Game Day Eats: Kickin' Chicken Philly

We're getting close to kick-off for the Super Bowl, so it's time for another game day idea. Of course, chicken wings are popular dish. So are sandwiches. So try out this recipe that combines the best of both worlds.

The very first recipe I posted on this blog was a copycat of one of my favorite sandwiches at a restaurant here called Two Guys Grille. Well, since then I've found a new favorite at Two Guys called the Kickin' Chicken Philly, so I decided to try my own version.

Now as you may know, as a native of the Philadelphia area, I'm something of a cheesesteak purist. The cheesesteaks/chicken cheesesteaks at Two Guys typically include green peppers, but green peppers are not a traditional ingredient in a cheesesteak (You can usually find a pepper steak on the menu at real cheesesteak places, but it's usually at the bottom of the menu. Bottom line is that green peppers are NOT a staple ingredient.), so I leave them out. The Two Guys sandwich also calls for jalapenos, and I've just never been the biggest fan, so I left them out. You, of course, are welcome to add back in the peppers as you wish.

Ingredients (per sandwich)
1 chicken breast, thinly sliced
Olive oil
Chopped onion
Sliced mushrooms
Hot sauce/Buffalo wing sauce to taste
2 slices white American cheese
1 hoagie roll

Directions
Slice a chicken breast as thinly as you can. The thinner the better. Marinate the chicken in the hot/wing sauce.

On a hot griddle or frying pan, heat up a little olive oil. When it's hot, add the onions and cook a little. Push them out to the edge and add the chicken. Turn over the sliced chicken and add the mushrooms. Mix the chicken, mushrooms and onions together until the chicken and mushrooms are cooked. Top with cheese slices and continue to heat until the cheese starts to melt. Pile everything into a hoagie roll.

You can top your sandwich with what you'd like. In this case, I added some ketchup and tomato slices. If I'd had some lettuce, I would've added that, as well.

Game Day Eats: Bacon Mushroom Sliders

Looking for some meal ideas for Super Bowl Sunday? I'll give you a couple new ones this week starting  with this one.

To be honest, I'm not sure what all the fascination the last several years has been with "sliders." For those that don't know, sliders are just small hamburgers. They get their name, as I understand it, from the tendency of White Castle burgers to slide right through you. In the last decade, though, they've become something of a culinary, but when all is said and done, they're just small hamburgers.

I decided to make them, to get my two-year-old to try something different, and it worked. So be creative with these and do with them what you'd like.

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
A few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
Garlic powder
3 slices of bacon
3 slices of cheese
Sliced mushrooms
Slider rolls (or small dinner rolls)

Directions
Fry up the bacon until crisp. Saute the mushrooms in some of the bacon drippings. Keep bacon and mushrooms warm on the side.

Mix the beef with Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder. Divide it up to make six small patties. Grill the burgers or cook them in a frying pan. Two to three minutes on each side should be plenty. Top each with half a slice of bacon, half a slice of cheese and some mushroom slices, plus your favorite burger toppings.

As I said, the little man like these burgers built to his scale. He also enjoyed the baked sweet potato fries on the side.

Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore

My father is Italian. My mother is Irish. When they were dating, the first meal she made for him was chicken cacciatore. That was bold. But she forgot the spaghetti. That was a little embarrassing, and a cute story she's told many times, which makes a dish a sentimental favorite for me.

Now silly family stories aside, chicken cacciatore is a truly classic Italian dish. Translated, it means hunter chicken, and alla cacciatora means a dish prepared hunter-style. Now real chicken cacciatore involves braising the chicken slowly in wine, etc. But we don't have time for that in our busy lives, right? Of course not. But we do have a Crock Pot that will let us make a simplified yet delicious facsimile of the classic recipe.

