Creamy Chicken Baked Flautas

Have you ever roasted a whole chicken?  If you have you probably know that there can be a good amount of meat on one of those beasts.  At least for Sarah and I it's too much for one meal and you hate to see it go to waste.  This is one of those good recipes where you can put that left over chicken to good use.  After we had finished eating the roasted chicken I finished carving it up and pulled as much meat as I could off of it, put in a bag and stuck it in the freezer until I was ready for this recipe a week or so later.

To make the Chicken Flautas you need the following (according to the recipe):

• 2 cups of roasted chicken, chopped
• 2-3 tbsp sweet yellow onion, diced
• 3 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
• 3 tbsp cream cheese (I used 1/3 fat)
• 3 tbsp Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded (I used lower fat)
• 1/4 tsp coriander
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
• Flour Tortillas
• Cooking spray

I didn't have an onion (Sarah's not a fan of onion anyway), fresh (or dry) cilantro, Monterrey Jack cheese,  or coriander.  So I fudged (That's what makes cooking fun anyway!). 

First preheat the oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with foil.

Next I combined the ingredients into a bowl and mixed it well.  

 My cast of ingredients...I used cheddar instead of Monterrey Jack and used Onion flakes (dried) instead of onion (not pictured).
Mix it up with the Chicken (yes capitalized, because the Chicken is important, without it it wouldn't be Chicken Flautas...)

Mix it good then spray the foil on the pan with some PAM! 

Put some Chiken mixture down the middle of some tortilla shells (if the shells are too stiff stick them in the microwave for 15-20 seconds first) then roll them up and put them on the pan.

Spray the tortillas with some PAM to make sure they get nice and golden crispy.  Then stick in the oven for 8-10 minutes, flip them, and go for another 5-6 mins.  

So yummy!  Would go great with a nice guacamole...but alas we didn't have avocado either.  Our 1 year old just ate it for his dinner...funny how he gets to eat all the good stuff.

Here's the site I got the recipe from.  We did try it originally with cilantro and it ended up having a very strong cilantro flavor so if you are not into cilantro go easy there.  Oh and be warned, they stay hot in the middle for a LONG time so don't burn your mouth! Enjoy!

http://www.fortheloveofcooking.net/2011/05/creamy-chicken-baked-flautas.html

Whiskey-Peach-Barbecue Chicken

It's been awhile since I've done one of these posts but tonight I got a chance to try a new recipe.
I made Whiskey Peach BBQ Chicken.  I've always liked cooking with alcohol, it adds great flavor and aroma.
To start with you add 2 Tbs of oil and 2 Tbs of butter in a large pot on med-high heat.

Next drop in 4-5 chicken thighs at a time skin side down and cook until brown. Then flip and brown the otherside.  Once both sides are browned set them aside on a plate and brown the rest of the chicken.

Once the chicken is done pour out about half the grease then throw in one diced yellow onion.

Cook the onion for a couple of minutes stirring it around in the pot.  Next pour in 1.5 cups of whiskey. Stir this around for a couple of minutes letting the whiskey reduce some. 

Next, add 12 oz of BBQ sauce, a can of Peach preserves, 2 Tbs of Worcestershire sauce, one cup of water and 3 peeled garlic cloves.

The Cast of Characters

Stir all those ingredients together, then add the chicken back in.

Cover and put the pot in the oven for 1.5 hours on 300.  The meat will literally fall off the bone when it's done.  

The final verdict was that it was good, I was hoping for alot more flavorful but it wasn't as strong as I'd hoped.  While it was good I think we decided it wasn't worth the cost of the Whiskey :).

Here's the source.  Until next time...

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/08/peach-whiskey-barbecue-chicken/

Honey Chicken Stir Fry

Last night we had Honey Chicken Stir Fry for dinner.  It was actually meant to be a meal for earlier in the week but plans changed as they tend to do.
This one's really easy and was nice and tasty with plenty of sauce to cover the rice with! A huge plus for me.
You start out with making the sauce.  1 1/2 cups chicken broth, 4 tablespoons soy sauce, 4 tablespoons cornstarch, and 1/4 cup honey. I didn't have corn starch so I used 6 Tbs of all purpose flour instead.

whisk it, whisk it good...

They you slice your chicken breast real thin like you are making chicken strips.  Heat some oil in a pan (about 1 tbs) and then throw in the chicken, stirring it around for a few minutes until it's cooked through.

In the last 30 seconds of the chicken cooking throw in a few cloves of garlic all minced up (or use the stuff in the jar like I did since I didn't have any fresh garlic) then put the chicken to the side on a plate.

