Crispy Panko Coated Ranch Chicken

I'm not counting this as a "new" recipe. I had a memory of my mom making Shake n Bake chicken one night. At dinner she stated that she could do better with her grandma's saltine chicken. From then on I only remember my coating chicken in this type of combo. I think she used bread crumbs instead of panko. 

At any rate, I made this on Sunday night with the air fryer. I didn't want to turn on a stove or oven considering how freaking hot it was outside. This flavor combo hit the spot. 

For some odd reason, I always end up with one sleeve of saltines that never seem to get used up. So this recipe was perfect for using up my pantry items. It's quick. It's easy, and oh so delicious. 

The only modification I made was I sprinkled the chicken breasts with some of the powdered ranch BEFORE applying the mayo. No reason really other than I had left over ranch powder and I thought it might kick up the ranch flavor. It did so there's that. I served it along side a nice caprese salad. 

Crispy Panko Coated Ranch Chicken
Recipe from DeepSouthDish

• 1 c panko style bread crumbs
• 1/2 sleeve of saltine crackers, crushed
• 3 T (or 1 packet) of dry Ranch Dressing and Seasoning Mix (like Hidden Valley)
• 6 boneless, skinless or bone-in chicken breasts with skin
• 1/4 tsp Cajun seasoning, or to taste, optional
• 1/4 to 1/2 c mayonnaise
• 1/4 c butter, melted

Oven:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with non-stick spray; set aside.

In a shallow pan, mix together the panko crumbs, cracker crumbs and ranch seasoning mix. Lightly season the chicken with Cajun seasoning, brush with mayonnaise and dredge in the panko mixture. Place on the prepared pan and drizzle with the melted butter. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 40 to 45 minutes for large boneless, skinless breasts, or about 50 minutes for bone-in, or until juices run clear and chicken reads 160 degrees F on an instant read thermometer, when measured in the thickest part of the breast. Pass quickly under the broiler to brown further, if desired.

To Air Fry:
Air fryers vary in wattage by brand and size. You may need to adjust times for your brand. Pound chicken breasts to even thickness. Prepare as above, except substitute cooking oil spray for the butter. I recommend the EVO brand of oil sprayers. Preheat air fryer to 380 degrees for 3 minutes. Spray basket or racks and spray both sides of breaded chicken breasts. Cook, in batches if necessary, at 380 degrees F for 12 minutes longer, or until juices run clear when poked with knife tip or an instant read thermometer reads 165 degrees F, turning halfway and respraying. If chicken breasts are more than 3 to 4 ounces, you'll need to add more time.

Pear & Apple Chicken Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing (Recipe 85 of 125)

In case you've been under a rock lately, the Seattle area is under a HEAT DOME. Historic temperatures this last couple of days...it's been hot.

And because it's been hot, the idea of turning on ANY stove type item is off the table. The news was warning of this so I made my recipes for this week to be primarily anything I can cook/prep before the heat and that meant salads. 

This salad was delicious. I don't like feta and I had blue cheese in the fridge so I swapped the feta for blue cheese. The sweet savory combo with that and the fruits was so good. 

The dressing needed something more. I'm not really sure what, but I expected more flavor. I'd add more brown mustard next time for sure. I also used low carb sugar (Swerve) to cut down the carbs. 

Pear & Apple Chicken Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
Recipe from My Kitchen Escapades

Salad 

• 1 head Romaine lettuce 
• 1 head red leaf lettuce 
• 1 large Fuji or Honeycrisp apple, chopped 
• 1 firm red pear, chopped 
• 2 cooked chicken breasts, chopped 
• 3/4 c dried cranberries 
• 1/2 c sliced almonds 
• 1/2 c crumbled feta cheese 

Dressing 

• 1/4 c sugar 
• 1 tsp brown mustard 
• 1 tsp salt 
• 2 tsp grated onion 
• 1 T poppy seeds 
• 1/2 c rice vinegar 
• 3/4 c canola oil

In a large bowl, combine all the salad ingredients, except for the almonds. In a medium bowl, whisk together all the dressing ingredients until fully blended. 

In a small skillet over low heat, toast the almonds until golden brown then remove them to cool before adding them to the salad. 

Toss the dressing over the whole salad and serve immediately, or just dress enough of the salad for the number of servings you need. 

One Pot Pasta Bolognese (Recipe 84 of 125)

It's a been a bit since I posted a new recipe. But finally, I'm cooking again. I was on vacation over the
weekend and the first three days of this week, so planning for dinner wasn't an option. I tend to have items that I purchased for other recipes that I didn't make hanging around, so I pulled out a recipe that was on the list a couple of weeks ago that I didn't make. 

