Creamy Chicken Orzo

 It's been snowing off and on all day today. We wanted some serious carby comfort food. Bob took out a chicken breast for dinner. Normally, I'd cut it up and marinate it in yogurt and make some Indian inspired dish with a side of rice, but I didn't want that today. I wanted pure comfort food. I found this recipe online and used it for inspiration. Click here to view. I reworked the recipe.

This recipe starts out with me poaching the chicken breast in some chardonnay, water, salt, peppercorns and 4 cloves of garlic that I put through my garlic press. I let it cook and I diced it up.

Then I diced up celery, onion and carrots.

I minced up a few cloves of garlic. I didn't put these through the press because I didn't want that heavy of a garlic flavor.

Gather the rest of your ingredients.

Saute the vegetables in some olive oil in a pot with a heavy bottom. I use my enameled cast iron Dutch oven.

Cook for about 5-7 minutes and then add the garlic, broth and orzo pasta.

Stir to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer for about 20 minutes or until the liquid is mostly absorbed by the pasta.

Just as it is finishing up, add in 1/4 cup of heavy cream and mix it in.


Creamy Chicken Orzo
4 servings
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups chicken stock
1-2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1/2 pound orzo
1 teaspoon dried parsley
Salt & pepper, to taste
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup heavy cream

Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Add the onion, celery, and carrots and cook until the onion is translucent, about 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook about 1 minute longer
Add the chicken stock, increase the heat to high, and bring to a boil.
Once the stock is boiling, stir in the chicken and orzo. Reduce the heat to medium and add the parsley, salt, thyme, and pepper.
Simmer until the veggies are tender, the orzo is creamy and amost of the liquid has been absorbed, about 20 minutes. Add heavy cream and mix to combine.

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Chicken-Green Chili Enchiladas

 Since Bob had all of his teeth pulled, it's been a struggle to find foods that he can eat because he has the added problem of having scar tissue in his throat, from the radiation treatments when he had throat cancer. He has to eat softer foods because he can't chew it up and certain things will hang up on that scar tissue and choke him. His medications do that to him all the time.
Anyhow, I digress.

We ordered some Mexican delivery for dinner the other night and Bob decided to give enchiladas a whirl. He ate them. He enjoyed them. I'll make enchiladas for him.

One thing that I think we're going to do more of, simply because it's cheaper for us to do so, is buying rotisserie chickens from the supermarket. There is a supermarket, here in town where the majority of the shoppers wear masks, that I will venture into. They sell their rotisserie chickens for like $6.50 or something. I cannot buy a whole chicken for that price very often. This week is one of those weeks, but I haven't placed my grocery order yet. I sent Bob for a chicken and some corn tortillas. 

Now, this rotisserie chicken is going to make 4 meals for us, 2 meals of enchiladas and 2 meals of what I'm going to make a blog post about tomorrow...5 if you count the chicken stock that I'll cook down, but I'm using that for meals 3 and 4, so I'm not counting it. We'll have enchiladas again on Sunday.
I pulled the meat off half of the chicken and cut it all super small for Bob. Next, it's as easy as opening a can of enchilada sauce, a can of green chilis and opening up a package of shredded Mexican blend cheese. 

Now before anyone goes off about these not being "from scratch", let me just say that I realize that. I'm working with a food budget and I try to stretch my dollars so that I can get a bit more of food put up so that we can enjoy the summer flavors this winter. My thinking is that the more economical I can make our dinners, the more of my budget I can spend on fruits and veggies to can up. I am tossing all of my previously canned up goods. Our shed had gotten rats in it and with those boxes of jars stacked on each other, I don't feel safe consuming any of it.

But I did feel entirely safe consuming these! Bob bought the street taco sized tortillas. At first, I thought that they would be WAY too small, but they were perfect sized. I made us each 3 enchiladas. I have enough filling, cheese and tortillas for another batch on Sunday and all we need to purchase is a 15-ounce can of enchilada sauce.

