Creamy Shredded Crockpot Chicken

This recipe has no official name, so I made one up.

It all started when my dad brought home a couple coupons for a new product. Phillidelphia, that company that makes cream cheese, had just come out with a new thing called "cooking cream". It's basically like an extra creamy cream cheese stuff that is flavored. It sounded delicious, and I decided to try something with it. It was basically like cream cheese, so I figured I'd find a recipe that called for such and then substitute the new cooking cream. We carefully clipped the coupons and headed to the store to pick up the ingredients. There were several flavors, and I chose the Italian Cheese and Herb flavor and, once purchased, we headed back home. It was once home we realized we'd completely forgotten to even use the coupons that prompted our purchase in the first place. *blonde*

Here's the recipe I used:

6 Skinless Boneless Chicken Breast Halves

1 (8 ounce) bottle Italian-style Salad Dressing

1 (10.75 oz) Can Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup

1 Cup Chicken Broth

1 (8 oz) Package Cream Cheese

1/2 tsp. Dried Basil

1/2 tsp. Dried Thyme

Salt and Pepper to taste

I started with the chicken. I greased the bottom of the crock pot and put them in. i didn't make six, just five, cause I figured it would make the sauce creamier, and because it saves on chicken. ^_^

Next, I poured the dressing on top. We didn't have a lot of it, and not nearly as much as the recipe called for, but it worked. I put it in the crockpot and started it cooking on low. Then, before leaving for work, I made the chicken broth using bouillon, and added the other ingredients. I didn't use quite all of the cream cheese stuff, since it's a 10 ounce container, and the recipe only called for 8 ounces. I stuck the rest back in the fridge for a later time. (Although I don't think I ever used it... hmm... it's probably still in the back of the fridge somewhere. :P)

Once those were all mixed, I stuck them in the fridge to be added later, and went off to work. 

Thankfully, I have family members at home, so I asked my mother to please add the cream mixture at about 4:30. Also, she shredded the chicken up for me when she added the cream sauce. It was pretty easy, since the chicken had been cooking all day and was extremely tender.

Once the cream mixture had been added, the crockpot was left to simmer another hour on low. Meanwhile, I got home and made some rice. When the rice was done, I spooned some of the shredded chicken over it. 

I really liked it. I think it probably would have been just as good if made with regular cream cheese, but I liked the extra flavor the special stuff added. Definitely something I'd make again.

Chicken and Bacon

Ok, now is the moment you've all been waiting for!

Well, maybe not, but I know I have. I am going to share the recipe of my very most favorite meal EVAR!!!

*ahem*

Anyway, yeah, this is my favorite meal. It's the meal that I always have on my birthday, and my sister happens to love it, as well, so when her birthday rolled around, she requested it. I was very happy. :D

1 jar Dried Beef (sometimes called Chipped Beef)

6 large Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

1 lb. Bacon, uncooked.

1 pint Sour Cream

1 can Cr. of Mushroom Soup

You start with a greased, 9x13 pan. Rip the dried beef up into small-ish chunks and cover the bottom of the pan.

Then, take the chicken breast and wrap the bacon around them. I like to use 2 slices of bacon per piece of chicken, but this might change, depending on the size of the chicken pieces, and how many slices of bacon you have in the pound. Basically, you want to use the whole pound of bacon, and you want to put as many pieces of chicken in the pan as you can. That's about 6 large pieces of chicken, but maybe up to 8 smaller pieces.

Next, mix the sour cream together with the cream of mushroom soup.

Scoop it out, and spread it evenly over and around the chicken.

Then you cook it. It has to cook slowly; 3 hours at 275˚. The kitchen smells wonderful while it's cooking. :D

Oh wow, the picture is making me hungry. :P

Make some rice, and spoon the sauce over the chicken and the rice.

My mouth is watering. ^_^

French Dip Sandwiches

I was scrounging around the other day, trying to come up with something to make for dinner. I had been thinking hamburgers, but we were all out of ground beef. We did, however, have a medium size piece of beef. It was thin cut, and said "perfect for pan frying!" on the package, so I figured it had to be good for something. I looked up recipes for beef, and came across a recipe for French Dip Sandwiches.
Now, I love French Dip Sandwiches, so I got all excited and clicked on a few of the recipes. That's when I began to get rather disappointed. Every single recipe called for slow-cooking. Usually, I love slow-cooker recipes, but when I wanted to make a meal *now*, those recipes were no good.
I puzzled for a while, and looked around to see if I could find a recipe that didn't call for 3-4 hours. Nothin' doin'. Also, several of the recipes called for Beef Consumme. Something I didn't have, and could not make.
I considered making something else, but the idea of French Dip Sandwiches was firmly rooted in my mind, and I wasn't going to be swayed easily. Finally, I decided to just improvise, and see what happened.
My grandmother used to tell her kids that they were having "an experiment!" for supper. I like that idea. :D

I started by thawing the beef. Then, I sliced it into thin slices.

Once it was all cut up, I lay them in a frying pan and cooked them.

When they were all cooked, I chopped them up into even tinier pieces.

Then, I put them in a pot with some beef broth (2 cups of beef broth, made from bouillon) and a can of condensed French Onion Soup.

I put it on the stove, on low, to simmer.

While that simmered, I decided to fry up some extra onions with butter. This had the double effect of adding delicious flavor to my meal, and a delicious smell to the kitchen/house.

Once the onions were done, and added, I let it sit and simmer a while longer. Maybe 20 minutes or so. I could probably have been served right away, but I needed to wait until certain people were home from work, for dinner. It certainly didn't hurt it, and probably helped enhance the flavor. :)
Once I was ready to serve it, I toasted some hoagie rolls, and put a slice of mozzorella cheese on it. Any mild cheese would work, but this is what I had handy, so it served. Then, I piled on the beef, and put a small bowl of the broth, or au jus sauce, on the side.

