Baked Chicken and Dumplings Thursday, Feb 14 2013

I grew up eating Chicken Pot Pie. Sometimes with pie crust, and sometimes we just put the mixture in a casserole dish, topped with biscuit dough, and baked that way. Either way, I love it! However, I don’t really care much for making pie crust, so I prefer the quick and easy version of putting biscuits on top. 🙂  It’s also healthier that way.

I never know what to call that dish though, because Chicken Pot Pie always refers to the mixture being baked inside pie crusts. I asked my friends on facebook recently, and the term “Chicken Dumplings” came up. I wasn’t familiar with that term, so I googled it. It seems like that is mostly used when you boil your “biscuit” dough in the mixture in a pot. Since I bake it, I decided to call this recipe Baked Chicken and Dumplings. 😉

Baked Chicken and Dumplings

2 1/2 cups chicken and/or vegetable broth (I use my homemade concentrated chicken broth, and diluted it some with water)
1/2 cup milk
5 Tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
3 cups frozen vegetables
2 cups chicken, cooked and diced

Mix together broth, milk, salt and pepper in a large pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Stir in vegetables and chicken, let simmer 5 minutes until warmed up again. Pour mixture into a 2 qt casserole dish. I prefer a dish that isn’t big, but deep. The biscuits will absorb some of the liquid and I like there to be less biscuits compared to the depth of the chicken/veggie mixture.

Bake at 400F until bubbly, about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare a biscuit mix (like this, or this, or this!). Remove casserole from oven, drop biscuit dough by teaspoon-ful on top of the mixture (leaving room between them as they will expend as they bake). I found it only took 1/2 of the biscuit dough, and baked the rest on a cookie sheet on the side. Return to oven for 10-15 minutes until biscuits are golden and cooked.

Slight adaptation from the More with Less cookbook.

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Secret Recipe Club: Rainbow Chicken Salad Monday, Jan 28 2013

After a month off (due to Christmas), its Secret Recipe Club time again! I was glad to have December off since we moved across the country. We settled into our new apartment just before Christmas, and I’m not getting back into the swing of things (as much as a 1st trimester mommy can!). 🙂

This month I was assigned to Kudos Kitchen by Renee. Since I had some turkey leftover from Christmas in my freezer, I decided to make this beautiful colourful Rainbow Chicken Salad! I like that the sauce isn’t just mayonaise, but is half yogurt. Between that, and all its veggies added in, it makes this recipe a healthier sandwich filling, and so pretty to serve.

 

Rainbow Chicken Salad

2 cups chicken (or turkey!), cooked, diced into bite-sized pieces
1 medium purple onion, diced (I used white as I didn’t have any purple, but purple would be so pretty!)
1/4 large orange bell pepper, diced
1/4 large yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 apple, peeled and diced
1 lime, zest and juice (I used 1 Tbsp pickle juice!)
1 pickle, diced
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

In a large bowl, add all the ingredients and stir to combine well. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.

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Garlic Roasted Chicken Breasts Friday, Jan 25 2013

I apologize for not a very good picture, but that couldn’t keep me from sharing this recipe with you! It’s delicious! We enjoyed eating these chicken breasts on their own, as well as on top of salad. They are very tasty and moist, and I love that they don’t require any marinating for them to be like that. 🙂

I found the recipe here, and made it twice within a week, it was so good!

Garlic Roasted Chicken Breasts

4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
dash ground pepper
1/8 tsp chili powder (up to 1 tsp, depending on taste!)
1/4 tsp ground cumin
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 cup chicken broth
3 boneless/skinless chicken breasts (I’m sure this would work on any type of chicken pieces)

Mix together garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, chili, cumin, and oil.

Place chicken breasts in 8″x8″ casserole dish. Pour in the chicken broth, spread garlic mix on top of chicken breasts. Bake at 425F for 40-50 minutes, until chicken is cooked (juices are clear inside the chicken). Delicious!

 

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Homemade Chicken Nuggets Friday, Jan 4 2013

 

I love chicken nuggets! However I stopped buying some a long time ago. They are quick and easy to make at home, and very family-friendly!

