Nacho Average Southern Chicken Pot Pie

Okay so I have to start by pointing out that this Pot Pie recipe has absolutely nothing to do with Nachos LOL...I'm just a goof and I love corny jokes and since the veggies I used weren't the "traditional" pot pie veggies, I decided to run with the title.  Hey I laughed :-)














Chicken Pot Pie with a nice creamy roux is a staple in most southern homes...now let me be the first (okay maybe I'm the third or fifth) to tell you that there is absolutely more than one way to make these recipes.  Admittedly, there are some recipes you run across that you really to need to stick to it closely but there's room to play with in most of my recipes...that way you can learn to make creations a la...YOU :-).  When I started making this, I had the oven preheating, I was making my sauce, the chicken was diced and prepped and then I went in the freezer to pull out my mixed veggies and - DUN, DUN, DUNNNNN - I didn't have any! Well I certainly wasn't gonna high tail it to the store with everything I had going on.  I know you're sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to read what I did next...okay you're probably not so I'll just tell you.  I improvised!  Yep, that's right I'm the improv queen.  Anyway, I had some frozen broccoli and some leftover corn from yesterday's dinner so I rolled with that and it was a success!

What you'll need:

• 1lb (give or take) boneless, skinless chicken breast or pieces
• 3 medium sized potatoes 
• 1 bag (or can) mixed veggies *you can really use any veggies you want the mixed bag is easy, but hey...get creative*
• 1.5 cups half & half (whole milk will be okay if you're in a pinch, but trust me the 1/2&1/2 is so much better)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cajun Seasoning (I like Tony's)
• Paprika
• 1 stick of butter (or 8TBS)
• 7 TBS all purpose flour
• 2 cups chicken stock or broth
• Dash of salt
• Homemade pie crust or 2 deep dish crust from the store freezer (I like the Marie Calendars Deep Dish crust) and a box of the Pillsbury refrigerated crust

Prep: 
Preheat oven to 425 degrees (make sure you preheat way ahead of time...once the ingredients are in the pie crusts it's gotta go in quickly since it's mostly pre-cooked)

Dice the chicken into medium pieces & season well (salt, pepper, onion powder, paprika)
Dice potatoes into small pieces
Pull frozen pie crusts out of the freezer and let them thaw out to room temperature
Place the potatoes in a microwaveable bowl, toss some salt & pepper on them and put them in the microwave for about 2 minutes or until tender
In another microwavable bowl (or the same one if you like to clean and cook like I do) toss the veggies in (if they are frozen add a little water to help them steam) the bowl and put em the microwave on high for about 3.5 minutes. Drain the veggies and mix em in with the potatoes and set aside.
In a dutch oven (or whatever other kinda pot you got) melt your stick of butter over med-high flame. Once it's melted start tossing your flour in a tablespoon at a time - stir between each TBS - Once it's all stirred in together and the are few to no lumps start slowly pouring the chicken broth/stock and mixing it all together and turn the flame up to high.  Continue mixing your roux and add your seasoning (salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder & some Creole seasonings) bring it to a boil and them quickly remove from heat.
Add in the half & half, stir well. Then add the potatoes & veggies to the creamy mixture...return to low heat.
In a skillet spray some non-stick cooking spray (I use butter flavored PAM) and let it heat up a little.  cook the chicken just until it's slightly cooked on the outside. It should go from pink to white. Don't worry about cooking it all the way through...just enough to change the outside.  Then add your chicken to the roux and stir everything together well.
Spoon mixture (I like to use a ladle) into each deep dish crust...it's okay if the meat overflows a little. Then get the refrigerated crusts and cover the tops of the pies.  Tuck excess crust into the deep dish and flute the edges with either your fingers or a fork.  Cut 3 or 4 vent lines in the top of the crust. Place in the oven for about 40-45 minutes.
Pull them out of the oven and let em cool for 15 minutes and then...Enjoy :-)

• *Tip: After about 15-20 minutes in the oven pull the pies out and protect the crust edges with foil to keep them from over browning*
• *Tip:  Dust your hands with flour when unrolling the top crust*
• *Tip: Brush the crusts with egg whites for a more golden brown crust* 

Okay now y'all know the drill...I wanna hear your thoughts.  Let me know if you try it and if you do/did anything to make it your own.   =)

Chicken OH SO Devine!

I don't know if some of y'all are like me and scrambling to get dinner together in the evening sometimes LOL.  Inspiration for this recipe came from a recipe I saw for Chicken Divan and I just twerked it a lil bit and man oh man! I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how wonderful this turned out. In fact, I loved the way I seasoned the chicken so much, I'm thinking I'm gonna have a recipe coming soon on that seasoned chicken shredded for some yummy chicken enchiladas or tacos! That 's making my mouth water just thinking about it!






