chicken

Baked Chicken Taquitos

Some of our great friends are leaving the hustle and bustle of Amarillo and are moving down to Houston at the end of the month.  We’re very sad to lose them and they will be missed!  It’s even more sad since they are some of the only Aggies we know up here!  We had a little going away party for them this past weekend.

We had an hors d’oeurves dinner and had a wide variety of tasty foods that I need recipes for now.  A super delcious queso, spicy jalapeño, black bean and corn dip, and some crazy good chocolate chip cookies.

I made chicken taquitos that turned out to be pretty good.  These were easy to prepare ahead of time, easy to assemble, they re-heated well and were a popular item on our buffet table.

I used a rotisserie chicken, a “Fiesta” blend of cheese and added a little more lime juice and cilantro than the original recipe.  Low fat cream cheese is fine in this recipe.  You can change up the filling any way you’d like.  There are so many options with taquitos!  I made a black bean and corn version that people liked even more than the chicken ones, so I’ll get around to typing that one up in the next couple days.  Enjoy! (more…)

Chicken, Spinach & Mushroom Lasagna

This week was going to be a busy one.  With every other night but Monday being packed with some event, I wanted something to make for dinner on Monday night that would create good leftovers for the week and be quick to reheat.  Lasagna it would be.  And because I like to try new recipes, I tried this one.

It was OK, but Ben agreed that I have a better white lasagna recipe that I’ll probably stick to for now.  This artichoke and mushroom lasagna is pretty spectacular.  You can add chicken to it if you want to, but it doesn’t need it.  It is a great vegetarian dinner option.  I’ve made it for a few guests before and everyone seems to like it…or they’re just being nice!

Anyway, there were some great things about this lasagna.  Melted in to the béchamel sauce is a creamy herb cheese that gives a great lively flavor.  I made the mistake of trying to use 2% milk instead of whole milk in the béchamel, leaving it pretty runny even after baking.  I’m not entirely sure it was just a milk problem, though.  When I’ve made béchamel sauce in the past I’ve always made a butter and flour paste before adding the milk.  This recipe didn’t call for any flour.  I ended up adding some when I saw how thin the sauce was, but it didn’t solve the problem.  So, I made some changes to the recipe below to help others avoid the runny béchamel.

Another change I would make it to cut the chicken into smaller pieces.  I might even suggest shredding it.  The pieces were just a little too big to get a good combination of noodle, mushroom, spinach, chicken and sauce in one bite.

The flavors are wonderful, and I like the combination of ingredients.  I skimped on some of the cheese since I have often found lasagnas a bit too heavy on the cheese, but I might have skimped too much since the layers didn’t hold together well.  It’s hard to tell what this would have been like if the béchamel had been thicker.  It may not need more cheese…but then again it may.  I don’t know for sure.  I would guess that a thicker sauce would mean the same amount of cheese listed would be fine.  But if you like cheese or you just don’t trust me, add more.

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Chicken, Tomato & Zucchini Packets

One of the best things about this meal, besides being quick and simple, is that it is almost completely free of any kitchen clean up!  By baking the chicken and vegetables in little foil or parchment packages, you don’t have to worry about scrubbing down a pan that is coated with the remnants of roasted vegetables.  It felt so good to just wad up the foil and toss it in the trash!  I am sure Ben was thankful as he is almost always the one who does the dishes after dinner.

So, is this quick, simple and clean-up free meal any good?  I thought so.  The recipe is from Eating Well and is full of vegetables.  I love when a meal is heavy on warm cooked veggies.  Having a salad can be a good way to get your daily amount of vegetables, but it can often become monotonous.  This is a good way to actually incorporate vegetables into your main course instead of having a separate salad with your meal.

I used more tomatoes than called for in the recipe, replaced the cubanelle pepper with an anaheim, and only used one shallot since the ones at the grocery store were monsters!  These guys were huge.  I also made the great error of leaving out the mustard.  This came to my attention as they were coming out of the oven…not the best timing.  So, I just spread some mustard onto the chicken after it was cooked, and all was well.  I am sure it would have been better had I remembered the mustard earlier, but it didn’t ruin dinner.  I served the chicken with white rice, and so the liquid that remained in the packets was a good sauce despite its thin consistency.  Since I had it on hand I used dried thyme, but I think that fresh would give this a much better flavor.

