Dan the Man the "BIG RED" Kamado Kooker

For Christmas this last year, Dan the Man received a few gifts cards for Mernards from our boys. For those of you who do not have a Mernards where you live, it is like a Home Depot or Lowes. Danny has been sitting on those gift cards all this time waiting for the summer grills to come in stock so he could use them to help purchase a new grill. Danny has been wanting a new grill, a charcoal grill, for a year or so now. We currently have a gas grill that never seems to work right.

He originally did research on charcoal grills several years ago and ran across one called the "Big Green Egg" or some such thing. He has been obsessed with getting one since. The only thing holding him back is that they cost around $800 and while Danny can easily dish that kind of money out for some piece of machinery or equipment for the ranch/farm... he has a hard time spending that amount on something that falls in the "household" category.

Well, he finally found a "knock-off" version of the "Big Green Egg" at Mernards! Oh happy day! It's called the "Big Red" Kamado Kooker of which Dan the Man is the new owner of. It is about the third of the cost of the egg one. I like it, because it is red and matches perfectly with the Cleary building. Green would not have looked so good!

"BIG RED"
Kamado Kooker

(I just noticed his grilling "tools". What is my garden spade doing hanging from there?)

Oh my gosh, can I just tell you he has been like a little boy at Christmas with his new hot wheels race track that he simply can not get enough of! He has turned into an OBSESSED GRILLING MACHINE! Hee, hee! I'm not complaining, I've actually have enjoyed someone sharing the daily cooking chore with me! I am in charge of making sure there is something thawed out for him to grill each night (unless we are having left overs) and he does all the research on the internet as to the best way to prepare it. Sometimes this can take hours or even days!

We started out easy with hamburgers. Then moved to steaks and chickens.

At one of the winter farmer's markets I bought a chicken roasting pan that Jennie Salters of Chalk Butte Pottery made for me. Dan the Man just HAD to roast a chicken using it in his grill. I succumbed to the notion, but told him specifically, it could not get any hotter than 350 degrees or it could crack. He promised me, that it would not. I told him if it did, he would owe me another one.

Beautiful Open A Bar 2 Ranch Pastured Poulty
(Seasoned with Famous Dave's Country Roast Chicken Seasoning)
5.5 lb Roaster waiting to be roasted in my beautiful
chicken roasting pan, hand-made, just for me...
which by the way I hadn't even got to use yet.


Potatoes with a little olive oil and seasonings ready to roast.




Dan the Man, the chicken and my chicken roasting pan...




Dan the Man carefully setting everything in the grill.

He roasted the chicken for about 2 hours at 350 degrees. One of the nice things about these grills, is that it is extremely easy to keep the heat regulated in.

The finished chicken!

The finished potatoes.

The chicken turned out great! Very moist and juicy. The potatoes... well... since Dan the Man didn't know that he should probably turn them half way through cooking they were pretty brown... well, actually they were BLACK on the bottom half. And perhaps 2 hours was too long for them. And my pan, you are probably asking yourself... CRACKED! Boo, hoo. I am so sad. Guess Dan the Man owes his Country Chicken Girl a brand new chicken roasting pan from Chalk Butte Pottery! Oh Jennie....

Yesterday, he made a huge leap and smoked two 11 lb. chickens! That's not a typo, by the way, the 11 lb. chickens... Some of you know the story about the BIG chickens!!! Those of you who don't... in a nut shell, we had our commercial freezer konk-out on us last year in the middle of chicken production and ended up growing some pretty big chickens, as in 10-13 lb. chickens which we coined as our "churkeys"... chickens as big as turkeys! So these two chickens were from that whole episode.

Anyway, Dan the Man smoked them for 5 hours at 230 degrees and used apple wood chips. Oh my! He might be on to something. Perhaps Open A Bar 2 Ranch will soon be offering smoked chickens! Dan the Man's Smoked Chicken!

I'm just wondering how long this "grilling fascination" will last until it becomes "work" instead of "fun"! When that happens, the grill will end up being my duty!

RECIPE: Grilled Famous Dave's Country Roast Chicken

I've been on a serious chickn' grillin' kick lately because we have been working such long hours and grilling chicken is so easy, doesn't heat up the house and doesn't take much prep time or baby sitting while it is grilling. It's so easy to butterfly the chicken, throw it on the grill, flip it after 15 minutes and come back when it is done!

