chicken | Mommie Cooks!

17 Bean White Chicken Chili

March 21, 2011 By Julie 24 Comments

Have you ever bought one of those packs of beans from the grocery store? You know the ones, they have 17 different flavors of legume in the assortment and a recipe for the same old soup on the back every time you pick it up.

Well, I just so happened to have one such bag gracing the inside of my pantry a few weeks back that was bellowing at me to eat it. Being the adventuresome food blogger that I am, I decided to veer away from the bean sack’s dinner plans and instead attempt to create a dish of my own. It would be a chili dish. And while I was at it, I resolved to make it a chicken based chili. And if I was going to use chicken, why not take it one step further and make the base be something other than tomatoes. I was on fire; the inspirational juices were flowing like a glass of cool water on a hot summer day.

I threw in a little of this, and a bit of that. The steam was rising and the water was bubbling. All I needed was my witches hat, a wart and a good cackle, and I would have been concocting one seriously wicked witches brew. When the smoke cleared and the spoon was laid to rest, what remained was one seriously delicious white chicken chili.

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Greek Inspired Slow Cooker Chicken

March 7, 2011 By Julie 59 Comments

As my kids get older, the amount of time I have to cook dinner seems to be less and less. Ok, who am I kidding. It doesn’t seem to be less. It actually is less. A whole lot less. Between Spanish classes, Y-Guides and Faith formation, our afternoons are filled with the kids and me shuttling around in the car, racing to make the next destination on time. Dinner is a far thought in the back of my mind.

I remember the days when I had all afternoon to think about and prepare a tasty meal. I would plan and orchestrate without interruption and the result was usually a masterpiece fit for a king (or at least a family of five). Today I’m lucky if I walk in the door at 5pm and have even had the foresight to pull out a package of meat for that night’s meal. Enter in my trusty slow cooker.

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Indian Butter Chicken

February 16, 2011 By Julie 35 Comments

I was first introduced to Indian butter chicken about six years ago after finishing up a marathon road journey to my dear friend Camilla’s, who was living in Kansas City at the time.

Call me crazy, but I love to drive long distances and am known to throw caution to the wind and just hop in the car at any given moment and go. On this occasion I had been chatting with Camilla over the phone and we decided a get together was long overdue so the following week I popped Nicholas in the toyota, then about 16 months old, and made the eight hour trek from Dallas to Missouri. The drive was probably about one hour longer than a 16 month old had patience for, but we arrived in one piece, none the less for wear, and ready for a hearty dinner.

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Peachy Keen Chicken

June 3, 2010 By Julie 22 Comments

This recipe today is why I look forward to peach season. The prime picking for peaches is still a month away, but they’re starting to show up at the local produce stand and I, for one, can’t resist a fresh peach.

My boys and I love to pick our own fruit. We pick strawberries in April/May, blueberries in June/July down by my mom’s house in SC, peaches in July/August, and apples in September. We also get the privilege of bringing home a large bucket of oranges and grapefruits every other Christmas when we visit my grandparents in Arizona who just happen to have both those trees in their backyard, overflowing with fruit.

Do you pick your own fruit and/or vegetables? You may have already seen it before, but if you haven’t and you’re looking to experience a pick-your-own farm in your area, check out the website Pick Your Own for a farm in your area. The part that I love most about taking my kids picking, aside from the delicious end product, is teaching them about where our food comes from. Because, after all, it doesn’t come from a grocery store. It comes from the land we live on.

Here’s a picture of my boys last year, picking peaches for our impending peach salsa, peach cobbler, and this dish, peachy keen chicken.

I suppose we should get around to making chicken at some point, so let’s do it. This chicken is so good. I just love the way the peaches compliment the meat. Here’s what you’ll need to create this tasty dinner.

Ingredients Needed:

3 Chicken Breasts
1/4 Cup of Butter (1/2 Stick)
2 Peaches
1/4 Cup of Honey
1 tsp of Salt
1/4 tsp of Pepper
1/4 tsp of Ginger
1 Tbsp of Brown Sugar

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Add to your baking dish the butter, honey, salt, pepper, and ginger.

