Citrus Teriyaki Chicken

To make this Citrus Teriyaki Chicken you will need:

2-4 chicken breasts

• Marinade:
• 3/4c teriyaki sauce/marinade
• 1T soy sauce (more or less depending on how salty you want it)
• 1T minced onions
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• Glaze:
• 3T olive oil
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes
• 1T orange rind
• 1/2T lemon rind (I didn't have a grater for the rinds. So, I just sliced a few twists off of the rind)
• juice of an orange
• juice of half a lemon
• 1T rice wine vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1T honey
• 1+1/2T corn starch combined with just enough water to mix and get a liquid. (this is for thickening the glaze at the end)

Start by combining all the marinade ingredients in a large zipper bag with the chicken and allow it to sit. I let mine sit for a few hours, but you can do more or less depending on how much flavor you want it to have. Mine actually had a little too much teriyaki flavor and not enough orange flavor. I have compensated a little bit in the recipe presented here; but you could probably sacrifice some of the marinating time and it would be just as good if not better.

Once the chicken has marinated for a while, you can start to prepare the glaze. In a large sauce pan, combine the olive oil, garlic, orange and lemon rinds, red pepper flakes. Let that heat up until it starts to bubble and give off some aroma. Then, pull the chicken out of the marinade, save the marinade though, and place chicken in the pot. Sear the outside of the chicken. Then, add the remaining glaze ingredients (except the corn starch) and pour some or all of the marinade in the pot as well. (I added all of it but as I said I would reduce the teriyaki flavor next time.) Stir, cover, and let simmer (stirring occasionally) for a couple hours until chicken is tender (for faster prep, cook chicken longer before adding glaze ingredients then just cook chicken until it is done all the way through). Right before serving combine the corn starch-water mix and bring sauce to boil just a couple minutes, until thickened. Serve and eat!

I served it with garlic herb couscous, mango slices, and french style green beans. It was very tasty (despite the imbalanced teriyaki/orange ratio).
Next time, I will do a few things differently: First, I will sear the chicken on the grill instead of in the pot, to give it just a little different flavor. I will also add more orange juice OR I will add some frozen orange juice concentrate so the sauce doesn't get too watery. And perhaps I will add some more red pepper flakes and honey, but we'll see about that. I believe this recipe will also work well in a crock pot.
Give it a shot!

~Sarah

Breaded Halibut

Halibut was on sale, so we bought some. I had never made halibut before, and I had no idea what to do with it! I did some googling, and I read that Halibut has very little fat content, which means that grilling and baking could dry it out. So, I decided frying it was the way to go. I also happened to have a TON of Rice Krispie cereal on hand, so I decided to try that as a breading for the Halibut!

To prepare the fish you will need:

• For breading
• 3c Rice Krispie cereal- crushed
• 1/2c parmesan 
• 2t lemon pepper
• 2t onion powder
• 1t garlic salt
• 1/2T parsley
• For wet mix:
• 1/2c mayonnaise
• 1T minced Garlic
• 2t Old Bay seasoning

To make the fish, put the Rice Krispies in a plastic bag (the large gallon size is best), and crunch them up. You can squeeze it, hit it with a hammer, or various other methods--but I find that rolling it with a rolling pin (or something else that is somewhat cylinder shaped, like a beer bottle lol ;) works great! Once the Rice Krispies are all crunched up, put in the remaining dry ingredients in the bag and shake to mix well.

In a bowl, mix together all of the wet ingredients.
Now, I used mayonnaise for the base of it because I wanted to try something new. When I have made breaded chicken in the past, I have used butter, or milk and egg, to wet the meat before breading.... and I am sure using either of those for this recipe would have been fine. But, I had seen some recipes that used mayo and I figure since mayo is mostly egg and oil (and a bunch of other crap), perhaps it was the best of both worlds. So, I gave it a shot! And, I must say, I will do it again!! It was thicker than the other "liquids" I have used, which meant that more breading stuck to it, and I like that--If meat is breaded, it needs to be crunchy!  

Put the fish pieces into the mayo mix to coat them. Then, put them into the breading, pushing down to make sure plenty of crunchiness sticks ;)

I fried them on medium heat, in a 50/50 olive oil/butter blend, for just a few minutes on each side until browned, and turned to brown all sides. You have to be pretty gentile in order to not knock off the breading. I knew mine was ready when the halibut fell apart. 

