Whole baked chicken is a great option of making a tasty dinner. Beautiful smell spreads all around the house while your chicken is baking. There are many variations of preparing a whole chicken in the oven. For me the best oven baked chicken is prepared by following a very simple recipe. A combination of a good quality extra virgin olive oil, red paprika and a little sea salt spread over outside and inside of whole chicken is good enough to bake a great tasting and crispy chicken.
Every time I prepare an oven baked chicken I start with making a stuffing. I store my stuffing in the fridge while preparing the chicken. It is great to serve baked chicken with a piece of aromatic stuffing on the serving plate. I make a stuffing without adding an extra meat into it. I usually bake my stuffing separately in the same baking dish with a chicken. You can stuff the inside of chicken or place a thin layer of stuffing under the chicken’s breast skin also.
How to Make a Stuffing for the Best Oven Baked Chicken
Prepare all the ingredients:
6 slices of white bread
1 cup whole lukewarm milk
50 g unsalted, softened butter
2 egg yolks
1 tsp sea salt
2 chopped spring onions
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
Follow my simple recipe:
Cut white bread into cubes and add to the bowl.
Pour milk over the bread and let soak for 15 minutes.
In the large bowl combine softened butter, egg yolks and sea salt and beat until smooth.
Add ground nutmeg, spring onions and soaked white bread and stir to combine well.
Store in the fridge before use.
I usually bake a couple of small potatoes in the baking dish together with chicken and stuffing. It is the best to serve either oven baked chicken leg or breast immediately with potatoes and a piece of stuffing arranged on the serving plate.
Additionally I serve a small fresh green leaf salad with olive oil dressing as a side dish.
Hope you will enjoy baking your whole chicken with stuffing at home. Looking forward to receiving your comments below.
It used to be a very occasional situation for me, to enjoy marinated salmon. I have tryied a marinated salmon on our summer holiday by the sea for the first time.
Last summer I discovered my best marinated salmon recipe. I had to try it immediately. It was a very hot summer day and I found the idea of preparing marinated salmon for dinner great. The time showed it was a great idea, indeed. The marinated salmon is very tasty and it is a great option of serving a light dinner in the summer. Usually it is served as a small appetizer.
To make a marinated salmon is very simple and quick. But it takes a little patience to wait until a marinated salmon is served. For the best result it is good to leave a salmon to marinate over night. But if you’d like to enjoy your marinated salmon the same day it is prepared, let it rest in the fridge for at least two hours before serving.
The more fresh salmon fillets you have to marinate, the better. It is the best to cut skinless, boneless salmon fillets into the thin slices, as you would smoked salmon, but a little thicker.
Serve your marinated salmon with a little of marinade poured over and a small green leaf salad or a piece of crunchy fresh ciabatta bread.
I hope you will enjoy preparing your marinated salmon at home. Looking forward to receiving your comments below.
Best Marinated Salmon Recipe - Delicious Appetizer
I always make a fresh pesto to serve a basil pesto pasta. Freshly made pesto has its typical fresh green colour and rich taste of extra virgin olive oil and fresh basil leaves.
The original basil pesto should be prapared from Genovese basil. Any other basil grown outside of the region of Liguria cannot be labelled Genovese. The Genovese basil leaves are sweet, with a brighter flavors. When buying the fresh basil in the supermarket, it is good to look for this with bright green leaves. Young bunches are the best to make a fresh pesto.
Also using an original, Italian pine nuts, extra virgin olive oil and cheese is the best to make a perfect pesto.
To make a great tasting pesto, it is good to soak basil leaves in cold water for 15 minutes. Soaking basil leaves before making pesto, softens them and removes unwanted bitterness. Also choosing the younger, sweeter tasting basil leaves is better to prepare a fresh pesto.
Fresh pesto pasta can be served as either a first course or a main dish. If not serving immediately transfer your pesto to a small container and refrigerate, covered. The fresh basil pesto can be stored up to 3 days in the fridge.
Serve your basil pasta with a freshly cooked pasta of your choice. I cook linguine pasta until al dente usually. If I want to make my pesto pasta less oily , I cook one medium potato in the large pot of boiling salted water first. It takes about 15 minutes. Then I add linguine to the pot and cook as usually. While tossing, the cooked potato will combine with pesto pasta easily and it helps to absorb the excess olive oil from pesto.
