January 24, 2010
chicken recipes to make your mouth water
Cold weather puts me in the mood for warm, wonderful, home-made comfort food. I have 3 inexpensive recipes to tempt your palate. The first is my take on enchiladas, the second is what my family calls KFC (Kari’s Fried Chicken), and for the soup lover, a wonderful chicken noodle soup.
Chicken Enchiladas
Ingredients:
2 large chicken breasts (or one can of shredded chicken)
1 jar salsa
1 package cream cheese
1 jar enchilada sauce
12 tortillas 10″ or larger
cheddar cheese
sour cream
salt
pepper
In large sauce pan or crock pot, place chicken breasts and a generous pinch of both salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer until tender. About 20-25 min for thawed on the cooktop, about 2 hours on high in the crockpot. Fork the chicken apart, add cream cheese, stir until melted, add 1/2 the jar of salsa, stir. Warm your tortillas by placing a jar of warm water on the lowest rack of your oven, place the tortillas on a baking sheet, preferably with a wax paper liner. Put in a 350 degree oven until warm/soft. Remove tortillas and water from oven. Spoon generous helpings of the chicken mixture on the tortillas. Wrap in any way that you like. Pour sauce on top then sprinkle cheese. Bake in the oven that you already had warm from the tortillas, cooking times vary depending on how much you put in, when they are a golden brown, they are done. Top with sour cream and enjoy.
Kari’s Fried Chicken
1 whole chicken (either cut or cut it yourself for more money savings)
1 bottle of your favorite cooking oil, I use vegetable
1 lb bacon
salt
pepper
large cast iron skillet (yes, this is necessary)
This recipe starts a day in advance, take your thawed chicken, liberally sprinkle salt and pepper on chicken pieces. Remove backbone and save for chicken stock if you wish. If you want to add a rub or additional spices, now is the time to do it. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 24 hours. In skillet, fry bacon and set aside bacon to use in another meal, all you are looking for is the grease. While the grease is hot add 3/4 of the bottle of cooking oil (leave roughly 1.5 inches in skillet so it does not run over when you add chicken). Heat oil to between 300 and 350 degrees, if you don’t have an appropriate thermometer, wait about 5 min with a gas stove, not sure about an electric. Put one chicken breast in first, then a thigh and wing, no more than that should be in the pan at any one time. If you add the meat too quickly, you will lose heat and it will take an age and a half to cook. It will take breasts about 20 min. too cook thoroughly thighs and drums about 15, and 10 for wings. To make sure that they are done, pull pieces out one at a time and stick a fork in all the way to the bone, it is done when the juice runs clear. If it is at all red, put it back in for a few minutes. The outer skin should be nice and crispy with a wonderful red/gold color. The chicken is incredibly tender and juicy.
You could add more spices or use an egg and flour dredge to make a batter, but you don’t need to, it tastes wonderful as my brother would say “stock”.
Chicken Noodle Soup
I am going to start with the soup stock, but if you must use canned or boxed stock go ahead, I just don’t want to know about it. 
Ingredients:
6 cups water
1-1.5lbs bone in chicken (the spine you took out of the chicken from the last recipe works great)
1 carrot sliced
1 stock celery sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon thyme, crushed
1/2 onion chopped
generous pinch of salt
generous pinch of pepper
toss everything into a stock pot, when it reaches boiling, turn it down to medium and let it simmer for 2 hours. You will be tempted to touch it, it is not necessary. Believe it or not, it does not need a babysitter. After two hours take it off the stove with the lid firmly in place (in fact I would hold it on with both hands) and pour the liquid portion into a large bowl. discard the remainder unless you can find a good use for it.
For the soup you will need:
The stock you just made, all of it
2 large chicken breasts, thawed and chopped to bite size pieces
2 carrots sliced
1 stock celery sliced
1/2 onion chopped
spaghetti noodles (or any noodles in your pantry)
salt
If you make this right after you made the stock as I do, you can just pour your stock back into the stock pot. Don’t turn it on just yet. In a fry pan, heat the chicken until the chicken is white on all sides. Add chicken, onions, and carrots to stock, bring to boil. Boil for 15-20 min. Add celery, break about a $.50 piece size ring of spaghetti in thirds and simmer an additional 15 minutes. Salt to taste.
I love this because it is easy, inexpensive, flavorful, and not over-salty like canned.
Enjoy!