Overall, a good, tasty meal that can be scaled down to make a quick dinner for 2. If you’re like me, finding recipes and cooking for 2 is often a challenge, unless you want leftovers for the rest of the week.  A reviewer on eatingwell.com said she doubled the ingredients and cooked everything in a Dutch oven, so that is another way to go to serve a larger crowd.  Enjoy!

Chicken, Tomato & Zucchini Packets

From Eatingwell.com

Ingredients

  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, (1 1/4-1 1/2 pounds)
  • 2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
  • 2 small zucchini, thinly sliced
  • 2 sweet banana peppers, or cubanelle peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces (I used 1 anaheim)
  • 2 shallots, thinly sliced (I used 1)
  • 1 1/2 cups halved grape or cherry tomatoes
  • 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  2. For the foil packets you will need 4 pieces of foil, about 18 inches in length.
  3. Place a chicken breast in the center of one piece of foil and spread with mustard.
  4. Toss zucchini, peppers, shallots, tomatoes, oil, thyme, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Place about 1 1/4 cups of the vegetable mixture on top of each piece of chicken.
  5. Close the packet to cover the ingredients. Starting at the top, seal the packet by folding the edges together in a series of small, tight folds. Twist the tip of the packet and tuck it underneath to help keep the packet closed. Place the packets on a large rimmed baking sheet (packets may overlap slightly). Bake until the vegetables are tender and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the chicken registers 165°F, about 25 minutes. (Carefully open one package to check for doneness and be cautious of the steam.) Let the packets rest unopened for 5 minutes before serving.

Tomatillo Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

A while back I posted a recipe for chicken enchiladas from Tyler Florence.  They were good, but not the best.  At the beginning of that post I mentioned my all-time favorite recipe for chicken enchiladas, but did not provide it.  What was I thinking?  How could I be so selfish as to say how wonderful something was, but not share it?  I must apologize and make up for it by sharing this incredible recipe with you now.  I made  these enchiladas this weekend and they were a hit  that night for dinner, and last night as leftovers.

There are a few shortcuts to this meal, but the sauce totally makes this dish, so don’t try to use any shortcuts there.  When I have time I boil my own chicken and shred it, but you can save quite a bit of time by shredding the meat from a rotisserie chicken.  I also use a cup of the chicken broth to make the sauce when I boil my own chicken.  This time I used 3 large skinless, bone-in chicken breasts, and that was just enough chicken.  Using pre-shredded cheese is an obvious time saver.  You can put the enchiladas together and refrigerate or freeze them until you want to bake them.  The sauce also freezes well, but freeze them separately and thaw them in the fridge overnight before baking.

You can add more green chiles to kick up the heat, which I usually do.  The cheese is also something you can play with.  More or less is fine, but leave it out entirely and you’ll be sad and sorry.  If you have leftover turkey, then use that in place of the chicken.

This recipe is from Austin, Texas Junior League cookbook, Austin Entertains.  You can purchase it here.  The recipe is below, and just slightly adapted.

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Chicken And Fennel Flatbread Pizza

Fennel in one of my favorite vegetables.  The flavor of fennel is quite similar to anise, but they are not the same vegetable.  It is delicious raw, sliced in a salad.  It is completely different in flavor when cooked in a casserole, like this potato and fennel gratin which is quite tasty.  It is incredible roasted with other vegetables when the edges get a bit crunchy and caramelized and the flavors mellow.  Fennel leaves look like dill in their delicate, thin, wispy green appearance.  These leaves are used as an herb.  The fennel bulb is used as a vegetable.  Fennel is one of the main ingredients in original absinthe.  I love fennel.

The use of fennel in this recipe is what caught my eye on the Eating Well website.  Yes.  I am posting yet another recipe from the site.  Everything I’ve made so far has been wonderful, so I’ll keep trying things until I hit a bump.  Then I’ll back off, but not until I find something that doesn’t make me want seconds.

