Spanish Inspired Fried Chicken

I love fried food, which is really bad. I try to limit myself to a specific amount and will fight the bad with something healthy, such as a salad or grilled foods. The other night I had an intense craving for fried chicken, so my roommate and I decided to make some. It was finals week and I think we deserved it. We ate the fried chicken with a delicious side salad and a bit of stuffing. We don't really have a recipe for fried chicken, so we crafted our own. Actually, the wet and dry batter we used for this recipe, we have used twice in the past already when we made chicken tenders. So yes, you can use this recipe to make chicken tenders instead, which are also delicious.

This recipe is special because we love Spanish food and including a product from Goya to give it a delicious flavor. (I need to learn from my boyfriend how to cook Dominican food, yum.) We invented the recipe by experimenting for our first group dinner. It was a very successful experiment. I'm craving some right now. Unfortunately, I don't have the ingredients at home and it's snowing out. The recipe below will make extra batter, but I feel that it's better to have extra batter than not enough batter :). This recipe includes two different batters for extra flavor and crispyness.

 Fried Chicken

2 servings.

Ingredients

- 2 chicken drumsticks (you can use chicken breast and cut them into tender pieces)

- 3 packets of Sazón Goya (with Garlic and Onion)

- 4 cups of flour

- 3 tbsp. minced garlic

- 2 tbsp. garlic salt

- 2 tbsp. onion powder (you can use fresh onion if you want)

- 2 tbsp. oregano, chopped finely

- 2 tbsp. rosemary, chopped finely

- 2 tsp. basil, chopped finely

- 1 tbsp. lemon pepper seasoning

- 3/4 cup of skim milk (You can use whole or 2% if you please.)

- Pepper

- Salt

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine together 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 packet of Sazón, 1 tbsp. minced garlic, 1 tbsp. garlic salt, 1 tbsp. onion powder,  1 tbsp. oregano, 1 tbsp. rosemary, 1 tsp. basil, 1/2 tbsp. lemon pepper seasoning, a healthy dash of pepper (as much or as little as desired), and a pinch of salt. Mix thoroughly.

2. Add the milk to the mixture from above. Mix thoroughly. The batter should be very much like a liquidy dough. If mixture is too dry, add 1/4 cup of milk and mix. This is your wet batter.

3. Place the chicken in the mixture. Make sure chicken is covered in this batter. Cover and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

4. In a different bowl, combine together 2 1/2 cups of flour, 2 packets of Sazón, 2 tbsp. minced garlic, 1 tbsp. garlic salt, 1 tbsp. onion powder, 1 tbsp. oregano, 1 tbsp. rosemary, 1 tsp. basil, 1/2 tbsp. lemon pepper seasoning, 3-5 dashes of pepper, and a pinch of salt. Mix thoroughly. This is your dry batter.

5. In a medium saucepan, heat up some frying oil (we save our frying oil in a jar) that is enough to cover most of the chicken in. Dip the marinated chicken in the dry batter. Cover the chicken pieces completely, making sure there is enough flour throughout the chicken pieces. When the oil is hot enough (place a wooden spoon or another utensil in it and if bubbles form, it's hot enough), place the chicken pieces in the oil.

6. Cook for 20-25 minutes. Be sure to turn frequently when outside of chicken is cooked, otherwise it will burn.

Serve and enjoy!

We served our fried chicken with some stuffing that my roommate made and a delicious salad. The salad was comprised of romaine lettuce, 1 boil egged, garlic croutons, baked french onion, Zesty Italian dressing, and a dash of lime juice. The salad made me feel less guilty with the exception of the croutons and french onions.

Soy Sauce Chicken & Garlic Bread

First, I would like to apologize for the terrible quality of the photo. The photo was rushed and frankly, I was starving. This recipe was definitely an experiment. Normally, we have an idea of how a dish will taste, but for this recipe, we had no idea. It turned out to be quite delicious, but a few changes would be made for next time. The chicken was a bit bland, but the rice dish we created and the garlic bread helped the chicken become balanced. I am going to leave the recipe as it is, but I recommend that you create flavorful side dishes, add more salty seasoning to the chicken, or marinate the chicken longer (we were hungry!). However, I know there are people that like a bit of blandness.

