3 chicken recipes, as promised!

(Please refer to previous post for the instructions for cooking a whole chicken in the crockpot)

When you're done cooking the chicken and you've strained your broth and gleaned your meat, you'll have approximately 4-5 cups cooked chicken and (I get) about 8 cups of chicken broth. Here's what you'll need for 3 nummy recipes (go ahead and grab these when you buy your whole fryer chicken):

Shopping list:
1 large bag of frozen mixed veggies (the mix I like has green beans, peas, carrots, and corn)
1 pkg. of Pillsbury pie crusts (comes with 2 crusts)
3 cans of Campbell's "cream of" soups (I got 1 regular cream of chicken, 1 cream of chicken with herbs, and 1 cream of mushroom, but these can be substituted...will explain later)
1 pkg. Ritz crackers
1 pkg. frozen egg noodles

items you'll probably already have on hand:
white rice
milk
garlic salt
salt & pepper

Recipe #1
Individual Chicken Pot Pies (taken from a Real Simple magazine a few years ago)
8-12 ounces (that's 1 to 1 1/2 cups) of the frozen veggies, thawed
the piecrusts
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
2 cups of your cooked chicken meat
garlic salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and defrost your veggies (microwave for about 2-3 minutes). Roll out piecrusts and cut into fourths. Spray the interior of 4 ramekins or small bowls with Pam, then place a quarter of pie crust in bottom. Mix your other ingredients together, then spoon into pie crust (divide equally between the 4 bowls). Top with the remaining quarters of pie crust and pinch together the 2 crust pieces. Cut 2-3 slits in the top of each pie crust. Place all 4 bowls on a baking sheet and bake for 40 to 45 minutes. These are sooooooooooo good; one of Adam's favorite meals!

Recipe #2
Chicken and Noodles (my friend Dawn Hawkins taught me this one)
the chicken broth from your cooked chicken
1 bag of frozen egg noodles
about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of your cooked chicken

Take out the chicken broth you've saved in your soup pot in the fridge and place it on burner. If you want more brothy chicken & noodles, add 1-2 cups water; if you want thick chicken & noodles, no extra water needed (although I'd recommend a little bit of water...if you save some of this for leftovers, the extra water will keep noodles from absorbing all the broth and drying out). Heat on medium until boiling; add egg noodles and follow instructions on package (it usually says to boil uncovered for 20 minutes until cooked). When noodles are cooked, add your cooked chicken and simmer on low so flavors can blend. I usually bake a Pillsbury French Loaf and serve with green beans. You can also serve over mashed potatoes. Very Sunday-after-church kind of meal.

Recipe #3
Ritzy Chicken & Rice Casserole (I sort of invented this off of a blander recipe from allrecipes.com)
the remainder of your cooked chicken
8-12 ounces (1 to 1 1/2 cups) of your frozen mixed veggies, thawed
2 cups of white rice, cooked
2 cans of "cream of" soups (I like cream of chicken with herbs and cream of mushroom for this recipe)
2 cups of crushed Ritz crackers
garlic salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Defrost your veggies, crush your Ritz crackers (put them in a baggie and just squish with your fingers), cook your rice. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients but the crushed crackers. Pour into 8 x 12 (I think...I'm writing this all from memory and I know it's not the big 9 x 13 pan) glass baking dish and evenly sprinkle and spread crackers on top. Bake for 20 minutes. Very good for a quick weekday meal.

3 meals from a $5 chicken

I just have to share my success story in the cooking AND financial realm. Last week, I bought a Tyson "whole fryer" chicken at Meijer. It was marked 50% off because it was going to expire the next day. Well, if you know anything about FDA regulations, stores have to be vigilant and very conservative when it comes to dating food. Essentially, a chicken (or any piece of meat) is not on the verge of going bad when it reaches its expiration date...it's just reached the date at which Meijer has to be careful about approaching their FDA cutoff. Does that make sense?

Anyhoo, so I bought a whole chicken for $5. I stuck it in the freezer as soon as I got home, cuz I knew I'd be cooking it in the crockpot over the period of a full day, so starting out frozen was fine, and this way, I could preserve its freshness. Then on Saturday at 10 am, I stuck the chicken in the crockpot, and added 2 celery stalks, 2 carrots, 1 chopped-up onion, some garlic salt, pepper, and 2 chicken boullion cubes. Then I poured a few cups of water over everything so I could get broth. I turned the crockpot on low and left it until 6 pm. Now here's the tricky part. When a chicken is fully cooked in a crockpot, it is so juicy and tender that it comes apart just by spearing it with a fork. You'll want to hold the chicken together as much as possible, but it's important to remove it at this point and place it on a big platter so you can glean the meat and throw away the bones and skin and icky stuff. Once your meat has been set aside, you'll need to run your broth through a strainer and into a large soup pot (I'll explain that later). When your broth is strained, go ahead and stick your soup pot in the fridge. Now, glean as much meat from your chicken as you can; be careful, the chicken is very hot, but it's easiest to take your chicken apart when it's hot. I usually get out a big storage bowl and throw the meat in there as it's gleaned. When all is said and done, I typically end up with enough shredded cooked chicken for 3 meals, and at least 4 cups of chicken broth.

Next post: I'll detail the 3 meals, which are yummy-nummy-scrumptious!

Fabulous recipe for meatloaf

This recipe is called "Bonnie's Meatloaf." I haven't a clue who Bonnie is, except for the fact that she's a fan of Yankee magazine, because she submitted her recipe for meatloaf to it. We tried this last night, and not only is it incredibly easy, it's wonderfully delish!!!

Loaf:
1 1/2 pounds ground chuck
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 egg
1/2 cup Progresso bread crumbs
1 package Lipton's onion soup mix
6 ounces of Hunts tomato sauce
1/8 cup Worcestershire sauce
pepper to taste

Topping:
1/4 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all loaf ingredients in large mixing bowl until uniform and sticking together; shape into loaf and place into loaf pan (I used a little bit of Pam on the bottom of the pan). Combine ingredients for topping and then brush on top of meatloaf. Bake for 50-60 minutes (slice into the very top of the loaf to see that it's no longer pink). Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing.

I served this with mashed potatoes and it was a very cozy, filling meal. It only took about 7-8 minutes to prepare the meatloaf! Happy cooking!

Crocking up

Do tell me, is there anything better on a dreary January day than knowing you have a delicious pot roast slow-cooking at home while you slog through your workday??? I think not! Here is a recipe that Dawn Hawkins gave me a couple of years ago (which I modified a tad per our preferences):

a black Angus chuck roast
5-7 baby red potatoes, depending on size
a small bag of baby carrots or 5-7 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
a packet of Lipton's onion soup mix

Rub salt and pepper onto the roast and place in crockpot; sprinkle half the packet of soup mix on top of roast. Wash potatoes and add to pot; wash, peel, and cut carrots and add to pot. Sprinkle remaining half of soup mix on top of veggies, then add 1 cup of water to the mix. (I will usually put a bit more water in, depending on how long we'll be gone during the day.) Cook on low setting for at least 8 hours; I usually cook for about 10 hours.
Dawn's recipe calls for 1 can cream of mushroom soup, which you would stir into the broth 1/2 hour before serving, but Adam and I like the meat and taters, straight up!
The aroma will fill your whole house and make you feel cozy and warm, and the meat is absolutely delicious. Happy crocking!