Melanie’s Top 3 Chicken Herb Recipes
Chicken Herb Recipes
They say that the best way to someone’s heart is through their stomach. So there’s no better way to show you just what an incredible difference your home herb garden will make in your life, energy and health than if I show you a fresh herb recipe or two (or three). These are simple and healthy, but the flavor is five star. With the simple herbs and growing techniques in my free course these recipes become truly remarkable. I guarantee my system will have you growing herbs that will get people talking.
Let’s start with simple chicken herb recipes.
Recipe 1. Melanie’s Baked Herb Chicken
¼ cup unsalted butter or margarine
¼ cup whole wheat all purpose flour
1 tbsp dried thyme or 3 tbsp of fresh thyme * dry herbs conversion tip: One tsp of dry herbs equals One tbsp of fresh herbs
1 tbsp of garlic salt
½ tsp of coarse ground pepper
- Melt butter or margarine in the microwave for 1 minute and combine in mixing bowl with the flour, thyme, garlic salt, and pepper.
- Mix together into a smooth paste
- Place fresh full chicken on baking or roasting pan
- Using the back of a wooden spoon or spatula, spead your butter herb paste over the entire outside of chicken
- For 2-3 pound bird, place in oven at 350 degrees and cook for approximately 1 hour 15 minutes. *Because oven temperatures vary so much I like to use a digital meat thermometer. In this case, remove chicken when core bird temperature reaches 185 degrees.
The chicken will have the most delicious light crust covering the outside.
Recipe 2. Melanie’s Mediterranean Chicken Stir Fry
Cut 2 or 3 boneless chicken breasts or boneless chicken thighs into 2 inch strips and put aside
Cut 5 or 6 pitted black olives into slices and put aside
- Pour 3 or 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into a room temperature frying pan or wok
- Add 1 tsp thyme, 1 tsp basil, and 1 tsp oregano and ½ tsp curry powder to the oil
- Stir the herbs and spices and oil and place on low-medium heat.
- Add the sliced black olives to the hot pan or wok and sautee for 3 minutes
- Add the sliced chicken and stir fry and turn occasionally for 6 to 8 minutes or until chicken is white throughout upon cutting
- Serve over whole grain rice with a vegetable.
Did I say I would give you three Chicken Herb Recipes? Ok, I did. Here’s a really good one that is really simple but looks like something a chef prepared for you. If you grow the type of incrdeible herbs that I know you can with my herbs and growing secrets, you won’t believe how these recipes will taste.
Recipe 3. Melanie’s Herb and Spinach Stuffed Chicken Thighs
Six rinsed boneless chicken thighs
5 well minced mushrooms (any kind you like)
5 pitted black olives
¼ cup of feta cheese
1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil or sometimes I use sesame oil
1 tbsp of oregano (see dry herbs conversion to fresh herbs quantities at top of page)
1 tbsp of thyme
1 tbsp curry powder
1tbsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper (use this only if you like spicy food)
1 well minced garlic clove
1 cup of well minced baby spinach
- Blend extra virgin olive oil, curry powder, oregano, thyme, pepper, cayenne pepper, and garlic (minced) into mixing bowl and stir until blended and the herbs are saturated.
- Transfer mixture into a glazed ceramic or a glass baking dish. Spread the mixture so it coats the entire bottom of baking dish.
- Take the chicken thighs and roll each one of them out flat on a separate plate.
- Take one chicken thigh at a time and drag it through the oil, herbs and spice mixture in baking dish making sure to do this to both sides. Lay the thighs flat in the baking dish.
- To make the stuffing you’ll be using, take your minced spinach, feta cheese (make sure it’s crumbled into small pieces), mushrooms, black olives, into separate bowl and toss them until they are well mixed.
- Grab a handful of the spinach, feta, mushrooms and black olives stuffing and put a good amount on each of your chicken thighs.
- Roll up each thigh so that it surrounds your stuffing. You can use tooth picks or butcher’s string to hold the thighs closed if they don’t behave)
- Place the baking dish and stuffed thighs into a 375 degree oven. Bake for 30 or 40 minutes. Because ovens vary, make sure to check that the chicken is white all the way through. If you are using a meat thermometer, the chicken is done at 180 – 185 degrees Farenheit.
