Shallow Fry (A.K.A. Mommy Chicken)

Slice chicken in half lengthwise so you have two equally-sized pieces. This is sometimes called butterflying or filleting. Go slow and watch your fingers and palm.

For ‘Mommy Chicken,’ I set out 3 shallow bowls, filling them with flour, whisked up eggs with a little water, and breadcrumbs. You can season the flour with garlic powder or whatever sounds good to you. You can use plain or seasoned breadcrumbs, crushed up corn flakes, Ritz crackers, or even panko breadcrumbs.

Dip each chicken breast half in flour, then eggs, then breadcrumbs – set aside on a large plate or baking sheet. Heat up about 1/2 inch or so of oil in a shallow pan or skillet. You want it hot but not boiling. Slowly add 2-3 prepared breasts to the pan and cook them 6-7 minutes per side. The oil will spit and spatter. You can jiggle it around so it doesn’t stick, but there is no need to repeatedly flip the breast. And, obviously, thinner breasts will take less time and mondo breasts will take longer. I always check by cutting one in half to ensure it is cooked thoroughly. No pink!!

Cube (A.K.A. Chicken Bits)

Chicken bits are also shallow fried. I cut a chicken breast into long strips and then into cubes. They have a tendency to puff up a bit as they cook so I err on the smaller side. Once all the meat is cut, I spread the pieces into a single layer on my cutting board and heavily sprinkle black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and Lawry’s seasoning salt.

Place in a skillet with about 1/2 inch of pre-heated oil and do not stir. Leave everything alone so it gets nice and crispy, then stir. I never pay attention to how long this process takes. Once things look cooked, I cut the bigger pieces in half with the spatula. Once everything is no longer pink on the inside, I remove the chicken from the pan and drain it on some paper towel before serving.

I use chicken bits most often for salad, but they can also be used for a quick dinner with white rice and your favorite Panda sauce. You can also throw them in this casserole.

A Note About Oil: When frying, you want to choose vegetable oil, peanut oil, or even a combo of oil with some butter (for flavor). This is not the time to use your good olive oil. It can’t handle the heat.

Slice Thinly

Another option is to slice the chicken breasts into thin strips and marinate it. I do this with taco seasoning for chicken and cheddars, but it can work for fajitas or a stir fry.

Place the sliced chicken in a Ziploc with your marinade and let it sit in fridge for an hour or more. When you are ready to cook, heat up your pan. You do not need any oil. Just dump your chicken in the hot pan. The marinade will be enough liquid to cook with. Like the chicken bits above, cut things in half with your spatula to check on the progress. With a hot pan and thin slices, the chicken should cook in a few minutes.

Mom Tip: You can make your own marinade or use a packet. We love the McCormick fajitas seasoning packet but I add 2 TB or so of red wine vinegar. It used to say to do so on the packet, but they removed that verbiage. Trust me – it makes a huge difference. Add it!!

Deep Fry (A.K.A. Daddy Chicken)

Every year we deep fry a turkey and re-use the oil to make 20+ pounds of deep fried chicken strips A.K.A. Daddy Chicken. You can do the same thing on the stove, using a deep pot for the oil, or with a Fry Daddy-type of appliance. Just cut the chicken in to equal sized strips and use the recipe below:

• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup buttermilk (or 7/8 cup regular milk topped off with vinegar)
• 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Soak the chicken in the mixture for up to 4 hours. In the meantime, mix the breading:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder

Remove each piece of chicken from the buttermilk mixture and coat thoroughly in breadcrumbs. Set each piece aside on a cutting board or baking sheet. Heat oil up to about 375* (hot. but not crazy boiling) and slowly drop a few pieces of chicken in. Do not let oil overflow.

Cook until golden brown, juices run clear, and NO pink! This is trial and error every time. The first piece is always an experiment to see how long it is going to take. Make extras; they freeze well!

