Instant Pot Sweet Potato Chicken Curry

I've never made curry before & this recipe threw me for a loop but it sounded so good so I wanted to try it. And I'm so glad I did. It had so much flavor!! I didn't eat it over any rice, which I should have done to soak up up the broth. I ended up freezing half of the batch so when I take it out of the freezer, I'll be sure to have some rice on hand. I'll definitely make this again and look for some more curries to try!

Sweet Potato Chicken Curry (Pinterest) (4-5 servings):

2 tsp ghee or coconut oil
1/2 med yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced (I used asafoetida powder)
1lb chicken breast, cubed
1 sweet potato, cubed
1 red bell pepper, sliced or diced
2 c green beans, trimmed
2/3 c chicken broth
3 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp salt
1 (14 oz) can full fat coconut milk
Cashews, cilantro & cauliflower rice, for serving
Optional: tapioca starch (I used cornstarch), for a thicker curry

Set instant pot to saute. Add ghee, onion & garlic & saute until onions are translucent. Then turn off & set to pressure cook. Add chicken, sweet potatoes, red pepper, green beans, broth, curry, cumin, turmeric, cayenne & salt. Seal pot & set time for 12 min.

Once time is up, release pressure by switching from seal to vent. Once pressure is released, remove lid and turn pot to saute. Stir in coconut milk & let cook for an additional 2-3 min or until soup is hot. For a thicker curry, whisk together 1 tbsp cornstarch with 2 tbsp water. Stir into curry.

Serve over cauliflower rice, if desired. Top with cashews & fresh cilantro.










Ready to cook...

Ready to serve...

Enjoy!...

One Pan Cilantro-Lime Chicken & Rice with Black Beans

I came across this recipe on Pinterest & it immediately piqued my interest because it's a one-pot meal and simple. I've since made it a couple times & I love it. I used chicken the first time and while it was good, I prefer using ground meat, which is what I've done since. I usually use 6 oz of whatever ground meat I have on hand. It just blends better with the rice & beans. And while this recipe states that's necessary to use minute white rice, which would probably make it have less liquid, I really don't like the way minute rice taste. So I've always used my rice cooker & altered how much liquid I put into the dish. Your choice in how you make the dish-I'll let you decide. I'll put the ingredients for the minute rice. This dish is just really easy to make & it's perfect the next day for lunches.

To find the recipe, click here



Ready to be simmered down...

Enjoy!...

Chicken Salad

I saw this recipe being made on the Food Network by Jamie Deen, one of Paula Deen's sons. I grew up eating chicken salad and this recipe looked really good so I decided to try to find it to make it myself. It was really easy to make & it was really good. You are supposed to serve it in toast cups but I didn't do that-I just ate like regular chicken salad. The addition of the grapes makes it have a sweet flavor, which is nice. I'll definitely keep making this!

To find the recipe click here




Enjoy!...

One Pot White Chicken Lasagna Soup

I love this soup. This is another soup that I ran across when I was looking for soups that didn't contain any tomatoes. I had made a lasagna soup before but it contained tomatoes & that one was really good too. This made a lot of soup & I was concerned about freezing it since it contained heavy cream and half & half. And while it did separate a little once it did thaw, once I mixed it up, it was good to eat again. It's just a really filling soup, since it contains white beans and chicken and noodles, which I love. I can't say once bad thing about this soup. So go make it right now!!

Find the recipe here




Noodles added...

Ready to be served...

Ready to eat...enjoy!

Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

I found this recipe in one of Paula Deen's recipe magazines. I love meatballs and this one seemed like an easy recipe. Not to mention it made a bunch so I knew I could easily freeze the majority of it and eat more of it at a later time. Even better! I didn't read the recipe all the way through initially but the list of ingredients was short enough. Once I read through it, I realized that I add everything together except the buffalo wing sauce, which is really different but I was game to try it! Everything smelled so good while mixing it together that I even texted my friend telling her that the raw ingredients smelled so good that I hoped the cooked meal tasted as good as it smelled! It definitely did! The meatballs had such a unique texture with the celery and the blue cheese and the panko all mixed together. The celery and panko gave the meatballs a crunchy texture and the blue cheese had a smooth flavor to it. It was a surprisingly good combination! I used Frank's Buffalo Hot Sauce as the sauce I used to pour over the meatballs and then of course I used a blue cheese sauce as a dipping sauce. So good! I'll definitely make these again and again! I have some in the freezer now I can eat when I crave them again, which will be soon!

