Chicken Pot Pie, Southern Living Cookbook

I have always loved pot pies, but my hubby has never been a fan of them, mostly because he hates peas, which are always a staple in pot pies, and he's never had a "good" pot pie, so he says they're just filled with "pea swill". Since I haven't had a pot pie in years I've been craving them, so decided to find a home made recipe and make them. 

I found this CHICKEN POT PIE recipe in the  Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook. I used the pie crust recipe from this cookbook instead of my own cookbook, and it was a good pie crust recipe. I made these into 3 small pies instead of 1 regular pie. Each of the pies were large enough for two people. 

I thought the pie turned out really good. It really had a lot of chicken in it, which my husband liked. And here's the kicker, my hubby actually LIKED this pie. When I was making it, I told him I was making a pot pie from scratch and he was "going to like it", even though I pretty much knew he wouldn't. But, we were both surprised to find that he really liked it... a lot. He said he could see several peas in every bite and he kept thinking..... yuck, I'm going to taste peas.... yuck.... but he never could decipher or pick out the pea flavor, so he was pleasantly surprised. There were other vegetables in there as well.... corn, carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms, along with the generous portion of chicken. And the sauce was made from scratch as well, and even had a little cheese in it. My hubby even told his Mom (who knows how much he hates peas), that I worked my magic on the peas and the pie and he loved it :) That really was the best compliment I could get, I was a happy camper, and still am :)

So this recipe is a definite keeper. My hubby says I can make pot pies again and he'll eat them, so I'll be happy to oblige :)

Kung Pao Chicken

I actually made this Kung Pao Chicken recipe a couple weeks ago, but have been a bit behind on posting my meals, so hope to get caught up here in the next week.

This recipe came from The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook. This recipe was pretty good, but not nearly as spicy as Kung Pao Chicken typically is, it was quite tame. As a matter of fact, my hubby said it was "Kung Chicken" without the "Pao". However, the flavors were ok, it just needed much more spice and kick. I think it also needed to be more saucy. I would have increased the amount of sauce in it, and probably would have doubled the spice in it to give it more kick. It also looks pretty bland in the way of presentation.

It was ok, but could have been better. I will probably try to find a different recipe if I want to make Kung Pao Chicken in the future.

Apple Stuffed Chicken Breasts, Taste of Home Cookbook

Since my family wanted me to stop cooking from the Best of Cooking Light I have just decided to pick different recipes from the hundreds of cookbooks I have on my shelves in my pantry and just find a recipe that sounds good and I have most of the ingredients for on hand.

Tonight, my first night in switching it up, I Apple Stuffed Chicken Breasts from the TASTE OF HOME COOKBOOK. Here is our evaluation of this dish...

APPLE STUFFED CHICKEN BREASTS, just ok...

As I mentioned the last time I made stuffed chicken breasts (Artichoke Stuffed Chicken Breasts) I struggle getting my stuffed chicken to look pretty like they do in pictures and at restaurants. I need to do a You Tube search to see if I can find a video to learn how to do it properly.

The chicken in this dish turned out very tender and was cooked properly, but the stuffing was a bit mushy and I could not taste any of the apple flavor. The sauce also got a little over browned as well. Adding the butter at the end helped, but I don't think it was supposed to be as brown as it was. The flavor of the sauce was good, however.

If I were to make this again I would probably make a couple changes to this dish. Instead of shredding the apple I would probably dice it so you had bigger pieces of apple and could recognize the apple flavor more prominently. And the bread crumbs were supposed to be soft bread crumbs. Maybe if the bread crumbs were dried bread crumbs it would not have been as mushy. And probably adding a little more apple juice and sherry to the sauce would have been a little better.

Overall it was a decent dish, but nothing memorable or one to rave about.

So the fact that I switched from cooking from the Best of Cooking Light to other recipes in other cookbooks isn't really going to make a difference in the grand scheme of things. I think there will be some good dishes, some ok dishes, some dishes we really don't like, and some dishes we absolutely love no matter what cookbook I'm cooking from.

So I'll just cook whatever and share our experiences about them.

Chicken Enchiladas, Enchiladas de Pollo

Day 30 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT and I made Chicken Enchiladas (Enchiladas de Pollo) for dinner tonight. Here's our thoughts about this lighter version of the classic favorite recipe...

