Loaded Chicken and Potato Casserole Is Superb!

Ever have those days when you are tired of making the same old recipes and  you want something different - something delicious?  You look in the refrigerator to see what's there to use.  Looking back at you are three boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  We all know how it goes with chicken.  It can be fabulous or it can be totally blah.  I wanted fabulous.

I had pinned this recipe on my Pinterest board some time ago because it sounded amazing.  Tonight was the night to give it a try.  I actually had all the ingredients for once.  No trip to the grocery was necessary.  Yay!

This recipe is like a big loaded baked potato with some slightly spicy chicken.  When I say spicy, I mean just a hint.  You could make it much more spicy if you preferred, but our grandsons were coming over so I went with the recipe as written.  It was perfect.  Here is what you need.

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut in approximately 1 inch cubes
6-8 medium russet potatoes, cut in 1/2 inch cubes
1/3 cup live oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 TBSP paprika
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 TBSPS hot sauce (I used Tapatio)

Topping

2 cups grated cheese - cheddar, jack,  or pepper jack (I used Monterrey Jack)
1 cup crumbled bacon  - about 1/2 pound (fry crisp and crumble)
1 cup diced green onions - whites and greens

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray.

Mix the salt, pepper, paprika, garlic, and hot sauce together.  Add the cubed chicken and potatoes, stir to coat.

Pour into the prepared baking dish and spread it out evenly.  Cook for 55-60 minutes, stirring EVERY 20 minutes.  Fry the bacon while the casserole cooks.  Set aside until cool.  Crumble.

Once the chicken and potatoes are fully cooked (potatoes fork tender), remove the casserole from the oven.  Top with cheese, bacon, and onions.  Return to the oven and bake until the cheese melts.  Took about 5 minutes.

Remove from oven and serve.

I put some sour cream on the table to add to the dish if wanted and extra hot sauce.  This is a dynamite recipe, is so easy to make and could easily be halved and baked in a 9" casserole if you wanted.

Thanks to Singing Through the Rain for this recipe.  Everyone LOVED it.  We will be having it again and it reheats very nicely in the microwave.  Great leftovers for lunch the next day.

Give this recipe a try the next time you want something truly superb and easy to make.  Add a green salad and you are good to go.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Try one new recipe a week just for some variety in your dinner routine.  They are not all keepers, but when they are it is great to have something new to add to the rotation.  donna

Donna's Barbecue Cheeseburgers

Memorial Day weekend is upon us folks and that means the official summer grilling season is about to begin for real.  What is better than summer grilling season?   I can't think of too many things actually.  There's nothing better than warm days and evenings when it stays light late into the evening and you can fire up the grill and toss on something quick and easy.    That's what I'm talking about.  Quick AND easy.  Outdoor grilling and eating can be casual, no muss, no fuss,  using paper plates to eat on  and that is Okay!!  It's important to enjoy every moment of the summer, sharing time with family and friends.

A while back we were going to grill some good old fashioned American burgers for dinner, but I had a bit of inspiration and decided to doctor them up just a bit before they went on the grill.  This is my pepper jack barbecue burger and are they ever tasty!  Wow.  We all loved them, so I have been making our burgers this way since.  I'm not sure Dan would want to go back to just a plain older burger and he is a real connoisseur when it comes to hamburgers.  He may hold a world record for the number of hamburgers eaten in a lifetime.  As for the kind of "cheese"burger you make, you can use any cheese that you like as long as you can buy an 8 ounce block and grate it because the cheese in these burgers is mixed in the cheeseburger, not melted on top.  We have also made these with cheddar cheese which are just as good, especially if you don't like spicy foods.  Next, we are going to try them with mozzarella and some marinara sauce.  How good would that be?

Here is what you need and how you made Donna's barbecue cheeseburgers.

2 pounds 80/20 ground beef
1/2 medium onion, minced
1 8 ounce block cheese, grated
1 large egg
1/2 cup barbecue sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray's original)
1.5 tsp salt
fresh cracked black pepper

Thoroughly mix all the ingredients in a bowl using your hands.  You don't want to add too much salt because the cheese and the barbecue sauce contain salt.

To make the patties, I scooped out about a tennis ball sized section of the ground beef mixture, rolled it between my hands to make a ball, and pressed it into a burger patty with a bit of a well in the middle.  This helps make sure the middle of the burger cooks at the same time as the edges of the burgers.  I got 10 good sized burgers from this mixture.

See all of that delicious cheese in the burgers?  After they are cooked, the cheese oozes out of the burger and you enjoy that delicious flavor with ever bite.  Yum.  Yum.

Cook the burgers to your liking -  rare, medium, well done.  Dress them up anyway you like.  We had ours with lettuce, tomato, pickle, sliced onion, and just a little more barbecue sauce.  Yessirree Bob they are fine.  Cheesey, barbecuey, slightly oniony, deliciousness.

You might want to make the patties ahead and let them sit in the fridge for an hour or two because they are softer than burgers made with plain ground beef.  This will help keep them from falling apart on the grill when you flip them.  Even if they do split, it doesn't matter.  Just scoop up all the pieces because you won't want to waste one bite.

Hope this gives you an idea for a different version of the All American favorite - the hamburger.  I think you're gonna like them a lot!  Happy summer grilling season!

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Grilling takes the formality out of entertaining.  Bobby Flay