Episode 4.6 - Chicken is NOT boring!

Today’s chicken dish is extra special — not just because it was packed with flavor, but because of who it was made for.

I had the honor of cooking for the cancer patients and caregivers at  The Hope Lodge in Iowa City, a place where strength, love, and community show up in the most beautiful ways.

See video footage on my YT channel:

https://youtube.com/shorts/Crb9wLXcMkg?feature=share 

More recipes on my website:

https://giasitaliankitchen.biz

I built this dish around five powerhouse spices — turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, paprika, and cumin — each chosen for their warmth, comfort, and supportive benefits. Together they create a blend that’s soothing, nourishing, and deeply flavorful… exactly what I wanted to bring to the table.

Cooking for this community is a reminder that food is more than a meal — it’s connection, comfort, and a moment of care in the middle of a hard journey. I’m grateful to the American Cancer Society and the incredible team at Hope Lodge for welcoming me into their kitchen and their day.

To everyone fighting, supporting, and showing up with courage — this one was for you.

Let’s keep cooking, together.

| Spice  | Core Benefit
| Turmeric  | Anti-inflammatory power
| Ginger  | Digestive relief
| Cinnamon  | Blood sugar balance
| Paprika  | Antioxidant + circulation support
| Cumin  | Digestive enzyme support

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Transcript

Herb Flecked Popovers Made Simple

Moroccan Spiced Skillet Chicken Dinner

Recipe Links And How To Connect

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Hey, this is Kelly with Gia's Italian Kitchen. I cooked at the Hope Lodge. I'm doing this again next month, making a couple really great recipes that I wanted to share with you, and I thought I would just read them here so that if you can't uh look them up, you can listen in. But I will put the links to the recipes so that hopefully you can look them up later and go to my website and check them out and make them yourself. They're super delicious. One is an herb flecked popover, and I've actually never made a popover, and these were surprisingly super, super easy. And then the second one is skillet chicken with root vegetables and Moroccan spices. So both of these have come out of the American Cancer Society cookbook, and I kind of morphed them a little bit, but they're pretty true to form and really, really healthy ingredients, of course, all natural, organic if you can, and packed with antioxidants, anti-inflammatory herbs, and protein, which we all need. So whether you're on a cancer journey or not, these are really protein-packed recipes anyway. So the popovers. So this is the um little description that was in the book that I wanted to include because I think it's very descriptive. So for a comforting nibble, try these crispy popovers. As fancy as they seem, popovers take less than five minutes to make using a blender. The top hat shape comes from the steam forming inside them while they bake. Literally making the batter pop over the edges of the pan. The result is a soft texture inside and crunchy exterior. And they did this all by themselves. So, end of official description. This was crazy. Yeah, you put all these ingredients in the blender and you're kind of whipping the eggs, but they literally, it was like a souffle where they just it got these huge mountains, not huge, but you know, little mountains, in the oven, and it they were so cute. Oh my gosh. So very few ingredients: milk, flour, eggs, salt, butter, herbs. That's it. Um, and you put them in a muffin pan. So super easy to make ahead of time. Um, they were delicious warm though. If you can make the batter ahead of time and then bake them, they only take about a half hour to bake to eat that day or that, you know, within an hour of baking them, they were delicious warm. Um, but of course, you could make them ahead of time. So the second one is the skillet chicken. So here's the official description from the ACS cookbook. This mild meal of braised chicken and melting soft root vegetables has comfort written all over it. As the mixture simmers, the chicken broth becomes infused with its flavors and transforms into a light but deeply satisfying sauce. The Moroccan spices provide anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting benefits, making this an essential and cancer healing meal. End of description. Um I've been making this for my family just as a chicken rub because it's so easy and like it says, super, super awesome spices that make this healthy but really, really delicious. So um I've been kind of going back and forth between boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and I I do love to make uh chicken thighs, bone in skin on, just because it does add a lot of flavor, and then just take the skin off and don't eat it if you don't want to eat it. But of course, if you want to eat it, go ahead. Um cumin, ginger, turmeric, paprika, cinnamon. Those five spices together actually help boost even more when they're combined. But man, is it a delicious combination? So then I added olive oil to that, extra virgin olive oil, of course, to make a rub. Um, and then I've been rubbing the chicken when I've been doing the chicken thighs, but then you're adding leeks and garlic and potatoes, pars, carrots, or really whatever vegetables that you want. But these are some good healthy um writ vegetables that aren't, you know, just a potato that is more of a carb. Um, you could use sweet potatoes or yams, but I think that would actually probably change the taste of this dish. So I haven't tried that yet, but um we roasted the vegetables. You're doing the uh chicken either in a skillet or you can do it in the oven if you want to make that a little easier with after you do the rub. Um, and then it simmers to come back together so that the vegetables also get those spices infused and kind of becomes a one-pot meal at the end. Um so not not difficult at all. It it took less than an hour, um, and you can make the rub and you know dice up the vegetables ahead of time so that you really could turn this into a weeknight meal. Um it was so good. And then if you wanted, you could serve um serve a piece of bread or um uh you know some other starch with it if you wanted to, uh, a rice or a pasta or or not. I mean, you've got all these vegetables, so you do it is a pretty filling meal. Um, but I would definitely put it in a like a pasta serve, not serving dish, but a dinner dish or some deep plate so that you can include some of that broth in there with the each serving, uh, because then when you cut in, like if you have the potatoes, you can kind of squish those and get the broth in there. So good. So um I posted those to my website, and I will include links to that so that you can get to those. And I hope you try them out. Um, check out my website, Gia's Italian Kitchen.biz B-I-Z, Giaz G I A S, and lots of recipes there and um more information about other things like private cooking experiences or employee team building experiences. Um, I'm working on a cookbook. Hopefully, I get that going to an agent or a publisher in the next year or so. But I actually need an agent or a publisher because I don't even have those yet. So um, if you know anyone, send me a note, Kelly, K E L L E Y Y at Gelling Kit G is Italian Kitchen.biz, and uh connect me to someone. That would be amazing. So hope you have a great day and let me know if you try these recipes. Uh, I hope that you love them. Let's get cooking.