Garlic Salt Chicken

I usually cook with very, very little salt.  Though almost all my recipes call for sea salt, I use MAYBE 1/2 tsp, even in larger recipes.  I'm more of a "just sprinkle a tad in so I can say I did" rather than "let us embalm ourselves alive!" kind of girl.  That being said, this recipe was on a whim and pretty far out of my comfort zone, but its good to step outside your comfort zone once in a while, or at least it was in this instance!

I actually made this chicken two nights in a row.  The first night, I only made one piece to add to our fettuccine alfredo.  It came out of the oven, and after it had cooled a bit I was shredding it and popped a piece into my mouth (like ya do) and was stricken with delicious.  I gave the Wookie a piece to try and it was unanimous that we were having it again the next night with sides so we could revel in its awesomemess.

This, shockingly, is the only thing I used.  I'd have chosen an option made with sea salt if I'd had it, but this was all I had on hand and I didn't feel like mincing fresh garlic and mixing it with sea salt.  I had figured, since I was putting it into pasta, that I'd keep it simple.

Simple can be good.

Simple can be very, very good.

Pull open the skin of the chicken and pour some seasoning in.  Not just a little bit.  Salt that shit like you're preserving it in medieval times.

Push the skin back down and arrange (or cram, if you're using a tiny dish) it in a baking dish with about 1/4 cup of water at the bottom.  Some of the garlic salt will escape and get outside the skin.  no biggie.

Cook on 350 for an hour and...

NOM!  It doesn't show in the picture well, but the garlic salt causes the skin to get all hard and crispy.  When you peel the skin off, the chicken inside is moist and garlicky and salty and...and now I'm hungry.

<3

WW

Triple Post - 3 Ways to "Style" a Chicken Mixture

Seeing as how I've been a very, very bad food blogger, I decided I'd attempt to make up for it with 3 recipes in one...and I even remembered to take final pictures for all but two, so you only have to use your imagination on one.  As a result, this is a *VERY* image-heavy post.

I've been seeing recipes online everywhere for ages on assortments of different fillings for baked taquitos and I've been wanting to try them, but, since I'm me, I forgot all my recipe lists and had to wing it when I got to the store, so I ended up making my own oddball little recipe and finding even more uses for it than just taquitos.

First, I marinated the chicken.  Nothing special, really, just a garlic and black pepper marinade I found on sale.  I'd planned to use two pieces of it for dinner that night and only make taquitos with one, but a friend brought dinner by, so I didn't have to cook, thus it all got turned into the taquito mixture.  Anyway, I let the marinade sit 24 hours and then took the chicken out to temper before cooking.

Heat a large skillet up to medium heat.  I usually prefer cast iron for chicken, but this non-stick pan is the largest skillet I have and the only one all 3 would fit in.

Plop them all in and let them cook!

Flip them over...Yes, my skins stuck.  Again.  Still.

Once they look nice and gorgeous on the outside, you can take them out.  They will be cooked again later, so whether you want to skillet them (new verb!) until they are completely cooked or just nice and pretty on the outside is completely up to you.

While your chickens are cooling enough to be dissected, grab the rest of your ingredients.  For the taquitos, we'll be using one block of softened cream cheese, one can of corn, about 1/2 cup of shredded cheese of your choice (I used colby jack), some taco seasoning to taste - your own or a packet, whichever - and one poblano pepper.  Mine was frozen from where I snagged a bunch on sale, so its in that saran wrap mummy up there.

Go ahead and shred your chickens, discarding the bones and skins, then add a few tablespoons of whatever drippings were on the plate to a skillet.  You could use the same skillet if you're good, but I'm the epic chicken cooking failure, so with the skins all stuck on my old skillet...yeah.

Toss your chickens in the skillet, then add the taco mix and 1/4 cup of water until all the water is absorbed.

You should be left with this.

Once your chicken is taco-fied and in a bowl, add your poblano pepper while it is still nice and hot and stir it around and let it sit for a few minuets so they can soften a touch while the mixture cools some.

While they are softening, open the can of corn, drain it, then stir it into the mixture as well.  Yes, corn.  I feel better if there is a vegetable involved in at least some form, okay?  Don't judge me.  I'd have added black beans, too, if I'd had any.

