1001 Low-Carb Recipes: Hundreds of Delicious Recipes From Dinner to Dessert That Let You Live Your Low-Carb Lifestyle and Never Look Back (75 page)

3 tablespoons (4.8 g) dried tarragon leaves

1 clove garlic, crushed

½ cup (120 ml) dry white wine

If your chicken is in quarters, cut the legs from the thighs and the wings from the breasts. (It will fit in your skillet more easily this way.)

Melt the butter in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat and brown the chicken, turning it once or twice, until it’s golden all over.

Pour off most of the fat and sprinkle the chicken with the salt and just a dash of pepper. Scatter the tarragon over the chicken, crushing it a little between your fingers to release the flavor, and then add the garlic and the wine.

Cover the skillet, turn the heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes, turning the chicken at least once. Spoon a little of the pan liquid over each piece of chicken when serving.

Yield:
4 servings

Each with 2 grams of carbohydrates, a trace of fiber, and 44 grams of protein.

A version of this recipe appeared in my local paper, and though it looked tasty, it was way too high-carb for us. I played around with it, cut out a lot of the carbs, and ended up with this recipe— fruity and tomato-y and yummy.

3 pounds (1.4 kg) cut-up chicken

1 8-ounce (220 ml) can tomato sauce

1 tablespoon (15 ml) lemon juice

1 tablespoon (15 ml) lime juice

teaspoon lemon extract

½ teaspoon orange extract

3 tablespoons (4.5 g) Splenda

3 tablespoons (45 ml) white wine vinegar (If you don’t have any on hand, I’m sure cider vinegar would taste fine—different, but fine.)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

Mix together everything but the chicken pieces. Place the chicken pieces in a large resealable plastic bag and pour the tomato sauce mixture over it. Seal the bag, pressing out the air as you go, and turn to coat all the chicken pieces. Let your chicken marinate for at least a few hours, and I’m betting a day wouldn’t hurt a bit.

When you’re ready to cook: Get your grill ready—charcoal covered with white ash or gas grill set to medium. Pull the chicken out of the marinade and pour the marinade out of the bag and into a saucepan. Go throw the chicken on the grill, bone-side down. Close the lid and set a timer for 13 to 15 minutes.

While the chicken is grilling, put that pan of marinade over the heat and let it come to a boil. Now, go check your chicken for flare-ups—I keep a squeeze bottle of water by the grill to keep these at bay. You want your chicken cooked, not charred!

Has the timer gone “ding?” Turn the chicken using a pair of tongs. Set your timer for another 13 to 15 minutes. When time’s up, turn it skin-side up again and pierce a piece to the bone to make sure all the juices are running clear.If there’s any pink in the juices, let the chicken cook another few minutes.

When it’s done, serve each piece with a little of that marinade you boiled spooned over the top. Enjoy!

Yield:
6 servings

Each serving will have 5 grams of carbohydrate and 1 gram of fiber, for a usable carb count of 4 grams; 29 grams of protein.

I use serious Jamaican scotch bonnet hot sauce in this, and it isn’t scorch-your-mouth hot, just nicely spicy. If you want to, you can crank the heat up or down by either using more or less hot pepper sauce or using hotter or less-hot pepper sauce.

4 or 5 chicken quarters, cut up and skinned

1 medium onion

1 tablespoon (28 g) butter

1 rounded (6 g) tablespoon curry powder

1 cup (240 ml) heavy cream

3 or 4 cloves of garlic, crushed

½ cup (120 ml) water

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C, or gas mark 5).

Arrange the chicken in a shallow baking pan. Chop the onion and scatter it over the chicken.

Melt the butter in a small, heavy skillet and sauté the curry powder in it for a couple of minutes—just until it starts to smell good.

Mix together the cream, garlic, water, and sautéed curry powder and pour this over the chicken. Bake it uncovered for 1 hour to 1 hour and 20 minutes, turning the chicken over every 20 to 30 minutes so that the sauce flavors both sides.

To serve, arrange the chicken on a platter. Take the sauce in the pan (it will look dreadful and sort of curdled up, but it will smell like heaven) and scrape it all into your blender. Blend it with a little more water or cream, if necessary, to get a nice, rich, golden sauce. Pour it over the chicken and serve.

Yield:
4 generous servings

Each with 6 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of fiber, for a total of 5 grams of usable carbs and 42 grams of protein.

