Bluebonnets & Brownies » chicken

Easy Chicken and Dumplings

Amber — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:00:30 +0000

Everyone has their favorite chicken and dumplings recipe. I’ve even blogged about what I thought was mine.

But the other night, come 5:30, I was struggling with dinner ideas when an intense craving for chicken and dumplings hit me. With the nearest Cracker Barrel over an hour away, waiting for The Brit to get home and then making that trek was just not an option.

But that craving would not abate – so I started simple and quick, with organic chicken stock in a box. Then, I simply let my hands, and my gut, take over.
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Read the rest of Easy Chicken and Dumplings (388 words)

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Post tags: chicken, dinner, dumplings, easy, easy dinner recipes, quick, quick & easy, soup, stew

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Chicken Cordon Bleu

Amber — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:13:24 +0000

A while back, I was thinking about ideas for Bluebonnets & Brownies, and one of the things that stood out to me is I have a stupid amount of cookbooks, food magazines, and stacks of printed recipes hanging out in my office and kitchen that I have not cooked from. Things I mean to make, things I mean to glean ideas from, recipes and pictures that just made me drool when I stumbled upon them and hit print before I thought twice about the paper and ink.

And then there are those family favorites that for a while are part of your everyday rotation. But then you get bored of them, or a new favorite edges it out of the rotation, and somewhere along the way, that favorite meal becomes forgotten. Just like all those stacks of recipes and the cookbooks that line my shelves: I forget I have them in my arsenal when it comes to that age old question: /”Oh man, What do I make for dinner?!/”

This idea sat on the backburner until Maggy and I were cooking together one day and discussing our blogs, and our favorite family meals. Together we decided it would be really cool to create a themed series of posts that utilize all those forgotten cookbooks, recipe print-outs and childhood favorites.

As a blogger, you can choose to take an adventure by trying something out of your many thousands of printed-but-untested stacks of printed recipes or by grabbing one of those cookbooks you just HAD to have and then never cooked out of. OR you can take a nostalgic return to a family favorite. Either way, the reader wins, because we’ve got a visceral experience to write about: the adventure of the unknown, or the return to a magical dish of our childhood.

I give you:

Our hope is that other bloggers will use this idea as a challenge, and that we can follow each other’s Forgotten Finds by using the hashtag #forgottenfinds on Twitter, or by leaving a comment on either my post or Maggy’s with a link back to your new adventure or trip down memory lane.

Feel free to take the badge above, and use it on your own post. We originally thought to maybe do this on a specific day of the week, like Wordless Wednesday or Works for Me Wednesday, but this is about using the idea to get you cooking something you’ve forgotten you’d like to – so do it any time, any day of the week. We can’t wait to hear all about it!

Without further ado, I give you my mother’s recipe for Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole. It’s not the real thing, and I’m pretty sure any French person would be appalled that we call it what we do, but it is a meal directly from my childhood.

As comforting to me as enchiladas or chicken noodle soup. It’s one of the few meals my sister can make without a phone call to me for advice. That alone should tell you we know it well.

My first bite of this last night sent me back to balmy Spring nights in San Antonio, sitting around my family’s kitchen table, the four of us laughing and giggling at silly stuff. We even once got in a food fight when this was on the dinner menu. My dad launched peas at my mom with his fork, and she poured beer on his head. I had never laughed so hard in my life, and the memory has stuck with me, right down to what we were eating, since I was 8 years old. I said to James last night, “Mmmmm. This tastes like my childhood.”

I’m excited to see what comes of Forgotten Finds. I’m looking forward to new favorites, and reminders of old standbys that should return to our present thinking about that everyday question: “OMG, what am I making for dinner?!”

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

serves four to six

6 chicken thighs or breasts
6 slices thick cut deli ham (I prefer Black Forest Ham for this)
6 1/” x 2/” slices of Swiss cheese (if using deli slices, simply fold them in half)
8 oz (1 container) of mushrooms, diced
1 c. chicken stock
2 tbsp. flour
3 tbsp. oil or butter, divided
1 tsp. granulated garlic
1 tsp lemon pepper plus more for seasoning
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 c. milk or half and half

2 cups instant white or brown rice

Preheat oven to 425F. Spray casserole dish with cooking spray.

In a large frying pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil or butter. When hot enough to slide across the pan easily, add mushrooms and season with granulated garlic. When mushroom shave some color, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, stir once more, and then remove to a medium sized bowl.

