Tag Archives: corn

Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup

12 Aug

I already have a few versions of this soup posted here on my blog, but today I did it in the slow cooker, and I wanted to write it down to save for the future. This is one of my all-time favorite soups!

Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup

Slow Cooker Enchilada Soup

What you need:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 onion (red, yellow, or green), diced
4 cloves garlic
4 cups chicken broth
1 15-oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 14.75-oz can whole corn kernels, drained
1 10-oz can Ro-Tel (or 1 can diced tomatoes and 1 small can diced green chiles)
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup masa harina (This is corn flour. You can use corn meal, but it will may have a grittier texture)
2 cups milk or chicken broth
1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese

How to make it:

Place chicken in a slow cooker. Add diced onion, garlic, chicken broth, black beans, corn, Ro-Tel, and tomato sauce. Sprinkle in chili powder, cumin, oregano, and salt. Cover with lid and cook on low heat for 6-8 hours, or high 3-4 hours.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil over medium heat and stir in the masa harina (mixture will be thick). Slowly pour in milk. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is very thick and it reaches a gentle boil. Pour mixture into slow cooker and whisk until smooth.

Shred chicken and stir in shredded cheese. Season soup with salt and pepper to taste, if needed. Allow to cook about 10 minutes until all ingredients are heated through. Garnish with cilantro, lime wedges, shredded cheese, sour cream, or tortilla strips as desired.

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Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 Dec

In the past, I’ve used this Chicken Enchilada Soup recipe. I really liked it, but felt it was a little lacking. So, I looked around at a few recipes, and added in black beans and corn, then used diced tomatoes and green chiles in place of the enchilada sauce. If you want a little more kick to your soup, add in a diced jalapeno with the onion and garlic.

It turned out so good! I topped each bowl with shredded Mexican blend cheese and tortilla chip strips. You could also put sour cream, fresh cilantro, and/or a lime wedge.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Chicken Tortilla Soup

What you need:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or, I just use chicken from a rotisserie chicken or leftover chicken to save on time)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
6 cups chicken broth, divided
1 cup masa harina (This is corn flour. You can use corn meal, but it will may have a grittier texture)
1 15-oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 14.75-oz can whole corn kernels, drained
1 10-oz can Ro-Tel (or 1 can diced tomatoes and 1 small can diced green chiles)
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt

How to make it:

In large pot over medium heat, cook chicken in oil until well browned on all sides. Remove, shred, and set aside.  (This step is skipped if you already have cooked chicken)

Cook onion and garlic together in remaining oil until onions are translucent.

In a bowl, whisk together masa harina and 2 cups water until well blended. This step is important, if you just put the masa harina right in the pot, it won’t blend in as well, making it gritty.  Pour into pot along with the remaining 4 cups chicken broth, black beans, corn, Ro-Tel, chili powder, cumin, oregano, and salt. Bring to a boil.

Add chicken. Reduce heat to low and simmer 30-40 minutes, until thickened.

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Leftover Turkey Dinner Ideas

3 Dec

After our big Thanksgiving day meal, we took a few days off from turkey.  So, last night and tonight I wanted to get through the leftover turkey.  Turkey Pot Pie and Turkey Noodle Soup.  Both turned out well!  And were rather easy to put together.

Turkey Pot PieTurkey Pot Pie

What you need:

1/4 cup butter
1 cup diced onion
2 cups cooked turkey, diced, shredded, or cubed
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups turkey or chicken broth
3/4 cup milk
2 cups frozen vegetable mix (I used a peas, carrots, green beans, and corn mix)
1 9 inch refrigerated pie crust

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat.  Add onions and cook until soft and translucent.  Add turkey.  Sprinkle in flour, thyme, salt, and pepper.  Stir constantly and cook for about 5 minutes.  Pour in broth and milk, continuing to stir to avoid lumps forming.  Stir in the frozen vegetables.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, and continue and continue to cook for about 5-10 minutes, until mixture thickens.

Pour mixture into a 2 quart round casserole dish.  Place the pie crust over the top of the mixture and press crust into the sides of the dish.  Cut vents in the crust.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until crust is golden and mixture is bubbly.  Let stand for 5-10 minutes to cool before serving.

