Roasted Red Pepper Stuffed Chicken

By now you should know (if you clicked on the link I gave you) I was featured in a local Austin magazine. Thank you to Ujima for featuring me this month and introducing me to the larger Austin community. I don’t know what will come of this, only God knows, but I really appreciate them for giving me a chance to shine. This Ujima project is a wonderful endeavor that is great for the Austin community…more specifically the Black community. We ALL need to support them!


The following dish is something I came up with several years ago while living in Houston. My wife had decided to do Mary Kay on the side and she had her coming out party. Since this was for my wife I couldn’t let her have crappy food for her event. About 20 to 30 women were there to support her and since it was around dinnertime, I decided to do a meal instead of appetizers. Also, around this time I started thinking about catering and wanted to try some of my dishes out on people outside of family. The coming out party was a hit. The ladies all had a great time and my wife sold quite a bit of product. To this day, I still get requests for this dish. In fact, our friend in Houston, the one who threatened me for not posting regularly, specifically requested I post about my stuffed chicken.

The dish is fairly easy to make but will require you getting your hands a little dirty. The end result will be great and well worth it.

Roasted Red pepper Stuffed Chicken Breast with Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce


2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

½ cup roasted red peppers, diced

½ cup Parmesan cheese

Spinach

Salt

Black pepper

Paprika

Olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 F.


First, pound each piece of chicken in a Ziploc bag to flatten it. The bag will ensure the chicken doesn’t splatter while you pound it out…plus, it makes it easier to clean up. Pound until it’s evenly flat then salt and pepper both sides of the chicken.

In a bowl, mix together diced roasted red peppers, parmesan cheese, black pepper, and paprika. If you prefer, mix in the spinach (chopped first). I don’t do that, I add the spinach leaves on top of the mixture...but we’ll get there. Lay the chicken breast skin side down, then take the red pepper mix and spread evenly across the breast.

Place the spinach leaves and lay it on top of the mix.

Finally, roll the chicken up making sure it stays tight. To keep it in place you can use a tooth pick or a skewer stick. Set it aside and do the same thing for the other chicken breast.

 Heat a pan with olive oil on medium heat. Once the oil is hot (not too hot that it smokes put the chicken in seam side down first. This will brown and seal it…cook for about three minutes. Rotate the chicken breast until all of the sides are brown.

Once done put the chicken on a cookie sheet and place it in the oven for 20 minutes. While that’s in the oven, prepare the sauce.

Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce


½ Roasted red peppers

1 cup of heavy cream

½ cup chicken stock

Juice from ½ of a lemon

Lemon zest

½ cup White wine

1 garlic clove, minced

Cayenne pepper

Using the same pan that you cooked the chicken in, add about a tablespoon of olive oil. If you have some in there already pour it out. Your just want enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the minced garlic, but make sure it doesn’t brown. If you have any spinach left in the pan (after cooking the chicken), remove it. Add the white wine to deglaze the pan. For those who don’t believe that alcohol cooks out when heated, you can use water to deglaze the pan. When you deglaze, you are basically taking the flavors that are stuck to the bottom of your pan and making it a part of your sauce or dish. To help the wine or water out, you can use a spoon or whisk to loosen the food from the bottom of the pan.  Once you have deglazed the pan, allow the volume of the liquid in the pan to reduce by half, and then add the chicken stock. Let the chicken stock reduce to half its original volume as well. This reduction allows the flavors to concentrate. Add the peppers, lemon juice and lemon zest to the pan.

Stir and finally, add the heavy cream. Again, reduce the sauce until it has a nice coat on the back of a spoon.

Depending on how much heat you want to your sauce, add cayenne pepper to your likeness. Watch out for the salt because most stocks already have salt in them so you may not need to add salt to your sauce. Just taste it…it’s always better to under salt in the beginning and add it later. If it needs salt after you taste it, add it last and be careful. At this point the sauce should be simmering and the chicken should be ready to come out of the oven. Use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature in the chicken. It should read 165F.

If it doesn’t put it back the oven for an additional 10 minutes. Check the temperature again. Once the chicken is to temp, you can be confident that it’s done. Allow it to rest for about seven minutes before you cut it. This allows all the juices to flow back through the meat.


I used linguine for my pasta, but you can use whatever you want. I’m not going to tell you how to cook it here. You can use whole wheat pasta, multigrain, or white pasta, etc. or you could eat this with rice…. Just use the direction on the package it comes in.


After the chicken has rested, the sauce is coating the spoon, and the pasta is done, it will be time to plate. Cut the chicken into about four pieces. Add the pasta, chicken, and whatever vegetable you choose, and ladle the sauce over the chicken and the pasta.

In the pictures, I used broccoli as the vegetable. I’m assuming everyone knows how to cook it…if you need those instructions, let me know.

In my opinion this dish is fairly easy to make and I sincerely hope you can duplicate the recipe to your liking. Let me know if you make it and how it comes out. Let me know if you need any help. You can always email me at randalharrington@yahoo.com.


From Chef Randal-- this how you can add a touch of gourmet to your everyday.

