Indian Butter Chicken (Chicken Makhani)

When people talk about Indian food there are 2 dishes I hear about often, Chicken Tikka Masala and Chicken Makhani, or Butter Chicken. I have a recipe that I really like for the Chicken Tikka Masala so I thought I would try a Butter Chicken recipe. It turned out delicious! I modified the orignal recipe I found on allrecipes according to the review comments and I doubled the recipe because I wanted leftovers. The recipe below is not doubled.

Butter Chicken
1 Tbsp. Peanut oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
1/4 medium onion, finely chopped
4 Tbsp. Butter
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp . Garlic ginger paste (or substitute with 3 cloves, pressed, and 1/2 Tbsp. fresh grated ginger)
1 tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1 bay leaves
1/4 c. Plain yogurt
1 c. Heavy cream
1 c. Tomato purée (or tomato sauce)
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
1/4 c. Cashews, ground (place in blender and blend into a fine powder)
2-3 Tbsp. Cilantro, chopped

1 Tbsp. Peanut oil
1 lb. chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1 tsp. garam masala
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Sauté shallot and onion until soft and translucent. Stir in butter, lemon juice, ginger-garlic paste, 1 teaspoon garam masala, chili powder, cumin and bay leaf. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add tomato sauce, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in cream and yogurt. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Season with salt pepper. Remove from heat and set aside. (at this time I used my immersion blender to purée the sauce until smooth. You could also use a blender.) 

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Cook chicken until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat, and season with 1 teaspoon garam masala and cayenne. Stir in a few spoonfuls of sauce, and simmer until liquid has reduced, and chicken is no longer pink. Stir cooked chicken into sauce.

Add cashew powder, then stir into the sauce. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, or until thickened. Garnish with cilantro.

Serve with rice and naan.

Frenchmen Street Red Beans and Rice Soup

If you want something fast and simple, make this! My lovely friend lent me her friends cook book that she wrote. It's all crock pot New Orleans food. This is the only one I've made so far, but we both love it!

INGREDIENTS

1 lb. dried red kidney beans
3/4 C of brown rice, uncooked (I only had white rice and used that, it worked just fine!)
1/2 C finely chopped red onion (I just use whatever onion I have, today was yellow.)
2 links andouille sausage, sliced into 1/2" rounds (I found some at Costco that we like)
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
4 C vegetable broth (I didn't have that, so I just used chicken broth and it worked great as well!)
6-8 C water (I used 7)
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. salt

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients in the slow cooker. Be sure to add enough water to leave 3" of space from the rim of the slow cooker, but no more than 8 cups.
Cook on low heat for 7 to 8 hours, until beans and rice are tender.

(This time since it being after Thanksgiving, I'm going to add in some Turkey in the last hour of cooking. Usually you add meats with Jambalaya or Gumbo, but I'm going to try it in here and see how it turns out!)

Simple as that, ENJOY! Original Recipe from In a While, Crocodile New Orleans Slow Cooker Recipes by Patrice Keller Kononchek and Lauren Malone Keller.

Pizza Dough

The best pizza dough recipe, thanks to Amelia Jackson!

INGREDIENTS

1 3/4 C water

2 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. yeast

4 C unbleached flour

INSTRUCTIONS

Let rise 10 minutes, cut dough in thirds (half if you are doing two cookie sheet sized pizza).

Top with marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese and your favorite pizza toppings.

Cook at 450 degrees F on lowest rack for 15 minutes.

Thanksgiving Leftover Casserole

Thanksgiving comes to an end, but the food seems to never end. So here is a recipe for all those yummy leftovers!

INGREDIENTS

3 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 (12 fluid oz.) can evaporated milk
1 C water
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. onion powder
2 Tbsp. butter
1 C finely crushed herb-seasoned dry bread stuffing mix (I had the stove-top dressing left over so I just used all that I had left over)
1 C cooked, diced turkey meat
1 C shredded cheddar cheese
2 C leftover mashed potatoes

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13" baking dish.

Melt 3 Tbsp. butter in a saucepan over low heat. Blend in the flour. Slowly stir in evaporated milk and water, then season with salt, pepper, and onion powder. Stir sauce over low heat for 5 minutes.