CHICKEN ENCHILADAS (ENCHILADAS de POLLO), just ok...

This recipe looked decent in the cookbook, and sounded good as well, but preparing these and then tasting them, was a disappointment.

Let's start with preparing them. You're supposed to prepare your corn tortillas by dipping them in boiling water instead of hot oil (lighter version, remember), but the first one I did fell apart because after just a few seconds it became so very mushy. Then I made all 8 of them and stacked them on a place to roll them up with the filling, but that was a bad idea as they all stuck together. Good thing I bought a package of 18 tortillas as I'd just lost my first 9 tortillas to the trash. I just barely dipped in the boiling water for a second or two, just barely enough to soften them, but they still would fall apart while I tried to roll the filling in them. Not a good start.

As with a number of the recipes in this cookbook, I had a hard time finding some ingredients. I could not find canned tomatillos in the grocery store, so I bought fresh tomatillos and used those instead. I don't think that made much of a difference in the recipe, so not a big deal, I just wanted to mention that some of the ingredients called for in this cookbook are difficult to find in regular grocery stores (I shop at Safeway, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and Costco).

The sauce was fine, the flavor was good, but nothing stood out about it. When we went to eat them, however, they were pretty mushy, which I'm sure had to do with the fact that the tortillas were cooked in water instead of oil.

Overall, this was not a recipe I'll be repeating again.

58 recipes down, 489 more to go.

Cilantro Rice with Chicken

Today was day 29 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT. I made Cilantro Rice with Chicken. Here's our review of this dish...

CILANTRO RICE WITH CHICKEN, mixed reviews...

My hubby and I have different opinions on this dish. I liked it, and he didn't like it very much. For him, it was ok, but not something he'd want to eat again. For me, I liked it quite a bit, thought it wasn't necessarily a "favorite".

I liked the flavor of the cilantro in the rice, hubby thought it was a little too much, which is something that can easily be altered and cut back on. Hubby also didn't like the starchiness of the rice, he thought it was too mushy. The rice was not mushy, per se, if anything, it was slightly on the crunchy side. Because we live at high altitude (7,500 feet) I always have to add extra liquid to my rice and let it cook longer, which I did in this recipe, but it probably needed just a little bit more liquid and maybe an additional 5 more minutes of cooking time.

I can see how my hubby would think it was mushy. After the rice and chicken are done baking you add the cilantro sauce to the rice and it probably did make it a little more starchy, or "mochi" as I put it. He thought it was pretty much one big glob of starch and didn't care for it a whole lot. He did like the flavors, however, but the cilantro was slightly more than what he would have liked.

So, as you can see, we are of different opinions. But hey, everyone does have different taste buds, right? It's ok if we don't agree on everything.

So, bottom line, would I make this again? Yes if if were just for me, no if my hubby's eating as well.

55 recipes down, 492 more to go.

Lemon Chicken, Layered Chocolate Pudding Dessert

Day 18 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT and I made 2 dishes today... a Lemon Chicken, and a Layered Chocolate Pudding Dessert. Here's what we thought of them...

BAKED CHICKEN WITH LEMON, delicious all around (one of our favorites)...

Everyone loved this chicken. My hubby even said it's one of his top favorites so far, along with the Pan Seared Scallops on Linguine with Tomato-Cream Sauce. The recipe has you soak the chicken in a brine for 8 hours or overnight, saying the uniform salting produces a very moist bird. And we all agree, the chicken was extremely moist. I thought the chicken was slightly salty, which would make sense from it soaking in the brine, but the lemon flavor really was an interesting twist I wouldn't have thought of doing. We all enjoyed it very much, and loved how moist and juicy it was. A definite keeper that we'll make again. And it's really quite easy to make.

OUTRAGEOUS WARM DOUBLE-CHOCOLATE PUDDING, good, rich, chocolate dessert...

For this recipe being "light", which it truly was, at only 257 calories and 7 grams of fat per serving, it was really a good chocolate dessert, that really did seem rich and decadent.

I've made a couple things out of this cookbook that call for fat free evaporated milk, and the other 2 dishes weren't that great, especially the Lasagna Chicken Florentine (our least favorite so far), but it works great with this recipe, especially since you're adding chocolate to it. How can you go wrong with chocolate, and dark chocolate at that? And you use an egg substitute, but we couldn't tell at all. It really was rich and decadent. Not as good as the real thing (not light), but for a substitute when you need to cut calories and fat, this is a definite winner!

