Name: Barbecue Chicken Salad
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Yield: 4 salads
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 1/2 pounds chicken thighs, trimmed; salt and pepper; 1/4 cup ranch dressing; 1 cup barbecue sauce; 2 hearts of romaine, chopped, washed, and dried; 1 cup corn kernels (frozen-thawed, or fresh-1-2 ears); 2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced; 1/4 cup monterey Jack cheese + 1/4 cup pepper Jack cheese (or you can use 1/2 cup of just one of these); corn chips (e.g. Fritos)

Barbecue Chicken Salad

September 23, 2015

This barbecue chicken salad is chock-full of good stuff…oven barbecued chicken thighs, crisp lettuce, fresh tomatoes and corn, delicious cheese, and creamy barbecue-ranch dressing, all topped off with a few crunchy corn chips.

I spent most of August trying to figure out how to get fresh corn into all the things. I did manage to get it in most of the things, at least. I wish I could have shared this salad with you earlier, but hey…I didn’t. So, corn is out of season now, but that’s okay. The great thing about corn is that frozen corn is almost as good as fresh…no cooking, just thaw it and throw it on the salad.

Barbecue chicken is not something that I’ve made at home a lot, and honestly the idea of a barbecue chicken salad always seemed oddly overwhelming to me. That may seem bizarre if you read my blog much and you know the types of food that I cook on a regular basis. The thing about me, though, is that I am really, really bad at making meals that require me to make more than one item at a time. That’s why I make so many one-pot and one-dish meals and almost never make a “meat and three” type of meal (I recently acquired Ina Garten’s book Make it Ahead and with her encouragement I hope to get better at, well, making things ahead. Why, just last night we had a dinner of cornbread dressing that I assembled the day before, cranberry sauce I made the day before, and turkey thighs cooked in the slow cooker).

Anyway, why on earth was I scared of barbecue chicken salad??!?!? I must have read a recipe that was overly complicated. My recipe is not. Sear the chicken, slather it with sauce, throw it in the oven. While it’s roasting, chop and assemble the rest of the ingredients. Boom. Done. The Fritos were my naughty touch. I love those things (and my sister is gagging because we have an inside joke about Fritos) and I cannot stop eating them. Oh well. They were awfully delicious on top of this barbecue chicken salad!

Yield: 4 salads

Barbecue Chicken Salad

20 minPrep Time:

20 minCook Time:

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Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 pounds chicken thighs, trimmed
salt and pepper
1/4 cup ranch dressing
1 cup barbecue sauce
2 hearts of romaine, chopped, washed, and dried
1 cup corn kernels (frozen-thawed, or fresh-1-2 ears)
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/4 cup monterey Jack cheese + 1/4 cup pepper Jack cheese (or you can use 1/2 cup of just one of these)
corn chips (e.g. Fritos)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Heat the oil in a medium oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the chicken thighs on both sides with salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes on each side.
While the chicken is searing, whisk together 1/4 cup barbecue sauce with the dressing. Cover and place in the refrigerator. Brush the chicken liberally on both sides with the remaining barbecue sauce (I like mine good and sticky, so I used all of the sauce). Place the skillet into the oven and cook the chicken for 15 minutes. Remove and place on a cutting board to cool slightly.
To assemble the salads, divide the lettuce, corn, tomatoes, and cheese among 4 plates. Cut the chicken into strips or chunks and divide among the plates. Drizzle each salad with 2 tablespoons of dressing then top with desired amount of corn chips. Serve immediately.

Notes

To assemble into a Mason jar salad, allow the chicken to cool completely then place the ingredients into the jar in this order: dressing, chicken, cheese, tomatoes, corn, lettuce. Place corn chips in a separate container.

https://chattavore.com/barbecue-chicken-salad/

Click here to print the recipe for barbecue chicken salad!

This barbecue chicken salad is a simple and delicious weeknight recipe...topped with corn chips for a perfect finishing touch! | chattavore.com

Green Chile Corn Chowder

September 16, 2015

Green chile corn chowder is a delicious, creamy yet light soup that is perfect for summer and fall alike!

September is an interesting month. Is it fall or is it still summer? Around here in Tennessee, it’s still decidedly summer. Though Starbucks would like for us to believe that it’s pumpkin spice latte time (can you guys believe I’ve never had a PSL?), and football season is now in full swing, 80+ degree days belie the fact that the fall equinox is just a few days away. Still, summer growing season is fading into oblivion and soon it will be all dark leafy greens and the like.

