When I was a kid, heck, even as an adult, my mom would make me a baked chicken and rice dinner. It was my favorite comfort meal. I vaguely remember my mom visiting when I was at college and then teaching my roommate how to make that dinner for me! It was one of those simple meals with rice, cream of mushroom soup (straight out of the can), I believe some onion soup seasoning and chicken. Easy peasy. Straight up comfort.

I don’t miss many too things from my “past life” prior clean eating, but I do miss that dinner. There was no stopping me on seconds and thirds when it came to that baked rice! When the cravings hit me for this comfort dish a couple of weeks ago, I knew I needed to create something that was similar.

While this isn’t spot on to the classic - I thought it was delicious. And apparently y’all thought it look delicious on instagram as well! I received several “When will this be on your blog?” and a few “GET INTO MY BELLY NOW!” comments. So here ya go!

There are a few things I want you to keep in mind when you make this recipes… As most of you know, when I cook, I just throw stuff into the skillet and hope it turns out. I lucked out with this one! In addition, remember that my husband is a plain-jane eater. So what I’m trying to say is that you may need to add more seasonings per your taste. When Michael is eating with me, I try to keep my seasoning usage to a minimum… when I’m the only one eating I dump as many spices and seasonings into a dinner as I can!

Baked Chicken & Mushroom Dinner

 

Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

55 mins

 

Author: Susan {2 cats & chloe.}

Recipe type: Whole 30 Complaint, Paleo, Gluten Free, Sugar Free

Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 4 Chicken Breasts
• 1.5 cup Portobello Mushroom (cut into smaller pieces)
• 2 cups Shitiaki Mushrooms (cut into smaller pieces)
• 1 cup White Mushroom (cut into smaller pieces)
• 3 TBSP Olive Oil
• 2 Medium Shallots (minced)
• 1.5 TBSP Minced Garlic
• 1.5 tsp Granulated Onion Powder
• 1 tsp Granulated Garlic Powder
• 1.5 tsp salt
• ½ cup of (sugar free, all natural ingredients) Vegetable or Chicken Broth
• 5 TBSP of Heavy Coconut Cream
• Salt & Pepper
• Coconut Oil (to grease baking dish)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 Degrees F. Grease the baking dish with coconut oil. Place Chicken in dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper for a little extra seasoning. Bake chicken for 45 minutes or until internal temp = 165*F
2. Chop your mushrooms, mince your shallot and garlic.
3. In skillet or wok, sauté garlic, olive oil and shallot for 2 minutes on medium heat
4. Add all mushrooms to wok. If necessary, drizzle a little more olive oil. Sauté on medium-high heat for approximately 4 minutes or until mushrooms become softer.
5. Add broth and heavy coconut cream to the wok. Continue to blend all ingredients in the wok. The coconut cream and broth will begin to thicken up, making more of a creamy sauce/gravy.
6. Add Salt, Garlic Powder and Onion Powder to mushroom sauce. Allow it to sit on a low heat for 5-10 minutes. Stir occasionally.
7. When chicken is cooked, pour the mushroom sauce over the chicken.
8. Salt and Pepper to taste.

3.2.2802

Because my comfort dish wouldn’t be complete without some sort of rice, I prepared some Cauli-Rice to go with this dinner. (Don’t know how to make Cauliflower Rice? You can either google it or wait until next week… I will have a recipe here for you!) Simply lay the bed of Cauli-Rice on the plate, add the chicken and then dump as much of the scrumptious mushroom gravy/sauce on top of it as you want! I paired this dinner with steamed broccoli and carrots, and then a baked sweet potato.

This dinner is Whole30 Complaint, Paleo, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Sugar-Free and DELICIOUS.

All the paleo peeps are doing it these days… making bone broth that is. It was about darn time for me to jump on the bandwagon. I’ve really struggled lately with finding chicken or beef broth that didn’t have crazy additives and sugar in it. What’s a girl gotta do to make her own Chicken Zoodle Soup on these cold, dreary winter days? She has to make her own chicken broth, that’s what!

