With rising food costs, making a menu that doesn’t break the budget can be a daunting task. However, if you take advantage of some of the reasonably priced staple food items, with a little imagination, you can serve a diversity of meals that will please both your family and pocketbook. Chicken is one such food that is healthful, nutritious and versatile. Here we’ll look at the many ways chicken recipes can add value to your menu and save you time in the kitchen to boot.
There is hardly a cuisine in the world where chicken does not hold a prominent place in everyday cooking. Every cuisine is distinguished, in large part, by the seasonings native to the region. Seasoning is the heart of any dish. With the varied seasoning sets of cuisines available from around the world, you can make any recipe a brand new taste experience. This is particularly true of chicken recipes. With its mild flavor and firm texture, chicken is the chameleon of meal ideas.
Take a look at some examples. Chicken curry over rice, with the fragrant, spicy herbs of India may be contrasted with Cajun gumbo or chicken fried rice seasoned with Chinese five spice. The French chicken may be roasted with the savory flavors of thyme, marjoram and lavender. Chicken leftovers may be chopped, seasoned with spicy Mexican-Southwest flavors and popped into a taco or baked into an enchilada. Chicken noodle soup served with salad and rolls, makes a healthy lunch or light dinner. Lemon chicken is a Chinese delight. Save up wings from roasted chickens for a batch of buffalo wings. Jamaican cuisine yields dozens of chicken recipes with a variety of flavorful chutneys and salsas. Then you have the old standbys, chicken casseroles, Southern fried chicken and chicken sandwiches. On hot summer days, make a chef’s salad with strips of chicken breast. There is a world of chicken recipes for the imaginative cook.
The slow cooker is a time-saving device that allows you to cook a quantity of chicken which can be skinned, chopped, portioned and frozen for future menus. If you wish, you can season each portion before freezing for do-ahead chicken recipes for additional time savings. When freezing cooked meat, immerse in chicken broth to maintain the freshly cooked texture.
You’ll soon find it’s easy to create your own chicken recipes. Check the frig for those leftover vegetables. A little chopped onion, celery, corn, peas or bell pepper can be mixed with a chicken sauce from your broth and served on top of noodles for a satisfying, tasty dish. Chicken recipes abound on the internet, so you needn’t have a gourmet library to spark up your menus. Try something new, give your family a treat and save a bundle on food!