Chicken Tenderloin Dinner

I suppose this is sort of three or four recipes in one. We are going to dress some veggies, spice some taters, and make a nice creamy Parmesan herb sauce for our chicken tenderloins.

I put the veggies on last, but let's get that out of the way first here since it's the easiest part. For this dinner I used one bag of frozen mixed cauliflower, broccoli and sliced carrots. You might also try some Italian green beans or some snap peas if you prefer or want to switch it up for a rerun. Go ahead and heat them up in a pan like you would normally, but instead of adding a little butter, we are going to give the veggies a little douse of a sundried tomato vinaigrette. A sundried tomato pesto could work nicely too. Of course, making your own dressing is much healthier without all the preservatives and trans-fatty oils, but I admit that I usually buy this off the shelf in the bottle. Easy to keep a bottle on hand in the cupboard to use when you are throwing a dinner together as quickly and painlessly as possible. If you would rather steam your veggies, go for it, and then just toss them in a little dressing before serving. You shouldn't need more than, oh, a few tablespoonfuls I guess. Be careful not to overpower the flavor in your veggies tho, the dressing is an accent, not a topper.

Now we're gonna fix up some taters. Redskin potatoes worked really well for the meal and are a real tasty spud, but you may have your own preference or want to work with what you have on hand. I halved the taters and boiled for a bit, but not fully done. I then quartered the halves and tossed them into a pan of hot canola oil for some sizzle action with a little black pepper and red chili powder. (The fresh cracked pepper may be a little too coarse, make sure you have a nice fine powder of pepper.) Once you get them browned up to your liking, the spuds are ready. If they are done before you are ready to plate, toss them on a baking sheet to keep warm in the oven. Alternately, I'm sure you could bake the wedges to a crisp in the oven after giving them a little drizzle of oil and dusted with spices.

Breast tenderloins are usually not on my grocery list because they are more expensive than other cuts, but I got a heck of a bargain on these and bought about six or eight packages to toss in the freezer. This is a white meat cut, smaller than the breast. We are going to cook them much like a “chicken finger” but rather then deep frying, we are going to bread them and pan fry them in a a little canola oil. The Italian-seasoned bread crumbs are best for this, and most other uses for that matter. If you only have plain bread crumbs, you can add some herbs, maybe a little salt and pepper, and even a punch of grated cheese. One at a time we are going to give each tenderloin an eggwash and then dredge in the bread crumbs, then lay them down in a hot pan coated generously with canola oil. I used a big electric frying pan doused with oil. Let them sizzle up nicely til nice and brown, and flip.

Since tenderloins are a lot thinner and more narrow than a breast, they don't take long to cook and you really shouldn’t have to worry much about getting the inside up to proper temp. As long as they have tightened up a bit so that they aren't floppy and are browned up nicely on each side, you can take them out and lay them down on a paper towel to soak up any excess oils.

When I fry the tenderloins this way, I always make a bunch, two or three pans full so that I have plenty of leftovers. Again, you may want to keep them warm by holding in the oven. The leftovers are great for seconds, a snack later on, or to be refrigerated to use in the next couple of days. I have used the leftovers cold to slice up and put on a salad, or you can warm them back up in a toaster oven where they should get nice and crispy again to serve as chicken fingers with a dipping sauce.

Speaking of sauce, now we come to the creamy Parmesan herb sauce. I use an electric fondue pot for this. I usually go ahead and make extra on this too. (If you didn't notice already, I am a big fan of cooking plenty so that there are plenty of leftovers in the fridge to make other light meals out of and to remix the applications.) Keep the temperature low so we don't burn the sauce at all. We will start by melting some butter in the pan. Then we will pour in a small container of heavy cream and bring that up to temperature, steaming, maybe bubbling a little. Finally, we add a bag of shredded Parmesan cheese. You could also shred your own Parmesan of course, but I don't use the best, most expensive stuff when making sauces. I use the good stuff sparingly, usually to dust over a plate of pasta or something just before serving.

