Cream Cheese Stuffed, Raspberry Glazed Chicken Breasts

 The ingredient for the Improv Challenge for June are raspberries and cream.  When you think of raspberries and cream, the mind automatically goes to something sweet.  When Kristen from Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker mentioned in her facebook post that the cream could be cream cheese, and she was excited to see if anyone would make a savory raspberry and cream dish; I thought why not.

I remembered that I had seen many recipes for cream cheese stuffed chicken breast, so maybe I could take that idea and go with a raspberry sauce/glaze to top the chicken.  This post is what I came up with, and we have had it for dinner twice now. 

I added garlic powder and sliced green onion to the cream cheese filling and made a sort of sweet/sour sauce/glaze for topping the chicken.  This wasn’t all that hard to make, and I think that it would make a nice dish to serve to guests.

The chicken breasts that I purchased were quite large, and some of them included the tenderloin like the one above.  I sliced off the tenderloin and cut the remaining piece in half so got three pieces from one chicken breast.  This does make it a little hard to specify exactly how many chicken breasts are needed for this recipe so I am going to say 4 small chicken breast halves.

You can soften the cream cheese quickly by putting in a zip top bag and placing it in very warm water for about 10 minutes.

Cream Cheese Stuffed Raspberry Glazed Chicken Breasts
1 3-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened (see tip above)
1/2 t. garlic powder
1 green onion, thinly sliced
4 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 egg beaten with 1 T. water
1/3 c. panko crumbs
3/4 t. seasoned salt
1/4 c. butter
Raspberry Sweet/Sour Sauce (see recipe below)

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  In a small bowl combine softened cream cheese, garlic powder and sliced green onion.  Mix well.  Set aside.  Pound chicken breasts between two pieces of plastic wrap to 1/4-inch thickness.  Spread each breast with 1/4 of the cream cheese mixture.  Roll up and secure with toothpicks.  Combine egg and water in a shallow pie pan.  Place panko crumbs in another shallow pie pan.  Add seasoned salt and mix well.  Slice butter and place in a foil-lined 10x13-inch baking pan.  Place pan in oven to melt butter.  Coat a chicken breast with the egg mixture, roll in the panko mixture and place on a sheet of waxed paper.  Repeat with remaining chicken breasts.  Remove pan from oven and place chicken breasts in the melted butter.  Return to oven and bake for 20 minutes.  Turn chicken breasts over and bake for another 20-25 minutes until done.  Meanwhile prepare Raspberry Sauce.  Spread some of the sauce over the chicken breasts and bake another 5 minutes.  Serve remaining sauce to spoon over the breasts at the table.  Makes 4 servings.

Raspberry Sweet/Sour Sauce
1 1/2 c. fresh or frozen raspberries
1 t. minced garlic
3 T. brown sugar
1 T. balsamic vinegar
1 T. molasses
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 t. Dijon mustard
2 T. ketchup
1 T. lemon juice
1/8 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper

Heat raspberries and garlic together in a small saucepan.  When hot, add remaining ingredients.  Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer 10 minutes until thickened. Strain, if desired.  (I don’t.)  Makes about 1 cup.

All the details for joining in this fun challenge are included in Kristen's Improv Page.

An InLinkz Link-up

Tangy Sirloin Steak Fingers

This is a little different take on grilled steak.  Instead of grilling a whole steak, it is cut into fingers, basted with a tangy tomato sauce and grilled until it is the desired doneness.

Boneless sirloin steak is needed for this, and it slices best if it is partially frozen so thaw a frozen steak or place a fresh steak in the freezer for a couple of hours.

 Tangy Sirloin Steak Fingers
1 (10 oz.) can condensed tomato soup
2 T. brown sugar, firmly packed
2 T. lemon juice
2 T. olive oil
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. crushed thyme
1 1/2 lbs. boneless sirloin steak, 1 inch thick

In a medium saucepan combine tomato soup, brown sugar, lemon juice, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder and thyme.  Stir to combine and heat to boiling, stirring often.  Ladle about 1/4 to 1/3 cup into a small bowl to use for basting.  Cut steak into 1-inch wide fingers.  Grill steak, basting with sauce and turning often, until steak is of the desired doneness.  Serve remaining sauce to pour over the steak fingers.  Makes 6 servings.

Linking to these great parties:
Marvelous Monday
Make the Scene Monday
On the Menu Monday
Melt in My Mouth Monday
Mix It Up Monday
Recipe Sharing Monday
Monday Funday
Manic Monday
Inspiration Monday
Sweet Sharing Monday
Made by You Monday
Busy Monday

Easy, Versatile Rhubarb Sauce-Saturday Sweets

I am getting Saturday Sweets going again by sharing an Easy, Versatile Rhubarb Sauce with some suggested variations and uses.

I love spring when fresh rhubarb is available.  I have found that people are usually in two camps when it comes to rhubarb, “Love It or hate It.”   I am solidly in the “Love It” camp.  I got free rhubarb when my parents were alive as they grew a couple plants.  Now I must buy it and can get very excited when I find it at the produce stand for .89 a lb.

