Chicken Quesadillas

Quesadillas are quite prevalent here in Texas as a staple of everyones food diet. Well, I have not had any in quite a long while and decided to cook some up. Probably a little different flavor than most quesadillas but I like it a little different.

Ingredients:
1 lb Chicken Breasts, frozen
Flour Tortillas
Garlic Salt
Mesquite Seasoning
Paprika
Ground Cumin
Celery Salt
Perfect Pinch - Cajun
Ground Allspice
Italian Seasoning
Ground Cloves
Shredded Italian Style Cheese
Finely Shredded Sharp Cheddar
Fiesta Blend Cheese
Mozzarella & Parmesan Finely Shredded Cheese
Vegetable Oil
Apple Cider Vinegar
Water
Tequila
Olive Oil

I began by gathering the spices.

I also made sure to have all my cheeses too.

So I mixed my spices together. No real amount, just remember to go light on the Allspice and Cloves. They tend to overpower everything else. I also went light on the Cumin as well. I love, yes love, Garlic Salt so I added a LOT of that.

I have used pre-made marinades before and they always call for vinegar, vegetable oil, and water. So that is what I added to the spice mix. About 1/4 cup Water, 1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar, and 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil. Mix together well.

Now I did not take a picture of me freezing and then dicing up the Chicken. It's pretty simple and allows you to cut into smaller pieces due to the Chicken being frozen. Try not to cut yourself. Please. Then add to marinade and mix together.

Hey look! I found a bottle of Tequila! Let's use this in cooking tonight.

I put about 2 shots worth of Tequila into a skillet and turned the heat to MEDIUM. Once the Tequila began to burn off, I added in the marinade and Chicken.

It looks so pretty when it's cooking. This part should only take a minute or two due to the Chicken being diced up so finely.

Strain the Chicken out and put it in a bowl.

Grab a small skillet. Using a small Tortilla, add some Cheese. Then some Chicken. Then some more Cheese. Fold it over and put it in the skillet with some Olive Oil(not too much).

Flip over after about a minute or minute and a half. Take off about a minute later.

Looks tasty I know...let's cut it up. Enjoy.

Cajun Styled Steak

I call this a Cajun Steak. I know there are a lot of people out there, most likely every chef known to humankind, that will disagree with my name for this steak. I call it that because I used a Cajun spice with this recipe. I ended up using a bit too much that caused it to be almost overpowering...although adding Mesquite seasoning to it might have emphasized the spicy flavor.

Ingredients:
1 lb NY Strip Steak
1 cup Vegetable Oil
0.75 cup White Vinegar
Garlic Salt
Celery Salt
Perfect Pinch - Cajun
Mesquite Seasoning
Italian Seasoning

First off begin by gathering all your spices.

Now I chose two of them to be more present than the rest. I'd say for I used twice as much of these two as the other spices used.

Place the spices in a Ziploc bag and pour in your Vegetable Oil and White Vinegar. You can use any kind of Vinegar instead of White Vinegar, but that is what I generally use for marinades. Seal bag and mix thoroughly so the spices don't clump up too much.

Now get your steak. It looks so pretty.

Put steak in bag and seal it closed. I pushed the air out and rolled the bag up around the steak so the marinade covered every part of it.

Now you can use a grill or a skillet. I chose a cast iron skillet since I do not own a grill. Living in an apartment does not provide a lot of use for a grill these days. Make sure your skillet is ready to go and turn the heat to MEDIUM. Once it begins to get warm to the touch...well hot to the touch, put the steak on.

I choose to flip it every few minutes for an even cook through. You can flip it every 5 minutes if you want, it's up to you.

I served it with it with some delicious Quinoa I made in my Rice Cooker, topped with Scallions. Enjoy.

Cast Iron Frittata

So I've made Frittata and posted on here about it before, however that was always done with just a skillet/saucepan. Now I used a cast iron skillet I've had around and I think it improved the flavor at least 10 fold.

