Chicken, Tomato Sauce, Mushrooms, Peppers

[project]

Developing a dish based on chicken, 'Italian' tomato sauce, mushrooms, and green bell peppers. Have made some progress and here report results to date and ask for suggestions of how might improve in the future.

The goal is a dish good on flavor, nutrition, preparation time, and cost for everyday eating for lunches and/or suppers.

Some of the ingredients have been selected to save on both cost and preparation time: So, instead of fresh everything, there are canned tomatoes, frozen chicken, and dried herbs.

The chicken is just frozen, skinless, boneless chicken breast pieces. Yes, chicken thighs should give better flavor and texture but, unless frozen, skinless, and boneless, promise to increase preparation time. I'm surprised at how good this dish makes the chicken breast meat.

Turns out, I'm also using this dish as food on a weight loss diet. After two weeks, the diet seems to be working well. So, I'm not adding in lots of cheese or any pasta.

I'm surprised at how good the dish tastes now, but it could be better.

The dish is convenient: I make four 'servings' at once, eat one serving, and reheat each of the other three. After a day in the refrigerator, it does taste better.

For someone working in an office that has a microwave oven, could take a serving, cold, in a covered microwave-proof container and warm it for lunch. The aromas might create some jealousy!

The tomato sauce is thick and 'chunky', and the green bell pepper pieces and mushroom pieces add more nice chunks and quite a lot of both flavor and volume. There is a lot of flavor. There is enough cooking to get the chicken relatively 'succulent' and not just 'chicken dust' and, then, enough sauce to make sure nothing tastes dry.

INGREDIENTS

four pieces of skinless, boneless, frozen, chicken breast meat, e.g., Tyson's from Sam's Club, five ounces of weight per piece (if from Tyson and still frozen)

4 ice cubes of well reduced, traditional, French chicken stock

relatively thick slices of about 12 ounces of rinsed, large, white button mushrooms, about 10 mushrooms

about 16 ounces of pieces of green bell pepper, about 3 medium sized green bell peppers

4-5 C of chunky, well flavored tomato sauce, as below.

STEPS

The saute pan I use making this dish is aluminum with a Teflon coating and has inside diameter at the top of the pan of 12 1/4 inches. This pan is large enough to do well enough cooking all the chicken at once, then all the mushrooms at once, then all the green pepper pieces at once.

In a saute pan with enough virgin olive oil to provide good heat conduction -- 1/2 C is too much, 1/4 C is more than enough -- saute the chicken until lightly brown. Apparently the chicken, fully defrosted, will generate about 1 C of chicken stock. If cook the chicken starting with it frozen, then will have to let this stock boil off until it coagulates before browning can begin.

Once browned, place chicken in a 5 quart pot, with a cover, e.g., Farberware 'classic' 5 quart pot. Add four frozen ice cube pieces of well reduced, traditional French chicken stock. Bring to simmer and cover and cook over low heat.

Meanwhile, in more virgin olive oil, maybe 1/4 C more, saute the mushrooms at least until the water they will readily give up has evaporated. Drain and add to the chicken.

To the chicken, add the tomato sauce, bring to simmer, and simmer, covered, slowly. Once meat reaches 180 F internal temperature, continue simmering slowly for 1-2 hours if convenient. This extra simmering helps change the chicken from 'chicken dust' to something more 'succulent'.

If simmer the green pepper pieces too long, then they become too soft. So, can add the green pepper pieces near the end of simmering the chicken. In about 1/4 C virgin olive oil, saute the green pepper pieces until there is no loose water in the pan and some of the pepper pieces start to brown. Drain, add to the chicken, mix, heat through, maybe simmer another 30 minutes, if convenient, and serve.

One piece of chicken with 1/4 of the peppers, mushrooms, and sauce makes a good serving.

The dish reheats well.

=== TOMATO SAUCE ===

Here we make about 4 1/2 quarts of tomato sauce. The sauce has a lot of flavor, is somewhat chunky, thick, and 'meaty', not thin.

