Cleaning Out the Freezer - the adventures and new discoveries that it can bring!
I am on a mission to clean out my
freezer, partly because I know there are things in there old enough
to eat me (or at least hurt me) and partly because it needs to be
defrosted badly! So for the last several days I have been making a
point of eating all things frozen! For the record, southwest eggs
rolls are just not good after two years no matter what the box says!
This morning I woke up with a craving
for chicken and dressing, that quickly was amended with the thought
of Jalapeño Dressing! Relax if you have never heard of it, I kinda
think my mom made the recipe up by just adding jalapeños to her
regular cornbread dressing. Since she came up with it, we eat
dressing year round! Normally she bakes a chicken or a Cornish hen
to go with it, unfortunately I wanted to eat this today and it takes
a while to thaw a chicken so that you can bake
it........BUT......Hallelujah! I remembered that I had chicken
fajita meat in the freezer that was just going to ruin because I
don't like chicken fajitas. You are probably asking yourself why in
the heck does she have it then? Good reason, it was in one of those
grocery store bonus packs, I got two helpings of beef and the helping
of chicken for the price of the beef...........I had planned to give
the chicken to my daughter who LIKES chicken fajitas, but I kept
forgetting!
I always keep cornbread in the freezer,
since I am usually cooking for just me a pan is WAY MORE than I will
eat. Between cooking times I just get a slice or two out whenever I
want cornbread and it's handy for making dressing. Let's just jump
to everything being thawed...........
Put your meat in large pan, add water
and seasoning, then boil..........it took mine about 15 minutes for
me to be sure all of the chicken was done! Save chicken AND
water/broth, you will use it all later!
The next step is to make your dressing.
I crumbled my cornbread in the bag it was in, I have a food sealer
that I LOVE but prior to that I used a large ziploc to store and
crumble it in. You can use your hands or a rolling pin, which ever
is easier for you. Pour it all in a large bowl, or if you are
cooking it in a roaster pan you can do it there...........one note,
if you are using the roaster spray it with cooking spray first.
Add your seasonings here, one note of
caution I would hold off on the salt for right now. The chicken,
the broth, and the cornbread are going to have salt already in them
and it may be enough for you.
Sauté onions, celery, and jalapeños
in the butter until the onions are clear. Add to the dry mix and
STIR!
Next add your egg, I usually mix mine
slightly before adding. Guess what? Time to STIR again. Then add
your broth (hold off on the water at this point, you just want to get
everything mixed well at this point).
Now it is time to taste! You may want
to add more salt at this time, or if your more like me a LOT more
Sage!
Now here is where you are going to have
to judge, but believe me – you want a mixture that looks more like
a soup because the cornbread mix is going to soak up a LOT of that
liquid and cooked dry dressing is just not good! In fact I usually
wait a few minutes and give it another stir before I decide to add
more liquid or pop it into the oven!
Add your chicken, since I was using
fajita meat I did chop it some because I didn't want big pieces of
meat to deal with. This recipe fits a 9X13 pan, but since I forgot
until time to pour it in the pan that my good glass one is on
loan..........I used two dishes!
Now if the finished product looks a
little “green” it is because I LOVE Sage and you can't really add
it later, so what I made has a LOT more Sage in it then the recipe
below.
Add some green beans, a hot roll ( I
cheat and use the Sisters frozen hot rolls and heat 1 or 2 at a time
for just me) and you have an awesome meal!
Hope you enjoy my Lazy Gal's Chicken
and Jalapeño Dressing, all in all I think it turned out pretty good
for an experiment and I did clear some space in the freezer. I would
love to hear your comments!
Lazy Gal's Chicken and Jalapeño
Dressing
Chicken
1 ½ lbs chicken fajita meat (mine had
onions and peppers already in it)
1 tsp poultry seasoning
Just enough water to boil
Meat in pan, add water and seasoning,
boil..........it took about 15 minutes for me to be sure all of the
chicken was done! Save chicken AND water!
Dressing Mix
(note: I am not sure about subbing in
stove top or some pre-made mix like that but heck if you want I guess
you can try!)
2 cups of Cornbread – crumbled fine
1 cup of Dressing mix – I use the
unseasoned that comes in a bag, simply because I think even the best
cornbread dressing needs a little regular bread crumbs in it.
Medium onion – chopped
3-4 stalks of celery – chopped
3-4 jalapeños - chopped
½ stick of butter
1 tsp of poultry seasoning
2 tsp of sage – this is what I use
when I am serving to others
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 raw eggs
4 cups of Chicken broth – I started
with the broth water from boiling my chicken fajita meat, then went
to canned but be sure to heat the canned before you put it in.
Water – depending on how much chicken
flavor you like, you may want to add some water.
Strain your chicken but catch the broth
in a cup. Sauté onions, celery, and jalapeños in the butter.
While this is cooking mix the crumbled cornbread, dry dressing mix,
and seasonings together. Pour the veggie and butter into the dry
and mix, add egg (I usually beat the egg a little before I do this) –
Mix well and quickly! Add saved broth, mix again. Then add your
chicken and pour it into the pan.
Bake at 350 for about 30, minutes in a
sprayed pan, or until slightly brown on top.............I also usually
stir the mix about halfway through the cooking time.