Every time I eat soup when it’s hot outside I can’t help but make a joke about how it’s the perfect weather for soup. To be perfectly honest, though, I could eat soup every day of the year no matter how hot it is outside. I mean, my house is air-conditioned. I probably wouldn’t eat it sitting on the unshaded patio of a restaurant in the middle of the desert. But I’ll eat it in the AC…any day’s as good as the next.

This green chile corn chowder contains the best of what summer has to offer, unless, like me, you discovered the week that you were planning to make this that your produce stand was all out of corn. For the season. That’s right. Back to the drawing board.

That’s why I love the fact that frozen vegetables are just as delicious as fresh, and once the season passes, if I am going to cook a vegetable I’m just as likely to buy it frozen as “fresh”, seeing as how many fresh vegetables in the winter are essentially vegetable-shaped pieces of cardboard. There’s no shame in using frozen vegetables, and once corn is out of season I’m not going to waste my time shaving the kernels off of substandard ears.

I find, though, that chilies are pretty good year round at the grocery store. I made this soup a couple of times trying to get the flavors and textures right, ultimately deciding that roasting the peppers rather than cooking them with the onion was the way to go. Full of fresh flavors, this green chile corn chowder needs to be on your table this week!

Yield: 4-6 servings

Green Chile & Corn Chowder

15 minPrep Time:

25 minCook Time:

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Ingredients

2 large poblano peppers
2 large cubanelle peppers
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 large jalapeño, seeded and diced
4 cups frozen corn
1 32-ounce container low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper, to taste
sour cream and shredded monterey or pepper Jack cheese, for serving (optional)

Instructions

Position an oven rack at the highest setting and preheat the broiler. Cut the poblano and cubanelle peppers in half and remove the seeds and stems. Place skin-up on a broiler pan or a baking sheet. Place the pan under the broiler. Broil until the skin is blackened.
Remove the peppers from the oven and turn off the oven. Place the blackened peppers into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap for 15 minutes. Remove from the bowl and remove the blackened skin from the peppers. Dice the peppers and set aside.
While the peppers are under the broiler, melt the butter in a 6-8 quart Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they begin to turn translucent. Add the jalapeño. Cook until softened.
Add 2 cups of the corn to the pot along with the chicken stock. Heat until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and use an immersion blender or a regular blender to puree the soup until smooth.
If you are using a regular blender to puree the soup, return the soup to the pot. Add the remaining 2 cups of corn, the cream, and the reserved peppers. Cook over medium heat until heated through. Salt and pepper to taste and serve with sour cream and/or cheese if desired.

Notes

This soup is great for freezing!

https://chattavore.com/green-chile-corn-chowder/

Click here to print the recipe for green chile corn chowder!

Green chile corn chowder is a great way to welcome Fall OR use up the last of the seasonal summer vegetables from your produce market! | chattavore.com

Bacon Ranch Roll-ups

September 9, 2015

Bacon ranch roll-ups are just what they sound like. Plus they’re simple, quick, and delicious. They are a great way for me to break my lunchtime routine monotony!

So, school’s been back in session for a few weeks now, which means that I am officially in the place in my life where I have spent several weeks eating cheese, crackers, Vlasic Snackers baby dill pickles, and fruit for lunch every single day. Call it an adult lunchable. It’s easy, portable, and tasty. But gah, it gets old.

You guys have heard it all before….I spend a good portion of my work day in my car. It’s rare for me to have access to a microwave at lunch time, or really to even have access to a table or even a desk to eat. Unless I know I’m going to be in my office at lunch time (a rare occurrence indeed) or somewhere else where I know people and feel comfortable pulling up a chair and pulling out my lunchbox, I eat in my car. Leftovers are out, and it’s rare that I feel brave enough to take something that requires the use of a fork or a spoon (like a salad or a Thermos of soup).

Cheese and crackers and pickles can get pretty old, though, and let’s be honest…the endless adult lunchables are really just a result of laziness on my part.

Sometimes I want to eat something with just a little more substance. Every once in a while I’ll pull myself together enough to make some pimento cheese, or maybe some chicken salad (or pimento cheese chicken salad!). Nothing, though, makes me quite as happy as my rare BLT day. Even better when I mix ranch dressing spices into some cream cheese and turn a BLT into a bacon ranch roll-up. Oh yes, yes I did.
I made 4 of these and packed them away into the fridge. I should have eaten them all but I shared them with Philip because that’s just the kind of wife I am. These bacon ranch roll-ups were a welcome break from the cheese and crackers monotony and definitely made me look forward to lunch a little bit more!