INGREDIENTS

1/3 C virgin olive oil

1 pound of medium sized dice of yellow globe onion

1/4 C of minced garlic

6 ounce can of tomato paste, e.g., Contradina from Sam's Club

1 C of dry red wine

1/2 C dry parsley

2 T dry oregano

2 T dry basil

2 T dry rosemary leaves

4 bay leaves

1/2 t of red pepper flakes (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

6 pound 6 ounce can of peeled, whole tomatoes, e.g., Contradina from Sam's Club

2 cans, 28 ounces per can, of crushed tomatoes, e.g., Tuttorosso from Sam's Club

STEPS

Set a colander in a bowl of about 5 quarts and add the peeled tomatoes. Using a table fork and a table knife, cut each tomato into 2-4 pieces.

Add the tomato juice under the colander to a 3 quart pot, e.g., Farberware 'classic', and reduce slowly.

Coarsely chop the peeled tomatoes and return to colander. Continue to add the tomato juice under the colander to the 3 quart pot.

Will have about 2 quarts of tomato juice. Reduce this, slowly, without scorching, to 1 quart.

In a five quart pot uncovered but with a cover available, e.g., Farberware 'classic, add olive oil and onions and saute until softened. Add crushed red pepper flakes (optional) and garlic, mix, and saute gently. Add wine and reduce until the wine is nearly gone. Add the tomato paste, mix, and cook to slightly 'caramelize' some of the tomato paste. Add the herbs and mix. Add one of the cans of crushed tomatoes and mix. Add the second can of crushed tomatoes, the diced peeled tomatoes, and the reduced tomato juice, mix, simmer slowly, say, to at least 180 F, add salt and pepper to taste, refrigerate uncovered and then cover.

[SundaySous]

You left out the lemon juice.

[mojoman]

Sounds boring. Not something I'd post on a foodie board.

I'd brine the breasts and grill them.

If you want to do a stewy tomatoey thing with veggies...I'd look at a ratatouille.

[Smithy]

Like the polite person upthread, I think I'd add a spot of lemon juice (or possibly vinegar) at a deglazing step to brighten it just a bit. Otherwise, I think it sounds pretty good.

There are a few small things I'd do differently. Some come down to personal preference on flavor profile, and some come down to sequence, which affect the number of dishes to be washed and the way flavors interact.

Flavor profile:

I prefer sweeter peppers, so I generally use red or orange peppers, instead of green, for dishes like this. You could mix them, for added color and flavor interest.

I also like the peppers soft (you indicate that you don't) so I'd make sure to sweat them well down, or roast them in advance until they're collapsed. (You can even add layers of flavor by sweating some of the peppers until they're collapsed and caramelizing, then leaving some barely-cooked and crunchy.) I'd add olives to the mix, because I adore olives, and I'd go with brown or portabella mushrooms instead of white. Small stuff, personal preferences.

The Teflon pan will prevent good caramelization of the veggies, and I think - if I'm reading your post right - that you might be missing a flavor trick or two, partly by cooking things separately, and partly by using that Teflon pan. Here's where the sequencing comes in:

In one pan, sweat the peppers and mushrooms in oil until they're soft and starting to brown. They'll throw off liquid as they cook down. Don't cook them all the way down, though, because you'll need that liquid.

In another pan, heat oil; sweat the onions until they're getting soft but not browned yet; add the chicken and brown the lot. (Consider dusting that chicken with some of your herbs before browning it.) Remove the chicken to a barely-warm oven to keep it warm without cooking much further for the moment. Have those chicken stock cubes thawed already, and deglaze the pan with that stock and with the peppers and mushrooms. As the sauce starts to cook down, put the chicken back in and add the tomato sauce and olives. Adjust seasonings as appropriate. Cook until the chicken is barely done. There is a risk, with these chicken breasts, of over cooking, so you have to watch that part carefully. I note that you say they can take a couple of hours of slow simmering, and that they pick up more flavor that way. In that case, ignore the comment about "cook until the chicken is barely done" and do the slow simmer instead.

There's probably a way to do this in one skillet only, but at the moment I'm having trouble visualizing the timing to make it go right. Anyway, you might find a bit more flavor this way, but it's small stuff. It sounds to me like you've got a pretty good thing going already.

