Showing posts sorted by date for query sandwich. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query sandwich. Sort by relevance Show all posts
True confession here. I love chicken (or turkey) and stuffing more than anything in the world. Even more than a good steak, and that is saying a lot!
When we have a roasted chicken or turkey dinner I always double up on the stuffing. Its quite simply a favourite with us all. It has ever been so.
That means that this Chicken and Stuffing Casserole also figures high on our list of things we love. And for a variety of reasons! First of all there is the stuffing, an abundance of it covering the top, crisp on the outside and yet moist beneath.
Secondly there is its ease of preparation. This really could NOT be easier to make. Things are simply layered in baking dish, covered and baked.
Prepared stuffing mix. Tinned soup with milk. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Canned green beans.
Yes, canned cream of chicken soup. I am not a canned soup snob. So many are and I just don't get it. I think it has great value in the kitchen and in your store cupboard.
I was brought up on it and it never killed me. Not once. I am now 65 years old and I have not suffered any ill effects from eating canned cream of chicken soup, nor canned cream of mushroom soup for that matter.
Actually I have not suffered any ill effects from eating any canned soup. It has its place and anyone who turns their nose up it is being a tiny bit pretentious in my opinion.
I don't meant to offend anyone by saying that. So my apologies if you are offended. I feel that things like this have a very valid place in my kitchen at least and I always have a few tins in the cupboard.
They are great to use in casseroles or as quick and simple sauces. With a few additions, Bob's Your Uncle. If you are worried about salt and fat there are low sodium and low fat options readily available these days.
If you really don't want to use tinned soups, you can replace them with a simple homemade cream sauce. For every cup of cream sauce you want, melt 1 TBS of butter in a saucepan. Once it has melted whisk in 1 TBS of flour for every cup of sauce you want to make.
Whisk it into the butter and let it cook for several minutes to cook out any flour flavour. Then whisk in 1/2 cup (120ml) of chicken stock, and 1/2 cup (120ml) of milk for every cup of sauce you need.
Cook, whisking constantly over medium heat, until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Leave to simmer on low for a few minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as required, and its ready to use. Easy peasy.
Full disclosure here. My casserole got a little bit too dark. Somehow the temperature got turned up a bit too high (not naming any names) and so . . . it still tasted delicious, it just was no as pretty as it should have been!
This is an old, old recipe. Probably copied from a magazine years ago and meant to advertise soup and stuffing mix. I have adapted it through time to suit my own family and what they like.
I added a can of green beans. Another casserole we really love is green bean casserole and I thought canned green beans would work wonderfully in it. I was right. They do.
When we were children my mother could not get us to eat mushroom soup. There was no way we were going to even touch the tips of our tongues to it. No way. No how.
I guess we were somewhat picky in that respect, and maybe even a bit spoiled.
Then when I was ten years old we took an exciting adventure almost all the way across the North American Continent. My father's job took him from the wilds of Manitoba to the stony shores and cosy inlets of Nova Scotia.
My parents took advantage of the trip to take us on a bit of a holiday. We had never been on one in our lives. We went down from Manitoba into the Dakotas and across the Northern part of America to my mother's cousin Polly's home in Vermont. What an adventure that was for us!
We got to stay in a Howard Johnson Hotel and have chips/fries and hotdogs for lunch every day if we wanted to. And we got to meet a part of our family that we had only ever heard about but had never spent time with.
My brother, sister and I loved being at Poly and Red's house and meeting our third cousins. We got to experience the joys of extended family and we got to enjoy Green Bean Casserole for the first time in our lives and we love LOVED it!
Even if it was made with Cream of Mushroom Soup. To be honest, I doubt we were told until after we had eaten it and enjoyed it.
For the most part my mother made her own soups from scratch. French Canadian Pea Soup from the Easter ham bone, and turkey/beef/chicken vegetable soups from the leftovers of roast and Thanksgiving dinners. Mom always had containers of soup in the freezer.
Every other kind of soup came from a can. Tomato. Vegetable, etc. To this day I love Heinz Tomato Soup with all of my heart. Especially if it comes with a grilled cheese sandwich along side.
I never experienced homemade tomato soup until I was an adult and had made it myself. And it is gorgeous I will admit.
I love LOVE homemade tomato soup, but if you are in a hurry and just want some comfort in a bowl, you cannot beat a bowl of Heinz Tomato soup in my opinion.
So I guess that was an awfully round about way of convincing you that canned soups have a real purpose to serve in the modern day kitchen. They fulfil taste needs that nothing else quite can. Hence, I am not a canned soup snob.
This casserole is not quite the same without it and neither is green bean casserole. Or tuna casserole for that matter. Or meatballs and gravy, or poor man's steak.
Just one glutton's opinion.
I aways like to serve this with mashed potatoes. It also goes very well with baked potatoes or even rice if you are so inclined. We enjoy the comfort of mash.
I do use frozen mash these days. There is only two of us and its quite practical. Back when I was raising five children I had to peel a lot of spuds to fill them up. A poncey bag of frozen mash would not have cut the mustard. I used to peel five pounds at a time and fill a stock pot.