Throw in about a cup of fresh green beans and stir them around.

After a few minutes throw the chicken and garlic back in to the pan with the beans.  Give it a minute then throw in your sauce mixture.

The sauce will reduce quickly and become nice and thick.  At this point I threw in about a half a cup of salted cashews.  In the future when I make this I will leave this as a side that you can add on if you want because some of us don't like to mix crunchy nuts with soft chicken and beans.

Crunchy Cashews

Serve it over some rice or noodles! Yummy!

I got the recipe from here: http://www.framedcooks.com/2012/05/honey-chicken-stir-fry.html

Pork Chops with Garlic and Wine

Last Saturday I had trouble finding something to make without having to go out and buy a bunch of ingredients.  So I settled for something I've made before. Pork Chops with Garlic and Wine.  I haven't blogged about it before so I figured I'd at least put a short blog about it on my Pantry Blog.
I found the recipe here: thepioneerwoman.com
Its a real tasty recipe that doesn't take too long!
I forgot to take pictures until the end but here's the pork in the pan:

You basically sear the pork really well on both sides in a little bit of oil then take it out of the pan and set it aside.  You then throw in some garlic cloves and cook them in the oil/pork stuff until they're brown and soft. Or if your like me you have the heat to high (stupid electric stove) and burn the garlic and have to start over with jarred minced garlic due to not having any whole cloves left after the burned carnage.  When the garlic is cooked you throw in the pork, some wine and a bay leaf and cook some more until the pork is done.  It's quite good.  We served it with some grilled asparagus (toss the asparagus in olive oil and salt and pepper then grill it to the preferred tenderness).

Chicken Bacon Cheese Sandwhiches

Okay, A few days late on the post but here's what I made for dinner last Saturday evening.

First start with Peppered Bacon.  (After making it this weekend the general consensus was that there was too much pepper in this recipe so I may try a different bacon next go around)

I cut the bacon strips in half to make them keep their shape better and cook faster (also fits better on a sandwich)

Once the bacon is done set it aside.

 Pour out the bacon grease but put about 1 tablespoon back into the pan for the next part.  I didn't take a picture of this but prepare 4 chicken breasts by hammering them between 2 pieces of wax paper until they are all about the same thickness, then coat them with some lemon pepper.  Put the chicken breasts in the bacon pan on medium heat until the edges start turning white (about 4-5 minutes) then flip them over.

At this point you can put the bacon strips on the chicken breast and then add a slice of whatever cheese floats your boat.  I used a mild cheddar.  Cover the pan to help keep everything moist and melt the cheese.

 Once it's all done it should look really yummy and you can either serve as is or throw it on a bun.

We made a side of Arby's fries from the freezer section at Wal-Mart, tasted just like the real thing!

This is where I got the recipe:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/marlboro_mans_s/

She's got alot of good recipes that you will likely see here eventually so please check out her blog as well.

Coffee Rubbed NY Strip

For my first Saturday making dinner I decided to use some of the NY Strip my parents gave me for Christmas.

Yum!

To add some flavoring I tweaked a Coffee rub that I found online.  I used 1 Tbsp of coffee beans (ground finely), 1 Tbsp of season-all, 1/2 Tbsp of garlic powder and 1/2 Tbsp of Salt, sprinkle some paprika and some pepper and mix it all together.

Dip the steak in oil then rub that all over...mmmm so good.

Throw the steaks on the grill and it's pure yumminess.

For a side I made garlic sauteed green beans.  Just throw some garlic into a pan with olive oil until it's nice and golden,

I LOVE the smell of sauteed garlic!

Throw in some cooked green beans and toss around for a few seconds.  Mmmm!

We also had some corn bread muffins with some nice honey drizzled on them...

Overall a great meal.  The steak turned out AMAZING.  Great flavor and I managed to cook them to a perfect medium with all the juices locked in.  Sarah even ate most of hers and said it was the best steak she's ever had.  

My New Blog

Awhile ago I told Sarah (my wife) that I wanted to start making dinner Saturday nights.  Why Saturday? Well usually the dinner I make takes awhile and therefore since we eat an early dinner I wouldn't have time to do it on week nights.  Well, it turned out that we ended up dropping this on the wayside.  Life got in they way.  Well, starting in 2013 I'm going to make this a rule again.  And in order to help me stay on top of it, I figured I'd have some fun with it and blog about each meal.  Most of the meals will be found online in various places and so I will give the source but I will also likely make changes to them as I go.  Most people won't care about what I make for dinner but I know a few who might be interested in what new recipes I'm trying so this blog is for them.  I hope you enjoy and I'll see you in January!