Cream of Mushroom Mushroom Chicken Mk2

In the last post I'd alluded to how there might be more to come, with buying 2 packages of chicken, but only using one, and two separate moments of inspiration.  As you may have guessed, this recipe is pretty much the same as the preceding one, but following the soup's instructions for making soup in order to turn it into actual soup.

Ingredients:

1 package Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts approx 1.5lb

1 lb package Whole Mushrooms

1 26oz can Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 26ox can Water

Instructions:

Grease a Large sized fryingpan and laugh to yourself about how young and dumb you were a few days ago

Chop the chicken

Begin cooking chicken over medium heat

Wash and chop mushrooms

Add mushrooms to chicken

Continue cooking
Pour condensed soup and water into a pot
Bring to a boil
Add the chicken and mushrooms to the pot
Simmer
Serve with a side salad

This, much like the preceding recipe, turned out decently.  This combination makes a decent soup, but much like the non-soup version, it was a bit on the bland side.  It was actually a bit more bland than the non-soup, because more of the flavor came from the soup rather than the chicken and mushrooms.  Adding a bit of cheese and hot sauce goes a long way when eating this soup.  Of the two, I think I preferred the non-soup version.

Cream of Mushroom Mushroom Chicken MK1

I was at the store the other day and realized that they had packages of boneless skinless chicken breasts (which I then double checked to ensure they weren't split chicken breasts) BOGO.  So I did.  But that left me with having to figure out what I was going to do with about 3 lbs of chicken.  Inspiration hit me when I saw the family sized cans of condensed soup.  Further inspiration hit me when I remembered my friend who didn't realize that you were supposed to add water to condensed soup and was complaining about how salty it was.

Ingredients:

1 package Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts approx 1.5lb

1 lb package Whole Mushrooms

1 26oz can Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 steamable bag Frozen Asparagus (or other vegetable)

Instructions:

Grease a normal sized fryingpan

Chop the chicken

Begin cooking chicken over medium heat

Wash mushrooms roughly so they break into 3 pieces or so

Add mushrooms to chicken

Realize that this pan isn't big enough for the both of them

Haphazardly pour the contents of the pan into a larger pan

Continue cooking

Wash first pan

Continue cooking

Realize the beeping you're hearing means it's time to move clothes from the washer to the dryer

Remove from heat

Leave briefly

Return, turn on heat, and stir chicken and mushrooms together

Pour in the can of soup, but don't add the can of water the instructions for the can seem to think they need

Turn heat to high to reduce the condensed soup/chicken-mushroom juice

Microwave the asparagus

Remove mixture from heat

With a slotted spoon, serve chicken and mushrooms in a wreath of asparagus

This turned out decently.  Chicken and mushrooms mix reasonably well, and cream of mushroom soup is a good option for making a creamier version of the dish.  Most of the flavor of the dish comes from the chicken and mushrooms themselves rather than the soup.  This actually could have used some more spices, as it wound up a bit on the bland side, but it's a good starting point for a recipe, and it's pretty easy to add other ingredients to in order to get a different taste.

Breakfast Burrito Roulette

Breakfast burritos are not only potentially my favorite type of burrito, but they also might by my favorite type of breakfast.  They are all around great.  Adding some salsa and wrapping them together adds way more to sausage and eggs than what the salsa brings to the table on it's own.  So, how to improve such a simple yet excellent recipe?  Adding risk.

