Kaytucky Chicken

I found this recipe a while back and have been waiting for an occasion to try it out.  This post brings you Kaytucky Chicken, a dish I believe was created by Kay (hence Kaytucky) over at Kayotic Kitchen.  Pretty much, a puff pastry wrapped chicken breast stuffed with cream cheese….sounds good.

The Recipe

Here is what you will need to make the recipe:

-4 chicken fillets
-4 frozen puff pastry sheets (I used the Pepperidge Farm sheets and used half a sheet per chicken)
-4 oz cream cheese (the firm kind)
-few rashes of bacon
-flat-leaf parsley
-1 spring onion
-1 large egg
-pepper
-salt

For the full recipe and instructions head over here.  I ended up making around 2.5 times the recipe since I was again making for my small group and there was quite a few of us.

Making the recipe

The night before I was going to cook the chicken, I mixed up the filler material knowing I was going to not have as much time the next night to cook. 

I used three stalks of the green onion and chopped them up.

Rather than getting bacon and having to cook it up, I ended up getting some fully cooked bacon pieces to save time.

I started mixing all the filling materials together to get ready to stuff my chickens.

The green onion and cream cheese

The parsley

 

Adding in the bacon to the mix

Ready to go!

The next night I got out the chicken breasts and got them cleaned and sliced.  Some of them were rather big and it would have been nice to have smaller pieces.  However; it would make it harder to stuff them.

Here they are all stuffed…..some may have a bit much in them but hard to tell.  Since the utensil would have touched the raw chicken, I didn't want to just use the cream cheese mixture for a bagel or such so I ended up dividing all the filling among all the chicken.

Let the puff pastry warm up so it is easier to roll out.  Place a small amount of flour on the surface you want to roll the puff pastry out on so keep it from sticking.  Use the rolling pin to expand one sheet so it will have enough space to wrap two chickens.  I placed the chicken upside down when placing on the puff pastry like in the recipe.  I was in a hurry and managed to forget to put the salt and pepper on the outside of the chicken before I finished wrapping it.

Use a brush to apply some egg before wrapping in the short direction.

Flip the wrapped chicken so it is seam side down on a cookie sheet.

Brush the entire top with the egg as well.

The Result

If you make enough that you need to use 2 sheets, make sure to rotate them top to bottom halfway through cooking.  Even after switching them later you can see that the pan on the left got darker than the one on the right.

I cracked one open and it seemed like there was a lot of liquid so I decided to check the temperature and it was fine.  I am thinking it may have been a symptom of too much of the cream cheese mixture but who knows.

Overall, they came out pretty well especially for a first time making the recipe.  Even though I love cream cheese, I do think some of them had a bit too much.  Also it seemed like some of the chicken got a bit dry.  We ended up splitting a lot of the chickens in half for a better portion size.  Even with splitting the chicken in half, it was very filling and we didn’t eat much else for dinner.

Guinea Pig Reviews

I am usually my biggest critic so for me, and as such it wasn’t my favorite thing I have made.  Good thing the reviews aren’t totally up to me!  Here are some comments from my lovely guinea pig panel. J

--I don’t usually like my food mixed and touching but this is really good.

--Its delicious.

There were also high praises from those that are not fans of bacon (although I tried not to add too much knowing that fact).

Would I Make This/Recommend It?

Perhaps, though I don’t think I would make as many as I did.  I wouldn’t try and stuff the chicken super full just to use up the rest of the cream cheese mixture.  It would be better off to use it for something else. Go ahead and try it for yourself!

Cake and Art

In addition to cooking things for dinner, I also dabble a bit in cake decorating.  One of my friends was having a birthday and she happens to be an artist.  In my attempt to come up with something new and exciting, I decided to replicate one of her paintings as her cake!

Here is a picture of her original painting on an artist palette. (Please no copying the picture--I can get you in touch with the artist if you would like though)

To pull this off, I was going to have to actually shape the cake like I have seen so many times on shows like Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes.  I was really excited to try it, but a bit nervous at the same time but I figured it was a fairly simple modification if I used a Wilton oval pan.

A few hours later and here is the masterpiece that transpired.

Not quite as exact a copy as I was hoping for, but overall I was quite pleased.  After all, about the only art I can pull off is stick people! My favorite parts are the shape and the tree.

Caramelized Apple Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Sorry for the long delay in posts.  Between things going on at work and a general laziness in the kitchen, I haven’t really made anything new.  With the new year comes a new chance to dust off the kitchen utensils and get to work.  Hopefully I will be updating a lot more frequently.  I already have a buildup of 2 other recipes that should be appearing shortly!

The Recipe

This week comes a new recipe that I have tried a couple times before and have really enjoyed.  Now introducing the Caramelized Apple Grilled Cheese Sandwich.  I know what you are thinking….apples and cheese together, I am not so sure about that.  Believe me, I was in the same boat but I was intrigued so I decided to give it a shot anyway.  Check out the recipe from Closet Cooking here.

Making the recipe

I was going to be making about 9 of these sandwiches I decided to peel and slice up the apples the night before.  I cut up 8 apples to be ready to caramelize and kept them from browning with a bit of lemon juice.

The apples can take a while to cook down so I started these and then started buttering the bread.  It really does help things mix together if you melt the butter and the brown sugar together before adding the apples.  This time I used dark brown sugar and it gave the apples a bit stronger flavor than regular brown sugar.

Melted Butter

With the brown sugar melted in

Apples right after I dumped them in

Apples all cooked down

This was also the perfect excuse to whip out my new Presto griddle.  I let the cheese start melting a bit and then added a bit of the apples on top.  Cook up like you would a normal grilled cheese.

The Result

My new griddle worked great at getting the sandwiches beautifully browned without burning them.  As far as taste, they were quite yummy as expected.  I think I finally got the balance of apples to cheese about right.

 

Guinea Pig Reviews

--Fab-u-loso

--This is delicious

A couple of the guys that were over weren’t sure what to think but they ended up liking it.  Overall, the sandwiches were a huge hit and all 6 of us enjoyed them.

Would I make this again/recommend it?

Absolutely.  I have already made it a couple other times since I first made it.