Meals | MJ's Kitchen

Meals RSS feed for this section

Braised Red Chile Chicken and Vegetables

by mj on April 2, 2013

This braised red chile chicken recipe might remind you somewhat of the Hungarian dish – Paprika Chicken. The paprika pepper that creates a rather spicy and rich tasting Paprika Chicken is similar to that produced by the red chile powder used in this dish. However, that’s about as far as the similarities between the two dishes go. Paprika chicken uses cream or sour cream and is usually served over pasta, neither of which is the case here.

Braised Red Chile Chicken and Vegetables is actually more of a southwestern dish with some Mexican components as toppings. Instead of paprika I use New Mexico red chile powder and other traditional southwestern seasonings. The base or sauce is created using strained or crushed tomatoes which, once cooked down, create a rich sweet and spicy sauce. Because of this rich sauce, this dish can be served over rice, grits or polenta, or with flour tortillas that can be used to scoop it up so that nothing goes to waste.

Continue Reading →

Comments { 70 }

Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese with Asparagus

by mj on March 28, 2013

For some reason my craving for macaroni and cheese has been escalating. Maybe it’s because of all the wonderful mac & cheese recipes I’ve been seeing online lately. But the one that pushed me over the edge was Zsuzsa’s stovetop Creamy Macaroni and Cheese. When I first saw her picture, I knew that was the mac & cheese I wanted to eat. Her recipe looked fabulous and the video she provided in the post was a great tutorial on how to put all of the components together for a creamy outcome. You definitely need to check it out.

For this recipe I used Zsuzsa’s for the most part, but purely out of habit I ended up making the béchamel (white sauce) the way I normally do. I added a couple of herbs to the dish because I love herbs, and then cut back a bit on the cheese. For the finishing touch and to create a complete meal for Bobby and me, I added my Simply Asparagus dish which you’ll find later in this post. Each plate was served with a serving of macaroni and cheese and about 5 to 6 spears of asparagus. We cut the asparagus into bite size pieces and ate a piece with each bite of mac & cheese. It is quite tasty!

Continue Reading →

Comments { 69 }

Not My Aunt’s Chicken Pot Pie

by mj on March 24, 2013

I’ve been tied up for a couple of weeks, so my wonderful sister Nadalyn, has graciously stepped in and made us a chicken pot pie. Before I turn this over to her, I have to say that this recipe is SO Nadalyn. I cook meals with a lot of leftovers because I learned not to waste anything from my mother, but Nadalyn – she has taken it to a whole new level. She is the frugalista of leftovers and this chicken pot pie is a great example. It’s all yours Babe…

My husband’s aunt and uncle made a living running a diner in a small rural town. They were the sweetest, kindest, most generous couple you ever met. Honestly, I think that was the main reason people ate at their diner, and also the fact that their diner was one of only two sit-down eateries in town. His aunt’s chicken pot pie was her staple. It was the diner’s special every day and the dish she brought to all family gatherings. Unfortunately, we use to say that the closest a chicken got to her pot pie was if one ran past on the road. The dish consisted primarily of a small bag of frozen mixed vegetables in thickened chicken stock covered with a pie crust in a restaurant size baking pan. It was a game among us seeing if anyone would actually find a piece of chicken in their serving of pie. That’s where I got the tongue-in-cheek name for my dish.

Continue Reading →

Comments { 60 }

Asparagus, Chorizo, and a Soft-Boiled Egg

by mj on February 21, 2013

This asparagus salad was inspired by an article in a recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated. The article was about getting the perfect soft-boiled egg by actually “steaming” it rather than boiling it. I have now tried the steaming method several times and each time have ended up with “perfect” soft-boiled eggs – cooked whites and creamy yolks. SO good!

Now that I have all of these soft-boiled eggs, what do I do with them all? The article suggested serving one over steamed asparagus drizzled with olive oil. I tried it, and it was excellent, but I wanted more. So by adding just a couple more ingredients, I came up with this delicious salad that can be served by itself, as a side, or a starter for a meal. If you’re vegetarian, just omit the meat. It’s a great salad with or without it. If you can’t find chorizo, then use bacon. Who doesn’t love bacon on a salad?!