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

Chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
Milk
Breadcrumbs
Seasoning salt, to taste

Cut up chicken breasts into strips or nuggets, as desired. Mix together breadcrumbs and seasoning salt. Dip each piece of chicken in a bowl of milk, then dip in breadcrumbs mixture. Put on a greased cookie sheet, and bake at 400F until chicken is cooked (depending on the size of the nuggets/fingers), approximately 20-25 minutes.

Tastes great served with plum sauce!

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Chicken Croquettes Thursday, Dec 27 2012

 

My boys love “finger foods” and that includes croquettes like this! They just eat them up like there’s no tomorrow. 🙂  Since I almost always have cooked chicken in the freezer, it makes this a quick meal. 🙂

It’s a variation of these Ham Croquettes.

Chicken Croquettes

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1lb ground chicken (put cooked chicken pieces through the food processor)
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
3 cups dried breadcrumbs, divided
salt and pepper to taste
4 eggs
1/8 cup water
Oil for frying

 

Mix together chicken, cheese, and 1 1/2 cups of bread crumbs. Beat 3 eggs; stir into chicken mixture. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Using your hands, make golf ball-size balls out of the ham mixture, and slightly flatten them. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Spread remaining bread crumbs onto a plate. In a large bowl, beat 1 egg; stir in water. Dip croquettes into egg mixture, and roll in bread crumbs. Fry in hot oil, turning them once, until golden brown. Remove to paper towels to soak up grease.

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Secret Recipe Club: Slow-Cooker Shredded Tex-Mex Chicken Monday, Oct 29 2012

It’s my favourite Monday of the month again, time for Secret Recipe Club! I love getting assigned a blog, browsing through it, picking a new recipe to make, review, and rave about. 🙂  This month, I was assigned to Amy’s Fearless Homemaker’s blog. She has beautiful photography of her food! I can only dream of being able to do that. 🙂  (Doesn’t help that I live so far in northern Canada that it’s already dark when we eat supper. Natural lighting sure adds to beautiful photography!)

When I received her blog as my next assignment, I found it very easy to pick a recipe! It’s a recipe she had just posted: Slow-Cooker Shredded Tex-Mex Chicken! It looked amazing, and something my little family would love. I was right!

I served the shredded chicken with homemade salsa, corn, diced green peppers, and shredded cheese, on homemade tortillas! Delicious!

Slow-Cooker Tex-Mex Pulled Chicken

1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder (I used less as my boys are not overly fond of spicy)
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon paprika
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-2″ pieces
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/3 cup (packed) cilantro leaves, chopped (I omitted this)
1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

Place all ingredients in the slow-cooker. Cook on low for 3-4 hours, until chicken is cooked through and tender. The chicken pieces will be very tender at this point – you can either leave them as is, or shred them. I used a fork and pressed all the chunks to break them apart, right in the slow-cooker.

Serve with corn or flour tortillas. Can be served with rice, beans, salsa, sour cream, green peppers, corn, cheese, and any other toppings you desire!

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BBQ-baked Chicken Packets Wednesday, Jun 6 2012

This is a great recipe! (Well, no specific amounts… but a yummy general idea!) You can bake it in the oven, or on the BBQ!  It’s individually packaged, which is great for having company over. 🙂 Makes for tender chicken, and yummy supper!

BBQ-baked Chicken Packets

Boneless chicken breasts
Onions
Mushrooms
Carrots
Seasoning (options: salt, pepper, garlic plus, seasoning salt, etc)

Place boneless chicken breasts on top of 12″ square aluminium foil papers. Sprinkle with seasoning. Top with onions, mushrooms, and carrots. Wrap each packet tightly.

Bake on medium heat on the BBQ for 30-45 minutes, until juice coming out of chicken is no longer pink. (Or bake in the oven at 400F for 30-45 minutes.)

