called The Gracious Pantry and I modified it a bit based on what I had on hand.  I am sure it is a blog I will return to for more recipe ideas!
 I served it with some roasted vegetables.

Blackberry Chicken

1 onion, sliced into rings

4 chicken breasts

1 cup frozen blackberries

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp minced rosemary

3 cloves minced garlic

1. Make a layer of onions in the bottom of the crockpot and place the chicken over top.
2. Scatter the blackberries over the chicken.
3. Whisk together the balsamic, rosemary and garlic before pouring it over the mixture in the crockpot.
4. Cook on low heat for 6 hours or high for 3.

Cranberry Orange Chicken

Life has gotten very busy in the past few months and I am making use of my crockpot more than ever.  In the new year a couple of my friends had shared a link on Facebook to 20 Freezer Meals in 4 Hours from the Stock Piling Moms website.  I was intrigued so I decided to make a bunch of them for the freezer so on my really busy days, all I have to do is pull a bag out of the freezer the night before to let it defrost and then set it in the crockpot in the morning.
I love how well cranberry and orange go together and whenever I see bags of cranberries at the grocer, I will grab a couple for the freezer to use at a later date.  I really enjoyed this recipe for Cranberry Orange Chicken and I found it went well with rice.  It is a good one to make if you have leftover cranberry sauce to use up.

Cranberry Orange Chicken

3 chicken breasts
1 cup of orange juice
1 cup of cranberry sauce
2 cups of water

1. Place the chicken, orange juice and cranberry sauce in the crockpot and then add the water. 
2.  You can set your crockpot to low and cook for 6-8 hours or set it to high and cook for 2-4 hours.

If you want to make a couple to have on hand in the freezer, put the chicken, orange juice and cranberry sauce into a freezer bag. Be sure to write the instructions on the bag to add 2 cups of water along with the cooking temperature and time.