Chicken Piccata

Hello my dear friends. It's been a long time since I wrote up a recipe. My life fell apart into forty million sharp and jagged pieces and I lost sight of my joy. I'm that meme that says "In the process of getting my groove back. Please standby." Nobody expects to be washed ashore in a wave of shit at the age of 55 and have to start all over again. You don't see that coming. But nor can you have people at your funeral saying "Yeah, but what about her self pity years?" So it's time to Sally Forth and at least I've started to shave my legs on a regular basis again!

So I hadn't cooked a thing in months when my beautiful sister-in-law asked if The LadyGirls would cater my brother's 50th birthday party. I was so honoured and excited to be asked, and we jumped at the chance! I've posted our menu for the party here. We really enjoyed every bit of the planning and the shopping, but oh my - I can't even describe how good it felt to be standing at a stove again! Oh and by the way, in my excitement to see that my sexy new basement apartment had a marble bathroom, I failed to notice that it had no stove. So I think catering will be the way to go from now on so I can use other people's stoves as my test kitchen. Although it does have a hot plate and I could always write a series on camp cooking such as how to heat up a can of beans and what have you.

But the hit of the buffet was the Chicken Piccata by far. Now you should note that I've also made this recipe with veal and it's every bit as delicious. This is a fast and easy way to feed a crowd.

You'll need:
boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I used 8 breasts sliced vertically into 4 slices per breast and pounded out flat. This made 32 pieces, but 2 breasts, sliced and pounded will yield 8 pieces to feed 4 people
salt, pepper and flour to dredge
olive oil to fry the meat
And for the sauce:
1 sliced lemon
1 cup or more of chicken broth depending how many you serve
a splash of white wine if you life, but it's not necessary
2 tablespoons or more of capers
1/4 cup of finely chopped parsley

Slice each breast into 4 thin slices vertically and pound them flat between 2 pieces of plastic wrap using a meat tenderizer, or a rolling pin. Don't touch any surfaces in the kitchen until you're finished with this and then thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water and sanitize all your surfaces that came in contact with the chicken. Heat about 1 inch of olive oil in a skillet on medium high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour shaking off any excess. Using tongs, fry each piece in the oil until golden and flip and do the other side. Remove them to paper towel to drain off the excess oil. Drain any oil left in the skillet and deglaze with a splash of white wine if you like. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes to cook off the alcohol and add the chicken broth and lemon. Let it simmer on medium heat for about 8 - 10 minutes until it thickens and add the capers. Season with a bit of salt and pepper. Plate the chicken and pour the sauce over it. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately. So fast and easy and amazing! You'll make this one often. And I do recommend you try it with veal sometime too. For sides, I used green beans and potatoes, but use whatever you like. Pasta goes perfect with it and a nice arugula salad. Enjoy friends! It's so good to be back!

Chicken Chilaquiles

Anybody getting sick and tired of me raving about how much I love Mexican cuisine yet? Well brace yourself because this one is a barn burner. So awesome and easy and delicious. And I made it for snack today for my football friends and it took no effort at all. Nobody even noticed I disappeared to the kitchen and came back with lunch. But they expect that of me anyway. This is a recipe I have been wanting to try for so long just and only for its sexy name. Chilaquiles. Can you even say it without smiling and thinking of joy and happiness and sexiness and flavour? Didn't think so. So let's light up the joint and buck up a sexy meal!

You'll need:
3 tablespoons of paprika
3 tablespoons of chili powder
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne powder
1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
That's your flavour base.
Also:
3 tablespoons of Canola oil or vegetable oil
3 tablespoons of flour
2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
1 box of chicken broth. You may want to use low sodium since we're going to throw a bag of Frito chips into this later
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I used 2 to feed 4 people. So use 4 breasts if you're feeding more than that.
Salt and pepper to season
A bag of Frito chips
1 cup of crumbled Feta cheese. Or use Mexican cheese if you can get your hands on it
Sour Cream to garnish
Thinly sliced red onion to garnish
Chopped Cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice to garnish

Combine your paprika, chili powder, cayenne, cumin, sugar and salt in a bowl, whisking it all up and set aside.
Chop your garlic
Season your chicken breasts with salt and pepper and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes.
Heat the oil on medium heat and whisk in the flour to make a roux. Whisk for 3 or 4 minutes until golden. Add the garlic and the spice mixture. Keep on whisking and slowly whisk in the broth, and keep on whisking until it's smooth and be sure to scrape the sides and incorporate it all. Cover and let it simmer for about half an hour until it is thick enough to coat a spoon. We're looking for gravy texture here.
Slice your onion and organize your garnishes while that simmers.
Slice your chicken horizontally.
Throw a bag of Fritos into the sauce 3 minutes before you plan to serve. And stir it all up.