The star of the production!

Ingredients

One roasting chicken (I can not endorse any other chicken besides an all-natural pastured poultry from Open A Bar 2 Ranch, all others are junk!)

Famous Dave's Country Roast Chicken Seasoning (I got mine at Wal-mart)


Directions

1. Heat your grill while you are prepping the chicken. (Don't ask me why there are two steps that are numbered 1. I don't care and I don't want to take the time to figure out the html code either. Just deal with it.)
   

1. Butterfly your chicken. What you still don't know how? Are you serious that you haven't tried it yet, even though I have given you several recipes now that involve butterflying a chicken? What is the point of reading these recipes if you are not going to try them??? Just joking, I love you and am glad you are reading the recipes even if you don't try them. Here's a secret, I have been known to sit on the couch and watch exercise shows on tv and not do the exercising! LOL Isn't that kind of the same thing? Oh and all the cooking shows I've watched and have never made the dishes they did!
   
2. Here's the link for you slackers who still don't know how! How to Butterfly a Chicken
   
3. Oil your grill. Take a paper towel, dip it in oil with tongs and rub it on your grates. There, that was easy! Oh, do not, I repeat DO NOT spray cooking spray on the grates when you have a flame. If you do, I can promise you, you'll never do that again! And you'll be missing your eyebrows for a few months.
   
4. Place the lovely Open A Bar 2 Ranch pastured all-natural free-range chicken skin side down on the grill. Adjust your burners so that the flames in not under the chicken, but on each side of the chicken. This is called indirect grilling. I have a four burner grill so I place the chicken in the middle and use the two outside burners.
5. Generously season the chicken with the seasoning, don't be skimpy.
6. Close the lid, and adjust the heat to 350-325 degrees.
7. Walk away for 15 minutes or so.
8. Come back... Baby come back, any kind of fool could see, there was something in everything about you... remember that song?
9. Flip the chicken over and season again. Shake, shake shake... the seasoning not your booty.
10. Close the lid, check your grill every once in a while to make sure you haven't run out of propane... I hate it when that happens. Roast until done. Take the chicken's temperature. It should read about 175-180 in the thickest part of the thigh and breast. The juices should run clear too, no tinge of pink or red in it.
11. I roasted a 6.6 lb chicken for around 2 hours. It was perfectly tender and juicy!

Ummm, Ummm, good.
Wish you could smell it!


I just noticed that you have to give your email address to watch the above video clip from Cook's Illustrated, so if you don't want to do that, here is a video you can watch without the hassle. Although I do love the Cook's Illustrated website and I think it worth the hassle to become a member. They have lots of good cooking stuff.

I also ran across this one and it made me laugh. The guy is wearing gloves (?), the chicken looks pathetic, no doubt a grocery store chicken, that must be why he is wearing the gloves. Like I said, grocery store chickens are junk. He also says to use a 3.5-4 lb chicken. I bawk at that. Are you serious? A roaster in my humble opinion is at least a 6 pounder! He also has you take out the breast bone, but I don't, more work, but I guess maybe I'll try it next time to see which way I like it better. And finally, he says there a "little clean up to do!" Uhh, not with an Open A Bar 2 Ranch chicken dude! He says to cut-away the fatty material... Once again, no fatty material on the Open A Bar 2 chicken. Go ahead and watch it, but don't believe everything he says!

The End

Recipe: Blazin' Glory Grilled Chicken

I was so excitied to get a big jar of Christina's Blazin' Glory Beeloved Jam that I could hardly wait to try it on one of my chickens. So I fixed it last night and ooo la, la... Me encanta este!

Blazin' Glory Grilled Chicken

1 jar of Blazin' Glory Beeloved Jam
1 roasting chicken from Open A Bar 2 Ranch

(if you use a chicken from the grocery store I can not guarantee the outcome of the recipe. My guess is that it will taste so awful, that you won't even be able to feed it to the dog. Do not, I repeat DO NOT waste this yummy jam or your time on a store bought chicken. Besides, if you eat store bought chicken you will get warts on your toes and go blind!)