- Serve with a salad or rice and vegetable.
These three chicken herb recipes, are good even with store bought herbs. But the difference is truly astounding with your own fresh herbs. I can’t even stress this enough. It’s that jaw dropping. It’s also hard to estimate just how healthy food like this is using fresh herbs. Herbs have powerful and mysterious properties and there are profound herbal health benefits being discovered seemingly every month.
Do You Have Chicken Herb Recipes You’d Like to Share With Us?
If there’s one thing that we all love, it’s hearing from our readers. And I know our visitors love to see feedback from other visitors to the site. If you would like to share your experiences with herb gardening, and how you are using your herbs, or let us know how it’s going with my free mini-course or eBook, just click the Contact Us link at the bottom of every page. We’d love to publish you right here at HerbsAndGrowingSecrets.com
Talk soon!
Melanie.
The All Natural Diet Herbal Pill
What Role Can a Certain Diet Herbal Pill Play in Losing Weight?
Dear friends, time and time again, science has turned to this planet’s plant species for new discoveries to improve the quality of our lives, and often even cure, our most stubborn health issues. Therefore, it won’t be surprising to you that a herbal weight loss pill, made entirely of some of this world’s wondrous plant life, can help turn the tide against the dangerous epidemic of obesity we are faced with today.
Now the term, diet herbal pill, may have you picturing herbs like basil, oregano and thyme. But in this case, the word herb is used in the context of the broader meaning of the word “herbaceous” whose definition is “characteristic of a non-woody herb or plant part.” So I’d like to discuss the role a certain herbal weight loss pill can play in regaining control of your life if you are overweight, rapidly losing energy, health and vitality.
Convincing Your Body to Lose Weight and Why Weight Loss Can Be Like an Argument With Your Body
In many ways, our effort to lose weight is like an argument with our bodies. You start the argument perhaps by eating less. All too often, your body matches your argument by deciding something must be wrong and responds by actually “protecting” the fat it has grown used to. You argue back, by eating even less. But now the body has lost all reason and like most arguments that go wrong, begins to really panic, convinced there is famine and starvation just around the corner. You and your body are now in a full fledged fight.
Does this fight with your body sound familiar? You must also know how this fight all too often turns out. You get exhausted and discouraged and give up the weight loss fight, convinced you will never win. And you’d be right. Approaching weight loss in this way will not work. You cannot win if you fight the fat in this way. “Well then what can I do? Is it an unwinnable battle of the bulge?”
Don’t Fight Your Body. Eating Better Food and a Diet Herbal Pill That Works With Your Body
The secret is actually simple. We have to “convince” our bodies that what we are doing to lose weight is good for us and that you are still there to protect it. How do we convince our bodies to be our partner in weight loss? I like to tell people that they should think of their body as an exotic creature. You know, no sudden moves and no loud noises, or it will bite back! With that in mind here’s how we will begin convincing our body to trust us:
- No fasting or sudden decreases in food intake (eating)
- No dangerous and sudden increase in overly strenuous exercise
- No dangerous diet drugs
- Do not insult the body (harsh laxatives or liquid only diets)
Fucothin and Your Simple Changes Leads Your Body to a “New State of Normal”
Herbal diet pill Fucothin
What we want to do is lead our body by the hand and get it to naturally kick start its metabolism. Metabolism is like the rate that an engine is working in a car. Right now, as we sit at the computers and televisions in our lives, our metabolisms are on Idle, Neutral or worse, “Park”.
What we want to do is gently rev our engines (our metabolism) until we and our bodies reach a “new state of normal”. The first part of reaching your new state of normal, is all up to you. These will be your simple but powerful first steps:
- Write down everything you are likely to eat in a typical week. Absolutely everything. This is your private list, so be totally honest with yourself.
- Organize your list into two columns and label them Good and Bad. You may be asking, “What’s Good and what’s Bad?”
