Cilantro Lime Chicken Marinade

Hey there - it's been awhile! Now that we're living back in the U.S., I've been away from the blog for a few months. But I do want to try to continue posting India friendly recipes for my friends who still live there! If you ever have any great recipes to share, please send them my way to post.

I started making this Cilantro Lime chicken the past few months, and it's one of our favorite meals! The great thing is, it would be super easy in India too. We grill the chicken, but you could easily cook it on the stove in a little olive oil, or on a grill pan if you have one, or you could probably even bake it in the oven! It's great by itself with some veggies on the side, or you could eat it with some rice or quinoa.

Put your chicken in a plastic bag or a bowl, then whisk together all of the marinade ingredients together and pour over the chicken. Let it marinate at least for several hours, but I prefer to marinate it overnight in order to really get that flavor locked in. It's delicious!

All you need is:

1 lb of chicken breasts

1/4 cup olive oil

1/3 cup of lime juice

Zest of one lime

3 cloves of minced garlic

1 1/2 tsps honey

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 bunch of cilantro (coriander leaf) chopped

I don't have a pretty picture of the finished product, but I do have a gross picture of raw chicken in the marinade 

** A note on the lime juice - the "limes" in India notoriously don't have any juice at all in them, at least where I was in the country! So rather than drive yourself to tears trying to get 1/3 cup of juice from the sad limes, I would just use some store bought lime juice in a bottle. I would still use a fresh lime for the zest though to add the extra lime punch of flavor. 

Original Recipe

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. :)

Brown Sugar Chicken in the Crock Pot

The title alone of this recipe should clue you in that it's good. Sugar + Crock Pot = Good.

But just in case that didn't get the point across, I'll tell you, this recipe is good.

This chicken is not winning any awards for prettiest meal. In fact, as I was dishing it up, I was a little nervous about how good this was going to taste because it wasn't super pretty. But after I took my first bite I paused and told Kyle, "Oh this is good."

There you have it - it's good.

AND EASY!

I had pinned this recipe on Pinterest a long time ago but it got lost in Pinland for a while, so I'm glad I noticed it on my board again.

The only troublespot I had with this recipe is that the "sauce" was super duper liquidy - I'm not sure if maybe cooking this on high instead of low would solve that problem? Or I guess reducing the amount of liquid would help, but I'm not sure how that would affect the flavor of the chicken. Here are some options:

* Try cooking it on high for a shorter amount of time vs. on low.

* For the last hour of cooking, take the lid off of the crock pot to allow some of the liquid to reduce and evaporate (just keep an eye on it). 

* Reduce the sauce on the stove (this is what I did). To do this, spoon out a good amount of the sauce into a sauce pan, and simmer it on the stove until the liquid has thickened into more of a glaze (I think this took mine probably around 10-15 minutes). Stir or whisk frequently during this time. You can tell the difference in the picture above - the liquid on the plate is the liquid that came out of the crock pot with the chicken, but then notice on top of the chicken the thick glaze - that was the reduced sauce. In my opinion, this was TOTALLY WORTH the effort it took for the flavor it added to the chicken. But it would still taste good without it!

This is sort of barbecue-y? A lot of the same components, minus the ketchup and onion and adding soy sauce and Sprite. It was kinda sweet, kinda tangy...it was just delicious!

When I made this I halved the recipe with just three chicken breasts. The original recipe says you can also use thighs or drumsticks...I'm just a white meat only type of person.

Brown Sugar Chicken

Original Recipe

6 chicken breasts (frozen or thawed)

1 cup of brown sugar

4-6 cloves of garlic, chopped

2/3 cup of apple cider vinegar (or white, if that's what you have)

1/4 cup Sprite or other lemon lime soda (just not diet)

2 TBS soy sauce

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

Spray your crock pot with cooking spray. Put the chicken in the bottom. Sprinkle the brown sugar on top of the chicken, followed by the garlic, salt and pepper. Add the vinegar and soy sauce. Then pour in the Sprite. Cook on low for 6-9 hours or high for 4-5 hours.

I served mine with zucchini and potatoes, which was a hit with my husband, but you could serve it with any type of vegetable side dish. We are normally big rice fans with chicken, but I don't personally think this would go perfectly with rice - the chicken was great as a stand alone!

Parmesan Spaghetti Bake

This recipe is pretty much spaghetti taken to the next level. But a level down from Million Dollar Spaghetti.

I will specify that this recipe requires grated parmesan cheese (like, the kind in the can/plastic container), which I bring from America, because it's really expensive to buy here. And you'll also notice in the above picture that we had the added bonus of some deli style sliced pepperoni that my mom brought over for us from America. But prior to that very welcome addition to our pantry, I'd made this recipe several times with just cheese on top and no pepperoni, and it was still great! 

