Chicken Breast

Chicken Parmesan is one of my favorite Italian dishes and my mom makes the best ever. It’s the perfect combination of crunchy chicken and cheesiness, and because it’s made in the oven, there’s no oil mess on the stove. You may want to make extra because it’s so good left over.

This is another dish that you can easily adjust to suit your tastes. You can use any vegetables you like. When your budget is squeaking tight, make it with just peas and carrots. But when you have a little more wiggle room, try it with red peppers, zucchini, and sugar snap peas.

This recipe may look complicated because it has a lot of ingredients, but it’s not. You can prepare the whole dish in the time it takes to cook the rice. I use water chestnuts and pea pods in the recipe, but this is one of those dishes where just about any vegetables you happen to have in the refrigerator will work fine.

This is a delicious low-fat version of a standard curry dish. You might think that low-fat means you won’t be full, but with all the potatoes and chicken in this easy-to-prepare meal, even big eaters will be satisfied. Curry can be a refreshing change especially if you’ve gotten stuck in a culinary rut.

This is a healthier and simpler version of one of my favorite recipes, chicken piccata. Usually I eat this dish with rice pilaf, but when I’ve overindulged, I save calories by skipping the breading and serving it on spinach. Even though I’ve never been a big spinach fan, it’s yummy when you mix it with the lemon sauce.

Although this recipe isn’t hard, it does involve a fair amount of chopping. To me it’s worth it because I love lettuce wraps, but the ones in restaurants are too high in calories. Using vegetables in place of some of the chicken dramatically cuts the calories in this dish, but it doesn’t change the flavor. Fair warning though; if you’ve never used chili paste before, it’s hot. You may want to start with half the amount and taste the sauce before adding more.

This is a basic low-fat stir-fry recipe that can be adjusted almost any way you want. I often add pea pods, bean sprouts, celery, or whatever vegetables I happen to have on hand. One word of warning though; if you are making this for fewer than 4 people, cut the recipe down accordingly, as it doesn’t reheat well. (And that’s being kind.)

Oh, Barbecue Chicken Pita Pizza, how I love thee! Okay, that might sound kind of weird, but try it and you’ll know what I mean. These silly little pizzas are the easiest things in the world to make and most excellent to eat. In my opinion, that’s the perfect combination. I like making them this way, but you could use almost any toppings you want.

I adore tortilla soup, but a lot of restaurants make it too spicy for me. I’d rather make it at home where I can control the heat by using milder salsa. This is an easy version that can be made from start to finish in less than 30 minutes.

When I was an exchange student, my German host mom made “hooner schnitzel” every day for my host dad’s lunch, but my favorite part was always the brat kartoff (fried potatoes), and the crispier, the better. This is truly a German dish that is served in almost every restaurant. You can also make Wiener schnitzel (veal) and schnitzel vom schwe (pork) the same way.

Chicken and dumplings is a great cold-weather dish. When we lived in the Midwest, we would always have this after a day of sledding or building snow forts, but when we moved to Arizona this tradition became a problem. Now when I want chicken and dumplings, I turn down the air conditioning, close the blinds, and pretend it’s snowing outside (if I don’t close the blinds, the palm trees kind of ruin the effect).

The beauty of cooking is that you can make things exactly the way you like them. For example, chicken piccata is usually made with capers, but since I don’t like capers, I just use parsley instead. It also means that I can make a double batch of rice pilaf so there are plenty of leftovers. This is not exactly a quick dinner to prepare, but it is so good that I don’t mind taking the time to make it.

I love Caesar salad but, of course, my sister has to ruin it by adding chicken to cover up the taste of the lettuce. I mean really, how can you not like lettuce? This dressing is also really good on pasta salad, and at least Jill doesn’t feel the need to add meat to that.

Despite the seemingly Indian name and ingredients, Chicken Tikka Masala is a decidedly British dish. While cooking spiced chicken in a traditional Indian tandoor oven is certainly nothing new, the British made it more to their liking by serving it in a rich, creamy tomato gravy, perfect to mop up with pieces of naan or pita bread. Its popularity soared, eventually leading Britain’s former foreign secretary Robin Cook to declare, “Chicken Tikka Masala is now Britain’s true national dish, not only because it is the most popular, but because it is a perfect illustration of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences.” Well then, they shouldn’t mind if I throw in a bit of Sriracha. . . .

My Grandma Doris was a real piece of work. As they said in the old days, “That lady had class!” Doris was allergic to kitchens, so she used to take my brother Jeff and me out to fine restaurants whenever we visited. She loved one French restaurant in particular, where she would always order chicken paillard with potato puree. It seemed so exotic, so chic, that Jeff and I always ordered the same dish and loved it. It wasn’t until I was in cooking school years later that I learned it was just a fancy name for pounded chicken with mashed potato. You gotta love the French! But it’s still my favorite chicken dish, and it’s great for people who are having trouble eating. That’s because pounding the chicken flat makes it quick to cook and very easy to chew.

What’s the first thing you think of when somebody says, “Let’s get Thai food”? Most of my friends have an involuntary response: they start to sweat. Many people think that Thai food is hot, hot, hot. Well, maybe not, not, not. True, some Thai food can set off smoke detectors. But real Thai cooking emphasizes distinctive flavor combinations regardless of the heat. This soup, a takeoff on traditional Thai tom kha gai (a chicken soup), uses coconut milk, which is very soothing to the nerves. The ginger aids digestion, while the lime brightens up the overall flavor. The result is a soup guaranteed to jump-start even the most jaded taste buds.

A little cultural pride is a good thing, and I have to tell you I always thought my people had the market cornered when it came to making chicken soup. I mean, there’s a reason they call it Jewish penicillin, right? Well, in the interest of complete fairness, let me say that the Greeks know a thing or three about chicken soup, as well. Their Mediterranean take is to fold a little lemon and egg into the mixture. And unlike the yiddishe version, which I love but which can be a little fatty, this version is light and bright. Because of the egg, which provides protein, and the Chicken Magic Mineral Broth, this a nutrient-dense bowl of yum. You’ll need to cook the farro in advance, so plan ahead.

Sometimes I like to enhance the Thai flavor of this recipe by adding a few sprigs of mint to the pot. If you can find Thai basil, that would add even more authenticity To make this even spicier, increase the amount of sweet chili sauce by 1/2 teaspoon. Find sweet chili sauce along with fish sauce in the Asian section of the grocery store or at an Asian market.

Try this recipe with steak or tempeh or even veal. Spoon any residual broth over the chicken before serving and remember to remove the rosemary sprig.

I became a green chile addict when I lived in New Mexico. Home in Colorado, I buy them by the freshly roasted bushel in the fall and freeze them in one-quart plastic bags so I can always get that green chile fix when I need it. This is a great meal to make when you don’t have any fresh vegetables in the house. Stock up on the canned or frozen ingredients and you’ll be able to whip up this Southwestern staple in a jiffy. You can use bone-in or boneless, skin-on or skinless, fresh or frozen chicken pieces; they will still take the same amount of time to cook. You can control the amount of spiciness by the type and amount of chile peppers or salsa you decide to use. My personal favorites are Hatch green chiles, but any chile works. Or use your favorite salsa.