Recipe – Hoots of a Night Al

3-Ingredient Roast Chicken

August 4, 2016 6 Comments

This recipe creates the most delicious, moist chicken, with minimal time and effort. All you need is chicken, lemons, and salt & pepper! Sound too good to be true? Read on!

Now, this isn’t the chicken recipe to bust out when you want to impress your friends at a dinner party. (Also, stop trying to impress your friends, they already love you…just be yourself.) It is however, simple, delicious, and goof-proof, which is EXACTLY how I like my recipes.

The only ingredients you need are a whole chicken, salt & pepper, and lemons. I usually get the Young Whole Chicken from HEB pictured below, which is roughly 3 pounds. That is more than enough for myself and my husband, but feel free to get a larger chicken if you’re cooking for more.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Wash and dry your chicken and remove any of the included “innards” (I know that is the correct word, it just felt like it needed quotes.). Take your lemons and pierce them repeatedly on all sides with a fork to create holes. Liberally salt and pepper your chicken inside and out, and stuff the punctured lemons into the cavity.

I’ve cooked this on a baking sheet, in a dutch oven, and in a casserole dish, and each time it comes out great. The latter two are better, however, if you want to save the delicious juices to spoon over your chicken or for future recipes. Whatever you choose, lay the chicken breast-side down into a baking dish you’ve brushed with olive oil or pam, and place it into the oven. Cook for 1 hour at 350, and roughly 20 minutes at 400. (Your cooking times may vary if you are cooking a larger chicken.)

Once you have insured your chicken is fully cooked (165 degrees internal temperature), remove it from the oven, and let it rest on a cutting board for at least ten minutes. After that, carve into your delicious chicken, and enjoy! I typically squeeze the lemons over Louis’s chicken as he loves the citrus flavor, and you can also spoon the pan sauce over the chicken.

This chicken is so delicious, moist, and flavorful without being super lemony. I’m not a fan of lemon, so I was worried when I first cooked this, but the lemon flavor really doesn’t come through. It seems they just help the chicken stay juicy while cooking.

This dish can be paired with potatoes, salad, vegetables, or whatever you’re craving! If you’re trying to cook a whole chicken for the first time, try this simple recipe, and I know you won’t be disappointed!

3-Ingredient Roast Chicken

Ingredients

Whole Chicken
Lemons
Salt & Pepper

Instructions

Wash and dry chicken and remove innards.
Pierce lemons repeatedly with fork.
Liberally salt and pepper inside and outside of chicken.
Insert lemons into cavity.
Bake at 350 for 1 hour, and 400 for 20 minutes.
Let chicken rest for 10 minutes on cutting board.
Carve and enjoy!

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Food, Recipe

Healthy Baked Fish & Chips

March 9, 2016 1 Comment

A little over a year ago, Louis and I visited England (you can read about our trip here), and while there, we ate fish and chips for basically every meal. No regrets. However, with our 2016 goal of becoming healthier, I can’t exactly fry up fish and french fries anytime we crave it. My solution? Bake it!

For the fish, you will need:

1/2 lb of cod (cut into 2 equal portions)
1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning (I typically use Ragin’ Cajun, but feel free to use your favorite!)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites, beaten
2 cups cornflakes, crushed

For the “chips,” I use my Simple Homemade Baked Fries recipe. You can find that here. I bake my fish and chips together in the oven at 425 degrees. I put the potatoes in first, prep my fish, and put the fish in for the last 20 minutes.

To prepare your fish, crack two eggs and beat the egg whites. Next, use a blender or food processor to crush 2 cups of cornflakes. These don’t need to be extremely fine, but definitely make sure there are no large chunks. Finally, thoroughly mix together your flour, Cajun seasoning, and salt. Place the egg whites, flour mixture, and cornflakes each on a separate dinner plate or shallow dish.

Dip the fish into the egg white, then dredge it in the flour mixture, dip into the egg white again, and finally coat all sides with the ground corn flakes. Don’t be discouraged if the flour or cornflakes aren’t sticking all over your fish. Feel free to use your fingers to press the coating on to help it stay better.

I bake our fish on a wire rack on a foil-lined baking sheet. This helps prevent the fish from getting soggy on the bottom and allows it to bake evenly all over. Make sure to spray the wire wrack with nonstick cooking spray as well. You don’t want to lose any of that delicious crunchy coating when you take it off!

As I mentioned above, the potatoes need to be baked for 30 minutes, and the fish needs to be baked for 20 minutes, both at 425 degrees. I typically put the potatoes in, prep my fish, and pop it in the for the last 20 minutes. I’ve cooked several filets of cod for 20 minutes at 425 degrees, and they’ve all been totally cooked at that point! You want your fish to be white and flaky and have an internal temperature of at least 135 degrees.

I think a delicious dinner of fish and chips can’t get much easier than this! Everything can cook at once in the oven, and you don’t have to deal with the mess and extra calories of frying anything! I hope you enjoy this tasty, healthy meal as much as we do!

Food, Recipe

Simple Ginger Dressing

January 29, 2016 4 Comments

Have you ever been to a hibachi style restaurant and received the onion soup and salad before the magician of a chef comes out and starts slinging fried rice everywhere and making onion volcanoes? (That will probably all sound very odd if you’ve never been to a hibachi restaurant…) This dressing recipe tastes just like the dressing on those salads! It’s a simple oil-based dressing that works great on salads or as a marinade.

