Chicken & Mushroom with Wine Sauce

 I wanted to try a new chicken recipe for dinner. I am not fond of cooking as much as I like my baking. I will cook for friends and family when we entertain, but most of the time I am just not very inspired. I will take my time and plan out my menu. I try my best to make things nice and hospitable, but for our daily meals, they are usually quick and simple dishes that we both know and like. But I would like to be as creative in my cooking as I am in my baking, so this is the dish that I felt would get my creative juices flowing and bring us a tasty dish and some imaginative satisfaction as well. 

This dish is easy to make with lots of juicy flavor that surprised us both. It goes really well with rice and corn or a side salad, Since it went so well, I think I will make it again soon as main dish for guests the next time we host a get together. 

btw: I hope to cook more quick and delicious chicken recipes!

Ingredients:

3 large chicken breast (fillet to 3/4 thick slices)

1/2 cup red wine

4 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

3 tbsp. corn flour (in a small cup, mix enough water to corn flour to form a diluted mixture, set aside)

1/2 cup milk

2 cup chicken broth

3 tsp chopped garlic

1 sliced onion

1 sliced bell pepper, 1 stalk celery, chopped

12 oz. baby Bella mushroom

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp. fresh or dried oregano (or thyme)

1 tbsp. oil

Instruction:

Over the stove, heat cooking pan, pour in oil and brown both sides on chicken over medium heat,  flip chicken over when brown, smear 1/2 tsp garlic on top of brown surface of chicken, do the same on the other side, then scoop chicken and set aside chicken on a plate or bowl.

On the pan, add mushrooms, let mushroom cook for awhile before flipping over, once both sides are evenly cooked, gather mushroom to one side of the pan.

Add onions and sauté until tender, add and stir peppers & celery together, sprinkle in salt, balsamic vinegar.

Add in chicken broth, milk, Dijon mustard and wine, let this come almost to a boil, add in the chicken and let this come to boil. Stir in the flour mixture. Turn down heat to medium low and let it simmer for 10 minutes and turn heat off. 

Let pan sit for 5 minutes, scoop chicken dish over or next to warm rice topped with fresh thyme/cilantro sprigs. Dinner is served, enjoy!

Chicken Enchilada with homemade sauce

   I have made these chicken enchiladas a few times in the past, and it seems I have made some real improvements with this dish. My husband says this is true and I hope he is right rather than me praising myself. Could it be  both ? ( ha ha ! )

   I decided to write down this new recipe this time just in case I forget what worked really well this time, so here it goes. 

   One really important and helpful ingredient I used in this recipe is buying a nice juicy rotisserie chicken from BJs. They are really delicious and the juices work well during the bake. First, I tear apart the chicken and chop them up into small cubes. I made chicken broth out of the rotisserie chicken bones, which was a wonderful idea... no waste and super tasty ?!

   I needed the chicken broth to made the enchilada sauce... tada! The enchilada sauce recipe is key to this recipe ... hey you can buy the sauce from the store if you choose to do that but as for me I made my own..hee hee !

Here are the ingredients and instructions on both the enchilada sauce and the casserole.

Enchilada sauce:

3 1/2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup warm water  

1/4 cup flour  (mix flour into the warm water, mix well )

2 tbs cumin

1 tbs chili  ( +/- depending on how spicy you want it to be )

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tbs paprika

1 tbs garlic powder

15 oz mild salsa ( or you also use tomato sauce, I like salsa )

Pour everything together in a sauce pan and cook, stirring occasionally in medium to low heat until bubbly and thicken, turn off heat and let it come to warm or room temperature.

Casserole:

1 medium size onion - chopped

1 recipe enchilada sauce (or at least one can of 28 oz enchilada sauce)

2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

18 to 20 8-inch flour tortillas

I am using 2 Pyrex baking dish, greased the bottom of the dish with a few drops of vegetable/canola oil. Layer a thin layer of enchilada sauce on the dish. 

In a big bowl, combine chopped onions and chicken together.

Add some enchilada sauce to the mixture just enough so the mixture could come together.

Fill each tortilla with 2 heap tablespoon of chicken and sprinkle with some cheddar cheese and roll up tightly and place roll on the dish. 

Place each roll one after another tightly so they fit snugly together.

After all the rolls are in the dish, cover the entire top of dish with enchilada sauce. 

Bake at preheated 350 degree oven for 35 mins.

As soon as the time is up, sprinkle the top of dish with a layer of cheddar cheese and put the dish back to the oven while the oven is still super hot but turned OFF.

After about 5-15 mins, casserole is ready to be served, enjoy!!!

