Chicken Cacciatore

I made this for dinner the other day and it was amazing. I found a similar recipe off the Food Network website, but didn't have all the ingredients on hand so I altered it to the following recipe and it turned out PERFECT!

Ingredients

8 Chicken Tenders, about 2 pounds
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
2 tsp Olive Oil
1 Medium Onion, thin sliced
1 bell pepper, thin sliced (any color)
1/2 pound- 1 pound of white button mushrooms (depending on how many mushrooms you like
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (14.5 oz) can of diced tomatoes in juice
1 tsp of Italian Seasoning
1/8 tsp of red pepper flakes
2-3 tsp fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped

Directions:

**Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Season with sea salt and pepper. Make sure the chicken is room temperature before you start to cook.  Heat the oil in a saute pan over med high heat. Sear the chicken on both sides and then remove the chicken and set aside. Reduce the heat to medium and add the onion and pepper until  the onions sweat. Add mushrooms and stir occasionally. Once the mushrooms start to brown add the garlic and cook until the garlic becomes fragrant. Add the whole can of tomatoes (juice and all), Italian Seasoning, and red pepper flakes and a little more sea salt. Add the chicken breasts back in and simmer until the chicken is cooked all the way through--about 10 minutes. Just before serving stir in the Italian parsley and let slightly wilt. Serve over some orzo or a bow tie pasta. We ate it just as is and it was great!

** I brined the chicken tenders for about 20 minutes before I started the cooking process while I was deciding what to make. It was a simple brine mix of kosher salt and water.

Pan Fried Chicken

So here's my attempt at pan frying chicken.... It was so tasty and amazing! I am so glad I went to that free cooking class at Williams-Sonoma because it taught me how to keep the silly breading ON the bird for once!!!

I first brined the chicken for 30 minutes, dredged in seasoned flour, egg mixture, and seasoned flour again and pan fried these amazing pieces of chicken! It turned out so tasty I will definitely do more of this type of cooking!!!!

Tips: have your meat at room temperature and pat DRY before you start dredging! Have the oil at the appropriate temperature and don't overcrowd the pan!