Okay, so now we have the basic sauce going. Keep on stirring as the shredded cheese melts into the butter and cream. I went ahead and used two bags of cheese this last time. Keep more heavy cream on hand to add in slowly in order to get a nice constituency. Not too thick, not too thin. It may reduce a little as you are cooking it, and if you happen to add to much cream, continue to cook for a while in order to reduce and thicken up the sauce. A little flour will also help it to thicken. In fact, you might want to add a little anyway to get a rich consistency.

Time to add the herbs and seasoning. Garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, basil, oregano. Be careful not to overseason it, you can always add a few extra bumps to taste. I wound up adding a good extra shot of the garlic powder especially, but you don't want to overpower the flavor of the cheese, or the concert of herbs. All the while, you should keep stirring regularly so that the sauce doesn't stick and burn.

Plate your veggies, redskins, and chicken strips, then drizzle the chicken with the herb-cream sauce. Some may enjoy the sauce over their seasoned potatoes as well.

Now pardon the pictures here, bad lighting and a cheap camera-phone don't make very appealing food pics, but here is the plate I made up for my Mom...

Here is what you should pick up at the grocery store:

A bag of frozen vegetables (mixed broccoli, cauliflower, carrots), a bottle of sundried tomato dressing, a bag of redskin potatoes, chicken tenderloins, Italian bread crumbs, eggs, shredded Parmesan cheese, heavy cream, butter.

If you don't have these in your pantry you will also need:

Canola oil, chili powder, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, basil, and oregano.

Easy Italian Dinner

There's nothing quite as good as “Sunday Gravy,” the nice slow simmered meat-sauce that has made Italian cuisine famous the world over. Unfortunately, I am like most people today and rarely have six to eight hours in a single day to stand in the kitchen stirring a pot of sauce. So tonight we will take a big shortcut. Traditional Italian folk would see it as a culinary sin to have jarred sauce violating their pantry shelf, but I usually keep a few jars on hand for this dinner idea.

Let's chop up a small onion, or half of a larger onion. I like white onions for their milder, cleaner flavor. Take out some mushrooms, rinse. If you don't buy them sliced, go ahead and slice them up now. Smash and mince enough garlic for about a tablespoon's worth, unless you have a jar of minced already on hand.

We'll start to fry the onions on high heat with a little butter. Next we'll throw some ground beef in the pan. A pound or so of 80-85% is best, you don't want it to be too lean. If you only have very lean ground beef, make sure you have some extra butter on hand to toss in there in a bit. Once the meat is mostly browned, go ahead and toss your mushrooms in there, along with your garlic. A little salt and pepper too. Once the meat is browned, and the mushrooms have taken in some of the juices, go ahead and add your tomato sauce.

Tonight I had two 16 oz. Jars of some expensive stuff that I got on clearance at half price. But here's the trick with jarred sauce. You don't have to buy the expensive small-batch private-label stuff, but don't go middle of the road either with the corporate name-brand ones that wind up in the circular every other week. Mainline jarred sauces are usually too salty and way over-seasoned. Go right for a generic. Try a few different ones until you find one you like, but the nice thing about the generic labels is that they are mostly tomato and rather bland. That's what you want, so it will take on the flavors of the meat you now have simmering.

Kick the heat back up a little and keep stirring, so that the sauce actually begins to fry a little in the meat fats. You didn't drain that meat now did you? Don't be scared of a little fat, that's the flavor, and that's what gives it the velvety texture of gravy. If you only had lean meat, go ahead and toss in a chunk of butter now. Keep on stirring. I can still hear Ray Liotta in everyone's favorite gangster movie, “Don't let the sauce stick.” You're gonna be stirring for a good ten minutes or so, but it beats six hours of it. You want all the fats to really incorporate into the sauce and for the tomato to “ripen” a little more in the pan. The sauce will have a nice sheen but the fats should not be pooled on the top.

