Chicken Peanut Stew

I've been seeing this recipe a lot over the past couple of years and wanting to try it. But it seemed like one of those things that my family might not like. No real reason, just a feeling. So I kept putting it aside.

Well, let me tell ya, I wish I had tried it a lot sooner! It was SO good!

This recipe is very slightly adapted from JungleFrog Cooking.



Chicken Peanut Stew
1 lb boneless skinless chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
1 lb sweet potatoes, peeled & cut into bite sized pieces
1 lb potatoes, peeled & cut into bite sized pieces
1 onion, diced
1 jalapeño, seeded & diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 in piece ginger root, grated
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp sweet chili sauce
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
chopped peanuts, if desired
skinny chile pepper slices, if desired

Cut the chicken (breast or thighs, whatever you prefer) into bite sized pieces.
Chop the veggies.
Heat oil in a dutch oven. Add onions and jalapenos. Cook until onions are slightly translucent.
Add chicken. Cook and stir a few minutes. Add ginger, garlic, tomato paste, curry, coriander. Cook a few minutes until spices are really fragrant.
Add chicken broth, peanut butter, brown sugar and sweet chili sauce. Stir and cook until well combined. Add potatoes, sweet potatoes and tomatoes. Stir.
Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for 60 - 90 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Garnish with chopped peanuts and chile slices. Serve with crusty bread.
Enjoy!!

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Cut up your chicken. I used boneless skinless breasts.


Cut up your veggies.


Sweet Potatoes & Potatoes




Heat the oil in a dutch oven.

Add onions & jalapenos and cook until onions are a little translucent.


Add chicken.


Cook a few more minutes.

Add ginger root, garlic, tomato paste, curry and coriander.


Stir and cook a few minutes until spices are really fragrant.

Add chicken broth.


And peanut butter


Stir until peanut butter is totally mixed in.

Add brown sugar.


Sweet Chili Sauce


And tomatoes.


Stir and add potatoes & sweet potatoes.


Stir, cover and simmer for 60 - 90 minutes or until potatoes are tender.


I had fully intended to garnish this with chopped peanuts & chile slices, but totally forgot to buy them!


Tear off a nice crusty piece of bread and enjoy!!


I didn't tell Jon what was in this, because I thought he'd say that the ingredients didn't 'go together'. That way he had a less biased mind to try it. He is really good about trying everything I make, well... except Rappie Pie... anyway...

We both LOVED this. Bob didn't care for it, but I really didn't think he'd like it. Tawny and Lilly weren't home, and they didn't get to try it, because Jon & I just finished up the leftovers for lunch!

This is a really hearty, thick, flavorful, satisfying stew and I wish I had tried it sooner! I'll definitely be making this again. Give it a try and don't wait as long as I did!

Mashed Potato Tacos

This recipe showed up in my inbox from Allrecipes.com.

I didn't really follow the recipe... so I guess just the idea came from Allrecipes.

Anyway... this is perfect for leftover mashed potatoes.

There are no exact measurements.



Mashed Potato Tacos
Mashed Potatoes
Green chiles, diced
Grilled corn
Pepperjack cheese, shredded
Corn tortillas or taco shells
Taco sauce

I made creamy yukon gold mashed potatoes. Then stirred in diced green chiles, grilled corn kernels, and lots of shredded pepperjack cheese.

Then into tortillas if you like them soft or taco shells if you like them crunchy.

I made pretty much almost every kind.

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Stir corn kernels & green chiles into your hot mashed potatoes...
And you stir whatever you like into your mashies... other leftover veggies, meat, whatever...



Add some shredded pepperjack cheese, or whatever cheese you like.


Mix well.


Now into your favorite taco shell.

If you put some wadded up foil inside your taco shells when you heat them, they don't close up.


A pair of crunchy


The soft and crunchy combo


Oops... Bob doesn't care for mashed potatoes... so he had Spaghetti Tacos


But my FAVORITE way to have these was Mashed Potato Rolled Tacos!




Into some oil heated to 350F.


Turn.


Drain.


Top with more cheese and DEVOUR!


All the versions were tasty... but I could eat my weight in Mashed Potato Rolled Tacos!

So next time you have leftover mashies, make tacos! Don't even wait for leftovers, just make some and make tacos! And I'll bet mashed sweet potatoes would be just as good... or any mashed veggies! Oooohhhhhhh.... mashed celery root & parsnip tacos?? I think I'm gonna add those to the list of things to make!!

Seriously! Make tacos!

Homemade Salt & Vinegar Chips

Not too long ago Bob said he wanted to make Salt & Vinegar chips. So I went in search of recipes. It's not too often the boy wants to cook, so I didn't want this urge to pass!

I found this recipe at SnailsView. It was the only one that seemed like they would be really vinegary.

I let Bob know I'd found a recipe and we got started.



Salt & Vinegar Chips (slightly adapted)
4 russet potatoes
2 C white vinegar
Oil for frying
1 recipe of Vinegar Salt

Vinegar Salt
1 TBLS Kosher salt
1 tsp white vinegar

To make the vinegar salt.
Preheat oven to 250F.
Mix salt & vinegar and spread evenly on an oven safe pan.
Bake for about 30 minutes, then stir it around on the sheet, breaking up any large clumps that might have formed.
Bake about 30 minutes more and cool.
Pulse it the the food processor or spice grinder to make a fine salt.