To plate:
Add the Frito and sauce mixture onto a plate. Top with the chicken, cheese, red onion, cilantro and a squeeze of lime. Drizzle some sour cream over it. And that's it! And my piece of crap, virus infected laptop won't let me post a photo. And that's a shame because this is a very beautiful dish. So photo to come soon and cheers my friends!

King Ranch Chicken Casserole

Now I've already told you about my talented friend and chef Sandra Mason. And I mentioned that she had just opened a soup and sandwich shop just outside of San Antonio. It's called Four Kings. And not to name drop, but I'm naming dropping big time right now because her lovely restaurant was just voted Best Sandwich in San Antonio! And if you didn't read my blog where I mentioned Sandra, let me just tell you how proud I am to be her friend, and also that I can't settle in to my day until she posts the inspirational Four Kings message on their Facebook page every day. She sets my bar high in both a culinary and also a moral standard kind of way. I am inspired by her and I love her.

Four Kings posted a photo yesterday of their take out dinner special this week and I couldn't focus on my job for the rest of the day. It was called King Ranch Chicken Casserole. I had never heard of it, but I wanted to jump on a plane right then and there and abandon my life to eat that casserole in San Antonio! So I Googled the recipe as I am wont to do. And Holy Moly! It's damn popular in Texas. There were lots of recipes for it. Now I need to tell you that I am not Rachel Ray, and I don't care if I put a meal on the table in 30 minutes. Cooking is not a race against the clock. It should be a joy. And the more time I spend in the kitchen, the better for me. So supper is ready when it's ready.

BUT, most of those recipes called for a can of cream of chicken soup and a can of cream of mushroom soup. I kind of gave up soup casseroles back in my 20s. But I clearly think that must be just plain snobbery since this was the best food I ever tasted in my life. I'm going to make this again, but with a roux and a broth, just to compare. But since this was a mid-week meal and I was pretty damn excited to make it, I went with the soup idea. I'll come in and edit if the roux tastes any better. And if I had cooked and leftover chicken lying around, Rachel would be proud of me because it would have been a 30 minute meal. But I had to cook the chicken first. So not. But you could be more organized and do it in 30. Rev up your taste buds and let's make the Sandra Mason Special!

You'll need:
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts or 3 cups of cooked chicken
1 chopped onion
1 red pepper chopped (or green bell)
3 garlic cloves finely chopped
Canola oil just to sauté
1 can of cream of chicken soup (you don't even know how hard it was for me to type that)
1 can of cream of mushroom soup (my fingers are nearly seizing up now)
1 can of chopped tomatoes (thank God I had my own jarred to alleviate the soup thing)
1 can of chopped green chilies
2 teaspoons of chili powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne powder (or more if you like it hot)
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1/4 teaspoon of coriander
1 package of 6 inch tortillas cut into 1 inch pieces
1 package of grated cheddar or Tex Mex cheese

To cook off the chicken breasts, I seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder and baked at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Let them rest while you make the casserole. Then shred or cut into bite sized pieces and add in before you assemble.

For the sauce, soften the onion and pepper for about 5 minutes. Don't let it brown. Just soften and add the garlic. Add everything else except the tortillas and stir and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the chicken and mix it in. Taste for seasoning and add anything you like if needed.

Lightly grease a 9 x 13 casserole dish and layer the bottom with 1/3 of the tortilla. Then 1/3 of the chicken mixture, and 1/3 of the cheese. And do this 3 times. And believe it or not, everything gets used and fits perfectly into the dish! That helps my OCD a lot! Bake on a cookie sheet in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Let it cool for 10 minutes after you take it out of the oven. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did my friends. Thank you Sandra Jayne Mason for being the best example of a human being that God ever blessed us with!

