Frugal Recipe: Chicken in Cream Sauce

I tried a new recipe tonight for supper, and it turned out great. As usual I altered as I went to keep the recipe tasty and frugal. I guarantee you this tasted like a gourmet restaurant recipe. It was devine!

Chicken in Cream Sauce Recipe

 A couple chicken breasts split in half (technically you could use any cut of meat with the skin removed)

1 packet of corn beef (like the inexpensive little Hormel packets)

1 container of mushrooms

1 onion finely chopped

1 TBLS veg. oil

2 TBLS margarine

2 TBLS flour

1/2 cup of sour cream

1 pinch nutmeg

1 pinch salt and pepper

1 TBLS chicken broth granules

1 cup milk (this is appx. I just add slowly from the carton until I have the saucy consistency I want)

Cook the onions slowly in the veg. oil until they are soft, then add the mushrooms. Add the salt, pepper, chicken broth granules, nutmeg. Melt the margarine and add 2 TBLS flour, then the sour cream and enough milk to make a creamy sauce. Cut the chicken breasts in half the long way (again) and wrap in corn beef. Place in a baking dish and top with the sauce. I cooked mine in this great clay dish, for a nice presentation (we had dinner guests) Bake at 350 for about 1.5 hours until chicken is cooked and the sauce is bubbly. I topped my serving dish with a little paprika and green onions. It was melt-in-your-mouth good!

Sweet and Sour Sauce Recipe

Here’s the Sweet and Sour Sauce recipe I  referred to in my last post about Cheese Wontons. I’ll admit that I sometimes buy a jar of sweet and sour sauce, but if I have the time and ingredients, I prefer the real deal.

Recipe for Sweet and Sour Sauce

1 can Pineapple chunks

1 Tbls rice vinegar

2 Tbls brown sugar

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

cornstarch, water

Drain the pineapple juice into a small sauce pan, and set aside the pineapple. Add the remaining ingredients (except for the cornstarch/water) and bring it to a boil. Add a little corn starch to a little water and slowly add to thicken the sauce. Add the pineapple chunks back in for a fantastic, authentic sauce.

*Hint: If you love Sweet and Sour Chicken, you can do the same thing by adding some cooked chicken and green pepper! Serve over rice.

Cheese Wonton Recipe

Yesterday we were snowed in; three kids, no school, and no vehicle. I decided to treat the kids to cheese wontons for lunch and it occurred to me that I could post my recipe for cheese wontons and sweet and sour sauce, both are my original recipes. So original, in fact, that I don’t use a recipe. As I have posted before, I rarely use recipes. Therefore, I have to stop, think, and estimate the best I can how to replicate what I make.

If you love cheese wontons or crab rangoons as they are often called, you will love these. Make them with or without seafood, depending what you like.

Recipe for Cheese Wontons

Wonton Papers (similar to Egg Roll papers, only smaller)

4 oz of cream cheese

1/2 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

1 clove grated or finely chopped garlic

(chopped crab or shrimp optional)

canola oil

Mix the ingredients together and put a small tsp size or smaller in the middle of each wonton paper. Wet the edges with water using your finger and press together tightly. Heat enough oil in your wok or small pan to float some wontons when added. It should be quite hot, as each wonton will only take about 30 seconds per side to be golden brown/crispy.

Recipe: Wasabi Mayo Sauce

It is so strange that neither my husband nor I had EVER tried this wonderful sauce prior to a visit to our friend’s home. They invited us over for the most delicious Asian Turkey Burger’s with Wasabi Mayo Sauce. One bite is all it took for us to be hooked on ground turkey and wasabi-mayo.

“What’s in this sauce?”, I asked. Simple.

Wasabi Mayo Sauce Recipe

1/2 cup real mayonnaise (doesn’t work with Miracle Whip)

1 tsp green wasabi paste (usually found in your Asian food isle)

Mix well. Yumm!

Lefse

Being born and raised in Minnesota means being familiar with heritage dishes like lefse and lutefisk. While I’ve never developed a taste for boiled fish soaked in lye, I do love lefse.

If you’ve never had lefse, it a type of flat bread. It’s made of potatoes, butter, cream, and flour. It’s very thin and moist, and it looks similar to a tortilla.

Many people eat it with just butter, butter and white sugar, butter with cinnamon/sugar, and butter with brown sugar.

I’m on team “Butter with Brown Sugar”!

Two weekends in a row we’ve had a lefse making party at our house with family and friends helping to make six batches of lefse to eat, share, and freeze for later this winter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve made lefse via my husband’s grandma’s recipe and a family friend’s recipe. Both are exactly the same, except one insists on Russet potatoes and the other tells us to use red potatoes. That is definately the heritage part.

Lefse Recipe:

5 Cups riced potatoes (ricing is key)

1/2 cup butter (real of course)

1/2 cup cream (whole of course)

2 cups of flour

Rice the potatoes while they are hot. Melt butter/cream with hot potatoes and mash. Then put in the frig to get COLD. After a few hours, you can mix the flour into the batter, which will be moist and sticky. You can use extra flour to roll the lefse out, but too much will make them dry and brittle. Good luck! 

