Chicken Chili Nachos

This recipe is pretty fast to prepare when I find I have extra teenagers in the house and they're really hungry.  I try to always have the ingredients available so I can throw this snack together in no time.

I found this recipe in the January/February 2006 issue of Quick Cooking magazine and it was a hit from the first time I made it, getting nothing but 8's and 9's on the Melnarik rating scale.  Equal marks are given by the numerous teenagers who've feasted on these tasty nachos.

As I stated above, I like to always have all of the ingredients on hand for this dish, so sometimes I have precooked chicken instead of raw.  The method is the same except that instead of having to cook the chicken, I just cube it and heat it a bit in the pan before adding the rest of the ingredients.  I heat it because it's cold, having been in the refrigerator, and I find that the seasonings adhere to the meat better when it is warm.  As you can see from the picture above, I used precooked chicken this time.

Once I get the chicken going in the pan, I drain and rinse the kidney beans in a colander.

To the warmed (or cooked according to the recipe below) chicken I add the seasonings, tossing to combine.

Then I add the drained kidney beans, the chili beans with the sauce (I like to use the S&W brand chili beans with zesty sauce), and the tomatoes with green chilies, stirring to combine.

When combined, the juices are pretty thin, so I cook the mixture over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until it reduces a bit and becomes much thicker.

When ready to serve, it's as easy as arranging some plain tortilla chips on a plate,

adding some of the chicken chili mixture,

and topping that with some shredded Mexican cheese blend.

My guys like the cheese completely melted, so we microwave each plate on high for about a minute to make them happy!  These nachos can be built on a large platter for a crowd.  Depending on the size of the platter, you may have to melt the cheese in the oven.  Just be careful because the platter will be hot, so use a hot mitt and protect the table you put it on!    Also, when and if there are leftovers, the chicken mixture is easily reheated for a quick lunch another day.  Enjoy!

Chicken Chili Nachos

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed

1 can (10 oz.) Rotel tomatoes

1 can (16 oz.) kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (15.5 oz.) chili beans in zesty sauce, undrained

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 package (13 ½ oz.) tortilla chips

1 ½ cups shredded Mexican cheese blend

Spray a large skillet with non-stick cooking spray.  Cook chicken in skillet over medium-high heat until no longer pink.  Add tomatoes, beans and seasonings, stirring to combine; cook for 10 minutes or until juices reduce and thicken.  Arrange tortilla chips on individual plates; sprinkle with chicken mixture, top with shredded cheese.  Microwave on high for 25 – 30 seconds to melt cheese.

Watermelon Gazpacho

Serving tea is one of my favorite things to do for friends.  Yesterday I had several friends over for a tea where this recipe was a surprising hit.  I found this recipe in the July/August 2011 issue of Tea Time magazine and thought I'd try it for a summertime tea.  This cold soup was very refreshing and very easy to make with only 6 ingredients.

Of course, when having a tea, everything must be served in something pretty.  I thought this champagne glass was the perfect vessel for this chilled soup.  I'm not a big fan of watermelon, so having all of the ingredients equally detected meant that I was not overwhelmed with the flavor of mostly watermelon.  

Regular watermelons have black and white seeds and I've always heard that you shouldn't eat the black ones, but the white ones are okay to eat.  For that reason and to save time I bought the seedless variety and was dismayed to discover seeds inside.  I started to think about why God would make a fruit with both good and bad seeds, so I decided to Google watermelon seeds for answers.  Apparently all watermelon seeds are edible and neither will make a watermelon grow inside you!  The white seeds are immature and the black ones are mature.  The seeds found in a seedless watermelon are empty, therefore infertile.  I had my answer, so I wasn't going to worry about trying to remove the seeds from my seedless watermelon!

Having a food processor or good blender is a necessity for ease in making this soup.  The first step in preparing this dish is to puree the watermelon.  As seedless watermelons are smaller, I bought 2 to get the 8 cups of puree I needed for this recipe.  

 

I began by using the pulse feature to make the pieces a bit smaller before turning it on to completely turn the melon to liquid.  I did one melon at a time so that the liquid level wouldn't get to high and leak out under the blade attachment.  I learned that the hard way!  After each melon was pureed, I poured it into a 4-cup measuring cup to make sure I had the perfect amount before transferring it to a large bowl.

Then I coarsely chopped the red bell pepper, red onion, English cucumber, and cilantro and added them to the work bowl with the lime juice.  I began by using the pulse feature and felt as though it needed a little more liquid to get the desired texture, so I added back in about 3/4 cup of the pureed watermelon.  Once all the ingredients were chopped very fine, I added them to the bowl with the watermelon and mixed to combine, covered it and let it chill for a couple of hours until serving.