In the same pan, heat the remaining 2 tbsp oil or butter until it again can slide easily across the pan when tilted. Add 2 tbsp flour to pan and whisk thoroughly and quickly to make a paste (otherwise known as a roux). Pour in the chicken broth and continue to stir with the whisk. Add the sour cream and milk or half and half and stir again until fully incorporated. Add in 1 tsp lemon pepper and stir again. Add uncooked instant rice and the cooked mushrooms back to the pan. Stir well to evenly distribute. Turn off the stove and remove pan from heat.

In a 9 x 13 baking dish, assemble your chicken rolls. Start with a slice of thick cut deli ham laying flat in the baking dish. Place the chicken thigh or breast directly on top of the slice of ham. Season both sides of the chicken breast liberally with lemon pepper. Place a 1/” x 2/” slice of Swiss cheese in the center of the chicken. Fold the chicken over the cheese to make a /”roll/”, and secure with a toothpick.

Repeat until all chicken thighs or breasts have been used and the baking dish is full. Return to the mushroom sauce/rice mixture and stir once before pouring directly over the rolls in the casserole dish. You may need to shake or tap the baking dish against the counter to evenly distribute the sauce/rice mix through the entire dish.

Cover with foil and bake for 55 minutes.

Remove foil carefully as steam will have built up underneath it. Remember to remove the toothpicks from each roll before serving, especially to little ones!

You may also cook the rice separately, but be aware that your sauce will be thin, and more soup like for pouring directly over the chicken and plain rice.

As a shortcut, you can also use Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup instead of making your own sauce. But give this homemade version a try first.

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Post tags: casserole, cheese, chicken, dinner, Forgotten Finds, ham, heirloom recipes, rice

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Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

Amber — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:30:48 +0000

Cheese enchiladas are comfort food to me the way matzo ball soup might be to someone on the East Coast. It’s just one of those satisfying meals that sounds good no matter what time of day it is, where you are, or whether or not you’ve just eaten.

I just got my Texas Monthly magazine yesterday (thanks to my hubby for subscribing), and this month is dedicated to “How to Cook Like a Texan”. Of Cheese Enchiladas, Katharyn Rodemann writes, “They say our palates memorize flavors. If that’s the case, every Texan has enchiladas learned by heart.”

Amen.

I’m surprised at myself for not making them more often, because they are so easy to make it is silly. Authentic enchiladas are made with corn tortillas, not flour. Don’t let the Kraft, Pillsbury, and Betty Crocker websites fool you. There is no such thing as Enchilada pie, or enchiladas made with flour tortillas. At least, not that any Tex-Mexican would recognize.

Knowing that I couldn’t get away with just cheese filled enchiladas in this household (The Brit would be asking me “Where’s the carne?” faster than you can say carnivore), I fattened up my enchiladas with some pulled chicken thighs poached in chicken and tomato stock, cumin, garlic, tomato paste and ancho chili powder.

We were both really happy with the outcome – even more so when Mr. B&B proclaimed them the “Best enchiladas I’ve EVER eaten”. Now, folks, my husband tells me all the time that what I’ve made is good or yummy. But the man is pragmatic as he is charming, so I rarely get a “best ever!” comment from him. It made me glow!

If you’d like to check out the spices I used in this dish, and get a chance to win your own custom set, head over to the SpicesInc.com giveaway open until April 1st!

Make these for dinner tonight. Cook like a Texan!

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

serves four

Chicken Filling
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
2 tbsp double concentrate tomato paste
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp ancho chili powder or hill country chili powder
1 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup chicken and tomato OR plain chicken stock

Add tomato paste, spices, and stock to a large sauce pan, and whisk to evenly distribute. Add chicken thighs directly to stock, and allow to cook on medium heat for 45 minutes to an hour, until chicken is fork tender and easily pulled apart by two forks. Stock should reduce down until there is almost none left. Pull all of the chicken so you are left with shredded chicken sitting in a little broth.

Chili Gravy
adapted from Robb Walsh’s Tex-Mex Cookbook
1/4 c. canola or grapeseed oil, or lard (yes, I cook with lard. Are you aware it has no trans fats, and LESS fat than butter and most oils?)
1/4 c. flour
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
2 tsp powdered garlic
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried Mexican oregano
2 tbsp ancho or hill country chili powder
2 cups chicken and tomato or plain chicken broth

Heat oil or lard in a large frying pan. When hot, whisk in flour until you’ve got a paste-like consistency, otherwise known as a roux. Add the rest of the spices and whisk again until fully incorporated. Add chicken stock to the pan and whisk continually until gravy begins to thicken. Turn heat to low, and allow to simmer for 15 minutes. If gravy thickens too much (should be the consistency of beef or chicken gravy that you would put on a roast dinner), add more chicken stock 1/4 c. at a time to thin to your desired consistency.

