Name: Chicken and Waffle Sandwiches
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Yield: 4 sandwiches
Ingredients: 9 1/2 ounces (about 2 1/4 cup) flour (I used white whole wheat flour); 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; 3 eggs, lightly beaten; 2 cups buttermilk; 2 ounces (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter; 1 cup pimento cheese; cooking spray or vegetable/canola oil; 2 cups buttermilk; 3 teaspoons salt; dash sriracha or hot sauce; 2 chicken breasts, sliced in half lengthwise into 2 cutlets each; 1 1/2 cups flour; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder; 1/2 teaspoon onion powder; 1/4 teaspoon black pepper; 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper; vegetable, canola, or peanut oil; hot sauce or Buffalo wing sauce; maple syrup; dill pickle chips

Chicken and Waffle Sandwiches

January 21, 2015

Chicken and waffle sandwiches are the perfect combination of chicken, waffles, Buffalo sauce, maple syrup, and pickles! They’re irresistible!

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclosure statement.

Have you ever had an idea so profoundly obvious that you wondered how you never thought of it in all of the four years that you’ve been blogging? Oh, was that just me? Because I just thought of chicken and waffle sandwiches like two weeks ago. How is that? Because as soon as I thought of it I realized that I should have thought of it, I don’t know, four years ago!

Now I’ll make a confession: I’ve never actually eaten chicken and waffles. I mean, I know that anything with fried chicken seems quintessentially Southern, but chicken and waffles as a combination really aren’t. Nope, chicken and waffles as we know them actually originated in Harlem. And I didn’t even know such a combination existed until like six or seven years ago, when I saw a television show that referenced Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles, perhaps the most infamous place to procure said meal.

It seems that these days chicken and waffles are pretty easy to find on brunch menus pretty much everywhere, but I’ve never ordered them and I’ve never made them either. Until now. For some reason I’ve been mildly obsessed with chicken sandwiches lately (look for a chicken biscuit sandwich and a Chick-fil-a style chicken sandwich coming up soon). And this gives me a new chicken sandwich to be obsessed with.
To give this a little bit more of a Southern twist, I added in some pimento cheese because pimento cheese waffles? Come. On. Only I found out from an email that a reader sent me that pimento cheese really isn’t Southern either, but let’s all just pretend that I didn’t type that. Pimento cheese is an iconic Southern food and pimento cheese waffles are winning.
Crusty with cheese around the edges, drizzled with hot sauce and maple syrup, and topped with dill pickles, this is pretty much a dream sandwich. And if you don’t have a waffle iron, I promise that I won’t judge you for using Eggo’s….if you want to include the pimento cheese just spread a little on the waffles.

These chicken and waffle sandwiches were so good!

Mary

Yield: 4 sandwiches
Chicken and Waffle Sandwiches
30 minPrep Time:
30 minCook Time:
1 hrTotal Time:

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Ingredients
For the Pimento Cheese Waffles
9 1/2 ounces (about 2 1/4 cup) flour (I used white whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups buttermilk
2 ounces (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 cup pimento cheese
cooking spray or vegetable/canola oil
For the Fried Chicken
2 cups buttermilk
3 teaspoons salt
dash sriracha or hot sauce
2 chicken breasts, sliced in half lengthwise into 2 cutlets each
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
vegetable, canola, or peanut oil
For Serving
hot sauce or Buffalo wing sauce
maple syrup
dill pickle chips
Instructions
Brine the chicken: Up to 12 hours prior to cooking the chicken, whisk the buttermilk, salt, and hot sauce or sriracha in a large bowl. Place the chicken into the buttermilk brine. Cover and refrigerate.
Make the waffle batter: Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk, eggs, and butter and whisk until incorporated. Add the pimento cheese and stir with a large spoon to fully combine. Set aside to rest.
Place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat to 200 degrees. Preheat the waffle iron. Prepare the waffles according to manufacturer’s directions, spraying the iron with cooking spray or brushing with oil prior to preparing each waffle. When the waffles are fully cooked, place in the preheated oven until ready to serve.
While the waffles are cooking, cook the chicken. Pour about an inch of oil into a 10-inch skillet and preheat over medium-high. Whisk together the flour, salt, onion and garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and black pepper together in a pie pan.
Using tongs, remove one piece of chicken at a time from the brine. Dip into the flour on both sides, then dip back into the buttermilk and back into the flour. Fry on each side for about five minutes, until golden. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels. If not serving immediately, place on a baking sheet in the oven to keep warm. I cook the chicken in two batches so that the pan does not get crowded.
To serve, place each piece of chicken on a waffle. Drizzle with hot/Buffalo sauce and maple syrup. Top with pickles and another waffle (if using Belgian waffles, like I did, cut the waffles in half and use one half as the top and one half as the bottom).
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Bacon and Potato Soup (Quick and Easy!)

