Chicken Cordon Bleu in Pastry

This is sort of a Faux Chicken Cordon Bleu, using Pillsbury Crescents. I love refrigerated dough! What is it about it that makes it sooo good? A recipe that includes Pillsbury dough simply can do no wrong in my opinion.

Worth noting: This recipe uses chive & onion cream cheese. In the Tortellini soup I posted previous to this recipe, you use 1/2 a tub of the chive & onion cream cheese. Make this chicken recipe in the same week as the soup, and you can use the same tub. Economies of scale! Love it.

1 tube (8 ounces) refrigerated crescent rolls
1/4 cup spreadable chive & onion cream cheese
4 thin slices deli ham
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (about 4 ounces each)
4 slices Swiss cheese

1) On an ungreased baking sheet, separate dough into four rectangles; seal perforations.




2) Spread 1 tablespoon cream cheese lengthwise down the center of each rectangle.



3) Place ham width wise over dough. Arrange chicken in center of each rectangle. Wrap ham around chicken.




4) At each long end, pinch dough around chicken, forming points (the pastry will look like little boats).


4) Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Top with slice of Swiss cheese; bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted and pastry is golden brown. Careful not to let the bottoms burn!

Chicken Bone

Tonight I made a fabulous meal for my girls that they loved - baked chicken drumsticks. Yum!

I first figured out that my kids like to eat drumsticks when I started buying the supermarket pre-cooked rotisserie chickens. When I make chicken I usually only cook boneless skinless breasts, so when I get the rotisserie chicken they love the novelty of being able to hold the chicken bone and eat with their hands.

This week I bought a 3 lb package of drumsticks only (on sale!) and I figured I would make my girls their favorite chicken bones for dinner. I used half the package (about 6 drumsticks) and froze the other half. I love buying in bulk - stockpiles!

The meal was a huge hit - the chicken tasted great and was nice and crispy. I served corn on the cob and baked beans with it. The girls cleaned their drumsticks down to the bone and their corn right down to the cob. That's the type of eating I love to see!


You will need:
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
2/3 cup Original Bisquick mix
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cut-up whole chicken (3 - 3 1/2 lbs)

1) Heat oven to 425 degrees. Melt butter in 13x9 inch glass baking dish in the oven.
2) In a medium bowl, stir together Bisquick mix, paprika, garlic salt, Italian seasoning and pepper; coat chicken with Bisquick mixture. Place skin side down in heated dish.
3) Bake 35 minutes. Turn chicken, bake about 15 minutes longer or until juice of chicken runs clear when the thickest part is cut to bone (170 degrees for breasts, 180 degrees for thighs and drumsticks).

Crock Potting It!

I am all about the slow-cooker. I love the convenience, I love that you can leave the house all afternoon and come home to dinner, I love throwing everything in one pot, and importantly, I never met a cream of chicken soup recipe I didn't like.

Speaking of that certain pantry staple we all know and love, here is a really easy, really yummy chicken recipe for the slow cooker, and yes, naturally it includes cream of chicken soup. There is nothing fancy or innovative about this at all, it's about as down-and-dirty simple as it gets. My kids and hubby love it. A meal that everyone likes enough to clean their plates is a winner in my book, and I don't care how many cans of Campbell's it takes.

Take 1 1/2 ponds of boneless chicken breasts and place them in the bottom of the crock pot.

Season to taste with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Cover the chicken with 2 cans of cream of chicken soup and 1 can of cheddar cheese soup.

Cover and set the slow cooker to high, cook for 4-6 hours or until chicken is falling apart.

I served this with white rice. Could also be good with egg noodles. There is tons of the cheesy sauce in proportion to the chicken which is great because then you have plenty to spoon up with the rice. The chicken is so moist, easy for little kids to eat and not dry at all. I also made broccoli for a veg (trees! say my girls), and the cheese sauce was the perfect thing for mushing onto the broccoli also. Enjoy!

Taco Chicken with Avocado and Corn Salsa

I swear to god I really do cook more than mexican, tex-mex, and southwestern type food! But I do love it! It is one of my favorite types of food, the flavors are always so bold and interesting.

Anyway, here we have a really easy to put together supper using some packaged ingredients like taco seasoning mix and canned corn, and also some fresh ingredients like avocado and lime for some really delicious and fresh flavors. This recipe comes to me from the Betty Crocker Quick & Easy cookbook, which is one of my ultimate favorite cookbooks for weekday suppers.

You will need:

1 envelope taco seasoning mix (1 1/2 ounces)
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/4 lbs)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 can Mexicorn (11 ounces)
1 medium avocado, pitted, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon honey

1) Reserve 2 teaspoons of the taco seasoning mix in a medium bowl. Coat chicken with the remaining taco seasoning mix.

2) Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Cook chicken in oil 3-5 minutes, turning once until brown. Reduce heat to med low, cook about 8 minutes, turning once, until chicken is no longer pink when centers of the thickest pieces are cut.

3) While the chicken is cooking, add the remaining ingredients to the reserved taco seasoning mix; toss gently. Serve salsa with chicken.

Verdict: The chicken in the taco seasoning mix was a complete hit! I will make this again and again just by itself, and all you need is a package of chicken and the envelope of seasoning. I served this with white rice but it would also be great with spanish rice or even rice pilaf. The salsa was delicious, I plopped tons of it right on top of my chicken. My younger daughter and my hubby didn't touch the salsa with a ten foot pole. My older daughter made me pick the avocado pieces out and just ate the corn part (which had all the other ingredients slopped onto it anyway - ha ha). So the salsa may not be for those with more unadventurous palates, or people that don't like avocado. But definitely try it! This is a delicious, fast, fresh, and light dinner that is going in my recipe box.

Take it up a notch!

So we've all done a "Taco Night", this is not a new idea, am I right? I mean of course it's a great meal plan, Tacos are so easy and everyone loves them. The Mexican food theme is awesome, however there are lots of ways to do this and it doesn't have to always be Tacos! Why not try to branch out a bit and try something a little different... like Enchiladas!! These are super easy to make and are just as much of a crowd pleaser as Tacos.

I found a great recipe for Fajita Enchiladas in my Pillsbury "Budget Chicken Recipes" cooklet (Cooklet is my word for a cookbook-booklet, the kind you can buy in the check out line). I love these cooklets, they are a cookbook addicts cheapie fix because they are only a couple dollars, and they don't take up a lot of space, so it's a lot easier to justify buying them then a huge $30 cookbook.

Back to the Enchiladas: These are so easy. You are basically stir frying chicken, peppers and onion in a skillet, mix in canned chiles, some shredded cheese, enchilada sauce, and wrap the mixture up in 6-inch tortillas. You line them all up in a 9x11 or a lasagna pan, pour more enchilada sauce on top, and bake it. Put more cheese on the Enchiladas 5 minutes before it's done and wooo - Enchiladas! See how easy? They come out tasting really authentically Mexican, and are a lot more impressive than plain old Tacos. You can garnish it as you like, add chopped tomatoes, add cilantro, add sour cream, serve it with Spanish rice, or cornbread with chiles. Mmmm. I actually made this without the chiles and the onions for the immature palates of my children, and they still tasted awesome.

You can find easy Enchilada recipes on the Pillsbury website or check around some of the other cooking websites like allrecipes.com or tasteofhome.com. If you are looking for more Mexican theme meal ideas Better Homes and Gardens recently came out with a special interest magazine of all Mexican recipes. This will only be displayed until April 21 if you want to find it at your bookstore.

So think about taking your Taco Night up a notch next time and try making some Enchiladas!