Go ahead and pull the sauce off the heat and cover or keep on a very low simmer, while we cook the pasta. I prefer ziti or penne, but small shells, orecchiette, or elbows work nice too. Go with what you like. I usually stay away from long cuts of pasta for this though, like spaghetti or fettuccine. Don't fully cook the pasta. Drain, but reserve some of the starchy water, or don't fully drain.

Return the pasta to the pan and pour in your meatsauce, along with your starchy water if you held some aside. It will help the sauce stick to the pasta now. Bring up the heat and stir it all together. The pasta should finish cooking right there in the sauce, so it absorbs some of the tomato. This works better with smaller cuts of pasta, which is why I don't use the long cuts like spaghetti. Much easier to stir and incorporate with the sauce. If I only have spaghetti on hand, I usually fully cook it, and serve the sauce on top. That also works better with fresh, good quality pasta rather than the box stuff.

So that's your main course. Serve the pasta in a nice deep dish plate or wide shallow bowl. Sprinkle with some grated parmesan and/or romano. If you like, maybe a little dried oregano or crushed hot red pepper. Some also like a dollup of ricotta cheese. 

But we did say this was gonna be a meal. So before you serve the pasta, you should serve a salad, which can be made up ahead of time. Tear up the lettuce by hand. Chopping it will cause the edges to brown and that really is just not attractive. Next we'll go ahead and peel the skin from some cucumber. Then I cut down into it lengthwise about a third of the way, one way and then intersecting, so there is a cross pattern if you look at it from the end. Now go ahead and slice it so that each slice falls out into four wedges. Of course, you can go ahead and chop it up any way you like. Some prefer to leave the skin on for added nutrition. Slice up some radish nice and thin. Then we need some tomato. Don't buy garbage tomatos. Spend the extra money, get at least some middle of the road tomatos. I usually get a pint of some cherry tomats, and then halve them or slice into rounds. Toss with a few green and/or black pitted olives. Nice simple green salad, dress with Italian dressing, or your own favorite. I actually like a nice Vermont honey-French that you can find in the supermarket.

And of course to round out an Italian meal like this you need garlic bread. Italian bread is obviously first choice, but you can use rolls, sliced bread, whatever ya got. Smear the face with butter. Of course you want it softened to room temperature, if you pull it right out of the fridge you'll rip the bread apart. Now a lot of people have gotten into using fresh garlic on their garlic bread. Frankly, I don't like it that way. I still prefer to sprinkle it over nicely with garlic powder. Sprinkle with just a bit of grated cheese too if you like, but keep your guests in mind too. Some folks have an aversion to grated cheese. Throw it in the oven or toaster oven, and keep an eye right on it. You want to get it nice and toasty, golden brown, but in a flash it will go too far and burn, so really keep an eye on it. Finish with a dash of dried oregano or herb blend. Serve with your main course, and maybe a small piece alongside your salad.

Now to top it all off, go ahead and serve some ice cream or sorbet for dessert. I Like a little dish of mint chocolate chip ice cream. After a heavy meal like this, the mint is nice and refreshing, not too heavy like some other flavors. I don't bother with any heavy topping either, but a few maraschino cherries and a little bit of the juice over the ice cream seem to really hit well with the chocolate in there. I don't like to go endorsing brands too much, but the Turkey Hill brand really is the best mint ice cream, because they sort of shave the chocolate in so it melts in your mouth right along with the ice cream. Other mint ice cream the chips are almost like plastic in your mouth, I don't like that much. Edy's is putting out limited quantities of Spumoni ice cream lately, an Italian favorite. A scoop of lemon sorbet served in a martini glass with a sprig of fresh mint would also be really classy and refreshing, without much fuss.

So there ya go, a nice Italian meal that you can serve any night of the week without too much fuss or hassle.

Here is your grocery list:

For the salad you will need lettuce, tomato, cucumber, radish, olives, and dressing.

For your main course you will need pasta, jarred sauce, ground beef, onion, garlic, butter, bread, herbs/spices and cheeses.

 And don't forget dessert!