We are keeping this list really simple, so target the foods you know you shouldn’t be eating. For example, boiled or mashed potatoes would start out in the Good column, but chips and french fried potatoes would be in the Bad column.
Keep going and move the muffins, donuts, cakes, cookies, deep fried chicken, dips, into the Bad column.
Ok, for now that’s it. This is the beginning, and at this point the little diet herbal pill, Fucothin, can be added to your “new state of normal.” Combined with you removing the absolute worst foods on your list, Fucothin herbal slimming pills, will now not only begin to help breakdown the fat on your body, but it also begins to gently rev your metabolism. A higher metabolism, burns more calories than a metabolism stuck in neutral. This is a good thing, because it means right from day one, and with no real effort on your part, your body has ramped up to the next level and is naturally beginning to awaken and burn through more of your extra weight and calorie intake.
Feeling Better? Keep it Up and Gently Move to Your “Next, New State of Normal”
With only the simple act of removing only the absolute worst of your food from your diet, and your three times a day addition of Fucothin, you will notice very soon that your new state of normal feels pretty darn good. More energy, and a better mood because you will see and feel that this is going to work.
Armed with this more hopeful attitude, go back to your list and polish it a bit.
- The second list starts by replacing white breads, bagels and rolls with whole grain versions. Get the white flour out of your food choices. It’s no big deal, so just do it. White flour is just short of being white sugar. It’s a bad carbohydrate that transforms into high calorie sugars almost instantly when you are digesting it. Whole grains are complex carbohydrates and along with being more nutritious, they naturally rev your metabolism, because they take more effort for your body to digest them.
- Replace the fatty meats on your menu with leaner versions. Again, no big deal, so just do it. Try to eat chicken breasts instad of legs and thighs. However, you can make your chicken thighs and legs leaner by simply pulling the skin off before cooking. Under the skin, just rinse away the visible fat. Remove the fat from your steaks and choose leaner cuts. Get rid of the pork bacon and sausages. If you want, you can replace them with lean ham.
- Replace your white rice with whole grain rice. No big deal, it tastes better anyway, so just do it.
Ok, for now that’s it. Except now you will add just a bit of natural extra movement to your day. For example, if you ride the elevator at work, get off one floor short of your floor and take the stairs for one flight. Park the car deliberately a little further from the store and walk over. While you are at it, take slightly longer steps when you are walking. Nothing too awkward or silly, just a slightly longer stride.
Underneath what you ware doing, the diet herbal pill, Fucothin, is still working away. Except now it’s getting even more effective, because you are working along with it.
You’re starting to actually feel good again aren’t you? Welcome to your New State of Normal.
You see, feeling “normal” is important because it means you won’t snap back into your worst habits. Why would you? That’s right, because if we feel normal and aren’t stressed by the way we are living, we are way less likely to introduce harmful habits back into our routines.
At this point your metabolism is humming again because of you and Fucothin which has been quietly taking your efforts and ramping them up and making them twice as effective. It’s called the Thermogenic Effect and it is what Fucothin is known for. It has been proven to naturally increase your metabolism and therefore burn excess calories. Your only job is to keep feeling better and with more energy. As your energy increases, just keep repeating the steps above and keep adding healthier foods and removing the more fatty ones. Be creative and add gradually even more physical movement. Have fun with it. Don’t buy equipment. This should be enjoyable, so grab one of your kids and lift them up and down a few times every day. (Remember laughter burns calories too.)
The All Natural, Totally Plant Derived Diet Herbal Pill
Fucothin by Garden of Life is absolutely natural. There isn’t one artificial ingredient. No weird added colors and no chemical preservatives. Nothing. Aside from the active plant and herbal ingredients, the only other ingredients are gelatin, extra virgin olive oil, glycerin and purified water.
* Here’s something to add to your food list we made above. It’s called Garden of Life Perfect Meal. It works as an effective partner to Fucothin. Perfect Meal is an all natural, high fibre and protein drink that comes in Creamy Vanilla and Milk Chocolate flavors. Perfect Meal natually helps you feel full, so you are less tempted to fill up with extra food during the day. Click here for more of Perfect Meal’s benefits.
