Dinner – Page 3 – The Funky Oven

Tomatillo chicken enchilada casserole

Dinner

This sauce is for chicken enchiladas.

2 large tomatillos husk removed and cleaned

1/4 yellow onion, roughly chopped

2-3 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon sauzon seasoning (optional)

4-6 ounce can diced green chilis

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 cup chicken broth

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup fresh cilantro

2 cups cooked chicken

8 ounces shredded Monterey jack cheese

corn tortillas

Roast the tomatillos for 10 minutes under the broiler. Remove from the oven and let cool. Remove any skin that might have turned black.

While cooling, place the olive oil in a skillet with the roughly chopped onion and cook for 5-10 minutes.

Place the tomatillos, cooked onion, uncooked garlic, green chilis, cumin, and cilantro into a food processor. Process fully.

Return the mixture to the skillet. Add the chicken broth and salt. Cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and add the heavy cream. Allow the mixture to cool.

To assemble the casserole, in an 8×8 pan, place 1/3 of the sauce. Then (breaking the tortillas if needed) place a layer of corn tortillas. Then 1/2 of the chicken and 1/3 of the cheese. Add another layer of tortillas. Then add more sauce. Add the remaining chicken and another 1/3 of the cheese. Top with more tortillas. Finish with remaining sauce. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Top with remaining cheese and cook another 10 minutes.

Beef fajita marinade

Dinner, Marinade

The three most important things to remember are as follows:

1. Marinading the meat is the longer the better

2. Grill the meat on high heat for a short time just like a steak

3. Slice the meat against the grain

1 flank steak (1-2 pounds)

1/4 cup lime juice

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoon worchestershire

3 cloves garlic, sliced

2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/3 cup fresh chopped cilantro

Place the meat with all ingredients in a ziploc bag. Refrigerate for 3-24 hours or until ready to cook. Allow meat to come to room temperature before cooking.

Cook the flour tortillas in a skillet on high heat flipping to both sides until they poof like the photo above. This makes the most flavorful tortillas.

Ham, peas, and pasta

Dinner

This recipe is a variation of one from epicurious by Minday Fox in 2015. My main change is that the recipe calls for much more lemon than we cared for. Otherwise, it is perfect. This is one of the most perfect recipes for leftover ham that literally cooks in under 30 minutes. It would be great after a holiday to use leftovers. The second change I made is to use much more ham. We like pasta with our protein and not protein with our pasta. Because the ham is salty, I used much less salt.

1 pound small penne pasta cooked al dente

2 tablespoons butter

2 shallots thinly sliced

4-8 ounces cubed ham

1 1/2 cup frozen peas

1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Fresh parsley

black pepper

grated parmesan

Cook butter over medium heat in a skillet. Saute the shallots for 5 minutes. Add the ham, peas, and cream. Simmer about 5 minutes until sauce thickens. Add the lemon zest, parsley, salt, and pepper. Add the pasta. Top with parmesan.

Lemon thyme chicken marinade

Dinner, Marinade

I recommend placing the chicken in a ziploc bag with the mixture at least 6 hours. It makes the most flavorful juicy chicken ever. It is perfect for grilled chicken.

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons lemon juice

4 sprigs fresh thyme

2 cloves garlic peeled and sliced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

This was enough marinade for 2 large split bone in chicken breasts. The cooking will vary depending on what pieces of chicken you use. I grilled these chicken breasts on propane at 350-300 degrees for about an hour. I started skin side up and flipped them after about 45 minutes.

Chicken sausage and crab gumbo

Dinner, seafood

Gumbo takes a really really long time to make. It tastes sooo good it is worth it. My favorite part is that it can be made in giant batches. It freezes really well to made several quick dinners by warming it and making fresh rice. It makes a great easy dinner for weeknights, after babies are born, and for winter camping trips.

This batch and the portions I used made 4-5 batches of 2-3 bowls each. That is a LOT of gumbo.

