Feast 4 Four

Last night Ad and I trekked it to the “burbs” to go see my friend Erin and her husband’s fabulous new casa! Erin and I had been talking about cooking together for a while now, so I searched for a recipe that would be fun to make and even more fun to eat, which thankfully kept me occupied for a giant chunk of my workday. I came across what looked like a yummy enchilada recipe and immediately thought “enchiladas + Mexican beer = GREAT SUCCESS!” So the men took a load off and enjoyed some brews and basketball, while Erin and I threw on some frilly aprons (!!) and cranked out a marvelous Mexican meal:

We bad, we know it.

I expected greatness from the recipe and it definitely delivered. I think there was a teeny bit left in the pan, but we pretty much wiped it out. I got the recipe from www.foodnetwork.com, followed some of the recommendations in the reviews, and tried to make it my own. It definitely took a lot longer than expected, but I’m going to attribute that to chit-chatting and brew guzzling with a good friend, which is always time well spent…

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Sanchiladas*

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts — shredded
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (4-ounce) can diced green chiles
• 1 can of corn
• 1 can red enchilada sauce (We used Hatch brand fire roasted red sauce)
• 1/3 cup prepared salsa, mild, medium or hot
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh  cilantro leaves
• 4 (8-inch) flour tortillas (I think we actually used around 6)
• 1 1/3 cups shredded Monterey jack and or Cheddar (We put some more on there…a little more cheese never hurt nobody!)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute 2 minutes. Add chicken and saute until golden brown and cooked through. Remove chicken, carefully shred (hot!), and then put back in the skillet. 

Stir in black beans, green chiles, corn, and salsa and simmer 5 minutes, until sauce thickens and reduces. Remove from heat and stir in the cilantro.

Arrange tortillas in a baking dish. Put a little bit of cheese in each tortilla, and then top each with an equal amount of chicken mixture. Roll up tortillas and then evenly pour the enchilada sauce over them, followed by lots and lots of shredded cheese

Bake enchiladas 15-20 minutes, until cheese is golden and gooey! Enjoy!

(Taken w/ my superphone…not my supercamera)

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Definitely planning on making this again, it was super simple and satisfying. Maybe I’ll make it for the fam when I go home next week…hmmm. Well, next time I might add some jalapeños to give it a little more kick, but I don’t think I’d change much else. Erin made a really great spinach salad with oranges and walnuts and some Spanish rice as well. Yummmm. Overall it was great night and I’m loving the new house, Erin! Next time we’re bringing a slip ‘n slide…that awesome backyard is just asking for it

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* So one of my nicknames is Sanch, given to me by my lovely college girlfriends. It’s the worst nickname ever and I’m so glad it stuck. It is, however, an excellent name for an enchilada. I’ll give it that. 

Gonna Make You Sweat!

 

In a perfect world, the photo above would be of Adam ready to take on the chili we made last night, sporting a sweet sweatband to block his spicy food sweat so he can focus on the task at hand. GAME ON, CHILI! Sadly, neither of us had a sweatband available. Truly unfortunate. Regardless, our game faces were on to make our best and hottest turkey chili yet!

The weather in Houston has been pretty yucky this week. While I’m missing my daily run outside, I’m welcoming with open arms cozy meals that are perfect for a rainy night. Chili is, in my opinion, the king of this food category. The last turkey chili we made could have used a little more kick, so this time around we made sure to add a little somethin’ to turn up the heat. 

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Adventure #2: Chilly Night 30-Minute Turkey Chili

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, chopped (leave some left over as a topper)

5 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tbsp kosher salt

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tbsp tomato paste

4 chipotle chiles en adobo, chopped, with one tbsp of sauce

1 jalapeño, chopped

1 lb. ground turkey

1 Mexican beer (We went with a Corona light)

1 can whole peeled tomatoes

2 cans of kidney beans, rinsed and drained

Pepper jack cheese, grated

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, salt, chili powder, and oregano and cook, stirring until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and the chipotle chile and sauce, and cook about 1 minute more. Add the turkey, breaking it up with your stirring spoon, and cook until the meat loses its raw color. Add the jalapenos while stirring. Add the beer and simmer until reduced by about half. Add the tomatoes, crushing them through your fingers into the skillet, and then add the beans. Bring to a boil, and then cook uncovered until thick. This will take around 10 minutes or so.

