Yummy! Yummy! Chicken Cacciatore

For the recipe please check out Pioneer Woman’s website, linked here!

Hi Everyone!
I’m back with a lovely and delicious chicken recipe. I’ve been gone for awhile due to work and summer biking. Oh in my next post I’ll show you my new burgundy cruiser named Rusty. It’s amazing and old-school style bike. Anyways, I can’t believe summer is almost gone and everywhere is preparing for the Fall season. Heck no! I’m not ready for  the end of summer.

No fear, this weekend I will be heading back to my hometown to take full advantage of summer. Woot! Woot! Minnesota! Here I come! ^_^

Ok now to the good stuff!!!

First off, this chicken cacciatore is freakin’ delicious! However, I would say this is “intermediate” recipe and if you haven’t fried anything before I would recommend having someone assist you with this recipe. In my case, it was Max’s mom because I am horrid at preparing chicken. If you are skilled cook, this should be a walk in the park. =)

Ingredients (see above link for specific amts)
Chicken with “skin” on > used for more flavor!
Onions, Peppers, Mushroom, Tomatoes, Garlic
Black Pepper, Salt, Tumeric, Olive Oil, Butter
White Flour
a Splash of White Wine
a sprinkling of Parmesan Cheese
Pasta…yes lots of pasta!
a large 9 X 12 cooking pan
Parsley *optional
Tin Foil * easy cleanup

Remember to cook & drain your pasta a la dente
*** Start preheating your oven to 350 F so it will be ready when you are ***

Oh yes flour and brown your chicken in a deep pan.
It may seem gross but keep the chicken skin on. When it browns the flavor increases and really delicious in the final product. However if it’s too fatty you can always just keep some on for flavor but not all.

Watch out as frying can be dangerous! Sometimes the oil will splash out or pop.
So be cautious while approaching this step.

Umm yummy veggies! I love how beautiful the colors of the vegetables are. It really spices up the dish and makes it more aesthetically appealing. After you  lightly stir fry these vegetables, they will be further cooked in the oven.  However, this step does speed up the process and ensures everything is cooked.

The baking in this recipe…makes this quite a long recipe. After you cook the pasta, dice the vegetables, flour & brown the chicken, stir fry everything with a splash of wine and finally scoop it all into tin foiled enrobed pan for the oven. Keep the liquid from the pan as sauce!

I believe it cooks and simmers in the oven 350 F for 45 min and then 375 for 15 min.
This is really builds up the flavor and brings the dish together.

[Note] By this point everything should technically be cooked at least once before you put it in the oven. Thus you don’t need to worry to much about the baking.

When it’s done you can do a extra step of separating out the liquids and re-cooking it to a gravy – like sauce. By this time, I had personally skipped this step due to hunger.

Then pour the chicken cacciatore over some pasta, sprinkle Parmesan cheese, a pinch of parsley and you are ready to go! ^_^

Alex’s Mexican Cornbread Casserole Recipe (picture heavy)

Our friend Alex had brought this dish to one of our weekly Sunday Night Dinners and it was such a hit! It’s a  dish that is easy to assemble, has relatively “normal” ingredients, and is really, really good. Perfect for a potluck, rainy day or just  a pick me up.  (5 stars!)

Ingredients:

Serves 6-8

• 1 (8 ounce) package cornbread mix
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 1/4 ounces packaged taco seasoning
• 1 jalapeno, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 (10 ounce) can rotel
• 2 ears corn on the cob, boiled and cut off the cob
• 2 cups shredded reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend
• 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (8 ounce) can creamed corn

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/mexican-cornbread-casserole-246529#ixzz1Ihs8FIz5

Ta da and it’s done! If I can do it, you can do it too ^_^

Recipe: cornbread, chicken, and vegetable casserole

I’m trying to take better step by step recipe pictures because I just oogle Pioneer Woman’s blog and she takes the most gorgeous pictures that make you crave food you never thought would be delicious!  Well this my first time so bear with me since it’s an easy recipe.

Recipe: ( I found mine on the back of Stove Top box, but it’s very basic/substitutable)
Ingredients:
– 1 lb of vegetable medley, it’s easier if they are frozen so you don’t have to pre-cook them. I just used leftover vegetables some were frozen, some were canned, and some were just raw. My mistake was not pre-cooking the carrots! So they were harder than I would have liked.
–1 lb of  chopped chicken, cut into small 1in’ cubes
-4 tablespoons of butter (1/4 cup)
-1 Stove top box (I used cornbread variety)
-3/4 cup of milk or 1/2 cup of sour cream
-1 can of cream of chicken
Tools
-Oven, timer
-Cutting Board
-Measuring cup
-Knife, peeler
– 9X 12 pan ( I used a pyrex glass one)
–Small Pot with lid
-Small frying pan

Instructions: Vegetables
If you are using raw vegetables make sure to wash, peel, and slice them into dime-size pieces. Remember to slightly cook them or you could adjust the baking time accordingly. However, with frozen vegetables you can by pass this step.
Next: Vegetables
Since I used a medley of raw, canned, and frozen vegetables I just thought it would be good idea to mix them. Skip this step when using a frozen medley package by just opening the bag and putting the vegetable in your 9 X12 pan. Start to pre-heat your oven at 350 degrees!
Make Stove Top stuffing as direct on box (water, butter, pan with lid)
Don’t worry if I can do it, you can too! It’s super easy!

Preparing Chicken
I used a 1lb of chicken thighs. I don’t think what part of the chicken really matters. So remove the chicken skin, safely cut up the chicken into 1in’ cube sized pieces, and lightly saute in cook pan until it’s not pink. I believe the original recipe said that you could just put the chopped raw pieces in the casserole but we preferred to play it on the safe side.
Creating the Casserole
You should already have your vegetable medley in the 9 X 12 pan. Then put in the chicken and pour in the can of chicken and milk into the pan. Mix the mixture around to get a even consistency. Take your stuffing topping put in on top of your casserole mixture and pop it into the oven (350) for 30 minutes. Don’t forget to set your timer!
Viola! Yummy casserole is Done!
It serves around 5-6 people. I really liked how easy and versatile the recipe was. It was my first time using stove top stuffing and cream of chicken which was pretty exciting for me but perhaps not for veteran cooks.

The Outcome was DELICIOUS! It did have a soupier  feeling than I expected. I think it’s very similar to what you would expect chicken pot pie filling to taste like and I like the added texture & flavor the stove topping gave it.

It cost me less than $5 dollars to make! ^_^

Max’s easy leftover noodles recipe

I’m not sure if this has a fancy name but it reminds me of the cold, mixed noodles (冷混面) that I often had when I was in China.
Except in this particular recipe we did not use the thin transparent noodles that they use on the street but you have that kind feel free to substitute.

Recipe:
half a package of  flour noodles or 1 handful per person
1 cucumber
1 carrot
1 cup of chicken
*additional 1/2 cup of chopped peanuts (topping)

Mixture (made to taste)
peanut butter, Hoisen sauce,sesame oil & milk

The dish is served cold.

First boil water and cook your noodles, wait ’til they cool
Second Cut your chicken into 1 inch slices or cubes, and fully cook your chicken
Third  wash & thinly slice or shred the carrots & cucumber
Fourth combine all the mixture item in a separate bowl and adjust to taste
Fifth mix noodles, vegetables, chicken and sauce

(Viola! Done and Ready to consume!)