Caution: Goddess in the Kitchen

This is a pretty easy one actually. The hardest bit of it is you have to use the stove-top to cook the chicken, but if you’ve ever made Tacos or Sloppy Joe’s, you can probably handle this one.

Quesadilla Seasoning:

2 tbsp taco Seasoning
dash of salt
dash pepper
dash garlic powder
dash seasoning salt

Other ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
6 tortillas (hey this would be a good time to use the tortilla recipe!)
1/2 stick melted butter
Shredded Mexican or nacho style cheese
Optional: pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream or whatever other additions you like.

1. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Cut about chicken  into  edible sized strips.
3. Cook the chicken, turning until all sides are white.
4. Add 1/4 cup of water and the Quesadilla seasoning mix, stir.
5. Let simmer until sauce thickens up. While you are waiting heat up a Quesadilla press or two sided griddle.
6. When the chicken is done, brush butter onto one side of a tortilla.
7. Spoon out a portion on the chicken and some shredded cheese onto one half of the dry side of the tortilla.
8. Fold the other half over to make a half circle and put on griddle.
9. Cook until the tortilla is slightly brown and the cheese is melted.
10. Cut into three triangles and serve with your favorite sides.

Before you begin, the original recipe courtesy of Sara at GroupRecipes is what I initially used as a base trial. I would make some slight modifications (listed below at the *).  This recipe has not yet been perfected to my liking. If you try something different at home with it you think you like more/less feel free to add it in “comments”.

Ingredients:
2 large Roma tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes (Mexican style)
2 jalapenos, seeded and coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon cumin, to taste
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large vidalia onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt, to taste
1/3 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon cayenne, to taste

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender.
2. Pulse until blended.

* The fist problem I had with this recipe is it came out slightly spicier than OTB. I would recommend cutting down the cayenne to 1/4 tsp. and working your way up if you want it spicier.

My second issue was the ONLY diced “Mexican” style tomatoes the store had was Rotel Diced Tomatoes with Lime & Cilantro. I think this might have thrown the taste off a bit. Next time I will just use plain old Hunt’s or similar diced tomato with no extra ingredients.

My third issue is that my blender only has one speed; which apparently something akin to “disintegrate” as a setting. It wouldn’t be such a big deal except a) OTB salsa is semi-chunky so the texture was all off and b) the Rotel tomatoes made it brown instead of red, into something that could only be describes as “looking like barf”. It still tasted OK, but I really had a hard time eating it due to the visual! When I make it again, I will blend together everything EXCEPT the diced tomatoes, and then stir in the diced tomatoes to the blended items to make it chunkier.

Chefferd @ GroupRecipes has also suggested ditching the red wine vinegar altogether, replacing Vidalia onions with regular onions plus sugar, crushed red pepper instead of cayenne,  and pickled jalapenos instead of fresh. He also agrees with me that regular diced tomatoes be used instead of Mexican style.  I have not tested this variation yet for authenticity however.

Edit to this post impending when I get it more accurate.

My husband and are both really addicted to the Chips & Salsa from “On the Border”. We’ve tried several time to reproduce them at home without much luck.

For part of his birthday dinner I decided to again replicated the chips and salsa. This was as a side dish to another favorite of his, chicken quesadillas. This is the chip portion of that meal, the other recipes follow in the next two posts.
Fried Corn Tortilla Chips (courtesy great-salsa.com)

2 cups masa harina
1 1/3 cups warm water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup of vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
plastic wrap

Before you even start doing this recipe; I highly suggest that you own or purchase a tortilla press. I attempted to do it on my own, and I just couldn’t get them flat or round enough. So while they tasted fine, they weren’t of much use and we ended up scrapping them for bag chips. They’re only about $15.00 on amazon.com.

Part I: Make the Dough

1. In a large bowl, mix the masa harina, water and 1/4 teaspoon of salt together with your hands until combined. Knead the dough very well until moist and smooth but not sticky, about 3 to 5 minutes. If the dough is at all crumbly or dry, moisten your hands with water and knead some more. If the dough sticks to your hands, add masa harina, 1 tablespoon at a time, to achieve moist, smooth dough.
2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the dough rest about 20 minutes before using, or refrigerate for up to 3 days, or wrap and freeze for up to 3 months.

Part II: Making the Tortillas

1. Form the dough you made above into 12 equal balls, about golf ball size.
2. Keep the dough lightly covered with plastic wrap while working, to prevent the dough from drying out.
3. Heat a Mexican Comal or medium size skillet over medium-high heat.
4. Open a tortilla press, and place 1 piece of plastic wrap on the bottom of the press. Put a ball of dough on the plastic and lay another piece of plastic on the top of the dough.
5. Lower the hinged lid quite firmly to form a round tortilla. Open the lid, and lift the tortilla with the plastic onto the palm of your hand.
6. Carefully peel off the top piece of plastic. Pick up the tortilla from underneath, with the bottom piece of plastic still attached. Flip the tortilla over in your hand and peel off the bottom piece of plastic.
7. Lay the tortilla on the hot Comal or skillet. Cook 20 to 30 seconds or until the edges look dry. With a flexible spatula, flip the tortilla over and cook about 1 minute more. Turn again and cook for 15 seconds.
8. Place the hot tortilla between folds of a clean kitchen towel.
9. Repeat the process with each ball of dough.