For enchiladas

8-10 corn tortillas
1 chopped onion
Shredded chicken thighs as prepared above
2-3 cups of sharp cheddar cheese
chili gravy

In a medium frying pan, saute approximately 1 chopped onion if so desired, until translucent and slightly brown. Remove to a bowl and save for enchilada assembly.

Preheat the oven to 450F. Line a plate with paper towel. When frying pan is cleared of onions, add approximately 3 tbsp. of oil to it. Allow to heat completely. Place the tip of a wooden spoon into the oil. When bubbles form and race away from the spoon, the oil is hot enough. One at a time, shallow fry corn tortillas, flipping after 30 seconds, until both sides are slightly browned, but not dark. Remove tortilla to paper towel lined plate, and continue on until all tortillas are fried.

Now you are ready to begin assembly. Place 2-3 tortillas on an oven safe plate, with enough room to fill each. Add 2 tbsp. of the shredded chicken mixture, a spoonful of cooked onions, and as much shredded cheddar cheese as you desire. Roll the tortilla and place back on the plate with the seam-side down. Continue with the other tortillas on the plate, until you have 2 or 3 enchiladas lined up in a row.

Cover the enchiladas with a ladle-full of chili gravy, and more cheddar cheese and onions as desired. Add refried beans and Mexican rice to the plate if desired. Place the plate in the oven to melt the cheese.

Continue assembly of all other plates required, adding them to the oven as each is finished. Remove the first plate as the cheese is fully melted and begins to bubble. Make sure to remove from the oven with an oven safe mitt, and serve on a place mat. The plate will be hot, as it would be in a Mexican restaurant.

Devour with copious amounts of Tecate beer, guacamole salad, and tortilla chips, as any good Texan would do.

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Post tags: cheese, chicken, dinner, enchiladas, Tex-Mex

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Weeknight Chicken Noodle Soup

Amber — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:00:16 +0000

I don’t know about you, but some nights I am wiped from work and the temptation to succumb to take out, eat out, or something in a box is almost too much to resist. One meal that James and I are happy to eat any time of year is chicken noodle soup. You may think that homemade soup is something you need hours and hours for, and yes, sometimes that’s true. But on a weeknight, it really is possible to have homemade soup in under an hour.

There are a few pantry items you need to keep on hand in order to make this possible, but believe me, once you’ve done that, when you go to stare into the depths of your fridge, and suddenly realize you’ve got everything you need for this filling and healthy supper, the wash of relief and hunger might just be at equal measures.

The nice thing about this soup is that it’s mostly root vegetables, which keep in your fridge for quite some time. I’ve also got a few tips and tricks for you. Celery will keep for weeks in a fridge, so long as you wrap it tightly and completely in aluminum foil. If you want to use fresh herbs in this, know that bunches will keep in the fridge a little longer in a cup with water in the bottom, just enough to cover any roots or cut ends.

As someone who is passionate about food, you might ask how I can recommend to you stock in a box. Well, I gotta be honest. So long as I’m buying organic, I honestly don’t see the difference between me putting the stock in a resealable container and someone else doing it. If you have your own frozen stock, or have time to make some a few days before – then great. But this is one of those short cuts that isn’t filled with tons of chemicals or more salt than you would use when making it yourself. So go ahead – allow yourself this shortcut. It’s great for emergencies like a random Tuesday night when you can’t face anything else but chicken noodle soup in under an hour.

If you know you’ve got a busy week ahead, pick up a rotisserie chicken when you do your grocery shopping. You don’t even have to eat it that night. It’ll keep for several days in the refrigerator, and then you have it on hand for several dinners: chicken sandwiches, this soup, or chicken caesar salad. Pick up the vegetables in the recipe below, and you are good to go!

Weeknight Chicken Noodle Soup

makes 6 to 8 servings

2 cups pulled rotisserie chicken pieces, or 2-3 diced chicken thighs
2 parsnips, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced finely
1 onion, diced
1 shallot, diced
1 leek, diced and thoroughly cleaned (Trader Joe’s sells bags of frozen chopped and cleaned leeks – these are great to keep on hand!)
1 turnip, diced
1 sprig of dill, chopped fine (or 1 tsp dried)
1 sprig of parsley, chopped fine (or 1 tsp dried)
2 boxes of organic chicken stock (stock, not broth)
salt, pepper, and season-all to taste
1 tbsp cooking oil

2-3 servings pasta, any shape you like. I used broken up angel hair. This soup is a great opportunity to use up all the broken pieces of pasta at the bottoms of all the boxes. I collect them into a ziploc for just this purpose.

