January 22, 2015 by gn0mel0ver

Winning Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

On our third date, my husband made me dinner. It was our third date in three days. It was also the night we decided to get married. We make quick decisions.

I did not know the trouble he had had making these enchiladas before I got to his apartment.

He burned the chicken for the filling and had to run out. For some reason he substituted it with canned chicken. Gulp. He was also on a health kick and used all low-fat ingredients. Double gulp. Needless to say that dish is a bit different than the one we make today.

I say “we” but I really mean “I.”

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds of salsa chicken (recipe here. It will make double the amount of chicken you will need for this dish. You can halve it, double this recipe or save it for a different dish. I use the leftovers from tacos the night before)
15 oz. can green enchilada sauce
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
8 oz. softened cream cheese
10 white corn tortillas
2 cups shredded mexican cheese
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Optional toppings:

Salsa
Cilantro
Sour cream

Directions:

Make my salsa chicken in the crockpot. This will take 4-5 hours. Shred. Set aside. I used leftover chicken from the night before.

Pour vegetable oil in a small skillet. Heat over medium heat until hot. Fry tortillas one at a time for approximately 8 seconds each side. You do not want the tortillas hard, just soft and malleable. Don’t worry about any little holes in a tortilla. It will be covered with cheese and no one will ever know. Well, unless you post the pictures of it on the Internet. But who would be dumb enough to do that?

Lay two paper towels on a plate. Place the tortilla on the paper towel lined plate. Lay four-five tortillas on paper towels in a single layer. Repeat paper towel layers. Repeat tortillas until all fried. Allow tortillas to cool while moving on to the next step.

In a large skillet, mix together cream cheese, cream of chicken soups, and green enchilada sauce. Heat and stir ingredients in skillet over medium heat.

It will be lumpy at first. Keep stirring. I use a whisk.

And then, in a miraculous moment, it will all come together. Turn off heat.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Smear some of the enchilada sauce in a 9 X 13 pan.

Take a tortilla and rub some sauce down the middle.

Place a good handful of shredded chicken in the middle of tortilla. Roll up tortilla with sauce and chicken inside and place seam side down in pan.

Repeat with the rest of the tortillas. I fill the pan, even on the sides because I do not want to dirty more dishes.

Pour remaining sauce on top of filled tortillas. With a spatula, flatten it into place.

Cover with the scrumptious cheese.

Cover with foil and bake for twenty five minutes. After twenty five minutes, remove foil and bake for an additional ten minutes.

Remove from oven and serve!

Conclusion:

We used to make this enchilada dish every Christmas Eve. This was the first year we made it for Christmas instead.

You see, a few years ago my husband decided to switch up the recipe. He abandoned this one and made The Homesick Texan’s Chicken Enchiladas. And everybody loved them. And all was good. But I missed his old recipe. There was something divine in the simplicity of its creamy essence.

So, we had a battle of the chicken enchiladas on Christmas day. As one does.

My husband won.

Or so he thought.

He forgot one very important factor.

While he may cook ten days out of the year.

I cook on almost all of the days in-between.

That’s a lot of days.

I had not given up on the chicken enchilada recipe.

So, I made them the next week.

And the next.

I kind of could not get enough.

My family, on the other hand, finally caved. “Okay! You win!” My daughter finally shouted when she saw the enchiladas make an appearance for the fourth time.

My son did not have her tact. He dragged himself to the dinner table on his knees. “Not again,” he murmured from the floor as he shuffled morosely towards his chair. I did not take it too personally. He dislikes any sort of enchilada. The poor guy had reached his limit.

My daughter was not done. “Look, Mom, these were great the first time. Good the second time. Fine the third time. But, oh my gosh! I don’t know if I can eat any more of these! We have had them so often!”

But I was not done either. “All right. I might not make them again for awhile,” I heard my family give a sigh of relief. I relentlessly continued, “if you can answer me one simple question.”

They looked up at me with shadowed eyes of enchilada weariness. “Anything,” they would have said if they had not fallen into a creamy-cheese-induced-coma.

“Whose enchiladas are really the best?”

“Yours!” Came the pleading sobs from my family.

Just as I suspected.

Winning.

January 13, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Spaghetti

When I told my kids I was making this dish, they got very excited. My daughter, for all of the wrong reasons.

You see, she thought I was making regular marinara spaghetti (her favorite), but with chicken in it. So, you can understand why this would be a disappointment to her when a white creation gets set down in front of her instead of a red marvel from her dreams.

But the rest of us?

Well, we can’t stop thinking about it.

I first made this recipe about a year ago. I am going to be honest. I thought it was good, but I just wanted to tweak it a bit. You see, I always make a recipe the first time, exactly the way it is written down. I think that is only fair.

After that, I will either leave it alone. Or play with it.

For this recipe, I thought it needed just a few adjustments.

First, I wanted to make it easier.

Second, I wanted a tad more flavor.

Third, I have to have my vegetables cooked in a casserole. I cannot stand crunchy onion.

Fourth, I love the Pioneer Woman. This is still entirely her creation. I just changed it a tiny bit.

