Chicken Tetrazzini

Last weekend I was able to FINALLY visit my best-best-best friend Claire and her family in Texas. Paul had a "business" trip to Texas, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get out of here and go visit my bestie.

Claire's husband, Stephen is in the Army and althought they are from Michigan (like me!) they are stationed at Fort Hood in Texas. I had so much fun visiting Claire, Stephen, and their precious 16 month old, Rylee--and also got to learn all about Army, Army life, and Army lingo. Unfortunately, the only pictures I managed to snag of Claire were of her picking wedgies--so I'll save her the embarrassment of posting those.

While visiting, Claire treated me to one of my absolute most favorite dinners from our childhood, Chicken Tetrazzini. Claire's mom always made THE BEST chicken tetrazzini, but she only made it when someone died or for birthdays, so it was always a rare, special treat. Until last weekend, it had been more than five years since I had had this delectable dinner--but it's amazingness was not forgotten by me.

So, without further adeau, I present to you:

Chicken Tetrazzini recipe adapted from Marilee Ludwick

What you'll need:
1 lb spaghetti noodles
2 cans cream of chicken soup
16 ounces sour cream
2-3 chicken breasts, boiled and shredded
2 cups shredded parmesan cheese
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon garlic powder

Boil your pasta and your chicken

Meanwhile:

Mix the chicken soup and sour cream in a bowl. We also added a small can of mushrooms--your choice. You could even add peas, beans, asparagus, or any other vegetables you like.

What a mooch!

Banana's. Yummy!

Oh. Sorry. Distractions. 

Back to the food!

Strain your s'ghetti

(WHAT? A man in the kitchen?)

Shred your chicken.

Add it all to the bowl, along with your seasonings, and stir until combined.

Dump it into a 9x13 baking dish, and top with the shredded parmesan.

Then, just pop it in the oven at 350˚ uncovered for about 30 minutes, or until bubbly and brown...

Like this!

YUM. 

You WILL NOT be disappointed with this dinner.

I PROMISE. 

So good.

SO so good.

Yum.

Chicken Chilaquiles!

Chicken Chila-what-ees? Chicken chilaquiles, I say. (Chee-lah-key-lays)

In light of my current trip, (I'm in TEXAS, visiting my best friend, everrr!) I've decided to give you a nice spicy, Mexican recipe.


This. Is. One. Of. My. Favorite. Dinners. (Paul's too!)

This meal, chicken chilaquiles (let's see how many times I can say it in one post!), is delicious. What are chilaquiles you might ask? Chilaquiles are a Mexican dish, traditionally with corn tortillas and a tomato-ey sauce with cheeeeese.

My recipe-bestie, Martha (yep, we're on a first name basis), does a yummy spin on this traditional Mexican dish that's spicy, warm, filling, satisfying, and authentic tasting--we could eat it every day of the week here at the Yerrick house. I a million-billion times recommend trying this recipe--you won't regret it, and you'll crave it daily. Also, you can make a big batch like I do and freeze the left-over's for later!

First, let me say that I LOVE this cookbook. It's by far my favorite cookbook right now.

It has pretty little pictures of every recipes--and the recipes are always divine. I have yet to make a bad dish from this book. My favorite part is that it's divided into seasons and uses ingredients that are easily found that time of year.

Now, to begin this divine experience...The cast of characters:

The original recipe calls for rotisserie chicken--but I just boil chicken and shred it. You can do whatever you prefer.

Anyways, you'll need 3 chicken breasts. Boil them, let them cool a bit. Shred them, then set them aside.


Next, you'll need a red onion. A beautiful, delicious, juicy red onion.

Cut the top and the bottom off, then cut it in halt from top to bottom.  Then, cut it in half again--also from top to bottom. Turn it on its side, then slice it very thinly. Set aside.

Chop up some garlic. I use 6-ish cloves--depending on my mood. I'm a huge garlic fan. Anywhere from 4-8 cloves of garlic will suffice, depending on your taste. 

Heat some oil in a stock pot on medium high heat and saute the onions, until tender, then the garlic, until fragrant.

Heres a quick tip about garlic...If you want the garlic flavor to stand out, then add the garlic at the end. If you want it to be more subtle, saute the garlic near the beginning. 