Ingredients:
9 Eggs
1 Green Bell Pepper, finely diced
1 Poblano Pepper, finely diced
1 Yellow Onion, finely diced
1/3 stick Butter
1/4 cup Olive Oil
Paprika
Garlic Salt
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Gruyere Cheese
Monterey & Colby Jack Cheese

Alright, so first things first. Get your cast iron skillet ready. This took me quite awhile since I had not used it in a long time and it may have gotten a little rusty. So to clean this don't use soap. It causes headaches. I used Olive Oil and a paper towel to wipe it down until it was fixed. This takes awhile.

Once you have that done, cut up a stick of Butter to where 1/3 of it is in the cast iron skillet, along with some Olive Oil. At this point empty out your oven and turn it to 400 BAKE.

Now gather the rest of your ingredients.

First, dice your Onion up very finely. You can leave it chunky if you prefer that, but I like it finely diced so that's just what I did!

Second, dice up your Green Bell Pepper. I also diced up my Poblano Pepper after this but no picture since it looks pretty much the same just darker.

Turn on the burner your cast iron skillet is on, I set it at MEDIUM. Once it melts most of the Butter into the Olive Oil, dump your diced Onions in and move them around.

At this point I cracked the eggs into a mixing bowl and mixed them up together with a dash of Ground Black Pepper and Sea Salt.

Your Onions should be caramelized quite nicely by now.

Add in your diced Peppers.

Mix together and add a light dusting of Garlic Salt and Paprika.

Once the Peppers start to soften, turn off your burner. Add the Egg mixture to the skillet. Top it with however much cheese you want on top. I went crazy with it.

Into the oven it goes. Make sure to use an oven mitt or something similar since the cast iron skillet will burn you.

It takes about 10-20 minutes to cook properly. I like my eggs a little drier when I make Frittata so I left it in the oven for about 18 minutes. You can tell it is done by the edges of the Frittata mixture pulling away from the sides of the skillet.

Due to my large amount of cheese used, there was a large cheese bubble on top of my Frittata! Once it began to cool it went away, but still interesting to see.

I let it cool for about 5 minutes and then cut into pieces and served. Make sure to use a sharp object like a knife to edge around the Frittata, otherwise it might stick to the outside when you are trying to remove it for consumption. Enjoy.

Quick Habanero Chili!

Alright, as most of you know I like my chili. I make it quite often, even if I do not post it up here that often. Well, this time I used a Habanero Chili Pepper.

Ingredients:
1 lb Ground Chili Meat
1/3 stick Butter
6 Roma Tomatoes
2 Poblano Peppers
2 Anaheim Peppers
4 Caribe Peppers
1 Habanero Pepper
1 can Rotel(drained)
1 can Kidney Beans
2 cans Black Beans
1 can Tomato Sauce
1 can Tomato Paste
Fennel Powder
Fenugreek Powder
Ancho Chili Powder
Turmeric Powder
Garlic Salt
Marjoram
Lawry's Seasoned Salt
1/2 bottle of Leinenkugel's Honeyweiss Beer

I apologize for the limited number of pictures in this recipe as I had a brain fart and did not even think to take pictures until I started the recipe.

First step is to put your stockpot on the stove top with the Butter in it. Turn the heat to MEDIUM-HIGH.

Once the Butter is mostly melted, put in your Ground Chili Meat. It's really just rough ground beef but goes by that name. Add Garlic Salt, Lawry's Seasoned Salt. Stir together at length.

Usually I use a food processor here but today, I used my blender. Larger quantity at a quicker pace. I drained my can of Rotel and once I sliced the Roma Tomatoes, I added all of it to the blender and pureed. Into the stockpot once the meat is mostly browned.

I poured in my half bottle of Leinenkugel's at this point.

Now dice your peppers. I started with the Caribe, then Anaheim, Poblano, and threw the Habanero on top. Puree. To this I added a dash of the Beer to smooth it out some. Add to pot.

Now add your Kidney Beans and Black Beans. Drain them first! Then the Tomato Sauce and Paste.