Heat the tablespoon of oil in a large pan. I use a Le Creuset dutch oven or risotto pan as they are both deep enough to saute and cook the soup in. Once oil is hot, add in the chopped onion, shallot, and leek to brown. If you are using raw diced chicken thighs or breast, add now, and allow to brown. When all are translucent, add celery, carrot, parsnip, turnip and allow these bits to get some color as well. Stir often.

When all the root vegetables have started to soften, sprinkle the entire pot with kosher salt and pepper, and a seasoning like McCormick’s Season-All, Mrs. Dash, or Old Bay, if desired. Pour two boxes of chicken stock into the pot and stir thoroughly. If using rotisserie chicken pieces, add these now, as well as the parsley and dill. Also add the pasta at this time.

Allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes until everything is sufficiently hot and has time to marry the flavors.

When you first eat this soup, you’ll have lots of lovely broth to soak up with chunky pieces of bread. The next day, however, because of the pasta soaking up what’s left of that broth, you’ll instead have this wonderfully flavorful chicken noodle casserole that will make you doubly glad you stocked your pantry just for the purpose of making this soup. Top it with cheese, or bread crumbs, or simply eat it straight out of the oven reheated. No matter what, you’ve got two nights of dinner, done.

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Post tags: chicken, chicken noodle soup, dinner, soup

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Perfectly Peppery Popchip Chicken and a Giveaway!

Amber — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:00:48 +0000

Dear Internet: I would like you to know that I have solved the KFC recipe mystery. Well, kinda. Let me explain..

See, a while back, I went to BlogHerFood in San Francisco. And while we were there, we ate lots of yummy food from all over. But I’m a card carrying snacker, and one of my favorites from the whole weekend were the Popchips.

They’re super crunchy, like normal potato chips. But they have hardly any fat. How? Jeeze, I don’t really know.. something about pressure cooking. That’s where they get their name. They’re cooked under pressure until they just *pop*. What I do know is they’re super delicious. I’ve had original, sour cream and onion, and salt and pepper flavors.

It’s that last flavor that had me thinking how I could eat these little suckers beyond snacking, even before I got home from San Francisco.

When I was a kid, my mom sometimes made baked chicken using saltines for a coating. We were NOT a shake ‘n bake family, but oh how I wanted to be! The little girl in that commercial looked so happy shaking the bag. But no, my mom stuck with Saltines. And I love Saltines, but not on baked chicken. Still, something about these perfectly peppery chips had me thinking of that baked chicken again.

Here’s what I was *not* prepared for, people. When my experiment of Popchip coated chicken came out of the oven, and we took our first bites, both James and I were struck by the overwhelming guilty feeling of eating America’s guilty pleasure fast food fried chicken, i.e. Kentucky Fried Chicken. But our guilt was misplaced because not a single thing about the chicken is fried. Yet here we were, with perfectly crispy, perfectly wonderful, as-far-as-my-mouth-knows-fried chicken. Hooray!

Because I want you to know the deliciousness that is Popchip Chicken, Popchips and I are giving away a case of their delicious snacks. You’ll get the multipack – but imagine what you can do with that! This same recipe with the barbecue flavor. Or green bean casserole at Thanksgiving with the salt and pepper flavor. Or your favorite baked mac and cheese with the cheddar flavor to top it instead of bread crumbs. The possibilities are endless.

Or, and I’m goin’ out on a limb here, you could just stash ‘em in your lunchbox for a month’s worth of lunchtime treats. That’s what I’ll be doing with the rest of mine. Until I start craving this chicken again. Which might be sooner than you think. I’ve already had it twice this week.

Below is the recipe, and after that, the details of the giveaway.

Perfectly Peppery Popchip Chicken

for two – can be easily doubled or tripled

2 skinless chicken breasts, or 5 chicken skin-on drumsticks
1 1/2 c. salt & pepper flavor popchips
1 egg
splash of cream or half and half
McCormick’s Season-All seasoning
salt & pepper to taste

Begin by preheating the oven to 375F. Next, set up an assembly line for your chicken. One bowl or shallow dish with whisked egg-cream mixture, a second with crushed Popchips. I’ve made this twice now, and first just crushed them in a ziploc with a rolling pin. The second time I used a food processor. Both seemed to work well, but if you want a finer crumb, use the food processor. Add a sprinkle of Season-All to the crushed Popchips. Also, season your raw chicken with it lightly.