Next, add in your can of tomatoes. You can really pick any can of tomatoes you want. The original recipe calls for whole peeled tomatoes, I don't really like using these because I don't like big chunks of tomatoes in my food. This time I chose to use crushed tomatoes, but sometimes I use diced tomatoes. It really doesn't matter, canned tomatoes are canned tomatoes. 

After your tomatoes, stir in your tomato puree--about half the can. 

Yay! Now it's time for my favorite part. The chipotles. Where do you buy chipotles, you ask? Well--they are in the ethnic foods aisle, by the Mexican food. They come in a little can like this:

There are other brands, so your can may not look identical to this one--but you get the idea, right?

These bad boys are SPICY. They pack some punch. Be wary if you heat them by themselves. You. Will. Choke. And cough. And gasp for air. One time, I made chipotle burgers and it was bad bad news for everyone in the room--but that's a whole different post. (By the way, while typing this I spelled 'news' 'noos' because I was sounding it out in my head...yeah, long day.) 

Anyways, back to the wonderful can of chipotles. Chop up one, two, or three chipotles (depending on the level of spiciness you desire, I went with 2.)

Add them to the pot. These will add a delicious smoky and spicy flavor to the dish. One of my favorite kitchen ingredients. 

Get a few of teaspoons of the adobo sauce that the chipotles are in and add that to the pot too--things are about to get crazy in here. 

You can easily transfer the remaining chipotles and their sauce to a different container and store them in the fridge for later use. 

After the chipotles, add a cup of chicken broth.

Then a tablespoon-ish of salt (this should be adjusted to your liking).

Add 2 tablespoons of cumin.

Then add pepper, oregano, chipotle powder (optional), cayenne, chili powder, and a dash of garlic powder. 

Rinse and drain 1 can of black beans. Add it to the pot.

And finally, add your shredded chicken to the pot.

To heat to medium low, and let everything simmer for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, grate some monterrey jack cheese and chop up some cilantro. (I like to grate my own cheese as opposed to buying pre-shredded cheese. Pre-shredded cheese is coated in flour and gives things a different texture--it leaves a gritty feel behind. When you grate your own cheese it tastes creamier and it also melts better. Plus, it's less expensive!)

After 15 minutes, stir in cilantro. 

To prepare your bowls, line a bowl with corn tortilla chips. Ladle chicken mixture on top of chips, then top with a dollop of sour cream, grated cheese, and fresh chopped cilantro. 

You will NOT be disappointed with this heaven.

Chicken Chilaquiles recipe adapted from Martha Stewart. 

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

4-8 garlic cloves, finely chopped

4 cups shredded chicken

1 teaspoon oil (vegetable...olive...butter...whatever you have, really)

1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes

1 can tomato puree or tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

2 chipotle chilis in adobo sauce, finely chopped (reserve sauce)

1 can black beans, drained

2 cups low sodium chicken broth broth

1 jalepeno, finely chopped (optional)

salt and pepper, to taste

4 T cumin

1 T dried oregano

1 t cayenne pepper

1/4 t chipotle powder

1 t chili powder

1 T garlic powder

1 T coriander 

1/2 c cilantro, chopped

Corn tortilla chips

Shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

Sour cream

1) Heat oil in pan and saute onions until soft. Add garlic (and jalepeno) and saute until fragrant. 

2) Add crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, tomato puree, chipotle chilis, 2 T adobo sauce (from chipotle can), chicken stock, salt, pepper, cumin, oregano, cayenne, chipotle, chili powder, and garlic powder and 1/4 cup cilantro. Stir in shredded chicken and black beans.

3) Let simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

4) Serve with corn tortilla chips and topped with sour cream, Monterrey Jack cheese, and fresh cilantro. 

Enjoy!

For Erika. Whoopie Pies!

This post is dedicated to my loyal follower, Erika, who makes me feel guilty for not posting more often. 

I'm on break from school right now and I must say it's fabulous and very much needed. I'm nearing the end of this two week break--I start school again on Monday. :( This whole week so far has felt like a Sunday night. You know, that feeling when you try everything to stretch out a Sunday night because you know the weekend is about over and it's back to school again tomorrow. A whole week long Sunday night is no fun--I need to get out of this mindset and enjoy the last few days of this amazing, very, very, much-needed. break.

