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.

Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Soup

Well, it is officially fall, and you know what that means....soup time!  Chicken Tortilla is one of my favorite soups so I decided that should be the first one I make this season.  This is a different recipe than I normally use, but I decided to try it because it uses those canned chipotle chilis that I love so much.  I always seem to have some extra I need to use up.  This soup is so so good and was really fast to prepare.  I cooked my chicken the night before so that made it even faster.  It is really spicy though, spicier than I thought it would be; but I don't mind spicy food, so something to think about if you don't like things really hot.  Maybe only use one chipotle.

Based off of Rachael Ray

Ingredients:

1 pound chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
4-8 cups chicken broth, depending on how soupy you like (I use closer to 8 cups because I like a thinner soup)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 chipotles in adobo, plus 2 teaspoons sauce
28 ounces canned fire-roasted tomatoes (I used diced)

For Serving:

Crushed Tortilla Chips
1 Lime, cut into wedges
Shredded Cheese
Sour Cream
Chopped Onion
Chopped Cilantro

Directions:

1.  In a soup pot, heat olive oil and cook onion and garlic for 5 minutes then stir in chipotles and tomatoes.
2.  Add in chicken and broth.
3.  Serve with crushed tortilla chips, shredded cheese, a squeeze of lime, and any other toppings you like.

DElish!

Jalapeno Pimiento Cheese

Once you make your own pimiento cheese, you just can't go back to the packaged stuff.  It's not even close to the real thing. 

Pimiento cheese is one of those staples you should always have in your fridge for when unexpected company shows up at your door.  It's great for a tasty snack or appetizer.  And as a grilled pimiento cheese sandwich...oh yum!

Inspired from Southern Living, July 2009

Ingredients:
2 blocks sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
4 ounce jar diced pimientos, drained (I think next time I will use a 7 ounce jar)
½ cup mayonnaise
2 jalapenos, seeded and diced
2 tablespoons finely diced onion
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
1.  Combine all ingredients in a medium sized bowl and mix well.
2.  Place in bowl of food processor and pulse 5 or 6 times to desired consistency.

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

Ahhh…the first batch of salsa this summer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I used: all from the garden, except for the lime and vinegar of course!

3 tomatoes (I like the skin peeled off)

2 baby red onions

2 jalapenos

3 cloves of garlic

juice from 1 lime

splash of red wine vinegar

season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder

Just mix it all up in the food processor!

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 Enchilada Dip

So, I have a bajillion jalapenos from my Papa's garden and I'm trying to find some more recipes for them!

I've already made the Jalapeno Cheese Grits for Easter.  And I always use them in fresh salsa and pico, but I'm waiting on fresh tomatoes before I make those. I also made a good Jerk Chicken marinade last week with a couple of them, but forgot to blog it.  So I guess I'll have to make it again!  Oh they're also good stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon and grilled.  But a few of them burned my mouth!

So if anyone has some ideas to use up jalapenos, send them my way please!

When I was thinking about what I could make with them tonight, this Chicken Enchilada Dip was the first thing that came to my mind.  I think I took it from someone's blog, but I don't remember whose.  So whoever you are, send me an email and I can credit you!

The jalapenos are not too hot in this, they won't burn your mouth.  Promise.  It's all covered in CHEESE to cool it down.  SO GOOD!

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup Tabasco spicy mayo (or add a few drops of Tabasco to regular mayo)
16 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
1 can diced green chiles
2-3 jalapenos, finely diced (remove ribs and seeds)
Half a bundle of green onions, chopped (you can sub a red onion too)
1 tsp. of Cajun seasoning
1 tsp. Garlic powder
1 lg. can of all white meat chicken

Mix all ingredients together and spread in a serving dish. I put mine in the oven on 375 for about 30 minutes, just long enough for the cheese to get melty and bubbly! Serve with tortilla chips.

Corn Chowder

**post edited October 26, 2011 to add pic**  Made this last Sunday night when it was cold and windy.  We stayed in to watch the Cardinals play in the World Series.  Yummy!

Source:  Pat and Gina Neely

I forgot to take a picture of this Thursday night, but I'll try to remember to snap one when I have a bowl of leftovers. 

This is perfect on a cold snowy night, like the past few we've had.  It has a little kick to it, but it is DE-lish!  You can use just 1 jalapeno or leave it out if you don't like spicy food.



Ingredients

• Bacon, 6-8 slices, chopped
• 1 large onion or 2 small
• 2 red bell peppers
• 1-2 jalapenos, seeds removed and diced
• 3 or so Garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup AP flour
• 2 quarts chicken stock
• 4-5 red potatoes, scrubbed well and diced small
• 2 cups heavy cream or half-n-half
• 2-16 oz. packages frozen corn
• 1/4-1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
• bay leaf
• Garnishes: cheese, green onions, sour cream

Directions

1. Saute bacon in a soup pot until browned.  Remove to a paper towel-lined plate but leave the drippings in.
2. Add in onions and both peppers.  Saute until tender, add in garlic and season with S&P.
3. Stir in flour and cook for a minute.
4. Add in chicken stock and potatoes. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
5. Add in corn, cream, bay leaf and cayenne pepper.  Simmer for 15 minutes or until ready to serve.
6. Garnish with the bacon and cheddar cheese.

This is a good base recipe for chowder.  You can sub onions, carrots, and celery for a more traditional version.  Or you could add some chicken, that would be really good as well.

Printable Recipe

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.