Family Recipe Chicken & Spaghetti

My Dad is the youngest of eight and his family has some pretty amazing cooks. Luckily, their church did a cookbook each year and I have "family" favorites all in one book. This recipe has been eaten in my family for years. It comes from my cousin Mary and it one of the first things I made for my husband when we were newly married. Enjoy it!

Mary's Chicken & Spaghetti
from Country Community Church cookbook

3 chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)
chicken broth
1 can cream of whatever soup (I prefer chicken, but you can do mushroom)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 package spaghetti
1 can diced tomatoes
1 medium bell pepper, chopped

Boil spaghetti in a mix of chicken broth and water. The ratio isn't super important. I typically do a carton of broth and fill the rest with water.

Saute pepper, onion and celery until soft. Add in soup and tomatoes.

Once spaghetti is fully cooked, add in chicken and soup/peppers mix and simmer until it thickens.

Easy and delicious, especially on a COLD day!

Tomato Basil Chicken

One bite of this and my husband said, "this is restaurant worthy" and he proceeded to POUR the left over sauce in the skillet onto his plate. The woman's side of that praise, "I can make this for company". ha! It really is that good. 

The recipe from Menu Musings is here. 

A couple of notes....

I chopped my chicken into chunks before I started cooking it. Make is cook quicker and I could see when it was done better.

I used my fun frozen cubes of basil and garlic and they worked great and made things much easier. 

I chopped my two Roma tomatoes really small so you'd get flavor but not a lot. I don't love tomatoes.

Enjoy!

Cheesy Green Chile Enchiladas

These are one of my favorite meals to make for others- who doesn't love chicken enchiladas with a cheesy, sour cream and green chile sauce? They are easy, fun to make and make a TON!

When I make these enchiladas, I make enough for 3 meals! It is so nice to have frozen homemade dinners ready to pop out and eat on busy nights. This dish makes 12 enchiladas, so you can decide how to divide them up.

Cheesy Green Chile Enchiladas

3-4 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (I boil mine in water for 15 minutes and shred with the paddle attachment on my Kitchenaid mixer)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can chopped green chiles

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

3/4 cup medium picante sauce

1 cup sour cream

flour tortillas

1/4 to 1 cup chicken broth

Preheat oven to 350. Place a little chicken broth in the bottom of casserole dish. You can fill a 13x9 dish or three 8x8 dishes.

In large bowl, mix together cream of chicken soup, green chiles, 1 cup cheddar cheese, picante sauce, and sour cream. Mix together.

Remove about 1/4 of this mixture and set aside.

Add shredded chicken to large bowl of green chile mixture. Fill flour tortillas individually. Roll up tortillas and place seam side down into casserole dish.

Using small bowl of mixure (the 1/4 you set aside), add 1/4 cup chicken broth and mix well. Scoop/Pour over enchiladas.

Top with remaining cheese and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Chicken Fried Rice

I am not a big fan of Asian food. No sushi for me, either. However, I do like fried rice. Now that I've learned to make it, it makes an easy lunch or leftover for me to have during the week.

I have made it with chicken and without. It is better than chicken if you have it on hand. We had it without chicken and added frozen egg rolls to complete our dinner.

Easy Chicken Fried Rice

recipe from Rachel Schultz.com

4 cups rice, prepared½ pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked (I recommend using slow cooker teriyaki chicken)1 cup peas & carrots, frozen1 white onion, chopped2 cloves garlic, minced2 eggs3 tablespoons sesame oil (I used canola)¼ cup soy sauce

Prepare rice according to package instructions to yield 4 cups cooked rice. Heat oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add onion, garlic, peas, and carrots. Stir fry until tender. Crack eggs into pan and scramble, mixing throughout vegetables. Add rice, chicken, and soy sauce to pan. Stir in soy sauce and remove from heat.

Italian Wonderpot

I found this recipe for a big pot of noodles with lots of Italian seasonings and thought it would be a great side for the boring grilled chicken breast we seem to eat once a week.

I filled my Dutch oven with all the yummy ingredients- noodles, veggie broth, spinach, diced tomatoes, onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, basil, oregano.... good stuff!

After a good stir and a few minutes boiling in the pot, I had this super flavorful pot of noodles! And, a big pot it was.... we have eaten 3 meals from this pot! We had it with grilled chicken one night and sausage another and we have enough to accompany another meal tonight. 

Visit Apron Strings Blog for the full recipe and get to cooking!

Southwestern Chicken and Rice

My Mom always made chicken and rice growing up and I hated it. The cream of mushroom soup taste was too much for me, so I have really avoided that dish as the head chef in my kitchen for 15 plus years! With this dish, I finally found a chicken and rice staple I can live with and love eating for dinner!

