White Chicken Enchiladas with Green Chile Sour Cream Sauce

This is my new favorite dish. It is so good! You need to go buy the ingredients and make this. Now. Go. Your family will thank you.

8 soft taco size flour tortillas (my grocery store makes these fresh daily...woohoo)

3 cups shredded cooked chicken (make it easy and grab a rotisserie chicken from the deli)
1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
2 cups shredded Monterrey jack and cheddar cheese blend, divided
3 TBSPs butter
3 TBSPs flour
1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth
1 cup sour cream
1 (4 oz) can fire roasted diced green chiles, mild
chopped fresh cilantro for garnish, if desired

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with cooking spray and set aside. Mix the chicken together with all of the pepper jack cheese and 1 cup of the jack/cheddar cheese blend. Place an equal amount of the chicken mixture into each tortilla, roll up and place seam side down into prepared pan. In a saucepan, melt the butter. Add the flour; cook and stir with a wisk for 1 minute. Add the chicken broth, whisking until smooth. Continue cooking over medium heat until sauce is thick and bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream and green chiles. Pour the sauce evenly over the enchiladas. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup of jack/cheddar cheese blend. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Sprinkle with cilantro just before serving, if desired.

(Recipe adapted from Let's Dish.)

Chicken with Awesome Sauce

This sauce really is awesome! I got this recipe from HEB and we will definitely be having this for dinner again soon. (For those of you not from Texas, HEB is a grocery store.) I had never heard of a Hatch chile pepper until I came across this recipe and apparently they are in season right now. If you can't get your hands on a Hatch chile pepper, you can use a poblano pepper instead.

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (approx 1 lb) trimmed and cut in half lengthwise
2 TBSP grapeseed oil
salt and pepper, to taste
4 bacon slices, chopped
1 Hatch green chile pepper, chopped
1/3 cup Robert's Reserve Pineapple Coconut Mango Tequila Sauce

Preheat grill to medium heat. Toss chicken in oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill chicken for 5 - 6 minutes on each side or until cooked through. While the chicken is cooking, sauté bacon and pepper in a skillet over medium heat until bacon is a little crispy. Add pineapple sauce to the pan and heat for 30 seconds. Pour sauce over chicken and serve. Yum!

Parmesan Crusted Chicken

This is one of my favorite baked chicken recipes! It's great by itself, but also delicious served on top of fettuccine alfredo.

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp black pepper
3 Tbsp butter, melted

Combine cheese, bread crumbs, paprika, and black pepper in a large Ziploc bag. Cut chicken breasts in half. Dip chicken in butter and then place into Ziploc bag and toss until evenly coated with the cheese mixture. Place chicken on greased cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until chicken is done.

Sweet and Spicy Bacon Chicken

This chicken dish is a new family favorite in our house. It's very similar to Paula Deen's appetizer recipe, but this one is a main dish with different seasoning. It's very flavorful with just a tiny hint of heat. You could easily double this and bake it in a 9x13 pan.

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into thirds (9 pieces)
Zatarain's Creole Seasoning
5 slices of bacon, cut in half (you'll have an extra half so wrap two around one of the larger pieces of chicken)
Approx. 3/4 cup brown sugar
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 8x8 baking dish with a small amount of olive oil. Season chicken with Zatarain's Creole Seasoning. Wrap a half slice of bacon around each piece of chicken. Place brown sugar in a small bowl. Roll chicken wrapped bacon pieces in brown sugar and place into baking dish in a single layer (three rows of three). Bake for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and bacon is nice and brown.

Paula Deen's Southern Fried Chicken

I have tried a lot of new recipes lately, but haven't really found many keepers. Except for this one. My husband has been begging me for the longest time to cook him some fried chicken. I finally agreed to give it a try last week. It was a bit messy and I'm pretty sure I washed my hands a thousand times during the process, but my hubby was so darn happy that I guess it was all worth it. Oh, and don't let the cup of hot sauce scare you off. Paula Deen knows what she's doing! This is finger lickin' good.