Soy Sauce Chicken
 2 servings.

Ingredients

- 2 chicken drumsticks
- 3/4 cup of soy sauce
- Garlic salt
- Pepper
- Dried oregano
- Chili powder
- Ginger
- Olive oil
- 1 small chopped onion
- 2 cloves minced garlic

Directions

1. In a bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, 3-5 dashes of garlic salt (depending on your taste), 2-3 dashes of pepper, 2 tsp. oregano, 1-2 dashes of chili powder, and 1 tsp. ginger.
2. Add the chicken and marinate for at least 20 minutes (we were hungry). Marinading for longer would be better flavor-wise.
3. In a pan, add olive oil and heat up the onions and garlic.
4. Add the chicken and cook the chicken. Turn frequently until chicken is cooked.

Serve and enjoy!

We served the chicken with rice and garlic bread (pictured above). We used a box of white rice, but we added 1 tbsp. butter, 1 small chopped onion, and 1 minced clove of garlic to it. The onions and garlic made the rice very flavorful that balanced out the chicken's blandness.

This post is special because it contains another recipe! Well, it is a very short extra recipe. This was the first time we attempted to make our own garlic bread. It turned out to be quite delicious and saved money. We're college students... we need to save ;).


Garlic Bread
2-4 servings (the mixture, slice more bread to use the remainder if you do not want to dump the leftover mixture)

Ingredients

- 2 tbsp. butter
- 2 tbsp. garlic powder or minced garlic (completely up to you)
- 1 tbsp. grated parmesan
- Grated mozzarella
- 2-4 pieces of sliced french bread (depends on how much of the mixture you put on the bread)

Directions

1. Melt the butter in the microwave for 10 seconds. Stir. If butter is not melted, microwave for 10 more seconds and stir.
2. Add the garlic and parmesan. Mix well.
3. Spread the mixture on the bread. Let the bread sit for at least 5 minutes to absorb the mixture.
4. Sprinkle each slice with mozzarella (as much or as little as desired).
5. Toast in the toaster oven at 350 degrees until cheese has melted and the edges crisp. You can do this in the oven as well if desired. I find the toaster oven faster.

Serve and enjoy!


The garlic bread we have definitely made again. The chicken, we will probably let it marinate for a longer time and add more garlic salt!

Best Fried Rice Ever

Okay the name I'm giving this recipe may be a stretch, but it seriously is delicious. It's also the best fried rice I ever made. I made it for our apartment dinner. They had places to go and I was home, so I decided to make it right before they got home because fried rice is easy. They loved it and I loved it even more. This fried rice is a thousand times better than the other recipe I have posted and it looks a thousand times tastier.

Best Fried Rice Ever
 4-5 servings.

Ingredients

- 4 cups of white rice cooked and refrigerated
- Minced garlic
- 1 chicken breast cut into cubes
- 2 Chinese sausages (sliced)
- Oyster sauce
- Soy sauce
- Garlic salt
- 3 eggs (plus 1 additional egg per person)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Broccoli
- Corn (drained)

Directions

1. In a bowl mix together 1/2 cup of oyster sauce (a little bit goes a long way), 1/2 cup of soy sauce, 1 tbsp. of garlic salt, and 1 tsp. of pepper. Add the uncooked chicken and make sure the mixture is evenly spread. Let it marinate for at least 2 hours.
2. Combine two eggs into a small bowl and mix. Pour it into a heated pan with oil. Fry the egg. When finished, slice the egg and set aside.
3. Add a little more oil into the empty pan. Add minced garlic, the Chinese sausage and chicken. Stir and cook. Add broccoli when meat is nearly finished cooking.
4. In a wok or a larger pan, add cooking oil and minced garlic. Add the cold rice and stir. Add 1/2 cup of oyster sauce and 1/2 cup of soy sauce. Stir and make sure sauces are spread evenly.
5. Crack an egg into the rice and stir. Add more soy sauce as desired. Add 2 tbsp. of garlic salt. Stir frequently.
6. Add the fried egg pieces, sausage, chicken, broccoli, and corn. Stir frequently.
7. Add pepper as desired. Stir.
8. Serve the fried rice into bowls or plates. Fry an egg over easy per dish served.