 

Turkey Noodle SoupTurkey Noodle Soup

What you need:

2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
1 cup diced onion
2 cups cook turkey, diced, shredded or cubed
8 cups turkey or chicken broth
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 oz uncooked egg noodles
2 cups frozen vegetable mix (I used a peas, carrots, green beans, and corn mix)

How to make it:

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat.  Add onion and cook until soft and translucent.  Add turkey.  Pour in turkey or chicken broth.  Sprinkle in thyme, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low.  Simmer for 20 minutes.

Bring back to a boil.  Add noodles to the pot.  After 5 minutes, add frozen vegetables.  Continue to boil for another 5 minutes, or until noodles are soft and vegetables are heated through.

 

 

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Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

2 May

Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

 

This is something I have made for a long time.  But, my challenge tonight was to make it gluten-free for my friend’s kids that I was watching tonight.  Normally, I make the Bisquick biscuit recipe on the box and drop it in, but tonight I used a biscuit recipe using flour so I could substitute in the gluten-free all-purpose flour that I have.  With the Bisquick, the dumplings end up pretty fluffy and it’s almost more like a chicken pot pie.  This time, it turned out more like dumplings, and was pretty good!  So, now this can be made with regular flour or gluten-free flour with good results.

 

Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

What you need:

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 bag (12 oz) mixed vegetables (I used a mix of carrots, corn, green beans, and peas)
1 cup diced onion
8 cups water
6 chicken bouillon cubes (make sure to use gluten-free, if needed)
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour with xanthan gum or 2 cups all-purpose wheat flour, depending on your need
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk

How to make it:

Spray slow cooker with non-stick spray. Add chicken, vegetables, onion, water, chicken bouillon, and poultry seasoning. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours. Remove chicken, shred, and return to crock pot. If cooked on low, turn to high for 15 minutes.

Mix together flour, baking powder, oil, and milk.  Drop dough by spoonfuls into the slow cooker.  Cook on high 30 minutes more or until dumplings have cooked.

Note: For the dumplings, you can also use regular or gluten-free Bisquick to make biscuit dough according to the box, then drop by spoonfuls into the slow cooler. If you don’t need gluten-free, you can use a can of refrigerated biscuit dough. Cut each biscuit into fourths and roll into balls, then drop then into the slow cooler.

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Mini Chicken Pot Pies

21 Mar

Once I saw a picture of these, I knew it was something I wanted to try.  What’s funny is that 2 different friends on Facebook posted pictures with recipes that were similar, yet different.  So, I picked this version to try first, and may try another version in the near future.  I did modify from the original a bit.  It called for a can of condensed cream of chicken soup, which I am not a fan of, so I substituted butter, flour, milk, and chicken broth.  I also used 1 larger can of Grands biscuits, the can with 8 biscuits.  I took about 1/3 out of each biscuit, and put 2 of the thirds together to make another biscuit, getting 12 biscuits in all.  The whole family liked them!

Chicken Pot Pie Cupcakes
Mini Chicken Pot Pies
Based on recipe here

What you need:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 cup frozen mixed veggies (I used a mix of peas, carrots, corn, and green beans)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 can of 8 Grands biscuits

How to make it:

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

In a large skillet, heat some olive oil over medium high heat.  Add chicken and cook until no longer pink inside and a little browned on the outside.  Remove from skillet to a plate.

In the same skillet, melt the butter.  Stir in the flour, stirring continuously.  Whisk in milk and chicken broth.  Let it cook for a few minutes to thicken.  Next, stir in the poultry seasoning, chicken, and mixed veggies.  Remove from heat.

Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with non-stick spray.  Remove about 1/3 from each of the 8 biscuits and use the pieces to form 4 more biscuits, giving you 12 all together.  Spread each biscuit into each muffin cup.  Spoon the chicken mixture into each  biscuit.  Top each with shredded cheese.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until biscuits are golden brown.

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Sausage and Chayote Stew

2 Mar

In last week’s Bountiful Baskets Mexican themed veggie pack, there was a chayote:

Chayote

 

I had gotten these before in another Mexican themed pack a while back, but this pack only had one.  However, there was zucchini as well, and since chayote is also a member of the gourd family, they both go well in this stew.  Normally, I would put tomatoes in as well, but my husband requested no tomatoes, so I left them out.  This is also similar to the Sausage, Zucchini, and Tomatoes over Rice, but adds a few more ingredients.  I would also suggest serving this over Cilantro Lime Rice, which I didn’t get a chance to make because we had to get to a meeting this week.