Heat the whole dish up until the butter is melted and the mixture is heated. You can either throw it in the microwave for a couple minutes if your dish will allow it, or put it in the oven for about 5 minutes to let the butter melt. Once your butter is melted, bring your baking dish back out.

Now, add your breasts to the butter mixture, coating well, and put them back into the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, you’ll bring the chicken breasts back out of the oven, add the peaches on top and sprinkle the brown sugar over the whole shebang.

Reduce your oven temperature to 350 and put the breasts back into the oven for another 10 minutes or until breasts are cooked through. Here’s what your finished product should look like. What a beautiful site to behold.

Of course, if you know me at all, you’ll know that I shredded the chicken up so that it would stretch to feed my family of five. You can leave them in breast form or shred them up like this.

Serve it up over rice (we used Jasmine, my favorite, favorite rice) with a veggie on the side and you’ve got yourself a kid (and adult) pleasing dinner!

Peachy Keen Chicken

Total Time: 30 min

Ingredients:

3 Chicken Breasts
1/4 Cup Butter (1/2 Stick)
2 Peaches, Chopped
1/4 Cup Honey
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/4 tsp Ginger
1 Tbsp Brown Sugar

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Add to a baking dish the butter, honey, salt, pepper, and ginger.

Add the breasts to the butter mixture, coating well, and put them back into the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, bring the chicken breasts back out of the oven, add the peaches on top and sprinkle the brown sugar over the top.

Reduce your oven temperature to 350 and put the breasts back into the oven for another 10 minutes or until breasts are cooked through.

I shredded the chicken up so that it would stretch to feed my family of five. You can leave them in breast form or shred.

Serve it up over rice.

Hey Hey, It’s a Cassoulet!

May 3, 2010 By Julie 15 Comments

And I suppose you’re wondering just what the heck a cassoulet is. Well, if you have a husband that loves meat as much as mine does, it’s his new favorite meal.

Cassoulet is a french dish dating back to before the 14th century. It was traditionally considered a peasant food and was defined as a slow cooked bean stew containing meat; typically pork or fowl of some sort. A traditional cassoulet will always have beans and most likely they will be white beans. I also have to add that the cassoulet that I’m making below is more of a weeknight cassoulet, because I only cooked about a quarter of the time that a traditional cassoulet is cooked. Don’t worry though, it’s still amazing delicious!

The cassoulet I made for these pictures has red beans, but only because I didn’t have white beans on hand. And I’m sure you’ll take a look at the picture below of the ingredients and say, “But Julie, I see a can of white beans right there in your picture, are you sure you didn’t have any in your cupboard?” To which I would reply that (and you know I have picture issues when it comes to ingredients) for this recipe, I forgot to take a picture of not just one ingredient, but of ALL ingredients. So before I could post the recipe I had to improvise with what I had on hand at the moment and today I did indeed have a can of white beans on hand. So there you go. It’s not perfect, but we’ll make do. On to the cassoulet. Here’s what you’ll need:

1/2 Pound of Chicken (I actually used precooked chicken pulled off two bbq’d legs from a previous meal, but you can use breasts too.)
1/2 Pound of Bacon, Chopped
1/2 Pound Pork Sausage (I used 2 precooked chicken sausages in ours)
1 Onion, Chopped
2 Zucchinis, Chopped
3 Carrots, Chopped
1 28 Oz. Can of Chopped Tomatoes
4 Cloves of Garlic
1 Can of White Beans
1/4 Cup of White Wine
2 Tbsp of Butter, Melted
1/2 Cup of Bread Crumbs
1 Bunch of Fresh Thyme

Start off by cooking up your bacon. Once it’s cooked through, pull it out of the pan, chop it up, and set it to the side.

Now, in the bacon grease add your sausage and cook it up. After about 3-4 minutes of your sausage cooking, throw in your onions and let them cook up together with the sausage. Continue to cook until your meat is cooked through.

Now, you’re going to remove your sausage and onion and set that to the side as well. If your chicken needs to be cooked, go ahead and throw that in next. Cook it through and then remove it from the pan and set it aside. I don’t have a picture of chicken cooking because I used leftover chicken that I already had precooked.