Talk soon!
Melanie.
P.S. Remember, if you follow my simple steps in my free mini-course, and use the most flavorful and fastest growing herbs from your home herb garden, the food list above becomes easy. I’d like to help you achieve more energy and the best health of your life.
Recipes Using Fresh Herbs
I’ve been thinking that I should add some recipes using fresh herbs, because throughout our site, we mention the joys of growing kitchen herbs. But I want you to really get excited by your new herb garden by showing you how to really use herbs in the kitchen.
Adding herbs to your cooking, will take the simplest of your dishes and instantly get people asking all your favorite questions. Questions like, “Is this a new recipe?” “What’s in this? It’s so good.” “Could you show me how to make this? You are such a good cook.”
That last comment is my personal favorite. Let’s make two things clear. We’re not just talking about fresh herbs and how they will transform your food and diet in general, we’re also talking about the herbs from your garden that you dry and preserve as well. Secondly, not all herbs are the same. It is possible to have remarkably better herbs than you’ve had before. More flavorful, healthier, bigger and faster growing than any you’ve tried.
That is what this site is all about and what it will do for your home herb garden. In a nutshell, you will never want to try recipes using fresh herbs unless you are using the type of herbs you will grow if you follow my free mini-courses and follow the simple steps in my book, “Sun, Water, Earth & Herbs – A Guide to the Magic World of Herb Gardening.” The only problem with that is, your friends will not want any other herbs except yours either. You are going to have to get used to their calls and drop-ins asking for your amazing herbs.
We’ve Added Simple and Delicious Recipes Using Fresh Herbs
- Salmon Herb Recipe
- Butter Herb Recipe
I’ve chosen these three recipes to add to our site for a good reason. These recipes can be transferred and used with many different meats as well as vegetarian recipes. Herbs are like that. Give them a dish, any dish, and they react perfectly to match and compliment the flavors of that dish.
I hope you’re excited to really see what your herbs can do in the kitchen. You won’t be disappointed, and your cooking will never be the same. If you haven’t started growing fresh herbs following my guide, there’s no time like the present. With my steps, you will have fresh, flavorful, healthy herbs that grow bigger and faster so that you will have your own truly amazing herbs in no time.
I’ll see you on the Fresh (and dried) Herbs Recipes pages.
Talk soon!
Melanie
Start Herb Garden Planting the Right Way
Congratulations! You are here because you want to start herb garden planting. And I bet you realize there’s every healthy and beautiful reason that you should do just that. With this site as your guide, I am confident that you will not only start your home herb garden, but you will be miles ahead of everyone else in your neighborhood.
I’ll start by giving you a couple of things to consider before you plant.
- Are you going to have an area devoted just to your herbs, or would you like to combine them with other shrubs, flowers or vegetables?
- Are you interested in growing kitchen herbs or medicinal herbs or both?
- Have you read our information on herb garden design tips in our free mini-course or eBook?
After you have a good idea what herbs you want to grow, and where you want to grow them, that’s the time to consider how to grow herbs that are healthy and stuffed with nutrients, overflowing with beautiful scents and full of flavor. And with just a few simple, but very important steps, this is exactly what you can expect.
Simple Soil Recipe for All the Herbs in Your Garden
Although the variety and characteristics of herbs is vast, they all love a very simple recipe for the soil that will be their home. Start herb garden plants with the following simple soil recipe, and they will reward you time and time again.
- 3 parts garden soil or top soil from the plant nursery
- 1 part peat moss, compost, or aged horse, cow or sheep manure
- 1 part sand. Make sure the sand is rinsed and desalinated (no salt) if it is from the beach.
Watering Your Herbs, But Be Careful
Like all plants, herbs need clean water to thrive. But herb garden plants must not have too much water. It is actually better to err on the side of too little water than it is to give herbs too much water. Whether your herbs are planted outside or inside in pots, the soil must be well drained. There is more information in our free mini-course regarding creating a well-drained environment for your herbs, but for now, it is important to remember not to keep the soil too moist.