This recipe is basically a skillet cacciatore, except for the mozzarella—that’s what makes it Pizza Chicken.

3 chicken quarters, either legs or thighs

1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 ml) olive oil

1 can (8 ounces, or 225 g) plain tomato sauce

1 can (4 ounces, or 115 g) mushrooms, drained

½ cup (120 ml) dry red wine

1 green pepper, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 or 2 cloves garlic, crushed, or 1 to 2 teaspoons jarred chopped garlic in oil

1 to 1½ teaspoons dried oregano

3 ounces (85 g) shredded mozzarella cheese Parmesan cheese (optional)

Strip the skin off the chicken and cut the leg and thigh quarters in two at the leg joint.

Warm the olive oil in a big, heavy skillet and brown the chicken in it over medium heat.

Pour in the tomato sauce, mushrooms, and wine. Add the green pepper, onion, garlic, and oregano. Cover the whole thing, turn the heat to its lowest setting, and forget about it for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

When the chicken is cooked through, remove the pieces from the skillet and put them on the serving plates. If the sauce isn’t good and thick by now, turn up the heat to medium-high and let the sauce boil down for a few minutes.

While the sauce is thickening, sprinkle the shredded mozzarella over the chicken and warm each plate in the microwave for 20 to 30 seconds on 50 percent power to melt the cheese. (Your microwave may take a little more or a little less time.)

Spoon the sauce over each piece of chicken and serve. Sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese over your Pizza Chicken, if you like.

Yield:
3 servings

Each with 16 grams of carbohydrates and 4 grams of fiber, for a total of 12 grams of usable carbs and 49 grams of protein.

These are good for when you’re having fast-food cravings or the kids are nagging for “normal” food. You really can make these in 15 minutes— because the pieces are small, they cook very quickly.

1 pound (455 g) boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 egg

1 tablespoon (15 ml) water

¾ cup (85 g) low-carb bake mix

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

cup (80 ml) oil

Cut the chicken breasts into pieces about 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide and 2 inches (5 cm) long. Beat the egg with the water in a bowl. On a plate, combine the bake mix with the salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat.

Dip each chicken piece in the egg wash, roll it in the seasoned bake mix, and drop it in the hot oil. Fry these until golden all over and serve with one of the dipping sauces in the Sauces and Seasonings chapter (page 462).

Yield:
4 servings

Each with 5 grams of carbohydrates and 2 grams of fiber, for a total of 3 grams of usable carbs (exclusive of the dipping sauces) and 40 grams of protein.

This delicious, fresh-tasting Caribbean chicken stew/soup is not a quick recipe, but it’s not terribly complicated, either. It’s great to make over the weekend when you’re getting other things done; you’ll just check in with your food every so often. And it reheats like a dream! Sadly, the fresh pumpkin needed to make it is only available for a few months in autumn, but then this makes a great chilly-evening supper anyway!

1 whole chicken, about 5 to 5½ pounds (2.3 to 2.5 kg)

FOR THE MARINADE:

4 tablespoons (60 ml) lime juice

1½ cups (180 g) diced celery

1 large ripe tomato

1 medium onion

1 medium green pepper

½ tablespoon (2.3 g) poultry seasoning

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon ground cumin

FOR THE STEW:

1 quart (960 ml) chicken broth

1 large carrot, sliced

1½ cups (210 g) cubed rutabaga

1½ cups (175 g) cubed fresh pumpkin

1 small turnip, cubed

1 cup (150 g) cauliflower florets and stems, cut in small chunks

3 cups (225 g) shredded cabbage—Prepared coleslaw mix works nicely

1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce, or to taste—Use Caribbean Scotch bonnet sauce if you can get it!

Remove any giblets from the chicken’s body cavity and place the chicken in a soup pot.

To make the marinade: Put all the marinade ingredients in a food processor with the S-blade in place (you’ll want to cut everything in big chunks first and peel the onion and core the pepper and all) and pulse until you have a coarse slurry. Pour this mixture over the chicken and use clean hands to rub it all over, including into the body cavity. Stick the whole pot in the fridge and let the whole thing sit overnight, turning the chicken over once or twice in that time if you think of it.

To make the stew: The next day, pull the pot with the chicken out of the refrigerator, put it on the stove, and pour the chicken broth over the chicken. Cover it, put the whole thing over medium heat, bring it to a simmer, turn it down to low, and let it simmer for an hour. Turn it off and let the pot sit on the stovetop and cool.