Cat Cora’s Harvest Chicken & Corn Cakes Recipes (Access Hollywood Live)

Celebrity chef Cat Cora loves to whip up healthy foods that are simple for busy parents to prepare. She stopped by Access Hollywood Live to demonstrate three of her favorite recipes.

Corn Cakes with Ancho Sour Cream
Serves 8 (makes 36 cakes and 1 cup ancho sour cream)

Ancho Sour Cream:

• 1 cup sour cream, reduced fat or non fat
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ancho chili powder
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro

Corn Cakes:

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup yellow corn meal
• 1/2teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cups reduced fat buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup corn kernels, either frozen and thawed or fresh cut off the cob
• 2 scallions, white and light green parts, chopped
• Nonstick cooking spray

To prepare the Ancho Sour Cream: combine the sour cream and ancho powder in a small bowl. Stir in cilantro and mix well to combine. Cover and refrigerate until serving.

To prepare the corn cakes: Mix the flour, corn meal, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl. In another bowl, mix together the buttermilk, oil and egg. Gradually add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until blended. Add the corn and scallions to mixture, stirring to distribute evenly. If mixture is too thick, thin out with a little buttermilk.

Place a large nonstick skillet over medium heat and coat with nonstick cooking spray. Using a ladle, pour about 1/4 cup of the corn batter into the hot pan, giving you 3-inch cakes. Cook until golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Serve immediately with dollops of Ancho Sour Cream on top.
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Harvest Chicken with Polenta
Serves 4

• 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 4 6-ounce bone-in chicken pieces (breatsts, thighs, legs) skin left on
• generous pinches of Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups each red & green grapes, sliced in half
• 2 teaspoons chopped, fresh thyme, or 1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
• 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4cup vinocotto (also called saba, sapa, or mosto cotto)
• 2 TBS champagne vinegar
• 3/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 1/2 cup goat cheese
• 2 cups prepared polenta, cooked according to package directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a 10 inch sauté pan, heat 1/2 cup of the olive oil. Season the chicken with the salt and pepper. Stuff the skin with goat cheese. Add the into the hot pan, skin side down and sear until golden brown. Place in the oven, leaving the chicken skin side down the entire cooking time, 12-15 minutes. (This keeps the meat on the bottom from drying out).

While the chicken is cooking, toss the grapes, thyme, red onion, vinocotto, vinegar, remaining 1/4 cup olive oil, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Bring the chicken from the oven and place on a serving plate. Spoon the salsa over the chicken and top with toasted pine nuts.

Serve atop polenta prepared according to package directions.
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Lemonade Cookies

Makes 4 dozen cookies

It’s like a magic trick to pull a lemonade can out of the freezer and say to the kids, “Do you think we can make this lemonade into cookies?”

This extremely simple recipe might be the easiest cookie you’ll ever make. If you’d like to make the dough ahead of time, it can be refrigerated for several days if you seal it in two layers of plastic wrap. Dough straight from the refrigerator should bake for about 12 minutes; dough at room temperature bakes in just 8 to 10 minutes.

• 1 6-ounce can frozen lemonade concentrate
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar plus extra to sprinkle over cookies
• 2 large egg
• 2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest (optional)
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Fill a bowl with warm water and plop in the unopened can of lemonade to thaw while you mix the cookie batter.

In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), cream the butter and 1 cup of sugar. Add the lemon zest, if desired. Add the eggs and beat after adding each egg. Continue beating until the mixture is light and creamy, and then set aside. In a separate bowl mix the flour and baking soda together with a whisk or a fork.

Pour 1/2 cup of the thawed lemonade into a measuring cup and set the rest of the lemonade aside. Add about one-third of the flour mixture to the butter and sugar. Stir and then add about one-third of the lemonade in the measuring cup. Alternate adding flour and lemonade, stirring after each addition, until the mixture shows no streaks of flour. If using a mixer, beat on low speed just until all ingredients are combined.

On an ungreased baking sheet, drop rounded teaspoon of the dough 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies, checking them after 8 minutes. Take them from the oven when the edges are just starting to brown. As soon as you remove cookies from the oven, use a pastry brush to brush them very lightly with a little of the remaining lemonade, and then lightly sprinkle sugar over the top of each cookie. Transfer cookies to a rack and allow them to cool completely.