Enjoy! Make sure your dinner guests break the yolk and mix it into their rice. The gooey-ness adds an amazing kick to the fried rice.

Chicken Tetrazzini

I'm behind on my posts, so there will be several posts added tonight :). I meant to add this recipe along with the previous recipe 2 weeks ago. My college's dining hall makes an amazing turkey tetrazzini. Well, this semester they stopped serving it. In the previous summer, my roommate from college and I tried to recreate it by following a recipe online. It was okay. The other night, we decided to make our own recipe and it was delicious.

Chicken Tetrazzini
4-5 Servings.

Ingredients

- 2 chicken breasts
- Garlic salt
- Garlic powder
- Minced garlic
- Pepper
- Salt
- Onion powder
- Parmesan (grated)
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella (cheddar would be better, but we didn't have any) 
- 1 can of cream of chicken (10.75 ounces)
- 1 can of cream of mushroom (10.75 ounces)
- 1 cup of milk
- Broccoli (cut into bite sized pieces)
- Asparagus (cut into bite sized pieces)
- Green beans
- 1/2 pound cooked angel hair pasta
- 2 cups of bread crumbs

*You can add other vegetables if desired, these were the ones we had on hand.*

Directions

1.  Combine 2 tbsp. of garlic powder, 2 tbsp. of garlic salt, 2 tbsp. of onion powder, 1 tbsp. of pepper, 1 tsp. of salt, and 1 tbsp. of Parmesan together. Rubbed the two chicken breasts thoroughly with this seasoning. Let it sit for at least 20 minutes. Then pan fry the chicken with minced garlic and vegetable oil. Let it cool for a few minutes, then cube the chicken.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
3. In a bowl mix together the cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, milk, 2 tbsp. minced garlic, 2 tbsp. garlic salt, 2 tbsp. onion powder, 2 tbsp. garlic powder, 1 tbsp. pepper, 2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 cup of Parmesan. You can taste it and adjust to your liking, if desired.
4. In a 9x9 casserole dish add the 2 cups of bread crumbs and pasta. Mix thoroughly.
5. Add the cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, and seasoning mixture. Mix thoroughly.
6. Add the vegetables. Mix thoroughly.
7. Add the chicken. Mix thoroughly.
8. Add the mozzarella. Mix thoroughly.
9. Put the casserole dish in the oven. Bake for 35-45 minutes.

Let it cool for at least 15 minutes before serving! Enjoy!

I know the long list of ingredients may appear intimidating, but I promise that this recipe is super easy. If I can do it, so can you :).

Pan Fried Chicken

I had an intense craving for fried chicken yesterday. However, I did not want to drive out and buy it (laziness I tell you!), desired to eat deep fried chicken, or have the patience to bake it. This recipe was my solution... a delicious one. Oh this is more of a fried chicken tender than fried chicken pieces because all I had in the freezer were chicken breasts.

Pan Fried Chicken
2 servings

Ingredients

- 1 boneless skinless chicken breast 
- 2 cups of bread crumbs
- 2 tbs. of garlic salt
- 2 tbs. of ground pepper
- 2 tbs. of Parmesan cheese
- 2 tsp. of parsley, finely chopped
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup of milk (buttermilk would be better, but I only had access to milk)
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 small onion, finely chopped
- 1 tsp. butter
- 2 tsp. of olive oil

Directions

1. Cut the chicken breast into 2 thin slices. Set aside.
2. In a ziplock bag or bowl, mix together bread crumbs, garlic salt, ground pepper, parsley, and Parmesan cheese.
3. Set the mixture on a plate. In a bowl, whisk together the egg and milk. Put the two pieces of chicken into the wet mixture. Let it soak for 10 minutes.
4. Take one piece of chicken and put it on top of the plate with the dry mixture. Flip over the chicken and spread the dry mixture as evenly as possible. Add shakes of garlic salt and pepper to each side of the chicken (optional). Repeat for the other piece of chicken.
5. Melt the butter with the olive oil on a pan. Add the minced garlic and finely chopped onion. Let them simmer for 1 minute.
6. Add the chicken and fry until cooked. Flip over as necessary.

