Thursday, March 1, 2012

Easy One-Two Chicken Recipes for Spring

If you’re ready to celebrate spring in the kitchen, pair chicken with favorite seasonal ingredients like watercress, artichokes and new potatoes for a fresh-tasting dish. From the National Chicken Council, here are four new recipes that will save both time and money. With a little creative planning, and chicken on the menu, one one-stop shopping can yield two or more meals.

The recipes, Chopped Watercress Chicken Salad with Asian Orange Dressing, Vietnamese Chicken Pho, Lemon Chicken Paillards with Crispy New Potatoes and Artichoke Hearts and Chicken Paillards with New Potato-Artichoke Mash and a Lemon-Herb Reduction, along with high resolution photographs, are available at www.ChickenEveryMonth.com.

Put chicken tenders, watercress or arugula, and green onions on your grocery list, and you have a start for Chopped Watercress Chicken Salad with Asian Orange Dressing and Vietnamese Chicken Pho. These two light, seasonal recipes are easy to prepare and full of flavor.

In the salad recipe, the chicken tenders are cooked on the stove in a marinade mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, rice wine vinegar, orange juice, honey and other Asian favorites. A second portion of the same mixture serves as the salad dressing. Combine with the watercress and green onions, and chopped romaine lettuce to complete a colorful tossed salad.

To prepare the pho, or Vietnamese soup, boil together low-sodium chicken broth and the green onions, along with garlic, ginger, Chinese five spice powder, soy sauce, fish sauce and sesame oil. Chop the chicken tenders and cook in the soup mixture. Add noodles and top with watercress and bean sprouts for an authentic Asian flavor.

Artichokes and new potatoes also signal spring; team them with thin chicken cutlets to make Lemon Chicken Paillards with Crispy New Potatoes and Artichoke Hearts or Chicken Paillards with New Potato-Artichoke Mash and a Lemon-Herb Reduction. These recipes are easy to prepare as weeknight meals, yet tasty and different enough to serve to guests.

Prepare the paillards by sautéing flat chicken cutlets in olive oil. To make crispy new potatoes, boil potatoes, cool and slice and then toss with chopped rosemary, salt and pepper. Crisp slices in a sauté pan with the artichoke hearts, and serve alongside the lemon-flavored chicken paillards. Make a similar dish with many of the same ingredients by mashing cooked potatoes in a butter, milk and garlic sauce, and combining with chopped artichokes.

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