This dish has 2 layers to it, so it takes time to make, about 2 hours from start to finish (nearly 1 1/2 hours is baking time). I took a picture after we'd had a few bites so you can see the layers. And the fat free whipped topping is definitely missing the richness of real freshly whipped cream, but it was ok.

This recipe is supposed to be served hot from the oven. We ate it after it has set about 20 minutes because it was done about the same time our dinner was done. It was good "warm", not sure it would have made much difference being "hot". I have taken the extras and put them in the fridge and I'll serve those cold, like a chocolate creme brulee. I think they'll be good. We'll find out when I serve them tomorrow. Will post a follow up to this blog after we've tried them cold.

All in all, a good chocolate dessert, definitely worthy of making again.

34 recipes down, 513 more to go.

Spinach and Chicken Lasagna; Lasagna Chicken Florentine

Today was day 16 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT. Since I'm cooking dinners for my daughter and her hubby as well as for us, I'm trying to keep the dishes simple in flavor this week, without much spice or acids, since she just had a baby and doesn't need that for her or the baby.

Tonight we made Lasagna Chicken Florentine (or Spinach and Chicken Lasagna as we called it). Here's our take on this dinner...

LASAGNA-CHICKEN FLORENTINE, not so good...

None of us really liked this recipe. The sauce was the culprit we're pretty sure, which was made from fat-free evaporated milk. No cheese was in the actual lasagna either, except for a small amount sprinkled on the top during the last 5 minutes of baking. Maybe a little cheese in the layers would have helped the flavor a bit.

One thing I've noticed about some of the recipes in this cookbook, they're not always accurate in their amounts. I had a hard time getting the sauce to thicken. The recipe said it would take about 3 minutes. After 15 minutes and it not getting thick, I added more flour to the sauce mixture, almost double what it called for (which isn't much, called for 3 Tbsp. and we had to use about 5 Tbsp.) to get it to thicken. In reality, it should have been a little thicker than it ended up being, but it was ok.

On a positive note, however, it was an easy recipe to make. Using oven-ready lasagna noodles was a treat and made it easy. And they weren't any more expensive than regular lasagna noodles since they were on sale.

Overall, we didn't care for this recipe and won't make it again :(

And if you're wondering about the brown spots on the salad, it's the balsamic vinaigrette dressing, not bad spinach ;)

31 recipes down, 516 more to go.

Oven Fried Chicken

Well, I haven't posted for the past several days. It's been a whirlwind week around here. My 50th birthday was on Friday and my husband and kids planned a surprise party for me. Most of my family flew in from around the country and surprised me. And the birthday party extended to a birthday weekend celebration. I couldn't have asked for a better present, having nearly all of my direct family here.

My dear hubby decided to make one of my favorite breakfasts for me... Scrambled Eggs Benedict in Puffed Pastry Shells, along with Creamy Hash Browns, Canadian Bacon, and cantaloupe, for my birthday celebration. Here's a picture of his fantastic job. You will notice that my meal is plated beautifully on a plate he heated and garnished with a rosemary sprig. Everyone else had to help themselves from the buffet table and use paper plates. I was definitely spoiled in many ways :)

Then, while most of the family family were still here, my 9 months pregnant daughter went into labor and had her baby Monday morning. It was the icing on the cake of a fabulous weekend! Being a proud Grandma, I just can't resist showing our new granddaughter off to you.

Now, back to our cookbook blog from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT (nothing compared to this beautiful little angel here). My Mom is still here enjoying her Great Granddaughter, so she and I made dinner together tonight. We made Oven Fried Chicken Thighs with Mustard-Buttermilk Sauce. Here's what we all thought of it...

OVEN-FRIED CHICKEN THIGHS WITH MUSTARD-BUTTERMILK SAUCE, a keeper (one of our favorites)!

This was a really easy dish to make, and it was really good as well. The chicken was really moist on the inside, and had a slight crisp on the outside. There was no oil used to cook it, so I was surprised it could crisp up even a little bit. And the mustard buttermilk sauce was excellent. You dipped the chicken in some of the sauce and then into bread crumbs with Parmesan cheese (wasn't enough though, we had to just about double the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese mixture), and then baked it. The remaining sauce was warmed right before serving and drizzled over the chicken. The flavors were great. My hubby thought the sauce was honey mustard dressing we'd made and put it on his salad, which was really a good idea, though it would probably have been better cold. But, the sauce can also be doubled as salad dressing we found out.