Sausage & Chayote Stew

 

 

Sausage and Chayote Stew

What you need:

1 pound Italian sausage
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 chayote squashes, seeded and chopped (I used 1 chayote and 1 zucchini)
3 green chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded, and diced
3-4 tomatoes, cores and seeds removed, diced (about 2 cups diced tomatoes)
1 can black beans, drained
1 cup frozen corn
Salt and pepper to taste

How to make it:

Place a large pot over medium-high heat.  Remove casings from sausage, crumble, and cook in the skillet until browned.  Add the onion and garlic to the skillet.  Cook and stir until the onions are translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the chayote squash and green chiles.  Cook and stir until the squash begins to soften, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, black beans, and corn.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until completely heated through, about 10 minutes more.  Remove from heat and serve over rice.

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Slow Cooker Chicken and Rice

21 Oct

 

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a 40 pound case of Zaycon Foods boneless, skinless chicken breasts like the case I got in March.  A friend of mine came over with her case, and we worked on processing the cases together.  She cut the butterfly breasts into 2 pieces, while I cooked dinner (bacon wrapped chicken stuffed with cream cheese and chives, with sweet potato chips as a side), grilled about half of each case, and got the FoodSaver bags ready.  5 hours later and we had 80 pounds of chicken processed!  As she was cutting the breasts and removing extra fat, there were small chicken pieces that we set aside, my guess it was about 4 pounds worth.  We decided it would be best for some kind of stew, so I decided on chicken and rice.  I had onion, carrots, and corn in the freezer, so after a long night of prepping chicken, it was easy to throw this all in the slow cooker and let it cook overnight.  It turned out perfect!

 

Slow Cooker Chicken and Rice

What you need:

4 pounds fresh chicken, diced
2 cups carrots, sliced
2 cups onion, diced
2 cups kernels of corn
8 cups water
6 chicken bouillon cubes (gluten-free)
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups cooked rice

How to make it:

Add all ingredients, except rice, to the slow cooker.  Cook on low for 8-10 hours, or high for 3-4 hours.  After it is done cooking, stir in the cooked rice.  Serve hot.

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Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo

16 Aug

 

I apologize that the picture above isn’t the best, but I forgot to take one of the finished product!  Had a busy day yesterday.  Anyway, this gumbo is delicious and something I only make occasionally, just because it is rather time-consuming.  Plus, the roux can be tricky to get just right.  This particular recipe calls for a dark brown roux, which doesn’t mean burned, it will become a dark brown color after 30-45 minutes of cooking.  This article from allrecipes.com has a great explanation of how to make a roux, with pictures of the different shades of roux to use as a guide.  Once the roux is right, the rest is easy and can be done either on the stove top or in the slow cooker.  This recipe uses sausage and shrimp, but you could also add chicken or substitute chicken for the shrimp or sausage.  I used my last bag of Zaycon Foods shrimp (sniff, sniff) to make this, along with smoked andouille sausage.  You can also change-up the vegetables a little if you want, I sometimes won’t use okra if I don’t have it and will use extra corn or celery in place of it.

 

Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo
Original recipe here

What you need:

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 chopped yellow onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup sliced fresh okra
2 cups whole corn kernels
3 cups seafood stock (use vegetable or chicken stock if you can’t find seafood stock)
1 cup bottled clam juice (or use another 1 cup of stock in place of this)
1 cup chopped tomatoes
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning (I use Louisiana Cajun seasoning)
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups cooked smoked sausage, sliced diagonally (I used Johnsonville Andouille)
2 pounds shrimp, cleaned and deveined
Cooked white rice

How to make it:

In a large saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.  Add the flour, and cook on low heat until the roux is dark brown; about 30 to 45 minutes, stirring constantly.  Be careful not to burn the roux.

Add the onions, celery, peppers and garlic and saute until translucent.

Mix in the remaining ingredients, except the rice, and simmer over medium-low heat until thick, about 1 hour.  Remove the bay leaves.  Serve over white rice.

