Creamy Chicken Italian Soup w/Gnocchi

2/3 cup butter or olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

2 lbs cooked chicken OR 2 cans cooked chicken

2/3 cup flour

1 quart whole milk

1 quart heavy cream

5 Tbsp Chicken Soup Base (this is the yellow powdery boullion)

Pepper to taste

1 bag fresh spinach leaves

Make your gnocchi first, by boiling it according to package directions, or make homemade gnocchi.  Set it aside.

Melt butter in a soup pot and sauté the garlic.  Add the flour and cook and stir together, cook for a minute or so for the raw flour smell to cook out.  Add the chicken and cook to combine the chicken and the flour paste.

Cool the pan a little bit by lifting it off the burner and turning the heat down, then add about a cup of the milk, and stir stir stir to get any lumps out and make it as smooth as you can.  Add the boullion or soup base and stir it in well, no lumps.  Add the rest of the milk and the cream and cook over medium low heat.  Taste it, add salt and pepper if needed.  Add the gnocchi to heat it through in the soup.  Just before serving, add the whole bag of spinach leaves and warm them through, they will cook way down.

REMEMBER:  Cream soups should never boil hard, only barely simmer so they usually take some time to heat through.  If you boil it, it scorches and separates, not what you want.  Stir it a lot, don’t let it scorch on the bottom.

Pork Chops, Fried and Oven-Finished

Best pork chops I have ever made!
In a plastic bag mix:
1/2 cup flour
1 Tbsp Paprika
1.5 tsp Sage
1 tsp Creole Seasoning
1/2 tsp Cayenne
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Black pepper
1 tsp Garlic salt

Heat oven to 400, place a 13x9 dish in the oven to preheat with the oven.  Get potatoes peeled, cut, and started boiling if mashed potatoes is what you want to serve it with (delish!)

Take four boneless chops, place in an egg wash of 1 egg and a couple of tablespoons water, beaten well.  Coat chops with egg wash, then drop into the plastic bag of flour coating mixture.  Shake each individually and set aside on a paper plate for 15 minutes to set the flour coating.  Heat 4 Tbsp oil, shortening or bacon fat (whatever you have) to hot in a skillet and add chops.  Get a hard sear on each side, add more oil/fat if you need to but don't cook through, this is just a hard sear (brown) on each side then take it out of the pan.

Transfer to the hot dish waiting in the oven, bake 20 minutes or until no longer pink when cut in center.  In the meantime make the gravy for the mashed potatoes, and make the mashed potatoes.

Gravy:
Use same skillet as pork chops were fried in, add 1/2 cup flour and make a roux (add more oil or fat if needed).  Cook until raw flour smell is gone, then add 2 cups chicken stock.  Cook until there are no lumps, stir A LOT, add some milk, either canned or regular, and whisk while boiling to thick.  Add pepper and Accent, more salt if needed, cook to desired consistency and wait for the chops to be done.  

Southern Chicken Salad

3-4 cups diced cooked chicken or leftover turkey
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream

4 green onions, chopped well
2 stalks celery finely diced
1/2 tsp pepper (I add more to taste)
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1 Tbsp honey
2 tsp lemon juice
1 cup red grapes, halved lengthwise

1/2 cup cashews (add just barely prior to serving because they absorb moisture and get chewy otherwise.)

Mix all together and let set for flavors to blend. Serve in rolls or croissants. 

SELF NOTES: This is what I made for Courtney's wedding shower delicious. No grapes and no nuts for Trent, but he loves it :)

Chicken Chili (Chicken Taco Soup)

Trent said I can't call this chili because it's not reddish, it's whitish, he said to call it chicken taco soup.  Okay. 
This is VERY good and best part was I threw it together when I was home for lunch yesterday, and the chicken came directly from the freezer so it was easy.  Adapted from a recipe in our local newspaper.  We really liked this.  As usual, it makes enough for dinner and lunch for a couple of days for us.

3-4 frozen chicken breasts (one quart freezer bag full)

3 cans chicken broth

3 cans diced green chiles

2 cans pinto beans or great northern beans

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

½ tsp cayenne pepper

Boil on high in crock pot all day.  Break chicken up, then stir in:

2 packages cream cheese 
1 cup of sour cream

Stir well to combine, serve with cheese and tortilla chips or crackers.

Tater Tot Casserole

Here's the problem with casseroles, they taste like...casseroles.  They need SEASONING.  My Trent loves casseroles so I doctor them up so I like them too. 

