Fajita Macaroni & Cheese

Sometimes I just get this cooking idea that I can't seem to escape from. It's like when you get a song stuck in your head and you do anything to try to get rid of it. Think of that but with food. I don't even know where the idea came from, but I must have heard or seen something that set it off: fajita mac and cheese. Once the thought was there, I couldn't not make it. No matter how much I told myself I didn't need to make a pot of mac and cheese for dinner, my stomach wouldn't listen. Eventually I gave in and made this. Let me tell you--my stomach knows what it's talking about. It was right to urge me to throw together this recipe because it was pretty spectacular.

If you're looking for some sort of lighter twist on mac and cheese, you've come to the wrong place. This is a full fat, balls to the wall kind of mac and cheese recipe. The chicken and the veggies almost make it seem lighter than it is, but don't let them fool you. This stuff will make you fat if you let it. You can leave out the chicken or substitute it with beef or shrimp if that's your kind of thing. You can change out the veggies you don't like or add in more that you do. Do whatever you want to the fajita part of the recipe, but do yourself a favor and make the cheese sauce the way you're supposed to. When you get that craving for ooey, gooey, rich, creamy mac and cheese, there is no substitute. Enjoy it in all its fatty gloriousness. Work out hard to make up for it if you must, but don't skimp on the good stuff here. Trust me.

Chicken & Gnocchi Soup

Winter has been making one last effort (or at least I hope it's the last effort) to maintain a hold on the weather around here. It's been cold and windy and not quite sunny. In other words, it's still perfect soup weather. I decided to adapt another Pinterest recipe that I found. It was a copycat version of Olive Garden's chicken and gnocchi soup, which I really enjoy. I upped the amount of gnocchi in the recipe to make it more of a meal, but if you're serving it as an actual soup course, feel free to cut it back down to just 16 ounces. Justin wasn't a huge fan of this soup--he said it tasted canned, which is really bizarre since everything is made from fresh ingredients. Only the gnocchi came in any sort of a package, and I seriously doubt that would give it a canned flavor. I think he's just weird. I loved this soup and since Justin apparently doesn't want to have it for dinner again, I will definitely make it again for lunch sometime.

Chicken & Noodles

My younger sister is getting married next month, and I've been helping her with some of the paper goods that she needs (invitations, place cards, programs, etc.) for the wedding and reception. For one of the projects, we were discussing her reception menu, and she mentioned chicken and noodles. I've been craving chicken and noodles ever since then, so I finally gave in and made some. I didn't actually have a chicken and noodles recipe of my own, so I tried out one that I found online. While it wasn't a perfect recipe, it was a good first attempt. Next time I need to find a way to make it saucier. I want a thick, creamy sauce, almost like a gravy but not quite, on my chicken and noodles, and this just didn't quite do it for me. The flavor was good, but I just need to figure out the sauce.

That being said, I still ate it all up, and Justin liked it a lot, too. He compared it to chicken noodle soup without all the broth, and since that's pretty much how he wants his soup, he was completely fine with this recipe. Sometime down the road I'll give it another try, but for now, I thought I'd go ahead and share the recipe with you anyway. Be forewarned though; this makes a huge pot full of chicken and noodles. It all just barely fit in my 8 quart pot.

Chopped Challenge #10: Choripollo Flatbread Sandwiches

For our tenth Chopped challenge I gave Justin Pillsbury pizza dough, chorizo, chives, and mashed potato flakes. One of our favorite Mexican restaurants near our last apartment in Indiana had choripollo on their menu, which was a mixture of chicken, chorizo, and cheese sauce. It was really delicious, and you just tossed it onto a tortilla with rice, beans, etc. or inhaled it straight from the plate. Originally Justin was going to attempt to make some sort of choripollo empanadas, but he ended up just turning his idea into more of a sandwich instead, using the pizza dough as the bread and putting the cheese sauce on the side for dipping. The flavor was really good, and I would definitely have him make these for dinner again sometime.

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

One of my favorite smells in the whole world is the scent of a dark roux cooking. Nothing else can transport me back to my childhood so easily. A lot of my favorite recipes (Cajun and otherwise) start with a roux, but a roux this dark, aromatic, and flavorful can only mean one thing--gumbo.

If you haven't actually had gumbo before, it's kind of like a stew. Generally it's served over rice, though some people prefer potato salad. You make it with some sort of stock and add in various meats and vegetables. My favorite combo is chicken and sausage, but seafood gumbo is also delicious. The most important ingredients though are the ones you use to thicken the gumbo. You can use filé, okra, or a roux as your thickener, and each one provides a different overall flavor. My favorite is gumbo made with a roux, but to each his own. (I do like to sprinkle some filé, which consists of ground sassafras leaves, over my gumbo anyway though because I like the earthy flavor that it has.)

Chicken Breakfast Biscuits with Gravy

When Justin and I were trying to come up with dinner ideas, he randomly asked me, "Why doesn't anyone ever put chicken and eggs together?" I've seen a few omelets with chicken on menus before, but he's right that it's not very common. I don't know exactly why that is, but I do know that these breakfast biscuits we decided to make with both of them are quite delicious. I think they're going to be make frequent appearances on our meal lists.