I made a packet of hollandaise sauce because I am lazy and soooooo bad at cream sauces... and put it over some pasta and a little over the halibut. It had the perfect lemony zing to compliment the fish.

The breaded halibut was TASTY! If halibut wasn't usually so expensive I would definitely buy it more. It was meaty, not at all fishy, and super tender. You should definitely try this one!

~Sarah

Tomato Lime Tilapia

This recipe is something I threw together the other night. It came out ok, but there are definitely some changes I will make next time. I was feeling incredibly lazy, and I compromised a little too much. lol Oh well!

Ingredients:

• 2 tilapia filets
• 2T olive oil/ butter
• 1/4 of a lime's juice
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 of an onion, chopped
• 1 can of diced tomatos (I used Rotel with lime and cilantro)
• lemon pepper seasoning or salt and pepper 

To make the tilapia, put about a tablespoon of olive oil in the bottom of a ceramic baking dish, lay the tilapia in it, and sprinkle seasoning salt on the filets. Spread the garlic and onion evenly over them, and slice up about a tablespoon of butter to put on top (or just drizzle over a little more olive oil). Then, squeeze the lime over it, and pour the can of tomatos on top. 

I baked it in the oven at 375 for 20'ish minutes (until the fish was done). 

And voila, Tomato Lime Tilapia! 

In retrospect, I would have done several things different. I think it would be better if I had drained the liquid off the tomatoes before adding them (I made the assumption it was the lime juice, of "cilantro and lime", but I think it was mostly water). Next time, I will probably use a little white wine in it; I just didn't have any this time.-- But I think it would be good :) 

This recipe is kind of similar to how I make arroz con pollo (I will post that recipe sometime soon). So, next time I will make it with saffron rice, instead of the angel hair pasta I used this time. It also might be better on the grill. Maybe.

Give it a shot, and let me know if you think of anything that could improve on this early version of Tomato Lime Tilapia!

~Sarah

Raspberry Glazed Salmon

Well, I happened to have a ton of raspberry jam on hand and decided to give it a whirl on some salmon. The recipe is very much still a work in progress; this was only the 2nd time I made it. It was better the first time but I don't remember what I did differently! :( Oh well! It was still very good and there's always next time! (I will update this if I figure it out)

For the salmon you will need:

• 1lb. salmon
• 2t minced garlic
• 1T dried onion (although I am sure fresh is just as good if not better)
• 1T olive oil
• 2T coconut oil
• juice of 1/4 a lime or lemon
• 1T white wine (or hard apple cider, as I had handy this evening ;) 
• salt to taste
• sriracha sauce (last time I used cayenne pepper but I think the sriracha has a better flavor, both work though)

For the raspberry glaze:

• 1/4c raspberry jam
• 1T white vinegar
• pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

I served with:

• strawberry, peach, mango salsa (just cut up fruit with a splash of lemon on it)
• Parmesan couscous (from a box)
• steamed artichoke (Mmmm! One of my favorites!)

To cook the salmon I have used the grill and the oven, I prefer the grill, I think. However, this time I used the oven. I put the olive oil on the bottom of a glass baking dish, which was just big enough to fit the fish. Then, put the salmon in and drizzled the coconut oil over top of it. I spread the onion, garlic, and sriracha sauce evenly over it and let it sit. I waited an hour or so, but you don't have to. Then, about 15 min before I put the salmon in the oven, I added the lemon/lime juice and white wine to the pan.

Meanwhile, I put all the ingredients for the raspberry glaze in a small sauce pan, put it on the stove (on medium-low heat) and stirred to remove all the lumps-- I kept this lightly bubbling, stirring often, until the fish was done.

I put the salmon in a 400 degree oven for about 15 min, until the salmon was almost done. I poured a little of the raspberry glaze, just enough to cover the top, over the fish and switch the oven to broil for a minute or two. Careful not to burn it; just caramelize the sauce a little bit.

Once the fish was out of the oven and on a plate, I drizzled a little more raspberry glaze over it, put some strawberry, peach, mango salsa on top and chowed down!

This fish is great with couscous, but I am sure it would be good with some pasta or coconut rice too! 

I think the dish is still missing something, but I'm not sure what it is. If you figure it out please tell me! 

Hope you enjoy!

~Sarah