New Recipes

I was getting ready to try a new cookie recipe tonight. That's when I realized that I haven't blogged about recipes since June. I have been trying new things though. Apparently none of them were amazing enough that I felt the need to share.

First up, Basil Marinated Chicken from For The Love of Cooking

 Basil Marinated Chicken Thighs (I only use breasts)

• 5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (again, I buy breasts in bulk so that's what I used)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar (I subbed red for balsamic because I like it better)
• 1 clove of garlic, minced finely
• 1 1/2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
• Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

Remove any extra fat off of the chicken thighs then place into a large zip lock bag.

Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, garlic, basil, sea salt, and freshly cracked pepper, to taste, until well combined. Pour over the chicken thighs and shake them to combine evenly. Refrigerate for 3-12 hours.

Remove the chicken from the refrigerator 20 minutes prior to cooking. Heat a grill pan that has been coated with cooking spray over medium high heat. Season each chicken thigh with a bit of sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste, on both sides. Place the chicken thighs into the hot grill pan and cook for 4 minutes then flip over. Cook for another 4-5 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove from the grill pan and let the meat rest for 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy.  

Here it is before it was grilled.

Here it is after.

Now I love love love basil. I would say I'm almost obsessed. Of course I liked this a lot but my family members prefer their chicken flavored other ways. They don't share my obsession, I mean love of basil. If I had basil I would totally make this again for me and season the other skewers differently but I don't have fresh basil often so I probably won't get to eat this much.

The Nastiest Potato Salad I've Ever Had

At the beginning of summer there was a segment on a local morning show where one of the hosts was divulging her mother's famous, very secret, potato salad recipe. I am on a mission to find a good potato salad so I was all ears when she shared this secret recipe. We had a church potluck up in the canyon so I decided to give this salad a try. (It's hard for Paul and I to eat a whole salad alone) After you cook the potatoes you marinate them in red wine vinegar for two hours. Then you add Italian dressing as marinate the potatoes in that for a couple of hours. After the fours hours of marination you make a pretty standard mayo and mustard dressing. Obviously I committed a lot of time to this and it was awful. Way too vinegary for my tastes. I was told it's a German version of potato salad. Well that all fine and good but I could barely eat it. I even wrote a warning note to put next to it. It read: Warning, this salad is VERY vinegary. Blech. 

The next recipe is one we tried in August. I got from a blog I have in my Google Reader.

Crock Pot Hawaiian BBQ Chicken from Six Sister's Stuff

4-6 Boneless Chicken Breasts (mine were still frozen!)

1 Bottle Archer Farms Hawaiian Style Barbecue Sauce (from Target)

1 20 oz. can Pineapple Chunks, drained

Spray the inside of your crock pot with cooking spray for an easy cleanup!  Place frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot and cover with sauce.  Empty can of drained pineapple chunks on top.  Cook on High for 2-3 hours or Low for 4-6 hours.  Shred chicken with two forks while still in the crock pot so the chicken will be well coated with sauce.  Serve over rice. 

This could NOT have been easier. It was awesomely easy. It was pretty good too but we felt like it was missing something. It was very reminiscent to Mango Chicken Stir-Fry but it didn't have the crunch of the cashews. Maybe we will try it again and add the nuts. The kids didn't like it but that really is not surprise. 

This isn't really a recipe but it was something new we cooked. We used a ton of veggies from our garden and cooked them with garlic, seasonings and tons of butter. Yum! 

Right now I'm off to try a new cookie recipe for Paul. I hope they're delicious.