These pizzas are not greasy or overly cheesy.  The vegetables add great flavor, and the chicken is much better for you than pepperoni or sausage.  There isn’t any sauce on the pitas, which I thought would make them a bit dry, but they were not even close.  The little bit of cheese goes a long way and you don’t miss the sauce.

I changed the recipe just a bit.  I added salt, pepper and minced garlic to the chicken before cooking it, and I cooked the vegetables and chicken separately.  On two of the pizzas I used feta cheese instead of provolone and sprinkled some red pepper flakes on the finished products.  A combination of provolone and feta would be better since feta doesn’t melt very well.

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Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

This past few days I have been hearing a lot about Mardi Gras.  I have seen many blog posts featuring Mardi Gras recipes like King Cake and Gumbo.  The recipe websites that I frequent like allrecipes, epicurious and myrecipes also have little sections devoted to this day and time of year.  Why not jump on the bandwagon?

I was feeling very ambitious as I began looking for recipes and was set on making a King Cake.  Unfortunately, I didn’t think that I’d have time to make one after work unless I wanted to be up until the wee hours of the morning since the dough has to rise for about 2 hours.  I should have made it anyway because with just two people, I had a much better chance of getting the baby and being Queen for a day!

I settled on jambalaya.  Jambalaya is a Creole dish with Spanish and French influences.  These cuisines were meant to be combined.  I have only been to New Orleans once.  I went with a couple friends in college the year before Katrina.  We ate great food.  There is something wonderful about the flavors and ingredients that they use that is just incredible.  I wanted to go to Emeril’s Delmonico, but we were college students on a college students budget.  We did eat beignets at Cafe du Monde and got powdered sugar all over ourselves as we drank chicory coffee.  I loved every minute of that trip.

This dish is very simple and quick.  There is no seafood in this jambalaya, but you could easily add shrimp to the mix during the last 5 minutes or so.  I would decrease the sausage to 1 pound if you decided to add about 1/2 pound of shrimp.  Another ingredient that is common in jambalaya is tomatoes.  There are none here, but I will consider adding a can of chopped tomatoes with the juice next time I make this.

The flavors are great and not overpowering or too salty.  I did not use the cloves because I thought I had some, but I was wrong.  I am sure that would have been a great addition, but it was just fine without it.  The moisture is just about perfect.  I did add another 1/2 cup of chicken broth after about 20 minutes of cooking because it looked like it would be a bit dry.

Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

Courtesy of Bon Appetit, 1997

Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 pounds of chicken pieces
  • 2 cups chopped onions
  • 2 cups chopped green bell peppers
  • ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 ½ to 2 pounds kielbasa or other fully cooked smoked sausage, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 3/4 teaspoon (or more) cayenne pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 3 cups long-grain white rice
  • 6 ½ cups canned low-salt chicken broth
Directions
  1. Heat oil in heavy large pot over high heat. Working in batches, add chicken and cook until brown on all sides, about 8 minutes per batch. Transfer chicken to platter.
  2. Reduce heat to medium-high; add onion, bell peppers, parsley and garlic to pot. Sauté until onions are tender, about 5 minutes.
  3. Add sausage, bay leaves, chili powder, thyme, cayenne pepper and cloves; sauté until spices are fragrant and flavors blend, about 5 minutes. Add rice; stir to coat.
  4. Pour broth over rice mixture in pot. Add chicken; press to submerge in liquid. Bring to boil.
  5. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until liquid is absorbed, rice is tender and chicken is cooked through, about 35 minutes. Remove bay leaves. Season with salt, pepper and more cayenne pepper, if desired. Serve hot.

Classic Chicken Noodle Soup for the Soul

The last few days have been a bit, well, what’s the word…bad?  No, that will not do.  Terrible.  Dreadful.  Upsetting.  Frustrating.  Disheartening.  Disappointing.  Oh, and tear inducing.  Those will work.

Here is my story.  I was scheduled to leave Amarillo Friday morning at 6:55 to help prepare everything for my sisters baby shower that is today at 3.  I took the day off of work a few weeks ago, and days off are a precious commodity.  As you may or may not know Amarillo received a good foot of snow on Thursday resulting in both Ben and I getting the day off!  So exciting!  Or so I thought.

