Creamy Chicken & Potato Stew

This stew is a little similar to some other chicken stew recipes I've already posted, but it had a couple of extra veggies and a surprise seasoning - Ranch dressing mix! 

Here's the funny thing - my husband hates Ranch dressing. Hates it. I love Ranch dressing. Yes, I love original Hidden Valley Ranch dressing and all of it's horrible calories. The funny thing is that I only sorta liked the soup, and Kyle really liked this soup a lot. Ironic, yes? 

The original recipe suggested serving this soup with biscuits, and I absolutely believe that's the way to go. Who doesn't want and excuse to eat biscuits for dinner? My Simple Drop Biscuits went along perfectly. 

** The only problem I had with this recipe, is that any time I try to add Dahi to a crock pot recipe, it always seems to curdle. Maybe you could leave the Dahi out? Maybe someone has a smart solution to this?

You could add some additional veggies to this if you wanted to - peas, corn, mushrooms, whatever!

Creamy Chicken & Potato Stew

Original Recipe

2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces

2 medium potatoes, peeled & cut into bite sized pieces

1 TBS butter

1 medium onion, diced

1 cup diced carrots

3/4 cup cut green beans

1/2 cup celery, chopped

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup Dahi (see note above)

1 recipe of cream of chicken soup substitute

1-2 TBS of ranch dressing powdered mix, depending how strong Ranch flavor you want

Salt and pepper to taste

Spray your crock pot with cooking spray. Turn on the heat, then melt the butter in the bottom of the crock pot. Add the vegetables and stir them to get them all coated with butter. Add the chicken to the crock pot and sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

Stir together the milk, dahi, cream of chicken soup substitute, and ranch powder. Pour on top of the chicken.

Cook on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 6-7 hours. Stir before serving. 

Chicken Fajita Casserole

If you like fajitas, and you like casseroles, then I think you'll like this recipe. It's all the flavors of a sizzling fajita combined with some Mexican rice and queso cheese - quite the winning combo!

I used my Mexican Rice recipe as the Spanish rice that the original recipe called for. You could make the rice the day before to cut down on your cooking time and it would still turn out fine.

I cooked my chicken in the crock pot all day with some fajita seasoning. 

If you don't want to take the time to make the queso, you could replace the layer of queso with regular shredded cheese, and it would still be a great recipe, just a little less rich :)  I decreased the amount of milk in the queso from the original recipe, and I think it would have been super runny if I had included the extra half cup. The original recipe said she used a special queso cheese, which I don't even know what that would be in America, but definitely not available in India! I just used the old faithful processed cheddar cheese. Still tasted great!

Chicken Fajita Casserole

Original Recipe

1 lb of chicken, cooked and shredded

1 TBS of fajita seasoning or taco seasoning

1 recipe of Mexican Rice

1 red pepper, sliced

1 green pepper, sliced

2 small or 1 medium onion, sliced

1 TBS olive oil

3-4 tortillas, cut into strips

2 TBS butter

2 TBS flour

1 cup of milk

2 cups of shredded cheese, plus a little more to sprinkle on top 

Spray a 8x8 or 9x9 sized casserole pan with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large saute pan or shallow pot, heat the olive oil, and then sautee the peppers and onions together until they're to your desired softness. Set aside in a bowl, and then wipe out the pan with a paper towel.

Melt the butter in the pan, and then whisk in the flour. Cook for a minute or two, then whisk in the milk. Heat until the mixture gets thicker, and then stir in the 2 cups of cheese. The mixture shouldn't be too runny, but pourable. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

Add the fajita/taco seasoning to the shredded chicken.

Build the casserole in layers - start with a layer of half of the tortilla strips, then spread a layer of rice, followed by half of the sauteed vegetables and chicken. Press everything down, then pour half of the queso mixture over the top. Repeat the layers, ending with the queso. Sprinkle with a little extra cheese.

Bake at 170 degrees Celsius (350 F) for 30 minutes or until everything looks warmed and bubbly. 

You could serve with salsa, sour cream and guac garnishes if you're feeling fajita fancy. :)