Ingredients:

1 dozen Eggs

1 package Precooked (or not) Sausage Links

1 jar Medium Pace Picante Sauce

1lb bag Shredded Cheese (I used medium cheddar)

2 packages Soft Shell Taco Tortillas

3 (or more) Salsas

1/4 stick of butter

Instructions:

Cut sausage into bite-sized pieces

Melt butter in a large pan

Add sausage to the pan and cook for a bit

Add eggs, stirring frequently

Pour in half the jar of picante sauce

Continue stirring until eggs are fully cooked

Remove from heat

Ensure that the tortillas aren't cold

(For each tortilla)

Add a layer of cheese

Spoon the egg mixture onto the tortilla

Add a spoonful of one of the other salsas

Roll into a burrito

Group burritos by salsa

Add the burritos to freezer bags

Since the burritos are grouped by salsa it's possible to ensure that each bag has different salsas

Shuffle the bags and freeze

This worked out incredibly well.  I managed to make 18 burritos, which translated to several bags worth of breakfasts (and a dinner or two).  Even without the additional salsas, this is an excellent breakfast burrito recipe, but the extra salsa provide some variety, and not knowing which one you're going to get adds a little excitement.

Speaking of the salsas, I used a craft beer salsa, a jalapeno salsa, and a ghost pepper salsa.  The jalapeno salsa I'd had before and was a big fan of.  The craft beer salsa was something that I hadn't had before, but seemed like it'd be different enough from the other two that I would be able to tell, and I wound up really enjoying it.  The ghost pepper salsa I'd gotten once before and knew that only bad things would come of it.

That said, the trick to this recipe is spooning enough of the salsa into the burrito to be able to recognize it, but not so much as to overpower the rest of the burrito.  This is fairly easy to do, and as long as you use enough to be able to see it before you wrap it, but don't smother the eggs, it should work out ok.  When you hit the balance, you'll be able to enjoy more flavorful salsas without being overwhelmed by a hotter salsa, though you will still be able to feel when you've picked them.

There are a couple of things that I would do differently about this.  When I was adding the eggs to the pan I realized that they were starting to cook faster than I was able to crack them.  To try to catch up I began to rush on the eggs, resulting in pieces of shell falling into the mixture several times.  To rectify this I'd crack all the eggs into a bowl while the sausage is cooking and pour them all in at once.  The salsa could probably be added to this step as well.  I might also split up wrapping and bagging into several cycles.  This would avoid the awkward stack of burritos, and break up the monotony, even if it is a bit less efficient.  The 1lb bag of cheese is also overkill.

This is a recipe that I can strongly recommend.  It's incredibly easy to make, doesn't require all that many ingredients, and makes the next several mornings way better.  I wouldn't necessarily recommend using the same salsas as I did though, as everyone has their own tolerance for heat and flavor preferences.  The important thing is to have 3(ish) salsas that you'll (probably) enjoy that you'll be able to differentiate.  I would recommend one of them being a bit outside of your comfort zone so there is a sense of risk added to the burritos.

Green Rice Under Eggy L-fredo

There's certain things that have a rule of thumb for cooking.  One such thing is rice, which you typically cook with 1.5-2x water to rice.  However, we're going to ignore that and see if we can make it a bit differently.  

Ingredients:

1 cup Rice

1 cup Water

2 Eggs

1/4 bottle Jalapeno Salsa

1 jar Alfredo Sauce

Instructions:

Add rice and water to a pan and cook on medium heat

When the water has been absorbed/evaporated stir in eggs

Stir occasionally until eggs are cooked

Stir in salsa and cook for a minute

Add alfredo

Increase heat to reduce the alfredo

Stir occasionally to avoid burning

Remove from heat when the alfredo has reduced

This didn't turn out at all the way that I'd intended for it to.  To the point that while I had been initially been planning on naming this entry "Poorly Fried Rice with a Jalapeno Alfredo Finish", but after seeing the final result I realized that I should name it something more representative of the final product, and the fact that it looks like porridge, or gruel.  The poorly designation from the original name is still applicable though.  I'd been hoping that some of the alfredo's liquidity would be absorbed into the rice while I was reducing it, but I'm pretty sure that it mostly just evaporated, as the rice was still a bit on the harder side.  The flavor was pretty good though, with the salsa providing a bit more kick to the meal.

I probably could have used more eggs though, because while I could occasionally taste the eggs, they weren't spread throughout the dish in a consistent manner.  If I were to make this again I think that I would use about half as much sauce, and mix it into the water before cooking the rice to get it in earlier on.  I'd also use a proper amount of water.