Directions

1. Heat up your grill to 350 degrees or so.

2. Meanwhile, butterfly your chicken. Don't know how?? Go check out this link, it's easy!

How to Butterfly a Chicken

3. Oil the grill grates. I dip a paper towel in oil and use tongs to rub the paper towel on the grates.

4. Place the chicken on the grill and grill until done.




I roasted a 6 lb. chicken at around 350 degrees for about an hour and 15 minutes until my meat thermometer read 175 degrees in the thickest part of the breast. I also have a four burner grill and only used the outer two burners and left the middle ones directly under the chicken off. In other words, I used an indirect grilling method.

5. Brush the jam on the chicken a couple of times during the last 15 minutes of grilling.




I also fixed some grilled zucchini from Dan the Mitchell Valley Farm CSA man and grilled rye bread from the breadman to go along with the chicken.

Grilled zucchini couldn't be easier. Slice the zucchini in long strips, brush both sides with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and grill for about 5 minutes on each side, depending on how hot your grill is. Do the same with the bread, but I used butter instead of olive oil on it.




The only thing that I will do differently next time is that I will heat some of the jam up and serve it on the side to dip the chicken in. That stuff, the jam, is so yummy that having it just on the skin of the chicken is not enough, you need to be able to dip your chicken in it as well!

You can buy Christina's Beeloved Jam at the Scottsbluff Farmers' Market every Saturday morning from 7am-11am downtown at 18th & Broadway or check out her website.

Beeloved Jam

Enjoy!!

RECIPE: Raspberry Chipotle Barbecue Chicken

It's been a while since I have posted a chicken recipe, so here is a new one for you.

But first I should tell you this little side story...

I would have posted this sooner but... a couple of nights ago I was going to make this recipe, but, uh... well, let's just say it didn't quite turn out like I had planned it.

I put the chicken in the oven and then went out in the rain to take care of the chickens, all 800 of them mind you. I THOUGHT that Dan the Man was coming out shortly to help me haul the approximate 175 lbs of feed and 30 gallons of water that is now required at each feeding. We feed once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. It generally takes about an hour for one person to do it, that is if the weather is cooperating.

Well, to make a long story short, let's just say that Dan the Man never showed up to help his little Country Chicken girl so by the time she make it back into the house, close to an hour later than she had originally planned, smoke was pouring out of the kitchen and the chicken was closely resembling burnt toast! Meanwhile, Dan the Man was sitting with his feet up on the couch watching Wheel of Fortune and Country Chicken Girl was standing there soaking wet from the rain asking him if he had noticed that tonight's dinner was in the oven burning while he was trying to figure out the latest prize puzzle that Pat and Vanna were showing on the television.

"Burning?" says Dan the Man.

"Yes, BURNING!!" says the Country Chicken Girl. "Didn't you notice? Why didn't you take it out of the oven? This isn't quite what I had planned and now it's ruined."

The Country Chicken Girl took the roasting pan out of the oven, convinced that her favorite roast pan of all time was ruined because all the liquid that was in the pan was now burnt to a crisp, it certainly could have been classified as a bad carcinogen. She actually had never seen chicken that WELL DONE before! So the Country Chicken simply announced that it was "get-your-own-dinner night" and that Dan the Man was in charge of clean up.

Dan the Man tried to make light of the whole horror show as it unfolded my saying, "But that's how I like my chicken, with the skin really crisp and crunchy!"

Well, that's all behind us, thank heavens and I am so happy to announce that Dan the Man cleaned the Country Chicken Girl's favorite roasting pan and it is fine and so is their marriage!

So here's the recipe. Just make sure you don't leave the house to feed the chickens while it is roasting.




Raspberry Chipotle Barbecue Chicken

Ingredients

One Whole Chicken
Bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's Raspberry Chipotle Barbecue Sauce




Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Butterfly the chicken.

Watch this link of you don't know how to butterfly a chicken. Trust me, this is easy and you will fall in love with this technique. It is great for roasting chickens!!