Crockpot

Chicken in the crockpot is my favorite way to go. You just put whole breasts in and a quart of chicken broth. Leave it alone for 7-8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. You can even throw the breasts in 100% frozen!

Sometimes I remove the cooked chicken and make chicken salad, chicken spaghetti, or that chicken, cheese, and yellow rice dish. Sometimes I add veggies while the chicken cooks and make soup.

Crockpot – Dump & Go

Another easy chicken recipe for the crockpot is the dump and go. Simply put a raw chicken breast or two in the crockpot and dump any of the following on top.

• Jar of salsa
• Jar of pineapple salsa and some crushed pineapple
• Jar of pepperoncini (juices and all)
• Frank’s red hot sauce with an equal amount of melted butter
• Favorite BBQ sauce
• Store bought Butter Chicken Sauce
• Jar of pesto

Cook for 7-8 hours on high or 4 hours on low. Easy-peasey!

Poach

Poaching is cooking the chicken breast in a pan on the stove. I don’t do this often as it ends up like crockpot chicken and — to me — that’s easier. You do you – xo

Grill

Stuff

Bake

Baked Nuggies or Strips

I made these chicken nuggets/strips so many times when you guys were little that I thought I’d go nuts! They’re easy, though. Instead of dipping in the classic flour-egg-breadcrumbs, my variation substitutes Ranch dressing thinned out with a little water for the eggs. Very kid-friendly.

Ground Chicken

Ground chicken is a nice change from ground beef and turkey. I like to make chicken burgers and chicken meatballs. You need to add either Parm cheese or breadcrumbs or both because, like turkey, ground chicken is a little too moist.

OK – I’ll try to add more later, but that should give you lots of ways to get started cooking chicken. Luv you!!

Stuff in a Quesadilla

You can stuff your leftovers into a quesadillas. I admit. This is my go-to, particularly when there isn’t enough to go around. In other words, if there is just enough chicken for only 2 fajitas, I can dice everything up and throw into a quesadilla with veggies and cheese with enough to feed a hungry crowd. And, don’t just thing Tex-Mex flavors. I’ve stuck leftover pork roast and apricot preserves in there with great success.

Top a Baked Potato

While leftover broccoli and some cheese may seem like an obvious (and tasty) potato topper, you have so many more options. Chili cheese is my personal favorite.

Top a Plate of Nachos

If potatoes aren’t your jam (I’m looking at you S), then throw your leftovers on top of a plate of tortilla chips with some cheese. I do this a lot with leftover pot roast. I add black beans and pickled jalapenos and call them “Cowboy Nachos.”

Add to a Hash

Anything can be a hash as long as there is potatoes and leftover meat. Just dice up leftover potatoes, some onions, green peppers, and leftover meat. While corned beef is my personal fav, we don’t generally have leftovers for obvious reasons. However, you can use pot roast, pork roast, even steak (although steak paste is a better option – see sandwich spreads, below). The key to a good hash, however, is to leave it alone! Let it sit and get crispy on one side. You’ll be tempted to stir things around, but just let it sit in some butter and get all nice and crispy.

Whip Up a Gravy

The key to a good gravy is equal parts fat + flour. I explain it in detail here, but understand that this goes far beyond just chicken or turkey a la king. You can dice up a leftover hamburger and make hamburger gravy to serve over mashed potatoes or egg noodles. Add some frozen peas and carrots, if you want. Leftover sausage patties makes for a mean sausage gravy over biscuits. Leftover lunchmeat can even be added to a gravy for a decent meal. My mom used to buy corned beef lunchmeat and add it and frozen peas to a gravy that she served over sliced toast points.

Make Some Soup

I’ve explained that my potato soup is just leftover mashed potatoes, but you can throw leftover chicken or beef into a pot with some veggies and call it soup easily. In fact, my chili almost always has leftover bits of sloppy joe or taco meat in it.

