Your Favorite and Most Used Recipes

[shannyk]

If you’re going to do a cream of chicken something or other, you need a bechamel sauce or white sauce. Start with a roux, equal parts fat (like butter or oil), cook over med heat until a blond color, gradually add milk or half and half or cream (depending on what you want to use) and chicken stock or broth, whisking constantly while adding. When it comes to a boil it will be at it’s full thickness. Voila, cream of chicken base.

 

[mmyers]

My favorite thing to do is to go on foodnetwork.com and look up recipes for whatever meat or pantry ingredients that I have…it helps me to be creative with spices and different cuts of meat.

The trick is to sort by rating…this way you get awesome recipes without having to experiment and you get a lot of comments that give you more good ideas.

I love Giada’s recipes like this family favorite:

foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/italian-baked-chicken-and-pastina-recipe/index.html

I also tried Guy’s recipe for stuffed chicken breast…

foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy-fieri/artichoke-and-sun-dried-tomato-stuffed-chicken-breast-recipe/index.html

Awesome!

 

[Zooey]

A friend of mine makes her own cream of chicken soup from homemade chicken stock, then uses that in her recipes. I can get details if you would like them.

Doesn’t taste quite the same as the canned stuff but I also want to do mostly from-scratch foods, so we use a basic white sauce:

2 T butter
2 T wheat flour (maybe others can be substituted)
heat butter, stir in flour thoroughly - sometimes I like it to brown a bit for flavor

gradually add in 1 C milk, a bit of salt, and some seasoning (nutmeg is traditional, I think). You can season it w/ mushrooms, celery, etc (I would saute them in butter first) and it can be thicker/thinner depending on your ratios of fat/flour to milk. I like to season it w/ garlic.

Yes, any recipe that asks for “cream of something” soup: can be made with a homemade cream sauce, cheese sauce or the like. I sometimes use pasta sauce for a complete change. The proportions remain the same, just sub your own good sauce for the soup.

 

[Janet1983]

Alright, since after this week I’m going to be a full-time SAHM, I’m trying to get more into cooking. I actually don’t mind it, but I’ve never been able to practice enough to get good at it. Looking for some of your favorite family meals to make. I will have to get on and post mine a little later as DD isn’t going to cooperate with me doing so right now, but I have ones for Skyline Chilli, Meatloaf, Cheesy Potatoes, Balsalmic glazed chicken, chicken alfredo and chicken parmesan with marinara that I like and can do a good job with. Anyone got any good casserole or crock pot meals? I want to learn how to make a good roast with potatoes and carrots, but I don’t even know which kind of meat to buy. I’m kind of limited to what I know whcih is ground beef and chicken, so I’d like to branch out. Any help is appreciated!!

I’ve got something that is always a bit hit whenever I make it… the condition on this one is however that you find a store that has German products because 2 of the ingredients are preferably German (I never tried substituting, but it might work).
I have made this dish a lot already for different occasions with a large variety in hungry folks… it’s always been a hit till now.

Ingredients:

• 5 chicken breasts
• 1/2 bag dry “Zwiebelsuppe” (onion soup, the type you just add water to and it comes in a thin bag-like container, the size of about half a page) you might find something like that in an American store, but I am not certain… I never looked
• 1 cup of cream (heavy or light, depending on how creamy you want it)
• 1 cup of sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups of thousand island dressing
• 1/2 a glas “Preiselbeeren” (the other German item… it translates into “lingonberry” and usually comes in a glas with a jelly-like substance around the berries)
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. • Preheat the oven to 390 F
   • Mix the onion soup, the cream, the sour cream and the thousand island dressing
   • Grease a casserole dish and put the chicken breasts in
   • Pour the sauce mix over the chicken (try to cover the chicken… depending on your dish and the size of your chicken breasts you might want to double up on the sauce for that)
   • Distribute the berries over the top
   • Cover the dish with aluminium foil and put it into the oven for 30 minutes
   • Take the aluminium foil off and put it in the oven for another 30 minutes
   It’s really great with rice and some salad (caesar’s salad goes pretty well). The sauce is incredible and the chicken is soft…
   
   That’s it already… If you can get a hold of the ingredients this is the easiest way to have a dish that is just fabulous…
   By the way… even if you eat all of the chicken on the day you make it, you might have left over sauce and if you make a little more rice than you’d need it’s still great for the second day even without the meat.
   
   Your sister in Christ,
   Janet

 

[happymommy]

sorry it took so long, she just sent it to me!!

Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup

1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp onion powder (or use fresh onion)
1/2 tsp garlic powder (or use fresh garlic)
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp parsley
dash paprika
1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup flour (I use cornstarch and you don’t need quite as much)

In a medium sized saucepan boil chicken broth, 1/2 cup of the milk, and seasonings for a minute or two. In a large bowl whisk together the remaining 1 cup of milk and flour. Add to boiling mixture and continue whisking briskly until mixture boils and thickens. Freeze in 1 1/2 cup portions for a “can” of soup.