I normally use spaghetti noodles in this recipe, but when I went to make it last week I was out of spaghetti and only had linguine. However, I think I liked the linguine even better! But you can use any pasta you wish - spaghetti, linguine, fettucini, even shaped pasta like penne or rotini. Whatever you have on hand!

VEGETABLE BONUS - I add a big handful of chopped spinach right into the sauce, and you'd never even notice taste wise! You could also add some grated zucchini into this as you're browning the chicken, but most recently I served this with THIS ZUCCHINI on the side and it was delightful.

To make your spaghetti sauce, you can obviously spend the big bucks to get a jar of Ragu, or use an Indian version of spaghetti sauce, or you can make your own using tomato puree and some basic spices - Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Oregano, Basil, Parsley, Salt & a little Sugar.

I have another one of those "I don't measure my ingredients" confessions here. Ahem, I don't measure the amount of each spice I put in. I said it, and I'm sorry. I did take a picture to give you an idea:

Ok, you can't really see the sugar (I add about a tsp or two, just to take the bite off of the tomato), and about a half tsp of salt. You also can't see the onion powder or garlic powder. But in the picture, the top spice is the oregano, the one to the right is the basil, and the bottom is the parsley. Proportionally, I use the most of garlic powder (because I love garlic), and oregano (because it adds that super Italian-y flavor). Just add spices until it smells like spaghetti sauce, yeah? Give it a taste and adjust as needed.

Ok, here are the full directions!

Parmesan Spaghetti Bake

250 grams of pasta

1 lb chicken keema (ground chicken)

1-2 boxes of tomato puree

Spices for sauce (see above)

2-3 TBS of butter

1/3 - 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese

Shredded "pizza cheese" (mozzarella) for topping

Boil your pasta according to the package directions.

Brown your chicken keema in a pot until it is cooked through. Add the tomato puree and spices to the chicken (or canned spaghetti sauce). Warm until heated through. 

When your pasta is done cooking, drain it, and then transfer back into the pot. Add the butter and grated parmesan cheese and stir well. Grease a small casserole dish, then pour the pasta into the dish. Next pour the spaghetti sauce over the pasta and smooth out evenly. Sprinkle the top with grated pizza cheese (and pepperoni as a bonus!). 

Bake at 170 degrees Celsius (350 F) for 20-30 minutes, until the cheese on top is melted and the whole thing is heated through.
Double the recipe for a 9x13 size casserole, although you could still only use 1 lb. of chicken and have it be more sauce heavy vs. meat heavy. 

How To: Black Beans

I love black beans. I loooooooooove them.

Before living in India, I had never cooked black beans from the dry bean; I had only ever used canned black beans. It took me a few a LOT of tried to actually get them soft and cooked right. So here is how I like to do it!

I buy a bag of the black beans, called "Jammu Rajma" at my grocery store. 

Here's what they look like!

Dump them into a big bowl, and cover them with an inch of (filtered) water. Let them soak overnight.

The next day, you have one of two cooking options:

1) Pressure cooker (faster)

2) Slow cooker (uh, slower, but requires less attention)

Drain the water you soaked the beans in and rinse them off. If you're using a pressure cooker, dump the beans into the pressure cooker and cover them with about a half inch of water. Let them cook in the pressure cooker for about 8-10 "whistles", then check to see if they're soft enough for you. (Confession...my house helper always pressure cooks my black beans, so I'm kind of guessing on the amount of time it takes to cook them). 

** Note on using your pressure cooker - be sure ALL the pressure is out before trying to open it! You can just let it sit awhile until the pressure naturally disperses, or you can use tongs or another long handled utensil to hold open the pressure valve and allow more steam to escape. Or you can put your pressure cooker in the sink and pour cold (filtered) water over the outside of it, which also helps decrease the temperature and pressure. 

If you are using your slow cooker, dump your rinsed beans into the slow cooker, and then fill it with water about an inch above the beans. Cook them on high for several hours (I think mine cooked for at least 6-7 hours before they were soft). This is a great option if you don't need them in a hurry and don't want to pay attention to the pressure cooker.

After your beans are cooked, you can portion them out into smaller containers to refrigerate or freeze.

I like to put about 2 cups of beans per container, which is roughly the amount in a can of beans. Cover the beans with some of the liquid they cooked in to keep them from getting dry in the freezer. Allow the beans to cool COMPLETELY before putting in the freezer! Now you have cooked beans on hand whenever you need them! Just pull them out of the freezer and let them thaw before cooking dinner, or you can thaw them in the microwave if you forgot to pull them out early enough. 