Next, add about 1/2 cup of shredded cheese...

Then the block of cream cheese and mix it all up!

It should turn into something like this.

Now, to roll the taquitos!  I'd bought these massive burrito tortillas, so I ended up cutting them into halves with a pizza cutter.  I tried thirds first, but there was baaarely enough room to roll, so I swapped over to halves.

Once you have your pieces, spoon a thin line of filling into the middles.  You don't want too much and you want to keep it an inch or so away from the ends to allow room for the filling to move.  Let's face it:  You take a bite of a taquito and if it is over-stuffed, all your filling goes pouring out of the end, usually landing into a molten white-hot pile in your crotch.  Let us spare ourselves that pain.

After the filling is on there, dip your finger in a glass of water and lightly wet the outer edge of the tortilla.  This will help it stick when you roll it and freeze it.

Roll it up and press down where the wet part was so it sticks.

Then, roll them up in wax paper to further hold them together and stack them in the freezer.  Once they are frozen you can put them in whatever container or bag they will fit into, but I laid them flat on a plate to freeze so they stayed all straight and pretty.  We'll see the final results later.  :)

***Part 2***

Now, for the dinner recipe I did with the filling mixture, you'll need a can of chili.

Take about 1/3 of the chili and spread it over the bottom of a loaf pan.

Now, take two full tortillas, stuff them generously with the filling, and add extras if desired.  I had a bit of nacho cheese left over in the fridge that needed to be used up, so I just put a little of that inside.

Roll them up, stuff them in the loaf pan, then cover them with the remaining chili and top with shredded cheese, and bake covered at 350 for 30 minutes.  We'll see the results for this one later, too, and...holy cow.

***Part 3***

After those recipes, I STILL had chicken mixture left.  I was out of tortillas, so I decided to try crescent rolls.
I laid them out...

Spooned in a little filling...

Then, I rolled them up, sealed the edges, and baked according to the directions.  These were pretty good, though my least favorite of the bunch.  These are also the ones I forgot to take final pictures off, but I'm sure we've all seen a stuffed crescent roll anyway, so on to the good food porn!

These are how the taquitos turned out.  Baked, not fried.  I baked them pretty much like you would a store-bought taquito - 15 minutes at 350.  They have a great flavor from the poblanos and are cheesy and quite good.  I've cooked them both in the toaster oven and the rotisserie pizza thingie (14 minutes on that) we have and both work out great.  Despite not being fried, they still have the nice, crispy exterior, but as an added bonus they stay dry and don't get your fingers all slimy when you pick them up.  I figured it up and with prices around here it is about the same cost to make them myself as it is to buy them frozen, maybe a few cents cheaper.  A lot of work, but not bad considering at least I know what's in these.

Now, for the big kahuna...

I'm not really sure what to call these.  I was thinking maybe Wet Hens since they're sort of a wet burrito with chicken.  Either that or "Holy Fuck these Rock".  Seriously, so good.  Unhealthy and evil?  Oh, yes.  But very tasty, especially when you cut off a bite and scoop some of that guacamole up with it.  Not something I'll be making often due to the horrid unhealthiness of it all (even worse than my usual stuff lol), but definitely worth sharing and trying at least once.

<3

WookieWifey

Chicken Tostadas with Black Bean and Corn Salsa

Wooo, I'm back to typing-able for the least.  That one-handed typing shit is for the birds, man.  I'm still having to take it easy, so I apologize if the posts seem short or boring!

Lots more posts coming up.  I had so many planned then...yeah.  My accident-prone life.

So here's the recipe I was supposed to post over a week ago!  >.<  I originally found the idea here, but it is very heavily modified.

First, bust out the crock pot.  Put in 4 chicken thighs, defrosting optional, a half cup of water, about 1/4 cup of salsa, and a packet of taco or fajita seasoning or your own blend.  I usually just dump in salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, garlic, basil, onion powder, cilantro, and a bit of cayenne until it tastes right, but I was feeling lazy, so I just used a packet this time.  Put the lid on, crank it up to high, and let it go for about 4-5 hours.

