Lemon pepper chicken thighs

One of the best recipes I've found which I altered a bit but it was amazing! 

Lemon pepper chicken recipe:

1/4 c fresh lemon juice (from I large lemon)

Zest of 1 lemon (zest first-juice second)

1/4 c extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

1/4 c water

1/2 tsp fresh dill

1/2 tsp kosher salt

7 boneless skinless chicken thighs

Place the first seven ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Add chick thighs to a ziplock and add in marinade. Let sit in fridge for the afternoon. Use cast iron grill pan to cook 7 mins on each side until cooked thru and crisp on the outside. Seriously yummy recipe!! Super juicy chicken is had with it!! 

Thai-Curry Chicken Soup

6 cups chicken broth

3 tablespoons maple (pure) syrup or packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2tablespoons rice vinegar
2teaspoons curry powder
1 small red bell pepper, coarsely chopped (1/2 cup) optional
1 small jalapeño chile, seeded, finely chopped (1 tablespoon) or 1 tsp chipotle chili powder
2 cups chopped  cooked chicken
2 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro, if desired
chopped green onions
2-4 cups shredded cabbage
3-4 carrots shredded

add all ingredients to a pot and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until veggies are tender, about 20 minutes. Serve hot with cilantro and green onions over the top! I had also added other leftover items that I have had in my fridge, rice, noodles, other veggies, anything you think would be a good pseudo-chinese soup. It's really yummy and the heat of this can be adjusted easily. this serves as many as you want it too!!

Chicken and Noodle with Cajun Seasoning

3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves cut in large chunks
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning (I didn't really measure mine, but I probably used less than this)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup white cooking wine or chicken broth/stock
1 can chopped green chiles
1 teaspoon lime juice
1/4 cup pasta water
1/2 box angel hair pasta

Season the chicken with the Creole seasoning.Heat the oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook until well browned on both sides. Add the lime juice over the chicken. Deglaze with the wine. Stir the soup, chiles and remaining Cajun seasoning in the skillet and heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cook for 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Meanwhile cook a half box of angel hair pasta. When pasta is one minuet from being done from the box directions transfer to the pan of simmering chicken mixture. Add in the pasta water and cook until the mixture is hot and bubbling and thoroughly incorporated. serves 4 generously.

Original Recipe before I changed it!

Buffalo Chicken Pie

2 c cooked chicken
½ c buffalo sauce
1 - 1 ½ c shredded cheddar
1 c chopped celery, carrots, onions, garlic mixed
1 c biscut mix
½ c yellow cornmeal
½ c milk
1 eggs
2/3 c ranch dressing

Heat oven to 400°F. In large bowl, toss chicken and Buffalo wing sauce until well coated. Stir in cheeses and celery. Pour into ungreased 9-inch glass pie plate.
In medium bowl, mix Bisquick mix, cornmeal, milk and egg. Pour over chicken mixture; spread to cover.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown. Cut into wedges; drizzle with blue cheese dressing. Makes six servings, but would probably have to double for our fam.

Chicken and Dumplings Soup

2-3 c cooked and shredded chicken, turkey or other poultry
3 ribs celery chopped
3/4 a large onion chopped
1 tbsp garlic
1-2 tsp seasoning salt
1/2 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp thyme
2 c buiscut mix
2/3 c milk
celery seed, thyme and celery salt to mix into dumplings
2-4 tbsp butter
2-4 tbsp flour
6 c chicken broth
1/2 c wine

In a large pot melt butter over med high heat. Add onions and celery and sweat do not brown. When they have cooked down and begun to soften add the garlic until aromatic but not brown. stir in the flour. Allow the flour, vegg, butter mix to cook a bit over the heat and get a little bubbly and peanut colored. Add the wine and scrape the bottom of the pot. Slowly add the 6c chicken broth/stock. Bring to a boil adding the seasonings, salt, celery seed and thyme and chicken. Meanwhile mix the buiscut mix and milk with the seasonings until a dough forms. Mine was not wet at all and I just cut it into even portions. I don't remember how many, but it was quite a bit of dumpling goodness. After chicken has boiled for 10 minutes add the dumplings to the boiling mixture and allow to dip under the broth for a minute. Cook for 20 minutes covered, do not peak! Serve immediately! Yummy! I could eat about three bowls of this and the next day adding more broth stretches this into two meals s you can be sure I ate more than my fair share of servings!