Put on a Salad

One of my favorite salads is Big Mac salad. A diced up leftover hamburger, diced pickles, diced red onions, shredded cheese, and a mayo-ketchup-mustard-1000-Island sauce on a bed of lettuce. Sesame seeds or Everything Bagel seasonings, if you’ve got it. This concept works with anything, though – fajitas, turkey burgers, BBQ chicken.

Blitz Into a Sauce

Sometimes you go overboard making wonderful sheet pan veggies and have way more leftovers than you can eat. Throw them all in a blender with a little parm, some balsamic vinegar or lemon juice, and juuuuussssttt enough liquid to get the blender to go — chicken broth, beef broth, wine, even water. Warm the blended mix up on the stove and pour it over your favorite pasta!

Add It to Pasta Salad

Conversely, you can extend your leftovers by making it into a pasta salad. One lonely chicken breast can be diced and mixed with a combo of celery, grapes, pecans, and extra mayo and then mixed with some cooked & cooled pasta. Transforming that ‘serves-one’ chicken breast into a completely different meal for everyone. You could also do beans, corn, and Pico de Gallo. Heck – our favorite Southwest Pasta salad is traditionally made with leftover chicken in it (I just prefer it plain).

Throw on a Pizza

I always seem to have a frozen 4-cheese or a pepperoni in my freezer for ‘I-am-too-tired-to-cook’ emergencies. Sure. Ready-made pizza dough would be better to stash, but I don’t always have that option. Anyway … you can jazz up a boring frozen pizza with any — and I mean ANY — leftover. Meatloaf? Throw it on! Sausage and peppers? Throw it on! Grilled Greek chicken and some olives? Throw it on! Heck – throw the chickpeas on there, too! Everything works on a pizza.

Create a Bagel Sandwich

Toast your favorite bagel (or the one you have on hand). Add butter and cream cheese, flavored, if you’ve got it. Use up leftover meat and veggies by cramming it in there and making a sandwich. We do this often with fajitas chicken and some leftovers veggies or taco-flavored chicken, like we make for chicken and cheddars. Really, though. Like all the options above, anything will work.

Turn It Into a Sandwich Spread

Obviously, you can make chicken salad, turkey salad, or even diced ham salad and serve it over lettuce or in a sandwich, but our fav is what you girls dubbed “steak paste.” While not a very flattering name, it is an accurate description. If you have leftover steak, dice it small and add diced pickles, hard boiled egg, mayo and seasoning to taste. This can be served on toast, but its particularly good with crackers.

The key here is do not be discouraged when you have leftover but aren’t in the mood to eat them. If you think about it, you can probably turn them into an even better meal on Day 2.

Love you!

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (another vinegar will NOT work – sry!)
• 1 TB brown sugar (light or dark – whatever you have)
• 1 TB Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp minced garlic, heaping
• flank steak or skirt steak

Trim any large or ‘hard’ bits of fat off the meat. You don’t have to remove it all perfectly. Just run your hand over the meat and get rid of any hard bits and larger pieces.

Mix all ingredients well in a ziploc, add steak, and let sit in fridge for several hours. Make sure the meat is well covered with the marinade. Feel free to rotate it in the bag in a hour or two, if necessary.

This type of steak is best grilled quickly over high heat. If you are using a BBQ, cook it a max of 3-4 minutes each side. I know it doesn’t seem long enough, but it is!

Let it rest for 10 minutes after cooking.

How to cut a flank or skirt steak: You need to cut across the grain. If you cut a flank steak with the grain (the short side), it will be chewy. Instead, cut the steak in half and rotate it so it is vertical on the cutting board. Cut long, thin strips off the long side. Repeat with the other half. It will be melt-in-your-mouth soft. Yum-o!

Mom Tip: I store my cans of tuna in the fridge so it’s already cold. It just makes sense to me.

Plain Tunafish

This is the plain Jane version that you kids like.

• can of Bumblebee solid white Albacore tuna in water
• mayo (Duke’s is the best!)

Open can and drain liquid by turning upside-down and pressing on lid to compress. Place tuna in a bowl and break up with a fork. Add mayo a little at a time until it is just moist.

