I posted some of these recipes back in 2008. I was in a conversation today and promised to share the link, but when I looked it up, realized I only had two of my recipes up. I do a few more things as freezer meals, but these three are all chicken and all share the same base sauce so I usually cook them together.
Here is a link to the first post. I tried to copy and paste to this post and for some reason, it eluded me. I hope this doesn't get confusing, but I do want to add a few notes to those first recipes.
Chicken pot-pie filling:
-if you omit potatoes, make sure to add more of the other vegetables.
-this is great in a pot-pie, or as a casserole with stuffing on top, or served over rice or noodles.
-Quart size plastic containers such as they sell soup in chinese takeout work great for freezing this filling. If those aren't available, quart freezer bags work fine. Lay them flat to freeze and once frozen, they will stack well.
Chicken Burritoes:
- These may be frozen in aluminum pans, there are rectangle pans that are very thin, I forget what they are called, (perhaps brownie pans? but I don't think that is right) that work well, you should be able to get 6-8 burritoes in each pan. Freeze them carefully at first as the pans are flimsy, but once frozen you can stack them.
- these also work very well frozen individually! wrap each burrito in a sheet of foil (the pop-up foils make this easy). freeze and once they are frozen, store a number of them in a ziploc bag. To use, unwrap from the foil and thaw in the microwave, then rewrap in the foil and cook in the toaster oven to make them yummy and crispy.
- Sometimes you end up with more sauce than you know what to do with (hey, I get a little carried away when I make a roux!). If this happens to you, you have a few options:
- if you are out of chicken and just have the sauce, you can use the sauce as a dip, add some crumbled, browned ground beef and serve with tortilla chips.
- if you still have chicken in it and are just out of burritoes, thin the mixture with a little chicken broth, add a can or two of corn, and call it "Southwest Chicken & Corn Chowder" It is super yummy!
chicken cordon Bleu lasagna
The recipe I had not posted before is Chicken Cordon-Bleu Lasagna.
The link is from 30day Gourmet.
I have made several changes from their recipe:
-I do not precook the noodles. It is not needed, the sauce will have enough liquid that the noodles will soften when you bake it.
-I think that the sauce per their recipe is bland. I add a bit of garlic, either powder or minced fresh.
-I do not always use that much milk/cream/half and half, I do add cheese during the layering though.
-I add broccoli to the filling.
-For layering I do a bit of sauce, then noodles, then more sauce (with the chicken, ham, and broccoli) and mozzerella cheese, noodles, repeat. I'm not sure how they can call it cordon Bleu with no swiss cheese, so I put that in, either just on top or in one of the layers. It doesn't take much, just to add a bit of richness.
**I have now decided that I like to keep the meat and broccoli separate. I layer with sauce then can more even distribute the chopped chix, ham, and broc. to the layers if I keep them separate and put them on by hand. Other than that, layer as usual.
other notes
now that I've made all of these recipes so many times, I have refined my process.
- I cook all my chicken the day before. I have found that I can usually get the best value by buying large portions of skinless, boneless breasts at Walmart. They have them for less than $2 a pound. They bake easily and dice up beautifully. Also there is NO waste as there might be if you are paying for whole chickens or even for bone-in pieces.
-I make a huge pot of roux (white sauce) to begin with. Sautee diced onions in butter, stir in flour to make a paste, then add the chicken broth and whisk until your arms fall off or it is thickened, whichever is first. Then I use this same base to make all three of the previous recipes.
Divide out a portion for the potpie filling, add the additional spices, veggies and chicken. You are done.
Divide out a portion for the lasagna, add a little cream if you like (or cheat and add a jar of premade alfredo sauce!), stir in a bit of garlic, the chicken, ham and broccoli, make the lasagna in pans, and you are done with that one.
To the remaining sauce you will add the cream cheese, rotel, chili beans and chicken and make your burritos.
Any sauce that is left is now flavored like the burritos and can be used for dip or for the chowder as I noted above.
Before you begin make sure you have pans and ziploc bags, oh, and freezer space. :-)
Unfortunately, I do not have measurements for how I make my initial white sauce base... I just do it. Again, I've been making these three for so long now that it just works. Follow the recipes the first few times and I'm sure that you'll get your own rythym as well.