Adobo Chicken Because It's A Sexy Kind of Day

Well now, I have to tell you that today was one of the better days I've had lately. I went to the beauty parlour to get my hair done, and when my stylist Catarina appeared, she was totally done over into a ten years younger and hotter version of her young self! She had darkened her hair to nearly black with an ombre of purple at the bottom. And she had some sexy bangs going on too. I have never been more jealous and old feeling in my life. And I told her so. So she suggested we do just one purple streak on my (old lady head) and if I wasn't comfortable with it, we could erase it at once. So I agreed wholeheartedly to that! Long story short, I practically danced out of that salon with the sexiest purple streak in my hair there ever was! I'm more than thrilled and feeling very hip. And that got me to thinking about how fortunate I am to have so many hip and groovy friends. Thanks to my LadyGirls of course! And I'm so grateful for their friendship.

But through Kelly, I had the very good fortune to attend a wedding with her in Mexico last year. Such a beautiful wedding (Sabrina and Nate), I met possibly the coolest, hippest gentleman that ever walked the planet Earth. I could go on and on. But suffice to say, I am blessed to call him a friend now. Phil. My friend Phil. So we'll make some Filipino style Adobo Chicken and we'll make this for our hip and cultured friends every chance we get!

You'll need:
Chicken thighs. Plan on 2 per person
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 finely diced shallot
salt and pepper as we go along
5 cloves of minced garlic
4 bay leaves
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons of fish sauce
a handful of peppercorns
a dash of cayenne pepper depending if you like a bit of heat
a splash of oil to brown the chicken. Use whatever you like. I used vegetable oil.
green onion or scallion to garnish
rice - steamed or however you like it. I like pilaf. I cup of long grain rice will feel about 4 people. Use 2 1/2 cups of liquid for each cup of rice.

Marinade the chicken in the soy sauce, vinegar, fish sauce, shallot, garlic and a dash of salt and freshly ground pepper for an hour or two.
Make your rice when you're about to make the chicken.

Brown the chicken for about 5 minutes per side in the oil until golden brown, remove and set aside. Add the marinade and simmer until reduced by half. Put the chicken back in the pot and add the broth, bay leaves and peppercorns and cayenne pepper. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes and uncover and simmer for about 10 more minutes. Taste for seasoning. It should be tart, so add a bit more vinegar if need be.
You should be good for salt and pepper, but add if you like.

Serve with whatever you like. Salad or any vegetable. Doesn't matter because this dish is a tribute to all the cool people you know. So serve what they would like. Cheers hip people and those with purple hair!

Chicken Arepas or Reina Pepiada Arepas

Not to sound like Andy Williams, but - Where do I begin to tell the story of how great a love can be? This story has many beginnings. I have a very deep interest in South American flavours and cooking. I've been researching recipes for years. I also love Central American flavours, and most of all Mexican cooking. But living in rural Canada, I cannot obtain the ingredients. So I dream. BUT since I live in the vegetable capital of Canada, I'm very fortunate that we have migrant workers all during the season, and since we're in the Harvest season now, even more visitors to our little town. So our stores go to the trouble to stock their local ingredients. And after a ten year search, I found some P.A.N.! That's pre-cooked corn flour! It was better than winning the lottery for me. Finally, I could try to make Arepas. This is a cornbread that is popular in South America. Argentina and Ecuador especially. It's a disk like bread that you slice almost open and stuff with a multitude of different ingredients. Another beginning to my story is that I've never been to South America, and poverty dictates that I most likely never will. So I like to soak up their culture looking at photos of their landscape and art and food online. But you can't really know if you're absorbing it or not since you don't taste the flavours and savour the aroma in the streets. Hope for the best I guess.

So with my treasured P.A.N. I set about to make a recipe. Now here I go off the track again. I searched the internet and settled on a few different versions and combined them into one. I'm quite lazy about lard, so I used Canola oil and so on. And I have a stray cat issue in my backyard, and the violence and general grossness of it prohibits me from going out to grill. I should have though since I nearly burned the house down doing the bread in the oven. Oh let's not beat around the bush. It took me nearly three hours to buck up a chicken sandwich. The house was filled with thick smoke from top to bottom. I worry that not one of 4 smoke alarms went off since Mario complained of burning eyes from the smoke. My kitchen pretty much looked like a corn bomb exploded in it. I felt really discouraged and I will most certainly have to clean the oven tomorrow.