When three of those five are boys with hollow legs, you need a lot of mash. Frozen mash is quite adequate for us and with a few additions you cannot tell the difference between that and the real thing. Never dry mashed potato flakes. Those are not the same and my taste buds know it.
I tried to balance it all out with a salad on the side. What you see here is a sandwich plate. I always eat from a sandwich plate. Todd uses a larger full sized one. He doesn't eat salad if he can help it. He is a thin as a rail.
Yes, it IS most annoying, and to be honest I don't think it is fair at all, but then again. My mother taught us that life was not always going to be fair. The end.
Chicken & Stuffing Casserole
Yield: 6
prep time: 10 Mincook time: 45 Mininactive time: 10 Mintotal time: 1 H & 4 M
This delicious casserole is very simple to put together. I usually divide it into two casserole dishes and freeze one for a later date. All you need is some mashed potatoes and a salad on the side and you have a meal fit for a king!
Ingredients:
- 6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
- 2 cans of condensed cream of chicken soup (10 3/4 oz or 295g each)
- 2 tsp dried parsley flakes
- 2/3 cup (160ml) of milk
- 1 (4 serving size) can of cut green beans, drained well
- 1 (6 oz) box of stove top stuffing mix, prepared according to package directions (Here in the UK use any package of stuffing mix prepared according to package directions)
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Butter a 9 X 13 inch baking dish well. Lay the chicken breasts in the pan in a single layer and scatter the drained green beans in between each.
- Whisk together the soups and the milk. Stir in the parsley. Pour this mixture over top of the chicken and green beans. Sprinkle the prepared stuffing mix over top evenly.
- Cover tightly with aluminium foil. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for 20 to 25 minutes longer, until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.
- Let stand for about 10 minutes prior to serving.
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I guess just about all of the kids will be back in school now. What an incredibly frightening time for everyone. I have seven school aged grandchildren and I would be lying if I said I wasn't concerned for them. I think they are so brave.
Their lives are very different at the moment than ours were growing up. We had so much freedom in comparison. Life was so much simpler. I pray every day that things will soon be back to normal for them, and in the meantime I pray for their safety.
They are lunch box toting kids. My DIL posted a lovely photo on FB the other day of their middle boy making his lunch for school. He looked like he was enjoying himself! |
With all of the fresh tomatoes we are enjoying at the moment its fair to say that we are also enjoying our favourite Bacon Lettuce and Tomato Sandwiches. There is nothing so delicious on earth as a BLT made with fresh garden tomatoes and crisp streaky bacon. We love them and this is the season now for beautiful garden tomatoes.
The most common way of cooking bacon is in a skillet on top of the stove. This requires lots of standing and flipping and can be quite time consuming and somewhat messy as it can spatter all over the top of your stove.
Did you know you can cook bacon perfectly in the oven, and that you can do so easily with a lot less fuss, muss and mess? Its true you can and here are two ways of doing it that will yield two completely different results depending on what you want to use the bacon for. Chewy or Crisp, the choice is yours. (Todd is not fond of overly crisp bacon and prefers his to be a bit chewy.)
FOR CHEWIER BACON
You get a chew finish on your bacon when you bake it directly on the baking tray. (Depending on how long you cook it for that is. Obviously if you leave it in for a longer time than suggested you will get a crisper finish.)
Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F and line a baking tray with sides with some aluminium foil for a really easy clean up. Lay your bacon rashers out on the tray in a single layer, leaving space in between them. Don't allow it to overlap.
Place into the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven, flip the rashers over using some tongs. Return the baking tray to the oven and bake for a further 5 minutes.
Remove the cooked bacon to a tray or plate lined with paper kitchen toweling to drain.
FOR CRISPIER BACON
Cooking your bacon on an baking rack, directly over an oven tray results in a crisper finish as the hot air of the oven circulates completely around the bacon. Do note that you will need to use a cooling rack that has an oven-safe coating on it as if it doesn't, it could be permanently damaged, or worse transfer something you don't want to be eating to your bacon.
Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F. Line a large baking tray with a lip with some aluminium foil. Place the cooling rack on top of the baking tray. Lay the rashers of bacon on top of the cooling rack in a single layer, leaving space between them and taking care not to overlap them.
Roast in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven.
Using a pair of tongs, carefully flip the bacon rashers over and then return the pan to the oven.
Roast for a further 8 to 10 minutes until completely cooked and crisp. Remove to a paper towel lined plate or tray to drain.
Here you can see the difference between the two methods of roasting. For a Bacon and tomato sandwich I prefer the bacon a bit chewy, baked directly on the baking sheet. For something like a Caesar salad or another dish where you will be crumbling the bacon I like to roast it on a rack.
When I cook my bacon I always cook the full package. Once cooked and drained, you can store it in a zip lock bag in the refrigerator for up to a week, or freeze it in an airtight container for longer, ready to take out as and when you need it. Why pay a premium price for already cooked bacon when it is so very easy to do yourself and so easy to store, handy and ready to use as and when.
I often buy bacon when it is on offer and will cook up the whole lot. Obviously these timings are just guidelines and works well for thin rashers of bacon. If you have thick sliced bacon it may take a few minutes longer.