It should be about falling off of the bone.  Remove it to cool and turn the crock pot to warm.

While the chicken is cooling, you should make the salsa.  I put in 1 can of sweet corn, drained, 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed, 1/2 tbsp of cilantro (fresh is best but dried will do), 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 small purple onion, 1 cup diced cherry tomatoes.  Mix it all up, cover it, and pop it in the fridge.

Once the chicken has cooled enough to handle, remove the bones, shred the meat, and spoon in some of the sauce left in the crock pot until all the meat is nicely coated.  Pour the left over sauce out of the crock pot and put the chicken back in to keep warm until it is ready to layer.

(not pictured)
Warm up a can of refried beans in a sauce pan and season with sea salt, black pepper, garlic, chili powder, onion powder, and paprika.  I used about 1/2 tsp of each.

Add enough oil to a skillet to cover about 1/4 inch or so and let it get nice and hot.  Fry up the flour tortillas until crispy.  I use the small taquito-sized ones and this recipe made 8 tostadas feeding 4 people.

Spread a layer of refried beans on a fried tortilla.  Add a layer of chicken, a layer of shredded cheese, and some of the salsa, and whatever other toppings you prefer.  I also had guacamole and salsa on mine and these were so delicious.  This is a recipe I'll be making again!

<3
WW

Hungarian Pot Roast

This is a recipe I saw here first, but it has been greatly, heavily modified...Mainly by the fact that it seems I somehow forgot how to recipe halfway through, but it still turned out absolutely amazing.

You can thank my sister-in-law for the punctuality of this recipe.  I'm usually a few days behind in posting, but I just made this yesterday afternoon and, after she sampled it, was told it was to be posted today so she could thaw her pot roast and make it, and she could totally kick my ass, so here it is.  =P

Start off with a roast.  This was about 1 3/4 pounds.  The recipe calls for a rump roast, but I couldn't locate one at the store I was at, so I just grabbed a chuck roast.  Rub it down with sea salt and black pepper, put it in a heated skillet with about 2 tbsp of olive oil on medium-high heat and let it brown on all sides.  You may want to kick the heat up a little if you're not using cast iron.

Here's where my version of the recipe became truly my version.  And I totally did it on purpose.  I forgot my roast was half the size of the one in the other recipe and ended up with double vegetables and gravy.  While the roast is browning, cut up 4 medium onions into thick slices.  I used white.

Once the roast is browned on all sides, put it in the crock pot (which should not be on yet), add another tablespooon of olive oil to the skillet, then toss in the onions and 2 heaping teaspoons of paprika.  Cook that, moving the onions frequently so they cook evenly, until they are soft and browned.

Add to the crock pot.

After the onions are out of the skillet, put it back on the stove and pour in 2 cups of beef broth.  Use a spatula or something with a flat end to scrape the drippings from the onions and roast off the bottom of the pan so the incorporate into the broth.  Let it cook down until it reduces by half.  Should only take a few minutes.  When that's done, pour it into the crock pot, too.

Drain some roasted red peppers....

Add those and a can of diced tomatoes (don't drain the tomatoes) to the crock pot, give it a stir, and season with pepper.  Set it on high, put the lid on, and let it cook for 3-4 hours or until it is tender when you fork it.  (heh.  heheh.)  After it cools enough to take the crock out, drain off the juice and save it.  Put the vegetables back in the crock and turn the crock pot down to warm.

The recipe said to slice the roast at this point, but mine just sort of fell apart when I poked at it with the tongs...

...so I just put it back in the crock pot and stirred it up with the vegetables.

 Remember that juice you saved?  Put it in a sauce pan and cook it down until it reduces by half.

Once it reduces by half, remove it from the heat, whisk in 1.5 cups of sour cream and it will form a gravy, then pour it over the roast and vegetables in the crock and let sit on warm or low until it is all heated through, then you're ready to go.

I'd planned to make sides with it, but since I ended up with double vegetables already and there's just the two of us I decided to skip it.  I've been making exceptionally ugly-looking recipes lately, I know, but this stuff just tastes incredible and is definitely worth trying.  I'll be cooking this one again.  

<3

WW