Chicken and Potatoes with cumin and chipotle

2-3 tbsp butter
1-2 lrge russet potatoes, baked and cooled
1 c chopped cooked chicken (roasted or baked chicken is best)
1/2 chopped onion
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chipolte chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 c. water
1/2 c cooking wine to deglaze the pan

melt butter in pan and add the chicken onions and potatoes. saute until browned on all sides. deglaze pan with white wine and water. add seasoning  and let simmer gentle for a few minutes until the flavors meld. this was SOO yummy! I love potatoes. I think you could also easily sub in bacon or ham for the chicken. A good green veg goes along perfectly!

Bake Marinated Chicken Fingers

equal parts of a vinegar and an oil (I usually use olive oil and have tried both cider and balsamic vinegar)
salt and pepper
1 tsp ground garlic
1 tsp dried thyme
Other dried spices as your tastes prefer (I have done celery seed, poultry seasoning, etc)
1-2 tbsp mustard (dijon, grainy, or other mustard you prefer)
1 pkg chicken breasts or tenderloins
ziplock or other pkg to marinate in

mix the first 6 ingreds until well blended. Add the chicken and turn to coat each piece. Place in fridge for 8 hours or over night. Preheat oven to 375 and place the chicken on a baking sheet lined with foil. Bake for 15-25 minutes or until chix is golden and tender and cooked through. Eat and enjoy!

Chicken Noodle Soup

This is my version.

2 large chix breasts cut into small bites
5 med-large carrots chopped
1-1 1/2 c. chopped celery
1 large onion chopped
1 1/2-2 c. pasta (something swirled or twisted)
3-4 tbsp butter
3-4 tbsp flour (wheat flour works great here)
Cayenne pepper to flavor the meat
Garlic salt to flavor the meat
1/2 -1 tsp thyme
1/2-1 tsp celery seed
4 c broth
2 c water

In large pot melt butter until it sizzles. Add chix and allow to brown. Add th cayenne and garlic salt to taste. Add the flour stirring and scraping up te brown bits. Allow it to cook some and brown a bit more. Add the veggies and stir t coat them a little with the flour mix. Add the seasoning until aromatic. Add the water and broth and bring to a boil. Cover and lower heat and allow to simmer for 15 minutes. Add the pasta and bring back to a boil. Cook 10-15 minutes longer or until pasta is cooked. I season this by smell and so often have to check the flavor near the end. It is good the next day too, but you usually have to add some water to thin it out some!

Company Chicken Recipe

Ingredients
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1 small jar dried beef shopping list
8 Skinless, Boneless chicken breasts shopping list
4 strips bacon shopping list
1 small onion, chopped shopping list
1 - 12 oz. can mushrooms, or 8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced shopping list
1/2 tsp. thyme shopping list
2 cans cream of mushroom soup shopping list
1 ½ c. sour cream shopping list
¼ cup sherry or white wine, optional shopping list
paprika shopping list
hot buttered egg noodles or hot cooked rice, for serving shopping list
How to make it
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Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly grease 9” x 13” pan.
Rinse dried beef very well and pat dry (removes some of the salt). Line bottom of pan with dried beef.
Fry bacon in large pot (yes, I said pot) until just beginning to crisp. Reserve drippings. Remove from pan and cut bacon strips in half crossways. Set aside.
In reserved bacon drippings, on medium heat, saute chicken breasts until brown on both sides; no need to cook through. Remove from pan and lay over dried beef in casserole dish. Lay ½ strip bacon over each piece of chicken.
In same pot, saute onions and mushrooms until onions are transluscent and mushrooms have softened.
To sauteed vegetables, add cream of mushroom soup, sour cream and wine (if using); heat over medium heat until bubbly. Spread over chicken. Sprinkle paprika on top.
Bake uncovered for 1 - 1 ½ hours until chicken is cooked through and sauce is bubbly.
Serve with hot buttered egg noodles or hot cooked rice and a nice green vegetable

Chicken Flautas

I made chicken flautas for dinner the other night from a food network recipe and they were really good, VERY filling (I only ate one and Will only ate two). Here is what I did and where I got my inspiration!

Shredded Chicken Breast:
placed 3 chix breats in a crock pot and then in a bowl I mixed about 1 c of water with garlic powder, galic salt, chopped garlic, and some boullion mix (not much) and some pepper. I then poured that over top and cooked on high for 3 hours, shredded it and used it in place of rotisseri chix called for in the following recipe.