For this version, I prefer soft white bread with butter. Leave the butter on the counter or nuke in the microwave for 10 seconds. Spread liberally on both sides on the bread. It’s weird, but once you’ve had a tunafish sandwich with butter, you can’t go back!

Tuna Noodles

You kids lived on ‘tuna noodles’ when you were younger. I think the rest of America calls this tuna salad, but your name stuck!

I literally take the above recipe for plain tunafish and add extra mayo. Then, I add cooked, drained, and cooled elbow noodles. You want the mixture slightly on the ‘soupy’ side because the noodles will soak up the mayo. Chill several hours or, preferably, overnight.

Mom’s Tunafish

This is how I like it for sandwiches.

• can of Bumblebee solid white Albacore tuna in water
• mayo (Duke’s is the best!)
• finely diced red onion
• finely diced celery
• dried dill, maybe 1/2 tsp to taste

Mix. Serve on wheat or sourdough toast, or soft white bread with butter as above. Sometimes I add Swiss cheese, tomato, and lettuce.

I know you guys love capers! #Understatement … you could add some capers and lemon juice to this version.

Matthew McConaughey’s Tunafish

This is not my recipe, but a tweaked version of actor Matthew McConaughey’s. It is so odd that I had to try it and see what all the fuss was about. It’s addictive. Dad hated it. I couldn’t get enough! See for yourself.

• 12 oz. can of Bumblebee solid white Albacore tuna in water (the big can)
• 3 TB lemon juice
• 1/3 cup mayo (again- Duke’s is the best!)
• 2 tsp Wasabi paste
• 1/4 cup diced red onion
• 1/4 cup diced dill pickle
• 1/4 cup diced red apple
• 1/3 cup crispy dried jalapeno (it’s with the salad toppers in grocery store)
• 1/2 TB honey
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1/3 cup frozen peas

Mix all and let sit overnight. Serve, open-face, on toast, or with crackers. Seriously good stuff!

Tuna Melts

This version was all the rage when I was a kid. I like tuna melts but don’t make them because dad thinks it is gross. LOL

Make the tunafish mixture any way you like (Version 1, 3, or 4) and place on a plain hamburger bun bottom. Add a slice of cheese. American cheese is classic, but Swiss or cheddar work, too. If you are feeling fancy, add a slice of tomato under the cheese.

Bake 375* for 5 minutes and then broil until the cheese melts. Remove from oven, add the top of the hamburger bun and enjoy.

Tuna melts are also made like a grilled cheese sandwich on bread and grilled in butter until the cheese is nice and melty.

My Tuna Casserole

When Auntie Sheila came home from college for the weekend, this is what she asked me to make her every single time. It’s good. Like, really good!

• 12 oz bag of egg noodles, cooked & drained
• 12 oz. can of Bumblebee solid white Albacore tuna in water (the big can)
• 1 cup frozen peas (you could use finely diced celery, if that’s what you have on hand)
• 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
• 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 1/2 cups swiss cheese

Mix all but 1 cup of cheese. Place in greased casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese. Bake 375* for 20 minutes or until cheese is browning and its warmed through. Eat!

There are tons of other things people put in their tuna casserole, from mushrooms to potato chips, but I’ve found that the key is lots and lots of cheese

That’s it. 6 ways we make tunafish in this house. Enjoy! xo

• 1 tilapia filet (you could use any fish here – just adjust cooking time for thicker filets)
• thinly sliced zucchini and yellow summer squash
• asparagus
• 1 TB melted butter
• 1/2 TB of lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
• 1 clove of minced garlic (powder would work in a pinch)
• Old Bay seasoning – if you have it
• onion pwder
• pepper
• aluminum foil

Remove fish from freezer, keep in plastic wrap, and place in a bowl of COLD water for 10 minutes or so while you cut the veggies.