Using the small amount of hot pasta water and whisking it into the pesto helps to warm the pesto sauce and makes it more creamy. Pour the pesto sauce over the pasta and toss to combine. Serve immediately and enjoy your dinner.
I hope you will enjoy making your homemade basil pesto.
Thanks for stopping by and looking forward to receiving your comments below.
I would like to share with you my favorite recipe how to make a chicken curry. In my recipe I combine a plenty of fresh vegetables with chicken. You can make this curry using vegetables only, if you like vegetarian meals. I prefer to make a curry with chicken.
I always use a fresh chicken breasts instead of frozen. The fresh chicken tends to be much more juicy and tender. In my chicken curry recipe I use quite a lot spices to make my chicken curry. The mixture of all the spices in combination with a coconut milk, makes the chicken curry incredibly aromatic and tasty. Either using of fresh curry leaves or a ground indian curry powder is great to add a special touch to your chicken curry.
You can make your chicken curry in the strength of your choice. In this recipe I use the whole green chilli peppers. I don’t deseed them, so my chicken curry is quite spicy in the result. And the best chicken curry should be spicy! If you prefer a milder taste, just cut your green chilli peppers lenghtwise and deseed them.
I also add potatoes and sweet potatoes to the chicken curry. Sweet potatoes add a slightly sweet taste to the chicken curry and help to balance the acidity of the tomatoes, I use to cook in the chicken curry also. Adding the potatoes to the chicken curry helps to thicken the sauce at the end of cooking. So don’t worry if you feel like your chicken curry sauce is not thick enough.
You can substitute the fresh tomatoes for a tin of peeled plum tomatoes, if you don’t have any at the moment. I cook a chicken slowly until tender, in the smooth sauce of tomatoes and coconut milk. I don’t like to overcook the vegetables and potatoes.. I add them gradually during the cooking, because each kind of vegetables deserves a different time of cooking.
The side dish is really not necessary to serve with your chicken curry. Just in case you would prefer having a light side dish, the fluffy basmati rice is great to serve with.
Hope you will get inspired by my recipe about how to make a chicken curry and you will enjoy cooking your dinner.
I guess a chicken soup is one of the most common soups, everybody likes. There are many recipes how to make a chicken soup available definitely. In my favorite chicken soup recipe, I combine fresh whole chicken with quite a lot of vegetables, which make my chicken soup full of great flavors.
The preparation is very simple a doesn’t take much of your time. The soup cooking time takes longer, about two hours. Cooking the chicken slowly, long enough, with fresh vegetables added is a guarantee of the great tasting soup in the result.
You can cook the whole chicken in the soup or you can separate the chicken breasts before cooking and use them for frying or making a juicy chicken steaks later.
There are many serving options of the chicken soup. Some people prefer to have the chicken soup thick, served with chicken cut into small pieces, vegetables and noodles. Chicken soup served this way can substitute your main dinner dish. But it can be served as a first course also, without meat, with carrots sliced into a little circles and noodles if you like.
I always strain the soup through the sieve to have it clear. I cut chicken and carrots and serve them in a separate bowls, so everybody can enjoy the chicken soup in the way the most preffered.
Usually, there are the egg noodles added to the chicken soup. I cook either a noodles or I make a special soup dumplings to serve my chicken soup with.
While the soup is simmering slowly, you can make these soup dumplings simply:
In the bowl combine 30g softened, unsalted butter, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk.
Whisk until all the ingredients combine together well.
Add about 7-8 tbsp coarse flour/semolina type/ and combine until nice soft dough forms.
In the large pot heat a water until it starts to boil.
Lower the heat to medium.
Make a little dumplings, separating a small amounts of the dough with a teaspoon and adding them to the boiling water one by one.
Cook 10 minutes.
Drain the dumplings through the colander and remove them into the serving bowl.
Arrange a couple of dumplings in the soup bowl and pour a hot chicken soup over.
Serve your chicken soup hot with a little pieces of chicken, carrots and dumplings or noodles.
I hope you’ll enjoy cooking your chicken soup. Looking forward to receiving your commenst below.
I found cooking a chicken steak as one of the mostly frequently prepared dinners for my family. Well prepared, a simple chicken steak can become one of the most delicious dinners also.
