Recipes | Chicken Moscato

SO, the other day I was lamenting how I don't drink enough wine and I really want to be a Drinker of Wine. Unfortunately, we're on a super strict budget and so I'd pretty much written off wine consumption as something that would have to wait until I became Employed and no longer just a Student. And then I decided to just check out the wine section at Walmart and see if they had anything cheap enough that could justify my purchasing it.

Enter Lucky Duck.

source

This stuff was only $3.47. We grabbed a bottle of Moscato and it was delicious! Turns out I can drink wine while being a Poor College Student. Huzzah!

Anyway, after a few days, there was still a little wine left in the bottle and I decided to see if I could come up with a recipe to use it in. Behold, Chicken Moscato.

I perused the internet for some inspiration, but couldn't find anything that a) matched the ingredients in my pantry, b) really sounded delicious, and c) took minimal time/effort for me to put together. So I came up with my own.

Chicken Moscato
2 small chicken breasts (or 1 big one)
1/8 cup flour
2 tsp Herbs de Provence
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup moscato wine
gravy (recipe follows)
salt and pepper to taste

First, take your chicken breasts (or, if you're just using one big one, butterfly it out and then halve it) and pound them out super thin. This will make them cook up faster. I cover mine in plastic wrap and then pound on them.

Once you've done that, salt and pepper the chicken on both sides. In a plate, combine your flour and herbs de provence - don't forget to season this with salt and pepper as well. It's important to s&p every step!

Now in a bowl, beat your egg until it's frothy. Dunk your chicken breasts into the egg, shake off any excess, and then coat both sides in the flour mixture.

Go ahead and put a pan on medium-high heat - make sure it's big enough for both breasts and has a high enough lip so that when you add liquid, it won't slosh out. Coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil. Once the pan and the oil have heated up, place the chicken breasts into the pan.

Once both sides have browned, go ahead and add your 1/2 cup chicken stock and 1/2 cup of wine. Drop the heat down to medium and just let the chicken simmer, turning occasionally so both sides can soak up the moscato-y goodness. If the liquid reduces too quickly, just add more wine and chicken stock as you see fit. I simmered mine for about 15 minutes. Afterward, you can go ahead and taken the chicken out of the pan.

Now it's time to make some gravy!

Moscato Gravy
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup wine
herbs de provence, salt, and pepper

With the pan still hot, melt the butter and then add the flour. Once it starts to thicken and form a roux, you can add in the wine slowly until you reach the consistency of gravy you'd like. Now, when I say 1/4 cup, I'm just guesstimating. You can just eyeball this and make as much gravy as you like (the more liquid, you'll need more flour and you'll need to cook it longer so you don't have a "doughy" taste). You can add chicken stock instead of wine, or a mixture of both, depending on how moscato-y you want the flavor to be. And don't forget to season the gravy as well! With both the herbs de provence and s&p.

Plate up and enjoy!

I made enough gravy to put on our homemade mashed potatoes! We also had green beans and brussel sprouts. Altogether, a pretty tasty meal!

If you try this recipe or if you have a similar one that you've made and loved, let me know! I loved to hear about others' cooking forays. :]

Recipes | Steak!

So I mentioned before that the BF and I just recently celebrated our third anniversary and that I made us a steak dinner to celebrate. I know cooking steak isn't rocket science, but I wanted to share how I prepare my steaks!

First, we bought the steak at Wal-mart. I decided to try their new "premium quality" USDA Choice steak in the black packages they've been touting in commercials lately. We bought NY strip - two steaks that totaled around 1.2lbs, for about $16 bucks. Let me preface this all with saying that I'm actually pretty picky when it comes to steak.

And now let me tell you - these babies were delicious.


First, I let them come to room temp and then seasoned them up. No fancy steak seasoning or anything like that. I'm a big fan of my steak tasting like steak and pretty much nothing else. So just salt, pepper, and a little dash of sugar.

Then, I melted some butter in my pan, let it melt, and then tossed the steaks in. I cooked them on both sides and they turned out looking like this:

I apologize for the poor picture quality. I had to use my phone because I couldn't find my camera. But those steaks still look pretty tasty, don't they?

To finish them off, I went the totally unhealthy route and dropped a little dab of butter on each steak and let it melt while they rested. (You want to let the meat rest for a little bit so the juices all redistribute and don't leak away when you cut into it.) I realized I should have taken a picture of the inside (a glorious pink), but I realized that as we were finishing them off and so by then it was too late. ;]

These steaks were SO good. They were tender and cooked to how I like them - which is a change from when I go out. Most restaurants hand me medium-well steaks and that's just terrible. The price beat the heck out of us going to some fancy restaurant, too.

My Easy Steak "Seasoning"
salt
black pepper
white pepper
sugar

You'll notice I don't have any measurements - that's because I don't measure. :/ I just eyeball most of my seasonings. I would say maybe a tablespoon of salt and the peppers, and maybe 1/4 tablespoon of sugar, mix it all together and then distribute over the steaks.

How I Cook My Steak
4 tbs butter

Haha, not much to it. Place your pan over medium heat and melt two tablespoons of the butter. Once the butter has melted completely, place the steak into the pan. Don't touch the steak once you've placed it in the pan, just let it sit and cook so it can get nice and brown (because as Food Network Chef Anne Burrell says "Brown food tastes good!"). Let the steak go for 3-4 minutes before flipping it over and then let it cook for about another 3 minutes.

This is how long I cooked mine and it came out on the rarer side of medium. If you want yours cooked medium-well or well, just leave it in the pan longer. A good way to test your steak is to press your finger into the meat and if it springs back, it's done.

Once you've taken the steak out of the pan, set it aside and place the remaining butter on them (1 tbs each). Let the butter melt and the steak rest for about five minutes. And voila!