Buffalo Chicken Meatballs (Paula Deen) (3 1/2 dozen):

2 lb ground chicken
2 c panko
1 c diced celery
4 oz blue cheese, crumbled
1/3 c minced green onion
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp minced fresh parsley
1 tsp salt
2 c buffalo wing sauce

Preheat oven to 400. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil. Place a wire rack on pan and spray rack with cooking spray. In large bowl, stir together ground chicken and next 7 ingredients until well combined. Shape mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls and place on prepared rack.

Bake for 20 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 165 (I had to cook mine close to 30 minutes for mine to read 165 but I think I made my meatballs quite large). Toss meatballs with wing sauce and serve. Enjoy!




Ready to be mixed together...






Ready to be baked...






Enjoy!...

Southern Pulled Chicken

I found this recipe in a magazine titled Freezer Meals. I ended up halving the recipe because I didn't have 6 lb of chicken and I wasn't sure I could fit 6 lb of chicken into my crock pot either and I wasn't sure if I'd like it. I think I can though so when I make this again, and I will, I'll make the entire recipe. This recipe was really good and really easy. And pretty healthy too. It called for cider vinegar and cider vinegar is supposed to have all these awesome health benefits so I figured it's a win win. And of course I added more garlic than called for because it's me and more garlic is always good. I used chicken breasts because it's what I always keep on hand. I used the low heat setting but I only cooked it for 6 hours because I don't like how chicken tastes after it cooks too long in any slow cooker. This recipe had a really good flavor-just a simple basic flavor. I like that you can add as much bbq sauce as you want or as little as you want. And I also like that you can put the chicken on pretty much anything. I put it on toast, in my eggs, on nachos and in a salad. It would really be good in a quesadilla too. When I make this again, I'll make the whole recipe and freeze it in serving sizes to use as necessary. Yum! I'll post the entire recipe.

Southern Pulled Chicken (Freezer Meals):

2 med onions, quartered
6 lb skinless boneless chicken thighs
1/2 c cider vinegar
1/3 c Worcestershire sauce
1/4 c packed brown sugar
4 tsp dry mustard
2 tsp mild chili powder
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 1/2 c bbq sauce

Place onions in slow cooker. Top with chicken. Combine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, dry mustard, chili powder, garlic, salt and pepper; pour over chicken.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours. Remove chicken and onions with a slotted spoon. Using two forks, shred chicken. In large bowl combine chicken and onions. Skim fat from cooking liquid in slow cooker. Stir enough cooking liquid (about 1/2 cup) into chicken mixture to moisten. Stir in bbq sauce.

Divide chicken mixture into serving portions. Cool and freeze. Enjoy!




Sauce whisked together...






Sauce poured over chicken in crock pot...






Shredded chicken...






BBQ added...






Loaded on toast...Enjoy!...

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

I found this recipe on Pinterest yet again. I had been craving soup and every time I go to a Greek place around here, they have a lemon soup that I've been wanting to try and just haven't. So I decided to try my own and looked around until I found one that looked decent to try. This soup was really really good! I froze part of it and ended up finishing it up a couple weeks ago. So good! The rosemary sprig really gave it an extra oomph of flavor! I found some heirloom carrots-carrots of different colors so I used those in this soup. I also added some lemon zest to enhance the flavors a little more.

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup:

2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 lb boneless skinless chicken, cut into 1-inch chunks
Salt and pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
3 carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
5 c chicken stock
2 bay leaves
3/4 c uncooked orzo pasta
1 sprig rosemary
Juice of 1 lemon (zest too if you'd like)
2 tbsp chopped parsley

Heat 1 tbsp oil in Dutch oven over medium. Season chicken with salt and pepper to taste. Add chicken to pot and cook until golden, about 2-3 minutes; set aside.

Add remaining oil to pot. Add garlic, onion, carrots and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in thyme until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Whisk in chicken stock, bay leaves and 1 c water; bring to boil. Stir in orzo, rosemary and chicken; reduce heat and simmer until orzo is tender, about 10-12 minutes. Stir in lemon juice; season with salt and pepper to taste.




Ready to eat!...






Enjoy!...

Pappardelle Pasta with Parmigiano-Reggiano Cream Sauce

I was in the process of going through my apartment and getting rid of food I wasn't going to take with me on my move and found a bag of pappardelle noodles. I was going to cut back on my pasta eating once I moved so I thought I'd find a good recipe to use them with before then. I found this recipe on Pinterest. Sounded pretty easy to make and it was. I added some diced chicken to mine to make it a full meal. Not sure if I'd make this again with zucchini noodles though since the sauce was really heavy but it had a really good flavor. Maybe if I found a substitute for the heavy cream...

