Creamy White Chicken Chili

Do any of the following weather conditions apply to where you are right now?

Cold
Dreary
Gray
Rainy
Foggy
Nippy
Pleasantly sunny with a fall bite in the air

If so, you NEED to make this creamy white chicken chili! It is one of my all tie favorite dishes and I can hardly believe I’ve never featured it here before. I can also hardy believe I don’t have a better picture of it! Crap! While it looks rather washed out above, this chili if FULL of flavor with green chilies, tender chicken, creamy white beans and silky ‘broth’. It is a winner - especially in the winter – but it’s great ANY day.

Creamy White Chicken Chili

Ingredients:
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into ½ inch pieces
1 medium chopped onion
1 ½ tsp garlic powder
1 T vegetable oil
3 cans (15 ½ oz each) great northern white beans, rinsed and drained
1 can chicken broth
2 cans (those small cans) chopped green chilies
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
½ tsp pepper’1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup sour cream
½ cup whipping cream (can use half-n-half)

Directions:
In large skillet, sauté chicken, onion and garlic in vegetable oil until chicken is no longer pink. Add beans, broth, chilies and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove from heat**. Stir in sour cream and whipping cream. Heat through. Serve immediately.

Kung Pao - Flavor Wow!

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Autumn Warmth in a Flaky Crust...

What's a perfect, hot and comforting remedy for rainy weather? Homemade Individual Chicken Pot Pies!Buttery, flaky crust….rich, chickeny gravy, hearty chucks of chicken and tender vegetables…Mmmm….It’s easy and beautiful – but most of all – it’s delicious!

Here’s how to do it!

Get the crust dough made first - following your favorite recipe for a two-crust pie (as I’ve said before, I do what Betty Crocker says!). I make sure my butter is chopped straight from the freezer and I draw my tablespoons of water from a glass of ice cold water.

A few seconds in the food processor gives me fine-as-sand dough that just holds together. When mixing by hand with a pastry blender, you may have pebble-size pieces of butter – that’s fine too. But if you can use a food processor, the butter has no time to get warm and it makes a wonderfully flaky crust!

Once blended, shape the dough into a disk, then wrap it up and chill it in the fridge till it’s time to roll it out.

Next, I prepped all my other components. I chopped about ½ of a medium onion, ¾ of a green pepper, used the last quarter of a bag of frozen peas-n-carrots and chopped about a quarter cup of parsley. All tolled, veggies measured about 2 or 2 ½ cups worth. Use your favorites!

Then, I gathered other herbs and aromatics that were pleasing to my nose right then and there – Garlic powder, celery seed, cayenne, basil, coriander, big black pepper, the remainder of a spice blend from Pampered Chef and of course, chicken broth.

First I heated a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and added 2 breast worth of chicken, cut while raw into a half-inch dice. I then added salt, pepper and garlic powder and cooked it till almost all the pink was gone.

Next, I added the veggies….

…..and the herbs. I eyeballed all of these – but I’d guess that there was about 12 – ¾ teaspoon of each – and I stirred to combine everything well, then let this mixture heat through and cook until the veggies were just tender.

Meanwhile, I made a rue. I used about 2-3 tablespoons butter, melted it, then added approx. ¼ cup flour. Make sure you stir this well and heat it to bubbling. You want to cook out the taste of the flour, but you don’t want the rue to brown. Once the rue is done, remove it from the heat till ready to use.

After your rue is done and the veggies have cooked with the chicken for about 5 minutes, add the chicken broth - approx 2 to 2 ½ cups. Heat till almost boiling….

…then add in the rue. Stir constantly and heat to boiling. You want a thick-ish sauce and it will not reach it’s full thickness until it boils.

The boiling had just begun here – kinda hard to see. But once it does boil, it turns rich and thick and wonderful!

Lastly, add the chopped parsley and stir to combine. Remove the pan from the heat and get your ramekins ready to go!

I sprayed my ramekins with Pam before filling each to within about a quarter inch from the top.

After all are filled, wipe the rims with a cloth or paper towel.

Next, flour a rolling mat or your clean counter top and roll out the chilled pie dough to approx 1/8 inch thickness.

I placed a ramekin atop the dough, then used a paring knife to cut a circle ¾ inch larger than the circumference of the ramekin.