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Secret Recipe Club: Cranberry Chicken Salad Monday, May 28 2012

It’s Secret Recipe Club time again! I didn’t participate last month since we were on the road for 2 weeks, and missed it! It’s fun to get assigned to a new blog, get to know the author, and browse around for a recipe. 🙂  Usually I come up with several I want to try, and narrow it down to one that fits my fancy and cravings at that time. 🙂

This month I was assigned to The Gingered Whisk! Jenni has a super cute daughter, and shares my love of being in the kitchen. I always browse the bread sections, since that is a bit of my “specialty”. Jenni really likes using sourdough! It’s not something I’ve experimented with very much, but I want to. It was neat to see how many different types of bread can be done with sourdough. Good job, Jenni! It’s inspiring! 🙂

I received this assignment right after we got back home from 18 days on the road. I was exhausted, and my youngest was sick, so I looked for something quick. I decided on a very basic recipe, in hopes that some of you would benefit from it! What is better in these coming supper months than a yummy Chicken Salad sandwich?! You can eat it on crackers, buns, bread, or tortillas. It’s easy to bring on a picnic, or a day at the beach! It’s versatile too, you can add many different nuts and fruits to “spice it up”. 🙂

Jenni’s recipe is super simple. I tweaked it a bit because I had just gotten a Vita-Mix and wanted to try it out in there (worked great!), and because I’ve been craving cranberries so I had to add some in. 🙂

Cranberry Chicken Salad

2 cups chicken, cooked and shredded*
1 pickle, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Mayonnaise to taste
Handful dried cranberries, chopped**

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Serve on crackers, buns, bread, or tortilla wraps.

*Put mine through my Vita-Mix blender to shred! So quick! Would also work through a food processor, or chop finely with a knife.
** I put those through the Vita-Mix too!!

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Chicken Enchiladas Wednesday, May 2 2012

This is another one of my husband’s favourite dish! I should make it more often, it’s so easy! Yet delicious. My almost 4-yr old is not found of casseroles, but he sure likes this one. 🙂  With only 6 ingredients, how can you go wrong?! I make mine lasagna-style, which makes it even quicker and simpler.

Chicken Enchiladas

2 cups chicken, cooked and diced
1 cup cheese, shredded
2 cans condensed cream soup (I made my own this time, easy and yummy!)
1/4-1/2 cup salsa, to taste
1 cup chicken broth
4-8 tortillas, depending on size 🙂

Mix soup, broth, and salsa together.

In 8″x8″ casserole dish, spoon a bit of soup mixture. Place one layer of tortilla (I cut them to cover the entire layer). Now one layer of chicken. Spoon soup mixture to cover the chicken. Continue adding layers: tortilla, chicken, soup. Don’t fill dish to the top as it bubbles up and will overflow in the oven! Finish casserole dish with soup layer. Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Remove from oven, let sit for 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving. This gives it a chance to cool a bit so you can cut it and it will hold its shape better, instead of the soup leaking all over and making it a sloppy mess. Believe me, it’s a bit embarrassing to serve it to guests like that. 😉  Still tastes great though, thankfully! 😀

Tastes really good as leftovers the next day! I’ve also made these and frozen them (before cooking), as a pre-baby freezer meal.

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German Pizza Monday, Feb 6 2012

This is a nice recipe because it only takes one frying pan/pot. It’s one of those very basic meat and potatoes type of casseroles, done on the stovetop. I think it would be a good one to do while camping next summer, actually.

Thanks to my friend Glenda for sharing the recipe. 🙂 It’s from one of her Mennonite cookbooks. I’d give credit, but I don’t know the name of the cookbook. So thanks to the Mennonite lady who included it in the cookbook. 😉

German Pizza

1lb ground beef (I used cooked, diced chicken I had on hand)
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper (I used red since that’s all I had)
1 1/2 tsp salt, divided
1/2 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp butter
6 medium potatoes, peeled and shredded
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup milk
2 cups shredded cheese

In frying pan, cook ground beef, onions, green peppers, 1/2 tsp salt and pepper; drain. Reduce heat to low, melt butter. Spread potatoes over melted butter and sprinkle with remaining salt. Top with beef mixture. Combine eggs and milk, pour over all. Cook covered, on medium heat, until potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes. Top with cheese; cover and heat until cheese is melted. Cut in wedges or squares to serve.

We ate ours with ketchup on top. 🙂

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