Next, dip your raw chicken into the egg wash, then dip it into the Popchips, coating completely. You may repeat if you want your chicken to be extra crunchy.

Place on a cooling rack that has been placed on top of a cookie sheet and sprayed with cooking spray. Baking chicken on a cooling rack allows the hot air to surround the chicken while it bakes, and will result in crunchy chicken all over, not just on top.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until chicken’s internal temperature reads 165F with a meat thermometer. We served our chicken with brussels sprouts and our favorite mac and cheese.

To win a case of assorted Popchips:

1) Like Popchips on Facebook.
2) Leave a comment telling me your favorite Popchip flavor, or which one you want to try – and confirm that you have liked Popchips on Facebook.

For more chances to win:

3) Follow @Popchips on twitter. (Leave another comment for this to count)
4) Follow @BluebonnetBaker on twitter. (Leave another comment for this to count)
5) Tweet the following, without quotes: “I just entered to win a case of @Popchips from @BluebonnetBaker. Yum! http://su.pr/2sZCe6 #giveaway #recipe“ (Leave another comment for this to count)

Contest only open to US residents.
Winner will be selected via Random.org and announced on Friday, November 12th. He or she will be contacted that day via email and have 3 days to respond before a new winner is chosen via Random.org.

We have a winner! Congratulations to Vanessa Noble, commenter #5! Vanessa, I hope you truly enjoy your Popchips, whether it’s snacking, or baking chicken. They’re delicious little morsels of win, for sure!

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Post tags: baked chicken, chicken, giveaways, Gluten Free, Kentucky Fried Chicken, KFC

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Sunday Suppers – Pulled Barbecue Chicken Sliders

Amber — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 03:00:13 +0000

Just the phrase Sunday suppers brings up a lot of memories for me. When I was a kid, we spent a lot of our time at my grandparents’. If you’ve read my blog before, you know how incredibly close to my Nanny and Gaga I was. We didn’t just spend Sundays there, during the summer we spent every day there. During those summer months, our entire family gathered around the dining table every lunchtime together. Not just my mom and dad, but my uncles, my aunt, and sometimes a friend or two as well.

Believe me, I know how lucky I was to have family meals like that every single day of my childhood. When we were with my Nanny, we helped her prepare lunch for everyone, whether it was sandwiches and soup (grilled cheese and tomato soup with Pepsi was always my Uncle Mark’s request) or S.O.S., which is one of Nanny’s. There almost always was fresh produce from her garden on the table, picked by us girls when we got out of the pool from our morning swim. Man, how I miss spending my entire day in my bathing suit, and going to bed at night sun-kissed and smelling of sunblock and chlorine.

Let me tell you something: Every single meal that I’ve made out of Pam Anderson’s Perfect One Dish Dinners has conjured up those same memories of lunchtimes spent at Nanny and Gaga’s. You see, it didn’t matter who was there at the lunch table with us. There was always enough food.

The electrician that came to repair something got there early? No problem – sit down to lunch, sir. Uncle Charlie decided to come in early from his ranch? No problem, here’s a plate. That’s how it always is with my nan. She’ll feed everybody that walks through her door. And she’s always the last one to sit down at the table, making sure everyone else is fed and watered before she can enjoy her own food. Because she simply can’t enjoy her food unless she knows everyone else is.

It’s that kind of hospitality that has me reaching for Pam’s book over and over again. I wrote about it when I shared the shells and cheese recipe back in September. I didn’t know what to make to please the particular crowd I had in front of me, but Pam sure did. These pulled barbecue chicken sliders go along with that mac and cheese. And using a rotisserie chicken gets the job done in half the time, and tastes like homemade.

Sunday suppers, people. It’s a tradition that never ought to go out of style. And it’s one that’s easy to start up again if you have this book in your arsenal. It’s not on the New York Times Best Seller list for nothin’.

Pulled Barbecue Chicken Sliders

1 package (24) small party rolls
2 cups shredded rotisserie or other cooked chicken
3/4 cup your favorite barbecue sauce (Pam’s is Cattlemen’s, mine is Stubb’s)
24 dill pickle slices

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Break rolls into individual buns and split in half horizontally. Mix chicken and barbecue sauce in a medium bowl. Top each roll bottom with a heaping tablespoon of pulled chicken and a pickle slice and cap each with roll top. Place rolls on a baking sheet and bake until warmed through, about 8 minutes. Serve.