This sauce can be made with either fresh or frozen rhubarb or made up and frozen itself for a little spring time all winter.

Combining the rhubarb with other fruit makes for some really nice flavors.  Chopped apples, cherries and strawberries can be used in a 1/3 to 1/2 ratio to the rhubarb.  Raspberries can be measured and added without chopping.  Canned crushed pineapple may be drained and added.  Use the juice as part of the water.  A 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple has about 2 cups of pineapple in it.

The sauce has the consistency of thick applesauce.   A bit more water can be added if a thinner sauce is desired.  I sometimes add a drop or two of red food coloring to make the sauce prettier, and I did that to the sauce in the photos.

Easy and Versatile Rhubarb Sauce
6 cups of sliced fresh or frozen rhubarb (see other rhubarb/fruit combination suggested above)
2 c. sugar (if combining rhubarb with other fruit, start with 1 c. and gradually add more to desired sweetness)
1/3 c. water or combination of water and pineapple juice
1/4 c. cornstarch
1/2  to 1 t. almond extract or vanilla (optional)

In a medium saucepan mix together the rhubarb or rhubarb and fruit, the sugar, water and cornstarch.  Mix well.  Place over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring often.  Boil 1 or 2 minutes, stirring until liquid clears and mixture thickens.  remove from heat  Allow to cool  and store covered in the refrigerator for up to a week.  Makes 4 cups.  I prefer to use the sauce cold, but it can be heated.  Use sauce to top ice cream, cake or pudding.  Make rhubarb shortcake by spooning sauce into store-bought sponge shortcakes and topping with whipped topping.  Spoon a couple tablespoons sauce on hot oatmeal.

I will soon be posting Rhubarb Streusel Shortbread Bars and a coffee cake that uses this sauce.

Linking to these great parties:
Weekend Potluck
Weekend Bloggy Reading
Share Your Creativity
Strut Your Stuff
Party Junk

Hasty Tasty Sauce on Fried Cube Steak

Happy Monday all and a warm welcome to my new followers.  Thank you for taking time from your busy lives to read this blog.  It is truly appreciated.  I hope what you find here proves to be useful.

We like cube steak, but I don’t always want to make chicken fried steak with it.  This is what I sometimes do instead.

Hasty Tasty Sauce is a way to stretch steak sauce out a little bit.  Although I served the sauce with fried cube steak, It can be served with any kind of steak or meatloaf.  The sauce flavor will vary somewhat depending on the kind of steak sauce that is used.

I think I might have actually gotten a somewhat decent picture of a hunk of meat.

Fried Cube Steak
cube steak
flour (about 1/2 c. per 2 cube steak)
salt and pepper or other seasonings
vegetable oil (enough to cover the bottom of skillet)

Place flour in a shallow container.  Add salt and pepper or other seasonings to taste and mix well.  Pour oil into skillet and heat on medium-high heat until it is hot.  Coat both sides of cube steak in the flour mixture.  Place in hot oil but do not let them touch each other.  Cook  about 5 minutes, turn and cook about 5 minutes more until done.

Hasty Tasty Sauce
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1/3 c. steak sauce
2 T. brown sugar, packed
1/2 T. vegetable oil

Combine tomato sauce, steak sauce, brown sugar and vegetable oil in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Turn heat to low and keep warm.  Makes about 1 1/3 c. sauce.  This will keep for a week or so.

 

Linking to:  Hunk of  Meat Monday

Melt in Your Mouth Monday

Must Try Monday

Mop It Up Monday

Making Mondays Marvelous

Made by You Monday

Mangia Monday

This Week's Cravings

5-Spice Barbecued Mini Meat Loaves

This is a favorite recipe that I have been eating since I was a child.  My mother found it in a gas company cook booklet.  It is also my oldest daughter’s favorite meat loaf.

The original recipe was called Lemon Barbecued Meat Loaves and the sauce used allspice and cloves.  I changed it over the years and now use Chinese 5-spice as I like the slightly licorice flavor that it provides.  If you don’t like or can’t find Chinese 5-spice, I have given the amount of allspice and cloves to use.

I like to use a whole grain bread.  The recipe says stale bread.  Any bread over a day or two old is fine.  The crusts may be removed from the bread slices before dicing if desired.

You can make the meatloaves and sauce ahead, cover and refrigerate them and bake them at dinnertime.  Add about 10-15 minutes to the cooking time.

The recipe suggests placing lemon slices on top of the meatloaves.  It makes a nice garnish, but I don’t usually bother.

The sauce is good spooned over mashed potatoes, noodles or rice.

5-Spice Barbecued Mini Meat Loaves
1 1/2  lbs  lean ground beef
4 slices stale bread, diced
1/4  c. lemon juice
1/4  c. minced onion
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 1/2  t.  seasoned salt
1 c. ketchup
2/3 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
2 t. dry mustard
1/2 to 1 t. Chinese 5-spice powder or 1/4 to 1/2 t. each allspice and ground cloves
6 thin lemon slices, for garnish, if desired.

