Charlie's Chicken

First, I have no clue who Charlie is…before we were married I received a great cookbook at a shower.  The cookbook was published by The Lovett School here in Atlanta and is called “Cook and Love It” (get it?).  Well very early in our marriage, I was trying to drum up a dinner out of the pantry and fridge and saw Charlie’s Chicken…looked simple enough.  I have probably made this once every month or two since then.  It is great!  Usually we have rice or noodles but last night I needed to use some potatoes so it was mashed spuds.  It really doesn’t matter as long as you have something to put the extra sauce on….you do NOT want to let that go to waste.

A final thought … why do chicken breasts never look good in pictures?  When I am a famous blogger I am going to hire a photographer since it is clearly not my forte!  Enjoy the recipe even if the photo is lacking!

Charlie’s Chicken:

4-6 Chicken Breast (can be boneless, or not)

1 pkg Good Seasons Italian Dressing (dry)

1 block cream cheese

1 cup white wine

2 Tbsp butter

Chopped parsley (optional)

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the chicken and sprinkle with the salad dressing.  Cook over medium heat until the chicken is browned, being careful not to burn.  In a medium saucepan, add the cream cheese and white wine and whisk over low heat until melted (can add fresh parsley if desired).  When the chicken is brown, remove to a 9 x 13 dish.  Add the pan drippings to the cream cheese mixture, and any leftover salad dressing mix and stir well.  Pour the cream cheese over the chicken and bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes until chicken is cooked to desired consistency. 

Serve the remaining sauce over rice or noodles.

Oven Chicken & Okra Gumbo "I got work to do Gumbo"

2 pounds okra, sliced into ¼ in rounds

1 medium onion, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 (14.5oz) can peeled whole tomatoes

1 (6 oz) can tomato paste

3 cups diced cooked chicken

6 oz. tasso or smoked ham, diced (I used smoked sausage)

1 quart chicken stock

Salt & Pepper to taste

4 cups cooked white rice

Preheat the oven to 250.  Combine the okra, onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic, tomatoes and tomato paste in a large roasting pan.  Cover with foil and bake for one hour or until tender.

Remove the foil and add the chicken, tasso, and broth.  Return to the oven uncovered and bake for 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until desired thickness.  Season with Salt & Pepper (I also added hot sauce).

Ladle the gumbo into bowls and spoon a little rice into the center of each bowl.

This recipe comes from a great cookbook, “Screen Doors and Sweet Tea” by Martha Hall Foose.  If you love southern cooking, this should be on your shelves.  I have done several recipes and they all worked well.  Last night we had a family friend coming to dinner, but (as usual) I had little time.  The subtitle from the cookbook caught my eye!  If you have made Gumbo, you know that the first 30 – 45 minutes are spent standing over the pot working the roux to be just the right color.  Yesterday I certainly didn’t have that time.  So, during my lunch hour (I work from home, so the commute back to the kitchen wasn’t bad), I cut up everything needed for the recipe and then about 4:00 ran down and put the pot in the oven.  About 5:00 I added the other ingredients and then took my sweet time to make the rice, set the table etc.  I thought this gumbo was very good – the downside is that it never develops that nice dark color and depth of flavor.  I’d call this more of a chicken stew…but very flavorful.  I assume the large amount of okra is to help thicken (which it did)…but if you are not wild about okra, you may want to use less and less chicken broth.  Or you could keep the same amount of broth, and add gravy flour and finish it on the stovetop.  Regardless, it was good, made plenty for dinner tonight also and I think was enjoyed by all (OK, so my kids didn’t eat the Okra…I confessed) .  You might notice I again forgot to take the picture before we dug in...thanks to J for being the Gumbo model :)  Remember this blog is about the food, not the poor quality pictures....

Chicken in Wine Sauce

Quick, Easy and Good

We needed something easy last night (read that as I needed something easy), and something that I could re-heat when my daughter got home late from her activities….I had printed this recipe off a while back from the Food Network web site.  It is a Paula Deen recipe.  I have had mixed results with her recipes…but have eaten in her restaurant, The Lady and Sons, several times in Savannah and it is always good…so my rule of thumb is it is comes from her restaurant then I am more likely to try it.  I have one of her early cookbooks (before she became nationally known) and it is very good  also– as a matter of fact, it reminds me I need to do her Bacon Cheeseburger meatloaf again…it was a big hit. 