Perfect One-Dish Dinners are making the rounds all over. Check it out!

DadCooksDinner.com
RecipeGirl.com
ArtofGlutenFreeBaking.com
KitchenGadgetGirl.com
MyBakingAddiction.com
Wenderly.com
BluebonnetsandBrownies.com
TheSensitivePantry.com
WhatsCookingBlog.com
TwoPeasandTheirPod.com
WhatsGabyCooking.com
Bellalimento.com
SmithBites.com
MyFavoriteEverything.com
FoodForMyFamily.com
SavoringTheThyme.com
Ivoryhut.com
DineAndDish.net
GlutenFreeGirl
Picky-Palate.com
TickledRed
SheWearsManyHats.com
WhatWereEating.com
ThisWeekForDinner.com
SugarCrafter.net
GoodLifeEats.com
RookieMoms.com
CeliacsInTheHouse
SteamyKitchen

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Post tags: chicken, one dish, sliders, Sunday Suppers

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How to get thrifty with a chicken

Amber — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:00:57 +0000

I can’t tell you a lie. James and I are really horrible at eating leftovers. Whether it’s from a restaurant or delicious food made right here at home, both of us are horrible at facing that same flavor combination the next day.

I’ve found a way to combat that though, when it comes to chicken. The secret to using a chicken (or two, depending on the size of your family) is to prepare it first at the least common denominator recipe, which in most cases means soup.

What led me to this epiphany is a recipe in the New Braunfels Smokehouse Cookbook, whose famous chicken and dumplings I’ve waxed on poetically about before. The recipe calls for you to cook the chicken in a pot with dehydrated onion and cumin, salt, and pepper, effectively making your own stock – which the recipe goes on to turn into a gravy for the chicken and dumplings. Where it separates from most soup recipes though, is that it calls for you to shred the chicken and add it back in, after the dumplings have had a chance to cook up.

When we’d eaten our NBS (New Braunfels Smokehouse) delights, I had a plate full of shredded chicken left over – that because of their method, was not committing us to a week’s worth of chicken and dumplings. (Come on, we all love chicken and dumplings, but 2 meals in a week is more than enough!)

So I froze most of the leftover gravy and dumplings for a future date, kept a little back for one day of leftovers, and then started to figure out what I was going to do with all that delicious chicken.

Do you know how easy it is to make dinner when the protein portion is already figured out?!

First up on the agenda, shredded chicken tacos. I lightly fried the corn tortillas like we do back in San Antonio while enough of the chicken reconstituted in a can of V8 juice, cumin, salt, pepper, and can of green chiles.

When the chicken was hot and deliciously moist, and the tortillas had just the right amount of give and crunch, I brought them together with cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, lettuce, cilantro, and a little lime. We made a side dish of brown rice cooked in pollo y tomate bouillon and refried beans.

The next night, we had leftover chicken and dumplings. The third night, we had chicken enchiladas.

A few weeks later, I did the same thing again. Only instead of making chicken and dumplings, I made chicken noodle soup. I didn’t add the chicken back until we had our individual bowls ready to serve, leaving us with more than enough chicken to enjoy more tacos, and chicken sandwiches with fresh tomato, lettuce, mayo, and crispy fried bacon. Another night we had barbecue chicken sandwiches, heating up the shredded chicken with barbecue sauce and then tossing it on hamburger buns.

The next time you want chicken soup, stew, or dumplings, pull that chicken yourself, and reserve the majority of it. We ate the entire week off a $4.50 chicken, and fresh vegetables and bread we got at the farmer’s market.

The moral of the story: Leftovers don’t have to be a drag.

New Braunfels Smokehouse Chicken & Dumplings
From the New Braunfels Smokehouse Cookbook

1 medium to large chicken
water to cover chicken
1 teaspoon cumin
1/3 cup dehydrated onion flakes
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups biscuit mix
2/3 cups milk
2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes

In a large stock pot, combine the chicken, cumin, onion flakes, salt and pepper. Add enough water to cover the chicken, and bring all to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cook for approximately 1 hour. When chicken is tender, remove from broth and set aside to cool.

When cool enough to handle, cut meat from bones, and using two forks, pull chicken to shred. Keep warm.

Strain the broth and return it to the pot, bringing to a boil. Mix the biscuit mix, milk and parsley together in a medium bowl. Drop by tablespoonfuls into boiling broth and cover tightly. Cook for 15 minutes, and do not remove the lid while the dumplings cook.

To serve, ladle 2 to 3 dumplings into a warm bowl, add chicken, and top with dumpling gravy.

