Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Chicken: 4 Ways!

I eat chicken a lot. Okay, I eat chicken QUITE a lot. I don't eat beef, so therefor a lot of my meals consist of chicken or turkey products. I'll throw in fish or shrimp here or there, but more than often, I'm eating chicken!

This past weekend I decided I'd boil chicken breasts on the bone and then shred the meat to make multiple different chicken dishes. I boiled a total of five chicken breasts, but forgive me because I didn't pay attention to the weight of them. 

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To start the cooking process I filled a hugh stock pock about three quarters of the way full of water. Added salt and brought the water to a low boil. Once boiling, I added the chicken breasts that had been cleaned, dried and sprinkled with a little more salt.  With the chicken boiling I made a trip to my garden for some fresh parsley and chives.  I chopped those up and added them to the boiling water/chicken. In total, I boiled the chicken for about 45 minutes to an hour.  After fully cooking, I transfer the chicken to a paper towel lined plate and cool half an hour.  Finally, I remove all the meat from the bones and shredded it into a very large bowl.  

Once you've done the above, you can make one, some or ALL of the dishes I made with mine!

First off was one of my favorite chicken salad recipes. Yes, I am fond of her recipes and you'll see many more in the future.  I've made this recipe once before and I couldn't wait until it was all mixed up to taste it again!  I made this to have for lunches at work this week. I love it on toasted sourdough bread or on top of some delicious spring mix salad. 


After making the Pico de Gallo, boiling the chicken and preparing the chicken salad I was STARVED.  I grabbed a can of black beans, pre-shredded cheese, some of the freshly shredded chicken and the tasty Pico de Gallo and threw together some oh so yum nachos.


Next was chicken and cheese enchiladas for dinner on Sunday night.  I used another Pioneer Woman recipe, but modified it since it originally called for beef.  This made a ton of enchiladas, and I made it with my homemade spanish rice, but the leftovers will be perfect for dinner or lunch in the next few days.

The Sauce

The Meat

Before Cooking

After Cooking!

And you can't forget the rice.

After a long Monday, I decided dinner had to be easy.  With that said, what could be easier than chicken caesar salad? Not much and that's exactly what I decided on. I already had the chicken cooked and the croutons were already made.  All I had left to do was wash, dry and cut up lettuce, then add some fresh slivers of parmesan cheese and toss with caesar dressing!



It's amazing that five chicken breast made four different recipes and I still have some left!



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