(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)
By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate
Most of us are experts at preparing budget-priced chicken, whether we boil, bake, grill, poach or lightly fry. Coming up with easy ways to utilize the mild-flavored poultry is about as versatile as a home cook can get. Leftovers are often eaten as is. That's fine, but why not take a cue from innovative restaurant chefs for quick toss-together meals that become memorable favorites in minutes, like a peppy pizza quickly concocted from barbecued chicken or sumptuous fruit-, vegetable- and chicken nugget skewers.
Food preparation - whether for every day or a great gala - can be easy, nutritious, inexpensive, fun - and fast - as these split-second sensations prove. They take just
10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare. The dishes are delicious proof that everyone has time for tasty home cooking and, more importantly, the healthy family time in the kitchen that goes along with it! Another benefit: You effortlessly become a better cook, since
there are no right or wrong amounts. These are virtually-can't-go-wrong combinations, so whatever you - or your kidlet helpers - choose to use can't help but draw "wows" at your next family meal. Keep this leftover chicken "cheat sheet" on hand so you don't have to wing it again:
BARBECUED CHICKEN
Pizza with Some Real Pizzazz
Spread halves of slightly toasted whole-grain English muffins with leftover barbecue sauce. Top with diced leftover barbecue chicken, sliced red onions, diced pineapple, cilantro and grated mozzarella and Monterey Jack cheeses. Broil until cheese melts and edges of slightly toasted English muffins become slightly crispier, but do not burn.
CHINESE CHICKEN
Turning Takeout Even More Tempting
Got some leftover Chicken with Cashews, Kung Pao Chicken or Sweet 'n' Sour Chicken from your Chinese takeout dinner? This will really make a memorable Chinese Chicken Salad, unlike the restaurant ones that have become commonplace. Heat the leftovers until they reach a temperature of 165 F and serve as a warm salad atop spinach greens that will wilt and sprinkled with roasted peanuts, chopped lemongrass and chunks of crystallized ginger. Drizzle lightly with a small amount of Chinese hot mustard that's been whisked with bottled plum sauce that's usually available in the ethnic aisles of the supermarket.
MOLE CHICKEN
Say Si to a Fiery Chicken Salad
Often chicken salad is bland or, at the most, gets a tiny amount of flavor from salt and pepper. Pep it up instead with diced leftover Mexican mole chicken (including its leftover sauce) that you combine with diced celery, diced jicama, diced mango and pepitas (store-bought roasted pumpkin seeds) before combing with a mixture of light mayonnaise and light sour cream.
FRIED CHICKEN
Fixin' Up Fried Chicken
Slice into bread-size boneless pieces and place on a Kaiser roll. Top with shredded red cabbage that has been tossed with small amounts of balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar.
CHICKEN NUGGETS
Sewing Up a Second Meal
Thread a chicken nugget onto a metal skewer, followed by a cherry tomato, slice of green bell pepper, a second chicken nugget and a pineapple chunk. Heat until chicken is 165 F and fruit and vegetables are hot. Place foil over if needed to avoid burning or overcooking fruit and vegetables.
CHICKEN POT PIE
All the Flavor of Pot Pie in a Savory Soup
Remove leftover crust and set aside. Heat filling in a soup pot, adding oregano, freshly ground black pepper, salt substitute and thyme. Grind walnuts into a powder. Add a slight bit of water to reserved pot pie crust and roll into balls and then in the walnut powder. Add atop the pot pie soup just before serving, but with enough time to heat the walnut-covered balls.
CHICKEN SOUP
Rye, Rye, Birdie
Strained chicken soup makes a great base for an easy, flexible sauce. Whisk it with an equal amount of Dijon or spicy mustard and heat in a nonreactive saucepan until just hot, notes award-winning restaurant chef Andrea Reusing in her new cookbook, "Cooking in the Moment: A Year of Seasonal Recipes" (Clarkson Potter). It's a great topper for chicken you boiled with the soup, then dredge in flour and dip in egg, cover with stale rye bread crumbs, sea salt and freshly ground pepper and lightly pan-fry in expeller-pressed vegetable oil.
QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK: Add healthy homemade flavor to water or store-bought juices. For instance, to a single-serving bottle of water, squeeze in the juice of one lemon and sprinkle in stevia sugar-free sweetener to taste before shaking bottle for a quick lemonade. In a blender container, to no-sugar-added pomegranate juice, add a bit of water and a handful of fresh blueberries before blending until blueberries are liquefied. In a blender container, to Bloody Mary mix, add a handful of grape tomatoes, a dash of freshly ground pepper and curry powder before blending until tomatoes are liquefied.
Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on Dr.Laura.com.