January 17, 2015

This bacon and potato soup is thick and rib-sticking, ready to be topped with cheese and green onions. It’s a crowd-pleaser on cold nights!

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclosure statement.

Every once in a while I get in a fog where I can’t seem to think of what to cook, what to write about, where to eat, etc., etc. I’ve been there for the last couple of weeks. I managed to eke out a few posts but this week my momentum came to a screeching halt. I have no idea why this happens, but I guess it’s just a fact of life for me (and a lot of other bloggers, I’d imagine).

As I made my grocery list for the upcoming week on Thursday night, I wracked my brain trying to think of what I could possibly make that I hadn’t made before. I asked my Facebook followers for some suggestions, and boy did they come through. I have tons of ideas, not the least of which was potato soup.

How have I not written about potato soup before? I mean, I wrote about creamy potato-leek soup a long time ago (and I do love my potato-leek soup), but not a rich, hearty potato soup perfect for topping with bacon and cheese. I don’t even understand this. Potato soup has always, always been a comfort food for me, something that my mom made often when I was a kid and something that I frequently make for myself when I’m eating alone or when I don’t have ingredients for other meals. I guess maybe it was too obvious?

To me, a chunky potato soup needs very little. Potatoes (obviously!), chicken broth, bacon, cheese, maybe a little onion for another layer of flavor. And it must be creamy. Usually, I make a roux and add milk to make my potato soups creamy, but I decided to leave the roux out for this one and instead use the soup to make itself creamy by pureeing half of it and stirring it back into the pot. Cream cheese added a little richness in the absence of milk or cream.

Topped with a little bit of cheddar cheese (and honestly, I think that the cheese here must be cheddar, sour cream, green onions, and, of course, bacon, this soup is out-of-this-world rich, flavorful, and delicious. Served with crackers, good chewy bread, or quick and easy spoon rolls (pictured), this is a perfect winter lunch or dinner. If you puree all of the soup, you can freeze it to keep in the freezer for lunches. See the “notes” below for instructions on making this into a slow cooker meal.

This bacon and potato soup is perfect for cold winter nights!

What’s your favorite potato soup?

Mary

Yield: 4 servings
Bacon and Potato Soup
15 minPrep Time:
25 minCook Time:
40 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients
4 strips bacon, diced
1 large onion
2 pounds Russet potatoes, peeled, rinsed, and cut into 1-inch cubes
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
4 ounces cream cheese, cut into cubes
salt and pepper
cheese, sour cream, and green onions for garnish
Instructions
Preheat a 4-6 quart Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook the bacon until crisp and remove with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towels. Set aside.
Remove all but one tablespoon of the bacon fat from the pan. Set back over the heat. Add the onions and cook until soft. Stir the potatoes and the chicken broth into the pan. Bring to a boil then lower the heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender.
Place the cream cheese cubes into a bowl. Ladle about a cup of the hot broth into the bowl and whisk until the cream cheese melts. Add back to the bowl and stir to incorporate.
Scoop half of the soup into a blender and blend until smooth. Add back to the pot and stir until completely combined. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until heated through. Serve with the reserved bacon and other desired toppings.
Notes
If you would like to have a freezable soup, puree all of the soup. Potatoes tend to disintegrate when frozen and thawed. This recipe can be prepared in a slow cooker. Cook the bacon and the onions on the stovetop, then add the onions, potatoes, and chicken broth into the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours, until potatoes are tender, then complete steps 3 and 4.
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Cheese Tortellini with Cauliflower Sauce

January 9, 2015

This cheese tortellini is fresh and delicious, topped with cauliflower sauce, Brussels sprouts, and tomatoes. It’s a great vegetarian dinner!

