My Favorite Kind of Food...

...Comfort southern food!  Since the weather has been cooler and actually feeling like fall, I decided to make some comfort food.  I decided to make one of my favorites (which I had never actually made before), chicken fried chicken!  The breading was the best ever.  I served it with mashed potatoes and green beans.  It was delish!

Snap off the ends of the green beans and rinse.

Put crackers in a zip lock.

Use a rolling pin and crumble up the crackers.

Cracker crumbles

In one breading bowl, combine the crackers, flour, S&P, cheyenne pepper and baking powder.

In the other breading bowl, combine eggs and milk.

Whisk together.

The cracker combo.

Cover the chicken breasts in the cracker combo, then the eggs, then back in the crackers.

I used our iron skillet.  

Fry up the chicken!

Isn't the breading gorgeous?!

Make a white cream gravy in the iron skillet with the left over chicken bits.

Boil the green beans until slightly crispy.

When done, put in an ice bath.

Melt some butter and add garlic.

Saute the green beans so they can soak up the butter/garlic goodness.

YUM YUM YUM

Chicken Recipe:

4 chicken breasts, thinly cut
2 eggs
about 2 cups of milk
1 package Saltine crackers
about 1 1/2 C flour
a pinch of cheyenne pepper
a pinch of baking powder
S&P to taste
about 2 TBSP vegetable oil

Place the crackers in a zip lock bag and seal.  Take a rolling pin and crush the crackers into tiny pieces.
In breading pan, combine the eggs and milk and whisk together.  In another breading bowl combine the crackers, flour, cheyenne, baking powder, S&P.  Combine.

Next place the oil in a cask iron skillet and get it very hot.  Dredge the chicken in the cracker mixture and then dip in the milk mixture and back in the crackers.  Place in the hot skillet and fry on each side until golden brown.

Next, make a cream gravy however your little heart desires :)...in the same skillet of course to use all of the delicious pan drippings! Don't forget to drain some of the oil before.

I added milk, flour and more seasoning.

Oven Roasted Chicken with Crispy Kale

This was a very easy roasted chicken recipe I watched Rachel Ray make on the Cooking Channel...I have to admit that she is not one of my fav celebrity chefs, but her recipes are usually fairly simple.  This one, in particular, caught me eye because I have been wanting to roast a chicken, but not a WHOLE chicken, plus, I didn't have the time.  As far as the kale goes, I had never made kale and it was DELISH!  Of course the Homeland by our house didn't have the exact kind of kale that I needed, but thanks to the new Whole Foods in OKC, I can find amazing ingredients that our grocery store never has!

Combine chunks of veggies, herbs and bay leaf in a dutch oven.

Add potatoes and oil.

Add the seasoned chicken.  I used 2 breasts and 2 thighs- skin on!  You want to leave the skin on to get a nice golden crust!

Add fresh slices of lemon- this pic is out of order :)

Rinse kale leaves and plac on a wire rack that is on top of a baking sheet.

Once the chicken has been cooking for awhile, add white wine to deglaze the pot and add flavor.

Hi pretty girl Sophie!

Season the kale with olive oil, S&P and grated nutmeg.

Look at the nice golden skin!

Roast the kale in the oven and voila- beautiful!

Special Chicken Noodle Soup

I came across this Tyler Florence recipe and just had to try and make it! It turned out really delicious and was definitely a filling soup!

Chop up your basic ingredients- carrots, celery, onion, garlic and fresh thyme.

Saute in a stock pot.

Add chicken broth.

Saute some onion that will be used in the meatballs.

Combine the chicken/apple sausage with parmesan cheese, fresh parsley, egg and the onion in a food processor.

Pulse until you get this!

Form little meatballs.

Add store bought mini cheese tortellini.

Saute the meatballs in a non-stick skillet.  These were starting to crumble and fall apart (which I thought it was odd that the recipe didn't call for breadcrumbs), so we stuck them in the oven to continue cooking.

Going into the oven on the silpat.

Once cooked, add to the soup!

Garnish each bowl of soup with fresh parsley and grated parmesan cheese! Enjoy!

Chicken Empanadas!

I used a Paula Dean recipe for these and they turned out so yummy and so easy to make!  I served them with my black beans and rice.  These would be awesome little appetizers for a party!

Combine the cheese, cream cheese, jalepeno, red bell pepper,, cumin and S&P in a bowl.

Cook 2 chicken breasts.

Shred the chicken with a fork.

Add chicken to cheese mixture.

Roll out store bought pie crust and cut into little circles.

Place the cheese and chicken mixture in the middle of each pie crust.

Fold each circle in half and tighten the opening with a fork.

Place on a baking sheet.

So cute and yummy!