The real question though, is what came first, the chicken or the broth? The chicken. More specifically, the easiest, paleo, whole30 approved, crockpot chicken dinner you will ever make.

I don’t know about you, but I love a good rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. The problem is that when you actually take the time to flip them over and read the itty bitty print, you will see that these too have “junk” added to them. While $6 for a warm and ready to eat dinner is really what I want - I’ve recently learned that it’s not what my body can handle. I needed something that was just as easy, and possibly more delicious. So I created this recipe:

Slow Cooker, Paleo Chicken

 

Print

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

8 hours

Total time

8 hours 5 mins

 

Author: Susan {2 cats & chloe.}

Recipe type: Paleo, Whole30, Gluten Free, Sugar Free

Ingredients

• A chicken that will fit in your crockpot (4-5 pounds)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp granulated onion powder
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp oregano
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1tsp granulated garlic powder
• 1 stalk of celery
• ½ of a large onion
• 1 cup of baby carrots

Instructions

1. Wash your veggies and slice up your onion.
2. Place all veggies in the bottom of your crock pot. They will work as a "stand" so the chicken isn't sitting directly on the bottom of the pot.
3. Rinse the chicken off, remove any giblets if they are in the cavity, dry the chicken off, set on a cutting board.
4. Massage the chicken with the olive oil. (Pretend it's spa day for this chicken!)
5. In a bowl, mix all of the seasonings and spices. Blend them together really well.
6. Sprinkle the seasoning blend all over the chicken, rubbing in it so that it is well covered.
7. Put the seasoned chicken into the crockpot, breast side up, on low for approximately 8 hours, occasionally drizzling the broth that builds up in the bottom of the crockpot on top of the chicken.
8. Carve and Enjoy!

3.2.2802

I promise you will really enjoy this chicken. I paired this entree with steamed baby potatoes and roasted broccoli and carrots.

The Husband’s Review: Very good. A little spicy.

For the record, he has zero tolerance when it comes to spicy foods. I’m pretty sure Honey Nut Cheerios is his preferred level of spice. So if you aren’t a huge fan of living the spicy life, leave out the cayenne pepper.

Now how about that broth? Like I said, I am new to this “make your own broth” idea. Which is crazy because my grandmothers both grew up doing this! This should be a normal thing for me! I was SHOCKED at how incredibly easy (and delicious) this broth was to make. Here’s what you do:

• Keep all of the “juice” in the crockpot.
• After you eat dinner, cut off all left over meat that you will eat.
• Place all bones and remains of the chicken carcass back into the crockpot. There may still be some veggies in there. Leave them there. They help with flavor.
• Keep your crockpot on low for another 12-24 hours. I let mine simmer until dinner the next day.
• Pour the broth through a strainer and into a container. You can either freeze the broth or use it within one week. One of my friends recommends pouring it into an ice cube tray and freezing it in smaller cubes, allowing you to use the chicken broth as needed!

Since I’m the last person to jump on the DIY Broth Bandwagon, do you have any pointers for me? Let me know what you think of the chicken! I’m making it again this week!

You know how you attach a certain song, food or even smell to a certain event in your life? For me, they are usually good memories attached to odd reminders. Just like two nights ago, my husband was out in the garage sawing up something for our kitchen rehab. All of a sudden my house smelled like cedar or pine or whatever the heck it was that was being chopped into pieces. Immediately the smell reminded me of when I was a kid and my dad {a homebuilder} would come home from work covered in the smell of a job site. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

As for recipes - there is one recipe that has become a go-to in the G-House: Narnie’s London Broil 2.0. I think I make this dish at least every other week, if not once a week on occasion. This recipe brings back so many memories of trips to Carolina, all of us gathered around a tiny white table, anxiously awaiting a warm meal.

