Seanymphs Greek Chicken

I love Greek food. Next to Italian it is one of the classics. There's a few flavors that just always seem to go together and make anything yummy. I would eat Greek food every day if I could!

Years ago I went to a Greek restaurant in AZ. called Bacchanal. My ex and I were there and found this place. Its still there , here's the URL. http://bacchanalgreekaz.com/home.html

This place is like a big Greek wedding, music, belly dancers, breaking dishes on the floor, dancing and even some of the patrons getting up to sing! I had a blast. They dragged us up there on the dance floor, made us take off our shoes even and then they took all the shoes and put them in a box and took it away! You had no choice then but to dance lol. It was fun,,,,,line dancing all over , even out in the parking lot. Once it was done they dumped the shoes in the middle of the floor and you had to find yours. I really felt like I was in Greece.

But the food........omg.....
I had spanikopita, shrimp corfu and baklava. I never forgot that shrimp tho, shrimp baked with feta cheese and spicy tomatoes. Now I dont make shrimp much and one day while on my low carb diet, I thought why not try it with chicken. So this is my version of a Greek chicken dish. It was inspired by the Shrimp Corfu. Now don't go writing me saying this was granny's long lost recipe for Greek chicken. There's nothing new under the sun, just gets reinvented or rediscovered. This was my creative venture , trying to put as much flavor into a dish on a low carb diet.

GREEK CHICKEN A LA SEA serves 3-4

4 boneless chicken breasts
1/2 lg. red onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced fine
4 zucchini, quartered then sliced
1 (16oz) can of petite diced tomatoes
olive oil
oregano, thyme, salt and pepper
about 8oz. feta cheese

Saute chicken in a bit of olive oil. They don't have to be cooked thru just browned. Remove to platter. Add onion and garlic and saute till soft and slightly browned, scraping up any browned chicken bits. Add more oil if needed to do this. When almost done add sliced zucchini and soften and brown it with the rest, about 10min. Add whole can tomatoes, juice and all. Add about a tsp of oregano and a half tsp. thyme. Cook 5min. and taste. Some spices are older and don't have alot of flavor so if you cant taste them much add a bit more at this time. Add chicken pieces , burying them in the vegetables so they are covered and simmer about a half hr. If there isn't much juice I add a bit of chicken stock to the pan. When chicken is tender top with feta cheese and cook 10min. more.

As it is its a good low carb meal for me. I don't even miss the extras but if you aren't on a diet or don't care add some rice or some nice crusty bread to sop up all the juices. If I dont have any zucchini in the house (or garden) I sometimes use a 16oz. bag of frozen string beans.

Just a few recipes

Just wandering thru some of my cookbooks and my personal pile of recipes and thought Id post a few today. The first one is Kalamata Olive Pesto that I created for the restaurant where I worked. We served it as an appetizer over scallion fettuccine. You could make this and just use regular fettuccine and toss in fresh sliced scallions to approximate the flavor. My ex and I were out one day and the car radio was on. There were food reviews and restaurant reviews on at that time and Narsai David was reviewing some. He is a local famous chef and celebrity out here. I got so excited because suddenly I realized he was reviewing my dish from the restaurant! And he just loveddddddddd it . omg omg omg Boy did that make my day! So here it is. .....

KALAMATA OLIVE PESTO Makes 2c.
9oz. black Kalamata olives, pitted
1 fresh red chili 2in. long. or chili flakes
2 garlic cloves
2 shallots
3/4 tsp. minced fresh thyme
3/4 tsp. red wine vinegar
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
1/4c. lemon juice
1 small bunch of chives
If olives are not pitted, remove pits first. Stores are now carrying pitted Kalamata olives tho so that would save tons of time if you can find them. Put all ingredients into food processor and blend well. Refrigerate. Use on french bread with goat cheese or on pasta.

I made a Greek style appetizer out of this one time for a party at my house. I set this out in one of those divided dishes... one had the olive pesto in it, one had dried tomatoes in oil in it and another had crumbled feta cheese in it. You could also just use roasted red peppers too instead of the tomatoes. I had a basket next to it filled with plain sliced baguette and everyone made their own nibbles. It was a huge hit.

But this could be used on pasta with maybe artichokes in it or as a spread on sandwiches too. Or roll it up in some puff pastry from the store and bake it for appetizers. Or you could make it into a nice tart for lunch or a party. Just make a pastry crust and line it with some olive pesto and top with fresh garden tomatoes, a lil S&P, some fresh thyme sprigs and drizzle with more olive oil, then bake.....yum. You could even roll out some bread dough and spread this on it , roll up and bake for an awesome bread for your meal.
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Another thing this would be good on is this next sandwich. I found this years ago at a Trader Joes Market out here. I had it once and never saw it again. But I loved it so much as I ate it I dissected the ingredients and made a list so I could make it myself later on. It was a Greek Salad Sandwich, and its vegan ,,,,,no meat! and trust me you wont even miss it. I'm not a vegan but I don't mind eating that way once in a while. This was awesome tho.