I did a good spoonful or two of all the seasonings at this point. I went a little light on the Garlic Salt and Lawry's since they are already in the dish.

Mix like crazy then let simmer for about 30 minutes. Enjoy.

Buffalo Chips

Alright, so I am a big fan of the chain food business known as Buffalo Wild Wings. It's a great place to watch some football at. Well, I love their Buffalo Chips appetizer dish. It's very simple and I thought that maybe I could make them at home. So I did.

Ingredients:
4 Potatoes
Vegetable Oil
Garlic Salt
Sea Salt
Shredded Cheese

Alright, so I began by pouring about 2 cups worth of Vegetable Oil into a saucepan. I added a dash of Garlic Salt for flavor. Turn the heat to MEDIUM.

Now slice your Potatoes into thin strips. You decide how thick/thin you want them. Once the Vegetable Oil is boiling, add the Potato slices.

Stir around as they boil/cook so they don't adhere to the bottom of the saucepan.

You can tell they are done as they will be soft and pliant. Take them off, strain the excess oil away, and plate. Add Shredded Cheese on top, microwave for 30 seconds to melt the Cheese quicker. Sprinkle with Sea Salt. Enjoy.

Thanksgiving: Chicken wrapped in Bacon w/Mashed Potatoes

Alright, so in keeping with Thanksgiving's tendency to eat some sort of poultry I went with Chicken. I know it's not a Turkey, but since I am not cooking for a family and only myself, I tend to skimp on making massive meals like that. I'll have this split up in two parts to avoid confusion.


Chicken wrapped in Bacon:
3 Chicken Breasts
Bacon
Flour
Breadcrumbs
Ancho Chile Powder
Marjoram
Garlic Salt
Paprika
Ground Black Pepper
Sea Salt
Lawry's Seasoned Salt
Olive Oil

Alright, so assemble your ingredients. Set oven to 400 degrees BAKE.

Put your flour into a mixing bowl. I used about 2/3 cup of Flour. About the same amount of Breadcrumbs. Then however much of the spices as you want. A healthy dose of each if you ask me. After the fact, a little less Ancho Chile Powder couldn't hurt.

Now mix it thoroughly together.

Now that it looks amazing and smells like amazing, let's move to the Chicken.

Take out your Chicken Breasts, trim them if need be, and tenderize them. Well, tenderize might not be the best term to use. So just flatten them out. Use a tenderizer if you have one. I have two called Left Fist and Right Fist. Good times right there.

Now one at a time, place them in the Flour mixture.

Then flip.

Now on a cooking board, place out a strip of Bacon and put the Chicken on there. Make sure there is a little bit out at one end to being the wrapping part. You wrap it up from that end towards the other. You can wrap the Bacon under the Chicken if you want or use a toothpick as I did.

Now using a glass cooking dish, sprinkle in some Olive Oil. This is where you will put your Chicken once it is properly wrapped in Bacon. Feel free to add some more Flour mixture on top of them once they are ready for the oven.

Put in oven and set a timer for 45 minutes. It should take about this long, but each oven is different. Mine ended up taking about 1 hour.

Mashed Potatoes:
2.5 lb Gold Yukon Potatoes
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
1/2 stick Butter
3/4 cup Milk (2%)

This was my first attempt at making Mashed Potatoes and I figured that this was a good time to try it out.

I began by boiling the Potatoes. So put them in a saucepan/pot that is large enough to at least mostly cover them with water. A dash of Sea Salt here does not hurt in the slightest.

I boiled them for about 45 minutes. The water in there turns a few shades darker while they boil.

Once done, I turned off the heat and used a strainer to strain the water out. I kept the Potatoes in the strainer as I cut up the Butter and put that in the still warm saucepan. This way it melts quite readily. I also added in the Milk. Then the Potatoes. I cut them up into small chunks using a fork and knife, then mashed further using the fork. I do not own a potato masher, so this is how I made do. Add Sea Salt and Pepper to taste.

Now just couple with the Chicken wrapped in Bacon and your dish is complete. Enjoy.