Tag Archives: Dinner

Throwback Curry Chicken Casserole

14 Wednesday May 2014

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If you’re looking for a curry chicken recipe to pair with naan bread and basmati rice…this isn’t it.  (The word ‘casserole’ alone should be an indication).  🙂 This dish is a throwback to the early 80’s (maybe even earlier) that my mom used to make often when I was growing up. It is from a time when a bit of curry spice was exotic and adventurous to some of us.  While cooking this the other night I laughed thinking how just in the last few weeks we’ve cooked dishes that not only include curry but also garam masala, turmeric, coriander and saffron…  How our tastes and skills have expanded!!

Throwback Chicken Curry Casserole

This may not be a fancy or healthy dish and it is definitely an 80’s recipe, but I sure do crave it sometimes!  Even Mr. E who didn’t grow up on this dish loves it!  (Though he did grow up in the 80’s in Wisconsin and it does include cream of chicken soup in a casserole form…hmm. Just saying). Ha Ha.

The recipe is simple, the ingredients are few, and the skill level is super easy… no need for detailed preparation ‘tips’ or helpful pictures.   So for those late 30’s, early 40’s, casserole – canned cream of ‘somethin’ soup loving individuals… may this bring back good memories from your own casserole filled childhood!   To the rest of you – may the curry make it just fancy enough that you want to give it a try! 🙂

Curry Chicken Casserole

*This recipe can easily be doubled. We serve with steamed white rice
 
 2 chicken breasts cut into about 1 inch pieces
2 -3 cups broccoli florets, steamed
½ teaspoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon ground curry, plus a dash
1 can cream of chicken soup
½ cup mayonnaise
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
2 slices of white bread, toasted & cut into cubes “croutons”
Oil
 
Preheat oven to 350°. In a medium bowl add the cream of chicken soup, mayonnaise, lemon juice and curry; mix well.  Sprinkle chicken with a pinch of salt and pepper.  In a skillet heat approximately 1-2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat.  Add chicken pieces to the pan, you may want to divide into two batches, and cook thoroughly.
 
In a 9×9 pan layer the cooked chicken pieces, then the steamed broccoli florets; spread the cream of chicken soup mixture over the broccoli; then sprinkle with the grated cheese and arrange the croutons on top.
 
Bake 35-45 minutes until it bubbles a bit around the edges and the center is hot.  Serve with white rice.
 
Enjoy!  (while watching a great 80’s movie like Pretty in Pink!)

Grilled Pizza – Pulled Pork and Green Chile Sauce

12 Wednesday Feb 2014

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We are having an unusually warm winter and are counting our lucky stars that we live in sunny AZ and not on the east coast or Midwest! Since it has been in the mid 70’s the last few weekends we have pulled out the pizza stone and are back to grilling pizzas. Yea!

A few years ago Mr. E got this great pizza stone that sits on a metal stand that then goes directly on the BBQ grill. He will turn the heat on the grill really high to get the stone super-hot. Then when he slides the pizza on the stone and closes the BBQ lid, it is so hot it makes an awesome crust and cooks really quick.

The part that makes this pizza super yummy is that it goes beyond the pepperoni, mushroom, veggie, pineapple and ham pizza. (Yes, I do believe pineapple and ham pizza can be good but only if you pick off and eat all the pineapple first, then give the ham to Mr. E or the dogs and just eat the cheese pizza by itself.)

Imagine with me…a pizza with a tomatillo green chile sauce, pulled smoked pork, jack cheese, and caramelized onions. A little different, yes, but super delish 🙂 (Mr. E is staring at me while I write this and I can hear him thinking: “Mmmmmm…pizza…beer…yummmm”.)

Pizza

Tomatillo green chile sauce is super easy to make and it freezes really well.   It’s also good on tacos, chicken enchiladas, pork stew or anything you want to give a little flair to.

I take a short cut and buy canned tomatillos and then use hand blender to puree them.

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The second key ingredient is roasted green chiles. If you can get freshly roasted chiles definitely use those.  I would not recommend purchasing the canned green chiles unless you have no choice. This is one of those ingredients that I really think makes a difference when cooking.  There is something about the canned roasted chiles that does affect a recipe and makes the results less good.  Roasting fresh chiles is not hard and they freeze really well if you wanted to do a bunch at a time.