Chicken Flautas with Avocado creme


These made ALOT of food and we ate this for three days!! Seriously! They were good though. I don't think I will make them often as it is just so much, unless I made them for a party or something.

Yummy Pot Pie

Just made a fab pot pie recipe for the fam. It was super yummy. Here is where I got my inspiration and then this is what I actually did.

Wine Poached Chicken

Chicken Tarragon Pot Pie


4 small leeks
3 carrots
heart of celery
1/2 onion
2 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
4 boneless skinless chick breast
1 c white cooking wine
2 c chicken broth from bouillon
1 tsp dried thyme
2 ready made pie crusts
1 c half and half
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour

In a large pot I added the veggies, which had been sliced about 3 inches long. I obviously clean the leeks after slicing them down the middle as they are very gritty between the leaves. I added the chicken on top of the veg and then topped with thyme and fresh tarragon. Then I added the broth and the wine to just cover the chicken mixture. I brought it gently to a boil and covered it and lowered the heat and simmered for 25 mins. I then separated the broth from the veg/chix and reserved the liquid. I chopped the veg/chix into bite sized pieces and divided between to round pie plates. Then in the pot I cooked the chick/veg in I melted 3 tbsp of butter and added the flour. I let the flour cook a bit and gradually added two cups of the reserved liquid from the poaching. I then added the cup of half and half making a creamy sauce. Season to taste at this time with salt and pepper. I poured the sauce over the two pies and then used the already made pie crusts and topped them. Giving several air holes for the mixture to breath. I placed in a preheated 400 degree oven for 20 minutes and then lowered the heat to 375 for 20 minutes until the pies were bubbly. I baked the pies on a cookie sheet to keep messes to a minimum. These were really good and two pies really did feed our whole family without any left overs. If I was making this for a crowd it would be much more pies, probably four. But it was only 4 chicken breasts to begin with and if I had used more chix I would have probably had more pie as I could easily have made the sauce more. I have 4 c. of broth left over which I froze to use another time. YUMMY!!!

Baked Teriyaki Chicken

Here is a GREAT new recipe I found for some boneless skinless chicken thighs that I had and some chicken breast that I addded to make a full meal.

and here is what I actually did with it!

1 c soy sauce
1/2 -3/4 c white sugar
1/3-1/2 cider vinegar
2 tsp minced garlic
3 tbsp corn starch
3 tbsp cold water

In a sauce pan over med/low heat I heated these ingreds. And then when they had thickened and darkened and tasted right. I coated the thighs and breats that I had already put in a greased 9x13. I simply poured enough over to cover both sides of the chicken, which wasn't too much. I then covered it with foil and placed it in a 425 oven for 30 minutes. I then removed the cover and baked another 20 minutes after turning the chicken over. I then shredded it and served it with some pasta I had made with some of the left over sauce! This was SOOO good and even had a ton extra! We could also have kept the teriyaki sauce in the fridge for prob a week or so, serving over just about anything. Such a versitile sauce! Remember this is not super sweet, but if you are uncomfortable with that much sugar make it with splenda, I bet it would be just as good, although you will probably have to up the corn starch amount. Happy eating!

Chicken Alfredo/Tomato Bake

2-3 boneless skinless chick breast sliced into thin strips
1-2 tbps olive oil
1-2 tsp chopped garlic
1 green, red or yellow pepper cut into strips (or a mix of all)
1/4 c. chopped procuito or ham
2 cups large egg noodles (cooked to package directions)
1 jar tomato pasta sauce or equivalent in homemade (about 15 or more ounces)
1 jar Alfredo or homemade Alfredo sauce ( about 15 ounces)
1/2 c Parmesan cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350. Brown chicken in oil until cooked through. Add garlic and ham/prosciutto. Cook until garlic is tender but not burned and the prosciutto is a little browned. Then add the peppers, cook until tender, but still crisp. Add half the tomato sauce to the pan mixture. grease a 9x13 baking pan and then dump the skillet mixture into it. Top with the remaining tomato sauce. Add the jar of Alfredo sauce, drizzling on the top in lines, it will not cover the top totally. Add the cheese on top. Bake 20-30 minutes or until browned and bubbly. Serve immediately with garlic bread and salad! YUMMY! This is one of our favorite recipes, easy to fix and definitely comfort food. The kids love it. We don't eat it too often, but when we do we rarely have leftovers.

When New Recipes Are A Hit

Whenever I made something new I always wonder "Will this be good?" "Will they all (and I mean all) like it?" and it warms a momma's heart when it makes a HIT!