Pappardelle Pasta with Parmigiano-Reggiano Cream Sauce (4-6 servings):

Bag of pappardelle pasta
2 c parmigiano-reggiano, plus more to serve
5 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/2 c heavy cream
1 large pinch pepper
1 small pinch nutmeg
Salt to taste

Cook pappardelle in salted boiling water according to pkg directions. Reserve 1/2 c of cooking water. In large skillet over medium heat, add the butter. Stir until melted and then add the heavy cream. Let the butter and cream simmer, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened (should coat the back of a spoon).

Slowly add the grated parmesan, until desired consistency. Bring back to boil, stirring constantly, until cheese is fully incorporated into the sauce. Stir in the pepper, nutmeg and salt to taste. Add the noodles to the skillet, stirring to coat evenly. Add enough of the reserved cooking water to thin out the sauce to your desired consistency. Top with more cheese and enjoy!


Butter and cream simmering...




Cheese simmering...




Pasta added to sauce...




Enjoy!

Hoisin Chicken

I just recently found this recipe from a Cuisine magazine that only has 2 servings. Perfect portion for me! This recipe originally called for chicken thighs, but since I have a lot of chicken breasts on hand, I used those instead. I also skipped the part where it says to brown the meat first since I wasn't using the thighs. The recipe calls for 4 chicken thighs but I only used 2 chicken breasts and that's the perfect size for me-one meal tonight and another one for tomorrow. I served my chicken over a bed of farro-another grain I made for the first time. It tasted pretty good with the chicken and the sauce. I'll definitely make this recipe again.

Hoisin Chicken (2 servings) (Cuisine Tonight):

6 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp chopped green onions or scallions
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
1 tbsp minced fresh garlic
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp chili garlic sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
4 chicken thighs (I used 2 chicken breasts)
2 tbsp peanut oil (for browning if using the chicken thighs)

Preheat oven to 500. Line an 8-in square baking pan with foil. For the glaze, whisk together hoisin, scallions or green onions, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, chili garlic sauce and sesame oil in a medium bowl.

If browning chicken, heat peanut oil in large saute pan over high. Add chicken, skin-side down, and cook until browned and crispy, 5 minutes. Transfer chicken to prepared baking pan. Top with green onions or scallions. Pour glaze evenly over chicken, turning to coat. Roast chicken 10-15 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in the center. Spoon any glaze left in pan over the chicken before serving. Enjoy!




Chicken & green onions...






Hoisin glaze...






Ready to be baked...






Enjoy!...

Oriental Chicken Wings

I got this recipe from my friend Leigh's mom. I've had it once or twice when Leigh made it and when her mom made it a couple weeks ago I knew I wanted to make this for myself. The chicken becomes so tender that the meat just falls off the bone. There's no set time for how long to keep it in the slow cooker but the longer you do, the more tender the meat becomes. I left mine in the slow cooker for 4 hours tonight and it was so good! I will be making this recipe over and over again!

Oriental Chicken Wings:

20-25 chicken wings, cut tips off
1 c water
3/4 c soy sauce
1 c sugar
1/3 c sweetened pineapple juice
1/4 c olive oil
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground ginger

Mix everything together except the chicken wings. Place the chicken into a 9x13-inch glass dish. Pour the sauce over the wings. (I had to use another smaller dish since not all of my chicken fit in the regular dish.) Cover the dish and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 350. Either wait for the glass dish to come to room temp or transfer to a shallow roasting pan. Bake for about 1 hour, turning the chicken once halfway through the cooking time. Transfer to a slow cooker with the juices and cook on low for about 4 hours, stirring occasionally.

*Note: If you don't use a slow cooker, bake in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.

I served my chicken with some sticky rice, to mop up the juice. So good!




Soaking in the marinade...






The rest soaking in the marinade...






Fresh from the oven...






Enjoy!...

Chicken Biryani

I found this recipe book at Barnes & Noble. I used to work with an Indian woman so I asked her go through the book and mark recipes she has made or makes for her family for me to try. This was one of those recipes. I found an Indian grocery store nearby where I had to pick up some of the ingredients. It was a neat place so spent a little time looking around. I'd definitely like to go back soon and spend more time in there. I chose this recipe because it looked like a casserole and looked pretty easy to make. Boy was I wrong! It took an hour to prep and get everything ready and then another hour to cook! I thought it was good when I first starting eating it but the more I ate it the more I didn't like it. I have never had cardamom pods or cloves before and I don't think I like the cardamom pods. I also had to grind some of the spices and I don't think I ground them all the way down so I didn't like the taste of that either. If I ever make this recipe again, I think I'd leave out the cardamom pods and use all ground spices. And I wouldn't spice up the rice-I'd just leave it plain.