Do you make lefse? If so, which “topping team” are you on?

Fun with Cooking

It’s no secret I love to cook. I have posted many of my favorite recipes on this site, and I jump at any opportunity to cook for family and friends. I recently had the chance to teach an ethnic cooking class this past Friday night, and I had a blast. 

I demonstrated Vietnamese spring rolls with dipping sauce, Chinese pork dumplings with dipping sauce, and Hot-Sour soup. A friend of mine demonstrated Indian food which included Indian flat bread, cilantro chutney, and curry beans. It was so good.

The only regret I have is leaving the dirty dishes in my vehicle over night. I got home late and didn’t feel like lugging everything inside. The next day my truck was VERY fragrant with a mix of sesame, ginger, and garlic.

Whewww….

What have you left in your vehicle that has made your eyes water?

What Food Should I Demo?

I am very excited to be teaching another cooking class at the upcoming Passport to Hutchinson event in less than two weeks. (I blogged about this event here)  We are offering the class for a meager $5 so that anyone who wants to attend can afford to do so. My friend Prachee and I are going to teach Chinese and Indian dishes, help Minnesotans easily find ingredients at local grocery stores, demonstrate some unique cooking techniques, and of course, provide EVERYONE samples to taste of EVERYTHING we make!

I am waiting to hear how many people are registered for the class, as there is still time to pre-register. Therefore, I haven’t decided what to make. I’ve been thinking about traditional Chinese pork dumplings with dipping sauce. Most people aren’t aware of how good these are, as our “Americanized Chinese Food” often skips offering this traditional Chinese staple. I also thought about a demo of making egg rolls and/or spring rolls, as most people don’t make these at home unless they’re frozen and roll out of a box. Yuck! I have perfected traditional Hot Sour Soup, which is one of my favorites, but again, it can be an aquired taste and too hot for many people.

What do you think? What would be fun to demo? What things do you struggle with when making (any) ethnic foods at home? I really encourage you to try cooking ethnic foods at home. It can be a learning process, but I know my family loves Sushi night (not so much but I do), Indian night, Chinese night, Thai night, Haitian night, and the list goes on.

Dairy Queen BBQ Knock Off Recipe

Do you have a Dairy Queen near you that still makes BBQ’s?

Maybe you remember when your favorite Dairy Queen made these beefy treats?

My cooking club has made a great “knock off” recipe of the DQ BBQ’s, which are great. We’ve made it in bulk and frozen it for a quick and easy meal when your family is super-busy.

 

 

Recipe: Dairy Queen BBQ’s

1 ½ lb. hamburger

1 can tomato soup

1 can chicken gumbo soup

1 cup Open Pit barbeque sauce

½ cup chopped onion

Brown hamburger and onion; add tomato soup, chicken gumbo soup and barbeque sauce. Throw it in a crock pot to keep warm or freeze until ready to heat-n-eat!

Salted Nut Roll Cake Recipe

I created another great new recipe. It turned out great, so I thought I would share.

Recipe: Salted Nut Roll Cake

1 White Cake Mix

Eggs/Oil/Water as need to bake the cake as directed

1 jar of caramel topping

1 bag of lightly salted peanuts

2 8oz packages of cream cheese

Powdered sugar

1/2 tsp almond or vanilla extract

Make the cake mix as directed and bake in a jelly roll or sheet cake pan. Let cool and poke holes with a fork. While the cake is still warm, pour the caramel over so it soaks in. In a separate bowl, whip the cream cheese with some powdered sugar. If you like it more bitter (less sweet) start with 1/2-1 cup of powdered sugar. If you like it sweeter, start with 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar. Taste along the way, adding in more as needed. Sorry, but I don’t measure this. I make cream cheese frosting all the time. If it gets too thick, you can add a little soft butter or milk. Chop the peanuts in a food processor. Spread the frosting on the cake and sprinkle with peanuts. This has been a hit!

Easy Orange Glaze Recipe Using SunnyD

I came up with a fantastic new recipe tonight that we put on pork steak. You could use it on chicken or beef too. I was really hungry for Sesame Chicken, but I didn’t have chicken or sesame seeds. I looked in my frig and saw Sunny D. I got inspired. I boiled about 2/3 cup of SunnyD orange juice in a small kettle. Added about 3 TBLS of brown sugar, 1 tsp of soy sauce, and about 2 TBLS of Sweet Chile Sauce (in your oriental food isle). I brought it to a boil for about 8 minutes. I let it cool, and it had a syrup consistency. I grilled the pork until almost done, then basted it with the sauce several times to “glaze” the pork. I served it with a grilled squash from the garden and white rice. It was a HUGE HIT. I’m telling you. This was one of the best recipes I’ve ever created. We will be making this again soon.

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