Spring Chicken and the V-egg

egg frittata

Ah, there's nothing quite like a little egg-related pun to get you through the dinner hour chaos. Who says cupcake pans are just for desserts? This recipe for mini-frittatas is pretty much a straight riff on something I stumbled upon at Nom Nom Paleo. I'm not following a Paleo diet, but there are some stellar recipes on this site and Michelle Tam, the fine lady behind it, recently published her super popular first cookbook. The difference here? Instead of a whole lot of ground beef, I am using a mere cup of leftover chicken; it was a combo of fried chicken leftovers from the Bayou and Saison chicken from Black and Blue, both awesome but in different ways. I also used 7 eggs and probably could have gone up to 8, to compensate for the reduced amount of protein in these versus the original recipe. Ingredients

• 7 eggs
• 1 T. Dijon mustard
• 2 T. plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 tsp. Hungarian paprika
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 T. coconut oil, butter, or olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 cups kale, chopped
• 1 cup chicken or other protein, diced
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half (or thirds if large)
• 1 cup asparagus, diced
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta
• 1/4 cup chives, chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Whisk together the eggs, mustard, Greek yogurt, paprika, a couple of pinches of Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper together in a medium bowl.
3. Melt your fat of choice in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until almost translucent and soft, 4-5 minutes. Add the kale, turn the heat down, and place a lid over the pan so it gently wilts. Check it about 2 minutes later; it will collapse quickly.
4. Add the kale-onion mix, chicken, tomatoes, asparagus and chives to the egg mix bowl. Stir to combine.
5. Grease the cups of a cupcake pan with butter and flour, or line them with cupcake liners. You do not want to just put them in there au naturale. They will stick. I learned this the hard way.
6. Using a ladle or 1/4 cup ice cream scoop, distribute the egg-veg mix throughout the cups. Crumble a bit (about 1 tsp. or so) of feta over each mixture. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, rotating the pan about halfway through, until they're puffy and, if desired, lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack for about five minutes.

after egg