I also really like to cook some of the black beans with some seasoning to use on taco bowls, salads, or to quickly make some Black Bean Quesadillas. Here's what to do:

Finely chop one small onion and 3-4 cloves of garlic.

Add your black beans, enough water to cover them, and the onions & garlic to a pot. Add about 3-4 tsps of cumin, and a tsp of chili powder, plus salt to taste. (If you want to add a kick of heat, add a few shakes of crushed red pepper). Bring this all to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Simmer for 20ish minutes, stirring occasionally until the onions are soft and it smells delicious. The beans are obviously already cooked; you're just letting the onions and garlic cook and all the flavor to simmer together.

Tastiness simmering away

Either serve immediately, or you can refrigerate or freeze just like the unseasoned beans! I could seriously eat these beans with just a big bowl of rice - yum. 

Creamy Chicken and Rice Soup

Let's continue right along with the soup theme, shall we?

This creamy chicken and rice soup is a great cousin to Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup. In fact, one day I was making both soups side by side for a big group dinner, and had to keep reminding myself which one would ultimately be which.

I'm going to direct you to the original recipe I used, because I really only had to make a minor change.

Because I can't find wild rice here, I just used basmati rice. But the one time I tried cooking the rice in with the soup as the recipe suggests, it turned into just a big pile of rice mush as opposed to soup (which still tasted good, but, texture wise left a lot to be desired). So instead, just cook the rice separately and stir it in at the end. Because your rice isn't cooking in the soup, you can decrease the amount of liquid - so only add the 6 cups of chicken broth (6 cups of water + 6 chicken cubes thrown in the crock pot), and omit the extra 2 cups of water.

Before serving, cook 1 cup of basmati rice according to the package directions. Take the chicken out and shred it. Make the milk/flour mixture (let it get really thick), and then stir the milk mixture, shredded chicken, and cooked basmati rice all in at the same time just before serving.

Also, I didn't have official poultry seasoning, but I found a spice at the store called "mixed herbs" that seemed to have a lot of the same spices. If you don't have these, you could add a dash of thyme, rosemary, and parsley (go easy on the rosemary, or your soup will taste like a Christmas tree). 

RECIPE LINK

Anything Goes Vegetable Soup

So I've recently been inspired by my friend Meghan to eat more vegetables. She's especially good at this, as in she eats steamed broccoli for breakfast. Yes, she does. #vegetablemachine

Considering that I tend to cycle through the same 2-3 vegetables as side dishes for dinner, I wasn't exactly sure how to go about upping my daily veggie intake. Meghan to the rescue with her great vegetable soup idea!

The great thing about this soup is that you can literally put any vegetable you want in there. Really, anything. Here's the basic "recipe" Meghan gave me:

Anything Goes Vegetable Soup

Any vegetables you want - chopped.

1 box of tomato puree (this would be a small 8 oz can of tomato sauce in America)

Water - however much you want

Seasonings - salt & pepper to taste, and then whatever else you want to add (I added just a bit of Mrs. Dash Southwest Seasoning, per Meghan's suggestion)

1-3 chopped green chiles - Meghan is daring and likes to use 3, but I could only handle 2 small ones. These really add a ton of flavor and a little kick of heat to the soup.

Dump everything into a big pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes to an hour or until the vegetables are as soft as you'd like them to be. 

I can't even begin to tell you how awesome this was. I made a big pot last night and plan to eat it for lunch all week - this will be the most veggies I've ever consumed in a week before! I ate some for the first time today, and it was quite yummy. And because it's all vegetables, you can eat a really big bowl, which is really filling!! Win!

Here's what I put in my first concoction (pictured above):

Handful of green beans

2 carrots

1 green capsicum (bell pepper)

1 zucchini

4 tomatoes

1 cup of frozen peas

4 small potatoes

1 small onion

4 cloves of garlic

1 cup of black beans

2 small green chiles

Here are some other ideas:

Mushrooms

Corn

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Sweet potatoes

Chick peas

Any other kind of bean

Celery

Kale

Any other vegetable you can think of! Anything goes!!!

ONE IMPORTANT NOTE: Keep in mind that whenever you boil vegetables, some of the nutrients cook out into the water. So in order to consume all the nutrients from the veggies, you MUST eat/drink the broth with this soup! Which it tastes good, so no hardship there. 

Meghan, thanks for revolutionizing my nutrient intake. 

Chili - the Real Deal!

So, back home in the US, here was my method for making chili: dump browned hamburger, canned beans, tomato sauce, V8 Juice, and two packets of chili seasoning into a crockpot.

That doesn't translate super well to India.

