Recipes Discovered

Smothered Chicken Recipe

My mom’s birthday was Monday, so I planned on making her favorite dish - smothered chicken. The recipe is a knock-off we came up with a few years ago from a chicken dish she ordered at Applebee’s. We changed a few things and came up with our own delicious version.
The chicken breast needs to be even and thin (about a 1/2 inch), so I pounded the chicken out, which also tenderized the meat a little. I seasoned the chicken with season-all, which has salt in it so I usually skip adding more salt, and then put it in a skillet over low heat. Low heat is the key to keeping the chicken moist. The pan needs to be hot, but then lower the heat so the chicken cooks slowly. It took about 12 minutes on each side to cook through.
While the chicken was cooking, I added sliced onions and pepper to another skillet. I also cooked these over low heat for about 10 minutes until they were soft. I then seasoned them with a little salt and added honey. In another skillet, I cooked sliced mushrooms with butter until they were browned and then seasoned them with salt and garlic powder.
Once the chicken was cooked through, I topped it with the cooked vegetables and then with shredded cheese and covered it until the cheese melted.
It seems like a lot of different pans going on, but by cooking everything separately, it created a unique flavor combination that isn’t quite the same if everything was cooked in one pan. The chicken was very moist, the onions and peppers were sweet, the mushrooms were spicy, and the cheese added a rich flavor to everything. Together, it create a delicious dish. I think my mom was pretty happy with her birthday dinner.

Oh Boy Casserole Recipe

For whatever reason, while I was looking through the 1972 Pennsylvania State Grange Cookbook, I kept coming back to this recipe for Oh Boy Casserole. I’m not sure why because it’s not anything really unusual. It’s a classic chicken and rice casserole with a twist, but just the title caught my attention. I can imagine my dad saying, “oh boy, we’re having oh boy casserole tonight!”. When I told him that however, he said it could also be a very sarcastic oh boy, which completely changes the recipe. In any case, I decided to make it anyway. >> Read more

Balsamic Chicken Recipe

Summer for Seth means one thing - grilling! He will grill just about anything (or try too!), but this is one of his favorite grilled chicken recipes. It has to marinade for a few hours, so plan ahead, but it is a great teriyaki style chicken with a bit of an unusual twist.

I marinated the chicken in a mixture of balsamic vinegar, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, and garlic for a couple hours. Then, I poured the marinade into a saucepan and gave the chicken to Seth to grill. While Seth was in charge of cooking the chicken, I boiled the marinade for about 15 minutes to kill the bacteria and also to reduce the liquid so it thickened. After the chicken was cooked, I brushed it with the cooked marinade and sprinkled it with sesame seeds.

The chicken stayed very moist - I say because of the marinade but of course Seth says because of his amazing grilling skills. Either way, it was great. The honey and brown sugar create a sweet, sticky crust on the chicken and the balsamic vinegar becomes a glaze on the chicken. The sesame seeds add a nice crunch. It’s a great grilled chicken, and it’s just a little different than other teriyaki recipe.

Goulash with Gnocchi Recipe

Gnocchi is one of my favorite “pastas”, although it’s not really a pasta. It’s a small dumpling usually made with potatoes. Gnocchi is cooked and served in the same way that pasta is, boiled gently in salted water and generally served with a tomato or butter sauce. They taste wonderful and are a unique alternative to traditional pasta.
This recipe for goulash called for ground chicken, but I needed to use up some ground beef, so I just omitted the oil and butter and substituted the beef for the chicken. I drained the browned meat before adding chopped onions, peppers, mushrooms, and garlic. After the veggies cooked for a few minutes, a seasoned everything with paprika, salt, and pepper, and then added stock and tomato sauce. Instead of canned tomato sauce, I used Prego. I think it made the sauce a little thicker and added a lot of flavor. I simmered everything for another couple of minutes before removing the pan from the heat and stirring in sour cream and parsley. The sour cream, although it sounds like an odd addition, adds a wonderful, rich flavor.
For the gnocchi, I boiled a large pot of water, salted it, and then added the frozen gnocchi (my grocery store doesn’t have fresh). The dumplings only cooked about 2 minutes before a couple floated to the top. As soon as the first few started floating, I drained them and added them to the goulash.
This makes a delicious, hearty meal. The sauce is thick and rich, and the gnocchi has a wonderful chewy texture. There are a lot of veggies that bring freshness to the dish. It’s quick, easy, and very filling. It would make a great meal to warm up in the middle of winter, or just when you want to try something that’s a little out of the ordinary.

Turkette Recipe

Although I didn’t make this recipe, I can tell you that it is absolutely delicious. My aunt made it over the weekend, and the leftover just keep getting better and better. Turkette is similar to porkette or pulled pork, but it’s made with turkey obviously. After roasting a turkey, my aunt pulled the turkey off the bone, shredded it, and added it to her slow cooker with the broth from the roasting pan. Of course, she doesn’t have an exact recipe (she’s another old school cook like my mom), so I don’t know the exact measurements on the spices, but she added fennel, oregano, basil, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste. She also adds some water if there isn’t enough broth to moisten the turkey. After cooking the turkey on low for a few hours (at least 3, up to 8 she says), the turkette is served on buns. Our favorite topping is sweet pickled relish, but I’m sure there are other good ones. It’s a little bit different, but it makes a great sandwich!