So Good and Healthy Chicken and Wild Rice!

Lemon Pepper Chicken in Wild Rice

Delicious savory breast of chicken seasoned with Lemon Pepper and added to Wild Rice.

For the chicken:

5 to 6 good size non-breaded frozen chicken tenderlions

1 tablespoon olive oil

Lemon Pepper Seasoning

Sea Salt (if Lemon Pepper does NOT contain salt.)

In medium skillet, add olive oil and frozen chicken tenderloins.  Cook on medium low until bottom is white.  Turn chicken and sprinkle Lemon Pepper Seasoning, (and sea salt if seasoning doesn’t contain salt), on just the one side and continue cooking on medium low, turning when chicken starts browning and until it is totally white in the center.  Cut chicken into small bite size pieces and set aside.

For the Wild Rice:

1 cup unseasoned Wild Rice (I use Bob’s Red Mill Wild and Brown Rice)

2 1/2 cups filtered water

2 teaspoons Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base

1 teaspoon powdered Thyme

1 tablespoon Organic Butter

In a medium heavy enameled dutch oven, with a heavy fitted lid, add filtered water and the Chicken Base together with the butter and Thyme.  Bring to a rolling boil and add the Wild Rice.  Stir well with a fork and reduce heat to simmer and add lid.  Set a timer for 45 minutes.

At about 30 minutes after Wild Rice has been cooking, remove lid and check to see if the rice is absorbing water.  If it isn’t absorbing well enough turn the eye of the stove up one notch and ADD your cooked chicken.  Place the lid back on and continue cooking another 15 minutes.  Continue checking rice for ALL the liquid to be absorbed.  This may take an hour or so for the wild and brown rice to absorb all of the liquid and to be tender.  Test by tasting for tenderness.  Once all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, turn off the eye of the stove and let the rice rest for 10 minutes.

Serve with your favorite steamed vegetables or side salad.  Bon Appetit!

White Chicken Chili With Broth

Ingredients

1 large sweet onion, chopped

4 large cloves garlic, chopped

3 Tbsp. olive oil

6 C. chicken broth (6 cups water, and 6 teaspoons, Organic Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base)

3 (15 oz.) cans Great Northern beans, drained

4 C. cooked chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces

3 4 oz. can diced green chiles

2 tablespoons, ground cumin

Handful of jarred jalapeños

Garnish: sour cream or plain yogurt, shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

• In a large pot over medium heat, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until tender. 
• Stir in remaining ingredients except garnish.
• Bring to a low boil, stirring frequently.
• Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Top each bowl with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of cheese. 
• Serve with Blue Corn tortilla chips

OMGosh, What To Cook!?!

This is the proverbial question I ask myself almost every single day, except for the times when we order Chinese food take-out, or the special occasions when we go visiting the kids or family.  Of course, the first question I ask myself is what meat do I have, OR do I want to use meat?  From there, I start looking through the pantry and fridge to see what I have on hand.  Sometimes, like when I made this recipe, I wing it and create as I go.  So, I threw this together and was pleasantly surprised on how good it tasted!  Now I would like some of you to try it and see what you think.  It is an easy recipe that makes about 8 burritos that can be seasoned to taste, and garnished with whatever you like!   Olé  :D

Chicken and Black Bean Burrito

Ingredients:

6 strips of Tyson's frozen boneless, skinless chicken tenders

4 tablespoons EVOO (extra virgin olive oil, cold pressed)

McCormick's Taco Seasoning

1 can Bush's Seasoned Black Beans (drained)

1 medium bell pepper, chopped

1 medium sweet onion, chopped

3 large cloves garlic, minced

1 cup filtered water

1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon Chicken base

1 cup Minute Rice

Flour Tortilla shells, heated

Garnish with whatever you like;  Salsa, Taco Bell's Taco Sauce or Hot Sauce, Sour Cream or plain Greek Yogurt, Cheddar cheese or Monterey Jack with Jalapeño pepper cheese, black olives, chopped tomatoes,  Guacamole and shredded lettuce.

Directions:

In a large skillet, add 2 tablespoons of the Olive Oil and frozen chicken tenders.  Cook on medium until chicken is white on bottom, turning and seasoning with Taco Seasoning.  Season on other side once chicken is good and white, then turn down on low and allow to simmer until center is white.  Pull chicken into small strips and set aside.

