Take a look at the recipe for “Chicken Cacciatore Over Crisp Barley Crust,” from America’s Everyday Diabetes Cookbook, and you’ll see a befuddling mix of concepts: unconventional “cacciatore” chicken, where you’ll use only cubes of chicken breast; a spring-form pan, where you’ll make your “barley pie”; and a thick tomato sauce that’ll include brown sugar and chili powder. This pie has a fantastic texture and flavor. My dining audience loved it. The thick “cacciatore” sauce was well-balanced in its tomatoey flavor.
I used vegetable-bouillon broth, instead of chicken stock, when I cooked my barley. I needed to bake the spring-formed crust for 40 minutes (rather than 25 minutes), in order to achieve the proper golden edges and firm top. To make the sauce topping, I used 1/2 onion, 2 big mushrooms, and 2/3 green bell pepper. Now you’ll notice the yield for this pie is 6 servings. Knowing that, I couldn’t accept the notion of using only 4 oz. of boneless skinless chicken breast in the recipe. How could this small amount comfortably feed 6 people? I doubled the dose of chicken (using 8 oz.) and was pleased with this decision. I baked the assembled pie for 15 minutes.
RECIPE: a fun experiment that’ll give you a deeply flavored meal
PREP TIME: this will take you two-and-one-half hours to assemble and cook, but it’s worth the effort
TASTE: vegetable-rich sauce is thick with crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, and spices
Next time, I want to prepare a “Chicken and Mushroom Chowder,” from Allrecipes.com, along with “Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms,” from The Complete Diabetes Prevention Plan. Come back to my site on Friday, June 13, to see what happens with these.
Recent Comments