Southwestern Chicken
recipe from Pinterest, but with a dead link :(

Chicken tenderloins-cut into small squares
2 cups instant rice
1 taco seasoning packet
1 can rotel
Grated cheese- I used pepperjack

Cook chicken in skillet. Add 1 1/2 cups water, taco seasoning and rotel. Heat to boiling. Add 2 cups instant rice. Stir, remove from heat and cover. Once water is absorbed, stir and top with cheese. Let cheese melt and dinner is served.

We ate this as a casserole and our main dish. It would be great inside tortillas or on tortilla chips also. 

Spicy Chicken Tacos

After having great success with cakes from Mix and Match Mama, I decided to try one of her dinner recipes. Oh my- these spicy chicken tacos were so good and you would never know spinach was in there! Not a fan of the leafy green, but know how important it is. It just sneaks in under the tastes of salsa and chicken. I will make these again and again!

Here is the full recipe, courtesy of Mix and Match Mama.

1 pound cooked and shredded chicken breast 

1 jalapeno, chopped (remove the seeds)

1 package taco seasoning

1 box frozen spinach, defrosted and squeezed of all the excess water

2 cups salsa

2 cups Pepper Jack cheese, shredded

5 stand and stuff taco shells 
Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a skillet over medium-high heat, add chicken, jalapeno, taco seasoning, spinach and salsa and a tablespoon or so olive oil.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer about 5 minutes.

In an 8x8 inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray, line up your 5 taco shells.  Place the chicken mixture inside the shells.  Top tacos with cheese and place in the oven.  Bake about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Enjoy!

Cilantro Chicken

I am on a Pinterest high right now- I have discovered some of the best meals of my life in my own home, cooked by me and found on Pinterest this past month. This chicken is so amazing- it has so much flavor and the sweet chili sauce really balances our the garlic. I loved it a lot! My daughter kept saying she wouldn't eat the green chicken and then I looked back and she had eaten her portion. 

Make it tonight- you won't regret it!

The full recipe can be found here, courtesy of Cooking Hawaiian Style.

PS- We made this again before I posted the original and it is just as good as full chicken breasts!

Chicken Lasagna Cups

In an effort to be healthier, I have tried to introduce more vegetables at dinner. I'll be honest, I don't like most veggies, but these.... these veggies I can eat!

The lasagna cups are layered with wonton skins and then filled with chicken and cheese packed with the broccoli, zucchini and carrots to get your veggies in.

I had never bought wonton cups before... that was an adventure. They weren't in the Asian section, they couldn't be found with biscuits and weren't in the freezer aisle. Finally, I found them in produce with the tofu. Look there first :)

Just before going in the oven... don't they look delicious?

Voila- Chicken Lasagna Cups!

The recipe can be found at Emily Bites. I just boiled a chicken breast, shredded it and added it into the cheese and veggie mixture. 

Delicious Chicken and Pineapple Skewers

 I am super excited that we booked a family vacation for this fall- a Disney cruise! So many parts of the trip are exciting including swimming with dolphins in the Bahamas. Checking that off the bucket list this fall. And then I realized the dread of pictures... in a swimsuit... on Facebook. Isn't that always the worst! 

So, for the next 6 months my husband and I are focusing on our weight and keeping the goal of a picture in our swimsuit that doesn't make us cringe! To that end, look for some Weight Watchers and general healthy recipes in the next few months and a few less bundt cakes :)

The part of Spring that I love the most is cooking on the grill! My husband grilling meat while I prepare our sides and Abby playing in the backyard. It is dinnertime perfection in my book! Speaking of perfection, these chicken and pineapple skewers are amazingly tasty to be so simple. We ate them all up and declared them a new regular in our dinnertime rotation.

Along with chicken breast chunks and fresh pineapple, you make your own BBQ sauce for basting and dipping that is so tasty! The recipe is from celebrity chef Tyler Florence and can be found here. 

We served ours with roasted carrots from the farmers market. They were remarkably tastier that the grocery store carrots. It was a super light and perfect springtime dinner!

Honey Mustard Pretzel Chicken

 I am bored with planning meals and God willing, I have many more years of meal planning ahead of me. So, this 2 week period, my husband and I went through my hundreds of recipe pins and decided which new dishes we wanted to try. We are trying 8 new things over the next 14 days. I'll share them with you over the next month. Hopefully, we find some new dinners for the regular rotation!

We eat lots of chicken and we never fry it. But, we both love a good fried chicken strip from the local fast food joints. So, this recipe appealed to us.

You make a yummy honey mustard sauce that serves as the marinade and the dipping sauce. Then, the "wet" chicken strips are dipped in crushed pretzels. 

Marcus ended up making this one since my hair appointment ran long and we both liked it! We'll make it again especially since we have all the sauce ingredients in the pantry now. It had good flavor, was crunchy after baking and my 4 year old ate it.

You can find the recipe from Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice here. 

Emmett's Chicken Marinade

We recently had dinner with some friends and they grilled the best chicken for us! Emmett brought out the bowl of marinaded chicken and I knew it was going to be good. I had him send me the recipe and it was a cast of characters that I'd never used before.

