Chicken With Creamy Mushroom Garlic Dill Sauce

 The Brazilian cooks onboard the Captain´s boat destroy the food they make, so for 5 or 6 weeks the Captain barely eats. They also serve an unusual amount of chicken onboard- dry chicken. So when the Captain comes home he begs me to not make chicken for at least the first couple weeks. However, chicken is a popular dinner here as it´s healthy and good. So last night I told the Captain to brace himself because I was preparing chicken. He kinda rolled his eyes but said ok...it wasn´t being made by the cooks on his boat so there was hope....and sure enough, he wasn´t disappointed...

First thing out of his mouth after he closed his eyes and made a very satisfied sound was, "how do you make it so juicy and tender? Give me some tips so I can tell the cooks onboard" So I began to tell him what I did.

I put some olive oil in the bottom of a baking dish, then laid five chicken breasts on top and sprinkled a little more olive oil on top along with some garlic pepper and chicken spice which is basically some paprika, onion, rosemary, salt, parsley, and white pepper. My oven was set at 200C. Meanwhile we made some jasmine rice with chicken bullion in the water to give it a little more flavor. In another pan I fried up some chopped garlic and onion and aroma mushrooms. I spiced them up with some dry dill and garlic pepper and a tiny dash of salt. Here I used about 50grams of butter to fry these up in...and once the mushrooms looked slightly browned and the onions and garlic were softened, I added the whole thing to the chicken which had been in the oven for about 20 minutes. I also poured about 1/3 liter whole cream over the top and again seasoned with more garlic pepper and back in the oven for another 10 minutes...a quick check of the chicken before I covered it with the sauce told me it was almost done and another ten minutes would make it perfectly juicy and tender....

Truth be told, I don´t really time things....I know I probably should, but I simply pay attention to whatever I´m doing in the oven, I check the chicken and see when it stops being pink inside...and just as it is done being pink, I give it maybe 5-10 minutes more and voila...it´s done. Wish I had more exact times to give you but that´s how the cookie rolls here...still....it seems to be working...

The Captain and I are headed to a place about 30 minutes south of Oslo today on a secret mission. If everything goes as planned, I´ll fill you in tomorrow...or Wednesday as I´m working tomorrow and have my Easylife class, so might be kinda busy tomorrow. Oh....perhaps you´d like an update on my Easylife? My weight is now the lowest it´s been in the entire course so far. Which is great. I´ve lost a total of 10kg so far since September. It´s slow going but I´m hoping it means it will be gone for life. As you can see above, I´m trying to eat NORMAL food but smaller portions. I promise you, I could have had a LOT more rice with this dish and a lot more sauce, but I kept the rice and sauce to a minimum and filled up on the mushrooms and chicken. I´m also trying to exercise more and that has been really up and down. However, after we get back from our trip to Paris the end of this month....

...I will no longer work on Fridays, so I plan to take Spinning classes on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and walk dogs the other days...find the balance with exercise and food intake is the key here I think...and it´s a work in progress but I`m motivated and positive it´s going to work out! How are your New Year resolutions going? 

Until next time my friends....