Chicken Tomatillo Enchiladas

These are so delicious even my husband loves them. Can you believe he's not a huge chicken fan??

1 rotisserie chicken, removed from bones
1 lb tomatillos, husk removed
1 cup onion, chopped
1 can green chillies
2 cups white cheddar or monterrey jack cheese
10 corn tortillas
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp ground cumin

2 tbsp olive oil
sour cream

In a pot of water boil tomatillos until their color darkens. Make sure u flip them over during boiling. You may have to set a pan lid (one that is smaller than the pan you are using) on top of the tomatillos to keep them from turning back over, they are wiley little buggers!
Saute the onions in 2 tbsp of olive oil.
In a blender, place the softened tomatillos, the onions, and the green chillies along with 1/2 cup of the water from the tomatillos.Add 1 tbsp cumin. Blend well.
In the pan you sauteed the onions in heat each tortilla slightly. This will make the tortilla easier to manipulate and less likely to crack when you stuff them.
Shred the chicken & sprinkle it with 1 tsp salt & 1 tbsp cumin. Place some chicken on each top of each tortilla and roll them up. Line these in a rectangular pan. Cover enchiladas with tomatillo sauce, then top with cheese. Bake for 30 minutes at 350.

Chicken Chili Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 store-bought roast chickens, meat picked from bones and
• 2 quarts chicken broth
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup ground cumin
• 4 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 large onions, cut into medium dice
• 2 (4 ounce) jars diced mild green chiles
• 2 (20 ounce) cans hominy, or equal quantity of canned white beans, such as cannellini or great Northern
• 6 medium garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups frozen corn, preferably shoepeg
• sour cream
• cilantro or scallions
• lime wedges
• green hot sauce

Directions

Bring skin and bones, chicken broth and 1 quart of water to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer about 30 minutes. Strain and discard skin and bones. Heat oil over medium-low heat in a soup kettle. Add cumin, oregano and cayenne and cook until spices are fragrant, about 1 minute. Add onion; increase heat to medium; saute until soft, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in chicken and chiles. Add 4 cups hominy and all but 1 cup of the broth and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 25 to 30 minutes. Process remaining 2 cups hominy and 1 cup broth until silky smooth; add to soup. Stir garlic and corn into soup. Simmer for a minute or so longer, then cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Ladle into bowls and top with sour cream, cilantro or scallions. Pass separately the lime wedges and green hot pepper sauce.

Chicken & Mushroom Risotto Recipe

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil

1 med onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

12 oz mushrooms, I prefer either a gourmet mushroom mix, or chopped portabella mushrooms

1/2 c heavy cream

1 cups aborrio rice

3 cups chicken broth

1 rotisserie chicken (about 3 lbs.), meat removed in large chunks

1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmigiano cheese

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Heat a large sauté pan over high heat. When the pan is hot, add oil. Once oil is hot Add the onion to the pan and sauté for 2- 3 minutes, let them sweat till transparent, but NOT caramelized. Add the mushrooms and garlic to the pan and sauté for about 3 minutes. Heat the chicken broth in another pan. Add aborrio rice to onion, mushroom mixture. Allow rice to absorb oil. Add one soup ladle of stock at a time to rice mix, bring to a boil. Allow rice to absorb stock while constantly stirring, then add another ladle; repeat until rice is cooked about 18-20 mins.  Add  cream, parmesan, and chicken to the pan and bring mixture back up to a boil.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Chicken Corn Chowder

This is my husband's second favorite soup (homemade ham & navy bean being the first).

5-6 ears of corn, fresh corn
1 1/2 quarts corn stock (see below)
2 cups heavy cream
4 potatoes, peeled, cubed
1 rotisserie chicken, meat removed & cut up
2 bunches scallions, diced
2 tsp salt

Cut corn off cobs, set corn aside. Fill a large pot with water and add cobs and salt. Boil until liquid is reduced by half. Remove cobs, add potatoes and simmer till potatoes are cooked. Add chicken and cream. Let thicken. If it does not thicken take 1/2 cup milk, add 2 tbsp flour, mix well, add to pot and stir. Once thickened add corn and cook for 5 minutes. Next stir in scallions and serve.

*** for a twist add onions, or celery. Or, for a southwestern twist add red bell pepper, and green chillies.

Chicken Tortilla Casserole

Chicken Tortilla Casserole

Ingredients

1 rotisserie chicken, meat removed from bones and shredded

1 package flour tortillas, ripped to pieces

16 oz shredded cheddar or monterrey jack cheese

1 can green chillies

1 can cream chicken soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 soup can full of milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl combine soups, milk, and chillies. Spray the bottom of the baking dish with Pam nonstick cooking spray. Spread 1/2 the tortillas over bottom to cover. Layer chicken over tortillas. Cover the chicken with the soup mixture, than cover that with 1/2 the cheese. Top the cheese with the other 1/2 of the tortillas, then cover that with the rest of the cheese.

Chicken & Dumplings Recipe

*** see the bottom for some tips I learned making this today

Twelve or thirteen years ago I went to Arkansas on vacation with a friend of mine to visit her family. While we were there we visited a sweet little old lady who taught me how to make chicken and dumplings. Now this is southern style dumplings. Not, my Mom's northern style dumplings. No offense to Mom or northern dumplings. Now if you don't know the difference, northern style dumplings are big biscuit style that are cooked on top of, in my Mom's case, a pot of stew. Southern style are made from the same dough, but are thinner, pasta like.
This recipe isn't for the faint of heart. Granted, it's not tough. There aren't a super amount of ingredients. But, it IS time consuming.Of course, I have made a few modifications. Being a true southern lady she properly pressure cooked her chicken, as usual, I cheat and use a rotisserie chicken. Now, today I ran out of chicken stock so I am going to take my own advice and make chicken stock. To do this, I will take the chicken bones, the unusable parts of my celery, and an onion. I will bring them to boil in a pot of water with a tsp of salt, and then let it simmer or boil gently until the liquid is reduced by half.