How to Butterfly a Chicken

3. Place chicken in large roasting pan and fill with 2 cups chicken broth or you can use water if you don't have chicken broth. This will insure that your chicken is juicy and not dry! I hate dry chicken, don't you?
4. Place pan in oven for 45 to 60 minutes depending on how large your chicken is. Mine was 6 lbs, so I roasted it for 60 minutes or a little longer. Sorry, I didn't really time it. Just roast it until it is done, internal temp of 175 degrees and the juices run clear.
5. Brush on the barbecue sauce during the last 15 minutes of roasting.
6. Take out of oven and place the chicken on a cutting board, let the chicken rest for at least 15 minutes. This allows the delicious juices to settle back into the meat.
7. Serve with additional barbecue sauce on the side.

Oh my goodness, this is so delicious! Seriously...

RECIPE: Chicken Tamale Casserole

A while ago a friend of mine emailed me this recipe. Actually the recipe she sent was a little different so I modified it a little and tried it tonight. Dan the Man really liked it so I thought I'd go ahead and post it here. The original recipe came from Cooking Light, therefore it had fat-free milk, egg substitute and fat-free sour cream. None of those characters reside in my refrigerator, so I had to change things up a bit.

Seriously, can you imagine the Country Chicken Girl buying egg substitute? Let's get real, only the real thing here baby! What is egg substitute anyway? I know what it is, but I mean... what is it, really? What is it made out of?

Anyway, I think my substitutions worked out okay. Thanks for the recipe Linda! Sorry I had to change it, but you know... only real eggs here!




Chicken Tamale Casserole

1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more if you like)
1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn
1 (8.5-ounce) box corn muffin mix
1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles
1 (10-ounce) can red enchilada sauce
2 cups shredded cooked chicken 1/2 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Combine 1/4 cup cheese and next 7 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring just until moist. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

3. Bake for 15 minutes or until set. Pierce entire surface liberally with a fork; pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with chicken; sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup cheeses. Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Top each serving with sour cream.


I also served mine with shredded lettuce and salsa.

Here, have a bite! Yum, yum!

BBQ Chicken Pizza and Getting Your Picky Kids to Eat!

Here's another recipe for ya!

Do you like pizza? How about BBQ chicken?

I adore both so why not combine them?

BBQ CHICKEN PIZZA

(aka BBQ Whitey Pizza or There Once Was a Rooster Named Whitey! Just joking, just joking, settle down, Whitey is still among us. Note: If this makes no sense to you, you need to read the last post.)

Okay, here is another recipe that proves "Sauce is Boss"! You can be lazy and use store bought BBQ Sauce and cheat your family from delicious homemade sauce that says "I love you guys" or you can make this homemade sauce and have your children giving you foot rubs because they love you so much! LOL that would be the day, right! But I'm getting ahead of my self. We need to talk crust first.

I also make my own pizza crust, it is so easy, there is not an excuse not to, unless you simply don't have time. But there is no excuse for not making the BBQ Sauce. It's easy and you can make it way ahead of time. Like on the weekend, if you work during the week. If you work during the week, this is a perfect recipe for a Saturday afternoon.

This might get lengthy so hold on.

Pizza Dough

I make mine in the bread machine on the dough cycle.

6 ounces water (80 degrees F)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons yeast

Put ingredients in the bread pan in the order they are given. Program your bread machine for the dough cycle. When the dough is done, turn it out on a floured surface and knead it about 1 minute or so, then let rest for 15 minutes.

Roll dough out in a 12 to 14 inch crust. Place on a pizza pan or pizza stone (that's what I use) and bake in a 400 degree oven for 8 minutes.

Now while the crust is rising in the bread machine, you can make the BBQ Sauce. I like this one which is a smokey, sweetish and a little hot. I modified a BBQ sauce I got out of this cookbook that I have and adore called "Top Secret Restaurant Recipes" by Todd Wilbur. The sauce is from Tony Roma's.

Smokey Honey BBQ Sauce

1 cup ketchup

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 cup garlic flavored red wine vinegar

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup honey

1 teaspoon liquid smoke

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

2 tablespoon Franks Red Hot sauce (more or less depending on how hot you like it)

1. Combine all the ingredients for the barbecue sauce in a saucepan over high heat. Blend the ingredients with a whisk until smooth.
2. When the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer uncovered.
3. In 30 to 45 minutes, when the mixture thickens, remove it from the heat. If you overcook it and make the sauce too think, thin it with more vinegar.

