I gave these two eggplants because I used my Instant Pot to infuse the chicken with flavor. If you have shredded chicken or need to use some up that’s already cooked, this is definitely a one-eggplant recipe.
Because of the Instant Pot (IP), you can start with frozen chicken breast, which makes this super convenient (and not very pretty, so that’s why there are no pictures). I usually throw two breasts into the pot, pour in a 12oz jar of Stubb’s Anytime Sauce and fill the rest to cover with chicken broth. Set the machine to pressure cook for 20 minutes. If you’re not in a rush, you can let it release pressure naturally, or you can manually release if ya hangry.
Two flavor-infused chicken breasts.
Scoop ’em out and onto a plate and use two forks to shred them (you can save what’s left inside the IP or do what we did recently, and it will be The. Best. Thing. Ever.). Throw the chicken back into the IP and stir it up. This was the fella’s idea and I couldn’t be happier with the result.
This will infuse it even more.
Grab your flour tortillas (El Milagro are the best I’ve had in Madison, but I’ll taste test tortillas all day long), mixed, shredded cheese, and start rolling up.
Soggy chicken is a good thing.Cheese-covered chicken is an even better thing.Tortilla, chicken, cheese, repeat.
I usually go until the dish is full, squeezing space, cursing the lack of tortillas, wishing they could assemble themselves. When I run out of chicken, I pour what’s left of the juices from the IP, add a can of green enchilada sauce for good measure, and cover with some more cheese, because I’m from Wisconsin.
I had more burrito- than taco-sized tortillas this time.*Insert Homer Simpson drool noise here*
That’s it, folks! Bake at 400° for 20-ish minutes and dig right in.
OMG SO GOODNeither of us cleaned our plates.
Chicken Enchiladas
The quickest, easiest chicken enchiladas in the world (at least in mine).
112 oz.chicken brothfill the Stubb's bottle, shake, and pour
10flour tortillas
110 oz.green enchilada saucecans
2cupsMexican cheese blend
Method
Pour the jar of Stubb's into your Instant Pot (IP) and place the chicken into the pot. Pour broth in to cover by about an inch. Set the IP to manual pressure for 20 minutes. When done, release using your favorite method and shred with two forks on a plate.
Put the shredded chicken back into the IP and stir it up to get every little bit covered.
Preheat oven to 400°.
Put the tortilla on a plate, spoon across it some chicken and cover with cheese (don't overfill because that's not cool). Wrap into a cigar-shape and place in the casserole dish. Rinse and repeat until you run out of chicken, cheese, tortillas, or out of space in the dish.
Pour the contents of the IP and a can of enchilada sauce over the top and cover with a handful of shredded cheese.
Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until bubbling. Let rest for a few and serve.
After the contents of the IP cool, I pour it into my silicone ice cube trays and freeze. You can throw the result into any soup, rice, or anything you want to spruce up later on.
I guess the only thing that makes this “adult” is that it’s not made with cheese powder. And it doesn’t come from a pre-packaged box. And it uses mascarpone. Okay, so many things make this adult, especially the bread crumbs on top. And pats of butter.
The infatuation I have with Gwennie (one of my pet names for Gwenyth Paltrow, the matriarch of GOOP—her “lifestyle” brand) is not the same as that which I have for Gina Homolka. That is to say, it’s describable. I find Gwennie’s jade eggs, “scientific concepts“, $3k dresses, the “conscious uncoupling” from the father of her children, amusing. I find her cookbooks, however, really neat and I own three of them (I also just learned there is a fourth, which has promptly earned a spot on my Amazon wishlist).
This recipe is from My Father’s Daughter and it’s amazing. Do I use that adjective too much? I’m only asking, it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop.
This recipe starts out like most mac n cheeses, by boiling a pound of pasta two minutes fewer than the instructions suggest for al dente. This is because it gets baked for 15 minutes, so you don’t want the noodles squishy.
It also calls for a whole bunch of shredded Parmesan (please, do yourself a favor and have bricks of parm, asiago, and romano in your fridge—it keeps forever—and stop buying those plastic jars of pre-crumbled parmesan, which is mostly not even cheese anyway), a small container of mascarpone, a little nutmeg, and some milk.