There are many things that I love about my job as a behavior analyst for a large school system. Long breaks are not the least of these, as I am sure you can imagine (though I can honestly say that breaks were in now way a motivation for me to pursue a career in education, as many like to purport, and they also have nothing to do with why I have remained in the field of education for more than fourteen years). A friend asked me a while back why teachers always say that they that they love their jobs, but they SO look forward to breaks. There are two types of people that would ask this question: (1) people who have never been teachers and therefore don’t understand exactly how physically, mentally, and emotionally tiring teaching is; and (2) people who have never had summer, winter, spring, or fall break as a regular fixture of their job. I mean, come on. If you had that amount of time off to look forward to, you’d be pretty ready for a break by the end of the quarter too!

There’s a problem with all those breaks, though…particularly the longer ones. That problem is Newton’s Third Law, i.e. “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Any working stiff can attest to the fact that the days, the moments leading up to a vacation are wonderful, delicious moments that defy comparison, as are the early moments of the break. The end of a vacation, though, regardless of your feelings for your job, brings feelings of sadness, loss, anguish. Okay, I exaggerate. But it amazes me that I can lie around and do nothing for two weeks and feel completely and utterly exhausted when I have to go back to work (I’m positive that it has nothing to do with the fact that I love to stay up late and threw my sleep schedule totally out of whack).

For this reason, it’s important that I choose dinners that are quick and easy to prepare on the weeks that I return from a break. It doesn’t hurt when those meals produce leftovers. And, since my new, more sedentary job means that I can no longer fit into my favorite jeans, it doesn’t hurt when they are a little lower on the calorie counts (I’ve been killing it with my new FitBit, logging my meals onto MyFitnessPal, and doing workouts from Fitness Blender, though!). This dish, cheese tortellini with cauliflower sauce, tomatoes, & Brussels sprouts fits that bill. Cauliflower sauce, which I discovered on Pinch of Yum, is amazingly rich and creamy while managing to be low in calories and high in nutrition (and there’s even an ebook of nothing but cauliflower sauce recipes!).

Oh, and another benefit of long breaks? Getting time to do things that I’m usually too tired for…like giving my kitchen a facelift. Our house was built in 1977 (it’s older than me!) and I had had it up to here with the ugly, dark melamine cabinets (with wood-grained veneers!) and the laminate “butcher block” countertops. So we painted them! Or at least we started painting them. Top cabinets are done, bottom cabinets not yet, and walls and floors will come later…but I am most excited about the countertops, which we painted using Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations. I’ll post more about the process once we get it all done, but suffice it to say it’s messy. But that’s okay, because essentially we got countertops for less than $300. And I took these pictures on them! Once we get the bottom cabinets and the walls done, I’m hoping to build the Chattavore YouTube channel (I really don’t know if I want you guys to click on that link).

What do you guys think about cauliflower sauce and Brussels sprouts on your pasta? Will you try cheese tortellini with cauliflower sauce, tomatoes, & Brussels sprouts?

Mary

Yield: 4 servings
Cheese Tortellini with Cauliflower Sauce, Tomatoes, & Brussels Sprouts
20 minPrep Time:
10 minCook Time:
30 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients
19 ounce bag frozen cheese tortellini
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3/4 lb. Brussels sprouts, trimmed and shredded on the slicer disk of a food processor (if you don’t have a food processor, use a sharp knife to slice the Brussels into thin discs)
14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes with garlic and oregano (I used Red Gold), drained
1 cup creamy cauliflower sauce
salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
Bring a large pot of water to boil to cook the tortellini. While the water is heating, melt the butter in a 10-inch saucepan over medium heat. Sauté the Brussels sprouts in the saucepan until softened and beginning to brown. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Cook the tortellini according to package directions. Drain and place back in pan. Add the cauliflower sauce and drained tomatoes and place over medium heat until the ingredients have heated through. Adjust seasonings if needed.
You can add the Brussels sprouts in two ways: stir into the pan with the other ingredients, or divide the pasta among four bowls and top with the shredded Brussels sprouts. Serve immediately.
Notes
Cook time does not include time to make cauliflower sauce.
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Turkey Pot Pie Soup (Thanksgiving Leftovers)

November 28, 2014

If you’re looking for a delicious way to your repurpose Thanksgiving leftovers, turkey pot pie soup is a perfect way to go!