This makes more than you'll need for the pizza. You can keep the extra in the refrigerator and use it for another meal. I used mine with left over roast and made BBQ Beef Sandwiches. Oh la, la... so good!

Okay, we've got our crust and our sauce, now it time to make the pizza.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

1/2 cup BBQ Sauce

1/2 cup pizza sauce (someday I'll share the recipe for my homemade pizza sauce!)

1 cup cooked chicken, shredded (farm fresh of course)

Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Shredded Cheddar cheese

1 thinly sliced onion

2 tablespoons butter

And any other toppings you want like black olives, green pepper, diced green chiles...

Spread the combined sauces over the crust. Add as much cheese as you feel you need, use 1/2 mozzarella and 1/2 cheddar. Spread chicken and onions on top of cheese. Then sprinkle, (sprinkle? sounds like we're making sugar cookies!) a little more BBQ sauce over the chicken and top off with a little sprinkle of cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the pizza is hot and bubbling.

Here's a great tip for those of you who have children to feed. This is especially helpful if your little darlings are picky eaters!

When making homemade pizza, divide your dough into four pieces and allow your children to make their own personal pizzas! Kids love to eat what they make and also you need to be teaching them how to prepare meals for themselves or they may never leave the home. Or if you never take the time to teach them any cooking skills, they will live on Kraft Easy Mac and Ramen Noodles for the rest of their lives. Not healthy at all.

I think it is extremely important to teach your kids to cook. If you start young enough, they think it is something fun to do, but if you wait too long, they won't want to do it simply because it is something that you want them to do. So the earlier you start the better!

You do need to set a few rules with these personal pizzas. This also discourages kids from becoming picky eaters.

Rule #1: Do not use more than what is required. Set limits on the cheese and sauce. You want to teach them what is appropriate! Don't let them be wasteful. As my mom use to say, "There are thousands of starving children in this world..."

Rule #2: You have to eat what you make. This discourages them from experiments that they won't eat when it turns out to be a bad idea, like Captain Crunch and Sausage!

Rule #3: They get to clean up their own mess while the pizza is cooking! This teaches them wise time-management and encourages cleanliness in the kitchen.

You can also try this with calzones. Give it a try and let me know what your kids think about it!

Tatee-cakes was sleeping on the couch while I was baking this.

Yummm, Yummm, this Rooster sure makes good pizza!

Who knew that jerk would taste so good!

Just joking, I told you the rooster was still among us!

RECIPES: Kathi's White Chili and Heavenly Buttered Rolls

The other night I made CLASSIC BBQ CHICKEN (click for the link to that recipe.) I love this recipe! And since I have made a pack with myself not to waste the chicken carcass (because it makes wonderful broth and can make one more meal with the chicken) I decided to make White Chili using the left over carcass from the BBQ Chicken. I served the chili with these addicting Heavenly Buttered Rolls. Did I say addicting? I meant ADDICTING!

Once again, I think my MIL (mother-in-law) will be proud of me. Can you believe it Penny, I haven't thrown away a carcass since I started this blog. I admit it, I use to throw away the carcass because I didn't want to mess with it. My mother and grandmother would probably have a fit, like Penny did, if they knew that I did that. Actually, Penny didn't "have a fit," she's not like that!

Anyway, I found a recipe in my "Crème de Colorado Cookbook" but as you know by now, I have a hard time following a recipe without doing things "my way" so I decided to give it to you the way I did it and call it Kathi's White Chili.



KATHI'S WHITE CHILI

One Chicken Carcass

Put the lonely chicken carcass in a large pot of water and place on stove. Add 3 or 4 peeled carrots and 4 to 5 stalks of celery cut into quarters. Then add 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. pepper, 2 tsp. onion powder, 2 tsp. garlic powder, 2 tsp. basil and 2 tsp. chicken seasoning along with any other seasoning you think would add nice flavor. I'm guessing on the amounts because I usually just go through my spices and add what ever jumps out at me, I never measure, I just dump it in and hope I don't ever do it on any one spice! Call me reckless, but that's the way I do it! Bring to boil, then turn down the heat to a strong simmer (is that a cooking term?) and cover with the lid.