To make the chips.
Slice the potatoes on a mandolin, so you have nice thin even slices.
Spread them evenly on a large baking sheet with edges and pour the vinegar over them.
Let them marinate in the vinegar for an hour up to four hours. The longer the better!

Heat oil to 350F. Drain potatoes and pat dry with paper or linen towels. Carefully add potatoes to the oil and fry until golden and crisp. Don't overcrowd the pan. Drain on a towel covered rack.
Sprinkle with vinegar salt and enjoy!!

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Ok.... first we made the Vinegar Salt.

Mix the salt & vinegar.


Spread it into an oven safe pan. We used a cake pan.


Bake 30 minutes at 250F... then stir it around and try to break up the clumps.


Bake 30 more minutes, until there is no moisture at all and let cool in pan.

Grind with a spice grinder or small food processor; set aside.

Then it was on to the potatoes.

Slice them on a mandolin.




Then spread them evenly in a large baking sheet and pour the vinegar over them.


Let them marinate for 1 to 4 hours.

Drain and pat dry. You really don't want to be splatted with wicked hot oil because you're potatoes were still dripping wet.


Heat the oil to 350F.

Working in small batches it's time to fry them.


Ok... they don't have to be batches this small... just don't over-crowd the pan...






Drain on towels and sprinkle with vinegar salt.


Enjoy!! And enjoy we did!! These were awesome!! Not nearly as vinegary as store bought, but super insanely delicious!

Bob like them so much, he made homemade chips everyday for a week!!

Potato Leek Soup

Do you ever plan meals around a small component of the meal?

Yesterday, my pulchritudinous friend, Erin posted on Facebook that she was making Beer Bread. Wait, what? What the heck is pulchritudinous? Well, sometimes I worry that I use the same words over and over, so I consult the thesaurus to mix things up a little and occasionally learn a new word in the process. I was going to call Erin my lovely friend. Which she is, inside and out. But for fun, I decided to peruse other words for lovely. There's quite a selection actually and most of them would have been perfectly acceptable substitutes for lovely. I knew all of them, except pulchritudinous. Ya know how your brain kinda picks out letters, even when jumbled and can come up with the right word? Well, since my brain had never come in contact with the word pulchritudinous, I think it converted it to putrid. Not very flattering, when you're looking for a substitute for lovely. So I had to look it up. It means physically beautiful. Erin is more than that, but I decided to use it today anyway, because maybe some of you don't know what pulchritudinous means, and if you read it somewhere, I wouldn't want you thinking it's putrid, since it's quite the opposite. Ok. English lesson over.

So my lovely (yeah, I went back to lovely, it really does describe her better than pulchritudinous) friend Erin, posted on Facebook that she was making Beer Bread. This was kinda late to mid afternoon and up until that time, it was looking like dinner was going to be FFY (Fend For Yourself) at my house. But Beer Bread wormed its way into my brain and I HAD to make it. But I couldn't just make Beer Bread for dinner, could I? Well, I'd be totally cool just eating it for dinner, but if I'm going to claim I'm making dinner, I should make more than just beer bread right?

So I was trying to decide what would go great with Beer Bread. Someone had mentioned Broccoli Cheese Soup. That sounded kinda good, but it just wasn't clicking. So I was in my car, on my way home trying to think of what to make and Potato Leek Soup popped into my head. That did sound good. But I'd never made it before so I wasn't really sure what goes in it. I decided it couldn't be much more than potatoes, leeks, maybe some chicken stock, a little cream... I'll just wing it and headed to the grocery store.

Making Beer Bread from scratch is wicked easy and wicked delicious. But I had a mix in the cabinet that was a gift that I wanted to use up. So I grabbed the Beer Bread Mix & Penn Brewery St. Nikolaus Bock.



You know when you shake a beer and then open it, it kind of explodes? Well, that didn't happen with the beer. But it DID happen with the Beer Bread Mix!!! I opened it and was the floury mix sprayed all over me and the kitchen! I think it was only a couple tablespoons worth. But what a mess!! I still just added the whole bottle of beer and baked according to the directions and it came out fine. It was tasty. But homemade is definitely the way to go. I thought I already had beer bread on Spryte's Place, but I can't find it anywhere! I know the recipe I've used in the past is from that little minx, Donna over at My Tasty Treasures. Her recipe does not disappoint!

Anyway... I put that into the oven and started on the soup!



Potato Leek Soup
2 leeks, sliced
2 lbs potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, grated
1 qt chicken stock
1/4 C butter
2 C half & half
salt & pepper
chives (to garnish if desired)

Slice & rinse the leeks very well, they're good at hiding sand! In a stock pot, saute the leeks in the butter. Add grated garlic and cook a minute or two. Add chopped potatoes, chicken stock salt & pepper and bring to a boil. Stir in half & half. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. With an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with snipped chives and enjoy!

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This is what you need.


Saute those beautiful (pulchritudinous) leeks in butter.


Add grated garlic.

Add chicken stock & potatoes and salt & pepper.


Bring to a boil.

Add half & half & simmer for about 30 minutes until potatoes are tender.


Blend with immersion blender until smooth.

Ladle into bowls, garnish with chives and enjoy with a nice thick slice of beer bread!


This was a really tasty and delicious soup!


Bob wasn't interested in trying it, but Jon & I really enjoyed it. I definitely prefer thin soups, but this had a creamy silky texture and a savory delicate flavor. It was the perfect vehicle for my beer bread!

Go Steelers!!