Spicy Roasted Potatoes

I LOVE POTATOES!! And one of my all time favorite side dishes is roasted potatoes. Adding a new twist to the roasted potatoes is spice! And let me tell you, these add a punch of spice and is great with any mexican themed meal. I made these with the Margarita Grilled Chicken and they were the perfect compliment.

Spicy Roasted Potatoes
Serves 2

Ingredients

2 Idaho potatoes, cut into roughly equal sized wedges
3 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon cumin
Dried parsley, couple of dashes for color
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions for cooking:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

In a zip lock bag add potatoes, olive oil, spices and salt and pepper to taste. Close zip-lock bag and shake until they are completely coated.

Spread in an even layer on a baking sheet wrapped in aluminum foil. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown and slightly crispy on the outside. For extra crispiness, which I happen to love, at the end I turn the broiler on for 2 to 3 minutes. Then I remove from the oven and transfer potatoes to a serving dish. Serve warm.

Warning: These potatoes are delicious but can be on the spicy side. If you want just a little kick cut the cayenne pepper to 1/8 teaspoon and up the paprika to ½ teaspoon. If you aren’t a fan of spice then cut out the cayenne pepper all together – they will still have delicious flavor!

Enjoy!

Margarita Grilled Chicken

It's spring time - and do you know what that means? It's grilling time! And my number one grilling item is chicken. So this brings me to one of my husband's favorite dish's from Chilis - Margarita Grilled Chicken. I'll admit it too - it's delicious! But honestly, it's so much better when you can make it at home.

Margarita Lime Chicken

Serves 2

Ingredients

¼ cup tequila
½ cup olive oil
2 limes
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium jalapeño pepper (or half of a large), ribbed, seeded and diced
Parsley, small handful chopped
1/8 teaspoon chili powder
Sugar
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Instructions for cooking:

Combine the tequila, olive oil, jalapeno, garlic, parsley, dash of sugar, chili powder, salt and pepper in a bowl or zippered plastic bag. Zest one lime into the mixture then cut both limes in half and squeeze out all of the juice. Mix well; add the chicken breasts to the container. Cover and refrigerate overnight or at least for 8 hours.

When you are ready to cook the chicken, heat a grill to 400 degrees. Take chicken out of refrigerator to take the chill off the meat. Once the grill is heated, cook the chicken until nicely browned and inside temperature of chicken is 180 degrees. Allow the chicken to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Pioneer Woman's Chicken with Tomatoes and Garlic

Wow, oh, wow! Ya’ll, you HAVE to try this dish! If you don’t, you will never die happy. I’m just sayin’.

I came across Pioneer Woman’s website just last week. I usually cook only boneless, skinless chicken breasts but I can tell you now I didn’t know what I was missing. (Oh yeah, the calories!) The chicken and the garlic were like butter. I can and will promise you I will have many, many more of her recipes to share. This recipe will be on our menu for many years to come.

Chicken with Tomatoes and Garlic
Adapted from Pioneer Woman's Recipe
Serves 4

Ingredients

8 pieces chicken legs
Salt and pepper
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon butter
1 can (28 Ounce) diced tomatoes
1 can (14 Ounces) whole tomatoes
3 Tablespoons tomato paste
8 cloves, peeled whole garlic
Cavitappi pasta (16 ounces)
½ Cup red wine (I used a Shiraz)
Grated parmesan cheese
Fresh Herbs:
Basil, handful of leaves
Parsley, handful of sprigs
Sage, handful of leaves
Oregano, handful of sprigs

Instructions for cooking:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and butter. Generously salt and pepper chicken legs. When oil/butter is hot, add chicken legs to the pan. Using tongs, brown on all sides, about 2 minutes. Remove chicken from pan.

Pour in wine, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any bits. Cook for 1 minute. Pour in tomatoes with their juice and add tomato paste. Add salt and pepper to taste, stirring to combine. Bring sauce to a boil, and then turn off heat. Add plenty of fresh herbs, 8 cloves of garlic, and the chicken legs. Put lid on pot and cook in the oven for 1 hour.

Remove pot from oven and allow it to sit on the counter with the lid on while you boil the pasta.

Cook the pasta to al dente, drain and add to a large serving bowl.

To serve, pour sauce over cooked pasta, and then arrange chicken pieces over the top. Sprinkle generously with fresh Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

And here is the husband’s bowl, “The Manly Bowl”…he said to tell everyone “See, it’s manly, it’s got cross bones!”