Preheat oven to 350°F.    In a large bowl, combine ground chuck, bread, lemon juice, onion, egg and salt.    Mix well and shape into 6 individual loaves; place in foil-lined 9x13" baking pan.  Bake 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a  small bowl, combine remaining ingredients except lemon slices and mix until smooth.  Pour mixture over loaves and top each with a lemon slice; bake 25 minutes longer, basting occasionally with sauce from pan.  Serve sauce over loaves.

Linking to:  Mangia Monday

Melt in Your Mouth Monday

Hunk of Meat Monday

Must Try Monday

Crazy Cooking Challenge-Japanese Fried Chicken

When I saw that Fried Chicken was the subject for this month’s Crazy Cooking Challenge, I knew that I wanted to do a different kind of recipe and that I wanted to use chicken thighs.  We eat thighs a lot at our house, both because we like them and they make an inexpensive main dish.

After a bit of searching, I found Chicken Karaage-Japanese Fried Chicken over at Just Hungry.  I knew that I had found what I wanted to make.

I wasn’t sure about the need to deep fry this.  Hubby is the deep fryer in this family and does it in a commercial deep fryer that he has in his shop.  I don’t have a small electric deep fryer so knew I would have to do this the old-fashioned way in a saucepan on the stove.  The recipe sounded so good, however, that I decided to plunge ahead.

I used 6 chicken thighs and boned them myself.  Boneless thighs are available if one wishes to skip this step.  I chose to leave the skin as Makiko suggested.  Because I had more chicken than used in the original recipe, I doubled the marinade ingredients which seemed to make enough.  I did not have any sake so used mirin.  Makiko lists sherry as the first preferred substitute for sake so I could have used that.

Potato starch is the preferred coating for Karaage although cornstarch can be used.  I had potato starch on hand so did use that.  It gave the chicken a crisp, shattery coating like a potato chip.  The cornstarch is supposed to give a heavier coating more like a tortilla chip.  I needed to use about 1 1/2 cups of potato starch for the amount of chicken pieces that I had.

I got my oil too hot initially and the first chicken pieces turned out a bit black.  They tasted OK, just were not very pretty.  The ones in the photo are better, but my picture is not as nice as the one on Makiko’s original post.  The potato starch also seemed to leave some residue which shows in the photo also.  The chicken was done so I am not sure why that happened.  It did not affect the flavor of the chicken.

Though not traditional, I chose to make a Sweet and Sour Sauce to serve with the chicken.  We thought it was all very good.  I will definitely make this dish again, but I will have hubby do the deep frying.

.

Chicken Karaage
adapted from Just Hungry

6 chicken thighs, boned and cut into large bite-size pieces
1 piece fresh ginger (about the size of your thumb), grated
6 T. soy sauce (I use low sodium)
2 T. sake, sherry, or mirin
about 1 1/2 c. potato starch or cornstarch

Combine ginger, soy sauce, and sake, sherry, or mirin.  Pour over chicken pieces and mix well.  Let marinate for about 30 minutes.  Heat oil in a pan or deep fryer to abut 355 degrees.  Drain chicken pieces and roll in potato starch.  Add a few pieces at a time to the hot oil and fry until a deep golden brown and the chicken is cooked through.  Drain on a wire rack with paper towels placed underneath.  Makes about 4 servings.  Serve with Sweet and Sour Sauce, if desired.

Sweet and Sour Sauce
3/4 c. pineapple juice (this is a 6 oz. can)
3/4 c. vinegar (I use rice vinegar)
3/4 c. ketchup
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 T. soy sauce
3 T. cornstarch

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan and mix well.  Place over medium heat and stir until thick and clear.  Store in the refrigerator.  This will keep for awhile.  Makes abut 2 c.

Each month for the Crazy Cooking Challenge our hostess, Tina, assigns a specific dish to make.  Until this month, we were to obtain the recipe from another blog.  Now we can obtain the recipe from anywhere, even dream one up.  This is such a fun challenge to do.  I invite you to join us next month and share a recipe for cheesecake.  Just click on over to Tina's Crazy Cooking Challenge page to sign up.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Ingredient Spotlight-Quick and Easy Raspberry Sauce

I love berries, and raspberries are my favorite.  Here is a little recipe that I like to make up and keep around to spoon over ice cream, angel food cake, pound cake, vanilla or white chocolate pudding, waffles, pancakes or French Toast.  It is also good made into a parfait layered with some plain Greek yogurt and topped with a little crushed granola.

This sauce can be made with fresh or frozen raspberries.  If frozen are used, do not add any water.

This can be thickened to suit your tastes.  Add another tablespoon of cornstarch mixed in a little water if it is not thick enough for you.

Blackberries can also be used, they will need to cook a little longer to get soft.

Quick and Easy Raspberry Sauce

2 c. fresh or frozen raspberries
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. water (do not use if using frozen berries
1 T. lemon juice
2 T cornstarch mixed with 1/4 c. water

Combine raspberries, sugar, water, if using and lemon juice in a medium saucepan.  Cook over low heat until sugar is dissolved.  Bring to a low boil.  Stir in cornstarch and water.  Cook until thicken and clear.  Chill until ready to serve.  Makes about 2 c.

Linking to Ingredient Spotlight