Turkey pot pie soup is not exactly where you mind goes when you think about Thanksgiving leftovers, right? Only I’m not sure why. It should be is all I’m saying. Because turkey pot pie soup is the bomb dot com. Did I really just say that? Sorry. I don’t normally talk like that….but I’m still in a turkey haze and my house smells like ham and smoke (as in smoked food smoke) and crazy things might come out.

Thanksgiving is a time when everyone looks forward to a gigantic meal complete with a golden turkey and all the trimmings. Then you have the turkey sandwiches…and more turkey sandwiches….and still more turkey sandwiches. It’s seemingly never ending. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; I for one could eat turkey on sourdough with mayo, mustard, Swiss cheese, and cranberry sauce every day for the rest of my life and probably not get tired of it. However, I realize that some people need more variety than that.

Turkey pot pie soup actually started out as chicken pot pie soup with crust baked on the side and served on a plate like you’d serve crackers or bread. I got the idea from a local (well, Chickamauga, GA) restaurant’s posts on Facebook. I’ve never actually visited Laura Lou’s but liked the page on the suggestion of a friend (and definitely need to go one of these days). The soup of the day one Saturday was a chicken pot pie soup and I was all, “Why didn’t I think of that?” So I made it. Basically, just chicken pot pie with more liquid. No baking, just soupifying, so it’s just as good as chicken pot pie without being a pain in the rear (but we all know chicken pot pie is completely worth it!).

Then it occurred to me that this would be a perfect vehicle for getting Thanksgiving leftovers into your belly without feeling like you’ve eaten the same meal sixteen times. You could even throw some of your leftover vegetables into the soup. Second time around I added a flaky pastry lid a la pot pie and declared it perfect.

Turkey pot pie soup might be my favorite Thanksgiving leftover recipe yet; what’s yours?

Mary

Yield: 4 servings
Thankgiving Leftover Makeover: Turkey Pot Pie Soup
Crust recipe via Smitten Kitchen
30 minPrep Time:
30 minCook Time:
1 hrTotal Time:

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Ingredients
For the crust
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
13 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, diced
6 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/4 cup ice water
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
For the soup
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 medium carrots, scrubbed or peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, scrubbed and diced
2 medium potatoes, scrubbed or peeled and diced
4 cups chicken or turkey stock (2 cans or 1 box)
1/2 cup vermouth or dry white wine
1 cup heavy cream, half-and-half, or whole milk
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups shredded turkey
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen peas
Instructions
Make the crust: Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Use your fingertips or a pastry blender to cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the sour cream, vinegar, and water using a flexible spatula until it comes together into a shaggy dough. Turn onto a piece of plastic wrap and wrap tightly, forming into a disk. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the dough into 4 pieces and roll each piece into a circle just slightly smaller than the bowls you’ll be eating the soup from. Place the rounds of dough onto a baking sheet. Cut 4 holes into each pie crust. Brush with the egg & water mixture and bake for twenty to twenty-five minutes, until golden brown.
While the crusts are baking, melt one tablespoon of the butter in a 6 to 8-quart Dutch oven over medium heat (set the rest of the butter aside to soften while you are cooking). Add the onion to the pan and cook until softened, then add the carrots and celery and cook for 4-5 minutes longer. Add the potatoes, the vermouth, and the stock, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat the medium-low and cook until all of the vegetables are tender, fifteen to twenty minutes.
Combine the softened butter with the flour in a bowl using a fork to stir until smooth. Add to the soup and stir until well incorporated. This will thicken the soup somewhat. Add the cream, half-and-half, or milk, turkey, corn, and peas and cook until heated through. Serve hot with the pastry rounds on top.
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Baked Eggs with Spinach and Toast Fingers

October 29, 2014

Baked eggs with spinach feels a little decadent and a little healthy, but it’s a lot delicious, especially when served with herby toast.