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Post tags: chicken, chicken and dumplings, dinner, enchiladas, mains, soup, tacos

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Po’ Folks Chicken n’ Dumplings

Amber — Wed, 05 May 2010 00:49:44 +0000

Today was the first day in a very long time that some semblance of warmth enveloped Northern New Jersey. It was absolutely glorious. I can only blame myself, full of procrastination and a roaring upper respiratory infection, for not updating sooner. I’ve even had the pictures for this update uploaded to flickr for nearly two months. You’ll notice the Christmas tree lights in the background… Bad blogger is bad.

At the beginning of the month, we spent a week in Florida to celebrate my 30th birthday. 30 isn’t so bad, so far. There are some things I thought I would have accomplished by now, but there are even more that I never imagined would be under my belt, so I really can’t complain.

Turning 30 had me thinking a lot about when I was a kid. And the things that take you back to being a kid, like the foods of your childhood. One of the first restaurants I ever remember vividly liking and wanting to go to was a homey old place called Po’ Folks. Mom and Dad loved this place because they welcomed kids, and they were cheap enough (hence the name). A quick googling told me these restaurants still exist throughout the Southeast, but they’re no longer in Texas.

The signature dish at Po’ Folks? Stick to your ribs Chicken and Dumplings, served directly over creamy mashed potatoes. I think this is what kept them so stalwartly in my memory. Chicken, Gravy, and Carbs? On top of more carbs? Oh yeah.

In these last vestiges of Winter (I hope), we all still want this stick to your ribs fare. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t dreaming of when the deck won’t be covered in snow, the grill within easy reach, and a steak sizzling upon it. But savory chicken n’ dumplings with mash will sort me out while there’s still snow in the forecast, in between mild Spring days.

Enjoy it, dolls.

Po’ Folks Chicken n’ Dumplings
For 4, or 2 with leftovers (and believe me, you’ll want leftovers)

1 tablespoon oil
4-6 skinless chicken thighs, cut into bitesize chunks
3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 stalk of celery, whole (remove before serving)
A handful of chopped flat leaf parsley
6 cups chicken broth
kosher salt, Lowry’s or Nature’s Season-All, black pepper to taste

Cut chicken thighs into bitesize chunks. In a large stock pot or dutch oven, heat 1 tablespoon of oil (canola or olive is fine). Add chicken and allow to brown on all sides, for approximately 5-6 minutes. Add in diced carrots, allowing them to sweat down for a few minutes. If you fancy onion, this would be the time to add it, but I don’t think it needs it.

Add in chicken broth (stock in a box is fine for this), parsley and celery stalk, and allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes at least.

Dumplings

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons of salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk

For dumplings, combine the flour, baking powder, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, and milk in a medium bowl. Stir well until smooth, then let the dough rest for 5-10 minutes. When ready, use a regular tablespoon to create rounded mounds, and drop directly into your stew. The dumplings will swell at first, and then slowly shrink as they partially dissolve to thicken the stock. Simmer another 20-30 minutes until thick. Stir often.

Mashed Potatoes

4-6 medium Yukon Gold, Red Bliss, or Idaho potatoes
Chicken Stock (or water and a couple of bouillon cubes)
Butter
Milk, Cream, or Half and Half
Kosher Salt
Black Pepper

Peel and chop potatoes into 1 inch cubes. Fill to covering the chunks in a medium sauce pan. Use either more stock in a box, or water and some chicken bouillon cubes (2 should suffice). Cook on high for 15-30 minutes, until potatoes split apart when plucked with a fork. Drain away water, and mash with a potato masher. Add in 2 tablespoons of butter, a splash of milk or cream, and salt and pepper to taste, and mash again.

When the dumplings are to your liking, turn the heat off to the stew and remove the celery stalk. First, place a large spoonful of mashed potatoes into your bowl. Then cover with chicken and dumplings, and enjoy! If you like this, try putting any kind of soup on top of mashed potatoes. Vegetable beef, Beef Stew, Chicken Noodle, you name it, they’re pretty damned amazing served over mashed potatoes.

© admin for Bluebonnets & Brownies, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chicken, crockpot, dumplings

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Vickie’s Tortilla Soup

Amber — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:56:02 +0000

Tortilla Soup is quite famous throughout San Antonio, as the cure to many ills, from a common cold to a terrible hangover. Probably one of the best restaurants to get it from in SA is Jim’s Restaurant. In fact, the coffee shop is kinda famous for it.