Ingredients:

Diced chicken meat from one rotisserie chicken
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup reserved water from boiling noodles
1 minced clove garlic (or 1 handy dandy frozen packet)
1/4 cup diced onion
1 diced green bell pepper
1 package of spaghetti noodles
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 tsp salt + 1/2 Tbsp. to salt the water the spaghetti noodles cook in
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/8 – 1/4 tsp. ground cayenne pepper
3 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 jar pimentos
1 tsp. Lawry’s seasoned salt
1 tsp. knorr’s chicken seasoning
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. ground paprika
1 Tbsp. Butter
2 Tbsp. Olive oil

Optional:

Broccoli

Preheat oven to 350 degrees or 325 degrees convect bake.

Cut chicken up from rotisserie chicken. Set aside.

In a stockpot, boil water. Break up spaghetti noodles into small pieces (about 1/3 their original size). Add 1/2 Tbsp. salt to the boiling water. Add noodles to the pot of boiling water. Cook according to al dente directions on noodle package. Carefully reserve 1/3 cup boiling water before draining.

In a large skillet or dutch oven, heat butter and olive oil. Add onion and green bell pepper and sauté over medium low heat for approximately 8 minutes until softened but not brown. Add garlic and sauté one minute. Add pimentos and cook for one minute. Turn off heat.

Add drained spaghetti noodles, chicken, all of the seasoning & spices, chicken stock, reserved 1/3 cup boiling water, the 2 soups, and 2 cups of the shredded cheese (if you are adding broccoli, and I sometimes do, steam it in the microwave. Do not overcook it! It will be a soggy mess in the casserole. I’m not going to say how I know this. ; ). Then add the broccoli during this step, too) to the vegetable mixture. Stir until very well combined.

Pour mixture into casserole dish (if you do not care about it being pretty. You can just leave it in the dutch oven as long as your dutch oven is oven-safe). Top with remaining 1 cup of cheese.

Put the casserole into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until cheese is melted and the edges are beginning to bubble.

Remove the casserole from the oven with oven mitts. Turn off the oven. Serve onto plates and eat up! That reminds me…

While I was adding a few spices to tweak this recipe, I made it twice in one week.

When I told my daughter I was making it again, she responded in jest,

“It’s not really spaghetti! I will not fall for your lies again!”

I hate to say this, and please do not tell her I said this, but she’s right.

Shhhhhh.

It’s not spaghetti.

It’s heaven.

P.S. I shared this on Savvy Southern Style.

And My Romantic Home.

November 19, 2013 by gn0mel0ver

Mashed Potato Soup

I recently had mashed potato soup at a local eatery and wanted to recreate it at home. I loved the restaurant’s tart cheesiness of its soup. Instead of asking for the recipe, I decided to guess it out at home. This is what I like to do for fun. Yep. Weird.

I think the only difference might be the mirepoix instead of just onions and the use of regular pepper instead of white pepper (if I had to guess… And I did). I used the mirepoix because I wanted to add some additional vegetables hidden for the kids. And I wanted a deeper depth of flavor.

When I announced my intentions of taking my mashed potatoes and making a soup with the leftovers, my husband and son were aghast. They were coveting those mashed potatoes in all their decadent leftover glory. I do make some mean mashed potatoes, if I do say so myself, and they are so incredibly easy. I do not buy into that whole ricer theory or grating. Just mix the darn things and be done with it. ; ).

Mashed potato tip: After you add your cut potatoes to your pot of cold water: Bring them to a boil and then set your timer for twenty three minutes. Not twenty two. Not twenty four. Twenty three. Timing is key. Then immediately drain them. Return them to the pot and cook them for an additional minute, while stirring, to get all of the extra water out. I feel very strongly about this. Who knew?

For this recipe I followed my mashed potato recipe, but I used 6 large baking potatoes. I doubled the butter and added 1/2 cup of sour cream, and a pinch more salt.

I set aside approximately 1 and 1/2 cups of cooked potatoes in a bowl before I made my mashed potatoes (I refrigerated them), because I knew I wanted yummy chunks of potatoes in my soup the next day.

Ingredients:

Approximately 2 cups leftover Mashed potatoes
1 cup mirepoix (I get mine at Trader Joe’s)
1/2 tsp. dried mustard
3 cups shredded white cheddar cheese
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup flour
5 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups cooked potato chunks set aside
1/8 tsp. ground pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Garnish

I make a pound of bacon and serve the whole crispy slab with it

Other options

chives
Sour cream

I add my bacon to the oven (recipe here) before any of the following steps, so it is cooking at the same time the soup is.

Melt butter on low heat. Add mirepoix. Sprinkle a little salt on this so it sweats out. Cook on medium low heat for 8 minutes until vegetables are tender and onions are clear.

Add flour. Stir continuously for two minutes.

Add chicken stock. Simmer for five minutes.

Blend with stick blender until all of the vegetables are pureed.

Add mashed potatoes

Whisk. This took me about three minutes.

Add cream.

Stir. One minute.

Add cheese

Stir. Two minutes.

Add reserved potato chunks and stir.

Heat up until hot.

Turn off stovetop.

Serve in individual bowls. Garnish with bacon, sour cream, and chives (if desired). Please be careful! This soup is so hot! I burned the roof of my mouth…badly. Patience has never been my virtue.

After my family ate their dinner, both my husband and son both declared this an excellent use of the leftover potatoes. They are all ready asking me to make it again. It was scrumptious. If I do say so myself. And I do. : )

So do my thighs.

Gnome Lover

Stumbling through life while still having fun

soup

Winning Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Spaghetti

Mashed Potato Soup