[MSRadell]

I definitely agree with using lemon juice (or a white wine) to deglaze the pan and also use a non-teflon pan. Another idea to give a little more depth of flavor would be to use a variety of wild mushrooms instead of the button mushrooms or to just use Portobello mushrooms. Any of these would certainly provide a little more flavor. Your dish looks like a good start but needs some refinement.

[jgm]

Consider adding a little sugar to the tomato sauce; sugar can contribute some nice dimensions to tomato sauces. It doesn't take much. For this quantity, start with 1 tablespoon and start tasting. You could also roast the garlic. Another possibility is to back off a little on the onion, and add in some sliced leeks.

If I were making it, I'd used canned San Marzano tomatoes. That oughta make it 'foodie' enough for certain people.

[Porthos]

The chicken is just frozen, skinless, boneless chicken breast pieces.  Yes, chicken thighs should give better flavor and texture but, unless frozen, skinless, and boneless, promise to increase preparation time.  I'm surprised at how good this dish makes the chicken breast meat.

I don't know if Sam's Club carries boneless, skinless chicken thighs but I know for sure that Costco does. You might want to check on your next visit. It's not always right next to the breasts.

[Sony]

...I'd add a spot of lemon juice (or possibly vinegar) at a deglazing step...

Yep, maybe some balsamic to simultaneously add acid and sweetness.....

[project]

Update:

Experiments and experience suggest that the best means of improving flavor discovered so far are:

(1) Olive Oil. Before starting the saute of the chicken, green pepper pieces, and mushroom slices, measure out 1/2 C virgin olive oil. In the saute, use ALL of it and keep it in the dish. This extra olive oil helps the flavor a LOT.

(2) Salt. When making the sauce, include quite a lot of salt, say, 1/4 C of table salt.

(3) Pepper. When making the sauce, be generous with the freshly ground black pepper.

(4) In the sauce, can use more onion and garlic. Can increase the coarsely diced yellow globe onion to 1 1/2 pounds and the minced garlic to 1/3 C.

(5) In the dish, can be generous with the mushrooms, e.g., can include 18 ounces instead of just 12 ounces. This way get noticeably more mushroom flavor. The chunks of thick slices of large white mushrooms are nice in the final dish. For the idea that should buy old, partially discolored and open mushrooms to get better flavor, I thought that the flavor was worse and prefer fresh mushrooms.

(6) Simmer the sauce about an hour to help extract the flavors from the spices.

Even if the S&P seem a bit much in the sauce by itself, combined with the chicken, green peppers, and mushrooms, the S&P are not too much.

For order of battle, suppose the sauce is made and in the refrigerator and want to cook a batch of the chicken:

So, get a pot, say a 5 quart Farberware classic pot, add 1 quart of the sauce, and start this to simmering.

Measure out the 1/2 C of olive oil.

In a skillet of about 12" diameter, add four pieces of the frozen frozen chicken, enough oil to help heat conduction, set on medium-high heat, brown, flip the pieces, and brown the other side. Here the frozen pieces will defrost and release chicken broth which will boil away. It takes a while but it works.

Meanwhile, wash and cut the green peppers and mushrooms.

When the chicken is browned, add it to the now simmering sauce. Now are not adding the chicken to cold sauce and, thus, are reducing the time until the dish is ready to eat.

Saute the green peppers, likely adding more of the olive oil. For flavor, do get a few browned spots. But, also for flavor, let the rest of the pieces be nearly raw and let them get cooked and further release their flavors in the sauce. When these pieces have been sauteed enough, dump them, with their olive oil, into the pot with the sauce and chicken.

Do much the same for the mushrooms.

Simmer about an hour to get the chicken up to about 185 F and easily 'shredded'.

One piece of the chicken and 1/4 of the rest makes a good, filling main dish. Even with the olive oil, can lose weight on this dish.

A dry, tart Chianti with some bouquet also helps!

More experiments and experience needed, e.g., for capers, olives, Portabello mushrooms, more fond from the saute, etc.

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

I'll second the suggestion of the boneless skinless thighs. I think I've seen them in bulk at Costco... not certain though, as I usually buy them in smaller amounts (for the pet turtle).