Makes 12 (6 inch) round tortillas.

You can stop here if you are using the tortillas for enchiladas, quesadillas, burritos, soft tacos, etc. This is officially a “soft” tortilla at this point.

Part III: Making the Chips.

1. Stack 3 tortillas on a cutting surface. With a large sharp knife, cut straight down through the stack, cutting into quarters. If making strips, cut across the tortillas to make strips the width you want for your dish.
2. In a medium skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat until a wedge or strip of tortilla starts to sizzle immediately when dipped into the hot oil. *I know what you’re thinking here, didn’t I already put these things in a skillet once already? Yes you have to cook them twice. Do not under any circumstances try to shortcut and go right from dough into the hot oil without first cooking the dough dry. You’ll likely get burnt from the oil splashing and your tortillas will taste really bad.*
3. Fry the tortilla pieces in batches about 2 minutes or until crisp and lightly browned.
4. Remove with a slotted spoon or tongs, and drain on paper towels.
5. While the chips are still hot, sprinkle lightly with the remainder of the salt, if desired. Optional: add chile powder, cumin, or whatever else you may want to flavor the chip (ranch powder will make them taste like “Cool Ranch” Doritos).

Makes about 48 chips.

6 Hard Boiled Eggs, Chopped
1 Tbsp. Pickle Juice
1-2 Tbsp. Mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. Bacon Bits
Salt
Pepper
Bread
Cheese (optional)

Makes between 2-4 sandwiches (depending how much stuffing you like)

So this is a modification from a very old recipe I used to eat as a child from the “Peanuts Lunch Bag Cook Book” circa 19-never-you-mind!

I recommend sweet pickle juice (from Sweet Mixed or Gherkins or what have you). I never tried it with Dill, so no guarantees how that’d be.

1. Throw the pickle juice in with the chopped eggs.
2. Then add the 1st TBSP. of mayonnaise. Stir. If it isn’t as mayonnaisey as you like, then add more a little at a time, stirring while adding, until you get it the way you like it.
3. Add the salt & pepper to taste. Stir more.
4. Then add the bacon bits. You add these last in an attempt to not break them up too much during stirring. Stir lightly.

If you want the cheese put that on the bread. I prefer Swiss with Marble Rye. Then scoop the egg on top of the bread & cheese. Put the other piece of bread on (duh!?) to make a sandwich.

Yeah you’re done now.. go eat that puppy!

So this is a new recipe I tried, recommended by someone at Steve’s work, because we simply couldn’t find a chicken recipe that would make the skin nice and crispy.

This recipe did accomplish the crispiness, unfortunately I felt it lacked in flavor. Only the skin and any meat directly touching the skin/coating had any flavor. Deeper in near the bone the chicken became bland, which is a problem I normally seem to have with chicken. Perhaps in a future off-shoot of this recipe I’ll try do attempt some flavor injecting.
Prep Time: 10 Min
Total Time: 1 hour
Makes: 5 Servings
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
2/3 cup Original Bisquick mix
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cut-up whole chicken (3 to 3 1/2 pounds) [I used three chicken breast halves, appx. 3 pounds worth]
*OPTIONAL: add 1 teaspoon of dried Italian seasoning [I did do this]. The person that passed on this recipe also states:
“for boneless, skinless breast – use an egg wash before coating. I usually use garlic powder, adobo, or whatever is lying around the house”
In other words the Bisquick is the real secret… throw whatever the hell else you want in there you think will make it taste good. I’ll also have to try some variations on this, but on first try I like to cook it as it’s written.

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Melt butter in rectangular baking dish; 13×9×2 inches, in oven.
2. Stir together Bisquick, paprika, salt and pepper; coat chicken. Place skin sides down in dish (dish and butter should be hot).
3. Bake 35 minutes; turn chicken. Bake about 15 minutes longer or until juice is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut.
   *High altitude (3500-6500 ft): Bake 40 minutes; turn chicken,. Bake about 20 minutes longer.

Variation 2: Parmesan Oven-Fried Chicken. Decrease Bisquick to 1/3 cup and salt to 1 teaspoon, and add 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese.

Nutrition Information:
1 serving: Calories 350 (calories from Fat 180); Total Fat 20g (Saturated Fat 5g); Cholesterol 100mg; Sodium 940mg; Total Carbohydrates 10g (Dietary Fiber 0g); Protein 33g.
Percent Daily Value (based on a 2,000 calorie diet): Vitamin A – 12%; Vitamin C – 0%; Calcium – 4%; Iron- 12%.
Exchanges: 1/2 Starch; 4 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Fat