Chicken Tamale Pie

It snowed last weekend. I mean, it SNOWED last weekend. Inches and inches and inches, not to mention there were ferocious gusts of wind that whipped across the lake. Comfort food was definitely on the menu Sunday to top off our frigid weekend. I chose a recipe I’ve wanted to try for months:“Granny’s Tamale Pie” from the October/November 2009 issue of Cook’s Country magazine.

The recipe came from a recipe contest for “America’s Best Lost Suppers.” According to the article, “Some 70 years ago, the elderly wife of a sheep rancher bestowed this unusual recipe on Betty’s family. Now Betty is sharing it.”

Well, Betty, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for sharing.

Chicken Adobo

This week was a great week- mostly because I wrapped up work travel for awhile. That leaves me with free time to start my weekly tradition of trying at least one new recipe. This week’s pick is Chicken Adobo from the January 2011 issue of Cook’s Country. It really is a great magazine filled with great tips and fantastic recipes.

Chicken Adobo is simple, inexpensive, and spicy! The flavor has a lot of layers as a result of the molasses and instant coffee, and the use of chicken thighs instead of white-meat chicken.

Thanksgiving-style Skillet Chicken

Fall is here and that means Thanksgiving is right around the corner. And that also means I start craving stuffing. Nothing fancy, I’m happy with the stuff right out of the cardboard box, so that’s why I was excited to find a recipe for Thanksgiving skillet chicken in the latest issue of Cook’s Country. This recipe had a TON of stuffing—in all honesty you could probably feed 6-8 people with it if you increased the number of chicken pieces. It’s also really quick and easy—it took about 35 minutes from start to finish.

This is really yummy-what makes it so good is you mix cranberry sauce into the stuffing, and the stuffing is put on top of the chicken, so it gets crispy and brown on top. Mmm, mmm, mmm!!! (And you can justify eating all that stuffing becuase it's made with lean meat and has antioxidant rich cranberry sauce).

Roasted Chicken with Garlic and Herbs & Roasted Garlic Gravy

Friday was fun day since we had the day off from work. It was one of those dreary, cloudy days that just begged for some comfort food. I decided to roast a chicken for dinner. I wasn’t  sure what to do to add some flavor, but then I remembered my little herb pot out back, so I headed out to see what I could find.

There was a little bit of parsley, and a whole bunch of sage and thyme, which met their end at the blade of a knife.

 ‘This is a good start’, I thought to myself. ‘But what else can I add?’

Then I recalled the large jar of minced garlic in the fridge. Yum- fresh herbs, garlic, with a little bit of salt and pepper added in, would make a great rub for the chicken.

After I rinsed the chicken and patted it dry, I rubbed the herb/garlic/salt/pepper mixture under the skin. Then I trussed the chicken (not sure if it’s the proper way to truss, but it looked almost identical to the illustration in the Joy of Cooking), put it in a casserole dish, coated the outside with olive oil, seasoned the skin with salt and pepper, and put it in a 350 degree oven.

Two hours later, I had a beautiful chicken.

While the chicken roasted, I cooked green beans. After I took the chickens out to rest, I also baked some made-from-scratch biscuits and made roasted garlic gravy. I was so excited to eat I forgot to take a photo of the whole bird before it was carved. Oh well, at least I got a photo before we ate it all.

And of course we had to have dessert after such a great meal—look for what I baked in the next post.

Cola Chicken

I'm about to share with you one of the easiest and tastiest ways to make chicken. This dish is sweet with a little bit of southern twang, and is so so simple. It's called Cola Chicken.

Cola Chicken is kind of like BBQ chicken- I like to serve it on sandwich buns with fries. It's also great served over a baked sweet potato.


My mom turned me onto this recipe about a year ago (she may have gotten it from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution). You need four ingredients: chicken, an onion, ketchup, and a can of Coca-Cola. I've heard Diet Coke and Coke Zero work as well, but I try to avoid artificial sweeteners when I can, opting for the calorie-laden, sugar laced, pure and classic Coke. 


There are two ways to cook it: the skillet or the slow cooker. I chose the slow cooker method today since I spent all day at work (we're hosting a volleyball tournament) and my dear husband had to put the ingredients together. These were my instructions to him:

Cola Chicken (Slow cooker)
Put four frozen chicken breasts (you could use fresh) in the bottom of the slow cooker.
Place the sliced onion on top of the chicken.
Pour in one cup of ketchup.
Add the can of Coca-Cola.
Turn the slow cooker on low and cover.

