As with most casserole dishes, there are many variations of King Ranch. No matter the recipe, the key components seem to be poultry, tortillas, cheese and a creamy sauce. All good things in our book. Looking at several different recipes, we put together this King Ranch with the following ingredients: leftover cooked turkey (most recipes use chicken, but we had previously grilled a turkey breast and had tons leftover), onion, red bell pepper, garlic, tortillas, chicken broth, cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, Rotel, green chiles, jalapeno and cheddar cheese seasoned with chili powder. Continue reading “King Ranch Casserole (with leftover turkey)”
Category: Main Courses
Tuscan-Style Steak with Arugula and Parmesan
On a busy weeknight, we love a dish that incorporates both the protein and the vegetable in the same recipe — as seen here and here. Such meals are usually really easy to prepare, but still have fresh and complex flavors. We found this recipe in an old cookbook by Cook’s Illustrated, “The Quick Recipe,” which we found at a Half Price Books store (used book stores are great places to find good quality cookbooks at inexpensive prices.) The ingredients for this dish include steak, arugula, a vinaigrette made with olive oil, lemon, garlic, fresh parsley, fresh oregano, salt & pepper, and freshly shaved parmesan for garnish. We added tomatoes for a little extra flavor and texture. We’re crazy like that.
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Grilled Pork Chops with Mushroom-Soy Vinaigrette
Bobby Flay knows his way around a grill. We have several of his grilling cookbooks and I like to consult them when we’re in the mood for something a little different than the usual grill recipes. Bobby tends to use a lot of interesting rubs and sauces in his grilling, and this dish is no exception. We like how the rich and earthy mushroom flavor of the sauce complements the spicy (but not too spicy) rub on the pork. This mushroom vinaigrette would also be good served on other proteins – like a grilled chicken breast or a nice filet mignon.
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Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo (with leftover chicken)
A fettuccine alfredo recipe that is low(er) in fat and calories than the traditional version? Yes, please! We found one in Cook’s Illustrated’s book, “The Best Light Recipe.” As with all their recipes, the folks at Cook’s Illustrated do all the hard work for you — testing out tons of different ingredients and techniques until they find the very best possible recipe (hence the name.) Another great feature in this particular cookbook is that the authors show the difference in nutritional stats between the light recipe and the traditional version, and they explain how they achieved the lighter result. For example, classic fettuccine alfredo has about 580 calories and 43 grams of fat, while the light recipe has only 300 calories and 11 grams of fat. The key to the light version is using half-and-half thickened with cornstarch instead of heavy cream, and they omitted all the butter. Even with less calories and fat, this recipe still has the rich and creamy taste of the traditional version.
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Verde Pork
Way back when it was still winter here in Texas, we had a snow/ice storm. While we were “snowed in,” Dan wanted to cook some comfort food, but something a little different than the usual stew, chili or casserole. He found this recipe, which incorporates pork, jalapenos, tomatillos and other yummy Tex-Mex ingredients. The “verde” in this dish comes from the deliciously tart tomatillos, perfectly balanced against the spice of the jalepeno peppers.
Rack of Lamb
Lamb is not something we eat very often, and this is the first time we’ve ever cooked it at home. But Dan has a very good, and very persuasive, friend who has been requesting a lamb recipe, so we were happy to oblige. We decided to do rack of lamb because that is what was available in our grocery store. Dan researched several recipes and combined certain components from each to come up with this particular dish. It turned out great, and we enjoyed experimenting with a new (to us) protein. This one’s for you, Dr. Z!
Pork Kebabs
One of the main reasons we live in Texas is the weather, which we appreciate most in the Spring and Fall. Lots of people think that living in Texas, we don’t really get to experience the four traditional “seasons,” but we do. It’s just that two of them — Spring and Fall — happen to be rather short. Here in Dallas, we are lucky enough to still be having some Spring weather, unlike our poor friends and family further south, who are already experiencing the heat and humidity for which the Houston area is infamous. No matter the weather, we grill pretty much year-round. Yet the warm (but not too warm!) temps and sunny, cloud-free days definitely have me drawn to our grilling cookbooks when searching for recipes these days. This pork recipe is one we have had many times before, but for some reason we usually only cook it during warm weather months. Maybe it’s something about the kebab itself — perhaps the idea of grilling almost your entire meal on a “stick” evokes memories/thoughts of summer days and nights roasting hot dogs and marshmallows around a campfire. We decided to enjoy this nostalgic feeling and kick off our short window of Spring with pork kebabs. Check back in about a month (or less) for recipes involving refrigeration and bitching about how it’s already too hot to be outside.
Red Beans and Rice
We’ve mentioned before that one of our favorite places we’ve ever visited is New Orleans. When we were there last May, we wandered around looking for a good place to have our final meal of the trip, hoping to make up for a surprisingly mediocre plate of etouffee from lunch the previous day. (The etouffee was so bad that a local guy dining next to us said it was the worst he’d ever had and he didn’t want to have to pay for his meal as a result.) We found a great little place in the French Quarter that more than made up for the not-so-good lunch. Dan ordered the meal featuring a trio of famous Cajun dishes — red beans and rice, etouffee and gumbo — and finally got to sample what authentic etouffee is really supposed to taste like. The other two dishes were authentically delicious as well. Ever since that meal, we’ve wanted to try making these dishes at home. We’ve already tried Seafood Gumbo (with rather successful results, if we do say so ourselves – and we do), so we decided to give red beans and rice a shot. Success Number Two!
Skirt Steak Tacos
This might be the most simple and easy recipe we have ever posted. It’s so basic that it doesn’t even require an actual recipe. All you do is roast some onion strips in the oven and grill a skirt steak, then put those ingredients in a taco. But the end result tastes a lot more complex — as if you marinated the steak for hours and meticulously carmelized the onions. This meal is perfect for a busy weeknight, or even a last-minute dinner party where you can fool your guests into thinking you spent way more time cooking for them than you actually did. (We won’t tell.)
Beef Stroganoff (with leftover beef)
One of the reasons we are able to cook as often during the week as we do is that we try to cook a protein that we can use in another dish later in the week — two meals out of one. I have mentioned before that I’m not a fan of leftovers, so transmogrifying the remaining protein into a different meal is my thing. As you may have seen, we recently made a delicious pot roast. It was a lot of beef for two people, so we needed a recipe for the leftover meat. I found one that was perfect for a weeknight and had the additional benefit of being reminiscent of a dish my Grandma used to make — Beef and Noodles. Grandma’s Beef and Noodles is not something we’ve ever attempted to make, and I’m not even sure an actual recipe exits. It’s one of those magical meals that the creator just knows how to make, and hopefully someone has been able to witness it enough times to re-create it. My mom watched and learned, but only makes it for special occasions because the men in our family have been known to gorge on it to the point of near-sickness. It’s seriously that good. This stroganoff recipe is a close enough second that it brought up many fond memories of Grandma (yet not SO good that Dan ate himself sick.) We’ll work on learning Grandma’s Beef and Noodles, but in the meantime, this stroganoff is a decent substitute and a great use of leftover pot roast.