This is very, very good and you do really need the basil, poultry seasoning (you can substitute thyme) and the pepper.  Makes a full 13x9 pan, that's leftover worthy, great for lunches the next day.

1 lb ground beef

1 onion, very finely diced or shredded

1 can green beans, drained

1 can corn, drained

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 ½ cups milk

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp poultry seasoning

1 tsp Cajun seasoning (if you have it, otherwise substitute ½ tsp salt)

1 tsp pepper

Tater tots or leftover cooked hash browns

2 cups shredded cheese, divided

Lightly grease a 13x9 pan.  In a skillet, brown hamburger and onion together until hamburger is done.  While it is browning, in a medium bowl combine 2 cans cream of chicken soup, milk, basil, poultry seasoning,  cajun seasoning, and pepper.  Stir well to combine.

Layer the hamburger/onion mixture into the bottom of the greased 13x9.  Drain the beans and corn and add those on top of the hamburger.  Add half of the cheese.  Pour the soup mixture over it all.  Layer on frozen tater tots or leftover cooked hash browns.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until bubbly and potatoes are nice and browned.  Remove from oven and sprinkle on the remaining cheese and bake just until cheese is melted, five minutes or so.

Breakfast Casserole (Make Ahead Christmas Morning Casserole)

1 lb breakfast link sausage (you can use more if you like)

6 cups cubed bread slices  (I use texas toast style, probably about ½ a loaf))

10 eggs

3 cups milk

¼ cup butter, melted

2 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 package shredded cheese, 8 oz.  (Cheddar or Colby jack)

Grease a 9x13 pan with butter or shortening.

Brown 1 package of breakfast link sausage, between 1 -2 pounds.  Slice sausage into slices, not too thin, you want about ¾” slices. 

Cut crust off of bread and cut into 1” cubes, you need 6 cups total.

Mix eggs, milk, melted butter (cooled off), dry mustard, salt and pepper together and beat well.  In the greased 9x13 pan, layer half of the bread cubes, then half of the sausage, then half of the cheese, then the remaining bread again, then the remaining sausage then cheese.

Pour egg mixture over the whole casserole, it should fill it.  If you have extra egg mixture, wait until the bread absorbs it and add the rest.  Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

Remove from refrigerator 15 minutes prior to baking in the morning.  Preheat oven to 350.  Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour, until it’s set.

Thai Yellow Curry with Chicken

4 chicken breasts, hammered flat and cut into 1x1” squares   (also may use any leftover cooked chicken).

2 tsp. salt

1 or 2 Tbsp. Oil (vegetable is fine)

2 small yellow onions, chopped

½ tsp ground ginger

4 garlic cloves, minced

3 Tbs. curry powder

2 cans (13 1/2 fl oz.) coconut milk, well shaken

3 cups water

Juice of 1 lemon (1/4 cup lemon juice)

4 large boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into ½” cubes

Steamed rice for serving

I started the rice in a rice cooker then proceeded with the rest.  It was able to sit in the cooker and stay warm.  Then, determine what you have to do for the chicken.  Do you need to cook it?  Or do you have leftover?  Then proceed:

Saute onion and garlic in 1-2 tbsp oil until soft, set aside.  (note to self: do this outside on the burner, otherwise you stink up your clothes, remember?)

Saute chicken to just unpink, meaning it isn’t rubbery-done, just no pinkness left, but not quite “done” (you will cook it more later).  Set aside with the onions/garlic (add any leftover cooked chicken if you have it, or canned cooked chicken).

Open the cans of coconut milk, leave them on standby.  Then, to the hot pan you just used for the chicken, add the curry powder, over medium heat.  Dry sauté the curry powder alone for ten seconds, spreading around with a whisk, picking up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  Add coconut milk.  Whisk well.  Add the water, ¼ cup lemon juice or juice from one lemon, and 1 tsp salt. (I ended up using 2 tsp salt total for this dish, but don’t go crazy at first.)

To this liquid mixture in the pan, add all the potatoes.  Bring to a boil, covered, and boil for about 7 minutes to soften the potatoes.  Then add the chicken/onion/garlic that you had set aside earlier.

Simmer for a while, probably 20 minutes, until the flavors blend and the potatoes and chicken are nice and tender.  (Cover or don’t cover, uncover if you want the sauce to thicken a bit, I uncovered) .  As you go, taste it season at will with more salt if needed.  For heat, I added 1 Tbsp hot curry spice mixture that I bought at the farmers market, 1/4 tsp cayenne would also add nice heat.

Oh yeah, serve over the rice.