If you don't have a carcass laying around in your kitchen, you can do this with a whole chicken!

Meanwhile, dump 1 pound dry White Northern beans into another large pot, bring to a rolling boil, turn off the heat and cover with a lid. I don't wash or sort my beans, once again, there's that reckless side of me, and I've never had a rock in my meals, at least I didn't find one as I was eating the dish!

Now go to a "Herd Quitters" meeting like I did for 2 1/2 hours with Dan the Man. Or just find someway to kill 3 to 4 hours. Ohh, hope the house doesn't burn down while I'm gone. Reckless again, I know...

When you get back and if your house is still standing, take the chicken carcass or whole chicken out of the broth and turn off the burner. Chicken should be falling off the bone. If it is not to that point yet, turn the heat up a little, put the lid back on and check back in half an hour.

Let the chicken cool and then when it is cool enough to work with without burning your fingers, pull the meat off the bones and put in the refrigerator.

Strain the broth, keep the carrots, but toss the celery. Strain the beans. I guess if you see a rock or other foreign object, you can remove it. Dump the beans into the broth, cut the carrots into chunks and add to the broth and place on the stove. Simmer and cover until the beans are tender, somewhere around an hour or so.

Meanwhile... If you did the whole chicken, shred what ever chicken meat you want to add to the chili and put the rest into a bag and freeze. You can use the left over for another meal. You need about 3 cups of chicken for the chili. I got my other chicken from the freezer, out of my shredded chicken stash I have in there. It was my last package so I'll have to boil up some more chickens soon.

Anyway, this recipe sure is long....

After the beans are tender, add the chicken, lots of cumin (I love, love, love cumin) like 2 or 3 tablespoons, two cans (you know those little cans) of diced green chiles and anything else you want to flavor the chili with. You could add onions, jalapenos, whatever... The secret to a great soup is the spices you add so be sure to taste the broth and add some if you think that it needs it. Cook for a half hour or so on low heat. Let those flavors meld together.

Yummmm, smells so good!

Serve with sour cream and shredded Monterey jack and cheddar cheese. Oooo, sliced black olives would have been good, too bad I didn't have any.

Delish!


Then I also made these rolls.

They are heavenly, addicting, so good they should be outlawed!




HEAVENLY BUTTERED ROLLS

Generously spray a cast iron skillet with cooking spray. Put seven Rhode’s frozen dinner rolls in the skillet. Cover with a towel and leave for 5 hours or so, or until the have risen and are touching each other in the skillet. They should completely cover the skillet if they have risen enough. Brush with melted butter. Use real butter, don't skimp! Sprinkle with course salt like kosher salt or course sea salt. You can stop there or add more flavor by adding sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic powder, dried onion flakes, rosemary... You get the idea. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes until deep golden brown on top. Serve in the skillet and try to behave yourself. You don't have to eat four of them, but you can if you want to!



I baked mine just a little too long. Hate it when that happens, but they were still delicious and I had a hard time behaving, actually I didn't behave at all! I ate three! Oink, oink!

It was just Dan the Man and myself for dinner that night, so I didn't want them to go to waste!

There I feel better justifying my weakness.

oink!

Tator in his basket with His Piggy

(my mom gave me this little pig about 30 years ago,
it oinks when you squeeze it and Tator has adopted it.)

RECIPE: Green Chili Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Here is the recipe I promised yesterday!




Green Chili Chicken Enchilada Casserole

2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1½ cups green enchilada sauce
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz sour cream
1 can (4 oz) diced green chiles
½ cup vegetable oil
12 corn tortillas
1½ c. shredded Colby-Jack cheese, divided

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease 13 x 9-inch casserole.
2. Combine chicken, enchilada sauce, soup, sour cream and chiles in large skillet. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until warm.
3. Heat oil in separate deep skillet. Fry tortillas just until soft; drain on paper towels. Place 4 tortillas on bottom of prepared casserole. Layer with 1/3 of chicken mixture and 1/2 cup cheese. Repeat layers twice.
4. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and
casserole is heated through.


ENJOY!