Chicken Biryani (4 servings)(10 points)

1 1/2 basmati rice
10 whole green cardamom pods
1/2 tsp salt
2-3 whole cloves
2-in piece fresh cinnamon stick
3 tbsp veggie oil
3 onions, sliced
4 chicken breast fillets, each about 6 oz, skinned and cubed
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp hot chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
Juice of 1 lemon
4 tomatoes, sliced
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
2/3 c plain yogurt, plus extra to serve
4-5 saffron threads, soaked in 2 tsp warm milk
2/3 c water
Garnishes: Sliced almonds, fresh cilantro sprigs

Wash rice well and let soak in water for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375. Remove seeds from half the cardamom pods and grind them finely, using a mortar and pestle. Set aside the ground seeds.

Bring pan of water to boil. Drain rice and add t with the salt, whole cardamom pods, cloves and cinnamon stick. Boil 2 minutes, then drain, leaving the whole spices in the rice. Keep the rice hot in a covered pan.

Heat oil in a large skillet and fry the onions for 8 minutes, until softened and browned. Add the chicken and the ground spices, including the ground cardamom seeds. Mix well, then add the garlic, ginger ad lemon juice. stir-fry for about 5 minutes.

Transfer the chicken mixture to a casserole (I used a Dutch oven) and arrange the tomatoes on top. Sprinkle with fresh cilantro, spoon the yogurt evenly on top, and cover with drained rice.

Drizzle the saffron milk over the rice and pour over the water. Cover, then bake in the oven for 1 hour. Transfer to a serving plate and discard the whole spices. Garnish and serve immediately.




Chicken and onions cooking...






Rice and spices boiling...






Chicken and onion mixture...






Tomatoes and cilantro...






Yogurt added to the mixture...






All the layers and ingredients and ready for the oven...






Fresh from the oven...






Enjoy!...

Homemade Pizza

I found a roll of pizza dough in my fridge and decided to make up some pizzas. Apparently the dough was past the expiration date but I still made it work and it tasted just fine. The bread was a little dry so I wasn't able to make one big pizza, which worked out well-I actually made 4 different kinds of pizza. You can add any type of toppings you desire, which I like. I should have made my pizza dough thinner but it still tasted great! The next time I make this, I'm going to use hot sauce and make some buffalo-style pizza. Not sure of the measurements I used but I'll guess.

Homemade pizza

Refrigerated pizza dough (I used Pillsbury)
2 chicken breasts, cut into cubes
1 tbsp poultry Montreal seasoning
4 garlic cloves, minced, divided
2-in fresh ginger, minced
1/4 c olive oil
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 c grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 c fresh spinach
1/4 c pepperoni slices
2-4 tbsp cornmeal
1/4 c shredded cheese

Heat oven to 400. Grease any size nonstick cookie sheet. Sprinkle desired amount of cornmeal on pan. Unroll dough onto cookie sheet. Press to desired thickness. Prebake dough 8 minutes.

While pizza is prebaking, combine chicken, Montreal seasoning, garlic, ginger and green pepper in skillet and cook until chicken is cooked through, 5-7 min.

Mix oil and 1 minced garlic clove in small dish. Once pizza has prebaked, using a pastry brush or other basting brush, brush pizza dough with olive oil and garlic mixture. This is the step you would put pizza sauce on, but I chose not to use sauce, just the olive oil mixture.

On one of the pizzas, I added just spinach and tomatoes. Two of the pizzas I added the chicken mixture with some tomatoes. For the fourth piece, I added spinach, pepperoni slices and spinach. I sprinkled cheese on top of all of it at the end.

Bake 6-10 minutes longer or until crust is deep golden brown. Slice and enjoy!




Garlic oil...






Veggies & Chicken added...






Cheese sprinkled on top...






Fresh from the oven...






Enjoy!

Chicken Noodle Soup

OMG I made the BEST soup the other day on pure accident! I was just going to make some soup how I normally make it...some chicken broth, noodles & green onions. Until I saw 2 thawed out chicken breasts in the fridge. I don't normally add chicken to my soup because I love the noodles so much but I figured if I added the chicken, it wouldn't be enough of it to over power the soup. So while the noodles were cooking, I cooked the chicken up with a lot of garlic and ginger and added it to the soup during the last 5 min. There's definitely more noodles than chicken and with the garlic and ginger in the soup, the broth turned out amazing. I will definitely use this recipe over and over and over again! Again, I didn't really use exact measurements so I'll try to guess what I used.

