Cajun Chicken Smashed Sammies

My Hubsie worked from home today due to the nasty weather out, which is even more fun for me because then I get to make a fun lunch! I usually am just making interesting and fun dinners, but for lunch it's always just leftovers or a can of soup or something. So today I decided to make some chicken sandwiches and potato oven-fries. They were really delicious!!

Cajun Chicken Smashed Sammies

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 slices thick-cut sourdough bread
Cajun seasoning (I use Wild Tree Cajun Blend)
2 slices cheese, whatever you prefer
Mayo

Season the chicken with the cajun spice rub and let sit in refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat a skillet with olive oil over med-high heat. Add chicken top-side down and let brown on that side. Flip chicken over and let brown for a couple minutes. Transfer skillet to oven and let cook for 15-20 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked and juices run clear. Transfer chicken to cutting board and let rest.

Heat another pan over med heat. Cut your thick bread slices and spread butter on one side of each slice. Spread mayo on the other side of 2 pieces. Cut up the chicken into large cubes and place on the bottom piece of bread, butter side out. Add your cheese, I used pepper jack on one sammie and cheddar on the other, and top with bread spread with mayo.

Place sandwich in skillet and place another heavy pan on top to smash it down. Once browned and crispy, flip sandwich over and smash again with the other skillet. Remove sandwich once brown on second side and serve hot!

So...there is this place Melt near us and normally its a 2 hour wait just to be seated and then another hour and a half or so before you even get your food...I think I can totally rival them with my sammiches! I mean, no, they are not Melt, but just as good and made fresh and I think less greasy. And I could have added another slice of cheese and they would have been even better and gooey.

Also, please excuse my photos, the ONE place in my apartment I get the best light and take all my pictures currently has our Christmas tree, so my photos won't be very good for a little bit. But please enjoy the recipes and ideas!

Eat, Drink and Be Merry!

-BellaRosa

Cheesy Potato Broccoli Soup with Crispy Proscuitto

I was clicking through the food blog The Craving Chronicles and came across this amazing soup recipe that was cheesy and hearty and full of good stuff. The original recipe didn't have broccoli, but I had some cooked, and leftover so I threw that in and I thought it was perfect. The crispy proscuitto on top, definitely makes the whole dish!! You need that salty bite with the cheese and potatoes, its absolutely delicious! This soup is a gonna be a new fall favorite!

I'm in love with these huge soup mugs!

Cheesy Potato Broccoli Soup with Crispy Proscuitto
(original recipe found here.)

4-6 slices proscuitto
1 medium onion, diced
2-3 carrots, sliced
1 lb. approx. red potatoes (10-12 small or 4-6 large) peeled and cubed
1 qt. box chicken broth or stock
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400. Place slices of proscuitto on a lightly greased or Silpat lined sheet pan. Bake for about 10 minutes, until crisp. Set aside to cool, and then break into crumbles.

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Add onion and carrots and saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Add potatoes and enough stock to just cover and bring to a boil. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, melt 3 T butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Once melted add 3 T flour and whisk to form a roux. Allow to cook, 1 minute. Add the milk slowly, whisking constantly to smooth out any lumps. Continue to heat while whisking until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Once it reaches desired thickness, remove from heat and stir in your grated cheese.

Once potatoes are tender, pour the cheese mixture into the potato mixture, stirring to combine. Heat to a simmer and let thicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Top each bowl of soup with crumbled prosciutto and enjoy!

Warm, cheesy goodness for a Fall day

One big, soup mug full of this soup was enough for a good meal! Add some bread to dunk and I'm sure it's even better, and more satisfying! The Hubs added oyster crackers, which are delicious and great with soup as well. This soup of full of hearty potatoes and veggies and feels good in your soul. It was super easy to make...like, incredibly easy! You dirty 2 pots, but its ok cause the soup is so yummy! The potatoes are nice and tender and the carrots still have crunch and the broccoli adds nice color and flavor, all around a great bowl of soup. The best part is the prosciutto on top...so crispy and salty, I am in love! I love prosciutto when its not crispy, and I like this crispy topping rather than bacon, I would choose prosciutto any day!

Hey! Don't take that yet!

Eat, Drink and Be Merry...and warm up with a bowl of soup!

