Chicken and Sundried Tomatoes in a Garlic Mozzarella Creamy Sauce

Garlic Mozzarella Creamy Chicken with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

I spotted a recipe similar to this online somewhere a while ago, and I've been thinking about making it for ages because it sounds so mouthwateringly delicious...and it is! I adapted it to suit my own needs, and I think it worked out very well :) The flavours go really nicely together, and I had worried that the sun-dried tomatoes would take over too much, but they didn't at all - they added nice flavour without being overpowering. 

I used a jar of sun-dried tomatoes from Lidl and the sour cream, cream cheese, grated mozzarella were Tesco's own brand. Perfect for cutting costs and making meals on a budget, this works out at about €2.50 a serving, and these portions are huge.

Ingredients
2 onions, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
about 15 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained (reserve oil)
4 chicken fillets, chopped
200 ml sour cream
200 g light cream cheese
200 ml milk
200 g mozzarella, grated
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tsp chili flakes (more to taste)
Pasta for 4 people (any shape, whatever you like - I used bows)

Method

1. Put the chicken in a bowl with 2 tbsp reserved oil. Add some pepper and paprika and stir to coat. Set aside. 
2. Heat a small amount of reserved oil on the pan. Sauté the sun-dried tomatoes for 2 mins, then remove from pan.
3. Wipe pan out and heat 1 tbsp olive oil in the pan. When the pan is good and hot, add in onion, garlic and chicken. Cook for about 12 mins until chicken is cooked through. 
4. Meanwhile, cook the pasta as per the package instructions. Drain. 
5. Chop the sun-dried tomatoes into pieces and add back onto the pan.
6. Add the sour cream, cream cheese and mozzarella to the pan and mix well. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer. Stir until well combined and the mozzarella is nicely melted in.
7. Add in as much of the milk as needed to thin out the sauce - you could add hot water instead if you wanted. 
8. Mix in the pasta, then add in the basil and chilli flakes. Stir well until everything is well coated with sauce. 
9. Serve with some garlic bread or a baguette to mop up the sauce. 

Roast chicken and Mediterranean Vegetable Wrap

My favourite place to eat in town is Café Lucia. Their potato wedges are the best I've ever tasted and their food is just...yum. So I'm on a mission to recreate some of my favourites :D I love the fillings in their wraps but sometimes find that the wrap itself is a bit over cooked and tough. So if you wrap these in foil but don't seal the foil, it stops the wrap getting tough but the air flow also stops them getting soggy.

Roast Chicken and Mediterranean Vegetable Wrap
Ingredients
2 large / 3 small chicken fillets
2 courgettes, halved lengthways and sliced
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red pepper, chopped
1 tbsp tomato purée
Punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved
4 tortilla wraps
Reggae Reggae Sauce

Method
Chicken

1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Put some oil into an ovenproof dish. Put the chicken in the dish ten turn them over so they're coated in oil. 
2. Pour some reggae reggae sauce over the chicken fillets so they have a good coating on them. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to dish, cover with tinfoil and place in the preheated oven.
3. Check chicken after 15 mins. Turn fillets over and drizzle more Reggae Reggae sauce over them. Add a bit more water, cover up again and put back in the oven.
4. Check again after 15 mins. Slice open the thickest part of a couple of the fillets and see if they're nearly fully cooked.
5. Place back in the oven uncovered for 5 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken slightly.
6. Take out of oven and slice chicken up into 1/2 inch slices.

Vegetables

1. Heat some oil in a saucepan. Add the garlic, peppers, onions and courgettes and fry over a medium heat. Add in a couple of tablespoons of reggae reggae sauce and a couple of tablespoons of water. Stir and continue sautéing until softened. 
2. Add the tomato purée and some more water if there's not much liquid on there. Bring back to the boil and continue to simmer until everything's ready.
3. Grease four large squares of tinfoil. Place a wrap on each square. Divide the vegetable mixture between the four wraps. 
4. Divide the chicken slices into four portions and put one portion into each wrap on top of the veg. 
5. Spoon over some of the sauce that the chicken was cooked in. 
6. Fold the right side of each wrap in, then the left, then fold up the bottom. 
7. Wrap the tinfoil around each filled wrap, but don't seal it or the wraps will go soggy. I completely wrap up the bottom to prevent leaks but leave the top open.
8. Place these parcels on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 5 minutes until reheated through and the edges of the wrap are firm - but not too hard. 
9. Serve with a salad and potato wedges.