Ingredients1 lb chicken
1 onion cut into eight pieces
1 green pepper cut into strips
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 small can tomato paste
1 lb pasta of your choice

DirectionsFirst a word about the chicken. Traditionally, you should use a cut up chicken still with the bones in. I find that a little more difficult to eat, especially when you're feeding it to children, so I prefer to use boneless chicken. When I made this the other day, I used breasts, but you can use whatever pieces of the chicken you'd like, including boneless thighs, which are readily available in your grocery store's meat department.

OK. Now that we have our chicken, put it in a Crock Pot. I like to put it in when the meat is still at least partly frozen so that it hold together a little better during a full-day's stewing. Next add in the onion and green pepper. Dump in the spaghetti sauce and the tomato paste. (I added this ingredient to the recipe even though I didn't use it myself the other day, because I found the sauce to be a little thin in the end, and I think the paste will help thicken it. I will update the recipe the next time I try it.)

Turn the Crock Pot on low, put on the lid and go to work. Dinner will be pretty much ready when you get home. All you'll have to do it make the pasta (I used rigatoni) when you get home.

Sorry for the bad photo. I'll update this, as well, the next time I make this.

The chicken will be fork tender. Serve it over pasta with some garlic bread and a side salad. It doesn't get much easier than this, and is perfect for a chilly day.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

This is a family classic. My grandmother used to make this, and it is one of my Dad's favorites, so it's something we had fairly regularly, especially in the winter.

Now for those of you expecting regular old mac and cheese, think again. This is not a side dish. This is a meal in and of itself, though I seem to remember my grandmother occasionally serving it with baked flounder. But if you're looking for some serious comfort food, especially when it's cold, this is a legitimate, stick-to-your-ribs kinda meal. And on top of that, it's pretty darn easy to make. 

Ingredients

1 quart whole milk (you want to use whole milk, because you need the fat in it, or else the milk will cook off)

2 lbs. sharp cheddar (The traditional family recipe is white cheddar, but I like to use yellow as well just for color. The sharper the cheese the better!)

1 pound macaroni

Butter

Salt and pepper

Bread crumbs (I prefer Italian style)

Directions
Cook macaroni. Coat a large baking dish with cooking spray. Spread a layer of cooked macaroni in the dish and top with butter and cheese. Repeat until everything is used up with the top layer of cheese, sprinkling in a little salt and pepper as you go. Carefully pour in milk. You may not use it all. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top. Bake for at least 30 minutes at 350 until everything gets bubbly and melty, the milk is curdled and the top is well browned.

Again, this is not your usual mac and cheese. This is milky and a little messy, but oh, so good!

Cheesy Chicken Rolls

Full disclosure right off the top: This is not my recipe, and I don't know whose it is.

My Aunt RoseMary made this years ago during a trip I made to Illinois when I was in college, and I've always loved it. It does take a little time, which means it's nice for a Sunday afternoon, when you have a little extra time to cook. Believe me, it is worth the wait.

Ingredients
6 chicken breast halves, boned
garlic salt and onion salt to taste
1 small jar button mushrooms, drained (Per Aunt RoseMary's preference, I use regular mushrooms)
1/2 lb sharp cheddar cheese, cut into cubes
1/2 c. melted butter
1 1/2 c. cracker crumbs (saltines)
2 tsp dried parsley flakes

DirectionsPound breast halves until flat. Sprinkle with garlic and onion salts. Place one mushroom and one cube of cheese in center of breast and roll tightly. Hold it together with toothpicks. Dip chicken roll in melted butter. Mix cracker crumbs with parsley; roll chicken in crumb mixture. Place in buttered casserole. Cover. Bake at 300 for 1hr 30 min. Remove cover, Pour cream of chicken soup over rolls and bake 30 more minutes uncovered.

As you can see, it makes a great, creamy, cheesy sauce, which goes very well over egg noodles. It goes nicely with a green veggie on the side.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Don't forget to take out the toothpicks, especially if you're serving it to children. I make sure to use two toothpicks in each so that I know exactly how many to take out.