        We put a big dent on this dish after dinner .... it was real treat for our palettes  and our tummies                   were grateful ;)

Hungarian Goulash

I found and love this recipe on https://www.savorytooth.com/hungarian-beef-goulash/ and I have used this recipe a few times. So I am putting this in my blog so I refer to the recipe. I will be adding pictures of the goulash as well. 

INGREDIENTS:

3 pounds beef stew meat cut into 1-2 inch chunks

3 yellow onions chopped (about 2 pounds)

2 cups broth (either beef, vegetable or chicken broth)

6 ounce can tomato paste

10 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/4 cup paprika

2 tsp cayenne 

1 tsp salt

2 Tbs balsamic vinegar

2 Tbs oil (either olive or canola)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. I used a 6 quart dutch oven.

Add onions, garlic, salt, and pepper to the pot. Cook until the onions soften, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Coat the beef chunks in a mixture of paprika and cayenne, and add to the pot. Cook until the beef browns, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add broth, balsamic vinegar, and tomato paste to the pot, and stir. Cover with a lid and let simmer until the meat is very tender, about 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Serve and garnish with parsley or cilantro or spring onion (optional) .

Hawaiian Bread Pudding

Every Sunday there is Hawaiian sweet bread left over from our communion service at our church. It is very delicious bread and blessed as well. So I hate to see it to go to waste. But what should I do with all this bread ? Recently my husband and I have begun a low carb diet so bread is no longer a daily part of our meals. So it can't be for us to eat, at least not very often.
 So I think about it and decide to save it until I have enough to make numerous bread pudding casseroles for fellowship functions at our church. I sent a sheet of the dessert to a recent men's event to see how my idea and baking was received. There were many desserts to compete with, so I was surprised that very little of the bread pudding was left over.
 Whole Foods has excellent bread puddings and I was hoping that I could try to make that recipe myself, but I couldn't find their recipe anywhere online. I guess it's a big secret. So I came up with a recipe of my own. Take a look below for the complete recipe. I think the extra eggs and the coconut makes the biggest difference with how mine tastes, at least that is my husband's opinion. Bon apetit !

 I also made some delicious Ham & Cheese Pinwheels, here is my recipe to send to the fellowship party.

Ingredients:  (for easy instructions, I provided a one recipe I made  1 1/2 recipe for extra large dish)
1 loaf of hawaiian bread, cut in small cubes.
3 cup milk
1 cup sugar
8 eggs
1 1/2 Tbs flour
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup sweetened shedded coconut
1 tsp cinnamom
2 Tbs butter (room temp)

Directions:
On a baking dish, spread thin layer of butter all over the dish, bottom and sides.
Layered and pack bread cubes on dish.
Sprinkle raisins and coconut on top of bread cubes.
Followed with sprinkle cinnamon on top.
On mixer, mix eggs and sugar starting with low speed and increase to medium speed.
Then reduce speed to low and slowly pour stream of milk into mixer while mixer is running at low speed. Once all milk is added and mix well, turn mixer off.
Pour egg & milk mixture over baking dish to soak ensuring all the bread is soaked in.

Bake at preheated oven at 325 degree for 1 hour.
Turn off oven, slightly let oven door stay opened by inserting a knife between the oven door.
After 15 mins, take bread pudding oven.
Cut and serve over ice cream or caramel sauce or alone, yum!

                       

                                            ingredients all line up

                                             buttered dish filled with hawaiian bread cubes

                                          top and sprinkled with raisins & shedded coconuts

                          bread filled dish soaked with egg & milk mixture ready to go into oven

Sausage Potato Breakfast Casserole

With extra quiche crumb toppings, I called it the ultimate breakfast casserole. Lets see if the men like them at the Men's Breakfast.

Picture will follow shortly.

Recipe.

Potato ( 2 lbs )
10 ozs shredded cheese - I used cheddar cheese
12 ozs Sausage Links
1/2 lb Turkey Ham
1/2 each Bell Peppers, red and green.
1 medium onion - chooped
Seasonings.
10 eggs
3/4 cup milk

Cut up potato in cubes. boil and steam in a dutch oven for 25 mins or till soft.
Cut up sausage and turkey ham (into cubes).
In a big saute pan, cook sausage till slightly brown, add turkey ham and all other veggies and seasonings and sauteed for 15 mins. Mix in potato to cooking pan.

Scoop into 13x9 baking dish. sprinkle cheese all over.
Whisk up eggs and milk, pour over dish.
Chop up into crumbs 2 slices of quiche and spread as another layer of toppings over casserole.
Wrap dish with plastic wrap and refridgerate over night.
Bake at 350degree for 40 mins.

Cool for at least 5 mins and serve.