chicken broth Archives - Holistically Engineered

Chorizo Chicken (Low Carb and Gluten Free)

Karen Sorenson — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 15:42:00 +0000

My latest cooking adventure was Low Carb Chorizo Chicken. I’m always looking for ways to cook boneless skinless chicken breast. There is nothing worse than a dry and flavorless piece of chicken. The spice coating for the chicken helps keep it moist and tender. The mixture of spices gives it great depth of flavor while the chorizo adds a zesty kick to the chicken. The addition of the spinach adds some light freshness to the dish.

I used the following ingredients for Chorizo Chicken:
1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast

1/2 cup mayonnaise
Zest of one lemon
1 tsp lemon juice
1.5 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 shallot, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 lb of chorizo sausage, casing removed
1/4 cup chicken broth
1.5 cups of baby spinach

Preheat oven to 425 F. Mix the mayonnaise, lemon zest, lemon juice, chili powder, cumin, garlic, and salt in a small bowl. Spread the mixture over all sides of the chicken breast and place in an baking dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through.

Meanwhile, heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a medium-large size skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook for 4-5 minutes or until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Remove the chorizo from the casing and add it to the pan. Break up the chorizo into pieces and cook for 5-6 minutes. Add the chicken broth and let it reduce slightly. Add the baby spinach and cook until wilted. Serve the chorizo topping over the cooked chicken breast.

Net Carb Count*:

Chorizo Chicken: 13 net carbs (for the entire recipe)

*Note carb counts are estimated based on the products I used. Check nutrition labels for accurate carb counts.

Comments: The chorizo really added some zest the chicken breast and helped give the chicken some pizazz. If you are not a fan of chorizo or are not able to find it you may be able to use hot Italian sausage, although this will change the flavor profile.

Enjoy!

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Homemade Crockpot Chicken Stock (Low Carb and Gluten Free)

Karen Sorenson — Thu, 24 May 2012 21:13:00 +0000

My latest cooking adventure was Homemade Crockpot Chicken Stock. I have been reading a lot lately about the benefits of bone broth/stock and I wanted to try making some. Bone broth/stock is packed with vitamins, minerals, and gelatin (which helps with joint pain). While the store bought chicken broth is convenient, it is a processed food item that contains A LOT of sodium. Making your own allows you to control the ingredients and plus it’s pretty easy to make!

I used the following ingredients for the Homemade Chicken Stock:

The bones and carcasses of 2 cooked chickens (I used the bones leftover from two (3 lb) roasted chickens)

2 small onions

1 carrot

The inner ribs and leaves of 1 stalk of celery (plus leftover end pieces and leaves–use what you have available)

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

3 sprigs of fresh thyme

10 cups of water

1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)

Cut the onions and carrot in half. Place the carcasses/bones, ACV, veggies, rosemary, and thyme in the crockpot. Cover everything with water (I used 10 cups-make sure you leave some space at the top). Cook on LOW for 8-12 hours. Allow the broth to cool and strain the broth through a mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth (optional). Refrigerate, allowing the fat to settle to the top and skim the solidified fat.

You are left with nutritious bone stock that tastes even better than store bought! Freeze or store in the fridge (see note below for storage suggestions).

Net Carb Count*:

Estimated to be 1 net carb for 1 cup of stock

*Note carb counts are estimated based on the products I used. Check nutrition labels for accurate carb counts.

Comments: I used the bones and carcasses leftover from chickens I had previously roasted. A good tip is to place all of your leftover chicken bones in a plastic freezer bag and store the bag in the freezer until you are ready to make stock. Anytime you make bone-in chicken (breast, thighs, legs, whole, etc.) save the bones and add it to the bag. I usually have celery to snack on, but I don’t like eating the celery hearts (small, light green ribs of the celery stalk) so I used those in this recipe. You can save your raw veggies scraps and those veggies that aren’t perfect for your dinner recipe and use them for broth/stock. Just store your veggies the freezer in a plastic freezer bag and add all of your veggie scraps to the bag. The vegetables are good for making bone broth or vegetable broth. It’s great tip for not letting anything go to waste! Also, I cooked my chicken stock overnight and woke up to delicious stock in the morning.