You'll need:

• Boneless/skinless chicken (I used 1lb of chicken breast tenders)
• 1/2 cup - Mayo (I used Best Foods)
• 1 can Cream of Chicken soup
• tsp - Lemon juice (used real lemon juice brand)
• Shredded cheese
• Broccoli (1bag frozen works)
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• TBSP melted butter
• Chicken broth (optional)

Season the chicken to taste (I like salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, Tony Cachere's & a dash of hot sauce)
Put it in a pot and cook it thru. Takes about 10 min maybe. You may want to add a dash of olive oil if it starts to stick to the pot or pre spray with Pam (I used butter flavor Pam).
While the chicken is cooking mix mayo, lemon juice, a dash of hot sauce & soup and a splash of chicken broth if you have it) You can add a little seasoning to the mixture if you like (I just sprinkled some TC on it) mix it we'll and set aside.
Cook the broccoli (I used a medium microwave steamer pot from Pampered Chef). Once the broccoli is done you can put that in the casserole dish as the bottom layer
When the chicken is cooked shred it. I used a fork and it shredded pretty easily. You can cut it into pieces as we'll if you prefer. I just like the shred better. Once it's cut or shredded place it on top of the broccoli as your second layer
Then pour the creamy sauce over the chicken & broccoli.
Put shredded cheese over the mixture
Melt your butter and pour the bread crumbs in there to soak it up then sprinkle the crumbs over the top. Add a lil more cheese if you like .

Heat oven to 350 and bake for 25 minutes covered and an additional 5 uncovered. Let it cool for about 5 minutes. Serve over white rice (I love cooking my rice in chicken broth to go with this).

Tips: I use freshly grated cheese & it makes such a wonderful difference (mix of Cracker Barrel & Tillamook cheese blocks) but in a pinch store bought shred works

It was suggested putting this over noodles...I think that could be good too. I would imagine egg noodles or fettuccine noodles would suit best. 

Hope y'all enjoy ;-)

Southern Banana Pudding from Scratch

So I decided to make some banana pudding from scratch and I was completely impressed with my outcome :).  My family is...well very southern, not to mention we all loves to cook as well so we can be amature food critics at times lol. Needless to say when I get something with a "stamp of approval" I know "baby done good!"  If you try it, or plan to try it leave a comment and let me know.  If you're happy with the outcome please share my blog - pin it, stumble, tumblr, facebook, twitter, etc (anything I missed lol).  Here we go...

Ingredients: 

• Sugar - 1/2 Cup & 1/4 Cup separated
• Flour - 1/3 Cup
• Salt - A Dash
• 3 Egg Yolks - Separate the white/yolk *you'll need the whites later*
• Whole Milk - 3 cups *Whole milk is important* if you use anything other than, see my alteration notes below
• Pure Vanilla - 2 overflowing tsp.
• Brown Sugar -  Handful
• Molasses - Dash *Optional
• Cream of Tartar - 1 tsp *Optional
• Box of Nilla Wafers - Regular or mini
• Bananas - 6 or 7

 

Step 1: If you have a double boiler pull it out.  I just used two pots, of course one needs to not fit completely into the other.  Or a pot and a Pyrex bowl - you get the idea. Once the water starts to boil mix the Sugar(1/2 cup), Salt, Flour, Eggs & Milk into the top pot.  Stir constantly until custard begins to thicken.  Make sure there are no lumps.  Should look smooth.

• Note: if you are using anything other than whole milk, add additional flour to help thicken up the custard.  About an additional 1/4 cup.  Sprinkle in a little more to satisfaction as custard starts to thicken.  Also add additional sugar to balance.  About another 1/3 cup here.  

 

Step 2: Once the custard has thickened whisk in the brown sugar and molasses. Mix in well and remove from heat then whisk in the vanilla.

Step 3: Let it sit on the stove for about 10 minutes and then put it in the refrigerator to cool and thicken some more.   *I used 1% milk last time and because my guy likes think custard I let it sit in the fridge overnight*

Step 4: Once the custard is cooled and thickened to preference, pull it out of the fridge and get your bowl or pan that you will put it in.  *Make sure it's an oven safe dish*

• I like to do mine in a glass bowl so you can see my pretty layers, but this time I did it in a foil pan because I was making a few pans of it and it was more convenient.  

Step 5: Line your dish with Nilla Wafers; the bottom and around the edge with the round part facing outward.  Then add a layer of bananas (not too thinly sliced).  Next, add a layer of pudding.  How think or thin you make it is entirely up to you!