I always make a chicken steak from the fresh chicken breasts instead of frozen. I spread a good quality extra virgin olive oil all over the chicken, season it with a little sea salt and spices and I let it rest in the fridge for one hour at least. The chicken absorbs the olive oil and spices mixture and it helps to make the chicken juicy and improve the chicken steak’s taste.
To season the chicken I use a very mild combination of the ground spices which includes black pepper, red chilli pepper, garlic and mustard seed. The spices in combination with olive oil add a great flavor to the chicken.
Cooking of the chicken staeks is very fast. Using of the cast iron grill pan is the best for the perfect result. I heat my cast iron grill pan on the stove until hot but not smoking. It takes about 5 minutes. I grease the grill pan with a little olive oil. I grill the chicken steaks over medium heat, 5 minutes each side. Once the cast iron grill pan heated, it keeps the same temperature, so I know that my steaks will be cooked perfectly.
A simple side dish is great to serve with your chicken steaks. I usually grill a vegetables on the same cast iron grill pan. Sometimes I grill a zucchini sliced into thin circles alone, or I make a mixture of the grilled vegetables, like a thinly sliced zucchini, red and yellow bell peppers, button mushrooms and white onions.I grease a grill pan with a little of olive oil and add vegetable gradually, as the cooking time of each of them is different. I start with paprika, then I add zuchini, mushrooms and onions finally. It is very fast to make this simple side dish and it tastes delicious in combination with chicken steak.
Serve your chicken steaks with vegetables immediately.
Hope you will find my chicken steak recipe inspiring and you will enjoy cooking your dinner. Looking forward to receiving your comments below.
To make an easy tomato pasta sauce I use a very few ingredients. A simple combination of olive oil, garlic and off course, tomatoes makes the sauce great tasting and smelling every time.
The most of the year I use a canned tomatoes. I try to buy a great quality ones, whole and peeled, with lots of juices inside of the can. In the summer, tomatoes have a nice bright red colour and taste much differently. Much better, I’d say. In this case I prefer using a a couple of them to prepare my easy tomato pasta sauce. Usually 6 large ripe tomatoes are enough to make four portions of tomato pasta sauce.
To peel the tomato skin easily I immerse the fresh tomato in the hot water for 30 seconds first. I peel and slice the tomatoes into large cubes. The fresh tomatoes should be rich in juices, so adding water is not necessary while cooking the tomato sauce. The rest of the cooking process and time is the same as with a canned tomatoes.
When the sauce is ready I remove it from the heat immediately. Sometimes I add a handful of freshly chopped basil leaves into the sauce finally, to make it more aromatic.
The most famous tomato in Italy’s cuisine is San Marzano. Grown in the Campanian provincies of Naples, Avellino and Salerno. This area, which features mountains, a volcano and water creates a great climate in which the tomato flourishes. The tomatoes grown in the nutrient rich soil, keep its fresh taste even if canned for months. This is why all the fresh tomato sauces used for pasta and pizza toppings taste so special in Naples.
Serve your easy tomato sauce immediately on the top of your favorite pasta. I prefer serving long type of pasta, like spaghetti, spaghettini or linguine with my tomato sauce. Sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan cheese over the top.
I hope you will enjoy cooking your easy tomato pasta sauce. I look forward to receiving your comments below.
Making burritos is simple and the most of people enjoy burritos as a quick to prepare lunch or dinner. I usually make my burritos using a chicken breasts, cut into chunks. The most favorite combination to make a burrito filling in our family is a chicken with red beans.
I don’t make the chicken burritos too much spicy usually. Adding a cayenne red pepper makes the burritos spicy enough. Those who prefer to enjoy eating a very spicy burritos, can add the hot tomato salsa on the top of filling before wrapping up the burritos.
I like to prepare the chicken for burritos in advance. It makes chicken tasting even more delicious, once it has enough time to absorb all the spices. I combine the chicken with all the spices in the large bowl. Always use the larger bowl than the one you thought you’d need. I put the chicken into the fridge to let it rest for at least one hour. Also you can prepare your chicken a day before.
The rest of preparing your chicken burritos is very quick and easy. It is not necessary to overcook the chicken. I usually cook it for 5 – 7 minutes until cooked through, stirring constantly. The chicken will start to produce quite enough juices. I wait until the juices reduce slightly, before adding the red beans finally. I combine chicken with red beans, stirring for additional 1-2 minutes. Then I remove my burrito filling from the heat.