Photos by Nikesha Harrington

Adventurers

Hello-Hello, I was supposed to blog at least once a week, but I haven’t done that and got into trouble. So I’m going to make an effort to give the people what they want at least before our friend in Houston strings me up.

Before I get started, check out this link: http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?i=34216&pre=1

I'll talk more about it later!

This past weekend I catered an event for my sister who is the Adventurer and Eager Beaver Director at our church, the Alpha Seventh-Day Adventist Church. This group is similar to Girls' Scouts or Boys Scouts, but for the little ones and originated out of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church (but anyone can join and we encourage you to do so if you have young children).

Anyway, she had a fashion show to raise money for her kids and at the end of the event she had refreshments. Naturally she asked her baby brother to help. She wanted everything to be really nice…and of course I couldn't say no to my sister. We went over a few menu options, but she had other stuff to do in preparation for the event and didn’t want to be bothered with menu planning. I took over that and came up with a few options that would be cost effective and tasty…and definitely look good!

Menu:

Veggie pinwheels

Hot Spinach and Artichoke dip

Deviled eggs

Salmon Croquettes

Assorted cupcakes

Orange Lemonade and Strawberry Lemonade

We got everything set up before the event started and had time to enjoy the kids too.

Refreshments came after the event, but I wanted everything set up and ready to go. If you’ve never been to a fashion show where kids are the spotlight, I highly recommend it. Talk about cuteness everywhere. My sister did a great job along with her team and the kids were outstanding. Not one of them got stage fright. Everyone was really proud of them. My brother was MC that night and kept everyone laughing. I didn't post any pictures of the kids here since I didn't have their parent's permission to do so.

Thanks to my staff who always handles things in a fabulous manner. My mother-in–law stepped in big time with decorations and helped my wife and me with the cupcakes and my brother-in-law stepped in at the last minute and made sure all of the platters stayed full as everyone served themselves. Thanks guys! I couldn’t have done it as well without you. For the assorted cupcakes we decided on lemon, chocolate, red velvet, and coconut cake.

The coconut cake was inspired by our pastor, Gordon Jones. He loves coconut cake and we wanted to make something special that he’d enjoy as well.

Once the event was over, everyone came out and got in line for the food. Everyone seemed to enjoy the set up and the food. I appreciate all of the compliments we received. It made me feel as if my job was done properly. I got positive comments on everything, but the big hits were the cupcakes and the salmon croquettes. Specifically, the coconut cupcakes…those were quickly consumed and gone.

The cupcakes looked really good. The Adventurers are awarded honors for various things like learning about the bible or gardening or animals throughout the year. We used those honors to decorate the cupcakes.

Since the croquettes were such a hit, I'll share the recipe with you. For those of you who tasted my croquettes, this recipe probably won’t taste EXACTLY like mine...come on now, I can’t give you all my secrets!  However, I’m more than happy to make them for you. Ready to cook? Here we go.

Chef Randal’s Salmon Croquettes

8oz. of cooked salmon

¼ cup diced celery

¼ cup diced onions

½ cup bread crumbs

¼ cup lemon juice

¾ cup of mayo

Spoonful of mustard

For seasonings, it would be easier to buy Old Bay Seasonings, but I used the following:

Cayenne (be careful because it can get to hot)

Paprika

Granulated garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

Pan non-stick cooking spray

1 cup bread crumbs to coat before cooking

Set oven on 350F

Crumble the cooked salmon into small pieces, add all the ingredients and mix with gloved hands or use a spoon. Make sure you have everything mixed well. You can either cook it immediately or let it sit covered in the fridge for about 2 hours. Form each patty using an ice cream scoop so the size is consistent or you can just eyeball it. Get a frying pan and put it on medium heat, coat it lightly using the Pan cooking spray. While that heats up (not too hot), take each croquette ball, flatten it out into the shape of a patty, and coat it with bread crumbs. Cook on each side till brown, remove from the skillet, and immediately place them on a cookie sheet. Continue cooking in the 350F oven for 15 minutes.

When you make this let me know how it turns out. It can be done for breakfast, lunch or dinner. For dinner you can serve it with squash medley and mashed potatoes. For breakfast this would go great with grits and herb biscuits.

From Chef Randal--this is how you can add a touch of gourmet to your everyday.

Photos by Nikesha Harrington

Keep an Open Mind

I get that everything I put on this site is not for everybody. If you don't like certain foods, that's understandable, BUT there are those who actually like different types of food. Before you leave a negative comment, please try it out or cook it for someone else to see if they like it.


What I am trying to say, DON'T KNOCK IT UNTIL YOU TRY IT! Keep an open mind and introduce something new to your pallet. I get onto my wife about this all the time. She's a picky eater, but has started to be more open to different foods and she's rarely disappointed.
I promise I won't post anything I haven't tried...and liked.

From Chef Randal...THIS is how you can have a touch of gourmet to your everyday!