3 green bell peppers, diced

6 celery stalks, diced

1 large onion, diced

7 cloves garlic, minced

3/4 cup dark roux

2 tablespoons butter

4 bone in chicken thighs, smoked

2 pounds andouille sausage links, smoked

10-16 ounces crab claw meat

5 bay leaves

2 teaspoon thyme

12-14 cups chicken broth

1-2 teaspoons paprika

6 large pods okra

2 tablespoons gumbo file

1 cup chopped fresh parsley

chopped green onions to garnish

My dark roux.

Melt the butter in large soup pot on medium heat. Add the celery, onion, and pepper. Cook until soft about 10-12 minutes.

Once they are soft add the garlic and then stir in the roux. Add the chicken broth. Add the thyme, paprika and bay leaves. Add the chopped up chicken and sausage. Add the okra. I use giant firm pods and put them in whole. Once the okra opens, I remove the pod and leave the seeds.

Cover and cook for 1-2 hours.

Just before serving, add the crab meat and gumbo file. Remove the bay leaves and okra. Add in fresh chopped parsley.

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Serve with white rice, corn bread, and green onions.

To freeze this, I let it cool fully and then place smaller portions into ziploc freezer bags without rice. When warming it, sometimes I add a bit of water. Also, this is when we add shrimp if we are going to. The shrimp does not freeze well.

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Broccoli sausage pasta

Dinner

This is a popular recipe with several variations from Emeril to Once upon a chef. I first found it at Once upon a chef. It tastes amazing and can be made in about 30 minutes. It is wonderful for a fast dinner after work and not very expensive to make.

1/2 pound orcchiette pasta

1 pound mild italian sausage

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 white onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 heads of broccoli florets

1 cup water

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/4-1/2 cup shredded parmesan

1 tablespoon butter

First, cook the pasta to desired texture. While it is cooking, prepare the rest.

Place the olive oil in a skillet. Add the sausage and onion. Cook while breaking up the sausage into small pieces. When the sausage is cooked, add the garlic and red pepper. Cook 1 more minute.

Add the butter, water, and broccoli. Cook for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. The broccoli turns bright green when done. You can see the change in my photo below. The sauce will thicken.

Add in the drained pasta and parmesan.

Cracker barrel style chicken and dumplings

Dinner, Soup

Chicken and dumplings was a Missouri staple. Actually, in Missouri, it was common to eat some type of gravy almost every day. Unfortunately my grandma’s chicken and dumpling recipe was something she just did by heart. No one really remembers it. This recipe is pretty close to what hers tasted like. I have heard that she made the dumplings a day early and let them dry on the counter. Her dumplings were firm and not fluffy. They were thin rectangles and never had raw centers. Next time, I will try that trick and see if it changes the texture to more dense as I remember them.

3 quarts water

3-4 pounds whole chicken cut up or bone in chicken thighs

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 medium onion, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1 bay leaf

4-5 sprigs parsley

1 teaspoon coarse ground pepper

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Dumplings:

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk

Bring the water to a boil. Add the chicken, salt, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, bay leaf, and parsley. Simmer uncovered for 2 hours. The liquid is supposed to reduce by 1/3.

When the chicken is fully cooked remove it from the pot and let it set out to cool. I did not cook the chicken a full 2 hours. I removed it after about 40 minutes and I could have removed it sooner.

After the 2 hours of simmering, strain the broth. Discard all the veggies and spices.

Add 6 cups of the stock back into the pot. Add the coarse ground pepper and lemon juice. Add more salt if desired. Heat the stock on medium heat while making the dumplings.

For the dumplings, mix all. Stir until smooth and then let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Roll the dough on a floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. I used a pizza cutter. These do not need to be perfect in appearance at all. I let my 5 year old cut them.

