Tarragon is a prominent herb in French cooking, and is considered very suitable for chicken. Its flavor is similar to anise, and since the fresh herb is very strongly flavored, it should be used sparingly. I wanted to make the classic dish of tarragon chicken, but I don’t like sauces poured over my meat so was curious to see if I could use a similar combination of flavors to brush, then bake the chicken breasts. I really liked the result – moist, tender chicken breasts nicely flavored with olive oil, Dijon mustard, garlic and tarragon. And making it this way is easier than the classic recipe.
If you can’t get fresh tarragon, or are not fond of the anise-y flavor, any fresh herb would do – I’m thinking that rosemary, for example, would be fabulous.
Click for the recipe
There’s something so pretty and festive about stuffed bell peppers, especially if you use different colors of peppers. This dish of meat-stuffed bell peppers can be viewed as the nutritional opposite of my previous dish of vegan stuffed peppers, but they are both delicious, and both very healthy – it all depends on your personal taste and diet preferences. These days I favor a lower-carb, higher-protein diet, so these meat-stuffed peppers work better for me than the higher-carb, lower-protein quinoa-stuffed peppers.
Click for the recipe
These roasted drumsticks truly are spicy, but not overwhelmingly so. I like to serve them with sautéed spinach and roasted butternut squash. The chicken and the squash can be roasted together in the same oven, which I find convenient.
You can leave the skin on the drumsticks and rub them with a dry rub, or you can take the skin off and rub them with an olive oil rub. Nutrition information for both options is provided below, and both are excellent, although the skin-on drumsticks do tend to be slightly juicier.
Click for the recipe
In this easy Thai chicken recipe, succulent chicken pieces are sautéed in fragrant coconut oil and flavored with a delicious, creamy, mildly spicy sauce of coconut milk, almond butter (healthier than peanut butter), garlic and ginger. Do use the full-fat coconut milk in this recipe – it imparts so much more flavor and creaminess, and coconut fat is a very healthy fat.
Click for the recipe
A wonderfully seasoned, simple preparation for chicken breasts. The original recipe instructs to marinade a few hours in the fridge, but as I was staring at the chicken breasts, trying to decide what to do with them, at 5pm, I only had about 30 minutes to marinade, and they still turned out delicious and succulent.
Click for the recipe
I love the flavor of pork chops, but the texture can be a problem, as pork chops can become dry quite easily. The two-step method below, of searing first then finishing them in a hot oven, works well with thick, 1-inch cuts, and produces juicy, flavorful chops. Choose bone-in chops for maximum juiciness – boneless chops dry out faster.
But are pork chops healthy? Pork chops are high in protein, and are a good source of iron and thiamine. The main issue with pork chops is their size – most are quite large. My solution is to cook them with a minimal amount of added fat, and to balance the meal out by serving them with a simple green salad or a steamed veggie, avoiding starchy or fatty side dishes and rich sauces. I find that seared and roasted pork chops are very flavorful and don’t need any sauce, especially because the way I cook them, they are nice and juicy. I suspect that many pork chop sauces were created over the years to mask tough, dry meat, back when pork was not as safe as it is today and guidelines for cooking pork said to cook it to well-done.*
Click for the recipe
This delicious Chinese-style chicken stir-fry features juicy chicken breast cubes and vegetables that are tender-yet-crisp. Yes, the list of ingredients is kind of long, but most of the work here is gathering and prepping the ingredients – the cooking part is very fast.
Feel free to use any vegetables you like (as you can see in the photo above, tonight I used a carrot instead of one of the bell peppers because this is what I had in the fridge), but do use fresh ginger – it makes a big difference in this recipe.
Click for the recipe
I'm Vered DeLeeuw, a blogger, a foodie and a mom. Welcome to Healthy Recipes, my food blog and the only cookbook I use. I'm so excited to share it with you. Bon appetit!