But that's not the story. The story is that only once in a Blue Moon do you find a recipe on the internet that literally hits it out of the ballpark as far as authenticity goes. I haven't had one like this since my Pozole Roja recipe. I've now learned that if a recipe takes hours and hours to make and has a ton of ingredients in it, you can't miss. If you're pacing the floors with worry and thinking you're going to have to dump it and call out for pizza, you've usually got a winner! And do you know why that is? It's because if you stick with it through thick and thin, your love is going to shine through when it hits the table. And that's what happened in my kitchen tonight. So let's roll with some Pure Love! This recipe was adapted from Julie Loria from the internet.

For the filling you'll need:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 onion sliced
salt and freshly ground pepper

1 ripe chopped avocado
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
1 jalapeno finely chopped
2 cloves finely chopped garlic
1 finely chopped red or yellow pepper
the other half of that onion, but finely chopped
2 green onions sliced
juice of half a lime
Salt and pepper to season

For the Arepas
3 cups of warm water
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
3 cups of P.A.N. - or pre cooked cornmeal
2 tablespoons of canola oil or vegetable shortening melted. (I used Canola oil)

Boil the chicken breasts with the 1/2 sliced onion and salt and pepper for about 20 minutes until it's fully cooked and let it cool completely.
Mash the avocado, mayonnaise and vinegar together and add all the other ingredients. Let it chill and shred and add the chicken when it's cooled down. Season with salt and pepper and more vinegar to make it slightly tart. Keep in the fridge until you're ready to serve.

Now to the Arepas. I thought I would never try this recipe ever again until I tasted them. This undertaking is not for the faint of heart. But here is where I will help you out. Do Not Attempt to bake these in the oven. They must be crispy on the outside and the recipe dictates that you brown them in the frying pan and put them on the direct rack on the oven. Epic Fail. Seal them in the fry pan and for God's Sakes - Grill Them! The oil drips out of them and causes a God Almighty Disaster of smoke and disbelief! And now I know why everybody has an outside stove in South America.

Stir the 3 cups of warm water with the salt until the salt dissolves. Slowly add the 3 cups of cornmeal stirring with a wooden spoon. Make sure you have no lumps and let the dough sit aside for 5 minutes. Just enough time to pour a fresh drink since you'll be sweating now from the work of that. Add the canola oil or lard and mix it all in. Preheat your grill and a frying pan to medium heat with a bit of oil in it. Divide the dough into 6 portions and flatten each one out into 1 inch thick patties. Fry for 3 or 4 minutes and flip. They need to be golden brown. Set aside and then put them on the grill on low heat. Don't let them scorch. Keep flipping, but they need to be crispy on the outside. About 15 minutes in all. Let them cool and slice them 3/4 open to a Pita Pocket like state and stuff with your filling.

Lots of work, but off the charts for authentic flavour. This recipe has one of two places - Either you're trying to get your mind off your troubles, or you've found the sexiest Latin lover ever in life and you're looking for him to put a ring on it. Either way, you win. Cheers my friends!

Cashew Chicken

Hahaha I am one of these people that shoots themselves in the foot every time. Last week I put up a facebook status that said I just skip over "Easy" recipes because cooking involves time and commitment. How silly and smug of me because mostly everything I cook is easy and fun and delicious. Here is an example. And I am not a food photographer, so the photo looks like I'm serving some kind of black slime fit for crypt dwellers. But it's a soy sauce based recipe, so you're going to have to deal with that. Sometimes food tastes better than it looks! This is not pretty in photos, but oh so yummy on the fork.

You'll need:
For the marinade-
1 cup of low sodium soy sauce. Really do use the low sodium unless you're a deer in the woods and you enjoy a salt lick.
8 or 9 cloves of minced garlic
1 tablespoon of minced ginger
2 or 3 tablespoons of your favourite hot sauce
2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts cut into bite sized cubes
Mix everything together and let it marinade for a couple of hours covered in the fridge.