A small sprig of the cilantro on top and the soup was ready to serve.  It was a surprising treat and such a pretty color also!  Enjoy!

Watermelon Gazpacho

8 cups pureed watermelon (approximately 1/2 large watermelon or 2 seedless watermelons)

1 cup coarsely chopped red bell pepper

1 cup coarsely chopped English cucumber

1 cup coarsely chopped red onion

1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

Garnish:  fresh cilantro leaves

In the work bowl of a food processor, puree the watermelon in two batches, measuring each batch before transferring to a large bowl.  Add remaining ingredients to food processor with 3/4 cup of watermelon puree; pulse until very finely chopped.  Add to watermelon puree; stir until combined.  Cover and refrigerate for several hours until cold.  Serve cold.  Garnish individual servings with a sprig of fresh cilantro, if desired.

Welsh Rarebit

I attended a Royal Ladies' Tea Society tea the other day where we were honoring our mothers.  Each attendee was asked to bring a dish to complete the meal.  My mom was born in Ireland and some of my favorite dishes of hers she learned to make at her mother's side.  This is one of those recipes, which she made often as I was growing up.  I have made it for my boys and they love it, too.  They've even request it for lunch every once-in-a-while.  It seemed the perfect choice to honor my mom at the tea.

This was usually served at lunch time on top of buttered toast, but sometimes we'd eat it on Ritz crackers, which is how I chose to serve it at the tea.  There are only two ingredients and it's fairly simple to make, but it tastes great.  

I begin by cracking my eggs into my saucepan (I use a pan big enough to allow room for stirring).  I always use extra-large eggs.  Hint:  One way to check to see how fresh your eggs are is to drop them (in the shell) one-by-one into a glass of water.  If they sink, they are very fresh, if they float, don't even crack them as they are bad; throw them out immediately as you don't want that smell in your house!  If the eggs bounce a little before settling on the bottom of the glass, they are still good; only the floaters are bad.  I'm not an Alton Brown or scientist, but I understand that as eggs go bad, the little pocket of air under the shell becomes a gas (which is lighter than air), thus causing the bad eggs to float!  This test works so well, I don't pay any attention to the expiration date on the box the eggs come in!

You'll notice that I don't  use any type of oil or butter in the pan, as the cheese provides enough oil so the mixture doesn't stick to the pan.  Using either a whisk or a fork, I beat the eggs until the yolks and whites are combined.

After I grate the cheese, I add it directly on top of the eggs.  I always use extra-sharp cheddar cheese when making this dish.  The sharper the better as that's what gives Welsh Rarebit it's great flavor.  One of my favorite brands is Cracker Barrel.

Once I mix the cheese into the eggs, I still see mostly cheese, but it is all covered with egg.  Up until this point, I can leave the stove if called away.  Once I turn the heat on under the pan, I'm committed to standing there and stirring until it's done!

At first, it seems as though nothing changes as I stir and stir.  But the cheese does melt completely into the eggs; I just have to be a little patient.  You'll notice the deeper color and that it has a thin layer of froth at the sides.  If you don't stir constantly, the eggs can begin to cook before the cheese melts and then you'll just have scrambled eggs with cheese.  It's also important to cook it over medium-low heat, otherwise you risk getting cheesy scrambled eggs.

I'm sure a chemistry major could probably tell you why, but I think it's interesting that, as long as I keep stirring the mixture, it doesn't begin to cook until all of the cheese is melted.  I know it's cooking when I start to see some of it on the edge of my spoon (or Pampered Chef spoontula).  As it cooks, I keep scraping the pan in different areas as if I was making scrambled eggs.

When it's finished it has a finer texture than scrambled eggs.  It's ready to serve either on buttered toast (being of British descent, we used a knife and fork to cut a piece before eating it) or crackers (of course, everything tastes better if it sits on a Ritz! - sorry, I couldn't resist that).  When I took it to the tea, I put it in a small crock pot to keep it hot.  I used the smallest Pampered Chef scoop to put it on the crackers for the ladies.  It is best hot, so I wish I had let them serve it themselves so it wouldn't cool down on the platter.  It's a simple dish, but oh so good.  Enjoy!

Welsh Rarebit

6 extra large eggs

12 oz. extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated

In a medium saucepan, combine eggs and cheese.  Over medium-low heat, cook this mixture, stirring constantly, until the cheese is melted.  Continue stirring and scraping the pan, as if making scrambled eggs, until fully cooked and the mixture has a fine texture.  Serve on buttered toast or crackers.  Best when served hot.