Fall Roasted Vegetable Medley

To take a break from my Portland re-caps (and there are more to come), I wanted to share a dish that I made on Monday night.  As I mentioned last week, the folks at Le Creuset very generously gifted me with my very first French oven.  I didn't get a chance to use it before I left for Portland so utilizing it was at the top of my priority list when I returned home.

On Monday morning, I took out two boneless chicken breasts out of the freezer and let it thaw in the fridge during the day.  I had a lot of great vegetables in the fridge, freezer and pantry that I wanted to utilize and decided to make a simple yet seasonal roasted vegetable medley to go along with my chicken.  After a long workout at the gym that evening, I was excited to get to my hands dirty in the kitchen.  Since Bret wouldn't be home until 8:30 PM, this would give me plenty of time to slowly prepare dinner and utilize my French oven.

First, I took out some Brussels sprouts out of the freezer.  I had purchased them last week at the farmers' market and put them in the freezer for future use.  I removed the outer leaves, gave the sprouts a quick rinse and let them thaw out while I prepared the rest of the ingredients.

I had the last of my sample dehydrated mushrooms (lobster and black trumpet mushrooms) in the pantry from Marx Foods and I decided to rehydrate them with a cup of hot chicken stock.  I put a dishtowel over the bowl and also set that aside.

I then halved and sliced one small zucchini that had been sitting in my fridge.

I also halved and sliced two medium white onions that I purchased from the farmers' market that day during lunch.  I had about six cloves of garlic left from a garlic bulb in the fridge and I also roughly chopped those up.

When I was done preparing my vegetables, I sprayed the French oven with cooking spray and also added a little olive oil to the bottom of the pot.  I warmed the pot up over the stove at medium heat while I got to work on my proteins.  I had four thick slices of smoked bacon in the fridge and I roughly chopped the bacon up.

I also trimmed and seasoned my now thawed chicken breasts with salt, pepper, herbs de Provence and cayenne.  

After all of this preparation, I was finally ready to get cooking!  I preheated the oven to 300 degrees while I dropped the chopped bacon in the pan and let the bacon slowly crisp up.

I kept an eye on the bacon and turned the pieces from time to time.  I wanted the bacon to start to crisp up but not cook all the way through.  When the bacon was ready, I removed it from the pan with a slotted spoon and set the bacon aside in a bowl.

Using the fat from the bacon along with the olive oil that I had previously added, I put my chicken breasts in the pan.  I didn't want to actually cook the chicken on the stove top but just give it a nice sear.  When the chicken was seared on one side, I turned it over and also added the chopped onions and garlic to the pan.  In addition to cooking the vegetables down a bit, I want to meld the onion and garlic flavor with the chicken breasts.  After the chicken breasts had been seared on all sides, I took them out of the pan and set it aside.

I returned my attention back to the onions and garlic in the French oven.  I seasoned the vegetables with salt, pepper, herbs de Provence and a healthy tablespoon of cayenne.  While I love roasted vegetables, I often find them to be bland so I like to add a little kick to it when I can.

I slowly added the zucchini, Brussels sprouts and back to the pan while repeatedly mixing the vegetables up.

I finally added the rehydrated mushrooms to the pan with the remaining chicken stock and gave everything a good stir.

I added the chicken breasts back into the pan and also added a small can of chopped tomatoes to add some color, sweetness and moisture to the dish.

I put the lid on the French oven and put it in the oven for thirty minutes.  After thirty minutes, I turned the chicken breasts over, covered it again and cooked it for another twenty minutes.  I checked the temperature of the chicken breasts and they were just a few degrees short of 170 degrees.  I turned the temperature of the oven up to 350 and put the pot back in the oven without the lid for another eight minutes.  I wasn't worried about overcooking the chicken, which would result in a very dry chicken, because there was a lot of moisture in my roasted vegetables.

