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Chicken Country Captain
Chutney is an optional, but delicious condiment. Chicken Country Captain is a beloved Southern chicken stew made with curry, tomatoes and bell peppers. Its origins date back to the early 19th century when British trade ships brought exotic spices from India to the ports at Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. If you’re not from the South, you may not be familiar with this dish but you’ll find it in most Southern Junior League cookbooks. It’s that iconic. Here is a trimmed down v


Roast Turkey Breast with Garlic & Herbs
Back in the day, Weight Watchers used to give out weekly recipe cards to members. This one from 2023 for a roast turkey breast reminded me of my mom. We visited her every year and when we walked in her front door from the airport, there was always a cooked turkey breast sitting on a rack in a roasting pan in the kitchen. She vowed that turkey sandwiches made with freshly roasted turkey breast were infinitely tastier than ones made with deli turkey slices, and she was right. I


Slow Cooker & Pressure Cooker Salsa Verde Chicken
From the NYT Cooking section, a recipe for salsa verde chicken that you can prepare either in a slow cooker or the Instant Pot. Directions for both are below. Think of this recipe is a meal-in-a-bowl that you can change up depending on what you have on hand: add 1 cup of frozen or fresh corn, or a drained 15-ounce can of black beans or pinto beans. (Add them at the end along with the fresh cilantro and scallions.) You can serve the chicken alone or over rice, or use it as a


BBQ Drumsticks
In our nationwide heat wave, cooking indoors is out of the question. Time to fire up the grill. One mistake many cooks make when grilling chicken is to douse it with BBQ sauce when it first hits the grill. The sauce burns to a crisp before the chicken is done cooking. The trick to delicious, moist and flavorful chicken is to baste the meat when it's almost done cooking. The BBQ sauce cooks to a beautiful golden brown. I love grilling drumsticks because they can be eaten with


Grilled Chicken Vegetable Kebabs
Summer has arrived in the form of intense heat waves all across the U.S. and much of the world. Time to fire up the grill and cook outside (in the shade). Here's one of my favorites: grilled marinated chicken kebabs with colorful vegetables, a recipe I adapted from DinnerattheZoo.com. For those who don't own a grill, there are instructions below for broiling. The marinade contains olive oil, soy sauce and honey. It’s really delicious: sweet/salty and savory, similar to teri


Pineapple Chicken Stir Fry
Chicken, pineapple and colorful bell peppers combine for a rock-star main dish in this healthy stir fry I adapted from skinnytaste.com. Several of the ingredients--fish sauce and Thai sweet chili sauce--may not be in your pantry now, but you can find them in the Asian section of most supermarkets and they keep for a long time in the fridge. Wondering why this recipe is made up mostly of low fat, low calorie, WW Zero Point foods but has 4 Points per serving? It's the 1/3 cup o


Lemon-Pepper Chicken Breasts
This is the chicken breast recipe for those of us who are becoming tired of healthy, low-fat, diet-friendly (yawn) chicken breasts. Several factors contribute to its success: lemon-pepper seasoning, fresh lemon juice and butter. Yes, you read that right, butter. The recipe, adapted from the NYT Cooking section, calls for 3 Tbsp. of unsalted butter. The butter combines with fresh lemon juice to make a delectable sauce to serve over the chicken. I cut the butter down to 2 Tbsp.


Easy, Marinated Chicken Breasts
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are easy to prepare, but equally easy to overcook. Here's a surefire way to insure that they remain juicy and moist. Marinate them in a lemony/olive oil marinade for several hours and then grill them over a hot fire or cook them in an air fryer. The lemon juice tenderizes the chicken and assures that it remains moist. I suggest preparing more than you think you'll need for one meal, because these thinly sliced breasts are great sliced on sal


Air Fryer Old Bay Spatchcocked Chicken
Here's the easiest way to enjoy roast chicken : cut out the backbone (aka spatchcock it). The flattened chicken cooks in much less time and both light and dark meat come out equally moist and juicy. Gary, the very nice butcher at my local supermarket, spatchcocks my chickens for me, but you can easily do it yourself. To spatchcock a chicken, turn it over and cut out the backbone on both sides with poultry shears. Remove the backbone, flip the chicken over and crack the breas


Sheet Pan Chicken with Black Beans and Squash
Add dollops of nonfat Greek yogurt and serve with lime wedges This sheet pan dinner takes little effort but delivers big flavor. Chicken, squash, black beans and red onion are well seasoned with chili powder and cumin. The black beans and butternut squash add a savory creaminess, and the optional toppings add tang. The recipe, adapted from the NYT Cooking section, suggests using Diamond Crystal kosher salt, a favorite of many chefs and home cooks for its light, pyramid-shaped


Taco Soup
Add your favorite toppings: cilantro, pickled jalapeños, avocado, Greek yogurt, cheddar cheese, tortilla chips There is so much to love about this soup. It tastes very much like a traditional beef taco but without the shell. It’s spicy, but not too much so. It’s high in protein, which makes it filling, and it’s low in fat, calories and has only 1 WW Point. The recipe, adapted from the NYT Cooking section, calls for 1/4 cup of olive oil, but I cut that down to 1 Tbsp., plenty


Air Fryer Turkey Meatballs
An Air fryer is a countertop convection oven that cooks food by circulating hot air rapidly throughout its interior. Food cooks more quickly, and becomes crispy and golden brown without using a lot of oil. With an air fryer you can make crispy french fries with just a light spray of olive oil. Fried chicken? Same thing. Meatballs are another food that is traditionally fried in oil. I like to make turkey meatballs because they're leaner than typical Italian meatball meat (a co


Tuscan Vegetable Chicken Stew
Despite their healthfulness, I do not like eating main-course salads during the winter, especially not here in the frigid state of Kansas. Soups and stews are more to my liking. This recipe for Tuscan Vegetable Chicken Stew, which I adapted from The Recipe Critic, provides close to a day's worth of hearty vegetables. I suggest cutting the vegetables into slightly larger chunks so they maintain their shape during cooking. It also provides protein from chicken and white beans,


Simple Chicken Tortilla Soup
Smitten Kitchen's Deb Perelman adds the works to her tortilla soup. Make this your own with your favorites! I am a big fan of the Smitten Kitchen website, created by a young New York City woman who is married with two kids and has no professional culinary training. She is simply a brilliant cook with three best-selling cookbooks under her belt. I have to cherry-pick Deb's recipes because many of them are calorific. (Yes, it's a word.) In other words, Deb has way more fun cook


White Chicken Chili
In 2022 I posted a recipe from Weight Watchers for White Chicken Chili with Salsa Verde. It was very popular among WW members despite the...


One-Pot Dijon Chicken with Tomatoes
I post a lot of recipes for chicken because it's an economical source of protein that can be served in many ways. In this simple recipe...


Tomato-Basil Skillet Chicken
Here's a lightning-fast recipe using chicken tenders, which cook in less time than whole chicken breasts and thus remain tender and...


Lemon & Garlic Chicken with Cherry Tomatoes
In this summery dish, chicken breasts are marinated in lemon juice, garlic and rosemary, pounded thin and topped with almost-bursting...


Sheet-Pan Chicken Fajitas
Chicken and vegetables right out of the oven, ready for tortillas! Chicken fajitas are a popular Tex-Mex restaurant choice because...


Baked Chicken Thighs
Chicken thighs are a staple in my kitchen. They're inexpensive and I can depend on them always being moist and juicy after cooking. This...
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