But my friend Laura created an amaaaaaaaazing chicken chili recipe here that is so good, you'd think you were eating beef chili in America.

I am an eyewitness taster to this chili, and I testify that it is amaaaaaaaazing.

Here's how she did it!

She started with THIS RECIPE and then did the following alterations:

"For the canned tomatoes, I cut (skins on or off, as you prefer) about 12-14 tomatoes into small cubes. I heated them on high unit they boiled, then simmered them for 15 minutes. Add basil, salt, and pepper.

I also added one bay leaf, some smoked chipotle Tabasco sauce, and 1-2 T brown sugar.

And you can add other peppers, or more onions if you want (I like it heavy on the veggies)."

For sake of simplicity, you can pay to buy canned beans from the import section of the grocery store, if available (totally worth it for this chili, if you ask me). Or you can substitute the canned beans with some dried rajma beans that have been cooked and rinsed. 

It was delicious. Now I'm looking for an excuse to have her make it for me again...

One Hour Dinner Rolls

My husband loves bread.

Actually, he claims that all men love bread.

Let's be honest: I also love bread.

However, India is not the land flowing with canned crescent rolls, so having dinner rolls to accompany an everyday dinner takes slightly more effort than popping open a tube and rolling up precut dough triangles. (I am NOT knocking "breads from a tube" - oh how I love them and absolutely plan to use them whenever in America).

I grew up making dinner rolls with my mom from her secret family recipe (actually, it's not a secret. I have no idea where she got it. But we always made them growing up, which makes it seem like a secret family recipe). But from start to finish, those rolls take over 4 hours. Most days, I don't remember 3 hours ahead of time before dinner to mix up some dinner rolls.

But these beauties only take an hour. Yes. ONE HOUR. (Ok, approximately. Your first couple of times making them might take a few minutes longer till you get the hang of it. But "Approximately One Hour Possibly Longer Dinner Rolls doesn't have a nice ring to it.)

Here's what makes these rolls awesome:

1. They only take (approximately) one hour.

2. They have an unbelievably fluffy texture.

3. Melted honey butter. Oh yum.

This recipe has quite a bit of text explaining what I did, and because I'm in a long-winded mood, but feel free to skip right down to the actual recipe.

I of course started with a recipe from Pinterest, and really only had to alter the amount of flour I used. The original recipe said "3 1/2+ cups of flour," and I probably used at least 5. 

{Confession time...I don't actually measure my flour when making bread. *hangs head*  I'm sorry, I know that drives you crazy if you're new to making bread, but I just can't help it. I just know by look and feel when I've reached the appropriate amount of flour. The most recent time I made these I just shook the flour in straight from the bag and didn't even use a measuring cup. I'm feeling almost ashamed admitting this...}

So I'm just going to say 5+ cups of flour.

ALSO, the original recipe called for 2 TBS of active dry yeast, but since I was using rapid rise, I used more like 1-1 1/2 TBS (don't hate me for the approximate amounts!)

First you let the yeast start doing it's thing in the water, sugar, butter, and honey. After sitting for 15 minutes, it will look nice and foamy like this:

Then you start mixing in your egg, salt and flour.

Although I made these the first time using my KitchenAid mixer with the dough hook, like the original recipe instructs, I actually prefer just mixing these by hand. That's how I always made my mom's rolls, old fashioned kneading by hand. I think it's easier to get the dough mixed well and know when the proper amount of flour is added when I can feel it by hand. However, if you didn't grow up making rolls with your mom, you might be intimidated by what "kneading" means (at least I would be, if not for my mom). So I took a very poorly recorded video of me kneading the dough. 

Uh yes, it's really difficult to hold your phone in one hand and knead with the other. I don't recommend it.

Basically for kneading, just picture yourself scooping your fingers underneath the ball of dough, flipping your hand over, and then pushing the dough down with the heel of your hand (is "heel" a term for your hand? You know, the bottom part connected to your wrist). You're continually flipping the dough around and around so the flour gets evenly distributed throughout. 

Rather than letting the dough rise in one big ball, you immediately roll it out into individual rolls and then let them rise for another 25 minutes before baking. 

When I took these pictures, I made 12 giant sized rolls (as per original recipe), but I've subsequently made the recipe into 18 smaller rolls, and I actually preferred the way they turned out that way, so that's what I'd recommend. 

Big giant balls of dough after rising

My friend Meghan (hi, Meghan!) who loves LOVES crescent rolls, said she liked these rolls even better than the crescents we make for Thanksgiving. This is huge, folks. Meaning, you should definitely give these a try!

