I feel like Chicken tonight

A few things I hate, doing the dishes, and having to make meals with lots of ingredients! So I try to avoid those as much as possible. We love chicken meals around our house and during the summer one way to avoid the mess and make great meals is by grilling. I get minimal mess and Mr. Bacon does the grilling so I get a night off! But we do have our fair share of chicken meals I cook on the stove. I'll share a few of our favorites.

The first thing you'll have to get started for some of these meals is sauteing the chicken. If you're unsure how to do that, I'll walk you though it.

First take your chicken breast (I use frozen-thawed, but fresh works too!) and cut them into smaller pieces, either strips or cubes. Remember good kitchen safety and once you cut raw chicken with the knife or on the cutting board, don't use them for anything else until they are well cleaned. Oh and wash your hands!! :)

Ok so we have the cut up chicken. Place it in a pan with some oil, I use about 2 TBSP olive oil (a staple in our pantry) and season it with something. We have several choices around here. Here are a few of our usual's in the pictures. One's I usually grab for seasoning chicken is some Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb or Mc Cormicks Garlic and herb seasoning. Add about a tablespoon or 2 (really I don't measure much in my kitchen I just dump it in!). Not feeling too creative? Just some salt and pepper work great too.

S we got the chicken in the pan with oil and seasoning... Now for cooking it. Turn the burner on med and give it a stir ever few minutes until all the chicken turns white, and the juices run clear.
Here's my end product. If you want to be creative with flavors add some fresh chopped garlic or mushrooms to the pan too.

So now you have some cooked chicken... How about some recipes to go with it!

Curly Chicken and Peas
*So this was one I came up with on my own, Bacon Jr. named it if you were wondering!*

2 cups tri-color rotini noodles- (any noodles work just fine)
1/2 pound chicken breast cut up (2 frozen chicken breasts)
2 cups frozen peas
1/2 stick butter
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
seasoning to taste
2 TBSP oil

In large kettle boil water for noodles. In pan place oil, chicken and seasoning. Cook on med until cooked all the way though, keep on low temp until noodles are done. When water is boiling, add in noodles and frozen peas. Cook until noodles are tender. Once noodles are cooked, drain and mix in pan with chicken. Add butter and cheese and let melt, stirring to mix it all in.
Serve with more Parmesan cheese for topping.



Lemon Garlic chicken

1/2 lb (2 frozen breasts) chicken breasts - cut up
2 cups noodles (we use linguine or bow tie, but be creative, anything works!)
1 cup frozen peas or broccoli
1-2 TBSP oil
Seasoning to taste

Sauce:
1 Stick butter
2 TBSP lemon juice
2 tsp chopped garlic
1/8 cup Parmesan cheese

In boiling water, add noodles and frozen peas or broccoli. Cook until noodles are tender and drain. In pan, saute chicken with oil and seasoning until chicken in cooked all the way though and juices run clear. While those are cooking, in small sauce pan place all ingredients for sauce and let melt on med- low, stirring occasionally. When chicken is done, add cooked noodles and peas to the pan. Pour sauce over top and toss all together. Serve with extra Parmesan cheese.

** Things you can change up. Instead of bottled lemon juice. Fresh squeeze lemons (1 usually is enough) If you have a zester, or small grater, grate some lemon peel into the sauce also. I've also found an Italian 6 cheese blend (shredded) by Sargento that I love to use instead of the Parmesan cheese in the sauce. For the chopped garlic, I don't bother with fresh, I keep a jar of the pre-chopped garlic in my fridge because we use it in a lot of meals.

And after a long hard day (of chasing after the bacon kids), this meal goes very will with a bottle of chilled Chardonnay! :)**