Cheesy goo and pasta, too!
Once the pasta is done, drain and put back into the pot and pour in the cheesy mixture.
Mix it all up so the nooks of the noodles get coated.
In the book, Gwennie suggests some variations on the theme. One of which is to put a layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan that you’re baking in. We thought this was a grand idea, so we used marinara from Costco.
Pour the noodlecheese into the pan and cover with seasoned breadcrumbs (we used panko the first time and it turned out well, but homemade breadcrumbs the second time were a bigger hit).
I thought it looked a little boring and had some grape tomatoes to use up, so I sliced a few and put ’em on top.
Butter pats!
Bake, rest, serve, moan with enjoyment. And go buy the book.
While this is nearly the same as the Coconut Curry Whitefish post, I didn’t feel like I should simply make an addendum to that one because the chicken requires more prep and cook time, which means it gets an extra eggplant on the easy-rating scale.
Plus, I added a can of diced tomatoes. And chopped cauliflower. And green beans. Okay, so it’s not nearly the same at all. Hence the new post!
That’s all onion, curry paste, and oil.
When the onion is sufficiently soft (remember, it’s going to cook for another 35-45 minutes, so it’ll get softer), add the coconut milk and mix it up (I had to add this separately because, well, the milk had separated).
Stir in the tomatoes, veggies, turmeric, chicken broth, agave nectar, and red pepper flakes.
Marvel for a moment at how very easy it is to make a curry broth with veggies (cuz it’s about to get a little weird).
Remove the skin from the chicken and save them for chicken-skin chicharrónes (which you’ll hear about eventually because I made them for the first time the next day after making this and they were amaaaazing).
Naked chicken thighs look pretty strange.
Lay the bird pieces on top of the liquid and pop a lid on it. Set a timer for 35 minutes and take a shower, walk the dogs, watch an episode and a half of The Office, or do whatever you do. When the chicken temps at 165°, it’s ready to enjoy!
Pop some rice in a bowl and, using a non-slotted spoon, scoop some veggies and yummy broth onto the plate. Top with a chicken thigh. Enjoy the steam.
Steamy goodness. Sorry if this animation is a little twitchy.
You will have plenty leftover and it reheats really well. Make your coworkers jelly by bring this to lunch the next day!
Coconut Curry Chicken
This uses a basic coconut curry sauce in which to cook the chicken.
I mentioned in my avocado post that I wished someone would have told me how to mango much earlier in life. If you’re in the same boat, please keep on reading.
The first tip I learned was to locate the dimple. This tells you where the pit lays inside, in relation to the rest of the fruit.
Pit-dimple.
After you locate the pit, make two parallel cuts on either side, removing the “cheeks” to which they’re so fondly referred.
This is where it starts to get frustrating… because you just spent $2 on a mango and all you get are two little cheeks of meat! It’s true. Which is why I try to enjoy them when they’re in season.
Take a cheek in your hand and make four slices down the length of the inside, not cutting through the skin. Turn it 90° and repeat.
Flip the cheek inside out and enjoy some cubes of yum.
I decided that my recipes need an easy way to communicate how difficult (or easy) they are. So, I wrote a WordPress plugin.
A plugin which will display a number of eggplants that equals the level of effort, knowledge, ingredients, and tools to complete the recipe.
Eggplants!
Five eggplants mean it’s piquant, or “challenging”, but I wouldn’t call it difficult or I wouldn’t be telling you that it’s worth it. These recipes may be a two-person endeavor or take longer than a Wednesday night will allow. These might also need a couple of specialized tools or an ingredient that Woodman’s (a local grocer) doesn’t carry.
Four eggplants mean it’s a little less effort, but you still have to chop a lot of veggies or have multiple pans and an oven going at the same time.
Three of those purple wonders mean it needs an average level of effort, time, and/or stirring.
Two means it’s more work than just seasoning something and sticking it in the oven or on the stovetop.
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