Slow Cooker Method:

Make the roux the same as above, and saute the onions, celery, peppers, and garlic until translucent.  Transfer this all to the slow cooker and add remaining ingredients to the slow cooker, except the rice.  Cook on low heat for 6-8 hours, or high heat for 3-4 hours.  Remove bay leaves.  Serve over white rice.

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Freezing Sweet Corn

7 Aug

You may remember about a month ago, I shared a burlap sack with 5 dozen ears of sweet corn from Apple Annie’s Produce &  Pumpkins with a friend.

 

So, what did I do with 2 1/2 dozen ears of corn?  First, I removed all the husks and scrubbed the ears with a vegetable brush to remove any remaining silk.  Then, I blanched the corn.  If you aren’t familiar with blanching, this site explains why blanching is needed and what times you need for blanching.  For corn, you will want to boil it for 3-7 minutes, if you will be cutting the corn from the cob, 6-10 minutes if you will be freezing it still on the cob.  After the boiling, you put it in ice water to stop it from cooking any farther.  Once cool, you can cut the corn from the cob for packaging or package the whole cobs (or, in my case, I did some whole and some half cobs).

 

I used the first of this for dinner 2 nights ago.  I let it thaw, sprayed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, then wrapped in aluminum foil.  I cooked it on the grill along with some burgers, and it turned out really good.  Not exactly like fresh, but still really good.  I’m pleased with the corn and that the process worked.  Now, we can have grilled corn all through winter, since we can still grill here in AZ almost all year!

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Our 4th of July Barbecue

4 Jul


Today is a day we celebrate our freedom in the USA.  So, I planned to make a little extra food today in celebration.  We had invited a friend over to join us, but he ended up cancelling.  We had a ton of food ready to go, but the extra will take us through the next few days with some spin-off dishes.  So, what did we have?

We had top sirloin steaks, which I got on sale for $3.99/lb at Safeway last week, that I marinated in Dale’s Seasoning.  The shrimp was from Zaycon Foods, and I marinated to give it a spicy, garlic, lime flavor (see recipe below).  I also grilled corn on the cob, and to do that I cut each corn cob in half, sprayed with olive oil, sprinkled a little salt and ground black pepper on, and wrapped in aluminum foil, and put on the grill for 10-15 minutes.  Finally, I made a potato salad.  Unfortunately, I was in a bit of a hurry and didn’t cook the potatoes quite right and so they were a little crunchy, but the rest of the taste was right on.  This recipe called for sweet relish and onion, so since I had made Refrigerator Pickles a couple days ago, I chopped up the onions and “pickles” to add to the potato salad.  The recipe for this is below as well.

I have quite a bit of steak and corn left, so I am thinking I will cut up the leftover steak and saute with green peppers and onions to make steak fajitas.  Then, I will use the corn to make Roasted Corn Salsa as a side to go with it.  I also made a few extra hard-boiled eggs when I boiled eggs for the potato salad, so I chopped them up and chopped up more of the onions and pickles to mix in with it, and then mixed in some mayonnaise and mustard to make egg salad for sandwiches for lunch tomorrow.

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Spicy Garlic Lime Shrimp

What you need:

1 pound large shrimp, fully cooked, peeled, and deveined
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons tequila, optional (I omitted)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne (red) pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt

How to make it:

Mix together all ingredients, and toss to coat shrimp well.  Place in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Option 1: Place shrimp on metal skewers.  If using bamboo skewers, soak the skewers in water while the shrimp marinades.  Heat a grill to high and lightly oil the grate.  Place shrimp on grill and cook for 2-3 minutes per side.

Option 2:  Heat a large skillet on the stove to medium high heat.  Pour contents of bowl into the skillet.  Stir, and cook about 5 minutes, just enough to heat shrimp through.

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Potato Salad

What you need:

1 lb potatoes
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup sweet pickle relish (I chopped my Refrigerator Pickles and some onions from that for the relish and onions)
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1/4 cup mayonnaise
Ground black pepper to taste

How to make it:

Peel and chop potatoes.  Place in a large pot and cover with cold water.  Place on stove and bring to a boil.  Boil for 15-20 minutes, until potatoes are tender, but not mushy.  Drain water and allow to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the potatoes and the rest of the ingredients.  Stir well.  Chill in refrigerator before serving.

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