Finally you’ll want to grab your chopped veggies (the carrot and zucchini) and throw those in the bacon greased pan and cook them up for about 3-4 minutes. You don’t want them to be mushy, just heated through. They’ll get plenty of cook time in the oven.

Now we’re going to assemble the masterpiece. To a large casserole dish, add your bacon, sausage, onions, chicken, veggies, tomatoes, wine, beans and garlic. Stir it up well to combine. Here’s what you should have so far:

And honey, if that doesn’t look good, I don’t know what does. Throw your dish of goodness into the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, covered. While your cassoulet is cooking, grab yourself a separate bowl and mix together your bread crumbs, melted butter, and thyme.

Now, pull your cassoulet out of the oven and sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top. And here’s what you’ll have at this point:

Throw the cassoulet back in the oven, uncovered this time, and let it cook for an additional 30 minutes. When you pull it out, here is what you should have:

Isn’t that beautiful? Wait until you taste it. Your mouth will think it’s beautiful too.

Hey Hey, it's a Cassoulet!

Yield: Approx. 8 1 Cup Servings

Total Time: 1 hour 30 min

Ingredients:

4-6 Slices Bacon
1 Onion, Chopped
4 Cloves Garlic, Minced
1/2 Pound Sausage/span>Pork or Chicken work well
1/2 Pound Chicken, Cubed
3 Carrots, Peeled and Chopped
2 Zucchinis, Chopped
1 28 Oz. Can Tomatoes, Whole or Diced works
1 15 Oz. Can White Cannelini Beans, Rinsed and Drained
1/4 Cup White Wine
1 Bunch Fresh Thyme
2 Tbsp Butter, Melted
1/2 Cup Panko Bread Crumbs
Salt and Pepper, To Taste

Directions:

Cook up the bacon on medium high heat. Remove from pan and chop.

Reserving a teaspoon or two of the grease, add the onions and garlic into the pan.

After a minute or two add in the sausage and chicken.

When the chicken is about halfway cooked through, add in the carrots and zucchini and cook until no pink remains.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the tomatoes, beans, white wine, reserved bacon, and fresh thyme. Reserve about a teaspoon of the thyme to mix with the bread crumbs.

Salt and pepper the mixture to taste. Transfer to a baking dish.

Mix the remaining thyme with the melted butter and bread crumbs.

Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the cassoulet.

Cover with foil and slide into an oven preheated to 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Uncover and cook for an additional 30 minutes.

Stuffed Chicken Burritos

April 26, 2010 By Julie 15 Comments

Well, it’s 5am on Monday morning and for some reason I can’t sleep so my brother gets the benefit of a “how are you all doing” email; we live in different parts of the country and I only get to see him once or twice a year (BOO), and you all get the benefit of an early morning foodie post (YAY)! So let’s have at it.

Now that you’ve cooked that yummy lemon tarragon chicken, I’m guessing you have a bit of extra chicken left over and you’re wondering what the heck you’re going to do with it. Well, wouldn’t you know I’ve got the answer for you. Stuffed chicken burritos!

These little babies, while they take a bit of effort, are worth every bit of time you spend creating them. And the best part is that they taste even better the next day. This is another one of those meals where I kind of just rummage through the fridge and pull out a little bit of this and that to add to the mix. Don’t let the pile of food below scare you. A lot of this can be mixed and matched to accommodate what you have and this is another recipe similar to dump that is very forgiving on the measurements. So here we go.

What you’ll need:

Your leftover Shredded Tarragon Chicken (or other shredded chicken; 1/2 to 1pd depending on how meaty you like your burritos)
A Couple Swirls of Olive Oil for Cooking
3/4 Cup Grape Tomatoes, Halved
1 Lime, Juiced
2 Avocados, cubed
1 Can of Black Beans, Rinsed and Drained
1 Onion, Chopped
1 Cup of Cooked Rice
3 Cloves of Garlic
3 tsps (or 1 small handful) of Cilantro<
1 cup of chopped pepper (green, red, and/or yellow works)
2 Green Onions, Chopped
1/4 Cup +1/4 Cup Sour Cream
1 Cup of your Favorite Salsa
2 tsp of Cumin
2 tsp of Chili Powder
1/2 tsp of Salt
Cayenne to taste
1 Tbsp of Soy Sauce
2 Cups of Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Whew! Now THAT’S a list of ingredients. First off, swirl your olive oil around a large skillet once or twice and turn your heat onto medium high. Add in your garlic, white onion, and peppers. Cook for 3-5 minutes or until your onions are soft and translucent.

