Chicken Pasta Salad

Earlier this summer, Kendall and I received the blessing of a very special lunch with a distant cousin, Ed, who is 93 and sets a table like this:

The meal included this delicious chicken pasta salad.

In my thank you note, I asked if Ed would share the recipe, and he very kindly did, and I'm so very glad, because this salad is delish!

When I made it, I was far too busy to take photos (next time, sorry), so this is the quick-and-dirty version.

Ingredients:

2 cups cut-up, cooked chicken thighs (I boiled mine.)

2 cups celery, chopped small

1 whole bunch green onions, chopped small

3/4 red grapes, halved

1 11 oz. can Mandarin oranges

2 tablespoons green pepper, chopped small

2 tablespoons pimiento

1/2 cup slivered almonds

 2 cups Creamette rings

Dressing:

1/2 cup sugar (artificial sugar works, too)

3/4 cup mayo

1/4 cup cream

1 tablespoon prepared mustard

Go easy on the mayo, according to Ed; start with 1/2 cup and add more, if needed.

I doubled this recipe for a dinner with 20 of us, and it was way too much, even though everyone raved about it. It completely filled my huge, gold-colored Tupperware bowl.

Crock-Pot White Chicken Chili

This chili is sooo good that I'm typing this in the middle of my meal. I got the recipe from school; it  was judged the best in our annual staff chili cook-off this year. I have another white chicken chili recipe that people rave about, I gotta tell you, though, this one is my new favorite, as it is very, very good and super-easy to throw together.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts (or one bag of Schwann's cooked chicken pieces)
1 large can (29 oz) black beans, drained
2 15 oz. cans of sweet corn (leave one undrained)*
1 29 oz. can RoTel tomatoes
2 pkgs Hidden Valley Ranch dip mix
2 tsps onion powder
2 tsps ground cumin
2 tsps chili powder*
2 8-oz pkgs light cream cheese

Place the chicken in the bottom of the crockpot. Drain the beans. Add them and everything else (except the cream cheese) to the crockpot and give it a little stir. Lay the cream cheese on top.

Cover and cook 6-8 hours on low. Stir the cream cheese in.

Shred the chicken with a couple of forks. Serve with chips (optional).

This recipe can be halved, but I have a big crock pot, so I went all-out.  I cooked mine on high for four hours, but the recipe calls for 6-8 hours on low.

*My only change that I made to the original recipe was to cut the chili powder in half. The orginal, prize-winning recipe called for two tablespoons of chili powder. I have reduced it to two teaspoons, and my family thinks it has plenty of kick.  Also, in subsequent preparations of this recipe, I have drained one of the cans of corn; otherwise, it seems to soupy to me.

For a text-only copy of this recipe, click here.

Chicken Divine Hotdish

Wow--This casserole from my cousin's wife, Karen, is so delicious! I'll leave it up to the dieters to healthy it up. As for my family, we generally eat healthy meals, so I'm fine with the occasional cholesterol-and-sodium bomb now and then. Besides, there's broccoli and chicken in this one, so it can't be all bad!

Ingredients:
3-4 cups cooked chicken
3-4 bunches of broccoli, cooked to your liking (recipe called for two pkgs. frozen, but I used fresh)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cram of chicken soup
3/4 cup real mayonnaise
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup of grated cheddar cheese (Of course, I'm from Wisconsin; I used a little more.)
1 box of Stovetop Stuffing, prepared

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook the chicken, broccoli, and stuffing. I had a bag of diced, grilled chicken pieces in the freezer from another meal, so that part was simple.  I cooked the broccoli for four minutes in the microwave, as we like our vegetables firm; it turned out perfectly in the long run.

Spread the cooked broccoli over the bottom of a glass cakepan. Sprinkle the diced chicken over that. Mix the soups, mayo, and lemon juice and pour over the chicken and broccoli. (Grind pepper over that if you like.) Top with cheese, and then the stuffing. Bake 30 minutes.

Mmmmmmmmm.

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

[By the way, the original title of this recipe is Creamy Green Chicken Enchiladas, but since they're not actually green, I figured I'd remove the word green before it scared someone off.]

I don't post recipes for dishes that we don't find delicious, but this one? It's fantastic. I first tasted these enchiladas at a Cinco de Mayo party at a neighbor's house. I'd never thought that much of enchiladas before, but these made me say, "Wow. I want to have these again!"  Fortunately, Caron was kind enough to share the recipe with me. (Thanks, Caron!)

Warning: They don't call these Creamy Chicken Enchiladas If you are lactose intolerant, be sure to refresh your stock of digestive enzyme tablets before eating this very-dairy dish!

Ingredients:

8-oz pack cream cheese, softened
16-oz jar of green tomatillo salsa (or make your own--Caron's recipe is at the end)
(For you gringos like me who haven't a clue what green tomatillo salsa is, try "Salsa Verde".)
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsps cumin (I like mine freshly-ground, hence the grinder in the photo.)
Big pinch of salt
Freshly-ground, black pepper (as much as you like)

5 cups shredded cooked chicken (I used all the meat from a rotisserie chicken.)
1 can cream-of-chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
3 cups Mexican cheese
1 small bunch of cilantro, chopped
*1 can black beans w jalapenos in lime juice (see note below)
15-20 small corn or flour tortillas (I bought a ten-pack and ended up using 12 (grabbing a few more from another tortillas stash that I have.)

Serve with taco sauce.

In a large pan, over medium heat, mix salsa, cream cheese, and spices (the first group of ingredients above.)

When smooth, remove from heat and add chicken, soup, sour cream, cilantro, and 1 cup of the cheese.

