Creamy Chicken

Warning, my language skills kind of fell apart for this post and there is a bit of cussing, so if you don't like that, please read a different post!!!
When I was making this I was formulating what I would say in my blog opener about it.  I thought about telling a heart warming story about how my Grandpa used to make SOS, aka shit on a shingle, when I was a kid, and how this recipe reminded me of SOS, only it was chicken-shit on a shingle (CSOS?) but then all sorts of things started going wrong.  SA decided it was the perfect time to take out the recyclables, our other cat Wall-E attacked the tomatillo plant I got today and then the piece de resistance, our dishwasher started sounding like a dying animal. SHIT SHIT SHIT! It had been such a great day:

the biggest green apples I have ever seen at a local farmers market

beautiful day in the valley!

Now you KNOW I bought some of this!!! How could I not

Our handsome dog, Curry enjoying the sun(We all got sunburns!)

Needless to say I might of lost track of things and the creamy gravy might of separated a bit, the green beans boiled almost all their liquid out and my salad ended up consisting of apples and lettuce and a homemade mandarin orange vinaigrette.  I forgot to put other ingredients in it, even the left over spicy almonds from this month's daring baker's challenge.
All in all though it was still pretty tasty!!!!





forgive the picture of entree+ sides.  SA had already made his plate and so had I so...all of it you get!

 Creamed Chicken adapted from Sherri Bailey
1 Onion chopped
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp Flour
2 Cups diced chicken
2 cups Milk
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
paprika for the dusting
Mashed Potatoes

In a large skillet melt butter and add onions, cooking over medium heat until onions are translucent.  Sprinkle with flour and stir in milk. Allow mixture to thicken slightly and stir in diced chicken, thyme, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat stirring occasionally until chicken is cooked through(Mine took about 20 minutes.)  Serve over mashed potatoes and sprinkle with paprika for a little extra kick!

File Gumbo--May Daring Cooks Challenge

For this months Daring cooks challenge we were challenged to make a gumbo that included a roux.  This wasn't my first time making gumbo and I'm sure it wont be my last.  While this recipe turned out really good and everyone seemed to like it, I still don't love gumbo.  It was my first time to use file powder and even my first time to use okra and that was exciting, but I think its the flavor combinations that I cant be down with. 

Drew’s Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo

Minimally adapted from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh
Serves 10-12
Ingredients
1 cup rendered chicken fat, duck fat, or canola oil
1 cup flour
2 large onions, diced
1 chicken cut into 10 pieces
2 tablespoons Basic Creole Spices or store-bought Creole spice blend
2 pounds spicy smoked sausage, sliced ½ inch thick
2 stalks celery, diced
2 green bell peppers seeded and diced
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Leaves from 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 quarts Basic Chicken Stock
bay leaves
6 ounces andouille sausage, chopped
2 cups sliced fresh okra, ½ -inch  thick slices (or frozen, if fresh is not available)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Filé powder, to taste
Tabasco, to taste
4-6 cups cooked Basic Louisiana White Rice

In a large cast-iron or heavy-bottomed pan, heat the chicken fat, duck fat, or canola oil over high heat. Whisk the flour into the hot oil – it will start to sizzle. Reduce the heat to moderate, and continue whisking until the roux becomes deep brown in color, about 15 minutes Add the onions. Switch to a wooden spoon and stir the onions into the roux. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Continue stirring until the roux becomes a glossy dark brown, about 10 minutes.

 Add the chicken to the pot; raise the heat to moderate, and cook, turning the pieces until slightly browned, about 10 minutes.Add the sliced smoked sausage and stir for about a minute.  Add the celery, bell peppers, tomato, and garlic, and continue stirring for about 3 minutes.  Add the thyme, chicken stock, and bay leaves. Bring the gumbo to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally, skimming off the fat from the surface of the gumbo every so often.
Add the chopped andouille, okra, and Worcestershire. Season with salt and pepper, several dashes of filé powder, and Tabasco, all to taste.
Simmer for another 45 minutes, continuing to skim the fat from the surface of the gumbo. Remove the bay leaves and serve in bowls over rice. Pass more filé powder at the table if desired.


Blog-checking lines: Our May hostess, Denise, of There’s a Newf in My Soup!, challenged The Daring Cooks to make Gumbo! She provided us with all the recipes we’d need, from creole spices, homemade stock, and Louisiana white rice, to Drew’s Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo and Seafood Gumbo from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Crepes ----Daring Cooks April

The theme for this months daring cooks was edible containers, and for once I was completely stumped and out of time.  Finally this past week I thought crepes! For me the Daring Cooks is all about cooking things that I have never made before and while there were great recipes for eggs in cups and polenta cups those are old game for me.  I think I was stirring the polenta for my Dad when I was about eleven. Also, SA and I spent a whole afternoon going through the kitchen getting rid of things that were out of date or we wouldn't use so I am trying my HARDEST to only make things from items I had in the kitchen/pantry.  The pictures do not do this recipe ANY justice.  It was really good, and really filling and the best part was after dinner I mixed the left over chicken with the left over sauce and combined it with some left over pasta from the ghetto pesto and SA and I had great lunches then next day!
Making crepes was awesome too.  Before I started I sternly told the batter that it would NOT act like pancake batter did for me, and I guess I scared it or something because my crepes ALL came out beautifully with out tearing or being ugly or under/over cooked.  I was quite proud!

why must brown/cream things always look so ugly when photographed even if they were delish???

