Introducing Menu Monday

Introducing Menu Monday….

I don’t mind cooking dinner, but the one thing that I often struggle with is deciding what to cook.  I like quick and easy, because let’s face it – we are all busy, but I do get bored with the same meals over and over again.  Mince is a nice quick option in our home, but I do get a little bit sick of cooking Spaghetti Bolognaise, Cottage Pie and Tacos over and over again (although the kids actually LOVE these ones!).  So I for one am looking for some alternative mince recipe ideas!  We also eat a lot of chicken, but again, I tend to cook the same things and am often looking in recipe magazines for new ideas.

So what is Menu Monday??  Each Monday we, the ladies of The Sewing Sisterhood will share with you one of our favourite recipes.  Something that is loved in our homes - a tried and true meal idea that you can love too.  But it might not just be dinner – we might throw in a dessert or a cake or maybe even a nice lunch idea, who knows what might come up!

We also invite you to email us your favourite recipe.  Each week we will feature one of ours and one of yours.  If you have a yummy recipe you would like to share email us at thesewingsisterhood@live.com.au.  We would love to hear about the favourite foods in your home!

So this week we are going to start off with a well worn recipe in my home.  It actually comes from a Readers Digest Recipe Book that must be close to 30 years old.  I remember Mum cooking out of it when I was a kid and in her travels to Op Shops she has picked up one for me and each of my siblings!  This one is loved by everyone – Mr 4, Mr 3, Miss 15mths (but she eats anything) as well as my husband and myself.

Chicken Scaloppine

Ingredients:

2 whole chicken breasts (4 halves) skinned and boned (I generally cook about 500gms for our family)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

½ cup plain flour

½ teaspoon salt

Pinch black pepper

40g butter or margarine

Grated rind of 1 lemon

2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1/3 cup finely chopped parsley

½ cup chicken stock

Method:

1. Lay each half chicken breast on the work surface, place your hand flat over it, and cutting parallel to your hand, slice the breast in two.
2. Heat the oil in a heavy medium sized frying pan over moderately high heat.  In a shallow dish, combine the flour, salt and pepper.  Press the chicken into the flour mixture, coating the pieces on both sides.  Shake off any excess flour.  Place half the pieces in the pan and brown them for 1 minute on each side.  Transfer to a warm plate.  Cook the remaining breast in the same way.
3. Add the butter to the pan, along with the lemon rind, garlic and parsley.  Add the chicken stock, scraping up any brown bits stuck to the pan.  Bring the liquid to a boil and let it cook until it thickens slightly.
4. Return the breasts to the pan, along with any accumulated juices, and coat with the sauce.
5. Serve with mashed or boiled potatoes and veges

Things to note:  If you like lots of sauce or gravy with your meals, just increase the chicken stock to 1 cup.  The flour that coats the chicken will thicken the sauce up nicely. 

When filleting the chicken I normally cut it quite thin (and end up with 3 or 4 slices out of the breast) depending on how thick they end up.  They will cook quicker this way and tend to go a bit further.

Enjoy!

Tracey

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