In separate saucepan bring to a boil 1 cup filtered water.  Add the chicken base stirring until base is blended.  Add Minute Rice and stir with fork until rice is saturated.  Once water has boiled, turn off heat allowing rice to absorb broth.  (about 10 minutes)

In same skillet, add more Olive Oil and minced garlic allowing garlic to simmer only for a few seconds, then add the onions and bell pepper.  Simmer until onion is clear.  Add the drained black beans and cooked chicken, simmering until both are hot.  Combine the rice and chicken mixture while heating flour tortillas, in conventional oven or in microwave.

Add a couple of heaping large spoonfuls along center of hot flour tortilla garnishing with Taco Sauce, cheese and anything else you desire on a burrito, then fold it up like diapering a baby. 

Authentic Louisiana Shrimp Creole

I am making my Mother's very old and original Louisiana recipe for Shrimp Creole. I typed it up just as she had copied it from her Louisiana cookbook, but I had to really tweak the roux. Sheesh! It calls for LARD and flour to make a rich roux and so I substituted the lard for coconut oil. I wasn't able to make as rich of a roux because of the substitution. Oh well, hopefully it will be good though! 

Here's the recipe if anyone is interested:

Shrimp Creole
(Ruth Dial Westbrook's recipe from Louisiana)

Make a good rich roux:

One large tablespoon of lard and one of flour; into this put two onions, two cloves of garlic, one large bell pepper, two teaspoons of parsley, chopped fine; stir till onion browns slightly, then add a large can of tomatoes.

Season highly with one half teaspoon of red pepper, salt, two bay leaves, one-third teaspoon of celery seeds and one quarter teaspoon of powdered thyme.

Now add two pounds of raw, shelled shrimp and cover. Let all cook slowly for an hour, preferably in an old-fashioned iron pot; but a heavy new pot will do, if the cover fits tightly.

Half an hour before serving, add two teaspoons of Worchestershire sauce. Do not add water, as the juice from the tomatoes and shrimp is enough.

This is a fine dish served with white rice cooked dry.

RDW 2/25/75

Smoked Turkey Legs with Collards Greens .... Mmmmm good!

No more oink oink for me!  These collards cooked in smoked turkey legs broth are better than the pork version I use to make!  Yeee hawwww!  Good vittles, I tell ya! =D

Ingredients:

2-3 pounds of smoked meats; neck bones, turkey legs, riblets etc.  ( I use 2 large smoked turkey legs)

I large stock pot

Water to cover turkey legs

8-12 bunches of collard greens or 4 lbs. chopped, cleaned and bagged from grocery store. ;)

garlic powder  (about 1 Tablespoon)

1 1/2 cups white cooking wine

8 Texas Pete tabasco peppers without the juice. 

Directions:

Fill to cover turkey legs in a large stock pot with cold water and add your smoked turkey legs or smoked meat.  (You might have to add water from time to time if it drops below the legs.)
Cook over a medium flame for 4 hours or until meat is falling off the bone.  Remove skin off the legs about midway into cooking them, with tongs and a small knife.

If you have freshly picked collards, while you are waiting for the meat to cook, pick through your greens by removing the stems and cutting the leaves to the size you like them.  (I like to leave them big because greens do shrink up.)  Rinse them well to remove any dirt or sand.

When meat is done, remove both turkey legs and strip all the meat and set aside.  Discard all the bones.

Add the greens slowly to your turkey broth until all greens are in.  They will be heaping up but keep cooking them and pressing them down with a wooden spoon.  Once they are submerged into the broth, pour the cooking wine over them and add the turkey meat back in along with the garlic granules and Tabasco peppers.  Carefully blend everything together and boil on a medium/low heat for another 1-2 hours.

Don't forget to make a cake of my Tweaked (to hell and back) Southern Cornbread to go along with those greens!  =D

Mmmmm, mmmmmm good!!

My Tweaked (to hell and back) Southern Style Cornbread

Not so very long ago, I always made my southern style corn bread just like my grandmother made hers, who had passed down the recipe to my mother, who gave me the recipe. And all was well ... that is, I thought all was well.  You see, REAL southern style cornbread did not contain ANY flour whatsoever, and it was made from WHITE corn ONLY, not yellow corn ... EVER.  Along with the constraints of the type of cornmeal used, we also had to use only Perkerson's Stone Ground White Cornmeal, (not self rising), to make the perfect cake of cornbread or corn sticks.

There were other factors that also played a big part in whether your cornbread was a good cake or not.  You had to use a well seasoned black iron skillet, or you could use corn stick irons, and always, let me stress ALWAYS, fresh bacon drippings, and fresh whole buttermilk.  Those were the basic ingredients that would determine whether your cornbread was exceptional or not.