Continue Reading →

Comments { 71 }

Shrimp and Grits

by mj on February 12, 2013

Shrimp and grits is a very simple dish and there are hundreds of recipes. When I goggled it to write this post, I got 495,000 results! I found recipes with cheese and cream, tasso and andouille, leeks and tomatoes. The only constants seemed to be the grits, shrimp, and some type of red pepper spice.

My shrimp and grits recipe has evolved through the years from a few spicy shrimp on top of a bowl of creamy grits, to the recipe you see here. This recipe was inspired by a bowl of shrimp and grits that I had many years ago at a restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was the best shrimp and grits I had ever had. Very traditional in flavor, but had more sauce than the shrimp and grits I was use to. I loved that sauce! It really made the dish for me because it helped to incorporate the grits into the dish rather than just being a platform for the shrimp. About a year later I returned to that restaurant for the purpose of ordering another bowl and trying to dissect it, but unfortunately, the restaurant was not longer there. So at this point I was left to my memory (good luck there), and my taste buds.

This shrimp and grits recipe combines the flavors of Louisiana and the southwest in a pretty traditional southern dish. Don’t be intimidated by the list of ingredients. It really is an easy dish to throw together and takes less than 45 minutes. It tastes like it cooks for hours.
Continue Reading →

Comments { 76 }

Swiss Chard Leek Quiche

by mj on January 27, 2013

For years I was intimidated by quiche because I was always trying to make it too healthy. I used skim milk, too few eggs, and too many vegetables. Therefore, my quiches were always runny, thin and tasted like sauteed vegetables with scrambled eggs. And no – I never followed a recipe, but I have gotten better at that over the years. So after many failed quiches, I did decide to follow a recipe and made a beautiful quiche with lots of eggs, heavy cream and cheese. I finally understood what made a quiche work: great vegetable/meat ingredients (but not too many), a tasty and light crust, and the right proportion of eggs to cream to milk. At this point I started working my way toward a healthier quiche.

Continue Reading →

Comments { 98 }

New Mexico Green Chile Stew

by mj on January 13, 2013

A little over a year ago I posted my Easy Green Chile Stew, a quick little stew with a few ingredients and one that can be made and ready to eat in less than an hour. Since then I’ve had several requests to post our regular Green Chile Stew, or I should say Bobby’s stew. Bobby loves making it and I love eating it.

Compared to my other stew, this one uses a sirloin steak cut into bite size pieces instead of ground beef. It also uses potatoes and tomatoes in place of beans making it a hearty and quite healthy pot of stew. Because it’s a “green chile” stew, it uses a lot of roasted, peeled and chopped green chile. It takes a little longer to make than my “easy” stew, but its flavors and richness are hard to beat, making it well worth the extra effort.

Continue Reading →

Comments { 70 }

Skippin’ Jenny (aka Hoppin’ John, Black-eyed peas)

by mj on January 2, 2013

My favorite way to serve black-eyed peas is as a Hoppin’ John which is a pot of black-eyed peas cooked with a ham hock, a few vegetables, and a touch of something spicy. As with most traditional dishes, there are several variations of Hoppin’ John. My version uses ham hock and smoked ham or andouille sausage. The spice comes from Tabasco and homemade pepper sauce which is basically a chile pepper infused vinegar. The peas are served over rice and with my favorite side for anything served in a bowl – buttermilk cornbread.

Eating black-eyed peas and cornbread on New Year’s Day has been a tradition in this household for a very long time. Of course this comes as no surprise having been raised in the south. In case you didn’t know this already, eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day is intended to provide good luck and prosperity throughout the year. According to Wikipedia, the tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day goes back to the middle ages which I found very interesting. Serving the peas with greens such as collard greens, turnip greens or kale, increases one’s potential prosperity because greens are “green” representing money. However, I like to go for the “gold” and serve my peas with cornbread.

When Hoppin’ John is served the day after New Year’s, it’s called Skippin’ Jenny, and provides even more luck for a prosperous year. If you are like us, you’ll have this dish on January 1 and 2 and a couple more times in winter, racking up as much luck as possible. Does it work? Who knows. We’re obviously not going hungry, so something’s going our way.

Continue Reading →

Comments { 66 }

← Older posts