It was oh, so good. :D

Red Potato Salad

The other day, the duty of making dinner fell upon me. I decided to make use of the red potatoes I bought the other day, and turn them into potato salad. I looked up a recipe, and found this promising looking one.

3 lbs. Unpeeled Red Potatoes
4 Hardboiled Eggs
1 1/2 C. Mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. Milk
2 Tbsp. Distilled White Vinegar
1/2 C. Sliced Green Onions
1/ tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Pepper
1 C. Sliced Celery

I didn't quite have 3 lbs of potatoes... in fact, I had only 5 small potatoes. I guesstimated that it was about half of what I needed, so I cut the rest of the ingredients in half, accordingly.

I started by cutting up the potatoes, and then boiling them.

Then, I hardboiled the eggs (perfectly, again. I think I'm on a roll!) and chopped them up.
While the eggs were boiling, I mixed together the mayo, vinegar, and salt. I completely forgot about the milk, even though it was sitting right in front of me on the counter, and I forwent the pepper, since I don't care for it's taste. I also sprinkled in some minced onion and garlic powder, for added flavor.

After mixing the potatoes into that, I chopped up the celery and green onion. I discovered later I had put in too much green onion. I got a little carried away. Next time I'll do better. :D

Once I'd added the greens, and the eggs, I covered it and put it in the fridge to chill. A couple hours later, I served it with dinner. :D

It was very good, except for, as I mentioned before, a bit too much green onion, and perhaps a bit too much garlic. Overall, definitely something I'd make again. :D

Biscuits

I have often made biscuits before, and have what I consider to be a pretty good recipe. I'll warn you in advance that it is by no means the best recipe... I'm still on the lookout for another one that's better, but this one is pretty good.
I wanted strawberry shortcake... I'd recently purchased strawberries on sale, and had some cream to make whipped cream, so I decided to mix up a batch of biscuits to go along.

4 C. Flour
8 tsp. Baking Powder
4 tsp. Sugar
1 tsp. Cr. of Tartar
1 tsp. Salt
1 C. Shortening
1 1/3 C. Milk

I started by mixing up the dry ingredients. I had run out of white flour so I used wheat flour as a substitute. Looking back, it was not the best decision. The biscuits are simply not as good when made with wheat, instead of white, but that could be just what I'm used to.

After that was all mixed up, I added the shortening, and cut it together. The regular kitchen tool for this task was missing, and I used a potato masher instead. It worked wonderfully.

Next, I poured in the milk. Notice the one and only picture in this entire blog that features me. Or my hand, anyway. :P

Then, I mixed it all together gently...

...and rolled it out on the floured table.

Using a cup, I cut out circles and placed them on a greased cookie sheet. Now, a little secret I learned awhile ago about biscuits, is that if you roll them extra thin, cut them into circles, and stack two circles on top of each other before baking (making sure to press the edges together pretty well) it makes them much easier to split later, after they've been baked. This, I did.

Then I baked them for about 10 minutes at 450˚.

Once they were done, I split them, and piled on the strawberries and cream. :D

Strawberry shortcake is seriously my favorite dessert, ever. ^_^

Hot Chicken Salad

A couple years ago, while searching for something to make for dinner, my mother suggested we make Hot Chicken Salad. I had never heard of such a thing, so we began to search through her old recipe book and we discovered the recipe. It is a recipe from my grandmother, which gives it extra value in my opinion. So anyway, we made it, and it was amazingly delicious. I've made it several times since then, and decided to whip it up the other day. 

2 Cans Cream of Mushroom Soup

4-5 Cups Diced Chicken Breast (about 3-4 Breast Pieces)

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

3/4 Cup Real Mayonnaise

2 Tbsp Minced Onion

1 Cup Diced Celery

4 Diced, Hard-boiled Eggs

1 8oz Bag Plain Potato Chips

I started by boiling, and chopping up the chicken breasts. I boiled two, then discovered it wasn't quite enough, so I had to boil another one. 

While the chicken was boiling, I also hard boiled the eggs.

Now, you may think this odd for all the cooking I have done, but I have a very difficult time hard boiling eggs. For whatever reason, I can never remember exactly how it's done. Is it start them cold and boil them 10 minutes? Or maybe you put them in boiling water, then turn it down, then let them sit 10 minutes? Or is it put them in cold water, let them boil, and then immediately transfer them back to cold water? *sigh* Way too many options. (Turns out, it's put them in cold water, bring it to a boil, boil them for 10 minutes, let them cool for about 2 minutes, then transfer them to cold water)

Anyway, I have always ended up with undercooked eggs. And once you crack them to see if they're done, you're out of luck. 

BUT! This time, I did it right! I was ridiculously pleased with myself. ^_^

Once I had the eggs done, I chopped them up. 

Then I mixed the eggs, chicken, and other ingredients together.

Once they were all mixed, I greased an 11x13 pan and spread the bottom with crushed potato chips. *NOTE* The potato chips do not get mixed in with the rest of the ingredients. They get crushed and layered on the top and bottom of the rest of the casserole 

After putting in a layer of chips, I spread the rest of the stuff on top, and sprinkled more crushed chips on top of that.

Into the oven it went! 425˚ for about half an hour, or until it's bubbling and the chips are starting to brown. Like so:

It's especially delicious when you add a side of potato chips. :D

It's definitely a favorite meal of mine... although my brother professed to absolutely hate it. He does really dislike mayonnaise, though, so that could be the reason. :)

It's also good reheated, but I'd recommend adding fresh potato chips to the top if you do that, since the ones it was baked with tend to get a bit soggy after they've been sitting for awhile.