I had some chicken breast in the freezer and just about everything else in the pantry so I thought we would try Lady and Son’s Chicken in Wine Sauce.  This one turned out well – not an “entertain the in-laws” kind of meal, but a good easy weekday meal for your family.   It was probably 5 minutes to put together and 45 to bake (time to make the sides and have a glass of wine!).  Everybody really enjoyed it…my husband deemed it “blog worthy”.  I did make one addition – I had a piece of thinly sliced country ham left over from the weekend.  I diced it and put it on top of the cheese…I think it added nice flavor, more like a Chicken Cordon Bleu taste.  This is purely optional.    One note on the chicken; I find that sometimes the chicken breasts vary significantly in size.  If I am going to cook the chicken with a marinade or sauce the fresh, larger breasts are best…but if it is going into a casserole like this, the packages of frozen chicken breast are more uniform in size so they cook evenly.  When either one goes on sale, I grab a couple of packages  and fill the freezer, because when they are NOT on sale the boneless, skinless breast can be pretty pricy.  Just make sure all of the breasts you use are pretty much the same size so they are all done at the same time.

Lady & Son’s Chicken in Wine Sauce

·         4 large skinless boneless chicken breasts

·         4 tablespoons butter, melted, plus more for casserole

·         Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

·         6 ounces (about 8 slices) Swiss cheese

·         1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup

·         1/4 cup white wine

·         1 cup herb-flavored stuffing mix, crushed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Add the chicken to a shallow buttered casserole and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Layer the cheese slices on top.

In a medium bowl, add the soup and the wine, season with salt and pepper and pour over the cheese. Sprinkle stuffing mix on top and drizzle with melted butter.* Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve.

Chili Rick

Chili Rick    

          

I am not sure who Rick is, but I’m a fan!  I am sure we have all made chili before…no great chef skills required…but somehow it usually tastes the same.  Last weekend I wanted Chili (it is just starting to feel like fall here and that just brings on a need for soups, stews and chili), but I wanted something different.  I did some internet searching over my favorite web sites, and found this recipe on AllRecipes.com.  This is really a great site; it includes  reader generated recipes with lots of comments from other cooks who have tried them.  I never try something without comments…and I read many of the comments for ideas on substitutions, side dishes etc.  If you are not familiar with AllRecipes, give it a try.  Anyway, this Chili had just outstanding reviews.  I think 4 or 5 comments said they had won Chili Cook-off’s with this….well that seemed good enough for me!

It turned out great.  Very different…and don’t be scared of the ingredient list…yes it includes bacon, barbeque sauce and chocolate.  But once all the flavors meld together I loved it.  This one goes to the top of the Chili pile and will be repeated many times.  Please note….I used half of the called for barbeque sauce and would scale it back even more (probably about 10 oz)…but do NOT leave it out completely….it really works with the other spices.  This was even better the next day, and makes a ton.  I froze half for later this winter.  Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Chili Rick's

2 (29 ounce) cans tomato sauce

2 (28 ounce) cans peeled and diced tomatoes

2 cups diced onion

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

1 pound bacon, diced

2 pounds spicy sausage

3 pounds lean ground beef

1 (32 ounce) bottle hickory smoke barbeque sauce (I suggest much less….about 10-12 oz)

1/2 cup chili powder

4 (15.25 ounce) cans kidney beans, undrained

2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped

DIRECTIONS

1.     In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, combine tomato sauce, tomatoes, onion and Italian seasoning.

2.     In a large skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until slightly crisp. Drain and stir into the pot.

3.     In the same skillet over medium heat, cook sausage until brown. Drain and stir into the pot.

4.     In the same skillet over medium heat, cook the beef until brown. Drain and stir into the pot.

5.     Stir the barbeque sauce and chili powder into the pot; taste and adjust seasonings. Stir in the kidney beans and chocolate and simmer until flavors are well blended. Serve.