Pork Zucchini Smash

I made a full loin's worth of Mesquite-O Bites for two holiday parties that I attended this winter.  They went over decently well at both events, but afterwards I was left with a bunch of pieces of excess pork that weren't quite big enough to warrant their own cracker.

Ingredients:

1 container leftover Mesquite Porkloin Pieces

1 package 4 Cheese Mashed Potatoes

4 cups of water

1 bag Frozen Zucchini Slices

Instructions:

Add Zucchini to a pan and begin cooking

Boil 4 cups of water

Remove from heat

Stir Mashed Potatoes into boiling water

Reheat Pork

Combine the Zucchini and Pork into Potatoes

This worked out pretty well.  The overall ratio of ingredients was a bit heavier on the potatoes and lighter on the pork than what I'd have gone for had I been making the recipe for itself rather than for getting rid of some leftover pork.  I suppose I could have separated some of the potatoes out before putting the other ingredients in, but it's a bit hard to gauge that when staring into the depths of a stockpot.  The pork and zucchini worked fairly well mixed into the potatoes, but I'm not sure that this is a meal I'd make again.

Swamp Gas Chicken

This had been intended to be Ginger Ale Chicken, but after I mixed the mix, it looked like something out of a swamp, so I opted to run with that.  Anyways, I'd been planning on using my crockpot for a while, and one of the things it does well is shredded chicken.  Also beer brats.  I might have remade the beer brats, but with the onion on bottom, and including the pepper on top.  The onion actually cooked this time, but the pepper sorta dissolved.  Anyways, back to the chicken.

Ingredients:

1 package Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

1 12oz bottle of Ginger Ale

1 tblspoon Chili Powder

1 tblspoon Ground Cumin

1 tblspoon Ground Mustard

1 tblspoon Minced Garlic

Instructions:

Mix spices into ginger ale

Place chicken into a crock pot

Pour swamp gas mixture over the chicken

Cook on Low for 8 hours

Remove chicken from the crockpot and shred with a potato smasher

This turned out better than I'd expected.  The swamp gas mixture gave the chicken a slightly sweet flavor, with a bit of a kick to go along with it.  Despite the shredding of the chicken, it was still a bit drier than I'd been hoping, but this was probably due to the fact that I didn't add it back to the crockpot after I'd shredded it.  On the subject of shredding it, the potato masher did an exemplary job of shredding the chicken.  It was a bit slow going at first, but after progressing past the "skin" that formed around the chicken after stewing  for several hours, it was easy going.  By the end of the mashing, it had a granularity somewhere between where I start fork shredding and when I finish fork shredding, but it also took considerably less time, so I'd say this is a pretty solid shredding methodology.

Boozy Mac and Ham

Knowing that I was going to have plenty of leftover ham from the innards of the bowls I decided to take steps in order to ensure that I'd have some way to use it.  And by that I mean I saw that boxes of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese were on sale and thought to myself, "ham is kinda like hot dogs, so ham and mac & cheese should go together like hot dogs and mac & cheese".  Thus the seeds for the third meal from that grocery store trip were planted.

Ingredients:

1 box Kraft Macaroni & Cheese

6 cups of Water

1/4 cup Butter

1/4 cup Milk

1 bag of Ham Scoopings

1 container Pepper/Onion Medley

1 container Beer Brat Onions

Instructions:

Bring water to a boil

Add ham and noodles

Cook for 7 minutes

Drain

Add cheese packet, butter, milk, and vegetables

Stir until even

This turned out more or less the way I'd planned it.  When boiled into the macaroni, the ham was similar (though somewhat fancier) than the hot dogs it was intended to replace.  The onions and peppers and onions weren't an intended part of this, but they worked well with it.  The onions from the beer brats gave the dish a slight beery flavor, which worked in the end.  They were still a bit on the hard side, but that was a problem with the earlier recipe, rather than this one.