House Seasoning:

1 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder

Note: If you make this much House Seasoning, you will have a lot left over for future recipes. I scaled it back quite a bit because I don't have an extra salt/pepper shaker to store it in.

Southern Fried Chicken:

4 eggs
1/3 cup water
1 cup hot red pepper sauce (I used Frank's)
2 cups self-rising flour
1 tsp pepper
House Seasoning
2 1/2 lb chicken, cut into pieces (I just used a package each of wings and breasts)
Oil, for frying, preferably peanut oil (I used vegetable oil)

To make the House Seasoning, mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

In a medium size bowl, beat the eggs with the water and add the hot sauce. Stir well. In another bowl, combine the flour and pepper. Season the chicken with the House Seasoning. Dip the seasoned chicken in the egg mixture, and then coat well in the flour mixture.

Heat the oil in a large pan or Dutch oven. (I used my 5 quart Dutch oven and poured enough oil in until I had about an inch and a half of oil on the bottom.)

Fry the chicken in the oil until brown and crisp on both sides. Dark meat takes longer than white meat. It should take dark meat about 13 to 14 minutes, white meat around 8 to 10 minutes. (The chicken breasts I bought were huge and took about 15 minutes.)

Click here to see the recipe on the Food Network's site.

Crescent Chicken Pockets

This is another one of my husband's favorite meals and I really like it as well. I've tried adding additional spices and making my own gravy, but I was kindly reminded not to fix it if it ain't broken. So, here's my original version.

4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 Tbsp butter, softened
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp milk
1 can (8 oz) crescent dinner rolls
1 Tbsp butter, melted
2 Tbsp bread crumbs
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix cream cheese and 1 tablespoon butter until smooth. Add chicken, Parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese, salt, pepper, 2 tablespoons of milk and mix well. Separate crescent dough into 4 rectangles and firmly press perforations to seal. Spoon about 1/2 cup of chicken mixture onto the center of each rectangle. Fold dough over chicken mixture and seal edges forming four little pockets about 3 x 5 inches in size. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Brush tops of chicken pockets with 1 tablespoon of butter; sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Meanwhile, heat cream of chicken soup mixed with 1/2 cup of milk until hot. Serve over chicken pockets.

Cheddar Ranch Chicken

I had all of these ingredients on hand tonight, so I decided to give this recipe a try. This dish turned out to be very good and something I would make again. (We're kind of ranch dressing snobs around here, so I did make my own ranch dressing using Hidden Valley's dressing mix.)

1/2 cup ranch dressing
1 Tbsp flour
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (1 pound)
1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Combine dressing with flour in a shallow bowl. Coat each chicken breast well with dressing mixture. Place in ungreased baking dish. Distribute remaining ranch dressing mixture on top of each chicken breast. Combine cheddar and Parmesan cheeses; sprinkle evenly on chicken. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center and juices run clear.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Sour Cream Sauce

I made this for dinner tonight and my husband and I both thought it should go on the blog as a keeper. The chicken was so tender and moist, and the bacon and beef really added a nice flavor.

3-4 skinless boneless chicken breasts (1 lb total)
6-8 slices dried beef (the kind that comes in a jar) (2 slices per chicken breast)
3-4 slices bacon (1 slice per chicken breast)
1 cup sour cream
1 can cream of mushroom soup

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cover each chicken breast with two pieces of beef and then wrap with one slice of bacon. Place chicken in casserole dish, seam side down. Mix sour cream and soup together. Pour over chicken breasts. Cover and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Serve over rice or noodles.

Artichoke Chicken

This is one of my husband's favorite meals. I often cut the chicken into bite sized pieces, double the sauce ingredients, and serve it over noodles.

1 15 oz can artichoke hearts, drained well and chopped
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup mayo
1/3 cup sour cream
4 boneless chicken breasts
garlic powder
pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix artichokes, cheese, mayo and sour cream in a bowl. Place chicken in a greased baking dish and season with pepper and garlic powder. Pour artichoke mixture evenly over chicken. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes or until chicken is done. Serves 4.

You can view the original recipe here.