The Panhandle weather also caused business closures, highway closures, and flight cancellations.  As of this moment my flights have been cancelled and rescheduled a total of 3 times.  If all goes well, I will be in Austin tonight.  I will miss the baby shower and the 3 dozen bird cookies that I made will not be enjoyed.  The cookies I spent all day Thursday rolling and baking.  Argh.  They are cute, no?

I know that I should not complain.  Some people have been affected by the weather in far worse ways than I.  I am in a warm house and I am safe, so I am thankful for that.  I am sad about not being able to see my family.  After Southwest called me this afternoon to cancel my morning flight for tomorrow I decided that I needed to make something for dinner that would bring some sort of comfort to my weary soul!  Nothing says comfort like chicken noodle soup.

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Chicken and Mushroom Crepes

Leftovers are tricky.  Some things are great left over.  Pizza is even good cold straight from the fridge for breakfast.  Lasagna, spaghetti, and most casseroles take to reheating very well.  Unfortunately, a lot of foods are not good on their own left over.  However, with some creativity, leftovers can be transformed into something deliciously new and sometimes even better than the original.

I made tarragon chicken fricassée the other night and it was great.  Since it made 4 pretty big servings of chicken, I was left with two chicken breasts and some sauce.  What to do with these leftovers?  I was not about to toss them in the trash.  I thought about chopping them up and making chicken salad or combining them with the leftover egg noodles and some sauteed mushrooms and making a baked pasta.  I have no idea what made me think of crepes.  Some supreme culinary power must have influenced me, because it was a wonderful idea.  Chicken and mushroom crepes!

I know what you’re thinking.  Crepes are meant to be eaten for breakfast.  OR with sugar sprinkled in them, wrapped in paper, handed to you by a cute little Frenchman from a food cart and munched on while walking the streets of Paris at 10 pm.  Or is that just me?  I had the luxury of doing that exact thing on a French club trip in high school.  I must go back there.

Crepes are not meant to be confined to the categories of breakfast and sweets.  They can be a perfect thing upon which to serve savory items as well!  There is an adorable little trailer restaurant called Flip Happy Crepes in Austin where my sister and I ate for her birthday a few years ago.  We ate lunch there and didn’t even try the sweet crepes.  This was my first introduction to the savory crepe, and it was spectacular.

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Tarragon Chicken Fricassée

My attempts in writing the title to this post resulted in many misspellings of the word “fricassée”.  I will not tell you the number of times I tried and failed to spell it…and do not ask Ben, because he will probably tell you and I will be embarrassed.

Despite the difficulty involved in spelling this French word, this tarragon chicken fricassée was quite easy to prepare and very delicious.

Fricassée is, by definition, meat, usually chicken or veal, browned lightly, stewed, and served in a sauce made with its own stock.  The origin of the word itself is French, but there are many regional variations of a fricassée.  Greek and Cuban fricassée are a few that I saw while searching for recipes.

The meal I made was, if I had to ascribe it to a region, French.  I love the flavor of the fresh tarragon.  It gives this dish an incredibly fresh flavor and perfectly slight sweetness.  Tarragon is a classic herb used in French cooking, and is considered to be one of the four fine herbs of Mediterranean cooking.  The other three are parsley, chives and chervil.

Some fricassée recipes use a variety of vegetables along with the chicken.  Quite a few recipes included mushrooms and onions.  A few had vegetables like peas, beans or peppers.  One recipe I saw had apples.  This recipe is simple in that the only vegetables to be found are shallots and tarragon.  Is garlic a vegetable?  Is tarragon a vegetable?  Anyway.  This is a simple chicken fricassée which allows for the flavors of the tarragon, chicken, white wine and cream to really shine and not be covered or overshadowed by a bunch of other stuff.

Everything in the recipe below is just as it was originally, except I used 4 chicken breasts and added more tarragon.  You can find the original recipe here.  I served this with green beans with toasted walnuts and egg noodles.  I will definitely be making this again.  I used the leftovers in a really special meal the following evening…more on that later.

