Bring on the Fall. This week seems to be one of the hottest in the whole summer – just when I’m thinking of pumpkin lattes and vanilla and sweet potatoes.
I look forward to evenings when I can snuggle on the couch under a blanket with my hubs – watching a movie – after the boys go to bed – knowing that it is getting cool outside!
Patchwork Butternut Squash, Kale, & Chicken Pot Pie
Author: the charming south kitchen
Recipe type: Main Dish
Cuisine: Southern
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6-8
A fall flavored pot pie with chicken, butternut squash, and kale
Ingredients
2 chicken breasts, cut into pieces
1 onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 T unsalted butter
2 T evoo
1¼ cup diced butternut squash
½ tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp white pepper
1½ tsp kosher salt
½ tsp black pepper
2 massive handfuls of chopped kale
⅓ cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 pie crust, torn in pieces
Instructions
Heat the oven to 350.
In cast iron skillet, heat oil and butter. Add in onion and cook for about 3-4 minutes.
Add garlic and cook for about 1 minutes
Add squash and cook for about 5 minutes.
Remove from pan.
Cook the chicken in same pan until done.
Combine the vegetables, chicken, spices, and cheese.
Pour into a deep dish pie pan. Cut strips of pie crust and make a lattice or patchwork pattern out of them. Layer on top of pot pie.
Cook for about 45-50 minutes or until top crust is golden brown.
3.2.1311
I’d never made a pot pie until I moved back to Raleigh in 2010. My boss’s wife – and friend – made a delicious one and said it was so easy – well, this one is too and has wonderful Fall flavors!
All of the above give you a snapshot into why I love pizza. What I don’t love about pizza: the way it makes me feel. I can’t eat it as much anymore and I will save the rarities for grace pizza.
I still love the flavors of pizza so I want to incorporate those flavors into a more healthy dish for my family. This was gobbled up by my men and me one evening for dinner.
What a day for a soup recipe. The sun is gone here in Little Rock. It is overcast and very cool – ok, cold! Bowls of soup I do believe were created for days like today.
I have a trusted White Chicken Chili recipe that I’ve used for about about 15 years now. But, I wanted to try something new. This turned out very yummy and completely different, so now I have two great recipes. And I can never have too many soup recipes!
I love trying new recipes, especially with in-season ingredients, and having them be winners. I started with a recipe off of BrownEyedBaker – you guys need to go check her out if you already don’t get her blogs!
I made a few changes, and hubs said he wouldn’t change a thing!
1/2 vidalia onion, chopped
1 EACH red and green pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 chipotle in adobe sauce, chopped (just one pepper)
EVOO
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp EACH oregano and french thyme
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups milk
1 cup half and half
6 red potatoes, diced finely
3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
2 cups diced chooked chicken
3 ears of corn (just kernels)
1 can cream corn
1/2 tsp adobe sauce (from chili)
Saute first ingredients and spices in evoo. Then add up through cheese and let simmer until potatoes are done (about 15 minutes). Then add the rest. Serve until warmed through.
A friend and I made an impromptu stop at an Asian market here in Little Rock yesterday. She was buying bok choy for a South Beach recipe she wanted to make that night. I got on my trusty phone and looked up recipes, found one, realized I had most everything, changed a few things things, and viola! a good recipe for the hubs and I! Enjoy it.
Spicy Asian Chicken & Bok Choy
The good thing about having a well-stocked kitchen is that you can be at the store and just need fresh ingredients when making a meal like this one. If you like to cook Asain foods, or want to get more into Asian cooking, here are some of the items you should invest in and have on hand: a wok, ginger (store in freezer), chinese 5 spice powder, Asian sesame oil, natural rice vinegar, soy sauce, stir fry sauce. You can make a lot with just those ingredients always on hand.
Spicy Asian Chicken and Bok Choy
1/2 cup chicken stock *I used homemade that I had leftover from cooking down my chicken bones – this saves money and tastes so mcuh better than store bought!
3 T soy sauce
1 T sherry cooking wine
1 T sugar
1 t cornstarch dissolved in 1 T water *Cornstarch is a thickener. In a seperate small bowl, stir the cornstarch and water together, then put it in with the rest
3/4 t natural rice vinegar
3/4 t Asian sesame oil
1 t crushed red pepper
Canola oil *You use this at different times during the recipe, and I used more than the original recipe called for. Your usage will be based on you stove, pan, and how saucy you want the finished product
1 lb white button mushrooms, stem removed, washed, sliced *To wash mushrooms, just dampen a paper towel and wipe them off, otherwise the spongy fungai will obsorb too much water
1 lb chicken breasts, thinly sliced *Salt and pepper this before cooking, I used 2 pinches of each
3/4 lb bok choy, thinly sliced *I just used the white part, not including the hard end which is bitter. Mine was baby bok choy, not the bigger full-grown version
1 medium red pepper, sliced then chopped in about 3/4 in pieces *Make sure you discard of the seeds and inner white part of the pepper, otherwise the dish will be too hot
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
1 tsp garlic *I used Gourmet Gardens (in a tube) – Thanks Jilly – love the smell of it!