Since the chicken breasts were thick, Bret and I decided to just split one.  We piled our plate full of the roasted vegetables, which turned into an almost ratatouille texture (in a really good way).  The chicken breast had a nice sear on the outside yet was still so moist.  But the vegetables, of course, stole the show!  The resulting sauce from the vegetables had such a sweet and smoky flavor yet had just a little bit of spice from the cayenne.  We couldn't help but feel really healthy while eating these hearty roasted vegetables.

Bret and I split the other chicken breast for lunch and of course took lots of vegetables too.  We ended up having a lot more sauce and vegetables leftover so we found a way to utilize them for dinner the next night by pouring it over spicy seasoned rice mixed with smoked turkey sausage.

My first attempt at cooking with my new Le Creuset French oven was definitely a success.  I'm thinking that my next attempt may be jambalaya...but I'd love to hear some of your recipes if you'd like to share!


Do you own a Dutch oven?  What do you like to cook with it?


If you have a chance, could you please vote for me as Boston's Best Local Blogger? I'm thrilled to be nominated and would appreciate your vote here!

Spicy Mushroom Stuffing Muffins

I am a total neat freak.  I like to have my refrigerator, pantry and freezer well organized.  But lately, work has really been busy and I haven't had time to cook as much as I'd like to.  When I don't cook as much, the fridge, pantry and freezer tend to get a little out of control.  Last night, I decided to take charge and utilize some products sent to me by some companies for product reviews.

First up were a few samples of dried mushroom sent to me by Marx Foods to both try out and utilize in a recipe contest.  They sent me a variety of dried mushrooms to use and I decided to start out with the chanterelle mushrooms and porcini mushrooms.

I also had a box of stuffing from Olivia's Croutons in my pantry.  I've reviewed Olivia's Croutons on this blog before and I'm a huge fan of their products.  When I was offered to try out their new stuffing products, I was definitely interested!

To start, I got my ingredients together:

• 1 ounce of dried mushrooms
• 2 cups of boiled water
• A box of stuffing mix
• 1/2 stick of butter (or 4-5 tablespoons)
• 1 small yellow onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp of cayenne pepper
• 2 cups of chicken broth (can also substitute vegetable broth)
• Salt and pepper to taste

I started out by pouring the two cups of boiled water into a bowl with the dried mushrooms to rehydrate them.  I let the mushrooms sit in the hot water for about twenty minutes while I worked on the rest of the ingredients.

I chopped up the small yellow onion and three cloves of garlic.  I softened them in a small pot on medium heat with the butter.  Even though the stuffing was very well seasoned, I added some salt and pepper to the onions and garlic.  I slowly added the two cups of chicken broth to the butter and vegetable mixture and let these ingredients simmer.

I then put the stuffing in a large bowl.

When the mushrooms were rehydrated, I drained the mushrooms and roughly chopped them up.

I added the chopped mushrooms to the large bowl with the stuffing and also added slowly added the butter, onion, garlic and chicken broth mixture to the bowl.  I gave all of the ingredients a good stir to make sure that all of the liquid was mixed in with the stuffing and mushrooms.  I also added my secret ingredient - about a tablespoon of cayenne pepper to give these muffins a kick!

I let the stuffing sit for about eight minutes and I stirred it several times until most of the liquid was soaked into the dry ingredients.

I put the stuffing into a greased muffin pan and make sure to pack the tins so that the muffins wouldn't fall apart.

I put the stuffing muffins in the oven at 375 degrees for thirty minutes.  When they were done, I let the muffins sit in the pan to cool.

These muffins came out perfectly! The longer they cooled, the more they came together.

The dry stuffing itself was well seasoned but the addition of cayenne really added a spicy kick to the stuffing.  The mushrooms made the stuffing taste so much richer and I was a huge fan of this side dish, which went really with baked boneless halved chicken breasts (seasoned with herbs de Provence) and steamed green beans from my mom's garden!

These spicy mushroom stuffing muffins were so easy to make and I know that I will definitely be making them again during the colder months!

Thanks to Marx Foods and Olivia's Croutons for letting me try out their respective products!

Tell me, what warm savory dishes have you been cooking up in your kitchen lately?

And if you haven't already, don't forget to vote for me in round three of Project Food Blog!