Cowgirl chicken casserole and Shrimp Etouffee.....

One day last year I was surfing through the zillions of foodblogs and found a recipe for a chocolate peanut butter pie. The recipe came from Emeril's book called PotLuck kicked up comfort food with attitude. The book was less than 1.00 used so I bought it. We were invited to a bday party potluck on Friday so I pulled out the book and found these two recipes. I REALLY wanted to make the shrimp etouffee because shrimp was on sale ( 31-40) for a really low price of 3.99 a bag. Robin nixed that idea saying a lot of people don't really like shellfish so I made it for us instead. It was super easy to make and really tasty. Etouffee means smothered and thats basically what it was. You start by making a light roux and then you add the famous cajun trinity. Bell peppers, onions and celery. Shrimp stock is added next( I used Better than Boullion lobster stock and it worked fine) and this mixture simmers for awhile. Shrimp is added in last and its served over rice. I had some white rice leftover from a Chinese food meal we had so it was a snap to reheat.

We decided on this cowboy( I renamed it cowgirl) chicken casserole for the Friday Potluck. I did a lot of the prep on Thursday night so it came together fast. Emerils recipes include a lot of steps, but the flavor really comes thru. This dish consists of diced or shredded chicken( you poach it in a flavorful broth) over crushed crunchy tortilla chips. Next you make a mushroom bechamel( no canned soup here!!) and pour that over. Diced onions, peppers, cheese and spices round out the next layer. Oh and lots of shredded cheese. Canned chopped tomatoes and green chilies finish it off. It bakes for 40 min and voila!! It was very tasty and as you can see, it make a huge dish.

ps: The blogger upload picture thing wasnt working so I had to use a cut and paste from snapfish. The pics are big, sorry for that.

Skillet Chicken Pot Pie( CI)......

I cooked for the Seniors yesterday morning( got home at 2pm) so I wanted to make something easy for dinner. Robin loves chicken pot pie, but I'm not crazy about making pie dough. I saw this a few weeks ago on America's Test Kitchen and filed it away in my memory. The recipe came together pretty quickly. I made the biscuits first and to make it even faster, I just cut them into wedges rather than use a biscuit cutter. I've never made cream biscuits before, we were impressed. I did use White Lily flour and they rose nice and high.

The only changes I made to the recipe were to use fresh cooked( microwave) carrots instead of a frozen carrot/pea blend. I usually always have frozen peas on hand but not frozen carrots and peas. I also use a fine herb blend( penzey's) because I didnt have any thyme. I added some leftover red potatoes too.

You can find the recipe Here.

Chicken Bolognese(Wolfgang Puck).........

Last week when I was at the grocery store( a daily occurence), the butcher showed me some lean ground chicken that was on sale for .99lb. He suggested it for the seniors. I bought all 12 packages of it. I kept one and brought the rest over to the agency that is in charge of the Senior dining program. I had NO clue what I was going to make with it, but for that price, I'd do some thinking about it. I decided I'm going to make a chicken, mushroom and onion pie( like a poor mans stroganoff served in a pie shell). My boss makes a beef and onion pie and I'll just sub chicken for the beef. Anyway, I digress.....

So, I remembered that when I lived in California, I used to buy this chicken bolognese pasta sauce at Gelson's Market. I loved it and it was so easy for me to just heat it up and pour if over pasta( I rarely cooked because I was in college and then Law School). I went looking for the recipe and to my surprise I found it on the foodnetwork website.

It was simple to make and had a good flavor. I made it the night before we ate it so the flavors would meld. It wasnt very saucy though. The next day, I added some good quality jarred sauce( one made with san marzano tomatoes) to stretch it out a bit further because I didnt have any of my own homeade sauce.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound ground chicken
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1 tablespoon thyme leaves
Pinch chili flakes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 cups tomato sauce
1/2 cup tomato juice ( I used V8)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
1 pound penne pasta( I used some fresh pasta I had in the fridge, penne would have been better)

Heat a large saute pan over high heat. Add the olive oil and heat. When the oil is hot, add the ground chicken and cook until well browned, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, thyme, and chili flakes and cook until the vegetables are softened, about 5 to 8 minutes. Carefully deglaze the pan with the white wine, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Reduce until the white wine is almost completely evaporated.
Add the tomato sauce and juice and simmer until a thick sauce consistency, about 20 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Cook the penne in boiling, salted water until al dente. Drain the pasta and set aside. Add a few tablespoons of the pasta cooking water to the sauce. Add the drained pasta to the sauce along with the Parmesan and toss well. Serve in a large bowl garnished with parsley leaves.

Coal fired wings( my own creation).....

Way back in March when we were in Florida, we ate at a restaurant called Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza. Its a pretty busy place and pretty smart too. They only serve 1 salad, pizza and coal fired wings. They have 2 sandwiches too and thats it. Anyway, Robin had their famous coal fired wings. The link will take you back to a post I wrote in March. Anyway, Robin loved them and I wanted to try to replicate them. The grocery store in town had wings on sale for 99cents lb. I must really love Robin, because I absolutely hate dealing with chicken. I had to separate the wings into the 2 joints and remove the wing tips. After dealing with that and the resulting disenfection job I had to do on every single surface, I made a brine with kosher salt, sugar and water. I let the wings brine for 2hrs while I went and had my hair highlighted!! When I was ready to cook them, I preheated the grill( gas in this case) and used the fabulous product Pam for grilling. Nothing sticks!! I used some salt free chicken seasoning blend( by Mcormick) on the wings. I grilled both sides. While they were grilling, I squeezed the juice of 1 lemon along with some Evoo, fresh pepper and more seasoning mix in a bowl. When the wings were ready, I tossed them in this mixture. Robin absolutely loved them and she said they were better than the wings she had in Florida. I have another package of wings in the freezer( I couldnt deal with cutting them up so I just chucked the entire package in the freezer) so I guess I'll be making these again in the near future.

Green Chili Chicken Enchilada's( cooking light)...

I whipped this up yesterday so we could have leftover's tonight. I work today ( Canadian Thanksgiving is Monday so we'll be making turkey, stuffing, etc, etc) and I knew I wouldnt cook tonight. Robin can make some more rice and heat up the leftovers for us. This is one of my favorite CL recipes although I've made a few changes. This recipe calls for 2 cans of cream of chicken soup. I use 1 can of light soup and then I fill the can with salsa verde. I also add a few more spices and leave out the onion. Furthermore, I used a light blend of mexican cheese and added some black beans to the filling. I made the black beans from scratch. So simple and so cheap. The rice is Lundberg Farms blend of brown, wild and black japonica. Shopper's drug mart had bags of it for 1.99. I used to buy it in California so I was excited to see it here. I can freeze the leftover beans and rice and Robin can throw together some burritos when I'm in Florida. I leave for Florida on Monday.