Basmati rice
Supplies needed:
Cutting Board (2, one for the raw chicken)
Zester-grater (for ginger and/or garlic)
Sharp paring knife
Whisk
2 Small bowls
Large, shallow pan
Measuring spoons
Medium pan to cook rice in
Plate
Wooden spoon
This isn’t a hard recipe, just has several steps. And I did great till the very end and then baby started fussing, made me burn some of the rice. Oh, well. It was still yummy!
1. Chop all vegetables and chicken before starting. Will make it very easy just to dump everything to the pot
2. Mix the chicken stock through the red pepper and set aside.
3. Heat a large shallow pan with some of the canola oil. Saute mushrooms for about 5 minutes.
4. Take mushrooms out and place on plate.
5. Add more oil and cook chicken until browned but not cooked all the way through – about 4 minutes. When done, remove them from the pan and put on plate with mushrooms
6. Add more oil if necessary, saute bok choy and red pepper for a few minutes, then take out and put on plate.
7. Add liquid and seasonings (ginger and garlic) and just heat to make the ginger and garlic fragrant. Garlic has a tendency to burn quickly, so you want to act fast here.
8. Add the chicken and veggies and stir until all heated through and chicken is done.
When you return from a week of being out of town, and have guests coming the next day for food, you are thankful for two things:
1. A husband who will make a midnight, brain-dead, grocery run.
2. A crockpot.
My friend, Diana, posted this recipe on her blog, I made some tweaks to it and here is the final product. An empty crockpot (and I doubled the batch for my 6 qt crockpot).
Crockpot White Chicken Chili
1 whole chicken *I cooked one in the crockpot on high for 6 hours, just old bay seasoning and garlic powder), deboned
6 cans great northern beans *I drained and rinsed half of them, dumped the rest in as is
32 oz medium salsa
1 onion, chopped
1 T cumin *I would double this next time
2 t oregano
3/4 of a big block of sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 T chives, chopped
Cook on high for 4 hours. Serve over greens, with chips, top with sour cream, more salsa and cheese.
This was yummy. I would leave the chicken in slightly larger chunks. And perfect for a semi-quick meal (or at least hands-off)
Make sure you check out Diana’s blog linked above for lots of great recipes!
What wonderful delicious-tasting, fresh-made Italian food in downtown Apex. I was there taking some photos of my friends at Moon & Lola and we went to Anna’s (downstairs from their jewelry studio) for lunch. And what a warming lunch it was. I found out today that they make their own mozzarella. Now that’s what makes a good pizza – even better…
Oh, if you are in NYC – there are three locations in the big City. Big City pizza in little city Apex…
The salad at Anna’s was non-descript (lettuce, tomatoes, olives) but the balsamic vinaigrette was pretty good, little thicker than most balsamic dressings.
I ordered the lunch special for around 6$ and got salad and a slice of pizza. Ok, this wasn’t just any slice of pizza. This was an inch thick (thin crust, all toppings mind you) and massive slice of stringy cheese, moist chicken goodness. I decided on the Chicken Marsala pizza and it was perfect: sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions, chicken, Marsala wine, and that wonderful fresh homemade mozz cheese!
I made this on Wednesday to celebrate two people: Rach, who has a birthday this coming week, and Lindsay, who I miss terribly (she lives 9 hours away) and made this recipe for me last year. So good of comfort food.
1 box bowtie (or other shaped) pasta (16 oz)
2-3 cups chopped chicken (I jused deboned a rotisserie chicken because I got such a good deal on it – 1$)
1/2 cup basil pesto
1/2 milk
1 can cream of chicken soup
s/p
Most people know that I love soup. It was probably in the 90s today and I made soup. I had my first bowl of this over a small organic sweet potato (Sarah Frankel bday girl style, just for you babe)! It was very yummy. Quality of pictures is poor because my batteries were going dear – and I think this directly effects the quality of zoom, lighting timing, and macro shooting.
Here you go: (and it is part of whole food month)
1 cup lentils, rinsed
4 cups water
4 cups homemade chicken broth (I cooked a whole chicken and used this)
pinch of sea salt
1 onion, chopped
4 large cloves garlic, chopped
evoo
1 bunch of swiss chard, stems removed, chopped
large pinch red pepper flakes
1/2 lemon (juice)
pepper
3 cups chopped chicken (from a whole raw chicken)
Cook lentils in broth, water, and salt until done but not mushy.
Saute onion in evoo for about 5 minutes, then add garlic and red pepper flakes. Add chard and cook for about 3 minutes. Add to lentils and cook for about 10 minutes. Add chicken, lemon, and pepper to taste. Enjoy!