I didn't cook the pasta in with all the other stuff for this one because I didn't have spaghetti and I think the rigatoni wouldn't have cooked through - it takes a bit more than spaghetti. 

Otherwise, I followed this recipe 100%. If I made this again I wouldn't do the bacon. I don't think bacon belongs in bolognese for one. And for two, it threw off the taste of what I was expecting. So ix-nay on the acon-bay.

One Pot Pasta Bolognese

Recipe from Hostthetoast.com

Serves 6

• 4 slices bacon, chopped
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
• ¼ tsp red chili flakes, plus more to taste
• 1.5 lb ground chuck
• ¼ c tomato paste
• 28 ounces crushed tomatoes
• 3 c reduced sodium chicken stock (or 2 cups chicken stock and 1 c wine)
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 1 pound tagliatelle or spaghetti
• ¼ c milk
• ½ c shredded Parmesan cheese
• ¼ c thinly sliced fresh basil leaves

In a dutch oven or large skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until lightly crisped. Mix in the onion, celery, and garlic, and season liberally with salt and pepper. Mix in ¼ teaspoon red chili flakes, adding slightly more if you prefer more heat in your sauce. Cook together until the onion has softened, about 5 minutes.

Add in the ground chuck. Cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes or until browned all over. Once browned, stir in the tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, chicken stock, and thyme.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 5 minutes. Then, uncover, remove the thyme sprigs, stir the pasta in, and continue to simmer for 15 minutes or until the pasta is cooked through and the sauce has thickened, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the milk, parmesan cheese, and shredded basil, and adjust the seasonings to taste. Serve with additional basil, to garnish.

Country Fried Steak

Technically this is a new recipe, but it's so simple I don't feel right counting it AND I forgot the main ingredient. <face palm>

I won't ever make this recipe again. My mom's chicken fried steak recipe is way better. The difference with hers is it's done in the oven and it ALWAYS goes with mashed potatoes and gravy. 

This one was done in the air fryer (an appliance I haven't used for almost 2 months). I forgot the buttermilk and attempted to make my own. I'm not really sure if that's what made these weird or if it's just the air fryer with a wetish coating. 

To make buttermilk, I used 1 c milk and 1 Tablespoon white vinegar. 

The air fryer cooked these steaks well, but there wasn't a brown crunchy coating. There was flour that didn't seem to get cooked. So in order to fix that, I dropped them in a fry pan to crisp them up a bit. 

Bottom line, not really a great outcome to this recipe for me.

Country Fried Steak
Recipe from Centennial Kitchen Air Fryer Recipes

Serves 4

• 1 c flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 c buttermilk
• 1 tsp hot sauce
• 1 egg
• 4 (6 oz) cube steaks

Set up a dredge station with one bowl flour, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder. Second bowl buttermilk, hot sauce and egg.

Dredge steaks in flour - shake off excess. Dredge in buttermilk. Then dredge in flour mixture again. Set aside and let it rest. 

Put all breaded steaks into air fryer. Lightly coat with cooking spray. 

Cook at 400F for 8 minutes, turning halfway through.

Remove and serve with gravy. 

Cajun Smothered Seven (7) Steak (Recipe 83 of 125)

I recently stumbled onto a couple "southern" cooking recipe blogs. I perused through them and found some pretty interesting recipes that feel 100% southern and use ingredients I had never heard of. 

This is one of those recipes. It calls  2 cans of "mushroom steak sauce". I had never ever heard of it. So I had to find out what it was all about. Turns out my grocery store carried it. Took me FOREVER to find it and ultimately had to ask. It's basically mushroom gravy in a can. It has a beefy ish flavor to it too.  It's definitely the consistency of gravy and has a brown color to it so I'm sure it has a few other items in it. The recipe does say you can substitute with cream of mushroom soup, but that would definitely give it a different color. 

I didn't put this in a slow cooker, nor did I cook it on the stove. I popped it in the oven at 350F for 2 hours. 

I did use a 7 bone- minus the bone (confusion between me and the butcher at QFC). What's a 7 bone? The butcher basically runs a beef chuck through a band saw. Starting at the rib end, there are a couple first cut chuck roasts (or blade roasts), and then the next three slabs are considered 7-bone roasts. (Thanks Dad for the beef lessons).

Finally, I didn't use bell peppers...um Yuck. I used carrot, celery and onion as my holy trio of flavor. I'm 100% sure that changes the flavor, so keep that in mind when I tell you I WILL MAKE THIS AGAIN. It was so good. So beefy flavored, so lush. Yum. 