So, this may not be all from scratch, but it is delicious and it's economical and, all together, it will make 4 servings of 3 enchiladas each. 

Chicken-Green Chili Enchiladas
Makes 4 servings

1/2 of rotisserie chicken, chopped
2 tablespoons minced sweet onion
1 4-oz. can mild green chilis, drained
1 15-oz. can red enchilada sauce, use 1/4 cup on a deep plate to dip tortillas in, use 1/3 cup in the chicken mixture and use the rest add a thin layer of sauce to the bottom of the baking dish and to pour over the top of the enchiladas
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese (or cheddar)
2 green onions, chopped
12 street taco size corn tortillas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Shred chicken, put in a bowl and mix with onion, chilis, sour cream and 1/3 cup enchilada sauce.
Pour 1/4 cup enchilada sauce into a deep plate or pie dish. Dip each tortilla into the sauce, coating both sides, sprinkle a small pinch of cheese down the center of the tortilla, add a few spoonfuls of the chicken-green chili filling, top with another pinch of cheese, roll up and put in a baking dish that has a thin layer of enchilada sauce in the bottom. Place seam-side down.  Repeat for all the tortillas.
Pour remaining enchilada sauce over the enchiladas in the baking dish. Top with remaining cheese and green onions.
Bake 30 minutes, uncovered.
Remove from oven, let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

*You can assemble these and freeze. Use within 3 months. The leftover filling will last for 3 days in the refrigerator.
*I wore disposable gloves while I assembled this dish.

Tex Mex Chicken & Rice

 There is just something about the flavors of Mexico. I don't think I can recall one single person that I've ever met, over the course of my lifetime (suffice it to say that is over half a decade), who didn't/doesn't like Mexican food.
Tonight, I had leftover rotisserie chicken to use up. We buy whole chickens when they are cheap and stick them in the freezer and, when the urge strikes, we stick one on our rotisserie on our BBQ grill. We rotisserie'd one up for dinner last night. So this recipe utilizes leftovers and on-hand pantry stock items for me. I love it when I can do this!

I used a Walla Walla sweet onion in this dish. You, of course, don't have to use this type. You can use whatever you have on hand. I live in Washington state, I have Walla Walla sweets.
As with any delicious recipe, it starts out with onion and garlic. 

The onion gets sauteed in olive oil. The great thing is that this is a one-pot dish!

I removed the skin, chucked the bones (no room in the fridge today to be able to make broth) and cubed up the meat. 

You'll also need rice. I used what I have on hand and that's basmati. Plain ol' white rice would work perfectly. I wouldn't use Minute Rice. I don't think you'll be impressed with the results. The seasonings are simple: ground cumin, salt and pepper. This recipe also uses canned diced tomatoes, canned diced green chiles and a can of red enchilada sauce. 

After you've sauteed the onion for a few minutes, add in the rice and garlic and cook for a couple more minutes. 

Add in the canned ingredients and the water, bring to a boil, pop a lid on the pan, turn heat to as low as your stove will go and set a timer for 20 minutes. 

I topped with some chopped heirloom tomato and...

chopped avocado. This is a perfect pantry 30-minute meal!

Enjoy!

 

Tex Mex Chicken & Rice

 

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 of medium Walla Walla sweet onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon French grey salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup basmati rice

1 (10-ounce) can red enchilada sauce

1 (15-ounce) can no-salt added diced tomatoes

1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles

1 cup water

1-1/2 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces

Garnishes (optional): diced avocado, chopped tomato, sour cream, cilantro

In a large pot, with a lid, saute onion in olive oil, over medium heat,  until soft, about 3-4 minutes. Add rice and garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add spices, cook 30 seconds.
Add all the canned ingredients, along with the water. Then add chicken. Stir to combine. Bring up to a boil, turn heat on stove to as low as it can go. Cover. Cook for exactly 20 minutes. Turn off heat. Let set for 10 minutes. Top with garnishes.