Use whatever veggies you have that are quick-cooking. I like zukes and summer squash. I cubed them for the picture on this post and they did not cook as thoroughly – thinly sliced is the way to go! You can also add asparagus. Leave whole or cut into 2 inch pieces.

Lay a piece of aluminum foil down horizontally on your work surface that is about 3-4x as long as fish. Lay another piece on top of it vertically. Remove fish from plastic and place in the center. It’s ok if it is still slightly frozen.

Sprinkle the fish with onion powder, pepper, and Old Bay seasoning. Place the veggies on top.

Mix the melted butter, lemon juice, and garlic. Pour over the top of the fish and veggies.

Take the two ends of the vertical piece of foil, meet at the top, and roll down together. Repeat with the other side. Seal up any holes. You do not want any of that butter to leak out and get in your oven. Place the foil packet on a baking sheet and bake 350* for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and test fish. If it flakes easily with a fork, it is done. It’s good but, I gotta say, make two because I think it tastes even better the next day.

While frying fish is a stinky no-no when you have roommates to consider, this recipe does NOT make your house smell like fish! Yay!

This would be great with a loaf of ‘The’ Bread or even cheesy olive bread.

This is another recipe where I don’t really measure. If I am being honest, I smell the mixture after I add all the ingredients. If it smells too strongly of one ingredient or another, I adjust accordingly. Weird, I know.

• 1 lb ground beef (some people do half beef, half ground pork. You could also do with ground chicken or turkey)
• 1 egg, whisked up (this binds everything together when you cook)
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (plain, Italian, or panko – whatever you have on hand. You could also use crushed up crackers, uncooked, dry oatmeal, or even bread soaked in milk)
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 TB yellow mustard
• 3 TB Italian salad dressing
• 1 TB Frank’s red hot
• 1/2 cup ketchup + more for top
• 1/2 cup BBQ sauce + more for top
• splash of Worchester sauce
• garlic powder
• Italian seasoning (or just oregano, if that’s what you have)
• onion powder
• salt and pepper
• cooked bacon, diced (optional)
• shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
• pickled jalapenos (optional)

Mix all ingredients together.

(Yes, you have to stick your hands in there and smoosh everything around so all the ingredients are equally distributed.)

The mixture should be moist. If its dry and crumble-y, add more ketchup and Italian dressing. If it’s really wet, add equal amounts of breadcrumbs and parm cheese. Also, if you smell the mixture, it shouldn’t smell overwhelmingly like one ingredient or the other, rather it should smell Italian-y. (I wouldn’t know )

You can add the cheese, cooked bacon, and jalapenos, if you want to kick things up a notch, or skip them, if you are going for a traditional vibe.

Spray your muffin pan and squish equal amounts of the meat mixture into each cup. They should be just below the top. Do not overfill. I also press the edges down slightly so the grease released during cooking has somewhere to go instead of the bottom of my oven.

Once the cups are filled, I squirt ketchup on the top of each. Sometimes I do BBQ, too. Spread it out with the back of a spoon. Do a tiny bit more than you think it needs because that cooked ketchup really adds a nice bit of sweetness.

Bake 350* for 30 minutes or so. You can test with a meat thermometer (160* for red meat/165* for poultry), but I actually wait till they are looking ever so slightly burnt on the edges. I like crispy!

1 lb. of meat should make 8-10 meatloaf muffins. If you only have a 12-cup pan, space it out and don’t worry about the empty spots. If you only have a 6-cup pan, just stash the extra in the freezer. Do not overfill pan! Ask me how I know – LOL.

Depending on what type of meat you use, there will be grease in the muffin cups. I just remove the meatloaf and place it on a serving platter.

You can serve this with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies for a cold weather, Midwestern classic!

This is not a ‘measure’ recipe. It’s an eyeball-it-how-much-have-you-got recipe.

