Category: Chicken

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Lessons Learned From a Lifetime of Cooking #13

Over the years when I invited friends over for dinner they got pretty excited. One day I asked a guest what’s with all the excitement?

Chinese food! They were expecting something I really sucked at making. To this day I don’t make much Chinese/Asian stuff. I’d rather go out and eat something someone actually knows how to make.

So Lesson #13 is this: technique. This is the how and why a dish, despite following the recipe exactly, tastes better than yours.

I found this video and I now know why my Chicken and Broccoli never tastes as good as the restaurant versions.

Who says you can’t teach an old trick new dogs?

Memo to Self – Don’t be discouraged to learn there are Chinese Americans out there more Chinese than you.

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Food Inflation in America – Scary Charts 03.14.26

Food Inflation in America – https://wolfstreet.com/2026/03/11/food-inflation-in-america/

As one reader commented “learn to grow your own veggies and do community chickens
otherwise learn to eat soy products.”

I Googled “community chickens” and found this:

Must be getting rough out there. Health insurance companies are offering mental health counseling to their customers free of charge.

Funny thing is my health insurance company isn’t Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma but somehow I’m on their email mailing list.

These services are probably useful but you have to have health insurance to use them.

One-Third of Americans Cut Back to Cover Healthcare Expenses – https://news.gallup.com/poll/702596/one-third-americans-cut-back-cover-healthcare-expenses.aspx

I’ve noticed some food blogs I follow are posting recipes focusing on using up leftovers. https://www.budgetbytes.com/leftover-rice-recipes/

Maybe I need to start a struggle meal post series.

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Cooking For One is Not Fun (unless you’re making a Sweet Potato Chicken Quesadilla)

 Cooking For One is Not Fun is still not fun even after yesterday’s mini-rant. The plan was simple: go to the store, buy two rotisserie chickens, rip the meat off the bones and make a quick simple dinner. Well I didn’t fix any dinner and now I have a tub full of cooked chicken. After a hearty breakfast of pancakes, peanut butter and banana I started thinking about lunch.

I found two small sweet potatoes, tortillas and Monterrey Jack cheese.

Quesadilla time!

  • 1 medium sweet potato (or two small ones)
  • cooked rotisserie chicken, small dice
  • Salt, pepper, chill powder, onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, cumin
  • olive oil, butter or margarine
  • tortillas
  • Sharp cheddar cheese and or Monterrey Jack
  • Sriracha (be careful with this)
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Lightly grease with some olive oil.
  2. Scrub the dirt off the sweet potatoes and split them lengthwise. Place cut side down on the greased aluminum foil covered baking sheet and bake. (small to medium 30-45 minutes, large will take an hour or so). When done, remove from oven and allow to cool.
  3. Scoop potatoes into a mixing bowl. See the list of spices? Add a pinch of each. The actual amount depends upon how much potato you’re working with. Mix well and set aside.
  4. Heat a griddle or large pan on the stove, medium flame.
  5. Butter or margarine one side of a tortilla. If using butter, add some olive oil to the griddle because butter burns. Tortilla buttered side down on the griddle. Fill one half side with potato and dot with chicken and cheese. Flip the other half over so it looks like a quesadilla. Brown on both sides. It’s done when the cheese is melted and the filling is warm.
  6. Repeat. Eat.
  7. Bet you thought I forgot the Sriracha. If you like spicy go ahead and add to your potato mixture along with the rest of the spices. Or use Sriracha as a drizzle or dipping sauce. Just remember if you add this to the potatoes before grilling I assume zero responsibility for the searing burn in your throat.
  8. Actually, go ahead and use your favorite hot sauce.
Photo by Nadin Sh on Pexels.com

 Yeah, the picture above is cheating. Here’s the real shot.

The Bottom Line

Tasty. But I said it before and I’ll say it again. Cooking For One is Not Fun and this was a lot of work to make one quesadilla. At least I’ve worked out the spice combo and the flavors are fine. I did end up mixing a few dashes of Sriracha into the potato. Cooking for one needs to be quick, simple, filling, and nutritious. This quesadilla did not meet the “quick” criteria.

In the future consider the following:

  • Bake and season the potatoes the night before to allow the flavors to marry and to save time when actually making this quesadilla.
  • Make more than one quesadilla. Trust me on this.
  • Tabasco brand Sriracha (an unpaid endorsement).
  • Buy and debone your chicken ahead of time.