Drop the dumplings into simmering stock one by one. They will first double in size, then they will slowly shrink as the sauce becomes thicker. Stir them often. Do not cover the pot. Here are some photos of the changes you will see. Simmer them 30 minutes. Shred the chicken in between stirring the dumplings.

Place the chicken back into the pot. Make sure to add just the meat and not the skin or bones. Simmer for another 10 minutes.

Serve.

Brisket Ramen

Dinner

Please don’t laugh at my hard soft boiled egg. Obviously, I did that wrong. This was soooo good. We had smoked a brisket and used it all week. This is how we never feel like we eat leftovers and decrease our food costs. We cook a giant inexpensive cut of meat and I transform it into a different cultural food each night.

I cooked the broth on the stove on low for about 1.5 hours to reduce it and create intense flavors. I think it could have been just as good with much less time also.

I also did not use the noodles from ramen packages. You could. I bought chinese noodles.

4 cups beef broth

5 green onions chopped

5-6 white mushrooms diced small

1/4 cup red bell pepper diced small

5 baby carrots whole

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons mirin

1/4 cup white miso paste

1/4 teaspoon dried ginger

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

I cooked the onions, mushrooms, bell pepper and carrots in the sesame oil on low for 10 minutes. I added the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer uncovered about 1-1.5 hours.

1/2 package chinese noodles

2 baby bok choy

2 cups leftover smoked brisket

soft boiled eggs

garnish – sliced jalapeno, sriracha, fresh cilantro

Increase the temperature and bring the broth to a low boil. Add the noodles, chopped/shredded brisket, and bok choy to the broth. Boil all for 3 minutes. Plate amd garnish. Serve.

Paella

Dinner, seafood

Sometimes when you love cooking, slaving over a hot stove (errr green egg) in is more fun than going out. Somehow I convinced my husband to make paella with me. This was a first time to try Paella and i am a total fan.

The prep work is key. Everything MUST be prepped to make this work. We cooked it in a Paella pan on the green.

1.5 cups arborio risotto

4 cups chicken broth

1 large onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 large red bell pepper, diced

1 cup frozen green peas

4 roma tomatoes, diced

4 ounces tomato paste

4 chicken thighs – bone in and skin on

1/2 pound chorizo sausage

1 tablespoon dried thyme leaves

1/2 tablespoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads

6 large shrimp cleaned and peeled

juice of 1 lemon

2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Heat the chicken broth and dissolve the saffron in the broth. Keep this warm.

Make sure everything has been prepared. You should even measure all the spices.

Heat the grill. Cook the chicken thighs in oil until almost done. Remove from pan.

Cook the chorizo. Add in the onion, garlic, and pepper. Cook 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste. Cook 5 minutes. Stir constantly. Add rice. Add spices. Cover with 3/4 the chicken broth. Stop stirring. Place the chicken back on top.

Add more broth as needed. When the rice is tender (this took about 40 minutes), add the peas and shrimp. Cook 2-3 more minutes. Squeeze lemon juice over when plated.

All together this took about 1.5 hours to cook. It is not fast but well worth it.

My favorite parts of this dish are the slightly burned yummy dark flavorful pieces of rice. This made enough food for an army. It re-heated well but my husband and I ate it for 3 meals. I suggest inviting friends over!

Texas brisket BBQ sauce

Dinner

The Texas brisket bbq sauces are thinner sauces with less sweetness and more chili powder flavor.

I adapted this from the Spruce eats blog. This website has many variations that look great.

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup diced yellow onion

3 tablespoons minced garlic

1 cup catsup

1/8 cup cider vinegar

3 tablespoons Worcestershire

2 teaspoons mustard powder

1 cup water

1 beef boullion cube

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon paprika

2 teaspoons concho chili powder

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Saute the onion and garlic in the butter for about 7-10 minutes. Be careful to not burn the garlic. Add in all the other ingredients. Continue to cook on low until it becomes a thick consistency. I cooked it uncovered on low for about 1-1.5 hours stirring every 5-10 minutes.

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