To Hell in a Handbasket

Adapted from original recipe by Stephanie Gallagher.

I wanted something new tonight for dinner, so I found this basic chicken dish for my family of picky eaters.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 5-10 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 lb. boneless chicken breast (cut into 1-inch pieces)
• 1/3 cup corn starch
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup orange marmalade
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp minced ginger (or dried ginger works too)
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 tsp canola oil

Directions

1. Place chicken breast pieces in a gallon-size zip-top plastic bag.  Add cornstarch.  Toss to coat.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, orange marmalade, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Heat wok or large deep skillet over high heat.  Add canola oil.  Add chicken.  Stir-fry until the chicken is no longer pink.
4. Pour the sauce over the chicken.  Stir-fry to coat the chicken.

Serve immediately with hot rice.

I wanted something new tonight for dinner, so I came up with this basic chicken dish for my family of picky eaters. Feel free to experiment further with this to suit your own family’s tastes. After all, that’s the fun of cooking.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1.5 to 2 lbs. boneless chicken breasts (cut into small bite site pieces)
• 2 tbsp butter or margarine
• Adobo seasonings
• Cumin
• Pepper
• 1 can Cream of Chicken (or other) soup
• 1 can Cheddar Cheese soup or 6 oz of your favorite cheese grated
• 1 cup milk or half-and-half
• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 tbsp. corn starch
• 1/2 cup uncooked pasta (we use Rotini)

Directions

1. Melt butter/margarine in a deep skillet.
2. Add chicken to skillet, season generously with Adobo; add Cumin and pepper. You may use any seasoning you like. It’s just to give the chicken a little zing and flavor.
3. Once chicken has cooked through, add cream of chicken (or other) soup, milk/half-and-half, water and corn starch, and cheese to skillet.
4. Stir completely to incorporate soup, and heat to boiling.
5. Once boiling, add uncooked pasta and stir.
6. Reduce heat to simmer, cover, and cook for 20 minutes or until pasta is tender, stirring occasionally.

Serve with some fresh steamed broccoli or other vegetable and enjoy. I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine did.

I can never find or remember the recipe, so I decided to put it here with my others.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Ingredients:

• 1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 4 cups cooked green beans
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/3 cups French fried onions

Preparation:

Mix soup, milk and pepper in a 1 1/2-quart casserole dish. Stir in beans and 2/3 cup of the fried onions. Bake for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees F. Top with the remaining 2/3 cup fried onions and bake about 5 more minutes, until onions are lightly browned.

I wanted something new tonight for dinner, so I came up with this basic chicken dish for my family of picky eaters. Feel free to experiment further with this to suit your own family’s tastes. After all, that’s the fun of cooking.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1.5 to 2 lbs. boneless chicken breasts (cut into small bite site pieces)
• 2 tbsp light olive or canola oil
• 1/2 onion (diced)
• 2 cloves garlic (diced)
• salt and pepper
• Adobo or Essence seasonings
• 1 can Cream of Chicken (or other) soup
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup uncooked pasta (I used Mafalda or Rotini)
• 1 1/2 cups of rice (prepare per package directions)

Directions

1. Heat oil in a deep skillet.
2. Add onion and saute until the onions are clear.
3. Add garlic and saute for 30 seconds.
4. Add chicken to skillet, season with salt, pepper, Adobo or Essence. You may use any seasoning you like. It’s just to give the chicken a little zing and flavor.
5. Once chicken has cooked through, add cream of chicken (or other) soup, milk and water to skillet.
6. Stir completely to incorporate soup, and heat to boiling.
7. Once boiling, add uncooked pasta and stir.
8. Reduce heat to simmer, cover, and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
9. Serve next to or over rice.

Enjoy. I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine did. I just wish they would let me put some veggies in it.

Basic risotto with chicken broth. Nothing to fancy.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup Risotto (Arborio rice)
• 3 cups Chicken broth
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter or margarine
• 1/2 onion (diced)
• salt and pepper (optional)

Directions

1. Heat olive oil and butter in saucepan.
2. Add onion and saute for about 3 minutes.
3. Add rice to pan, stir to coat rice in oil and butter, and cook for about 2 minutes.
4. Add 1 cup of the chick broth, and cook over medium heat until all the liquid has been absorbed.
5. Continue to add the remaining chicken broth, 1 cup at a time, waiting until the previous cup has been absorbed before adding the next.

Enjoy.

Here’s my recipe for Cracker Chicken. Essentially it’s boneless chicken breast covered in cracker and bread crumbs, but the chicken comes out tender and moist, and more importantly delicious.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• About 1.5 pounds of boneless chicken breasts
• Ziploc bag (quart or gallon size)
• 3/4 sleeve of Ritz crackers. I like Ritz because of the butter flavor, but Club or Saltines will work as well.
• 1 cup of Italian flavor breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp Montreal Chicken seasoning (If you don’t have Montreal Chicken seasoning you can use salt, pepper, garlic salt, Essence, or other seasonings that your family likes)

Directions

1. Place the Ritz crackers in a Pyrex or other study bowl, and crush using your hands or other instrument. I use the top of a meat tenderizer. You want the cracker crumbs to be small enough where they will adhere to the egg wash, but they don’t have to be as fine as the commercial bread crumbs.
2. After crushing the Ritz crackers, add the Italian bread crumbs and Montreal Chicken seasoning to the bowl.
3. Incorporate the cracker, bread crumb, and seasoning mixture. Set aside.
4. Cut the chicken breasts into thirds or halves depending on the size of the breast.
5. Place each chicken breast peice into the Ziploc bag and whack it a about 5-10 times to flatten it out a bit. It doesn’t need to super thin, just enough so the chicken will cook evenly. About 3/4 inch is fine.
6. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
7. Crack the egg into a bowl and scramble it.
8. Set up a wet hand/dry hand assembly line with the chicken, egg wash, bread crumbs, and cookie sheet. I am right handed so I have my left hand handling the chicken breast and egg wash, and my right hand in the bread crumbs next to the cookie sheet.
9. With the wet hand, wet each chicken breast piece in the egg wash, and place in the bread crumb bowl.
10. With the dry hand, cover the chicken breast in bread crumbs and with your fist press the bread crumbs into the chicken breast. Turn the breast over, cover with more bread crumbs, and press again.
11. With the dry hand, remove the chicken breast, and place it on the cookie sheet.
12. Repeat the process for the other chicken breast pieces.
13. Bake for 15 minutes, flip the pieces, and bake for another 12 minutes.

Enjoy.