My grandmother, Narnie, is a terrific cook. She never works off of recipes. She never really knows what she throws into the pot. She always makes amazing food. {So much so that in college, my roommates and I, 5.5 hours away from where Narnie lives, would place orders for “Narnie Spaghetti.” It is THAT good.}

I’m not sure why it wasn’t until I got married that I decided to try my hand at Narnie’s London Broil. Remember, she doesn’t have a recipe. She can tell you what to do and how to do it - but there’s no real method to her madness. Despite the fact that the London Broil is usually cut as a larger portion, I would recommend this easy entree to everyone! Even if you’re cooking for yourself, you can chow down on this dinner all week long. {Sometimes I will eat a couple of leftover pieces with my breakfast… steak and eggs anyone? Don’t mind if I do!}

So why am I calling this dish Narnie’s London Broil 2.0? Because I had to make it Whole30 Complaint, duh. The original recipe called for soy sauce - which is not whole30 approved for a couple of reasons: the sugar and the soy. With a simple substitute of Coconut Aminos for the soy sauce, you’ve got yourself a winning dish.

Narnie's London Broil 2.0 {Whole30 Approved!}

 

Print

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

Author: Susan {2 cats & chloe.}

Recipe type: Whole30, Gluten Free, Paleo, Sugar Free

Ingredients

• 1.5 - 2 pound of London Broil Cut Beef
• 1 tsp of Garlic Powder
• 1 tsp of Onion Powder
• Salt
• ½ cup of Coconut Aminos
• ¼ cup of Water
• ½ of a Large Onion
• Coconut Oil {to grease the baking dish}

Instructions

1. Turn on your Oven to Broil.
2. Grease the baking dish with coconut oil. {I will also put aluminum foil down to make it an easy clean up - grease that as well}
3. Place beef on a cutting board. Score the beef with a "Criss Cross" pattern on both sides. You don't need to cut too deeply into the beef, just score it so that some of the seasonings seep into it.
4. Sprinkle one side of the beef with half of the Garlic Powder, half of the Onion Powder, and Salt {to your preference.} Drizzle Coconut Aminos on the beef and massage it in with the seasonings you already have on it.
5. Lay the seasoned side down on the foil/baking dish.
6. Now season the other side of the beef the same way as you did before with the Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Salt and Coconut Aminos.
7. Pour the remaining Coconut Aminos on the top and sides of the Beef. Add ¼ cup of water to the Aminos that are on the sides. This will make a good gravy.
8. Slice up half of a large onion {I use purple onions} and scatter the slices over the beef and on the sides of the beef.
9. Broil for 10 minutes.
10. Take out of oven and flip the beef over so the opposite side is up.
11. Broil for another 5ish minutes. {Depending on the actually size of the beef, it may take more or less time. Watch it because it turns fast!}
12. Remove the beef, even if it is still more pink than you like, and slice it into thin slices. Lay the slices back into the baking dish and broil for 1-2 minutes, or your desired level of doneness.
13. Enjoy!

3.2.2802

The cook time really depends on a few things: the size of the beef and how well-done you like your meat cooked. In my house, since we always plan to eat a lot of leftovers, I like to keep the London Broil medium-rare because it reheats better in the microwave. No one likes leftovers that taste like leather anyway.

If you’ve never used coconut aminos before, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. They are a wonderful subsitition for terriaki and soy sauces. They can be hard to find. When I first started cooking with Coconut Aminos I was ordering it off of Amazon. I later found them at a local health food store for a little bit less money. I will never go back to cooking with soy sauce again.

I pair Narnie’s London Broil 2.0 with a baked sweet potato and my famous Brussel Sprouts. <— If you haven’t tried those yet - you’re a crazy person!

Here are a few things you may need for this recipe: Rectangle Baking Dish // Aluminum Foil // Coconut Oil // Garlic Powder // Onion Powder // Salt // Coconut Aminos // Onion // London Broil cut Beef

Do you have any good memories attached to certain recipes? Please share them with me in the comment section below!