One Hour Dinner Rolls

Original Recipe

1 - 1 1/2 TBS quick rise yeast

1 cup plus 2 TBS warm (not cold, not hot) water

1/3 cup melted butter

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

5+ cups of flour (maida)

1/4 cup honey + 1/4 cup butter melted together (do this just before baking)

In a large bowl, combine your warm water, yeast, melted butter, honey, and sugar. Give it a stir with a spoon to combine. Let it rest for 15 minutes until it is frothy and foamy. 

Add in your egg, salt, and a couple cups of flour and stir with the spoon. Continue adding additional flour about a half cup at a time until a ball of dough begins to form. Shake a little flour on your spoon and wipe off any dough clinging to the spoon. Knead the dough by hand, continuing to add flour until the dough is a cohesive ball and not sticky at all (it shouldn't have any portions that still stick to your fingers). You'll discover quickly while rolling out the individual rolls if you haven't added enough flour, because it will be too sticky to roll together! If that's the case, throw the rolls back in and knead a bit more flour in.

Spray a cookie sheet (or muffin tins) with cooking spray. Roll the dough into 12-18 rolls, depending how big you want them to be. (My favorite has been when I made 18 rolls, which I had to do on 2 cookie sheets since India ovens are small). Cover with a light towel (or put them in your oven - not turned on) and let rise for 25 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius (400 F). Melt the 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup honey together in the microwave, mix well, and then brush over the tops of the rolls. Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until tops are slightly browned and feel firm to the touch.

Remove from oven, and allow to cool for just a minute before brushing them again with the honey butter mixture. Serve warm and gooey!

BBQ Chicken Sandwich - Alternative Recipes

I've already shared a recipe before to make BBQ Chicken Sandwiches in the Crock Pot, where you make your BBQ sauce from scratch. (recipe here)

But if you're wanting something a little simpler, here are two alternative recipes two of my friends shared with me...ironically both friends are named Christina!

BBQ Chicken Alternative One:

6 chicken breasts, frozen or thawed

1 (12 ounce) bottle of barbecue sauce

1/2 cup Italian salad dressing

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 TBS Worcestershire sauce

Place the chicken in the crock pot. In a bowl, mix the barbecue sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the chicken.

Cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours.

Remove the chicken and shred, then stir back into the sauce. You can shred the chicken an hour before eating and let it simmer in the sauce for the final hour, if you wish.

BBQ Chicken Alternative Two:

4-6 chicken breasts, frozen or thawed

1 (12 ounce) bottle of barbecue sauce

1/4 cup of vinegar

1/4 cup of brown sugar

1/2-1 tsp of garlic powder

Place the chicken in the crock pot. In a bowl, mix all the remaining ingredients together, then pour over the chicken. 

Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours. 

Remove chicken and shred, then return to the sauce to mix together (or just pour the sauce over the chicken).

Serve on toasted hamburger buns! 

Chicken Stuffed with Spinach & Sun Dried Tomatoes

Yesterday I had taken two chicken breasts out of the freezer to thaw with the intention of making some sort of Italian pasta or something for dinner. But when it came around to dinner time, I just didn't feel like making that. 

Instead, I threw this together, and I'm oh so glad I did.

It's chicken stuffed with spinach, sun dried tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese, then breaded and baked to yummy perfection.

If you don't have sun dried tomatoes, you could try it with fresh tomatoes, or some roasted red peppers. 

Chicken Stuffed with Spinach and Sun Dried Tomatoes

2-4 chicken breasts, thawed

Handful of fresh spinach, chopped.

One sun dried tomato per chicken breast

1-2 sticks/chunks per chicken breast of "Pizza Cheese" (or shredded mozzarella if you're in the U.S.)

Salt & pepper

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup of Panko bread crumbs (or regular breadcrumbs, or crushed Monaco crackers)

2 TBS of olive oil

Toothpicks

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius (350 F)

1. Chop your spinach, sun dried tomatoes, and get your cheese ready. Here were my filling ingredients assembled:

This was for 2 pieces of chicken - not quite all the spinach fit

2. Season both sides of the chicken with some salt and pepper. Cut a slit into the sides of the chicken, but don't cut all the way through - creates a pocket to stuff your filling into.

3. Stuff some cheese, chopped spinach and sun dried tomato into each chicken breast. Secure the slit closed with toothpicks.

4. Dip each stuffed chicken breast into the egg, then coat with the Panko bread crumbs. 

5. Heat the oil over medium heat in a pan. Brown the chicken on both sides for about 2 minutes, or just enough to brown and crisp up the Panko. (Skip this step if you're not using Panko).