Oven Chicken

This recipe warms you from the inside out! I started making this for my mum when she was under the weather for ages with one bug after another in an attempt to give her an immune boost, and now it's in my regular cooking rotation :)

If you want herby chicken instead of spiced, leave out the spices and use dried mixed herbs instead.

Oven Baked Chicken

Ingredients

4 chicken fillets

2 onions, cut into wedges

6 cloves of garlic, peeled but whole

4 chunks of celery, washed

Chilli Powder

Chilli flakes (optional)

Paprika

Cumin

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 C. 
2. Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil into an ovenproof dish. When the oven is hot, put the dish into the oven to warm up while you're doing your preparation - if the oil is a bit hot when you're adding everything it makes the veg less greasy. 
3. Brush each side of the chicken fillets with olive oil. Shake some spice over each side - if you want it nice and hot, add the chilli flakes to each side too. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Arrange the veg and chicken in the dish, pour some boiling water in over it until the chicken is nearly covered. 
5. Cover the dish with tinfoil. Bake in the oven for 40 mins, turning the chicken over halfway through.
6. Take the tinfoil off and bake for a further 10 - 15 mins until the chicken is browned and cooked through.
7. Serve with baby potatoes and some oven roasted vegetables - or as a broth with the water from the dish along with some crusty bread.

Sizzling Chicken Fajitas

This recipe is a favourite in my house - and it's really easy to put together - perfect for a midweek meal or as a weekend treat!

It's pretty healthy too - lots of tinned tomatoes, a great source of lycopene and potassium; avocados are also a fantastic potassium source and are loaded with heart-healthy oleic acid and vitamin E, and lutein for healthy eyes; chicken is a great low-fat source of protein, contains a decent amount of tryptophan, an amino acid known for its ability to increase seratonin levels thus helping to alleviate the symptoms of depression; chili for revving the metabolism, and the cheese provides a decent source of calcium. If you're watching your calorie intake, use low-fat cheese and sour cream. Wholemeal wraps are an option too for an added bit of fibre.

It's adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe that I saw years ago, and it's a firm favourite now. It's also really affordable - all the ingredients are available to buy in Lidl, so it's a one-shop dish as well!

I make these fajitas with chicken for myself, and prawns for my fiancé. It's very easy to adapt to your own specific tastes. For a vegetarian take on this recipe, leave out the meat and use chickpeas instead. Figure out how many chillies you like as well - mine is spicy enough for me, but if it's too spicy use less, but if you want more of a kick add in more chilies.


Sizzling Spicy Chicken Fajitas
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the Guacamole
2 ripe avocados
1/2 red onion, finely chopped

For the Salsa
2 cans of tomatoes
1/2 red onion
2 cloves of garlic (increase or decrease as per your own taste)
bunch of coriander, or a shake of dried coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp paprika
1 chilli

For the Filling
4 chicken fillets, chopped into strips
2-3 red onions, cut into wedges
2 red peppers, sliced
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
Bunch of coriander, or a couple of shakes of dried coriander
2 tbsp rapeseed oil

8 tortilla wraps
Low-fat sour cream
About 200g grated cheese

Method
For the filling

1. Preheat oven to about 150 C.
2. Mix all the filling ingredients together, including the oil, and mix well. Season and set aside while you make the guacamole and salsa. 
3. When everything is ready to go, wrap the tortilla wraps in tinfoil and put in the preheated oven to warm up. 
4. Ideally, a griddle pan is perfect for this, but a normal frying pan works just fine too. Heat about a tablespoon of oil on the pan - get it good and hot.
5. Tip the chicken mix into the pan, and cook for about 8 minutes until the peppers are softened and the chicken is cooked through. 
6. Serve in the pan at the table, with the wraps, guacamole, sour cream, salsa and grated cheddar. Enjoy!

For the guacamole

1. Cut the avocados in half, take the stone out and scoop the flesh out into a bowl. The riper the avocado the better. Mash the flesh with a fork or potato masher, or if you have it a hand blender. 
2. Mix the finely chopped onion in, season with salt and pepper and set aside. If you make this in advance, cover it and refrigerate it. 

For the salsa

1. Throw everything into a blender jug and whizz until smooth. If you don't have a blender that's ok too, just finely chop everything (make sure to buy chopped tinned tomatoes) and mix everything up - it'll be a chunkier salsa but that's OK too.

I started this blog on a whim, so next time I make fajitas, I will take photographic evidence and update this post!