Ken's Signature Avocado Garlic Caesar Salad Dressing

 

Here's a salad dressing that I made for a Caesar salad one day and it turned out amazing and everyone raves about it. The base to the recipe is Gerard's light caesar salad dressing which is my favorite. The avocado adds a wonderful creamyness and the garlic give a great punch. Give this one a try!

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons Gerard's light caesar dressing
Cesar croutons

1 medium large avocado

4 garlic gloves

4 tablespoons milk

Preparation:

This recipe is for 6 servings. Combine the Gerard's light caesar dressing, avocado and garlic into the mini food processor and blend until smooth. The dressing will be quite thick at this point and need to be thinned out. Add 1 tablespoon of milk at a time to achieve the proper salad dressing consistency.

Salad preparation:

Prepare romaine lettuce for six and mix in the avocado garlic caesar dressing. Add 1 cup small size croutons and 1/4 cup shaved or grated parmesan mix well and plate.
 

Oven Roasted Chicken Thighs with "Show Me" Smokey Barbecue Sauce

Sometimes you just need to make it easy on yourself when it comes to cooking. Here I put some chicken thighs on a baking pan and coated with my favorite smokey barbeque sauce, Show Me. You can only get this stuff on Amazon.com. It's amazing! Easy barbequed chicken! 

Ingredients:
Chicken thighs
Barbeque sauce


Preparation:

 Rinse and dry the chicken thighs and place on a baking pan covered in aluminum foil. Use the foil so the clean up is a breeze. Brush on a liberal amount of barbeque sauce. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. After 15 minutes brush on a little more barbeque sauce.

Sautéed Asparagus with Parmesan Cheese

This is a very simple approach to asparagus.I always take a vegetable peeler and peel off the skin on the thick end. I think it looks and tastes better this way. I simply steam the asparagus in a 12" sauté pan to al dente, lightly toss in olive oil and served with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds asparagus
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese

Preparation:

Preheat a 12" sauté pan to medium high. Place the asparagus in the pan and add 1/4 cup water. As the asparagus streams the water will evaporate. When the water has completely evaporated the asparagus should be perfect al dente. Add a a little olive oil to the pan and coat the asparagus. 

 

Place the cooked asparagus on a serving dish. Finish the dish with a grind of salt, pepper and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. 

Garlic Marinated Chicken with Munster Cheese and Prosciutto

This chicken dish really is amazing. The combination of the marinated garlic grilled chicken, Munster cheese and salty prosciutto works really well.

Ingredients:

Chicken breast

Munster cheese

Prosciutto

4 Garlic cloves
Olive oil

 

Preparation:

Slice the chicken breast in half in order to make a thinner cut of meat, which is also called butterfly. Marinate the chicken in a splash of olive oil and crushed garlic in a zip lock bag for 1 to 2 hours. Grill the chicken over hot grill.

Because the chicken is sliced thin it will cook fast, maybe 3 minutes per side. In the last minute of cooking place a slice of Munster cheese and prosciutto on the chicken breast.

Garnish with chopped Italian parsley.

Spicy Chicken Rigatoni

Here's a dish that a friend turned me onto one night when we were out having dinner at Bucca Debeppo. Though I didn't have the dish that night, I did have on another visit to Bucca and I thought it was amazing. The key to reproducing this dish was to find a sauce that tasted similar to Bucca's which they make from scratch. Vodka sauce is the ticket and I like Trader Joe's version because it's the most healthy, but still has all the flavor. Second, use Barilla Mezzi Rigatoni if you can find it because Barilla is the best pasta! Mezzi rigatoni means "short rigatoni" and is best for this dish.

 Ingredients:

1/2 lb. (1/2 box) Mezzi Rigatoni (short rigatoni)

1 jar Trader Joe's vodka pasta sauce

1 Chicken breast, poached and shredded

1/8 Teaspoon red pepper flakes

Preparation:

Prepare a large stock pot with liberally salted water. Cook the pasta according to the directions, in this case perfect al dente in 12-13 minutes.

Heat the vodka sauce, shredded chicken breast and red pepper flakes up in a 12" sauté pan. The reason you're using a sauté  pan is because you're going to finish the dish in it.

When your pasta is done, drain and add pasta the sauté pan.  Cook the pasta and sauce together for two minutes. Serve with grated cheese and additional red pepper flakes if you like it more spicy.

Grilled Asian Chicken Thighs

What I like about this recipe is that I wrote it down. Seriously, this is an awesome marinade and I would always make it different and half the time it wasn't as good as I remember. The key to this dish is to marinate the chicken overnight. Secondly, remove the chicken from the marinade and place onto some paper towels and dry the chicken thighs before grilling.

Ingredients:

Skinless boneless chicken thighs
Green onions

Basmati rice

Marinade:

3 Tablespoons lite soy sauce

2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon canola oil

3 Garlic cloves minced

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

1/8 Teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/8 teaspoon grated ginger or powdered

Preparation:

Marinate the chicken overnight if possible, if not then at least 4 hours. Grill over hot fire to get some char and color he outside of the chicken. Cook about 15 minutes and serve with basmati rice mixed with fresh green onions.

Side Dish Serving Suggestions:
Asian Style Eggplant