It may seem as though my focus is only on the more decadent food dishes, but that’s not quite right. For several months now, I’ve been working on losing weight and improving my health. And so far, I have been successful at shedding 35 pounds. I’m headed for a goal of 50 pounds.
If you have read my other blogs, you’ll notice many describe exquisite chef tastings or recipes that challenge my cooking skills. The thing is I am going to continue having my foodie excursions too. I guess it’s part of my reward system.
But the fact is you can really eat some delicious dishes that don’t have to be packed with calories and fat. The method that has helped me with my weight loss has been a low-carb diet. It’s eating a lot of chicken, fish and vegetables for me. But it doesn’t have to taste like rubber chicken breasts over and over. There are a lot of ways to prepared chicken breasts that keeps it moist and flavorful. Vegetables too.
I recently read an article in the New York Times by Melissa Clark “A Fallen Star of French Cuisine, Restored to Its Silver Platter.” It’s about how chicken breasts were the fallen star of French cuisine. It’s true. Most of the dishes use dark meat because it has more flavor because of the fat in the darker meat. The article offered some really great recipes and I tried one that was absolutely delicious. My neighbor Cathy was my test subject for the recipe and we both agreed that it was wonderful dish.
This is the recipe that I cooked and I served it with sauteed French beans. I did substitute the oyster mushrooms for cre
mini mushrooms since that is what I had in the refrigerator.
Chicken Paillard With Curried Oyster Mushrooms
Time: 25 minutes
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, more for greasing pan and for drizzling
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, (8 ounces each)
1 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon curry powder, more to taste
7 ounces oyster mushrooms, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 tablespoons fresh chopped basil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 scallions, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced.
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease a baking sheet with olive oil. Transfer chicken to baking sheet and season well with a large pinch each of salt, pepper and curry powder. Drizzle chicken with a little oil.
2. In a bowl, toss mushrooms with curry powder, salt, basil, garlic, scallions and 2 tablespoons oil.
3. Spoon an equal amount of mushroom mix on each piece of chicken. Bake until mushrooms are golden and chicken is cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes.
Yield: 2 servings.
