Cajun Chicken Pasta

This is a great fall recipe; one of my favorites.  A mix of Cajun and Italian - who doesn't love that?  I made this last Sunday while we were watching the Cardinals.  It's also a really quick and easy weeknight meal.  I was surprised that I've never put it up on the blog because I make it a lot during the fall and winter.  Oh well.  Here it is now!

Courtesy of Emeril

Ingredients:

1 pound linguine pasta (I had spaghetti on hand and it worked just fine)
1-1½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning (I use Slap Ya Mama!)
salt
1 cup chopped yellow onion
1 tablespoon finely chopped habanero pepper
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1½ cups Half n Half
1 cup canned diced tomatoes
½ cup white wine
½ cup parmesan cheese
chopped green onions, for garnish
chopped parsley, for garnish

Directions:

1. Cook pasta in a large stock pot according to package directions.
2. In a large skillet set to medium-high heat, add butter and olive oil.  Once butter has melted, add chicken and season with 1 tablespoon cajun seasoning and salt to taste.  Sear chicken until brown and cooked through.  Remove from pan and set aside.
3. Add onions and habaneros to pan and saute until lightly caramelized, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Add wine, Half n Half, tomatoes, remaining tablespoon Cajun seasoning, and reserved chicken to the pan.  Cook until sauce is slightly reduced, about 2 minutes.
4. Add pasta to the sauce and toss with parmesan.  Serve with green onions and parsley.

Salsa Verde Sour Cream Enchiladas and Mexican Rice

{adapted from The Novice Chef}

Printable Recipe

Chicken Enchiladas are one of my favorites to order at our local Mexican restaurant and to make at home.  But sometimes you want something different than your "usual" at the Mexican place.  These hit the spot!  They are so much better than the enchiladas with red sauce at the Mexican restaurant.  The sauce didn't take very long to make and I cooked my chicken the day before, so they came together pretty quickly . 

Cal really liked them; he had seconds and thought about thirds.  Definitely a keeper.  I'm always trying to get him to eat more chicken.

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
2 Serrano peppers diced (I used 1 green bell pepper)
2 Jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups sour cream
16 ounce jar Medium Salsa Verde
1½ teaspoons cumin
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon garlic powder
Flour Tortillas, fajita size
½ medium onion, diced
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a medium size sauce pan, melt butter over medium-high heat.  Saute green pepper and jalapeno peppers until soft, add garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in flour and cook 1-2 minutes.  Whisk in the chicken broth and let cook until bubbly.  Stir in sour cream, salsa, cumin, cayenne, salt, pepper and garlic powder, until sauce is smooth.  Remove from heat.

Spray/grease a 9x13 baking dish.  Spread 1 cup of sauce to the bottom of the dish.  Combine the diced onion with the shredded chicken.  Add some chicken-onion mixture and cheese to the center of each tortilla, placing seam-side down in the dish.  Pour the sauce over the enchiladas, and top with remaining cheese.  Bake for 25 minutes until brown and bubbly.

I served with Mexican rice and chips and salsa.




Mexican Rice
{from All Recipes}

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
¼ cup chopped onion
1 cup long-grain rice
1½ teaspoon taco seasoning
½ teaspoon cumin
½ cup tomato sauce
2 cups chicken broth

Directions:

In a large sauce pan, heat oil over medium and add rice and onion.  Cook, stirring frequently until rice is golden and onion is soft.  Sprinkle in taco seasoning and cumin.  Stir in tomato sauce and broth and bring to boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes.  Fluff with a fork.

Chicken and Biscuits

Or, Chicken Pot Pie minus the Pie
Adapted from Southern Living, Feb. 2011

Printable Recipe
Ingredients

• Frozen or refrigerated biscuits
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 ½ cups frozen cubed hash browns
• 4 cups chopped cooked chicken, I used a rotisserie chicken
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 cup chicken broth
• ½ cup white wine
• 1 package cream cheese (you may not need the whole package, I only used about ¾ of it)
• 1 packet Italian dressing mix (I only used a little over half of the packet, season to taste)
• 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables

Directions

1. Bake biscuits according to package directions.
2. In a large skillet, sauté onion in oil over medium-high heat until golden.  Add in hash browns and cook 5 minutes until slightly browned and heated.  Add chicken and next 5 ingredients, stirring frequently until cheese is melted and everything is thoroughly heated.  Stir in vegetables and cook 2 minutes until heated through.
3. Serve over biscuits.