In 2008, with the radical very negative changes in our economic system, <cough>, that caused so many businesses to go under, Perkerson's Cornmeal fell prey to it all and went out of business.  I tried my best to find an exceptional cornmeal to replace what had been for years, a household name in my family, but I was unable to find a substitute that I liked.  I just could not imagine eating turnip greens, collard greens, mustard greens, and beans without a cake of my grandmother's cornbread made by me and with all those wonderful ingredients.  This really had me bothered, but I wasn't going to let these changes keep me from enjoying foods that I loved.

So, after lots of experimenting and tweaking, and research on healthy choices, I came up with a cake of cornbread I can live with.  It does not have the good ol' flavor that my grandmother's and mother's cornbread had, because I have stopped using bacon drippings in my cornbread now, which was part of what made the flavor so good.  I still use whole buttermilk though, and a brand that has NO guar gum or gums of any kind in it.  Just pure wholesome ingredients is all.

Anyway, I never could find in our area a plain stone ground cornmeal that I liked, so to keep from pulling what's left of my hair out, I finally settled for using White Lily's Cornmeal ... MIX.  <cringe>  There, I said it!  It even has flour in it too!!  <really laughing out loud here>  Okay, okay, I know this was a HUGE change for me, but what's a mother to do when things are changing so fast out there?  I at least can still laugh about it, and will continue to eat the foods I love with a cake of my Tweaked (to hell and back) Southern Style Cornbread that I can say with no doubt, is better for ya than using bacon drippings!  :o

By the way, this cornbread is enjoyed so much more if you dunk it in the pot likker.  Now if you don't know what pot likker is, then you don't have any business eating cornbread!  LOL!

Ingredients:

2 cups White Lily Buttermilk Cornmeal Mix (self rising)
1 egg beaten
1 1/2 cups Whole Buttermilk (without any gums or other additives!)
1/4 cup olive oil (EVOO)
1 8" or 9" well seasoned iron skillet, (or iron corn stick pan), greased with coconut oil, (not shortening!)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees:

Grease liberally your skillet with the solidified coconut oil and place in the oven to melt while the oven is preheating.

In a small glass bowl, beat one egg and set aside.

Pour your Cornmeal mix into a medium size mixing bowl, and add the buttermilk, the olive oil, and beaten egg.  Stir lightly.  This batter is suppose to be lumpy so don't over stir it.  Once oven is preheated, take out the hot skillet.

Pour batter into your hot iron skillet and listen to the sizzle!  Okay, now place the skillet in the oven and cook for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven.  Take a butter knife and run it around the outside of the cake loosening it from the sides of the skillet.  Once you get it loose, turn it onto a 10" plate and serve with your greens and beans!  It's even good with a bowl of homemade vegetable soup.  I have the best recipe for Smoked Turkey Legs and Collard Greens that goes perfectly with this cornbread, so check it out also!

~Enjoy~

Venison Sausage Dirty Rice

I came up with this recipe having one package of hot venison sausage left in my freezer.  This particular batch was very salty, so instead of using it for breakfast, I needed to come up with a recipe that diluted the high content of salt that was added.  Using Minute Rice instead of regular makes it easy to add as much rice as you want.  I used 2 cups of rice and 2 cups of chicken base to a pound of venison sausage.  The venison sausage gives the Dirty Rice a wonderful flavor and is so much healthier than using pork sausage and hamburger meat.  Also, this recipe is a quick easy fix for lunch or dinner, and is easy enough for you guys to prepare as well!  ;)

Ingredients:

    •    2 cups enriched rice (cooked Minute Rice)
    •    2 cups chicken stock (2 tsp. Better Than Bouillon chicken base, to 2 cups water)
    •    4 cloves minced garlic
    •    1 1/2 cups diced white onion
    •    1 cup diced green bell pepper
    •    2 tablespoons olive oil
    •    1 teaspoon dried thyme
    •    1 bay leaf
    •    1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
    •    1 pound ground spicy hot venison sausage
   
Directions:

 In a large pot, add chicken stock, or use water plus bouillon. Bring to a boil, add Minute Rice and turn off the burner, then cover and let the rice absorb all of the chicken stock.  (about 15 minutes.)

While the rice is absorbing the liquid, cook the ground venison sausage, and drain off all the fat.  Put the sausage in a glass bowl and set aside.

Saute garlic, onions and bell peppers in olive oil until soft. Add to rice, once rice has absorbed all liquids.  Season the rice with thyme, bay leaf and cayenne pepper, (optional).  Add cooked venison.  Stir all together and serve.


Enjoy~