Last time James and I were home, my sister’s best friend, Vickie, was nice enough to invite us over to a party at her new house. My sister met Vickie when she started her new job.

I haven’t been able to spend much time with Vickie because we live so far away. But any time I’ve spent time with her, I’m struck by how light and sweet she is, despite working in one of the hardest careers I know of: nursing.

At her party, she served this tortilla soup. It’s easily the best tortilla soup I’ve ever had. And it was exactly what James and I needed tonight, when we’re having horrible weather in New Jersey, and it’s cold, and we’ve both had long days. This soup has been in the slow cooker since 10 o’clock this morning, and wafting delicious smells through my house every since.

Come join Soup-a-Palooza with TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by Bush’s Beans, Hip Hostess, Pillsbury and Westminster Crackers!

Vickie’s Tortilla Soup

Directions
1 onion, diced
2 tomatos, diced
2 regular carrots, peeled and diced
4 potatoes, peeled and diced
2 zucchini, diced
6 cups of chicken broth
1-1 1/2 lbs chicken breast
1 tablespoon cumin
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 bunch of cilantro

Directions
I started by chopping all the vegetables except the cilantro and tossing them into the crock pot. Then I added the chicken broth, and allowed this to cook on low for about 2 hours. Then I added the raw chicken pieces (I used tenderloins) directly to the crock pot, and put it on high.

About 4 hours later, I removed the chicken pieces from the soup, and pulled them using two forks. This makes for very tender chicken throughout the soup, and guaranteed chicken in pretty much every bite. I added the chicken back to the soup, and just let it cook for another 3 hours on low.

The soup gets its name from what goes on top of it at the very end.

Preheat your oven to 350F. Take 1 corn tortilla per person eating, and cut the tortilla into strips. Place the strips on a baking tray, and spray them with cooking spray. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake the strips for about 8-10 minutes until crisp.

When you ladle up the soup, sprinkle it with some sharp cheddar cheese and the tortilla strips, and garnish with some extra cilantro.

It is delicious and warm and exactly what you need on a cold Autumn evening.

© admin for Bluebonnets & Brownies, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: camino, chicken, cumin, onion, potato, soup, tomato, tortilla, zucchini

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Easy Peasy Chicken Pot Pie

Amber — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:47:09 +0000

It’s cold here in New Jersey, and to me, that means its time for comfort food. Soups, stews, and pies! Pies like you get in England, savory, stick to your ribs food that keeps you warm when you go outside. Like when I’ll go outside to rake and leaf blow the ten thousand leaves on my driveway and front walk. Have I mentioned I live in a forest? I really do! And when I come back inside, if I’ve got a piece of this pie and a cold hard cider – well, then it’s all okay.

The great thing about this pie is that it can be put together in about 5 minutes, with very little kitchen clean up. That is, if you don’t mind using a little help from the red soup can. If you do, no problem, still easy to make. And oh so yummy.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

Makes one 9 inch pie

Ingredients
2 cups pulled or diced chicken
1 15 oz. frozen mixed bag of vegetables
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1/2 “can” of milk
2 tbsp. flour
2 tbsp. butter
Salt
Pepper
McCormick’s Season-All to taste

Directions
I roasted a chicken while my sister and niece were here earlier this week, so I used the leftover chicken from that. You can also use your leftovers from a grocery store rotisserie chicken. Simply carve the meat off the bone and tear or chop into bite size pieces. Place these pieces in a large bowl.

Next, get 1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables. I think it’s a 15 oz package. I use our grocery store’s organic frozen mix, which offers bite sized green beans, corn, carrots, and peas. Dump these into the bowl with the chicken.

Season with salt and pepper or McCormick’s Season-All to taste.

Then add 1 can of cream of chicken soup and about half a can of milk, or create your own with chicken broth, milk, and a roux of butter and flour.

Stir everything together until it the chicken and veg are well coated with the soup or roux mixture.

Since we all know I’m pastry crust challenged, I also used Pillsbury’s finest. But please feel free to make your own crust. I’ll just sit quietly in the corner, shooting you jealous looks because you can, and I haven’t mastered it yet.

One crust for the bottom of the pie – you may need to roll it out a bit to get the right fit for your pie tin. When the bottom crust is placed, fill the crust with your chicken-vegetable-soup mixture.

Cover with the second pastry crust, and then seal the crusts by pinching with your fingers to create a decorative edge.

Bake at 350F for 60-75 minutes.

Dinner. Done. Delicious.

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Post tags: chicken, chicken pot pie, easy dinner recipes, one dish dinners, pie

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