Chicken "Cordon Bleu" Crepes
For Crepe recipe please visit Alton
Chicken Filling:
1 Tbsp Butter
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
2 chicken breasts cut into small chunks
1/4 tsp. tarragon
1/4 c. diced ham
1/8 tsp black pepper
Melt the butter over medium heat and add onion and garlic and cook until slightly translucent.  Add chicken , tarragon and pepper and cook until the chicken is no longer pink in the middle.  Add ham and cook another two to three minutes or until the ham is warmed through.

Bechamel Sauce
2 cups milk
1 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Pinch nutmeg

Scald the milk in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Keep on low heat stirring occasionally.
Melt the butter in a separate saucepan over low heat. When it's bubbling, add the flour and whisk three or four minutes or until a golden paste has formed.
Whisking constantly, add the hot milk steadily. Bring the milk to a gentle simmer and continue to whisk until the sauce thickens, about 8 minutes.
Whisk in the nutmeg and the cheese, and pour over filled crepes.




Blog checking lines:
Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! was our Daring Cooks’ April 2011 hostess. Renata challenged us to think “outside the plate” and create our own edible containers! Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 17th to May 16th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

Garlic-Cheese Crusted Chicken and Savory Garlic Cream Pasta

Sometimes chicken is well... boring.  I mean don't get me wrong you can dress it up about a million different ways and parade it around but still it kind of bores me. This recipe however was anything but boring and stemmed from the fact that I saw asparagus in the store again. Oh and the fact that I went to look at fresh pasta in the cheese section (does that make sense?) and saw a new product from Philadelphia Cream Cheese that I really wanted to try.  Normally I'm not into fast fixes or shortcut kind of ingredients, but I do love me some cream cheese and I figured it would hurt to give it a try.  The end result was delicious and a recipe I will be going back to many, many times, I am sure!

Garlic-Cheese Crusted Chicken and Savory Garlic Cream with asparagus, tomatoes and basil pasta
1/3 cup melted butter

2 Tablespoons minced garlic
3/4 cup panko
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
    
     Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray. Combine melted butter with garlic and in another bowl combine panko with 1/2 cup shredded cheddar, Parmesan cheese and black pepper.  Dip chicken in butter mixture and then in crumb mixture. Place in prepared baking dish and bake uncovered for 35-40 minutes.

Savory Garlic Cream with asparagus, tomatoes and basil pasta

2 tablespoons of butter
1/2 a pound of fresh asparagus cut into 1 inch chunks
1 tomato diced
1clove of garlic diced
1/2 onion diced finely
1 container of Philadelphia Cooking Creme Savory Garlic flavor
Cooked Pasta (reserve about 1/2 cup of cooking water)
shredded basil

In a skillet over medium high heat melt butter and saute onion and garlic until soft. Add in asparagus and cook until desired done-ness.  Mix in one container of Philadelphia cooking creme savory garlic and 1/2 a cup of reserved cooking water.  Heat without allowing it to boil, stirring frequently about five minutes or warm and then mix in diced tomatoes.  Serve over pasta and top with shredded basil.

Just to add in, I am by no means being paid by Philadelphia cream cheese, or Kraft, I just was intrigued by the ingredient!

Edible Thistles and Other Fun Things

Today was such a great day, not only did I get a new hair color: HELLO brunette/red head! But I got to celebrate one of the cutest kids I knows first birthday(she was very delicate and grabbed small bites instead of mawing into the cake). Tonight for dinner I had some chicken that I had defrosted two days ago so I HAD to cook it today.  It was quickly approaching the point of no return. 
A couple of weeks ago I saw a recipe for chicken breasts stuffed with artichokes and goat cheese, so going into the kitchen I had the kind of  had something like that in mind.  However, once I got into the kitchen and surveyed my ingredients it wasn't gonna happen. No goat cheese, but I DID have some feta. It was on.  In my opinion, stuffed chicken breasts are a pain in the ass.  They take a long time to cook, they are hard to tell if they are done, and meh...lets just face it most of the filling ends up in the pan you cooked it in, thus turning to SAUCE. So, I decided to make chicken breasts with a delicious delicate creamy sauce...NOM!

Chicken Breasts with Artichoke Feta Sauce
14 ounce can artichoke bottoms chopped
1/4 cup crumble  feta cheese
2 skinned, boned chicken breasts
¼ tsp pepper
2 tsp butter
2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup organic vegetable broth


Heat 1 teaspoon butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts, and cook 6 minutes on each side or until chicken is done. Remove chicken from skillet. Set aside; keep warm. Scrape the pan and add the vegetable broth, feta and artichoke hearts stirring constantly. Add spices, and lemon juice, stirring until feta is slightly melted and incorporated.

p.s. Taking pictures of tan things is so difficult! Sorry about the ugly pictures!