This is a great quick and easy weeknight meal.  Very warm and comforting like Chicken Pot Pie, but in half the time!  Hubs really enjoyed it too, he had 2 big servings. That's always a good sign!

Chicken, Asparagus and Apple Salad

Source:  Taste of Home

I love asparagus.  And you know I love salad.  Combine the two of them together and I was in heaven!  I was looking for a dish to bring to a salad supper last week but wasn’t having much luck finding the perfect salad. I finally found this one and thought it would be juuuuust right!

I forgot to take a picture of it in my pretty bowl, so this is what I had leftover for lunch the next day.  It surprisingly wasn’t very soggy after it sat for a day.

I made a lot more than the original recipe calls for, so here’s what I used.

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

3 cups cubed cooked chicken

Asparagus (a little less than 1 bunch), cut in 1 inch pieces

1 gala apple, diced

1 bag Mixed greens

Dressing:

½ cup apple cider vinegar

½ cup honey

½ cup olive oil

3-4 tsp. parsley

salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Blanch asparagus in boiling water for 2-3 minutes.  Drain and cool.
2. Combine all dressing ingredients.
3. Toss chicken, asparagus and apple together.  You can either serve on top of the salad greens or mix it all together, which is what i did.
4. Pour dressing over salad and toss.  You may not need all the dressing.

Santa Fe Chicken Salad

Adapted from:  Midwest Living

 

Another chicken salad!  But this one is so different and so so good!  Very addictive.  You have to try this now!

I just slightly modified the recipe by using what I had on hand; I didn’t have green onions or a yellow pepper.

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

1 rib celery, diced

½ onion, diced

½ red pepper, diced

¼ cup chopped cilantro

Dressing:

1 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons lime juice

3-4 finely chopped chipotles in adobo

Directions:

1. Combine mayonnaise, lime juice and chipotles in a small bowl.
2. In a medium bowl combine chicken, celery, onions, peppers and cilantro.  Pour dressing over the chicken mixture and toss to coat. Chill for 1 hour.
3. Serve with flour tortillas or tortilla chips.

The Best Chicken Salad Ever!

Printable Recipe
This recipe came about when I accidentally bought dried cherries instead of dried cranberries for another dish.  I wasn’t really sure what to do with dried cherries but I needed to use them for something, so I thought they might be pretty good in chicken salad.  AND BOY WAS I RIGHT!  This is quite possibly the best chicken salad I’ve ever had!
Chicken salad is a very personal thing, isn’t it?  Everyone has their own way they like it.  Me, I can’t stand eggs in it, yuck!  The dried cherries added a nice little flavor to the way I usually make my chicken salad.
Val Original Recipe
Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
2 ribs celery, diced
½ red onion, diced
¾ cup dried cherries
½ cup chopped pecans
½ cup mayonnaise (I use light)
½ cup sour cream (light again)
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
Combine all ingredients and let sit for 30 minutes to let the flavors blend.
Serve on your favorite sandwich bread or with crackers, which is my favorite way.

Jerk Chicken

Another great summertime meal!  Healthy too! 

I marinated my chicken overnight, so this was really quick to (have my hubs) throw on the grill after work.  (I haven’t figured the grill out yet.)

Printable Recipe

Source:  Paula Deen

For the marinade:

Combine the following in Food Processor and pulse until fairly smooth-

1 small onion – about 2 cups

5 cloves garlic

2-3 habanero peppers – however hot you want it

2 tsp. allspice

½ tsp. nutmeg

2 tsp. thyme

1 tsp. ginger

1 Tbsp. brown sugar

1 tsp. salt

1½ tsp. pepper

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Marinate 8 chicken breasts, for at least 4 hours or overnight, in the following:

Jerk marinade (reserve a little bit to brush on the chicken while its grilling)

1 cup fresh lime juice - about 6 limes

Grill the chicken until done (ours took about 15 minutes per side on our smoker).  Or you can bake in the oven at 350° for 45 minutes – 1 hour.