By the time I get home the chicken will have cooked on low for about six hours. Now, all I have to do when I get to the house is take the lid off the slow cooker, shred the chicken with a couple of forks, and let it cook with the lid off until the liquid reduces and forms a sauce. In the meantime, I'll bake up some fries. A  perfect meal to sit down with in front of the TV and watch Georgia beat South Carolina!

Cola Chicken (Skillet)
The skillet method of cooking goes a little faster, and takes a little over an hour. Basically, you add all of the ingredients to a skillet you've set on medium heat. Put the lid on the skillet and cook for about 45 minutes. Remove the lid, shred the chicken, and cook until the liquid reduces and you get the consistency you like for a sauce (15-30 more minutes).

Check the Cupboard

I had every intention to follow Mr. Lieberman's recipe for apricot-glazed chicken with dried plums to the letter (except for the chicken parts-- I already had a Sam's Club-sized bag of frozen boneless skinless breasts in the freezer).

"They" say that the first time you cook a recipe, you should follow it to the letter. On subsequent attempts it's okay to experiment. (I don't know exactly who "they" are, but I think I heard Paula Deen say this once on her show). Frankly, I frequently find myself tweaking most recipes (except for baked goods), even the first time I cook them. But, on Sunday, I was dead set on following "their" advice.

Confident that I had every ingredient my kitchen cupboard/refrigerator/freezer, I set about making this dish for a welcome back meal for hubby, who had been out of town for four days. I set about gathering the rest of my ingredients from my well-stocked kitchen.

Chicken- Check!
Apricot preserves-Check!
Olive Oil-Check!
Fresh Garlic Cloves-Check!
Salt/pepper-Check!
Sage leaves-Check!
Dried plums-Che--- oh, wait. I swore I had a half a box of prunes left... Guess I used them up the last time I made banana bread. Hmm, what to do, what to do-- ah yes! Raisins!
White vinegar-- Nope, but I was going to substitute apple cider vinegar. Oh, where is it! I thought for sure it would be here in the door of the fridge. Hmmm, red wine vinegar, rice wine vinegar... oooo, balsamic vinegar. I'll use that, it's sweet...

Now, the original recipe calls for 2 whole chickens to serve 8 people. I decided to par down the recipe for 5 portions, and used 5 boneless skinless chicken breasts. That being said, I guestimated on the amount of the glaze. In a glass measuring cup, I mixed up about 3/4 cup of the apricot preserves, 1/4 cup of raisins, about 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, four crushed cloves of garlic, leaves from a couple of sprigs of sage (from the herb garden), a dash of balsamic vinegar, and the salt and pepper.

I put the chicken in a 9X13 pan coated with cooking spray, added the chicken, and poured on the glaze, and turned the chicken to coat in in the sauce. I baked it for 40 minutes at 385 degrees. Since I was using skinless chicken, I covered the dish in aluminum foil.

This adaptation turned out really well-- the fresh sage made all the difference. The chicken was moist, but some crispy skin would have been nice. The flavors are best suited for a fall or winter meal. Next time I get a hankering for a fruity chicken dish, I'll use bone-in, skin-on chicken, and make sure to buy some prunes (I mean dried plums-- that sounds much more sophisticated).

Chicken Surprise!

Somestimes some of the best food is discovered by accident.

Since our kitchen table is covered in clutter while the house is being painted, we've had to eat in front of the TV for the last couple of days. This means cooking foods that don't require anything besides a fork to eat (I find it difficult to cut a piece of meat with a knife while it's sitting on lap, and then it's hard to balance the knife on the plate when you're not using it, etc.). On Tuesday the menu called for green beans, chicken, and rolls. After I sliced 1/2 of a small vidalia onion for the green beans, I decided to cook the other half of the onion with the chicken.

I sliced the remaining onion and put-it in my large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Next, I chopped two boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Then it was time to contemplate the chicken.

Usually, the only seasoning a piece of chicken gets during the week is grill seasoning, but Tuesday I was in the mood for something else. I stood in front of the spice cabinet contemplating what flavors to use. Cumin and chili powder for Tex-Mex Chicken? No, I'll save that for fajita night. Thyme and lemon? No, not in the mood for that. I was actually craving french fries, so I decided to use my usual fry seasoning on the chicken. After sprinkling the meat with grill seasoning, I used a little bit of garlic powder and a generous amount of paprika. I gave the two skinless & boneless chicken breasts (which were cut into 1-inch pieces) a toss to coat them in the spices, and then cooked them in the same pan as the onions. The meat browned nicely.

I was expecting it to be just okay, but the onions and the seasoning on the chicken worked really together. The sweet onion brought out the flavor of the spices, and added some moisture to the chicken. Dear hubby even went out of his way (without any prompting from me) to say how good it was. This will probably become a go-to dish in our house from now on.

