Cooking Up Cottage

Category: Recipes

Chicken Enchiladas

Do you love to have meals ready to go in your freezer? Then this is the recipe for you. During this next month, I will concentrate on recipes that are great for freezing so I can help my sister, who is expecting her 3rd daughter next month, load her freezer with great meals. The first freezer friendly dish that I will focus on is Chicken Enchiladas. It’s easy to make and loaded with flavor. This recipe has a wonderful blend of delicious chicken, melted cheese, a savory sauce with green chiles, and corn tortillas. So let’s get started filling our freezers!

Start by cooking the chicken. I seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper and then I baked it in the oven at 350 for 1 hour. Your chicken might take less time since I used thick chicken breasts. Make sure your chicken has an internal temperature of 165 degrees before taking it out of the oven. Once it is cooked, shred the chicken and put it into a bowl that you will set aside.

Next you need to make the sauce. In a pan heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil.

Remove the oil from the heat. Mix in the flour.

After the flour is mixed in, put it back on the heat.

Pour in the chicken stock.

Add the tomato paste.

Mix in the can of green chiles, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1 teaspoon of oregano,1 tablespoon of brown sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Then simmer for 20 minutes.

Now you can start making the filling. Chop the onion and brown it in a pan with some vegetable oil.

In a bowl mix the shredded chicken, onion, 2 cups of cheddar cheese and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Now that the filling is done you are ready to assemble the enchiladas.

Spread 1/2 cup of sauce on the bottom of a 9″x13″ casserole dish.

Dip tortillas in the sauce.

Spoon 3 tablespoons of filling onto each tortilla.

Roll up and arrange, seam side down, in the 9″x13″ dish.

Pour remaining sauce over the enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining 2 cups of cheddar cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Remove foil and bake for 5 minutes. Let it cool, and there you have it! It’s ready to be served.

Serve with sour cream, guacamole, tomatoes, olives, and any other taco fixings. Now you have a yummy enchilada meal for the whole family to enjoy. And don’t forget you can freeze them for later. To freeze, assemble enchiladas and then before you bake them wrap with foil and freeze. When you go to bake them later, thaw overnight in the refrigerator and cook 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven covered and then 5 minutes uncovered.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:24]

February 16, 2015
Copycat Olive Garden Salad

Valentine’s Day is this Saturday…. Do you know what you’re cooking for your special someone? Well I have an idea of what I am cooking. I am going to create an Olive Garden experience right in the comforts of my own home. My sister made up this recipe a few years back when I wanted to serve an Olive Garden style dinner menu for my daughter’s birthday party. She went to the Olive Garden and counted the ingredients in the salad bowl. That effort was a great start, but we needed more information to get it very close. Fortunately my sister-in-law (who used to work at the Olive Garden) gave us some suggestions to perfect the recipe. When I served this salad for the first time, it was paired with lasagna. However, I have an amazing Chicken Alfredo recipe here on the blog that would be a wonderful addition to your Valentine’s Day menu.

Here are the ingredients you will need: 1 (9oz.) bag of Italian Blend salad mix, 1/2 of a purple onion sliced, 3 Roma tomatoes sliced, 10 black olives, 5 Pepperoncini peppers, croutons, shredded Parmesan cheese, and your favorite Italian dressing.

Start by slicing the onion and tomatoes.

Then pour your salad mix into a large bowl. If you didn’t want to use a salad mix, you could chop up romaine lettuce to fill the bowl.

Then add the onions and tomatoes.

Next drain and rinse the olives.

Add ten olives to the salad and then add five Pepperoncini peppers.

Mix the salad together.

Serve with shredded Parmesan cheese, croutons, and Italian dressing on the side .

Now you are ready to bring the Olive Garden experience into your home this Valentine’s Day.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:23]

February 9, 2015
Cream Cheese and Olive Dip

The big game is tomorrow and you may be looking for a great dip to serve at your party. Well look no further. If you’re an olive fan, you will love this dip! And for a little kick, the cayenne pepper gives it some heat. This is a super easy recipe to make… all you have to do is chop up olives and mix everything together. In my playbook that is a game day winning recipe! If I am hosting a party, I love making recipes like this where you mix everything together ahead of time and then all you have to do is get it out of the refrigerator right before the guests arrive. Then just throw some crackers on a platter to finish off the presentation. So let’s get started so we are ready for the big game.

The ingredients you will need are olives, softened cream cheese, minced garlic in a jar, and cayenne pepper.

First scoop the softened cream cheese into a bowl.

Then chop the olives into small pieces.

Mix the olives into the cream cheese.

Pour in the minced garlic and mix it in.

Add the 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and mix it in.

Now refrigerate until you are ready to serve the dip. Serve with your choice of crackers.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:21]

January 31, 2015
Cinnamon Raisin Cookies

This is a delicious cookie that combines two of my favorite things: raisins and cinnamon! It has a buttery flavor that you will love. This recipe is an old favorite of mine. It is one of the three cookie recipes that my sister and I would bake on snowy days when we were bored. We would make this cookie because it was easy to make and we usually had all of the ingredients on hand. We would alternate between this recipe, Peanut Butter Cookies, and chocolate chip cookies. My sister would spend all day trying to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie, which is something she still tries to do to this day. You can tell this Cinnamon Raisin Cookie recipe takes me down memory lane, and after you make it you will see why. So let’s get out the ingredients, because you won’t want to miss out on this wonderful cookie.

You will need an egg, softened butter, brown sugar, vanilla, water, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and raisins.

Break the egg into a bowl and whisk the egg until it is light and foamy.

Now get out a large mixing bowl and add the softened butter and brown sugar.

Cream the shortening and brown sugar together.

Pour the beaten egg into the creamed mixture.

Add the vanilla and the water.

Stir the mixture until you have a smooth creamy batter and set the mixing bowl aside. Measure the flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl.

Pour about half of the flour mixture into the creamed sugar mixture and stir it in.

Then stir the second half of the flour into the batter. Next measure and sprinkle the cinnamon over the batter and then stir it in.

Then dump in the raisins and stir them in the batter.

Drop spoonfuls of batter on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

Now it is time to enjoy this buttery, and yummy cookie. If your kids are bored this winter, they may want to try this recipe out.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:20]

January 27, 2015