Serve and enjoy!

This goes great with pasta (as pictured above) and would complement a perfect chicken parmesan dish. I will try that next time.

Easy Garlic Pasta with Sausage

I love pasta because it's so simple to make, yet so versatile. It's comfort food that I always will love. This dish is super easy (much simpler than yesterday's recipe) and delicious (and also fattening, but lets pretend it's okay).

Easy Garlic Pasta with Sausage


Ingredients

- Spaghetti pasta
- 2 cups of olive oil
- 2 whole pieces of garlic, minced
- Chopped parsely
- Chicken sausage (a much healthier alternative)
- Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to box directions. Drain pasta when finished.
2. Heat the olive oil into a medium saucepan. Then add the minced garlic and let the garlic sizzle.
3. In a small frying pan, cook the sausage as desired (I fried my sausage using fat-free cooking spray).
4. Gently pour the pasta into the olive oil and garlic mixture. Stir enough that the garlic gets mixed throughout the pasta.
5. Add the parsely and continue stiring. Add a few shakes of parmesan cheese and stir.
6. Add the chicken sausage or serve pasta and place the sausage on top.

Enjoy!

Edit at 6:42 pm
I had leftovers from last night. Instead of reheating in the microwave, I decided to reheat through a frying pan. I made a slight change to the recipe that really enhances the flavor. I poured about a tablespoon of olive oil into the frying pan, cooked my sausage as I did before. Then I threw in the cold pasta and stirred the pasta with the sausage for it to warm up. After it warmed up, I added about 2 tablespoons of Zesty Italian Dressing and some feta cheese (crumbled). I mixed it and let the cheese soften a tad bit. It was even more incredible than last night. Yay for being a little creative with leftovers!

Chicken and Biscuits

This meal was cooked by my roommate and myself last week. We were chatting online while she was at work. I was hungry because I haven't eaten much all day. I started brainstorming ideas for dinner. Then, it hit me. We had to hurry up and cook our vegetables before they went bad. I told her how we should use my cream of chicken, our vegetables, chicken, and biscuits to create this dish. She loved the idea and we immediately cooked when she came home. This took a total of 2 hours to prep and cook (longest dish created thus far!).

This came out absolutely delicious. We penned this dish our "Clean Out the Vegetable Drawer Casserole." We will definitely make this again when we need to clean out the vegetable drawer. The wonderful thing about this dish is you could ultimately put any kind of meat (if at all) and any vegetables you would like in it. It is a very versatile dish.

I know it may not look that attractive, but it's a casserole. Looks can be deceiving. With this recipe, I'm listing everything we used and exactly how we made it, but feel free to use different veggies and meat.

Chicken and Biscuits

5-6 servings.

Ingredients

 Chicken

- 3 small/medium chicken breasts (you be the judge)

- Pam spray (oil or butter will work fine also)

- Pepper

- Salt

- Garlic salt

Sauce

- 1 can (10 3/4 ounces) of cream of mushroom  (we used Campbell's)

- 1 can (10 3/4 ounces) of cream of chicken (we used Campbell's)

- 3 garlic cloves

- 1 small onion, chopped

- 1/4 cup fat free milk

Vegetables

- Broccoli florets (cut into bite size pieces, you be the judge of how small you want them)

- 2 small Idaho potatoes (boil for 5 minutes, then have them cubed and peeled)

- 2 celery stalks, chopped

- 1 cup of asparagus, chopped

- 1 cup of green beans

- 1 cup of mushrooms, sliced (any kind you like will be good)

- Parsley (for garnishing)

Other Ingredients

- 1 can of Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits (5 count)

- 2 cups of bread crumbs, seasoned

- Parmesan cheese (cheddar or mozzarella would probably work better, but we didn't have any in stock)

