Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Recipe #31: Bacon Chicken Corn Chowder

Source:  Pinterest via www.bunsinmyoven.com

Ingredients:

6 ears of fresh corn, husked and silks removed (or 1-30 ounce can of corn and 1-15 ounce can of cream corn)
6 slices bacon, chopped
8 scallions
3 medium potatoes
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups whole milk
2 cups chicken stock
2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 small can chopped Green chiles
2 cups roasted chicken, shredded (a Rotisserie chicken from the deli works great for this!)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Handful of grated cheddar cheese, for garnish

Instructions

In a large stock pot, fry the bacon pieces until crisp. Remove from the pan, leaving the drippings, and set aside.
Peel and chop the potatoes into bite sized chunks. Slice the scallions very think and separate the greens from the whites.
Place the potatoes and white scallion pieces in the stock pot and cook over medium heat until the scallions have softened, 2 or 3 minutes.
Sprinkle in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for about 1 minutes.
Pour in the milk, chicken stock, Old Bay, thyme, parsley, cayenne, salt and pepper, stirring well.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Reduce heat to low and simmer for 12-15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Add corn. (If using fresh corn, cut from the cob with a sharp knife. Use the back of your knife to release the pulp from the cob.) Add chicken and green chiles. Cook over low heat until heated through, about 5 minutes. Garnish with scallion greens, bacon and cheddar cheese.

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Variations:

I didn't have green onion, so I just used some finely chopped white onion.
We also don't have Old Bay seasoning - due to a period of time when my husband was convinced he was allergic, which he is not - so I used Cajun seasoning.

Folks - we have a winner!  This is our new favorite!  It appears that we are a soup kind of family, I guess.


Here is a picture of how much cheese and bacon I consider to be garnish.  I might have a cheese problem.

This soup has a bit of a kick to it, probably due to the Cajun seasoning.  But it's quite good and filling.  I look forward to many bowls of this soup on cold wintery evenings!

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Ratings
Special Ingredients Needed:  Maybe Old Bay or Cajun seasoning?  And I don't usually have green onions on hand.
Ease of preparation:  Easy. It didn't take very long to prepare either.
Taste:  Delicious!  Everyone loved this in my house.
Overall:  A strong 10 out of 10.

Recipe #30: Crab Rangoon Dip

Source: Pinterest via www.recklessabandoncook.com

Ingredients:

2 cans crab meat
16 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
4 green onions, chopped
1-1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. lemon juice.

Directions:

First, soften the cream cheese in the microwave for about a minute.

Chop green onions.  Add them and your two cans of crab meat (drained).

Add the sour cream, Worcestershire sauce, powdered sugar, garlic powder and lemon juice.

Mix all ingredients and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Serve hot with chips or fried wontons.

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Variations:

None


This had all the makings of a successful dip. Cream cheese - check! Crab meat - check! Eat it with Wheat Thins (my preferred dip vehicle) - check!

Yet, this didn't quite do it for us.  We all agreed that we could really taste the powdered sugar, which was more a distraction than a flavor enhancer.  I'm not sure what the purpose was in adding it, but if I were to try to make this again, I would definitely leave it out.



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Ratings:
Special Ingredients Needed:  None
Ease of Preparation: Easy. 
Taste:  Too sweet for us - probably due to the powdered sugar.
Overall:  3 out of 10

Recipe #29: Cream Cheese Crockpot Chicken

Source:  Pinterest via http://thelarsonlingo.blogspot.com/2011/05/easiest-dinner-ever.html

Ingredients:

Bag of frozen chicken breast tenderloins (2.5-3 lb. bag)
8 ounce block cream cheese
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can of corn, drained
1 can of Rotel

Directions:

Put frozen chicken in the crock pot.  Put cream cheese on top of chicken. Dump in black beans, corn and Rotel.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Sit every 2 hours, if you can.

Shred chicken and return to pot.

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Variations:

None

I also apparently did not take any pictures of this. Sorry!  Look on Pinterest - there are quite a few variations of this on there and the pictures you'll see are what mine turned out like.  (I love it when something turns out exactly like the picture!)

This was very good.  It was pretty soupy, which I wasn't expecting.  I served it over rice.  There are recipes that will say you could mix the rice in and use it as burrito filling, but I think you'd have to use a lot of rice to make it the right consistency.

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Ratings
Special Ingredients Needed: None
Ease of Preparation: Easy. Crockpot.
Taste:  Very good. You could maybe add some taco seasoning to spice it up if you wanted, but we thought it was good without it.
Overall:  7 out of 10

Recipe #28: Chicken Spaghetti

Source:  Pinterest via www.boomerbrief.com

Ingredients:

8 oz. angel hair pasta
2 cups chopped, grilled chicken
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 10-ounce can Rotel diced tomatoes and green chiles, undrained
8 ounces sour cream
Sprinkling of Parmesan or Mexican blend cheese

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Boil pasta as package directs and drain.  Mix all other ingredients (except cheese), add to cooked pasta and put in a 9x13" baking dish. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Sprinkle with your choice of cheese and return to over to melt.

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Variations: 

None

Every pin you follow about this recipes raves about it. How great it is. How this is the best thing ever.  We did not have the same view here.  It was dull and bland.  I don't know if I did something wrong, but this was not a recipe we would make again.


This is might be the beginning of what turned me off about this dish. This did not look appetizing to me.



Ready to bake. I'm still hopeful at this point.



It didn't look much different after it was done baking.  You can tell I wasn't enthused by the extremely small portion I took. :)

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Ratings
Special Ingredients Needed:   None. 
Ease of Preparation:  Easy. 
Taste:   Bleh. We found this to be bland and boring. No one ate more than one helping and a few days later, I pitched the leftovers.
Overall:  1 out of 10