6. Place the chicken on a foil-lined baking dish that's been sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.

7. Carefully remove the toothpicks before serving!

Lots of Recipe Links

Often times recipes take some adjustments and substitutions to work in India, but sometimes, recipes work fine as is! I figured I'd just create a page of links to recipes that either I love or that friends have sent me that they frequently make, that don't necessarily require a whole post written up with adjustments. So here are a bunch of "linkable" recipes!!

This post will be a living work in progress as people send me other recipe links (or as I discover more), so check back occasionally!

First, some sweet stuff...because I'm definitely a sweets addict:

Granola Bars - I have a pan of these on hand almost all the time. I personally add flax seeds, chia seeds, chopped dried cranberries and chocolate chips, but you could add any combination of mix ins. I make a half recipe, and I like using these Oats Plus instead of just plain oats, because it adds extra texture.

Healthy Breakfast Cookies - y'all, I'm completely obsessed with these cookies. They are so, so, so delicious. And easy. And Healthy(ish?). I probably make them once a week for breakfast, or afternoon snacks :) YOU NEED TO MAKE THESE!!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies - ok, everyone already has their favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I was recently converted to this one. It is the best. The BEST. So chewy, so thick, such perfection. And totally India proof.

Sugar Cookies - my friend Christina makes these, and they're totally yummy!

Biscuits - if you want an alternative to my simple drop biscuits recipe, here's one that Christina uses - she says to make the biscuits big.

Pancakes - I already have 2 pancake recipes on the blog, but here's another alternative that a friend uses.

Syrup - if you need an alternative to the {expensive} American Garden pancake syrup, you can try this butter based syrup. It's very rich, and this makes a lot, so try making half a recipe.

Slow Cooker French Toast Casserole

Homemade Monkey Bread from scratch - this is sweet enough that you don't need the glaze, in my opinion.

French Toast in a Mug

And, some savory entrees:

Italian Chicken Packets - from Lauren

Ginger Sesame Chicken Chopped Salad - from Lauren

Baked Chicken Nuggets - Lauren says you can use blended oatmeal if you don't have breadcrumbs.

Macaroni & Cheese with Dahi - Tessy says everyone should know about this easy, yummy recipe! Use Dahi in place of the Greek yogurt.

Pioneer Woman's Perfect Potato Soup - it really is seriously perfect. The best potato soup I've ever tasted.

Baked Oatmeal Bars

Once a week we have friends over for breakfast, so I'm always on the lookout for delicious, easy breakfast recipes for large groups. These Baked Oatmeal Bars have become my latest go to recipe, esp if I've forgotten to plan something ahead of time, because we always have oatmeal on hand.

I apologize that this is a TERRIBLE picture. Taking the pic was kind of an afterthought in the middle of eating that morning.

The very first time I made this, it didn't really get set, so it was more kind of a semi-set, really thick oatmeal (which also still tasted good). After several tries and tweaks, I finally got it to come out in cut pieces this last time I made it. Three things contributed to this:

1. I used more oatmeal than the recipe calls for (I think because you can only typically find quick oats and not whole oats in India, they don't absorb as much liquid. If you have whole oats you may not have to do this).

2. I used slightly less milk.

3. I cooked it on the stovetop until it was REALLY thick before baking, and baked it for longer in the oven than the recipe called for.

My recipe below reflects all of my adjustments.

Even if you aren't cooking for a crowd, this would still be a great recipe to make and then refrigerate or even maybe freeze pieces of it for quick breakfast throughout the week. You could potentially even bake the mixture in individual muffin cups (ooo, now there's an idea!!).

I also omit the raisins that the original recipe calls for, because I personally detest them. But feel free to stir raisins into the oatmeal mixture after it's thickened. Or, my friend Laura made this once with chopped dried cranberries and chopped walnuts on top instead of chocolate chips. Let your imagination run wild! I'm just a chocaholic. 

Baked Oatmeal Bars

Original Recipe

3 1/2 cups of oats

5 cups of milk

1/2 cup peanut butter

3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup of chocolate chips

(1 cup of raisins, if you like that sort of thing)

Combine the oats, milk, peanut butter, brown sugar, and beaten eggs in a LARGE pot. Mix well and cook the mixture over medium/medium low heat, stirring frequently. My most successful times making this are when I've allowed it to cook on the stove for at least 30 minutes. 

Once the mixture is extremely thick, spread into a greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top.

Bake at 170 degrees Celsius (350 F) for 40-50 minutes, until set. Allow to cool for just a few minutes before serving.

Chicken Pot Pie - Two Ways

Who doesn't love a good chicken pot pie? Talk about comfort food! And sometimes in India, you just need a dose of American comfort food (am I right?!).

Today I'm sharing not one, but two ways you can make chicken pot pie. (Yee haw!)

