Welcome to the first Kosher on a Budget Recipe Exchange. Yay, I am so excited! Today’s exchange is all about the main course for Shabbat, chag or even that special meal during the week. I can’t wait to check out the recipe to one of your favorite meat or pareve entrees, so please don’t leave me hanging!
To get this party started, I wanted to share with you one of my new favorite lunch recipes: Chicken Pesto Pasta. Perfect for a hot summer day, the recipe can be served hot, cold or room temperature. It combines some fresh-from-our-garden basil with bowtie pasta, which ensures that all the kids in my house will eat it!
Chicken Pesto with Bowtie Pasta
Ingredients:
One quartered and grilled whole chicken (or you could do 6-8 pieces of thighs or breasts) – leave the skin on and baste with margarine, salt and dried herbs during cooking
3/4 c walnuts or pine nuts
3 garlic cloves
3 cups fresh basil leaves, washed and loosely packed
4 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 -lb bowtie pasta (you can substitute your favorite shape, but I like the way bowties hold on to the pesto sauce)
Directions:
Toast pine nuts or walnuts in a sauce pan on medium heat. Watch them carefully, as nuts are slow to toast and quick to burn. Remove from heat and cool.
Meanwhile, use a food processor to chop the garlic, then add nuts and pulse to blend. Add a handful of basil at a time and scrape down the bowl as needed. Salt and pepper to taste. Slowly pour the olive oil through the feed tube and continue to scrape down the sides until fully blended.
Now turn your attention to the chicken and slice it into 1-inch wide strips. Cook the pasta al dente, then drain it and reserve a cup of the cooking water.
Mix hot pasta with pesto and a few tablespoons of the water. Add more water as necessary to evenly distribute the pesto. Mound into a large serving bowl. Top with chicken strips and sprinkle with fresh sprigs of basil.
If you want to serve this for Shabbat lunch, refrigerate the pasta separately from the chicken strips. Bring them each to room temperature a few hours before lunch will be served. You may need to add a few tablespoons of oil to the pasta and toss it in order to loosen up the pesto. The grilled chicken strips can be heated on the hot plate, or the whole thing can be served room temperature.
Notes on Cost: Buying fresh basil at the super market is costly, but growing your own at home is simple and frugal. Whether you plant it in the ground, or grow it in a pot on a balcony, basil grows plentifully with enough water and sunlight. Be sure to pinch back the plant as it grows, so that your basil doesn’t flower too soon. I usually cut off 3 or 4 cups worth at a time and mix up a batch of pesto every couple of weeks. Pesto freezes well, although it does lose some of its green vibrancy. Buy your pasta on sale and with coupons for less than $1 box, and stock up on whole chickens at Costco or on sale at your grocery store.
I’ve decided to do a beef recipe this week as I shared my crock pot chicken last week 😉 Now…this is a recipe that uses a non-kosher cut of meat which I have substituted. They call for flank steak (oh how I dream of paying for flank steak). Instead I use London Broil. Expensive, yes? Cheaper than brisket? yes at my market. But if you happen across a deal on brisket I do believe it works well with this recipe too.
Ingredients
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1 london broil steak (I think it is normally about 3 pounds the one I get)
* 1 tablespoon cooking oil
* 14 oz. chicken broth
* 2 teaspoons lemon juice (try to use fresh if possible)
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 3 whole cloves
Directions
1. Mix the flour and garlic powder together in a shallow dish. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip the steak in the flour mixture evenly coating both sides. Set aside. Discard remaining flour mixture.
2. Heat the cooking oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Place the steak in the skillet and cook until browned on both sides, about 5 minutes for each side. Stir in the chicken broth, lemon juice, garlic, and cloves. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to low. Cover, and simmer until steak is tender, about 1 1/2 hours.
3. To serve, remove steak from the skillet, and slice across the grain in thin strips. Place on serving plates, and ladle sauce over meat.
This makes the yummiest, moist and tender meat ever. When the budget allows…
Good Shabbos!
@Amanda… My husband is going to be so thrilled that you shared this recipe, as he’s a big meat guy. Do you order your kosher beef from Denver West? I should do a post on them, as I have an unnatural love for that place! They have a number of cuts, although I don’t know that I’d call them “frugal” as far as price. They have a cholent meat, though, which is often on sale, B1G1 1/2 off (buy one get one half off). I can’t remember what it’s called right now, but we’ve enjoyed it in my long, slow cooked dishes, not just cholent. Shabbat Shalom and thanks for being such a great commenter. Your notes always make my day 🙂
Love the idea of a recipe exchange. I tried the pioneer woman roasted recipe which someone else recommended. It looks and smells delicious (I even took a picture which if I knew how to attach to the comment section I would). We’ll see how it tastes tonight.
A recipe I learned from a friend who has 5 children is salsa chicken. The hardest part of making this is just checking the rice.
Take Brown rice and as much water as the package calls for and put on the bottom of your pan.
Place chicken pieces on top. Smother with salsa (Wal-mart has a great black bean corn salsa which in my neck of the woods has a heghsher) bake at 350 until water is gone.
We use brown rice b/c it is the nutrition king of the rice family.
Totally delicious, budget friendly and one-pot cooking!
Shabbat shalom.
Hey Eliana… Thanks so much for sharing! I can personally attest that the salsa chicken is YUMMY! The rice is delicious, the chicken is so tender and my kids (and we) eat it happily! I used a whole chicken, which we’ve said is the most frugal, and get inexpensive salsa at Walmart. My favorite part of this recipe, though, is the convenience factor. I dump it all in a pan in less than 5 minutes, stick it in the oven and forget about it. A quick green salad and Shabbat dinner is ready with less than 15 minutes of prep time!
Yes. Convenience is very key. I should add that I take the skin off before baking b/c I think it makes a healthier dish.
Also pioneer woman’s roasted chicken was absolutely delicious. My kids and I devoured it. (Husband is vegetarian)
You take off the skin before making or serving? I leave it on for cooking, to keep moisture in, but I do remove it for serving.
If you want to email me the picture of your roasted chicken, I’ll post if for you!
Ooo…I haven’t done the salsa chicken with the rice! I will give that a try. Yummy! New recipe for the week 😉 And we have tons of basil growing right now so I will give the pesto a try too. Nothing like cooking with fresh from the garden ingredients.
You can do the salsa chicken with the rice in the crockpot as well. Come out really yummy.