When trying to decide how we were going to combine the two, I immediately thought of some sort of sandwich because at many fast food restaurants you can now get chicken breakfast sandwiches, in addition to the usual egg ones. If we just combine the two, voila! To tie it together a bit more, I decided to make some white gravy to go on the sandwiches--Justin's a little iffy about eggs and white gravy, but after giving this recipe a taste with just a little of the gravy, he piled on the rest of his portion of gravy and happily gobbled it all down.

Chicken & Dumplings

The weather has finally cooled off enough here in Virginia for me to start making soup. I love soup. I could almost eat soup every night and not get tired of it--there are just so many wonderful options!

I have this Paul Prudhomme cookbook (If you don't know Paul Prudhomme, you should check him out; he's one of the quintessential Cajun cooking authorities.) that has a recipe for Creole chicken and dumplings. Justin and I like the idea of it, so we thought we'd make our own version. I started with Prudhomme's recipe which has you begin by frying the chicken, which gives it great flavor and texture. I've never had fried chicken in a soup before, but I really enjoyed it. From there, I adapted my usual chicken and dumpling recipe, and altogether it morphed into what you see here. It was really delicious, and Justin and I are both looking forward to making this again soon.

Jambalaya Grits

I don't know where my mom found this recipe. I just know that it's amazing. She started making this probably sometime when I was in high school, so even though it's not one of those "childhood favorite" kind of foods, it's still one of my ultimate comfort foods.

If you haven't gathered this by now, I love grits. Growing up in the south will do that to you. If you don't like grits, it's probably because you've only ever had the bland kind they serve with breakfast at restaurants. Grits need lots of salt and lots of love to make them delicious. Jambalaya grits are special because they get even more love. They get chicken. And sausage. And ham. And mozzarella cheese. Oh my. I always make this as a dinner, but I suppose it would be just as delicious as a breakfast or brunch item. Be warned though; this recipe does make a decent bit of food, so make sure you're hungry--you'll want to eat all of it. I promise.

Chicken Creole

I haven't always been a big fan of chicken Creole. It's very tomato-y, and as I've talked about before, I didn't really like tomatoes much until fairly recently. When I was a kid, the tomato chunks in chicken Creole are what turned me off, but now that I'm over it, I really enjoy this dish. It's still not my favorite Cajun-style dish, but it's definitely worth making once in a while.

Rosemary Chicken & Potatoes

This is one of those dishes that's really simple in both execution and flavor profile, but sometimes that's exactly what you want--here the rosemary really has a chance to stand out without a lot of other flavors getting in the way. I always feel like fresh herbs make things feel fancy anyway, so you don't really need anything else to make this dish feel special.

Fruit-free Chicken Salad

It has taken me a long time to find a chicken salad I'll actually eat. I've told you before about my distaste for those indiscriminate "salads" they serve in deli cases and such, so I don't really jump at the chance to eat chicken salad in the first place. When I find some place that makes fresh chicken salad, it almost always contains fruit, and I am not a fan of fruit in savory meals. I can go the opposite direction and eat bacon in dessert all day long, but I do not want cherries, cranberries, apples, grapes, or raisins in my chicken salad. Maybe it's because of the mayonnaise; I'm not really sure. Either way, I just can't do it.

Chicken Fried Rice

Justin loves Chinese food more than probably any other type. (I, on the other hand, could eat Mexican food until I pop.) The beauty of Chinese food is that it's so cheap and can be found in abundance here; therefore, we don't make it at home very often. Justin's been asking for fried rice lately though, and I can't help but oblige.

Fiesta Chicken Bread

Justin was browsing through the Chive one day last month and found this food post. When we saw number 20, we decided we had to know A) what exactly it was, B) how to make it, and C) how awesome it would taste. Analyzing the photo, I decided that it obviously included bread of some sort, bacon, cheese, and what I thought might be some sort of ranch dressing. I googled bread bacon cheese ranch, and voila, I found myself at the recipe for Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pulls on Plain Chicken.

Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya

When Justin and I got married, we had a small, intimate ceremony and reception with our families and close friends. We didn't have a lot of money to spend, but we still wanted it to reflect who we are and the things we love. One way we did that was through food. We went with a New Orleans-inspired menu, and my grandparents and my Aunt Jean cooked it for us (with a couple contributions from me and from Justin's mom). We had a hard time deciding on the menu because there are just so many great Cajun dishes that we love, but we wanted to choose things that would appeal not only to my Louisiana family but also to Justin's Indiana family. Something that we thought would bridge that gap well was jambalaya. It's chicken, smoked sausage, and rice with some seasoning--what's not to like?

Chicken & Mushroom-Stuffed Crepes with Mornay Sauce

These particular dinner crepes were inspired by Upland, a brewery/restaurant in Bloomington, IN. Before the first time we ate there, I checked out their menu online and became obsessed with their Frenchiladas. They stuffed crepes with roasted chicken and seared, local oyster mushrooms and then topped them off with a Gruyere cheese sauce. It sounded amazing! Of course, they didn't have that option on the menu anymore when we got there, and instead I had to settle for the equally amazing Wit Mac and Cheese, made with their wheat beer. (After dinner we also had the best ice cream we've ever had, bacon ice cream, made by another Bloomington institution, the Chocolate Moose.) I knew after that day that I would have to make my own Frenchiladas some day, and so when I decided to try my hand at making crepes, I knew that this was the first way I wanted to stuff them. That first time I made them exactly as described on Upland's menu, and they were every bit as good as I had hoped. I've tweaked the recipe a bit since then, and the result is what you see here.