Overall, a good recipe that everyone enjoyed and would love to eat again.

30 recipes down, 517 more to go.

Caesar Potato Salad, Chicken with Rosemary Sauce

Today completes my first week of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT. I made a Caesar Potato Salad and Chicken with Rosemary Sauce tonight. Here's our thoughts on these dishes...

CAESAR POTATO SALAD, robust flavors!

The dressing in this salad was really strong, and a bit too much of it for my liking. I think if I had marinated the potatoes in it longer (I only had about 1/2 hour of marinading time) the dressing may have been able to absorb a little more into the potatoes and not been so strong, and so much of it, on the actual salad. I would have also liked more lettuce in the salad. I added a little more than what the recipe called for, but would have liked even more. I think shredded Parmesan cheese would also be better than the shaved pieces. It was good, but could have been a little milder. Maybe next time I'd add a little less anchovy paste (yes, you read right... anchovy paste, which is what makes it "Caesar", it has 1 tsp. in the recipe), and a little less balsamic vinegar as well might have toned the flavors down a little bit.

CHICKEN WITH ROSEMARY SAUCE, also good, and worthy of making again...

This recipe was pretty easy to make. It seemed a little on the salty side, but maybe I sprinkled a little too much salt on the chicken breasts before I cooked them. The chicken also took about twice as long to cook as the recipe said, and the sauce cooked down too much. I added an extra tablespoon of chicken broth at the end to bring some of the sauce back, which may have also accounted for the slightly salty flavor, even though it was low sodium chicken broth.

Brian liked both of these recipes. He agreed the chicken was a little too salty, but he liked the flavors, and it was his suggestion to cut down on the balsamic vinegar and the anchovy paste next time, a good suggestion I think I'll try.

16 recipes down, 531 more to go.

Champagne Feta Risotto, Artichoke Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Today was day two of cooking from my "THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT" cookbook. Today I made two recipes, a Champagne Feta Risotto, and Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Artichokes, Lemon and Goat Cheese.

The picture is not very flattering, and the white risotto, and white chicken on the white plate doesn't do a whole lot for contrast either. I actually added parsley and lemon just for a little color on the plate. Here's the synopsis of these dishes...

CHAMPAGNE-FETA RISOTTO, we loved it...

This was my first time cooking risotto. I've seen this cooked on cooking shows a lot and have wanted to try it, so this was a great opportunity. We're not big on champagne around here and don't drink it, but I used it in the recipe as directed and we loved the flavor it added to the risotto. You boil it down until the liquid is absorbed, so all you end up with is the flavor. I needed to add more liquid though because when the rice was still crunchy a bit when the liquid was absorbed. We live at 7,500 feet and altitude can wreak havoc on recipes sometimes, and I usually do have to add extra liquid to rice when I cook it, and it was the same in this case. I tasted the risotto while it was cooking and throughout the process and found that I liked it a little better without the feta in it. Overall, it was delicious and we both decided we love risotto! This recipe is a keeper, I may skip the feta next time, however.

CHICKEN BREASTS STUFFED WITH ARTICHOKES, LEMON, AND GOAT CHEESE, good flavor, but they were overcooked and a little dry...

I've never been good at the whole pounding the chicken out, stuffing it and rolling it up thing. They usually turn out to be a mess and I have a hard time getting them to look pretty once they're rolled up, and tucking in the edges so nothing comes out... forget it! I think I used too much stuffing, but I did the amount according to the directions. Maybe a little less stuffing next time. Also, according to the directions you're supposed to cook the chicken in a hot pan on the stove for 3 minutes on each side, then put the whole pan in the oven and bake them for an additional 15 minutes. I think that 10-12 minutes would have been better, and turning them over halfway through is highly advisable as the side of the chicken that was down was very over cooked on the edge and tough to cut through the edge. The flavors, however, were good. Brian liked them and I thought they were just "ok". Not sure I'd make this one again.

I was going to make a dessert tonight as well, but it's been a long, busy day and I'm pooped. After this I'm off to bed, and it's only 8:35 pm! Will make a dessert tomorrow (I hope)...

Au Revoir!