(If you have leftover stuffing, skip this next step)  In a separate saucepan over low heat, melt 2 Tbsp. butter. Blend in the dry stuffing mix.

Place the turkey in the prepared baking dish. Pour the sauce over turkey, then sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Spread mashed potatoes over cheese. Top mashed potatoes with the stuffing mixture.

Bake 45 minutes in the preheated oven.

Enjoy! Thanks to the original recipe where you can find HERE.

Green Bean Casserole

This was the side that Bo's family raved over for Thanksgiving. I doubled this for 6 of us and there was about half an 8x8" dish left over.

INGREDIENTS

1/3 stick butter
1/2 C diced onions
1/2 C sliced fresh mushrooms
2 C sliced green beans (I just had french style cans in my pantry and they worked great!)
3 C chicken broth
1 (10 3/4 oz) can cream of mushroom soup
1 (2.8 oz) can french-fried onion rings
Pinch house seasoning recipe, follows
1 C grated cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a large skillet. Saute the onions and mushrooms in the butter. Boil green beans in chicken broth for 10 minutes and drain. Add the green beans, mushroom soup, onion rings and House Seasoning, to taste, to the onion mixture. Stir well. Pour into a greased an 8x8" baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes, then top the casserole with the cheddar cheese and bake for 10 minutes longer, or until the casserole is hot and cheese is melted.

HOUSE SEASONING:

1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Enjoy! Thanks to the original recipe that you can find HERE.

Candied Yams

Thanksgiving time! Here is what we used for our candied yams.

INGREDIENTS

5 sweet potatoes
1/4 C butter, cut into pieces
1/2 C brown sugar
1 1/2 C miniature marshmallows

DIRECTIONS

Bake Sweet Potatoes in oven at 375 degrees F until you can stick a fork in and it's soft. About 1-1 1/2 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Cut sweet potatoes in half and scoop out inside into a 9x13" baking dish. Distribute butter pieces evenly over the sweet potatoes. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Layer with miniature marshmallows.
Bake in the preheated oven 25 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are tender and marshmallows have melted.

ENJOY! We all loved it. :)

Thanks to the original recipe you can find HERE.

Zucchini Bread

Mom brought me a HUGE zucchini when she came out to visit last and so I of course had to make Zucchini bread. :) This one is amazing!! I shredded the zucchini into 2 C portions and was able to make 8 loaves of bread with the one mom brought.
You won't regret making this.

INGREDIENTS

3 C all-purpose flour  (I did use half flour half wheat flour for one and it turned out great!)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 C vegetable oil   (Some suggestions said they used 1/2 C veggie oil 1/2 C applesauce, I didn't.)
2 1/4 C white sugar
3 tsp. vanilla extract
2 C grated zucchini
1 C chopped walnuts (I left the nuts out, I hate nuts in things.)

DIRECTIONS

1. Grease and flour two 8x4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 40-60 minutes, (mine was almost always 60 mins.) or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

ENJOY!

Thanks to the original recipe you can find HERE.

Sloppy Joes - Kris

I don't have the gumbo soup or whatever my mom uses for her Sloppy Joes, so I always find myself finding new recipes this online. Here is the one we used tonight that we both loved!

INGREDIENTS

1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/4 pounds ground beef
1/4 C brown sugar
2 Tbsp. to 1 Tbsp. steak seasoning blend (such as Montreal seasoning, I only had Chicken Montreal Seasoning and used about 1 1/2 Tbsp.)
1 medium onion, chopped (I used half of a medium one)
1 small red bell pepper, chopped (I just used a few slices of the orange and yellow peppers we have in the freezer)
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 C tomato sauce (My can of tomato sauce had 1 3/4 C servings, so I just did about 1/4 C of ketchup as well)
2 Tbsp. Tomato paste (mine were heaping)
Buns

DIRECTIONS

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil and meat to the pan. Spread the meat around the pan and begin to break it up. Combine brown sugar and steak seasoning. Add sugar and spice to meat. When meat has browned, add onion, peppers, worcestershire sauce, and vinegar and reduce to medium heat for 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce and paste to pan. Stir to combine. Reduce heat to simmer and cook 5 minutes longer.
Enjoy!

Thanks for the original recipe you can find HERE.