Your favourite white rice. 1 cup of rice before cooking will feed 2 to 4 people. Cook it up while the chicken is simmering.

For the sauce:
1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 sliced onion
1/2 cup peanut butter - smooth or crunchy
1/2 cup water
1 carrot cut into thin matchsticks
1/2 cup roughly chopped cashews
3 sliced green onions

After the chicken has been in the marinade for a few hours, heat up the sesame oil on Med High heat in a heavy pot and add the brown sugar. Stir that in for a few minutes and add the sliced onions. If you get scared and it seems too scorchy, for God Sakes, don't be tempted to add more Sesame Oil. That shit is too strong. So add a little bit of water. Soften the onions for a few minutes and add the chicken and let it brown for about 5 minutes per side. Then add the marinade and the water. Cover it and let it simmer on Med Low heat for 25-30 minutes. Add the peanut butter and the carrots. Stir it in and let it simmer for about 10 more minutes. Roughly chop your cashews and slice your green onions and add as a garnish. You can mix your rice into the pot or keep it separate. Don't be frightened by the photo courtesy of the Crypt Kickers 5! And of course I didn't have any green onions today and I wasn't about to go to the store just to buy one thing. That's how I roll. But you should be organized and have those green onions! Enjoy my friends!

Coq au Vin

Clearly it is time for us to start blogging some fall recipes. Today I went out without a jacket on, and I was full-on chilled. So that’s fall weather, and that means everyone wants to cook heartier meals and eat more delicious things. It also means you can cook recipes over the stove slowly without turning your house into a sauna.

My first fall recipe for the year is Coq au Vin. I actually used the lighter, faster Nigella Lawson’s “Coq au Riesling” recipe, which led me to a very fortuitous trip to the liquor store, since I had no white wine in the house (who drinks white wine anymore?!). My favourite Zinfandel (Ravenswood) was on sale, so I clearly put three of those bottles in my cart. Then I found a nice Ontario Riesling, so that went in the cart too.

I got up to the cash to pay for my wine and it was fall Food & Drink day! AND it’s the twentieth anniversary edition. Serious delight abounds, because this is a beautiful food magazine filled with all kinds of lovely recipes. Not only that, it is FREE. Because the province of Ontario insists they are the only people you can purchase liquor from, this magazine is the least they can do. If you don’t live near a Liquor Control Board of Ontario store, maybe you can try to find it online. I keep all of mine on a bookshelf, and even though a few weeks ago I was accused of being a hoarder for this exact behaviour, I’m never sorry when I have a go-to recipe bible.

Anyway, it’s time to cook a chicken. (I would like to interject at this point that I had some very dear friends over for dinner for this meal and the “coq” jokes were abundant. I don’t want it to get too racy for this blog, but I’m sure if you use your imagination for even one second, you can think of at least three excellent cooking puns using the word coq. The French language is a never-ending source of amusement for us Anglophones. The word for seal is “phoque”, which I didn’t know until my four year old godson told me. I nearly scolded him for swearing and then I realized he was talking about the seals on TV.)

This recipe was incredibly easy. You need:

• Chicken thighs (skinless with bones if you can find them, otherwise boneless skinless works)
• 1 sliced leek
• Bottle of Riesling
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• Package of oyster mushrooms, chopped
•  3 bay leaves, sprig of fresh thyme
•  Splash of heavy cream
•  Salt and pepper to taste

I modified a few of Nigella’s instructions, but not many. For example, Nigella calls for fresh dill at the end. I chose thyme because that was easy and accessible for me. I also did use the splash of cream, because I think it makes the recipe richer. (Cream and coq jokes now obvious). Also funny, in the comments for her recipe, people ask questions like, “Can I use carrots here too?” OF COURSE YOU CAN. Why would anyone even ask that and then expect Nigella to take time out of her day to respond to that? Get a hold of yourselves people. You can do anything you want; you are the one that’s going to eat it.

Start with a nice big pot and add a little olive oil. Sauté either some diced bacon or pancetta, and then add in your sliced leek and garlic. When they are soft, place your chicken thighs to the pot. The thighs are skinless because we aren’t going to take them out and sear them after, and non-seared chicken skin is not appealing to the palate, I can assure you. We do want this to be a weeknight meal, so that’s why we’re skipping that step. If you have more time, feel free to get skin-on thighs and then sear them to crisp them up later.