Turn your heat down to medium and add in your tomatoes, green onions, black beans, avocado, lime juice, cilantro, 1/4 cup of the sour cream, 1 tsp of the chili powder, 1 tsp of the cumin, salt, soy sauce and cayenne to taste. Stir carefully to combine.

Finally add in your chicken and rice and once again stir to combine.

Now you’re going to whip up a quick sauce to cover these beauties with. To a small bowl add your salsa, the other 1/4 cup of sour cream and the other tsp of both cumin and chili powder. Stir it up and get ready for the assemblage.

For the assembly, take one of your tortillas and place a few big spoonfuls of the burrito goodness on top of it. Sprinkle it with a generous amount of cheese and roll her up. At this point you should be starting to get excited about your delicious dinner prospects for the evening because if that doesn’t look good to you, I don’t know what does.

Put a couple spoonfuls of your sauce on the bottom of your baking pan and spread it around. Then place your finished burritos in the pan. Continue to assemble until you either run out of guts or run out of tortillas (or if you plan it correctly, run out of both at the same time!). Once you’re finished, spread the rest of your sauce over the top of the burritos and then sprinkle on your remaining cheese.

Place them in an oven warmed to 350 degrees. Of course, given it’s 5:30 am and I’m still not fully awake, I can not for the life of me remember how long I cooked these, but I’ll take a guess and say about 20 minutes, or, until your cheese is good and melted and starting to crisp around the edges. You’re basically just wanting them to get good and hot. And let’s just revel and what we’ve got. Man, I see a burrito in my future; that, my friends, is what dinner should look like.

So that’s it. Now you sit back, grab a glass of wine and plate of burrito and revel in the fact that you created this amazing masterpiece. And while I know the picture this go round wasn’t my best, trust me when I tell you the burrito more than makes up for it.

Stuffed Chicken Burritos

Yield: 5-6 Burritos

Total Time: 50 min

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 Cloves Garlic, Minced
1 Onion, Chopped
1 Pepper, Chopped (green, yellow or red all work)
3/4 Cup Tomatoes, Chopped
2 Green Onions, Chopped
1 15 Oz. Can Black Beans, Rinsed and Drained
2 Avocados, Cubed
1 Lime, Juiced
1 Bunch Fresh Cilantro, Chopped
1/2 Cup Sour Cream
2 tsp Chili Powder
2 tsp Cumin
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1/2 tsp Salt
Cayenne to Taste
1/2 Pound Shredded Chicken (add more if you like it meatier)
1 Cup Cooked Rice
1 Cup Salsa
2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions:

swirl the olive oil around a large skillet and heat to medium high.

Add in the garlic, white onion, and peppers. Cook for 3-5 minutes or until the onions are soft and translucent.

Turn your heat down to medium and add in the tomatoes, green onions, black beans, avocado, lime juice, cilantro, 1/4 cup of the sour cream, 1 tsp of the chili powder, 1 tsp of the cumin, the soy sauce, salt and cayenne to taste. Stir carefully to combine.

Finally add in the chicken and rice and once again stir to combine.

In a separate bowl combine the salsa, the remaining 1/4 cup of sour cream and the other tsp of both cumin and chili powder.

Grab a tortilla and place a few big spoonfuls of the filling on top. Sprinkle it with a generous amount of cheese and roll up.

Put a couple spoonfuls of sauce on the bottom of the baking pan and spread it around, then place your finished burritos in the pan.

Spread the rest of the sauce over the top of the burritos and sprinkle on the remaining cheese.

Place in an oven warmed to 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the top is bubbling and golden brown.