I made a wash of one egg beaten with one tablespoon of water and wetted the rim of the ramekin.

Using a small off-set spatula, I lifted the circle of dough from the rolling mat….

…and placed it on top if the egg-rimmed ramekin.

Then, I crimped the dough as I pushed down slightly, sealing the dough to the rim of the ramekin.

Then, cut two slits in the top so steam could escape during baking.

Aren’t they so cute?! I was so proud of them!

Lastly, I brushed each one with the leftover egg wash. The pot pies can now be refrigerated until you’re ready to bake them, or they can go straight to the oven. I chilled mine till dine time, but then baked then at 350-degrees for approx 45-50 minutes. I checked them every ten minutes or so after 25 minutes as I wanted to make sure the crusts were golden – not too pale, not too brown.

And – Voila!!!

The crust was tender, flaky and buttery. Inside, the sauce was flavorful, the chicken and veggies tender, hot and delicious!

VERY DELICIOUS!!!

I froze three for a later dinner and can’t wait to have them again. These were easy and are so pleasing to the eye, they’d be great for a small dinner party –each guest getting their own beautifully golden-crowned pot-o-pie. Served with a seasonal fruit salad it was a fabulous hot meal on a cold, rainy autumn day!

Recipe? Well, there really isn't one! This came out of my head. Suffice it to say that you make and chill pie crust dough, then, mix chopped veggies of your choice with diced, raw chicken and cook through in a little olive oil over medium heat with herbs and spices to your taste. Pour in chicken broth and add a rue to thicken. Spoon mixture into ramekins (or one big casserole),roll out rounds of dough to fit top of baking vessel(s) and bake until heated through and golden brown :-)

Chicken Peanut Noodles

We had the most awesome dinner on Sunday night. I’d wanted to make the dish several days earlier, but for one reason or another, it kept getting delayed. So by the time we got around to making it was a real treat. I expanded on a recipe I found on a blog I frequent called ‘battersplattered’. Battersplattered had posted a recipe for Spicy Peanut Noodles which was right up my taste bud alley. I love the combo of chicken and peanuts though and wanted to make it more of a one pot meal rather than just a side noodle dish. Because I added the chicken, I also tweaked the sauce to add a little more spice/heat and volume in general so the chicken could swim around in and soak up the peanuty, saucy goodness. It was to die for….OMG…SO good! And the leftovers the next day for lunch were just as good as the first night – my husband actually liked day number 2 better! Try this – we had ours with an egg roll on the side - you will love it!

Chicken Peanut Noodles

Ingredients:

6 T peanut butter

3/4 to 1 c chicken broth

4 T rice vinegar

4 to 5 T soy sauce

2 1/2 T sugar

1 T sesame oil

1 t ground ginger

1/4 t cayenne pepper

1 to 1 ½ t garlic powder

1 t red pepper flakes (optional)

1, 1 lb (16 oz) box of linguine

2 large (or 3 small) chicken breasts very thinly sliced while raw

1 T olive oil

1 envelope fried rice or Asian seasoning (I use Sunbird fried rice seasoning)

salt, pepper & garlic powder

1 orange bell pepper, thinly sliced

1/2 c sliced green onions, cut on the bias

1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro

1/4 c chopped salted peanuts

Directions:
Combine first 10 ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk to blend. Set dressing aside. The peanut butter will soften as the mixture sits after that first whisking. Give it a good whisking again before combing it with the chicken and noodles later.

Begin cooking the pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water until done (I prefer just past the al dente point – but not in no way mushy!)

While pasta boils, heat olive oil in a large frying pan over medium high and add the thinly sliced chicken. Season chicken with salt, pepper, garlic powder and the envelope of the fried rice seasoning (or approx 1 T Asian seasoning). Stir frequently until just cooked through. Add sliced orange bell pepper and combine (you want a little crunch to the pepper so if your pasta is quite a ways from being done, hold off adding it just yet – and turn the chicken down in this case as well).

Once pasta is done, strain it and add it to the chicken/pepper mixture. Whisk the sauce once more and pour over the chicken & pasta. Toss to coat thoroughly. Keep heat on medium and heat until sauce thickens slightly. Add sliced green onions and stir to combine.
Serve in bowls and sprinkle with cilantro and peanuts if desired (and DO desire it...these two additions are the crowning glory!).