I had to do a little grocery store searching to find the Goya products! They are on the "Ethnic Foods" aisle in my local (Texas) grocery store. I don't know if they are carried everywhere.

When everything is mixed together- it looks like this. Oh, and it smells like beer! This makes enough marinade for at least 6 chicken breasts. After I made this up, I ladled out and froze half for our next grilled chicken night.

The longer the chicken soaks the better! I let ours soak for about 6 hours.

We ate our chicken with mango salsa I had bought that morning at the Farmer's Market and it was delish! 

Emmett's Chicken Marinade

1 packet Sazon Goya (box includes 8 packets)
1/2 bottle Goya Mojo Criollo
1 can beer, any type will do
1 T agave
1T minced garlic
pepper, to taste

Mix all ingredients and add chicken. Soak at least 6 hours and grill. Enjoy!

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

In my experience, any recipe from Kraft is good. They know their stuff!

I tried their Creamy Chicken Enchiladas last week and they are good and colorful! They have a good mix of chicken, cheese,salsa and cilantro.

Here is the recipe courtesy of Kraft Foods:

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

I am always looking for good freezer recipes and these Sour Cream Chicken enchiladas are both tasty and freeze well!

Here is the super simple recipe!

They honestly tasted more like cheese enchiladas than chicken, so I would recommend a little more chicken than it calls for. We used 2 cans of the Chicken of the Sea- I'll go with 3 next time!

We cooked 4 and froze 12 more. Great meal for the money when you can get 3 or 4 meals from one. Enjoy!

Tex Mex Ravioli

Look at this cheesy casserole of goodness! I love cilantro and you can really taste it in this Tex Mex Ravioli. It is simple to make- a layered mix of cheese, corn, black beans, salsa, chicken, ravioli, cilantro and green onions.
This recipe came from a MOPS cookbook given to me from my IRL friend Alison and came from her friend Stacey Hoffmann. I made a few changes.

Tex Mex Ravioli

2 cans chopped chicken
16 oz. jar mild salsa
2- 10 3/4 oz. cans tomato puree
28 oz. frozen cheese ravioli
1/2 t cumin
2- 19 oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 bag frozen corn
1/2 c chopped cilantro
1 bunch chopped green onions
2 c shredded cheddar
1 c shredded Jack cheese

Mix salsa, tomato puree, and cumin.

Spray a 13x9 (or 2 small square) Pyrex dishes with Pam. Place 1 c. of salsa on bottom of dish. Top dish evenly with cheese ravioli. Top with chicken, black beans, corn, cilantro and green onions. Top with remaining salsa mixture. Top with cheese.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes covered with foil. Bake 5-10 minutes uncovered.

Yummy!

Chicken Enchilada Quiche

I made a Mexican quiche for dinner this week and it was fabulous and super easy! Enjoy it with Spanish rice or refried beans. Super yum! Chicken Enchilada Quiche

courtesy of Pillsbury
1 refrigerated pie crust
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup milk
12.5 oz can chicken, drained
1.5 cup broken tortilla chips
2 cups shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup picante sauce
4.5 oz. can green chiles
1/2 t. salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place pie crust in pie pan and press down. Mix all ingredients and pour into pie pan. Sprinkle pepper on top. Bake 1 hour. Let stand 10 minutes to set before cutting and serving.

World Famous Tortilla Soup

I love soup season and am always looking for new and easy recipes. Soup is so good for you- most are low in fat and contain a good source of meat, veggies and cheese!A few weeks ago, I had Tortilla Soup from the Marriott Rivercenter and they proclaim it to be World Famous. It was really really good. They shared the recipe with me and it is really really easy which is just as important in my book. Here is the recipe for you!

1 Large Diced White Onion ( I used frozen chopped onion)
3 large diced tomatoes (you could use canned easily)
4 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 cups picante sauce (I used Pace and my husband thought I had used my Dad's homemade salsa)
3 chicken breasts (I used 2 cans of chicken)
Salt, Pepper and Cumin to Taste
Cilantro, Cheese and Tortilla Chips as you wish

In a large pot, mix the following: chicken broth, tomato, onion, picante, salt, pepper and cumin. Summer for 10-15 minutes. Cook chicken breasts and set chop up. Or, just open your canned chicken :) Add to soup and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Place in bowls and add cilantro, chips and cheese to taste. You could easily add avocado or sour cream to soup as well. It tastes like it has simmered all day!

Best Chicken Ever!

I can not endorse this chicken recipe with more enthusiasm! Marcus made it for the first time tonight on the recommendation of two of my girlfriends and it is easy, involves minimal dishes, quick, low fat and super tasty! What more could you want?

French's Crunchy Onion Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 cups/4 ounces French's Original or Cheddar Fried Onions (we used cheddar because cheddar is better!)

2 tbsp. flour

1 egg, beaten

Crush onions with flour inside plastic bag. We used a quart size baggie.

Dip chicken breast into egg and then coat in onion mixture.

It'll look like this.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 short minutes and enjoy!