Heat your wheat tortillas slightly and arrange the chicken and red beans filling in the middle of each of them. Wrap the tortillas tightly to make burritos and serve immediately.
I hope you will enjoy making your homemade chicken burritos and you will get inspired by my simple recipe. Looking forward to receiving your comments below.
There are so many variations of cooking a chicken breasts on the stove! Every time I need to cook a tasty dinner and I don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen, I follow this quick and easy chicken breast recipe.
What I like about cooking a chicken breasts, is that it never takes a long time to prepare them. In this simple, but a delicious dish, I combine a fresh chicken breasts with quite a large amount of white onions and green olives. Adding the ingredients one by one while cooking a chicken breasts slowly, allowes the chicken to absorp the different tastes gradually. A taste of fresh lemon adds a special refreshing touch to your dish finally.
What makes a chicken breasts tasting special following this recipe, is using a little saffron, which adds a significant colour to the chicken also.
There is no need to make an additional side dish to serve your chicken breasts with olives and lemon. I’ve tried to serve a simple cooked brown rice. It was a great combination! Also the brown rice is a very healthy side dish, rich in minerals and vitamins.
For the best result, it is good to soak the brown rice in the cold water for half an hour before you start to cook. Soaking in the water helps the rice to soften better.
Follow the simple steps to cook the brown rice:
Soak the brown rice in the cold water for an hour and half.
In the pot heat 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil over medium heat.
Rinse the brown rice in water.
Add 1 cup of brown rice to the pot.
Cover the brown rice with 2 and 1/2 cups cold water.
Season with a little sea salt.
Wait until it starts to boil.
Lower the heat.
Cook 30 minutes over a very low heat.
Serve and enjoy.
I hope you will enjoy cooking your quick and easy chicken breasts dinner. I’d be more than happy to receiving your comments below.
Quick and Easy Chicken Breast Recipe - Lemon Makes It Refreshing
In the large bowl combine chicken breasts, turmeric, saffron, sea salt and black pepper. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes to absorb the spices properly.
In the large frying pan heat olive oil over medium heat.
Add chicken breasts into the pan and cook until cooked through, about 5 minutes.
Add sliced onions and about 1/2 cup water.
Lower the heat, cover and let it simmer slowly for 20 minutes.
Add olives and lemon and cook for 10 more minutes.
If you love the freshly cooked sauce full of great tasting meat, served on the top your favorite pasta, you will like the idea of making your homemade bolognese sauce to share with your family tonight.
Following the traditional recipe, the bolognese sauce should be cooked using a ground beef. I cook my own variation of the sauce. I use a ground veal meat to cook the bolognese sauce. As a result of using a veal meat, the sauce is tasting much smoother.
I always use a freshly ground veal, instead of the ready to use, packaged in the food store one. I cook the ground veal with a pureed plum tomatoes. In the summer, juicy, ripe tomatoes can substitute for the tomato puree. Peel and cut roughly the fresh tomatoes before adding them to the ground meat.
Simmering slowly, adding the ingredients gradually, one by one and seasoning slightly, is the secret of making your perfect, fresh and aromatic bolognese sauce.
Serve your bolognese sauce on the top of your favorite pasta. For me, the combination of bolognese sauce and freshly cooked spaghetti or spaghettini /the thinner ones/, sprinkled with a freshly grated parmesan cheese makes dinner perfect anytime.
I hope you’ll get inspired by my bolognese sauce recipe. I’d be more than happy if you leave me your comments below.
How To Make Bolognese Sauce - Delicious Spaghetti Dinner
In the large sauce pan heat the olive oil over medium heat until hot but not smoking.
Add ground veal, one bay leaf and cook for a while, stirring constantly until the veal separates into the small pieces.
Lower the heat and cook the veal for 5 more minutes.
Puree the plum tomatoes using the electric blender.
Add the tomato puree to the veal, season with salt, add crushed garlic and the sauce simmer for about 15 minutes until the excess juices evaporate and the sauce thickens.
Meanwhile cook your spaghetti in the pot of boiling, salted water until al dente.
Remove the sauce from the heat and season with freshly ground black pepper.
Drain the spaghetti through the colander with a large holes.
Arrange spaghetti on the serving plate and top with the bolognese sauce.
Sprinkle with a freshly grated parmesan cheese and serve immediately.