Mary

Yield: 4 servings

Bacon Ranch Roll-ups

10 minPrep Time:

10 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dry dill weed
1 teaspoon dry parsley
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 8-inch flour tortillas
8 strips bacon, cooked and chopped or crumbled
4 leaves romaine lettuce, washed, dried, and chopped
1 large tomato, seeded and diced

Instructions

In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, mayonnaise, herbs, spices, and Worcestershire sauce until well combined.
Divide the cream cheese mixture among the tortillas and spread to the edges.
Divide the bacon, lettuce, and tomatoes among the tortillas. Roll up the tortillas. Cut in half if desired. Secure with toothpicks. Serve immediately or wrap in plastic wrap or foil and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Notes

Prep time does not include time to cook bacon.

https://chattavore.com/bacon-ranch-roll-ups/

Bacon ranch roll-ups are just what they sound like. Plus they're simple, quick, and delicious-a great way for me to break my lunchtime routine monotony! | recipe from chattavore.com

Chicken & Pimento Cheese Sandwich aka the Piminnie Pearl

August 28, 2015

The “Piminnie Pearl” (bear with me…I’ll get to the name) is chicken & pimento cheese sandwich with tomatoes & pickles on a sourdough bread. It’s pretty much summer on a sandwich for me, right up there with tomato & mayonnaise sandwiches. It’s stone cold delicious! Scroll to the bottom to learn how to make my pimento cheese (video)!

I recently bought the book The B.T.C. Old-Fashioned Grocery Cookbook and it is pretty fan-freaking-tastic. The book, written by Alexe van Beuren, is about van Bern’s small gourmet grocery store (B.T.C. Grocery, natch) and restaurant in Water Valley, Mississippi, with recipes by her clearly very talented Southern-bred cook, Dixie Grimes. The stories are great, with lots of anecdotes about Water Valley residents and about how recipes came to be. It’s been hard to put it down.

One of the recipes in the book is called the “Say Dixie” sandwich (a peek at the restaurant’s menu online reveals that the full name of the sandwich is “Say Dixie & Come to Me”. Anyway, this sandwich tops a grilled chicken with pimento cheese, Sriracha coleslaw, and bread and butter pickles on a ciabatta roll. Needless to say, I was quite intrigued (my long-time readers know that I have a bit of an obsession with pimento cheese. I eat it on sandwiches (of course) and on crackers, put it in deviled eggs, and even put it in biscuits. Yep. Pimento cheese biscuits. Dixie’s sandwich sounded pretty amazing to me.

As I started thinking about what my ideal chicken and pimento cheese sandwich would have on it, though, it differed just a little from the Say Dixie. I was first going to oven-roast my chicken, but then Philip suggested poaching it in Rogue Sriracha Hot Stout, which we picked up at Hop City on a recent day trip to Birmingham. Instead of coleslaw, I put some slices of perfect August tomatoes from Bryden’s Market, right down the street from my house, on top, and used dill pickle chips instead of bread & butter (I’m not a fan of sweet pickles). Oh yeah…I drizzled it with a little Sriracha. Cause that’s how we do.

I would have used a ciabatta roll, and I still think that it would be perfect here…but Publix bakery was fresh out the two days I stopped by to pick some up (they usually sell them in the walk-up bakery case) so I used some sourdough instead. We paired our chicken & pimento cheese sandwich with Lay’s Flavor Contest West Coast Truffle Fries flavored Wavy Lay’s (I bought 3 of the 4 new flavors of Lay’s-these, Southern Biscuits & Gravy, and NY Reuben. As I write this, we’ve only tried the Truffle Fries.).

They were every bit as deliciously Southern as they sound. I asked my Facebook followers for a little help having the sandwich. I got several suggestions, but my favorite name for this chicken & pimento cheese sandwich came from Barbara, who suggested the Minnie Pearl-Southern lady with a kick. Loved it, but wasn’t quite sure if about the legalities of using that name…so instead I dubbed it the Piminnie Pearl (pimento = piminnie, get it?)! Thanks for the name, Barbara. I hope you enjoy the sandwich!

Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link for the book The B.T.C. Old-Fashioned Grocery Cookbook because I wanted to share Alexe’s wonderful stories and Dixie’s amazing Southern recipes with you!