In this recipe I made stock and without the addition of salt. I chose to leave out the salt so that I can control the amount that is used in my recipes. You could add it to your mixture while cooking, but *WARNING* make sure you figure out the amount of salt per serving. You don’t want to end up with more per serving than store bought!

STORAGE: To store the chicken stock, I saved about 2 cups of stock in a mason jar for use this week. The stock should last about 3 days in the fridge. The stock you store in the fridge will turn into a gelatin like substance. This is good! It means that there is a lot of healthy, joint healing gelatin in your stock. Heat will turn the gelatin back into liquid form when you use it in your recipes. What do you do with the other 8 cups? I poured it into ice cube trays, let them freeze, and stored the cubes in containers labeled with the serving size (I made 1 and 2 cup servings.) My ice cube trays hold about 2 cups of stock, but make sure you measure how much yours will hold so you can label the servings properly. The ice cube shape makes it faster for the stock to defrost. Also, each one of my cubes is about 2 Tbsp worth of stock so it’s easy to measure (yours may be different). If you don’t want to mess with ice cube trays you could freeze the stock in individual serving sizes, but be sure to label the container so you how much chicken stock it contains (I recommend 1 or 2 cup servings).

When making the stock you can optionally add 1 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar to the bones to help extract extra minerals. Pour the vinegar over the bones and wait 30 minutes before adding the other ingredients and starting the stock.

I’ve written a lot of info here, but it really was easy to make because the crockpot does all the work. It is a good way to use all of your ingredients and to not be wasteful. Plus you get all of those vitamins and minerals! I hope you try it out because I loved the rich flavor that was produced from the homemade stock!

Need recipes using chicken broth/stock? Do a search in my blog for chicken broth and it will bring up lots of great recipes that use chicken broth.

Want more info about the benefits of bone broth? https://www.marksdailyapple.com/cooking-with-bones/#axzz1vp6uEuQ7 discusses the benefits of bone broth.

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Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps with Fried “Rice”

Karen Sorenson — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 01:38:00 +0000

Tonight’s cooking adventure was Asian style Chicken Lettuce Wrap with Fried “Rice.”

I used the following ingredients for Chicken Lettuce Wraps recipe:

1 lb ground chicken
1 shallot, diced
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 Tbsp of soy sauce
1 Tbsp of chicken broth
1 Tbsp of peanut butter
1 batch of Teriyaki sauce (found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9o3Znfilzo from the Atkins Diet Geek)
8-10 lettuce leaf cups (butter lettuce, romaine, etc.)

Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a skillet over medium high heat and cook the ground chicken. Once the chicken is mostly cooked add the shallot and mushrooms. Meanwhile, mix the remainder of the ingredients (except of lettuce leave) in a small bowl. Once the shallots are translucent and the mushrooms are cooked, add the sauce and simmer until heated through. Serve the chicken mixture in lettuce leaf cups. Garnish with chopped peanuts or a sprinkle of carrot shreds.

I also made the fried “rice” recipe found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF2uvYsDOqY&feature=relmfu (also from the Atkins Diet Geek).

Net Carb Count*:
10 net carbs (for the entire Chicken Lettuce Wrap recipe)

*Note carb counts are estimated based on the products I used. Check nutrition labels for accurate carb counts.

Comments: My original lettuce wrap recipe (https://lconeday.blogspot.com/2012/01/low-carb-turkey-lettuce-wraps.html) was very delicious, but I wanted to reduce some of the carbs and I wanted to try it with ground chicken. Not to mention that I needed to take a better quality picture! The Chicken Lettuce Wraps turned out very well!. I used similar ingredients as the first recipe, but I was able to reduce some of the carbs by making the teriyaki sauce. I also liked the flavor of the ground chicken instead of the turkey. I served my lettuce wraps with fried “rice.” It was so scrumptious! The recipe is definitely a great substitute for fried rice. I didn’t really make any modifications to the original recipe other than making a smaller batch and I didn’t have any green onions so I used celery for color. The onions would have given the rice extra flavor though. Also, I’m not a fan of eggs in my rice so I left it out. I definitely suggest making this recipe next time you are craving fried rice.

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