summer chicken, veggie and mango salad

OK, sometimes you take a gamble with dinner and lose. I once decided it was better to toss an entire corningware dish than to attempt to pry of the lid, burned on by starch. I was never able to open that dish to find out if the chicken finished cooking, but the pizza we finally at at 9pm was delicious.

Other times you take a gamble with dinner and score. This was one of those times. I made lemon cilantro dressing for my salad for lunch, but on the salad it was only so-so. For dinner, I had leftover skewers that my family loved, but not as many as we would need. I did have some potatoes for filler, but re-heated chicken and potatoes just didn't sound good. And so this salad was born, with the dressing to coat it. Even picky Lizzie ate it.

Oh, and I'm working on a lettuce-based salad that would be perfect with the lemon cilantro dressing - new salad recipe coming soon!

perfect chicken skewers

Perfect for a potluck, a picnic, or hosting a summer BBQ, these skewers are full of flavor and don't need any extra dressing up. The flavor of the marinade doesn't overpower the dish, yet brings plenty of tenderness and spunk. This is meant to make lots -enough for a fun summer chicken salad that I'll post soon.

garlic lemon chicken

Whew! THAT was a doozy. Two weeks of multiple people having multiple ear & strep infections, plus grading final exams & research papers - ughh! But all horrible things must come to an end, and so I'm finally alive & cooking again!!!

My first day back on the job yielded my favorite version of lemon chicken - heavy on the lemon & garlic, no sweetener, no capers. Perfection. I used cooking sherry, but a dry white wine would work, too. Serve with grilled veggies - it's filling enough without a starchy side. But if you absolutely must, it'd be amazing with orzo pasta.

PS-check out the new cooking times! Personally, I like it best when the time is listed in prep time (how long am I gonna be on my feet getting things ready?) and total cooking time (if I have to do stuff on the stove before it goes in the oven, I want to gauge the whole thing up front). Keep in mind that BOTH times are for a relatively seasoned home cook - those who know their way around their kitchen & have a general understanding of how dishes turn out, but who lack the ability to chop an onion in 3 seconds while simultaneously juggling knives behind their backs. If you're a kitchen almost-virgin, start out by doubling the prep time, just to be safe. Hope it helps you plan/envision/not begrudge me.

beer glazed pork chops

You're welcome for this recipe. While it's a bit of a travesty to pour a perfectly good beer into a pot for cooking on a hot summer day while the smoke & aroma of pork on the barbie fill the air, this glaze is completely worth it. Not that I wouldn't recommend poppin' a couple tops while dinner's on the grill. Or with dinner. Heck, have 'em after. And this works perfectly for grilled chicken, too.

One word of caution: I used an amber bock that we really like to drink, and the flavor of the beer came through perfectly. I'd skip lighter beers and use an amber or stout, and go for one that you actually enjoy drinking. As the saying goes, "If you wouldn't drink it, you shouldn't cook with it."

Oh, and one more word of caution: the glaze goes from almost perfectly-reduced to burned in about 2.7 seconds. So once it gets close, just park yourself next to the stove and pay attention. Trust me on this.

asian fusion tacos

Chicken. A couple leftover limes. A whole head of cabbage I never used. Teriyaki sauce. Hmmm... this could be something. Serve this delicious twist on a regular taco in warm tortillas, with cabbage, salsa, limes, avocados, and some coconut-cilantro rice on the side. Oh, and tortilla chips. Any excuse for tortilla chips is welcome in this house.

hawaiian chicken

At a family reunion on Mr. Improv's side, I met his cousin-in-law over a pot of her homemade Hawaiian chicken. A Hawaiian native, she grew up making this classic dish the right way (i.e. - don't ask what's in it, just pretend you're on vacation - calories on vacation don't count, right?). No joke, cousin-in-law Kelly didn't give me measurements, so I pass the recipe on to you just as I received it in grandma's kitchen that day. Please, attempt to work within all this ambiguity. For you rule-followers who simply can't handle not having a single measurement, I've given loose measurements at the bottom. It's just so much more fun to make it without measuring!

baked honey lemon chicken

Leftover white wine & no excuse to drink it? I'll find you an excuse. But if you must find a way to use it in cooking because, say, you've completely lost your ability to hold your own when it comes to wine, then try this healthier version of what normally comes fried at a Chinese restaurant. Oh, and I know the picture shows a bone-in, skin-on chicken thigh, yet the recipe below calls for skinless breasts. Have you read the title of the blog? Ahem. And the picture's not the clearest. But my over-tired children and my sick husband were thankful for me to stop messing with the camera and just. serve. dinner. already.

caribbean jerk chicken

Sometimes it's worth just buying a bottle of marinade at the store and displaying it proudly. I have no idea how to make Caribbean Jerk marinade. Someday I'll find out. While I have 2 youngsters who each pull at one pant leg while I'm making my grocery list, shopping for groceries, putting food away, and making food, there are days when I really don't care how to make this marinade. I just pour it on and walk away with a big fat smile on my face. And 2 people hanging on to my legs.

my favorite fall salad

I admit that I grew up not liking salads. I'm still not crazy about iceburg lettuce with carrots and tomatoes, but I've learned that salads can be very different from what we had in my youth. This is one I regularly make for lunch because it's so dang fun that I forget I'm eating well. And yes, I know it's currently winter and feels a bit like summer. But whatever, this is my fav fall salad.

crockpot bbq chicken

***A pork roast will work just as well here - just follow the same instructions (update: approximately a 3 pound roast).

BBQ anything is good, but meat cooked in BBQ sauce & slathered with BBQ sauce & served with bread is even better. This chicken makes really good sandwiches, especially served with fresh avocado-lime slaw. Just remember - any BBQ dish is only as good as the sauce used to make it, so buy the good stuff, even if it's a couple dollars extra.

chicken salad sandwiches

There are almost as many ways to make chicken salad as there are people in California. This one combines savory herbs with apples, cranberries, and nuts for a perfect luncheon taste.

10, er, 7 ways to oven roast a chicken

Ever hear the phrase "tastes just like chicken" and shudder as you recall the bland white meat you recently made for dinner? No? Well I have. And to be honest, chicken is both my signature (Mr. Improv's favs almost all include chicken) and the bane of my existence. Depends on the day.

So after making some pretty impressive oven-roasted chicken one night, I challenged myself to find ten ways to roast the cheap, accessible, sometimes flavorless bird. So far, I've found seven. And here are the results:

southwest chicken bake

A classic Improv dish that resulted from a desperate, "Arghhh! What Am I Going To Make For Dinner?!" this casserole is so very versatile that you can make it your own. The spice proportions are perfect, but other veggies could be added, or the beans served on the side. If you want an all-in-one, add 1 cup of uncooked rice plus 1.5 cups chicken broth.

crockpot chicken chile verde

So easy, this hardly qualifies as a recipe. It tastes like it was slaved over all day, but leaves plenty of time to make a side of easy guacamole and toss some cabbage & spinach in salsa to wilt them a bit before serving with tortilla chips. Now I'm hungry again. Sigh.