Directions

1. Put your three pieces of chicken breasts on a cutting board. Pour a generous amount of garlic salt, pepper, and 2-3 dashes of salt on each side. Rub the quick seasoning on the chicken thoroughly on all sides. Spray a medium frying pan with pam and let it heat up. Add the chicken breast and fry until cooked. A healthier alternative is to grill the chicken. When the chicken is finished, let them cool. Then take them out and cut them into small bite sized cubes. Place in a bowl and set aside for later.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the the garlic cloves, chopped onions, a dash of garlic salt (yes, we love garlic), and milk into a blender. Blend until ingredients are perfectly minced.
3. In a mixing bowl, pour in the can of cream of chicken and the can of cream of mushroom. Then, add the minced ingredients. Mix thoroughly for about 5-7 minutes.
4. Add half of the chicken and mix. Slowly add the rest of the chicken and mix. Try your best to make sure the chicken is spread very evenly.
5. Slowly add the remainder of the vegetables. Continue mixing as you pour the vegetables into the mixture. Finish evenly mixing the ingredients. Again, you be the judge of how even the mixture is.
6. In a medium glass casserole dish (we used an 8x8 dish), dump the bread crumbs and spread it out, so that it makes an even bottom layer.
7. Gently pour the mixture and try to make it as even as possible.
8. Cook the casserole in the oven for 15 minutes.
9. Open the can of biscuits. We did not cut the biscuits into small pieces (I wanted to do this, but my roommate wanted whole biscuit pieces.). I highly recommend cutting the biscuits into small pieces, so the biscuit can thoroughly cook without burning. Place the biscuits on top in any way you desire.
10. Shake some parmesan cheese on top (as much or as little as you desire).
11. Put the casserole dish back into the oven for 15 more minutes. If you chose not to cut the biscuits into smaller pieces, cook the casserole for 20 minutes. Let it cool for 10 minutes or until the biscuits are no longer too hot to touch.

Serve and garnish with the parsely. Enjoy!

Here is a picture of our casserole before it was served:

Absolutely delicious.

Buffalo Chicken Quesadilla

I'm not a fan of spicy foods, but I love the flavor of buffalo. I decided to make a small quesadilla for dinner last night instead of a buffalo chicken sandwich. This was extremely easy to make and it turned out quite delicious. I also love ranch dressing; I'll eat with almost anything including fries (any potato product actually), chicken, sandwiches, and salads. I would also add it to whatever I can.


I wish I took a picture of the quesadilla's filling, but I wasn't thinking at the time. It would've been nice for you to see what it looked like inside. Oh well. The quesadilla only fit on half of the plate because it was that small. This would make the perfect snack =].

Buffalo Chicken Quesadilla
1 serving.

Ingredients

- 2 small flour tortillas
- Buffalo wing sauce (I used Frank's)
- Cooked sliced chicken breast (I cheated like in the previous post and used Perdue Carved Chicken Breast)
- Provolone cheese
- Ranch dressing

Directions

1. Place one tortilla in a small frying pan on low heat (you do not want to burn your quesadilla).
2. Take one slice of cheese and tear it into pieces. Organize the pieces in a way that it covers the tortilla, but leaves about a free edge around the tortilla of about a centimeter. The reason you want a small edge to be free is so the cheese doesn't melt into the frying pan making a sticky quesadilla.
3. Let the cheese melt a tiny bit. Add chicken breast flat on the tortilla (i.e. do not overlap chicken pieces because then the quesadilla would be lumpy).
4. Pour a bit or spread as much buffalo sauce as you please.
5. Optional: Add a little bit of ranch.
6. Place the other tortilla on top of the contents in the frying pan.
7. Flip the tortilla and let it cook for about 30 seconds.
8. Place on a plate and dip in ranch dressing.

Enjoy! This goes great with baked fries or salad.