GREEK SALAD SANDWICH
For each sandwich you need:
1 ciabatta roll, it needs to be crusty peasant type bread like this if you cant find ciabattas.
feta cheese, sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, sliced Kalamata olives, chopped green peppers, sliced red onion, chopped pepperonicini peppers, Basil, Mint and Oregano.
Equal parts lemon juice and olive oil for a dressing.
Slice bread, layer all veggies on it. Top with cheese. Make dressing with lemon juice, olive oil and herbs. Drizzle over sandwich and put top of sandwich on and eat. You could also stuff this into a pita pocket. It would be really tasty too with leaves of fresh basil in it.
This would be a great sandwich to use that olive pesto in instead of sliced olives.

Sesame Chicken and Chopped Salad

Ive made this so many times over the years and theres so many ways to use this that I just had to put it here. Its called Sesame Chicken. It has just a few ingredients and is baked but its good hot or cold.

SESAME CHICKEN6-8 boneless chicken breasts
1 stick of butter or margarine
1/2c. lemon juice
1/2c. breadcrumbs
1/2c. grated parmesan cheese
sesame seeds
paprika

You will be making two mixtures to dip the chicken in . First melt the butter, then add the lemon juice. The next mixture is the breadcrumbs and cheese in another bowl. Dip each breast in the butter/lemon mix then into the crumb/cheese mix and put in a 13 x 9in pan. When all chicken is dipped pour the rest of the butter mix thats left over it. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and dust with paprika. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1hr.

Thats it. This is good hot or cold so altho theres only two of us I make the whole batch to have leftovers. I have a lemon tree in my yard (Ill miss that the most when I move to Oregon) and I use fresh lemons in mine but anything will do. I use it the next day cold in a sandwich or salad. Its really good cut up and put in a ceasar salad for lunch the next day. Its awesome because it complements the dressing so well. I show another salad in that pic and its good leftover in that too ( recipe follows).

When Ive gone to church potlucks Ive cut the chicken in smaller pieces and I swear theres never any left. You know how at potlucks folks pile up there plates so why waste a good chicken breast by giving them ones too big to finish. Ive also made this into chicken tenders and baked. I served that with a homemade oriental plum sauce as an appetizer. My boyfriend likes this with a dijonaise sauce he makes just before dinner. I like it as it is. Make sure if your eating it hot to scoop up some of the juice if there is some. Most times it evaporates but whats there is delish. I tend to use frozen chicken breasts cuz I always forget to thaw stuff but I find if I do that they come out juicier too. If you use thawed breasts Id watch the time on these....check at 30min , then again at 45min. I find sometimes 1hr with thawed dries them out way too much. (BTW I use this recipe so much that I just make a big batch of the breadcrumb mix and put it in a bag in my freezer. You can add herbs and such to it and use it for breaded pork chops and things like that)

Ok now the salad I made last nite is one of my favorites. I swear to God I can eat this every day of my life. (and I have for lunch at the restaurant I worked at too!) We used to call it Chopped Salad there but its really a Greek Salad. I will give ingredients but its really up to you how much of anything you use.

CHOPPED SALAD (GREEK SALAD)

tomatoes
cucumbers
green onions or regular onion
Kalamata Olives (greek olives) pitted is the best but either is fine
Lotsa feta cheese
fresh garlic
mint and parsley
S & P
Extra Virgin olive oil
lemons for juicing

First thing, dice tomatoes, cucumbers in equal parts. I either use reg. cukes and peel em or buy those hydroponic ones that dont need peeling. Those make the salad look nicer but I just buy whats cheapest. You do want the best tomatoes you can find for this. In summer I use up alot of my garden ones in it. You need that fresh taste so the ones they sell in the stores on the vine are what I use otherwise. I will chop up about 4-6 green onions or 1/4 of a reg. onion and toss that in. Finely mince a lg. clove of fresh garlic. (You can use more if you love garlic but not too much or thats all you will taste and if you feel adventurous ,a finely minced jalapeno or two, with seeds removed is yummy too.)You want fresh everything here, thats the key to the taste. Mix it all tog. with some S & P and Olive oil. It must be Extra virgin. You want that flavor. Now juice some lemons for a small batch 1 or 2 lemons is fine, strain it tho or take out the seeds after juicing. This is all to taste so dont worry you can adjust it later. Stir it all and set aside while you do the rest.

Take a nice handful of mint leaves, only the leaves and a nice handful of parsley leaves, only leaves there too. Chop it till fine and toss in the bowl. Yes its alot but thats what makes it so yummy. BTW if you have fresh mint, I have found I dont like peppermint in it.....I use spearmint, that gives the best taste.

Mix it all and top with lots of crumbled feta cheese and olives. I can eat this just like that but as u you see I ripped some lettuce leaves apart and put it around the edge so it doesnt get soggy till I need it then served it. You can take some lettuce and top it with the veggies or just mix it all up. If you make some cracked wheat (bulgur) this becomes tabbouli salad another fav of mine. I make my bulgur in chicken stock for more flavor and then it becomes a whole vegetarian meal. (Yea I know chicken stock isnt vegan but my point is, its a meal with no meat, just grains and veggies, not strict vegan. You could use veggie stock tho if you are vegan.) Ive made that for parties and OMG theres never any left. Leftovers store well (without the lettuce) so you can have it the next day for lunch. Today tho Im gonna eat the leftover chicken chopped up in it for lunch Also this tastes best at room temperature. And the longer it sits the better the flavor.