I'm almost done with school. Can you believe it? One year ago I was starting school, and now I'm almost done--only 3 quarters to go. I will be finished in March of 2011. This quarter (Summer quarter), I don't have a lab. That should be sort of nice, to only have regular classes, but it will be kind of weird to not be in the kitchen everyday. I will, however, be doing my internship. I'll be working for Juleps Catering, which is the catering business at school, and hopefully I'll have some cool events to work at--I hope.

During school, I don't really cook much. Ask my husband. It's a lot of Kraft Mac'n'Cheese, hot dogs, and frozen pizza for dinner. Between cooking all day at school and cooking all evening at work, going home and cooking is the very, complete, absolute, last desire on my list. I have been able to find some time, and enjoy it, cooking & baking over this break.

A yummy treat that I enjoying making in the past couple of days were Whoopie Pies. Wikipedia says Whoopie Pies are a Pennsylvania Amish tradition--to me they are a lot like Oreo Cakesters. They are very simple, and quite tasty and sweet/chocolatey satisfying.

Whoopie Pies
Cookie recipe from Martha Stewart

First, you need butter. You always need butter. Let it sit out a while so it's room temperature. Make sure it's unsalted. Always get unsalted butter so you can control the salt content in your food. Always use butter because butter is better--none of that margarine stuff around these parts. Woof.

While your butter is coming to room temperature, get some flour.

Some cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, & salt...

And, some sugar.

Hi!

Sift your dry ingredients. Look at all those clumps from the cocoa powder--we want none of that! Be-gone clumps. 

When your butter if softened, mix that and the sugar...

Until light and fluffy. (This could have been lighter and fluffier...)

Then, grab some eggs.

And beat them. Beat your eggs before adding, that way you don't have to wait for them to break up on their own when mixing, thus mixing faster. You kinda want to do the least mixing you can when baking, especially after adding the flour (except when making bread). 

[Insert picture of room temperature buttermilk & vanilla]

[Insert picture of buttermilk being added to butter and flour and being mixed well]

What can I say, I forgot to take pictures here. 

Then my batter curdled.

It curdled badly. 

(I blame this on either the fact that my buttermilk wasn't room temperature like the directions said, or the fact that it was buttermilk and buttermilk curdles.)

It's okay though! It all came together fine after I added the dry ingredients a scoopful at a time.

Then I mixed until just incorporated. 

No more.

No over-mixing.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

I didn't have parchment paper, so I used foil and sprayed it with a little Pam.

Actually, I lied. It wasn't Pam. 

It was Butter Flavored Cooking Spray. 

Same difference. 

Why do some people insist on using name brand products? I don't get it. It's a waste of money. I know, I know, some things are better in name brand (i.e., Heinz Ketchup, and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese*), but other things are just the same. Pam, and Kroger brand Butter Flavored Cooking Spray work just the same! 

*Heinz & Kraft are not paying me to advertise their products.

Sorry, sorry. I got distracted by a peeve. 

This is the part where I post pictures of me scooping the batter with a 1 oz cookie scoop onto the tray and baking them for approximately 11 minutes until they are done and cake-like...but I forgot to photograph that as well...oops.

Next,

Have a photo-shoot with the Whoopies while they are cooling on racks.

Then, stuff them with yummy, marshmallow filling (recipe following) and take more pictures. 

This one's for my boo, he had a long day.

This one's mine. Mine was longer.

Just kidding.

You can wrap these sucker's up in plastic wrap and they'll be good for a week...

If they last...

Whoopie Pies
Makes 2 dozen sandwiches

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sift together flour, salt, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside. Line two baking pans with Silpats (French nonstick baking mats) or parchment paper. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Beat until well combined. Slowly add dry ingredients. Mix until combined.

2. Using a 1-ounce ice-cream scoop, place cookies onto lined baking pans, twelve per pan. Bake for 11 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool. Repeat with remaining batter.

3. Spread 2 tablespoons of frosting onto each of twenty-four of cookies. Sandwich together with remaining twenty-four cookies. Store in an airtight container.

Filling:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup marshmallow fluff

1/2 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup marshmallow fluff
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium bowl with mixer at medium speed, beat butter and remaining ingredients until light and fluffy.

Ps. You can substitute peanut butter for the marshmallow fluff and make peanut butter Whoopies!