Step 6: Repeat Step 5 until dish is full.  *Note* You don't have to layer, some folks just like to dump the cookies and bananas in the bowl along with the pudding and mix it accordingly.  Chef's choice.  The layers are mainly for presentation.  Nothing like a pretty dish :)

~ ~ Prepping for Meringue ~ ~
*Tip* - Put your mixing bowl and the mixers (for hand blender) in the freezer until you're ready to make the meringue. It helps the egg whites not stick

Step 1: Remember the egg whites from earlier (make sure they're at room temperature) and pur them into the mixing bowl.

Step 2: Using a hand blender; mix the eggs until the become nice and frothy

Step 3: Keep mixing, we're almost ready for the sugar.

Step 4: Once you start to see peaks, we're ready to start adding the 1/4 cup of sugar a little at a time.

Step 5: Keep mixing as you add the sugar then add the cream of tartar *optional*.  I don't always add it to my meringue. It all depends on how thick you want it.  My guys isn't big on it on top of banana pudding so it's a preference thing.  Anyway keep mixing until the meringue thickens and you see peaks.  At this point, you should be able to turn the bowl upside down and nothing will fall out.  All done!

• *Note* Wait until the pudding is complete to start on the meringue.  Otherwise it gets all watery in the bowl just sitting. 

Finally: Scoop the meringue on top of the pudding then place it in the oven for just a few minutes.  All we want to do is brown the peaks - not burn them.  Keep a close watch.  Then pull it out of the oven and enjoy! The meringue is optional...depends on preference. I like it cause it's pretty but the southern doesn't care for that "nonesense." He say's it's just an obstacle in the way to the pudding lol. 

Don't forget - If you try it, or plan to try it leave a comment and let me know.  If you're happy with the outcome please share my blog - pin it, stumble, tumblr, facebook, twitter, etc (anything I missed lol).

Southern Cabbage & Rice

Sooooo I LOVE cabbage!  It has always been one of my favorite dishes.  When I was little my grandparents would always make my my favorite foods for my birthday and I would ask for Cabbage & Rice (can't nobody do it like my grandma) and these loaded potatoes (can't nobody do it like my grandpa).  Well since I'm grown and I like to cook, I've been working on new dishes to make that will become instant favorites with the family. And you know they say that's the way to a man's heart...but that's another blog.

Back to the food!  So I made some cabbage and rice a while back and it turned out to be a big hit.  Everyone makes it a little different and has their quirks.  I'll give you the basics of what I did and my little tweaks to make it perfect but feel free to tweak it however you see fit because contrary to some popular belief there IS, in fact, more than one way lol.


Here's what you'll need:
Cabbage (2 Heads serves about 4-6 people)
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Pepper
Salt
Butter
Chicken Broth
Bacon or a smoked meat for seasoning
Rice

Step 1: 

• Cut the cabbage in quarters and then cut it into about 4 or so sections from there.  Cut the hard white center out and toss it.  Put the cut cabbage in a strainer rinse it and let it sit for a minute. 
• Cut about a pound of bacon into 1" pieces.  *I use applewood and pepper bacon because 'M' loves those but you can use salt pork, pig feet or whatever you'd like to use.*
• Put the bacon in a fairly large pot to brown it. Stir it and make sure all of it browns and you can see some of the juices running out in the pot.  This will help for flavor. 

Step 2:

• Once the bacon has browned start adding the cabbage to the pot.  It will fill the pot upand may stick out a little.  That's fine as long as you can press the lid down over it. 
• Add about 3/4 can of chicken broth per 2 heads of lettuce you use.  Then add about a 1/2 cup of water.  Cover and let it simmer for about 10 minutes minutes on medium high.

Step 3: 

• Once it's simmered for about 5 minutes remove the lid and start seasoning the cabbage.  There's no right or wrong (unless you over do it lol) way to season.  You do it to taste.  Start with about about a tablespoon of all the dry seasons and 2 tablespoons of butter.  
• Stir the cabbage (as much as possible...the pot is still looking full) and try to mix some of the bacon into the cabbage.  Cover the pot again and let it simmer another 10 minutes still on medium high.

Step 4:

• Check on the cabbage and throw some more dry season in the mix.  I do about another tablespoon of everything except pepper (maybe a dash here and there of pepper, but don't over do it). 
• Stir it up some more and get the bacon mixed in more.  
• At this point the cabbage should be getting more limp and easier to stir and mix all the goodness together.  
• Turn the fire down to medium and cover the pot. 
• Let the cabbage simmer about another 15 minutes stirring occasionally.  
• Once it's nice and limp turn the fire down to low and add more seasoning if you like.

Step 5: 

• Cook your rice and serve the cabbage over the rice.  
• Regular white rice or Jasmine rice is the best with this.  *I'm old school and I like to make my rice on the stove...but a rice cooker is cool too :)
• Enjoy :)

Please pin, tweet, FB or share somewhere if you liked this recipe :).  Comment and let me know if you try it, plan to try it, tweak it or have any questions.  Feedback is much appreciated :)