First I'll share my mom's classic chicken pot pie recipe I've always made, except with a twist - biscuits instead of pie crust. Then I'll share my friend Christina's recipe with the traditional pie crust.

In America, I made chicken pot pie very frequently because 1) it's delicious and 2) it's so darn easy when you can buy remade refrigerated pie crusts and bags of frozen mixed vegetables with carrots, peas, corn and green beans! Simple simple simple.

But although my mom's recipe for the chicken pot pie filling translates easily to India cooking, I was just too lazy to make a from scratch pie crust (three kids, y'all), so I topped it with biscuits instead. Still so delicious!

India also made this even easier lately when my grocery store started carrying these bags of frozen vegetables:

It's a mix of peas, carrots, green beans, and cauliflower. But before using, I sifted through and picked out every piece of cauliflower, because I'm pretty sure there's a law written somewhere that it's illegal to put cauliflower in chicken pot pie. Then I added about 1/3 of frozen corn to the mix. If you can't find these bags of frozen veggies though, you can definitely just use all fresh!

So here's my mama's recipe, topped with biscuits!

Chicken Pot Pie

Thanks, Mom!

2-3 chicken breasts, cooked and cut into cubes (click here for how I get my chicken)

2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables (or fresh, chopped into bite sized pieces - I like peas, carrots, green  beans, and corn, but you can do any other combo)

5 TBS of butter

1/3 cup of flour

1/3 cup of onion, chopped

1 3/4 cups of chicken broth (or one can in the US)

2/3 cup milk

Salt and pepper to taste

A half recipe of biscuit dough (or you can use pie crust)

Prepare your biscuit dough and set aside in the fridge.

1. In a sauce pan or very large sauté pan, melt the butter with the onion over medium heat. Allow the onions to cook a few minutes until they're soft (because crunchy onions in chicken pot pie = no ma'am). 

2. Sprinkle the flour into the melted butter and add a semi-generous amount of salt and pepper. Stir and allow to cook for a couple of minutes to cook off the flour flavor.

3. Remove the pan from the heat, and pour the chicken broth and milk into the pan and stir to combine. 

4. Return the pan to the flame and heat to a boil, then allow to boil 1-2 minutes till the mixture thickens.

5. Stir in the cooked chicken and vegetables.

The filling mixture

6. Spray a 9x9 (or equivalent sized) baking dish with cooking spray or butter, then pour the pot pie filling into the pan.

7. Drop large spoonfuls of the biscuit dough over the top of the filling, leaving little bits of space for it to expand as it cooks. (Or, top with a pie crust and cut slits in the center) If you want the biscuits to get really browned on top, you can brush them with an egg white (I did not do that in my recipe pictured).

Prior to baking

8. Bake at 215 degrees Celsius for 25-30 minutes or until the filling is bubbly and the biscuits are set (or the pie crust is browned). Enjoy!

And now, here's your Chicken Pot Pie Alternative, courtesy of Christina!

Chicken Pot Pie, Take Two

Christina said that instead of a whole chicken, she uses a 1 lb package of chicken breasts, and then the recipe yields a 9.5 inch deep pie pan or a 9x9 square pan - you'd need to double it for a 9x13. So you would just need a single pie crust to top it with unless you want to line the bottom with a pie crust also.

How to Cook Chicken to Use in Recipes

A lot of chicken recipes call for the chicken to be already cooked and shredded/cubed. What are the best ways to cook the chicken prior to using in these recipes?

I'm sharing my two favorite ways today!

Method One: In the Crock Pot 

(aka my most favorite method ever)

Obviously for this method, you need a crock pot. If you're living and cooking in India, I would totally recommend spending the money to invest in a Crock Pot - total, total life saver. And since Amazon.in has revolutionized what's available in India, you can actually find several different models. Just do a quick search on Amazon.in for crock pots and there are lots to choose from.

Instructions:

Put your chicken in the crock pot (I usually put mine in straight from frozen). Pour in enough (filtered) water to mostly cover the chicken breasts. Cook on low for 7-8 hours, or on high for 4-6 hours (if the chicken is thawed, you could prob reduce the cooking time by an hour or two).

You can cook the chicken in just straight up water, but you also have a great opportunity to add flavor by cooking it all day with seasoning. I always at the very least throw in two to three chicken cubes to make the water chicken broth.

No need to dissolve the chicken cubes in the water before hand - just plop them right in and they'll dissolve as it cooks all day.

You can also add in any kind of seasoning that will pair well with your recipe - I most frequently add fajita seasoning to use in Mexican dishes, but you could also add a packet of taco seasoning, or you could add some Italian seasoning, or lemon pepper, or some rosemary/thyme/oregano...go crazy with it! I typically cook the chicken in the seasoning and then also add just a little bit more to the chicken after I've shredded it.

