Potato Chip Chicken

First off, I'm upset that I can't think of a more clever name for today. But I suppose that all my smarts were drained into tonight's meal. Second, I really really need to post here more. But anyway, onto dinner.

Potato Chip Chicken, which I first heard on an episode of King of the Hill, is stupidly easy to make. I was astounded. I mean, yeah, I know how to bake a chicken breast but all the prep work was seasoning my cutlets (Adobo, as always), dipping into melted butter, then coating with smashed chips. I was amazed though, as most fancy breast recipes call for a more traditional dredge of flour-egg-bread crumb. As for the potato chips, I used Sour Cream and Onion. Yum. It took more than a simple smash though. A heavy pot, a plastic bag and years of unresolved aggression towards my mother did little to create the fine grains of powder I'm used to. In order to defeat them, I sent them off to my little food processor to put the spurs to them. And that was it. Bake until white on the inside. Boom. Done. Big deal. Very very good, though. They tasted basically fried.

But this is the important part. I have been itching time and again to try and create a homemade sauce. Don't care which one. Just wanna. I figured now was my chance. With a potato chip flavor, I thought some kind of dip accompaniment would be best. Luckily, on hand was a packet of french onion soup. So flavor was not an issue. But how to build? As I recall from a leek soup recipe which I promise to post soon, butter + flour does the trick as a base. I was impressed with All Purpose's thickening power. So with... I think half a stick (I'm guessing) of butter and two tablespoons (I measured this time), I was on my way. Maybe... a quarter cup of that chicken broth went in once things looked gooey and then I started to whisk like hell over low heat. Next, a half cup of mayo and a full cup of sour cream I had combined beforehand. In they went, with much more stirring. In fact, I was a little panicky as I mixed, afraid of... I dunno, anything. I had never done a sauce before. But oh well, must truck on. In went that onion pack and a few shots of Worcestershire. Amazingly enough, it came out really really good. Very proud of myself, I am for this feat.

Not as proud as that leek soup. But that's another post.

Wow, been a while.

To start things off, I haven't posted in a while because I haven't cooked in a while. Nothing new anyway. I had a high school drama club revival and AMVs and all sorts of noise. But anyway. If I didn't mention this 68 recipe book by Pillsbury we got at Walmart, then I slipped up. Because now that I think about it, I made some bubble pizza from this as well, whatever that is. But anyway. It's monday, time for alchemy.

This is what they call Greek Chicken and Pasta. What I ended up making is not Greek in the least.

2 Cups uncooked penne pasta. No penne, used rotini.

1/4 cup butter or margarine. Easy. Though I admit, I eyeballed it.

1 large onion, chopped. Duh. There isn't a day when I have onions in the house.

1/4 cup AP flour. I should get more.

1 3/4 cups Progresso chicken broth. Didn't have it. Had leftovers of the White Wine and Herb stuff. As it turns out, it was chicken based. Hurray.

1 cup shredded feta cheese. Didn't have feta. Don't even like feta much. Used mozzarella.

3 cups chopped chicken. Wife brought these little bags of precooked rotisserie chicken on manager's special. I used two bags. Looked like it was enough.

1 jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained chopped. Ewww. I used a can of vegetable medley.

1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes in oil, drained, chopped. I wish. I used a can of diced.

1/3 cup sliced kalamata olives. What?

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley. What?

Preheat oven to 350. Cook pasta. And oh crap, I forgot to grease my baking dish. Oh well, looks like it didn't need it. Melt butter, cook onion. Stir in flour, cook and stir half a minute. Add the broth, more stirring, heat until boiling. At this part in the game, I really noticed the flour thickening into a nice sauce. Behold the power of All Purpose. Remove from heat, stir in cheese. Gently stir in... everything else.

Bake for half an hour. Nom.

Personally, I like what I did. It's chunky, milk flavors all around, nothing bad. Wife added more cheese. She mentions if I had COMPLETELY BSed a chicken and pasta casserole, she would have liked it a lot better. Because I followed a recipe, it only gets a B-.