Crock-Pot Gumbo

I had homemade gumbo once a few years back and fell in love with it.  I've bought store-made gumbo since then and it just hasn't quite stood up.  So, I decided to give making gumbo a shot myself.  I'm not sure why, but I was very intimidated by the idea, thinking it was surely going to be quite complicated.  Turns out, it wasn't.  And, for bonus points, I made mine in my crock-pot so it's totally a set it and forget it gumbo which makes it doubly easy. 

I will warn you, though, that this recipe is quite spicy.  If you are shy about spicy food, I suggest you cut down the cayenne pepper a bit.  If it's too dull for you in the end, toss in a bit more cayenne pepper to spice it up.  I served my gumbo with homemade honey corn bread, which was a bit sweet and complimented the spicy gumbo very well.  Yum!

Adapted from: Cats and Casseroles

What you need:

1 lb. Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast

14 oz Andouille Sausage

28 oz Can of Diced Tomatoes (undrained)

1 Large Onion

1 Large Green Bell Pepper

1 Cup Chopped Celery

2-3 Cups of Chicken Broth

2 Tsp Dried Oregano

2 Tsp Dried Parsley

2+ Tsp Cajun Seasoning

2+ Tsp Cumin

1 Tsp Cayenne Pepper

2 Chicken Bullion Cubes

A Touch of Kosher Salt

1 Cup Cooked White Rice

What you do:

1.  Chop the onion, bell pepper and celery into large chunks.  Place in crock-pot.

2.  Add the tomatoes, 1 cup of chicken broth, oregano, parsley, 2 tsp Cajun seasoning, 2 tsp cumin, cayenne pepper, and chicken bullion cubes to the crock pot. 

3.  Season both sides of your chicken as you would like.  I used a bit of kosher salt, Cajun seasoning, and cumin.  Wrap the chicken in foil.  Place the foil-wrapped chicken on top of everything that is in the crock-pot. 

4.  Put the lid on your crock-pot and cook for 3-4 hours on low heat or 7-8 hours on high heat.  Cooking time will vary depending on your crock-pot. 

5.  After the cooking time has elapsed, remove the foil-wrapped chicken from the crock-pot.  USE TONGS!  It's hot in there, folks. 

6.  Set the chicken to the side to cool for a couple of minutes.  Meanwhile, add an additional 1-2 cups of chicken broth to the crock-pot if you would like for your gumbo to have more liquid. 

7.  Thinly slice the sausage and add it to the crock-pot. 

8.  Unwrap the chicken and shred it using a fork and knife.  Add it to the crock-pot. 

9.  Let the contents of the crock-pot continue to cook while you make the white rice according to the instructions on the package.  

10.  Serve the gumbo by putting some gumbo in a bowl and then adding a bit of rice to each serving. 

Enjoy!

**Tip**  If you add the white rice to the gumbo, the rice will absorb a lot of the liquid if you store leftovers.  That's why I tell you to make it separately and add a bit as you serve it.  Be sure to store the rice separately as well and your gumbo will remain moist. 

**Tip** Cooking the chicken in foil on top of the rest of the gumbo prevents the meat from deteriorating and become tough or dry.  A lot of people dislike meat cooked in a crock-pot for those reasons.  Trust me on this one -- cook the chicken in foil and you'll have super tender and delicious chicken for your gumbo. 

Alice Springs Chicken

My favorite dish (maybe also the only one I've ever ordered) from Outback Steakhouse is the Alice Springs Chicken.  I've looked online several times in the past and have been unable to find a copy cat recipe.  Until I found this one.  Super excited to finally find a recipe, I gave it a go and was not disappointed. It was pretty easy to make and, although this is not Outback's exact recipe, it comes pretty darn close.  Close enough that I'll be making it again.  I'm not even going to try to tweak it to make it closer to Outback's -- it's that close. 

Slightly Adapted From:  The Finer Things In Life

What You Will Need:
4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
Seasoning Salt to Taste
6 Slices of Bacon, cut in half
1/4 Cup Mustard
1/3 Cup Honey
2 Tbsp Mayonnaise 
2 Tsps Onion Powder
1 Cup Fresh White Button Mushrooms, sliced
2 Cups Shredded Colby Jack Cheese

Here's What You Do:
1.  Sprinkle season salt on the chicken breasts and rub in well.  Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

2.  While the chicken is in the refrigerator, cook your bacon (I baked mine).  Save the bacon grease. 

3.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

4.  Saute the chicken in the bacon grease for about 5 minutes per side (until browned).  As you cook each piece of chicken, place the cooked chicken in a 9 x 13 baking dish.

5.  In a bowl, mix the mustard, honey, mayo, and onion powder.  Apply this mixture to each chicken breast. 

6.  Place a layer of mushrooms, bacon, and shredded cheese on each chicken breast. 

7.  Bake the chicken for about 30 minutes, or the cheese is melted and the chicken is completely cooked through.   

8.  Serve the chicken with the remaining honey mustard sauce that you made in step 5. 

I served my Alice Springs Chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and green bean casserole.   It was delicious!

Enjoy!

Fiesta Chicken Pockets

Sooo, I have good news and I have bad news.  The good news is, I've made some really good food lately.  The bad news is, I've forgotten to take pictures of my good food.  Which means I can't post about them.  Bummer!