My spur of the moment idea and simple seasoning resulted in a surprisingly delicious dish.

Onion Paprika Chicken ingredients (serves 2)
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 vidalia onion
Grill Seasoning
Garlic powder
Paprika

Double Duty: Chicken

You may remember the Chile-Garlic Spiced chicken from a couple of posts ago. There were a few cups of chicken leftover, so I had an idea to turn it into a BBQ chicken sandwich with a Tex-Mex twist. The final product resembled more of a sloppy joe sandwich, hence the post title. Instead of barbecue sauce, I added 1 cup of enchilada sauce (made from scratch, though the spices/seasoning were a little off) to 1 1/2 cups of shredded chicken, and heated the mixture on the stove top. I used toasted whole wheat hamburger buns I bought from the Wal-Mart bakery (they were really crusty and held up well to all of the sauce.)

In hindsight, I could have added some minced jalapeno and cheese to the sandwich, but the meal still got an A+ from my #1 tester. You could also use a store-bought can of enchilada sauce if you don't want to make your own. I served this with a side of roasted broccoli.

Chile-Garlic Spiced Chicken

With the threat of rain on Memorial Day, I switched the menu from BBQ chicken on the grill to Chile-Garlic Spiced Chicken that could be baked in the oven. I had seen the recipe in the Joy of Cooking and couldn't wait to try it. It's pretty spicy, and could be cooked on the grill. However, since it is a rub you wouldn't have any leftover sauce to dip it in to, but since the chicken is so juicy and flavorful you really don't need any condiments.

WORDS OF CAUTION: You probably want to wear a pair of surgical gloves when dealing with the jalapenos and when you are rubbing the paste on the chicken. First, it's hard to get all of the spiciness off of your fingers even if you wash them with soap and you don't want to scratch your eye and have all the pepper hotness get into it. Second, it's just less germ-ier to wear gloves when handling raw chicken. (Now that you've been warned...)

First thing to do is make the paste. I used a mini food processor, but you could also use a blender. Here is my version of the recipe:

3 jalapeno peppers, seeds and ribs removed

1/2 cup of garlic (I use minced garlic straight out of jar)

1/2 cup olive oil

Zest of 2 limes

2 tablespoons of cracked black peppercorns (make sure to crack them-- I didn't and not all of them were ground up in the food processor. I got a nice burst of peppery fire on one bite of chicken!)

1 tablespoon of salt

2 tablespoons of chili powder

2 tablespoons of fresh thyme (the herbs are growing in their pot out on the patio, so I figured why not use some. I thought the lemony thyme would complement the lime zest, and thyme and chicken are classic together).

So, blend all of that together in a food processor until it becomes smooth and red.

Then slather it over and massage it into the chicken. I used a whole, cut up chicken from the grocery store. Try and get some of the rub under the skin so the flavor really sinks into the meat.

The recipe recommends marinating the meat for 2-24 hours. I let the chicken marinate for about 8 hours and thought it had a lot of flavor.

To bake the chicken, put it a preheated 350-degree oven for 40-50 minutes. Before serving, a squirted the juice of one lime over the chicken. This spicy bird goes great with a beer and grilled corn on the cob. And yes, thanks to the invention of grill pans you can grill corn on your stovetop!

There were only two of us eating a whole chicken, so we still have two big pieces left over. Those will be transferred into Tex-Mex BBQ sandwiches on Thursday (I'll let you know how that goes!)

Building Blocks & Enchiladas

Today I spent my lazy Sunday morning/early afternoon baking blocks (oops, I mean bread). After my success making honey oatmeal bread on Wednesday, I was the master of baking. So, instead of buying bread at the store this week, I decided to make my own. So confident was I that I decided to bake two loaves of a new recipe (recipe will remain anonymous for now since the end result was likely an error in execution). Wow, big mistake. Not only did I bake a new recipe, I used a different kind of yeast, which cost big-time when it came to the dough's rising. Following over 2 1/2 hours of rising time (on the second rise), I figured it wasn't going to get any better and baked the loaves. They came out resembling bricks, but do taste okay despite being so dense. Oh well, just one stumble as I take steps towards becoming a master baker :-)...

On the other hand, dinner was a huge hit as I made Cooking Light's black bean, corn, and zucchini enchiladas along with the homemade sauce. Instead of using low-fat cheese, I used 2/3 of a block of monterey jack/cheddar cheese. This recipe is very easy. I served it with a

side of sauteed zucchini, onion, and squash seasoned with salt and garlic powder.

In other news, the herb garden has come under attack by some miniscule munchers. I will have to order a book on organic gardening or order some organic pesticide...