I served the chicken with Mango Salsa (or Pineapple Salsa is also really good) and Cilantro Lime Rice, and some steamed zucchini.

Mango Salsa

Printable Recipe

Source:  Bobby Flay

Combine in a small bowl:

2 mangoes, small diced

½ red onion, diced

1 jalapeno pepper

2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro

3 Tbsp. lime juice

3 Tbsp. orange juice

Season with salt and pepper

For pineapple salsa, use 1 can pineapple tidbits drained, or 2 cups fresh diced pineapple instead of mangoes.  Skip the orange juice.

Cilantro Lime Rice

Source:  Joelen’s Culinary Adventures

2 cups hot cooked rice

Add in:

¼ cup lime juice

chopped cilantro

Mexican Lasagna

Source:  The Newlywed Cookbook, Robin Miller

I received another large care package of vegetables from the garden – green peppers, jalapenos, Anaheim peppers, red onions, green onions, garlic – and I was trying to come up with a meal that would include several of these ingredients.  Something Mexican was naturally my first thought.  Enchiladas sounded good, but I didn’t feel like rolling all of those things up.  Ah ha!  That mexican lasagna!  It’s kind of similar to enchiladas, but it’s a lot easier to just layer everything together.  Yum! 

This dish used at least one of each of the vegetables!  Ah ha! Killing multiple birds with one stone.

Sprinkled some green onions on top and served with some homemade chips made from the leftover tortillas.  And some chili-cheese dip, I snuck a couple extra jalapenos in there too!  So. Good.  Yum!

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cups sour cream (I used low-fat)

2 cups Mexican shredded cheese

½ cup salsa (I used 1 can of Ro-tel)

4 oz. can chopped green chilis (I used a small chopped green pepper and a small chopped anaheim pepper)

1½ tsp. cumin

flour tortillas (or you can use corn tortillas, I like flour better), cut into quarters or smaller

 

Preheat oven to 350°

Directions:

1. Boil chicken for 10 minutes or so until cooked through.  I season it with salt, pepper and garlic.  Cut chicken into 1 inch cubes.
2. Mix together the chicken, sour cream, 1½ cups of the cheese, salsa, chilis, cumin, and season with s&p if needed.
3. Spay 11x7 baking dish with cooking spray.  Layer some tortillas on the bottom, top with the chicken mixture, and alternate with tortillas ending up on the top layer.  Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. 
4. Bake for 30-45 minutes until bubbly.  You may need to cover it with foil to keep it from getting to brown.

Chicken Tamale Casserole

"CAL Seal of Approval"

Sorry for the bad picture, it was an after-thought because this was SCARFED UP so fast! 


All Recipes 

Printable

Ingredients:

• 1 cup preshredded 4-cheese Mexican blend cheese, divided
• 1/3 cup milk
  
• 1 egg, instead of egg substitute
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 (14 3/4 ounce) can cream-style corn
• 1 (8 1/2 ounce) box corn muffin mix (such as Martha White)
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies, drained
• cooking spray
• 1 (10 ounce) can red enchilada sauce (such as Old El Paso)
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breasts (I cooked 4 chicken breasts with an onion, green pepper, and 1 jalapeno)
• 1/2 cup nonfat sour cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Combine 1/4 cup cheese and next 7 ingredients (through chiles), stirring just until moist. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9–inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.
3. Bake at 400°F for 15 minutes or until set. (It takes longer than 15 minutes.  I baked mine for 20-25 minutes and it could have used maybe 5-10 more.)  Pierce entire surface liberally with a fork; pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with chicken; sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Cut into 8 pieces; top each serving with 1 tablespoon sour cream.

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

Ok I'm slightly embarrassed by this recipe, because it has Cheez Whiz in it, but It. Is. So. GOOD!

Shhhh! You don't have to tell anyone there's Cheez Whiz in it. I'm sure there's a way to make it with a roux, or maybe just some mayonnaise or sour cream and real cheddar, but this is the recipe I know and I didn't want to change it.


This is the whole recipe for a 9x13 casserole dish, but I just made a half recipe this time and used an 8x8.