Yield: 4 servings

Chicken & Pimento Cheese Sandwich aka the Piminnie Pearl

10 minPrep Time:

12 minCook Time:

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Ingredients

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups stout beer
1 teaspoon salt
8 small or 4 large slices sourdough bread, or 4 ciabatta rolls
1/2 cup pimento cheese ( here's my recipe!)
1 large tomato, sliced
12 dill pickle chips
Sriracha

Instructions

Place the chicken breasts in a 10-inch skillet and pour the beer over. Sprinkle with salt. Add enough water to cover the chicken in liquid (don't obsess, though...they'll float a little bit). Turn the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cover. Simmer for until temperature in the thickest part of the chicken reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit (this took about 8 minutes for me).
Remove the chicken from the pan and drain briefly on a paper towel. Thinly slice the chicken.
If you are using ciabatta rolls, slice them in half. If you are using large sourdough slices, you can make 2 large sandwiches and cut them half.
Divide the pimento cheese among the bottom slices of bread. Top with the chicken and drizzle with desired amount of Sriracha. Top with the tomato slices and the pickles, then the top slices of bread. Serve immediately.

https://chattavore.com/chicken-pimento-cheese-sandwich/

Click here to print the recipe for the Piminnie Pearl!

This chicken & pimento cheese sandwich is affectionately named "The Piminnie Pearl" (Southern lady with a kick) | chattavore.com

Spinach Caprese Salad with Pesto Dressing

August 26, 2015

Spinach caprese salad with pesto dressing is everything you love about caprese salad-that is, tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil-with enough substance to make a meal of it!

When late July rolls around every year, I start to get jump up and down excited. No, not because it’s almost time for school to start back…because of tomato?season! When I was at the produce stand buying the tomatoes for this post, I bought four-one classic beefsteak tomato, one yellow tomato, one green tomato, and the Cherokee purple that I used here. The guy that rang me up remarked, “Well, you’re getting a tomato in every color, aren’t you?”

Yes, yes I am. Because the season in which tomatoes in lots of beautiful colors are readily available and actually taste like something (that is, like pure edible heaven) is devastatingly short and I have to get my hands on as many as possible while I can. That means buying them in every color that I see. Tomato sandwiches, BLTs, fried green tomatoes, cherry tomatoes as finger food in my lunch…I will eat a fresh tomato pretty much any way I can get it, as many times a day as possible (I über-love a couple of fat slices of tomato and some avocado alongside the fried egg I eat every morning for breakfast).

Not least of my favorite summer tomato applications is the caprese salad. Usually, I’ll throw some cubed tomatoes into a bowl with some diced fresh mozzarella and julienned basil, drizzle over some olive oil, and I’m golden. That never seems substantial enough to be a meal, though, and by some strange twist of fate, I married a man who doesn’t really care for raw tomatoes. He’ll eat them, but they aren’t his favorite, so it’s helpful if I can throw in a few leaves of something to make it a little more palatable for him.

Enter spinach.

Spinach is such a substantial salad green and pairs perfectly with tomatoes and mozzarella. So…spinach caprese salad? Yep. Yep yep. One bag of spinach is enough spinach for the two of us…I tossed it together with a giant cubed tomato, a little fresh mozzarella, and some pepitas (aka pumpkin seeds). I whisked up a vinaigrette with some jarred pesto (feel free to make your own, but I had a jar of Colavita pesto in the fridge that needed to get used), lemon juice, and olive oil and drizzled it over. Spinach caprese salad: for the win!

Yield: 4 salads

Spinach Caprese Salad with Pesto Dressing

15 minPrep Time:

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Ingredients

For the vinaigrette

2 tablespoons basil pesto
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste

For the salad

2 8-ounce packages spinach
2 large tomatoes - seeded and diced
4 ounces fresh mozzarella - diced
1/4 cup pepitas (roasted, salted pumpkin seeds)

Instructions

To make the vinaigrette, whisk together the pesto and the lemon juice in a small bowl. Drizzle the olive oil in very slowly, whisking constantly to emulsify. Add salt to taste.
Divide the spinach among 4 plates (you may not use all of it-to make two salads, I used about 2/3 of an 8-ounch package). Top with the tomatoes, mozzarella, and pepitas.
Drizzle each salad with 2 tablespoons of dressing. Serve immediately.

Notes

This recipe is easily halved or multiplied!

https://chattavore.com/spinach-caprese-salad/

Click here to print the recipe for spinach caprese salad!

Spinach caprese salad showcases all the flavor of perfect summer tomatoes with a delicious pesto vinaigrette! | chattavore.com

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