Lemon Breaded Chicken with Caramelized String Beans

I haven't cooked anything in about a week! It's been driving me stir crazy. But this is a really simple recipe that's super inexpensive at the same time. And your family will just eat it up lickety-split!

Ingredients:

• 5 chicken breasts
• 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, pressed and minced
• squeeze of two full lemons
• dash of salt
• dash of pepper
• dash of rosemary
• 3 to 4 eggs
• splash of milk
• bread crumbs
• fresh oats
• drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

I started off cooking my beans because they really take the longest. Snap off the ends, throw them in a pot, and cook away! I'm just gonna link you to the recipe since I already did it with asparagus last week or so. >>> Here. I got that recipe from my mom, she used to always make string beans like this almost every meal. I just saw her this past Sunday for her birthday party and I've really missed her since I haven't seen her since Thanksgiving.

Next you're gonna prepare the chicken, tenderize the hell out of it and cut it to your liking. I did about 1 inch strips, kind of like chicken tender size. If you want to make them bigger by all means! You're going to be frying these in oil on the stove, and 5 chicken breasts cut up super small can take 3 to 4 big batches. And that's a lot of handiwork.

Put the chicken in a large bowl and squeeze in your lemon, pepper, salt, rosemary, and garlic. Remember, a little rosemary goes a long way! Squish it all around with your hands to make sure everything is spread evenly.

Mix up your eggs and dash of milk in a bowl big enough for you to dip the chicken in. On a plate next to that, pour your bread crumbs and a large handful of oats. So from your left to right, you should have the bowl of chicken, the egg mixture, the crumbs and oats, and then a separate clean plate to place your breaded chicken! Like a little assembly line.

Once you've got that all set, get a large skillet on medium heat and pour in a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Let it heat up for a second and start throwing on your chicken. The chicken should only need 2 minutes on each side... Depending on how thick you cut it. You can tell when one side is ready because the chicken will start to puff up and turn white around the edges. Flip it over and it should be nice and golden brown on one side. Use tongs, it makes it easiest. Test a little piece of each batch you do, you don't want to overcook the chicken... But you don't want to undercook it either. It should be super moist and delicious, not dried out and sandy.

Each batch you do you'll want to scrape off the extra bread crumbs that fell off from the previous batch into the garbage, and use a fresh drizzle of oil! Otherwise you're gonna start burning your chicken and that's no fun is it? So I hope you guys like it! This makes a ton of chicken, there were four of us and we had a lot of leftovers. But we didn't have a starch besides the bread crumbs, so we made up for it in extra chicken. And we didn't have a lot of beans! They cook down pretty good, so make sure you get a hefty bag of them. Oh, and don't forget to squeeze a little fresh lemon juice over the top when you're done!

I'm off to stretch and work out... Ugh, I love doing it... But just getting the motivation really sucks doesn't it? Haha,

Later Food Lovers!
Justin Francis Kane
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Chicken Tacos with Apricot Salsa and Fresh Guacamole

So I hope all my new followers love this recipe! I put a lot of though and hard work into these tacos, and they turned out so beautiful I almost cried at how delicious they were, not because they were super spicy… Thank God I didn’t put the Habaneros in! :X This recipe definitely has a lot going on, so I’ll break it down into sections. I made the guacamole, salsa, peppers, and chicken all separately so it’s a bit of busy work and a lot of prep! Easier if you’ve got two people cooking for sure!

Ingredients:

• 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts
• tortillas, or anything else you prefer to roll them up in!
• 3 apricots, halved and cored
• 1 large yellow onion
• .5 stick of butter
• 2 avocados, nice and ripe!
• 4 to 6 cloves of garlic
• 3 to 4 tomatoes
• 3 limes
• 2 to 3 jalapenos
• 2 to 3 red chiles
• 2 large green chiles
• 1 bag of blue corn chips
• dash of salt
• dash of pepper

First you want to prepare your salsa, that has to cool in the fridge for an hour and marinate nicely beforehand. What I did was take 2 cloves of garlic, 2 jalapenos, and 2 chiles [make sure you remove the seeds!] and dice them up nice and small. Set that aside and wash your hands quickly cause the red chiles tend to burn if you get the juice on you. DO NOT TASTE THIS, unless you wanna burn your mouth off or trick your friend haha.