Now you simply dump in your entire bottle of wine, add the bay leaves, thyme and bring to a boil. Once it comes to the boil, cover and simmer for 40 minutes at least. The blogosphere agrees that this recipe is better left at this point and refrigerated overnight, but you can obviously eat it immediately too. Add your cream and give it a stir. You can serve on a bed of noodles, which is apparently the traditional serving, or you can do what I did, which was to serve it on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes. Enjoy!

(Important editorial note: I assumed you knew to take out the bay leaves. Don’t eat those.)

Bongo Chicken Wings

I'll start right off by telling you that I don't have a photo of this one. They got gobbled up faster than I could turn off the barbecue. And this really isn't a recipe at all. Just really awesome chicken wings on the barbecue in the middle of the night when you still have a crowd up partying!

Hahah we just had our annual family weekend up at the cottage. All of the ladies in our family got to take out our matching zebra shirts and have a little bit of fun prancing all around in them. So I'll post a photo of that instead. Have I ever mentioned that my family are the most fun people on the planet? That's why we can only do this once a year!

You'll need lots of chicken wings. I like to buy the ones that already have the tip chopped off because they cook faster and nobody needs to be butchering chicken wings with sharp knives when you've had a few cocktails and are sunburned to a crisp from a whole day of fun and swimming and frolicking!

Preheat the barbecue.
Season the wings with Montreal Chicken Spice and salt and pepper.
Melt down 1/2 cup of red chili pepper jelly (you'll find it in almost any grocery store)
I doused them with my cinnamon pear balsamic vinegar too. But you can skip this step if you like because the glaze is what makes everybody dance with glee.

Grill the wings on medium heat for about 25 - 30 minutes until they're fully cooked and crispy, turning them often. Then put them into your saucepan with the melted chili jelly and quickly toss to coat, and serve them up!

Okay, so I told you it's not really a recipe at all. But in the middle of night, to serve such a treat makes you an automatic favourite at parties! Enjoy friends. Summer won't last much longer now.

Espresso Infused Balsamic Vinegar Chicken Salad

My Land! I haven't hit one out of the ball park like this for a while now! I'm still delirious with excitement from my olive oil shopping trip from the weekend. I actually haven't been able to sleep because I've been thinking up ways to put my goods to creative use. I drew my inspiration for this recipe from one of my favourite European traditions. I love how they serve their espresso with a tray of cheese and fruits and nuts. So classically elegant, and not to mention delicious. What a lovely way to relax and visit with your guests after being in the kitchen all day cooking for them! I wanted those flavours and also to really feature my new Espresso Balsamic Vinegar. So why not make it a healthy main course?

For this recipe, you'll need:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
a package of arugula
herbs (since I have a jazzy herb garden, I used cilantro, basil and Thai basil)
a pack of goat cheese (chevre if we're puttin' on the ritz!)
a can of mandarin pieces
a handful or so of chopped walnut pieces

And for the dressing:
1/2 cup of olive oil (I of course used my new Tuscan herb infused)
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar - Espresso infused if you're as fortunate as I am!
a splash of pure maple syrup (since I love to roll homeland proud!)
zest and juice of 1/2 a big naval orange
a teaspoon of red curry paste
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
whisk this all up and put it in a jar in the fridge to chill

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Season your chicken breasts with salt, pepper, a light sprinkling of allspice and a teaspoon of your balsamic vinegar brushed on each one. Bake them off on a cookie sheet lined with tin foil and sprayed with Pam for about 35 - 40 minutes. Take them out of the oven and let them rest for about 10 minutes. Then slice or chop into bite size chunks.

Chop your herbs roughly and toss them around with your arugula. Drizzle some dressing and toss until they're moistened, but not sloppy. Add your nuts, mandarins, chopped up chicken and break up your goat cheese over your greens. Drizzle more dressing over the top of everything and season with freshly ground pepper. And serve it up! So easy and fast. I took one bite and wanted to retire at once from my day job and stay home to infuse vinegars and olive oils for my new career! Yum!