Buffalo Chicken Soup

I made Buffalo Wing Soup last week.

P ate it too though he did say it looked gross. Which yes, I will admit it did a little bit, but the taste was great! (I'm not sure if it was the buffalo sauce or not, but it did separate a little bit while cooking... there was a layer on top but when stirred together it was fine. You can see it a little bit in the left of the picture)

We used Franks Red Hot Buffalo Sauce. I may try another kind next time. The onions and the celery were not overpowering and I used my Pampered Chef Chopper to make them super small. The literally melted into the soup. No crunch and they were virtually undetectable other than the green of the celery. I also doubled the chicken broth and used 1% milk. It did not curdle. Oh and I used Garlic and Onion Powder since I didn't have salt. I added a little bit of cheddar cheese to the top before serving and it was YUM!This was a good soup. Find the recipe here

Enjoy!

Crockpot Roast Chicken

So I'm sure everyone knows that Crockpot cooking is simple, delicious, easy, and pretty darn near impossible to screw up. This recipe proves all 4 to be true.

1 Whole Chicken (my 6lb chicken fit well into the 6qt. crockpot)

Salt

Pepper

Herbs/Seasoning to taste (I used Rosemary)

1 Onion

Carrots

So the carrots didn't really add anything for this but I had in mind that we would be eating them so they can be (and will be for us) excluded in the future.

I skinned the chicken after reading Stephanie's post about globs of chicken fat simmering all day. UGH I think I just dry heaved thinking about it. Anyways, I got as much of the fat/skin as I could and just today relized that using my Chicken Shears would have made things much easier than my chefs knife. I'll know for next time.

I bought a Tyson chicken that luckily didn't have the neck and giblets waiting for me inside. If yours does, remove that stuff and try not to gag. I cut the onion in pieces and stuffed about 1/3 of it into the cavity after sprinkling with salt and pepper. Season the rest of the chicken with the salt, pepper, and herbs as desired. I tossed the remaining onion and the carrot slices in the crockpot and placed the chicken on top. No liquid necessary. This made plenty on it's own. I cooked it on low for about 9 hours and then switched to warm until dinner. (Cook 8-10 hours on low or 6-8 on high depending on the size of your bird)

Enjoy!

This was a fantastic and tasty chicken that stayed unbelievably moist, plus it just fell away from the bones it was so tender. I was pleasantly surprised since I had removed the skin and it wasn't greasy like it usually is. I will continue to use this recipe as a base for lots of other things.

Now, what to do with the leftovers?

Crockpot- Cream Cheese Chicken

Okay so first of all this woman is amazing! She made a resolution to use her crockpot every day in 2008. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY! and she has done it successfully for 262 days so far. Now I always used to tease my mom about using her crockpot and how it was a cop-out for cooking a real dinner. (Sorry Mom!) But honestly, it's amazing- and so easy! (though I would never admit that out loud) Anyways, I have only used mine a couple of times but every time we have a delicious meal that seems like I spent all day cooking. Well, after finding Stephanie's amazing website I figure I should pull the crock down from the cupboard and give it a proper place on the counter for the season.

Our inaugural meal was the Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken last week. Now I shant remind you of the pickiness of tastes and textures in our household so I had to be sneaky. He was told I used "Campbells Cream Soup" and "Italian Seasoning" along with some other good stuff, it was actually Cream of Mushroom and Italian Dressing Mix hehehe. And I used frozen chicken tenderloins, throw them in and forget about them! We served it over egg noodles that we cooked on the stove. Easy peasy!

We both ate it, it was a bit too garlicky for us (I used 2 pretty big cloves) but the chicken just fell apart with a wooden spoon! It was so creamy and wonderful that we will be having it again in the future. Probably omiting the garlic since the Italian Dressing has a bunch in it already :)

Chicken Enchiladas

So given that I live with one of the pickiest eaters I've ever met in my life over the age of 3, I have to omit and adjust lots of recipes in order to accomodate. (It keeps me creative) One of my coveted wedding presents was the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, Bridal edition. (with high hopes that I would be the next Julia Child) It has some of my favorite recipes from growing up and I'm trying to incorporate them into our lives as well, of course without burning down the house and ending up with takeout. We had this for dinner on Monday and it still needs to be tweaked but I got an "it's good" from P so I would assume I'm on the right track. Plus he ate it for lunch yesterday so that's even better that he choked it down a second time involuntarily!














Prep: 30 minutes Bake: 40 minutes

Ingredients
(My ommissions are highlighted in Red)
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 4-ounce can diced green chile peppers, drained
1 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
2 cups chopped cooked chicken (or turkey)
12 7-inch flour tortillas or 6-inch corn tortillas
(I use 6, 8-inch flour tortillas)
1 10.75-ounce can reduced-fat condensed cream of chicken (or cream of mushroom soup)
1 8-ounce carton light dairy sour cream
1 cup milk
3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese (3 ounces)
2 tablespoons slivered almonds

Directions

1. In a medium skillet cook the 1/4 cup almonds and the onion in hot butter over medium heat until onion is tender and nuts are lightly toasted. Remove from heat. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the canned green chile peppers; reserve remaining peppers for sauce.

2. In a medium bowl stir together cream cheese, the 1 tablespoon milk, and the cumin; add nut mixture and chicken. Stir until combined. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the chicken mixture onto each tortilla near an edge; roll up. Place filled tortillas, seam side down, in a greased 3-quart rectangular baking dish. Set aside.

3. For sauce, in a medium bowl combine the reserved chile peppers, the soup, sour cream, and the 1 cup milk. Pour evenly over the tortillas in the baking dish. Cover with foil. Bake, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven about 35 minutes or until heated through. Remove foil. Sprinkle enchiladas with cheese and the 2 tablespoons almonds. Return to oven; bake about 5 minutes more or until cheese melts. Makes 6 servings- supposedly.

Enjoy!