Crock-Pot BBQ Pork Loin

My husband LOVES BBQ and although this isn’t technically what he would consider real BBQ – smoking or grilling – this pork loin is SO moist, so fork tender you’ll never miss the smoker or grill.

Crock- Pot BBQ Pork Loin
Serves 4

Ingredients:

4lb pork loin
1 bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce (I used KC Masterpiece Honey)
Salt and pepper

Turn your crock-pot on low. Add your pork loin to the crock-pot fat side down. Salt and pepper the top and sides of pork loin generously. Drizzle one –third of BBQ sauce onto the top side of the pork loin and spread evenly. Turn pork loin over and salt and pepper the other side of the pork loin. Add the rest of the BBQ and spread evenly. (If you like extra BBQ sauce with serving save a few tablespoons.) Cook on low for 8 to 12 hours.

When ready to serve take tongs and either pull big chunks, I do this while still in the crock-pot, or you may remove the pork loin and shred the pork. I highly recommend serving this pork with a tall glass of sweet tea.

The challenge for myself with this pork loin next time is to make my own BBQ sauce.

Another suggestion if you miss smoking the pork loin is to rub a couple teaspoons of liquid smoke on the loin before adding S&P and the BBQ sauce.

Enjoy!

Chili Suizas Bake

I have around 5 or 6 Rachael Ray cookbooks – I do love to watch Rachael’s show but I must admit I haven’t found much recently that makes me want to jump up and run to the grocery store for items just to cook the meal immediately. However, my husband and I have several recipes that are a staple in our household.

The first being Rachael’s Chili Suizas Bake. I believe we saw this on her show in early 2008 and it literally had us salivating as we watched the show. I am not a huge fan of Salsa Verde (green salsa) but for some reason this recipe just spoke to me. I promise if you like Mexican-American food you will love this recipe! It is YUM-O!

I have made some changes to the recipe to suit our taste. Also, I've linked the original recipe in case you decide to try it Rachael’s way! (Which I will do from here on out when I feature a recipe – it is rare that I don’t change something in a recipe.)

Chili Suizas Bake
Adapted from Rachael’s Chili Suizas Bake

Ingredients:

2large/medium poblano peppers
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
1 pound ground chicken (You can make your own ground chicken and I will show you how in a later post)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon coriander
½ large onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
8 large or 10 medium to small tomatillos, peeled, rinsed and halved
1/8 cup parsley
½ - 2 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoons honey
Salt and pepper
½ lime, juiced
¼ cup sour cream
Tortilla chips
1 cup shredded Pepper Jack cheese
½ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese


Heat the broiler to high. Place the poblanos under hot broiler and char until blackened an all sides, 10 to 12 minutes. Leave the door of the oven cracked to allow the steam to escape. Place the peppers in a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow the peppers to cool enough to handle.

While peppers char, heat extra-virgin olive oil in a high sided skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and lightly brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in onions, jalapeno, garlic, cumin, coriander and chili powder and cook to soften onions about 5 minutes. While onions cook, place tomatillos and parsley in the food processor and process until smooth but slightly chunky. Pour the tomatillos into the chicken mixture and stir to combine. Stir in chicken stock and honey, season with salt and pepper and simmer chili 10 minutes.

When poblano peppers are cool enough to handle, remove seeds and chop, stir into chili. Add sour cream to the mixture and stir until completely incorporated. Remove chili pan from heat and stir in lime juice and transfer to baking dish. Cover the dish with cheese. Place under broiler until brown and bubbly. Spoon chili into dinner bowls and serve with chips. Enjoy!

Note: My husband and I both like ours to have a good bit of “sauce” to where it is soupy and the chips will sop-up the juices. If you don’t like this cut the stock back to a cup.

My little ditty about my life and why I started this blog aka My Introduction!

Howdy!

My name is Leigh Ann and I’ve lived in Georgia all my life. I married the love of my life in 2007. We live in small house, in a small town with our two Labrador Retrievers. I have always loved to cook but never the one who liked to clean the dishes. This is why my husband is not only my resident taste-tester but also my dishwasher – do you see why I married him now? :)

My Blog

I decided to start this blog for a variety of reasons…but the best one of all is that my husband and I LOVE to eat! Over time you will begin to learn that my husband and I really enjoy Mexican and Italian inspired dishes. So join me in my journey of being a basically self-taught “cook”, making simply delicious food and trying to improve my skills.

If you have any questions or inquiries please write me at leighannskitchen@gmail.com.

Thank you for visiting my blog!