This dinner is a HOME RUN!

Saltimbocca  Brown Butter Ravioli with Butternut Squash

Last night I went back to my friend Rachael Ray for dinner.  While I have made some of her recipes and didn’t really think they were that good, I must be on a roll… The past 4 or 5 things of I have made were very good and this was no exception.  I saw her make this on a taped show last week and it seemed very “fall” friendly.  Frankly, I don’t think I had ever cooked a butternut squash before.  Mom never made them growing up, and I just never saw a recipe that caused me to try it.  Since I KNOW I don’t like Pumpkin (yea, I know, it’s weird…won’t even eat a Pumpkin Pie), then squash was my option here.  I cut it in half and then peeled it with a vegetable peeler.  Cleaning out the seeds was very quick, and then I cut it up in a small dice.  It roasted quickly and gave me time to get the water boiling for pasta, and fry up the Pancetta…It really came together quickly (30-40 minutes with time for sipping a glass of wine), and everybody loved it.  By the way, I didn’t make the Balsamic Drizzle (which I think is Balsamic Vinegar and Brown sugar reduced down), but did drizzle it with a little Balsamic Vinegar and it was a nice kick.  I would very easily serve this to company and it was pretty inexpensive and except for the butter, pretty healthy.  It got both of my kids to say that the Butternut Squash “was pretty good…” High praise!

PS – Sorry no pictures…camera upstairs, dinner downstairs…hungry…you get the picture (Ha Ha)

1 2-pound sugar pumpkin or butternut squash, cut into 1-inch dice

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (eyeball it), plus additional for drizzling

Salt and pepper

Freshly grated nutmeg

1/3 pound pancetta, cut into fine dice

1 1/2-2 pounds good quality, fresh large cheese or wild mushroom and cheese ravioli

6 tablespoons butter

20 leaves fresh sage

Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, for shaving over ravioli

Balsamic Drizzle

PREPARATION

Pre-heat the oven to 400˚F.

Coat the pumpkin or squash with a few tablespoons of EVOO, then season it with salt, pepper and nutmeg and roast for 15 minutes. Turn it over and roast for 15 minutes more.

When the pumpkin or squash is a few minutes away from being done, bring a large pot of water to a boil for the ravioli.

Heat a drizzle of EVOO in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the pancetta and crisp, 4-5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and wipe the fat drippings out of the pan.

Drop the ravioli in the boiling water and cook for 3-4 minutes.

While the ravioli cook, melt the butter in the skillet, then add the sage leaves and crisp them up, about 2 minutes. Carefully remove the sage leaves, reserving them on a plate. Reduce the heat under the skillet a bit and allow the solids in the butter to brown.

Drain the ravioli and add them to the skillet. Toss to coat.

Arrange the brown butter ravioli on a serving platter with the pumpkin, and give everything a gentle toss. Top with the shaved Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, crumbled sage and Rachael's Balsamic Drizzle.

The easiest meal you will ever make…

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past couple of days.  Being new to the blogging world, I must admit my mistakes…I keep forgetting to take pictures of what I have made.  Usually, I am so ready to sit down and taste that we serve plates and dig in…about halfway thru the meal, one of my kids will say, this is pretty good, did you take a picture?  Uhhh, no…. think anybody wants to see a plate of half eaten pot roast?  Yea, me either!

I spent some time on Sunday with a pot roast.  It was good, actually pretty good, but not great and I thought it had a lot of steps.  While I am not trying to make every recipe I post here “quick and easy”, I do want to make sure the end result is worth whatever amount of effort is put in.  I don’t mind fussing with a roast on a Sunday afternoon if it is amazing….this roast had many steps, lots of ingredients and was just OK…so I am not sharing it.  When I find a great, easy roast for working folks, I’ll post it.