Any cooked bacon can be simply reheated in the microwave. Wrap in a slice of paper towel and nuke it for about 15 seconds on medium to reheat.
Here are some of my favourite ways to use cooked bacon! Simply click on the recipe titles to go to the recipe.
The Hearty Salad Sarnie (Sarnie is another word for sandwich.) An open faced knife-and-forker with sour dough bread, baked deli ham, sliced deli turkey, sliced ripe tomatoes, sliced hardboiled egg, lettuce and crisp bacon, accompanied with a rich and tangy dressing.
All Dressed Blooming Baked Potatoes. Petal cut potatoes, specially dressed with a butter baste prior to baking in the oven, topped with cheese and crisp bacon. Serve hot wih sour cream and spring onions.
Bacon, Egg and Creamed Spinach on Toast. Toasted Ciabatta rolls topped with creamed spinach, crisp rashers of bacon and fried eggs. Incredibly simply delicious!
Bacon and Egg McMuffin Casserole. This is like having your favourite fast food breakfast sandwich in the
comfort of your own home. This is a delicious casserole and is sure to
please the whole family! You can have it for breakfast, but in all
honesty, we enjoy it for supper. You can serve it with ketchup if you
like or syrup. I am partial to Maple syrup on this.
Two Hander BLT Sandwich. This is the absolute BEST BLT you will ever eat. Seriously. With a Basil Pesto
Mayonnaise, crisp bacon, fresh ripe tomatoes, house dressing and lots
of lively fresh rocket leaves . . . and a sturdy baguett.
World's Best BLT. What makes it the best? Well maybe it's the Pesto
Mayo . . . or it could be that lovely Balsamic House Dressing that you
drizzle over the tomatoes. Whatever it is, it IS the world's best,
hands down.
And then of course you can just go old-school with some toasted bread, mayonnaise, crisp bacon, sliced ripe tomatoes and plenty of crisp lettuce.
All of this talk about bacon is making me hungry again!! Its a good thing I have some already cooked and waiting in the refrigerator!
I took out what I thought was chicken for our supper the other night, but it ended up being boneless pork loin chops.
I remembered having spied this recipe for a Pork Chop Sandwich on Just a Pinch one day. It had sounded really delicious with grilled chops and a fabulous sounding sticky balsamic onion relish.
I had filed it in my brain as something I wanted to cook one day and could see no time like the present. The stars were perfectly aligned, plus I had thawed chops to use up.
Kaiser Buns don't exist over here in the UK, not that I can find at any rate, so I made do with Sesame Seed Brioche Burger Buns. We like them a lot actually so it was not a hardship.
All the bread and buns here in the UK are fabulous.
I created a pork chop seasoning to dust the chops with prior to grilling them. It was very easy to make. I like making my own seasoning mixes as you know. You know exactly what's in them and there are no preservatives involved.
It sounds a bit unsual but it really works well together. I ground them up in my spice grinder to a powder, but you could leave them whole if you want a bit of texture.
The real star is the balsamic onion relish! Oh boy, but I could eat those onions on their own just with a spoon!
I adore anything with Balsamic Vinegar. (Make sure you use a good one.) There is also some soy sauce and brown sugar and more pepper involved. Sticky and sweet, these are quite simply fabulous!
Normally I would have grilled the chops out on the BBQ, but with all the rain we have been having I had to make do with my indoor electric grill.
I buttered the buns and toasted then under my oven grill before applying the onion relish and the grilled chops.
I have to say these were absolutely fabulous. I can't think of a single thing that would make them any better . . .
Not a single thing. Perfection.
Pork Chop Sandwich
Yield: 6
Something deliciously different to do with your chops! Perfectly seasoned and grilled chops served on toasted buns with a fabulous balsamic onion garnish.
Ingredients:
For the chops:
- 2 boneless chops, 1/2 inch thick
- pork chop seasoning as below
For the onion relish:
- 1 TBS olive oil
- 1 TBS butter
- 1 large spanish onion, peeled, halved and sliced into half moons
- 2 TBS good balsamic vinegar
- 2 TBS soy sauce
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
You will also need:
- six kaiser rolls split and toasted
Instructions:
- First make the relish. Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet until it begins to foam. Add the onions. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion begins to soften and brown. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well to combine. Cook for another 7 to 8 minutes over low heat until deep brown and very soft. Scrape into a bowl and set aside.
- For the chops. Pound them a bit to tenderise. Season with some of your pork chop seasoning. Prepare your grill to a high temperature. Add the chops. Grill for three minutes on each side. Remove to your toasted buns, topping the chops with some of the balsamic onions to serve.
notes:
Perfect Pork Chop Seasoning: Mix together in a spice grinder, 3 TBS of salt, 1 TBS pepper, 1/2 TBS granulated garlic, 1/2 TBS granulated onion, 1/2 TBS sweet paprika, 1/2 TBS lemon pepper, 1/2 tsp each dried tarragon and thyme leaves, 1 tsp sugar. Grind together until of an equal consistency Store in an airtight container in a dark place for up to 6 months.
We enjoyed these simply with some potato salad and sliced cucumber and tomatoes. These made the perfect weeknight supper!
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