Chicken Noodle Soup:

One pkg of Reames Homestyle Egg Noodles (picture below of what I used)
4-5 green onions, sliced
1 bay leaf
6-7 c chicken or veggie broth (I had to use a combo of both since I didn't have enough leftover chicken broth)
1 tbsp veggie or canola oil
2 chicken breasts, cut into 1-in pieces
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 tbsp minced fresh garlic
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried parsley

Bring broth, green onions and bay leaf to boil; add noodles and cook 15 min, stirring occasionally. While noodles are cooking, add oil to saute pan and cook chicken, garlic and ginger, until chicken is no longer pink, 5-7 min.

Once noodles are cooked to your desired consistency, add chicken mixture, along with pepper, thyme and parsley. Stir to combine and heat through, another 5 min. Remove bay leaf and ladle into soup bowls. Enjoy!




Noodles I used...






Enjoy!..

Garlic-Ginger Chicken-Tomato Stir-Fry

I have been on a major sticky rice kick lately...for some reason I hadn't made any since I've lived in my current apartment and that will be 3 years in November! Which is stupid because I have a 25 lb bag of sticky rice in my closet that I need to eat! So to give myself some protein to go along with my sticky rice, I decided to use up whatever veggies I had in my fridge and cook up a stir-fry. I wanted the usual veggies but I had little to pick from so I threw some stuff together and minus the larger chunks of ginger that didn't get as minced as I would have liked, it tasted pretty good. Not to mention the broth was excellent when I dipped my sticky rice into it! Again, I don't have exact measurements but I'll try-the broth is mainly made up to your taste preference.

Garlic-Ginger Chicken-Tomato Stir-Fry (2-4 servings):

3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 3-4 in piece fresh ginger, minced
1 green onion, sliced
1/4 c red bell pepper, chopped
1 pkg grape tomatoes, halved
2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 tsp Sriracha
1-2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
1-2 tbsp fish sauce
1-2 tbsp veggie oil

Heat oil in grill on med-high. Add chicken, garlic and ginger and cook until chicken is no longer pink in middle. Add bell pepper and green onion and cook until tender, 2-3 min. Add tomatoes and cook until they start to burst, 3-4 min. Add Sriracha, hoisin, soy sauce and fish sauce; stir to combine and heat through. Serve with rice.




Enjoy!...

Smoked Chicken-Banana Pepper Soup

I found this recipe in the book from below. It's taken me a while to actually make it but tonight I decided to. And I made several substitutions. I couldn't find the prechopped celery, onion and bell pepper mix and I was out of celery so I just used one whole white onion and an orange bell pepper. I didn't saute the veggies in the bacon grease before because I didn't want them to turn into mush in the slow cooker. I did still add the bacon grease to the soup after the bacon cooked. I used 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut up into bite-size pieces instead of the smoked chicken. For more of a smoky flavor, right before I served the soup, I added about 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika and it worked for the smoky flavor. The recipe calls for 8 plum tomatoes to be put in with the soup to be cooked for the 6 hours but I didn't want the tomatoes to be mush so I added them during the last 10 min of cooking time. I also substituted a cup of quinoa instead of using the rice. And I only cooked the soup for 5 hours instead of the 6. I don't really like how the texture of chicken changes during the time in the slow cooker so I cooked it for less and it did taste a little better. I also added 2 more tbsp of the juice from the banana peppers. All in all, the soup tasted really good. It has a different flavored broth than most soups and I would definitely make it again.

Smoked Chicken-Banana Pepper Soup (8 servings):

4 bacon slices
1 (8 oz) container refrigerated prechopped celery, onion and bell pepper mix (here I used 1 white onion and 1 orange bell pepper)
6 c chicken broth
2 c sliced pickled banana peppers
2 tbsp juice from pickled banana peppers (I used 4 tbsp)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
8 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 lb pulled smoked chicken
1 (14 oz) pkg boil-in-bag white rice (I used 1 c cooked quinoa)
Garnish: Fresh oregano

Cook bacon in large skillet over med-high 5-7 min or until crisp; remove bacon and drain on paper towels, reserving drippings in skillet. Coarsely crumble bacon.

Ad celery mixture to drippings in skillet; cook, stirring constantly, 5 min or until tender. Add chicken broth, stirring to loosen particles from bottom of skillet. Transfer broth mixture to slow cooker. Stir in bacon, peppers and next 7 ingredients (again I didn't stir in the tomatoes at this time). Cover and cook on low 5-6 hours. Stir in rice (and tomatoes if you wish) during last 10 min of cooking time. Cover and cook 10 min or until heated through. Garnish.




Ingredients added...






Tomatoes & Quinoa added...






Enjoy!...