Chicken Spaghetti - the healthy way

I don't always make big fattening meals even though my figure would indicate to the contrary!  I've been on so many diets that I've come up with some pretty healthy variations that still feed my desire for hearty Italian food.  This week I made one of them and here it is.  We call it simply Chicken Spaghetti.  It's so simple, it's almost embarrassing.

Ingredients:

1/2 box Spaghetti (I like the "Thin" spaghetti)

1 large can of diced tomatoes

1 medium onion

fresh garlic

Real parmesan - shredded

2-3 chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces

olive oil

Before I get into the instructions I need to take a diversion to talk about ingredients.  If you were my husband (who is my personal shopper :), you'd know how brand picky I am.  The reason I'm brand picky is about quality.  The quality of your ingredients will make all the difference in the result.  To that end, I will name brands that I have found are the best quality - at least the best available to me in a medium sized town.  There are times that I will take the hour trek up to the Twin Cities to be able to really buy the best stuff, but that's usually for really special occasions like the Italian Feasts that we have done annually for nearly a decade now.

Now onto the instructions. Start a pan of water to cook the spaghetti.  Once it's come to a boil, add salt (at least a teaspoon) to the boiling water, and then add the spaghetti.  The salt in the water is an important step. Your pasta will taste MUCH better if you salt the water.  But don't add the salt until the water is boiling, unless you like to ruin your pot!

While I'm onto pet peeves, here's another one: DO NOT add oil to the water.  I don't understand this concept and it's one of my major pet peeves.  Adding oil may help the pasta to not stick, but it also makes it so any sauces you put on it don't cling the way they should.  I was blown away when I saw a cooking show many years ago and a well respected chef said to put oil in the water to keep the pasta from sticking.  I thought he was CRAZY.  All you have to do to prevent sticking is to stir it several times in the first couple minutes. Ok, back to the instructions!

Dice the onions and sauté them in olive oil. Once they are becoming translucent add the chicken.

Once the chicken is all cooked up, add the can of diced tomatoes and crushed garlic.  I really like the Dei Fratelli brand tomatoes shown in the picture at the ingredients section, but it's best if you can find a brand that doesn't come pre-seasoned.  I know there's one that's something like Basil/Garlic/Peppers flavored...ICK. I mean, it's probably good in some dishes, but I don't like it in this dish.  But hey...maybe you will if you want to try it.  Just don't complain to me if it is gross.

And about the garlic. Don't add the garlic before this step or you'll probably burn it, and there's nothing worse than burned garlic! I like...scratch that...I LOVE garlic. I put four big cloves in this time, but you can put however much you like. But...I'm telling ya...the garlic makes this dish so be generous with it!

Mix it up and simmer this for a few minutes and then taste it to see if you need to add salt.  Add however much you want.

Drain the spaghetti and put it back into the pot you cooked it in.  Then pour the chicken mixture on the spaghetti and mix it all together.  As I'm mixing, I always add some fresh grated parmesan.  It's a low fat cheese that really adds a nice layer of flavor.

There you have it...low fat...relatively healthy...and SUPER tasty.

Salute!

Pi Day

In honor of Pi Day (March 14th...get it?...Pi...3.14) and my mathematician husband, I made a deep dish chicago style Pizza Pie with a cornbread crust like Lou Malnati's in Chicago makes.







Ingredients

Crust:
1 pkg. quick rise yeast
1 cup warm water (110°-120°)
1 Tblsp. honey
½ tsp. coarse salt
2 tbl. olive oil
2½ cups + ¼ cup flour during kneading
1 cup cornmeal

Sauce:
1 large can crushed tomatos
4 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 Tbsp dried basil
salt to taste

Filling:
Provolone cheese slices
Shredded Mozzarella cheese
Buffalo Mozzarella cheese
Pepperoni
Sweet Italian sausage
Hot Italian sausage
Green pepper
Red pepper
Onion - finely chopped

Directions

To make the crust, stir honey into warm water until mostly dissolved.  Add yeast and let sit.  You'll know the little buggers are alive if it foams.  Beware if it doesn't foam, it means you probably murdered them with too hot of water, or they were already deceased before you got to them.  There is no resurrecting dead yeast.  Stop now and get new yeast or the rest will be a complete failure!

In a mixing bowl combine the flour, cornmeal, and salt.  Make sure you mix it up.  I usually use a whisk to do the job.  Add the water/yeast mixture and the olive oil and mix until it starts to come together.  Don't over-do the mixing here. Use the other 1/4 cup flour now to bring it together.  If you don't need it all, fine.  If you need more, fine.  Just get it into a nice ball that comes together. Dump it out on your clean surface and work it with your hands. Knead it together for a few minutes until it forms a ball nicely.  Lightly coat it with some olive oil and put it in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise for an hour or more until about doubled in size.

Meanwhile, make the sauce.  Heat some olive oil, crush the garlic and let it steep in the oil.  Be careful not to let the oil get too hot or you'll burn the garlic and that's a BIG YUCK if you burn it.  Burned garlic is very bitter.  Add the crushed tomatoes and spices and simmer for 20 minutes.  It's now ready for your pizza.

  

Cook the Sausage.  If you're doing sausage, here's what I did and it works great.  I buy sweet and hot italian sausage. I mix them together by hand - which is the totally fun part because its so gooey and messy!  I then form them into patties and fry them. 

To assemble, roll dough out to fit your pan ensuring there is enough to make it go up the sides. Speaking of pans...let's talk about that.  In my pictures I used my old Pampered Chef stoneware, which is awesome, but I don't like the square shape.  What would be most ideal (and now officially on my wish list) would be a heavy duty pan like this one (ignoring the obvious silly Mickey Mouse layout here).

After you roll the dough out, but BEFORE you put it in the pan, put about 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil in the bottom of the pan.  Olive oil won't crisp up the crust as nicely as the vegetable oil.  One of these times I'm going to try adding a little melted butter too for flavor.  But the idea here is that you want the crust to get nice and crispy on the outside. 

Lay the dough in, cut any excess off the sides and press along the sides firmly.

Now layer the cheese.  I start with the flat provolone slices, then put the shredded mozz and cubed up buffalo mozz down. 

Then layer the meat.  I did pepperoni first, then sausage.  Then I layered the onions and peppers. 

Of course you can change it up and put whatever fillings in you want.  I have one rule in Pizza and that is "No Fish, Fruit, or Fungus!"  I know all you mushroom lovers out there just don't get this, but I warned you that I was picky.  Anyway, the only rule you CAN'T break is cheese is on bottom.  I find it best to put meats next and then veggies, but if you really want to change that...take a risk...be daring...I double dog dare you!

Once you have it all layered, then put the sauce on top.  I like more sauce than other people so be your best judge, but you need to make sure you get enough on so it doesn't dry out.  I usually use all the sauce that the can made.

Bake at 425 F for about 30-45 minutes (depends on how big and deep your pan is).  You'll know it's done when the crust has browned, the filling is bubbling, and the crust usually pulls away from the sides of the pan.

Salute!