1. Brown 8-10 Chicken Breasts with butter, maybe 1/2 stick, in a large skillet until cooked through. Season with S&P. (I used 4 cooked in 2 little pats of butter)
2. Meanwhile, cook 2 cups of Rice and defrost 2 packages of frozen chopped Broccoli. (1 cup rice and 1 pkg. broccoli)
   
3. Remove chicken from pan and saute 1 onion and 3-4 stalks celery. (1 onion, 2 stalks celery)
4. Add in 1 can Cream of Mushroom and 1 can Cream of Chicken soup and a small jar of Cheez Whiz. Heat until melted. (I just used 1 cream of mushroom and a few scoops out of the Cheez Whiz)
5. Mix together this mixture, with the chicken, broccoli, and rice; put in a 9x13 casserole dish. Top with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes until hot and bubbly. This can be made ahead and frozen.

Printable Recipe
Source: A Slice of Sikeston, Chapter HB P.E.O.

Gumbo

This is the quick-cooking gumbo I make for weeknight meals. It's not the "real" Cajun way of starting out with a roux, that takes 8+ hours to make. I wouldn't be eating till 1 o'clock in the morning if I made it that way!

And please don't ask me if it has seafood in it. We don't eat anything that swam to the kitchen.

This recipe makes a TON. Most of the time I half this recipe; I would say a half recipe has 6 servings. I still use about 4 cups or so of chicken broth for a half recipe, I like it more soupy. The whole recipe will serve at least 8 with seconds. My mom wanted to make this last night and invited us and some of their friends over. We had 8 people, some of them having second and third bowls, and STILL had some left over!

Adapted from Rachael Ray's recipe.

Printable recipe

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. BS Chicken Breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
  
• 2 packages Andouille Sausage, cut into discs or half-moons
• Trinity - onions, celery, bell pepper - 1 large onion, 4 or so stalks celery, 2 bell peppers
• Garlic - a few cloves, however much you like
• Cajun seasoning - sometimes I make a batch of Emeril's seasoning to use, and sometimes I just use Tony Chacere's or whatever
• 2 Bay Leaves
• Thyme - half a palmfull
• Butter
  
• 1/4 cup AP Flour
  
• 4-6 cups chicken broth
  
• 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• Okra - frozen or fresh - I used some from Papa's garden that I froze this summer
• Rice for serving
  

Directions

1. Cook the chicken in a BIG soup pot with EVOO, cajun seasoning, and maybe a little pepper, breaking it up as you go. (I like small pieces.) Remove it from the pot, cook the sausage and then remove it.
2. Cook the celery, peppers, onions, and garlic in 1/2 stick of butter, until they're a little soft. Season with hot sauce, thyme and bay leaves.
   
3. Add flour and cook for a minute, then add the chicken broth and bring to boil. This is what will thicken the gumbo.
4. Add in tomatoes, and put the chicken and sausage back in.
5. Let it simmer for a few minutes, or longer if you have time.
   
6. Wait to put the okra in until you're about ready to serve. It only takes about 5 minutes to cook. You don't want it to get gummy.
7. Serve over rice.
   

Chicken and Gnocchi Soup

Adapted from this recipe.

Printable recipe

Ingredients (I don't really measure anything)

3-4 chicken breasts
1/2 onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1/2 carrot, shredded (I used the pre-shredded ones)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon thyme
6-8 cups chicken stock (depending on how soup-y you like it)
2 cups half-and-half
16 oz. gnocchi
1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
2-3 tablespoons cornstarch (optional)

Directions

1. Brown chicken in skillet with EVOO, S&P (or you could bake it). Remove from pan and shred/cut into really small pieces.
2. Saute the onion, celery, onion, garlic, carrot in oil over medium heat until onion is translucent.
3. Add chicken back to pan, thyme, chicken stock, and half and half. Heat to boiling, then add gnocchi. Gently boil for 4 minutes, then turn down to a simmer for 10 minutes.Add spinach and cook for another 1-2 minutes until spinach is wilted.
4. Heat to boiling and add cornstarch dissolved in 2 Tbsp water at this point if you want a thicker soup.
   

The first time I made this soup I didn’t add the cornstarch slurry, but I’m so glad I did this time! It is pretty good thin, but was sooo much better a little thicker.

The Hubs said he liked it...but he didn't have his usual second helping and there was a little bit left in the bottom of his bowl. Maybe he's just not used to gnocchi...he's not very gourmet.