I do have one exception though.  Remember when I made these chicken pillows?  Well, I made them again, but I spiffied them up a bit.  I figure since you can go here and see something close to what they're supposed to look like, it's okay for me to post without a picture, right?  Besides, I don't have anything else to post right now.  And something is better than nothing, right? 

Also, nobody came up with any fabulous name ideas for the chicken pillows, so I went ahead and spiffied up the name myself while I was spiffing up the recipe.  It's no literary gold, but I'm pretty sure anything beats "chicken pillows".  I made these one Sunday after working on my house all day.  My mom had thrown the chicken in the crock pot that morning, which made it delicious and super tender, and I threw the pockets together that evening.  They came out delicious and were really simple -- especially since the chick was already cooked. 

Here's what you need:
2 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 Bunch of Green Onions
8 Ounces Cream Cheese, Softened
2 Can of Crescent Rolls

2 Cans of Rotel, well drained

1 Can of Green Chilies, well drained

Here's what you do:
1.  Season the meat and cook it in the crock pot all day. 

2.  Finely slice the green onions. 

3.  Drain the Rotel and green chilies well. 

     Hint:  Failing to drain these well will result in the chicken pockets being 

      mushy.

4.  Mix the green onions, Rotel, and green chilies with the cream cheese. 

5.  Add the cooled chicken to the cream cheese mixture. 

6.  Open the cans of crescent rolls and divide the dough into 16 triangles. 

7.  Place one scoop of the cream cheese mixture in the middle of each crescent roll triangle.

8.  Roll up each crescent roll like a jelly roll (beginning with the widest end).

9.  Ensure that all seams are tightly sealed on each pillow. 

10.  Place the pockets on a cookie sheet, with as many seams down (against the cookie sheet) as possible. 

11.  Bake for about 12 minutes.  Remove them from the oven when the crescent roll is golden brown and flaky.

 

Enjoy!

Chicken Pillows

First, a couple of items of business:
 
     1.   I know I've been slow to post lately and haven't been posting as much as usual -- I'm sorry.  I've been really busy with the normal things like work, volunteering, social activities, etc., plus, I've been in the process of buying a house.  I close this week, so hopefully things will slow down and I'll be able to post more regularly. 

     2.   Can somebody please come up with a better name for this recipe? Puuuhhllleeeaaassseee???  I completely understand that there is nothing appetizing about the name of this recipe.  Honestly, I only made them because my mom wanted me to.  In the end, I'm glad I did.  They ended up tasting great.  But, that name . . .

Anyhow, this recipe is one that I modified from another one of my mom's cookbooks.  The cookbook is called 101 Things to do With a Dutch Oven.  The recipe is on page 54 of my mom's version of the cookbook.  If you haven't figured it out by the name of the book -- this is a recipe for a dutch oven.  I modified the recipe slightly and cooked it in the regular oven and everything came out great. 

I found this recipe to be relatively easy to make and quite filling.  I served it with some veggies and called it a meal!

Here's what I used:
2 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 Bunch of Green Onions
8 Ounces Cream Cheese, Softened
2 Can of Crescent Rolls

Here's what I did:
1.  Seasoned and diced the chicken.  Preheated oven to 350 degrees. 

2.  Cooked the chicken in a pan until browned on outside and thoroughly cooked.
    
     Hint:  The next time I make this recipe, I'll use shredded chicken as I think
     it fits these little chicken pockets more easily that diced chicken, but the
     diced chicken did work out fine.

3.  Set chicken to the side to cool

4.  Finely sliced the green onions.

5.  Mixed the green onions with the cream cheese.

6.  Added the cooled chicken to the cream cheese mixture.

7.  Opened the cans of crescent rolls and divided the dough into 16 triangles.

8.  Placed one scoop of the cream cheese mixture in the middle of each crescent roll triangle.

9.  Rolled up each crescent roll like a jelly roll (beginning with the widest end).

10.  Ensured that all seams were tightly sealed on each pillow. 

11.   Placed the pillows on a cookie sheet, with as many seams down (against the cookie sheet) as possible.

12.  Baked for about 12 minutes.  Remove them from the oven when the crescent roll is golden brown and flaky.




     The next time I make this recipe, I am going to try it with a Mexican flare.  I'll used diced chilies and such.  If it turns out well, I post the recipe on here (of course!).

Enjoy!

Bacon Ranch Chicken

I've made this recipe for years.  It is super simple and the chicken tastes delicious.  I've made this chicken on the grill outside, on the indoor kitchen grill, and in the oven.  You just can't go wrong, in my opinion.

Here's what I used:

2 Large Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 Ranch Dip Mix, dry

8 Pieces of Bacon

Shredded Colby Jack Cheese

Here's what I did:

1.  Sliced the chicken breasts into four pieces each (for a total of 8 chicken strips).  You could skip this step and buy boneless skinless chicken tenders.

2.  Rubbed the dry ranch dip mix on the outside of the pieces of chicken.

3.  Wrapped one piece of bacon around each chicken breast.  I secured the bacon with a toothpick so it didn't fall off while being cooked.

4.  Grilled for about 10 minutes.  Make sure the chicken is cooked all the way through before you take it off the grill.  Cut a piece in half if you need to in order to make sure its cooked through.  Be careful not to overcook the chicken, though, or you'll end up with dry chicken.  If you would like to cook the chicken in the oven, put the chicken in a glass baking dish and bake at 350 degrees until the chicken in cooked through.

5.  Sprinkled shredded cheese on top of the chicken as soon as it is removed from the grill/oven.

Enjoy!