Mix well.

If it's too stiff, you can add milk, chicken stock, or more salsa so it's easier to spoon.

Heat oven to 350 degrees and spray 9 x 13 pan with oil.

Warm tortillas and add a couple of heaping tablespoonsfull of the chicken mixture across the bottom third of a tortilla (I was generous.)

and roll it up, placing it seam-down in the pan. I fit nine small tortillas in my 9 x 13 pan, and this is how much chicken mixture I had left!

Spread extra chicken mixture over the tops of the enchiladas in the pan.

Again, I was generous, and I still had this much left!

*If you're like me and at this point you realize that you never put the beans in, do what I did and add some to the mixture you have left.

I used that to put three more enchiladas in an oval, 2-quart dish that we have, using the single tortilla I had left, plus two more from my stock. A perfect lunch for Mr.4444 some day when he's home alone!

Top with the rest of the cheese.

Spray a piece of foil with oil (or use non-stick foil) and cover the dish. Bake 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

Remember those beans I'd forgotten? I topped my serving with some beans and a little taco sauce. The red sauce really topped these off nicely, and they were absolutely delicious. This is definitely my new favorite recipe.

You can also make your own green salsa "very easily":
about 20 tomatillos, de-husked and washed
2 jalapenos
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
Mix the above with one tablespoon of olive oil and roast in 350-degree oven 30 minutes, until tomatillos are soft and onions have golden-brown edges. Allow to cool slightly and then blitz in food processor. (Caron is from England; don't you just love that "blitz" term?!) If you don't like it as hot you can remove seeds from the jalapenos first, or just use one.  You can also just add green chillies and make without the beans, but the extra fiber and protein are good for you! Caron is sure this recipe couldn't be lightened up quite easily, and the chicken soup could be replaced by chicken stock.

White Chicken Chili

You know how you sometimes meet "strangers" on-line with whom you feel an immediate connection? That's how I felt when I met Charrette. She's just plain wonderful, and I feel blessed to easily refer to her now as a friend (no longer my "blogging friend.") I feel we are just kindred spirits, and when she sent me some of her family recipes for soups, I knew she was my long lost sister. Thanks, Charrette, for sharing your family treasures.

Mr.4444 and I went about cooking like maniacs last weekend. Seriously, we just didn't stop. In less than two days, we made pea soup, white chicken chili, and scalloped potatoes and ham. Pure craziness, and I am very glad we did, because we now have a freezer full of goodness. Here's the first of Charrette's gems...White Chicken Chili. I feel honored to call her friend, as she is incredibly talented writer, painter, mother, and friend. Make this soup, and you'll see why she is also a fabulous cook!

Ingredients:
2 tbls butter
2 tbls olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 tbls garlic, minced
10 oz pkg frozen corn
2 tbls flour
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup half-and-half
1 tsp Tabasco sauce
1 tbls chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1 rotisserie chicken, meat only, diced
2 cans cannelini (white) beans, drained
1 can diced, mild, green chilis (4 oz) drained
salt and pepper to taste

Garnish: shredded cheese, sour cream, fresh cilantro

This blog has helped me get my kitchen cleaned. It's the first thing I do before every post; clean. And now, in my new "Keepin' it Real" fashion, I will show you the view out of the kitchen as I began to cook. Clearly, I only clean the kitchen. There is a table somewhere under all of that crap. (And yes, the tree was still up on Sunday, January 4th.)

For you visual learners out there, here is a photo of the ingredients:

The blue containers hold the half-and-half, garlic, flour, and diced onion. And, because I can't lie, I'll confess that something in this photo is a fake! Mr.4444 had run to the store for me, because we were out of Tabasco. Here's the Tabasco body-double:

That's liquid smoke, which I did NOT put in this soup!

Okay, so heat the butter and oil in a dutch oven over med-low heat. This pan...I can't tell you how much we love it (because no one's paying me to do so.) ONLY KIDDING! It was a Christmas gift to Mr.4444 one year and was purchased at Kohl's. It's nice and heavy.


BTW, in case you don't know, here's how to mince garlic; lay your knife over it and press on it as though giving it the Heimlich Maneuver. Put your belly into it; that makes it better.
 
(See, that's why I don't exercise; how could I mince garlic without having a gut to add the "oomph" to my cooking? I just like to sacrifice like that.) When you squoosh the garlic out of it's skin like that, they separate nicely, and you can then chop up the garlic tiny-like:


Usually, Mr.4444 cuts my onions for me, but I relieved him of the task, because he was willing to go to the store for me. Plus, what I haven't told him is that ever since I got contacs, my eyes do not tear when I cut onions :)

Add the onions, garlic, and frozen corn and saute until tender.
   
Sprinkle flour over mixture, and stir well.

  (At this point, you might notice that your onions are a little big. Break out the scissors and cut them up if you like. :)
Cook for another "15" minutes. (Here's where I parted from Charette's instructions, because I simply do not have the patience to stir a pot for 15 minutes. I lasted seven, which is fine, because we like our veggies al dente anyway!) Slowly add chicken broth (canned this time, but your own would be very nice.)
 
Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, and add spices and remaining ingredients.

 
Remember, I like to grind my herbs, rather than buying them that way.
  

Simmer over low heat 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
   Top with cilantro, grated cheese and sour cream.

At this point, you might notice that the soup is not very thick, in spite of the flour thing. Call your friend who gave you the recipe, and she will confess that she forgot to tell you to puree one of the cans of drained cannelini beans!

It's just not worth it to fly to her house and spank her. Besides, it tastes fantastic either way! :)

Thanks, Sis!