Chicken Fried Rice

Being a college student, I'm always in a rush or too busy to have the patience to cook a time-consuming meal. So last week, my roommate and I ordered Chinese food (sesame chicken, yum!). We had a lot of extra rice. The next night, I decided that I wanted to eat fried rice. However, I was limited to certain ingredients because I didn't have too many vegetables in the fridge. Oh, and I also cheated. Cheated how? You'll see later. I just love how versatile fried rice is and there's no way one could fail at making fried rice.

Once again, I apologize for the poor quality of the picture. It was taken with my phone last week to show my boyfriend what I made for dinner, not for a blog. You can edit the measurements or add your own measurements (since this was eyeballed) for the ingredients.

Chicken Fried Rice
 3-4 servings.

Ingredients

- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 1 small onion, chopped
- Vegetable oil (substituting for a different oil is probably fine)
- Perdue Carved Chicken Breast (3/4 box, I was too lazy to thaw my chicken breast, so why not?)
- Leftover cold white rice
- Soy sauce
- Broccoli (and/or other vegetables)
- 2 eggs (we ran out of eggs so I used Egg Beaters)
- Pepper

Directions

1.  Pour a bit of vegetable oil into a medium frying pan. While you're waiting for the oil to heat up, beat 2 eggs into a small bowl. Pour the eggs into the frying pan once the oil heats up. Flip the egg and fry the opposite side once the first side is finished.
2. Take out the fried egg and put it on a cutting board. Slice the egg into smaller pieces. Theoretically, you could also cut up the egg with a wooden spoon or whichever utensil you are using to cook.
3. Add more vegetable oil in the empty frying pan. Add half of your minced garlic to the oil. Let the garlic and oil heat up.
4. Add the white rice to the oil and garlic mixture. Add a little bit of soy sauce and stir. Add half of the eggs and stir. Add more soy sauce as you continue to stir. Add the remainder of the eggs and a bit more soy sauce. Stir.
5. Let the fried rice heat up some more. In a small frying pan, add a little bit of oil (I used olive oil for this step). Then throw in the remainder of the garlic along with the onions. Let the oil, garlic, and onions simmer and heat up. Slice up the chicken breast so that they are bite size. Add the chicken breast and broccoli (and other vegetables, I only had access to broccoli at the time). Add a dash of pepper. Fry the chicken and broccoli as you please.
6. Pour the chicken and broccoli contents to the frying pan with the rice. Add a bit more soy sauce (as much as you please). Stir the fried rice to spread the ingredients. Cook the fried rice for as long as you please (I like letting my fried rice sit for a bit to make some of the edges crispy).

Enjoy! You can serve this as the main dish (as I did) or as a side dish. Add all of the ingredients you wish to add. I really wished I had access to Chinese sausage when I made this dish. It would've given the fried rice even more flavor. Yum.

Zesty Garlic Pepper Grilled Chicken

This was the first solo dinner I made in the apartment. Truthfully, this was really easy and it was through an experimental idea in my head.

The quality of the picture could've been better, but it was snapped with my phone because I didn't anticipate creating a blog following my cooking adventures. Unfortunately, I don't have exact measurements for each ingredient because much of this recipe was eyeballed.

Zesty Garlic Pepper Grilled Chicken
 One serving.


Ingredients

- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- Oregano
- Pepper
- Lemon pepper seasoning
- 1 lemon, squeezed
- 1 small chicken breast
- 1 small onion, minced
- Rosemary
- A pinch of salt
- Parsely, chopped
- A pinch of paprika
- 1 tsp. garlic salt


Directions

1. Squeeze the lemon into a bowl.
2. Add all of the other ingredients except for the lemon pepper seasoning.
3. Whisk together the ingredients. Add a pinch of lemon pepper seasoning and continue whisking.
4. Place chicken breast into mixture and let it soak on each side for 2 minutes.
5. Add a dash of lemon pepper seasoning on each side and rub chicken thoroughly.
6. Place in bag or container for at least 48 hours.
7. Grill the chicken and enjoy!

I must admit that I made the yellow rice from a box. It was delicious. The salad is romaine lettuce, feta cheese (crumbled), garlic croutons, and zesty italian dressing. The combination was wonderful. However, since this is grilled chicken, there are many ways to eat this. Be creative unlike me!