Vegan Cooking… Chef Randal Style

Hello to all food lovers. I’m going to share a recipe this week to give you something to play with. This is mainly for the vegans, but don’t you worry meat eaters, we will have something here for you as well (on a later post). What I’m trying to do is give people a recipe/meal to experiment with before I demonstrate how to do it.

First let me explain why I came up with this meal. My parents became vegans right before I graduated from culinary school so I pretty much never got a chance to cook for them. Last year they came down because my mom was doing a seminar for the Adventures at Alpha Seventh-Day Adventist Church. They needed something to eat after church, so I figure it was my time to impress and finally cook for them. I racked my brain for about two weeks because I wanted their meal to be really good. Also, I wanted to flavor it with something other than seasonings. Don’t get me wrong I did use seasonings, but I added a little somethin’ somethin’. This dish is smoked tomato and mushroom with sautéed tofu, savory sweet potatoes, and Tabbouleh.

Here’s the recipe:
4 Portabella mushrooms
2 Firm Tomatoes
1 Container of firm Tofu
2 Sweet Potatoes
2 cups of boiling water
1 cup Bulghar wheat
1 Roma tomato
¼ cup parsley
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Olive Oil for sautéing and for the Tabbouleh
Basil pesto (optional)
Wood chips for smoking- I used Mesquite

Smoked Portabella and Tomato
Set the oven to 300F. First prepare the mushrooms by scraping the gills off from under the caps. Set aside. Cut up the tomato into 4 nice thick slices and season with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Soak the wood chips in water and transfer to a large pan. The easiest way to smoke anything in the oven is to use a perforated pan (it has holes) to place your food in and that pan will set inside of the pan with the soaking wood chips. Add the mushrooms and tomato slices to the perforated pan and cover it with a lid or foil and place it in the oven. Let it smoke for about 20 minutes. Let stand. Do not uncover.

Tofu
Cut your tofu into 4 slices add whatever seasonings you want. I used spicy seasonings like cayenne and chili powder and a little cumin because I just like it. I knew it would complement the smokiness of the mushroom and tomato. Cut the sweet potatoes into half inch slices and I used the same seasonings that you use for the tofu. Toss the potato and seasonings with olive oil place them on a baking sheet. Put them the oven and roast on 400F for about 30 minutes (or until done).

Tabbouleh
Boil the 2 cups of water and add the Bulgur wheat and cover. It should double in size. While waiting for that dice up the Roma tomato and parsley. Once the Bulgur wheat has doubled, add the diced tomato, lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper. Mix well. That dish is done. Refrigerate. During the last 5 minutes that the potatoes are in the oven put the smoked tomato and mushrooms back in the oven.

Now sauté the tofu until it is browned on both sides. Once everything is out of the oven, combine to make a lovely plate. To plate (this is how I chose to do it), place the mushroom at the bottom facing up then the tomato slice, and tofu. Drizzle a bit of basil pesto on top…it’s optional, but will add a nice flavor and color to the dish. Add three potatoes slices on the plate depending on size around the entrée. Add the Tabbouleh to the plate straight out of the fridge…and you’re done.

The thing that made everything different was the smoke flavor and my parents loved it. For their food, I didn’t use olive oil. They don’t use oils of any kind, so I used pan spray instead for the sautéing and roasting. For the Tabbouleh I just omitted the oil all together.

To cook like this you’ll have to take the meat element out of your thinking. In reality, we are used to having meat at every meal it hard for us to just drop the habit. I’m the first to admit it. I know I need to change my diet to a healthier one. I really do enjoy cooking and I need to use what I know to make things healthier. But Like I said in the beginning everything isn’t going to be healthy. Let’s be honest eating healthy can be boring, but what’s worse than boring? Uh…Diabetes, heart disease, and joint problems, just to name a few. So hopefully, you’ll take this journey with me. I’ll try to give you good recipes to follow so we all change our eating habits to something healthier. We just have to bite the bullet and do it. In fact, I know 2 individuals that can get you in shape in no time. All you need to be is committed and watch what you eat. Exercise is key. I am back in the gym myself training hard. My trainer is AB (Anthony Brown-- Mr. Brown if you will). If you know what you want he’ll get you where you want to be. K Knox (K= Kerry) also trains with AB and has his own business called Physique’s Unlimited as a personal trainer. They both have reasonable rates. If you want to know more, just ask me and I’ll get you their contact info. You won’t regret it…I know I won’t.

Let me know if you try this out. I look forward to hearing your comments.

From Chef Randal THIS is how you can add a touch of gourmet to your everyday!

Welcome to Harrington's Cuisine!

Hello Everybody!

This is new for me. I've been catering since 2004, but over the last couple of years, I've put more focus into my business and have decided (with great advice from a friend) to go even a step beyond and add blogging to my business.

So let us begin this journey together where we share our thoughts and tastes. Also, beyond that let's share healthier options.

Anyway, I just wanted to stop by and say hello. I plan to post weekly until I get better organized. I will start adding recipes for you to try and I will discuss catering jobs I have coming up.

Feel free to join in. I welcome all comments and input. In the near future, we will start adding video of cooking demonstrations.

Take care and happy eating!

God Bless,

Chef Randal