Your Herbs Live for the Light
For your outdoor herb garden, plant your herbs facing a southern or western exposure. Make sure the herbs are not covered by the broad skirts of other shrubs. This can cause an overly shady and too moist an environment for the herbs to be truly happy.
Perhaps you don’t have a yard or a suitable outdoor spot to start a herb garden. That’s fine, because indoor herbs are just as happy with a sunny windowsill or certain types of man made light. Fluorescent light, grow lights or special high output lights will do the trick in not only starting your herbs, but helping them grow to maturity and vitality. I have much more information on herb garden lighting in my mini-course as well as my book, “Sun, Water, Earth & Herbs: A Guide to the Magic World of Herb Gardening.”
Contact Us With Your Herb Garden Pictures, Recipes and Tips
Our visitors love to see each others’ pictures and hear about each others’ experiences. Please click on the “Contact Us” link at the bottom of the page and we’ll tell you right away how you can share your pictures and stories and publish them right here.
Talk soon!
Melanie
How Dry Herbs Can be Created Right in Your Kitchen
Let’s talk about how dry herbs can be made right at home and how they play a particularly important role in keeping our diet and lives consistently healthy. Growing kitchen herbs and using them fresh is, of course, one of the great joys of our home herb garden. Their flavor transforms the simplest meal into something special and brimming with health because herbs are a potent source of healthy and complex ingredients.
However, we may not have access to our fresh herbs after the outdoor growing season ends. What we want is to experience the amazing and powerful benefits of our herb garden, all year long. We are going to have to preserve our fresh herbs and lock in those nutrients. Many herbs will stay fresh and useful this way for up to a year. Once you know how to properly preserve your herbs, combined with my herb gardening steps contained in the information on this site, you will truly have made “herb health” a full partner in your new healthy life.
From Fresh to Dry Herbs – Drying Herbs From Cuttings
This is how dry herbs are achieved in the ancient way. (It is also my favorite way.)
- Cut the herbs low on the stalks with pruning shears or scissors
- Remove the lowest leaves to create room for tying the herbs
- Using string, tie the bundle low on the stalks
- Hang the bundle of herbs upside down in a cool dry place
- When fully dry, remove the leaves and transfer them into a glass or ceramic container that has a lid or cap
Melanie’s note: It is best if the herb container is not made of clear glass. The herbs will last longer if they are away from the light. Also, make sure the container has a good, tight lid or cap. We want as little air in the container as possible. You may also put a cotton ball on top of the herbs to keep out air before closing the container.
Drying Herbs in Oven
To accelerate the process, the drying herbs in oven method is often used.
- After cutting multiple stalks of herbs, lay them out flat on a baking sheet
- Place the baking sheet in the oven and turn on at a low heat setting
- Turn the herbs regularly and check for progress by checking a few individual leaves
- When herbs are dried evenly, remove sheet from oven
- Remove and transfer the leaves to a container as described above
Melanie’s note: Many ovens do not heat evenly and are a lot hotter than people realize. For this reason, I prefer the natural drying of herbs. But if you are careful, the drying herbs in oven method will work fine and it is certainly a much faster method.
Drying herbs in a dehydrator is another fast and effective method. Specifically we are talking about a produce dehydrator used for vegetables. It is a small kitchen countertop appliance that can be purchased at most kitchen supply stores.
Drying herbs costs pennies and over the course of an entire year, using your own herbs in this way, can save hundreds of dollars compared to expensive store bought dry herbs. Our herbs will also be much healthier and more flavorful.
For more tips on how dry herbs are created at home to preserve your home herb garden treasures, and much more, make sure to sign up for my free 10 part email mini-course. It includes information on preserving herbs in salt, as well as herb tinctures, which is a liquid or medium for creating and preserving your medicinal herbs.
We also discuss how dry herbs can rid your life of harmful chemicals our modern lives have introduced to our homes. Our grandparents didn’t need these chemicals, so why should we risk our health with them?
See you in the mini-course! Talk soon,
Melanie
