Thursday, September 23, 2010

Cheesy Chicken and Gravy

RileyAdamsFoodBlogPostpic_thumb_thumb[3] What does your recipe box look like?

Mine, actually, looks pretty good. My mom’s on the other hand? It’s got tons of really old recipe cards coming out of it from all directions.

The difference is that I put a lot of my recipes on the computer. It helps me to locate something fast without going through the trouble of thumbing through a bunch of old clippings and cards. I can do, instead, a Word search.

But even though it’s efficient, it doesn’t have quite the same feel as looking at a recipe card, written in a friend or family member’s hand.

I love the recipe cards that I do have, though. I got a bunch from my college roommate as a gift (along with a beautiful handmade wooden recipe box) when I got married. I also have cards from my grandmother’s recipe box, which mean a lot to me.

IMG_20100920_145346I even have some fledgling computer printouts from my early days of recipe gathering and collecting. Like the one to the left. :) It’s circa 1998 and you can see how old the printer was that was doing the printing by the fact it’s on dot matix paper. My son was one year old and I was a busy mom looking for something quick and tasty to put on the table.

Emeril LagasseThe recipe is one by Emeril…before he got quite as well-known as he is today. But I’ve tweaked it over the years. If you would like his original, delicious recipe, look here. Mine? It has bacon in it. :) Because, as y’all know, I’ve been on a major bacon kick for a while now…and my children aren’t wild about kielbasa (I have no idea why.) And Emeril serves his version over cheesy biscuits. I have to admit that’s really good, but lately I’ve been serving it over a thicker bread because there is plenty of gravy---I used French bread the other day, but you could use other types.

Cheesy Chicken on Bread

IMG_20100920_1452391 pound of cooked, chopped chicken
2 t butter
herb mix (Emeril favors Essence, I used Mrs. Dash. :))
1 C minced onions
1 pound of crumbled bacon
2 T chopped garlic
2 C half-and-half (Emeril used heavy cream…I’m trying to use less fat)
Dash of Worcestershire Sauce
Dash of hot sauce
1/4 cup green onions
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup grated Romano (Emeril uses Parmesan Reggiano)
Bread of choice—biscuits or a fresh loaf

IMG_20100920_145529Melt 1 T of the butter. Add the chicken to the pan and sprinkle with the herbs. Saute for 2 minutes, then add the other 1 T of butter and the minced onions. Season with salt and pepper to taste. After 2 minutes, add the crumbled bacon for 2 more minutes. Add the chopped garlic and the half and half. Season with the hot sauce and Worcestershire.

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 4-6 minutes (stirring from time to time.) Add the green onions to the mix.

Slice your bread and dole the mixture on top, sprinkling cheese on the top as a garnish.

What does your recipe box look like?

Riley/Elizabeth
Delicious and Suspicious (July 6 2010) Riley Adams
Pretty is as Pretty Dies –Elizabeth Spann Craig




15 comments:

  1. Wow, we must be on the same wavelength or something. I made what I call "Upside-Down Chicken Pot Pie" last night. Basically it's chicken pot pie filling, but spooned over hot biscuits instead of baked with a biscuit topping. This sounds pretty similar to my base, minus the bacon, though, and plus a few more veggies.

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  2. Um, I have 4 recipe boxes plus about 40 cookbooks and ALL of my Taste of Home magazines! And adding to my collection all the time! BTW, Riley, love your new book. I had to get it from Amazon because I couldn't find it here. And I'm taking red beans and rice to pitch-in at work tomorrow.

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  3. I tried to start a recipe book... I have 3 index card sin it. My "real" box is in my hard drive, and on the blog.

    And bacon (and heavy cream) makes everything taste better!

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  4. Shel--Ooh, that sounds delicious! Yes, I frequently think about adding veggies to the recipe, but I never seem to do it! I'll try it next time and make it a quasi-chicken pot pie. :)

    NurseJudyMac55 said...
    At least you know you'll never have run out of things to cook! Thanks so much for the nice words on "Delicious and Suspicious!" Hope the red beans and rice are a hit at your office. :)

    A Year on the Grill--The blog DOES make for a nice recipe box, doesn't it?

    And cream makes everything better...just like bacon!

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  5. My recipe box is a hope chest with a hanging file rack in it. Seriously. And that's just for the loose recipes that I've printed or ripped out from magazines. The cookbooks are a whole other story . . .

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  6. This sounds yummy. You can never go wrong with chicken. I've never really collected too many recipes, but I do need to get the ones I do have more organized.

    Mason
    Thoughts in Progress

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  7. YUM! this sounds delish, Elizabeth (happy you added a bit of bacon - you've got me on that kick as well).

    My recipe box is a disaster. I'm normally the overly-organized person at our house, but the recipes over-flow out of their box into too many other places to mention (or to be able to find). And do I use them?? Hardly ever! It's one of those projects I talk about often, but never quite get around to.

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  8. Love your dot-matrix recipe photo. Boy that brings back memories! And, I have to agree: Everything's better with bacon. I also really like your adaptations, including swapping half-and-half for cream and crusty French bread for biscuits. Shel's idea of adding some veg in there sounds good to me -- peas and cut green beans, perhaps some baby carrots. Oh, boy, now I'm ready for lunch!

    ~ Cleo
    Coffeehouse Mystery.com
    Cleo Coyle on Twitter

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  9. Being a computer nerd, I keep all my recipes (including my mother's) in a database. That being said, I still have two wooden boxes filled with index cards and pages cut from McCalls, etc. circa 1955 which Mother passed along. When I'm looking for something to make, I always head for the cards with the most gravy stains - obviously the ones she made most.

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  10. Janel--You know, that's really a very ingenious way to store them! And it's out of sight until you need them.

    Mason--
    That was the thing...I figured that I'd use the recipes a whole lot more if I could access them easier and could search for ingredients. Probably the *easiest* thing to do is to find an online recipe that matches (closely) one from the stuff in the box, and then copy the recipe to Word, making note of any changes to the recipe. But even that does take a lot of time.

    Kaye--Bacon! :)

    There's never enough time for that project, is there? And now my scrapbooking is just about as far back on the back burner as organizing my old recipe cards!

    Cleo--Remember when we'd have to make sure the paper was lined up on the little spikes on the sides of the printer? The kids would die laughing if they could see that printer now!

    I like Shel's idea, too...especially the peas and carrots, which would really bring some color pop in the recipe. :)


    Avery --And the first taste you get is the sauce and chicken, not the bread. It's kind of a nice twist.

    Tiger--I love that! So you're almost getting your mom's opinion on what to cook--because her favorite recipes are in the worst condition!

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  11. Interesting recipe, Elizabeth. I like the idea of adding peas and carrots and calling it upside down chicken pot pie. I also love the notion of using a different bread. I'm not a big biscuit person -- but I have friends who think the world would end if they didn't have their biscuits!

    ~ Krista

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  12. Krista--There are some BIG biscuit fans out there! I like them too, but I do really like to change things up a little bit sometimes.

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  13. Oh, yum!

    I tried having a recipe box, tried a book of document protector pages of recipes I'd tear out....nope....I have a stack of printouts and torn out recipes from magazines stacked on top of my beloved Pillsbury recipe booklets I receive every other month.

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  14. I have my mom's original copy of "The Joy of Cooking" that was a wedding gift to her in 1942. It is so fragile I hate to even touch it but oh how I love to see her personal comments along side her favorites...I swear I can smell her perfume on it...
    I make our version of this often in the winter...this year I will add bacon!! Thanks!

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