Here is a link to the first post. I tried to copy and paste to this post and for some reason, it eluded me. I hope this doesn't get confusing, but I do want to add a few notes to those first recipes.
Chicken pot-pie filling:
-if you omit potatoes, make sure to add more of the other vegetables.
-this is great in a pot-pie, or as a casserole with stuffing on top, or served over rice or noodles.
-Quart size plastic containers such as they sell soup in chinese takeout work great for freezing this filling. If those aren't available, quart freezer bags work fine. Lay them flat to freeze and once frozen, they will stack well.
Chicken Burritoes:
- These may be frozen in aluminum pans, there are rectangle pans that are very thin, I forget what they are called, (perhaps brownie pans? but I don't think that is right) that work well, you should be able to get 6-8 burritoes in each pan. Freeze them carefully at first as the pans are flimsy, but once frozen you can stack them.
- these also work very well frozen individually! wrap each burrito in a sheet of foil (the pop-up foils make this easy). freeze and once they are frozen, store a number of them in a ziploc bag. To use, unwrap from the foil and thaw in the microwave, then rewrap in the foil and cook in the toaster oven to make them yummy and crispy.
- Sometimes you end up with more sauce than you know what to do with (hey, I get a little carried away when I make a roux!). If this happens to you, you have a few options:
- if you are out of chicken and just have the sauce, you can use the sauce as a dip, add some crumbled, browned ground beef and serve with tortilla chips.
- if you still have chicken in it and are just out of burritoes, thin the mixture with a little chicken broth, add a can or two of corn, and call it "Southwest Chicken & Corn Chowder" It is super yummy!
chicken cordon Bleu lasagna
The recipe I had not posted before is Chicken Cordon-Bleu Lasagna.
The link is from 30day Gourmet.
I have made several changes from their recipe:
-I do not precook the noodles. It is not needed, the sauce will have enough liquid that the noodles will soften when you bake it.
-I think that the sauce per their recipe is bland. I add a bit of garlic, either powder or minced fresh.
-I do not always use that much milk/cream/half and half, I do add cheese during the layering though.
-I add broccoli to the filling.
-For layering I do a bit of sauce, then noodles, then more sauce (with the chicken, ham, and broccoli) and mozzerella cheese, noodles, repeat. I'm not sure how they can call it cordon Bleu with no swiss cheese, so I put that in, either just on top or in one of the layers. It doesn't take much, just to add a bit of richness.
**I have now decided that I like to keep the meat and broccoli separate. I layer with sauce then can more even distribute the chopped chix, ham, and broc. to the layers if I keep them separate and put them on by hand. Other than that, layer as usual.
other notes
now that I've made all of these recipes so many times, I have refined my process.
- I cook all my chicken the day before. I have found that I can usually get the best value by buying large portions of skinless, boneless breasts at Walmart. They have them for less than $2 a pound. They bake easily and dice up beautifully. Also there is NO waste as there might be if you are paying for whole chickens or even for bone-in pieces.
-I make a huge pot of roux (white sauce) to begin with. Sautee diced onions in butter, stir in flour to make a paste, then add the chicken broth and whisk until your arms fall off or it is thickened, whichever is first. Then I use this same base to make all three of the previous recipes.
Divide out a portion for the potpie filling, add the additional spices, veggies and chicken. You are done.
Divide out a portion for the lasagna, add a little cream if you like (or cheat and add a jar of premade alfredo sauce!), stir in a bit of garlic, the chicken, ham and broccoli, make the lasagna in pans, and you are done with that one.
To the remaining sauce you will add the cream cheese, rotel, chili beans and chicken and make your burritos.
Any sauce that is left is now flavored like the burritos and can be used for dip or for the chowder as I noted above.
Before you begin make sure you have pans and ziploc bags, oh, and freezer space. :-)
Unfortunately, I do not have measurements for how I make my initial white sauce base... I just do it. Again, I've been making these three for so long now that it just works. Follow the recipes the first few times and I'm sure that you'll get your own rythym as well.
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