I was in a huge rush, so I used a food processor to do all of my dicing. Just makes it easy, though I do like hand chopped better because the salsa comes out chunkier. Throw in your apricots, a little less than half the onion, and 2 tomatoes. Pulse and stop before they turn to mush! Pour in a bowl and sprinkle in a little salt and pepper, also a squeeze of lime. This is where it gets tricky, depending on how spicy you like your salsa; I like it spicy, so I threw in 2 tablespoons of the spicy stuff I told you to set aside. You might wanna try half or a quarter, start slow and work your way up. Or just make two batches, one mild and one hot! It makes a lot of salsa, you’ll be eating it for a few days, unless you’re throwing a party.

Put it into the fridge and then start with the guacamole! Guacamole is super easy, two avocados, half an onion, one or two tomatoes depending on how you like it, dash of salt, dash of pepper, and a whole squeeze of a lime. Mash it up or put it in the food processor like i did! If you wanna throw some spicy into you, add a little of the spicy stuff! Normally you could put cilantro, but I think it tastes like dish soap, gross. A good trick to keep it from browning is to save the pits and put them in your guacamole! I don’t know why but I think the mashed up avocado still thinks it’s a fruit and not about to be eaten… It works, so just do itttttttt.

Next I diced the large green chiles, which are basically just weird shaped peppers that aren’t spicy at all. I sauteed these covered in a skillet with just butter, and a super tiny pinch of salt and pepper. Once they’re basically soft, I removed the lid and turned it up to high heat to give em a nice charred edge look. I love the taste of burnt vegetables. Not completely burnt, but just around the edges! Set aside.

For the last part of actual cooking I just tenderized the chicken, cubed it, sauteed it in a little butter, onion and garlic and there ya go. Squeeze some fresh lime over it and tadah! Once the juices run clear, you know the chickens done.

Now you take all your ingredients, grab the sour creme and jack cheese at this point! And stuff your tortillas. A little letchuga, as the spanish say and you’ve got yourself some damn good tacos. The left over guac and salsa can be put on the table and munched on for hours! Or in my case, the whole entire time you’re actually cooking the food… To the point where you get full even before you eat the tacos and then stuff two of them down your throat and go into a food coma, haha.

What’s next? I dunno, I was watching Top Chef all day today and I heard about a lot of shit I need to do research on because I have NO IDEA what it is! Learning is fun, and I’m sure my next thing is gonna be Squab or some other crazy french thing ;} And what the hell is Molecular Gastronomy? What is the world coming too, just another food fad I guess. Anyways, it’s nap time!

Peace out girl scouts,
Justin Francis Kane
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Stuffed Cucumbers with Creme Cheese Lox

Stuffed Cucumbers with Creme Cheese Lox! This was super easy, super quick, and will make your friends wanna roll over and die with refreshment. They're deliciously bite sized little orgasmic semen-splosions in your mouth.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces of room temperature creme cheese
• 6 ounces of sour creme
• 3 ounces of fresh smoked salmon, raw and diced very small!
• a handful of chopped fresh chives, diced and small. or a shallot!
• dash of dill
• dash of salt
• squeeze of a lemon
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed and minced.
• 3 or 4 large cucumbers

So you're gonna start by mixing together everything except for the cucumbers, don't forget to taste it! You might want more dill or more lemon, who knows? Cover it and pop it in the fridge to set a little so you can pipe it into your cucumber hollows later.

Next you're going to skin your cukes! If you don't like the skin, you can take it all off. But I prefer it with a little skin on, so I did alternating strips of skin and skinless.

After that, cut your cukes into 1 inch sections removing the ends first. Once that's done, take a small grapefruit spoon or a melon baller and scoop out some but not all of the innards and seeds. You want to go down about 2/3's of the way into the flesh. Sprinkle a little extra salt on the cucumbers and set aside for a minute.

If you don't have a fancy piping bag, use a ziplock or sandwich bag! Fill it up with the creme cheese lox and cut a little small hole in one corner. Pipe it into the cukes cavities and maybe garnish with a little mini fresh sprig of dill for decoration? I only had dried, but no big deal!

Keep em in the fridge covered or serve immediately. You're friends gonna think you some fancy british tea party shit or something'!

Later Foodies,
Justin Francis Kane
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