-BellaRosa

Spicy-Honey Glazed Shredded Chicken Sliders

I had this recipe for Spicy-Honey Glazed Chicken from the Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine and I have made it a few times a few different ways. But I found out they have small foccacia rolls at Blackbird, the bakery across the street from us, and the Hubsie suggested to use them for sliders when I first told him about them, so I had that idea in my head. I decided to do the Spicy-Honey Chicken with some fresh, crisp lettuce and some sweet corn to add crunch.

Spicy-Honey Glazed Shredded Chicken Sliders
(adapted from Rachael Ray find that recipe here.)

3 T Olive Oil
1 clove garlic, grated or minced
3 T honey
1 tsp. hot sauce
1/2 tsp. chili powder
Squeeze of lime juice

(Not gonna lie, these measurements are approximate. The original recipe is for 8 chicken breasts, I am usually only making 2, so I just use enough of everything to make a nice amount of glaze for 2 chicken breasts.)

Heat the olive oil in a small pan. Add the garlic and let that soften. Add the honey, hot sauce, and chili powder and stir to combine. Remove from heat and add a squeeze of lime juice and set aside.

Place your chicken in a skillet and pour enough chicken broth to just about cover the chicken breasts. I season the broth with salt, pepper, red pepper flake and garlic powder. Bring to a simmer and let simmer for 1o minutes and then flip the chicken over and simmer on the other side for about 5-8 minutes until completely cooked through. Remove from pan and let cool a bit until you can handle it. Shred the chicken into the spicy-honey glaze and toss to coat.

Split your rolls and line the bottom with a piece of lettuce and some heated up, canned corn (you could use fresh I just used some that I had leftover.) Place some shredded chicken on top and add your roll top that has been slathered with mayo.

Looks picnic perfect!

I served mine with some roasted red skinned potatoes and a pickle.

For the potatoes I just cut them into wedges and coated them in olive oil. I then spiced them up with salt, pepper and garlic powder and roasted them at 375 for about 15 minutes, tossing after 10 minutes.

These little slider sammies were delicious!!!!!! So good!!! Those foccacia rolls from Blackbird are amazing!!! They are really delicious and airy, but have a good texture to them. The chicken was great with just enough glaze so that it wasn't dripping all over the place but still had great flavor.

Hope you try this recipe out...it rocks!

Eat, Drink and Be Merry!!!

-BellaRosa

Bbq Pork Chops & Garlic Mashed Red Skin Potatoes

First of I have to say...I make the best mashed potatoes! I found the best way to make them super flavorful and really delicious is to use garlic butter and sour cream. Here's what I do:

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

One bag of small red skin potatoes (@ Giant Eagle, sorry I don't know the size of the bag?)
Salt
3-4 T butter, melted
3 cloves garlic, grated
1/3 to 1/2 cup sour cream
Splash of milk

First decide if you want the skins on or off the potatoes, either way, they are delicious. So rinse and clean potatoes or peel them and cut into quarters and place in a medium sauce pot. Fill the pot with water to just cover the potatoes. Add salt to water. Place on med-high heat and cover until boiling. Once boiling reduce and simmer for about 10-15 mins or until fork-tender. Drain and place back in pot.

Once potatoes are drained melt the butter in a small pot and grate in garlic. You can just smash the cloves and drop them in but I like using a small hand grater and just grate it in, that way you don't have big chunks of garlic. While that is melting together, add sour cream to potatoes and mash together. Add the butter and garlic and continue mashing. At this point you can taste and see if it needs more salt or any kind of seasoning. Mine were a little dry still so I added a little more sour cream and a splash of milk. I think used a hand mixer to blend the potatoes, but you can leave them chunkier if you wish. So good!! Also, I don't care much for pepper, so totally add pepper if you like that flavor in your potatoes.

With the potatoes I made pork chops. Now believe it or not, I got a great package of pork chops from Aldi...I know, but there were really good!! Anyway, there were 4 in the package, and they were maybe a 1/2 inch thick or so, and not very fatty. Very nice coming from Aldi.

So I seasoned them up with salt, pepper, chili powder and garlic powder. I got them brown on both sides in a skillet and then transferred them to a 325 oven and cooked them in there for about 15 mins. About half way through I basted them with some bbq sauce and they were delicious. I didn't have a chance to take pictures of the great meal, but I hope to add other pictures to my blog soon enough. I am gonna be picky about it, so we will see how the food photos come along.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry!