Chicken

Wrap It Up! Cilantro Lime Chicken Wraps featuring Cilantro Lime Marinade

- Mama 3 Comments

A lot of ideas came to mind when I picked up the Key Lime Pie Frosting Creations flavor packet. I thought perhaps I could make a cake, or a special kind of pie, or more ice cream. However, with such innovative key lime flavor, I knew that I had to do something exciting and new!

So, with that delicious Key Lime Flavor Packet, I made…

CILANTRO LIME CHICKEN WRAPS! That chicken is marinaded in a delicious Cilantro Lime Marinade using the Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Key Lime Pie Flavor Packet.

Yeah, that’s right. You can use frosting flavors to create innovative savory recipes, too! And, for the record, it’s actually really easy, too.

Start by cutting up 1/2 cup of cilantro, mincing it very finely, as finely as you can manage.

Okay, so maybe mine isn’t quite that fine, but just do your best. I am not a patient woman!

Once you’ve minced up that cilantro (smell it! So yummy!), add in a finely minced clove of garlic, 1/2 C Balsamic vinegar, and 2 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil. A couple of large pinches of salt and a sprinkle of pepper will add a little more flavor.

Sprinkle in the contents of one Key Lime Pie Frosting Creations Flavor Packet. Do not add any Frosting Creations Starter Frosting– it’s a bit too sweet for this recipe, so you’re just sticking to the flavor packet on this one.

BAM! Marinade. Now, you’re welcome to stop here and just let this sit for awhile by itself (refrigerated, please!) so the flavors can meld. Use it as a salad dressing or dipping sauce. Or….

…you can see just how far this rabbit hole goes, and try out your marinade on some meat.

I chose chicken, because I feel like Cilantro, Lime, and Chicken work VERY well together.

Cut it up nice and small.

Then soak in your marinade for at least one hour… but preferably longer. The more you soak it, the more flavor you’ll get out of it!

After marinating, cook your chicken in a nonstick skillet.

Once it’s cooked, again, you could stop here and use the chicken any way you please… chicken tacos, a yummy cilantro lime chicken pizza, served over salad (hint: before marinating, reserve some extra marinade to use as a dressing). The sky is the limit!

But, if you want that fancy picture I showed you up top, again, keep going with your Cilantro Lime Marinade to make some Cilantro Lime Chicken Wraps!

Lay out the tortilla of your choice. I used a flour tortilla, but you can use any kind you’d like. I also put on some shredded lettuce and Mexicorn, then topped it with the chicken. Cheese would be another great addition, as would fresh tomatoes, but this is what I had in the fridge. I didn’t exactly plan ahead for dinner…

Wrap it up, then serve with chips and salsa or beans and rice!

And that, my friends, is how you use a Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Flavor Packet to make a marinade! Which flavor do you want to try?

For a printable version of this recipe, check out the Duncan Hines Website, here: http://www.duncanhines.com/recipes/specialty-desserts/jenni-schoenberger/cilantro-lime-chicken-wraps-ft-cilantro-lime-marinade

Are you creative in the kitchen? Enter Duncan Hines’ Spring Baking Contest on their website, and you might win a trip to the Duncan Hines Test Kitchen, where you’ll get to meet me and many other talented bakers this fall! Hope to see you there! What are you waiting for? Go enter!

Chicken Spaghetti

- Mama 3 Comments

After my grandfather passed away, I inherited every recipe in his house. Some of them are older– recipes from great-grandparents, some dating back to the 1940s or earlier, and some are newer– as recent as the 90s (Oh my gosh… SO long ago!). Some are scrawled on pieces of paper, some torn from cookbooks, some typed with a typewriter onto a recipe card… Some of them have unique stories behind them, and some of them have no stories at all. I even found a couple of recipes that literally were just written on post-its that were stapled together. Whenever I do a post from these recipes, you’ll see a seal on the photo that shows that it’s an heirloom recipe. My family has tried each and every one of these recipes and I will share comments about what they think about each recipe below. I hope you enjoy each of these recipes that we have tried together. If you are coming here from Pinterest, be sure to look in the sidebar for ways to either “like” my facebook page or follow me through an email or RSS subscription!

I honestly don’t know the origin of this recipe. It was clipped from a newspaper, I’m not sure which newspaper or when the original date of publication was. In fact, I’m not even sure who the recipe is from… there was no source listed on the recipe I had clipped– it had been clipped off completely. I wish I knew the original source on it, or at least the publication date.

You’re going to start by boiling chicken. This time around, all I had were thighs, so after boiling I had to de-skin and de-bone them. It would have been easier to use boneless skinless breasts so I could have skipped that step, but it’s truly up to you. You can use a small fryer, some thighs, chicken breasts, literally any chicken you have on hand. For the record, this would also work with turkey meat. Add a chicken bouillon cube to the boiling water, as well.

After the chicken has cooked, set it aside on a plate to be shredded, and save some of the chicken-water (chicken broth? something) in the pot.

Break spaghetti noodles in half, put them in the chicken-water pot, and then add enough water to cover the noodles.

While the spaghetti noodles cook, go ahead and chop some green bell pepper to add to the mixture later. You can also add other colors of bell peppers to the mixture (the original recipe called for red and green, but we only had green on hand).

In a 9×13 casserole dish, combine the shredded chicken, 2 cups of shredded cheddar (we typically shred the blocks fresh, but you can certainly buy it pre-shredded), the bell pepper, a diced onion, 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup (or your homemade equivalent, but I prefer to use Campbell’s), a little seasoned salt, and a dash of pepper, combining until it’s thoroughly mixed.

Mix in the cooked spaghetti noodles, then cook in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Top with another 1/2 cup of shredded cheese and bake for another 5 minutes, or just long enough to melt the cheese on top, then serve warm.

The entire family loved this dish, from Zach (18 months old) to Dad (I won’t list his age…). It was creamy and easy-to-make (the most time consuming part was de-boning the chicken).

Some perfect pairs for this dish? Dinner rolls, fruit salad or fresh fruit, and a salad. Don’t forget to comment below and tell me what you’d serve with this yummy chicken spaghetti!

Here’s the full recipe below:

Chicken Spaghetti
 
1 whole chicken, cut up
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 lb spaghetti, broken in half
2 cans mushroom soup
2 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp seasoned salt
dash of pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook chicken in a pot with water and a bouillon cube until done, about 45 minutes, then remove chicken and all but two cups of broth.
Add spaghetti noodles, broken in half, to the chicken broth. Add enough water to cook the noodles.
Remove bones from chicken.
Mix all ingredients except spaghetti in a casserole dish until well combined, reserving 1/2 cup shredded cheddar for later, then stir in spaghetti until the pasta is well-coated.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, then top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Return to oven for 5 more minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve warm.