So today, I want to tell you about the easiest dinner you will make.  I mentioned it a few days ago; it is a Chicken Tortilla Soup.  I have to give credit to both my sister MC and Trader Joe’s for this.  As she was in  Trader Joe’s one day last year, the end-cap of an aisle had on it the following items and a recipe for

Chicken Tortilla Soup

(1)    Can of  Chicken

(1)    Large Box Chicken Broth

(1)    Jar Roasted Garlic Salsa

       Tortilla Chips

 You basically dump a large box of broth, the large can of chicken and the jar of salsa in a pot and heat it up.  When it is hot, crunch the tortilla chips in a soup bowl and spoon the soup over it.  Now, this indeed sounds too simple to taste like much….right?  Wrong!  The first time I made it, we finished the pot immediately.   The next time I did add about 3 teaspoons of chopped cilantro at the end, just because I had it in the fridge, and topped it with sour cream, however I have made it without both of these and it is fine. I have made this also with several different salsa’s…the key is to get one that is chucky and flavorful.  Trader Joe’s stopped carrying the Roasted Garlic Salsa shortly after this became a staple at my house, but I recently noticed it was back (they do that with lots of items).    Last week I spent a good deal of time making a “home-made” version of the same soup, and everybody thought it was inferior.  I am not a big fan of canned chicken…it has its place (like canned tuna), but it can taste pretty much like cardboard.  However, I have used both the Trader Joe brand, and Swanson from my Publix and they both work.  If I have some leftover chicken from another dish (or about ½ of a Rotisserie chicken), that is even better.  This is THE recipe to always have in your pantry…it is seriously about 5 minutes to make and everybody gets a good meal…  You can dress it up (chopped fresh tomato on top, add peppers if you want etc), or leave it alone…I think everybody will enjoy it regardless, and you know on the nights you come home late, tired and hungry you are minutes from a nice meal.   Thanks to MC and Trader Joe’s.

Football Worthy Food

Well this was not last night’s dinner (even though there was a football game on).  Last night was a time consuming Chicken Tortilla soup that was not nearly as tasty as the one I have with 3 ingredients – I will post the easy one here soon.   Last night’s recipe card was tossed quickly (a quote note…if you take the time to make something and don’t like it, either make a note in the cookbook or throw away the card…I have wasted time and money cooking something I didn’t like once and a year later I make it again!)

 I made these pizzas last weekend on a very rainy Saturday when I knew we would be sitting around watching SEC football most of the day (Football is close to religion in my family).  There are certain foods that you need with football – chips, dips, finger foods, nothing fancy etc.  I think there is becoming (at least in the South) a whole new category of food classified as “Tailgate”.  Even though we were not going to the game, I wanted tailgate worthy munchies.  Well, after some searching I went back to my friend Rachael Ray.  If you study her recipes you will find that many of them are a standard dish with a new spin.  (For example the Sheppard’s Pie stuffed potatoes…same ingredients, new presentation).  Anyway, she had a recipe for Buffalo Chicken Flatbread Pizzas.  Wow…two for one on the snack foods, pizza and Buffalo chicken!  They were fun, easy and everybody gobbled them up.  When I do them again (and I will), I may try whole wheat English Muffin or something a little smaller would be easier to handle.  These tasted great, but we all ended up with forks and having some of the chicken fall off the flat bread.

Buffalo Chicken Flatbread Pizzas

2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs, chopped into bite size pieces

Salt and Pepper

2 Tbsp butter

½ cup Franks Red hot Sauce

4 flatbread rounds (or 8 English muffins, see above)

3 ribs of celery sliced thin on the bias

¾ cup shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

¼ cup blue cheese crumbles

Pre-heat oven to 450

Place a large skillet over medium-high heat with 2 turns of the pan on EVOO, about 2 Tablespoons.  Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper, then add them to the pre=heated skillet.  Sauté until cooked through and golden brown, 4-5 minutes.

Reduce the heat to medium and add the butter to the skillet to melt.  Add the hot sauce and cook stirring occasionally, until the sauce had thickened and coats the chicken (Be careful not to take a deep breath over the pan or the hot sauce fumes could burn your sinuses!)

When the chicken is ready, place the flatbread rounds on a baking sheet and divide the chicken equally between all four rounds.  Scatter the celery over the chicken and top each round with some shredded cheese and blue cheese crumbles.  Bake until the bread is crisped and the cheese has melted, about 5 minutes.