This post is #9 in my One Rotisserie Chicken, 50 Meals – The Concept series that I started 12 years ago. At this pace I won’t live long enough to finish the series. At least no one pays me for my content. Maybe I’ll change the title to One Rotisserie Chicken, 10 Meals and declare this series done.

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Cooking For One is Not Fun

Cooking for one person is not fun but sometimes I do it anyway. I like to try new recipes on myself so when there’s a failure no one gets hurt and the attempt at something different gets tossed out. Earlier this week I made a pot of Vegetarian Badass Black Eyed Peas – 2022 and decided to de-veg it by tossing in a couple of chicken sausages from the freezer. The sausages had some stewed tomatoes in it and I needed stewed tomatoes for the beans and…I tossed everything together. I think this might be a new bean dish in the fall/winter rotation. But besides experimenting with new dishes another thing I like to do when dining alone is to use up leftovers from the freezer.

For lunch I found what I thought was chili and defrosted it only to discover it wasn’t chili but meat sauce. Then I found two single serving containers of penne with tomato sauce (marinara?) and I defrosted them, spread the pasta into a baking dish, added some freshly grated cheese and dumped the sauce on top. Then I added more grated cheese. This is what I ended up with.

By dinner time I was completely in the no cook mode. So I went to the store and bought two rotisserie chickens. After putting away the other items I bought I carved the chicken off the bones while thinking about what to make for my dinner. After snacking on quite a few pieces of chicken while carving I wasn’t hungry anymore and decided not to make anything for dinner. Now I have two chickens all off the bone and I still haven’t a clue what to make with all this chicken.

At least I know whatever I decide to make tomorrow there will be chicken in it.

Guess I’ll be adding to my One Rotisserie Chicken, 50 Meals – The Concept recipe lineup I started years ago.

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Lessons From a Lifetime of Cooking #6 – Persillade

Persillade? First I had to learn how to pronounce this.

This thing started because I had some leftover fresh parsley from making Papa’s Corn Salad. Then I found Jacques’ recipe for:

Simple. Easy. Quick. Definitely going into the rotation.

Growing up the green stuff on the side of your main course to me was merely a garnish.

I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

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Baked Chicken Thighs

I wanted something quick and tasty so I made some baked chicken thighs.

Here’s my inspiration. The recipe reminded me of a dish I used to make a long time ago .

For those who are visual learners…

At some point in the future I’ll properly create my own version but for now here are the changes I made:

  • I left the fat on the chicken thighs. Fat = flavor.
  • I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs.
  • Texas 1015 sweet onions instead of white onions.
  • Not as much herbs and spices as the original calls for. I lightly salted the thighs on one side before placing into the baking dish. Lightly coat each thigh with EVOO. I then dusted the thighs with sweet paprika, garlic powder and oregano.
  • Skipped the whole tomato and used a bunch of cherry tomatoes.
  • No white pepper. No lemons (I didn’t have any in the fridge).
  • Drizzle more EVOO over the top layer of sliced onions.
  • 375 degrees F for 45 minutes.

I made rice and some green peas for sides. We also topped our portions with a nice sprinkle of Feta cheese.

Turned out real tasty.

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New and Improved! Sour Cream Chicken Enchillada Casserole

Updated 11.05.13

The Boss:  “I’ll make the sauce.”

Me:    “Why?”

The Boss: “Because your sauce is too thin and the casserole gets too runny.”

Recipes change with time and repeated preparations.  But sometimes the changes you’ve made were not necessarily an improvement to the dish. Lesson learned. Time to update this family classic. You don’t want the original recipe.  Don’t use One Rotisserire Chicken, 50 Meals – #3 Sour Cream Chicken Enchillada Casserole. Make this one.

Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Casserole

  • 8 ounces Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded
  • 4 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 1/4 C butter
  • 2 T. flour
  • 3/4 C. sour cream
  • 1 3/4 C. chicken broth
  • 1 small can mild green chiles
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • Two rotisserie  chickens, meat taken off the bones, cubed (yes two chickens)
  • 18 yellow corn tortillas
  1. Saute onions in butter, add flour then broth.  Cook over medium heat until thickened.  Add chiles and sour cream and heat.  Be careful to not let the sauce boil.  Set aside.
  2. Butter  a 9 x 12 casserole dish.
  3. Layer three corn tortillas.  Cover generously with chicken.  Add jack cheese.  Sauce.  Repeat.
  4. The final layer of corn tortillas is covered with sauce only, no cheese yet.
  5. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes covered until bubbly.  Remove cover, add cheddar cheese to the top.  Return to the oven for 10 minutes to allow cheese to melt.
  6. After cheese has melted, remove from the oven and allow to sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before serving.

This recipe started with a version from Delicioso! Cooking South Texas Style.  The original recipe from the cookbook has sour cream sauce quantities similar to the updated version and not the too thin, too runny, bad quantities I had been using. The original also called for a full pound of Monterrey Jack cheese, no cheddar. Uh, no. Also included were jalapenos which would be wicked good but by subbing mild green chilies you get a child friendly dish if you know what I mean and I think you do.

Tips – Cut up the chicken first and snack on those tiny tidbits of meat that you have to pick off the bones with your fingers.  Do not use pre-shredded cheese. Period.  Trust your significant other when she says your sauce is too thin and it makes the casserole too runny. Make some fresh Guacamole – Asian Inspired and Updated and serve with chips. Beans and rice for sides obviously. Don’t forget the beer.

The Two Chicken Change to the Recipe –

Two birds because all of the ones you find in the grocery stores (not Costco) are really small. We used to call them Cornish Hens. Seriously, pigeons are bigger than the rotisserie chickens nowadays.

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Chicken Thigh Week – The Sequel

Chicken thighs are one of my favorite ingredients to cook with because they’re fairly inexpensive, they always stay juicy and tender, and they can be added to just about anything. If you’re a new cook, chicken thighs are perfect because they’re really hard to mess up! So today we’ve rounded up some of our favorite cheap and easy chicken thigh recipes for you to dive into. Bookmark this list so the next time someone asks, “What’s for dinner?” you’ve got a lot of great ideas in one place. 🙂

Cheap & Easy Chicken Thigh Recipes — https://www.budgetbytes.com/cheap-easy-chicken-thigh-recipes/

Another Electronic Sticky Note!

Another blogger who loves chicken thighs!

Some kind and faithful readers may remember Chicken Thigh Week (vegans/vegetarians avert your eyes) which ended up becoming a week of food diary tracking and introspection. Well, welcome to the sequel.

BTW I found boneless thighs on sale for $1.69 a pound. Guess what’s going in the oven in about 15 minutes?

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Chicken Thigh Week – Monday

Monday 3/20

A faithful reader of my blogs mentioned a 7 day meal plan would be nice to have. Initially I thought that was a good idea. But when I sat down to create a 7 day meal plan I realized I never know what I’m making to eat until I see what looks good at the store. I probably go grocery shopping 3-4 times a week. I’ve been working from home since 2006. Food shopping gives me an excuse to get out of the house.

I love leftovers. Last night I roasted four chicken thighs with the idea there would be leftovers to toss into a quesadilla or chicken salad, or any of a number of dishes you can make with leftover cooked chicken.

I ate them all (they were small).

Back to the 7 day meal plan. Since I’ve never planned for shopping and making meals for 7 days straight I thought I’d simply document my meals for the week. Hopefully this will help with my Writer’s Block so I can write another chapter of The Future Best Seller. This also provides a glimpse into my current dietary habits (which are far different than the 370 pound me).

Breakfast – Strawberries, banana and full fat Greek yogurt.

Lunch – I made Semi-Organic Vegan Split Pea Soup for lunch but didn’t have it for lunch. Instead I had a baked potato with butter, salt, pepper and a salad topped with marinated artichoke hearts. Yes, I made this one up today with apologies to Martha Rose Shulman. My Garlic Vinaigrette pays homage to Martha’s recipe.

Snack – Peanut butter. Yes, peanut butter.

Dinner – Breaded Chicken Cutlet (thigh, of course), egg fried rice, salad.

I went back to the store that advertised boneless chicken thighs for $2.99/lb. Still no boneless thighs. And no bone-in chicken thighs either. But since I bought some bone-in the other day it’s still Chicken Thigh Week.

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