Chicken Tacos

OK, It's been a while but I am making an effort to blog again. So we are all going to start back simple.This is a family favorite. CHICKEN TACOS. Now don't freak out....BUT I used a pressure cooker. I know, the one appliance that immediately makes everyone gasp. Alas, mine is new and it was easy peasy. I promise once you use it you will not only love it, but realize the old stories of blowing up pressure cookers are days gone by. I love mine and use it all the time. If you are still too scared this can be done in a crock pot the same way. The beauty of the pressure cooker is it cooks like a crock pot, but if you forget to plan ahead, you can fix it in a fraction of the time. However, I still yell "Stand back kids, I am starting the pressure cooker up, clear out"! It is more out of habit, my grandma Pat always yelled for us to stay away from it, so it is part of my DNA to say this.

Ingredients: Chicken breast 4 large or 6 small,

Onion, garlic, taco seasoning 2 pkgs

1 cup chicken stock or broth

Slice the onion and garlic, saute' until translucent 2 or 3 minutes

Add chicken and taco seasoning to the pan 

Stir this up good

           Add the chicken stock. Clearly I do not measure, but I am told to give measurements because it drives some of you nuts. Sorry, it's not intentional.

 This is where you clamp the lid down and cook, once the pressure cooker starts to whistle this takes 20 minutes. That's it. During that 20 minutes I chop the rest of the dinner, avocado, tomato, warm the shells etc. For the faint of heart, those who still won't commit....turn the crockpot on. And wait 6-8 hours!

 Once your pressure is down and the safely valve says it is safe to open, this is the untouched result. I use a potato masher and "shred" the chicken. Then your tasty dinner is served!

ENJOY! Feel free to email any questions or suggestions.

I am always looking for casserole ideas that my family will eat. Many reasons fuel my search. First, I work full time and need things I can make ahead of time, second is they are generally cheap and feed very hungry boys. Always a big plus, I can't say for sure where the casserole recipe came from, as I generally look up several and then play around with it to suit our needs or list of ingredients I have in the pantry. The garlic biscuit knots are from pinterest. The stars of this show (not all pictured as I was tending to a 23 month old too) are:
Casserole: 2-3 pounds of chicken breast, macaroni (any shape pasta), shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese. 2 cans evaporated milk, ranch dressing (not dip) mix, salt, pepper, onion and garlic.
Garlic biscuit knots: 1 can of flaky biscuits, canola or olive oil, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder and oregano.


Put both cans of evaporated milk into a sauce pan with ranch dressing mix, heat on low. In a separate pan get water boiling for the pasta.

Next cube up chicken and set aside. Chop onion and garlic.

Soften onions and garlic in a pan, add salt and pepper to this. If you salt and pepper in stages, you food is flavorful, if you wait until the end of the meal, it will taste like salt on top of the food.

Next add chicken, and brown until no longer pink in the middle. Do not over cook.

Cook 2 and 1/2 cups of pasta into heavily salted water according to package directions follow the al dente time.

Set the cooked chicken and drained pasta aside. Layer half of each into a buttered casserole dish like pictured below.

Next pour half of the ranch milk over the past and sprinkle with handful of both cheeses.

Repeat and top with cheese, bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

Take biscuit dough and roll into a snake, tie into knot and put on baking sheet.

In a bowl add 1/4 cup of oil (I used olive oil), 1 tsp of oregano, 2 tbsp of parmesean cheese, 1/2 tsp of garlic and I also cracked some pepper into it.

Take this mixture and spoon onto the biscuits and bake.
These smell so wonderful as they cook.

The finished casserole.

What a beautiful, bubbly and cheesy dish.

What a filling yummy meal, just a hint of ranch and screams winter time comfort food. It re-heats nicely and even the kids loved it. This dish can be assembled and kept in the fridge for a few days and then baked or even frozen.

*Many dishes are made with chicken breast sauteed like this, to save time, while doing a dish cook double chicken and put half aside for another meal, saves times for later in the week. Hope you enjoy.

Spinach and Chicken roll ups with risotto

This is a great chicken recipe, that my husband absolutely loves. I hope you do too.
Ingredients (a list in the beginning, just for my friend Amy D.)

Chicken breast (4) parmesan 1 cup, 1 block of cream cheese, garlic, onion, 1 pkg of chopped spinach, salt and pepper, egg, milk, bread crumbs, aborio rice, chicken broth, white wine, bread crumbs, jar of favorite spaghetti sauce and veggie of choice.
Thaw spinach in microwave, about 1 min and add to strainer. Squeeze all the water out, there is a bunch! Also soften cream cheese and preheat oven to 375.
While preparing spinach and cream cheese, pound chicken breast between plastic wrap until it is thinner and able to be rolled. It will almost double the size.

Next put cream cheese, about 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, 1 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper, chop 2 cloves of garlic and spinach in a bowl and mix.

Prepare an egg wash with 1 egg and milk, take remaining parmesan and add to bowl with a handful of bread crumbs.

Spread spinach mixture onto chicken and roll up, dip in egg wash and roll into bread crumbs, put into baking dish.

Bake for 1 hour at 375.

Heat up spaghetti sauce, in a separate pan bring chicken broth to a simmer. Add olive oil in a large skillet and saute' garlic and onions then add arborio rice, which is risotto (find it in the pasta aisle or sometimes rice or Italian specialty aisle). Stir for about 1 minute.

When it looks like this, add a splash of white wine (1/4 cup).

As you stir the wine will dissolve, for about 30 min stir almost constantly and add a ladle of broth until almost dry then continue to add one ladle at a time test at about 20-25 min and it should be like rice, it will have a creamy consistency.

Chicken when finished.

The finished plate....MMMmmmm good!