While the sauce was cooking we thinly sliced some sweet onion (I only buy the sweet onions, they aren’t as bad as the yellow) and slowly cooked them in a pan with lots of butter, some salt and pepper until they were caramelized. We also shredded some already cooked pork and grated the jack cheese.  Once the sauce was done, we assembled the pizza (minus the onion) and brushed the edges with garlic butter. We added the caramelized onion at the very end because otherwise they burn to a crisp – we learned that the hard way.

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Green Chile Sauce

5 tomatillos
1 quart chicken broth
1¼ – 1½ lbs roasted green chiles, seeded, skin removed and chopped
2 teaspoons onion, minced
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1 garlic clove minced
Pinch of salt and pepper
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
 
Puree the tomatillos using a blender or food processor.  Add the pureed tomatillos, chiles, onion, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper to a pot.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Mix the cornstarch and water together in a small dish to make a slurry and then add to the pot; stirring well.  Simmer, stirring occasionally until the sauce has thickened a bit about 10 minutes.
 
Enjoy!  

Korean BBQ tacos with Cucumber and Pomegranate Kimchi

02 Sunday Dec 2012

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Every year I see pomegranates in the store and I always want to get one but can never think of what to do with it. I’ve looked up various recipes and some look good; some look okay, but nothing that really seemed worth it.

I remember as a kid in elementary school we use to get them and us girls would pick out the seeds and eat them staining our fingers and lips with their beautiful purple color. The boys would eat a few, but had much more fun throwing them either at each other, at us or at the stucco walls of the building and watching them explode.  Pomegranates soon became banned from school…I think that may have been the last time I had them.

I was excited when I came across a recipe for Korean Barbecue tacos with a Pomegranate-Cucumber Kimchi posted in the AZ Republic from POM.  I didn’t have some of the ingredients the recipe called for (and wasn’t going to buy them) 🙂 so I ended up making a modified version if the original recipe.  It was so very good!  In fact with the next night we used the leftover steak and cucumber kimchi to make an Asian salad.

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The other thing that was good about this recipe was that even though the ingredient list is long it’s really easy to make. The part that took the longest was getting the seeds out of the pomegranate. Which I included a tip below that really helped me.

The original recipe calls for a sweet chili sauce to be added to the kimchi, but that was one of the ingredients I didn’t have so I improvised by adding Sriracha sauce and more honey

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I was feeling lazy, so I didn’t pull out the mandolin to slice the cucumbers, but it would have been so much faster if I had. I made the kimchi first and then the marinade for the steak, so the kimchi probably sat for a 1 ½ hours. Word of warning the ginger and spices get a lot stronger as it sits.  Mr. E and I love ginger and spicy foods so we were okay, but if you don’t like spicy food, you’ll want to cut down on the amount of ginger and Sriracha.

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Korean Barbecue Tacos with Cucumber Pomegranate Kimchi

 
Kimchi:
¼ cup pomegranate arils, or seeds
½ cucumber, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
½ teaspoon Sriracha
1 teaspoon honey
2 small garlic cloves (or 1 large), pressed
½ tablespoon ginger, minced
1 tablespoon water
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon chili powder
 
Steak Marinade:
¼ cup pomegranate juice
¼ cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons lime juice
2 teaspoons sesame oil
½ cup brown sugar
1 pound top round steak
 
Other Ingrediants:
Corn tortillas
Cilantro, for garnish
Limes, sliced, for garnish
 
**Tip for getting the seeds out of the pomegranate***
 
Fill a big bowl with water. Score the outside of the pomegranate with a knife. Then break apart the pomegranate under the water in the big bowl.  The seeds will sink to the bottom, and the other stuff will float. 
 
Kimchi: Slice the cucumber very thinly and set aside. In a medium to small size bowl add all the ingredients for the kimchi except the pomegranate seeds and the cucumber.  Use a whisk to mix well.  Then add the cucumber and pomegranate seeds, stir so that all of the cucumber slices get coated.  Set aside and refrigerate.
 
Steak Marinade: Trim any excess fat off the steak and set aside.  In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients for the marinade.  Pour the marinade over the steak.  I used a zip lock baggie for marinating. Let sit 1-2 hours in the refrigerator.
 
When ready to grill the steak, remove it from the fridge a few minutes before so that it can come to room temperature.   Lightly oil the grill grates and then grill the steak to your ‘cooked’ preference.  After removing from the grill, let rest for 5 minutes.  Then thinly slice.
 
To serve, heat up the tortillas, add the sliced steak, Kimchi, a bit of cilantro and a squeeze of lime. 
 
Enjoy!