 Ingredients:
1 rotisserie chicken, meat removed from bone
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
6 cups chicken broth

2 cups plus 2 tbsp all purpose flour (reserve the 2 tbsp for later)
1 tbsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/4 cup shortening

In a medium bowl mix 2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt. With a fork work the shortening into the flour. Put a well in the middle then pur in milk and mix well. Set aside.

In a large pot heat broth, add celery and onion. Bring to a boil then turn down to medium.
Now I've read recipes that say to roll the dough out to 1/4" thickness and cut into squares. I wasn't taught this way, and I've never done it.What I do is pinch of a piece of dough, flatten it as much as possible between my fingers and then plop it in the pot. When I have done this with all the dough add the chicken, and cook for 10 minutes. The flour from the dough is supposed to thicken the broth to a gravy  texture. I haven't found this to be true. What I do is take those 2 reserved tablespoons of flour, mix them with about 1/4 cup of water, add a few tbsp. of the hot liquid, then stir the mixture into the pot.

********* Tonight I made this for dinner.I didn't have chicken stock so I made my own by boiling the bones, and chicken scraps with the end of the celery you cut off and don't use (rinse the dirt off), and a whole onion cut in half, plus about 2 tsp of salt, maybe a little more depending on your own taste. I happen to like a lot of salt.

I brought the mixture to a boil then reduced it to about medium. To be honest I fell asleep and it reduced down to about 1/3. I would have preferred it reduce down to about half. I have to admit it was the best chicken stock I've ever had. Soooo much better than store bought. I don't think I will ever buy store bought any time I have an option to make my own. In fact, I can even freeze the stock and use it anytime, save money too! Better flavor, and money saving to top it off, who could ask for more?
Next, I got out my handy dandy colander and poured the liquid through it into a bowl. Then, I discarded all the stuff in the colander.

******** I tried the method of rolling the dough out and it worked! Flour the surface really well, also sprinkle a little flour on the top of the dough so the rolling pin doesn't stick to the dough. Roll the dough as thin as it will go. Break off pieces and drop into the pot. Also, my liquid actually thickened nicely on it's own for the first time. That little bit of extra flour from rolling the dough really worked. AND, making the dumplings took a hell of a lot less time!

pinch of dough

flattened ultra thin

Look at that
 perfect chicken n dumplings!! 

mmmmmm, ready to eat!!

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Many years ago there was a sandwich shop in my neighborhood that specialized in hot sub sandwiches. I'm not a huge fan of having my ham, turkey, or roast beef hot, but I did love this bbq chicken pizza they served! Tonight we had my version for dinner....

Ingredients

1 rotisserie chicken, meat removed from the bone and shredded

1 hot roll mix (you can use a precooked store bought crust, but I don't prefer it)

1 cup of your favorite bbq sauce

1 medium onion, sliced thin

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

jalapeño pepper slices, as desired

Directions

Make ot roll mix as directed for pizza. My mix said bake at 425, but did not mention prebaking the crust. I prefer to partially bake the crust, before topping it, for about 10 minutes. This ensures the crust will be fully cooked, not raw and doughy in the center. After 10 minutes, remove crust from the oven and spread bbq sauce evenly over the crust. Cover sauce with chicken then onions. Next top with cheese. I like a few jalepeno slices on my side, my husband does not. I will leave that up to your own preferences. Bake another 10 minutes. Enjoy!

My husband really turned his nose up at this one, but once the pizza was cooking, he said "wow that really smells good". Later he mentioned he really liked the onions. I know I've got a hit when he says "honey, you can make that again"!

Chicken n Veggie Orzo

I was hungry for a different kind of chicken noodle type soup one day and started fooling around. I didn't come up with a new soup recipe but I did discover this and it is sooooo good, I promise you. My husband who does not care for zucchini or red bell pepper really likes it.

2 chicken breasts from a rotisserie chicken, diced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium tomato diced (about 3/4 - 1 c)
1 medium zucchini diced (also about 1 c)
1/2 c diced red bell pepper
1/2 c green onions (the green end) chopped
1 c orzo
2 c chicken broth
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tsp thyme

Cook  orzo, veggies, broth, garlic, and thyme in pan with 2 tbsp olive oil. Set timer for 7 mins. Chop chicken while that is cooking. Add chicken to pan when orzo finished and stir. Enjoy!!

Chicken & Yellow Rice Recipe

This was the first recipe I ever made using a rotisserie chicken. Honestly the recipe is so much more flavorful made with a rotisserie chicken than with either a whole chicken or just chicken breasts I had to cook myself.

Ingredients
1 traditional or plain rotisserie chicken, meat removed from bones
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 package Vigo yellow rice (or similar brand)

Directions
Dump all ingredients in a large pot, I prefer a nonstick one myself. Add water as required by instructions on rice package. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. Cover. Set timer for 20 minutes.

*hint... check rice at 10 minute mark, and 15 minute mark, sometimes I need to add an extra 1/2 cup of water.