After the chicken is done cooking, remove it from the Crock Pot and shred. If I only have a couple of chicken breasts, I'll just shred it with two forks, but if I'm doing a lot of chicken, I love to shred it in my KitchenAid mixer.

Does the job in like less than a minute! I usually add a couple spoonfuls of the water from the Crock Pot in with the chicken when I shred it in the mixer. You can also use a hand mixer for the same results.

Like I said, this is my favorite way to cook chicken, because you throw it in the Crock Pot, forget about it for hours, and come back to very moist, well seasoned chicken ready for your recipe!

Method Two: "Boiling"

I put the word boiling in quotation marks, because really it's better to not fully boil chicken, because it makes it turn out tough (I know this because of Google...mostly everything I learned about cooking came from my mom, the Food Network, and Google. When you don't know something, just Google it). You want to gently "poach" it instead.

Instructions:

Bring a pot of water to boil (add in some chicken cubes if you want extra flavor). Then gently drop your THAWED (not frozen) chicken breasts into the water. Turn the heat down to where it's more of a simmer vs. a rolling boil (a few bubbles should pop up to the surface here and there, but not a rolling boil like you use with pasta). Cook for about 12-15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and not pink when you cut into it. You may need more time if you're doing more than just 2 or 3 chicken breasts. Or you can cut them into smaller pieces to cook more quickly.

Remove the chicken and either shred it or cut it into cubes.

The other bonus of these two cooking methods is that if your recipe calls for chicken broth, you can use the liquid you cooked the chicken in instead of boiling a chicken cube in water (or cracking open a can of chicken broth in the U.S.). 

That's it friends! Perfectly cooked chicken ready for your favorite recipes.

Million Dollar Spaghetti

This is a recipe that I saw floating around on Pinterest for awhile, but after reading it, I abandoned it as an option for India since it called for cream cheese and cottage cheese.

But lucky for us, my friend Christina figured out how to India-fy this one and it is so delicious!

It's rich and oh so cheesy - a crowd pleaser for sure!

So here's Christina with her Million Dollar Spaghetti method!

Million Dollar Spaghetti

Original Recipe

Serves 6-8 people

• 1 lb of Chicken Keema

• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce - or I make my own (instructions below)

• 8 oz of cream cheese or a similar substitute

• ¼ cup dahi

• 1 cup (200 grams) of paneer; you can either crumble it by hand or shred it and it will cook up great!

• ½ cup butter (1 stick) - this is just approximate, no need to measure it out, you’ll just be adding slices of butter as you go

• 1 pkg spaghetti 16 oz - this equals about 500 g

• Grated "Pizza Cheese", or gouda cheese, or a combination of the two.

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Boil your spaghetti noodles until al dente (firm). Drain and set aside until ready to assemble. Be careful not to let the noodles clump together when cooking. You can really taste this in the dish once it’s all done. If they do clump together when cooking, go ahead and separate them out as best you can by hand or with a fork.
2. Combine the cream cheese, dahi, and crumbled paneer until well blended. If any of your ingredients here are too hard to blend, you can put these in the microwave for a little bit of time. It will soften them and make everything easier to mix together.
3. Brown your chicken keema and combine with spaghetti sauce.
4. Put a few slices of butter into a 9x13 pan then pour half of your spaghetti noodles on top.
5. Take your cream cheese mixture and pour on top of the noodles. Spread well over noodles. If the consistency is too tough to spread, you can add a little more dahi to thin the mixture out a bit.
6. Pour the rest of the noodles on top of the cream cheese mixture. Put a few more slices of butter on top of the noodles.
7. Pour your spaghetti and meat sauce on top of your noodles. I like to make sure to cover all the noodles with sauce. If you don’t, then the ones that don’t get covered with get really crispy in the oven.
8. Now it is ready to put into the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, pour the desired amount of grated cheese on top and return to the oven for 15 minutes to allow cheese to melt.

Instructions for Homemade Spaghetti Sauce:

In a skillet on medium heat, combine 2-3 boxes of tomato puree, 1-2 teaspoons sugar (sugar takes the bite off the tomato sauce; start with one tsp and add more if necessary), a fair amount of garlic powder, onion powder, basil and oregano. Also add water to dilute the thickness if necessary. Different brands of tomato puree in India have different levels of thickness. You want your sauce not as thick as marinara but not too thin either. Let this simmer on the heat for about five minutes or so. The longer you cook it, the more water will evaporate out, so if your sauce starts out too thin, cook it longer. If you like the consistency as it, don’t leave it cooking for too long. 

Cheese mixture

Meat/sauce mixture

Yumminess