I made Sweet and Sour Chicken this week as a trial recipe, it needs some tweaking, but the kids all loved it!

Cajun Chicken Lasagna

Several Years ago I found this awesome recipe in BHAG. It is a great alternative to tomato lasagna, which I am not to hep on but my hubbyy loves....so we compromise with this!


Cajun Chicken Lasagne Recipe.

Try it out and see if you don't love it too!!

Ingredients
16 dried lasagna noodles
1 pound andouille sausage or smoked pork sausage, quartered lengthwise and sliced
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 to 3 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
1 teaspoon dried sage, crushed
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped green sweet pepper
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
2 10-ounce containers refrigerated light Alfredo sauce
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Nonstick cooking spray
1-1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degree F. Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain; rinse. Combine sausage, chicken, Cajun seasoning, and sage. In a large skillet cook meat mixture 8 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Remove from skillet using a slotted spoon, reserving drippings in skillet. Set meat mixture aside; keep warm. In same skillet cook onion, celery, sweet pepper, and garlic in drippings until vegetables are tender. Stir in meat mixture, one container of the Alfredo sauce, and Parmesan cheese.

2. Lightly coat a 13x9x2-inch baking dish or 3-quart rectangular casserole with nonstick spray. Arrange 4 noodles in bottom of dish. Spread with 2 cups of the meat-vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the mozzarella. Repeat layers, ending with noodles. Carefully spread remaining Alfredo sauce over the top (if sauce is too thick, heat slightly). Cover; bake 1 hour or until heated through. Let stand 15 to 20 minutes before carefully cutting. Makes 12 servings.

Peanut Chicken Wraps

Chicken cooked, sliced thin or shredded
rice
flour tortillas (I make homemade, they are so much better!)
Shredded cabbage
cilantro, chopped
green onions chopped
Peanut sauce

You just pile them on and enjoy! Our family was visiting some friends from seminary when they served this meal (well she did) and I loved how easy and fresh it was. I started making my own tortillas and it made this all the better. You really cannot mess this one up! We don't give the kids this with the peanut sauce, unless they like spicy, we use terriaki for them!

Roasting Turkey or Other Poultry

Brining the turkey or other Poultry first:

2 c. brown sugar
1 c. maple syrup
3/4 c coarse salt
4 whole heads garlic, cloves separated but not peeled or bruised
1 c. chopped fresh ginger
3 tsps dried chili flakes
2 c soy sauce
3 qts water

Combine all ingredients in a large pot, large enough to hold turkey (or other foul) and brine. Bring the mixture, minus poultry to a boil, remove from heat and cool completely.  Place turkey in brine and add enough water to cover the bird. refridgerate 2-4 days, turning 2-3 times a day. If you are using smaller birds can half or quarter this recipe easily and use just enough for what you are making. This is a recipe for a large turkey.

Roasting Turkey or other Poultry

Heat oven to 425. Season turkey inside and out with salt and pepper, brush with olive oil. put on rack in oven and let go for 30 minutes. lower heat to 350 and continue roasting. Baste every 30 minutes until thermometer reads 160. After taking from oven let stand for 15 minutes to cool and finish cooking. Enjoy the most lucious turkey ever!

Fiesta Salad

1 1/2 c. cooked rice
1 1/2 c cooked chicken chopped
1/2 c chopped celery
1/4 c chopped green onion
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/8 c chopped onion
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp seasoned salt (I use MUCH less)
1 tsp garlic salt (Never use this much!)
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 c sour cream

combine the last 6 ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir until well incorporated. Add the other chopped chicken, rice and veggies and lemon juice and mix well. Serve with corn chips if you desire, or can serve as a salad, or rolled up in a tortilla.

Chicken Spaghetti

Cook chicken in water on stove and then remove and chop. Cook 1 lb spaghetti and 1 chopped onion in broth made by the boiled chicken until done, Drain off only the left over water. Add 2 cans cream of mushroom or cream of chicken and 1 small can chopped pimentos and chicken. Mix throughly. Serve warm.

Chicken with Creamy Sauce

2 tbsp butter or olive oil
4 boneless chick breasts
1 c water
1 pkg onion soup mix or other favorite mix
1/2 c sour cream

In skillet heat oil over med heat.  Brown chicken turning once. Stir in water and recipe mix. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered stirring occasionally, 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Remove chick and keep warm. Add sour cream and mix until creamy. Add chicken and juices back into skillet. Serve over cooked noodles. Very taste meal!