Kathryn's Cafe Roka Chicken Salad

Ok, so I have been on a diet kick lately. So far so good, but let's face it, diet food is.....boring....to say the least. So when I came across a recipe calculator online that will calculate calories and fat (and a ton of other information) for your home made recipes, I thought "It's time to experiment!"

I thought of this test recipe a few days ago and decided to give it a go tonight. The results are amazing! Hope someone else out there enjoys this.

Ingredients

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 tbsp green onions fine diced

4 tbsp peeled cucumber fine diced

2 tbsp fat free plainyogurt

2 tbsp roka blue cheese dressing (not low fat or diet)

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp ground peppercorns

4 whole wheat flat breads or slices of whole wheat toast

Directions

Wrap each chicken breast in foil seasoned with salt and pepper. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 15 minutes.

Remove chicken from foil and dice into bite size pieces. Add chopped onion and cucumber.

In a separate bowl combine yogurt, roka blue cheese dressing, lemon juice and cracked pepper. Mix well and add to the chicken and vegetable mixture and mix to coat well.

This can be served on a whole wheat flat bread, in a whole wheat pita, on a whole wheat piece of bread or toast or could be served in a whole wheat tortilla shell with baby spinach. Any of these options would not change the nutritional value by much. Another tip that I learned from this test recipe is that when you are using a creamy dressing like blue cheese or ranch and you don't prefer the "low fat" or "no fat" variety (also known as the "no flavor" variety), you can mix an equal part of dressing and low fat plain yogurt and make twice the volume of dressing without sacrificing much flavor at all. Adding a splash of lemon juice really dials up the flavor, too, without adding any extra calories or fat!

Hope someone out there enjoys :)

4 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories		207.7
Total Fat		6.7 g

Brine & Dine

I love chicken. It is by far one of God's greatest creations. It is cheap and plentiful and can be cooked in so many ways. Chicken is, however, a tough meat to master. I have long considered it my specialty but it didn't become that overnight. I can remember a time when I made chicken that was burnt on the outside and raw on the inside!

I am always looking for something new to do with chicken and I just tried a method that is not a secret at all, but I had never used it. Brine. I was inspired to try it after watching "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on Food Network. After a lot of research I discovered that there are hundreds of brine recipes out there. From the most basic to a dozen ingredients. I decided to go simple.

Here is the recipe I used:

1 Gallon water (room temperature)
3/4 cup Kosher Salt*
2/3 cup sugar
4 garlic cloves (halved)
2 tbsp peppercorns

*You can substitute table salt for Kosher salt, but cut the amount in half

Mix all ingredients in a container about twice the volume of the liquid. Stir until sugar and salt are dissolved. Add chicken. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.

After 24 hours remove chicken and lightly rinse. Pat dry and place chicken on a roasting rack or cookie rack and back in the refrigerator to dry (couple hours). This will help the skin get nice and brown and crispy when roasting.

When chicken is dry, stuff with one quartered lemon (leaving peel on) and one bunch of garlic cut in half. Lightly oil the bird with olive oil and lightly season with sea salt and pepper. I also used a hint of rotisiree spice on this one as well.

Roast at 425 degrees for an hour to hour and a half or until juices run clear. Remove and cover with foil (loosely) for 20 minutes. Cut and serve!

This will improve the moistness of any cook's chicken even if you have already mastered making moist chicken. The leftovers will also be noticeably more moist than usual as well. This method works for turkey, too. Coming soon I will be posting some recipes that will use up that leftover chicken!