• Meat – This works with leftover, diced turkey, shredded chicken, a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, or even lunchmeat that needs to eaten up.
• Frozen veggies – I use equal amounts of peas & carrots mix with corn. You could just use frozen peas if that all you have.
• butter & flour – We’re making a roux here, people!
• chicken broth – I use a box, which is a quart or 4 cups. You can make your own with bouillon, too.
• seasonings > garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, poultry seasoning
• dairy – Sometimes I splash 1/2 cup of milk, half-n-half, or heavy cream in at the very end. Sometimes I don’t. It’s good either way.

Melt 1 stick of butter in a saucepan on low. When it’s all melted, add your frozen veggies and cook for 5-6 minutes. Keep the temperature low. We aren’t really cooking these as much as defrosting them. When they veggies are thoroughly warm, add an equal amount of flour to butter. In other words, if you added a stick of butter (1/2 cup), add 1/2 cup flour. If you had less butter, use less flour. A roux is equal parts butter and flour.

Stir the flour around so it coats all the veggies. Let it cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring often. Add the broth and stir. The flour will want to clump. Keep stirring! Once everything is incorporated, add the finely diced meat and let it bubble away for a few minutes while you add seasoning.

I don’t measure. I just kinda cover the surface with garlic powder, onion powder and pepper. Use the poultry seasoning sparingly; it can be overpowering. Stir. Taste. Adjust.

To serve: You can serve turkey/chicken a la king over so many things – a warm biscuit, rice, mashed potatoes, noodles, or even toast.

That’s it! Use up your leftovers! Make chicken/turkey a la king!

• 1-2 boneless chicken breasts (you can get away with one if it is big)
• 1 can of cream of whatever soup (the recipe originally called for cream of chicken, but I don’t like that. I always used cream of mushroom, but cream of celery would work too)
• 1 box yellow rice (we prefer Zatarain’s)
• 1 can of corn, drained
• 1 cup of shredded co-jack cheese (this is totally optional! It tastes great without the cheese, if you want to go dairy-free)

Place the chicken breasts in the crockpot and dump the soup on top, covering each. Cook on low for 5-6 hours or high for 3 hours. Basically, it’s done when the chicken breaks apart with a fork.

Make the rice according to the package directions. When the chicken is done, unplug the crockpot and add the rice, cheese, and corn. Stir to combine. That’s it! Comfort food at its finest.

Hot tip: If you want to spice things up, try some Frank’s Red Hot Sauce on top. Dad likes it this way. (Get it? Hot tip …. ?)

This casserole is fairly new to our repertoire. It’s super easy to pull together from things in your freezer/fridge/pantry. Ready?

• Cooked chicken, about 1 cup – this can be leftover shredded chicken from the crockpot, a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, or raw chicken that you cube and fry in a pan quickly.
• Zucchini, about 1 cup – cut into wide-ish slices and then quarter each slice. You want bite-sized pieces, too small and they’ll be mushy.
• 1 can of corn, drained
• 1 box Stovetop cornbread stuffing, dry (Please note: you are not ‘making’ the stuffing. You are using it dry, straight from the box.)
• 1 can cream of whatever soup – seriously, use whatever flavor you have. I prefer mushroom.
• Sour cream, like my Cheesy Potatoes recipe, I just eyeball an equal amount of sour cream to the can of soup
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• You can add any other ‘soft’ veggies you like – mushrooms, yellow summer squash, etc.

Preheat oven to 350*

Melt the butter and mix with the DRY stuffing mix. Set half aside to be your topping.

Mix the other half of the stuffing-butter mix with all the other ingredients in a large bowl. Put in a 13 x 9 pan and top with the reserved stuffing-butter mix. Bake 30-45 minutes, or until the zucchini is soft.

Enjoy!

Bonus!

This is a great way to use up zucchini from a garden, CSA box, or that you were gifted from a generous friend.

• 1 lb. ground chicken
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup Parmesean cheese
• 1 TB mayo
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• black pepper (I don’t add salt because parm can be salty)

Mix really well and form into smallish balls. Bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper for 30 minutes at 400* Ta-da! Done!