Get ready to drift off into deliciousness!

Happy New Year - A Little Late...

Well...it's been a while! I've been feeling bad about not posting lately - there was stuff to put in...pics of the ever deepening snow in our yard the week before Christmas, New Year's wishes and pics etc.... But time seems to get away from me or I feel what I have to say isn't "all that" and next thing you know, weeks have gone by.

Anyhoo...enough of that - let's get down to business. Things have taken a turn back to the healthy at our house. Earlier this year, I very happily melted off 30 pounds. I felt terrific, but something about hitting that number, even though I wanted to rid myself of another 25 or so, made me pretty darn pleased with myself and I stopped working to lose weight and let myself sit with the 30 for a while. Well, over the holidays, the 30 lbs has back-peddled to about 22 (yes, I'm guessing...there's no way I'm stepping on the scale to see the actual goodie-damage. I'm not stupid!) So....right about January 3rd, the pantry and fridge were cleansed of their evil carbs and sugars - and low fat, whole wheat, sugar-free, fresh-from-the-farm items took their place. I have to say...it feels great to eat better. It's actually a relief to not eat fat-laden crap. I already feel better - popping right up the stairs rather than trudging, rising easily in the morning instead of feeling like a sack-a rocks. I've truly missed steanmed broccoli and taking a few pieces of fruit to work with a great-tasting, mayo-free sandwich. 2009 is off to a terrific start!

So - in coming up with new ways to cook up ground turkey and chicken etc, this awesome new dish came out of my kitchen last night. Its low fat, uses whole wheat pasta and is full of rich, chickeny flavor. I'm not one for resolutions...they seem to set you up to fail -but I'm calling this dish Resolution Chicken Pasta because if you are one to make resolutions of the diet kind, this one will fit the bill!

Resolution Chicken Pasta

2 T olive oil
1 medium onion - halved & sliced (not too thick, not too thin)
1/2 red pepper - diced
4 cloves garlic - chopped (or minced)
4 medium, skinless chicken breasts - sliced into thin strips while raw
3 - 4 T flour
2 1/2 cups chicken broth (your choice low sodium, fat-free etc.)
1 can 98% fat-free cream of celery soup (undiluted)
1/2 can 98% fat-free cream of chicken soup (undiluted)
1/2 t dried basil
1 t celery seed
1 t red pepper flakes
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t garlic powder
salt (used throughout)
pepper (used throughout)
1 box (13.25 oz) Barilla Whole Wheat Thin Spaghetti

Begin by filling your pasta pot with salted water and keep the heat high enough so that the water boils quickly later on for your pasta. Heat oil in large frying pan over medium high heat and add sliced onions and red pepper. Season with salt and pepper and cook until onions start to loosen up - about 5 minutes. Add chicken pieces, a bit more salt and pepper and stir to combine then refrain from stirring for a few minutes so the chicken can pick up a little color on the bottom. After about 4 minutes, add the garlic and stir the mixture so the chicken just cooks throughout. Next, add the flour and stir well to combine. The flour will coat everything in the pan and make is rather tacky and kinda pasty - this is exactly what you want to have happen. Let this cook for a couple of minutes so the flour picks up the flavors in the pan and won't just taste like flour. Next, pour in the chicken broth. Stir well and scrape your stirring implement along the bottom of the pan to get up all the brown and wonderful 'leavings'. Stir until the mixture bubbles and you'll notice it will get thick pretty quickly in just a minute or so. Add in the two cream soups and stir well to combine. You can now turn the heat down to medium. Add in the basil, celery seed, red pepper flakes, onion powder and garlic powder. Stir well. Allow the mixture to bubble for just a few minutes - taste it for salt and pepper, then you can turn it down to medium low or low until the rest of your dinner is ready. The rest of this dish is the pasta. While the flavors of the chicken dish marry, crank the heat on the pasta water and once boiling, cook the entire box of whole wheat thin spaghetti (I like to break my spaghetti in half). Cook acording to package directions then drain, drizzle with a little olive oil if desired (just so it doesn't stick together). To serve, put the desired amount of pasta on your plate and ladle the chicken mixture on top. Then, twirl your fork into the hot, steamy, creamy deliciousness and enjoy!

Happy healthier eating in the new year!