2 Chickens = 14 Cups of Meat!

Today has been cold and miserable so I decided to do some extra cooking. Our kids even had a snow day and didn't have school today. Bridgette went out with me this morning to do some of the chores. By the expression on her face, I don't think she was enjoying the snow very much. If you click on the picture you will get a full screen view of the photo. Just remember to click the back arrow on your browser to get back to the blog.


I just got done cooking two of our chickens and ended up with a little over 14 cups of chicken meat for casseroles and such! Hard to believe, huh!? But I kid you not. I cooked two of my big chickens, 7 lbs. each in my big canning pot on top of the stove. Just filled the pot with the chickens, enough water to cover the chickens, a little salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder for flavoring, brought the pot to a boil, turned it down to a simmer, covered with the lid and cooked for a couple of hours. When the meat started falling off the bone, I took the chickens out of the water and put them a large roasting pan to cool.

When they were cool enough to handle, I pulled all the meat from the bones. I then bagged the chicken meat into quart freezer bags measuring out two cups of meat for each bag. I had seven bags with about a cup of meat left over. I then took the bags and froze them so I'd have cut up chicken meat ready for casseroles or what ever I need it for. I have enough chicken ready for at least 7 meals. This has been a huge time-saver for me and I do it all the time. When I use the last bag in the freezer I cook up two more chickens. I also have close to 16 cups of chicken broth.

I'll post the recipe to one my family's favorite casseroles tomorrow. It is called Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Casserole. YUM!!

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CLASSIC BBQ CHICKEN RECIPE

Here is the recipe that I promised yesterday. I've made this twice now. The first time I followed the recipe, but the second time for time's sake, I did not brown the chicken. I thought that both ways were equally good. I must say this is some of the tastiest BBQ sauce I have ever made, so even if you just need BBQ sauce for ribs or whatever, try this one. It does have a little kick to it, but you can regulate the heat by adjusting the amount of crushed red pepper.

I got this recipe out of the October 2009 Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

CLASSIC BBQ CHICKEN

(2) 3 1/2 lb whole chickens [I used one of my 6 lb chickens, heaven forbid you have to fix this with a store bought chicken, ha, ha]
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup butter
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh garlic
2 Tbsp. kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
1 Tbsp. paprika
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 cups cold water
1 1/4 cups cider vinegar
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup molasses
1 cup tomato paste
Peanut oil [I used canola oil]
Water

1. Cut up chicken, leaving drumsticks and thighs attached. Season chicken with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to (up to 24 hours).

2. For sauce: In large nonreactive saucepan, melt butter. Add onion, garlic, and salt. Cook over low heat until onion is tender. Add crushed red pepper, paprika, chili powder, and black pepper; cook and stir for 1 minute.

3. Add water, vinegar, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce; bring to a simmer. Stir in molasses. Whisk in tomato paste until smooth. Bring to a simmer over low heat. Cook, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes or until sauce is thickened, stirring occasionally. Taste for seasoning, adding additional salt if needed. Remove 1 1/2 cups of the sauce to prepare chicken. Store remaining in the refrigerator; reheat to serve.

4. For chicken: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Heat 1/4 inch oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, place chicken, skin side down, in skillet. Cook until well browned, turning once, about 5 minutes.

5. Transfer browned chicken to two 2- to 3- quart rectangular glass or nonreactive baking dishes. Place skin side up adding breast portions to one dish and leg portions to the other. Add 2 tablespoons water to each baking dish.

6. Spoon reserved 1 1/2 cups barbecue sauce over chicken. Cover chicken with parchment paper and then cover tightly with foil. (Refrigerate until ready to bake). Bake leg portions for 70 to 75 minutes and breast portions for 30 to 40 minutes (170 degrees).

7. Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees. Uncover chicken and spoon on additional sauce. Bake, uncovered, for 10 to 13 minutes or until well-glazed and meat is very tender. Serve with remaining barbecue sauce.

A few things I did differently was I cut the drumstick from the thigh and since my chickens are so big, I cut each breast into two sections for a total of 4 breast pieces. I baked all chicken pieces in a 13"x 15" glass baking dish for 60 minutes covered at 350 degrees, then 15 minutes uncovered at 450 degrees. I had enough sauce left over from the first time I made this dish, to use it again the second time I made the chicken.

Delish, this recipe is a keeper in my book! ENJOY!!