Garnish with your toppers of choice. We went with the onion we set aside, some yummy pepper jack cheese, and paired it with 2 cold Heineken Lights:

This chili was a total success! Next time I vote even more heat, and I’ll make sure to have some sweatbands on hand

 

I Yam Who I Yam

Okay, okay so a sweet potato isn’t REALLY a yam*, but that sweet line stolen from SAT prep back in the day still makes me giggle (dorky, I know)**. Nothing says fall food for me like sweet potatoes. Mash ‘em, bake ‘em, whatever you want to do — they’re all kinds of excellent. While living in Houston, Texas leaves much to be desired as far as fall weather goes, enjoying a delectable fall dish is a must this time of year…even if it is 78° outside (yuck!).

 I’ll admit that I need to chill out on the iPhone usage, but this time my addiction led to a fabulous meal. Well done, superphone! I found our next cooking adventure on a sweet app called BigOven, which is also a website you can find on my links. So we trekked out to Central Market to have meal number one (free samples = a good time) and grab some key ingredients. We left full and happy and ready to cook up a storm.

Adventure Number One: Brie and Apple Stuffed Chicken Breast and Mashed Sweet Potatoes 

My best advice is to start the sweet potatoes first, since they need to hang out in the oven for an hour or so.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

2 large sweet potatoes

2 tbsp of unsalted butter

1 tsp of kosher salt

1/4 cup of orange juice

2 tbsp of maple syrup

2 tbsp of chicken broth

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and roast until easily pierced with a fork. This took about 1 hour and 15 minutes for us, but check them at an hour.

Peel the sweet potatoes while still hot. Combine the potatoes, butter, salt, orange juice, maple syrup, and chicken broth in a large bowl. Mash with a potato masher (I used a hand mixer…the masher went MIA) until the potatoes are smooth. Serve and enjoy!

Brie and Apple Stuffed Chicken Breasts

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1 small apple cored and thinly sliced (we grabbed a granny smith and it was fantastico)

4 tbsp of butter

1/2 tsp each salt and freshly ground pepper

1-2 tbsp of flour

4 slices of brie cheese

2 cups of apple cider

2 cups of chicken broth

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Warm 1 tbsp of butter in a large, non-stick saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the apples and saute until softened. Set the saute pan aside because it will come in hang again shortly. Make a pocket in each chicken breast and tuck in a slice of brie and several slices of apple into each one.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Pat a little flour onto both sides of each chicken breast.

In the saute pan, warm 1 tbsp of butter over high heat. When the butter foams add the chicken breasts and brown them on both sides. Transfer the chicken to a sheetpan, and put it in the oven for 12 to 14 minutes.

While the chicken is in the oven, prepare the sauce. Pour the apple cider and broth into the saute pan and boil it over high heat until reduced to about 1 1/2 cups. Swirl in the remaining 2 tbsp of butter. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Take the chicken out of the oven and pour a little sauce on each serving…and voilá! A delicious fall meal is ready to be devoured!

Well, the presentation could use some help, but we’ll work on it for next time! This ended up being delicious, but next time a couple of changes are in order. Definitely going to stuff the chicken breasts a little more, which may require another apple. We had plenty of brie left over (no complaints, I have some crackers with its name on them) so maybe a little more of that next time too. The mashed potatoes were really good and the orange juice was an unexpected addition! I think next time we’ll add a tiny bit less, but I did enjoy the hint of citrus.  We added in some brown sugar for good measure…it just seemed like the right thing to do.

Hope you enjoy this as much as we did. Anyone with great sweet potato recipes, send them my way!

* The fun facts: http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/vegetables/sweetpotato.html

** Any reference to SAT prep is uber-geeky, but if you took it at TPR, you know what I’m talking about. I think you had to write that at the bottom of every practice test. I wish I still had that “We Score More” pencil…