Philip and I are nothing if not creatures of habit. We grocery shop on the same night every single week, go to the same places on the weekend, and do the same exact thing every work night (that is, park our pajama-clad selves in front of the television and stay there). I love our rituals…we are both homebodies and complete introverts, which begs this question: what am I doing blogging here? I probably couldn’t have a coherent conversation with you if I met you for the first time in public. However, I love public speaking and grew up wanting to be an actress, and Philip is a musician. Strange ironies, I guess.

No part of our week is more ritualized than Saturday mornings. We have gone through phases with our Saturday morning rituals…in the early years of our marriage it was early lunch at Panera (which was pretty new to the area at the time and we were fairly obsessed for a while). When I realized that there were, in fact, other restaurants where I wanted to eat, that morphed into Saturday morning coffee in bed while we flipped channels. I’m pretty sure we would go completely insane these days attempting to stay in bed for two hours after waking, though, and I think we’ve settled into what is going to remain our Saturday morning routine (and has been for at least the last five years): Saturday breakfast.

To add to the ritual of it all, we make the same breakfast nearly every Saturday morning. While Philip makes the coffee, I start a batch of my baking powder biscuits, then he fries eggs while I make gravy and the bacon cooks in the microwave (which I know some people just don’t like but we’ve been doing it that way for years without complaints-or pesky blisters from popping grease). Occasionally, we’ll throw pancakes, waffles, or French toast into the mix.

Sometimes, though, I feel like making a breakfast that feels like a fancy brunch treat (and let’s be honest, this would be delicious any time of the day) and I’ll throw together some variety of baked eggs (or if we’re being fancy, eggs en cocotte, but I’m not going to lie, I never actually call them that). Whether I make baked eggs with spinach (or some other greens, whatever you have) like I’m showing you here, or with mushrooms and rosemary, I always include some sort of plant life to make it feel a little more virtuous, though I’m not really sure why, since I was just telling you about my usual biscuits with bacon, fried eggs, and gravy. Served with buttery toast fingers (or toast soldiers if you will) for dipping into the yolks, baked eggs with spinach is an easy breakfast or brunch dish that feels infinitely special.

Give these baked eggs with spinach and herbed toast fingers a try ASAP!

Mary

Yield: 4 servings
Baked Eggs with Creamy Greens and Toast Fingers
20 minPrep Time:
20 minCook Time:
40 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients
4 slices sturdy sandwich bread, cut into 1-inch wide strips
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup grated parmesan
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 small onion or 1 shallot, finely chopped
4 ounces cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
9 ounce bag spinach
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan plus more for serving
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
salt and pepper
4-8 large eggs
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Lightly oil 4 1-cup ramekins with canola oil or melted butter.
Whisk the melted butter, Dijon mustard, and 1/4 teaspoon salt together. Pour over the bread strips in a large bowl and toss to coat. Spread the bread on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle with the 1/4 cup of parmesan and set aside.
In a 10-12 inch skillet, melt the remaining butter over medium heat. Sauté the onion or shallot until it begins to turn transparent. Add the mushrooms and cook until soft. Add the spinach and cover, removing cover frequently to stir, until the spinach has completely wilted. Place the bread into the oven for approximately 20 minutes, until lightly browned.
Sprinkle the flour over the onion, mushroom, and spinach mixture. Stir together and cook for one minute, then add the cream and cook until thickened. Add the cheese, salt and pepper, and nutmeg and stir to combine.
Divide the spinach mixture among the prepared ramekins. Make a shallow well in each using a spoon and top with one or two eggs. Lightly salt the tops of the eggs. Place on a baking sheet and into the oven for 7-10 minutes, until the tops are set (you can set them under the broiler briefly if needed.
Serve the eggs immediately with parmesan cheese for topping and toast fingers for dipping.
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