Cajun Smothered Seven (7) Steak

Recipe from Deep South Dish

Serves 4

2 pounds of 7-steak, or other braising steaks (see note)

1 T of canola oil or bacon drippings

1 c chopped onion

1/2 c chopped green bell pepper

1 whole green onion, sliced

2 tsp chopped garlic

1 c beef stock or broth

2 (6 ounce) cans of mushroom steak sauce (like Giorgio's Dawn Fresh)

Palmful of dried parsley

1/4 to 1/2 tsp of Cajun seasoning (like Slap Ya Mama)

Couple dashes of Worcestershire sauce

Couple dashes of hot sauce

Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

Slurry of cornstarch and water, optional

Cut the meat into smaller serving sizes if desired and let it come to room temperature, at least 15 minutes. Season lightly with salt and pepper. 

In a Dutch oven or heavy bottomed deep pot, heat the oil over medium high heat and brown the meat on both sides, just until lightly browned. Remove and set aside. 

In the drippings (add more oil if needed), sauté the onion, bell pepper and green onion and sauté over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook another minute. 

Stir in the beef broth, mushroom sauce, parsley ( JW note: I used dried parsley. I think that works just fine in a slow cooker type meal), Cajun seasoning, hot pepper sauce, salt and pepper; bring to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes. [JW Note: I didn't do this part. I just dropped the meat back in, covered the pot and stuck it in a 350F oven for two hours.]

Add steak to the pot, turning to coat, cover and simmer for 2-1/2 to 3 hours or until meat is fall off the fork tender. 

Serve with juices as is, or use a slurry of one tablespoon of cornstarch with just enough water to dissolve. Remove meat and set aside, stir in the slurry, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Return steaks to gravy to coat. [JW Note: After being in the oven for 2 hours, the liquid boiled down nicely. I didn't need to add a slurry.]

Serve with homemade mashed potatoes or rice. I served it over rice because I didn't have any potatoes. 

Substitute: If you can't find the mushroom steak sauce, substitute a can of cream of mushroom soup with a splash of Kitchen Bouquet and/or a teaspoon of Better Than Bouillon beef in a pinch.

Creamy Pesto-Cheese Spread 2.0

Back in March of 2014 I made this recipe for a Sunday dinner. It was delicious and refreshing. Pesto always screams spring to me for some reason. At any rate, I've made it only one other time over the years and I thought it could use a new slant to it. 

Yesterday was another meeting of Vines & Spines (book club) - and it was in person. Woot. On top of that it was hotter than Hades yesterday so I wanted to bring something not heavy but delicious. I modified this Creamy Pesto Cheese spread every so slightly. 

Creamy Pesto Cheese Spread 2.0

• 1 (8-ounce) block cream cheese, softened
• 1 carten premade Pesto (if I had my druthers I'd make my own pesto, but just didn't have the gumption to do it this time. I used Buitoni Pesto with Basil Pasta Sauce. It's my favorite.)
• 1 can whole black olives, drained
• 1 jar kalamata olives, drained
• 1 jar Spanish green olives with pimientos, drained ( I used the large olives, but I don't think it matters)
• 1 - 2 T minced garlic (I used about 2 T)
• 2 T balsamic vinegar

First, let your cream cheese soften to the point where you can mix it easily with a spatula. Pour in the whole carton of pesto and mix completely. Set aside. 

In a food processor, combine the olives and garlic. Pulse until the olives are pebble size. Pour into a bowl. Add the balsamic vinegar and set aside.

In a bowl, round or square, put a layer of plastic wrap in the bowl and have it extend past the bowl on all sides. You're going to be folding it over to cover the appetizer later. You're building this appetizer in layers and will dumpt this out onto a plate where the bowl shape will be like an dome. 

Put a first layer of the cream cheese/pesto - you want about 1/2 inch to 1 inch of cream cheese. 

Second layer is olive tapenade - about 1/2 inch.

Repeat the layers, ending with cream cheese as your last layer. You most likely will have more olive spread than pesto spread. Save it to toss over chicken, or in pasta or just put on a piece of Italian bread. 

Once you're done layering, fold the plastic wrap over the and onto the layers. Put it in the fridge for about 2 hours for the cream cheese to harden a bit. 

Take it out about 15 minutes before serving it. 

Uncover it. Put a serving plate over the bowl and flip it. Remove the plastic wrap. Serve with your favorite crackers, or cut baguette.