My favorite thing to enjoy it on is a simple salad of romaine, carrots, purple onion, and shrimp. However, my parents marinate their shrimp with this dressing to grill, and if we had a grill, I have admit, that would be my favorite way to utilize it! It makes a great sauce for cooked shrimp as well.

This dressing is as easy as tossing all of your ingredients together and blending them up!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup carrots, diced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons ketchup
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil

It is best to blend all of the ingredients except for the oil, and then continue blending while slowly adding in the oil. I typically store my ginger dressing in a mason jar or cruet. Since it’s oil based, I usually don’t refrigerate this dressing. I think that makes it much easier to mix up when you want to use it, as the ingredients will always settle and separate.

I hope you love this dressing/marinade/sauce as much as I do if you decide to make it! If you do, please let me know how you enjoy it most, so I can try it that way, too!

Enjoy, and happy cooking!

Food, Recipe

Easy Yummy Pizza Rolls

November 12, 2015 7 Comments

“I don’t want pizza tonight.” SAID NO ONE EVER. We love pizza over here, and lately, we’ve been enjoying it in the form of homemade pizza rolls! They only require a few ingredients, take less than 30 minutes to make, and taste great! Keep reading for the easy recipe.

Open and roll out a tube of Pillsbury Pizza Crust-Thin Crust. Make sure to get the thin crust, so your pizza rolls don’t turn out too thick! (Duh. In case you didn’t know what the word thin meant.)

It’s best to roll out your dough onto some floured wax paper, so it doesn’t stick. Cut the dough into triangles (I usually get 6 out of one tube.) Fill your triangles with whatever ingredients you’d like, and roll them up! We always just use pepperonis and mozzarella because we’re simple folks. 🙂 You could also throw in Italian seasoning, mushrooms, onions, spinach…whatever you want!

Once you roll up your pizza…uh… rolls, place them on a foil-lined baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Finally, brush them with melted garlic butter. Place them in an oven that has been heated to 425 degrees and cook them for 10-15 minutes. Make sure the cheese is melted and the dough is fully cooked to a golden brown.

While your pizza rolls are cooking, warm up your favorite pizza sauce in a ramekin. We’ve been enjoying the Classico Traditional Pizza Sauce lately.

Before you know it, your pizza rolls will be ready for you to enjoy! Dip them into the sauce and dig in. I hope you think they’re as delicious as we do! Let me know if you try any other variations!

P.S. If you’re more of a “traditional” pizza person, check out my Homemade Pizza in Less than 1 Hour post!

Food, Recipe

Simple Chicken Tortilla Soup

September 29, 2015 4 Comments

You know those recipes that remind you of home? The ones in cookbooks full of notes, scribbles, and handwritten additions? This soup is one of those recipes for me. It was always one of my favorite things my mom made during the fall and winter when I was growing up. When I got married, she passed her recipe on to me, so I could have a piece of home whenever I wanted. It’s relatively simple and super delicious, so I wanted to share it with all of you!

The “hardest” part of this recipe is all of the chopping. Seriously, everything has to be cut, sliced, diced, minced, chopped….you get it. Once everything is properly chopped, it’s simply a matter of combining it!

The fresh produce you need to cut includes: 2 large carrots, 1 large onion, 6 ribs of celery, 1 jalapeño (seeded…be careful! Don’t get the juice anywhere near your eyes!), and 4 garlic cloves. You also need to slice one pound of chicken into bite size pieces. Any of these ingredients can be adjusted to your liking.

It’s definitely easiest to measure out all of your ingredients before you start cooking the soup because it makes the process much smoother. Plus, if everything is prepared, you can pretend you’re on a cooking show where everything is neatly laid out just waiting to be grabbed and poured in the pot. I’m sorry though, this recipe doesn’t include a pre-made batch of soup sitting just offscreen. Or a hilarious onscreen persona.

First, heat 1/4 cup of oil and 3 tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat. Add your chicken and cook until it is no longer pink. Once the chicken is almost fully cooked, add your carrots, onion, celery, jalapeño, and garlic, and sauté for around 5 minutes.

It should already be smelling pretty delicious at this point, but it’s time to add in some spices to take it over the top. Pour in (from your pre-measured bowl!) 1 teaspoon of each of the following: Lemon pepper, chili powder, salt, and cumin. (If you’re still pretending you’re on a cooking show, feel free to grab the spices with your fingers and toss them into the pot with a little flourish. No pressure, though.) Add 1/2 cup of flour as well. This will help thicken up the soup a little. Give everything a good stir to make sure the spices are distributed evenly.

Finally, stir in 42 ounces of chicken broth and 1 14.5 ounce can of petite diced tomatoes. Bring everything to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 1 hour.

After that hour, the scrumptious tortilla soup scent will have filled your house. Well…it fills up our 1-bedroom apartment, but at least the areas surrounding your kitchen should smell like soup? Regardless, get your preferred toppings ready. I love lots of shredded cheese with an abundance of tortilla chips to dip in my soup. My family fills their bowl with chips and pours the soup right on top. Feel free to make it your own! Live your life, you know? This recipe makes 6 to 8 servings depending on how ~~much of a pig~~ hungry you are.

Whip up a batch next time you’re craving some delicious, simple, homemade tortilla soup, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

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