Tarragon Chicken Fricassée

From Epicurious.com

Ingredients
  • 4 bone-in chicken breasts (skin on or off)
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • ½ cup finely chopped shallots
  • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • ½  cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
  • 1 ½ – 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon
  • ¼ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Directions
  1. Pat chicken dry and sprinkle all over with salt and pepper.
  2. Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté chicken in 2 batches, skin side down first, turning over once, until browned, 10 to 12 minutes total per batch. Transfer to a plate.
  3. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons oil from skillet, then cook shallots, garlic, and bay leaf over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until shallots are softened, about 2 minutes. Add wine and bring to a boil. Stir in cream, broth, and 1 tablespoon tarragon, then add chicken, skin side up, and simmer, covered, until just cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer chicken with tongs to a platter and keep warm, loosely covered. If necessary, boil sauce until thickened slightly.
  4. Stir in lemon juice, remaining 1/2 tablespoon tarragon, and salt and pepper to taste. Discard bay leaf; pour sauce over chicken.

Chicken Spaghetti

Pioneer Woman is a blog I’ve been following for a few years.  Ree Drummond has exploded in popularity, written a cookbook and has thousands and thousands of followers.  I love the food part of her blog the best.  I am incredibly jealous of her photography.  And I am amazed that she has the time to home school her kiddos.

Anyway, this recipe for chicken spaghetti comes from her.  I changed a few things; omitted the pimientos, added red bell pepper, more onion, more green bell pepper, less cheese and added the Panko bread crumbs for a nice crunchy topping.

Ben and I both really enjoyed this.  Ben said it “tasted healthy” and I think he meant that in a good way!  While it is not terrible for you, you could make it healthier by using fat-free, reduced sodium cream of mushroom soup, using even less cheese, whole wheat spaghetti noodles, skip the cheese on top and instead top with whole wheat bread crumbs mixed with a teensy bit of butter.

This casserole seems like it would be pretty kid-friendly, but I have not tried it out on any kids so don’t take my word for it!  I did not freeze this dish, but baked it right away.  Pioneer Woman gives instructions for freezing, which would make this such a great meal to freeze and have on hand for a busy weeknight.  If you’re like me and only feeding a household of 2, then this meal could be split between two smaller dishes; one to eat that night and the other to freeze and eat later.  I like having stuff like that to use when I have a crazy week.

Chicken Spaghetti

Courtesy of The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients
  • 3 – 4 chicken breasts (about 1 ½ pounds)
  • 3 cups Dry Spaghetti, Broken Into Two Inch Pieces
  • 2 cans Cream Of Mushroom Soup
  • 1 ½ cups Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
  • ½ cup Finely Diced Green Pepper
  • ½ cup Finely Diced Red Pepper
  • ½ cup Finely Diced Onion
  • 1 ½ – 2 cups Reserved Chicken Broth From Pot
  • 1 teaspoon Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
  • ⅛ teaspoons (to 1/4 Teaspoon) Cayenne Pepper
  • Salt And Pepper, to taste
  • 1 cup Additional Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
  • ½ cup Panko Bread Crumbs
Directions
  1. Bring a pot of water to a boil along with some whole peppercorns& kosher salt.  If you have some carrot, celery, and onion, add them to the pot as well to make a more flavorful broth.
  2. Add in chicken breasts and cook for 20 minutes, or until cooked through.  Remove from water and transfer to a plate to cool.
  3. If you added veggies to your broth, strain the broth, and add the broth back to the pot and heat to a boil.
  4. Cook spaghetti in same chicken broth until al dente. Do not overcook.
  5. Shred or chop the chicken into small pieces.
  6. When spaghetti is cooked, combine with remaining ingredients except additional 1 cup sharp cheddar.
  7. Place mixture in casserole pan and top with remaining sharp cheddar and Panko crumbs.
  8. Cover and freeze up to six months, cover and refrigerate up to two days, or bake immediately: 350 degrees for 45 minutes until bubbly. (If the cheese on top starts to get too cooked, cover with foil).