Recipe: Chicken with Tomato Sauce and Zucchini Noodles

[Guest guest]

This was really good. The tomato sauce might look a lot like Raman Prasad's.

That's cause I've made his several times and is now the base for all my tomato

sauces. So here are props to Raman Prasad's Mom's Tomato Sauce.

Tomato sauce with chicken and zucchini noodles

Ingredients

3 lb. Roma tomatoes

1 white onion diced

6 cloves garlic diced

6 to 8 large basil leaves chopped

1 pound chicken breast

salt/pepper/cumin

6 medium to largish zucchini squashes

Parmesan or your favorite cheese

1. Add roma tomatoes to a large bowl.

2. Boil a good bit of water (about a kettle full)

3. Pour boiling water over tomatoes and let sit for 2 minutes.

4. With one knife, skewer the tomato through the long end (where the stem would

be) and with another knife, cut a shallow incision around the tomato. Use the

knife to start pulling the skin away. Either pull the skin off with the knife or

your fingers. Drop the skins in the bowl with the other tomatoes. Set peeled

tomato aside until all of them are peeled.

5. Cut the hard part where the stem would be off each tomato.

6. With your hand, squeeze each tomato over the bowl you just pulled them out of

to get out most of the juices and seeds. When you have about 4 squeezed, put

them in a blender and start it. Drop each tomato in the blender after you have

squeezed it.

7. Put a swirl of olive oil (EVOO) in a pot over medium heat. Add diced onion

and cook for 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook for about 3 more minutes or until

everything is starting to get soft.

8. Add the tomato sauce to the pot and turn the heat up to medium high. You will

need to constantly stir. If you feel this heat is too high, turn it down. We are

trying to condense the sauce some here. Add about 1 tablespoon salt/pepper and 1

teaspoon cumin. While this is condensing, start the chicken.

9. Put enough EVOO in an oven proof skillet (cast iron works great for

EVERYTHING and gives you iron) over medium heat to just cover it, sprinkle salt,

pepper, and cumin on one side of your chicken. Place the chicken in your hot

skillet. Sprinkle salt over the unseasoned side. I can't give measurements as I

don't measure often.

10. Taste the tomato sauce while your chicken is cooking and add more

salt/pepper if needed. Add basil and stir well. You might need to turn the heat

down. It should be bubbling but not popping everywhere,

11. Depending on the thickness of your chicken, when it looks like it's cooked

about halfway up the side, flip it over and cook about 2-3 more minutes and turn

the heat down to low.

12. Keep tasting your tomato sauce and adjusting. Once you pull the stirring

device out and the tomato sauce starts sticking to it, it's probably thick

enough. Pour the thickened tomato sauce over the chicken and place in a 350

degree oven. (I blended mine first to make it smooth and to keep my 7 year old

from picking out the onions and never finishing dinner.)

13. Put some water on to boil in a small pot. Peel the zucchini. Using a

mandolin or veggie peeler, make noodles out of your zucchini. Stop when you get

to the seedy core because that will just fall apart in your food. Add about a

tablespoon of salt to your boiling water. Add zucchini and cook for 2 minutes.

At 2 minutes, strain the zucchini in a collandar and immediatly rinse them in

cold water to stop the cooking process.

14. Shred some cheese. About 1/4 cup per person or 2 tablesppoons of parmesan.

15. Pull the chicken out of the oven.

To serve:

You can either spoon some tomato sauce over the zucchini noodles in a seperate

bowl and mix them up or put the sauce directly on top. Chicken on the side of

the noodles and sauce. Sprinkle cheese over everything. I serve this with

steamed cauliflower that I add a little butter, salt, and pepper too after

steaming.

You can omit the cumin, but it gives it a little different flavor and it's not

enough to make it taste like cumin. Start with a 1/2 teaspoon if you don't think

you'll like it, but want to try it. You can always add more. You can use dried

basil or italian seasoning mix if that's all you have. You'll have to play

around with the amounts. I would start off with 1 tablespoon of dried.

This was ready from start to finish in 45 minutes last night and my 7 year old

devoured it. She's not SCD but at my house she mostly eats that way.